2013 

Roundtable: Transformers: Aesthetic Narratives in Disguise

Facilitator: Catherine Axe ’87, Director of Student and Employee Accessibility Support Services

  • Madeline Sall, The Music Made Me: A Study of Classical Music in Television Advertising

  • Ethan Zisson, Form and Representation | Slides

  • Elaine Kuckertz, The Legacy of Pattern and Decoration | Slides

  • Matthew Peterson, From Heaven to Earth: On the Religious and Aesthetic in Feuerbach, Wagner, and Nietzsche | Slides

Roundtable: Making S*** Happen: Community Engagement as a Mechanism for Success

Facilitator: Jim Amspacher, Career Advisor and Director of Careers in the Common Good, CareerLAB

  • Nell Brodsky, Mayors and Education: Promoting Social Capital | Slides

  • Taylor Daily and Mark Raymond, Students for Obama: A Campus, State, and National Collaboration

  • Victoria Elmore, The Utility of Participatory GIS for Community Management of Urban Greenspace | Slides

  • Evan Schwartz, Marguerite Joutz ’15, and Nikhil Kalyanpur, The (Post-)Brown Conversation | Slides

Roundtable: Political Revisions: Proposing Original Theories and Models

Facilitator: Kisa Takesue ’88, Director of Student Leadership Programs, Office of Summer and Continuing Studies

  • Ana Carolina Barry Laso, Explaining Social Inclusion Policies: Emergence Theory and the Case of Brazil | Slides

  • Laura Curlin, Protecting Religious Freedom: A New Interpretation of the First Amendment | Slides

  • Tyler Bourgoise, Private Property and Beneficence

Roundtable: Campus, Food, Community

Facilitator: Dilania Inoa ’99, Program Manager, Swearer Center for Public Service

  • David Granberg, A Case Study of the Native Food Sovereignty Movement

  • Mary Alice Reilly, Cultivating Hope: A Community-Based Research Partnership | Slides

  • Leah Douglas, Eating and Activism: How the Brown Market Shares Program Engages Students and Changes the Food System | Slides

  • Andrea Radke, Raising the Bar on Nutrition for the Type 2 Diabetic

Roundtable: Artists + Scientists: Problem-Solvers, Storytellers, Collaborators

Facilitator: Tim Shiner, Director, Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center and Student Activities Office

  • Brenda Zhang, Investigating Intersections of Natural and Built through Visual Art

  • Charis Loke and Rajvi Mehta, Visual Storytelling Workshops: Teaching Visual Literacy and Image-Making

  • Deivid Ribeiro, The Social Being of Science

Roundtable Slides

Roundtable: Performance, Perception, and Presentation: Structures of narration and behavior

Facilitator: Kelly Garrett, Director, LGBTQ Center

  • Kelsey Collins, Student Perceptions, Experiences, and Attitudes Regarding Sexual Culture at Brown

  • David Manning, (De)Constructed Truth: The role of media in identity formation

  • Kate Khanna, “What’s up, girl?”: Gendered Language Use Among Adolescents | Slides

Roundtable: Creativity and Self-Expression

Facilitator: Jessica Brodsky ’14, CRC Digital Archives and Social Media Coordinator

  • Linh Dao, Space for Creativity – a cultural critique on conditions for creativity within Vietnamese schools

  • Urmila Chadayammuri and Xiangjun Shi, Quantitative Lenses: How Does Scientific Study Shape Perception of Daily Life and Interactions?

  • Jonah David, Songs From Within: Music Written by Inmates at the Rhode Island Prison | Slides

Roundtable: Contesting Landscapes: Constructing Seescapes

Facilitator: Mary Grace Almandrez, Assistant Dean of the College and Director, Third World Center

  • Daniel Sherrell, Sea Level Rise, Sovereignty, and the Meaning of One Meter | Slides

  • Katherine Siegel, Strong Communities, Resilient Ecosystems: New Perspectives on Marine Conservation Planning in the Gulf of California

  • Kathryn Cohen, Transformation from the Hollows: The Resource-Intervention Chain and its Implications for Collective Action and Social Transformation

  • Maya Sikand, The Kuhls of Kangra and National Employment Guarantee: The story of a community irrigation system | Slides

Roundtable: Rural America Across the Centuries: Exploring the Power Dynamics of Smoke Pipes, Fracking and Undocumented Farmhands

Facilitator: Janet Isserlis, Adult Literacy Programs, Swearer Center for Public Service

  • Bo Schlagel, Farmhand and Farmer: Exploring the Legal Environment that Conditions this Precarious Relationship | Slides

  • Brandon Tomasso, Locally Manufactured Red Clay Tobacco Pipes in New England

  • Becca Rast, Fracking and Farmers in Pennsylvania

Roundtable: Breach of Faith: Unveiling Government Bias in Health Access and Standards

