Talks and Panels Abstracts 2023

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Name	Class Year	Title	Abstract
Grace Acton	2024	Into the Zooniverse: Crowdsourcing Data for the Bates Museum of Art Collection	This presentation will explore an ongoing project at the Bates Museum of Art. In the interest of creating a more robust and inclusive search tool for the museum’s online collection, we are in the process of developing a crowdsourcing platform through the Oxford program Zooniverse. This platform will facilitate opportunities for art enthusiasts and members of the Bates community to write keyword descriptions of the nearly 10,000 objects in the museum collection. We look forward to sharing our progress with students, faculty, and community members, and hope to gain attendee feedback to further inform our project.
Jakob Adler	2024	Traversing Valleys to Scale Mountains: Lines of Change in the High Himalaya	Over the past decades, communities and ecosystems in the high Himalayas have significantly changed as geopolitical, and development shifts alter climate, economic, and social realities. Nash Holly’s research explores the validity of various species richness hypotheses across Bhuthan’s mountain ecosystems, all with varying degrees of anthropogenic disturbance. Jakob Adler studies the cultural cost of educational outmigration from the Tarap valley, a village in Nepal’s trans-Himalayan Dolpo district. Jack Cantor, embarking on a horseback expedition across Dhaulagiri Massif, provides an ethnographic account of emerging high-altitude trade routes between Mustang and Upper Dolpo in the era of China’s Zero-Covid policy.
Connor Ahern	2023	Development of an Erythrocyte-Specific TRAP Vector	My presentation will be on my senior thesis project: developing a transgenic line of zebrafish with modified red blood cells in order to more closely examine the activity of a specific gene, Nfe2. The Nfe2 gene is responsible for defense against pro-oxidants, but its exact function is unknown. Genetically modifying the zebrafish by adding an isolatable marker to the ribosomes of red blood cells would enable us to see exactly which proteins are being made in red blood cells during specific periods of development, which can then be compared across fish possessing and lacking the Nfe2 gene.
Pico Banerjee	2023	Searching for the Sacred: Researching the Secret Society of Acéphale	In 1936, the French writer Georges Bataille founded a “moral community” christened by the “death of God.” Called Acéphale, the community—a self-proclaimed “secret society”— has often been called the esoteric half of an eponymous magazine concurrently edited by Bataille from 1936-39. Until 2016, there was no English-language source documenting the secret society’s written records, codes of conduct, membership, or meeting places. This presentation will discuss my usage of this material to track down archival documents in the Bibliothèque Nationale that allowed me to locate the routes the community would take from Paris deep into the heart of the Marly forest outside of Saint-Germaine-en-Laye.
Mia Bernstein	2023	Be(yond) Our Bodies	Join this year’s choreographers and researchers presenting their work before the Spring Dance Concert! This year’s panelists include independent study students Katherine Buetens(‘24), investigating modern dance and ballet as self-fulfillment in a pandemic, Anntonia Taylor(‘24) engaging with new textures and audience interpretations in large group performances. They are joined by thesis researchers Mia Bernstein(’23), sharing her somatic and collaborative approach to touch and consent with members of the Bates’ community, and Lauren Reed(’23), studying the work of Dr. Pearl Primus to inspire a choreography of Black women utilizing rest as a form of resistance.
Nathan Berry	2023	The Effects of Conservative Ingroup/Loyalty on Group Belongingness and Life Satisfaction	Previous studies have suggested that conservatives generally report greater life satisfaction than liberals. The present study investigates this relationship through multiple mediator models involving the moral foundation of ingroup/loyalty, which conservatives also tend to endorse more than liberals. The current model posits that, through both belongingness and favorable peer evaluations, conservatives’ greater endorsement of ingroup/loyalty might at least partially explain differences between conservatives and liberals in life satisfaction. Details of the two studies, their results, as well as the broader implications of the findings will be discussed in my presentation.
Grace Biddle	2023	Dirty Bird: Poetry Reading	A reading of a collection created through the guidance of Professor Myronn Hardy’s poetry workshop. This collection focuses on the emotional intricacy of queer relationships, gender identity, and falling in and out of love.
