Jepson Research Symposium

Samuel Chanenson
How Mindsets Shape Anxiety and Depression Symptomology: The Mediating Role of Coping
This honors psychology thesis examines the relationship between mindsets and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Specifically, it investigates whether coping style can mediate this relationship. It finds that growth mindsets do correlate with reduced symptoms for general anxiety, social anxiety, and depression. Different styles of coping mediate this relationship. The project analyzes samples of treatment-seeking college students and an online sample.
Research Advisor: Dr. Crystal Hoyt

Kate Chasin
How Presidential Candidates Framed Israel and Antisemitism on the 2024 Campaign Trail
This study explores how Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump changed the way they framed Israel and antisemitism in speeches on the 2024 campaign trail, depending on whether they were speaking to a Jewish or non-Jewish audience. The study examines 63 speeches containing language on American-Israeli relations, the Israel-Hamas War, and antisemitism; it manually categorizes by frame, and compares for rhetorical shifts based on whether the audience was Jewish.
Research Advisor: Dr. Bo Yun Park 

 
Jack DeKorte
Examining the Impact of Multimedia Populism on Engagement with Political Campaign Content on Social Media
This study examines the posts disseminated on X (formerly Twitter) by Kamala Harris and Donald Trump during their 2024 election campaigns. The adherence of each post to the populist style was determined using a machine-learning content analysis for textual media and a multimodal large language model for visual media. The study aims to determine if the use of different forms of media correlates with increased adherence to the populist style and heightened engagement on social media.
Research Advisor: Dr. Bo Yun Park 

Zoe Epstein
Ethics and Art: Fulfilling Your Aesthetic Obligations to the Fullest
This thesis defends the existence of aesthetic obligations, or the duty to engage with aesthetics, primarily in relation to the arts. It finds that completing aesthetic duties results in greater intellectual growth, virtues, and quality of life. Secondly, the thesis argues that people should consume and create human-made art over AI-generated art, because human-made art has higher aesthetic value. Finally, the thesis discusses the extent to which immoral art plays a beneficial role in fulfilling aesthetic obligations.
Research Advisor: Dr. Javier Hidalgo 

Abigail Green
A Critical Discourse Analysis of Racial Justice in Virginia Higher Education
Virginia higher education has faced several challenges related to racial justice in the past decade. This thesis uses a critical-discourse analysis and inductive coding to analyze how institutional leaders of four public universities — University of Virginia, George Mason University, College of William & Mary, and Longwood University — have responded to these challenges. It looks specifically at the reckonings with racial justice in 2020 and 2021 and the attacks on DEI initiatives in 2025 and 2026.
Research Advisor: Dr. Tom Shields

Timothy Khoh
The Conscription Imperative
Inspired by my experience as a conscript for two years prior to college, this three-chapter honors thesis presents a philosophical justification and proposal for an American implementation of a national service model. This thesis seeks to justify conscription (a) on moral/ethical grounds as a coercive measure, (b) as a paternalistic policy, and (c) on egalitarian grounds. More broadly, my national service proposal contributes to the debate on methods and measures the American government ought to pursue to increase equity and solidarity among an ever-polarized citizenry.
Research Advisor: Dr. Jessica Flanigan  

Emma McCauley
How Gender Essentialist Beliefs Shape Interest and Belonging in Gender Dominated Fields
This senior thesis studies gender essentialism, the belief that women and men have inherent, fixed, biologically determined qualities that define their gender and shape everyday roles and behaviors. Endorsing gender essentialism is associated with stereotyping and prejudice of others and affects self-perceptions. This thesis examines how these beliefs shape self-perceptions in terms of how people view their own potential and fit in gendered work domains. More specifically, it explores the causal impacts of gender essentialist beliefs and if they influence responses, including interest and belonging in gender incongruent fields.
Research Advisor: Dr. Crystal Hoyt



Elizabeth Milliott
Trump’s Populist Rhetoric on Foreign Policy in Campaign Speeches
This project examines whether Donald Trump varies his use of populist rhetoric across contexts. Focusing on foreign policy in campaign speeches, it compares patterns between the 2016 and 2024 elections as well as across speech locations. Using a dictionary-based approach, the project measures the prevalence of populist language relative to total speech content to identify possible shifts in strategy.
Research Advisor: Dr. Guzel Garifullina 

Julia Mills
Who Steps Forward? Agency, Communion, and Leadership Self-Selection
This honors psychology thesis aims to manipulate experimentally participants’ self-perceived agency and communion in a causal manner. We found that men and agentic individuals were more likely to put themselves forward for a leadership position in a hypothetical group task; the agency possessed by men appears more predictive of leadership-claiming behavior than the agency possessed by women. Given previous literature, which finds that followers prefer communal traits in leaders, this project aims to investigate how we can encourage communal individuals to step forward.
Research Advisor: Dr. Crystal Hoyt



