Davidson Research Initiative
Summer Research Program
The Davidson Research Initiative’s Summer Research Program enables Davidson College to offer a premier
summer research experience for Davidson students and students from North Carolina’s Historically Black
Colleges and Universities. The goals of this program are to:
1) Foster collaborative student-faculty research in all of the liberal arts disciplines; and
2) Establish a vibrant campus-wide community of undergraduate research during the summer months by
offering activities such as topical group discussions, lectures, and social functions.
The Program
DRI Summer Research Fellows spend between 5 and 10 weeks doing research with a Davidson faculty mentor.
DRI Summer Research faculty mentors also have the opportunity to include a student from one of North
Carolina’s HBCU schools on their research team. Interested faculty mentors provide research descriptions of
available projects and these projects are publicized to North Carolina HBCU institutions (see below for this year’s
projects). HBCU students are invited to apply for one or more DRI Summer Research Fellowships listed. Five
students who are selected for the program will participate as a collaborative team member with the Davidson
faculty mentor and his/her Davidson DRI Summer Research Fellow.
Summer Projects 2014
1. Davidson College Herpetology Laboratory Opportunity: Summer 2014 (May 26 – 1 August
2014) - Dr. Mike Dorcas (faculty mentor)
The Davidson College Herpetology Laboratory provides opportunities for highly motivated
undergraduates to conduct research on reptiles and amphibians in the Western Piedmont of North
Carolina (Charlotte-Metropolitan Area) and at study sites in South Carolina. Our research focuses on
the ecology and conservation of amphibians and reptiles. This summer we will be conducting studies
examining 1) the effects of translocation on turtles, 2) the use of eDNA to detect cryptic species, 3)
factors affecting endangered bog turtles, 4) the ecology of invasive pythons. Most of our research
involves extensive field work, often in aquatic habitats, such ponds, streams, and wetlands. We
conduct a variety of studies and much of our research requires handling, processing, and marking of
turtles, non-venomous snakes, salamanders, and frogs. We often conduct research at non-traditional
times (e.g., weekends, evenings). We value a strong work ethic and the ability to work independently,
as well as in small teams. A valid driver’s license is extremely helpful because most of our study sites
are not adjacent to the college. We encourage those interested to investigate our website and to contact
us for more information.
2. Shakespeare’s history play Henry V - Dr. Cynthia Lewis (faculty mentor)
Among Shakespeare’s ten plays about English kings and their reigns, the play about Henry V (who is
Prince Hal in the two parts of Henry IV) reveals at least one major distinction: its focal character is as
developed as any other character in Shakespeare’s canon, including the likes of Lear and Macbeth.
Not only does Henry V’s characterization offer the actor substance for performance; it also enables
Shakespeare to explore more deeply than ever the Machiavellian politics that fascinated him and his
audiences. Machiavellianism infuses the four plays known as The Henriad—Richard II, Henry IV
(parts 1 and 2), and Henry V—and reflects the rule of Elizabeth I, nearing the end of her reign in
1599. Although much has been written about the moral ambiguities of King Henry’s character—
including the seminal essay by Norman Rabkin, “Rabbits, Ducks, and Henry V”—no study has yet to
account for the specific psychological traits that lie behind Henry’s questionable morality. In a
scholarly paper presented at a Shakespeare Association of America annual meeting a few years ago, I
began to study the king’s character in terms of deep-seated desires and anxieties that the play’s
language signals. I’d now like to extend that study to an article on Henry V’s psychological make-up.
My ultimate interest lies in connecting Henry’s complex characterization to the Machiavellianism that
Shakespeare implicitly associates with the Tudor monarchy.
The student working with me would begin with background reading necessary for understanding
several of Shakespeare’s history plays, Machiavelli’s The Prince, and possibly The Discourses,
followed by a critical and psychological reading to sort out what’s useful (and why). The student
would regularly report to me and develop a writing project stemming from the reading and research. I
will guide the student toward polishing a paper to be presented at a conference.