Jeremy Brogan	2024	Music, Space, and Identity	Students in the cross-listed course How Music Performs Culture: Introduction to Ethnomusicology (ANMU 212) explore interrelationships between music, meaning, space, and identity in specific contexts: Jeremy Brogan ’24: Social Media and New Conceptions of Musical Value Xanthe Miller ’25: Québécois Traditional Folk Music and the Québécois Identity Crisis Kenyon Moore ’25: Western Music in Navajo and Shoshone Spaces: Incorporation without Assimilation David Nimura ’25: Music and Identity of Japanese Internees in WWII Internment Camps Jeremy Schrieber ’24: Video Game Music and Identity
Katherine Buetens	2024	Be(yond) Our Bodies	Join this year’s choreographers and researchers presenting their work before the Spring Dance Concert! This year’s panelists include independent study students Katherine Buetens(‘24), investigating modern dance and ballet as self-fulfillment in a pandemic, Anntonia Taylor(‘24) engaging with new textures and audience interpretations in large group performances. They are joined by thesis researchers Mia Bernstein(’23), sharing her somatic and collaborative approach to touch and consent with members of the Bates’ community, and Lauren Reed(’23), studying the work of Dr. Pearl Primus to inspire a choreography of Black women utilizing rest as a form of resistance.
Jasmine Candelaria	2023	Sociological Analyses of Social Problems: A Student Thesis Panel	Senior sociology majors explore theory, identity, ideology, and social groups, including resettlement of refugees, identity and perceptions of social programs, the value of sociological theory, ideology in motherhood blogs, decolonization of medicine, and the power of grief. Emily DiBartolo ’23: Living with Pain isn’t Living: An Investigation of Medical Gaslighting, Chronic Pain, and Social Supports Through the Analysis of Endometriosis Forums Jasmine Candelaria ’23: Understanding the Afghan Refugee Resettlement in the United States Through a Sociological lens Tori Kusukawa ’23: Core Sociological Theorist Pedagogy and its Effect on Perceptions of Sociology’s Purpose Claudi Petrie ’23: Clearly, Something is Not Working: The Impact of Identity on Student Perceptions of the Effectiveness of the Green Dot Bystander Intervention Program at Bates College Adeline Sandoval ’23: Decolonizing Healing Pathways: An Exploration of Indigenous Healing Models Illana Zeilinger ’23: Motherhood in the Mamasphere: Intensive Mothering Ideology and the Construction of Femininity in Mommy Blogs
Jack Cantor	2023	Traversing Valleys to Scale Mountains: Lines of Change in the High Himalaya	Over the past decades, communities and ecosystems in the high Himalayas have significantly changed as geopolitical, and development shifts alter climate, economic, and social realities. Nash Holly’s research explores the validity of various species richness hypotheses across Bhuthan’s mountain ecosystems, all with varying degrees of anthropogenic disturbance. Jakob Adler studies the cultural cost of educational outmigration from the Tarap valley, a village in Nepal’s trans-Himalayan Dolpo district. Jack Cantor, embarking on a horseback expedition across Dhaulagiri Massif, provides an ethnographic account of emerging high-altitude trade routes between Mustang and Upper Dolpo in the era of China’s Zero-Covid policy.
Brady Chilson	2023	Electoral Institutions and Urban and Rural Policy Attitudes: Towards A More Holistic “Urban-Rural Divide”	In this presentation, I examine the link between electoral institutions and urban/rural policy attitudes, specifically asking whether the specific electoral rules a country employs can have a divisive effect on the policy attitudes of its urban and rural residents. Ultimately, in highlighting the ways in which these interlinked phenomena inform and influence each other, I hope to perform this analysis as a gesture towards what a broader, more holistic reimagining of what the urban-rural divide might look like.
Khushi Choudhary	2023	Crafting Religious Identities through Comedy, Poetry, Midrash, and Memoir	Panelists present current thesis research in Religious Studies. Frances White explores how Jewish women have used stand-up comedy to navigate issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and religion in constructing positive Jewish identities in a US context; Khushi Choudhary employs a critical/constructive feminist approach to engaging with sacred erotic love poetry from Hindu and biblical traditions; Gretchen Lindenfeldar examines memoirs by Buddhist scholars for insights into a variety of westernized Buddhist movements.
Alice Cockerham	2023	Religion in America: Ancient Traditions ~ Modern Iterations	Panelists will present current, interdisciplinary thesis research on religion in the US. Alice Cockerham presents original ethnographic research on Evangelical Christian apocalyptic discourse around COVID-19; Max Devon provides a rich historical profile of the late-twentieth-century new religious movement known as Heaven’s Gate; Alex Platt uses tools of rhetorical analysis to explore the Americanization of gospel narratives about Jesus in the 1970s musical Godspell.
Chase Crawford	2023	Creative Thesis Poetry Presentation	I would like to read a few poems from my creative thesis about the transition from childhood to adulthood, and the strange limbo that we as college students inhabit. I will have some poems about my mother, my father, and who I am with and without them. Additionally, I hope my presentation will assist in my creative process, as reading one’s work out loud often gives insight to the effectiveness of the art.
