My research aims to counter the notion that women do not mind the silencing, sexualization, and objectification of their bodies by providing a platform whereby the often unseen and unheard female body can voice a resounding reply that, on the contrary, she does mind, and very much so. My research examines works of contemporary historical fiction, like Toni Morrison’s A Mercy and Chang-rae Lee’s A Gesture Life, in order to explore the silencing of particular women in critical moments of capitalist transformation within and beyond the United States: the transatlantic slave trade, colonization, and imperialism, and the subsequent 20th century proliferation of neoliberalism, nation-building, and imperialism. It highlights this silencing by tracing traumas the female body endures. And does this specifically by defining the different female body parts that function as primary shock-absorbers as women who are coping with the effects of dislocation, displacement, and diaspora are not only gendered and sexualized in these labor markets but are also raced – a key component of representation and sexual exploitation. Vehemently criticizing the phallocratic order responsible for these various states of uprootedness is Luce Irigaray, whose essay “This Sex Which Is Not One” is concerned with the search for and implementation of a uniquely feminine language. My research interrogates the possibility of such a language existing and the significance it would bear in breaking the univocal shroud restricting the expressions and movements of the female body. This analysis utilizes a Marxist reading of the commodification of woman and her sex, as well as Irigaray’s conception of mimesis as it pertains to the recognition and viewing of the female. The injuries of being sexualized, gendered, and raced, unfortunately restrict the feminine discourse that female bodies could potentially produce by dehumanizing the female and rendering her nothing but a voiceless soft slip of flesh.

Prejudicial attitudes toward others based on physical appearance arise when an individual’s biological sex does not appear to match their gender category.  Transgendered people are males and females who desire to belong to the opposite gender category than their biological sex.  Transphobia is described as the stereotypical beliefs, prejudicial attitudes, disgust, and rejection of transgendered people based on sexual discrimination.  The participants (N = 57) were exposed to images of transgendered people, and rated each person on six different character judgments.  There were two conditions for this study (photo stimulus: full-body vs. only face/hair), with participants in both conditions being exposed to images of the same people.  Of these images, six were congruent (passable) and six were incongruent (impassible). Participants also filled out the Genderism and Transphobia Scale (GTS), developed by Hill and Willoughby, which measured levels of transphobia.  It was predicted that participants who rated higher in levels of transphobia would hold higher prejudicial attitudes toward incongruent transpersons.  There was a significant interaction effect between congruency and transphobia scores. Higher levels of transphobia were related to lower character ratings of incongruent transpersons, indicating that highly transphobic individuals are more likely to hold prejudicial attitudes towards incongruent transpeople.  There was an interaction effect between the adopted gender of the transpeople in the images and the participant’s level of transphobia. These findings add to the small amount of current research pertaining to perceptions of the transgendered population.

Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book was published in 1894 and included the short story Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. Since its original publication, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi has been published outside of this collection, with its adaptations mainly targeting children. Through textual studies, my research is employing an examination of the text through the application of an anthropological lens. I focus on comparing the original text to a 2006 "Easy Reader Classic" edition of the text as well as the 1975 Chuck Jones animated film adaptation. These two adaptations dramatically alter the presence of the themes of family, religion, and violence. The alteration of these themes prompt further exploration into their significance. This in depth analysis frames my research and allow a shifting of focus from Rikki-Tikki-Tavi to its audience. Any discussion of audience tends to start with categorization, but I wish to prove that this approach can be dangerous, especially for scholars. By concentrating on the categorization of the audience, one loses sight of what the audience intends to do with the text. The audience's relationship with a text is defined by their intent, or more explicitly, how they utilize the text. When literature is identified as for children and subsequently adapted, how is it changing the audience's relationship with that text? Through these adaptations of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, I plan to investigate how drastically audience intent is altered through adaptation of the original version. Researching the loss of themes as well as the simplification of Kipling's text will allow me to extrapolate the affects of these changes on the audience's intent.

The level of external debt always plays a significant role in judging a country’s overall economic well-being. A general accepted threshold regarding its impact is that for levels of external debt in excess of 90 percent of GDP, growth rates decrease by roughly half. External debt, the part of total debt of a country owed to creditors overseas, is always denominated in foreign currencies. Thus to thoroughly analyze the implications of external debt level on an economy, we must relate it to the currency regime in force. Indeed countries choose to adopt various currency regimes from fixed to flexible exchange rate and hybrid models in between. The goal of this research is to draw the linkage between external debt/GDP and changes in currency regimes. I constructed historical data set on total gross external debt for 1970-2010 for 44 countries that have experienced periods with external debt/GDP above the threshold. Moreover, I gathered data over the same period documenting the corresponding exchange rate regimes to find whether there is a relation between an external debt crisis and a change in the exchange rate regime, which is very likely. The next question is to find out the direction of the causality: does a debt crisis trigger a change in the exchange rate or vice versa. I am using Granger causality test, a statistical hypothesis test, to determine whether one time series is more successful in forecasting the other; I anticipate the results to show positive correlations in either direction. These results could be useful to understand the close relation between the level of external debt of a country and its exchange rate arrangement. For policy makers, these results could be taken in consideration when selecting tools for implementing monetary policies, the efficiency of which is highly dependent on the exchange rate arrangement.

