University Honors

This research paper examines the history of grassroots LGBTQ+ activism in Riverside,California during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s. Specifically, this research strives toanswer the question of how Riverside’s LGBTQ+ community survived and persisted in theconservative environment of the Inland Empire during the deadly AIDS epidemic. To investigatethis question, this paper draws on oral histories with local LGBTQ+ community leaders from “APeople’s History of the IE” digital archive, archival materials in the Connie Confer and KayBerryhill Smith LGBT activism collection at the UC Riverside library, and secondary sourcesfrom scholars examining the AIDS epidemic within the United States. Findings include localcommunity history and the activism of the Inland AIDS Project as well as the RiversideCoalition Against Discrimination in battling to defend Riverside’s 1987 AIDSAnti-Discrimination Ordinance. This paper also builds on knowledge of LGBTQ+ communityactivism in the fields of both public history and gender and sexuality studies. These findings areof importance today as they reveal the historical contingencies behind successful community-ledgrassroots organizing in traditionally conservative and hostile locales as well as providinghistorical context of potential value to today’s LGBTQ+ community in Riverside.

The focus of this project is assessing the critical connections which may be viewedbetween the musical works of Black artists during the 1970’s and 1980’s which served as thegenesis of the genre of hardcore punk and the foundational theories which created the culturalphenomenon, aesthetic, and critical lens that is Afrofuturism. In doing so, this project highlightsforms of African American speculative thinking and defines Afrofuturism itself through theworks of these musicians. Furthermore, by pulling out these connections, this research begins theprocess of seeing the genre of hardcore punk—its uniquely African American form, sound, andpurpose integral in this—as a necessary strand in Afrofuturism, to be viewed in the larger streamof African American approaches towards speculativity in the 20th century. To achieve this goal,this essay will analyze primarily Jacques Attali’s Noise: The Political Economy of Music, afoundational text of sound studies, in relation to musical works by the bands Bad Brains, PureHell, and Death, among others. Additionally, this research seeks to draw upon a history ofscholarly approaches towards Afrofuturism itself through citing works by authors includingMark Dery, Stuart Hall, Stefano Harvey, and Fred Moten, alongside the necessary perspectives ofscholars and critics working in the proximity of music, including Daphne Brooks and JoséEsteban Muñoz. This research posits the work of these aforementioned musicians alongsidethese authors, providing through its totality a viewpoint into Afrofuturism altogether absent inscholarly works.

Restricted by the gendered, patriarchal structures of colonial society, women in New Spain hadlimited options or protections outside of marriage. The church, and convents in particular,offered women an alternative. Many women found fulfillment in conventual communities, wheremusic, libraries, servants and even delicacies were part of their lives. But not every woman couldenter a convent. The church required an extensive dowry for a woman to enter the convent andbecome a fully professed member of the order. The status and luxuries of a “nun of the blackveil" was limited to elite women who could afford the significant expense. Those who could notsecure the full dowry were relegated to second class religious citizenship as “nuns of the whiteveil,” or a “donada” a resident and servant who never professed. My research explores howwomen with religious vocations from elite and non-elite social backgrounds navigated ecclesialsocial structures and how class (as well as race) impacted the social status of nuns before andafter professing.Analyzing colonial manuscripts from the Archivo General de la Nación in México City, myresearch expands our understanding of the role of dowries in women’s conventual experiences.In recovering the complex religious lives of women under colonial rule, this paper argues thatwhile convents were an escape and an alternative to marriage, for some women, this access wasnot constructed equally.

Women’s reproductive health encompasses more than just pregnancy. There are manyfactors that play crucial roles in the health and well-being of women, such as contraception,abortion, the struggles of infertility, and most importantly, gaining access to proper care tomaintain overall health. However, as we have seen throughout history, women in the UnitedStates have had to overcome many challenges and fight for the right to be able to govern theirown bodies and healthcare. The immense impact that lack of proper care, such as denied accessto abortion, birth control, and fertility treatments, has on women daily is all too often overlooked,and this is not due to lack of research. This project studied women’s reproductive health in termsof the history of access to contraception and abortion, the impact of values of others on publicpolicy, and advocacy of reproductive justice to better understand the disparities that exist inwomen’s healthcare and explain how they came to be. These topics were explored via a literaturereview and analysis of previous scholarly work on the subject. Women’s reproductive healthcontains aspects, such as abortion and contraception, that have had political conflict surroundingthem for a very long time. It was the goal of this project to understand and spread awareness ofthe impact that political turmoil has had on comprehensive women’s health, and how some ofthose impacts can be remedied.

Understanding the interactions between vector-borne pathogens and non-crop plantspecies is crucial for managing diseases in both agricultural and natural ecosystems. This studyfocuses on the role of potato psyllid, Bactericera cockerelli, haplotypes, and the pathogenCandidatus Liberibacter solanacearum, CLso, in affecting native plants in the genera Physalisand Lycium within California’s Mojave and Sonoran Deserts. We employed a combination ofyellow sticky cards and custom-built preservative traps to monitor psyllid populations and thebacterial pathogens they may carry over the late winter to early spring season. Moleculartechniques, including PCR and Sanger sequencing, were used to identify psyllid haplotypes andscreen each psyllid for infection with CLso. Our results indicated that the Southwesternhaplotype of potato psyllids was prevalent, but none of the captured psyllids tested positive forCLso. These findings suggest a currently low risk of CLso transmission to native desert plants bythis vector in the studied regions. However, the presence of another psyllid species, Bactericeradorsalis, which has been identified as a potential vector for CLso, underscores the complexity ofthese ecological interactions and highlights the need for ongoing surveillance. This studyprovides valuable insights into the dynamics of vector-borne pathogens in non-crop plants,contributing to a broader understanding of their ecological impacts and aiding in thedevelopment of integrated pest management strategies.

