Fall 2001 MAPs
ANTHROPOLOGY: "ANT 490: Senior Thesis: Hardship on the Black Sand: Changing Trade Relations Among the Sinagua at New Caves." Carl Drexler [Professor Kathy Kamp]. This project focuses on the Sinagua, a people who lived in the Black Sand area of northern Arizona until the 14th century. Near the end of this time, they moved from their homes on the flats to larger villages high up on the surrounding mesas and cinder cones and shortly thereafter abandoned the area for good . I will analyze the changes in trade patterns revealed by a comparison of shell, ceramic, argillite, and turquoise artifacts from the later sites of New Caves Pueblo and Bench Pueblo with earlier Sinagua sites, then offer a model for why the Sinagua underwent these shifts in habitation patterns. World Systems Theory will provide a theoretical background for this study.
ANTHROPOLOGY: "ANT 490: Senior Thesis: A Window on the Way it Was: Limited Excavation and Extensive Archaeological Survey of Cohonina Culture sites on Paradise Ridge, Kaibab National Forest, Northern Arizona." Nathan Gingerich [Professor Kathy Kamp]. The Cohonina are a poorly understood prehistoric culture that occupied the Coconino Plateau in northern Arizona from around 750-1100 A.D. This project builds on two previous summers' archaeological survey work for the Kaibab National Forest, and two small excavations undertaken in the summer of 2001. MAP funding is currently being used to analyze botanical remains from the excavations in one of the first concentrated attempts to elicit empirical evidence of Cohonina diet and subsistence practices. Survey and excavation results are being discussed in an anthropology senior thesis aimed at reconstructing Cohonina life-ways using an ecological-anthropological approach. The thesis will more generally involve a critical survey, application, and discussion of ecological anthropology in the context of Cohonina archaeology.
ANTHROPOLOGY: "ANT 490: Senior Thesis: Prehistoric Caribbean Subsistence Strategies: Adaptive Changes Through Time." Nadia Manning [Professor Kathy Kamp]. Research was undertaken over the summer in the Caribbean looking at prehistoric subsistence practices and diet. My project specifically focused on an examination of the choice in subsistence practices as a form of adaptation to the island biogeographies that prehistoric peoples moving from the South American mainland into the Antilles were making their homes. Through the use of certain variables I hope to trace patterns of food-getting behaviours in relation to specific conditions of particular islands. Distinction is made in particular between strategies which reflect a terrestrial-based economy or a marine-based economy. I spent the majority of the summer in retrieval of information from the Barbados Museum and Historical Society (collections and curators), libraries, and archives. I attended a field school in Jamaica run by Dr. William Keegan from the University of Florida. We excavated sites within two time periods (Saladoid and Ostionoid ), which reflect settlement over time, paying close attention to materials reflecting food sources exploited. This research will culminate in the writing of a senior thesis in which I attempt to analyze information on food-getting behaviour and how the choices made reflect a form of adaptation.
ART: "ART 490: Senior Thesis." Ashley Jones [Professor Gerald Lalonde]. "Is it from Roman Egypt after all?" presented on campus, February 2002.
ART: "ART 491: Senior Project." Michael Scott-Rudnick [Professor Bobbie McKibbin]. My work will deal with the construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction of paintings. Producing original works of art, as well as utilizing the discarded work of other students, I plan to dissect the canvasses with scissors in a random fashion. The result of this will be fragments of the original works, which I will then use to construct a painting that combines the interesting subsections of several different paintings. Upon completion, the works will be exhibited flush with each other, and rearranged periodically to create an ever-changing work of art. In doing this, I hope to gain a better understanding of abstract composition and aesthetic design.
BIOLOGY: "The Role of the LGJ14 Locus in the DNA-Damage Response of Acinetobacter sp. Strain ADP1." Elizabeth Ottesen [Professor Leslie Gregg-Jolly]. The purpose of this project is to examine the role of the LGJ14 locus in the DNA damage response of Acinetobacter sp. Strain ADP1. The role of this unknown gene will be examined by directed mutagenesis, and we will attempt to isolate a mRNA transcript of this region. This information will be used to analyze the function of this gene and tis relationship to neighboring genes involved in cell division regulation. This work will be presented in a scientific paper, and in a departmental seminar during the spring semester of 2002.
BIOLOGY: "Characterization of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus Stationary Phase Genes." Jeremy Barton [Professor Bruce Voyles]. This project will be concerned with characterizing stationary phase genes, those genes which are turned on when the bacteria ceases growing in log phase. The primary research samples will be taken from a library of modified Acinetobacter calcoaceticus into which Professor Voyles has randomly inserted a promoterless LacZ-Kn reporter cassette. The isolated strains express LacZ when subjected to starvation conditions, and thus the LacZ cassette serves as a marker to isolate stationary phase genes. This project will continue the characterization of these genes started over the summer, and will result in the extensive characterization of at least one of the stationary phase genes. Jeremy will present his results at a poster session sponsored by HHMI in spring 2002.
