2022 Winners
Grand Prize: Upper Division Thesis
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Ryan MealiffeFaculty Advisor: Charity Urbanski Socioecology of English Witch Trials: How Enclosure and Ancient Landscape Shaped Familiar Beliefs in Early Modern England English witch trial records from the early modern period attest to a widely held understanding that witches worked with familiar spirits, often in the form of animals or animal hybrids, to enact their maleficium. Scholars of witchcraft have long questioned why English spirit helpers differed in appearance from their continental counterparts. Yet familiar spirits remain understudied in the historiography of witchcraft, which has focused on the political, social, and religious elements of the English witch trials until the twenty-first century. A tacit nature-culture divide has stunted any inquiry into how the conception of animal familiars developed. And when historians have discussed animal familiars in the context of the environment and human-animal relations, they often think in a single direction, with animals inspiring the animal familiar. This research takes environmental considerations a step further by connecting divisions of the English landscape and enclosure – a concurrent event not regularly associated with English witch trials – to the unique conception of animal familiars in England, taking into account socio-ecological systems in investigating environmental disturbance as a factor in the conceptual development of animal familiar beliefs in early modern England ©Reproduction of this award project in part or in whole without permission of the author is expressly prohibited.
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Estey ChenFaculty Advisor: Dr. Anand Yang Cracks in the Bandung Spirit: The 1962 Sino-Indian War and Decline of Third World Solidarity
In October 1962, China and India waged a war to contest the demarcation of their shared border. By contrast, seven years earlier at the 1955 Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia, each country signed pledges for peace and mutual non-aggression. The "Bandung spirit" dissipated by 1965, which most scholars attribute to the Sino-Soviet Split and 1965 Algerian coup. However, I study the 1962 war and failed mediation efforts by neutralist governments, like Indonesia, as evidence of the alliance's early fracturing. Drawing from primary sources such as English and Indonesian newspapers, Indian, Chinese, and Indonesian government documents, and the writings of Indian and Indonesian politicians, I argue that Indonesians advocated for a stricter definition, relative to Nehru, of anti-imperialism tinged with Asian nationalism. By framing the war with the Bandung Conference, I explore how governments fall short of their lofty visions of anti-imperialism and perpetuate the nationalistic hierarchies they originally eschew. ©Reproduction of this award project in part or in whole without permission of the author is expressly prohibited. |
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Hope MorrisFaculty Advisor: James Gregory From Women's Rights to Women's Liberation: An Overview of the Second-Wave Feminist Movement in Washington State, 1963-1977 While often ignored by historians of the feminist movement and of the state itself, the second-wave women’s movement in Washington State offers a story of the strengths and limitations of feminist activism and organizing in the United States at its best. What made Washington’s movement so unique was the ability of a wide coalition of feminist activists to organize and form, fostered by social and political liberalism that women were able to bend in their favor. I argue that both radical and liberal feminists, by seeking change through grassroots activism and political and institutional mechanisms, truly transformed the legal, political, social and economic environment for women in the state. By securing powerful political allies and significant legislative victories, feminists made gender equality a core tenet of Washington state law and governance and laid the groundwork for future generations of women to attain increased services, rights, and political representation. ©Reproduction of this award project in part or in whole without permission of the author is expressly prohibited |
Grand Prize: Upper Division Non-Thesis Division
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Makenna ReavesFaculty Advisor: Kimberlee Gillis-Bridge “Stories Matter:" An Examination of Trans Fans’ Experiences with Fan Communities and Fan Creations When centering trans fans’ voices, common themes emerge surrounding their experiences within these spaces that may otherwise go unnoticed. My project uses qualitative and quantitative data collected from a survey I created and distributed across online fandom spaces. From the survey results, I isolated data from trans fans and conducted a case study on their experiences within fandom and with fan fiction and fan creations. My project centers their voices as I examine their experiences holistically to recognize how the intersection of multiple facets of their identity inform their experiences in online fandom spaces. In the scope of my project, it is seen that trans fans clearly benefit from fan communities and fan creations despite the fact that these benefits are not always easily gained and can be accompanied by many negative incidents.