3. Mitochondrial shaping during Drosophila sperm formation – Dr. Karen Hales (faculty mentor)
Mitochondria are the structures within eukaryotic cells where the energy derived from food is
harnessed into usable molecular currency, namely the small molecule ATP. In some specialized cell
types like neurons and sperm, mitochondria are actively localized and shaped in ways that help cells
meet high energy needs. Our lab uses genetic tools to understand molecular mechanisms of
mitochondrial aggregation, fusion, and elongation in developing sperm of the fruit fly Drosophila
melanogaster. These events result in a giant fused mitochondrion stretching the entire length of the
mature sperm tail; defects in any of these steps lead to sterility. Human versions of genes governing
sperm mitochondrial morphology are also important in the brain and have been connected with
neurodegenerative diseases, demonstrating clinical applicability. Student collaborators in summer
2014 will help identify and characterize genes in the fruit fly that govern the organization of
mitochondria during sperm formation. Students will employ a combination of classical genetic
techniques, microscopy, and molecular techniques of DNA and protein manipulation, to dissect the
role of genes in fertility and mitochondrial shaping.
4. Cognitive Aging – Dr. Kristi Multhaup (faculty mentor)
Boundary extension is a phenomenon in which people remember a scene as containing information
beyond the actual borders of the image (Hubbard, Hutchinson, & Courtney, 2010). This means that if
someone views a photo, he or she will remember the photo as containing more of a scene than it
actually does. A pilot study in our lab showed that when young adults place their hands on the sides of
the computer screen and study an image when it is presented, they exhibit less boundary extension
than when their hands are placed on their laps. This may sound like a strange finding, but it replicates
and extends other work in embodied cognition which shows that body position can have an effect on
cognitive performance (e.g., Davoli, Brockmole, & Goujon, 2012). This summer, we will expand our
preliminary data on hand position and boundary extension as well as extend the study to older adults in
order to learn whether or not hand placement affects boundary extension in two different age groups,
namely young adults (college students) and older adults (ages 60+ years). The primary responsibility
of the student researcher will be to work with a Davidson student researcher to call, schedule, and run
one-on-one data collection sessions with participants. If time permits, the student researcher will have
the opportunity to learn to score standardized neuropsychological tests and/or contribute to an ongoing
project on adults’ age of first memories.
5. Ambient monitoring of particulate concentrations – evaluating sources at the college, town, city
and county level – Dr. Cindy Hauser (faculty mentor)
Atmospheric particulate matter is known to cause adverse health effects including increased illness
among individuals with respiratory or cardiopulmonary diseases. Atmospheric particulate matter has a
variety of natural and anthropogenic sources. In this study, we will determine the impacts of local
sources on the number concentration, mass concentration and size distribution of atmospheric
particulate matter. The sites of interest in this study include the construction site for the New
Academic Building on the Davidson College campus to begin in May, sites within the Town of
Davidson that are impacted by vehicle traffic, sites along the NW corridor in Charlotte near JCSU and
the site of the proposed Titan Cement Plant in New Hanover County. This work will be done in
collaboration with Clean Air Carolina. Students working on this project will use portable
instrumentation to measure the number concentration, mass concentration and size distribution of
atmospheric particulate matter at the proposed sites of interest. The collected data will be analyzed to
evaluate the measured properties of the particulate matter as a function of location. Connections will
be drawn to the types of sources present at each location.
6. Characterization of particulate matter in waterpipe tobacco smoke as a function of filtration
media – Dr. Cindy Hauser (faculty mentor)
The goal of this research is continued progress towards understanding the formation and filtration
properties of the liquid in the bowl on the particulate component of waterpipe tobacco smoke (WTS).
Waterpipe smoking is becoming increasingly popular in the US, especially among college-age
students, as a social activity. There is additionally a perception that the practice is a safer alternative to
cigarette smoking because the smoke is “filtered” as it passes through a bowl of liquid prior to being
inhaled by the user. Waterpipe tobacco smoke is formed as heat from the charcoal is drawn through
the tobacco in the head, heating and volatilizing components in the tobacco. These semi-volatile
constituents condense as they enter the cooler region of the pipe forming submicron particles.
