Category: SRS 2024 (all projects)

Sex Work and Politics in the Postwar Era (Prof. Sarah Horowitz)

2 students are sought for a project on “Sex Work and Politics in the Postwar Era” with Prof. Sarah Horowitz that will begin on 6/3/2024 and last for 10 weeks

Project Description:

I am looking for two student researchers to work with me on a project on sex work and politics in the postwar era. The overall project looks at the emergence of sex-worker activism in the 1970s in France and potentially in the US and UK. I am also interested in the discussions and debates on sex work at this time and how they became ways to express anxieties about race, immigration, women’s mobility, and loosening sexual morality. One student will be researching the secondary literature on sex work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and the related campaigns against trafficking. The second will be researching the contemporary social science and legal scholarship on sex work and human trafficking. These are both large scholarly literatures and provide an essential background to my project. The three of us will come together weekly to discuss what we are working on, what we have found, and how we can weave together the different strands of research in which we are engaging. The students will also be writing annotated bibliographies and at the end of the summer will turn in literature reviews summarizing key points of consensus or disagreement among scholars.

Prerequisites

Students should have taken at least one 200 level class in European history.

Special Comments

Project Information

Estimated Start Date: 6/3/2024

Estimated End Date: 8/9/2024

Maximum number of students sought: 2

Contact Information: Prof. Sarah Horowitz (horowitzs@wlu.edu)

March Madness and Higher Education Donations (Prof. Joey Smith)

2 students are sought for a project on “March Madness and Higher Education Donations” with Prof. Joey Smith that will begin on 6/1/2024 and last for 10 weeks

Project Description:

We are looking for 2 summer researchers to help read prior research, gather data, and perform statistical analysis in order to advance 2 different projects toward publication. The first involves “March Madness” (Men’s Division I Tournament) where we anticipate adding to our existing data set more variables in an attempt to better model best strategies of picking one’s bracket. The second involves gathering data on fundraising efforts by universities in relation to budget surpluses or deficits that they exhibit. Note that we don’t know exactly where we as a research team will be on June 1 when the summer researcher will start but anticipate being in the thick of things on both projects.

Prerequisites

Knowledge of statistics and regression would be helpful but is not a pre-requisite.

Special Comments

Project Information

Estimated Start Date: 6/1/2024

Estimated End Date: 8/9/2024

Maximum number of students sought: 2

Contact Information: Prof. Joey Smith (jsmith3@wlu.edu)

Understanding Groundwater Arsenic Contamination through Geochemical Reactive Transport Modeling (Prof. MADHUMITA CHAKRABORTY)

2 students are sought for a project on “Understanding Groundwater Arsenic Contamination through Geochemical Reactive Transport Modeling ” with Prof. MADHUMITA CHAKRABORTY that will begin on 6/3/2024 and last for 8 weeks

Project Description:

Arsenic, a naturally occurring heavy metal found in the earth’s crust, poses a substantial public health risk when concentrated in groundwater due to natural geochemical processes such as leaching from rocks and sediments. This issue affects millions of people globally, with severe health consequences, including skin disorders and cancers. Reported as the most severe case of arsenic poisoning globally, the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Delta, the world’s largest delta spanning eastern India and Bangladesh, is grappling with this alarming health crisis. Arsenic in the delta’s groundwater results from complex geochemical reactions through water-sediment interaction along groundwater flow paths, leading to its liberation from delta sediments alongside other solutes. Despite extensive scientific attention on arsenic contamination in the region, a comprehensive understanding of the varied geochemical reactions driving arsenic mobilization remains elusive. Recognizing this gap, our proposed project aims to contribute towards that direction. The project’s core objective is to delineate and quantify potential geochemical reactions occurring along groundwater flow paths in the Ganges delta, to comprehend the spatial variations in hydrogeochemical environments and arsenic contamination Leveraging one-dimensional (1D) reactive transport modeling, we will simulate chemical reactions and transport processes for various dissolved solutes in the groundwater of the Ganges delta. By systematically characterizing these processes, our project seeks to lay the groundwork for effective mitigation strategies and contribute to the broader scientific understanding of arsenic contamination in complex deltaic environments.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites. But, a demonstrated interest in engaging in software-based modeling experience is preferred.

Special Comments

The project will involve 8 weeks of laboratory work, mostly focused on using computer programs. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me; I’m here to help!

Project Information

Estimated Start Date: 6/3/2024

Estimated End Date: 7/26/2024

Maximum number of students sought: 2

Contact Information: Prof. MADHUMITA CHAKRABORTY (mchakraborty@wlu.edu)

Modeling Philosophy (Prof. Li Kang)

1 student is sought for a project on “Modeling Philosophy” with Prof. Li Kang that will begin on 6/1/2024 and last for 8 weeks

Project Description:

(1) To create customized versions of ChatGPT (or other large language models) that are familiar with particular philosophers’ works or with relevant work on specific philosophical issues. (2) To evaluate the outputs of the customized GPT ‘philosophers’.

Prerequisites

(1) Have completed PHIL 274 Metaphysics. (2) Have completed at least two philosophy courses.

Special Comments

Project Information

Estimated Start Date: 6/1/2024

Estimated End Date: 7/26/2024

Maximum number of students sought: 1

Contact Information: Prof. Li Kang (lkang@wlu.edu)

Trends in privatization (Prof. Chantal Smith)

2 students are sought for a project on “Trends in privatization” with Prof. Chantal Smith that will begin on 6/3/2024 and last for 10 weeks

Project Description:

This summer I plan to take a deep dive into the idea of privatization. Privatization involves allowing formerly publicly provided goods and services and allow private actors to enter the market. Specifically, I plan to continue work I’ve already started on private prisons and school choice (two separate projects). Initially these two topics seem to be very different, however, there are some interesting similarities. One of the connections between schools and prisons is the research being done on the school-to-prison pipeline, which illustrates the connection between low-resourced schools and the juvenile and adult criminal justice system. While this summer’s research will not involve that connection, the connecting concept for both are the idea of competition. Economic theory states that competition serves two functions: 1) it improves consumer satisfaction (more options can improve prices), and 2) it incentives firms to be responsive to consumer desires. There continues to be a question of if the competition that this privatization movement promises is competitive.

Prerequisites

It would be helpful (but not required) if the students have previous exposure to statistics, econometrics, and coding in statistical packages such as R, Stata, or Python.

Special Comments

Project Information

Estimated Start Date: 6/3/2024

Estimated End Date: 8/9/2024

Maximum number of students sought: 2

Contact Information: Prof. Chantal Smith (csmith@wlu.edu)