2018-2019 Graduate Grant Recipients

Ruchi Lohia, PhD Candidate in Computational & Integrative Biology
Proposed Dissertation Title: Mechanism Underlying Conformational Effects of a Disease-Associated Hydrophobic-to-Hydrophobic Substitution on an Intrinsically Disordered Region

Linlin Zhao, PhD Candidate in Computational & Integrative Biology
Proposed Dissertation Title: Mechanism-Driven Computational Modeling of Hepatotoxicity Based on Chemical Information, Biological Data and Toxicity Pathways 

Lisa Puga, PhD Candidate in Childhood Studies
Proposed Dissertation Title: “Homeschooling is Our Protest:” A Snapshot of Fifteen African American Homeschooling Families Navigating the Nexus of Marginality and Liberation

Ryan Bunch
PhD, Childhood Studies
Conference Title: American Musicological Society
Conference Location: San Antonio, TX
Presentation Title: Childhood and Music Study Group Organizational Brown Bag Lunch
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Meredith Bak

Diana Garcia Gomez
PhD, Childhood Studies
Conference Title: II International Symposium of Qualitative Research with the Participation of Children, Adolescents and Young Adults
Conference Location: El Chaco, Argentina
Presentation Title: Beyond the Blackboard: Analizing the Use of ICT in a rural school in Colombia
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Meredith Bak

Smruthi Bala Kannan
PhD, Childhood Studies
Conference Title: AAS-in-Asia, Asia in Motion: Geographies and Genealogies
Conference Location: New Delhi, India
Presentation Title: Rhetorics of Sanitation and School Toilets
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Sarada Balagopalan

Rashmi Kumari
PhD, Childhood Studies
Conference Title: Social Science History Association (SSHA) 2018
Conference Location: Phoenix, AZ
Presentation Title: A Dancing Body: Learning from the youth dance groups of tribal India
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Sarada Balagopalan

Michelle Lyttle Storrod
PhD, Childhood Studies
Conference Title: American Society of Criminologists Annual Meeting
Conference Location: Atlanta, GA
Presentation Title: The Most Dangerous ‘Places’ Online: UK and US Gangs & Social Media
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Lauren Silver

Katherine Martin
MA, Childhood Studies
Conference Title: Arts for Education
Conference Location: Toronto, Canada
Presentation Title: Engaging the Whole Child with Process Focused Art Education
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Lauren Silver

Rosemarie Pena
PhD, Childhood Studies
Conference Title: The Alliance for the Study of Adoption and Culture
Conference Location: Oakland, CA
Presentation Title: St. Josef Kinderheim (Children’s Home): Afro-German Adoptees Return
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Carol Singley

Heather Reel
PhD, Childhood Studies
Conference Title: Joint Atlantic Seminary for the History of Medicine
Conference Location: New Haven, CT
Presentation Title: Feeding Black Girls in Post-War America: The Fultz Quadruplets and Pet Evaporated Milk
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Susan Miller

Jessica Schriver
PhD, Childhood Studies
Conference Title: Contemporary Childhood Conference
Conference Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Presentation Title: Post-Colonial Juvenile Justice
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Lauren Silver

Janice Stiglich
PhD, Childhood Studies
Conference Title: American Anthropological Association
Conference Location: San Jose, CA
Presentation Title: Peruvian Working Girls’ Protagonismo as Resistance, Resilience, and Adaptation
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Sarada Balagopalan

Deszeree Thomas
PhD, Childhood Studies
Conference Title: American Studies Association
Conference Location: Atlanta, GA
Presentation Title: Ecologies of Black Childhood
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Lauren Silver

Samantha White
PhD, Childhood Studies
Conference Title: International Girls’ Studies Association
Conference Location: Notre Dame, IN
Presentation Title: To Build a Body of Character: African-American Girls, YWCAs, and Physical Culture
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Susan Miller

Elisabeth Yang
PhD, Childhood Studies
Conference Title: Children and Youth on the Move Conference 2018
Conference Location: London, UK
Presentation Title: Babies ‘on the move’: Baby Carriages as “Coaches” of “Royalty” and Societal Realities in America and Britain, 1865-1950
Faculty Adviser: Dr. John Wall

Mark Nessel
PhD, Computational & Integrative Biology
Conference Title: Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting
Conference Location: New Orleans, LA
Presentation Title: Global Body Size Scaling of Elemental Content in Invertebrates and Vertebrates
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Angelica Gonzalez

Sung Won Oh
PhD, Computational & Integrative Biology
Conference Title: American Chemical Society National Meeting
Conference Location: Orlando, FL
Presentation Title: DNA-Mediated Proximity Assembly Circuit for Biochemical Sensing
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Jinglin Fu

Nicole Revaitis
PhD, Computational & Integrative Biology
Conference Title: GSA Drosophila Conference 2019
Conference Location: Dallas, TX
Presentation Title: A quantitative analysis of EGFR dynamics during early Drosophila development
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Nir Yakoby

Catherine Rosenberg
PhD, Computational & Integrative Biology
Conference Title: American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
Conference Location: Dallas, TX
Presentation Title: Measuring Volume of Upper Extremities: Validity of Direct and Approximate Approaches
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Desmond Lun