ECONOMICS: "Male & Female Completion Rates for Graduate Business School." Katharine Anderson [Professor Mark Montgomery]. The paper I hope to write using data from GMAC on GMAT registrants examines whether gender and fertility affect the probability of attending and completing business school. I will attempt to quantify the affect of being female and having kids on the rates of attendance and completion among young applicants using regression analysis. The results of this study will be presented at the Midwest Economics Association meeting in March 2002.
PSYCHOLOGY: "The Interaction of Motor, Cognitive, and Verbal Skills in the Development of Human Infants." Laura Philipp [Professor Ann Ellis]. The goal of my MAP is to uncover some interplay of motor, cognitive, and verbal development in human infants. My participants will be 14-15 month old infants. Parents will have informed consent and will bring their infant in for 2-4 sessions, with the sessions being one week apart. At each session, I will test the motor task abilities of the participants using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development or some similar measure, their verbal abilities using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory for words and gestures, and their cognitive abilities using the measure of mean run lengths on sequential touching categorization tasks. I will also use a longitudinal design to measure whether an increase in verbal skills is related to an increase in motor and cognitive skills for each individual infant. I expect to find a positive relation between language, advanced motor task abilities, and categorization abilities in infants. The results of my MAP, for which I will write a paper and present on campus and at a professional psychological conference, will aid in the research on the patterns of development of categorization in relation to other skills, which is still widely unexplored through psychological research.
PSYCHOLOGY: "The Neurochemistry of Memory Modulation." Katharine Simmons [Professor Ken Short]. One model of memory emphasizes consolidation, a process that allows memories to go from a highly vulnerable to a permanent or resistant state. The process of altering ongoing consolidation is termed memory modulation. Traditionally, the focus in research on memory modulation processes has been directed at beta-adrenergic sites in a region of the brain called the amygdala. Recently, however, serotonin 1A receptors in the amygdala have been cited as having a role in memory modulation, albeit an unclear role. In order to study some of the direct effects of serotonin modulation on consolidation, I will perform single-trial passive-avoidance tasks with rats, and influence their brain chemistry afterward by injecting specific serotonergic drugs through cannulae implanted in the amygdala. I hope that through alteration of neurotransmitter functions at specific sites related to consolidation of the learned avoidance memories, I will develop an understanding of the roles of serotonin and other neurotransmitters in the memory modulation process. This research is helpful in our understanding of memory function, especially about the process behind emotional and attentional modulation of memory strength. This research project will culminate in a paper and a departmental presentation.
RELIGIOUS STUDIES/RUSSIAN: "THS 497: Senior Thesis: Leaving Utopia: An Autobiographical Perspective of Life within the Transcendental Meditation Movement, a New Religious Movement." Ben Meade [Professor Henry Rietz and Professor Kelly Herold]. The purpose of this project is twofold. First, this project aims to challenge the stereotyping of New Religious Movement devotees by showing that each individual has specific and particular experiences. Second and more specifically, this project aims to communicate the challenges of identity construction faced by an individual raised within an NRM. For the purposes of this study we will look specifically at the Transcendental Meditation Movement. This study will take an insider perspective on NRMs through the genre of autobiographical creative nonfiction. Then, a critical analysis of the work produced will be appended, an analysis that applies an “outsider” approach to the autobiographical narrative. Ben presented his results on campus, December 2001.
SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: "Biomedical Technology and the Perfection of Human Life." Seminar [Professor Liz Queathem and Professor Kent McClelland]. Jeremy Barton, Joslyn Bennett, Jane Chang, Amanda Chatterley, Christine Dolph, Sarah Evans, Christopher Liverman, Rachel Nielsen, Daniel Olson, Laura Philipp, Margaret Seater, Binyam Taddese, Toya Terry, Tharaphi Than, Kendra Young. Participants will explore the social, economic, legal, and ethical implications of rapidly changing health care technologies. Possible topics include: reproductive technologies; psychoactive drugs; gene therapies; anti-aging therapies and longevity; weight loss therapies; sexual performance therapies; cosmetic surgery; body sculpting; excessive use of antibiotics; marketing of pharmaceutical agents; and the use of pharmaceutical agents in the Third World. Students from a variety of majors will work in teams to research and write interdisciplinary papers that summarize and evaluate in publicly accessible language the current debates on these topics. Together with guest experts, students will conduct roundtable discussions of hotly debated issues. Participants will also make public presentations on selected topics. The course will culminate in the construction of a website that serves as a resource compendium on these issues for the general public.