Category: College of Humanities and Social Science

Fountain of Truth: Women Artists and Their Perspective on Aging.

Author(s): Silas Fransen

Mentor(s): LaNitra Berger, Department of Art History

Abstract

The project is an art exhibit of women using art to share their experiences with aging. This project was greatly inspired by a paper titled, “Why Are There No Older Women in Heaven?” by Zirka Z.Filipczak. The article discusses an prevalent idea from the Renaissance and Baroque periods that chastity and virtuous women keep youthful appearances longer. This idea manifests and is kept alive through art of women saints being made young again in heaven, unlike their male counterparts. By linking a woman’s virtue to youth and beauty, age and undesirable traits become linked to sin. Older women become representatives of lust and envy. This obsession with youth and aversion of age continues into modern American culture and is kept alive through the beauty industry, Hollywood, social media and so on. The exhibit will display art by women in the NOVA area and will be displayed at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas. In the art I am looking for a variety of experiences and honest depictions of what it means to age as a woman. The goal for this project is to inspire women to feel more open to talking about their own experiences with aging as well as expose the public to a variety of experiences and conflicting feelings about what it means to age as a woman.

Audio Transcript

I want to begin by thanking the OSCAR Undergraduate Research Program for the opportunity to work on this project. I also would like to thank The Hylton Performing arts center for agreeing to host the exhibit and to all the artists that have submitted their artwork. Lastly I would like to thank my mentor for this project, Dr. Berger for guiding me in this project and helping me in realizing my vision for this project.
The project I have been working on is Fountain of Truth: Women artists and their perspective on aging.
I began my research for this project with the article: “Why Are There No Older Women in Heaven?” by Zirka Z. Filipczak, this article begins by looking through depictions of the Last Judgement in Baroque art and discovering that woman saints were always depicted young, unlike the men saints. She then connects these depictions to the Renaissance, during this time there was a growing belief that a woman who retained her virginity would keep her youthful appearance. For this reason, women saints were consistently depicted as young, to contrast youth and virtue, older women in art became the personification of envy and lust.
Even today, our culture has an obsession with youthful appearances. I have seen ads for preventative botox for people as young as their early 20’s
[Methodology and results] For this exhibit, I am looking for a variety of experiences and honest depictions of what it means to age as a woman and art that can give insight into how a person’s identity shifts due to age.
[describe results] Currently I have 5 works of art between three artists. And I am still collecting art submissions until January 9th.
I do not want to announce any of the artists just yet… but In the artworks so far there is an overarching theme of age being something to celebrate. These artists talk about how their identity becomes less externally driven and based more in a thoughtful self reflection after rejecting how they have been told to identify.
Each of these works of art are just so beautiful and so well thought out. It’s been really really wonderful to see how each of these artists are taking my idea at the start and really turning it into their own. It’s been a really wonderful experience.
The exhibit will run for 8 weeks, February 24th to April 11th at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas. It’s going to be a really wonderful experience, as I just stated and I hope to see you all there! Thank you so much, it’s been a really wonderful semester. Bye!

Cells, Individuals, and Community College of Humanities and Social Science

Fragmented Selves: Exploring the Socio-Psychological and Physical Effects of the Transition Period on International Students at George Mason University

Author(s): Ramya Karthik

Mentor(s): Al Fuertes, School Of Integrative Studies

Abstract

International students often navigate complex emotional, cultural, and physical challenges as they transition into new academic environments. This project explores how international students from collectivist cultures at George Mason University make sense of their socio-psychological and physical adjustment experiences. Using a two-round qualitative workshop model, the study creates space for participants to reflect on identity, belonging, and the pressures of adapting to a new environment while away from established support systems. The workshops include guided prompts, group reflection, and meaning-making exercises, allowing students to articulate their lived experiences in their own words. Although data collection is ongoing, the study aims to identify common themes related to identity negotiation, community support, and well-being, as well as opportunities for improving culturally responsive support services on campus. The goal of this work is to elevate international student voices and contribute to a more empathetic, inclusive institutional understanding of the transition process.

Audio Transcript

Slide 1 — Introduction
Hi everyone, my name is Ramya Karthik, and I’m an undergraduate researcher at George Mason University. My URSP project is titled Fragmented Selves: Exploring the Socio-Psychological and Physical Effects of the Transition Period on International Students at Mason. My mentor for this project is Dr. Al Fuertes.

Slide 2 — Background & Why This Study Matters
This project is incredibly personal to me. As an international student, I’ve experienced the emotional weight of adjusting to an entirely new environment, the uncertainty, the cultural shifts, the feeling of being caught between two worlds.
A lot of research focuses on the academic transition, but the emotional side, the sense of identity, belonging, and well-being, is often overlooked. I wanted to create space for these stories, especially for students from collectivist countries who navigate transition in unique and deeply relational ways.

Slide 3 — Research Purpose & Central Question
The purpose of my study is to understand how international students make sense of their transition into life at Mason.
My central research question asks: How do international students from collectivist backgrounds experience their socio-psychological and physical adjustment, and what supports or strategies help them during this transition?
My hope is that by listening to students’ stories, we can better understand what truly supports their well-being.

Slide 4 — Methodology
To explore this question, I am conducting two small-group reflective workshops, each lasting about 60 to 90 minutes and spaced 2–3 weeks apart.
Each workshop includes guided reflection prompts, open discussions about adjustment, identity, and belonging, and opportunities for students to share experiences in a supportive environment.
Workshops are intentionally small, about 6 to 8 participants, to create a sense of comfort and community.

