Student Research

There’s no shortage of media coverage when it comes to China’s booming economic sector.  Reforms dating back to the 1970s have launched China’s economy on a trajectory that was unfathomable 40 years ago.  Now that the country has established industrial and financial infrastructures, it is looking for ways to sustain its economic growth.  Neil Edwards ’14 is examining the developing investment of China in Tanzania to see if it fosters a mutually beneficial relationship between the countries.

A film produced by Erica Kowsz ’11 and Assistant Professor of Anthropology Nathan Goodale, along with Irish filmmaker Kieran Concannon and University of Notre Dame Professor of Anthropology Ian Kuijt, was published by The Archaeology Channel.  Silent Stones of Inishark: Memories, Archaeology, Landscape was featured in a January “Video News” segment.

Psychology major Beril Esen ’13 spent the early months of this summer conducting a study on the recently discovered concept of defensive self-esteem. But when her psychology research ended in late June, her academic plans for the summer were hardly complete. Esen was also awarded a Summer Research Fellowship by the Levitt Center for Public Affairs to study the issue of domestic violence in her native city of Istanbul, Turkey.

World politics major Martin Lavallee ’14 has taken up the cause of disenfranchised rural farmers in Honduras by conducting a Levitt Summer Research Project to investigate possible land reform solutions to their plight.

Melissa Mann ’13 hopes to help alleviate the growing problem of brownfields by conducting research with an organization that utilizes federal and state grants to clean up and redevelop these vacant plots of land. She received a Levitt Summer Research Fellowship to work with the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corps. to complete the first of the Brownfield Opportunity Areas program three grant application steps.