Alison Qiu

Topic:  Fondren Library Data Repository for Data Science Education and Experiential Learning, Phase I

Bio: My name is Alison Qiu and I’m a sophomore majoring in computer science from Hanszen college. I am excited to become a Fondren fellow and work on the project “Fondren Library Data Repository for Data Science Education and Experiential Learning, Phase I”!

Mentor: Su Chen, Anna Xiong, Catherine Barber

Alysa Bijl-Spiro

Topic:  Listening to our users: Centering DEI in Fondren Library Publishing services 

Bio: Hailing from Austin, Texas, Alysa Bijl-Spiro is a freshman at Wiess majoring in English and Philosophy. She is interested in social philosophy and understanding how a global, de-westernized approach to the humanities can foster cultural empathy and human understanding. When not working on research, Alysa can be found reading, talking about what she's reading or brewing coffee at Rice Coffeehouse.

Mentor: Shannon Kipphut-Smith

Arnav Sankaranthi 

Topic:  Translational Humanities for Public Health 

Bio: Arnav Sankaranthi is a junior at Brown College majoring in Biosciences with a concentration in Cell Biology and Genetics and minoring in Medical Humanities. He is planning on pursuing a career in medicine after graduation. In addition to working on Translational Humanities for Public Health, Arnav conducts cancer and neurodegenerative disease research at McGovern Medical School. He is interested in exploring how humanities-based approaches can be used to impact public health. Arnav’s current work involves curating global humanities approaches to the pandemic, conducting and publishing video interviews with professionals, and publicizing the website’s projects and resources to the broader community.

Mentor: Kirsten Ostherr

Benjamin Murdoch

Topic: Visualizing Catastrophe in Latin America and the Carribean: An Interactive Map of Photography and Natural Disasters 

Bio: Hi! My name is Ben Murdoch, and I am an senior majoring in linguistics and minoring in Spanish and Portuguese. I am interested in the history and culture of the Spanish-speaking world, and working with Dr. Duno-Gottberg on this project offers an opportunity to deepen my understanding of Latin America by studying the complex effects of natural disasters there. I am looking forward to the final product of an interactive GIS platform and enjoy the chance this project gives me to read primary sources in Spanish as well.

Mentor: Luis Duno-Gottberg

Danielle Rizk

Topic:  Mapping Early Modern Hispanic Theater in the US 

Mentor: Esther Fernández

Devika Jhaveri

Topic: Post-Covid Corporate Stakeholder Engagement and Social Advocacy

Bio: Devika Jhaveri is a junior at Rice University, studying Social Policy Analysis, Business, and Entrepreneurship. Through her PR, consulting, and marketing internships, she has learned that she is passionate about the intersection of business communications, entrepreneurship, and social impact. Devika enjoys exploring the influence an inclusion and diversity-driven agenda creates within organizations. Outside of research, she is also involved in mock trial and in college government as Martel College's prime minister.

Mentor: Craig Carroll

Elizabeth Myers

Topic: Mapping Early Modern Hispanic Theatre in the US

Bio: I'm a junior Computational and Applied Mathematics and Spanish major at Jones College and originally from Austin, Texas. I'm also a proud member of the Rice Women's Swim Team. Outside of the pool and the classroom, I enjoy cooking, baking, hiking and spending time around Rice's beautiful campus.

Mentor: Esther Fernández

Emile Chamoun-Farah

Topic: Visualizing Catastrophe in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Interactive Map of Photography and Natural Disasters

Bio: Emile Chamoun-Farah is a graduate student at Rice University’s Baker Institute Master of Global Affairs program focusing on International Political Development. The International Relations field of study really appealed to Emile, not only because of his multi-heritage background, but because of the issues that face the world today and the alignment of the business and global diplomatic fields. Emile will apply his strengths to the Fondren Fellowship project; Visualizing Catastrophe in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Interactive Map of Photography and Natural Disasters and use the research to aid in bringing Dr. Luis Duno-Gottberg’s project to fruition alongside Fondren Fellow Benjamin Murdoch. He is pursuing a career in International Relations and International Political Development that can utilize his educational and multi-heritage background to develop practical solutions in business and diplomacy. Emile believes we are exponentially growing in ways that we communicate and are interconnected across the globe and being able to visualize these events and bring this repository to life connects us around the world. 