Daniel Russo
PhD, Computational & Integrative Biology
Conference Title: American Society for Cellular and Computational Toxicology
Conference Location: Bethesda, MD
Presentation Title: Developing Mechanism-based Animal Toxicity Models: A Chemocentric Approach Using Big Data
Faculty Adviser: Hao Zhu

Tara Carr-Lemke
PhD, Public Affairs
Conference Title: Urban Affairs Association
Conference Location: Los Angeles, CA
Presentation Title: Redevelopment in Old Havana: Resilience and the Challenges of Housing
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Maureen Donaghy

Matthew Closter
PhD, Public Affairs
Conference Title: Community Development Society
Conference Location: Detroit, MI
Presentation Title: Community School and Universiy Anchor Transforms Neighborhood
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Gloria Bonilla-Santiago

Wanda Garcia
PhD, Public Affairs
Conference Title: Community Development Society
Conference Location: Detroit, MI
Presentation Title: Community School and Universiy Anchor Transforms Neighborhood
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Gloria Bonilla-Santiago

Kathrina DeWitt
MS, Biology 
Conference Title: Ecological Society of America
Conference Location: New Orleans, LA
Presentation Title: A stiochiometric niche approach to pitcher-plant food webs
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Angelica Gonzalez

Gonzalez, Amanda
MS, Biology
Conference Title: American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) 71st Annual Scientific Meeting
Conference Location: Baltimore, MD
Presentation Title: Developing a Single-Cell Interpretation Strategy for Forensically Relevant Loci
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Catherine Grgicak

Morgan Kelley
MS, Biology 
Conference Title: Ecological Society of America
Conference Location: New Orleans, LA
Presentation Title: Global functional trait variation of terrestrial and aquatic animals
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Angelica Gonzalez

Stephen Schulze
MS, Biology 
Conference Title: 14th International Symposium on Tardigrada
Conference Location: Copenhagen, DK
Presentation Title: The first record of marine tardigrades from New Jersey, USA
Faculty Adviser: Dr. John Dignton

Zachary Kennedy-Lopez
MFA, Creative Writing
Conference Title: Writing By Writers – Tomales Bay
Conference Location: Marshall, CA
Presentation Title: All the Caged Animals
Faculty Adviser: Prof. Lauren Grodstein

Erin Doherty
MA, Criminal Justice
Conference Title: American Society of Criminology: Institutions, Cultures, and Crime
Conference Location: Atlanta, GA
Presentation Title: Neighborhood Health, Social Structure, and Family Violence
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Richard Stansfield

Gaylene Gordon
MA, Criminal Justice
Conference Title: American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting
Conference Location: Atlanta, GA
Presentation Title: The Relationship Between Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in One of America’s Most Dangerous Cities
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Michelle Meloy

Kathrine Christy
MA, English
Conference Title: Humanities Education and Research Association
Conference Location: Philadelphia, PA
Presentation Title: How Highbrow is Homer?
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Shanyn Fiske

Emma Duncan
MA, English
Conference Title: Native American Literature Symposium
Conference Location: Prior Lake, MN
Presentation Title: Westernism Demanded: The Assimilation of Native Gender Roles
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Holly Blackford

Molly Hartig
MA, Psychology
Conference Title: GLMA Annual Conference on LGBTQ Health
Conference Location: Las Vegas, NV
Presentation Title: An Examination of Relationships Among Sex Roles, Outness, and Self-Esteem
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Charlotte Markey

Samuel Kaslon
MA, Psychology
Conference Title: Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s Annual Convention
Conference Location: Portland, OR
Presentation Title: An existential function of doomsday: The Effects of Existential Vulnerability and Meaning Threat on Apocalypic Beliefs
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Andrew Abeyta

Michaela Puryear
MA, Psychology
Conference Title: International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
Conference Location: Washington, DC
Presentation Title: Associations between adverse childhood experiences, intimate partner violence, posttraumatic stress disorder, and discrimination with alcohol use disorder among diverse women
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Courtenay Cavanaugh

David Southgate
MPA, Public Administration
Conference Title: Council of Development Finance Agencies’ National Development Finance Summit
Conference Location: Dallas, TX
Presentation Title: Disaster Recovery through Brownfield Redevelopment

Caleb Gilbert
MS, Biology
Research Topic: Biological Diversity and ecosystem function in pitcher plants
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Angelica Gonzalez

Morgan Kelley
MS, Biology
Research Topic: Global functional trait variation of terrestrial and aquatic animals
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Angelica Gonzalez

John Brown
MFA, Creative Writing
Research Topic: “Notes on an American Georgic: Essays”
Faculty Adviser: Ms. Lisa Zeidner

Scott Flovin
MA, History
Research Topic: “For the Purpose of Preserving the History of a Nation:” Hugh Williamson’s “History of North Carolina”
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Andrew Shankman

John Crowell
MA, Psychology
Research Topic: The Relationship Between Inhibition and Emotion Regulation
Faculty Adviser: Dr. Kristin August