2019

ROUNDTABLE: GLACIERS, GARDENS, AND GENOMES: COLONIAL SCIENCE IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

Mark Liang- Advisors: Harold Cook, Jennifer Johnson, Fred Jackson

Lily Meyersohn- Advisors: Lundy Braun, Nic John Ramos

Annie Savaria-Watson- Advisors: Bathsheba Demuth ‘06, ‘07 A.M., Kai Bosworth

Facilitator: Dean Julie Lee, PhD, Dean of the College office

ROUNDTABLE: SUSTAINABLE INVESTING IN CHINA

Logan Atkins

Jennifer Mastrianni

Alexandra O’Donnell

Andrew Provost

Elizabeth Seid- Advisors: Cary Krosinsky, Brendan McNally

Facilitator: Janet Isserlis ’91 A.M./ RISD MAT

ROUNDTABLE: INTERNATIONAL AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS 

Tal Frieden: Advisors: Wendy Schiller, Sharon Krause, Parker VanValkenburgh

Jennifer Kim-Advisor: Nina Tannenwald

Quinton Huang- Advisor: Rebecca Nedostup

Lusine Galoyan ’14, Assistant to the President for Special Projects, Office of the President

ROUNDTABLE: GROWING OUR SOULS: A CONVERSATION ON HEALING JUSTICE

Helya Azadmanesh-Samimi

Lidwina Bell

Jo-Ann Huynh

Victoria Huynh

Andy M.T. Pham- Advisors: Debbie Weinstein ‘93, Nic Ramos, Kevin Quashie, Leticia Alvarado, Elena Shih, Drew Walker, Jih-Fei-Cheng

Facilitator: Kelly Garrett, Director of the LGBTQ Center

ROUNDTABLE: BLUEPRINTS FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: NATIONAL ISSUES IN LOCAL CONTEXT

Penmai Chongtoua- Advisors: Michael Roles, Timmons Roberts

Ruth Foster- Advisor: Adaner Usmani

Charlotte Senders- Advisors: Elizabeth Hoover, Ross Cheit

Facilitator: Jim Amspacher, Associate Director Career Counseling, Center for Careers and Life after Brown (CareerLAB)

ROUNDTABLE: COLLECTIVE ILLNESSES, FRAGMENTED STORIES: MEANING-MAKING PROCESSES IN TRANSLATION AND STORYTELLING

Maryam Ahmad- Advisors: Adam Golaski, Mary-Kim Arnold ‘95, ‘98 M.F.A., Kate Schapira

Devon Carter Advisor: Joseph Pucci

Facilitator: Dean Cynthia Ellis, PhD, Associate Dean, Student Support Services

ROUNDTABLE: IDENTITY, CULTURE, AND ARTS

Ahmed Ashour-Advisors: Sydney Skybetter, Patricia Ybarra

Aya Chiong-Bisbee: Advisors: Patricia Ybarra, Robert Lee

Lina Lalwani: Advisor: Bob Lee

Julianna Lee Marino: Advisor: Theresa Warburton

Yema Yang: Advisor: Debbie Weinstein ‘93

Facilitator: Matthew Branch, Assistant Director of Student Activities and Orientation, Student Activities Office

ROUNDTABLE: OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHANGE: UNDERSTANDING STUDENT NEEDS IN RHODE ISLAND K-12 EDUCATION

Anna Fireman: Advisors: Anthony Levitas, Laura Snyder, Dilania Inoa ‘99

Hannah Santos: Advisor: Prof. Andre Willis

Jessica Reisch: Advisors: Brittany Huffman, David Rangel

Facilitator: Christina Smith, PhD, Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning

