Romi Burks, Garey Chair and Professor of Biology

Focused on the little things: Disentangling the relationship between microplastics and eDNA detection of apple snails

Due to the polar properties of DNA (i.e. negatively charged), bits of environment DNA (genetic material sloughed off into habitats) may adhere to substrates, including possibly microplastics. Much like the biogeochemical cycle of microplastics, eDNA has its own cycle known as the “ecology of eDNA” where it originates from a source (i.e. origin), takes a variety of forms (i.e. state), gets moved around (i.e. transport) and eventually ends up breaking down through biological or chemical means (i.e. fate). Thus, microplastics and eDNA may share a parallel course in freshwater ecosystems, but their interaction with each other remains a mystery. To my knowledge, no study to date examines the nature of how common microplastics interact with eDNA used to detect specific species. To test this question, we used eDNA derived from a non-native apple snail, Pomacea maculata. Native to South America, P. maculata first established populations in the United States in the late 1990s/early 2000s, but now occurs across the entire southeastern United States. This species serves as a good model for eDNA studies because of its large size, but also cryptic nature. Despite laying the bright pink eggs, P. maculata can be difficult to always observe, especially during unseasonably cold or hot periods. Thus, being able to recognize introductions early, through modern detection with tools such as eDNA, represents the only real way to guard against apple snails as invasive species.

Monday, 2 June 2025 through Thursday, 3 July 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: No prior experience is required (although it is preferred).

Bob Bednar, Professor of Communication Studies

Placing Memory

The purpose of the Placing Memory project is to discover people, events, and experiences that have been silenced and made invisible in the campus buildings and grounds—particularly the experiences of students, faculty, and staff of color and LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff–and then work to place them on the digital Placing Memory story map. For examples of the work other SU students have published for the project since 2023, check out: placingmemory.southwestern.edu.

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Friday, 11 July 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: Open to all students from any major who are committed to discovering under-represented places, events, or lived experiences from Southwestern’s past. Ideally, students will have a strong commitment to social justice and will have experience with one or more of the types of independent research and/or writing required in this project: archive research, interviewing, ethnographic fieldwork, journalism, place/site analysis, and/or narrative writing.

Raji Kunapuli, Assistant Professor of Business

Ethnic Bias in the AI Age: How Ethnicity Influences Investor Perceptions of AI in Entrepreneur’s Pitches

This study examines the intersection of ethnicity, artificial intelligence (AI), and investor perceptions in entrepreneurial pitches. We investigate how an entrepreneur’s ethnic background influences investors’ interpretations of AI usage in business proposals. Employing a mixed-methods approach, including in-depth interviews and surveys with venture capitalists, alongside an experimental design, we analyze the complex interplay between ethnic stereotypes, technological expertise assumptions, and funding decisions. We propose that investors are likely to perceive AI usage in entrepreneurial pitches negatively, with this effect amplified for entrepreneurs from ethnic minority backgrounds. This study aims to demonstrate that investors’ stereotypical assumptions about ethnic backgrounds significantly influence their perceptions of authenticity when entrepreneurs incorporate AI. This research contributes to the literature on ethnic biases in entrepreneurial finance, the impact of AI in business pitches, and investors’ perceptions of technological expertise.

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Friday, 11 July 2025

Student eligibility: Students should have completed MAT52-114 Introduction to Statistics, BUS30-214 Foundations of Business, and BUS30-464 Innovation and Strategy.

Stephanie Insalaco, Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences 

Visualizing at-home childbirths in postrevolutionary Mexico City: The midwives from the Escuela Libre de Obstetricia y Enfermería (ELOE), 1920s and 30s (GIS Side)

“Visualizing at-home childbirths in postrevolutionary Mexico City” seeks to contribute to the visualization of birthing practices in the early 20th century in Mexico City. Historians of reproduction struggle to find historical documents that describe birth experiences. Women have delivered children and helped each other in the process since our species emerged. Yet, birthing escaped the eyes and interest of those–mostly men–who recorded history, until the last two centuries. Even then, male physicians usually dismissed the voices and experience of midwives, women with the practical experience of delivering children. Historians have referred to this process as the invisibilization of childbirth. Mexico is not the exception. We bring the new digital mapping technologies to represent visually the work of a particular group of midwives who were active in the two decades after the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917). Our team will develop a digital and interactive map to visualize the distribution and activities of midwives who graduated from the Free School of Obstetrics and Nursing during the 1920s and 30s. Using ESRI’s ArcGIS Storymaps, we will display a georeferenced historical map of Mexico City with midwives’ addresses at their time of enrollment. The map will also display the addresses of patients treated by these midwives. Users will be able to select location points and a new display will show midwives’ student records and clinical histories in several formats, photographs of the original documents, transcriptions, and translations into English. We hope to make the visualization publicly available for the exploration of and potentially the contribution from students, researchers, and the general public.

