Only recently has mainstream American theatre celebrated minority representation on the stage. Small percentages of ethnically diverse actors perform in American theatre due to character-casting limitations and white male playwrights which dominate theatrical history and limit the representation of our diverse and multicultural world. By adapting the Hebrew Book of Ruth to stage, I hope to contribute a female voice and provide opportunities for women of ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic diversity on the stage. Like Shakespeare’s plays, this adaptation will be written in verse; however, "Pilgrims Far from Home" mimics the style of Hebrew and Ottoman poetry to pay homage to the story’s origins and contribute to the diversity of voices outside of the western poetic style. This story emphasizes female relationships and how our sisterhood can unify people of different walks of life. "Pilgrims Far from Home" brings this ancient religious text into the 21st century by addressing contemporary issues such as otherness, particularly in light of refugee crises. My project aims to contribute to the diversity of contemporary American theatre by using a well-known and multi-cultural story to address and ease the suffering relationships between peoples in our present-day society.

X chromosome aneuploidy refers to an atypical number of X chromosomes, differing from two X chromosomes in females, or one X and one Y chromosome in males. Unusual numbers of chromosomes arise from errors in cell division that result in too many or too few chromosomes in a cell, with X aneuploidy reported to occur in around 1 in 1000 births depending on the disorder. X chromosome aneuploidy disorders, such as Klinefelter (47, XXY), Triple X (47, XXX) and Turner (45, XO) syndromes are associated with developmental abnormalities, including cognitive and cardiovascular defects. Our goal is to generate isogenic induced Pluripotency Stem Cells (iPSCs) with different numbers of X chromosomes from patients with X aneuploidy, and subsequently differentiate them into relevant cell types to identify genes affected by aneuploidy. Our lab has previously generated isogenic XXY and XY iPSCs from patients with Klinefelter’s Syndrome by removing the extra inactive X chromosome (Xi). My project is to establish and characterize isogenic lines from mosaic XXY/XY patients, who have a mixture of cell karyotypes. Specifically, I am screening iPSC clones derived from mosaic patients for expression of XIST, a gene expressed only from the Xi, by RT-PCR to determine presence or absence of the Xi. Isogenic control XY iPSC lines derived from the same patient serve as a control to XXY cells, lessening potential for confounding variables due to differences between individuals. Next, I will screen clones with different genotypes for integration of reprogramming vectors by genomic DNA-PCR. Integration-free isogenic XXY and XY clones will be differentiated into cardiomyocytes, neural progenitor cells, and cortical organoids, cell types that are associated with the adverse effects of X aneuploidy. By doing so, we hope to gain insight into gene expression and epigenetic changes associated with X aneuploidy phenotypes in a controlled genetic environment.
 

La Llorona's ghostly figure has haunted the pages of Chicanx literature for years as the monstrous woman. While her story shifts forms depending on the cultural context, the essentials remain: she was a woman, wronged by the father of her children, who now wanders the rivers at night wailing for the two children she drowned in anger, grief, or desperation. She has often been considered a monstrous figure whose function has been to regulate female identity. However, authors like Gloria Anzaldúa and Sandra Cisneros have sought to reclaim this ghostly visage from the grasp of patriarchal structures that condemn la Llorona's actions. Anzaldúa's poem "My Black Angelos" and Sandra Cisneros' short story "Woman Hollering Creek" revise la Llorona to acknowledge the female agency she represents. While critics have focused on feminine agency in these works, the function of the monstrous has been overlooked. The monstrous usually refers to something feared or uncanny with women and people of color's bodies representing cultural fears, but in these cases the monstrous is reimagined as a tool for agency. Through the lens of monster theory, and drawing on the theories of Jeffrey Cohen, Cristina Santos, and Luce Irigaray, this paper argues that Anzaldua's and Cisneros' representations of la Llorona develop feminine agency and community just as other critics have mentioned, but they also complicate monster theory by resituating the subjectivity to account for the postive monster of la Llorona. Through this, monster theory's dependence on a self/other dichotomy falls away and, with it, la Llorona's position as only a monster to be feared. Instead, these representations of la Llorona invite Chicanx women into the community of the monstrous, where Cisneros and Anzaldúa transform it from an androcentric space of "othering" and oppression to one of belonging and power. 

British women participated in public political work at a higher rate than ever before during the 1906 United Kingdom general election campaign. Working as fundraisers, door-to-door canvassers, and even orators, women were particularly active in debating the campaign's central economic question: should Britain uphold the free trade policies it had maintained since the 1840s, or should it follow its economic rivals, Germany and the United States, in strengthening tariff protections? Dorothy M. Hunter (1881-1977) rose to prominence during this period as a compelling public speaker who worked on behalf of the Liberal Party and its free trade agenda. Her career serves as a fascinating case study for understanding how some British women established their credibility in traditionally male spheres at the beginning of the twentieth century; nevertheless, historians of the Edwardian era have largely overlooked her work. Based on an analysis of the collection of Hunter's documents held at the Surrey History Centre in Woking, England, this paper argues that Hunter built her authority as an activist in the public sphere upon the conventional understanding of women's power over the private sphere. Following the rhetorical tradition established by Victorian philanthropists, Hunter increased the scope of her influence by extending the definition of "the household" and "domestic duty" to encompass public life and civic virtue. This strategy is present throughout her work from 1900 to 1914, from emotionally persuasive didactic literature written early in her career to economic arguments presented in public meeting halls at the height of her fame.