Facilitator: Shane Lloyd MA’10, Assistant Director, Third World Center

  • Jennifer Lee, The future of generic HIV drugs in the US | Slides

  • Alexandra Linn, The American Rejection of the BCG Vaccine for Tuberculosis: A Story of Nationalism, Radiation and the Rise of American Scientific Culture | Slides

  • Olivia Petrocco, Sharing Stealing and Secrecy: Understanding the Changing Definition of Property and Global Governance through the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement | Slides

  • Natasha Kumar, A Woman’s Choice: Factors Impacting Women’s Access to Abortion in Brazil and Vietnam | Slides

Roundtable: Creating Opportunities through Education and Activism

Facilitator: Gail Cohee, Lecturer, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Director, Sarah Doyle Women’s Center

  • Holly Dechelle Doerflinger, Participatory Citizenship: (DREAM) Activism and the Creation of Self | Slides

  • Michael Stewart, SATurdays @ Brown: Expanding College Access in Rhode Island | Slides

  • Monica Marie Sanchez, Education for Liberation: Perspectives on Mexican American Studies, Voices of Students and Teachers

  • Rachel Peterson, Algebra in (Slow) Motion: The Value of Reflection in Community Work

Roundtable: From Exclusion to Empowerment in South Africa, Vietnam, Guatemala and Tunisia

Facilitator: Peggy Chang, Director, Curricular Resource Center

  • My Dang, Memories of the Vietnam War

  • Rahel K. Dette, Travel, Talk, Tell: Tunisia | Slides

  • Maia Chao, Democratizing the Airwaves: The Pan-Maya Community Radio Movement in Guatemala | Slides

  • Celi Khanyile-Lynch, Post-Apartheid South African Higher Education | Slides

Roundtable: Articulating the Edge: Art & Approximation

Facilitator: Joseph Browne ’11, Coordinator, New Scientist Program, Science Center

  • Micah Thanhauser and Jack deTar, Creativity & Consciousness

  • Rebecca Maxfield, The Tempest: Magic, Movement, and Methexis | Slides

  • Ben Freeman, “If you don’t know what shape it is”: Playwriting, Poetry, and Failures of Language

Roundtable: From Patients to Policy: (De)Personalization in Contemporary Health Care

Facilitator: Janet Isserlis, Adult Literacy Programs, Swearer Center for Pubilc Service

  • Christine Moon, The Good Life at the End of Life for South Korean elders living in Toronto, Canada

  • Alyssa R. Thomas, Physicians and Their Patients in Literature: Using literature to craft a humanistic approach to medicine

  • Keally Cieslik, “Can the Center Hold?” : Health Policy Stewardship in Rhode Island Health Care Reform

  • Rachel Ratchford, Evaluating the Communication between Urgent Care Centers & Emergency Departments

Roundtable: Modern Family: Communication, Identity, and Support

Facilitator: Shane Lloyd MA’10, Assistant Director, Third World Center

  • Le Huy Nguyen Tran, Homosexuality and The Family in Contemporary Vietnam

  • Gopika Krishna, The Role of Gender in Mother-Infant Interactions and Infant Motor Development

  • Sidney Scott, Refugee Parental Involvement: Opportunities and Obstacles | Slides

Roundtable: Unintended Consequences of Technological Innovation

Facilitator: Carol Cohen ’83, Associate Dean of the College for First Year and Sophomore Studies

  • Nikhil Kalyanpur, Personalization and the Internet: What are you missing? | Slides

  • Sarah L. Forman, Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing and International Security Concerns | Slides

  • Alexander Bell, An Autopsy on Submarine Patents: A Window into Expectations of the Technological Frontier | Slides

  • Danielle Marshak and Claire Peracchio, Heralding the Future of News | Slides

Roundtable: Strategies and Barriers to Social Change

Facilitator: Jim Amspacher, Career Advisor and Director, Careers in the Common Good, CareerLAB

  • Jessica Mitter, Connor Barnhart, and Piervito Williams, Partnership Versus Paternalism: Why the Direct Service Mode Won’t Fix the Global Health Crisis | Slides

  • Rebecca Kagan, Should the Nonprofit Sector Exist?: Examining the Role of Charity in Society

  • Allen Kramer, Gladys A. Ndagire, and Paige Warren-Shriner, Impact Investing in the Northeast | Slides

Roundtable: Agency and Identity: Negotiating the Self in Challenging Contexts

Facilitator: Janet Cooper-Nelson, University Chaplain

  • Karwai Ng, Silence Re-Oriented: The Performative Construction of Identity | Slides

  • Anna Quinn, Identity Strategies of Young Women Bhutanese Refugees | Slides

  • Marley Pierce, Harbingers of Hope? A Systematic Study of Racial Identity and Experiences Reported by Students With One Black Parent and One White Parent | Slides

Roundtable: Enhancing the Brown Experience through Mindfulness and Self-Reflection

Facilitator: David Blanding, Doctoral Candidate, Political Science

  • Riyad Seervai, Yoga And Mindfulness: Building a Community at the Heart-center of College Hill | Slides

  • Isha Gulati and Jocelyn West, MAPS: Navigating Peer Advising with the Matched Advising Program for Sophomores

  • Rie Ohta, $ocial Classmates: Disentangling Classism

Poster Session

Roundtable Presenters

Madeline Sall

Madeline is a senior from Newton, MA studying Music History, Theory, and Composition. When she isn’t contemplating the representative properties of music, Madeline enjoys walking around aimlessly, people-watching, reading, and trying new restaurants.