Slide 5 — Ethical Considerations
Because these conversations can touch on sensitive emotions, ethical care is central to my project.
Participants are reminded that they can skip any question or leave the session at any time. Instead of a formal consent form, I use a Focus Group Information Sheet to ensure transparency about the purpose of the study, how data will be handled, and what participation involves.
If a student feels overwhelmed or needs support, I refer them to Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) or other appropriate resources. My goal is to create a space of safety, not pressure.

Slide 6 — Data Collection & Analysis
Workshops are audio recorded for transcription only, and the recordings are deleted once transcripts are finalized. All transcripts are de-identified, and coded pseudonyms are used.
For analysis, I am using thematic coding to identify patterns in how students describe identity, coping, belonging, and adjustment. This method allows me to listen deeply and understand meaning across their experiences.

Slide 7 — What I Hope to Learn
Since my research is still in progress, I do not have findings yet. However, I hope to learn how international students emotionally navigate their transition, how they negotiate identity in a new environment, what support systems make them feel grounded, and how belonging is built or disrupted during this process.
This study is ultimately about understanding what helps students feel seen, supported, and connected.

Slide 8 — Implications for Mason
While results are forthcoming, the potential implications are meaningful. I hope this research informs more culturally responsive support programs, stronger international student resources, improved communication about mental health services, and practices that center empathy and student voice.
The goal is not just to document experiences, but to help strengthen the systems that support students on campus.

Slide 9 — Conclusion
In closing, Fragmented Selves is about more than transition, it’s about honoring the emotional lives of international students. My hope is that this work creates visibility for experiences that often stay hidden and encourages Mason to continue building a community where all students can feel a true sense of belonging.
Thank you so much for listening, and thank you to OSCAR, URSP, and Dr. Al Fuertes for supporting this project.

Cells, Individuals, and Community College of Humanities and Social Science College of Science Honors College OSCAR Winners

Women’s Perception of Safety as Demonstrated in Tiktok Trend Man Vs Bear

Author(s): Devyn Wilson

Mentor(s): Collin Hawley, Honors College

L

Abstract

Stemming from the 2024 TikTok trend asking women if they would rather be stuck in a forest with a man or bear, this study seeks to answer what the internal discourse of women is when choosing a man over a bear, in order to assess their values and perceptions of safety. Early research on this subject focused on crime statistics and victimization rates. As feminist theory developed, researchers began to explore broader contexts, including public spaces, urban design, and societal norms that influence women’s feelings of safety. This transition showcased that women’s safety perceptions are often shaped by societal norms, cultural narratives, and lived experiences. However, this proposed research question explores how women assess and investigate the intersection of physical, emotional, and social aspects of safety. To explore the decision-making process of women, mixed methods including, Critical Technocultural Discourse analysis of social media posts (Brock, 2016), bear attack statistics, crime analysis, and survey analysis of women in the DMV area will be used. Critical Technocultural discourse analysis used to analyze social media discourse to find what women are saying regarding their perceived safety in either scenario, a man or a bear appearing. Bear attack analysis and crime analysis can compare the relative risk of damage if a bear or man appears. Surveys of women in the DMV area allow for a conversational component in which women will be able to express safety in their setting. The findings contribute to broader conversations around safety, risk assessment, trust, and gender in contemporary society.

Audio Transcript

Imagine walking on a trail much like this one. While walking you hear leaves rustling, would you whether the rustling be due to a man or a bear. This question was presented to TikTok users in 2024. What was supposed to be a quick, simple, easy-to-flow trend turned into discussions about women’s safety and how they perceived the world around them. It has been a little over a year since this question first appeared, allowing many people to answer it. But what does this question demonstrate about women’s perceptions of safety? What does this question demonstrate about the perceptions of safety of women. What kind of improvement and conclusions can we draw from this trend to make women feel safer. Furthermore, the project wanted to explore the intersections of social media and outlook on safety.

Academic conversations have yet to cover these discussions. Early research on women’s perception of safety focused on crime statistics and victimization rights. As feminist theory developed, researchers began to explore broader contexts, including public spaces, urban design, and societal norms that influence women’s feelings of safety. Furthermore, safety is grouped into other discussions including MeToo, Not all men, LGBTQ+, and family disputes, among others. While these papers provide context to safety, they fail to capture the true fears and realities of women, in their everyday life. The shift from victimization rates to broader contexts marked the understanding that women’s safety perceptions are shaped by societal norms, cultural narratives, and lived experiences. Despite this shift, academic papers have yet to capture the nuanced discourse of women in everyday life. This disconnect raises important questions about whose experiences are prioritized in academic discourse — and why moments like the “man or bear” debate remain outside scholarly engagement. This project seeks to highlight the internal dialogue of women set upon by this trend Man Vs Bear, exploring how women assess and investigate the intersection of physical, emotional, and social aspects of safety.

This semester primarily focused on IRB approval and gathering survey responses.

Before examining the responses, it’s important to note the inclusion criteria. Respondents had to be women or nonbinary, between 18 and 25 years old, and currently attending a university or college in the DMV area. A total of 70 participants met this criteria.

When asked whether they would rather be in a forest with a man or a bear, responses were as shown in the graph:

Most participants felt confident in their choice. Those who were uncertain said they wanted more context—such as the type of bear, the exact setting, or the man’s behavior—because these factors would meaningfully shape their decision.

