The Philippines is experiencing a new kind of era ever since the onset of Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency. Although the Philippines deems itself as a republic, the president exhibits an authoritarian nature. His tactics, rhetoric, and worldview have garnered attention and controversy, leading to a reevaluation of the country. Despite disagreement and condemnation from human rights groups and other entities, for many people Duterte stands as an effective leader in the Philippines. Even with his brutality, there is a strong presence of approval. In this project, I aim to explore and uncover what makes Duterte such a likable figure among Filipino citizens. A review of the literature reveals many plausible reasons. Duterte veils himself as a ‘common man.’ His efforts to combat the war on drugs are also admirable to many Filipinos; they feel much safer with some of his policies. Initially, my research was supposed to manifest in an academic paper. However, I found that one of my parents shared the same sentiments as other Filipinos. To highlight my findings, I chose to interview my dad and borrowing from the work of Ocean Vuong, I utilized the form of a letter to my father. With this project, I aimed to connect with my dad in hopes of understanding more about my people. Additionally, I was able to hear the genuine thoughts and background of my dad. This brought me closer to my roots, and my dad. This research contributes further to the broader question of what makes dictators and authoritative leaders, such as Duterte, ‘likable’ people to their citizens.  

Herbivory is a concern for agriculture because it results in loss of crops. Plants have innate immune systems that allow them to defend against pests that once better understood, can be utilized to help mitigate this loss. In Steinbrenner et al.’s 2020 work, the authors identified an herbivore-specific immune receptor termed INR in Vigna unguiculata (cowpea) which induces plant defenses upon perception of the protein inceptin, found in the oral secretions of caterpillars. To further investigate the herbivory defense signaling pathway, we acquired EMS (ethyl methanesulfonate) mutagenized seeds, which contain mutations called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). These F1 parent seeds were allowed to self-propagate, producing M2 seeds. We did this because the F1 seeds likely have a SNP in only one allele of their chromosome, thus being heterozygous at a particular loci where the SNP occurred. When the F1 seeds self-propagate, we expect to get a ratio of 1:2:1 of homozygous for the wildtype allele (HH), heterozygous (H*H) and homozygous for the mutated allele (H*H*). This would give us a more varied phenotypic response when screened for sensitivity to inceptin. Individuals that exhibited a compromised inceptin response will be further investigated to determine causative mutations. We identified a number of families with abnormal immune responses, rescreened those families and verified specific families. Next we will self-propagate individuals from verified families, and expect phenotypes to segregate in a 3:1 ratio if a single dominant mutation is causative. Then bulked segregant resequencing will be used to determine which mutations are co-associated with phenotype. After knowing the genotype, we can begin to determine the molecular mechanisms behind the phenotype. This would further our understanding of plant immune responses, which we can harness to better develop more resilient crops, thus mitigating crop loss due to herbivory.
 

Thor: Ragnarok hit theaters in 2017 in the midst of the mid-2010s surge in the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As media conglomerates continue to grow and subsume smaller artists and studios, attending to the types of narratives they are producing and how those narratives serve or complicate the aims of the overall corporation becomes increasingly important. Furthermore, Disney’s global reach as an American media franchise can be considered a product and extension of historical colonial violence, even as some of its products purport to critique such forms of oppression. In this project, I examine how Thor: Ragnarok, directed by Māori filmmaker Taika Waititi, reframes the glorified civilization of Asgard as a violent colonial empire, a fascinating recontextualization that potentially critiques not only sanitized narratives of colonialism but Disney’s utilization of them. The movie was commercially successful, raising further questions on how the film simultaneously critiques and benefits Disney. I question how Thor: Ragnarok constructs its critique of its fantasy-colonialism and the parameters of that engagement. To accomplish this, I perform a close reading of the film alongside contextual materials such as previews, interviews, and previous Marvel media from which it draws. I argue that Thor: Ragnarok reframes and subverts the previous Thor movies to critique historicized and overtly violent colonialism, and constructs a simultaneous critique of ongoing legacies of colonialism and systems of oppression. Its critique of ongoing oppression is couched in humor, avoiding being provocative in a way that would alienate audiences accustomed to the previous whitewashed depictions of power and empire or fully implicate Disney’s participation in those narratives. I trace how this critique’s possibilities and limitations coexist alongside each other in the film, creating an amalgamation that reenacts cultural tensions and discourses rather than producing a monolithic narrative.

Within the ethnographies, memories, and archives produced throughout a capitalist empire, the ‘gaze’ has generally been used against the subject, creating narratives which entrench the hegemony in defining the subject to accord with the needs of the dominating culture. The term ‘oppositional gaze’ was developed in 1992 by bell hooks in conversation with Laura Mulvey’s Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema: the ‘gaze’ is a scopophilic act albeit with the potential to be a radical method for resistance; the oppositional gaze then refers to ‘looking’ as a defiant act to which the actors reclaim a sense of autonomy over the spectator and turn the gaze back upon their oppressors. What makes the act of ‘looking’ so defiant and how this looking translates to an oppositional gaze is the question this project attempts to answer through a close reading of various media and using an array of methods and theories from such disciplines as film studies, ethnography, and data ethics. I build upon the foundations of hooks and Mulvey while asserting that the definition of ‘looking’ goes beyond visual perception and into the act of understanding and perceiving. I apply these theories of the ‘gaze’ and my own explorations of ‘looking’ to juxtapose Rahul Jain’s Machines (2016) and Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland (2020) in analyzing its application and limitations. With this project, I hope to impel further discussion on the study of the gaze by compiling demonstrations of its application in various media and its disruption of prevailing narratives.

