Category: NCUR

The stereotype of the model minority identity shapes the educational path of many Asian Americans in a school system that expects nothing less. Are Asian American students more successful than other students? Though Asian American students might be the model minority in terms of educational success, I argue that the stereotype can be especially damaging. According to education scholars, who both tackled the idea of the myth of Asian American student success and its ramifications, Asian American students indeed do relatively well compared to other students. However, research suggests that this myth of Asian American success hurts Asian Americans who aren’t succeeding and fall behind the pack. Why is this the case and what are the effects of this identity when it comes to higher education and the college admissions process?

Because the idea of the model minority identity is a myth, we must dive deeper into why this identity was established, how it became so prevalent, and why it dominates our education system. Some believe that the myth Asian American success was created to invalidate the voices of Asian Americans when they protested the inequalities that they faced. Sources for my research will include empirical data on how Asian American students rank compared to their counterparts, as well as the number of Asian American students who are struggling to live up to this ideal. Other sources will include research done by scholars who have spent years looking into the notion of Asian American success as a myth and it’s damaging effects.

Hospitals today are filled with machinery that has replaced human labor, which was once the only available system of service. The rise of technology in the healthcare field not only continues to pave the way for alternative operating procedures but also for managing entire patient records. How has technology changed modern medicine and what are its implications for future doctors entering the field? I argue that a contradiction is emerging in modern medicine: on one hand technology can now do so much to replace what doctors previously did. On the other hand, patients want to engage with their doctors, and not have impersonal technological interactions. New creations of humanoid robots in Belgium and doctor diagnosis apps in China have allowed people to bypass the geographical and time constraints of waiting to see an actual physician. The Internet has also revolutionized the way people seek out answers to their medical questions. With such innovations that can handle entire archives of information, the roles of modern doctors must accordingly adjust, for they are no longer required to be human databases. Patients today are looking for humanistic approaches and holistic treatment. Medical schools have also recognized the all-inclusive demands of healthcare, and thus have shifted the MCAT topics, which now include humanistic subjects. My research project will not only analyze articles regarding technology and its ability to revolutionize medicine, but will also feature interviews from patients, doctors, and aspiring doctors. Finally, I will also integrate physician memoirs to compare how the roles of doctors have changed since the internet became such an integral part of the healthcare field.

A house or a home? Often these words are used interchangeably as synonyms in daily conversations. Yet, for many people the two words have strikingly different definitions, especially for those who are obligated to have two houses: children of separated families.

Increasingly, separation schedules are created that involve children spending equal time with both parents by commuting back and forth between houses on a daily to weekly basis. New York City poses interesting opportunities for children to live close to both parents (i.e.: same neighborhood, same apartment building), yet still separated (i.e.: different streets, different floors). For children living in two houses, they have to deal with two sets of possessions, dual cultures & religion, and considerations as to which bed they will sleep in at night and what items they will need to travel with them.

For most, the consistency of coming “home” to a physical “house” that is filled with personal belongings is taken for granted. Much of the literature and resources for separation focus on assisting parents. Not enough explores the nuances of what children go through and how they are able to cope and understand their dichotomous life situations. I argue that the concepts of home, identity, and belonging become increasingly apparent, especially as children reach their late teenage years.

My project will be a photographic, multimedia exploration of the unique situations of children of separation in New York City. Each photographic set will explore a different aspect of being a child living between two houses. I will interview the subjects, with parental permission, about their concepts of house and home and photograph the ways they create home within two houses. The final work is intended to visually shed light on these distinct living situations and the ways in which these children inhabit and define space.

Humans have always sought to answer the question: What is our place in the universe? From the Earth-centered universe of the Middle Ages to the Copernican heliocentric solar system, Earth has had varying degrees of importance in this cosmic play. Earth’s shift from the literal center of the universe to somewhere off to the side is taken to mean by some scientists that there is nothing special about our planet in general, that we occupy a completely mediocre place in the cosmos Following that line of reasoning, if Earth is common then Earth-like planets and possibly complex life would also be common. Other scientists go against the Copernican principle and argue that Earth-like planets are very rare.  However, with the increasing number and variety of exo-solar systems that are being discovered, it becomes hard to believe that we would find ourselves in a completely unremarkable place.

I believe that a new understanding of Earth’s place is needed given our access to new alien solar systems and planets. My sources include NASA’s own data from the Kepler Telescope, as well as books written by astronomers, astrophysicists, and other scientists. I will argue that Earth is neither average nor rare. In addition, I will incorporate mathematical concepts to better understand what it means to be average. To understand life’s place in the universe, I will also discuss the origin of the universe and life on Earth. Analyzing the bio-philic propensity of our universe and our planet will ultimately inform a strategy for searching for life elsewhere.

For the past seventy years, autism has been labeled as a disease, a disorder, and most recently as one of many “normals” in a neurodiverse community. In this paper, I will argue that how people think about autism is a major factor in how they act towards diagnosed individuals and how they choose to address the educational, developmental, and social struggles that accompany an autism diagnosis.

The terms Disease, Disorder, and Disability each have unique connotations in the psychology community. Some have labeled autism as a disease, choosing to search for a cure and looking for genetic causes. Others have considered it a disorder, and thus choose to treat it with a variety of therapies. Autism is beginning to be seen as a disability, and the response to this identification has been to adapt social, educational, and community programs to best benefit individuals with autism spectrum disorders. The identification of autism as a disability has helped humanize autism by identifying that it is not a problem that needs to be “fixed.” Instead, the autism community has shifted its focus to interventions that promote independence and help make the lives of diagnosed individuals easier.

