On May 16, undergraduate researchers presented to other students, faculty, community members, and visitors from across and beyond the university. The symposium was an opportunity for the department to support and learn from our incredible undergraduates.
Several students shared research on gender and sexuality:
Yuanxi Li received a Population Health Recognition Award for her work on cyberbullying toward transgender and nonbinary young adults. Her project surveyed over 200 respondents, filling an important gap in understanding the online experience of 18-25 year-olds, as other studies have primarily focused on adolescents.
Honors student Caroline Hale contributed to a session on Studies and Reflections on Gender, Sexuality, and Indigenous Peoples with her work “Essentialism and Transgender Double Consciousness.” Students Lou Payne and Eddie Zhang both presented research on LGBBTQ+ communities with their work “How Anti-discrimination Policies Impact Transgender Adults’ Community Engagement: A Comparison Between Washington and Idaho State” and “Transition and Inclusion: Experiences of Gay Trans Men in Gay Communities.”
Some students focused their research locally:
Honors student Angelic Du interviewed small farmers in western Washington to consider how AI technology that currently serves big farms could better meet small farmers’ needs. Cassidy Strickland, another member of the Honors cohort, asked, “Who’s calling 911?” She obtained months of data on 911 calls in Seattle, finding that neighborhoods with higher rates of home ownership placed fewer calls to emergency services than neighborhoods with fewer homeowners. Graduating senior Aliya Adan examined the ways gun violence impacts the Black immigrant communities in the Seattle area.
Other researchers took an international focus:
Honors student Rena Wu examined the dynamics between small farmers, government agencies, and private corporations in Taiwan, offering insight into how to improve farmers’ agency in creating sustainable farming practices with public and private aid. Kyle Chen’s project, “Navigating Censorship: How Satire Varies Across Political Discussion Themes in China,” examined political discourse under authoritarianism.
With the support of their faculty and graduate student mentors, our undergraduate researchers learned to conduct rigorous research and, just as importantly, to share their process and findings with other scholars and the public. Their presentations at the Undergraduate Research Symposium marked the culmination of months of work. We’re proud of these and other Sociology students who have contributed to our department and the field with their insight, curiosity, and hard work.