2026 I.S. Symposium | Panel and Presentation Schedule
See below for a complete schedule of in-person oral presentations. Use the search function in the table to find students by name, area of study, or advisor.
Back to 2026 Symposium Page Printable Schedule (pdf)
| Time | Room | Presenter | Project Title | Major(s) | Advisor(s) | Panel Theme |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 am | APEX Commons | Emme Buckel | Democratic Political Judgment in the Age of Post-Truth: An Analysis of Arendt, Habermas, and Foucault | Political Science | Désirée Weber; Sid Simpson | Democracy and Its Challenges |
| 10:00 am | APEX Commons | Maddie Rae Frazier | Deciding Who Belongs: Immigration Through Deliberation and Agonistic Democracy | Political Science | Désirée Weber; Sid Simpson | Democracy and Its Challenges |
| 10:00 am | APEX Commons | Samanatha Harris | The Politics of Death: Race, Class, and the Legitimacy of Capital Punishment in America | Philosophy; Political Science | Lee McBride; Sid Simpson | Democracy and Its Challenges |
| 10:00 am | Allen Commons | Rory Paradowski | The Case of the Missing PFAS: Determining the Partitioning Behavior of 2-Perfluorohexyl Ethanol | Chemistry | Paul Edmiston | Scientific Potpourri |
| 10:00 am | Allen Commons | Alexis Kulin | The PE Influences Memory Encoding and Retrieval: An ERP Study | Neuroscience | Grit Herzmann | Scientific Potpourri |
| 10:00 am | Allen Commons | Lauren Segura | Using Crystal Size Distribution (CSD) Analysis of Fe-Ti Oxides to Evaluate the Origins of the Hjallin Lens | Geology | Meagen Pollock | Scientific Potpourri |
| 10:00 am | The Alley | Theo Jons | Inferno Suite: for VCVRack and Chamber Ensemble | Music; Computer Science | Dylan Findley; Dan Palmer | Music in Action |
| 10:00 am | The Alley | Hannah Reinicke | Deceptive Cadences: Investigation of the P600 in Sentences and Musical Phrases Within Musicians and Non-Musicians | Psychology; Music | Grit Herzmann; Adam Ewing | Music in Action |
| 10:00 am | The Alley | Jemella Piersol-Freedman | Trans-World Express: German Influences on Anglophone Popular Music | German Studies; Music Education | Mareike Herrmann | Music in Action |
| 10:00 am | CoRE Cube | Jack Freer | NuPoint, Cleveland's Southeast Side, and Community Development Corporations: Community Comes Together | Global Media; Digital Studies | Gregory Shaya | Urban Development |
| 10:00 am | CoRE Cube | Grace Dunlay | Via Chicago: Airbnb Presence and its Effects on Perceptions of Neighborhood Identity and Authenticity within Wicker Park. | Sociology | Heather Fitz Gibbon | Urban Development |
| 10:00 am | CoRE Cube | Charles Cain | Post-Industrial Zoning Law and its Effect on Prevalence of Third Places in Seattle | Urban Studies | Heather Fitz Gibbon | Urban Development |
| 10:00 am | Longbrake Commons | Madeline Fields Halva | Still in Class: An Exploration of Boarding Schools and COVID | Sociology | Anne Nurse | Community & Social Experience |
| 10:00 am | Longbrake Commons | Meghan Willis | They Were Never a Blank Slate Baby: Transnational Adoptees and their Navigation of Grief | Anthropology | Zareen Thomas | Community & Social Experience |
| 10:00 am | Longbrake Commons | Abigail Frock | The Human-Bonobo Interface: Ethnoprimatology and Affiliative Bonobo Behavior in Zoological Gardens | Anthropology; History | Greg Shaya; Pam Frese | Community & Social Experience |
| 10:00 am | Lowry 201 | Kassidy Liles | Sex Education, Sexuality, and Morals: The Failures of Sex Education Across the 20th Century | History | Katherine Holt | Sexuality Studies |
| 10:00 am | Lowry 201 | Trent Patton | An Exploration of the Relationship Between Male Sexual Orientation & Ejaculate Parameters | Biology | Laura Sirot | Sexuality Studies |
| 10:00 am | Lowry 201 | Grace Pryor | The Best Location in the Nation?: Queer Community in 1970s Deindustrializing Cleveland | History | Jordan Biro Walters | Sexuality Studies |
