Examples of Abstracts

Also see winning abstracts.

"Rites of Passage: Exploring the Sacred Dances of Enslaved West Africans and their Transition into the Secular Arena”

Saidiya Chiphe, Dr. Sherrill Berryman-Johnson (Mentor), Theatre Arts - Dance

The West African nations of Benin, Nigeria, Senegal, and Mali supplied hundreds of thousands of people of African descent for forced migration to and enslavement in the New World during the 16th-19th Centuries. Taken to Brazil, the West Indies, and the Southern United States, the Yoruba, Mandinka, and Bambara people of these countries retained and preserved their African cultures through execution of movements based on incorporations of poly-centrism, groundedness, circular/spiraling spatial designs, hip rotations, stomps, and poly rhythmic bodily responses to music and song. These characteristics presented themselves in the sacred dances of Candomble, Vodun, harvest rituals and the Ring Shout. This paper aims to distinguish the movement language of these ritualistic dances and explore the translation of the movement from sacred ceremony to secular entertainment. The methodology will include documenting research, flow-charting the distinctive characteristics, and addressing the analysis of how and why the dance shifted from one geographical location to the other, as well as an assessment of the development and evolution of the physical language from traditional dances of people in the African Diaspora into the vocabulary of African American dance. The research will be compiled from ethnological dance books, journal articles, historical publications, documentaries, visual documentation and recordings by historians, scholars, and dance artists. This research will address the transition of traditional West African dances, through the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, into New World sacrosanct movement and ultimately into the slave dances of the 19th Century.

“Margaret C. Anderson’s Little Review”

This research looks at the work of Margaret C. Anderson, the editor of the Little Review. The review published first works by Sherwood Anderson, James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, and Ezra Pound. This research draws upon mostly primary sources including memoirs, published letters, and a complete collection of the Little Review. Most prior research on Anderson focuses on her connection to the famous writers and personalities that she published and associated with. This focus undermines her role as the dominant creative force behind one of the most influential little magazines published in the 20th Century. This case example shows how little magazine publishing is arguably a literary art.

“Understanding Cell-Mediated Immune Responses Against Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV)”

Each day 14,000 people become infected with HIV/AIDS, making the development of an effective vaccine one of the world's top public health priorities. David Watkins' laboratory is attempting to develop HIV vaccines that elicit cellular immune responses utilizing the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) — infected rhesus macaque animal model. A major component of the cell-mediated immune response is cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL). It is thought that CTL play an important role in controlling HIV and SIV. Most standard immunological assays do not measure antiviral activity directly, limiting our understanding of CTL effectiveness. To address this, the Watkins laboratory developed a novel neutralization assay that quantifies the ability of virus-specific CTL populations to control viral growth. Evaluating the antiviral activity of CTL of different specificities will identify those CTL most effective against SIV. This information will likely impact the design of future HIV vaccines.

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“The Genetics of Bone Strength in Mice”

Jonathan Vu and Robert Blank (Mentor), Endocrinology

The purpose of this study is to identify relationships between the physical and genetic characteristics of bones in mice. The physical characteristics include size, density, and the force required to break the bone, while the genetic ones are the genes of the marker loci associated with the genes that affect these qualities. This study uses strains of mice with reduced genetic variation. The two strains of mice that are the most phenotypically extreme, meaning those with the strongest and weakest bones, are crossed. The F2 generation from that cross is then analyzed. The results of this analysis can be used to find which genotypes correlate with specific bone properties like size, density, and failure load. The anticipated outcome of this lab is the identification of the genotypes that affect bone strength in mice. The findings may be useful in treating medical conditions that are related to bone strength.

“The Commemoration and Memorialization of the American Revolution”

This project involves discovering how the American Revolution was remembered during the nineteenth century. The goal is to show that the American Revolution was memorialized by the actions of the United States government during the 1800s. This has been done by examining events such as the Supreme Court cases of John Marshall and the Nullification Crisis. Upon examination of these events, it becomes clear that John Marshall and John Calhoun (creator of the Doctrine of Nullification) attempted to use the American Revolution to bolster their claims by citing speeches from Founding Fathers. Through showing that the American Revolution lives on in memory, this research highlights the importance of the revolution in shaping the actions of the United States government.