WRP 2006-07 Opportunities
Stained Glass and French Church Architecture
Evelyn Staudinger Lane
Department of Art History
I wish to apply for a Wheaton Research Partnership for the 2006-2007 year to assist me with several projects I am undertaking during my sabbatical year. The first project is the research of approximately 50 medieval and renaissance stained glass panels that are currently located in Baltimore, Maryland with the goal of completing the following book, Corpus Vitrearum United States of America: Stained Glass Before 1700 in Baltimore, Maryland, to be published by Harvey Miller Publishers in approximately 2008/9. Previously, I worked with one WRP who put together a preliminary bibliography on the stained glass. Our next step is to enlarge that bibliography and start to work individually on each panel. This work ties in with my position as a member of the author team of the Corpus Vitrearum, a group of international scholars who meet every other year and who are dedicated to the publication of all medieval stained glass in the US, Canada and Europe.
The second project relates to a study I will be beginning in August of 2006 to research the stained glass and architecture of a church in France called St. Julien-de-Sault. I will be analyzing this building, begun in the mid-13th century in a style called Rayonnant, with respect to the connections it had with Paris, in particular, Ste.-Chapelle and the art of Saint-Louis. Working up a bibliography will be the first duty that my WRP student will help me with. The second is to organize and gather the materials I will need for the study of the stained glass.
Terrapin Research Data Analysis
Barbara Brennessel
Department of Biology
For the past several years, students have worked with me in the laboratory and in the field on projects related to the ecology and conservation of Malaclemys terrapin, the diamondback terrapin. Upper level students have been involved with genetic studies of the population on Cape Cod and field interns collect population data throughout the summer. I am requesting a WRP to help with data analysis. The WRP will learn GIS software and will download the data collected during the summer and display the information on maps. The WRP will download data from temperature loggers and learn to display the data using a variety of graphic formats. In addition, the WRP will help with the production of a diamondback terrapin conservation manual. I have already received a grant from the Sounds Conservancy Organizations to subsidize the costs related to the printing and binding of the manual.
Reading Pocahontas
Beverly Clark
Department of English
I'd like funding for a student to read and report on juvenile novels and picture books about Pocahontas. WorldCat lists more than 100 such titles. I'd like a student to locate such books through interlibrary loan and undertake an initial survey, noting, e.g., whether a book focuses on the presumed rescue of John Smith by Pocahontas, whether it creates a romance between the two, whether Pocahontas is portrayed as an adult, whether the book mentions John Rolfe or tobacco, whether it lists sources, . . . This research would provide background for my teaching and for papers I'm presenting in December (MLA) and June (ChLA keynote address) and for an ongoing project on Native Americans and children's literature.
Graphic Imaging Technology - Solid State Crystals
John Michael Collins
Department of Physics
My Wheaton Research Partnership student will develop computer codes for the modeling of solid state laser crystals. This work will continue the work done last year by Jeremy Tudisco '06. Jeremy created a crystal (Yttrium Aluminum Garnet) on the computer, allowing us to navigate through the crystal and visualize the structure surrounding each atom. Jeremy also wrote code that allows us to insert dopant atoms into the crystal randomly and non-randomly. The work done this coming year will proceed along three lines. (1) Add the ability to model several different kinds of crystals. (2) Create code for modeling the decay characteristics of the crystal following excitation with a laser pulse. (3) Compare the computer-model with real spectroscopic data. The goal of this project is to discover how the response of the crystal to a laser pulse depends on the relative positions of the dopant atoms in the crystal, and to use that knowledge to inform our interpretation of spectroscopic data.
Analysis of Grooved Terrain Classifications
Geoffrey Collins
Department of Astronomy
This summer, I will have two students (Jon Kay '08 and Louie Michaud '08) working on the final classification of grooved terrain on Ganymede by age and by extensional fault type. By the end of the summer, we will have completed a massive database that can be compared to theoretical models of grooved terrain formation. I would like to have a Wheaton Research Partnership student next year to help me sift through and analyze this database. The work will involve modifying programs to produce theoretical predictions, building programs to statistically compare the observations with the predictions, running these programs over the large database, and interpreting the results. By the end of the year, we will have as good an answer for the driving mechanism of grooved terrain formation as can be obtained with current theory and data, and we will be writing up the work for publication.
