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Students

Student Advisory Board (SAB):

Andrea Marcos andreamarcos2012@u.northwestern.edu

Joellen Ornstein JoellenOrnstein2007@u.northwestern.edu

Current Students

Winner of the 2011 Undergraduate Research Grant

Alok Nadig, is a double major in WCAS-Sociology and Bienen School of Music.  He has won a Fall 2011 Northwestern Undergraduate Research Grant for his project Legal Implications of Gendered Conceptions of  Homosexuality in India in the Past Ten Years to travel to India for ten days over winter break (2012) and interview leading human rights activists working on such issues. In 2009, the High Court of Delhi struck down anti-sodomy legislation within Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a piece of legislation established during British colonial rule that criminalized consensual sexual acts between members of the same  gender.  In   India, gay and trans identities (as we typically understand them in American cultural parlance) are conflated, resulting in far more fluid, and less regimented, conceptions of the LGBT individual.  Alok is studying what implications these fluid identities have had on the legal tactics that human rights activists have pursued in order to achieve rights for sexual minorities in India.  He is also interested in finding out who benefits (and who is potentially harmed) from such conceptions as represented in the 2009 court decision.

Undergraduate Research Summer Grants awarded to 3 sociology majors

A native of Los Angeles, California, Taylor Barrett is senior pursuing a double major in sociology and creative non-fiction writing. She arrived at Northwestern during her sopho-more year as a transfer student from a small liberal arts college in Vermont. She gravitated toward sociology because of the discipline’s ability to challenge her worldview and help her think critically about her surroundings. She views her training in sociology as invaluable to her as a citizen, scholar, and artist.
With a background in theatre, Taylor is primarily interested in issues of gender and live performance. This past summer she was fortunate enough to receive an Undergrad-uate Research Grant, which allowed her to gather data for her thesis, “Female Comedians: Negotiating the Gender Bias in Improvisational Comedy.” Over the course of eight weeks, she conducted an ethnography whereby she attended improv shows in Chicago, Illinois, home to the most vibrant live comedy scene in the country, and inte-rviewed female and male members of the improv community, both at the student and professional level. She also flew to Montreal, Quebec, Canada where she attended the largest international comedy festival in the world, Just For Laughs, which has been held annually for the past 28 years. Between the two locations, she saw 25 improv comedy shows at five different theaters and interviewed 31 individuals including comedians, directors, casting directors, and improv teachers. She spoke with improv students from Northwestern University, players at iO Theater, comedians at Second City, one of the co-creators of The Daily Show, a comedian from “Whose Line Is It Anyway,” an improvisa-tional comedy TV show that ABC in 1998 and lasted for 8 seasons, and the creator and star of Paul Provenza and the Green Room, a show that features stand up comedians chatting about their trade.
With her study, she hopes to understand how women in improv perceive and respond to the pressures and challenges of operating in a historically male dominated field. Conducting her own research on a topic she loves has undoubtedly been the highlight of her Northwestern academic career.

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Samuel Lozoff, “Educational Opportunities and Community Incorporation Efforts for Permanent Foreigner Residents in Japan.”  Working alongside and conducting interviews with the head of a local NPO, a documentary filmmaker and a host of other community members, Sam was able to highlight the progress and roadblocks faced by smaller Japanese cities looking to integrate sizable foreign populations into local educational institutions.
Sam is a senior majoring in sociology and minoring in Japanese. He spent two quarters in Tokyo at Waseda University working on his Japanese language and cultural studies. Sam plans to return to Japan after graduation to work towards a career in education and International exchange.

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Christy Stallknecht, a senior double majoring in dance and sociology, received an Undergraduate Research Grant this past summer.  Her project, entitled "Dance Invaders in our Midst!" examined flash mob performances in the Chicago area. Over the course of eight weeks, she took part in five flash mob performances. These ranged from an Estee Lauder commercial shot in Grand Union Station to a spontaneous meditation circle in Daley Plaza. Along with taking part in performances, Christy interviewed flash mob participants and organizers to get a deeper sense of what function these performances hold for the people involved. Her work this summer reflects a greater research interest of examining performances and dances that take place in public spaces. She is currently completing a senior thesis on the use of improvisational dance in the Occupy Wall Street protests.

 

 

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