This narrative web experience invites readers to rethink their own relationships with the material world. The piece frames materials within Western monumental structures — the marble pedestal, the bronze figure, and the “living” rock carving — not as inanimate instruments in colonial systems, but as living victims and actors within those very systems. I examine how these materials are treated within the Western monument-making process through alternate frameworks—namely Neolithic, Queer and Indigenous material theories—in order to expose the violences inherent in Western material theory and practice. This piece, structured in a series of web pages, leads the reader through a research narrative strung together from conceptual images, academic text, and instructions for a tactile activity. By highlighting these non-Western and anti-colonial material lenses, I explore how the critical lenses we choose to apply to examine monumental materials can act to liberate them from the inanimacies inflicted upon them and highlight the resistances they mount against monumentalization, prompting a further “dematerialization” of the Western monument. This liberation will allow us rethink the physical and ideological standards that have been established for monumentality and to ideate alternate material forms for future monuments that do not contain, impose, and idolize such colonial violences.

This paper and counter-tour will examine the relationship between tourism, the silencing of Martinican activism in international media, and the legacy of colonialism. Martinique is located in the southeastern Caribbean, and has been colonized by France since the mid-1600s. Victor Schoelcher was a French abolitionist who has received much more credit than he is owed for emancipation in the French Caribbean. The project explores the tourism industry and international media’s role in upholding dominant narratives around Schoelcher that are rooted in white saviorism. The questions this research seeks to answer are: What is the relationship between tourism and schoelcherisme, which is the glorification and mythologism of Victor Schoelcher? How does activism on Martinique that challenges white supremacy and colonialism bring to light truths that the tourism industry attempts to conceal in its messaging? The approach to answer these questions involves critical analysis of tourist websites and brochures. This project will also incorporate social media and publications of Martinican writers and activists. The counter-tour will illustrate how the tourism industry invisibilizes the work of activists to challenge Schoelcher’s material legacy, keeping their work from receiving international attention. This research project will challenge depictions of the island that are interwoven into the tourist industry’s advertisements and Western perceptions of Martinique, and highlight means of resistance to white supremacy and colonialism.

Stereotypes around femininity, as presented to young Women, have historically not been inclusive. Often consisting of single-story one-dimensional white male ideals of femininity. Young Women could either lean into the stereotype or turn away, the dismissal often created new stereotypes due to a lack of strong feminist representation like the “I’m not like other girls” trope. The exposure to these white feminine stereotypes created cracks in a young Woman’s relationship with femininity and what it means to be girl. Causing a shift to anti-feminist and sexist thought while developing internalized misogyny. This presented externally as Women hating behavior that supported the learned mindsets of white men on the sexualization, degradation, and general treatment of other Women. The patriarchal system influenced this young Woman and others across the country in their homes, in their classrooms, each night on television, reinforced on the covers of teen magazines, through the eyes of their fathers and actions of their mothers. This young Woman functioned as a monument to the Patriarchy. Acting for the best interest of the heteronormative white male experience. I was the monument. With a lack of strong feminist representation, I instead turned into a living, breathing, and sometimes ‘preaching’ monument to the patriarchy. Through autoethnography and research of pop culture from the 1990s and 2000s, friends, family, members, and television shows. I will analyze my own experience to identify and understand my journey from anti-feminist to feminist. Answer how I was manipulated by the heteropatriarchy and colonialism to be antifeminist, to hate other Women, and actively cause harm to others based on their expression of femininity. Understanding the way in which I was once an image fighting for feminine oppression to help others unlearn too.

The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran saw the destruction of many monuments to previous regimes.  Despite the close alignment of the previous regime to the Tomb of Cyrus the Great and calls from Chief Justice Sadeq Khalkhali to raze Cyrus's tomb, the tomb remained intact as a historical site.  Why was Cyrus's tomb preserved when other pre-Revolution monuments were razed?  I answer this question through the analysis of secondary sources about Cyrus's tomb, architecture, and nationalism.  I combine this approach with the examination of primary photographic and documentary footage of the tomb.  The tomb was preserved because it is a palimpsest, representing many facets of Iranian culture and heritage - from tomb to mosque to monument.  Nationalists in Iran succeeded in attributing modernism and patriotism to Cyrus, both of which are gendered masculine.  The combination of Islam and nationalism into religious nationalism allowed not only for the preservation of Cyrus's tomb, but also his later rehabilitation.  Additionally, the tomb is about 800 km south of the capital city which allowed for the silencing of the tomb without necessitating its destruction.  The iconoclasm of revolution often results in the destruction of important historical monuments and architecture, but the preservation of this particular monument is an important case study for how oppositional new regimes can preserve the monuments of previous ones while still bolstering their own legitimacy.

