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Bridging the Gap from Journalism to the Arts
No full textAs an early career actor, getting your foot in the door of a professional theatre and jump-starting your career can be a daunting and overwhelming task. Do you take the time to focus primarily on training? Do you dive right into the audition process? Do you cross your fingers and hope for the best? This summer as an Acting Apprentice with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in Madison, New Jersey, I had the opportunity to train, learn audition techniques, and experience the ups and downs of working with a professional theatre. We balanced classes with seminars, rehearsals, and crew calls in the scene, costume, and props shops. As an Apprentice, not only did I discover a great deal about myself as both a person and a performer, but I also learned what it takes to make it as an actor in the world of professional theatre.In this panel we will explore the various stages of media production ranging from representational media to the logistics of performance. We participated in internships which focused on the production of media from its inception to its final product. As panelists we will share our individual experiences including, but not limited to, evaluating depictions of emerging technologies in media, utilizing media journalism as a tool for social change, casting and covering media from the perspective of Hollywood talent management, and focusing on theatre as both an art form and a business
From Bench to Bedside: What They Don't Teach You in Pre-Health Classes
No full textPanelist Riley Maddox spent his summer as a research assistant for Baystate Medical Center's Acute Care for Elders program. As Baystate has one of the top 40 geriatric care programs in the United States, Riley spent his summer coming to understand what the program does differently. Riley was responsible for interviewing patients to assess their overall well-being and access to care; he found his coursework as a psychology major useful when performing these tasks. He reported his findings at daily meetings, which included personnel from all different aspects of patient care. Here, the team designed a customized treatment plan for each patient on a daily basis. This integrated approach to care management helps foster the better outcomes that sets Baystate apart. Riley is grateful for his summer experience and intends to use the skills and connections he acquired at Baystate in his future as a geriatric psychiatrist.There are countless subspecialties within the field of healthcare, and the five members of our panel each represent a different clinical focus. From research to direct patient care, our panel seeks to introduce viewers to the broad array of opportunities available in the healthcare industry. As we engaged with various facets in the field of medicine this summer, our experiences fostered our growth as undergraduates in ways classroom experiences alone could not. Through our internships, we learned the value of empowered compassion, retaining composure, openness to innovation, and adaptability. Our diverse experiences have reaffirmed the career paths that we hope to pursue after our time at Mount Holyoke
Bouncing back: Immune regulated healing in the rat uterus after labor and delivery
No full textThe uterus is extensively remodeled by pregnancy. These profound changes must be reversed after labor and delivery. The immune system is dynamic in this progression because of immune cell’s abilities to influence healing of the uterus through cytokines. The role of specific immune cells in postpartum healing has not been studied heavily. In contrast, wound healing is well understood. In a wound phagocytotic cells called macrophages clean up dead and dying cells and secrete cytokines that suppress inflammation and accelerate healing of the wound. Based on what is known about wound healing, it is hypothesized that a transition from a proinflammatory to an anti-inflammatory phenotype in macrophages should be detectable in the first week following labor and delivery. Using the rat as a model system, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction was utilized at four time points (days 1, 3, 5, or 7 postpartum) to identify changes in expression of cytokines that are associated with inflammatory or anti-inflammatory phenotypes. In particular, we looked at TNFα associated with inflammation, MerTK associated with efferocytosis, and MRC1, TGFβ, and IL-10 associated with the resolution of inflammation. It was found that gene expression of each cytokine was highest earlier in the week on postpartum days 1 and 3. The data indicates that molecules associated with both environments are present in the uterus in the first week postpartum, but there is no pattern of a transition between the two. It appears that the cell-cell interactions in the first week postpartum are complex and may resist a simple classification as pro- or anti-inflammatory.Biological Science
Gender, Genre, and Looking in Motion: Dorothy Wordsworth & Mary Shelley’s Travel Writing
No full textMy project initially turns upon the question: how do we read unfixed texts that blur established genres and question these generic constructions of subjectivity, especially gendered subjectivity? I focus on travel writing in particular as source material because of its potential for generic multiplicity. Specifically, I examine Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journal of a Tour on the Continent (1820) and Mary Shelley’s History of a Six Weeks’ Tour (1817) and Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844).