Advisor: Joshua Tucker, Music

Ethan Zisson

Elaine Kuckertz is double concentrating in Gender & Sexuality Studies and Visual Art. She enjoys long distance running and is a member of the Brown women’s Cross Country/Track & Field team. This spring, she completed her thesis in the Visual Art department and aspires to continue working in this field.

Advisor: Richard Fishman, Visual Arts

Elaine Kuckertz

Advisor: Denise Davis, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Matthew Peterson

Matthew Peterson is a Religious Studies concentrator from Larchmont, New York interested in the philosophy of religion. After graduation, he will spend a year traveling, cooking, and exploring before pursuing an A.M. in Religious Studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Advisor: Thomas A. Lewis, Religious Studies

Nell Brodsky

Nell is a senior concentrating in Political Science with a focus on American politics. Throughout her time at Brown, she became very interested in understanding the intersection of politics and education, based partly on her involvement in various volunteer programs in Providence’s school system as well as through her coursework. At Theories in Action, Nell will be presenting her senior honors thesis, Mayors and Education: Promoting Social Capital, which assesses the capacity for mayors to influence their cities’ education systems.

Advisor: Wendy Schiller, Political Science

Taylor Daily

Taylor Daily is a political science concentrator from Plymouth, Minnesota. His primary governmental and campaign experiences have been in political communication, digital media, and policy development. In the fall, Taylor will be attending a Master of Public Health program in Health Policy at Yale.

Mark Raymond

Mark was born and raised in Barnstable, Massachusetts. He is a political science concentrator.

Victoria Elmore

Evan Schwartz

Evan is a senior finishing up an Independent Concentration in Political Economy & Education. He is interested in getting everyone to ask “why?” more often, to start conversations and projects to better the institutions they are part of, and to make s*** happen.

Marguerite Joutz

Marguerite Joutz is a sophomore concentrating in Education. As a member of Brown Conversation, she co-founded a three-day event called Re-Orientation that provided a space for underclassmen to re-evaluate their undergraduate experiences and life.

Nikhil Kalyanpur

Nikhil (Nik) Kalyanpur is a senior independently concentrating in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He is particularly interested in the intersection of political economy and technology, and political sociology. He’s a big fan of the word “why” and little talks.

Ana Carolina Barry Laso

Carolina is originally from Spain, she studied in the United World College Costa Rica, and now is soon graduating in International Relations at Brown. She spent a semester abroad in Brazil, which insipired her Honors Thesis about Social Inclusion Policies.

Advisor: Claudia Elliott, International Relations

Laura Curlin

Laura is a Political Theory and Middle East Studies concentrator originally from Decatur, IL. Outside of classes, she has been involved in many student groups including Democracy Matters and Orientation Welcoming Committee.

Advisor: Corey Brettschneider, Political Science

Tyler Bourgoise

Before transferring to Brown in 2011, Tyler attended Deep Springs College for two years. This May he will graduate with a degree in philosophy.

Advisor: David Estlund, Philosophy

David Granberg

David is an Environmental Studies concentrator from the San Francisco Bay Area. He is passionate about sustainability and justice in all things. His project, which explores the challenges and successes of several community agriculture projects on a Native American reservation, has also served as an education in the power dynamics of academic research.

Advisor: Elizabeth Hoover, American Studies and Ethnic Studies

Mary Alice Reilly

Mary Alice Reilly is an Environmental Studies concentrator who cares about food justice, women’s rights, and community-based work. Through the Cultivating Hope food justice project, Mary Alice has been working with the John Hope Settlement House, a Providence community center on the West End, to establish schoolyard gardens and garden-based curriculum for John Hope’s pre-school and after school care programs. Post-graduation, she is looking forward to living in Providence and working at the John Hope Settlement House and the Federal Hill House Association to develop their garden education and garden-based food security programming.

Advisor: Kathryn DeMaster, Environmental Studies

Leah Douglas

Leah Douglas is an American Studies concentrator who studies food systems and sustainable agriculture. She’s worked for the Brown Market Shares Program for three years. She plans to pursue a career in food activism and journalism.

Andrea Radke

I am a senior concentrating in Biology. My hobbies include skiing, spending time with family and friends, and going boating.

