Category: 2022

Gender Representation in 1970s Science Fiction: Joanna Russ and Ursula Le Guin

Presenter: Makenna Greenwalt − Mathematics

Co-Presenter(s): Amelia Hartman-Warr

Faculty Mentor(s): Judith Raiskin

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Science fiction has long been a medium through which harmful gender stereotypes have thrived. Despite being forward-thinking in terms of science and technology, sci-fi novels and short stories often portray societies that are patriarchal and male-centric. Enter Ursula K. Le Guin and Joanna Russ, two women whose writing became highly popular and influential in the science fiction scene of the 1970s. Despite the societal norms of the time, Le Guin and Russ were able to use their science fiction to explore then-unconventional ideas of gender. Yet, despite taking revolutionary steps that transformed the world of science fiction, both Le Guin and Russ struggled to fight the sexist culture they were immersed in and find an understanding of gender within it.

Anemia and Socioeconomic Status Among Older Adults in the Study on Global AGEing (SAGE)

Presenter: Georgia Greenblum − Anthropology

Faculty Mentor(s): Josh Snodgrass, Alicia DeLouize

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Healthy Considerations

Research on anemia has primarily focused on young children and pregnant women, yet anemia also raises considerable health concerns for older adults. Anemia can often be easily identified and treated, yet it affects large populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The older adult population is rapidly growing in LMICs; therefore, not only is this population understudied but the impact of anemia within this population will become a larger global issue. Documenting anemia rates and identifying associated factors in different countries will help public health officials more effectively target this disorder.

Hemoglobin levels and survey data from 14,659 adults 50 years and older in South Africa, China, and Mexico were obtained from Wave 1 of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE). Data were analyzed to describe anemia rates and to test relationships between anemia, age, and socioeconomic status (SES).

For Mexico, China, and South Africa the rates of anemia in older adults were found to be 24%, 28%, and 91%, respectively. An association between lower wealth and higher prevalence of anemia was present only for two groups: men in Mexico and women in China. Each year of age after 50 was associated with a 2% higher prevalence of anemia among women in Mexico and China, a 3% higher prevalence for men in China, and a 6% higher prevalence for men in Mexico.

These results highlight the global burden of anemia in older adults.

Analysis of RadioXenon Using Trap and Trace Analysis

Presenter(s): Piper Gray – Physics

Faculty Mentor(s): Michael Shaffer

Session: (Virtual) Oral Panel—Inner Space and Internet

This project examines the use of atom trap and trace analysis for measuring the proportion of radioactive Xenon isotopes to stable Xenon in an air sample. Radioactive Xenon is not naturally occurring, so the presence of radioactive Xenon indicates artificial nuclear fission activity. Xenon and its radioactive isotopes are typical by-products of all three major types of special nuclear material (SNM): plutonium, uranium-233, and uranium-235. It is also a by-product of nuclear reactors and medical applications. Each process produces radioactive Xenon at different concentrations, so it is essential to determine the exact proportion. The proposed method will trap individual atoms of Xenon using laser cooling and trapping technologies, and they will fluoresce as they relax from the excited state to the ground state. The frequency at which Xenon atoms are trapped and fluoresce is unique to specific isotopes and will be used to identify the atoms contained in an air sample. The laser frequencies which will trap the radioactive isotopes of Xenon are not yet identified. This project will determine these frequencies using atom trap and trace analysis (ATTA) assisted laser spectroscopy and scanning the laser across frequencies until the Xe radioisotope fluoresces. This process will augment the current methods and help determine the concentration of radioactive Xenon in the sample with greater precision.

The rise of labor activity in the wake of the COVID-19 recession

 Presenter(s): Gabriel Graville – Sociology

Faculty Mentor(s): Michael Dreiling

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Covering Covid

In the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting recession there emerged a period of heightened labor activity. Starting in the Summer of 2021 and continuing through the end of the year multiple industries saw an increase in organized strikes and work stoppages. While heightened collective action in the workplace is well theorized in the recovery periods of a recession there was also an unprecedented rate of resignations throughout the workforce. Through a case study of both the UAW John Deere Strike as well as this wave of resignations dubbed “The Great Resignation” it is evident that there are similarities between the actions of both workers despite collective bargaining institutions having little to no role in “The Great Resignation.” As a result one can argue that “The Great Resignation” is analogous to a more organized collective labor movement despite the individualistic nature of the phenomenon.

