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2007 Winners

Senior Division, Friends of the Libraries Award

Rachel Lynne Anderson (Comparative Religion)
Faculty Advisor: Professor Martin Jaffee

The Crucified Woman: A Paradox of Prurience and Piety
This project examines an oddly paradoxical motif that arose within Western Christian iconography of the Middle Ages - the Crucified Woman. In Medieval artworks, females were depicted upon the cross in an erotically suggestive manner; and yet, these were the bodies of saints, virgins whose martyrdoms were the result of their very refusal to indulge male sexual desire. This amalgam yielded an extraordinarily freighted image that encompassed both Christ’s Passion and sexual passion. My essay seeks to explicate the functioning of this juxtaposition by situating the images within their social, literary, ritualistic, and hagiographic context. What emerges is a multifaceted picture of the rhetoric of crucifixion, devotionalist ideas of piety and pain, and the power of a saint’s body to concurrently induce lust and shame. The essay concludes with a survey of how the tradition of the Crucified Woman has been carried on in fin de siècle and contemporary artworks.

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Naraelle Barrows (Comparative History of Ideas)
Professor John E. Toews

Reinventing Traditionalism: The Influence of Critical Reconstruction on the Shape of Berlin's Friedrichstadt

This paper follows the history of the architectural city planning concept called “Critical Reconstruction” and its application in the city of Berlin from the late 1970s until today, using a district of Berlin called the Friedrichstadt as a case study. A brief overview of historical Berlin city planning and architectural styles is given, along with a short summary of post-World War II approaches to construction. The development of the concept of Critical Reconstruction during the late 1960s by Berlin architect Josef Paul Kleihues is examined, especially as it relates to the backlash against Modernist architectural theories. This is followed by an account of Critical Reconstruction’s applications in West Berlin during the 1980s through the Internationale Bauaustellung (International Building Exhibition). City planning trends in East Berlin during the 1980s, which mirrored those in the West, are also explored, as are challenges faced by the post-reunification city planning officials. Finally, the political and historical significance of Critical Reconstruction’s most recent incarnation as the guiding planning principle for Berlin’s new building and restoration projects is addressed, using examples from the case study area.

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Emma Grunberg (History and International Studies)
Professor Shuan Lopez

Rationality of Inaccurate Science: Britain, Cholera and the Pursuit of Progress in 1883

During the 1883 cholera epidemic in Egypt, then a British protectorate, British officials tried to prove that the epidemic had originated in Egypt and had not been brought there on a British ship through the Suez Canal. Why would the British, the dominant power in the region, attempt to scientifically prove this “local-origin” theory even as bacteriologists were about to find the clinching evidence that would disprove it? Through an analysis of British reports, correspondence and press articles from 1883, I argue that the British wanted to protect their image as a modern, civilized power – an image that required them to use the language of science and rationality even while approaching the problem of cholera from a political and economic perspective. The epidemic, a little-studied episode of colonial history, provides a window into the relationship between frenzied imperial competition and the concurrent progress of medical science.

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Senior Division, Kenneth S. Allen Award

Renata Frietas Lemos (International Studies)
Professor Wolfram Latsch

Tapping into Culture: Examining a Post-conflict Microfinance Approach in Huambo, Angola

Globally, post-conflict microfinance has been used to regenerate war-torn economies, reduce dependence on relief, and support development programs. However, facilitating conditions for its success include the pre-existence of a minimal stock of social capital in the society. This study challenges this idea by examining the case of Development Workshop’s microfinance program with the Ovimbundu population in Huambo, Angola. The results suggest that DW’s microfinance program was successful because it inherently approached the post-conflict situation from a cultural perspective. That is, implicit in its deployment of microfinance projects is a consideration of the economic and social systems of reference in which the Ovimbundu were functioning. My case study of DW’s program and the rebuilding of the Ovimbundu society contributes to the lack of literature in this field by providing a different analysis to post-conflict microfinance and gaining a better understanding of its entrench into the cultural aspects of society.

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Brooke C. McKean (International Studies)
Professor Deborah Porter

Invisible Lives: Stories of Innovation and Transition

My thesis seeks to understand why the slum population in Mumbai continues to grow during India’s era of liberalization. Traditional economic theory argues that these policies of political and economic openness should increase the well-being of the poorest groups. However, in Mumbai, the richest city in India, over half the population lives in slums. I argue that a dialectical relationship between the state and slum-dwellers allows this contradictory system to persist. To define and understand this relationship, I utilize two concepts. First, I propose the government and the affluent elite construct slum-dwellers as “liminal citizens,” or a transitional group. Second, I argue in reaction, slum-dwellers redefine their identities and incorporate strategies of survival, constructing a “shadow hegemony” that defies the state.

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Lydia Wright (International Studies)
Professor Cabeiri deBergh Robinson

Beyond the Mosque Walls: Legal Constructions 'Apostasy' and 'Blasphemy' in Egypt's Public Sphere

This thesis examines the criminalization of apostasy in Egypt, focusing specifically on the public debates that took place after the murder of secularist Farag Fouda in 1992. Although Egypt boasts an independent press and protection of free speech, countless authors and political figures have come under fire – both literally and figuratively – in the 1990s for actions deemed detrimental to the public good. The following analysis challenges the argument that public debate is non-existent in the Muslim world. After careful translation of Arabic-language newspaper articles and interviews with Egyptian religious figures, artists, teachers, journalists and lay persons, I posit the apostasy debate was not simply existent in Egypt; it was also vociferous, passionate, and ubiquitous. Significantly, this debate was not between religious scholars or jurists. Rather, it flourished in the public sphere via widespread news publications, allowing lay Egyptians into a debate previously held behind the mosque walls.