©Reproduction of this award project in part or in whole without permission of the author is expressly prohibited. |
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Gabriel LauFaculty Advisor: Elaine Faustman The Emerging Field of Marine Plastics in Public Health Nanoplastics and their effects on health is an emerging field of public health. Little is known about their environmental presence and techniques for identification are not yet standardized. In addition, marine litter is an important aspect to this problem. In this project, I conduct a literature review on nanoplastic techniques and dissect survey data of plastic perceptions. The literature review showed a variety of different techniques being used. Many studies analyzed spherical polystyrene which are easy to obtain rather than other plastic polymers that are representative of environmental exposure. I also quantitatively dissected survey data on plastic perceptions in coastal communities of Ghana using the programming language R. Many respondents agreed that plastics have improved quality of life, but expressed concern about plastics effects on their health and livelihood. Understanding how different populations, especially underserved and marginalized communities, view and treat plastics is instrumental for solving this global problem. ©Reproduction of this award project in part or in whole without permission of the author is expressly prohibited. |
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Carrie LinFaculty Advisor: Mary-Colleen Jenkins Sustainable Science: Recycling Disposable Gloves in Research Scientific research generates extensive sources of plastic waste. While bio-contaminated gloves must be disposed of according to environmental, health, and safety guidelines, many gloves are simply sent to landfills which poses the question of whether there are alternatives to single-use plastic gloves. Currently, glove recycling programs led by large glove manufacturers offer an attainable solution to this issue. This poster intended for high school STEM students addresses the challenges of glove disposal and recycling by introducing the topic, questioning and answering the necessity and viability of glove recycling, and ends with actionable future steps. Moreover, the poster introduces scientific issues to initiate scientific conversations. ©Reproduction of this award project in part or in whole without permission of the author is expressly prohibited |
Grand Prize: Lower Division
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Rahoul Banerjee GhoshFaculty Advisor: Emily Giangiulio Paper Bags and Plastic Tears This project from ENGL 131 is a genre translation of a part of Naomi Klein's book "This Changes Everything", into the form of a script for a podcast episode. It was an exercise in recognizing and applying genre conventions and rhetoric, as well as being able to synthesize different sources to form a cohesive argument. It discusses the myth of personal responsibility, the greenwashing campaigns that established such a myth, and the persistence of the problem into the modern day. As such it discusses climate change as a case study of the Anthropocene. The project also includes a reflective essay and an annotated bibliography testing metacognition, though the two may have some overlap in content as the latter was supposed to inform the former. ©Reproduction of this award project in part or in whole without permission of the author is expressly prohibited. |
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Mazzie NowkickiFaculty Advisor: Beatrice Arduini The Illumination of Dante's Divine Comedy Through Gustave Doré. When reading or researching the Divine Comedy, one will more often than not come across Gustave Doré's artwork. Doré created over 100 engravings to accompany the divine comedy. This artwork sparked interest and has illuminated the way the Commedia has been interpreted throughout history and into today. Doré effectively used artistic techniques and choices to shape the emotions delivered through certain cantos and characters. His artwork also illuminates the symbolism of the poetry and has impacted other artistic renditions of the Commedia. ©Reproduction of this award project in part or in whole without permission of the author is expressly prohibited. |
Honorable Mention: Upper division, Thesis
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Claudia ModarelliFaculty Advisor: Laurie Marhoefer Building the New Binary: Relationships of Transmasculine and Butch Lesbian Identity in the US, 1970-1990 This paper examines the relationship between butch lesbian identities and female-to-male transgender identities in the United States from 1970 through 1990. I ask how people in these groups understood their identities, and seek to uncover the extent to which they recognized commonalities in their experiences. Additionally, the paper looks into the role that other social forces such as lesbian-feminism, the gay rights movement, and the medical establishment had on the development of these identities. My methodology relied on a variety of sources, but focused especially on grassroots perspectives like LGBT community newspapers. I viewed these sources digitally, almost entirely through research databases that were accessed through UW Libraries. Based on this research, I argue that the dominant narrative regarding these two identities was that they were separate and had little in common, a narrative that was furthered by the medical establishment, popular consciousness, and numerous trans men and lesbians themselves. ©Reproduction of this award project in part or in whole without permission of the author is expressly prohibited. |