ROUNDTABLE: PERSPECTIVES ON COMMUNITY HEALTH AND HEALING 

Eojin Choi- Advisors: Janet Cooper Nelson, Rebecca Nedostup

Nicole Comella: Advisors: Patrick Vivier, Enrique Beldarraín

Dorothy Jiang:Advisor: Brian Hayden

Patricia Rodarte: Advisor: Don Operario

Maya Singh: Advisor: Rachel Balaban

Facilitator: Alex Vidmar ’18, Computing and Information Services

ROUNDTABLE: TECHNOLOGY AND THE MODERN WORLD

Ebube Chuba: Advisors: Michael Littman, Thomas Serre, Adam Pautz

Nina Goetzen: Advisor: Teddy Pozo

Julian D Jacobs: Advisors: Mark Blyth, John Tomasi, Daniel D'Amico

Evan Lehmann: Advisor: Constantine Gatsonis

Christine Shio Lim: Advisors: Elena Shih, Nic Ramos

Lucas Rosenblatt: Advisors: Catherine Imbriglio, Michael Littman, Stuart Burrows

Facilitator: Dean Betsy Shimberg, Dean of the College office and the Swearer Center

ROUNDTABLE: NARRATIVES

Soyoon Kim Advisors: Liza Cariaga-Lo, Lynn Hernandez, José Itzigsohn, Peggy Chang, Michael Kennedy, Prabhdeep Kehal, Tina Park, Amy Chin, Laura Garbes, Bob Lee, Adrienne Keene, Joshua Segui

Sophie Rae Kupetz Advisors: Françoise Hamlin, Naoko Shibusawa, Emily Owens

Sarah Marion Advisors: Hannah Bansil, Paul DiSilvestro

Kyle Tildon: Advisors: Francoise Hamlin, Jonathan Collins

Facilitator: Lauren Galván ’16, Office of Advancement

POSTER SESSION:

Ashley Bang

Jacob Cader

Grace Engelman

Hana Estice

Elaine Jiang

Zachary J. Neronha

Sophie Sandweiss

Chloe So

Curtis Stiles

Shanze Tahir

Jeremy Wolin

Angela Yang

Jennah Gosciak, Anna Messer, Jeremy Berman, Martin Benencia

Noa Machover, Harrison White

Crystal Zhang, Beatriz de Arruda, Yumeng Fan


ROUNDTABLE PRESENTERS

Mark Liang

Mark is a senior from Los Angeles, CA pursuing honors in Biology and STS (History of Medicine). His research is related to colonialism, botany, and the intersection between science and the humanities. He plans on conducting research abroad after he graduates before applying to medical school in the US.

Lily Meyersohn

I'm a senior studying Health & Human Biology and English. During my studies, I've used science and technology theories to understand histories of health, disease, and biomedicine. I hope to be able to continue to write about these ideas as I leave Brown, but I don't yet know in what specific capacity.

Annie Savaria-Watson

Annie is a senior from Portland, Oregon, studying Environmental Science (with a focus on health and inequality). After spending a year studying in Santiago de Chile, she wrote her senior capstone on the history of glacier politics in neoliberal Chilean Patagonia. Currently, she's on the Edward Giuliano '72 Fellowship, which she's using to spend more time studying glaciers and settler colonialism in Bolivia, Peru, and the Canadian Rockies.

Logan Atkins

Jennifer Mastrianni

Jennifer Mastrianni is a senior from San Diego, California concentrating in Business Economics. She is passionate about sustainable development and has been Head TA for Professor Hazeltine's Appropriate Technology course for two years. She loves all things outdoors and hopes to thru-hike the PCT!

Alexandra O’Donnell

Andrew Provost

Elizabeth Seid

Tal Frieden

Tal is a Political Science concentrator interested in how our built environment affects our daily lives. Talk to Tal about the Middle East, Arabic literature, media studies, queer theory, or Tal's favorite sweet potato curry recipe.

Jennifer Kim

Jenny was born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Whippany, New Jersey. Her senior International Relations capstone examines the circular nature of violence in the U.S. War on Terror through a political science lens. Her work is influenced by Third World nationalism, decolonization, and ethnic studies.