Since the purpose of the study was to understand why participants made this choice, the explanations are central to the findings. Common themes included:

Fear of men: This appeared on both sides. Many respondents felt they could more easily predict a bear’s behavior compared to a man’s intentions. Participants mentioned strategies for avoiding bear attacks or managing the situation, while expressing concern about men having hidden motives or personal gains. Several respondents noted that some potential outcomes with men—such as assault, or not being believed afterward—felt “worse than death.”

Some pointed out that they see men every day and have survived those encounters, implying that men may not be as dangerous as perceived. Others emphasized that bear attacks are statistically less common than violent crimes committed by men.

Later questions provided broader context for these choices: 93% of respondents felt that women are conditioned to be more alert or afraid in public spaces than men. No one said “no.” 80% reported they have pretended to talk on the phone, changed direction, or taken defensive actions when encountering an unknown man in a quiet area. These behaviors highlight the role of social conditioning and hypervigilance in shaping perceived safety.

Across responses, control emerged as a major influence. Participants expressed more fear of threats whose motives could be hidden—such as a man who appears helpful but becomes dangerous.

Many respondents also said they would trust their instincts over statistics, suggesting that cultural narratives and personal experience strongly shape safety judgments. For some, choosing the bear aligns with worst-case-scenario thinking, especially for those who stated that certain outcomes with men would be worse than death.

Respondents tended to classify their fear of bears as primarily rational—based on a known, identifiable physical threat.

Fear of men, however, was described as both rational and emotional, rooted not only in real statistics but also in lived experience, cultural conditioning, and emotional memory.

indicating that fear is shaped by:

lived experience,

repeated warnings,

cultural narratives, and

observed stories of harm.

The data shows that young women and nonbinary students interpret safety through a blend of emotion, lived experience, social conditioning, and perceived controllability. The surprising preference for being with a bear over a man is not about the bear itself—it is a reflection of deep concerns about male unpredictability, cultural warnings, and threats to autonomy.

The bear becomes a stand-in for a danger they feel they can understand, while men represent dangers they feel they cannot read or control.

Looking into the coming months, Critical Technocultural Discourse analysis, bear attack statistics, and crime analysis will be put into conversation with the survey results. Together, they will uncover more about perceptions of safety and where gaps can be filled through societal shifts. Ultimately, my work contributes to a broader conversation: how gender, safety, and culture shape the way we move through the world.
The “man or bear” question may sound simple — even silly — but it reminds us that women’s fears are not irrational. They are reflections of real, lived experiences in a world that too often asks them to be cautious — even in the forest.

College of Engineering and Computing College of Humanities and Social Science Honors College Making and Creating OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR Winners

A Robotic Cat for Examining Camera Clarity and Privacy in Human–Robot Interaction

Author(s): Alexia De Costa

Mentor(s): Eileen Roesler, Department of Psychology

Abstract

This project presents the Bioinspired Automated Robotic Cat (BARC), a functional companion robot designed to support research in human–robot interaction and privacy-aware design. BARC features camera-based facial detection, expressive gaze behaviors, audio responses, and various soft and rigid materials to mimic a household cat. Because camera systems can enhance interaction while raising privacy concerns, the ongoing study compares peoples’ responses under two conditions: a clear, high-quality camera filter and a blurred, low-clarity camera filter. Using surveys and observation of touch behavior, the study examines how camera clarity shapes engagement and perceived privacy, informing the design of social robots that are effective while respecting user comfort.

Audio Transcript

Have you ever wondered what a robot actually sees when it looks at you?
Today, social and service robots are becoming increasingly common, and many rely on cameras for facial recognition and user engagement. But as useful as cameras are, they also raise important questions: Do they make people feel watched? Can a robot feel friendly while still respecting privacy?

These questions lie at a key intersection in human–robot interaction, that robots need perception to understand us, yet high-resolution sensing can make people uncomfortable. So I wanted to explore a central challenge: can we reduce privacy concerns without making interactions less enjoyable? And does being transparent about what a robot sees change how people feel?

To investigate this, I designed and built a robot cat from scratch called BARC, the Bioinspired Automated Robotic Cat. BARC is part engineering platform and part research tool. It can switch between two controlled camera conditions: a clear, high-quality camera filter and a blurred, low-clarity filter that still allows for partial facial detection. These interchangeable physical filters let me directly compare how different levels of sensing clarity influence interaction.

BARC is also designed to feel expressive and lifelike. It uses camera-based facial detection for gaze behavior, animated OLED eyes, a speaker for cat-like sounds, and soft and rigid materials that mimic the look and feel of a household cat. Through surveys and observations of touch behavior, my ongoing study explores how these two camera conditions shape user engagement and perceived privacy.

To create BARC, I began with feline anatomical references, studying limb placement, joint spacing, and overall proportions, to inspire the CAD model for the chassis. I laser-cut the acrylic components and assembled them using screws and tab-and-slot joints for a sturdy, lightweight frame.

At the heart of the robot is a Raspberry Pi 4, which handles perception and behavioral control.

A camera provides the main sensory input for facial detection.

Two OLED displays animate expressive eyes that track the user once a face is detected, giving the illusion of attention and social presence.

A speaker and amplifier generate a range of cat sounds, from meows to purrs to alarmed yowls.

An accelerometer-gyroscope detects movement, such as being picked up or shaken, so BARC can respond appropriately.

Servos are controlled by a PCA9685 driver, animate the limbs, jaw, head, and tail.

All behaviors are programmed in Python and organized in a state machine with modes such as Idle, Seeking Attention, Interacting, and Startled. BARC transitions between these states based on sensory input and probability, helping interactions feel natural rather than scripted.