Romantic frameworks of aesthetic theory guide this project, namely the long shadows of the sublime, beautiful and picturesque. However, instead of identifying “the female picturesque” or the “female sublime” in Shelley and Wordsworth’s writing, I instead investigate moments when their texts transcend orthodox aesthetic terminology and frames, where they create new categories for integrating the landscape with imagination and memory, explicitly informed by their gender. Thus, I perform less of a feminist analysis than a study that analyzes how travel writing, for both Wordsworth and Shelley, is the medium through which they can investigate cultivating empathy through observation and integration. Their travel writing triangulates aesthetics, gender, and memory to provide distinctive practices of describing and existing in motion, ways that revise the dominant discourse of Romantic period travel writing. Both Wordsworth and Shelley question the exchange between the traveler, the landscape, and the inhabitants of the land; they ask what the value of transmuting travel to literature is, as well as how this transmission can facilitate empathetic interaction.Englis
Media Production across Formats
No full textElizabeth’s life went to new heights as she left her small hometown in Georgia for the Big Apple this summer. She joined Emporia Entertainment, a production company that does everything from photoshoots to commercials to radio and more. Elizabeth was a video production intern with a focus in physical production, which includes cameras and lighting. She was able to gain a hands-on experience with being on video shoots for product reels, events, and their television show, Top Model Latina. Elizabeth took skills she learned at Mount Holyoke to navigate a new city and face a variety of challenges and responsibilities. Eventually, she was able to lead her own projects to create original content for the company as well as direct and film her own commercial. Elizabeth’s summer was an unforgettable experience, not only because of her immersive internship, but also because of the diverse group of people she met along the way.In this panel, we explore different and new ways to produce media content, whether through social media, music festivals, advertisements, or entertainment. Through our professional experiences in media production this past summer, we gained knowledge about the industries we want to pursue after graduation. We’ve learned that acquiring an internship in media is certainly challenging and can be about chance, connections, or simply being persistent. One panel member worked as a lighting intern for BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn music festival; one member was a production intern for WKYU PBS and its television program, Lost River Sessions; another member was a social media intern at National Geographic and a creative intern at a budding socialist think tank, and one panelist was a video production intern at Emporia Entertainment. Each member of our panel had unique experiences working in male-dominated creative industries and applied their knowledge from Mount Holyoke coursework and leadership to navigate their responsibilities
A Predictive Study of Exotic Higgs Decays for the Run 3 of the ATLAS Experiment
No full textThe Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland has made an astounding discovery in 2012 when it detected a particle mimicking the properties of the Higgs Boson which causes spontaneous electroweak symmetry breaking which gives masses of current known particles. However, the true structure and dynamics of this scalar boson is still unknown. One of the theories suggest the involvement of the newly discovered boson particle in the dark matter sector, which hypothesizes that an analog dark Higgs mechanism breaks the U(1)D dark gauge symmetry. The theory lays the foundation of possible theoretical decay channels of a Higgs Boson to decay to dark charge particles in the dark matter sector that is mediated by a vector boson called the dark photon. The upcoming High Luminosity-LHC (HL-LHC) would significantly extend the sensitivity of these direct searches. This thesis focuses on a predictive study of a specific exotic higgs decay mode for the run 3 of the ATLAS Experiment in the LHC. Using Monte Carlo (MC) simulated data sets of dark photon with mass ranging from 20 and 60 GeV for the signal data and using the previous run 2 dataset for the background data, the efficiency is calculated to solve for the cross
section of the signal. Using the built-in statistical methods in ROOT, the 95% Confidence Level (CL) Upper-Limit (UL) of the signal would be calculated and then be converted to a 95% CL Cross-Section UL for run 3.Physic
Extension Through Logical Space
No full textThis thesis discusses three different theories of de re modality, i.e., the ways particular individuals could be, or must be. It defends the counterpart theory as the best theory of de re modality for modal realists. In other words, I argue that Ruth is ‘at possible world w’ by having a counterpart that is distinct from and yet suitably similar to our Ruth, at world w.