Mentor: Luis Duno-Gottberg

Gracie Chiang

Topic: Post-Covid Corporate Stakeholder Engagement and Social Advocacy 

Bio: Gracie Chiang is a junior at Jones college, majoring in Economics and minoring in Environmental Studies. She is passionate about the intersections between the economy and both environmental and social issues. As a Fondren Fellow, she is excited to work on the Post-Covid Corporate Stakeholder Engagement and Social Advocacy Project to learn more about corporations' advocacy decisions, shareholders' role in that process, and the social impact companies can have.

Mentor: Craig Carroll

Grace Kneidel

Topic:  Mapping the Reservation: Houston’s Red-Light District, 1908-1917

Bio: Grace Kneidel is a junior from Brown College studying Spanish and Mathematical Economic Analysis.  This summer, under the guidance of Dr. Riedel, Grace began to study the political economy of the Reservation, Houston’s red light district from 1908-1917. As a Fondren Fellow, she is using ArcGIS to map land ownership in the Reservation by race over time. She is looking forward to improving her digital mapping skills and hopes to attend graduate school in Economics in the future.

 Mentor: Brian Riedel

Hoang Nguyen

Topic: History of Japanese Farmers in Texas         

Bio: Hoang Nguyen is a junior at Lovett studying Asian Studies and Political Science. He is interested in modern Japanese history with a focus on race, gender, and sexuality. As a Fondren Fellow, he will be working on revising narratives of Japanese and Japanese-American farmers in Texas, and hopes to illuminate the role that Asians and Asian-Americans have played in Texas agriculture. Outside of school, he likes reading, playing Japanese mahjong, and watching random pop culture content on YouTube.

Mentor: Sidney Lu

Hong-Ye Wang

Topic: Fondren Eco-Rep

Mentor: Lisa Spiro

Indrani Maitra

Topic: Houston Highways                           

Bio: Indrani Maitra is a freshman from Sid Richardson majoring in Health Sciences and Statistics. Having lived in Houston most of her life, she is intimately familiar with the city and its many highways. She is passionate about transportation infrastructure and for the past 2 years has been apart of StopTXDOT I-45, a community organization fighting to stop the I-45 expansion. She is fascinated by all facets of urban design, particularly the intersection between the built environment and public health. In her spare time, she likes to knit and listen to metal music.

Mentor: Matt Drwenski

Irene Wang

James Myers

Topic: Where Is Texas on the SlaveVoyages Website? Reconstructing the Coastwise Traffic to the Lone Star State in the Nineteenth Century 

Bio: K. James Tiéde-Myers is a Ph.D. candidate in History at Rice University. He is a member of the SlaveVoyages@Rice research team, which is adding the voyages that carried enslaved people to Texas to the SlaveVoyages website. His personal research focuses on how West African foodways were altered by the transatlantic slave trade and vice-versa. In turn, his dissertation shows how these modified foodways fundamentally reworked the social and economic structures of African and diasporic societies. Focusing on Lower Guinea and Jamaica,  Tiéde-Myers’ work ultimately shows how the politics of food and hunger shaped freedom and slavery in both Africa and the Caribbean during the Age of Revolutions.

Mentor: Daniel B. Domingues da Silva and Molly Morgan

Jenn Nguyen

Topic: OUT OF THE GUTTER: cataloguing a new collection of international comic art at Rice University

Bio: Jenn is a sophomore at Rice University majoring in Sociology, Business, and VADA. As a Houston-native, she enjoys trying new foods, thrifting, and exploring the city. In her free time, Jenn likes to make mini acrylic paintings and casually play the piano.

Mentor: Chris Sperandio

Josué Alvarenga

Topic: Houston Highways

Mentor: Matt Drwenski

Karen Martinez-Perez

Topic: Post-Covid Corporate Stakeholder Engagement and Social Advocacy

Bio: Karen is a junior from McMurtry College majoring in Cognitive Sciences, minoring in Business, and pursuing certificates in Mandarin Chinese and Civic Leadership. Through her academics, extracurriculars, and personal experiences, she developed an interest in working with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Her previous research experience with Dr. Beier's ASK Lab introduced her to the world of Industrial Organizational Psychology, a field where Karen found the intersection of many her interests. She chose to work on this Fondren Fellows project to learn and analyze various organizations as she aspires to make workplaces the best they can be for every person.

