OU - Emerging Scholars

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https://hdl.handle.net/11244/329114
The OU - Emerging Scholars collection showcases exemplary undergraduate student scholarship, such as published articles, papers that have won the University Libraries’ Undergraduate Research Award, works arising from research fellowships, etc.

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Browsing OU - Emerging Scholars by College/Department "Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences"

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    UndergraduateOpen Access
    A Case of Mistaken Identity: State and Cultural Constructions of Mapuche Womanhood Through Activism
    (11/2/21) Amechi, Lilly
    This paper will first discuss the Chilean state and Chilean feminists’ understanding of Mapuche women’s identity. I will argue that the Mapuche are used as a means to an end, then discarded when they have served their purpose to the state. After I highlight this distortion of the Mapuche women by the Chilean state, I uncover how the Mapuche culture recognizes its people to build on my argument that colonialism and the Pinochet dictatorship created a fundamental shift in Mapuche methods of identifying each other. Lastly, I will peel back the layers of what Mapuche women believe it means to be Mapuche and how this view has come to contrast with the Chilean state and various Mapuche communities.
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    UndergraduateOpen Access
    Children of the Red Light
    (2021-11) Donisi, Brooke
    The city of Kolkata is full of astonishing history and various ways of life. As the capital of India’s West Bengal state, it attracts the public with its grand colonial architecture, art galleries, and cultural festivals. For those residing in this city, a different story can be seen. Despite all of Kolkata’s exuberance, many of the residents of this city live in some of the worst conditions, drastically distanced from the cultural ambiance. In specific, the Sonagachi neighborhood is not a place one would travel to witness the cultural vitality of Kolkata. This red- light neighborhood is home to roughly 16,000 sex workers and their families (Chakraborty 2020). The children of this neighborhood have grown up surrounded by the influence of sex workers and child laborers. Being raised in these conditions has impacted the expectations placed on them around schooling and has highlighted two different types of expectations: one for boys, and one for girls. The difference in expectations is brought on by the culture of the city, the predominance of sex-work, and the influence of the parents.
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    UndergraduateOpen Access
    Elucidating the Mechanisms of Antibiotic Tolerance During CoInfection of Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae in Chronic Wounds
    (2023-05) McCoy, Lane
    Polymicrobial infections are some of the most financially demanding issues in the healthcare system, requiring over $25 billion in treatment annually in the United States alone. This results from their increased virulence, infectivity, and tolerance of common antimicrobial treatments, part of a process termed synergy. While interactions between bacteria have been appreciated for decades, we do not completely understand the exact mechanisms for how these organisms interact within the infection itself. Furthermore, questions remain about how these interactions depend on local microbes, on the environment of their host, or on spatial arrangement in the wound. Here, we sought to identify and understand novel interactions between Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B Streptococcus, GBS) in a chronic wound environment. To accomplish this, we assessed tolerance to various antibiotics of each organism individually and in co-culture in our in vitro wound models. Furthermore, we sought to understand how a diabetes mellitus type II environment impacted interactions between these microbes by evaluating how a hyperglycemic environment altered antibiotic tolerance. Our preliminary results suggest that S. aureus has increased tolerance to specific antibiotics when cocultured in vitro with S. agalactiae and saw an increase in tolerance when grown in our wound models. Our data also shows that S. agalactiae has increased tolerance to specific antibiotics when co-cultured in wound models individually and decreased tolerance when grown with S. aureus. These results suggest a heightened importance of the environment on the role of antibiotic tolerance development in microorganisms when grown together, and further tests are needed to determine the exact mechanisms by which the environment alters the physiology of these two species. These investigations could be essential in producing more effective treatment strategies and hindering the progression of chronic wounds.
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    UndergraduateOpen Access
    Science in Italian Renaissance Art
    (2023-05) Witover, Shayla
    University Libraries Undergraduate Research Award