Advisor: Mary Flynn, Biology

Brenda Zhang

Brenda Zhang is a honors candidate in Visual Art and has been a teaching and research assistant in Environmental Studies. Her interests include food sovereignty, urban agriculture, contemporary art, public interest design, environmental and experiential education, lamps, riding bikes, and eating ice cream.

Advisor: Paul Myoda, Visual Art

Charis Loke

Charis Loke is an illustrator and biochemistry concentrator who’s interested in telling stories that impact people. She’s created art for magazines, newspapers, books, games, and more. See her work at charisloke.com.

Advisor: Ian Gonsher, Engineering

Rajvi Mehta

I am a Biochemistry concentrator interested in the interplay between science and art.

Advisor: Ian Gonsher, Engineering

Deivid Ribeiro

Deivid is a senior studying Physics and Life. He hopes to someday find mark matter and explain what that means to everyone else. After graduation, he plans on going to grad school for a PhD in Physics so he can become both a scientist and a professor.

Kelsey Collins

Kelsey is a senior concentrating in Human Biology. Next year, she will be pursuing a Master’s in Behavioral and Social Sciences Interventions at Brown and applying to medical school.

Advisor: Cynthia Rosengard, Behavioral and Social Sciences

David Manning

David is completing an Honors Degree in Anthropology, focusing his attention on the role of shame, stigma, and stereotype threat in restricting access to medical care. He will be continue his education with a Masters degree in Behavioral Social Sciences Interventions through the School of Public Health at Brown University in the fall. Following his time at Brown, David plans to continue his work in improving health access for marginalized patients in the area.

Advisor: Sherine Hamdy, Anthropology

Kate Khanna

Kate Khanna is a senior from Rochester, New York, concentrating in Anthropology and French Studies. Her passion for studying people, culture, and behavior has led her to a thesis that combines her broader interests in anthropology, linguistics, and gender studies. Kate is looking to continue doing research and ultimately pursue an advanced degree in the social sciences.

Advisor: Paja Faudree, Anthropology

Linh Dao

Linh Dao is a Development Studies major from Hanoi, Vietnam. She is also the founder of the Creative Kid Project, a platform for Vietnamese middle-school students to collaborate and create projects that improve their own school and community. Linh’s dream is to be part of a movement towards a more relevant and engaging education in Vietnam.

Advisor: Jennifer Costanza, Development Studies

Urmila Chadayammuri

Urmila has studied astronomy since primary school and pursued astrophysics as an undergraduate. Here, she became a yoga teacher and writer; her post-graduation offers have been in social entrepreneurship, biomolecular science and investments. She argues that the progress to be more logical than it might seem at first glance.

Xiangjun Shi

Xiangjun Shi is an animator, documentary filmmaker, and world traveler. Being an immigrant since a tender age, and having lived in China, Russia, UK, and the US, XJ is determined to break down the communication barriers between people through her work. Her attention to implicit, subtle emotions is notable, especially in her animation. She is versatile in a wide variety of animation mediums, ranging from classical hand drawn to 3D CGI. XJ is bilingual, proficient in English and Mandarin Chinese, and speaks conversational Russian. She will be graduating in May 2013 with BA in Physics from Brown University, and BFA in Film/Animation/Video from Rhode Island School of Design.

Jonah David

For the past year, I have been recording an album of music written collaboratively with inmates at the Rhode Island prison. In this presentation, I will play a few samples from the album and discuss the impact of creativity and self-expression in this context.

Advisor: Michael Kennedy, Sociology, and James Moses, Music

Daniel Sherrell

Dan Sherrell is an environmental studies major, interested in how individuals and societies are (and are not) adapting to the impacts of climate change. He runs arts workshops in the Rhode Island state prisons, leads student excursions into the woods, and is currently organizing to help Brown divest from the fossil fuel industry.

Katherine Siegel

Katherine studies Environmental Science and is researching marine conservation planning in Mexico’s Gulf of California. She tutors for the Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring and Enrichment program and facilitates the Female Sexuality Workshop.

Advisor: Heather Leslie, Environmental Studies and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Kathryn Cohen

When not singing opera, Kathryn Cohen is most likely thinking about how labor and environmental movements can work together to transform her beloved West Virginia. A Music and Development Studies concentrator, she is grateful for the conversations and experiences of the last four years and would like to thank Peggy Chang and the CRC for organizing this space for us all to share.

Advisor: Michael Kennedy, Sociology

Maya Sikand

Maya is an Environmental Studies concentrator from Nairobi, Kenya. Of Indian descent, she has spent the last few years studying agricultural issues in Northern India and hopes to work there in the future.

Advisor: Kathryn DeMaster, Environmental Studies

Bo Schlagel

Bo Schlagel grew up on a farm in a rural community in Colorado. Surrounded by farm workers, Mexican immigrants, and farmers from an early age, he decided to concentrate in Development Studies with a focus on agricultural immigration. While at Brown, he has participated in Mezcla, studied abroad in Brazil, South Africa, and Vietnam, and taught at D’Abate Elementary School in Olneyville. Bo looks forward to graduating and entering the field of international development.