Retrotransposons exist as genetic elements within chromosomal DNA that can replicate themselves and move to new locations within a genome, using a process involving an RNA intermediate. They are a widespread class of transposable elements, abundant in plants, fungi, mammals and yeast. One type of retrotransposon is a Long Interspersed Nuclear Element (LINE). Unlike most retrotransposons, LINEs have no long terminal repeats (LTR) and they possess a poly A tail which defines the 3’ terminus of the element. They are several kilobases long and contain two open reading frames (ORFs) encoding a gag protein (ORF1) and endonuclease and reverse transcriptase domains (ORF 2) conferring the element’s ability for retrotransposition. Due to incomplete insertion attempts, many 5' truncated copies of LINE elements are present in the Rhododendron genome. A family of LINE elements called RLINE and several related 5’ truncation fragments have been discovered in Rhododendron williamsianum. I used PCR primers to amplify the regions of the genome in R. williamsianum where truncated RLINE insertions were found. The amplified DNA was then sequenced by Sanger sequencing. I am analyzing ten 5’ truncation fragments ranging from 692- 2918 base pairs. By phylogenetic analysis of aligned sequences common to the various full-length and deleted RLINES, I will endeavor to determine the evolutionary relationships of the truncated fragments to the full length RLINE and to one another. So far, I have sequenced and compared 8 different RLINE fragments of Rhododendron williamsianum, and will continue characterizing RLINE insertions.

Genus Rhododendron consists of over 1000 species of woody plants.  While the overall phylogeny of the genus is known, the relationships between species are not.  My research focuses on a small and unusual retrotransposon, Cassandra, and its possible use for evolutionary studies.  Retrotransposons are sequences that are able to move to new DNA chromosomal locations via mechanisms simlar to retroviral DNA replication.  Transposition involves transcription of an integrated DNA copy through an RNA product that acts as a template for reverse transcription, and finally integration of the resulting DNA at new sites in the plant genome.  Like other retrotransposons, Cassandra has no mechanism for complete excision from a site it has occupied.  Thus, once the element is inserted into a genomic site, all or part of it is retained at this position as a stable marker.  Consequently, a Cassandra insertion at a given site is a shared derived trait, suitable for evolutionary tree-building.  Ultimately, knowing these sequences of transposition may shed light on the pattern of evolutionary divergence of Rhododendron and Ericaceae plants.  Based on one insertion site, my data suggests that thus far, only a solo LTR version of the Cassandra element is found in most species of the subgenus Hymenanthes (primarily in East Asia), with an empty site found in the subsection Pontica (more geographically diverse).  Interestingly, for a few species within Hymenanthes that lack the element, another conserved insertion (approx. 450 bp) is found in the DNA instead.  Moving forward, I will look at additional insertion sites, to gain further information on Rhododendron phylogeny.

Ubiquitin is a protein modifier that is essential for many eukaryotic cellular processes. Attachment of ubiquitin to substrate proteins (ubiquitination) occurs in a three-step cascade that involves a ubiquitin activase, ubiquitin conjugase, and ubiquitin ligase; it is the ligase that targets substrate proteins. One challenge for the ubiquitin field is identification of substrate cohorts for ubiquitin ligases. Although ubiquitination only occurs naturally in eukaryotic organisms, we have previously reconstituted the ubiqutination cascade in E. coli. Isolation of the ubiquitin pathway within a prokaryotic cell, such as E. coli, allows for the investigation and modification of individual components of the pathway and the measurement of immediate effects of these changes upon the overall process of ubiquitination. This project, which consists of the construction of a split protein assay, aims to address the abovementioned challenge by building on our previous work reconstituting ubiquitination in E. coli. The assay uses two fragments of the protein dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) to detect the ubiquitination of proteins in E. coli, outside of the natural eukaryotic environment of ubiquitin. All of the essential components of the ubiquitination pathway, including individual fragments of DHFR fused to ubiquitin and a substrate protein of interest, are transformed into the bacterial cell. The assay tests for the covalent attachment of ubiquitin to the substrate protein through growth on selective medium, which is possible only through the combination of the separated fragments of DHFR. This reporter system allows for experimentation regarding the interaction and selectivity of the ubiquitin ligase with the substrate protein of interest. Thus, a functional reporter system will allow for the streamlined analysis and determination of the substrate cohort for a given ubiquitin ligase. Changes to the components of the system may include using different ubiquitin ligases and substrate proteins.