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Unholy Anthems: Queer Pop Music as Critique of American Christianity
No full textLGBTQ musicians Lil Nas X and Sam Smith have both released songs and music videos in recent years which have proved quite controversial for their use of Christian iconography, garnering strong reactions from leaders of the U.S. Christian Evangelical right. This thesis will analyze these works as products of the years following President Trump’s first term and seek to explore why these particular songs evoked such a strong reaction. To do so, the analysis relies on frameworks of queer theory and intersectionality to explore how these cultural products of queer art threaten the hegemony of Puritan sexual values in American culture. The songs and music videos discussed challenge and critique the roles marginalized identities play in the performance of Evangelicals’ values of sexual purity and morality. Analyzing the backlash and response to these songs will show that conservative critics’ general accusations of blasphemy and obscenity obfuscate the intended messages of these artists seeking to critique the structural racism and homophobia of American Evangelicalism. By focusing the public controversy on the shock value of obscenity and sacrilegious imagery, these criticisms illuminate Evangelicals’ individualistic view of sin and their dismissal of social or structural sin.
To further contextualize the impact of these two contemporary examples, they will be considered in comparison to Madonna, another artist whose LGBTQ themes in her music drew criticism from the Evangelical right in the 1980s and 1990s. The first chapter will focus on Madonna’s portrayals of religious and sexual ecstasy as well as race, specifically in “Like a Prayer” and “Vogue.” The second chapter will consider Lil Nas X’s “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” and the Biblical vision of queer utopia he creates in its music video. Finally, the third chapter will consider Sam Smith and Kim Petras’s “Unholy” and its performance of Satan, adultery, and queer and trans sexuality.Extension Studie
Characterization of Antiviral Antibody Repertoire Dynamics and Immune Correlates of Human Disease
No full textThe human antiviral antibody repertoire is complex and dynamic. Profiling the antiviral antibody repertoire in high resolution and at scale has the power to enhance our understanding of individual infection histories, variability in immune responses, and disease mechanisms. This dissertation centers on the use of VirScan, a phage immunoprecipitation sequencing (PhIP-seq) technology that enables high-throughput mapping of antibody responses to the human virome. Through three distinct but interrelated studies, this work applies VirScan to: (1) investigate immune signatures associated with pediatric acute hepatitis of unknown etiology, (2) characterize agerelated diversity and temporal stability of antiviral antibody repertoires from infancy to adulthood, and (3) develop specialized peptide libraries to detect latent viral infections and explore potential viral drivers of chronic disease.
In the first part of this dissertation, we applied VirScan to an emergent outbreak, severe acute hepatitis of unknown etiology (AHUE) in children. Antibody profiling of affected children revealed enriched responses to AAV-2 epitopes, with evidence of considerable epitope spreading and co-infection with multiple helper viruses capable of facilitating AAV-2 replication. This signature was absent in pediatric and adult controls. This work identified recent AAV-2 infection, facilitated by helper viruses, as a plausible cause of AHUE pathogenesis. These findings demonstrate the utility of VirScan in outbreak investigation and etiologic discovery.
The second part of this dissertation characterized antiviral antibody repertoire dynamics across age groups using large cross-sectional and longitudinal cohorts. Children were found to produce broader antiviral responses than adults, with and target distinct patterns of viral epitopes. Repertoires were highly dynamic in early life, transitioning from maternally derived antibodies to endogenous responses, and gradually stabilizing with age. In contrast, adult repertoires were highly stable over decades and unique to individuals. We also observed that there was variation in stability of responses within and between viruses.
The third study focused on the development of modular, targeted PhIP-seq libraries to investigate latent viral infections as potential drivers of chronic disease. New libraries enriched for public epitopes and complete proteomes of herpesviruses, adenoviruses, and parvoviruses were designed and validated. These tools were engineered for scalability in epidemiologic research and are ready to be applied to large case-control cohorts where they will enable detection of viral exposures and antibody responses relevant to chronic conditions such as multiple sclerosis and cardiovascular disease.
Together, these studies illuminate how antibody repertoires reflect both individual immune experiences and broader epidemiological trends, and demonstrate VirScan’s power as a tool for immunological discovery, surveillance, and hypothesis generation.Systems Biolog
The Role of Family Business in Democratic Capitalism: The Cases of Illy and Patagonia
No full textThis thesis investigates how multigenerational, family‐owned firms can bolster democratic capitalism by focusing on two emblematic cases: illy (the company name is not capitalized) and Patagonia. It synthesizes diverse theoretical perspectives—from political economy to socioemotional wealth—to demonstrate how family enterprises can transcend critiques of dynastic control by cultivating civic responsibility, ethical innovation, and ecological stewardship.