To examine how camera clarity influences engagement and privacy perceptions, BARC serves as a fully capable research platform. Seventy-two participants are currently part of a single-blind study with two groups:

Group 1: interacts with BARC using a clear camera filter

Group 2: interacts with BARC using a blurred, privacy-preserving filter

The physical filter is noticeable, so using filters in both groups keeps the robot visually consistent. That way, any differences we see are truly due to what the robot can or can’t perceive.

Participants interact with BARC, complete a survey measuring constructs such as Perceived Sociability and Perceived Enjoyment, and then are shown a live camera feed so they can see the actual resolution of the robot’s vision. Afterward, they complete a second survey measuring perceived privacy, perceived surveillance, disturbance, and attitudes about robots.

The hypotheses are:
1: No difference in sociability, enjoyment, or touch behavior.
2: The filtered-camera group will report higher perceived privacy.
3: The clear-camera group will report higher perceived surveillance.

This interdisciplinary project connects mechanical engineering, psychology, and human-robot interaction to better understand how people perceive robotic sensing. BARC’s expressiveness, biological inspiration, and controlled camera conditions make it a powerful research platform.

By comparing clear versus filtered camera views, this research explores whether privacy concerns come from what the robot actually sees, or what users believe it sees. Ultimately, the goal is to guide the design of future social robots that remain engaging and respectful of user’s privacy

Special thanks to Dr. Eileen Roesler (Psychology) and Dr. Daigo Shishika (Mechanical Engineering) for their invaluable mentorship. Thank you to Katya Schafer for assistance with data collection, and to Dr. Karen Lee and OSCAR for their support and funding, which made this project possible.

Thank you!

S

College of Humanities and Social Science Making and Creating OSCAR

Translating María Zambrano’s The Tomb of Antigone

Author(s): Grace Wood

Mentor(s): Ricardo Vivancos-Pérez, Foreign Languages

I

Abstract

Abstract
This project endeavors to create the first complete English translation of María Zambrano’s play The Tomb of Antigone (La tumba de Antígona, 1967). In this play-essay hybrid, Zambrano opens a philosophical dialog with Sophocles to offer a new interpretation of his Greek tragedy while illustrating her own experiences and ideas surrounding the Spanish Civil War. Using her philosophical construct of delirium, Zambrano creates Antigone’s stream of consciousness as she comes to her end. As the text demonstrates originality in its interweaving of genres to discuss the issues of Zambrano’s time, a translation of this work would foster new interpretations and discussions about Zambrano and Spanish culture with English speaking scholars in both the philosophical and literary disciplines.
To achieve this end, the mentor and student consulted various texts to understand the cultural, historical, and literary traditions of Spain during the time Zambrano was writing as well as the author herself, which led to the translation of the play’s prologue. The twelve-part play was then split into four sections that will be translated in two-week increments after which the mentor and student will convene to discuss the draft. Once the rough draft is complete, both the student and mentor will review and revise to create a more polished version. This project will result in a polished draft of the translation that will be sent to the María Zambrano Foundation in Vélez-Málaga to obtain permission to seek an academic publisher.

Audio Transcript

Have you ever walked into a bookstore and picked up a book and seen not one, but two sets of authors on the cover? The second set usually belongs to a group of people called literary translators. These men and women have taken up the extraordinary task of translating great works by Cervantes, Dante, and Tolstoy into English so that readers like you and I get a chance to enjoy their work. Hi, my name is Grace Wood, and in this video, I am going to show you my first attempt at trying to join these great men and women to become a literary translator. During my study abroad experience in Granada, Spain, I became familiar with the work of one Maria Zambrano, a famous 20th century Spanish philosopher and writer. Upon returning to the United States, I realized that much of this writer’s work has not been translated into English, thus barring scholars and the public from getting to enjoy her work. After doing some research and consulting with a faculty mentor, my independent study and URSP project was born. Over the course of an academic year, I endeavored to create the first complete English translation of Maria Zambrano’s play, The Tomb of Antigone, or La Tumba de Antígona, in Spanish, with the help of my mentor, Dr. Ricardo Vivancos-Pérez.
In this play-essay hybrid, Zambrano opens a philosophical dialogue with Sophocles to offer a new interpretation of his Greek tragedy, while illustrating her own experiences and ideas surrounding the Spanish Civil War. Sophocles’ original play tells the story of a young girl who wants to obtain burial rites for her brother who fought on the wrong side of the war. When her request is refused, she attempts to bury him on her own and is sealed into a tomb alive as punishment for being caught. Instead of Antigone committing suicide in the tomb like Sophocles intended, Zambrano instead uses her philosophical construct of delirium to create Antigone’s stream of consciousness as she waits for death. Antigone’s musings on life, death, faith, and brotherhood shed light on Zambrano’s own thoughts about the divided brotherhood surrounding the Spanish Civil War. As the text demonstrates originality and its interweaving of genres to discuss the issues of Zambrano’s time, a translation of this work would foster new interpretations and discussions about Zambrano in Spanish culture with English-speaking scholars in both the philosophical and literary disciplines.
So how do you go about translating a play? Well, first, I had to get the lay of the land to understand what Zambrano was thinking at the time she was writing the play. Starting in spring 2025, I consulted various texts gathered by my mentor to help me understand the cultural, historical, and literary traditions of Spain in the 20th century, as well as biographical and autobiographical works on the author herself. As both a fiction writer and a Spanish speaker, I had to understand her writing style, as well as her message and intentions in order to create the most faithful version of the play possible. At the end of the spring semester, I successfully translated the play’s 15-page prologue, which provides the context necessary to understand the play itself.
During this semester, we split the 12-part play into four sections with 3 parts each. I would translate one section every two weeks, after which I would meet up with Dr. Vivancos-Pérez to discuss the draft. In these meetings, we would discuss where I had not quite grasped some of the more archaic or literary Spanish being used and also work through passages I had trouble translating on my own. At the end of November, I successfully translated the entire play, resulting in a 75-page draft. Looking forward, my mentor and I will review and revise the draft to create a more polished version, which will be sent to the Maria Zembrano Foundation in Veles Malaga to obtain permission to seek an academic publisher, as they hold the copyright to her work. Once this text is published, English speakers around the world will be able to engage with this dramatic text and promote interdisciplinary discussions about Spanish culture through her work. Authors deserve to have their voices heard, especially in countries that don’t speak their native language. In time, I hope that Maria Zambrano will be the first of many authors I can give voice to in the English-speaking community. Thank you.