Max Devon	2023	Religion in America: Ancient Traditions ~ Modern Iterations	Panelists will present current, interdisciplinary thesis research on religion in the US. Alice Cockerham presents original ethnographic research on Evangelical Christian apocalyptic discourse around COVID-19; Max Devon provides a rich historical profile of the late-twentieth-century new religious movement known as Heaven’s Gate; Alex Platt uses tools of rhetorical analysis to explore the Americanization of gospel narratives about Jesus in the 1970s musical Godspell.
Emily Diaz	2023	The Colonized, Queer Body in Mariana Rondon’s Pelo Malo	In Mariana Rondon’s film, Pelo Malo the queer, colonized body is in distress. It is grasping for air in the body of nine-year-old boy, Junior who is coming of age in Caracas, Venezuela in spite of the racist and homophobic forces which persist in his everyday life. My thesis works in tandem with Junior’s story to determine whether the queer, colonized body can ever be free. This presentation highlights my photographic response to the film, where folks a part of the African diaspora at Bates help me uncover what sort of freedom one can access by embracing Afro-centric hair.
Emily DiBartolo	2023	Sociological Analyses of Social Problems: A Student Thesis Panel	Senior sociology majors explore theory, identity, ideology, and social groups, including resettlement of refugees, identity and perceptions of social programs, the value of sociological theory, ideology in motherhood blogs, decolonization of medicine, and the power of grief. Emily DiBartolo ’23: Living with Pain isn’t Living: An Investigation of Medical Gaslighting, Chronic Pain, and Social Supports Through the Analysis of Endometriosis Forums Jasmine Candelaria ’23: Understanding the Afghan Refugee Resettlement in the United States Through a Sociological lens Tori Kusukawa ’23: Core Sociological Theorist Pedagogy and its Effect on Perceptions of Sociology’s Purpose Claudi Petrie ’23: Clearly, Something is Not Working: The Impact of Identity on Student Perceptions of the Effectiveness of the Green Dot Bystander Intervention Program at Bates College Adeline Sandoval ’23: Decolonizing Healing Pathways: An Exploration of Indigenous Healing Models Illana Zeilinger ’23: Motherhood in the Mamasphere: Intensive Mothering Ideology and the Construction of Femininity in Mommy Blogs
Ivy Epstein	2023	Feminist Mobilization, Political Contexts, and the Recent Wave of Expansion of Reproductive Rights in Latin America	In our presentation, we will be attempting to explain the recent success of pro-choice legislation in Latin America. We conclude that the success of reproductive rights movements in Latin America depends on two factors, present in tandem. First, the influence of a well-organized pro-choice feminist movement on key decision makers must be strong enough to overcome built-in opposition. Second, the major veto players within the respective political systems in each country must be receptive to pro-choice advocacy. We argue that when both of these things are true in Latin American countries, reproductive rights will likely be expanded.
Sam Faasen	2023	Effect of Tet2 Inhibition on Aged Cognition and Memory	DNA methylation and de-methylation are heavily involved in the process of encoding memories after a learning event. As one ages, genomic methylation levels increase in the brain, while cognition declines. The process of DNA demethylation is handled by TET enzymes. Knockdown of Tet2 has been shown to increase spatial and associative memory in mice. We seek to demonstrate that the knockdown of Tet2 by an antisense oligonucleotide provides a similar experience in young, middle-aged, and aged mice. These results will lay the foundation for future research into how Tet2 may improve memory in cognitive decline and various dementias.
Maria Gray	2023	Boomerang	Poems by Maria Gray
Lucie Green	2023	Poems by Lucie Green	During the period in which I wrote these poems, love, and grief occupied two sides of the same coin. This collection negotiates that paradox, explores questions of time, performance, and joy, and aims to create a liminality between those forces wherein liberation, self-revelation, hope, and healing can co-exist.
Nash Holley	2024	Traversing Valleys to Scale Mountains: Lines of Change in the High Himalaya	Over the past decades, communities and ecosystems in the high Himalayas have significantly changed as geopolitical, and development shifts alter climate, economic, and social realities. Nash Holly’s research explores the validity of various species richness hypotheses across Bhuthan’s mountain ecosystems, all with varying degrees of anthropogenic disturbance. Jakob Adler studies the cultural cost of educational outmigration from the Tarap valley, a village in Nepal’s trans-Himalayan Dolpo district. Jack Cantor, embarking on a horseback expedition across Dhaulagiri Massif, provides an ethnographic account of emerging high-altitude trade routes between Mustang and Upper Dolpo in the era of China’s Zero-Covid policy.