| 10:00 am | Lowry 202 | Brenna Chasney | Tiling the Plane, Breaking the Rules: Aperiodicity and Infinity in Tiling Theory | Mathematics | Pam Pierce | Finding Order & Meaning |
| 10:00 am | Lowry 202 | Libby Haar | When Penrose Tiling Meets the Darb-i Imam: Using Ethnomathematics to Reframe the Discussion | Mathematics; Religious Studies | Pam Pierce; Chan Sok Park | Finding Order & Meaning |
| 10:00 am | Lowry 202 | Walker Wood | Agency and Mortality: Themes in Tolstoy's Literature | Russian Studies | Peter Pozefsky | Finding Order & Meaning |
| 11:00 am | APEX Commons | Jake Lyon | Quantum Leap: An Exploration of the Development of Computing and Cryptography | Computer Science | Dan Palmer | Modeling Data |
| 11:00 am | APEX Commons | Huy Phan | "From Reflexes to Reasoning": Hierarchical Emergence of Decision-Making in Multi-level Agent Based System | Computer Science; Neuroscience | Daniel Palmer; Claudia Thompson | Modeling Data |
| 11:00 am | APEX Commons | Jerry Qicheng Cai | Constructing a "Chinese All-Weather"Strategy: Risk Parity and MomentumOverlays in Continuous Futures Markets | Economics; Statistical & Data Sciences | Huiting Tian; Changzhi Ma | Modeling Data |
| 11:00 am | Allen Commons | Leevan Djirosse | The Intersection of Colonial Legacies, Institutions, and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa | Economics | Amyaz Moledina | Empire & Colonization |
| 11:00 am | Allen Commons | Elisheva Bergman | Shifting Understandings of Sex, Class and Gender in Postwar Japanese Women: 40 Years of Post-War Japanese History | History | Margaret Ng | Empire & Colonization |
| 11:00 am | Allen Commons | Ava Caizzo | 'Giving Back’ as a Performative Imaginary: Voluntourism & the Nostalgic Narratives of Empire | Anthropology; Art History | Zareen Thomas; Kara Morrow | Empire & Colonization |
| 11:00 am | The Alley | Flynn Cowie | Coping Through Unpredictability: Physiological, Morphological, and Behavioral Consequences of Unpredictable Feeding in Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata) | Neurobiology; Psychology | Sharon Lynn | Birds & the Forest |
| 11:00 am | The Alley | Emma G. Smith | Sky-Blue Princess: An Analysis of Cerulean Warblers and Whole Songbird Communities through Passive Acoustic Monitoring at Fern Valley Field Station | Biology | Rick Lehtinen | Birds & the Forest |
| 11:00 am | The Alley | Mary Palmieri | Reconstructing Cloud Cover from Tree Rings and Its Relationship with Tree Growth, Northeast United States | Geology; Statistical & Data Sciences | Greg Wiles | Birds & the Forest |
| 11:00 am | CoRE Cube | Nurain Samantha Amier | Reconsidering the Herbs: Tracing Chinese Medicine’s Past and Exploring Its Present Application for Influenza | Biology; Chinese Studies | Stephanie Strand; Rujie Wang | Phi Beta Kappa Dedication |
| 11:00 am | CoRE Cube | Abigail Reytblat | Made-Up Woman: Examining Literary Sources and Material Cosmetic Culture in First-Century Pompeii | Classical Studies | Josephine Shaya | Phi Beta Kappa Dedication |
| 11:00 am | Longbrake Commons | Sylvia Direnzo | Economic Disparities and Human Trafficking in Europe | Economics | Jancy Liu | Humanitarian Crises |
| 11:00 am | Longbrake Commons | Sofi Adams | Humanitarianism & Medicine: Hierarchies of Control in the Rohingya Crisis | History; Neurobiology | Margaret Ng Wee-Siang; Amy Jo Stavnezer | Humanitarian Crises |
| 11:00 am | Longbrake Commons | Seyram Adzo Essey | Controls The Crisis? A Framing Analysis Of Western And Who Controls The Crisis? A Framing Analysis Of Western And Non-Western News Coverage Of The Sudan Crisis In 2023-2025 Non-Western News Coverage Of The Sudan Crisis From 2023 to 2025 | Communication Studies; Global Media & Digital Studies | Mehri Yavari | Humanitarian Crises |