Cells, Individuals, and Community College of Humanities and Social Science

Understanding Mental Health Help-Seeking: A Discrete Choice Experiment

Author(s): Griffin Perry

Mentor(s): Natasha Tonge, Department of Psychology

Abstract

Mental health help-seeking is shaped by various factors that determine whether individuals ultimately decide to pursue treatment. The present study aims to examine preferences in mental health service selection by identifying which attributes most strongly influence decision-making. Using a discrete choice experiment (DCE), we will experimentally manipulate key attributes of mental health services, including treatment type, appointment frequency, wait time, treatment effectiveness, and the ability to evaluate therapeutic alliance. DCE will allow us to understand how individuals make trade-offs when help-seeking. A community sample will be recruited through Prolific and will complete a series of choice tasks comparing pairs of hypothetical service options that vary across these attributes. Results will determine the relative importance of each attribute and the features that are important when people are seeking services. Understanding which aspects of mental health services are most valued, and how individuals prioritize these factors, will contribute to improving service design and informing interventions that better align with people’s needs and preferences.

Audio Transcript

Hello, my name is Griffin Perry, and I am a current Junior at George Mason University, double-majoring in psychology and community health. For my Fall 2025 URSP project, I sought to examine individuals’ preferences when mental health help-seeking by developing a discrete choice experiment.

Mental health help-seeking refers to the process of an individual recognizing that they are facing psychological distress, deciding that they need help for this problem, and then taking action to get mental health support from resources available.

However, seeking services is highly complex, with multiple factors influencing whether someone chooses to seek services. To better understand these decisions, we decided to develop a discrete choice experiment, or DCE for short.

DCEs are a quantitative research method used to examine how people make decisions by presenting them with experimentally manipulated hypothetical scenarios. These scenarios contain different combinations of attributes and ask participants to choose which option they prefer.

Attributes are the specific features or characteristics of a service or option that may influence an individual’s decision-making. In a DCE, each attribute is assigned a set of levels, aka variations that reflect realistic possibilities a person might encounter.

For example, in the context of mental health services, attributes might include wait time. Then this attribute would be broken down into different attribute levels. So, for this example, the possible levels for wait time could be two weeks, a month, or three months.

This approach captures the complexity of help-seeking more accurately than traditional surveys, offering more profound insight into the barriers and facilitators that shape whether someone ultimately decides to access mental health care.

For the duration of this URSP, we developed attributes, their levels, and wrote the IRB to collect data. We created attributes based on past literature. For our project, we will use the following attributes:

Treatment type which refers to the specific form of mental health care being offered, such as individual therapy or group therapy.

The frequency of appointment, which is just how often a client meets with a mental health provider

The wait time which refers to the length of time a person must wait before beginning treatment.

The effectiveness of treatment, which refers to the expected likelihood that the treatment will lead to meaningful improvement

And finally, the ability to evaluate therapeutic alliance, which is the extent to which an individual can assess the quality of their relationship with a provider before committing to ongoing care.

Here is an example to help conceptualize what our study would look like for our participants. As stated previously, participants will choose their preferred option of the two.

We intend to use Prolific over winter break to collect a community sample. Prolific is an online research platform that connects researchers with participants all over the nation. Through Prolific, we can recruit a diverse group of participants in the community.

Once we have collected our sample, we will be able to determine which attributes are most important, how individuals trade off between different aspects of a service, and what factors most strongly influence their decisions.

Results will allow us to use a novel method to better understand the specific factors that shape individuals’ preferences when seeking mental health care by identifying which attributes carry the most weight in decision-making.

A big thanks to Dr. Natasha Tonge, Gracie Kelly, and Dr. Karen Lee for supporting me through this project.

College of Humanities and Social Science OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR US, Global, and Beyond

Artificial Influence: How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Shapes Global Geopolitics

Author(s): Larion Krivtsov

Mentor(s): Patrick Ukata, Global Affairs

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly evolved from a technological innovation into a central force reshaping global geopolitics. As states race to harness AI’s economic and strategic potential, the technology has become a defining factor in international competition, cooperation, and governance. This paper examines how AI is transforming global power dynamics by shifting influence toward actors with advanced computational capacity, vast data resources, and strong innovation ecosystems. The analysis argues that AI functions as a dual-use geopolitical lever: it intensifies strategic rivalries among major powers while simultaneously creating new opportunities for collective regulation and shared ethical standards.
AI is altering the nature of conflict by enabling autonomous weapons systems, accelerating cyber operations, and enhancing disinformation campaigns that blur traditional distinctions between war and peace. These developments challenge established security doctrines and create new vulnerabilities that demand coordinated international responses. At the same time, AI exposes significant gaps in global governance, raising questions about accountability, transparency, surveillance, and human rights that existing institutions struggle to address.
Using a qualitative synthesis of contemporary scholarship, the paper maps AI’s geopolitical effects across four domains: great-power competition, military and security transformation, global governance architectures, and regional ethical perspectives. The findings show that while AI amplifies inequalities and fuels geopolitical tension, it also offers pathways for new regulatory frameworks and multilateral cooperation.
Ultimately, the paper contends that the geopolitical future of AI will depend not on technological inevitability but on the ethical, political, and institutional choices made by human actors. Ensuring that AI advances global stability and human well-being will require governance models that balance innovation, security, and shared responsibility.

