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dance to keep from dyin : An Exploration of the Choreopoem
No full textThis thesis identifies three key features of choreopoetry that traverse style and content: the centering of bodies, the music and meaning of repetition, and the way individual stories collectively comment on injustice and oppression. Framed by the work of Ntozake Shange, Keith Antar Mason, and Dena Igusti, this thesis showcases how each choreopoet uniquely manipulates these features to serve their artistic ends. Following an academic preface, this thesis includes the script of for gifted mixed girls who have considered hiding from choosing / the world / themselves, an original choreopoem that highlights personal anecdotes and calls on Korean and Irish historical figures to grapple with the realization of difference from others
Characterization of a highly arsenic-resistant microbe
No full textHeavy metal pollution in our terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems is a major global concern, as chronic exposure to heavy metals such as arsenic and chromium has dire effects on mammalian health. In these polluted, arsenic-rich environments, microorganisms resistant to heavy metals have been isolated. The microbe isolated in this paper was resistant to As(V) up to 1100 mM, which is significantly higher than most published strains, and resistant to Cr(VI) at concentrations up to 5 mM. The microbe was tentatively identified as Micrococcus luteus, but its high arsenic resistance suggests it may be a novel strain. The ability of the microbe to transform arsenic between oxidation states was supported by two experiments: a conditioned media experiment that indicated the microbe can reduce As(V) to As(III), and a silver arsenate experiment that suggested it can oxidize As(III) to As(V). These findings show that the microbe is a compelling candidate for bioremediation strategies, especially in arsenic-contaminated environments
A Long Way Home: Postcolonial Migration between Cameroon and France
No full textThis project grew from an observation that despite exhibiting strong national pride, most young Cameroonians express a fervent desire to emigrate. Through a combination of interviews and a review of past literature, I discovered a unique narrative among upper middle class Cameroonian migrants whose stories are generally underrepresented in migration literature. This study investigates how history and sociocultural dynamics help explain the Cameroonian decision to choose France (specifically the Île de France region) as a migration destination. France is particularly relevant because it previously held control of many parts of Cameroon and is one of the most popular migration destinations from Cameroon. This paper also uncovers the mechanisms in place that support and facilitate Cameroonian postcolonial migration.
Although each participant’s experiences were unique, many aspects of their journeys overlap. My findings emphasize how migration is often a collective, family-centered strategy in which relatives, both abroad and in Cameroon, play a crucial role. This often creates a sense of moral responsibility that migrants place on themselves to remain connected to their families who invested in their migration. Altogether, this paper demonstrates how France\u27s enduring cultural, educational, and media influence perpetuates a cycle in which Cameroonians migrate in search of opportunities unavailable at home, often under illusions shaped by incomplete or biased knowledge. The imbalance between information that Cameroonians receive about France and vice versa foreshadows the challenges that Cameroonians experience in France. Cameroonians’ integration into French society is highly reflective of the postcolonial relationship that exists between the two. Although my participants discuss their struggles adjusting to differences in cuisine, accent, and the White majority in France, it becomes clear that Cameroonians were socially conditioned to live there. Participants continuously navigate their identities across national and cultural lines, balancing integration into France with loyalty to their Cameroonian roots. Through shared spaces and community networks, they perform identities that are both adaptive and resistant to postcolonial structures.
All in all, this thesis follows the circular pattern of Cameroonian migration, one where France is not the final destination but a stop along the journey back to Cameroon. The paper reframes migration not as an escape from Cameroon, but a strategy for reclaiming and reinvesting in it. The postcolonial relationship between France and Cameroon created the conditions for this journey to take place, one that truly takes Cameroonians the long way home
Full Issue - Spring 2025 - volume 112, issue 1
No full text04. Planting Seeds to Grow a Stronger Community16. Retiring Provost McFadden: Colby’s ‘Special Sauce’ is What Makes it Great24. Pulver Scholars Explore Scientific Possibility32. A Warm Wilderness Welcome for New Colby Students42. Dare Northward is Shaping Colby as a Global Leader48. Bringing Them All Back Hom
In Between the House Light and the Sun Rise
No full textIn Between the House Light and the Sun Rise is a research project that includes a 20-minute performance and a written thesis. The research uses the framework of relationality to explore the relationship between humans and houseplants. Although houseplants live in a human-constructed environment, they have their own influences on people and the space around them. Learning from the ways plants move through time and space and the connections plants make with each other and with other living and non-living things, this project aims to use movement to reimagine the way we think about time, space, and community. This project takes a comparative approach, including an analysis of three contemporary performances, Estado Vegetal, To See the Earth Before the End of the World, and Singing Plants Reconstruct Memory, followed by explaining how those ideas influenced my art-making process and my thesis show, In Between the House Light and the Sun Rise
From Colony to Classroom: British Rule and Contemporary Educational Outcomes in India