Margaret Horvat	2023	Teal Swan: A Case Study of a Modern Cult	Teal Swan is a contemporary cult leader who utilizes supposed extrasensory abilities, lived experience of abuse, and social dynamism to build a self-help empire that has drawn in millions of followers. She gained popularity on the internet to reach venerable people often in a time of need. In this presentation, I will be using Teal Swan, her books, and online influence as a case study to discuss rhetorical gendered differences in the study of cult rhetoric, the role of technology in modern cults, and the valuing of experience over education as a way to gain credibility.
Belize Iteriteka	2023	Does Exposure to Triphenyl Phosphate and Bisphenol S Cause Retinoschisis?	The eye is a crucial aspect of life; and even more so, it is also very delicate and can be affected by many factors most are unaware of. Previous studies reveal that bisphenol S (BPS) and triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) are two toxins that have been found to disrupt eye development and possibly sight. The frame of my research uses the zebrafish model to understand the effects that BPS and TPhP have on eye development and whether these toxicants have divergent or convergent impacts on retinoschisis – an eye disease that causes severe vision impairment.
Jessica Kissi	2023	Forever Chemicals: Understanding the Behavioral, Phenotypic, and Molecular Endpoints Following Mixed PFAS Exposure in Zebrafish	Per-and-Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are ubiquitous toxicants that can cause cancer, diabetes, and decreased fertility in humans. These chemicals have become ingredients in the production of everyday products. In Maine, PFASs have been found in agricultural sites, drinking water supplies, surface waters, landfills, cleanup sites, and wastewater, impacting the fisheries and agricultural industries in the state. The molecular changes that underlie these disease states are not well known. This study will explore the role of the NRF2 gene family, as it is known to be a master regulator of oxidative stress, a proposed mechanism of action for PFAS.
Tori Kusukawa	2023	Sociological Analyses of Social Problems: A Student Thesis Panel	Senior sociology majors explore theory, identity, ideology, and social groups, including resettlement of refugees, identity and perceptions of social programs, the value of sociological theory, ideology in motherhood blogs, decolonization of medicine, and the power of grief. Emily DiBartolo ’23: Living with Pain isn’t Living: An Investigation of Medical Gaslighting, Chronic Pain, and Social Supports Through the Analysis of Endometriosis Forums Jasmine Candelaria ’23: Understanding the Afghan Refugee Resettlement in the United States Through a Sociological lens Tori Kusukawa ’23: Core Sociological Theorist Pedagogy and its Effect on Perceptions of Sociology’s Purpose Claudi Petrie ’23: Clearly, Something is Not Working: The Impact of Identity on Student Perceptions of the Effectiveness of the Green Dot Bystander Intervention Program at Bates College Adeline Sandoval ’23: Decolonizing Healing Pathways: An Exploration of Indigenous Healing Models Illana Zeilinger ’23: Motherhood in the Mamasphere: Intensive Mothering Ideology and the Construction of Femininity in Mommy Blogs
Gretchen Lindenfeldar	2023	Crafting Religious Identities through Comedy, Poetry, Midrash, and Memoir	Panelists present current thesis research in Religious Studies. Frances White explores how Jewish women have used stand-up comedy to navigate issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and religion in constructing positive Jewish identities in a US context; Khushi Choudhary employs a critical/constructive feminist approach to engaging with sacred erotic love poetry from Hindu and biblical traditions; Gretchen Lindenfeldar examines memoirs by Buddhist scholars for insights into a variety of westernized Buddhist movements.
Ali Manning	2023	Addicted Women	Addicted Women explores the relationship between womanhood, motherhood, and addiction. Popular media portrayals of addiction have revolved around cis-het masculinity. As a result, limited rhetorical dialogue, treatment, sensitivity, and recovery resources cater to the needs of the “mythical norm” (Lorde 1984). We will explore the narrow hallways of motherhood in media and television through a 15-minute oral presentation. Our research format is extending Babysitting Mothers: Intensive Mothering and Addiction Under the Australian Nanny State (Manning 2023) but extracts foundational texts to ground the argument within the US context. An intersectional framework will be applied to a wide range of sources from talk-show interviews, TV shows, podcasts, and historical literature.
George Miller	2025	Negotiating Belief in the Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern World	Belief has long played an important role in the articulation and negotiation of power, social identity, and cultural belonging. This session considers “belief,” broadly defined, within the wider, intersecting cultural, social, and political contexts of a global premodernity. Drawing evidence from various societies across the ancient, medieval, and early modern world, this session seeks to provide a differing set of lenses through which to view the social operations of belief. Of particular focus is the negotiation of belief, and the identities attached to it, within pre- and early modern imperial and colonial contexts.