Audio Transcript

Hello,
In the early twenty-first century, artificial intelligence has emerged not simply as a technological breakthrough but as a transformative geopolitical force—one that is redefining how power is created, exercised, and contested on the global stage. What once belonged to research labs and commercial enterprises has now become a central pillar of national strategy. Major powers—the United States, China, and the European Union—treat AI with the same seriousness that past generations reserved for nuclear technology. It’s entirely accurate to say that AI has emerged as a powerful and influential tool in shaping global political dynamics.
This transformation raises a key question: How does AI reshape global geopolitics by altering power relations, national security, and international governance? The answer, as this research argues, lies in understanding AI as a dual-use geopolitical lever. On one hand, AI fuels strategic rivalries, widening technological inequalities, and destabilizing traditional hierarchies. On the other, it creates unprecedented opportunities for shared regulation, ethical standards, and cooperative global frameworks.
AI is redistributing power in three critical ways.
First, it rewards states and corporations with data, computational capacity, and technological expertise—not those with traditional industrial strength. The result is a new form of digital stratification that determines who leads, who follows, and who risks being left behind.
Second, AI is redefining conflict itself. Autonomous weapons systems, cyberattacks powered by machine learning, and sophisticated disinformation campaigns blur the boundaries between war and peace. Deterrence, defense, and security doctrines are being rewritten in real time.
Third, AI challenges the foundations of global governance. It raises profound questions about accountability, transparency, and ethics—questions no nation can resolve alone. International law, built for an earlier technological era, must now confront algorithms that make decisions far faster than traditional institutions can respond.
But this story is not only about rivalry. It is also about responsibility. AI forces us to reconsider what human agency means in an age of automated decision-making. It compels us to think about who benefits from technology and who might be harmed by it. And it reminds us that the future of global stability will depend not on machines themselves, but on human choices—ethical, political, and institutional.
If nations view AI only as a weapon of competition, we risk repeating the mistakes of past arms races. But if we recognize its dual-use nature—its capacity to inspire both competition and cooperation—we can harness AI to strengthen global governance, promote shared security, and advance human flourishing.
In the end, the geopolitical future of artificial intelligence will be determined not by the power of our algorithms, but by the wisdom of our decisions. Let us choose a future where AI serves humanity—rather than one where humanity becomes subordinate to its own creations.
Thank you for your attention.

Cells, Individuals, and Community College of Humanities and Social Science OSCAR

Does Immigrant Advantage for Academic Outcomes Persist in High School Similarly for Black and Hispanic Students?

Author(s): Vlera Baftija

Mentor(s): Adam Winsler, Applied Developmental Psychology

Abstract

One out of four students in U.S. schools comes from an immigrant-lead household, with 17.6 million children under 18 living with at least one immigrant parent. The ‘immigrant advantage’ posits that first-generation immigrant students often exhibit better academic outcomes than second-generation immigrant students, who exhibits better academic outcomes than non-immigrant students, despite first- and second- generation students facing socioeconomic and linguistic challenges. Prior research has documented this advantage in early education but less is clear about its persistence into high school, as results seem to vary. The current study examines immigrant advantage in grades 9 through 12 by using pre-existing data from Miami School Readiness Project, a large-scale, 18-year longitudinal study of students attending Miami Dade County Public Schools. Research questions include (1) To what extent does the immigrant advantage appear in high school academic outcomes? and (2) Are patterns of the immigrant advantage similar for Black and Hispanic immigrant students? The sample (n=4,341) includes 2,704 first-generation immigrants, 777 second-generation immigrants, and 860 non-immigrants. Outcome variables include end of year GPA in 9th and 12th grade, cumulative high school GPA, standardized math and reading test scores in 10th grade, end-of-course exam grades for Algebra 1, attendance in 9th and 12th grade, suspension, retention, and graduation. Multiple regression analyses will be run controlling for student race, poverty, ELL status, disability, and gender, with immigrant status as the primary independent variable, and then race-by-immigrant status interactions will be run to test question 2.

Audio Transcript

Hello, my name is Vlera Baftija and for my research project I am examining the immigrant advantage for academic outcomes and whether it persists in high school similarly for black and Hispanic students.

The US is known to be a melting pot, rich with diversity from cultures all over the world. There is a huge immigrant population in the states with one out of four students in public schools coming from an immigrant household. Given the significant presence of immigrant families in the US, it is important to examine the educational trajectories and experience of children of immigrants to help ensure their success and maximize their opportunity to thrive.

A first generation immigrant is when both the parent and the child are foreign born. A second generation immigrant is when the parent is foreign born, but the child is US born and a third plus generation or a non-immigrant is when the parent and child are US born.

