Liberal Arts and Sciences Symposium

1 – 2 p.m., Trustee Room, Turner Lynch Campus Center

“Driving Social Change: A Persuasive Speech Competition,” featuring students from Dr. Gittens Wheeler’s Persuasion and Social Movements class

Congratulations to the winner, Liliana Alvarado!

Presenters:
Liliana Alvarado – “Support and Understanding for Undocumented Students at Oglethorpe”
Lacey Frye – “The Intersection of Ableism and Racism in Police Violence”
Zuri Johnson – “Less Violence, More Learning: School Shooter Drills and Child Safety”
Will Miller – “The Invisibility of Disability”
J Patnett – “Our New Culture: An Innovative Strategy For Tackling Islamophobia”

• 1 – 2 p.m., Cousins Center 335

Hammack School of Business Student Internship Presentations

Box lunches will be provided for the first 40 attendees.

• 6 p.m., Lupton Auditorium

Honors and Awards Ceremony (invites will be emailed), 6pm, Lupton Auditorium

Cocktails served beginning at 5:30pm, followed by a 6pm dinner.

• Kate Arett, “Synthesis of tripodal phosphoric ligands with variations of 2-bromo-pyridine/Art conservation research in collaboration with OUMA”
• Heather Austin, Kayla Cooper and Aitana Regalado, “Analysis of DEP in Moisturizers via Gas Chromatography”
• Aubrey Bee-Lindgren, “Synthesizing and investigating derivatives of the ruthenium tris(2-pyridal)phosphine oxide complex as catalysts for artificial photosynthesis”
• Olivia Herrera and Felipe De Araujo Ferreira, “Quantifying the Amount of Caffeine in Popular Energy Drinks”
• Cody Sampson, Jose Anaya Loera and Gerardo Gomez, “Concentration and Quantity of Taurine and Caffeine in Energy Drinks”
• Malaika Taylor, Aubrey Bee-Lindgren and Pamela Alvarado-Zarate, “What’s in Your Creek? Analysis of Pesticides and Water Quality in TLCC Creek”
• Hannah Wilder, “The effect of adding functional groups on the synthesis of (tris(2-pyridal)phosphine oxide) ligand”
• Leah Wright, Lindsay Lerma and Sofia Cendoya, “Determining Cyanide Concentration in Stone Fruit Pits”
• Marcus Egan and Michael Santopietro, “Determining the Wavelengths of Red, Green, and Blue Commercial Laser Pointers”
• Daniel Cohen, Josh Labus and Obi Nwoke, “Exploring the Properties of Materials: Measuring the Wave and Sound Speed of a Guitar String and a Cooled/Heated Aluminum Bar”
• Olivia Achikasim, Karla Tecum and Esther Pualk, “Sun Tracking Technology on the Improvement of Solar Panels: An Experimental Study”
• Daniela Barragan, Hinton Chandler and Julian Moore, “Determining the Wavelengths and Frequencies of Various Laser Colors”
• Gladis Ruiz, Allison Ramos and Jaely Chavez, “Exploring the Conductivity of Fruits and Vegetables using a Theoretical Approach”
• Caidyn Ellis, Jeff Poyo and Ashleigh McLish, “Rainbow DNA: The Helix Visualized with Multiple Laser Wavelengths”
• Cait Bradley, Wyaht Franco-Lopez, Viviana Ventosilla, “Using a Laser Beam to Measure the Width of a Single Hair”
• Sissy De Armas and Camilla Mondesir, “Assessing The Effectiveness Of Fluid-Filled Balloons For Uterine Tamponade In Controlling Post-Partum Hemorrhage”
• Shanice Williams, Khadijah Mells, and Natyelli Lopez, “Effects of Temperature on Earthworms Conduction Velocity”
• Jaely Chavez, Sarah Gordon, Lyla Gomez, “Response time is significantly faster following a negative auditory stimulus”
• Leah Wright, Rebekah Salazar, Wyatt Slocum, Rachel Kim, “The Effects of Stress on Blood Glucose Levels”
• Veronica Aguirre, Lizeth Ramirez and Viviana Ventosilla, “Caffeine Affects the Circadian Rhythm of Mouse Wheel Running Activity”
• Keenyn Bradley, Adrianna Newsome, Nnamdi Nwoke and Tori Perez, “Leading Sports Drinks Have a Tendency to Increase the pH and Output Rate but Not the Specific Gravity of Urine”
• Daesha McAdams and Alicia Walker, “Study of the Combined Effects of Methanol and Glycerol on Red Blood Cell Hemolysis”
• Obinna Nwoke and Borey Wan, “Testing the Effect of Membrane Permeability through Lysing Bovine Blood with Different Solution”
• Kirsten Brown, Ashley Clark, Sarah Hsu and Rebecca O’Neill, “Effect of Different Amounts of Caffeine Intake on a Person’s Heart Rate”
• Taylor Whiteside, Joshua Cotom and Mackenzie Jones, “The Effects of Different Music Genres on Heart Rate”
• Lizbeth Martinez, Melanie Segura, Joshua Escobar and Marilyn Jimenez, “The Effect of Different Sensory Stimulus on the Action Potential of the American Cockroach Leg”
• Elijah Blige, Thalia Boston and Wyaht Franco Lopez, “Visual Reaction Times Increase with Auditory Distractions”
• Daniela Barragan, Breya Castle, Judith Hernandez and Hikma Jemal, “The Effects of Stimulating Mechanosensory Spine Hairs of a Cockroach, Periplaneta americana, using Pure Tones”
• Rachel Kim, Rebekah Salazar, Wyatt Slocum and Leah Wright, “The Effects of Short Films on Changes in Blood Glucose Levels”