Mentor: Craig Carroll

Kayla Shelkey

Topic: Mapping Early Modern Hispanic Theatre in the US

Bio: Kayla Shelkey is a senior from Duncan studying Spanish with a minor in Politics, Law, and Social Thought. This summer, Kayla worked as a research assistant for Dr. Fernández where she assisted in investigating the presence of the Golden Age comedia in the United States. Kayla is passionate about medieval Spanish literature and theater, and she is excited to continue researching the legacy of the comedia as a Fondren Fellow. After graduation, Kayla plans on attending law school.

Mentor: Esther Fernández

Kyra McKauffley

Topic: Blood Will Tell?: Genetics and Madness

Bio: Kyra McKauffley is a sophomore at Martel College majoring in English and minoring in Medical Humanities. She is interested in studying the intersections between literature, history, and society. Through her research, she aims to demonstrate how portrayals of genetics and mental illness in horror fiction illustrate inequities in American history, bringing a greater awareness to how these historical wrongs persist throughout time and still affect us today.

Mentor:  Amanda Johnson

Liza Yusem Carstens

Topic: Mapping Early Modern Hispanic Theatre in the US

Bio: Liza is a senior at Baker College, majoring in Sports Medicine & Exercise Physiology and Spanish & Portuguese. Throughout her time at Rice, Liza has been a member of the Rice women's Track & Field team, she has conducted scientific research at M.D. Anderson, and most recently participated in the Rice in Madrid study abroad program. As a student on the pre-med track, she is interested in expanding her researching and database skills for efficient analysis and data collection.

Mentor: Esther Fernández

 

Loïc Duggal

Topic: History of Japanese Farmers in Texas

Mentor: Sidney Lu

Mariah Bender

Topic: Developing Houston Hip Hop Archives

Bio: Mariah Aliza Kaye Bender is a first year doctoral student in the History Department. They earned a BA in History and Education from Saint Louis University where their senior thesis analyzed the American repression of the Haitian economy in the period following its independence. Mariah earned an MA in Humanities from the University of Chicago where her research focused on the role of West Central African religious practices in Haitian Vodou. Mariah is most excited about learning more about Houston’s rich Hip-Hop history and working on public programming projects.

Mentor: Portia Hopkins

Maximilien Chong Lee Shin

Topic: Mapping TIMEA

Bio: Maximilien Chong Lee Shin is a Master of Architecture student from Mauritius. He studied government and urban studies at Wesleyan University.

Mentor: Farès El-Dahdah

Samuel Lee

Topic: Houston Highways

Bio: I am a sophomore at Sid Richardson College, studying political science and anthropology. I am a member of the Houston Highways Project team and involved with the Baker Institute as both a Fondren Fellow and Jesse Jones Leadership Center D.C. Fellow

Mentor: Matt Drwenski

Sara Price

Topic: Where Is Texas on the SlaveVoyages Website? 

Bio: Sara Price is a sophomore at Rice University majoring in Anthropology and Political Science with a minor in Spanish. Her research focuses on reconstructing the coastwise traffic in enslaved people to Texas during the nineteenth century, especially following Statehood in 1845. Sara is originally from Houston. Sara joined the SlaveVoyages@Rice project this summer as a fellow of Rice University’s Fondren Fellows program.

Mentor: Daniel Domingues da Silva

Sean Weeks

Topic: Where is Texas on the SlaveVoyages Website?

Bio: Sean Weeks is a sophomore majoring in History at Rice University. His research has been focused on the documentation of the coastwise slave trade in the United States during the nineteenth century, especially to Texas. He is also interested in the history of the Catholic Church and East Asia during the 19th and 20th centuries. Sean joined the SlaveVoyages@Rice team last year, under Rice’s History Department Undergraduate Research Assistantship program.

Mentor: Chris Sperandio

Sejal Gupta

Topic: Building Capacities for Systematic and Qualitative Analysis in the Social Media Archive

Bio: Sejal is a sophomore from Lovett majoring in Economics and minoring in Data Science. She's passionate about using data to learn about (and hopefully help resolve!) social issues. She's worked with Twitter data before on Beto's campaign for governor and is excited to bring those skills to the Fondren Fellows project.

Mentor: Cesar Uribe

Sheena Bai

Topic: Design, Development, and Delivery on Python Workshops

Bio: I'm Sheena Bai, a sophomore from Duncan majoring in Computer Science. I'm from Shanghai, China.