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Thursday, 3 July 2025 
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: Preference for students who have taken Environmental GIS (ENV49-204) or has experience in ESRI’s Storymaps, but willing to make an exception for a student who has prior research experience which included data analysis/processing or website development. The student selected will need to be comfortable with computers and have at least intermediate experience in Microsoft Excel.

Jethro Hernández Berrones, Associate Professor of History

Visualizing at-home childbirths in postrevolutionary Mexico City: The midwives from the Escuela Libre de Obstetricia y Enfermería (ELOE), 1920s and 30s (Archival Side)

Are you interested in the intersections of medicine and history? Are you interested in the added value of the humanities on a pre-med track (medical humanities)? Then this project is for you. “Visualizing at-home childbirths in postrevolutionary Mexico City” aims to make birthing practices in early 20th-century Mexico City visible. In this project, the student researcher will engage with historical research and will also learn and work with digital technologies. Putting these two skills together, they will contribute to creating an interactive digital map that will display the distribution and activities of midwives who graduated from the Free School of Obstetrics and Nursing during the 1920s and 30s. An interest or coursework in history is ideal, but not required. Intermediate reading and writing skills in Spanish required. The student should be able to travel abroad. They will travel to Mexico City to collaborate in recovering historical documents, securing publication rights, transcribing, classifying, translating, and mapping the historical documents, and creating narratives about the obstetrical experiences of particular midwives. Together with Dr. Insalaco and her student researcher, we hope to bring a small team of two faculty and two students together to create an interdisciplinary group of researchers that exchange methodologies, analytical questions, workflows, and presentation/publication practices. We expect our students to present their projects in the RCWS and/or other professional conferences. You will love the experience. Apply now!

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Friday, 11 July 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged; travel to Mexico City during the term of the project is also required and funded

Student eligibility: Student must have intermediate to advanced Spanish skills (reading and writing), the ability to travel abroad (Mexico), passion for independent learning, ability to work independently, self-driven and motivated, good organizational and task management skills, ability to communicate and work with teams, reliable and accountable. An interest or coursework in History and/or medicine is desirable but not required. A few historical documents may require the student to read in cursive.

Bryan Kauma, Assistant Professor of History

Culinary Economics: Exploring the social and political heritage of African immigrant foodways in Texas

Today, fusion cuisines are widespread and popular. Yet, historiographical conversations remain scanty on the contributions of immigrant populations to this significant foodway. Using the story of African immigrants in Texas, this project explores the development and challenges of immigrant cuisines in America through the lens of small footstalls, food trucks and weekend market operators. It aims to demonstrate how African immigrants have made significant social and economic contributions to the American food landscape yet continue to be treated as foreigners within the spaces they occupy. Concomitantly, by establishing various foodscapes including weekend markets immigrants have created a cultural and social hub for themselves as they navigate a racially and economically volatile country. This project relies on an array of primary and secondary sources as well as oral interviews and shows how the politics of eating is a window into understanding the complex conversation on power, race, class challenges within society today.

Monday, 2 June 2025 through Friday, 25 July 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: A History major/minor having taken the Food and Society in World History Class is an added advantage. Good interpersonal skills, enjoys reading, is able to identify and capture primary sources. Good analytical skills and creative ideas. Ability to record and capture audio and video footage is an added advantage.

Scott McLean, Lillian Nelson Pratt Chair in Science
and Professor of Kinesiology

Exploring Hand Force Variability in Front Crawl Swimming Across Different Speeds: A Biomechanical Analysis

Understanding force production in swimming is a fundamental goal of swimming research. Previous attempts to quantify force production in swimming have relied on technologically complex systems that constrained the swimmer in ways minimizing the applicability of the results. We are proposing to use a wireless 3-dimensional transducer to measure hand force during swimming. These measurements will be made while swimming at multiple speeds controlled by a new contactless swim pacing system. It is the aim of this project to investigate the relationship of hand force to swimming speed.

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Friday, 13 June 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: Students must have taken Kinesiology Research Methods (or equivalent) and have competitive swimming experience.

Tatiana Zhuravleva, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology

Investigation of attentional focus during a high explosive task (barbell high pull) among experienced and inexperienced individuals.