Abstract: Who controls the word, the official discourse, the narrative? The white founding fathers of nations and of notions have not honored and inscribed into the collective vocabulary of standardized thought and memory (what we call culture) different ways of knowing and telling beyond the Euro-American model. In our daily lives, we are fighting to have more voices be considered and reflected in our institutions, in policymaking, and in building shared governance of a more inclusive order of knowledge. So, when students and this generational cohort today are seen as “out of order” with insinuations of not getting it, of not conforming to present systems, that can only be a good thing.

In this session, students from HIS-290 Black Intellectual Thought disrupt the present order of knowledge sharing and storytelling. This cohort represents their generation – a new kind of disrupter that exhibits an amoeboid-like movement in terms of how they push and extend against old binary frontiers. Their fluid mindset creates space for accommodating more kinds of existences, perspectives and ways of knowing. This session is based around Indigenous, African American, Afro-Indigenous and Afro-Diasporic life and perspectives in the US context and beyond. The panel is a collaborative effort with students from Hispanic, Latin-American and Caribbean, African American and African communities aimed to present a more complete story of connections between the impacts of capitalist-economic colonial ordering on lived experiences for these communities today. The Dialogue itself will accommodate written, visual, and oral/theatrical modes of knowledge sharing and storytelling.

Presenters:

• Skylar Buggs
• Irene Cabrera Garcia
• Marc Collins
• Kaniya Freeman
• Ashrakat Hassan
• Jennifer Ramirez-Soto
• Ori Rubio Petit
• Mariyah Scott
  

Abstract: This panel is comprised of students from the Fall 2022 Social Problems course who completed a social problems project. The Social Problems Project consists of both independent research on a social problem of interest, and group-based work to produce some sort of product in the spirit of being an avenue for change (whether that be through education, organization, policy, etc.). Drawing upon independent research, students worked in groups to produce some sort of project that was responsive to their respective social problem at the local level. Group projects on this panel all address social issues tied to higher education, to disability rights, educational opportunities for undocumented students, and BIPOC Inclusivity in the LGBQ+ community, respectively.

Presenters:

• Lacey Frye, Julie McCaa, Orly Schlessinger, “Disability Rights in Higher Education”
• Meri Flores, “Resources in Higher Education for Undocumented Students in the K-12 Educational System”
• Paria Foroughi Arani, Joslynn Gates, Malaika Taylor, “POC Inclusivity for LGBTQ+ Students on College Campuses”

Presenters:

• Bhavana Kunnath, “RRR and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, Roaring over the Other, and Violent Revolt”
• Malcom Reese, “Real Queen Shit: Proto Feminism in Literature”
• Cambriel Thomas, “Das Ahnenerbe: In the Absence of Truth”

Since 2019, the Film and Media Studies Program has organized and supported student creative work in the Last Looks Film Festival. Although there was a temporary hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2023 festival held on March 10 was the second consecutive festival, and saw record attendance. Throughout the years, the festival has provided a great opportunity for students all across campus to showcase their work in a wide array of film forms and genres.