Advisor: Evelyn Hu-DeHart, History

Brandon Tomasso

Brandon Tomasso is a member of the Class of 2013 from Vineland, New Jersey, studying Archaeology and Anthropology. Throughout his years at Brown, he has excavated archaeological sites in New England and across the Mediterranean, in Italy and Bulgaria. He is also President of his class, Vice President of the Undergraduate Council of Students, a varsity fencer and a first-generation college student.

Advisor: Patricia Rubertone, Anthropology

Becca Rast

Becca is a Senior in the Environmental Studies department hailing from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She is interested in how to build a sustainable world with vibrant rural and urban places.

Advisor: Kathryn DeMaster, Environmental Studies

Jennifer Lee

A current senior studying Human Biology, I am an enthusiastic learner interested in everything from public health to anthropology. When not in class, I enjoy working with kids, traveling, and reading. I plan to stay at Brown for medical school after graduation.

Advisor: Timothy Flanigan, Biology and Medicine

Alexandra Linn

Alex is studying the history of science and medicine here at Brown. Throughout her course of study she has most enjoyed exploring the history and biology of vaccines and the part they play in public health. She hails from Pittsburgh, PA and enjoys hiking, dancing, sculpting and speaking portuguese outside of the classroom.

Advisor: Joan Richards, History

Olivia Petrocco

Olivia is a Development Studies concentrator. She worked really hard on her thesis.

Advisor: Michael Kennedy, Sociology

Natasha Kumar

Natasha Kumar is a senior concentrating in Community Health and Public Policy & American Institutions who is interested in understanding and addressing access to healthcare in developing countries. Someday, she hopes to work as a physician to remediate gaps in access through direct provision of services and policy development.

Advisor: Patricia Symonds, Anthropology

Holly Dechelle Doerflinger

Holly Doerflinger ’13 hails from El Paso, TX and is double concentrating in Anthropology and Music. She will be pursuing an MA in Anthropology at Brandeis University this fall and is very excited to share part of her senior thesis at TiA. She appreciates the help of everyone who has made her project and presentation possible and presents this work all for the love of Tam Tran, may she rest in peace.

Advisor: Jessaca Leinaweaver, Anthropology

Michael Stewart

Michael Stewart served as the Coordinator for Brown SAT Prep and led a student group of volunteer SAT tutors for the past year. He is passionate about overcoming educational inequalities through mutual respect, understanding, and the occasional bad joke. He would like to thank his volunteers, his friends and family (for listening to him whine about standardized tests), and Peter Gilchrist for his invaluable guidance.

Advisor: Peter Gilchrist, Swearer Center for Public Service

Monica Marie Sanchez

Monica Sanchez is an Ethnic Studies and Education Studies concentrator, originally from New Mexico. Her senior thesis in Ethnic Studies explores the experiences of students and teachers from the Tucson Mexican American Studies department that was shut down by the State of Arizona. In this work she sought to uncover students and teacher voices and better understand how to support low-income minority students in school. Post-Brown Monica hopes to work with educational non-profits and policy makers to ensure that programs that support students, especially ethnic and cultural studies, are fostered in schools.

Advisor: Hilda Llorens, Ethnic Studies

Rachel Peterson

Rachel is a senior from Salem, Oregon concentrating in Education Studies, Public Policy, and Applied Mathematics. Algebra in Motion, a math and science tutoring program in Providence high schools, inspired her passion for math education.

Advisor: Ralph Johnson, Swearer Center for Public Service

My Dang

My was born in Vietnam, spent her childhood in a small German town, went to school in Wales, and somehow ended up in Providence. Apart from pondering over war stories and “cultural identity,” she also likes to kick things with Brown Taekwondo, and play the piano. She is a Human Biology concentrator and will be attending medical school in Germany after graduation.

Advisor: Beth Taylor, English

Rahel K. Dette

Technically, Rahel was born in East Berlin. Practically, she cares about mediating divides between East and West or any people, and promotes sharing narratives to resolve misunderstandings. At Brown, she studies things that are political, works on facilitating the integration of international student, and creates spaces for exchange and conversation – often about the Middle East.

Advisor: Jonathan Ready, English

Maia Chao

Maia Chao is a senior concentrating in Cultural Anthropology. With the funding of the Brown International Scholars Program she travelled to Guatemala to research the pan-Maya community radio movement this past summer. Her thesis examines how Mayas are revitalizing their marginalized cultures and languages through extra-legal radio broadcasting.

Advisor: Paja Faudree, Anthropology

Celi Khanyile-Lynch

Celi is a senior concentrating in International Relations and Africana Studies. Last year she spent a semester in South Africa where she did research about African Studies in post-Apartheid University of Cape Town. As a South African, she is interested in exploring questions regarding citizenship education and activism within the country.

