2024 Cohort & Projects

Hugo Welsh ’25

Since coming to college, Hugo has begun doing stand-up comedy as a personal interest. This habit has sparked a curiosity into the history of live entertainment itself, more specifically that of the local Easton area. Through his research, Hugo aims to capture the colorful past of today’ssleepy town of Easton.

Project: Showbiz in Easton: Bringing back a forgotten golden age in our little town

I’ve created a StoryMap designed to recapture the peak of the entertainment industry in Easton. There where a total of 43 theaters here over the years, of which only 29 had enough information available to map and document. To do this I’ve had to collect data from the Easton Public Library Marx Room, which contained a variety of historical articles ranging from photographs and tickets to historical essays. Additionally I also interviewed local expert on the topic Kenneth Klabunde who helped narrow in my focus on the topic. Together, the product of these endeavors allowed me to tell a story of this exciting time in Easton.

Platforms and Tools used: ArcGIS Story Maps

Kelsey Wong ’25 (Biochemistry & Spanish major)

Kelsey studied the movement of Chinese/East Asian immigration in Latin America, asking how effective are the varying types of visual media—i.e. film, music, and literature— to provide an accessible space for the Chinese diaspora to bring awareness to their lived experiences in order to break harmful stereotypes in Spain? To what extent does the accessibility of these mediums enforce the negative perception of them?

Project: Investigating history and experiences of the Chinese Diaspora in Spain

Platforms and Tools used:  Wix, WordPress, YouTube

Damoi Morgan ’25 (Music and Economics major)”
Damoi Morgan, Class of 2025. Music and Economics Double Major. I completed this project while in Dakar, Senegal and Split, Croatia! I am a student of the world. Being from Brooklyn, New York and having a Jamaican Father and Trinidadian Mother, I was deeply immersed in my West-Indian heritage. The steel pan is my main instrument and while being an academic as there is power in knowledge, I am also a musician. I have been playing the steel pan for 5 years (2024) and I have been a percussionist since I was born, hitting the side of my dad’s car to the radio. Because of my avid love for music and traveling, I developed this project to allow my passion to be put to use. I always want to involve myself in academia in which I can be apart of and contribute, which is why studying, analyzing, and living within other people’s art is so powerful for me.

Project: From Resistance to Diplomacy: Steel Pan & National Anthems

Platforms and tools used: Scalar, YouTube

Chris Yoon ’26 (Economics & Government & Law major)”
Chris Yoon, Class of 2026, is an Economics and Government & Law student at Lafayette College with interests in electoral rights, business development, and inclusive tech access. Before attending Lafayette as a non-traditional student, he worked as a Senior Airman, Business Interpreter, Legal Intern, and Book Author. Currently working on his third book, “Yapper Abroad,” he’s seeking contributors eager to push the limits of yapping. Reach out if interested.

Project: Unveiling Exclusion by Machine Learning: The Case for North Korean Defectors

 

Platforms and tools used: GitHub, Naver API (sentiment/thematic analysis) VADER (Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner)

Ella Clabaugh ’25 (International Affairs and Organizational Studies major)”
I am a rising senior studying International Affairs and Organizational Studies at Lafayette, and my interests in affordable housing solutions influence my research. I enjoy learning about how the need for more affordable housing intersects with broader issues including access to educational opportunities and climate change and sustainability. Upon graduating, I plan to pursue further education to build upon skills that will help me to drive impactful change in the affordable housing sector

Project:  Art Fights Back, exploring climate justice through NYC’s street art

Platforms and Tools used: NYC Open Data, Street Art Cities mapping tool, WordPress

Makda Baraki ’27 (Government and Law and International Affairs major).
Makda Baraki, Class of 2027, Government and Law and International Affairs major. I am interested in understanding the journey and narratives of Eritrean migrants across Africa, with a specific focus on their integration into Ugandan society. By exploring the facilitators and barriers to assimilation and both migrant and host community perspectives, I hope to uncover insights into the strategies that support successful integration, contributing to more inclusive communities. This focused examination of Eritrean immigrants in Uganda serves as a gateway to exploring the broader dynamics of migration within Africa.