No full textThis study analyzes the modern day legacy of British colonial ruling structures on Indian educational outcomes. In directly ruled areas, the British retained total control, while Indian princes in indirectly ruled areas had administrative agency. I find that directly ruled districts have higher literate population shares across both genders over three census years, but no significant difference by 2011 in primary, secondary, and tertiary education, controlling for colonial geographic conditions. Gender-disaggregated results generally find stronger colonial effects for women than men. This thesis challenges earlier findings and implies that the British effort to create an educated administrative class and their central role in the provision of education up until 1919 may have had broader, enduring spillover effects, though these policies were driven by racist, exploitative motives. This study provides a cautionary tale of colonial ruling structures and a hopeful lesson: while history shapes initial conditions, nations can craft reforming policies that address colonial educational legacies
Wave Reflections in a Biophysically Detailed Model of Cardiac Tissue
No full textRegular heart rhythms are governed by the coordinated spread of action potentials through cardiac tissue. The interaction of an action potential with a tissue heterogeneity may lead to a reflection, where both a retrograde and an anterograde wave propagate off of the initial impulse. Reflections have been experimentally linked to cardiac arrhythmias, but their mechanisms of generation are not well-understood. Mathematically, reflections in phenomenological models of cardiac tissue have been linked to an unstable periodic orbit. These models typically sacrifice detail about the variety of ionic currents and processes involved in action potential propagation in favor of mathematical simplicity. Biophysically detailed models provide more insight into the currents and processes that generate reflections in cardiac tissue. However, reflections have not been studied at length in these models. We investigate the existence of reflections in a biophysically detailed, conductance-based model of cardiac tissue. Using numerical methods, we seek to determine how the likelihood of reflections is impacted by modifications to the system parameters. Our results suggest that an unstable periodic orbit underlies reflections in the biophysically detailed model, extending previous work that connected the unstable periodic orbit to reflections in phenomenological models. We also identify key physiological parameters and processes that reduce the system\u27s propensity for reflections
Assimilation Through Education: Tracing the Development of Chinese American Education Advocacy in San Francisco, 1965-1980s
No full textIn 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Hart-Celler Act into law, dismantling the national origins quota system and opening U.S. borders to increased immigration. Less than a decade later, in the 1974 Lau v. Nichols case, the Supreme Court ruled that San Francisco public schools had violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to provide language support for students with limited English proficiency. In 1982, two white autoworkers, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, murdered Vincent Chin, a Chinese American draftsman, in a racially motivated hate crime. Chinese Americans’ dynamic educational advocacy efforts throughout the 20th century offers a throughline to connect and reconstruct these flashpoints in American history. Drawing from the San Francisco Unified School District’s archival records, newspaper articles, and legislative records, this thesis focuses on Chinese Americans’ fight for educational advocacy in San Francisco public schools and universities from 1965 to the 1980s. Examining American history through Chinese Americans’ educational advocacy efforts reveals how education has, and continues to, function both as a tool of oppression and as a powerful mechanism to develop broader Asian American and racial minority identities, negotiating belonging, and redefine the meaning of an American identity
Mucking Up Public Health: A Geospatial Analysis of Agricultural Sludge Application and Cancer Prevalence in Maine
No full textThis study investigates the impact of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on cancer prevalence throughout Maine. The main contribution of this project is the database constructed to examine cancer rates at a novel aggregation area: watersheds. By using a watershed as the aggregation area, this study gains insight into the threat that spreading sludge as fertilizer on agricultural fields poses to human health through groundwater pathways. Using geospatial analysis and an ordinary least squares regression model, this study estimates the effect of the presence of PFAS in a watershed from 2017 to 2021, in addition to estimating the impact of the historical spread of agricultural fertilizer sludge in a watershed. The regression results are positive and statistically significant for both the presence of PFAS in a watershed (p-value \u3c 0.01) and the historical spread of sludge (p-value \u3c 0.01), meaning that the presence of PFAS and sludge are correlated with higher cancer diagnosis rates. The interaction term between the two is negative and significant (p-value \u3c 0.01). Through this study, effect of the presence of PFAS on cancer diagnosis rates is isolated, likely because sludge is a source and not the compound heavily linked to cancer prevalence. The main implication of this study is that more research is necessary to investigate pollutants and contributors to cancer prevalence rates at the watershed level. Additionally, the state of Maine has implemented steps toward decreasing PFAS contamination but should now take steps to minimize the impact of the already polluted fields on human health outcomes
Predicting Human Steering from Optic Flow Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks
No full textHuman driving is a complex visuomotor task and the specific visual clues that guide it remain under investigation. While prior research has emphasized gaze-based strategies such as the Tangent Point and Future Path hypotheses, recent evidence highlights the potential role of optic flow, the visual motion pattern perceived during self-movement, as critical to steering ability. This thesis explores whether raw optic flow alone can support accurate predictions of human steering behavior. We trained a convolutional neural network to map optic flow vector fields to steering angles in a virtual reality driving simulation. The dataset, collected by Giguere et al., included over 100,000 frames of the simulated road per subject and the subject\u27s steering angle data. Our CNN performed well in short, high-density optic flow environments, capturing the shape and timing of human steering. However, performance deteriorated in low-density scenes and over longer driving sequences. The findings support optic flow’s relevance in steering behavior and lay groundwork for future models incorporating time integration and reaction delay alignment