The annual Research Symposium showcases the capstone projects of Humanities Core students who won the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program/Humanities Core Research Awards last spring. Presenters will share how they chose their topics and what they learned about writing and humanistic research methodologies in the process of building their projects. Each session will include a dialogue with current HumCore students who are at the beginning of their own research journeys. These projects were created as part of the cycle on Worldbuilding directed by Professor Jonathan Alexander.
Friday, April 26, 2024
Humanities Gateway 1030
8:45–9:00 a.m. Welcome with Coffee and Light Breakfast
9:00–9:50 a.m. Session 1
- Dena Falahati (Biological Sciences), “Empathetic AI: Reflecting Humanity and Combating Isolation through Hybridization and Posthumanism in Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman’s Illuminae”
- Sarah Hernandez (English), “Race, Genre, and Beauty: A Close Reading of Helen Oyeyemi’s Boy, Snow, Bird, a Loose Snow White Retelling that Explores the External Forces that Define One’s Story”
- Cali Hess (Psychology), “Mapping Dreams: The Force Behind Mobility in the Joseph Narrative”
Panel Q&A with current HumCore students
10:00–10:50 a.m. Session 2
- Bryce Bitetti (Film and Media Studies), “Morality and Intended Play in Interactive Worlds: How Neocolonialist Ideology is Constructed in Breath of the Wild”
- Julia Black (History), “The Myth, the Man, and the Monster: The Evolution of Black Sails’ Captain Flint”
- Liam Harrington (History & Education Sciences), “Modern Transcendentalist Vision: How Video Game Red Dead Redemption 2 World Builds Visions of America’s Environmental Past and Future”
Panel Q&A with current HumCore students
11:00–11:50 a.m. Session 3
- Céline Dahlstrom (Comparative Literature), “Artificial Authenticity: The Role of Whiteness in Dimming the Sparkle of Samba”
- Roger Nguyen (Psychology & Sociology), “Mattel’s Barbie: An Exploration of Consumer-Brand Worldbuilding and The Ethics of Female Fantasization”
- Janice Park (Public Health Policy & Health Informatics), “Paint the Town Red or Climb the Concrete Jungle: How Street Art Can Defy or Fail to Escape the Disciplinary Apparatus of Capitalistic Control in the Art Market”
Panel Q&A with current HumCore students
12:00–1:00 p.m. Lunch (served outside HG 1030 in the courtyard)
These awards are possible thanks to the generous support of UROP and the many friends of the HumCore Program who donated to our 50th Anniversary Zotfunder campaign.