Attentional focus has been examined over the past 30 years. There are several ways we can direct our attention: internally, externally, and holistically. An internal focus involves directing attention to the movement of the body (e.g., extending your elbow during a throw). An external focus involves directing attention to the movement’s effect on the environment (e.g., focusing on the basket while throwing). A holistic focus involves directing attention towards the overall feeling of the movement (e.g., focus on being smooth or explosive). Motor learning research suggests that external focus is superior to internal focus and has been investigated in various tasks, including vertical jump, basketball free throw (Poolton et al., 2006), long jump (Becker et al., 2015; Porter et al., 2012), and volleyball (Harjih & Wulf, 2022). Recently, a holistic focus has begun to show similar benefits to an external focus, suggesting that holistic focus can be used when an external focus is not viable. Holistic focus has demonstrated superiority over internal focus in tasks such as vertical jump (Zhuravleva et al., 2024), standing long jump (Zhuravleva et al., 2023), and badminton short serve (Abendazadeh et al., 2023), but it has not been examined in sport-specific tasks such as the barbell high pull, which requires a high level of strength and explosiveness. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate holistic focus alongside internal and external focus in a highly explosive task such as a barbell high pull.

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Friday, 13 June 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: Students must be from the Kinesiology Department and must have taken a research methods class.

Jennifer Stokes, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology

Effects of nicotine containing JUUL e-cigarette vapor or vehicle only vapor exposure on treadmill-trained rats’ aerobic fitness

Vaping has become an increasingly relevant topic of study as tobacco and nicotine consumption moves from cigarettes to e-cigarettes. There is limited research of the effects of e-cigarettes, especially long-term, due to its relatively recent introduction. Part of the difficulty in studying the effects of e-cigarettes lies in the variety of ingredients which include the chemicals propylene glycol and vegetable glycerol (PG/VG) as components of the vehicle containing nicotine. Research suggests that vaping affects the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems, and there is little research on how vaping and the various chemical components can affect exercise parameters specifically. To support this growing area of research, the proposed research project will assess the effects of vapor exposure on aerobic training, using 3 different exposure groups: air (control), PG/VG (vehicle control), and PG/VG + nicotine (experimental) using female Long-Evans rats as an animal model. Rats will first undergo acclimation to the treadmill, followed by a 4 week gradual treadmill training protocol. Rats will have their aerobic fitness tested using a modified graded exhaustion test before and after a week-long vapor exposure. Research questions include: 1) How does performance on an aerobic fitness assessment (graded exhaustion test) compare between trained rats with air exposure vs. trained rats with PG/VG exposure? 2) How does performance on an aerobic fitness assessment (graded exhaustion test) compare between trained rats with PG/VG exposure vs. trained rats with PG/VG + nicotine exposure?

Tuesday, 27 May 2025 through Monday, 21 July 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: Students must have successfully completed one of the following Research Methods courses/course series: KIN48-214; or PSY33-224 and PSY33-221; or BIO50-222 and BIO50-232. Previous animal research experience with Dr. Stokes or Dr. Guarraci is ideal.

Erika Berroth, Associate Professor of German

Perry Rhodan: German Space Opera from 1961-now

This faculty-student research collaboration utilizes a recently secured donation to Distinctive Collections and Special Collections (DISCO) in our library. DISCO now houses a substantial collection of Germany’s longest running and immensely successful Science Fiction novellas named after the hero, Perry Rhodan. Running from 1961-present, the space opera sci-fi series marks a “record quite without precedent in sf” as the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction assures (https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/perry_rhodan). The Publicly-Engaged Humanities project includes collaboration on creating a public facing web-based exhibit, introducing the public to SU’s Perry Rhodan collection, including the visual language of the series over time, information about the groups of authors and publication process, and the late owner of the collection, a German aviation engineer. Offering access to popular German Sci-Fi produced from a time when West and East Germany were divided until decades after the end of the Cold War and German unification will increase intercultural knowledge and competence for audiences interested in science fiction, science fiction illustrations, world building, and German Studies. We may work with readers of the series, likely members of the Sun City retirement community. 

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Thursday, 3 July 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: Openness and curiosity regarding intercultural learning; readiness to learn and increase web-design skills with Publicly-Engaged Humanities guidelines; research and writing skills at FYS / AES level; interest in Sci-Fi and curiosity about German Sci-Fi; interest in or knowledge of analyzing visual representations of future worlds / /sci-fi illustrations; readiness for collaboration with peers, DISCO staff, community members, and faculty. Knowledge of German is not required.