Advisor: Corey Walker, Africana Studies

Micah Thanhause

Micah is completing an independent concentration in “Contemplative Studies: Creativity & Consciousness,” which explores the relationship between meditation and creativity. He makes pottery for people to use and cherish.

Advisor: Hal Roth, Religious Studies

Jack deTar

Jack is concentrating in Literary Arts with an emphasis in poetry. He is interested in Buddhist contemplative practice.

Advisor: Hal Roth, Religious Studies

Rebecca Maxfield

Rebecca Maxfield is a senior concentrator in performance studies whose directing work at Brown and elsewhere has included “The Tempest,” “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” “The Light in the Piazza,” and “Measure for Measure.”

Advisor: Rebecca Schneider, Theatre Arts and Performance Studies

Ben Freeman

Ben Freeman is a Writing for Performance concentrator from the San Francisco Bay Area. In his time at Brown he has worked as an educator, stage director, playwright, and performer. He is the recipient of the T. Carpenter Elocution Award from the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies and the David Laurent Prize for Vocal Excellence from the Department of Music.

Advisor: Marcus Gardley, Theatre Arts and Performance Studies

Christine Moon

Christine is a first-semester senior studying Anthropology. This summer, she will be conducting research in Toronto, Canada, studying what it means to live a good life at the end of life, for South Korean elders. How do individuals and their families navigate the diverging world-views they encounter, with differences in everything from medical care practices to treatment of elders? What is it that elders, and their adult children, believe is a good life, and a good death?

Alyssa R. Thomas

Alyssa Thomas is a comparative literature concentrator and pre-medical student interested in the intersection of science and the humanities. She aspires to be a physician who balances the treatment of patients with writing on scientific and fictional topics.

Advisor: Arnold Weinstein, Comparative Literature

Keally Cieslik

Keally Cieslik is a Community Health concentrator originally from Madison, Wisconsin. Her studies have focused on health policy, the social determinants of health, and food/agriculture studies. In Providence she volunteers for Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), working with tenants and homeowners to fight the foreclosure crisis.

Advisor: Susan Allen, Community Health

Rachel Ratchford

My name is Rachel Ratchford and I am a Human Biology concentrator in the class of 2013. I’m originally from Michigan and I’m headed off to Massachusetts after graduation!I’m extremely grateful to TiA and Brown University for this opportunity.

Advisor: Rebekah Gardner, Biology and Medicine

Le Huy Nguyen Tran

Le Huy Nguyen Tran is a Sociology and Ethnic Studies Concentrator from Oakland, CA/Saigon, Vietnam. During his time at Brown, Tran’s has been involved in a number of research projects, both collaboratively and independently. Tran has been invited to speak as well as present his work at universities across the United States as well as in Vietnam. Aside from his academic interests, Tran enjoys non-fiction writing, running, and traveling.

Advisor: Evelyn Hu-DeHart, History

Gopika Krishna

Gopika is a senior at Brown University where she studies Human Biology with a focus on Race & Gender. She is passionate about reproductive justice, bodies, guinea pigs, R. Kelly, and baking, and will be attending Brown Medical School in the fall.

Advisor: Anne Fausto-Sterling, Biology and Medicine

Sidney Scott

Sidney is a senior concentrating in Education Studies: History & Policy. Her thesis grew out of her previous work with Providence’s refugee community through Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring and Enrichment (BRYTE). After graduation, she will be teaching at a public elementary school in New Orleans.

Advisor: Deborah Rivas, Education Studies

Nikhil Kalyanpur

Nikhil (Nik) Kalyanpur is a senior independently concentrating in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He is particularly interested in the intersection of political economy and technology, and political sociology. He’s a big fan of the word “why” and little talks.

Sarah L. Forman

Sarah Forman ’13 is a double concentrator in Chemistry and Middle East Studies, and last year she participated in the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Chemistry Summer School. Over a couple of months at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, Sarah discovered a new interest in nuclear fuel reprocessing. In her presentation, she’ll discuss some of the security-related implications of this process — which can minimize nuclear waste and inefficiency — and the ways that it has let her bridge her two academic disciplines.

Alexander Bell

Alex is a senior concentrating in Computer Science – Economics. He is interested in using data in creative ways to draw inferences about the way our world works. He will be presenting the conclusions of his senior thesis.

Advisor: Oded Galor, Economics

Danielle Marshak

Danielle Marshak ’13 is pursuing an ScB in Applied Math – Economics, and has spent most of her time outside class working on the Brown Daily Herald business staff. She served as General Manager and Treasurer in 2012, responsible for all business operations of the independent, non-profit newspaper. Danielle moonlights as a cardio-dance instructor with 305 Fitness.

Claire Peracchio

Claire Peracchio is a senior at Brown studying History and Economics. She served as the editor-in-chief of Brown’s daily newspaper, The Brown Daily Herald, and is interested in finding strategies to support the future of journalism.