Waterpipe tobacco smoke differs from cigarette smoke in that the tobacco is heated, but not burned,
thus one would expect simple distillates of higher molar mass than pyrolysis and combustion
products. The tobacco is additionally often sweetened and flavored providing compounds that add to
the complexity of the matrix. Previous studies have shown that relative to cigarettes, the waterpipe is
associated with 4.7 times the number of puffs and 48.6 times the amount of smoke. Although previous
studies have increased our understanding of the composition of WTS, there is still much to know about
the physical properties of the particulate component as variables in the operation of the waterpipe are
changed. It is common practice, for example, to use other substances in the bowl of the waterpipe
instead of water, including wine and orange juice. Students working on this project will use
instrumentation to measure the concentration, mass and size distribution of the particles in the smoke
while changing the physical properties (e.g. viscosity, polarity, vapor pressure) of the filtration media
in the bowl of the waterpipe. The collected data is then analyzed to evaluate the role that the physical
properties of the media play in particle formation and filtration.
7. Engineering Natural Selection with Synthetic Biology – Dr. Malcolm Campbell (faculty mentor)
A student in my lab will work on a synthetic biology project. Synthetic biology blends molecular
biology with mathematics, computer science (CS) and engineering. The student only needs to have
introductory biology experience to be successful in the lab but he/she will interact with students who
are more interested in math and CS. The lab’s goal is to engineer bacteria to alter natural selection
which normally results in reduced production of a medication. We are using programmed evolution to
shift natural selection to favor cells that produce the most of a particular medication (theophylline).
This project has two years of momentum and we hope to bring it to a close with this summer’s work.
Students would become proficient in PCR, cloning DNA, running gels and measuring theophylline
production. Students should have two semesters of introductory biology and be familiar with using
pipets. If someone has questions, he/she may contact me at <macampbell@davidson.edu>.
8. The timing of dune migration along the shore of Lake Michigan – Dr. Brad Johnson (faculty
mentor)
Dune research will begin with 2 weeks student field work along the shore of Lake Michigan in early
June. While there, students will stay at a local campground or cabin at night and will examine local
dunes during the day. Faculty will be present for the beginning of field work but for the majority of
the field time, students will work without direct supervision. In the field, students will spend time
examining the Green Point Dune Complex to determine when various dune features stopped migrating
and became stable as the timing of dune stabilization may have significant implications for our
understanding of paleoclimate in the area. Students will also examine the active dune in the area to
determine its rate of migration. The faculty mentor will provide guidance via phone in the evening.
After returning to campus, students will process data collected in the field in the laboratory and will
use GIS to identify spatial relationships between individual dunes. A student could either work
collaboratively with the student that proposed the project or test a separate hypothesis at the same dune
complex.
9. Investigating Literary Genealogies of Postmodernism – Dr. Maria Fackler (faculty mentor)
In 1931, poet William Carlos Williams wrote a short essay about Nathanael West, entitled “A New
American Writer.” It begins, “No. I don’t mean another American writer, I mean a new one: Nathanael
West.” Williams continues by extolling West’s “ability to maneuver words” by using “everyday
speech” (in the case of West’s novel Miss Lonelyhearts, that “everyday speech” is “the idiom of the
[newspaper] reporters” and “the pathetic letters and emotions of the poor and ignorant city dwellers,”
based on real letters West accessed). This project will investigate how West’s novel Miss
Lonelyhearts not only extends and complicates tenets of modernist fiction but also anticipates and
prefigures those of postmodernist fiction. The summer research will challenge the all-too-neat split
between postmodernism and modernism and contribute to a reevaluation of West’s place in the literary
timeline and canon, thus continuing the recent spike of interest in West’s work. It would also be
possible for a student to conduct research on one of West's American or British contemporaries and
pursue related questions about that chosen novelist's place in the same literary genealogy. Students
will develop the skills of archival research and close textual analysis. They will learn how to navigate
and use library resources and situate their claims relative to those of literary theorists and critics,
working in close consultation with the faculty mentor in tutorials.