Jacob Schrum, Associate Professor of Computer Science

Procedural Content Generation with Generative AI

Students will use the latest generative AI models to procedurally create content for video games. Students will explore methods to convert AI art into level designs using tools like Stable Diffusion and DALL-E, and have Large Language Models generate textural representations of level structure, narratives that provide context for game content, or code to further automate the level design process. This approach to design will be compared to previous procedural content generation approaches and human designs, to see how new generative AI systems compare to established techniques.

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Friday, 11 July 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: Successfully complete Computer Science II by end of the Spring 2025 semester (i.e. before SURF starts)

John Ross, Associate Professor of Mathematics

Regions of Minimal Perimeter in Spaces of Uneven Density

This project will allow a research team of students to study an open problem in mathematics for three weeks in the summer of 2025. The work produced will expand on some of my research results from the last two years, building on my recent momentum and further developing my undergraduate research pipeline. My SURF students will be able to make meaningful contributions towards two or more open questions in this field, and their experience will result in new theorems, published work, and dissemination throughout both the SU community and the mathematics community.

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Friday, 6 June 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: All students on the team should have taken at least Calculus 1. At least two students should have taken mid-level math classes (Calc 3 or Linear Algebra). At least one student should have some basic Computer Science.

Cody Crosby, Assistant Professor of Physics

Vat Polymerization of Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering

In this project, students will develop an open-source vat polymerization bioprinter and novel bioinks to expand the research capacity of Dr. Crosby’s bioprinting laboratory and allow his lab to undertake novel research aims.

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Friday, 11 July 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: Students should be majoring in the Natural Sciences Area and have taken at least one laboratory-based course. Students who have taken Introduction to Engineering and Electronics are especially encouraged.

Alexander Goodwin, Assistant Professor of Political Science

Texas Reckoning: Reconstruction and White Backlash

Texas Reckoning: Reconstruction & White Backlash is a narrative podcast series that examines the rise and fall of Black social, political, and economic empowerment in post-Civil War Texas, focusing specifically in Brazoria County, Texas. In this 8-episode series, this podcast explores the post emancipation lives of the formerly enslaved as well as key figures and systemic challenges that ultimately brought Texas’ first attempts at multiracial democracy to an end. During this period African Americans cultivated their own independent communities, were active in state and local politics, and founded some of the oldest Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the State of Texas. Post-Emancipation, Brazoria County was home to numerous freedom colonies, the first African American millionaire in the state’s history, and hosted the first Black celebrations of the holiday we now know as Juneteenth. These opportunities for social, political, and economic advancement were quashed less than two decades later, as White supremacists and the Democratic Party regained power and politically disenfranchised and disempowered African Americans. In addition to regaining political power, White supremacists in the Brazoria County reinforced the racial hierarchy through convict leasing and public spectacle lynchings. The podcast then connects the White backlash of the 19th century to contemporary politics in which we are seeing racial retrenchment in the form of voter suppression, book bans, and the rise of white supremacist violence in Texas.

Monday, 2 June 2025 through Friday, 25 July 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged; students will travel locally, to the UT Austin archives.  

Student travel:  Student will travel to UT Austin archives

Student eligibility: No prerequisites required

Fay Guarraci, Professor of Psychology

Measuring the Effects of Vaporized Nicotine Exposure starting before puberty and into adulthood on Reproductive Physiology and Reproductive Success in Female Rats

The proposed study will examine the long-term effects of periadolescent vaporized nicotine exposure on estrous cyclicity and fertility in female rats. This project will address important scientific questions that can have translational implications. Because we know that nicotine administration (oral or injection) disrupts reproduction functioning in female and male rats and smoking in women and men has been shown to affect fertility, we anticipate that vaporized nicotine will also have effects on fertility and the reproductive cycle in female rats. To test this hypothesis, rats will receive single or multiple, daily e-cigarette vape sessions, using Juul 5% Virginia Tobacco Pods in a whole-body exposure chamber or air (or nicotine vehicle) on consecutive days. The duration of exposure may start just before puberty (post-natal day (PD) 28) and last until early adulthood (PD 40). Puberty will be monitored daily starting on PD 31, continuing until puberty (vaginal opening; VO) is observed. Starting on the day after VO, estrous cyclicity will be monitored by sampling vaginal epithelial cells daily. After 2 weeks of monitoring cycles, each female will be observed for sexual motivation and behavior on the first day of behavioral estrus (afternoon of proestrus) after monitoring period. The partner preference paradigm will be used to assess sexual behavior and motivation, whereby female subjects are given the opportunity to interact with either a sexual partner or a same-sex social partner. Female rats will be allowed to stay overnight (24 hours total) with the male that they were tested with to increase odds of pregnancy.