Andrea Punishill
Yes, Even the Murderers: A Case for Prison Abolition and Visions of the Future
This project explores the theoretical foundation, history, and contemporary consequences of crime and punishment in the United States, with particular attention to gender-based violence. I consider the failures of the prison industrial complex to realize its theoretical aims and its role in perpetuating cultures of racism, classism, and gender-based violence. I argue that prison abolition is the necessary first step to dismantle cultures of gender-based violence.
Research Advisor: Dr. Lauren Henley

Isabella Sabogal
Dismantling Normativity: Using Crip-Ace Theory to Disrupt the Socio-Political Cycle of Exclusivity
In grounding the experiences of the disability and asexual community, Crip-Ace theory, a new theoretical framework, seeks to disrupt the socio-political cycle of exclusivity founded in policies and cultural rhetoric. Crip-Ace theory draws on Crip theory, Queer theory, and intersectionality to advocate for a cycle of inclusivity that embraces a spectrum of relationships, abilities, and humanity. More importantly, Crip-Ace theory emphasizes that to change culture, we need to change policies and rhetoric simultaneously.
Research Advisor: Dr. Kristin Bezio



Charlotte Tisdale
Reengineering the Concept of Pregnancy: From Moralized Difference to Mere Difference
This project examines how the folk concept of pregnancy interacts with negatively coded social identities to structure inequitable outcomes in maternal care. Drawing on conceptual engineering, I argue for reframing pregnancy from a concept with moral valence to a “mere difference” framework — analogous to shifts in homosexuality and disability. By removing ethical value from the bodily condition of pregnancy, I am able to propose equitable reforms in clinical medicine, public health, and social policy.
Research Advisor: Dr. Jessica Flanigan  

Will Richards
From Flashpoint to Framework: Gamergate and a Turning Point in Online Politics
This senior thesis examines the history of Gamergate, specifically, the social forces that went into creating the movement. The first chapter covers a brief history of gaming, gaming communities, and the Gamergate movement. The second chapter primarily focuses on greater political and social forces, such as gender politics, political backlash theory, fandom politics, and conservatism. The third examines current politics and puts in context the importance of the previous topics.
Research Advisor: Dr. Kristin Bezio

Angelos Charalampos Bouras
Institutionalized Schooling and Global Inequality: Do Schooled Societies Promote Prosperity or Stratification?
This project examines how the Schooled Society Index (SSI) influences economic prosperity and income inequality across countries. Using cross-national data (N≈185), it tests whether higher SSI levels are associated with GDP per capita, HDI, and the Gini coefficient. It also analyzes whether schooling functions as an equalizing force or a stratifying mechanism, including nonlinear and interaction effects with education spending and institutional development.
Research Advisor: Dr. Volha Chykina

 
Aida Lette
Crossing the Line (Was Always the Plan)!
“Crossing the Line (Was Always the Plan)!” is a 10-page zine derived from my fall 2025 manifesto, “Drawing the Line: Comics Censorship from Wertham to Project 2025.” The zine refines the manifesto’s core warning: censorship is deliberate, historical, and accelerating. This is especially true of the arts and is now amplified by Project 2025’s federal reach, AI’s invisible gameplay, and TikTok’s manufactured docility. What began as a research deep dive became a call to arms. The arts fall first. Everything else follows.
Research Advisor: Dr. Kristin Bezio

Daniel Polonia
Feminized Interdependence and Higher Education’s Independent Values: Does a Mismatch Exist?
This research takes a quantitative approach to understanding how feminized interdependent and masculinized independent norms within higher education relate to public value. After reviewing a vignette of a fictional university, participants filled out a survey that ultimately proved that the public values both independence and interdependence over just one or the other. We infer that people value both communality and agency and want to see both in higher education.
Research Advisor: Dr. Crystal Hoyt

Mackenzie Proukou
Feminism in Pop Music
My research aims to address the ways in which popular songs sung by female artists address women’s rights and feminist ideas. More specifically, my project works to discover how, when, and why popular song lyrics shifted from embodying themes of female empowerment to promoting the oversexualization and objectification of men and women alike.
Research Advisor: Dr. Kristin Bezio

Nora Cahill
How Gender Essentialism Drives Bias in Leadership Evaluations
In this project, Dr. Hoyt and I investigate the pathways to leadership for women. We research how the big two dimensions of status and dominance may change those pathways, especially if the evaluator has a high essentialist mindset.
Research Advisor: Dr. Crystal Hoyt