10. Read Me, Read Me!: A Hermeneutic Investigation into Buzz-Generating Websites' Originality
and Linguistic Influence – Dr. Maria Fackler (faculty mentor)
This digital studies project will investigate the curious way in which the posts on buzz-sourced
websites, such as BuzzFeed and reddit, are all beginning to sound eerily similar. How can we account
for this phenomenon? The research project will aim to provide some quantitative insight both into the
originality and creativity of the content on buzz-generating sites and into precisely how such sites may
exert linguistic hegemony over their readers and contributors. Has the content of these websites
changed over time, or are we are simply reading similar, recycled content? The project will use
computer technology to assess the ways in which Internet readers adopt and reuse the same language
(diction, syntax, tone, humor) that they see on the web. To provide quantitative analysis of these sites,
researchers will learn how to use Atlas.ti, a hermeneutic analysis software. Hermeneutic analysis
allows scholars to approach typically qualitative topics in a quantitative manner by generating the most
used words and phrases within pieces of writing. The software thereby offers a quantitative analysis of
a current and typically qualitative subject, and will enable us to assess the sociological side of "buzz."
Students will work closely with the faculty mentor to develop skills in close textual analysis. The first
half of the research will be conducted on the computer, using the hermeneutic Atlas.ti. No former
experience in digital studies is required, since the project will involve developing the very skill set to
run the hermeneutic and analyze the data. The second half of the research will depend on students
learning how to navigate and use library resources and situate their claims relative to those of literary
theorists and critics in the field of digital studies, all with the help of the faculty mentor in tutorial
meetings.
11. Synthesis and Characterization of Vaccine Candidate for the Prevention of Streptococcus
pneumonia Infections – Dr. Nicole Snyder (faculty mentor)
Invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the leading
causes of illness in adults and children worldwide. S. pneumoniae strains, also known as serotypes,
are commonly identified by the capsular polysaccharide structures (sugar polymers) that serve as
markers on the cell surface of the bacteria. These serotypes are distinguished by their chemical
architecture (primary and secondary structure) and their antigenicity (ability to elicit a distinct immune
response). Today, over 90 different serotypes of S. pneumoniae are known to exist.
S. pneumoniae infections were initially treated with penicillin, and vaccines based on crude, whole
cell preparations were available as early as the early 1900s. However, vaccination was uncommon
until the 1960s when mortality rates from systemic pneumococcal infections increased due to the rise
of resistant strains of bacteria. Today, two vaccines are commonly prescribed for the prevention of IPD
including Pneumovax-23 (Merck) for adults and Prevenar 13 (Pfizer) for children. Combined, these
vaccines protect against 23 of the over 90 known serotypes. Development in this area is now focused
on expanding the number of serotypes included in existing vaccines as selective pressures result in the
emergence of new and more potent strains of S. pneumoniae.
My research group is focusing on the first total synthesis of the repeating pentasaccharide unit of
pneumococcal serotype 31 (PS31, Figure 1) in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute in Berlin,
Germany. This serotype was chosen because of the high mortality rates associated with infections of
this bacterium, and the synthetic challenges presented by this serotype including the incorporation of
two uncommon sugar linkages: galactofuranose (in blue) substituted at the C3 position and rhamnose
(in green) linked in a β-fashion (arrows indicate stereochemistry). The methods we are developing to
generate PS31 will provide us with the ability access additional serotypes that incorporate these
linkages. Many of these serotypes are emerging public health threats.
The student who chooses to work on this project will collaborate with two Davidson College
undergraduates to synthesize the complete repeating pentasaccharide unit of PS31. The first four to
five weeks of the summer will center on learning several critical skill sets required for serotype
synthesis including small biomolecule synthesis, purification, and characterization. This work will be
completed in the context of constructing three key components required for the synthesis of final
target. The last four to five weeks will focus on completing the synthesis of PS31 and preparing the
compound for biological evaluation by our collaborators in Germany. Every student involved with this
project will become a co-author on the final manuscript and will have the opportunity to present their
research accomplishments at the American Chemical Society national meeting in Denver, Colorado in
April of 2015.
