• 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?

The biggest challenge I have faced with my project was the scope I could research, and the ways I wanted to approach it. When speaking to my faculty advisor about using this one book as a primary source on Australia's Stolen Generation and White Australia Policy, she proposed the idea of looking at literature itself to frame my research and the questions I had. I definitely ran with this idea, and by selecting a few literary works, I was able to narrow my research. Rather than focusing on imperialism in a broader sense, I have shifted to focus more on settler colonialism itself. 

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

CLIO and Columbia Libraries more broadly have been so helpful for my research. There are so many books (including Australian literature and history texts!) that I didn't think I would be able to get my hands on for my project, but through CLIO I was able to obtain them. 

• 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?

I am writing a paper about art history, and I have come to assume it would be published in an art historical journal. This means the target audience is art historians, and in the future, those in the academic world of art history will be the people who are gleaning anything of relative importance from my work. In discussion with the other students in my graduate student group, I came to realize that this is not what originally drew me to my project - the idea of contributing a sliver of information to the art world. I am more interested in the actual concepts i am studying, and how they affect the public's understanding of contemporary art. I might care about what a famous art history professor thinks of my work, but I also care a good deal about what my younger brothers think about the art I enjoy so much. I want to focus more on writing a paper that includes both sides of the issue, not just a bias towards one or the other. There is no "side" to take, actually; I am just presenting the facts as I see them, and I hope that, in doing so, I can learn more about what causes people to say "that famous work is ugly," or what causes museums to decide when one kind of art is better than another.

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

I have mainly been using Google Scholar and JSTOR, but I have also reached out to a lot of people via email. So I suppose my most valuable resource comes from public firsthand accounts.

One of the biggest issues in the ecotourism sphere is green gentrification, which is when the development or greater use of a green area increases the value of local communities and often displaces them. This process has happened along the High-Line for example. Similarly, ecotourism may not best serve the people who live in the area as well as the environment. I am responding to these issues by educating myself about the current state and history of ecotourism and critically viewing “developments” before assuming that green equals good.

As ecotourism can be controversial, I am considering alternative viewpoints. I am interacting with professors and businesspeople. In both groups, some people feel more positive about ecotourism, even if it may change the environment, caring a lot about the profits and efficiency. Others feel very critical of engaging with new developments and see tourists as less likely to care for the environment on vacation. I want to consider differing viewpoints so that my product presents a nuanced perspective.

• 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? Will your research be part of a larger scientific study? Do you hope to produce an annotated bibliography that you reflect on down the line? 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 do have the eventual goal of creating a paper to present the project I have been completing this summer. Yet, the timeline of this mode of presentation will depend on the results my experiments produce within the next 2 weeks. While at the conclusion of the program, I will likely have enough data to begin to construct a general outline, I will likely need to continue my execution of trials into the fall semester. My independent project is also a part of a larger scientific study, and while my own portion of the project is more independent, the work I am ultimately completing will be utilized by the lab to determine the course of future experiments/projects.

• Why does your research matter? Explain the significance of the question you are investigating, and why you are interested in it.

I am investigating the mechanism of interaction between Wee1 and PKMYT1 inhibitors and ALT positive cancer cells. This involves determining which cell types are more susceptible to the effects of these therapeutics, imaging the process of cell destruction that results from these treatments, and understanding the efficacy of specific drug concentrations. This research can ultimately contribute to the body of knowledge supporting current clinical trials for both Wee1 and PKMYT1 inhibitors, as well as suggest a combination of treatments that could be used in the future. Furthermore, observing the broader effects of drug treatment can help us understand more about the mechanism of the ALT pathway in cancers, which in turn can lead to the development of specific cellular targets and more successful treatments for those suffering from these cancers. My interest in this research thus largely stems from its ability to make a direct, positive impact on those who are diagnosed with cancers that often become resistant to drug treatment. 

• 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? Will your research be part of a larger scientific study? Do you hope to produce an annotated bibliography that you reflect on down the line? 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.

Since my research is working with a preexisting lab, the study I am currently working on contributes to the findings of the Social and Moral Cognition lab as a whole. Additionally, since the study I am currently working on is the third version of that study, it also contributes to the progression of the individual study. I hope to continue working with the Social and Moral Cognition lab throughout the rest of the year and potentially next summer. Even though the current study I am working on is on track to end at the conclusion of the summer, I hope to continue working with the Social and Moral Cognition lab throughout the rest of the year and potentially next summer on other studies in the lab. However, I look forward to learning about more second summer opportunities and am keeping an open mind!

• Why does your research matter? Explain the significance of the question you are investigating, and why you are interested in it.

While I think that the importance of anything is relatively subjective, I find significance in my research because it sheds light on to what extent is morality a result of our environment and to what extent is it intrinsic. Also, from a developmental standpoint, it reveals when children start developing a moral system, and in that system what is important? Is intention important? Or action? The exploration of the origin and nature of our morals serves to provide insight into human behavior, which I find incredibly interesting as a potential Human Rights and Psychology major.