Wyndham Robertson Library Undergraduate Research Awards: 2024 Award Winners and Finalists

Junior/Senior Winner

Framing Femininity: Opportunities for Gender Non-Conformity at U.S. Women’s Colleges at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

by Natté J. Fortier

Recommended by Professor Chris Florio

What about this topic made you want to find out more?

Throughout my time as a transmasculine student at Hollins, I’ve been curious about historical experiences of gender on our campus. Recognizing that the nature of a historically women’s college has given me space for self-exploration and a community of support, I’ve wondered whether there is historical precedent for students with experiences like mine. I explored this question on a smaller scale in fall 2022 for a research paper on Hollins history, and was surprised to discover evidence of same-sex relationships and cross-dressing. It was striking to see Hollins students of a century ago who looked like me. When it came time to begin my thesis, I knew I wanted to expand upon this initial research to identify broader trends among historically women’s colleges and explore the social context behind their early campus cultures.

What are you most proud of when it comes to this project?

I feel proud that I was able to complete so much archival research for this project, particularly at Barnard. I am incredibly fortunate to have worked hands-on with many of the sources that were key to my research, and it was especially exciting that most of these sources were written by students themselves. Having the ability to physically flip through the pages of students’ diaries – being privy to their innermost thoughts and experiences – strengthened my connection to their stories, so I’m honored to bring them to light.

Having completed a project like this, if you could advise other students working on a research project, what would you tell them?

My piece of advice would be one that I needed to hear myself early on in this project: it’s simply impossible to read or know everything. I found myself wanting to read every book related to my topic and every work that each book cited and so forth, but at some point you have to put the books down and start writing. It’s important to feel confident in your knowledge and ability, and not let the research become its own means of procrastination.

Is there anything else you would like people to know about your work?

I emphasize this in my work, but I want to make clear that I have no intention of pushing modern labels onto historical actors. I think it’s important to ignore the urge to impose modern understandings of gender and sexuality and simply let our actors speak for themselves. The nineteenth- and twentieth-century women I discuss in my paper lived in a pre-heterosexuality world, so we should try to think about their identities only in the terms that they would have used.

Junior/Senior Finalist

Krautrock, Kraftwerk, and Techno: The Transnational and Interracial Circulations of Electronic Music Genres Between Europe and America

by Eleanor Robb

Recommended by Professor Chris Florio

What about this topic made you want to find out more?

I'd been a fan of the German band Kraftwerk my whole life, and during my freshman year at Hollins, I heard a song by City Girls which very clearly sampled Kraftwerk (compare the songs "Trans-Europe Express" and "Twerkulator," if you're interested). The change in genre surprised me, and I started to wonder how Kraftwerk got from German synth-pop to American hip-hop/rap. Taking Dr. Florio's Transnational History course gave me the perfect opportunity to explore this mystery. Once I realized that one of my other favorite songs, "The Deep" by clipping. had some unexpected connections to Kraftwerk, I was totally locked into this topic. I couldn't stop researching - and going down rabbit holes - until all my curiosity was (mostly) satisfied.

What are you most proud of when it comes to this project?

I am most proud of two things in this project. First, that I picked a topic that I was genuinely curious about and for which I didn't have any idea what the answers to my questions would be. That's not something I've done before on a paper, and it was thrilling - if occasionally frustrating - to synthesize all the new information I learned from my research, especially in a subject I didn't know anything about. Secondly, I'm proud of how far I chased all my leads, and that I ended up coining a new term to describe one of the phenomena I noticed in my research.

Having completed a project like this, if you could advise other students working on a research project, what would you tell them?

My favorite writing tool for research papers is an outline. They make it so easy to get a bird's eye view of your paper, and to rearrange paragraphs or sections as necessary. And just because it's an outline doesn't mean you can't include assertions, evidence, citations, analysis, and transition sentences! When I'm done with my outline, the paper is basically written, and all that's left is to connect each thought to the next.

Is there anything else you would like people to know about your work?

There's a lot more to the circulation of music genres than meets the eye, and more yet in the history of the invention, development, and popularization of electronic music. If you listen closely, you'll hear samples, echoes, and references more than you think!

Junior/Senior Finalist

‘Nothing in America Would Outrival Such a Spectacle’: The Contested Histories of Mount Rushmore, Western Tourism, and American Nationalism

by Sophia Ciatti

Recommended by Professor Chris Florio

What about this topic made you want to find out more?

When surveying the general literature in American history, there are certain geographic areas that get more love than others. The American Great Plains region is an underutilized area of study, and I wanted to focus on the hidden histories of some of those ‘fly-over’ states. For instance, one of the most famously recognized monuments in the United States is located practically in the middle of nowhere, South Dakota. Through this exploration of monument development and intellectual histories, I was able to learn more about the rich historical culture of the Black Hills..

What are you most proud of when it comes to this project?