 

Project: Eritrea on the Move, The Journey and Narratives of Eritrean Migrants Across Africa

Platform and Tools used: ArcGIS Story Maps

 

2023 Cohort & Projects

Fathima Yumna Hussain ’25 (Math & Economics major/Data Science minor)

Fathima is interested in exploring the impact of the India-Pakistan Partition and British colonialism on India’s Dalit caste (also known as the “untouchables”), including their methods of activism to overcome this imposed societal status.

Project: Voices of Dalit Activism: A Collective

Having read Emily Wilcox’s Honors Capstone paper titled “An Investigation of the Intersection between Art and Activism”, her chapter the necessity of artistic expression opened my eyes to the ability that art has to regenerate and restore groups that society has scarred. That was the birth of this project, to create a collective of various types of art practiced by members of the Dalit community whilst providing sufficient context to the art. Historically, the Dalits (दलित) or the “Untouchables” have been at the very bottom of the caste system that is prevalent in the Indian Subcontinent. This social differentiation has significantly impacted the ability of communities at the bottom of the system to achieve their aspirations in any shape or form. Rooted in the Hindu Varna’s, these classifications came about as a result of one’s occupation, wealth, power and privilege.

Platforms and Tools used: Scalar

Padmanabh Kaushik ’25 (Electrical & Computer Engineering major)
Padmanabh intends to study how the aviation sector is responsible for the changing global landscapes of people, technology, media, etc. that result in the evolution of new urban landscapes and culture.

Project: Airports and Urban Development: A Case Study to Illustrate How Aviation is Shaping India’s Silicon Valley, Bengaluru

When we think about cities, we hardly think about the role airports take in shaping them. Airports act as agents of mixed-use urban nodes anchoring a wide range of activities shaping globalization. In scholarly literature, “aerotropolis” is the most ideal form of urban planning that can help airports contribute to economic activities in a city, thereby leading to urban development (Freestone & Baker, 2011). However, there are a lot of debates about the setting and implications of the models which explain airport-driven urban growth. Additionally, not every city is planned based on an “airport-centric” model. The aim of this project is to study how airports act as agents of industrial and economic development, thereby leading to the growth of cities (Florida et al., 2015).

Platforms and Tools used: ArcGIS Storymaps, Gephi, Tableau

Abdi Kusata ’26 (Computer Science major)
Abdi has an interest in economics, environmental science, and art. Being enrolled in a school that offers classes in these diverse fields allows me to explore my interests. Through his research, he wants to uncover both the challenges and the joys of the Ethiopian running culture, revealing its diverse nature and deep and profound impact on Ethiopian society. He aims to offer valuable knowledge about the resilience and determination found in people, the significance of coming together as a community, and the pursuit of personal growth and achievement.

Project: Beyond the Track: Unpacking the Influence of Running Culture in Ethiopia

There are many questions you may ask as you proceed, but one that has guided this process has been this: “What are the underlying factors that shape the running culture in Ethiopia, and how does this culture impact the larger society? Furthermore, what historical successes and potential pitfalls are associated with the running culture, both for the runners themselves and the community at large?”

Platforms and tools used: WordPress, YouTube

Christo Maheras ’26 (Policy Studies major)
Christo wishes to examine the effects of imperialism and migration on languages and dialects such as the Inuktitut language in the central and eastern Canadian Arctic and/or the Hawaiian language in the United States, and illustrate these linguistic pathways using mapping tools.

Project: Linguistic Wealth: Language Standardization in Global Academia and the Effects on Minority Languages

Platforms and Tools used: ArcGIS StoryMaps

Tanushree Sow Mondal ’24 (International Affairs & Economics major)
Tanushree is focused on development and social perceptions of different identities in India; Tanushree’s research project ideas include the portrayal of women in Bollywood film across time; the hip-hop scene within Dharavi, a suburb in Mumbai; and the internal migration of unskilled workers in India and its health implications.

Project: Living in the City: The Migrant Worker Experience in Kolkata

Platforms and Tools used: Adobe Photoshop, Canva, Maya, Unity, WordPress

Zeynep Pilatin ’26 (Art & Computer Science).
Zeynep proposes to investigate the history, development, significance, and cultural influences of the art of tattooing, especially in non-white communities (such as Mayans, Polynesians, and groups in SE Turkey) where tattooing has been a part of the culture for centuries, before its popularity in Western media and society.