Quinton Huang

Quinton is a senior concentrator in History and East Asian Studies, and is actively involved in both departments as DUG leader. He studies Asian (anti-)colonial and diasporic histories, and has been active in Strait Talk Brown, Southeast Asian Studies Initiative and other dialogue/academic-focused groups at Brown concerned with Asia. He has worked at community organizations and museums in the past in the field of public and digital history, and is looking to apply his passions and experience towards public-facing history work in the future.

Helya Azadmanesh-Samimi

Lidwina Bell

Jo-Ann Huynh

Victoria Huynh

Victoria is an Ethnic Studies concentrator from San Diego, CA. Her academic, creative, and community commitments center on Vietnamese intergenerational healing and ancestral reconnection.

Andy M.T. Pham

Andy concentrates in Ethnic Studies and Gender & Sexuality Studies with a focus in sociocultural understandings of health, healing, and disease, especially as they are informed by longstanding systems of oppression. He is interested in holistic healing, space-holding, empowering education, and his collection of reusable “good glass.” Andy hopes for his work, here and beyond/after, to contribute to larger conversations about reimaginings of new worlds where nobody is considered undeserving of compassion and care.

Penmai Chongtoua

The Green New Deal: In inquiry into the potential for political mobilization led by local governments with the help of instituting green new deal transitions.

Ruth Foster

Ruth is from Saint Paul, Minnesota and is completing an independent concentration in Bioethics. Currently, she is interested in what the boundaries of the field of bioethics might be.

Charlotte Senders

Charlotte Senders is a senior who grew up in Ithaca, New York; her mom is a sheep farmer and her dad runs a wood-fired bakery. She is studying Ecology of Food, an independent concentration that explores the human and environmental ecologies of eating. Charlotte sings with ARRR!!! (Brown's only pirate acapella group), is a barista at the Underground, and loves instant ramen.

Maryam Ahmad

Maryam is a senior concentrating in Narrative Health. During her time at Brown, she has served on the editorial boards for bluestockings magazine and Clerestory Journal for the Arts, volunteered as a patient advocate for Connect for Health, and worked for the Brown Center for Students of Color in various capacities. She hopes to pursue a career in psychiatry and nonfiction writing.

Devon Carter

Devon is from Belmont, Massachusetts. At Brown, he's been active in student theater, acting in or directing a number of shows, and is on the board of Brown Opera Productions. The Cambridge Songs project grew out of both his deep interest in translation and in the role of music in poetry intended for oral performance.

Ahmed Ashour

Ahmed Ashour is a Bahraini-Egyptian artist concentrating in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies. His work focuses on creating space where people who identify as Arab and/or Muslim can confront the various performances they have to put on for the disciplinary/surveillance state in a post-9/11 world. His senior thesis production, BACK OF THE THROAT, was presented in the TAPS Department's mainstage season in December.

Aya Chiong-Bisbee

Aya Chiong-Bisbee is a senior from Seattle, Washington concentrating in Ethnic Studies. She is interested in art and performance as a means of imagining a more just world and enacting social change. Her thesis project stems from the stories of four Asian American women and femme dancers in Seattle and their work to build community through dance and create dance spaces for people of color, women, and queer folks.

Lina Lalwani

Lina Lalwani is a senior concentrating in Ethnic Studies and Public Policy. Her project looks at how the Genki Spark, "multi-generational, pan-Asian women's arts and advocacy organization," uses Japanese taiko drumming to create spaces of self-love, community, and healing. Through her project, Lina reflects on her own experience as a member of Brown and RISD's Gendo Taiko for the past four years.

Julianna Lee Marino

Julianna Lee Marino is a senior from New York City studying anthropology, with a focus in Indigenous studies. She is passionate about education, arts and social activism. Over the past four years she has worked as a Sexual Assault Peer Education Coordinator facilitating community dialogues, danced with Brown Dance Extension, and produced independent work at the PW.