Research has indicated the development of identity under gendered racist oppression inBlack women in the United States is unique due to the intersection of their dual marginalizedsocial status and the resulting unique multifaceted approach to assimilating and combatingnormative narratives of prototypical ideas on race and gender (Williams & Lewis, 2021; Cooleyet. al, 2018). The inherent contradictions between racialized stereotypes of Blackness and that ofwomanhood effectively others Black American women and this othering is exacerbated withinthe confines of the racial (and patriarchal) American Competitive Capitalism (Marsh, 2015;Fletcher Jr, 2020; Albee & Perry, 1998; Bernard, 2016;Brown, 1975; Wills, 2018; Schwartz,2007). This research builds upon the idea that the intersection of racism and sexism (this authorargues capitalism as well) has a particular, unparalleled influence on the development of Blackfemale identity. Understanding of the oppression of Black women in white normative Westernspaces has seminal policy implications on disparities in medical care, mental health, professionalopportunity, natural hair acceptance, etc. This creative research project seeks to create an originalvisual representation of the development of gendered racial identity and gendered racialideologies used to navigate the construction of individual identities in Black women as a result oftheir tri categoric systemic oppression. Nuanced and diverse representation of Black women invisual arts media serves to provide Black American women social space to be three dimensionalbeings despite their non prototypical nature in Western, white normative, capitalist societies (andthe media subsequently created in such societies).

Zoe Butler’s poetry collection The Main Worry is a means of escaping the clutches of self-doubt,where readers can commiserate with the insanity that is reality. The Main Worry works toinclude small snippets of life that aim to capture feelings that congregate in the gray area of thehuman condition — emotion. Using a background of psychological phenomenon, The MainWorry brings readers together by connecting with the all-encompassing human experience. Inher first poetry collection, Butler documents chronological lessons that she carries with her asmetaphors, strength, and art. The Main Worry works to explore the unspoken corners of theshadowy psyche and celebrate the triumph of escaping the pit that all humans inevitably fall into.As an only child, analyzing became a way to interpret life, and writing became the vessel of herinterpretation. Zoe Butler has spent her life coping with the intense anxiety of obsessive-compulsive disorder by burying herself in her writing. Now, she works to create a space for freefeeling throughout the collection so that any mature audience can feel seen, heard, and validatedthrough the commissary of an artistic outpouring of emotion. Where poetry meets the abstractwill of feeling, The Main Worry surrounds the reader and allows them to step away from theisolated experience of personal turmoil.

The film serves as an evolving canvas for artistic expression, facilitating profoundreflections on the human condition while providing a platform for societal and cultural discourse.This creative project is a screenplay entitled "Blood Martini," an exploration of the complexitiesof happiness and purpose through the lens of vampire characters. Set in an alternate dimension,the story unfolds in a world where humanity is ensnared by superficial gratifications, oblivious tothe presence of vampires and other supernatural beings coexisting in their midst. Through theorchestration of a vampire-turned-fashion designer who manipulates beauty products tohypnotize the world, our protagonist embarks on a transformative journey. Stripped of societaldistractions, she confronts the essence of genuine fulfillment and resolves to initiate change.Central to this exploration is an investigation into the historical contexts that inform the story'sbackdrop, dissecting their impact on character development, narrative structure, and thematicresonance. Through this screenplay, I aim to immerse the audience in the craft of feature-lengthstorytelling while delving into profound philosophical inquiries.

The conservation of pollinators, such as bees, is important because they provide criticalpollination services in urban, natural, and agricultural ecosystems. While pollinators and theirservices are better studied in agricultural systems, less is known about the pollinators and theirfloral visitation patterns in urban/suburban areas. This includes the knowledge of bee speciespresent on the University of California, Riverside campus, located in an urban setting. Urbanareas, including college campuses, have been known to provide floral resources to pollinatorswith the integration of urban greenspaces. In this study, we aimed to: (1) characterize pollinatorvisitation to landscaping plantings on the University of California, Riverside campus, and (2)describe their foraging behaviors. Six plots throughout the campus were selected, with mostmeasuring at least 1 ha and each at least 100 meters apart. In these plots, we observed andrecorded any pollinators visiting floral species. We used mark-recapture methods to assesswhether the bee species stayed loyal to a specific floral species or whether they visited a widevariety of plants. Overall, we detected a total of 12 pollinator species marked that had visited 36flowering plant species in our plots in the UC Riverside campus. Of these 12 pollinator species,three were recaptured, Bombus melanopygus, Melissodes spp., and Apis mellifera. Recaptureprobability varied by the plant species visited and the pollinator’s identity but was consistentacross plots. Overall, our findings suggest that floral resources provided in urban greenspaces atthe University of California, Riverside have the potential to support native pollinatorcommunities.

Goodnight, Simon is a novel that follows Simon, a little boy creating life on other planetsto get closer to his family and to satiate his loneliness. The story as a whole mixes mythology,geology, chemistry, biology, creationism, and familial drama to largely encompass the currenthuman experience. Through this fictional lens, we’ll go from before abiogenesis, to the cambrianexplosion, to the extinction of the dinosaurs, to humans taking their first steps towards ourmodern age. On the more interpersonal level, it's a coming of age story, as well as creativedevelopment and discussion between a mother and son.The novel is meant to be a shared reading between parents and their children, giving wayto future discussions about boundaries, creative freedoms, and how to take criticism. It is alsomeant to be educational, looking towards Earth’s history, as well as an introduction to evolution,biology, and astronomy. I hope it will be enlightening for those curious about an amalgamationbetween fiction and science.