A defining feature of this study is its extensive primary research, conducted through on‐site interviews in Trieste, Italy, and Ventura, California. These firsthand accounts—drawn from Illy and Chouinard family members and senior executives—reveal the strategic and moral philosophies underpinning each firm’s governance. By embedding fieldwork within a comparative political economy framework, this research departs from traditional single‐firm case analyses, offering a dynamic look at how private, family‐controlled companies can embed social and environmental imperatives at the core of their operations.
Illy’s “Polietica” approach exemplifies stakeholder‐centric governance: a fusion of Drucker‐inspired management, Trieste’s civic engagement, and a global coffee value chain driven by quality and farmer empowerment. Meanwhile, Patagonia’s “Earth‐First” model underscores how a purpose trust structure, direct political advocacy, and activist supply‐chain management can systematically counter models of extractive capitalism. Both firms illustrate a recalibration of the SEW concept—here reframed as planetary socioemotional wealth—placing communal and ecological well‐being above purely familial legacy.
Methodologically, the thesis critically examines a breadth of secondary literature on the Illy family and illycaffè, and the Chouinard family and Patagonia, while contrasting it with novel insights gained from field interviews and archival research. It highlights policy and governance implications for “stakeholder family capitalism,” wherein profit becomes a vehicle for social reinvestment and ecological resilience. Ultimately, these cases demonstrate that family‐owned enterprises, when committed to long‐term stewardship and cross‐sector activism, can mitigate democratic backsliding and climate inaction, affirming that capitalism—reimagined also through a familial lens—remains compatible with the broader imperatives of civic and planetary survival.Extension Studie
“No Longer Strangers but Citizens, Together”: A Critical Analysis of Political Rhetoric in Ephesians
No full textThis dissertation offers an original method of interpretation of Ephesians 5.21–6.9, in order to offer an intratextually oriented remedy to the discomfort evident in some New Testament scholarship around questions of subordination—particularly, that of women. Applying insights from linguistic research on reference (referring), I offer a new reading for this contested passage.
Three “pairs” of terms occurring in Eph 5.21–6.9—namely, “woman” and “man,” “master” and “slave,” and “father” and “child”—are usually interpreted as nouns referring to pairs of human referents. Instead, I propose a different line of interpretation, one that is anchored in function, rather than in static definition. My method explores cities as alternate referents of the term “woman,” interpreting the women mentioned (αἱ γυναῖκες) as feminized cities, and the men to whom they are in relation (τοῖς ἰδίοις ἀνδράσιν) as masculinized political rulers. I also suggest that this reading could be extended to the interpretation of “master” and “slave,” and “father” and “child.” I make this case on the basis of my reconstruction of an intratextual pattern of terms in Ephesians that might refer to cities. In order to contextualize this reconstruction, I consider various interpretations of 5.21–6.9 and patterns of subjection in 1.22–23 and 5.22–24, as well as different political interpretations of 2.11–22. My work also is more generally contextualized by research on female-designated referents in biblical writings, that highlights male and female figuration of cities and rulers in ancient Mediterranean textual and visual sources.
My reading of Eph 5.21–6.9 interrogates the gendering mention of the women, men, and assembly (ἐκκλησία, usually translated “church”) since the broader academic study exclusively habituates the reading of the text requiring subjection between male and female human counterparts. I propose an equivalence between “the assembly” and “the women” since both are described as subjected in 5.24. The broader coincidences of descriptions of the women and assembly in 5.22–33 means that an interpretation need not reconstruct the mention of women as separate from that of the assembly. Thus, the pattern of subjection in 5.22–24 would only re-mention subjection of the assembly already appearing in 1.22–23. This interpretation would mitigate the problem of readings of Eph 5.21–6.9 requiring subjection between human men and women, since the women mentioned would be cities. Following this line of reasoning, female people do not need to be subjugated on the basis of this particular Pauline text, which is chronically mobilized against them.
The women are illuminated in this interpretation as the full assembly, appearing as a feminized spatial construct. I relate this full assembly of women to the collective figuration of cities, which in turn is connected to the idea of political rule in Ephesians. I propose that in writing about “women” called “Assembly” and “men” who love and subject them, Eph 5.21–6.9 expresses this collective political rule in a gendering way, describing it as the love and subjection of many women by many men. My interpretation of the women, men, and subjection therefore foregrounds the construct of “political gender” related to the expression of political rule between masculinized and feminized cities and rulers, which conceives cities as “women,” and political rulers as “men.”Religion, Committee on the Study o
In vivo pooled screening for cell therapies: methods development and application to identify genetic drivers of tissue accumulation phenotypes
No full textCell therapy is a transformative approach to treating disease, yet engineering these
treatments is challenging due to the complexity of cell behavior across diverse disease contexts.