Yema Yang

As a mental illness / Mad and disability justice scholar-activist, Yema is pursuing an independent concentration in Critical Mental Health Studies. During her time at Brown, she has been graced with the support and empowerment of both the mental health community and disability community; her peers are the village that raised her, and she owes her critical work and full spirit to their fierce, unwavering love. With these communities at the center of her praxis, Yema acted as Chapter Co-Coordinator of Project LETS at Brown as well as Founder / Lead Coordinator of Disability Justice at Brown, and she hopes to continue her scholar-activist career through more community-based work and possibly graduate studies in Critical Disability Studies.

Anna Fireman

Anna is a senior at Brown University studying Public Policy. Anna has conducted independent research on Rhode Island education policy and works on evidence-based policymaking as an Undergraduate Research Assistant at the Brown Policy Lab. In Providence, Anna leads BEAM (Brown Elementary After-school Mentoring), an after-school program at William D’Abate Elementary School that serves over 250 elementary school students and engages 150 Brown student-volunteers. Anna has paired her coursework and activities with impact-oriented internships at the Heinz Endowments, the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and Deloitte's Government and Public Services consulting practice. Anna grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and enjoys making jewelry in her free time.

Hannah Santos

Hannah Santos is senior concentrating in Religious Studies and History. She is very interested in communal and individual perceptions of proximity to religion, especially within the student body as Brown. Born and raised in Rhode Island, her thesis work engages with the (in/ex)clusion of religious literacy education in RI public high schools. She is excited and proud to share her work with you!

Jessica Reisch

Jessica Reisch is a senior concentrating in Education Studies. Her work on and off campus reflects her interests in reproductive rights and health, educational equity, and social justice. She will be teaching elementary school in Brooklyn post-grad.

Eojin Choi

Eojin (Jin) Choi is a senior studying neuroscience and STS (science, technology, and society). Her honors thesis for STS is on the parallels between the beginning and end of life in medical care and perspectives. As a Social Innovation Fellow and a hospice volunteer, she is also working to create a program at HopeHealth to help hospice patients tell and record their life stories. After graduation, she plans to continue pursuing palliative and end-of-life care, not only through research but also through innovative and interdisciplinary ways that involve storytelling, design thinking, and intergenerational interactions.

Nicole Comella

Advisors: Patrick Vivier, Enrique Beldarraín

Nicole is a senior from Providence, RI concentrating in Public Health. Her studies have engaged with topics such as health disparities, traditional and alternative methods of healing, and health care systematics with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean. She is passionate about the intersection of health and healing and the arts and often pursues projects with a creative lens.

Dorothy Jiang

Dorothy studies Intersectional Mental Health, an independent concentration focused on how people's identities interact with their mental wellbeing. She wants to learn more about community care, racial justice, and different inherent ways of being. She hates being asked "where are you really from?" and loves being asked "where have you been and where will you go?"

Patricia Rodarte

Patricia Rodarte is a Mexican-American and first-generation college student from El Paso, Texas studying Immunobiology. As a member of the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME), Patricia is passionate about the social context of health and disease and has been an undergraduate teaching assistant for for four biology classes at Brown and a humanities course at MIT. In her free time, Patricia enjoys singing, journaling, and mentoring others.

Maya Singh

Maya Singh is a senior concentrating in Contemplative Studies with an interest in Public Health and Cognitive Neuroscience. Maya will be presenting her Royce Fellowship research from the summer of 2018 investigating the barriers to Emergency Department care for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Future goals include pursuing MD/PhD training with a focus in Child Psychiatry.

Ebube Chuba

Ebube Chuba was born in Lagos, Nigeria and spent most of his childhood in Charlotte, NC. Ebube is currently a senior with an independent concentration in Computer Science, Rationality, and Thought. He is interested is studying learning and intelligence from many different perspectives.