Jessica Mitter

Jessica Mitter is a Community Health concentrator, graduating this spring. She is the Founder and External President of the GlobeMed at Brown University chapter and plans to continue working on developing sustainable solutions to the global health crisis by pursuing a Master of Public Health and medical school. She believes that the answer to providing greater access to health lies within the power of the community.

Connor Barnhart

Connor is completing an ScB in Human Biology this spring. Next year, he will be participating in the New Sector Residency in Social Enterprise in Boston, MA and applying to medical school.

Piervito Williams

Rebecca Kagan

Rebecca is a senior studying Politics, Philosophy, and Economics with a focus on the nonprofit sector. During her time at Brown she has been involved with a range of nonprofits and social enterprises, most recently as the co-founder of the Food Recovery Network. Ironically, her work in the sector has left her convinced of the value of individual nonprofits but concerned about the validity of the sector as a whole.

Advisor: Corey Brettschnieder, Political Science

Allen Kramer

Allen Kramer (Economics, ’13) has spent his time at Brown University focused on developing skills and experience with social enterprise and business model development. After spending 7 months on Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus’s team in Colombia, Allen joined Assured Labor, a company that connects workers in emerging economies with jobs via web and mobile (SMS) technology. This work led to his current interest in impact investing, as social enterprises seek to raise capital that is aligned with their values.

Advisor: Alan Harlam, Public Policy and Swearer Center for Public Service

Gladys A. Ndagire

Gladys is majoring in anthropology and engineering but most of her extracurricular experience has been in finance, where she learned about impact investing. These experiences coupled with growing up in Uganda and a passion for African development, have led to her interest in nurturing local entrepreneurship in Africa via the finance industry. An example of how she is currently working towards this goal is the endeavor of the Brown impact investing gisp that she co-founded to launch a $30-45M Impact Fund aimed at providing growth support to social enterprises in New England.

Advisor: Alan Harlam, Public Policy and Swearer Center for Public Service

Paire Warren-Shriner

Paige is a member of the class of ‘13.5 concentrating in applied math-economics. She is interested in how capital markets can be effective vehicles for social change.

Advisor: Alan Harlam, Public Policy and Swearer Center for Public Service

Karwai Ng

Karwai is an English Literature concentrator from Hong Kong. Her work looks at the male gaze and female silence in an Oriental context, using The Quiet American by Graham Greene as a basis of her study. As her work deals with silence, she thought it’d be apt to let silence speak for itself in TIA.

Advisor: Timothy Bewes, English

Anna Quinn

Anna is a Community Health concentrator from Rhode Island.

Advisor: Don Operario, Behavioral and Social Sciences, Public Health

Marley Pierce

Marley Pierce is a senior concentrating in Ethnic Studies from Denver, Colorado. Next year she’ll be teaching Special Education in Oakland, California. In her free time Marley enjoys reading graphic novels and baking pies.

Advisor: Hilda Lorens, Ethnic Studies

Riyad Seervai

Riyad Seervai is a double-concentrator in Biology and Music. This is his sixth semester teaching yoga through YAM, and although he is sad to be leaving this May he is excited for what lies ahead for this group. He hopes to pursue an MD/PhD degree after Brown and through it find a balance between his interests in basic science research, clinical medicine, and mindfulness practices.

Isha Gulati

Isha Gulati is a senior concentrating in English. She is a co-coordinator of the Matched Advising Program for Sophomores (MAPS) and currently working on a technology startup at Brown. Isha lives in Villanova, PA and will be moving to Boston after she graduates to work as a strategy consultant for SunLife Financial.

Advisor: Peggy Chang, Curricular Resource Center

Jocelyn West

I am a high jumper for Brown’s track and field team from Fort Mohave, Arizona, double-concentrating in Geological Science and Education Studies – History/Policy. Coordinating the Matched Advising Program for Sophomores has been one of the most rewarding parts of my Brown experience. My involvement with MAPS and the Curricular Resource Center empowered me to take ownership of my education and inspired my belief in the power of peer advising.

Advisor: Peggy Chang, Curricular Resource Center

Rie Ohta

Rie Ohta is a Development Studies concentrator hoping to work in empowerment of marginalized populations, especially LGBTQ people. She became involved in $ocial Classmates two/three years ago and is continuing to work on it over the summer. She believes popular education can change the world, and hopes to be a part of the process. :]

Poster Presenters

Anthony Bakshi

Tony is a mathematical economics concentrator from New Jersey. His favorite athlete is Mariano Rivera, undoubtedly a source of inspiration for the choice of thesis topic. Tony also enjoys writing and has worked for The Brown Daily Herald.

Advisor: Pedro Dal Bo, Economics

Lily Chan

Lily is a biophysics concentrator from New York. She has been involved with NSP since her freshman year. Aside from mentoring and teaching, she has interests in visual art and language.

