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At the start of the school year, the Fellowships office invites students launching new projects (or continuing to work on long-term ones) to apply to a fund designated for honors projects and independent studies.

And each year, “we receive an impressive number of applications,” said Corey Colwill, associate director for the Center for CoCurricular Opportunities. “It’s fun to see the breadth of applications that come across our desk.” 

The awards support students in the humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences. For the 2024-2025 academic year, they're backing projects in anthropology, art, biology, chemistry, economics, government, earth and oceanographic science, English, history, psychology, Romance languages and literatures, neuroscience, and theater. 

The grants are frequently used to cover travel expenses, often to academic conferences, as well as books, lab or art supplies, software fees, or compensation for study participants.

“Without the Fall Research Award, I’m not sure everyone could conduct these projects to their full potential,” Colwill said. “These funds are used toward opportunities that enrich their ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ careers."

This year's student research projects were supported by the following endowed funds: Peter J. Grua ’76 and Mary G. O'Connell ’76 Faculty/Student Research Fund, Fritz C.A. Koelln Research Fellowship, John L. Roberts Fund, and The Davis fund.

We highlighted ten funded projects to demonstrate the range of student interests at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾. See the full list of grantees at the bottom of the story.

Aale Agans ’25, “Improving CRISPR in Bradysia coprophila: Sharpening the Molecular Scissors into Knitting Needles”

Major, minor: biology, Russian

Advisor: Jack Bateman, Linnean Professor of Biology

Though the gene editing technique CRISPR has revolutionized biomedical research, it can be cost prohibitive to use on species other than model systems like the fruit fly. “These barriers prevent the exploration of many avenues of research in already under-studied systems, making finding an alternative a high priority,” Agans writes.

This summer in Bateman's lab, Agans established an effective protocol with a new gene editing method on the dark-winged fungus gnat, Bradysia coprophila. The fall research award is supporting Agans as they refine the DIPA-CRISPR technique for B. coprophila, "making it a viable method for gene editing.” Additionally, the technique will enable Agans's second research objective: to study how the creation of cells in the early development of B. coprophila impacts other developmental events of the gnat.

Motivation: “Overall, this would assist in preparing me for my goal of going to graduate school and entering a career in genetics research, particularly in new or non-model systems.”

Lilly Curtis ’26, “Echoes of the Cultural Revolution: Unraveling the Survival Story of My Ancestors”

Majors, minor: neuroscience, English, Asian studies

Advisor: Brock Clarke, A. LeRoy Greason Professor of English

Curtis will use her award to fly to Beijing over winter break to continue researching her family history for her senior-year honors project, “a hybrid work interweaving fiction and nonfiction, oral history, and archival research.”

She began this project last summer, when she visited family in China and heard “heartbreaking” stories about life during the Cultural Revolution—of poverty, starvation, and suicide, as well as of resilience and perseverance. “Upon leaving, I have many lingering questions to ask that will help me understand the psychological and emotional impacts of the Cultural Revolution."

Returning will allow her to continue questioning her relatives. “The answers I glean…will strengthen the authenticity of my text and provide a firsthand account of the text’s historical context.”

Motivation: “As an English and neuroscience double major, I am interested in the medical humanities and narrative medicine. …The understanding of my own identity—and giving a voice to those who also struggle similarly at the crossroads of belonging—develops the qualities of passion and empathy that make physicians better providers.”

Matthew Duthaler ’25, “The Voice of 'Real America': Trumpism and Rural Voters”

Majors, minor: government and legal studies, sociology, education

Advisor: Angel Saavedra Cisneros, assistant professor of government

Duthaler is working toward an understanding of the relationship between rural voters and Trump’s populist rhetoric and policies. Previous studies, he notes, have correlated rural populism with cultural discontent, economic discontent, authoritarianism (“the desire for a strong, powerful leader”), and Christian nationalism, but few studies have looked at all of these factors together. “I plan to unite these domains to look at the effect of each of the attitudes together, rather than just alone—to see if, perhaps, any given attitude mitigates another or has a previously unknown indirect effect,” he writes.

