What new ideas, challenges, or other issues have you encountered with regard to your project (this might include data collection, information that contradicts your assumptions or the assertions of others, materials that have enriched your understanding of the topic or led you to change your project, etc.)? How have these ideas or challenges shaped the bigger picture of your research? Has the scope or focus of your topic changed since you began this project? If so, how?

My project centers around the question of how participation is encouraged and framed (particularly for underrepresented populations) in the promotional materials of the All of Us research program (a US precision medicine initiative). One really fascinating idea and rather significant body of work that I’ve identified in my literature review is that of “biocitizenship.” There is no consensus on a singular definition for what it means to be a good biocitizen, but some examples (of arguments put forth by other scholars) include that one has a moral duty to learn about and act upon their genetic health risks, one has an altruistic duty to participate in genomics research as an act of solidarity, etc. As I’m parsing through this dense literature and trying to bridge what I’m seeing empirically with what I’m seeing theoretically, I think this larger body of work is definitely shaping how I understand the promotional materials and messages of the All of Us research program. It’s helped me see broader trends (as opposed to the individual nuances in rhetoric I’d been largely focused on earlier in the data collection process).

What research resources have proven particularly useful to you as you continue your research?

In addition to the invaluable advice and feedback that I’ve received from my research team, CLIO has been absolutely crucial for my research efforts. The ability to access so many different papers/resources (as well as customize searches) not only expedited my workflow but also increased the range of materials available to me. It’s really an incredible resource.

• While all Laidlaw Scholars will be presenting their research at the Columbia Undergraduate Research Symposium in the fall, what are the more immediate expectations that you have for your research? Are you writing a paper you hope to get published? Will your research be part of a larger scientific study? Is your research now the first phase of a project you’ll continue to work on throughout the year, and/or next summer? Now that we are nearing the one month mark of the program, please write about your expectations for your research.
• I may continue with my research after these 6 weeks, as this is a big project that will require ongoing commitment to bring the final product to fruition. We're still in more of the research and development phase of the project, but eventually my faculty mentor would like to create a pilot fellowship program, so there is a lot more content and logistical research to be done before then.
• Why does your research matter? Explain the significance of the question you are investigating, and why you are interested in it.
• When I first applied to the Laidlaw, this line in the project description caught my attention: "Universities have excelled in teaching liberal arts and STEM curricula. A critical need today is to also teach life and leadership skills to students to prepare them for a world that is transforming around us in an accelerated manner." This idea still motivates me as I research. I think we, as Laidlaw scholars, are uniquely attuned to the necessity of learning these soft leadership and life skills even as we study more traditional academic disciplines. Young leaders who are both knowledgeable and passionate about sharing themselves and their ideas with the world in a way that benefits the public good are invaluable, and hopefully this fellowship would help craft those leaders.

• What are some of the ethical issues that you are grappling with in your research? What are some of the ways in which you are responding to these questions?

My task of research under my PIs involves mostly database scavenging for subsidy media coverage, so I believe there are not many ethical issues I currently have to grapple with. However, one potential concern in the overall research project we are doing includes an ethical side for firms; do they ethically use the subsidies given by the government for ESG goals (eg. increasing employment within the region, committing to environmentally friendly production, etc.)?

Furthermore, a potential ethical concern is the intent behind media—journalism can often be used for ulterior motives such as political campaigns, and it is important that I keep that in mind as I note key numerical details from articles. A way I'm counteracting this is looking for multiple articles which cover the same subsidy in order to gain a more nuanced perspective.

• As you continue your research, have you considered alternative viewpoints in your investigation? If so, how have these alternative viewpoints enriched or changed your project?

My research project involves collecting data first BEFORE exploring various viewpoints. Economics at the academia level involves extremely heavy math, making it very logic-oriented and, at times, not open to alternative viewpoints. However, I do plan to consider alternate viewpoints as I work with my PIs to explore the next steps of this paper once the raw data has been sorted out.

• Last week the trainings and discussions we had cut across the disciplines. How does the interdisciplinary nature of this program, the fact that students are focusing on such a diverse range of projects, help you think about your project and/or your academic interests more broadly?

I think that the interdisciplinary nature of Laidlaw is helpful as different research projects will require different methodologies; for example, humanities will most likely be more qualitative than the quantitative nature of STEM research. Consequently, as someone who is researching economics—which settles in the awkward in-between of humanities and STEM— I can learn methods from my humanities-oriented peers as well as methods from my STEM-oriented peers and possibly apply it to my future economics research projects.

• As you begin your individual research projects this week, do you anticipate any challenges in getting started? If so, what are they?

My main job under my faculty is to work on scavenging for media coverage in Lexis Nexis. Thus, I anticipate one of my main challenges to be how to efficiently find media coverage on each individual subsidy case. Another challenge may be efficiently executing one of my other main tasks, which is identifying the type of media coverage; nowadays, journalism and political coverage get conflated so it may be hard for me to distinguish between the two.