Research and Decryption of Early Handwriting
Katherine Conway
Department of English
I am trying to update with the most current criticism on pastoral and Shakespeare's play As You Like It, and essay on this play and land ownership in late 16th- and early 17th-century England. The major work that I still need to do is 1. to get caught up on the most recent criticism on this play and 2. to decipher some entries of the 16th-century records of land alienation in England. Unfortunately, these records are written in Chancery and Secretary handwriting, and these are two of the most challenging handwriting styles to decode. I will be asking the research assistant to research, print, and read, when possible, the current criticism (since 2000 to 2006) on the As You Like It. I will also be trying to show the assistant how to decipher the English Chancery handwriting, and asking him/her to do some on-line research of the Public Records Office in London, and, if possible, to start practicing decoding this difficult hand.
Tolkien Studies
Michael Drout
English Department
My 2006-2007 WRP students (two students, Rebecca Epstein and Kathryn Paar, will split the hours between them) will assist me in putting out the fourth issue of the journal Tolkien Studies. They will be responsible for assembling bibliography, editing materials submitted by authors and organizing "The Year's Work in Tolkien Studies." They will also work on several other related projects, including the web-based Tolkien bibliography. My WRP student will also help to coordinate the volunteer students who will be helping on the various projects.
Vernal Pool Sample Analysis
Herbert Richard Ellison
Department of Chemistry
I would like to have a Wheaton Research Partnership student to help me continue with the analysis of soil samples from around vernal pools here in town and elsewhere. Last year, with the help of Rebecca Lordan, ?08, I made great strides in the analysis of soil data as well as gaining much information about the soils under and around Wheaton?s vernal pool. We did not get to use our new atomic absorption spectrometer since it was not up and running until well into the second semester. I plan to use this next year to investigate the concentrations of various cations in our soil samples. Knowledge of the underlying soil of several vernal pools has helped to explain variations in the concentrations of chloride and several other ions in the water of these pools. More data will certainly help to solve some other puzzles we have uncovered in the past.
Bibliography Annotation
Nancy Evans
Department of Classics
I am applying for a 2006-07 Wheaton Research Partnership student assistant to help me edit an annotated bibliography and prepare maps and photographs for my book as it nears completion. There may be some additional editing and proofreading, as well. I am currently negotiating the contract for the book Civic Rites: Democracy and Religion in Classical Athens with the University of California Press. As I finish work on the text of the manuscript I will also have to search for appropriate images to be included in the text, obtain legal permissions to reprint these images, and then prepare camera-ready copies for the press. The subject matter of the book is intimately tied to two of the courses I will be teaching this fall. Since I am writing this book for an undergraduate audience, it would be immensely helpful for me to work closely with a Wheaton student in the final stages of the project.
Statistical Data Analysis
Peony Fhagen-Smith
Psychology Department
1) This semester I need a student to help me with some statistical analyses of a project that is near completion. The project involves a data set of 300+ Black College students who filled out a racial identity measure and a demographic sheet. For this project, I am interested in differences in scores on the Cross Racial Identity Scale based on gender, community type raised in, and age. More specifically, the student who works with me on this project will learn about MANOVAs. MANOVAs will be used to look at differences on a racial identity measure based on demographic factors. If significant differences are found the student will learn about the use of discriminant analysis to understand differences in a data set.
2) My second project for the semester involves the use of both qualitative and quantitative data in a study looking at the relationship between parental racial socialization attitudes and behaviors and preadolescent children's self-concept (racial, ethnic, academic, familial) in a sample of 40 African American families living in predominantly white or multicultural communities in the Northeast. Using a mixed-method study is a new methodology that is just beginning to be used in the social sciences. I need assistance with a literature search of the use of mixed-method studies in the developmental psychology field. The student who works on this project will also be involved in the manuscript writing process and assisting with minor editing of the manuscript.
