2022 BA Thesis Symposium

Congratulations to the sociology majors of the Class of 2022 on completing their BA theses and on their impending graduations! We celebrated their accomplishments at the BA Thesis Symposium on Wednesday, May 25th.  Students presented their own, original research, which covered a wide range of topics. The quality was simply outstanding. 

After hearing short presentations by nine students, the preceptors announced the winners of our annual BA thesis awards. Allegra Hatem won the top award for her thesis Defunding the (Alternatives to) Police: A Chicago Violence Prevention Program’s Barriers to State Funding. Honorable Mentions were awarded to Paige Brann for Seeing Like a Real Estate: Shifting Perceptions of Place in the San Antonio-Austin Corridor, to Christina Howard for Care Under Carcerality: Strategies of Women with Incarcerated Loved Ones, and to Charlie Kolodziej for Taking Aim at Anti-LGBT Violence: Constructing Queer and Trans Vulnerability Through Firearm Ownership. Thesis presentation awards were given to Kwabene Kalumbula for Identity and Competition: Political and Partisan Socialization in 15 Young Adults and to Mari Mirasol for Deconstructing Stigma: Lessons from ConTextos Rehabilitation Program at the Salvadoran Juvenile Detention Center of Tonacatepeque

We concluded the event with a festive reception, catered by Big Star Tacos. Thank you to everyone who helped make this event a huge success – BA thesis preceptors and faculty advisors, in particular. We are so proud of the achievements of our 4th years and we wish them all the best in their future endeavors.  

 

The Class of 2022 Sociology Cohort

Andrew Bacotti

The Fair Wage Revisited

Vicky Berman

The Drive for Social Acceptance: How University Students Make Sense of Political Conversations 

Paige Brann

Seeing Like a Real Estate: Shifting Perceptions of Place in the San Antonio-Austin Corridor

Alina Brennan

Mental Health Healing: How Adolescents and Young Adults Navigate Their Mental Healthcare Needs

Natalie Chapin

"They Always Want More”: The Untold Stories of the Gendered Campaign Trail

Dinah Clottey

The (R)evolution of Black Fashion: Black Dress at Predominantly White Institutions 

Nate Culbert

Experts in the Room: Role Conflict and Ambiguity in School Social Work Around Chicago 

Julia Du

Retail Workers and Nurses as “Pandemic Heroes”: Occupational Fulfillment and Work-Identity Paradigms 

Sophia Egrari

Stopping the Steal: Belief in Election Fraud Conspiracy, 2012-2020

Ife Fariyike

Battle of the Boybands: An Exploration of Identity and Community in BTS and 1D Onling Fandom Spaces 

Alexandra Fiorentino-Swinton

Participation vs. Exploitation: The Pop Cultural Border War 

Cheryl Hao

The Effect of Incarceration on Identity-Making: How Nine Formerly Incarcerated Individuals Came to an Activist Identity 

Quentin Harris

Prejudiced Broadcasting: How Implicit Bias and Racial Stereotypes are Found in TV Commentary of NBA Games 

Allegra Hatem

Defunding the (Alternatives to) Police: A Chicago Violence Prevention Program’s Barriers to State Funding 

Jon Hoerner

Policing the Invisible: Crisis Intervention Training and Community Effects During Mental Health Crisis Responses in Chicago 

Christina Howard

Care Under Carcerality: Strategies of Women with Incarcerated Loved Ones

Alicia Hurtado

The ‘Wayfinders’ of Abortion Access: Analyzing the Interstitial Affective Care of Volunteer Case Managers at the Chicago Abortion Fund 

Mira Joseph

My Dress and My Chess Barbie Bag: The Social Resiliency of Women in Chess 

Kwabene Kalumbula

Identity and Competition: Political and Partisan Socialization in 15 Young Adults 

Charlie Kolodziej

Taking Aim at Anti-LGBT Violence: Constructing Queer and Trans Vulnerability Through Firearm Ownership

Maya Krasovsky

Digital Organizing and Mobilization by Russia’s Opposition: 2014 to 2017

John Kunzo

Stirring the Melting Pot: Biracial College Students’ Perspectives on Social Mobility in America 

Chase Leito

Using the Master’s Tools to Dismantle the Master’s House: The Relationship between Lawyers, Organizers, and Social Movements Challenging the Carceral System 

Charlotte Lewis

Summer’s No Longer as Fun as it was in June: Social Networks, Knowledge, and Conflict from Wildfire Disaster 

Melody Li

Shaping Students’ Becomings: The Liberal Arts versus the Preprofessional at the University of Chicago College, 1920-1930

Anne Lim

Dude, Where’s My Seat?: How Teenagers Understand Their Places in Highbrow Art Spaces 

Susy Liu

COVID Confusion: Exploring Anomie through Pandemic Mask Policy 

Nika Lofton

“Indoctrination Isn’t New, But how far Back Does it Go?”: A Content Analysis of Fox News’s Reporting on Politics at American Colleges and Universities from 2009-2019

Amy Maldonado

Understanding Data Privacy: How Americans Conceptualize Privacy and Agency in the Digital Age 

Hopie Melton

Emotional Labors: Organizing Long-term Care Workers in Chicago During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Mari Mirasol

Deconstructing Stigma: Lessons from the ConTextos Rehabilitation Program at the Salvadoran Juvenile Detention Center of Tonacatepeque 

Mo Mitchell

Environmental Education: Empowering a Generation of Ethical Actors 

Bianca Munguia

Belonging as a Process of Survival: 1.5 and Second-Generation Latines in Dalton, Georgia 

Jalen Nichols

Divergent Pathways: The Effects of Gentrification on Racial Composition and Other Neighborhood Characteristics in Chicago 

Jonah Norwitt

Fulfilling the Needs of Reentry: The Provision of Social Support in Social Service Environments

Hadessah O’Neal

More than Just Going the Distance: Body Image and Perceived Access to Food 

Lauren Park

Perceptions of Mental Health Among Asian American Students 

Alexandra Patzakis

Examining the Impact of Photography in the Era of Social Media Through the Case Study of Alan Kurdi on Twitter 

Diego Quesada

Bleeding Laws: Violence, Queerness, and the Law in Mexican Society 

Isabel Reyes

Black in Spite of Our Dominicanidad: Navigating and Translating Afro-Dominican Ethnic Options in New York City 

Isabella Rivera Volquez

When the Law is Not on Your Side: Queerness, Safety, and Resistance in the Dominican Republic 

Adrian Rucker

Accumulation through Abandonment: Demolition and the Uneven Production of Vacant Lots in Chicago Neighborhoods 

Faith Sanchez

R/Group_therapy: The Function of Health-related Internet Resources in the Medical Encounter 

Eseme Segbefia

The Identities of Nigerian and Ghanaian American College Students 

Kevin Song

“Live Video at the Scene”: A Content Analysis of Citizen, A Public Safety App 

Sunitha Vallinayagam

Health for Who?: Investigating LGBTQ+ Inclusivity on Chicago-Based Federally Qualified Community Health Centers Websites 

Zoe Williams

All in God’s Hands: Exploring the Relationship between Young Adults and the Black Church 

John Wu

Old Dogs, Old Tricks: Examining the Rationales and Effects of Elderly (Re)entrants into the Japanese Workforce 

Mia Wu

Living Arrangements and Cognitive Health Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in the United States: What are Moderating Factors?