| 11:00 am | Lowry 201 | Kyle Shuler | Death of a Revolution: Writings and Poetry in the Sandinista Revolution | History | Katie Holt | Latinx Culture & History |
| 11:00 am | Lowry 201 | Willow Rodriguez | From Tokenism to Testimonio: Reimagining Latina Girlhood Through Children's Literature | English; Elementary Education | Claire Eager | Latinx Culture & History |
| 11:00 am | Lowry 201 | Lacey Mindock | "...La esperanza es lo último que muere": Latina emerging adults' experiences with stress, coping, political anxiety, and joy | Psychology; Women's, Gender, &Sexuality Studies | Meredith Hope; Jordan Biro Walters | Latinx Culture & History |
| 11:00 am | Lowry 202 | Chrissa Baldy | Understanding Chronic Pain at Its Source: How Small Molecular Changes Drive Pain in Schwannomatosis | Neuroscience | Claudia Thompson | Bias & Mediation |
| 11:00 am | Lowry 202 | Nathan Dieterich | The Role of Institutional Quality in Driving Environmentally Sustainable Economic Growth | Statistical & Data Sciences | Joseph Smith | Bias & Mediation |
| 11:00 am | Lowry 202 | Ian Kelly | Cascading Failures, Course Reversals, and Closures: An Analysis of the Federal Republic of Germany’s Post-Disaster Nuclear Energy Policy and News Coverage of Nuclear Energy | Political Science (Comparative); German Studies | Jeffrey S Lantis; Beth Ann Muellner | Bias & Mediation |
| 12:00 pm | APEX Commons | Evie Sanford | Exploring New Information from an Old Archive: A Record of Abrupt Climate Change from Brown’s Lake | Environmental Geoscience | Eva Lyon | Changing Climate |
| 12:00 pm | APEX Commons | Peter Rothstein | Investigating Impacts of Climate Change on Simulated Ecosystems | Biology; Mathematics | Michael Bush; Jennifer Ison | Changing Climate |
| 12:00 pm | APEX Commons | Taylor Grant | Investigating Changes in Bioerosion Following a Biotic Immigration Event in a Changing Climate | Environmental Studies; Environmental Geoscience | Eva Lyon | Changing Climate |
| 12:00 pm | Allen Commons | Indigo Ly Nelson-Frey | Plants & Ants: A Biological Study of Myrmecochory in Dicentra cucullaria and a Literary Study of the Rhizome & the Hive | Biology; English | Jennifer Ison; Daimys Garcia | Interdisciplinary and Theoretico-Praxical Possibilities |
| 12:00 pm | Allen Commons | Emma Eileen Zhanat Anderson | (Re)turns as Future in Kazakh, English, and Spanish | English; Spanish | Daimys García; Rebecca Garonzik | Interdisciplinary and Theoretico-Praxical Possibilities |
| 12:00 pm | Allen Commons | Jane Nolte | Housefly: Embodying Zoo TV’s Tonality to Confront the Violent Secrecies in Harmonic Analysis of Western Tonal Music | English; Music (BA) | Christopher Kang; Thomas Wood | Interdisciplinary and Theoretico-Praxical Possibilities |
| 12:00 pm | The Alley | Josie Fleischel | If Man is Five, Then the Devil is Six: An Analysis of New Media Technology Influence on the Sustenance of the Satanic Panic | Global Media & Digital Studies | Sasha Allgayer | Societal Critique |
| 12:00 pm | The Alley | Sara Wesolek | “Embarrassed, Frustrated, Unfairly Judged”: Examining the Relationship between Media Frames of Welfare Recipients and Recipient Behavior | Political Science; Sociology | Michele Leiby; Seiko Matsuzawa | Societal Critique |
| 12:00 pm | The Alley | Lucia Johns | History not "Herstory": How dead white men still haunt the American classroom. | History; Education | Ibra Sene; Matthew Broda | Societal Critique |
| 12:00 pm | CoRE Cube | Grey Fowler | The Stonewall Uprising: Memory, Myth, Movement | History; Computer Science | Margaret Ng Wee-Siang; Dan Palmer | PBK Discusses History |
| 12:00 pm | CoRE Cube | Anna Whiting | An Archive of One's Own: Collecting Fandom as a Feminist Project Through the Lens of Star Trek Fanzines | English; Sociology | Claire Eager; Christa Craven | PBK Discusses History |