The immigrant paradox or the immigrant advantage is the idea that first generation immigrants display better academic outcomes than second generation immigrants who display better academic outcomes than the third plus generation immigrants. This idea comes from the result of parents’ optimism and aspirations for their child success and influencing the child to exhibit academic resilience, despite socioeconomic disadvantages.

There are a few protective factors for this, which include familial values towards education, support from family and or ethnic ties, biculturalism, and bilingualism.

The literature has shown an immigrant advantage in elementary school in which first generation and second generation students generally perform as well or even better than the third plus generation students in academic measures such as standardized tests, grades, attendance, retention, and behavioral and soc emotional development.

However, when we get into the secondary level, the art makes results with some studies finding a first generation immigrant advantage. Other studies finding a second generation immigrant advantage, and some studies finding no advantage at all.

Reasons for this include aculturation tasks, adultification, parentification, helping out financially and documentation status.

Some studies have also looked at the moderation by race and the overall findings have been that the advantage is bigger for black immigrants when compared to their third plus counterparts and smaller for Hispanic immigrants when compared to the Hispanics third plus counterparts.

The current study will be examining the immigrant advantage in the Miami School Readiness Project, a large scale five cohort, 18 year log to project, consisting over 58,000 students. The gap in the literature is that there are very limited studies examining the immigrant academic outcomes past 10th grade, and excluding stuff like cumulative GPA and graduation.

My first research question is asking to what extent does the immigrant advantage appear in academic outcomes in grades 9 through 12 My academic outcomes is as follows, and I hypothesize that the immigrant advantage will be present at the start of high school, but will be smaller by 12th grade.

My second research question is asking if the patterns of the immigrant advantage in high school are similar for black and Hispanic immigrant students. I hypothesize that the immigrant advantage will be bigger for black immigrants and smaller for Hispanic immigrants when compared to their third plus counterparts.

For my participants, I will have roughly 4,341 students. I will have 2704 first generation immigrants, 777, second generation immigrants, and 863 plus generation immigrants. From the overall sample of the 58,000 students, about 80% of Hispanic, and about 20% are black.

For my independent variables, my primary independent variable will be the generation status and I will be controlling for things such as student race, poverty status, English language learner status, disability status, and gender.

My dependent variables will include end of year GPA in grades 9 and 12, cumulative end of high school GPA, standardized math and reading test scores in ninth and tenth grade, attendance in ninth and 12th, school suspension, retention, and graduation.

For my proposed data analysis plan for my first research question a multiple regression analysis will be used with the primary independent variable being the immigrant status while controlling for student race. Poverty status, ELL status, disability status, and gender. Dependent variables will be the academic outcome measures and each dependent variable will be entered one at a time in separate models.

For my second research question, I will be using a similar multiple regression model that was described for the previous question, but immigrant status will be crossed with race to include interaction terms.

These are my acknowledgments and thank you for watching. and these are the references that were used during the presentation.

Cells, Individuals, and Community College of Humanities and Social Science OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR

Elementary School Gifted Program Identification and Secondary School Academic Outcomes for Black Students

Author(s): Ezra Lynch-Holland

Mentor(s): Adam Winsler, Psychology

Abstract

Gifted children show high potential to achieve but need specialized services to develop their capabilities. Black students specifically have been persistently under-identified as gifted and the efficacy of gifted programs for Black children is unknown. This psychology honors thesis will explore the impact of gifted identification on secondary school outcomes (6th through 12th grade) with data from the Miami School Readiness Project, a longitudinal study of students that attended Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Research questions include (1A) To what extent does being identified as gifted in elementary school contribute to secondary school academic outcomes for Black students?, (1B) Are positive effects mediated by elementary school academic performance?, and (2) Are the observed differences between gifted and not gifted Black students in secondary school the same for students in poverty vs. not in poverty, and for boys vs. girls?
The sample for this study includes Black students that had data for at least one year of high school (n ≈11,198). Of the sample, ~13% were identified as gifted in elementary school. Outcome data include cumulative high school GPA, standardized math and reading test scores in 8th and 10th grade, grade retention, attendance from 9th and 12th grade, school suspension, and on-time graduation. Multiple regression and logistic regression analyses will be done, controlling for initial child cognitive skills and social skills at age 4, gender, English language learner (ELL) status, poverty status, and early school performance. Results are expected to show gifted identification to be correlated with positive secondary school outcomes when compared to non-gifted students. It is expected that gifted education will show stronger positive effects for students in poverty and for boys.