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Wendi ZhouFaculty Advisor: Laurie Marhoefer “Translating Guilt to Commitment”: Racial and Queer Intersections in Afro-German Berlin, 1981-1992 Drawing from the fields of history and memory studies, I link the two themes of intersectional movement building and Holocaust memory politics in the context of the Afro-German movement between 1981-1992. I argue that this movement was engaged in a project of memory construction that challenged the whiteness of West German history as well as its later dominant narrative of democratic triumph. Activists did this in two related ways: 1) treating Holocaust memory as multidirectional and 2) actively expressing solidarity across racial/ethnic lines through feminist and anti-homophobic organizing. My argument thus extends the views of several other scholars on the Afro-German movement, many of whom emphasized the primary function of the movement as promoting self-definition and self-assertion within the Black German community. ©Reproduction of this award project in part or in whole without permission of the author is expressly prohibited. |
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Simon FerryFaculty Advisor: Kyle Haddad-Fonda The Link to a Stable French Past: The Suez Crisis and the Scramble to Save the French Empire The Suez Crisis of 1956 was a critical turning point in the decline of the French and British empires. Egyptian President Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal sent officials in both countries into a panic, leading them to invade Egypt. The unsuccessful invasion was a decisive political failure after years of colonial losses since 1945. While scholars have written in depth about the crisis from Britain’s perspective, they have often oversimplified France’s motivations as stemming from the Algerian War and the fear that Nasser was the “next” Hitler. I examine the crisis in the larger French colonial context: the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the losses of African colonies, and the diplomatic efforts to include these colonies in European treaty negotiations. I focus on English and French-language sources, including memoirs, diplomatic communication, and press coverage, to examine how the crisis was seen through these lenses in France. ©Reproduction of this award project in part or in whole without permission of the author is expressly prohibited. |
Honorable Mention: Upper division Non-Thesis
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Melinda WhalenFaculty Advisor: Glennys Young Lena and Iura: Two Adolescent Diarists’ Conceptualizations of Gender and Age During the Siege of Leningrad (1941-1944) This project explores gender and identity during the Siege of Leningrad (September 8 1941 - January 27 1944) as articulated by child diarists Elena Mukhina and Iurii Riabinkin. During the German encirclement of the city during WWII, Leningraders suffered tremendously, fighting to survive without ample food, electricity, or water, all while isolated from the rest of the USSR. Iura is a disabled young man, who struggles to reestablish a sense of masculinity and purpose after being rejected from the army; he slowly loses his physical strength, a pillar of his male identity, due to extreme starvation and grapples with feelings of worthlessness. Lena is a young woman who grounds her femininity, and thus her self-worth, in her work as a hospital orderly; once she is required to return to school, she attempts to commit herself to the genderless “Soviet student” ideal but finds difficulty in relinquishing her feminine identity. ©Reproduction of this award project in part or in whole without permission of the author is expressly prohibited. |
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Jiachen LInFaculty Advisor: Sarah Ghasedi Affirmative and Inclusive Healthcare in HIV/AIDS Affirmative and Inclusive healthcare is critical to reducing the barriers to healthcare for HIV/AIDS among the LGBTQ population. Unfortunately, there is lack of relevant training and resources for healthcare workers in Singapore. Hence this project aims to address this gap by proposing a handbook with information on HIV/AIDS stigma and LGBTQ terminology. The proposal established the need for the handbook and describes the proposed contents of the handbook. A prototype of the handbook on parts of the content outlined in the proposal has also be created. Ultimately this project aims to promote affirmative and inclusive healthcare in Singapore in hopes of improving access to HIV/AIDS healthcare services among key populations thereby reducing transmission of HIV/AIDS in the country. ©Reproduction of this award project in part or in whole without permission of the author is expressly prohibited. |
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Hannah SullivanFaculty Advisor: Angélica Amezcua El inglés en las clases avanzadas de español The use of English in the "Spanish as a second language" classroom is controversial, yet the debate often glosses over the factors that explain *why* students use English. In this project I explore the different motives for which students code-switch, including the desire to express identity and community among heritage language learners. I use these considerations to develop pedagogical recommendations for instructors to respond appropriately to students' linguistic and cultural needs. ©Reproduction of this award project in part or in whole without permission of the author is expressly prohibited. |
Honorable Mention: Lower Division
Population Health Award