| 12:00 pm | CoRE Cube | Nathan Budge | Artistic Liberation in Exile: Ovid's Bid for Immortality | Classical Studies | Josephine Shaya | PBK Discusses History |
| 12:00 pm | Longbrake Commons | Ryann Taylor | Changing Communities: An interdisciplinary look at land use along the Maury River | Archaeology; Geology | Eva Lyon; Olivia Navarro-Farr | Societal Evolution |
| 12:00 pm | Longbrake Commons | Trevor Mullen | Fire Pits, Ducks, and Chemical Warfare: The History of Pest Control in China | History; Environmental Studies | Margaret Ng Wee-Siang | Societal Evolution |
| 12:00 pm | Longbrake Commons | Leo Edmonds-Doberenz | Looking Beyond Productivity: Camphill Communities and the Question of Living Socially Well | Philosophy; History | Evan Riley; Margaret Ng Wee-Siang | Societal Evolution |
| 12:00 pm | Lowry 201 | Stuart Franklin | Crowning Crops with Words of Torah: How Adamah Farm Fellows Cultivate Connection in Times of Dislocation | Religious Studies; Education | Jeremy Rapport | Religion in Context |
| 12:00 pm | Lowry 201 | Gabs Mariano Guthrie | "Maraming salamat po sa service": Religion, Labor, and Dress from the Philippines to the Diaspora | Religious Studies | Chan Sok Park | Religion in Context |
| 12:00 pm | Lowry 201 | Iris Roth-Bamberg | Satire, Sympathy, and Society: Representations of the Lower Class in Dutch Print During the Protestant Reformation | Sociology | Anne Nurse | Religion in Context |
| 12:00 pm | Lowry 202 | Seongmin Ro | Investigation of Substrate-Dependent Transient Complex Formation Between PhzM and PhzS Using Dynamic Light Scattering | Biochemistry; Molecular Biology | Mark Snider | Biochemical Research Advances |
| 12:00 pm | Lowry 202 | Jake Enzman | Structural and Kinetic Evidence of Maleamate Amidohydrolase (NicF) in the Bacillus niacini Nicotinic Acid Catabolic Pathway | Biochemistry; Molecular Biology | Mark Snider | Biochemical Research Advances |
| 12:00 pm | Lowry 202 | Abigail Williams | Investigating Stichopus japonicus Arginine Kinase (SjAK) to Understand the Evolution of Negative Cooperativity in Phosphagen Kinases | Biochemistry; Molecular Biology | Mark Snider | Biochemical Research Advances |
| 1:00 pm | APEX Commons | Madeline Veitch | Climate Migration: An Analysis of the Discourse within the European Union and the Economic Community of West African States | Global & International Studies (Economics); French & Francophone Studies | Vedanshi Nevatia; Harry Gamble | Environmental Justice |
| 1:00 pm | APEX Commons | Marine Kang | Not Everyone Recovers from Disaster in the Same Way: Wildfire Risk, Insurance Premiums, and Income-Stratified Migration in California | Economics; English | Jancy Ling Liu; Jennifer Hayward | Environmental Justice |
| 1:00 pm | APEX Commons | Nemsie Gonzalez | A Joint Struggle Against Oppression: Liberation and the Environment | Philosophy;Environmental Studies | Lee McBride III | Environmental Justice |
| 1:00 pm | Allen Commons | Mike Spadaro | COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACHING STYLES AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH TEAM RECORD, PERCEIVED SUCCESS, AND LEVEL OF STRESS | Communication Studies | Mehri Yavari | Performance, Wellbeing, & Stress |
| 1:00 pm | Allen Commons | Mickaela (Mickey) Cameron | Loving What You Do: The Role of Intrinsic Motivation and Clinical Supervision in Job Satisfaction and Burnout for Mental Health Professionals | Psychology | Meredith O Hope | Performance, Wellbeing, & Stress |
| 1:00 pm | Allen Commons | Cianan Hensley | The Effects of Binge Drinking on Memory and Attention | Cognitive Behavioral Neuroscience | Grit Herzmann | Performance, Wellbeing, & Stress |
| 1:00 pm | The Alley | Julia Johnson | Don’t Just Lie There: Analyzing the Systemic Roots and Standards of the Lateral Birthing Position, Impacting Mothers’ Health in US and France | French; Francophone Studies | Marion Duval | Mothers & Reproduction |
