Honors at Ohio University is hosting our second annual conference for honors students’ work in progress.
 

2025 OHIO UNIVERSITY MULTIDISCIPLINARY HONORS CONFERENCE

Monday, March 24
1:30 to 2:20 = Land, Place, and Space within the Arts

• Cayla Otto, “Sustaining the History of the Athens Insane Asylum with Land-conscious Artwork”
• Eliza Russo, “Carved Out: An Exploration of Immersive Design without Actors”
• Kieran Bakunas, “A Weed Is but an Unloved Flower: Using Art to Make Activism More Accessible”
• Leanne Abel, “Writing a Novel: Murphy Hall”

Monday, March 24
2:30 to 3:20 = Land Histories and Futures in Ohio

• Sophia Kuhar, “Out of the Fire, Into the Heat: Heat Resilience in Cleveland, Ohio”
• Rose Mogford, “Our Dearly Departed: Immersive History Tour of the West State Street Cemetery”
• Elizabeth Savitski, “Window Pain: A Survey of Avian Window Collisions on Ohio University’s Athens Campus”
• Ella Spremulli, “From Home to Hazard: The Impact of Industrial Pollution on Cheshire, Ohio”

Monday, March 24
3:30 to 4:20 = Community Expression and Support in Appalachian Ohio

• Thomas Faber, “There’s No Place Like SCO-me: Finding Purpose and Home in the Student Cooperative Organization”
• Emily Meckler, “Bringing Science Olympiad to Appalachia”
• Levi-Joseph Facun, “The Impact of the Baileys Trail System on Regional Economic Growth”
• Owen Keller, “Making SPOTLIGHT”

Monday, March 24
4:30 to 5:20 = Knowledge and Identity across Cultural Contexts

• EllieAna Shanklin, “The Implementation of Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in Climate Change Adaptation”
• Kate Wiselogel, “Exploring the Complex Gende and Power Dynamics of the Battle with Grendel’s Mother in Beowulf”
• Quentin Cole, “Northern Thai Culture and Identity: What is ‘Lanna’ in 2025?”
• Bill Putney, “Piracy or the Natural Waves of Cultural Fusion?: A Historical Inspection of White Rock Artists Covering Black Art”

Monday, March 24
5:30 to 6:20 = Examining Existence on Different Scales across STEM Fields

• Jacqueline Kuroda, “Commissioning of New High-Purity Germanium Detector for the Edwards Accelerator Laboratory”
• Andrew Pagan, “Investigating the Evolution of Back-Pattern Polymorphisms in a Lizard Species on Small Islands in the Bahamas”
• Cierra Willis, “Searching for Coydogs: Exploring the Environmental Correlates of Coyote-Dog Introgression in Ohio and Indiana”
• Octavia Hogue, “Temperature Regulation of Virulence in Staphylococcus aureus”

Monday, March 24
6:30 to 7:35 = Community and Family Care across Disciplines

• Paige Harris, “Heart of Athens Outreach”
• Lydia Smith, “An Exploration of Pregnancy in Film”
• Hiley Kresse, “Investigating the Role of Memorable Messages and Narratives of Motherhood within Generation Z”
• Cami Henry-Seymour, “Working with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio”
• Angelina Fierro, “How House Bills 8 and 68 Will Affect Social Workers in the Field”

Tuesday, March 25
1:30 to 2:20 = The Evolution of Honors Education and Experiences at Ohio University

• Group presentation from Sarah Braun, Lola Morana, Eliza Russo, Kate Wiselogel, and Carissa Woods
   

Tuesday, March 25

2:30 to 3:20 = Community Care in Appalachian Ohio and Beyond

• Lily Chongswatdi, “Appalachian String Initiative”
• Arthur Bargainer, “Middle School Mayhem: Reflections on the Athens Youth Community” 
• Ava Wood, “Sustainable Sisterhood: A Study on Sorority Waste Management at Ohio University”
• Cara Finnegan, “Mom360: Parenting in the Digital Age”
   

Tuesday, March 25

3:30 to 4:20 = Data, Narratives, and Our Ways of Knowing

• Natalie Esquivel, “Neoliberalism in Detroit and Flint, Michigan: What the Study of Urban Political Development Reveals about Economics, Inequalities, and Awareness”
• Thien Pham, “‘How Will I Convey the Story?’: The Role of Storytelling in Publicly Engaged Scholarship”
• Yashvita Kanuganti, “Exploring Mind/Body Dualism in Religious Theory”
• Emma Ingraham, “Fourier and Wavelet Analysis of Bird Vocalizations”

Tuesday, March 25
4:30 to 5:20 = Health Research across Disciplines

• Claire Smith, “Assessing the Therapeutic Potential of a Probiotic Bacteria, Lactococcus lactis, for the Prevention of COVID-19”
• Luke Davenport, “Investigation of Chiral Zirconium Nitride Thin Films and Their Applications in Biosensing”
• Paul Gbadebo, “Binding Isotherm Analysis of TAMRA-Labeled RNA and BHQ2C/U Quencher”
• Nora Anderson, “Investigating the Role of Supercoiling on Gene Expression in Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus”

Tuesday, March 25

5:30 to 6:20 = Neuroscience for Social Good across Disciplines

• Cameron Reedy, “Diving into American Sign Language Comprehension: A New Perspective”
• Lauren Mansfield, “Analysis of Baseline Concussion Data in University Marching Band Students”
• LJ Arnold, “Brain AVM without Bodyguards”
• Leah Fraker, “R is for Rohypnol: The Physiological and Social Effects of ‘Roofies’”

Tuesday, March 25
6:30 to 7:35 = Impacts of Representation and Misrepresentation across Cultures

• Eleanor Cruz, “Gabriel García Márquez’s ‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ and Contexts of Immigration”
• Emily Hall, “Behind the Iron Curtain: East German Intelligence and the Soviet Influence”
• Hali Bridges, “Rediscovering Black Histories in Spain: Cultural Contributions and Overlooked Legacies”
• Julianna Rittenberg, “Don’t Let the Hate Distract You: Anti-LGBTQ+ Attacks as a Tool of Campaign Disinformation”
• Lily Waskiewicz, “Myanmar: Disinformation, Hate Speech, and the Rohingya Muslim Genocide”

So much great work is created through a process. That process might involve questioning, discovering, retooling, and navigating challenges. This conference celebrates the journey of creative, research, and community engagement. Undergraduate students of all years, fields, and majors will present on research projects, community engagement, and creative activities that are either complete or works in progress. These projects may be, for example, a research study on water quality, an exploration of how you are preparing for a musical performance, or reflections on your leadership of a student group.

Our theme this year is "the big picture". Each student presentation will address in some way the broader cultural, environmental, political, scientific, and/or social contexts that make their project meaningful and timely to a general audience of their peers.

This conference also celebrates multidisciplinary connections. Presentations will be grouped into panels on related topics across disciplines. Presenters will also have the opportunity to hone their presentation skills in advance of the conference through preparatory workshops.

Prizes will be awarded at the conference for creative questions and innovative ideas.

The event will take place in the Living Learning Center (rooms 102, 104, and 150) on March 24 and 25, 2025.

If you have any questions, please email Chris Lewis at christopherlewis@ohio.edu and/or Amy Strieter at as074121@ohio.edu.