GIS Software Engineering
Michael B. Gousie
Department of Computer Science
I would like to have a Wheaton Research Partnership student to help update and maintain my Geographic Information System (GIS) visualization software. The software allows GIS researchers and anyone working with digital maps to visually and quantitatively determine the accuracy of a data set. The software was written by myself and Sarah Milewski '07, and will be made available to the GIS community on my Wheaton web page. As with all software, updates and changes are inevitable, and having a student work on this would be very valuable to me (not needing to spend time on relatively routine work) and to the student (working on software that is available and actually used by the public). Much of the software is novel; some of the ideas have already been published. A second paper has been submitted recently, and Sarah and I hope to submit yet another by the end of the summer. The WRP student, therefore, will have have the opportunity to work on an on-going research project as well.
Symbolism and Politics
Gerald Huiskamp
Department of Political Science
The project is my on-going study of the symbolic bases of political community and political protest, centered on the 44 Howard Street flag incidents of March-April 2003. The intermediate goal of the study is an article for the academic journal Mobilization, examining the interplay of identity, culture and ideology in cycles of protest and counter-mobilization. To date I have collected and catalogued a large number of primary source materials, and have conducted over eighty hours of interviews with Wheaton students, administrators and faculty. A student research assistant would continue the process of transcribing and coding the interview material; as well, s/he would create an annotated bibliography of the secondary source literatures and news media accounts relevant to the project. As I am on sabbatical for the entire 2006-2007 term, I will be able to work especially closely with the student in the coding of the interview materials, and throughout the project we would have a great deal of interaction in the building of the annotated bibliography. I am looking for someone with strong word-processing / transcribing skills and some research experience. I can help the student to develop advanced research and analytical skills that will be transferable to their work at Wheaton and beyond.
Synthesis of Semiconductor Nanoparticles
Christopher Kalberg
Department of Chemistry
We would like to explore a completely new project involving the synthesis of semiconductor nanoparticles. These nanoparticles have a wide variety of uses including phosphor coatings in fluorescent lights and possible applications in diode light sources. This initial project would aim to give us experience with the various methods of synthesis and allow us to determine if it is possible to make particles with different sizes (from a few nanometers to a few microns) consistently. The spectroscopy of these particles would then be studied in the physics department.
Digital Image Conversion
Donna O. Kerner
Department of Anthropology
A student assistant is requested to assist in the digital transfer of 35mm fieldwork slides from Donna Kerner's research in East Africa and the South Pacific. I have several hundred slides that need to be copied into a digital format and to be catalogued for classroom PowerPoint presentations and public lectures. When this task is completed, the student assistant will work collaboratively with Professors Kerner and Owens to update the digitized images on the new Anthropology Department webpage.
Qualifications: Some experience in digital image transfer, cataloguing of visual images, and webpage development is a plus, but not a requirement. The student assistant can be trained and then will work independently in the visual images lab in the Mars Arts complex and will meet periodically with the faculty supervisor.
'Academe? Editorial Assistantship
Paula M. Krebs
English Department
I would like to apply for a Wheaton Research Partner for 2006-07 to act as my Editorial Assistant for Academe, the bi-monthly magazine of the American Association of University Professors. The WRP's duties would range from keeping track of new manuscripts as they arrive and following up on authors' queries to helping me to copy edit articles and plan features for the magazine. The WRP would conduct research about higher-education-related topics and would learn copyediting and substantive editing. She or he would help organize a system of recordkeeping for the editorial functions of the magazine and might be called on to travel to Washington with me to meet with the magazine's Washington-based staff. I will supervise the WRP directly, meeting with her (or him) at least weekly. More likely, we will meet two or three times a week for updates and instruction. I will try to find some office space on campus for the intern.
This partnership is especially appropriate for students who seek a career in journalism, whatever their undergraduate major.
Genomic Signatures
Mark LeBlanc
Department of Computer Technology
With the sequencing of an ever-increasing number of genomes, significant progress is being made when inferring genomic signatures within species of similar organisms and among different but closely related genomes (Karlin et al., 1997; Rocha et al., 2001; Sanberg et al., 2001; Pride et al., 2003; Teeling et al., 2004a). The Wheaton Research Partner will help implement portions of the software for an application programmer?s interface (API) to access DNA sequences from a new database of over 300 prokaryotic genomes. The student researcher will build on previous work from prior Wheaton Research Partners in the Genomics Research Group.