Xanthe Miller	2025	Music, Space, and Identity	Students in the cross-listed course How Music Performs Culture: Introduction to Ethnomusicology (ANMU 212) explore interrelationships between music, meaning, space, and identity in specific contexts: Jeremy Brogan ’24: Social Media and New Conceptions of Musical Value Xanthe Miller ’25: Québécois Traditional Folk Music and the Québécois Identity Crisis Kenyon Moore ’25: Western Music in Navajo and Shoshone Spaces: Incorporation without Assimilation David Nimura ’25: Music and Identity of Japanese Internees in WWII Internment Camps Jeremy Schrieber ’24: Video Game Music and Identity
Kenyon Moore	2025	Music, Space, and Identity	Students in the cross-listed course How Music Performs Culture: Introduction to Ethnomusicology (ANMU 212) explore interrelationships between music, meaning, space, and identity in specific contexts: Jeremy Brogan ’24: Social Media and New Conceptions of Musical Value Xanthe Miller ’25: Québécois Traditional Folk Music and the Québécois Identity Crisis Kenyon Moore ’25: Western Music in Navajo and Shoshone Spaces: Incorporation without Assimilation David Nimura ’25: Music and Identity of Japanese Internees in WWII Internment Camps Jeremy Schrieber ’24: Video Game Music and Identity
David Nimura	2025	Music, Space, and Identity	Students in the cross-listed course How Music Performs Culture: Introduction to Ethnomusicology (ANMU 212) explore interrelationships between music, meaning, space, and identity in specific contexts: Jeremy Brogan ’24: Social Media and New Conceptions of Musical Value Xanthe Miller ’25: Québécois Traditional Folk Music and the Québécois Identity Crisis Kenyon Moore ’25: Western Music in Navajo and Shoshone Spaces: Incorporation without Assimilation David Nimura ’25: Music and Identity of Japanese Internees in WWII Internment Camps Jeremy Schrieber ’24: Video Game Music and Identity
Erika Parker	2023	How I and My Great-Grandfather Found a Homeland in a Foreign Country and the Role of German Heritage in the Feeling of Being Home.	My thesis project consisted of researching and examining my German origins. My German heritage began with my great-grandfather, who emigrated from Germany to El Salvador in 1912 but was exiled because of World War II, was sent to a concentration camp in 1943 and then back to Germany, from where he sent letters to his family in El Salvador. Based on his letters, as well as interviews with my family and other research, I wanted to investigate how he managed to find a home in an unknown place, which for him was El Salvador. I was also interested in the parallels to my own life. I could identify with his story because I also found a home in the United States. Although I am far away from my family and the house I grew up in, I have found great friendships and a new place to call home. I can also identify with it because even though we do not live in Germany, German characteristics and German culture have always been a part of our lives and the German heritage has been passed down from generation to generation in our family.
Aanika Patel	2025	Glow-Up: The Unstudied Phenomenon on Appearance	The Glow-Up phenomenon is a term based on transformation specifically with significant changes in appearance. This study sought to examine the concept through the lens of the pandemic. Focus groups and interviews were conducted to gather stories and information regarding people’s participation and experiences with “Glow-Up,” and whether they understood the concept and considered it in their actions. First within the Bates community. The data was analyzed for themes regarding behavior or a shift in the mentality around glow-up as either a perceived good or bad phenomenon. The data can be used to evaluate whether demographics such as socioeconomic status, gender, race, and sexual orientation have influenced participation in glow up behaviors and their perception of themselves.
Claudia Petrie	2023	Sociological Analyses of Social Problems: A Student Thesis Panel	Senior sociology majors explore theory, identity, ideology, and social groups, including resettlement of refugees, identity and perceptions of social programs, the value of sociological theory, ideology in motherhood blogs, decolonization of medicine, and the power of grief. Emily DiBartolo ’23: Living with Pain isn’t Living: An Investigation of Medical Gaslighting, Chronic Pain, and Social Supports Through the Analysis of Endometriosis Forums Jasmine Candelaria ’23: Understanding the Afghan Refugee Resettlement in the United States Through a Sociological lens Tori Kusukawa ’23: Core Sociological Theorist Pedagogy and its Effect on Perceptions of Sociology’s Purpose Claudi Petrie ’23: Clearly, Something is Not Working: The Impact of Identity on Student Perceptions of the Effectiveness of the Green Dot Bystander Intervention Program at Bates College Adeline Sandoval ’23: Decolonizing Healing Pathways: An Exploration of Indigenous Healing Models Illana Zeilinger ’23: Motherhood in the Mamasphere: Intensive Mothering Ideology and the Construction of Femininity in Mommy Blogs
Cody Pfeiffer	2023	Negotiating Belief in the Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern World	Belief has long played an important role in the articulation and negotiation of power, social identity, and cultural belonging. This session considers “belief,” broadly defined, within the wider, intersecting cultural, social, and political contexts of a global premodernity. Drawing evidence from various societies across the ancient, medieval, and early modern world, this session seeks to provide a differing set of lenses through which to view the social operations of belief. Of particular focus is the negotiation of belief, and the identities attached to it, within pre- and early modern imperial and colonial contexts.
