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2015 Honors Capstone Research Conference on Wednesday, April 8, in MGC 4 &5
Opening Remarks: 8:45 a.m., Dr. Michael L. Manson, Director, Honors Program
Humanities 8:55-10:10 a.m.
Madison Chapman (CAS: Literature)
“Victimhood & the Circulation of Gothic Horror”
Advisor: Richard Sha, Literature
Katrina (Kat) Lukes (CAS: Art History)
“Chronology and Chromatics: Experiments in Orphic Poetry with Sonia Delaunay and Blaise Cendrars
in La Prose du Transsiberien et la Petite Jehanne de France”
Advisor: Juliet Bellow, Art History
Julia Irion Martins (CAS: Literature)
“All the Silent Ladies: Women's Attempted Catharsis in Fernando Meirelles' and Katía Lund's City of
God, Juan José Campanella's The Secret in Their Eyes, and Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden”
Advisor: Lindsey Green-Simms, Literature
Sarah Palazzolo (CAS: Spanish)
“Narrating the Journey: A Collective Testimonial Account of Central American Youth Migration”
Advisor: Nuria Vilanova, World Languages and Cultures
Sean Reilly Wood (CAS: Economics)
“What is Reconciliation in the Context of Liberation? A Comparative Analysis of Black Liberation
Theology and Palestinian Liberation Theology”
Advisor: Mark Schaefer, Philosophy and Religion
Business, Communication, and Strategy 11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Jonathan Beatty (SIS: International Studies and KSB: Accounting)
“Fraud and the American Dream: Topics on Occupational Fraud”
Advisor: Casey Evans, Accounting
Casey Brown (KSB: Business Administration and SIS: International Studies)
“Localizing the Disney Theme Park Experience in International Markets”
Advisor: Sally Fowler, Business Administration
Iulia Gheorghiu (SOC: Journalism and KSB: Business, Language, and Culture)
“News Pages: Managing News Content on Emerging Digital Platforms”
Advisor: Richard Linowes, Management
Danage Norwood- Pearson (SOC: Public Communication)
“Race, Sports and Image Restoration: An Analysis of the Richard Sherman and Donald Sterling Crises”
Advisor: Corrine Hoare, School of Communication
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Spencer Swan (KSB: Business Administration)
“Level Two: Redefining Marketing's Gamification Strategies”
Advisor: Sally Fowler, Business Administration
Social Sciences 1:10-2:25 p.m.
Michael Bassett (CAS: Mathematics and Economics)
“The Impact of College Major Choice on Earnings: A Longitudinal Study”
Advisor: Mahmud Yesuf, International Studies
Patrick Burnett (SIS: International Studies)
“Fractures vs. Fragments: The German and American Muslim Communities, Internal Affairs, and
Integration”
Advisor: Akbar Ahmed, International Studies
Melis Cengiz (SIS: International Studies)
“Baklava & the Political Economics of National Identity”
Advisor: Eve Bratman, International Studies
Gabe Menchaca (SPA: Political Science)
“Publick Stews and Private Homes: The Political Thought of Mandeville and Montaigne”
Advisor: Alan Levine, Government; Kimberly Cowell-Meyers, Government
Myrto Papakonstantinou (CAS: Pyschology and Applied Mathematics)
“Smoking Outcome Expectancies Among Menthol and Non-Menthol Smokers”
Advisor: Laura Juliano, Pyschology
Natural and Mathematical Sciences 2:35-4:00 p.m.
Meaghan Cuddy (CAS: Environmental Science)
“Growth Dynamics of Enhalus acoroides in Guam”
Advisor: Kiho Kim, Environmental Science
Benjamin Derby (CAS: Physics)
“Raman Characterization of Graphene and 2D TMD Heterostructures”
Advisor: Phil Johnson, Physics
Dhanesh Krishnarao (CAS: Physics and Mathematics)
“Topological Analysis of Wireless Networks”
Advisor: Michael Robinson, Mathematics and Statistics
Jacqueline Toth (SIS: International Studies)
“Coding in Context: Social Robots”
Advisor: Naomi Baron, World Languages and Cultures
Emma Zaballos (CAS: Mathematics and SPA: Political Science)
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“Connecting the Dots: Explaining the Riemann Uniformization Theorem”
Advisor: Stephen Casey, Mathematics and Statistics
Posters 4:00-5:15 p.m.
Creative Arts
Luke Ramsey (CAS: Studio Art)
“Creative Sangha: Community in Collaboration”
Advisor: Sangja Chun, Studio Art
Business, Communication, and Strategy
James Gleason (SIS: International Studies and SOC: Public Communication)
Meredith Guenther (SOC: Public Communication and CAS: Economics)
“Media Coverage of the Unrest in Ferguson, MO as a Case Study of the Human Rights
Discourse Between the USA and China”
Advisor: Pallavi Kumar, Public Communication
Hannah Sedgwick (SOC: Communication Studies)
“Social Media Strategy for Olympic Gold Medalist LaShawn Merritt”
Advisor: Meredith Geisler, Communication Studies
Sagatom Saha (KSB: Business Administration)
“Royal Dutch Shell: Securing a New Energy Future in 2035”
Advisor: Sally Fowler, Business Administration
Henry Schneider (SPA: Political Science)
“The Gulf Invasions in the Regional Press: A Content Analysis of Regional Newspaper
Coverage of the Gulf and Iraq Wars”
Advisor: W. Joseph Campbell, Communication Studies
Humanities
Victoria Harrington (CAS: Psychology and Religious Studies)
“’Spiritual but not Religious’: Who are they and why should we care?”
Advisor: Martyn Oliver, Philosophy and Religion
Mathematical and Natural Sciences
Danielle Beard (CAS: Mathematics)
“The Radon Transform and Network Tomography”
Advisor: Stephen Casey, Mathematics and Statistics
Brett Habermehl (CAS: Biology)
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“Characterization of the Function of the CUR Gene in Arabidopthaliana Through Map Based
Cloning”
Advisor: Naden Krogan, Biology
Social Sciences
Kathleen Calcerano (CAS: Psychology)
“Effects of Production and Perception Training in Acquisition of Chinese Phonemes”
Advisor: Robin Barr, World Languages and Cultures
Candace Evilsizor (SIS: International Studies)
“Eating Outside the Lines: Exploring Bidirectional Cultural Adaption through Immigrant
Cuisine in France and the US”
Advisor: Stephanie Hartman, Literature
Gabrielle Jette (CAS: Environmental Studies)
“International Renewable Energy Targets”
Advisor: William Brakel, Environmental Studies
Trevor Langan (SPA: Political Science)
“How do Cities Successfully Attract the Creative Class?”
Advisor: Derek Hyra, Public Administration and Policy; Kimberly Cowell-Meyers, Government
Sonia Ledwith (SPA: Political Science)
“The Effects of Electoral Competition on Minority Party Voter Turnout”
Advisor: Antoine Yoshinaka, Government; Kimberly Cowell-Meyers, Government
Stephanie Pettit (SIS: International Studies and CAS: Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality
Studies)
“Margines urbaines à la marocaine: The bidonville as postcolonial third space in Moroccan
state discourse”
Advisor: Randolph Persaud, International Studies
Mike Stein (SPA: Political Science and CAS: Economics)
“One Giant Leap for Mankind?: An Economic Analysis of the Viability of the Commercial
Spaceflight Industry”
Advisor: Rebecca Kaiser, Political Science
Rosanna (Rosy) Tamam (SPA: Political Science and Law and Society)
“Comparative Treatment of Hate Speech”
Advisor: Chana Barron, Justice, Law, and Criminology