I’m proud of the way that this project forced me to reconsider some of my research biases. At the outset of this endeavor, I struggled with finding available sources, both primary and secondary, online. The literature on the history of the state was thin, and it was often grouped in with larger, less specific histories of the American Midwest as a whole. I had come to the conclusion that, since no one seemed to be discussing it in an academic setting, then there must not really be that much worthwhile history in South Dakota. When I traveled to the Black Hills for archival research, however, I was confronted with a series of deeply passionate local archivists and historians, who helped me narrow my research scope, recommended different institutions to look at, and connected me with a veritable treasure trove of archival artifacts; all of this despite a significant lack of funding. There’s plenty of history in the Black Hills, and plenty of qualified historians who went out of their way to assist an undergraduate researcher; but their lack of resources to digitize artifacts or advertise their archives makes their online presence nearly invisible. This project has opened my eyes to the struggles of these institutions, and given me a deeper appreciation for these South Dakotan historians..

Having completed a project like this, if you could advise other students working on a research project, what would you tell them?

Everywhere has a history. Every place across the world, from centers of world culture like New York and Beijing, to rural villages in Montana and Haiti, every single place that’s ever experienced humans has some kind of history. Get curious about the places that no one seems to think two thoughts about, and you’ll find some interesting stories.

Is there anything else you would like people to know about your work?

My mother grew up in the Black Hills. I wanted deeply to learn more about the place and culture that shaped her; if South Dakota could produce someone like my mother, there had to be something special about it. This research is dedicated to her, who never got to see her hometown in historical narratives once she left.

First Year/Sophomore Winner

Artlessness: A Disturbing Ideal in Fanny Burney’s Evelina

by Autumn Wille

Recommended by Professor Michelle DeGroot

What about this topic made you want to find out more?

When we were discussing Evelina by Fanny Burney in my class on 18th-century British Literature, I made the offhand comment that, as an autistic, I could relate to Evelina’s struggles in the unfamiliar London society. After that class, I kept wondering: how would an autistic individual fare in that society? In doing some preliminary research, I found that many people had researched the changeling myths from before the Enlightenment, and many people had researched autism as we know it today, but I could not find any sources on how autism was perceived in the two-hundred-year gap between these times. I wanted to bridge that gap a little by analyzing how Evelina’s behavior fit into the society of Fanny Burney’s time.

What are you most proud of when it comes to this project?

Very early into my research, it became clear that I had to extend myself beyond textual analysis. I had to also consider medical research on autism, the sociological experiences of autistic women, and how those experiences relate to the time in which they are living. I created this huge spreadsheet with three sections: English, History, and Psychology. Then, once my research was done, I had to consolidate these three areas of study into one paper, without getting lost in the weeds. The fact that my paper draws from these wide-ranging sources while remaining succinct is something I’m very proud of.

Having completed a project like this, if you could advise other students working on a research project, what would you tell them?

From the beginning, there was a specific YouTube video I wanted to draw from for its insightful commentary on a female character trope. I worried whether its inclusion would be considered unprofessional—is a YouTube video really an accredited source? But I felt that the purpose of my research was not to create a rock-solid argument, or to imply that everything I wrote or sourced from was objectively true. It was to consolidate ideas, to draw attention to a specific area that I felt was overlooked. If I were to advise another student, I would tell them to abandon the idea that you are capable of being objective. Your subjectivity is an asset, and so long as you’re backing it up with reasonable analysis, any connections your brain makes are fair game.

Is there anything else you would like people to know about your work?

I would like people to know that I’m not a historian, nor am I a doctor, though I have some interest in both these fields. My paper is only a literary analysis. However, I do have an interest in autism throughout the ages, so if anyone has any fun sources about autistic history, I’d love to see them.

First Year/Sophomore Finalist

A Competition between the Economy and the Environment: An analysis on the impacts of the Olympic Games for host countries

by Phuong-Anh Ha

Recommended by Professor Felicitas Adu-Acheampong.

What about this topic made you want to find out more?

Initially, I had wanted to look into the sustainability of musical concerts. The summer prior was the first time I had ever seen a type of event with such a large scale, from the organization process to the rate of participants. It raised the question of how a mega-event would impact the environment. However, many entertainment companies do not have publicly accessible evaluations for their concerts. It also happened to be the same time when announcements about the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, specifically about how Paris wanted to clean up the Seine River to host the swimming competition. Thus, I was inspired to take a look at another mega-event, which was the Olympics.

What are you most proud of when it comes to this project?

The project was my first ever experience in using quantitative methodology and conducting research in the fields of economics in general. I was very proud of how clear-cut my methodology was and how easy it was for me to apply it to my data. The paper also helped me greatly in getting to know my work ethic and time management, especially in how to not be overly ambitious in the planning phase.

Having completed a project like this, if you could advise other students working on a research project, what would you tell them?

Keep track of your sources as you write them, or you’ll never find them again. I put a comment with the link of my sources to my in-text citations and I also have a cut file where I put all the important resources and information I want to include. Therefore, even if I have to go back and fix a source after a long time of not touching the paper, I’m not spending hours looking for it in my browser history. And ask your friends, peers, or classmates for help! I could not have done my research proposal if it wasn’t for one of my friends showing me her work. I have the utmost admiration for my classmates who did linear regressions in their work. It was amazing to see them explain their data and equations. They undoubtedly inspired me to do a statistical methodology in the future!

Is there anything else you would like people to know about your work?

The results of the research were not what I had expected at all. The Olympics actually helped host countries to become more environmentally friendly (spoilers alert if you haven’t read my paper). I had to change my entire discussion outline to adapt to the results, but I was very fortunate that my professor for the class–Dr Felicitas, was extremely understanding throughout the process.