Motivation: “I plan to continue research in this area in graduate school. Much cutting-edge work in political science utilizes survey methods—which the grant has helped me to fund. Besides giving me experience in survey creation, collecting data from a customized survey will help me to gather new information and make new connections surrounding the reasons people voted for the president. It will also enable me to further improve my academic resume by presenting this work at conferences in the spring.”

Eli Franklin ’25, “Time series analysis and modeling of carbonate chemistry and ocean acidification vulnerability in coastal Maine”

Major, minor: earth and oceanographic science, Chinese

Advisor: Michèle LaVigne, associate professor of earth and oceanographic science

Franklin’s research seeks to answer questions about the long-term trends of ocean acidification in the Gulf of Maine, caused by global warming and rising carbon levels in seawater. This area of investigation is critical to New England’s $1.2 billion shellfish industry, since shell development is impaired by acidification.

Franklin will address several questions, including, “How does the carbonate chemistry of Maine coastal waters change…through tidal cycles, seasons, and annually? What processes are responsible for changes to the coastal carbonate chemistry on these time scales? Can modeling the carbonate chemistry in the past and into the future help reveal how the carbonate chemistry system has changed beyond the timeline for which we have sampled?”

Motivation: “This funding will help me prepare for my career as I will be able to network with experts and people with professional experience at the annual American Geophysical Union conference in December. Continuing my work with machine learning and big data will advance my computational skills, setting me up for success for future career opportunities.”

Jonathan Li ’25, “Wine Not? The Loss of Wine Identity/Le vin, pourquoi pas? Le déclin de l’identité du vin.”

Major, minor: Romance languages and literatures, economics, gender, sexuality and women studies

Advisors: Katherine Dauge-Roth, associate professor of Romance languages and literatures, and Matthew Botsch, associate professor of economics

For his bilingual honors thesis in French and English, Li is investigating the “the loss of wine identity among young French consumers.” He’s curious about why wine has fallen out of favor with young people, how this drop might impact the wine world, and how the wine industry could lure them back. His project includes a short research trip to Bordeaux to conduct an economics-style experiment with local participants, followed by interviews.

The project takes advantage of the skills Li has gained in both his Francophone studies classes and economics courses, he says. “I recognize that as an agricultural good with deep cultural implications, wine can only be understood through cultural lenses and with the aid of econometric data,” he writes.

Motivation: “This project will not only contribute to the completion of my honors project, improve my academic skills such as cultural research, data analysis, and French, but it will also allow me to explore the possibility of bringing together two distinct disciplines and reimagining methodologies. I aim to present my paper at next year’s American Association of Wine Economists conference and potentially publish it on the Journal of Wine Economics.”

Aidan Michelow ’25, “Health Care Practitioners as Educators: Perspectives on Preventing Sexual Violence”

Major: anthropology

Advisor: Krista Van Vleet, professor of anthropology

For his honors project, Michelow is interviewing primary care providers of different ages and genders about their role in preventing sexual violence, an area of research he says is currently understudied.

While “the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends sexual violence prevention be covered in annual medical appointments,” where providers can speak with children, adolescents, and adults about consent and signs of unhealthy relationships—“many practitioners describe a hesitancy to act as sexuality educators,” Michelow writes. This could be due to discomfort with the topic, a lack of training, fear of conflict with caregivers, or appointment time constraints, he explains.

His research in this area, he says, “could ultimately inform public health researchers and physicians working to improve pediatric primary care providers’ anticipatory guidance recommendations.”

Motivation: “After graduating from ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾, I intend to pursue graduate school to earn an MD-MPH. I believe that my honors project will allow me to observe how medicine, public health, and anthropology intersect. It will provide me the opportunity to interact with health care professionals, learn about their experiences in the field of preventive medicine, and explore the doctor-patient relationship within primary care.”