The 2023 festival received 37 student submissions, which were judged by industry professionals for cash prizes in four categories (narrative, documentary, experimental, promotional), as well as a “Capturing Culture” special category. This LASS session is intended to provide a space to screen the winning submissions in each of these categories, and to offer the winning student filmmakers an opportunity to discuss the creative process. A central component of this dialogue will focus on the ability of multimedia storytelling to present complex ideas about identity and culture in affectively engaging ways.

Session Participants:

• Marc Collins, creator of “Petey’s Pantry Commercial”
• Zuri Johnson, creator of “Teaching Toddlers to Read: The Story of a Teacher with a Mission”
• Amber Phillips, creator of “Culminate”
• Brody Young, creator of “The Siren”

Presenters:

• Kayla Cooper, “Reproduction and Doping of Cs3Cu215 Crystals”
• Olivia Herrera and Lindsay Lerma, “Steric and Electronic Impacts of Functional Groups on the Flex-Activation of Oxanorbornadiene Derivatives”

Presenters:

• Bhavana Kunnath, “Dickens, Rushdie, and Unreliable Encyclopedias”
• Megan Shepherd and Nia Mahmud, “Lost in Translation: The Blurred Lines of Identity in Literature”
• Wood Jonathan Severe, “Creating Thinkers and Healers: The On-the-Ground Fight against Colonialism in Haiti”

• Brenna Alford
• Jaziba Bahri
• Pierre-Antoine Belin
• Katie Best
• Maria Coles
• Brook Deutschman
• Xiadani Espinoza
• Stephani Flores
• Lia Kusky
• Jorge Jimenez Pastor
• Anna Pinneau
• Kristana Quinnan
• Luna Ramirez
• Valentina Salas-Suzarte
• Sophia Sobrino
• Sloane Strauss
• Laurel Thornton
• Haley Tidd
• Mikaili Williams
• Olivia Achikasim
• Anna Argo
• Sam Barone
• Josh Briggs
• Grace Chapman
• Plato Constantinides
• Ethan Crites
• Ana Fano
• Bella Farr
• Zuri Flores
• Gabby Fritz
• Ben Grady
• Madz Gunty
• Sydney Jones
• Kailey Kelly
• Felix Lange
• Jose Mejia
• Adrianna Newsome
• Darwin Perez
• Julia Pinotti
• Audrey Rebstock
• Max Whitehead