Emme Pike	2023	Senior Thesis in Hispanic Studies: ¡Limpia Tus Propios Platos!: Explorando Masculinidad Hegemónica en Jane the Virgin	This work explores hegemonic and toxic masculinity in the popular CW show, Jane the Virgin. I argue that by using some of the conventions of telenovelas, such as melodrama and the use of a narrator, Jane the Virgin explores toxic and hegemonic masculinity with the three main male characters: Rogelio, Michael, and Rafael. The show uses the conventions of the telenovela, because Jane the Virgin is a parody of a telenovela and uses its homodiegetic, quasi-omniscient narrator, and internal focus to create space to question hegemonic and toxic masculinity.
Alex Platt	2023	Religion in America: Ancient Traditions ~ Modern Iterations	Panelists will present current, interdisciplinary thesis research on religion in the US. Alice Cockerham presents original ethnographic research on Evangelical Christian apocalyptic discourse around COVID-19; Max Devon provides a rich historical profile of the late-twentieth-century new religious movement known as Heaven’s Gate; Alex Platt uses tools of rhetorical analysis to explore the Americanization of gospel narratives about Jesus in the 1970s musical Godspell.
Carson Pottle	2023	Effects of Environmental Factors Found in Marine Oil Spills on Growth Dynamics and Survival of Corynebacterium accolens	Marine oil spills are a devastating example of how pollution can affect an ecosystem. Corynebacterium accolens is a lipid auxotroph that frequently colonizes human skin, whose ability to withstand the salty, low nutrient, and otherwise harsh environment of human skin alongside its dependence on taking in and utilizing environmental lipids makes it a promising candidate for the bioremediation of marine oil spills. This thesis investigates the growth of C. accolens in conditions similar to oceanic oil spills, testing factors such as salinity, pH, nutrient availability, and lipid source by altering the media and testing growth and survival dynamics over time.
Lauren Reed	2023	Be(yond) Our Bodies	Join this year’s choreographers and researchers presenting their work before the Spring Dance Concert! This year’s panelists include independent study students Katherine Buetens(‘24), investigating modern dance and ballet as self-fulfillment in a pandemic, Anntonia Taylor(‘24) engaging with new textures and audience interpretations in large group performances. They are joined by thesis researchers Mia Bernstein(’23), sharing her somatic and collaborative approach to touch and consent with members of the Bates’ community, and Lauren Reed(’23), studying the work of Dr. Pearl Primus to inspire a choreography of Black women utilizing rest as a form of resistance.
Ilana Rosker	2023	Senior Thesis in Hispanic Studies: La Imaginación, la Ruptura, y la Magia: Haciendo Espacio para la Conciencia Alternativa a Través de la Poesía Latinx	This thesis considers three books of Latina poetry — Ada Limón’s The Carrying, Jennifer Givhan’s Protection Spell, and Cecilia Vicuña’s Saborami, and argues that all three poemas contribute to Gloria Anzaldúa’s concepts of spiritual activism and her aesthetic of transformation and healing. All three authors enact spiritual and artistic activism through their poetry that should be considered an apt point of entry to (re)imagining a world absent structural violence. With the ultimate hope of breaking boundaries of language to theorize, conceptualize, and live alternative ways of thinking and being, this thesis turns unapologetically to embodied feminism and Latinx poetry.
Katia Ryan	2023	Experiential Learning and the Contemplative Mind	Mindfulness is a word we often hear, but maybe not in the academic sense. The Bates experience pre-covid to post-covid invited us to critically think about how and when to incorporate the whole mind into the classroom. This presentation attempts to understand if there is a place for mindfulness in the student experience. If so, how do we go about it?
