Examples of Past Projects

"El Camino de Santiago: Writing on the Collective Experience"

Most research on the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage trail in northern Spain that dates back to the medieval period, focuses on the individual experience of pilgrims and rarely the bond that forms between them. Yet, as a community remarkable in both its diversity and its unity, how do the pilgrims create a collective experience? I spent the summer walking the Camino and examining the written culture of messages in notes, letters, art, and graffiti in order to understand the communitas of these travelers. I observed how they create a collective narrative across boundaries of nationality, language, and religion in order to compose an original poem, Ultreya (“Onward”), that incorporates stories and writings from both real and imagined pilgrims to create a tapestry of sounds, signs, voices and sights—a living testimony to the diversity of the pilgrim community.

"Relative Binding Affinity of Different Monoclonal Antibodies for Species of AB-oligomers"

Alzheimer’s Disease is characterized by deposits of amyloid beta (A b ) protein in the brain. My research builds on conclusions that the use of specialized antibodies against A b may be an effective and realistic therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease. Although antibody immunization in humans has been successful, it produced inflammatory responses in some patients. The thrust of my research was to develop antibodies that specifically target a species of small, soluble A b oligomers whose neurotoxicity actually causes Alzheimer’s Disease rather than A b monomers originally thought to be responsible for the disease. My work has consisted of purifying and characterizing these antibodies.

"Gesture in Spatial Development of Children with Learning Disabilities"

Although there has been a great deal of research on the development of verbal skills in learning-disabled children, there has been little research on other cognitive abilities, such as spatial thinking. Spatial reasoning is vital to both learning and human survival. By expanding the range of cognitive abilities studied in the learning disabled population, my research on the spatial abilities of children diagnosed with learning disabilities will help scholars design interventions that help learning-disabled children achieve the highest possible level of functioning.

"The Essential Evita: Performing Politics, Performing Gender"

Pieter Dirk Uys is a South African satirist who developed a fictional female persona, Evita Buizendenhout, to level his critiques at the Apartheid government of the 1980s. Evita represented a parody of conservative Apartheid norms that regulated morality and sexual purity. Today, Evita has attained a status in contemporary South Africa that exceeds Uys’ portrayal of her; she is invited to state dinners, accepts awards, and allows writers to publish her biography. My research interrogates how Evita exceeds Uys’ portrayal by analyzing this shift from a fictional character in the 1980s to a seemingly real individual post-Apartheid who exists outside theatrical space.

“Social Construction and Production of Space: Division Street, Chicago”

How do people use and perceive spaces on this dividing road? Does Division Street serve to separate or integrate new and old residents? How is this geographical area represented in both everyday conversation and in the public media? During this summer I will investigate the ways in which the space along Division Street between Halstead and Wells is socially produced and constructed through an examination of everyday life in the area, its historical context, and its representation in the public sphere.

“Chemotherapeutic Drug Delivery via Polymer Nanoparticles”

The lack of specificity, toxicity, and lack of duration of current cancer treatments presents a grave problem with those who have nonsurgically removable tumors. Both radiation and chemotherapy often cause patients to endure painful side-effects. However, the emerging field of nanotechnology is introducing new drug delivery systems, utlitizing nanoparticles known as micelles. My goal is to improve upon these methods, so that the assembly of micelles can be more thoroughly controlled and predicted. My hope is that my research can be used for the long-term goal of perfecting polymer-based nanoparticle drug delivery treatments for cancer.

“A Verse to Verse: Music and Poetry in Renaissance England ”

Renaissance poetry and music relate to one another in an enigmatic way. Frequently, it is difficult to decipher where one craft begins and the other ends. Yet, many critical responses to Renaissance poetry center on the purely textual form and omit from consideration a poem’s musical setting. The examination of three case studies (Campion, Jonson, and Donne) will provide the opportunity to compare and contrast a number of different ways in which music and poetry interact. Does the writer see song-writing as either integral or comparable to the writing process? How complex are references to music and what does this complexity (or lack thereof) reveal? What do these authors use music to illustrate and what does this demonstrate about the nature of music itself?

“Hip Hop Theatre”

What is the hip hop theater aesthetic? How can tactics for reaching a younger audience take advantage of hip hop’s marketing techniques? How does this new art form manifest itself globally? This summer I will be asking these questions to prepare for a performance in Scotland at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where I will have a run of twenty-four performances. There is a vast difference between the form and the content of my research. The challenge in developing the research form is finding effective ways to use what I learn about hip hop history and find the drama in it. The content of my research requires a different type of research that is more geared toward my creative side and the experience of ‘doing’.