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 in the midst of their own research journeys. These projects were created as part of the cycle on Worldbuilding directed by Professor Jonathan Alexander.
Friday, April 25, 2025, Humanities Gateway 1030
8:45–9:00 a.m. Welcome with Coffee and Light Breakfast
9:00–9:50 a.m. Session 1
- Josephine Bhadran, “Revisionary Mythmaking: How Madeline Miller’s Circe Creates a Feminine World” (faculty mentor Daniel Siakel)
- David Diaz, “Queer Worldmaking in Steven Universe“ (faculty mentor Kurt Buhanan)
- Anh Nguyen, “Dark Souls and Existentialism: How community defines a genre” (faculty mentor Robin Stewart)
Panel Q&A with current HumCore students
10:00–10:50 a.m. Session 2
- Lynn Choi, “Glee’s American Dream: the Racial Politics of ‘Asian F'” (faculty mentor Amanda Malone)
- Adhi Kona, “The Grammatics of Empire: How Language Captures History & Power in the Colonial Value Systems of RF Kuang’s Babel“ (faculty mentor Katharine Walsh)
- Simon Li, “Toward a Genuine Feminism: Confucianism, the State, and Women in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon“ (faculty mentor Susan Morse)
Panel Q&A with current HumCore students
11:00–11:50 a.m. Session 3
- Annika Lee, “Racism, Family Triangulation, and Gender: How the Intersection of Orientalism and the Patriarchy Frames Yu Ziyuan in The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation” (faculty mentor Sharareh Frouzesh)
- Janaki Nair, “Appropriating the Arts: The Death of Sadir, the Birth of Bharatanatyam, and a 21st-Century Narrative” (faculty mentor Brook Haley)
- Niva Phueklieng, “Assimilation Ideology in League of Legends: Crafting and Dismantling Constructed Identities on Summoner’s Rift“ (faculty mentor Katharine Walsh)
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.