Early Modern Cartography of the New World: Digital Data editing
Domingo Ledezma
Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies
I would like to continue working with a Wheaton Research Partnership student to help me in my project Early Modern Hispanic Accounts on Travels by Sea and Shipwrecks, particularly in the improvement and edition of the Digital Image Database "Early Modern Representations of the New World" <
Southwick Zoo Assistantship and Docent Training
Kathleen Morgan
Department of Psychobiology
I'd like a WRP student to help me with wrapping up several studies we have going this summer at the Southwick Zoo, as well as helping me to get a docent training project started at the zoo.
Bob Fosse Costuming and Music Research
Cheryl Mrozowski
Department of Theatre
I plan to do a Bob Fosse medley. For next year's season, Trisha Carr Œ08 is very interested in his work and plans to collaborate on it. We certainly could use some help with editing the music and doing research on his style. Costuming is also a consideration which needs development and research.
Research in American and French Architecture
Ann Murray
Department of Art History
I wish to apply for a Wheaton Research Partnership for the 2006-2007 year to assist me with several projects I am undertaking during my sabbatical year. The first project is the research of approximately 100 medieval and renaissance stained glass panels that are currently located in Baltimore, Maryland with the goal of completing the following book, Corpus Vitrearum United States of America: Stained Glass Before 1700 in Baltimore, Maryland, to be published by Harvey Miller Publishers in approximately 2008/9. Previously, I worked with one WRP who put together a preliminary bibliography on the stained glass. Our next step is to enlarge that bibliography and start to work individually on each panel. This work ties in with my position as a member of the author team of the Corpus Vitrearum, a group of international scholars who meet every other year and who are dedicated to the publication of all medieval stained glass in the US, Canada and Europe. The second project relates to a study I will be beginning in August of 2006 to research the stained glass and architecture of a church in France called St. Julien-de-Sault. I will be analyzing this building, begun in the mid-13th century in a style called Rayonnant, with respect to the connections it had with Paris, in particular, Ste.-Chapelle and the art of Saint-Louis. Working up a bibliography will be the first duty that my WRP student will help me with. The second is to organize and gather the materials I will need for the study of the stained glass.
Visual Perceptions
Rolf Nelson
Psychology Department
I would like to employ a WRP student(s) to assist in experiments in my visual perception laboratory. Student responsibilities would include assisting in literature searches and locating research articles, and collecting behavioral data on participants in experiments. Last year Brian Cartun '06 assisted in the collection of data on how attention is allocated to different regions of space. The goal of continuing experimentation is to understand what it is in the environment that our perceptual systems (in this case, eye and brain) attend to and orient towards.
Ekphrastic Poetry and African Literature
Sue Standing
English Department
This project includes creating a database of images for use in my research on ekphrastic poetry and African literature as well as for use in several courses, including English 245 (African Literature), English 289 (Word and Image), and English 101 (Writing About Images and Ideas). The student research partner will scan slides and analog images from my own archives, and also seek out other useful images from library holdings and internet sources. Ideally, the student would have basic research skills, as well as some experience with compiling bibliographies and with using Adobe PhotoShop. The student might also have the opportunity to learn how to make multi-media podcasts as part of a new technology initiative.
Angiogenesis Experimentation in Zebra Fish
Edmund Tong
Biology Department
Angiogenesis is the study of new blood vessel growth. The positive or inhibitory effects of different compounds on the growth of blood vessels have great implications in the biomedical research. Our Angiogenesis Research Team started setting up a new zebra fish model of angiogenesis research two years ago, first using embryos while encountering various problems to maintain an optimal condition for zebra fish to spawn. This year we decided to try a new approach, quantifying the number of blood vessels in the re-growth of tail fin to estimate the angiogenic effect of various agents. This summer we started to study the angiogenic effect of ginkgo extract. We plan to continue this investigation and to start new projects using potentially angiogenic agents.
Bibliography Work in La Dolce Vita
David Vogler
Department of Political Science
I would like to apply for a Wheaton Research Partnership for a student to help me develop and order the bibliography for a book manuscript: La Dolce Vita: Senses of Beauty in Italy. The work would include reading the text and notes of the current fifteen chapters of the book, which I have been researching (with the help of WRP students in past years) and writing for several years, and incorporating sources cited into a full bibliography being developed on EndNote. At times, the student will also locate some of the sources in order to provide full and complete citations for footnotes and other references in the text. This is an important stage in the development of the manuscript for submission to publishers.