Advisor: Joseph Browne, Science Center

Damilola Idowu

Advisor: Joseph Browne, Science Center

Tanayott Thaweethai

Tanayott Thaweethai is a senior concentrating in Applied Mathematics-Biology from Union City, CA. Much of his time at Brown has been spent working with mentors in the New Scientist Program and researching the evolution of antibiotic resistance.

Advisor: Joseph Browne, Science Center

Katie DeAngelis

Katie is in her fourth year of a five-year program in Public Health, and will be obtaining her Master of Public Health (MPH) from Brown in 2014. Her interests are primarily in evidence-based health policy design, specifically in the area of obesity prevention.

Advisor: Patricia Risica, Epidemiology

Sujaya Desai

Partnership for Adult Learning (PAL) pairs student tutors from Brown University with adults with developmental disabilities living in the greater Providence community. Our mission is to provide an opportunity for mutual growth through personal relationships that are formed around the shared pursuit of continuing education. PAL has a learner-centered focus, in that we encourage learners to choose the topic(s) on which they will collaborate with their tutors. Together, our learning partnerships work to expand our knowledge about academic subjects, job-related skills, and hobbies.

Christine Moon

Christine is a first-semester senior studying Anthropology. This summer, she will be conducting research in Toronto, Canada, studying what it means to live a good life at the end of life, for South Korean elders. How do individuals and their families navigate the diverging world-views they encounter, with differences in everything from medical care practices to treatment of elders? What is it that elders, and their adult children, believe is a good life, and a good death?

Sandra Yan

Partnership for Adult Learning (PAL) pairs student tutors from Brown University with adults with developmental disabilities living in the greater Providence community. Our mission is to provide an opportunity for mutual growth through personal relationships that are formed around the shared pursuit of continuing education. PAL has a learner-centered focus, in that we encourage learners to choose the topic(s) on which they will collaborate with their tutors. Together, our learning partnerships work to expand our knowledge about academic subjects, job-related skills, and hobbies.

William Gasnet

I grew up on a small island off the coast of Rhode Island named Block Island. I am 21 years old and currently a senior concentrating in Business, Entrepreneurship, and Organizational Studies with a focus on Entrepreneurship and Biotechnology Management.

Advisor: Fred Jackson, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Ryan Handoko

Ryan Handoko is a senior concentrating in Applied Math-Biology. He is interested in finding healthcare solutions that limit the growth of costs and address health inequities.

Advisor: Anne de Groot, URI Institute for Immunology and Informatics

Sheryl-vi Rico

Sheryl-vi is a proud member of the Class of 2013 and a concentrator in Applied Mathematics-Biology. During her spare time, she enjoys traveling, subscribing to local veggie boxes, and exploring Providence – especially South Providence and Olneyville – through volunteerism.

Advisor: Anne de Groot, URI Institute for Immunology and Informatics

Jung Uk Kang

Jung Uk is a Math-CS concentrator. Ironically, after taking a computer vision class, he became interested in the visual system of the human brain. His project implements computational techniques to investigate the visual attention process.

Advisor: James Hay, Computer Science

Antoinette Oot

Antoinette Oot is a member of the Class of 2013 and a B.Sc. concentrator in Chemical Biology. She will be presenting her capstone research on the RCAN1, its regulation of calcineurin and role in Down syndrome.

Advisor: Wolfgang Peti, Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology

Katherine Reardon

Katherine Reardon is originally from Boise Idaho, and has spent the last ten years working in animal care, conservation and husbandry at Zoo Boise. Katherine will be attending Veterinary School at the University of Washington starting in August of 2013, and can barely contain her excitement as all her childhood dreams come true.

Advisor: Ken Miller, Biology

Gabriel Schwartz

Gabriel Schwartz is a senior at Brown University studying Human Biology and Sociology, pursuing a career in social and epidemiological research for public policy and social justice. He is a San Francisco Bay Area native, and is deeply confused about how there are places without mountains.

Advisor: Katherine Smith, Biology

Cody Shulman

Advisors: Hilary Silver, Sociology; Kurt Teichert, Environmental Studies

Simon Vecchioni

Simon Vecchioni is from Chicago, IL, and is graduating with a B.A. in Biology. He and will be attending Columbia University to study biomedical engineering and synthetic biology in order to engineer the next generation of wireless organisms.

Advisor: Loren Fast, Biology and Medicine

Kimberly Faith Wachtler

Kimberly double concentrates in Anthropology and Gender & Sexuality Studies. After graduation, she intends to pursue a J.D. and a Master’s in Public Health.

Sheena M. Wood

Sheena will graduate from Brown University in May with a degree in Community Health. Before possibly heading off to grad school, she hopes to work in the health and human rights non-profit sector. She believes in finding time to travel, trying new recipes, and social justice.

Advisor: Stephen McGarvey, Community Health, International Health Institute