Liam Roehr ’25, “Greening the Synthesis of Cp* Cobalt Catalyst Complexes”

Major, minor: chemistry, religion

Advisor: Richard Broene, Charles Weston Pickard Professor of Chemistry

Roehr’s honors project centers on his “continued research and development of a more efficient, safer, and greener procedure for the synthesis of new cobalt catalysts,” which speed up reactions.

The catalysts studied in Broene's lab have properties that make them significant to many industries. “We focus on the use of cobalt catalysts in the dimerization of linear 𝛼-olefins, which have the ability to alter the properties of modern-day mass-produced plastics,” Roehr writes.

“Current catalysts that are used for the dimerization of linear 𝛼-olefins are functional, but inefficient…and improving these reactions will maximize the product while minimizing byproducts.”

Motivation: “One goal of mine is to submit an abstract and attend the spring American Chemical Society conference in San Diego, California. …My research, along with the continued opportunities it provides me, demonstrates my competency, passion, and commitment to my academic interests and strengthens my holistic profile for future academic and professional opportunities.”

Philip Spyrou ’25, “Managing Mortality, an Exploration of Ceramics as Artifact and Offering”

Majors: chemistry, visual arts

Advisor: Jackie Brown, associate professor of art

Spyrou’s aim is to produce two major artworks this year: The first will be a wall-sized collection of translucent porcelain tiles that contain imprints of the human body revealed by transillumination. The second involves making several plaster molds of fresh leaves from trees, casting these molds in porcelain, and scattering the leaves throughout the exhibition space, he writes. Then, he will invite the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ public to walk on and crush the porcelain leaves.

“Both works explore fundamental questions of human existence within the passage of time. …Together the works serve to explore how we manage mortality by projecting ourselves into the future and spiritually accept the impermanence of the body.”

Motivation: “This opportunity would allow me to explore my voice as an artist developing styles and procedures unique to my work.”

Ciara Tran ’25, “International Courts as Venues for Climate Activism: Exploring Legal and Narrative Strategies Surrounding Norm-Building and Advocacy”

Major, minor: government and legal studies, earth and oceanographic science

Advisor: Laura Henry, professor of government

For her government honors project, Tran is exploring a growing movement by climate activists to bring claims before international, regional, and national courts and tribunals to force action on global warming. By researching cases and petitions, she seeks answers to questions about how well this tactic is serving climate activism, the nature of the legal arguments brought by climate activists, and the advantages and disadvantages of this approach, especially given that international courts have limited enforcement capabilities.

The Fall Research Award will fund Tran's travel to Strasbourg over winter break to visit the European Court of Human Rights. “The opportunity to utilize the ECHR’s library and archive would offer deep insight into the cases and petitions I plan to examine, and how human rights law is beginning to be applied to environmental concerns,” she writes.

Motivation: “I hope to attend law school after ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾, and I hope that the understanding I gain of the role of international courts in climate activism is something I can continue to build during…my future engagement with the legal and environmental fields.”

Talia Traskos-Hart ’25, “The Revolutionary Body: Women Up in Arms Against Capitalism”

Major, minor: history, English

Advisor: Salar Mohandesi, associate professor of history

Traskos-Hart is studying the theoretical developments of anti-capitalist feminist groups in the late 1960s and 1970s, specifically Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (WITCH), the Third World Women’s Alliance (TWWA), and Wages for Housework (WfH). “My project will focus on reproductive and domestic labor as a call to arms for the members of these groups,” she writes. “In conceiving of reproduction as labor, these organizations cast the female body as a powerful revolutionary force.”

Her grant will cover the costs of books as well as a trip during winter break to visit archives in New York City and Philadelphia.

Motivation: "While feminist movements of the 1970s have been thoroughly studied, the question of conceptions of the body by groups existing in an anti-capitalist space has not been taken up. With access to primary sources on this trip, I could read much more of the personal correspondences of these activist women to determine how they applied their political goals to their conceptions of personal, physical, and reproductive life. With this knowledge, I would hope to make a contribution to a history not yet told.”