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Non-senior Division, Kenneth S. Allen Award

Ambrogino Giusti (History)
Professor Robert Stacey

The Green Press: Mass Media and the U.S. Environmental Movement 1945-1975

This paper enriches our understanding of the history of U.S. environmentalism by examining the media’s coverage of urban air pollution in the post-war period. Specifically, an analysis of media content from this period helps explain why modern environmentalism arose in the 1960s as a popular movement for strong regulations at the local, state, and national level. By prodding readers to take action on air pollution control in their cities, newspapers increased the likelihood that city residents would take a greater interest in environmental issues in general. By framing the issue of air pollution as a ubiquitous and transboundary problem, newspapers helped raise support among city residents for action at multiple levels of government. Finally, by framing the issue of air pollution as an immense and worsening public health crisis in the 1960s, newspapers helped galvanize support for strong regulations among the citizenry, particularly in the 1960s.

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Jing-Lan Lee (International Studies)
Professor David Bachman

The H5N1 Virus: Global Health Implications and a Need for Chinese Preparedness

This paper seeks to analyze the primacy of China’s role in global health and disease control through an assessment of the government’s response capability regarding the spread of the H5N1 virus, also known as bird or avian flu. Tracing the origins of the disease back to Guangdong Province and the effects that emerging mutant strains of the virus have on surrounding East and Southeast Asian populations through poultry exports highlights the crucial role China will play in providing a transparent and efficient response to contain and combat a potential pandemic outbreak. Criticized for its irresponsible drug administration and opacity in handling SARS in the past, Chinese officials openly recognize the necessity of greater transparency. Yet, a lack of available vaccines, distribution chains and specific containment strategies also speak to measures that China must take act as a responsible status quo power and an emerging stakeholder in the international community.

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Lilia Peng (International Studies)
Professor David Bachman

British Withdrawal from Greece: Protecting Imperial Power

This paper examines why the British withdrew support from Greece during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922, despite significant British economic, political, and military gains from a Greek victory. Since Greece was under strong British influence, her land concessions from the Treaty of Sèvres would provide Britain with access to crucial ports, trade centers, and strategic military bases. The British withdrawal three years into the war resulted in a Greek defeat and Turkish victory, with Britain losing her potential gains from a Greek victory and enforcement of the treaty. Yet, despite the considerable losses Britain was forced to accept by withdrawing, she did so to protect her imperial power, which was threatened after Russia, France, and Italy aligned with Turkey, tipping the imperial balance of power unfavorably against Britain. Failure to withdraw could have resulted in even greater losses through a revision of the Treaty of Sèvres that ignored British interests.

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Sharae Wheeler (History)
Professor Susan Glenn

Defunis vs. Odegaard: Another Kind of "Jewish Problem"

This paper examines why the British withdrew support from Greece during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922, despite significant British economic, political, and military gains from a Greek victory. Since Greece was under strong British influence, her land concessions from the Treaty of Sèvres would provide Britain with access to crucial ports, trade centers, and strategic military bases. The British withdrawal three years into the war resulted in a Greek defeat and Turkish victory, with Britain losing her potential gains from a Greek victory and enforcement of the treaty. Yet, despite the considerable losses Britain was forced to accept by withdrawing, she did so to protect her imperial power, which was threatened after Russia, France, and Italy aligned with Turkey, tipping the imperial balance of power unfavorably against Britain. Failure to withdraw could have resulted in even greater losses through a revision of the Treaty of Sèvres that ignored British interests.

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Honorable Mention

Dinara Abilova
Geography
Controversey around Genetically Modified Food in Zambia
Professor Craig Jeffrey (Geography | International Studies)

Matan Barnea
Geography
A Holy City? The Gay Pride Rally of 2006 and Varying Conceptions of the Meaning of Jerusalem
Professor Michael Brown (Geography)

Alventina Alexandrovna Gall
International Studies
The Role of the State in the Integration of Traditional and Conventional Medicine in Africa: A Case Study of South Africa, Tanzania and Gambia
Professor Gad Barzilai (International Studies)

Christina Kipelidis
UW Tacoma Core
Stem Cell Research: Ethics versus the Progression of Science
Professors Donal Chinn (Institute of Technology) and
Amos Nascimento (Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences)

Alex Kyllo
International Studies
Sichuan Peppercorn: The Roles of a Spice in the Chaning Political Economy of China's Sichuan Province
Professor Stevan Harrell (Anthropology)

Marshall Kramer
International Studies
State of Inpurity: The Violentt Experience of the Nation in Myanmar
Professor Cabeiri deBergh Robinson (International Studies)

John Lee Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
The Effect of Anxiety Disorder Comorbidity on Treatment Resistant Bipolar Disorders
Professor David L. Dunner (Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences)

Lisa Mahlum History
The Similarities of Differences: A Comparative Analysis of the New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin
Professor Robert C. Stacey (History)

Lukas Svec Mathematics
Applying Voronoi Diagrams to the Redistricting Problem
Professor James A. Morrow (Mathematics)

Rose Thorton
Urban Design & Planning
The Price of Environmental Restoration: When Taxes Replaced Tugs on the Thea Foss Waterway
Instructor Cynthia Updegrave (Biology)