Plants recognize insect herbivore attack by detecting molecular patterns in their oral secretions. Steinbrenner et al. have recently identified a host plant receptor for one such pattern, termed the Inceptin Receptor (INR). INR binds herbivore-derived inceptin peptide and confers signaling and defense responses in response to inceptin, including a measurable burst of reactive oxidative species and the gaseous hormone ethylene. INR is present only in species of the legume subtribe Phaseolinae (e.g., common bean, Phaseolus vulgaris). INR was previously studied using heterologous expression in tobacco, but the role of INR in beans themselves has not been studied due to difficulty of genetic transformation and knockout approaches. I have created a backcrossed line of common bean introgressing a naturally occurring inr- mutation into a genome sequenced variety. Inceptin response is compromised in inr- near isogenic lines. I plan to use the inr- near isogenic line to measure the contribution of INR to caterpillar feeding relative to wild type plants. To quantify the feeding habit of caterpillar species when fed these two lines, I optimized a high throughput herbivory assay and imaging pipeline to quantify feeding behavior and tissue consumption. We hypothesize that plants lacking INR will show reduced deterrence, increased tissue consumption, and increased larval weight gain upon caterpillar feeding. Understanding how plants sense attack will help us to develop varieties that are resistant to pests and pathogens.

China’s rapid economic growth and urbanization in the recent two decades marked one of the most incredible speeds since human civilization, but the deeper social and environmental issues keep being exposed as relentless urban sprawl sweeps across the country. In 2012, under the nationwide “land-creation” movement, Yan’an, a major city in central China with a population of 2 million situated on the Loess Plateau, started implementing its 10-year plan to bulldoze mountains and build a “New District” on the hilltops to accommodate the exploding population. Despite mainstream narratives that feature it as a pioneer work of urbanization, I argue that the scarred land and the exploitative system in the “New District” cannot support the Plateau residents culturally and psychologically. This research draws on various theories and studies on anthropology, sociology, and urban planning to analyze the social, cultural, symbolic, and psychological impacts of the Yan’an “New District” project. The novel perspective proposed by this paper reconsiders urbanization as an exploitive and deceptive process and reexamines the future of rural-to-urban migration and urban growth.

The United States immigration system was created upon the ideas of white supremacy. There have been many instances of xenophobia and racism throughout history used as a ploy to justify anti-immigration policies. The US-Mexico border, Latin America, and the Caribbean play a significant role in the conversations around immigration due to the intersection of various racial identities; white supremacy plays a part in justifying discrimination and violence towards people of color. This research asks how racial differences influence US immigration incarceration and deportation. This is conducted by comparing the historical and contemporary contexts of border patrol and immigration policy to analyze the modern-day landscape of immigration and how it has or has not transformed over time. This was achieved through a literature review of historical sources around immigration policy and secondary research on the history of the US immigration system. Desired and achieved recruitment consisted of two academic professors who had extensive research and knowledge on the historical and contemporary framework of the US immigration system as well as two US community organizations focused on advocating for Black and Indigenous immigrant rights. They were identified through their research and activism, centered around the intersections of race and immigration. Drawing upon interviews and secondary research sources, our research group presents an in-depth series of podcast episodes, which feature candid discussions with professors and organizations heavily involved with the immigrant community. These interviews allow the listener to gain a deep understanding of how racial differences impact and shape immigrant incarceration and deportation. Overall, our research group hopes to demonstrate how immigration policy has disproportionate impacts depending on a person's race, leading to varying experiences and statistical differences in incarceration and detention rates. ​​Through this podcast, our research group hopes to inspire conversation around the intersection between race and today's immigration policy.

This project explores the history and power of language in relation to graffiti writer Rammellzee’s philosophy of Ikonoklast Panzerism as well as to his art. Using informal interviews, ethnographic engagement, and close readings relating to Rammellzee and the alphabet’s history, I investigate how the individual can claim the power of language back from colonizers and oppressors through subversive art. I question how Rammellzee’s work can be used to reimagine the alphabet as a tool to deconstruct monuments of oppression and imperialism that are pervasive to society. Rammellzee founded Ikonoklast Panzerism on the idea that each individual letter of the alphabet can be armored and weaponized in order to free themselves from the institutions which wield the power of language over the rest of society. He bases his beliefs in the medieval history of monastic illuminated calligraphy and uses his theories to create art which subverts structures of power. I argue that Rammellzee’s work reveals the potential of individualized power by reclaiming the almighty power of language and challenging the limitations of legibility and standardization. Drawing from concepts such as ethnographic refusal, and from the writing of scholars like Michel-Rolph Trouillot to inform my creative work, this project emphasizes the power of the written word in today’s world and investigates how language can be reimagined and repurposed by each individual. I synthesize my research findings into a creative form that touches on my own relationship to language in academia, and how I can apply Rammellzee’s ideas to my own life.