Project: Marked by Beauty: Studying Women’s Artistry and Identity through Tattoos

Tattooing as an art form and practice has been around for more than 5000 years. It has developed in and become a part of the culture of many different regions. This research focuses on the historical development and meaning of tattoos and tattooing for women, especially in South East Turkey, the Philippines, New Zealand, and beyond.

Platform and Tools used: Adobe Photoshop, Canva, Maya, Unity, WordPress

2022 Cohort & Projects

Sidath Chandrasena ’25 (Integrative Engineering & International Studies major)
Sidath was born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia and is of Sri Lankan descent. The Sri Lankan Australian community is a growing community, as the 7th largest Asian community in Australia (abs.gov.au, 2020). Being part of this group has motivated him to learn about the early origins of this community through this migration.

Project: Early Sri Lankan Migration to Australia

The mass migration of Sri Lankans to Queensland in the late 19th century is an anomaly in a period of Australia’s exclusively white post-colonial history. Yet in 1882, the SS Devonshire left Galle, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) with 500 Cingalese, bound for Mackay & Bundaberg in North Queensland. Many of these migrants remained in Australia after federation in 1901, despite the hostile environment towards non-Europeans. Little information exists about this migration, apart from a few pieces of literature, newspaper articles and records.

Platforms and Tools used: ArcGIS

Socheata Huot ’25 (Civil Engineering major)
Socheata intends to research aspects of the history of Cambodia; one of Socheata’s potential research questions is concerned with the relationship between humans and the urbanization of the city of Phnom Penh throughout time. What influences the organization of cities on human behavior, community living, and culture?
Project: The Transition of Phnom Penh City: Buildings Development in the Contemporary City

Platforms and Tools used: Description forthcoming

Maya Nylund ’23 (English & Art History major; Film & Media Studies minor)
As an aspiring creative writer invested in social justice, Maya is deeply interested in a fundamental question of fiction: who gets to tell which stories, and how? Her project speculates on the ethics of representation by using distant reading to investigate whether there are qualitative differences in speculative fictions of American slavery produced by authors of different races.

Project: Race and Representation in Counterfactual Speculations of Slavery

As a scholar and aspiring writer, [Maya] was interested in answering a, if not the, fundamental question of fiction: who should have the license to tell which stories? And, by extension, how should they be told? How does one’s own identity impact the products of one’s imagination?

Platforms and Tools used: Canva, Voyant

Emily Ortiz ’23 (Anthropology & Sociology major)
Emily’s academic interests include Queer Caribbean studies, feminist theory, and education Studies.

Project: Queer Caribbeans: Art and Activism

Emily’s research begins by mentioning the influence of art as a form of activism for Queer individuals during the 1980s Aids epidemic. During this devastating time, Queer people, especially Black And Brown Queer people, were the most affected by the disease. Through years of protesting and political organizing, Queer folks gathered in the community to make their voices heard. The contribution of art as a form of activism honors the community organizing that curated social change by LGBTQIA+ members and Queer people of color. This research focuses on the artwork of Queer Caribbean Photographers: Mia Vasquez and Nadia Huggins. Each of their work highlightsthe connections between identity, activism, and art. My main goal for this project is to honor and credit the artwork of Queer Caribbeans, who use their creativity to highlight and represent their communities. Art has the power to cultivate social change but, most importantly, make people feel seen.

Platforms and Tools used: Scalar

Shirel Salinas, ’24 (International Economics major)
Shirel will examine the indigenous language family of Quechua and its use by indigenous communities in Ecuador, and media representations of these contributing to harmful stereotypes of indigenous people.

Project: Investigating Indigenous Language Revitalization in Ecuador

Research Question: To what extent, is indigenous language revitalization possible in Ecuador? ​The research question above came from frustrations Shirel experienced, at a market in Salasaca, Ecuador. Walking around booths, Shirel felt lost from their cousin when looking for bracelets and when asking for directions,came across various people who only spoke to me in Quechua. In previous visits to the country, Shirel always felt involved, encompassed by aromas of their culture, included and at peace, yet, at that moment they felt like a foreigner. Shirel couldn’t help but feel that they neglected a part of themselves they shouldn’t ignore.