Volunteering at GrassRoots Garden: How to Grow Individual and Community Food Literacy

Presenter(s): Frida Graumann – English

Co-Presenter(s): Gabrielle Wille

Faculty Mentor(s): Emily Simnitt

Session: (In-Person) Data Stories—Data and more Data

Most college students are often disconnected from their food sources and are unaware of the positive effects that gardening has on their physical, mental, and emotional health. This project reports our personal experiences of volunteering at Food For Lane County’s GrassRoots Garden, a community-funded garden that primarily grows produce for donation and strives to educate its volunteers. We have detailed the evolution of our understanding of gardening’s role in food insecurity and community food literacy. Inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, our research reveals the reciprocal relationship between individuals or communities and gardening. As much as we can do for a garden, a garden can do for us. Our intention for this project is to inspire more college students to get involved in a community garden to increase their food literacy, as well as raise awareness of the benefits that working in the soil has on all aspects of one’s health.

Expression of FGF Signaling Genes during Threespine Stickleback Development

Presenter(s): Vithika Goyal — Marine Biology

Co-Presenter(s): Micah Woods

Faculty Mentor(s): Hope Healey, William Cresko

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

The fibroblast growth factor (fgf) signaling pathway is essential to vertebrate craniofacial development. Alterations in fgf receptors and ligands can lead to craniofacial disorders. While deleterious effects are observed in response to pathway mutations in many vertebrates, syngnathid fishes (pipefishes, seahorses, seadragons) have lost several of these genes (fgf3, fgf4, and others). Syngnathids have also evolved unique craniofacial features, such as an elongated snout, important to suction feeding, and absence of teeth. Since fgf3 and fgf4 are involved in craniofacial development, it is possible that their loss in syngnathids is related to the family’s unique faces. Our lab is investigating the developmental impact of the loss of fgf3 and 4 in syngnathids. To establish the ancestral expression patterns of fgf genes, we studied stickleback fishes due to their recent divergence from syngnathids. Using in situ hybridization, we assessed the spatial localization of fgf expression in stickleback embryos through development. Embryos were imaged and fgf/fgfrs staining patterns were compared to zebrafish. We observed expression of fgfr1a and fgf3 in the pharyngeal arches of stickleback embryos, paralleling zebrafish. Understanding the ancestral expression patterns of genes in the fgf signaling pathway reveals the deep conservation of the fgf signaling pathway in stickleback and provides opportunities for better interpreting the impact of the losses of these genes in syngnathids.

A Literary Analysis of the History of Migration Through The Bracero Program

Presenter(s): Jonah Gomez Cabrera — Art

Faculty Mentor(s): Julie Wiese

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel— HURF

The Bracero Program was a guest worker program that was held under a bilateral agreement between the United States and Mexico to resolve labor shortages during World War II between 1942 and 1964 Mexico desired a program that would boost their modernization movement which involved industrialization and proving their morality and social values through an international lens. Mexico’s goals to fortify a greater relationship with the United States held influence on modern migration habits that would be recorded as employed and documented through Bracero Contract, leaving amidst their contract, or arriving in the North undocumented altogether. My research explores these migration alternatives through literary analysis in the form of archival government documents from Mexican consuls, US government officials, and braceros to further understand their story and involvement that influenced the actions of Bracero workers to choose either to stay in the program or leave. Through the exploration of individual bracero workers’ and migrants’ experiences and stories through a humanistic aspect, it helps us analyze how these cases are still historically relevant to modern migration methods, vocabulary, ideas, as well as its current problems.