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Friday, 11 July 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: Students who are willing to learn, even if they have no lab experience. Principles of Psychology and Introduction to Biology.

Bryan Neighbors, Associate Professor of Psychology

Psychopathic Personality Traits: Their Measurement & Correlates in the Community

Psychopathic personality traits are strongly correlated with a host of negative outcomes including crime. Heavily studied among incarcerated populations, their nature and associations in the community at large are less well understood. This project will utilize a mentoring approach with intensive one-on-one instruction to guide a student researcher through the development of a project to develop a measurement model of psychopathic traits in the community, and test its relationship to two key areas of potential dysfunction: interpersonal relationships and attributional thinking. The student researcher will develop and enhance skill in reading existing research literature, refining research questions, formulating hypotheses, and planning and carrying out an original study. The project will culminate in public presentation of the study’s findings.

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Friday, 11 July 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: Completion of a research methods course – preferably in Psychology.

Amanda Hernandez, Assistant Professor of Sociology

The Intersection of Religious Belief and Political Attitudes Among Americans

Ongoing social issues pervade our social landscape. From distrust of institutions of higher education, conversations about racism, ongoing conflict about Palestine, and more, people are navigating a host of “hot button” topics while simultaneously choosing who to vote for in a contentious presidential election. How do people’s religious and political commitments and beliefs shape their attitudes about these ongoing social issues? How might these vary by both race and gender? This project seeks to explore these factors.

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Friday, 11 July 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: Coursework in Sociology, Anthropology, and/or Political Science; comfort with or willingness to work in quantitative analysis.

Naomi Reed, Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Unsilencing Eva Mendiola, Co-Founder of Southwestern University’s Women’s Sports

Eva Mendiola is a forgotten founder of Southwestern University’s legacy of women’s athletics. She attended SU from 1972 to 1975–graduating in 2½ semesters. During her time at SU she majored in Art and Bilingual Studies and co-founded and competed on the university’s first ever women’s sports team—the volleyball team. Eva asked her physical education professor Dr. Joanne Sprenger if she would coach a newly formed volleyball team. Dr. Sprenger agreed and Eva and 2 friends began to recruit more women to the team. This is the origin story of women’s sports at SU. As Southwestern University has been a Hispanic Serving Institution since July 1, 2023 there is an institutional commitment to supporting Latinx students. In this vein it is only appropriate that Eva Mendiola be memorialized in a visible and robust manner. For this reason the project “Unsilencing Eva Mendiola, Co-founder of Southwestern University’s Women’s Sports” will produce a 10-15 minute documentary short highlighting Eva’s life and the process through which certain SU undergraduates discovered her and passionately worked to preserve her story.

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Friday, 11 July 2025 (all filming will be complete by June 19th & editing will consume the last 3 weeks)
On-campus housing is available and encouraged; students may be required to travel locally to Eva Mendiola’s hometown in central Texas as well as Austin Community College’s film editing studios. 

Student eligibility: Students who understand the importance of stories of color, particularly those stories that improve SU’s archive; students who have some basic understanding of race as a social construct.

Melissa Johnson, Professor of Anthropology

Tropical Ecologies, Race, Gender, Freedom and Living Otherwise on the British Coast of Central America 1700-1820

My current and on-going project investigates race, gender, slavery and freedom in the tropical lowlands of the lower Belize River Valley (referred to as the Bay of Honduras, or the Bay, at the time) and the Caribbean Coast of Honduras and Nicaragua (called the Mosquito Shore) between 1700 and 1820. The project builds on both my long-term research and writing on the communities of the lower Belize River Valley (which are currently published as a monograph Becoming Creole (Rutgers, 2018) and a series of journal articles). The project contributes to the currently burgeoning area of scholarship in Anthropology, Geography and History on the relationship between “race” and ecologies. The research I have been gathering will be able to show how the landscape and more than human elements of this part of the world played roles in shaping social, political, economic and cultural processes, including the emergence and reproduction of racial and color categories in Belize, as this settlement took shape in the early 1800s. My preliminary findings are also pointing to important roles that Black and Amerindian women (most who were enslaved at some point in their lives) played in the social formations developing here.

Friday, 16 May 2025 through Friday, 11 July 2025
On-campus housing is available and encouraged

Student eligibility: Some knowledge of race and the Caribbean/Latin America and/or Atlantic History is ideal, but not required.