Schiff Fellows Selected to Pursue Senior Honors Thesis Projects
January 5, 2017
Twenty-three Wellesley seniors have been awarded Jerome A. Schiff Fellowships for the 2016–17 academic year. Made possible through a generous gift from the Jerome A. Schiff Charitable Trust, Schiff Fellowships are merit awards that support the scholarly work of students enrolled in the senior honors program. This year’s projects explore such diverse topics as humanistic pessimism, sea shanties, conceptual art, epistemic injustice, and nucleosome assembly.
Fellows are selected by the Committee for Curriculum and Academic Planning based upon the clarity and feasibility of the proposal, the significance of the project within and beyond a particular academic discipline, the coursework and experiences that have prepared the candidate to complete the project successfully, and the strength of faculty recommendations.
Here are this year’s class of 2017 Schiff Fellows and their research topics:
Caroline Bechtel, Political Science
Advisor: Paul MacDonald
“Learning from Practice: U.S. Military Institutional Learning in Asia-Pacific Disaster”
Aisha Lovise Maud Bornoe, Art History
Advisor: Patricia Berman
“Mind over Matter? An Enquiry into the Materiality of the Conceptual Art Object, Focusing on Realization, Display, and Conservation in the Work of On Kawara”
Rose Burnam, Economics
Advisor: Daniel Fetter
“The Effect of Social Security Generosity on Savings Behavior”
Isabelle Chen, English and Creative Writing
Advisor: Susan Meyer
“The Metas of Salem: A Novel for Middle-Grade Readers”
Julia Chmyz, Sociology
Advisor: Markella Rutherford
“Identity Formation and Political Engagement on Tumblr”
Xueni (Emily) Jin, Comparative Literature
Advisor: Elizabeth Young
“A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Emotional Conceptual Metaphors: Is Love Translatable? ”
Amy Johnson, Sociology
Advisor: Thomas Cushman
“Social Factors Causing Anxiety and Insecurity in the Millennial Generation”
Margaret (Maggie) Klureza, Chemistry
Advisor: Megan Nunez
“Kinetic Effects of the Spiroiminodihydantoin Lesion on Nucleosome Assembly”
Juliet Liu, Anthropology
Advisor: Justin Armstrong
“The Social Worlds of China’s Electronic Underground”
Alexis Lowe, Neuroscience
Advisor: Deborah Bauer
“Conductive Polymer Nanofibers as a Platform for Both Stimulating and Measuring Differentiation in Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cells”
Julia Lukens, Chemistry
Advisor: Christopher Arumainayagam
“Studies of Ammonia Photolysis and Radiolysis”
Juliette Mann, English
Advisor: Cord Whitaker
“Devils to Ourselves: An Analysis of the Humanistic Pessimism that Links Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde to Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida as well as Romeo and Juliet”
Milica Markovic, Biochemistry
Advisor: Dora Carrico-Moniz
“Adding a New Dimension to the Development of Anti-pancreatic Cancer Agent DCM-MJ-I-21: 3D Cell Culture Studies”
Kelsey Moran, Economics
Advisor: Kristin Butcher
“Immigration and the Elderly”
Fani Ntavelou-Baoum, Philosophy
Advisor: Helena de Bres
“Theorizing Epistemic Injustice: A Collection of Essays”
Disha Okhai, Geosciences
Advisor: David Hawkins
“Characterization of the Source Rocks Exposed in the Permian Florida Mountains of Equatorial Pangea”
Meltem Ozcan, Psychology
Advisor: Angela Bahns
“Simulating a Third Culture Kid Experience to Enhance Friendship Prospects in Early Interactions”
Anna Page, History
Advisor: Katherine Grandjean
“When Stability Fails: Great Britain’s Shifting North American Military Strategy, 1768–1775”
Christina Phelps, Sociology
Advisor: Markella Rutherford
“Community College Student Experiences: Making Meaning of a Circuitous Path Through Both Adulthood and Higher Educations”
Pallas Riedler, Music
Advisor: Gurminder Bhogal
“Piratical Debauchery, Homesick Sailors, and Nautical Rhythms: The Influence of Sea Shanties on Classical Music”
Meredith Wade, History
Advisor: Brenna Greer
“From Guns to Grits: The Radical Roots of the American Food Movement”
Michelle Wang, Psychology
Advisor: Stephen Chen
“Subjective SES Among Chinese-American Children: How It Is Understood and How It Affects Their Development”
Amina Ziad, Women's & Gender Studies
Advisor: Charlene Galarneau
“The New Muslim Woman”