Ethnohistory of Indigenous Transculturation and Resistance in the Sibundoy Valley of Colombia

Presenter(s): Rowan Glass — Anthropology

Faculty Mentor(s): Reuben Zahler, Maria Fernanda Escallón

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—HURF

This paper interprets Indigenous culture change and resistance in the ethnohistory of the Sibundoy Valley of southwest Colombia. Drawing on historical, ethnographic, and theoretical sources, I trace these processes as they have developed in the valley from colonial period to the present, focusing on the twentieth century. Previous histories of the Sibundoy Valley have emphasized the complementary roles of the Catholic Church and the Colombian state as history-makers in this frontier zone, where the colonial logics of these agents were forcibly imposed on the Indigenous communities they encountered there. While recognizing the importance of Church and state as historical actors in this region, this paper finds that Foucault’s claim that “where there is power, there is resistance” aptly applies to the ethnohistory of the Sibundoy Valley. Although the effects of colonial power on the Indigenous communities of the valley are clear, in all cultural domains in which culture change has occurred it has been countered by practices of resistance which have operated to maintain Indigenous cultural integrity. The historical continuity of such practices demonstrates that the Indigenous communities in question have not been passive subjects of colonial power, but rather active agents in negotiating and resisting it. This paper interprets Sibundoy Valley ethnohistory to position the valley’s Indigenous communities at center stage, as the protagonists and makers of their own history.

Value Pluralism & Environmental Justice in the Cascades: The Nisqually River Watershed

Presenter(s): Jess Gladis — Environmental Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Carey, Barbara Muraca

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Examining resource conflicts shows the way land values influence stakeholder relationships to culturally significant ecosystems. The Nisqually Watershed exemplifies environmental justice disputes caused by the juxtaposition of high-density urban areas, rural farmland, and federally protected land— creating intersecting values that inform local land stewardship. My findings so far support that the analysis of values and environmental ethics—an often-underrepresented factor in formal decision-making—elucidates how material and metaphysical human-ecosystem relations form influential values that determine the outcome of resource conflicts and deliberative resolutions.

This analysis is conducted using rigorous frameworks that encompass a multiplicity of stakeholder values. This project aims to further develop a method based in environmental hermeneutics and phenomenology that engages with the IPBES conceptual framework and its defined value categories (Díaz et al. 2015). This approach is unique among similar pre-existing research because of its practical application of philosophical traditions and adoption of IPBES’ pluralist framework. Further study of regional environmental conflicts using these approaches can enlighten relatively unexplored factors in ecological decision-making. Providing precise explanation for the way conflict is ignited or mediated is incumbent for the future development of climate change resilience and mitigation strategies.

Year of the Paper Tiger: The US Military’s Pursuit of Missile Defense and New Cold War with China

Presenter(s): Taylor Ginieczki — Global Studies,Political Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Jane Cramer

Session: (Virtual) Poster Presentation

The last two decades have seen China become one of the biggest perceived threats to US national security. Fingers point to China’s economic rise, regional power-seeking, human rights abuses, and evolving nuclear capabilities as grounds for increased threat—with the latter meriting an “aggressive” US nuclear response. Yet seldom is it asked, “What is the cause of the deteriorating nuclear relationship between the United States and China?” Using defensive realist theory and process- tracing methodology, this thesis answers this question: American nuclear policy, specifically national missile defense (NMD). Part I begins by detailing the dire threat inflation present in American media, public opinion, and government rhetoric, where China is the unilaterally culpable “paper tiger.” Part I analyzes both states’ nuclear policies, revealing the astronomical discrepancy between rhetoric and reality. China’s “No First Use” posture is contrasted with the US’s rejection of nuclear deterrence, discarded in favor of nuclear war-fighting and This section then reviews the violated theory and nonsensical technology behind American NMD, ending with a US missile defense timeline that predates the current crisis with China—absolving China to instead implicate the US. Finally, Part II offers prescriptions from defensive realism: minimal nuclear deterrence, a no-first-use policy (ironically, like China’s), eliminated NMD, and increased transparency in Sino-American relations.