Nina Goetzen

nina is a gemini. she is from san diego, but she likes providence better. in 2014, she made an offhand tumblr post about how she wanted to write a thesis on memes, and now in 2019 she's done it :-)

Julian D Jacobs

Born in Ithaca, New York, Julian is the Founding Editor in Chief of the Brown University Journal of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) and a journalist. He has published more than 35 articles and essays in 15 publications and has conducted interviews with Bernie Sanders, David Cameron, Noam Chomsky, Peter Hitchens, Tom Perez, and Reza Aslan among others. For over a year, his work has focused on emerging technology and the effects of artificial intelligence on US income inequality and American democracy. His research on the topic is being used to support his senior thesis, which is being supervised by political economy scholar Mark Blyth. He has also worked as an intern at The Brookings Institution and in President Barack Obama's post-presidency office, where he supported the 44th President's correspondence, communications, and speechwriting teams.

Evan Lehmann

Evan Lehmann studies statistics and often feels bad about it. He is interested in how statistics and accompanying disciplines are used to surveil, police, and punish. In thinking how to combat these processes, he finds inspiration in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, and dreams of the better futures ahead.

Christine Shio Lim

Christine (or Shio) Lim, born in Yangon, Myanmar and raised in San Francisco, CA, is a senior and Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow concentrating in Gender & Sexuality Studies and Ethnic Studies. Her research centers around desirability politics, intimate discrimination, and the rise of digital technology as a medium to find intimate relationships.

Lucas Rosenblatt

When not compressing his life into three succinct sentences, Lucas Rosenblatt expands his life into many, many verbose ones. That's sort of his entire thesis actually. With a healthy enough dose of Computer Science to (hopefully) keep Michael Littman happy.

Soyoon Kim

Soyoon is from Seoul, Korea. She spends her time on campus working as a Leavetaking co-coordinator and peer advisor at the CRC and as a co-coordinator for Brown Asian Sisters Empowered. In her free time, she enjoys surfing the web, cooking with/hanging out with friends, and making crafts.

Sophie Rae Kupetz

Sophie Rae Kupetz grew up in Los Angeles, California and includes her middle name in this bio as a shout out to her mom, who wanted her to have a sing-songy first and middle name (plus Sophie Rae is more fitting for her not-so-secret singer songwriter aspirations). She concentrates in History at Brown and her studies and work, both inside and outside of the classroom, focus on issues of carcerality. She believes in the importance of building a world that does not rely on prisons and policing to address interpersonal and societal problems. She strives to practice critical self-reflection and think deeply about the ways in which universities such as Brown are connected to and perpetuate the Prison Industrial Complex. Sophie feels grateful for the many communities with whom she builds, thinks, loves, learns, eats and laughs!

Sarah Marion

Sarah Marion is a senior from Washington, D.C. She is independently studying narrative-based medicine, which explores the stories of people to inform our understanding of disease and facilitate empathy. Her capstone is a collection of narratives from women with breast cancer and particularly focuses on the role of spirituality in their lives.

Kyle Tildon

Kyle Tildon is a senior in the Africana Studies department interested in the intersections of Blackness and ethnicity in the United States. Kyle is from a suburb in Baltimore, MD and plans to return to the city to work with Baltimore City Public Schools in the Equity office, creating racial equity policy for the district. With a passion for music, Kyle has been involved with WBRU since the beginning of his time at Brown and is always open to music suggestions!

POSTER SESSION

Ashley Bang

Ashley is a geology-biology concentrator who grew up in Hong Kong and Singapore. She is interested in characterizing critical habitats in need of conservation, whether it be analyzing spatial data, ecological models, or field-based biodiversity surveys. Her senior thesis, which investigates the effects of climate change on Kenya's protected areas, has been a unique opportunity for her to develop ecological modeling skills that she will apply during her Fulbright research grant in Taiwan after graduation.

Jacob Cader

Jacob is an independent concentrator studying human-centered design. His concentration explores the possibility of producing better creative work through a fundamental questioning of how users consume and interact with digital media.