| 1:00 pm | The Alley | Gianna Hayes | "Motherborder: Poetry On/Of Bodies" | English; Chemistry | Christopher Kang; Paul Edmiston | Mothers & Reproduction |
| 1:00 pm | The Alley | Laila Burrell | Investigating the Neuroanatomical and Behavioral Consequences of Motherhood | Neuroscience | Amy Jo Stavnezer | Mothers & Reproduction |
| 1:00 pm | The Alley | Annabelle Buyck | Examining Reproductive Health Through a Neuroimmune Lens: Microglial Activity in the Rat Dentate Gyrus | Neurobiology | Amy Jo Stavnezer | Mothers & Reproduction |
| 1:00 pm | CoRE Cube | Michael Kennedy | Winning in the Trenches: Constructing a Wins-Equivalent Framework to Evaluate NFL Offensive Line Performance | Statistical & Data Sciences | Drew Pasteur | Sports & Entertainment |
| 1:00 pm | CoRE Cube | Mariah McKenzie | Whodunit…and Who Directed It?: Analyzing Positionality in True Crime Dramatizations | Global Media & Digital Studies | Jennifer Hayward | Sports & Entertainment |
| 1:00 pm | CoRE Cube | Loyd Ange-Aimé Djirosse | FLEXING FOR THE FEED: INSTAGRAM’S INFLUENCE ON BODY IMAGE AND WORKOUT CULTURE | Communication Studies | Michelle Johnson | Sports & Entertainment |
| 1:00 pm | CoRE Cube | Andrew Bell | Deep in the Heart of Texas: College Football, Race, and Booster Culture Through the Lens of the Southwest Conference | History; Communication Studies | Madonna Hettinger | Sports & Entertainment |
| 1:00 pm | Longbrake Commons | Fridosse Adam Idrissou | Framing Empire: How The New York Times and The Washington Post Sold the U.S. Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934 – and How Black & Haitian Voices Resisted these Imperial Narratives | French & Francophone Studies; History | Ibra Sene; Harry Gamble | US Impacts on the World |
| 1:00 pm | Longbrake Commons | Greg Kania | Aligned Austerity: Impacts of Political Alignment on Government Expenditure Allocations for International Monetary Fund Program Countries | Economics (Global & International Studies concentration) | Amyaz Moledina | US Impacts on the World |
| 1:00 pm | Longbrake Commons | Ethan Hunt | Evaluating the Development Impacts of Climate Finance | Economics | Vedanshi Nevatia | US Impacts on the World |
| 1:00 pm | Lowry 201 | Ezra Wyner | Film and Memory: representations of Russia’s World War II and the Soviet War Cult | History | Peter Pozefsky | Inspired by Study Abroad |
| 1:00 pm | Lowry 201 | Sam Scarbrough | La Cultura Matriz: A Study of Intercultural Exchanges between Societies of the North-Central Andes and Upper Amazon from 1800 BCE to 100 CE | Archaeology | Ricardo Higelin Ponce de León | Inspired by Study Abroad |
| 1:00 pm | Lowry 201 | Jonathan Rueffer | Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning: An Automated, Data-Driven Approach to Parameter Selection for Homomorphic Encryption | Computer Science; Mathematics | Alex Nord | Inspired by Study Abroad |
| 1:00 pm | Lowry 202 | Gabrielle Hoo | Assessing Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infections in Invasive and Native frog species in Jamaica and antifungal properties of Pseudomonas Bacteria | Biology; Music | Stephanie Strand; Richard Lehtinen | Molecular Insights |
| 1:00 pm | Lowry 202 | Ezabella Leulseged Teka | Exploring functional redundancy of glutaredoxins and thioredoxins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae | Biochemistry; Molecular Biology | James West | Molecular Insights |
| 1:00 pm | Lowry 202 | Lauren St. Germaine | A Good Virus: Investigating Increased Antibiotic Sensitivity in Pseudomonas chlororaphis 14B11 Induced by PC2 Bacteriophage Resistance | Biochemistry; Molecular Biology | Stephanie Strand | Molecular Insights |
| 1:00 pm | Lowry 202 | Faiyaz Kasir Hasan | Starving to Build: The Role of Polyphosphate Kinase 1 in Development and Stress Response of Myxococcus xanthus | Biochemistry; Molecular Biology | Dean Fraga | Molecular Insights |