A key limitation is actively delivering therapeutic cells to target tissues, a process dependent on
cellular homing, which is universally crucial for the safety and efficacy of cell-based therapies.
Overcoming homing deficits has broad implications but is limited by an ability to identify tissue
specific effector genes and imposes a requirement for improved in vivo discovery systems. To
address this, we introduce two new molecular tools: 1) High-N Barcoding (“HNB”), and 2)
Selective Molecular Barcode Enrichment (“SMBE”). Together, HNB and SMBE facilitate
genetic library creation and barcode processing, improving construction, resolution, sensitivity,
reproducibility, throughput, and cost parameters of in vivo pooled screens.
Using these methods, we present the first demonstrations of unbiased, gain-of-function,
pooled in vivo screens that enhance CD4 murine T-cell homing to solid tumors. CXCR3
emerged as a significant enrichment across both B16F10-Ova and CT26 tumor models.
Validation experiments confirmed that CXCR3 overexpression drives increased T-cell
accumulation independent of TCR engagement, suggesting a mechanism centered on CXCR3's
role in enhanced T-cell tumor homing relative to GFP controls. Despite CXCR3's known role in
mediating T-cell homing to B16 tumors, our study represents the first demonstration that
overexpression of CXCR3 can independently drive T-cell accumulation in both B16 and CT26
models. This suggests CXCR3 may be a generalizable strategy to enhance T-cell solid tumor
homing.
Lastly, we applied our methods to screen a 1500-member "Surface-Ome" library in iPSC-
derived myogenic progenitor cells (“MPCs”) in the context of BaCl2-induced injury. This screen
identified known and novel genes that enhance MPC engraftment after intramuscular injection,
and represents, to our knowledge, the largest in vivo pooled screen using an ORF-based library
to study mammalian cell behavior. Taken together, our methods and findings broaden the in vivo
functional genomics toolkit and help to advance strategies to engineer and control tissue specific
homing for cell-based therapeutic agents.Medical Science
Causal Inference Methods for High-Resolution Data: Methodological Innovations for Estimating Treatment Effects in Complex Data Structures
No full textThis dissertation develops statistical methods for high-resolution data across three distinct but complementary domains. In this context, "high-resolution data" refers to information structures with granular detail that traditional statistical methods often simplify or ignore—whether in the form of temporally dense decision points, precise treatment timing that defines the causal question itself, or detailed within-cluster distributions that standard approaches typically collapse into simple averages.
The first chapter evaluates a sequential risk time sampling algorithm implemented in a mobile health intervention study. This algorithm addresses the challenge of delivering interventions across 144 potential decision points per day while maintaining both treatment frequency and uniform distribution constraints. The analysis demonstrates that the algorithm successfully balances these objectives, enabling valid causal inference for identifying contexts where interventions prove beneficial in chronic disease management.
The second chapter integrates staggered adoption designs with survival analysis to estimate causal effects when treatment timing varies across subjects. The treatment variable in causal inference is problem-defining, and when it has granular temporal structure (like exact transplant dates), it fundamentally reshapes the causal question rather than merely adding predictive power. By combining hazard-based modeling with double machine learning, this approach maintains robustness to model misspecification while providing interpretable treatment effect estimates. Applications to heart transplant data demonstrate superior performance compared to traditional methods, with extensions to business contexts where timing of customer actions has causal implications.
The third chapter introduces a variance estimator for matching methods that remains valid even when matched samples substantially overlap—a common challenge when treatment groups are small. While the granular within-cluster information has always existed in matched datasets, this approach uniquely leverages the full distribution of control outcomes within each matched set, outperforming existing methods in simulation studies and providing a generalized theoretical framework applicable to various matching procedures. The methodological advance enables more reliable inference for policy evaluations across economics, education, and public health.
Together, these three studies advance causal inference methodology by designing statistical approaches that properly leverage high-resolution data structures, providing researchers with practical tools for deriving valid insights from increasingly complex and detailed data while improving both empirical accuracy and decision-making relevance.Statistic
Algorithmic Surveillance and Digital Occupation: Pegasus Spyware and Artificial Intelligence Targeting Systems in Kashmir and Palestine
No full textSurveillance technologies have evolved into powerful instruments of digital repression, with Pegasus spyware serving as a prime example of how advanced cyber tools are deployed to monitor, control, and suppress targeted populations. This thesis examines the use of Pegasus in Palestine and Kashmir, arguing that Israel employs Palestine as a testing ground for spyware development before exporting it globally, while India adopts Pegasus to suppress separatist movements and consolidate political control in Kashmir. This reflects a broader pattern in which military occupation enables the refinement of digital surveillance industries, transforming spyware from a national security asset into a globally traded tool of repression.