Photovoltaic devices are a crux of renewable energy generation. Organic photovoltaic devices build on this by being flexible and easily processable. This research project aims to produce photovoltaic wires and a general process for solution-based wire coating. A thin stainless-steel wire is coated with three layers: an electron transport layer, a photoactive polymer layer, and a hole transport layer. Then this wire is wrapped with a silver counter electrode. These wrapped wires will be coated in a UV curable polymer to protect the polymer coating from degradation. This final product, a solar power generating wire, will have its photoconversion efficiency tested. Currently, our project team is characterizing the initial coated wire using scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy to determine the effectiveness of our coating method. To supplement this, we are researching how others have tackled characterizing thin coatings for objects with small surface areas. We are also working on designing processing improvements to the wire coating device both by investigating industry wire coating techniques. We hope that our designs are an example of a scalable solution processing method for organic photovoltaic wires. Our prototype device can be used for general wire coating applications and the current photovoltaic product is an example of a potential product. In the future, this device could be used to solution process more efficient organic photovoltaic wires by leveraging different polymers and polymerization techniques.

Baylisascaris procyonis is a predominant parasitic infection of raccoons (Procyon lotor) in the Pacific Northwest, commonly referred to as “raccoon roundworm”. Raccoons serve as definitive hosts of the parasite, harboring adult worms in their intestine and shedding eggs in their feces. Infection can be spread to humans, dogs, birds and rodents through incidental consumption of eggs or other infected animals. Maturation of eggs occurs in the gut before larvae travel to other tissues including the liver, heart, lungs, brain and eyes. Infection causes encephalitis, liver damage, blindness, seizures, coma and death. Understanding the regional prevalence of B. procyonis infection is important for targeting resources for effective treatment. This research seeks to determine the prevalence of B. procyonis infection between geographically distinct raccoon populations of the Pacific Northwest. We expect a greater prevalence of B. procyonis infection in urban groups due to higher population densities. Fecal samples were collected between 2013 and 2020 from three categories of geographical regions: urban, rural and island. Samples were taken from the greater Seattle area (urban), surrounding regions of the Puget Sound (rural) and Blakely Island (island). Wet mounts were prepared from flotations using 1 g of fecal sample in aqueous ZnSO₄ or sugar solution. Samples were examined using light microscopy to identify the presence of B. procyonis eggs and nematode larvae. Current data shows a greater prevalence (p = 0.018) of B. procyonis eggs in urban populations compared to rural and island populations. There appears to be no difference in nematode larvae prevalence between geographical locations (p = 0.586) suggesting nematode infections in rural and island populations are likely not B. procyonis. This data provides valuable information to educate the public about the risk of B. procyonis infection and take preventative measures to protect humans and domestic animals. 

One fundamental difference between sexes is that females have two X chromosomes, and males have one. This leads to an X chromosome gene dosage imbalance between sexes. X chromosome inactivation (XCI) in females is the process where one X chromosome is inactivated to balance gene dosage. However, some genes remain expressed from the inactive X (Xi) resulting in higher gene expression in females, suggesting these genes may play a female-specific role. My project focuses on Kdm6a, an X-linked escape gene that encodes a histone demethylase that removes trimethylation on lysine 27 of histone 3 (H3K27me3), a histone modification associated with gene repression and highly enriched on the Xi. Using hybrid embryonic stem cells (ES) with a Kdm6a knock out (KO), I contributed to a study demonstrating that KDM6A enhances gene expression in a maternally biased manner, suggesting it is capable of distinguishing parental alleles of genes. I then explored whether KDM6A also regulates allelic expression from the Xi. We hypothesized that Kdm6a KO will lead to decreased escape gene expression from the Xi via increased H3K27me3 at the promoters of escape genes. We have established an F1 hybrid ES cell model to ablate KDM6A protein levels by CRISPR/Cas9. Importantly, these cells have skewed XCI, which facilitates measurements of gene regulation by KDM6A on the Xi. So far, I have shown that Kdm6a KO leads to reduced expression and complete loss of the protein. I confirmed that KO cells retain both X chromosomes in culture and that KO results in reduced capability for differentiation. Next, we initiated studies to measure allele-specific expression of X-linked genes and to determine whether gain of H3K27me3 due to loss of KDM6A may explain expression changes on the Xi. Results from this study will help identify potential therapeutic targets for individuals with super numery X chromosomes.