Platforms and Tools used: TimelineJS, Wix

Swetha Tadisina ’25 (Computer Science major)
Swetha is interested in learning how technology has been used in the past by different social groups and could be used in the future. Swetha’s project focuses on how three technologies – telegraph, rail, and camera – influenced power dynamics in India during the colonial period.

Project: Rail, Reel, and Telegraph — Technology and its Optics in 19th c. British India

Archival Images from various British and Indian sources’ websites and collections.

Maps from the David Rumsey Collection and University of Chicago’s Digital South Asia Library.

Platforms and Tools used: Google Sheets, Google Slides, Prezi, YouTube

Trang Tran ’25 (Mathematics-Economics & Psychology major with Economics Certificate in Financial Policy and Analysis)
Through the DHSS program, Trang had the chance to learn more about various digital tools, digital methods, and research methodologies and then utilize them to examine a small sample of the Vietnam War coverage in Vietnamese and American contemporary documents including book, textbook, and Wikipedia. Trang’s project attempted to explore the similarities and differences in those reports and present the way these 2 nations, with 2 different political ideologies, shared information regarding the same issue via different platforms for the modern generation.

Project: A Glimpse at the Second Indochina War (The Vietnam War) Through Vietnamese vs. American Public Documents

In this project, by using digital methods and tools for textual analysis, I aimed to explore the differences and similarities between the Vietnam War coverages in English and Vietnamese contemporary materials, and thus, attempted to answer my research question concerning the portrait of this conflict from Vietnamese vs. American modern perspectives. To construct that picture, my project focused on three major events in the Vietnam War, which are Operation Starlite (the Battle of Van Tuong) – the first major offensive action conducted by a purely US military unit, the Tet Offensive – a decisive turning point that leads North Vietnam to victory, and the Fall of Saigon – the final and official victory of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) against the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). Those events occurred throughout the period from when the US military officially entered the Vietnam War in 1965 to the time when a North Vietnamese tank rolled through the gate of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, effectively ending the warfare in 1975.

Platforms and Tools used: ArcGIS StoryMaps, Microsoft Excel, Orange, RStudio

Baris Yazici ’25 (Mathematics & Philosophy major)
Baris is interested in exploring social and economic phenomena and developing social entrepreneurship projects accordingly. Using Twitter to mine data, Baris’s research aimed to understand the Turkish public’s perception and response to the refugee crisis in Turkey with the hope that any findings can be used to make more informed policy decisions to alleviate the growing tensions in Turkey.

Project: Refugee Crisis in Turkey: Exploring the Public Perception

 

Platforms and Tools used: RStudio, Twitter’s API, Voyant

 

2021 Cohort & Projects

Yazdan Basir ’23 (Computer Science major)
Yazdan is a junior Computer Science major with a passion for math and politics. Through DHSS this summer, he was able to investigate novel mathematical models being used to detect partisan gerrymandering in the US, ahead of the 2021 nationwide redistricting cycle. His website aimed to provide a narrative around the process of detecting gerrymandering by establishing definitions, understanding why conventional methods failed, analyzing the mathematical models themselves and the court cases they appeared in, and who gerrymandering affects the most (i.e the significance of this).

Project: Numbers, Districts, and People: The Fight Against Partisan Gerrymandering

The aim of this project is to develop insight and an understanding of the various approaches – from modern mathematics and computer science – being used to detect partisan gerrymandering and why doing so is imperative for the future of democratic systems around the world.

Gerrymandering is a long-standing political phenomena that individuals, organizations, and/or parties abuse for an unfair advantage over the other. It’s just like any tool in the book. However, in my opinion, the ramifications of gerrymandering run far deeper than other political maneuvers used to gain a seat here or there.

Ultimately, this project is an effort to understand & answer the following questions:

1. What are the current methods being used to detect partisan gerrymandering? How effective are they?

2. Why is there even a need to detect gerrymandering in the first place? What’s the big deal?

3. What impact does gerrymandering have in the US today?

Platforms and Tools used: ArcGIS, FiveThirtyEight’s Gerrymandering Project, Github, Google Scholar, JSTOR, ResearchGate, Tufts University’s Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group (MGGG)

Meltem Pelin Çetin ’24 (International Affairs major)
Yazdan is a junior Computer Science major with a passion for math and politics. Through DHSS this summer, he was able to investigate novel mathematical models being used to detect partisan gerrymandering in the US, ahead of the 2021 nationwide redistricting cycle. His website aimed to provide a narrative around the process of detecting gerrymandering by establishing definitions, understanding why conventional methods failed, analyzing the mathematical models themselves and the court cases they appeared in, and who gerrymandering affects the most (i.e the significance of this).