• Kharynton Beggs, “The Effect of Attractiveness Bias and Colorism on Hiring Practices and Personnel Evaluations”
• Keenyn Bradley and Nnamdi Nwoke, “Calsyntenin (Cals) and shaven (sv) are true orthologs in contig11 of D. melanogaster and D. kikkawai”
• Alanys Soad Elvir Bustillo, “Confirmation of CLiP Insertional Mutants by PCR”
• Sarah Clayton, “Rough Sex and Gender Role Conformity”
• Benton Cogar and Felipe De Araujo Ferreira, “Synthesis and Characterization of a Photoluminescent and Triboluminescent Copper(I) Compound”
• Caidyn Ellis and Kate Arret, “Modification and Review of Methods for Synthesizing Ferrofluid”
• Casandra Fondos, “Using Recombineering to Overexpress FAP93 in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii”
• Citlali Gervacio Zavala and Gladis Ruiz, “Contig1 in D. kikkawai contains one true ortholog, Gat, in D. melanogaster”
• Olivia Herrera and Faith Miller, “Synthesizing Fluorescent Halite”
• Lindsay Lerma and Hannah Wilder, “Synthesis of an organic-inorganic pH indicator”
• Faith Miller, “Synthesis of tris(2-pyridyl)phospine from variations of 2-bromopyradine”
• Priscilla Omotara and Alicia Nowak, “D. kikkawai contig 56 F Element Sequence Contains 3 D. melanogaster Orthologs”
• Malaika Taylor, “Novel proximal ciliary proteins from genes, fap93 and g149550, are functional paralogs”
• Karla Tecum Aitana Regalado and Kayla Cooper, “The Synthesis of Cobalt Coordination Complexes”
• Elli Malancea, “Many Worlds Interpretation in QM”
• Jakeb Sanders, “Exploring the Universe with String Theory in Cosmology”
• Briella Kohler and Maddie Drawdy, “The Affects of Temperature on Sound Speed”
• Syedgull Noorali, Thomas Reininger and Mario Álvarez, “Electric Fields and Potentials of Linear and Square Quadrupoles”
• Steven Covarrubias, “Applications and Implications of Quantum Tunneling”
• Jamie Lester, “Gravitons and Gravitational Waves”
• Davis Guarracino, “Wave-Particle Duality of Light”
• Jamal Willis, “How Stars Work: Fusion and Quantum Tunneling”
• Leo Koh Maitre and Aubrey Bee-Lindgren, “Examining the Chaotic Motion of a Double Pendulum”
• Kingston Lord and Vladislav Stolbennikov, “Physics in Music: Sound Waves”
• Joi Butler, “Physics in Engineering: Clean Energy”
• Keir Mitchell, “Determining the Velocity of Earth Using Data Analysis Techniques”
• Dexter Benefield, “Determining the Focal Length of Through Convex Lenses”
• Johann Ramos and Minh-Tri Nguyen, “Lift”
• Hugo Guzman and Cristo Martinez, “Effectiveness of Solar Cells from Angle of the Sun”
• Damiah Denson and Andy Nguyen, “Resistance in Parallel, Series, and Combination Circuits”
• Géza Petes, “Quantum Computing: Pros and Cons”
• Ben Cogar, Miles Paras and Hannah Wilder, “Confirming the Speed of Light Using Chocolate and Marshmallows”
• Ashton Rubin, Luca Ruccoa and Hadi Barada, “Wavelength and the Diffraction of Light”
• Ellie Ronan and Anya Tillman, “The Effects of Light Angle on Voltage”
• Emelia Sengstock, Pamela Alvarado-Zarate and Sissy De Armas, “Effects of Nutrient Starvation on Microtubules”
• Scott Roques, “Modeling the relationship between fibroblast extracellular secretion and oxidative stress in a cell culture model”
• Jaely Chavez, Marelyn Figueroa Oliva, Pili Gonzalez-Baez and Julian Moore, “Serum Nutrient Starvation and its Effects on Actin Filament Integrity”
• Jaziba Bahri, Brianna Daniels, Zach Gordon, Abigael Powell and Jeff Poyo, “Comparing the Effects of Etoposide and UVC Light on Mouse Embryo Fibroblast Apoptosis”
• Sarah Gordon, Mackenzie Roberson, Tanya Diaz-Gonzalez and Perla Garcia, “Oxidative stress and microtubules in mouse embryo fibroblasts”
• Natyelli Lopez, Jevon Lewis and Vincent Hicks, “Type 1 Collagen Effect on Cell Migration in Mouse Embryo Fibroblasts”

Presenters:

• Caidyn Ellis, “The Impact of Gender and Diagnosis Label on the Stigmatization of Individuals on the Autism Spectrum”
• Sarah Gordon, “Assembly of FAP93 is dependent upon total ciliary length and ODA10”
• Ashrakat Hassan, “Diagnosing De-stabilization: An Analysis of Sudan’s 2019 and 2021 Coup d’Etat”
• Andi Kezh, “Cleft Curse: Cultural Connotations of Cleft Lip and Palate in México City, México”
• Alexa Tringali, “Investigating the Effect of Two Mood Induction Procedures and Arousal on False Memory”

Abstract: In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois proclaimed that the Black American “ever feels his two-ness, – an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” This “strength” is embodied in the power of Black discourse, strategies of communication that were developed by a people facing dehumanizing oppression yet connected to a spiritual and ancestral history. In these 5 presentations based on research papers from Fall 2022, Communication students and African American Studies students utilize cultural and Afrocentric criticism to expand our understanding of the ways Black people have and continue to produce their identity discursively while managing double consciousness. They ask, how does the speaker use the word to construct and reconstruct images of themselves, advance social justice, and survive? Critiquing the public work of Louis Peterson, Malcolm X, Amanda Gorman, Sojourner Truth, and Lauryn Hill, these young critics explain the ways that Black people discursively reaffirm their identity, strive for social justice, and assert their individual and collective humanity.

Presenters:

• Marc Collins, “I Don’t Wanna Be a Negro or Negroe”
• Ashrakat Hassan, “We’re trapped, trapped, double-trapped, triple-trapped”: A Criticism of Ballot or the Bullet
• Zuri Johnson, “The Hill She Climbed: A Criticism of Amanda Gorman’s Poem at the 2021 Presential Inauguration”
• Amber Phillips, “A Criticism of Lauryn Hills’ Black Rage”
• Roxine Rattray, “Ain’t I a Woman”