Adi Sandoval	2023	Sociological Analyses of Social Problems: A Student Thesis Panel	Senior sociology majors explore theory, identity, ideology, and social groups, including resettlement of refugees, identity and perceptions of social programs, the value of sociological theory, ideology in motherhood blogs, decolonization of medicine, and the power of grief. Emily DiBartolo ’23: Living with Pain isn’t Living: An Investigation of Medical Gaslighting, Chronic Pain, and Social Supports Through the Analysis of Endometriosis Forums Jasmine Candelaria ’23: Understanding the Afghan Refugee Resettlement in the United States Through a Sociological lens Tori Kusukawa ’23: Core Sociological Theorist Pedagogy and its Effect on Perceptions of Sociology’s Purpose Claudi Petrie ’23: Clearly, Something is Not Working: The Impact of Identity on Student Perceptions of the Effectiveness of the Green Dot Bystander Intervention Program at Bates College Adeline Sandoval ’23: Decolonizing Healing Pathways: An Exploration of Indigenous Healing Models Illana Zeilinger ’23: Motherhood in the Mamasphere: Intensive Mothering Ideology and the Construction of Femininity in Mommy Blogs
Jeremy Schrieber	2024	Music, Space, and Identity	Students in the cross-listed course How Music Performs Culture: Introduction to Ethnomusicology (ANMU 212) explore interrelationships between music, meaning, space, and identity in specific contexts: Jeremy Brogan ’24: Social Media and New Conceptions of Musical Value Xanthe Miller ’25: Québécois Traditional Folk Music and the Québécois Identity Crisis Kenyon Moore ’25: Western Music in Navajo and Shoshone Spaces: Incorporation without Assimilation David Nimura ’25: Music and Identity of Japanese Internees in WWII Internment Camps Jeremy Schrieber ’24: Video Game Music and Identity
Aoife Spiesel	2026	Corsets and Coitus: The Sexual Underbelly of Victorian Era England	Born from the puritanical mass culture of Victorian England, the emerging sexual underground of pornography, sexology, and prostitution was explored by an ever-increasing group of women and queer people seeking an antidote to the era’s repressive heterosexual and androcentric sexual norms. The benefits of the progressive sexual movement for these groups were often mitigated by the increased profiling and ostracization of their sexualities both within and outside of these spaces. “Corsets and Coitus: The Sexual Underbelly of Victorian England” explores the movement– and its failures– as something inherently interconnected with the Victorian ideals it aimed to rebuke.
Hailey Stephens	2023	Permanent Residence	My year-long creative writing thesis is a poetry collection reflecting on my childhood overseas and my life as an expat. I was born in Hong Kong, raised in Manila Philippines, attended high school in Western Canada, and currently reside in the United States. Given that I have lived in several different countries, I have always struggled to identify one place as home. In this collection, I consider how my unique experiences have formed my identity and specifically my definition of home, permanence, and security.
Alex Tan	2023	Selected Poems from Alex Tan’s Leaving	My yearlong creative thesis with Professor Myronn Hardy is a collection of poetry that navigates belonging. I explore the abstraction and reconciliation of this idea, with its roots in temporality and location. My upbringing in an expatriate family in Hong Kong has distanced me from conventional definitions of belonging. Since my academic career began at Bates, the coinciding events of Hong Kong’s 2019 protests and moving to the US have oriented me in two distinct spaces of civil unrest. I center my work around the question of what it means to belong, and what it means to depart.
Anntonia Taylor	2024	Be(yond) Our Bodies	Join this year’s choreographers and researchers presenting their work before the Spring Dance Concert! This year’s panelists include independent study students Katherine Buetens(‘24), investigating modern dance and ballet as self-fulfillment in a pandemic, Anntonia Taylor(‘24) engaging with new textures and audience interpretations in large group performances. They are joined by thesis researchers Mia Bernstein(’23), sharing her somatic and collaborative approach to touch and consent with members of the Bates’ community, and Lauren Reed(’23), studying the work of Dr. Pearl Primus to inspire a choreography of Black women utilizing rest as a form of resistance.
Mary Trafton	2023	Negotiating Belief in the Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern World	Belief has long played an important role in the articulation and negotiation of power, social identity, and cultural belonging. This session considers “belief,” broadly defined, within the wider, intersecting cultural, social, and political contexts of a global premodernity. Drawing evidence from various societies across the ancient, medieval, and early modern world, this session seeks to provide a differing set of lenses through which to view the social operations of belief. Of particular focus is the negotiation of belief, and the identities attached to it, within pre- and early modern imperial and colonial contexts.