Project: Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul: the City

Cetin argues that the City has never been owned by any state or nation – the City is instead its own entity formed by tensions and coexistence, a transnational space that harboured and still harbours various ethnicities, countries, religions, and cultures.The project attempts to combine and connect the various forms of humanities such as the historical works based on the City, the literary narratives of the City and the visual arts inspired by the City in the project to evoke the senses of the audience through the use of digital art components, including but not limited to digital images, videos, photographs, sound, music.

Platforms and Tools used: Citation Machine, Google Sheets, iMovie, Pexels, Voyant, Wix

Photography & videography by Ahmet Akpolat, Meltem Pelin Çetin, Ceyhun Derbederoglu, Mayra Kalaora, Polina Kovaleva, Bhargava Marripati, Nadezhda Moryak, Christopher Schultz, and Enes Berk Sengöz.)

Mariatou Coulibaly ’23 (Africana studies, Anthropology and Sociology)
Mariatou developed a project about the New York City LGBTQ+ ballroom scene, examining specific categories within a ball which are glamorous reflections of how society sees or interprets queer and non-conforming bodies in public, and exploring its history through a diverse and detailed timeline.

Project: welcome to our house: an exploration of queer world-making in New York City’s underground ballroom culture

CThe goal of this project is to identify how the construction of homes and families within the ballroom community uplifted and celebrated queer, trans, and gender non-conforming Black and/or LatinX youth in New York City.

Platforms and Tools used: Cargo, Google Voice, Instagram, Otter.ai, Tik Tok, Twitter

Isaiah Moore ’22 (Environmental Studies and Economics major)
Isaiah explored how gardening is used as a form of activism in Detroit’s black community. By reading the work of food scholars, studying historical activism in Detroit, and connecting with black growers in Detroit, they developed an understanding of how the visions of today’s farmers align with the visions of earlier activists. On their website, they try to illustrate these connections by analyzing a speech given by a prominent Civil Rights activist Grace Lee Boggs. What is presented is just one interpretation of the growing movement of black urban farmers in many cities across the nation today.

Project: Urban Agriculture and Activism: A Case Study of Detroit

My name is Isaiah Moore. While this is my personal story, it is by no means unique. Across the nation and throughout history black farmers have used land, water, and sunlight to build autonomy within their communities, and develop the capacity to make decisions about their own food. In this project, I will attempt to share one inspiring example with you. I started a garden in the summer of 2020, but I’d been planning one for years. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, my family and I grew squash, melons, beets, peppers, tomatoes, and herbs as a way to pass time, but also to have access to fresh produce when it was needed. What the garden represented for us was an opportunity to exercise some amount of agency over the foods we consumed within a food system that did not recognize this as a basic right for everyone. It had been my observation of this disparity that sparked my interest in gardening years prior.

Platforms and Tools used: R, Wix

Olivia Newman ’22 (International Affairs major with an Environmental Studies minor)
As a Jewish American, Olivia has always been interested in the way information about Israel and the Israel-Palestine Conflict are taught to Jewish children, and how that impacts their views on and understanding of the conflict as young adults.

Project: The Impact of Hebrew School Education on Young Jewish American Opinion on Israel-Palestine

As an American Jew, this issue has been an important aspect of my life ever since I originally learned of its existence. However, as I have progressed through my education and been exposed to varying ideas and world views, my understanding of the conflict has changed drastically, and I believe that many other young American Jews have had similar experiences.

