Spring 2024 Research Symposium

The Spring Research Symposium is an annual event where the sociology honors students, with support from honors director Hedwig (Hedy) Lee and other faculty members, present their research to the wider community. Oral presentations and a Q&A occurred first and were followed by a poster presentation reception where various faculty, students, friends and family came out to support each of our students. 

Oral Presentation Order:

Amber Smith: “Zip Code Matters: A Social Network Analysis of U.S. State-Based Abortion Care Access Over Time”

Clementine (Clemmie) Biddle: "Navigating National Tragedy: A Comparative Analysis of Political and Public Responses to Mass Shootings in Norway and the United States"

Safiyyah Wilson: "Keeping Up Appearances: The Role of Race in Self-Presentation Among College Aged Women"

Victoria (Vic) Kovarik: "“We Just Had to Stan” - A Qualitative Analysis of Fan Communities on Twitter"

Michael Cao: "Family Cost in the American Carceral State: A Descriptive Study from Jail"

Caimiao (Cai) Liu: "The Gender Gap in Support for Capital Punishment is Smaller in Countries with Stronger Social Control"

Mackenzie Culp: "That Sounds About White: Parental Racial Socialization (PRS) and Implications for White Youth Identity Development"

This year the department also presented the inaugural Jaya Thomas Sastry Poster Award for the best honors presentation poster. The recipient of this award was Michael Cao, for his poster on "Family Cost in the Modern American Carceral State: A Descriptive Study from a North Carolina Jail".

Judges for this inaugural award consisted of four of our PhD students: Izzy Bouklas, AP Pittman, Ruth Wygle, and Lindsey Xu.