12. An Annotated Bibliography of Multi-Disciplinary Theories and Studies of the Racialized Subject
in the U.S. and the Caribbean – Dr. Melissa Gonzalez (faculty mentor)
This research project works in sync with a DRI project “Tracing a Cultural History of Hispanic
American Subjecthood.” The DRI student and the HBCU student will form a research team and attend
all meetings with me throughout the ten-week summer program. We will begin the summer session
with a research skills refresher for both students, as well as required meetings with college librarians
who can aid each student’s project. Both students will post weekly reflection posts on their research
process and methods on the project WordPress blog. I expect that each students’ research project and
process, which are overlapping but different in terms of focus and final product, will inform the other’s
productively.
While the DRI student’s interdisciplinary project focuses on cultural theory and the transhistorical development of U.S. Latina/o subjecthood, the HBCU student will take a broader, multiethnic, and more radically multi-disciplinary approach to theories and studies of the subject. The
proposed annotated bibliography will consist of at least fifty sources from Anthropology, Cultural
Studies, Ethnic Studies, History, Philosophy, Postcolonial, Psychoanalysis, Psychology, Queer
Studies, and Sociology that theorize or analyze the formation of a racialized sense of self among
Native Americans as well as African, Asian, and Hispanic diasporic peoples, chiefly in the U.S., but
also in the Caribbean. The novelty of this project lies in considering theories of the subject from both
the social sciences and the humanities alongside each other; for example, Psychology is not often
brought into conversation with Cultural Studies despite the overlapping interest in theories of the
subject and the internalized effects of racism. The project focuses transnationally on both the U.S. and
the Caribbean because of the importance of foundational conversations on race and postcolonialism
across both regions (e.g. about the work of Franz Fanon), and because of the often-strong connections
between diasporic peoples in the U.S. and Caribbean. Both the DRI’s and the HBCU’s research
projects will consider material from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.
Application Process
Applications should be submitted to Dr. Verna M. Case, Program Director of the Davidson Research Initiative,
P.O. Box 7118, Davidson College, Davidson, NC 28035. HBCU students should apply for a Davidson Research
Initiative Summer Research Fellowship by March 21, 2014.
Application materials must include:
 A cover sheet;
 a cover letter from the student listing the specific project(s) to which the student is applying and
discussing the student’s interest in those projects and, in general, detailing how the DRI program would
help meet the student’s academic goals; and
 two letters of recommendation along with the recommendation form from faculty at the student’s home
institution.
 an official transcript from the student’s home institution;
Applications will be reviewed by the potential Davidson faculty mentors and the DRI Program Director.
Notification of an award will be communicated to the student via email by the Program Director approximately 1
week after the application is due. Following acceptance to the program, the faculty mentor will contact the
student to discuss details of the project. At the time of acceptance, the student will need to apply for housing on
Davidson campus and complete other paper work relevant to the program.
Students who are accepted to the DRI Summer Research Program as DRI Summer Research Fellows will receive:
$480/week fellowship
$120/week housing allowance and housing will be available on Davidson’s campus
$1,000 for supplies and travel
All DRI Fellows (Davidson students and HBCU students) and their faculty mentors are expected to participate in
the summer lunch program and to share their research outcomes in a Summer Research Poster Symposium at
Davidson College on September 9, 2014. DRI Fellows are also expected to present their research at a regional or
national meeting during the 2014-15 academic year. Faculty mentors will plan attendance at those meetings for
their students. HBCU students accepted as DRI Summer Research Fellows will be expected to complying with all
Davidson policies, including adhering to Davidson's Honor Code. Please visit
http://www.davidson.edu/about/distinctly-davidson/research/research-and-scholarship/research-initiative for
program information.