The study integrates technical analysis, forensic investigation, and comparative case studies to assess Pegasus’s infiltration methods, operational mechanisms, and geopolitical impact. By analyzing how zero-click exploits, AI-driven targeting systems, and mass biometric surveillance are weaponized in occupied and contested regions, this research highlights the increasing entanglement between state surveillance, corporate interests, and digital authoritarianism.
Ultimately, this thesis situates Pegasus within the broader framework of AI-driven warfare and global surveillance capitalism, emphasizing how unregulated spyware markets enable mass human rights violations. As AI-powered targeting systems such as Lavender and The Gospel follow the trajectory of Pegasus, the findings of this study serve as a warning about the future of surveillance governance. If left unchecked, these technologies will continue to erode civil liberties, expand algorithmic state control, and normalize digital repression worldwide. Addressing this challenge requires urgent international oversight, corporate accountability, and stronger legal safeguards to prevent the unchecked proliferation of spyware and its role in shaping global security and power structures.Computer Scienc
Arrival Lands：For both space pioneers and pioneer species
No full textThis thesis designs a new network of productive public spaces on Shenzhen’s outskirts and within its urban parks. As a rapidly urbanizing city, Shenzhen hosts numerous spontaneous farmlands on its periphery, cultivated by rural migrants lacking secure land tenure. These socio-ecological oases highlight the potential for more resilient use of underutilized urban spaces by humans and non-humans. Unlike typical urban areas with fixed land ownership and assigned programs, these spaces embrace the evolving dynamics of people and environment. My goal is to harness this model, enhance its accessibility for public use (as a form of conservation), and implement it within public parks. By accepting the spontaneity of the prototypes, improving their integration within the urban landscape, and providing public access, their introduction into parks will refresh and revitalize the urban center. Ultimately, this project envisions a network of welcoming Arrival Lands for diverse users within Shenzhen’s dense urban fabric.Department of Landscape Architectur
The Effects of Novel Peptide PR1P on Fracture Repair: An Insight into VEGF Modulation on the Bone Healing Process
No full textFracture healing is a highly regulated process dependent on angiogenesis and osteogenesis, both of which are modulated by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). While VEGF is crucial for vascular invasion and bone regeneration, its rapid degradation in vivo limits its therapeutic potential. This study investigates the efficacy of PR1P, a novel peptide that binds to and stabilizes endogenous VEGF, in enhancing fracture repair. Using a murine femoral fracture model, PR1P was administered intraperitoneally every other day for either 5 or 14 days post-injury. Healing was assessed at days 5, 14, and 28 using micro-CT, RT-qPCR, histology, and immunohistochemistry. Results demonstrated that short-term PR1P treatment enhanced early angiogenesis and chondrogenesis, while prolonged administration promoted angiogenic maturation, osteogenic gene expression, and normalization of bone remodeling by day 28. Notably, extended PR1P exposure mitigated the decline in bone mineralization seen with shorter dosing and supported more coordinated transition from repair to remodeling phases. These findings position PR1P as a promising VEGF-stabilizing therapeutic that can enhance bone regeneration by extending endogenous VEGF signaling during critical phases of fracture healing.Graduate Educatio
Discovering conformation selective anti-EGFR nanobodies
No full textThe epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is an essential receptor tyrosine kinase that governs several cell-signaling pathways involved in growth and differentiation. Oncogenic EGFR mutations and overexpression are common in many cancer types and it is predicted more than 5% of all malignancies in the United States have mutant EGFR, with especially high prevalence in lung cancer and glioblastoma. Current anti-EGFR treatments lack longevity: over time, all cancers become resistant to anti-EGFR therapeutics with a median time of one year to resistance. In this work, I describe a novel approach to developing anti-EGFR therapies, targeting extracellular conformations that are upregulated in cancers. Chapter 1 of this dissertation provides an overview of EGFR activation in physiologic and pathogenic contexts, with an emphasis on targeting conformations that are stabilized by oncogenic mutations. In chapter two, I characterize ectodomain mutations that stabilize intermediate or preactive forms of EGFR on the cell surface. Chapter 3 covers the bulk of my dissertation work and describes the selection and characterization of a panel of anti-EGFR nanobodies, many of which show conformational selectivity. The asymmetric binding preferences of the nanobodies provide insight into conformations stabilized by common glioblastoma mutations, suggesting the location of the mutation underlies the distinct conformation that is stabilized. In Chapter 4, I discuss future directions for this work, and how these nanobodies can be further developed as research tools, diagnostics, and therapeutics. Additionally, I suggest alternative approaches for discovering nanobodies targeting conformations stabilized by oncogenic EGFR. Collectively, the work described in this dissertation enhances the current mechanistic understanding of EGFR activation and paves the way for improved anticancer agents.Biological Sciences in Public Healt