Grace Engelman

I'm a senior concentrating in philosophy, and I've gravitated toward courses in moral and political philosophy to coincide with my interest in reforming our criminal justice system. For my senior thesis, I'm assessing alternatives to retributive punishment, including ways of responding to crime that do not depend on blame. I plan on attending law school and becoming a public defender in the future.

Hana Estice

Hana is a senior from Ohio concentrating in Urban Studies. Outside of coursework, Hana has done work in digital media production, including photography, video, and design. Throughout her time at Brown, she has looked for ways to connect her interests in urbanism and visual storytelling.

Elaine Jiang

I'm a current senior concentrating in computer science. In terms of technology, I’m interested in artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality, and ethical software design. Outside of computer science, I can be found teaching and mentoring students in STEM, going to spin classes, and exploring Providence's delicious brunch options.

Zachary J. Neronha

Zach is a biomedical engineering concentrator from Jamestown, Rhode Island. His research with Professor Ian Wong focuses on using quantitative techniques to uncover signatures of carcinoma metastasis in 2D and 3D cell culture. Outside of the lab he can be found backpacking in the mountains or spending time on the water.

Sophie Sandweiss

Sophie is a Contemplative Studies and Cognitive Neuroscience concentrator from Tucson, Arizona. She is passionate about mindfulness and embodiment as they relate to mental health and well-being. She is also the workplace coordinator and a mindfulness instructor for local non-profit Center for Resilience, where she will continue to work after graduation.

Chloe So

I am an Independent Concentrator (Design & Cognition) and Engineering double major. My concentrations have allowed me to develop interdisciplinary learning through quantitative methods and creativity. My capstone project investigates how psychology principles influence product appeal. Through designing various iPhone cases and carrying out a two-part experiment, I was able to explore the intersections between psychology and design.

Curtis Stiles

Curtis Stiles is a Senior Concentrating in Global Entrepreneurship and Environmental Studies. He is particularly interested in automotive electrification and entrepreneurship in the developing world.

Shanze Tahir

Shanze Tahir is an Ethnic Studies and Biology concentrator from Indiana by way of Washington D.C. She is broadly interested in health equity, reproductive justice, and resilience studies. She also loves creative writing, and she will soon be pursuing a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Indonesia.

Jeremy Wolin

Jeremy Wolin is a fifth-year Brown-RISD student, studying American Studies and Interior Architecture. His senior thesis in American Studies examines contemporary artists working on the topic of monuments through discursive proposals, participatory public art, and interventions onto existing monuments. He has previously interned in museums and architecture practice, and is interested in adaptive reuse, vernacular architecture, and the construction of public space.

Angela Yang

Angela is a senior from Hong Kong, doing an independent concentration in Humanitarian Studies. With this concentration, she is primarily interested in exploring the concept and practice of care - what does care mean on a global scale, what does it mean to be identified as a subject of care, and what historical, political, and media influences our understanding of care.

Jennah Gosciak, Anna Messer, Jeremy Berman, Martin Benencia

This project, a joint effort from both Jennah, Anna, Jeremy, and Martin, represents the conclusions of our research over two semesters through a Departmental Independent Study Project in Urban Studies. Fall 2018, we formed an interdisciplinary team to identify and analyze data on property ownership in Providence, RI. We continued this work through the spring, and have explored the following questions: What are the major categories of ownership in Providence in 2005 and currently? Who are the biggest individual and corporate owners of residential property? How has residential ownership changed between 2005 and 2017?

Noa Machover, Harrison White

Noa studies the way bodies shape space and space shapes bodies. Her work probes the intersection of urbanization and technological development, environmental change, and indigenous epistemologies. Noa explores potential forms of collaboration and cooperation, proposing speculative and practical departures.

Crystal Zhang, Beatriz de Arruda, Yumeng Fan

Crystal is biochemistry and molecular biology concentrator from Beijing, China. At Brown, she participates in plant genetics research in the Johnson Lab, and serves as a coordinator for the International Mentoring Program, which aims to support incoming international students at Brown.