Marisa Kabas, for instance, “a second-generation American Jew and granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor…was raised to unequivocally support Israel” (Kabas 2). However, after the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a Muslim holy site in East Jerusalem, was invaded in May of 2021, Kabas expressed her disdain for the country’s actions on Twitter. She was surprised by the response she received, which was:

“overwhelmingly affirmative…with fellow American Jews publicly and privately agreeing they’re no longer able to accept the party line on Israel-U.S. relations. They’ve been grappling with the version of Israel presented on trips organized by groups like Birthright versus what they’ve seen unfold on the ground, how to square their love for their people and history with their commitment to racial and social justice, and how Israel’s actions in Palestine seem to fly in the face of “tikkun olam” — the Jewish principle of improving the world through action” (Kabbas 4).

Clearly, many young American Jews are struggling to reconcile what they have been taught about Israel and the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the events they see occurring in real time. The goal of this project is to serve as a starting point for American Jews who were raised to unquestioningly support Israel and Zionism to begin to unpack those belief systems, and understand why and how they came to the conclusions they hold today. I believe that this understanding will be helpful in encouraging American Jews to explore the Palestinian experience over the last seven decades, and gain a better understanding of the Palestinian cause.
Platforms and Tools used: Scalar, Voyant (Cirrus)

Catherine O’Connor ’23

Project: Individualism and Collectivism: An American and Indonesian Comparison and Analysis on Federal Government Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this project, I studied the impact of individualism and collectivism as typical dimensions to describe eastern and western countries, using The United States and Indonesia to represent the East and the West, respectively, in my case study. COVID-19 emphasized that individualistic or collectivistic orientations impact both day-to-day life and tumultuous events. In this case: a pandemic. So, I asked myself: do the influences of collectivism or individualism within culture also extend to the actions and responses of federal governments? And did the response of the United States, as a historically, politically, economically, and socially individualistic country, differ from the response of Indonesia’s central government as a country deeply rooted in collectivism.

You will see that Americans and Indonesians are impacted socially and culturally by individualism and collectivism in this project. However, the responses and actions of former United States President Donald Trump and current Indonesian President Joko Widodo to the COVID-19 pandemic do not appear to have significant differences. Therefore, the cultural differences between individualistic and collectivist cultures are not reflected or extended in the actions of the federal government.

Platforms and Tools used: Scalar, TimelineJS, YouTube

 

Sarah Scally ’22
Sarah expands on her work scanning The Marquis Literary Magazine as a Digital Scholarship Services (DSS) assistant by finding eight poems, one for each decade the magazine was active in, that discuss the lives of students at the time, e.g. creating one’s schedule, finding love on campus, having fear around safety in the wake of tragedy, etc. She then used these poems as inspiration to write poems about modern student’s lives, using similar voices to the original narrators.

Project: In The Manner of The Marquis Literary Magazine

The Inspiration for this project has been the book Poems in the Manner of by David Lehman. In his introduction Lehman states “[he] had in mind the shibboleth that in the writing of poetry, to have a distinctive “voice” is everything. There is a counterview, demonstrated by Fernando Pessoa, inventor of “heteronyms,” that the poet should adopt as many names, personae, masks—call them what you will—as suits his or her personality.” This brought him to write a book with the inspiration of world-renowned poets, the ones on the cover for example.

Platforms and Tools used: WhatTheFont, Wix

Ali Sultan Sikandar ’23
I am Ali Sultan Sikandar, a Computer Science major and a rising junior. My DHSS project is titled the ‘Unsung Heroes of the Indian Subcontinent Partition’ and it aims to pay a tribute to the forgotten heroes of the Partition through their preserved memories.

Project: Unsung Heroes Of The Indian Subcontinent Partition

The partition of the subcontinent was one of the major historical events of the twentieth century, and while the events leading up to it are documented well in many books across the globe, there are many stories that did not ever make it to the mainstream. Highlighting these stories is essential, since they not only let us experience the partition through the eyes of people who saw it firsthand, but also shed light on people who achieved feats of heroism without getting enough recognition.

These stories come mostly from oral interviews spread across the internet. The SOAS archive of Partition Voices, (https://study.soas.ac.uk/partition-voices-soas-archive/), the 1947 Partition Archive by Stanford Digital Library (https://www.1947partitionarchive.org/), and the book Partition Voices: Untold British Voices are the three most potent primary resources when it comes to extracting some great stories.

Platforms and Tools used:ArcGIS StoryMaps

Saide Singh ’23
2021 DHSS Teaching Fellow