Chapter I will be a brief introduction. In Chapter II, I will define my terms and spell out my assumptions. In Chapter III, I will describe the three theories of de re modality: counterpart theory, trans-world identity theory and trans-world fusion theory. In Chapter IV, I will present a version of counterpart theory based on Lewisian modal metaphysics, provide four independent utility arguments for counterpart theory, and respond to Humphrey’s objection to counterpart theory. In Chapter V, I will present Lewis’s version of trans-world identity theory based on Lewisian modal metaphysics and his objections against such a view. I will explain two alternative versions of trans-world identity theory based on alternative modal metaphysics and then argue against such attempts. In Chapter VI, I will spell out trans-world fusion theory in detail, present an argument from vagueness for trans-world fusion theory and argue against it. In Chapter VII, I will provide a short conclusion.Philosoph
The Two Careers of Henrietta Hooker (1851-1929)
No full textHenrietta Edgecomb Hooker was one of several teachers of Mount Holyoke’s faculty who rose to prominence in the last quarter of the 19th century. Foremost among the teachers of science were Lydia Shattuck ’51 (1822-89), an eminent botanist, and Cornelia Clapp ’71 (1849-1934), an equally esteemed zoologist. Shattuck, already well advanced in botany, attended Louis Agassiz ‘s classes in natural history in Penikese Island, Wood’s Hole, in the summer of 1873, and the younger Clapp followed her there in 1874. At Penikese, students absorbed Agassiz’s methods of studying animals and plants in their natural environment; observational methods were engaged more than theory. This was, in effect, a more scientific extension of Mary Lyon’s way of teaching (Shattuck was her pupil).
Hooker joined Shattuck and Clapp in 1873, sharing with them the study of natural forms from direct observation. She soon made her mark as a gifted and popular teacher of botany. Nonetheless, her teaching has attracted little notice because she was not a publishing scholar. Unlike her colleagues, however, she had a wholly different second career. She retired from teaching in 1908 to give all of her time to the breeding of chickens. She wrote little about teaching but left several lively and confessional accounts of raising chickens. These give us a much better look into her temperament and daily life than we have for her years of teaching
International Affairs and Development
No full textBefore the disintegration of relations between the United States and Iran in 1979, the two countries enjoyed diplomatic relations for more than a century. After decades of estrangement, negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear program brought the two countries to the same table, initiating a potential channel of communication and diplomacy. The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) helped secure the historic U.S.-Iran deal and is continuing efforts to sustain the landmark agreement to prevent war and nuclear proliferation. Romila Hussaini spent her summer in Washington D.C. interning with the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). As both a development and foreign policy intern at NIAC, she gained experience in fundraising, philanthropy, international affairs, Iranian-American issues, and the day-to-day operations of a non-profit organization. This experience made Romila passionate about U.S.-Iran relations, which sparked her interest in pursuing a career in diplomacy. She is eager to share this passion with you through this presentation.In an increasingly globalized world, international affairs affect all of us in one way or another and shape the environment in which we live. This past summer, each of us worked for international NGOs and nonprofit organizations, working on a myriad of projects concerning different parts of the world. Our experiences include researching the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, working with the United Nations, researching Iran’s foreign policies, and working in the international development sector by providing support for elections in new and emerging democracies. Our panel will capture the range of experiences we went through as we tried to better the world from New York City and Washington D.C. Collectively, we gained valuable research experience as well as insights into the inner workings of international organizations and the realities of the world in which we live
Assembling Global Conservation Governance
No full textAs the configuration of global environmental governance has become more complex over the past fifty years, numerous scholars have underscored the importance of understanding the transnational networks of public, private and nonprofit organizations that comprise it. Most methodologies for studying governance emphasize social structural elements or institutional design principles and focus less attention on the social interactions that generate diffuse, hybrid regimes. Yet capturing the dynamics of these networks requires a relational methodology that can account for a range of elements that constantly shift and change relative to overlapping institutional boundaries. Collaborative Event Ethnography draws on insights from multi-sited, team, and institutional ethnography to assemble teams of researchers to study major international conferences, which offer important political spaces where public, private, and nonprofit actors align around sanctioned logics and techniques of governance. Drawing on insights generated from these conferences and field sites across the globe, we trace the constitutive forces behind paradigm shifts in biodiversity conservation, specifically the interconnected rise of market-based approaches, global targets, and new conservation enclosures. We show how the iterative refining of the methodology over five events generated an increasingly robust understanding of global conservation governance as processual, dynamic, and contingent, constituted through constantly shifting assemblages of state and nonstate actors, devices and narratives that collectively configure fields of governance. Finally, we reflect on how our team, as an evolving combination of researchers, research interests, and data collection tools—itself an assemblage, —has informed the continual refinement of the methodology and generated novel understandings of global conservation governance