This paper will analyze different identifications of autism in the seventy years since its initial documentation and the development of forms of treatment that relate to those identifications, looking at the different editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, along with articles, papers and webpages from psychiatrists, scientific writers and from within the autism community. Knowing that there is a correlation between the label given to autism and the way the disorder is then treated can help us consciously choose to support treatments that best benefit individuals with autism.

 

Virtual conversational agents, or Chatbots, are quickly becoming a ubiquitous element of human-computer interaction, customer-business communications, and entertainment. Natural Language Processing techniques often utilize Machine Learning methodology to train a Chatbot on datasets of English language and dialogue, allowing what seem like natural English responses to emerge from the agent. The dialogue that arises from interactions with a user is rooted in the domain of the dialogue system. Is it possible for a Chatbot to handle conversing in the domain of human-like casual conversation?

I am designing a framework for the construction of Chatbot characters capable of human-like casual conversation that integrates rule-based reasoning and human conversational behaviors into the dialogue management aspects of the agent. This framework operates using an information-state-based dialogue manager called Forward Looking, Reward Seeking (FLoReS). Chatbot characters created using this framework possess conversational goals and behaviors as defined by the author, allowing for these characters to have unique personalities. Integrated into this framework is an explicit representation of memory and knowledge, also defined by the Chatbot author, which allows for the Chatbot character to “remember” information from previous interactions with a user. Chatbot characters built around human conversational abilities can provide a more natural means of interaction with a user when equipped with this “memory.” Interactions with these Chatbot characters can contribute to improved human-computer communication and consumer interaction, and provide alternative and unexplored avenues for storytelling through character dialogue and behavioral design. The paper portion of this project examines background work in conversational agents as well as the motivations and reasoning behind the framework presented. The interactive portion of this project will allow a user to converse with a Chatbot character created using this framework.

 Mental illnesses in Bangladeshi American women are caused by the economic and social stresses such as poverty, discrimination, and restricted gender roles. In this culture, there is a strong stigma regarding mental illness that often causes the defamation and rejection of patients and their family members. These ailments affect women the most due to the nature of their dependence and inferiority towards men. As a result of this stigma, there is an inability to confide in doctors for fear of being seen as weak. In this paper I will suggest that Bangladeshi American women subconsciously turn their mental illness into physical symptoms such as pain, aches, fatigue, dizziness, etc. as a way of coping with their mental health. Considering the fact that these somatic manifestations often do not have a discernible source, somatization of mental illnesses gives women the opportunity to seek treatment without the added concern of being stigmatized.

         In addition to researching the relationship between physical and mental pain in immigrant communities, I will interview four Bangladeshi American women with questions regarding their view of mental illnesses, such as depression, and how they perceive and categorize the different stressors that they are exposed to. Behaviors that are considered somatization in the interviews will be highlighted and analyzed.

           In order to help alleviate the physical pain that stands in for underlying mental health issues, reforms to educate the Bangladeshi community both in America and Bangladesh may diminish the stigma against mental illnesses as well as instill more trust in the medical system. An example of reform is convincing Bangladeshi women to partake in psychotherapy or even family therapy, which can alleviate household problems and combat fixated gender roles. By becoming more knowledgeable about mental illnesses and the role of the doctor, Bangladeshi women can take steps toward countering somatization.

Since the mid-twentieth century, expectations from parents on student performance have increased. Especially in the New York City area, parents begin putting pressure on their children’s academic performance at a very young age. Competitive elementary school programs have emerged, and we hear stories of four and five year olds preparing for entry exams for specialized elementary programs. Perhaps this stems out of the immigrant work-ethic culture. Or perhaps it is because parents are anticipating the demands of the competitive college admissions process years down the line.

I will suggest that the increase in parental pressure on children’s academic performance at a young age is reflected in the way that elementary school curricula are designed today.

I will be interviewing parents about what they expect from their children’s elementary schools. What kinds of skills do they expect their children to learn in the classroom? How much should the teachers push their students? How much homework should be assigned? Is there a proven correlation between the rigor of elementary school and the college admissions success rates?

My analysis of school curricula today will be contrasted with an earlier era, the 1950s, when parental demands for high achieving students were not as intense. I plan to research the New York City Department of Records for the Board of Education archives as well as the archives of specific public elementary schools in Manhattan and Brooklyn. With this research, I hope to discover a correlation between rising parental expectations and the design of the elementary school curriculum.

Harley Quinn (alternately known as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, the Clown Princess of Crime, the Joker’s girlfriend, and Poison Ivy’s best friend and occasional paramour) is a character in the DC comic book universe who has recently experienced a meteoric rise in exposure and popularity due to her prominent inclusion in Warner Brothers’ Suicide Squad. She has established herself as a fan favorite, cultivating such a devoted following since her inception in 1992’s Batman: The Animated Series that the show’s creators incorporated her initial single-episode appearance into an integral series-long residency. She has since emerged as a perennial presence across almost all strata of the DC universe, garnering such audience and critical enthusiasm as to earn her own eponymous comic series.
 
There is a dearth of scholarship on this still-young character and her unprecedented pop cultural transmutation; most academic work exploring her multifaceted macrocosm is dedicated to psychological, philosophical, and sociological discourses on Batman, the Joker, and the larger universe they cohabit. In an attempt to rectify this disparity, I examine Harley Quinn as an unlikely proponent of a peculiar phenomenon: the acknowledgment and celebration of non-normativity in many of its varied psychosocial configurations. Using a critical lens informed by several fields of scholarship, I undertake an intensive character analysis of Harley Quinn while mapping her metamorphoses across multiple media.
 
Drawing upon queer theory, disability theory, and postfeminist scholarship, I probe the character’s popularity and her unique translation across television shows, graphic novels, films, and fan-mediated creative spheres. I argue that the character is a prism through which audiences can situate themselves in close relation to Harley Quinn’s singular place in pop culture as a paradigm of particularly palatable queerness.
 
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