The position of leaves around a stem (phyllotaxy) impacts a plant’s yield, pollination conditions, and light harvesting abilities. Auxin plays a critical role in establishing phyllotaxy. Expressing sequence variants of the auxin-regulated protein IAA28 in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana led to changes in phyllotaxy, specifically in the angles between flowers along the inflorescence bolt. Normally, the IAA28 protein binds and represses AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR (ARF) transcription factors. When auxin is present, the IAA28 protein is degraded, initiating organogenesis. I am currently using three strategies to characterize an IAA28 knockout mutant (iaa28-ko) to better understand IAA28’s role in phyllotaxy. Loss of IAA28 is reported to cause a number of phenotypes by Wang and Guo, but phyllotactic patterning has not been characterized. My first goal is to quantify phyllotaxy by using a measuring device made in the Nemhauser Lab to measure the divergence angle between siliques. I hypothesize that the divergence angles measured in iaa28-ko plants will be smaller than the wild type. My second goal is to determine the change in auxin patterning in iaa28-ko mutants by using plants expressing an auxin reporter called DR5::Venus. Because the iaa28-ko mutant is reported to have more lateral roots, and lateral root initiation requires auxin, I hypothesize a higher expression of DR5::Venus in the iaa28-ko root and inflorescence meristem than in the control. Finally, I will test the functional conservation of BIF4, the putative maize ortholog of IAA28. To determine if BIF4 is functionally similar to IAA28, I will use Agrobacterium-mediated transformation to express BIF4 in an iaa28-ko plant. I hypothesize that the BIF4 protein will fill in the role of IAA28 in the auxin pathway, rescuing the mutant. By understanding the underlying mechanisms that control the phyllotaxy of Arabidopsis, we can learn how to apply similar engineering strategies in other plants.

In 1996, a scandal involving members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus triggered the United States Senate to launch an investigation. In the scandal, Asian American campaign contributors were accused of funneling foreign Chinese funds in an attempt to hijack U.S. politics. The Senate investigation concluded that several Asian Americans were committing espionage by colluding with the Chinese government as political spies. This research asks how the U.S. Senate concluded that these Asian American contributors were spies. My findings suggest that the Senate’s conclusion rested not on sound inculpatory evidence but a historic racial logic of Asian Americans as politically suspect. I argue that the “model minority” stereotype centrally informed the Senate’s racial logic of Asian Americans in their investigation. In particular, the model minority stereotype celebrates the industrious work ethic of Asians while condemning political participation as a dangerous behavior. My research thus explores the informative role of the model minority stereotype in the U.S. Senate’s investigation of the 1996 CAPAC’s scandal. My findings imply that the model minority stereotype ideologically disenfranchises Asian Americans within the American polity. In effect, Asian Americans are disproportionally scrutinized in the political arena through a racial logic that casts them as foreign, suspicious, and disloyal to the polity.

Consistently, young adults (ages 18-24), hereafter referred to as "youth" are slow to get involved in the governance process. Rates of engagement in the political and governance process are consistently lower among those with intersections of marginality (e.g. race, gender, level of education, etc.). Two components which impact a young person's activism and connection to civic and political engagement are political education and socialization. How a person is introduced to the political process and how their interactions with their community had helped to instill, or failed to instill, notions of democratic citizenry. The way a person is taught to engage with the political process has significant implications for an engaged citizenry, and there are educational and social systems which work to promote or discourage such democratic involvement, among marginalized groups. This research provides statistical comparisons which allow for quantitative analysis of participation rates among diverse youth, and addtionally provides a qualitative examination of constructions of citizenship, socialization and education, which might discourage participation in traditional democracy for youth and other marginalized groups. Variations in how educational institutions teach about youth political engagement impact how involved they become in their own governance. Pedagogy and constructions of citizenship play a major role in not only whether youth engage, but how they engage in the political process. While shifts in socialization may not be achievable through public policy solutions, implications of this research could offer alternatives and solutions to the problem of youth political participation, to both existing educational institutions and policymakers, when considering youth engagement in the governance process.

In October 2015, a Yale administrator named Erika Christakis sent a school-wide email in defense of culturally appropriative Halloween outfits. This email broke the tension that had been accumulating around race issues at Yale, a historically all-white all-male institution, where the specter of racism still exists in instances of social and institutional discrimination. Meanwhile, at University of Missouri and across the country, student protesters received nation-wide media attention for demanding institutional support for students of color, and speaking out against race-related campus violence. My paper analyses media and popular reaction to these protests by examining articles, blog posts, and YouTube commentary that appeared in their wake. I show how criticisms of the protesters’ respectability are often couched in racist, sexist, and ageist rhetoric. Additionally, I add to Michelle Smith’s discourse on respectability politics by arguing that conservative media weaponizes the notion of “free speech” by propagating the false notion that freedom of speech shields an individual from criticism and personal consequences. I contend that the trend of dismissing safe spaces further marginalizes oppressed groups, as safe spaces often provide a forum for free speech that runs counter to popular opinion and, in particular, state rule. Ultimately, I conclude that there is no way to separate free speech from its uncivil form, as free speech is inherently subversive.