Elliott Vahey	2023	Kennen Sie Urban? and Die Legende von Paul und Paula: Liberation from the Private Sphere?	Kennen Sie Urban? (1971) and Die Legende von Paul und Paula (1973) are both written by Ulrich Plenzdorf and produced by the Deutsche Filmaktiengesellschaft (German Film Corporation, DEFA). Although there has been a scholarly study that grapples with questions of self-fulfillment and the collectivism ethos so pertinent to everyday life in East Germany, no literature has put these two particular works by Plenzdorf in conversation with each other. This thesis takes up the question: How do characters in each of these DEFA films align with or counter the GDR’s conception of female emancipation?
Brandon Villalta Lopez	2025	Galaxies fart, too: A story of galactic evolution from the beginning of time.	At the Bates Galaxies Lab, we study galactic outflows, which I like to call galactic FARTS (Feedback-Activated Receding Turbulent Streams). As my acronym describes, these are streams of gas that are ejected from the body of disk galaxies, and studying them is of great importance for understanding galactic evolution. In this talk, I’ll take you through a brief tour of the Universe in both dimensions of space and time to answer fundamental questions like “What is a galaxy?”, “How are stars born?”, and so on, until we get to galactic FARTS. P.S.: No need for previous knowledge!
Willa Wang	2025	Producing “Superkids”: A Qualitative Research on the Subjectivity Formation of Chinese High-School Students Migrating Locally and Internationally	This research focuses on the educational migration of Chinese high school students. Chinese families are producing “superkids,” who have seen the broader world but still economically and emotionally depend on their parents. This study is based on interviews with high-school students and their families in two high schools in two big cities: one group aims to enter top universities in mainland China, and another group aims to enter prestigious universities worldwide. The formation of their subjectivity presents how the middle class climbs upward in the social ladder and how the elite class stabilizes their social status through educational migration.
Frances White	2023	Crafting Religious Identities through Comedy, Poetry, Midrash, and Memoir	Panelists present current thesis research in Religious Studies. Frances White explores how Jewish women have used stand-up comedy to navigate issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and religion in constructing positive Jewish identities in a US context; Khushi Choudhary employs a critical/constructive feminist approach to engaging with sacred erotic love poetry from Hindu and biblical traditions; Gretchen Lindenfeldar examines memoirs by Buddhist scholars for insights into a variety of westernized Buddhist movements.
John Wilkins	2023	Feminist Mobilization, Political Contexts, and the Recent Wave of Expansion of Reproductive Rights in Latin America	In our presentation, we will be attempting to explain the recent success of pro-choice legislation in Latin America. We conclude that the success of reproductive rights movements in Latin America depends on two factors, present in tandem. First, the influence of a well-organized pro-choice feminist movement on key decision makers must be strong enough to overcome built-in opposition. Second, the major veto players within the respective political systems in each country must be receptive to pro-choice advocacy. We argue that when both of these things are true in Latin American countries, reproductive rights will likely be expanded.
Ilana Zeilinger	2023	Sociological Analyses of Social Problems: A Student Thesis Panel	Senior sociology majors explore theory, identity, ideology, and social groups, including resettlement of refugees, identity and perceptions of social programs, the value of sociological theory, ideology in motherhood blogs, decolonization of medicine, and the power of grief. Emily DiBartolo ’23: Living with Pain isn’t Living: An Investigation of Medical Gaslighting, Chronic Pain, and Social Supports Through the Analysis of Endometriosis Forums Jasmine Candelaria ’23: Understanding the Afghan Refugee Resettlement in the United States Through a Sociological lens Tori Kusukawa ’23: Core Sociological Theorist Pedagogy and its Effect on Perceptions of Sociology’s Purpose Claudi Petrie ’23: Clearly, Something is Not Working: The Impact of Identity on Student Perceptions of the Effectiveness of the Green Dot Bystander Intervention Program at Bates College Adeline Sandoval ’23: Decolonizing Healing Pathways: An Exploration of Indigenous Healing Models Illana Zeilinger ’23: Motherhood in the Mamasphere: Intensive Mothering Ideology and the Construction of Femininity in Mommy Blogs
Alek Zelbo	2023	Nonlinear Optics and Plasmonics	Surface plasmon polaritons are the pairing of waves of electron density and resulting evanescent electromagnetic waves that propagate along a metal and dielectric interface. In our lab, we excite plasmons on different metallic nanostructure samples using a 1560nm femtosecond laser. Plasmons propagate and then convert back into photons. We collect light from the sample and analyze it using both traditional real-space imaging and Fourier plane imaging in order to gather positional and angular information. The information we collect allows us to learn more about plasmonic behavior.