Mentor: Catherine Barber

Sophia DeLeon-Wilson

Topic: OUT OF THE GUTTER: cataloguing a new collection of international comic art at Rice University

Bio: Hi, I'm Sophia and I'm a senior majoring in studio arts and cognitive science. I've been a big comics fan since I was a little kid which is a big reason why I love drawing people. My favorite comic strips are Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side, but I've also read a lot of Marvel comics. My other hobbies include reading, listening to podcasts, and cooking meals with my roomates.

Mentor: Christopher Sperandio

Soumya Somani

Topic: The President's Scientists: Understanding the Evolving Role of White House Science Advisors

Bio: Soumya is a junior majoring in Health Sciences and Social Policy Analysis and minoring in Biochemistry and Cell Biology and Medical Humanities and pursuing a Certificate in Civic Leadership. He is passionate about health equity and policy which has driven him to intern at the Baker Institute of Public Policy’s Science and Technology Policy Program, the Veterans Affairs Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine, and MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is interested in a career in public health and medicine and aims to work with local underserved patient populations to address social determinants of health.

Mentor: Kenneth Evans

Tina Li

Topic: Fondren Library Data Repository for Data Science Education and Experiential Learning, Phase I                

Bio: Tina Li is a sophomore from McMurtry double majoring in Psychology and Statistics. Throughout her time at Rice, she developed a passion for the intersection of psychological processes and statistical modeling, specifically how to combine them to engineer real-world systems. She is interested in applying her passion to provide support for areas in society through information accessibility and optimization of workplace conditions. Tina is eager to advance her skill set and make her passion a reality through the Fondren Fellows program.

Mentor: Su Chen, Anna Xiong, Catherine Barber

Vivian Xiao

Topic: Mapping TIMEA

Bio: Vivian Xiao is a sophomore at Sid Richardson College majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Engineering Design. In her current exploration of the field of software engineering, she is a proud member of Rice Apps, Global Research and Consulting Group, and Rice Design. Outside of CS, Vivian is also passionate about all things art and aims to pursue a career in the intersection of tech and humanities one day. Through the Fondren Fellowship program, she hopes to learn about the GIS system and historical archives and use her technical skills to visualize the data for the public.

Mentor: Farès El-Dahdah

Xuezhan Sun

Topic: Fondren Library Data Repository for Data Science Education and Experiential Learning, Phase I

Bio: I am a graduate student at Rice Master of Data Science program. I am passionate about applying statistics and econometrics tools to study healthcare and finance topics. Previously I conducted research on the causality between COVID-19 and change in smoking prevalence in the United States. In this Fondren Fellow project, my tasks include building a data repository and designing sample data science projects for educational use mainly.

Mentor: Su Chen, Anna Xiong, Catherine Barber

Yufei Qi

Topic: The President's Scientists: Understanding the Evolving Role of White House Science Advisors

Bio: Yufei Qi is a sophomore from Will Rice with major in Bioengineering & Transnational Asian Studies. In 2022 Fondren Fellowship project, he will keep doing research on Clinton White House Science & Technology Policy to understand the transformation of federal government after Cold War. Besides, he was awarded Spurlino Fellowship in 2022 Summer to conduct non-destructive DNA extractions from caddisflies to understand the evolutionary pressure, and Public Policy & International Affairs fellowship by UT Austin.

Mentor: Kenneth Evans

Zahrah Butler

Topic: Where Is Texas on the SlaveVoyages Website? 

Bio: Zahrah is a native Houstonian majoring in Religion and minoring in Africa and African American Studies. They have a strong passion for studying slavery and Black culture and religion that grew out of it. In their free time, they enjoy visiting museums, trying out new restaurants, and finding cool things in thrift stores. Most importantly, Zahrah loves taking selfies and sending them to their grandma. Zahrah is unsure of their post-graduation plans, but is currently thinking about getting an MDiv and going to get a PhD afterwards. They hope to be a professor one day, but is looking to explore many career options until then!

Mentor: Daniel Domingues da Silva

Zoe Katz

Topic: Topic Database Creation over the Rice Thresher

Bio: Zoe Katz is a junior at Will Rice college majoring in Linguistics and Computer Science with a minor in Data Science. In her free time, she also writes for the Rice Thresher! She is passionate about Computational Linguistics and is interested in analyzing a topic so close to home. She is looking forward to learning new skills in her research project, as well as discovering more about the history of Rice. In the future, Zoe hopes to attend graduate school and continue learning about the world around her.

Mentor: Edgar Avalos-Gauna