Audio Transcript

Hello, my name is Ezra Lynch-Holland, and my Oscar URSP project is entitled, Elementary School Gifted Program Identification and Secondary School Academic Outcomes for Black Students. This project was done under the mentorship of Dr. Adam Winsler.
Federally, gifted children are those that display high potential for success intellectually, creatively, in a leadership capacity, or in a specific discipline. The federal government also acknowledges they need services not ordinarily provided by the school to develop these capabilities, and requires identification of gifted children. School districts tend to disproportionately over-identify students with higher socioeconomic statuses and under-identify those in poverty. When it comes to race, Black students are persistently under-identified nationally, even when they make up larger parts of the district’s population.
Black students’ education is particularly impacted by their relationships, where positive ones can act as a strong buffer against negative experiences. However, gifted Black students face isolation in gifted spaces from their non-gifted Black… and from their non-gifted Black peers, with T’s and being common in the latter. Microaggressions from both other students and teachers are present in gifted spaces in the form of underestimating their intellectual ability or belittling their interest in Black history and topics.
Black and Hispanic students tend to spend less time in gifted programs, and the improvements giftedness typically has on academic achievement are somewhat diminished in Black comparisons. Even so, it has been shown that the self-esteem of gifted Black students benefits more from gifted programs than their non-Black peers.
This study will derive from the Miami School Readiness Project dataset, or MSRP. It was a cohort sequential longitudinal study where data was collected from 2002 to 2020. Students included in the study are those that received subsidies for community-based childcare or public school pre-K, and then went on to attend Miami-Dade County Public Schools. In the larger study, the total number of students included that have data for at least one year between grades 6 and 11 is 32,885. 82% are on free and reduced lunch, and 52% are male. This study seeks to investigate if being gifted has positive academic impacts through secondary school by controlling for prior achievement and cognitive skills using school… administrative school data.
To be included in the study, a student will have had to be present for at least 8th grade and identify as Black in administrative school data. Bicep sample from the MSRP consists of 11,198 students that identified as Black, including Afro-Latina students. Around 13% of them were identified as gifted according to administrative school data. Outcomes that will be analyzed include cumulative high school GPA, standardized test scores in 8th and 10th grade, and school attendance, as well as grade retention, school suspension, and on-time graduation. Multiple regressions will be used for continuous outcomes and logistic regressions for categorical outcomes.
My research question 1A is to what extent does being gifted identified in elementary school contributes to secondary school academic outcomes and school engagement for Black students. I hypothesize that being identified as gifted in elementary school will be correlated with greater academic achievement and engagement outcomes when compared to non-gifted students.
My 1B question asks if positive effects are mediated by school, elementary school academic performance. My hypothesis is that after considering elementary school performance, being identified as gifted in elementary school will still have a higher correlation with those greater academic achievement and engagement outcomes. These mediators will be matched with their resultant outcomes for the regression models.
The research question 2 asks if the observed differences between gifted and not gifted students in secondary school are the same on the basis of poverty status and gender, as well as English language learner status. I hypothesize that boys, those in poverty, and those that aren’t English language learners will benefit more from gifts programs than their counterparts. And here are my references. Thank you.

College of Humanities and Social Science OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR US, Global, and Beyond

When No Response is a Response: Predicting Survey Non-Compliance in Isolated, Confined, Extreme Analog Space Missions

Author(s): Amber Bartlett

Mentor(s): Lauren Kuykendall, Psychology

Abstract

Long-duration space exploration will place small, interdependent teams in isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environments, where they will face risks including communication delays, high autonomy, increased workload, team tension, and intense stress. All of these risks require research studies aimed at mitigating them, many of which take place at analog space stations. However, these analog missions, which aim to study human behavior in ICE settings, suffer from chronic survey noncompliance, which threatens data integrity and reduces the accuracy of crew monitoring. This project examines which individual characteristics predict who completes research surveys during missions at the Mars Desert Research Station, a Mars-analog habitat in Utah. Before their missions, crew members completed questionnaires assessing personality (with a focus on conscientiousness), their identification with their team, their cultural values (especially collectivism, or putting the group before oneself), and their difficulties with emotion regulation. During the mission, they were asked to complete brief daily and weekly surveys. For each person, I will calculate survey compliance as the percentage of assigned surveys completed, and I will use regression models to test whether conscientiousness, emotion regulation, team identification, and collectivism predict higher compliance. I will also test whether collectivism strengthens the link between team identification and survey completion, such that highly collectivistic crew members who strongly identify with their team are especially likely to respond. I expect that crew members who are more conscientious, better at managing their emotions, more strongly identified with their team, and more collectivistic will show higher survey compliance. The work integrates literature on ICE stressors, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), survey methodology, and individual differences to generate actionable recommendations for designing analog-station research protocols and for operational monitoring in deep-space missions.

Audio Transcript

Hi, my name is Amber Bartlett. I’m an honors psychology student at George Mason University. My project is called “When No Response Is a Response, predicting survey non-compliance in isolated, confined, extreme, analog space missions”

My mentor is Dr. Lauren Kuykendall in the Industrial Organizational Psychology Department. So what is the big picture of my project? Long duration missions to Mars and to the moon will place very small crews into what we called isolated, confined, extreme, or ICE environments. These missions will involve tight living quarters, high workloads, autonomy, communication delays, and one of the tools we can use to track how these people are doing is through self-report surveys.

But the issue with doing research on ICE teams is the fact that the sample sizes are incredibly small, so when people skip surveys, we lose statistical power and increase the risk of error in our findings, and missingness is often not random. The people who stop answering might be the ones who are most stressed out, which means that things can be biased. So this leads to my core question, can we predict who complies with surveys before a mission? If we can identify likely non-responders ahead of time, then we can actually anticipate, model, and design around that.

So this project is a part of a collaboration between the University of Central Florida, where we’ll be using UCF’s IO Psychology PhD student Andres Käosaar’s data set from the Mars Desert Research Station. So MDRS is a Mars analog habitat where small crews simulate living on Mars. They’ll be conducting EVAs, conserving resources, and living in a confined environment.

And for this project, I will be using the data set that includes 99 individuals, 16 crew members, and a total of 761 habitat days. Most of the missions had teams of about six to eight members, and participation in Andres’ study was completely voluntary. Now because it was voluntary, I treat filling out these surveys as a type of organizational censorship behavior, and this is when people are doing small extra things at work that help their team organization, because doing his research survey was completely just to help his research.

So to understand why some people keep doing this extra work and why others don’t, I focus on four key constructs from the literature. So that’s including conscientiousness, emotional regulation difficulties, team identification, and collectivism within someone’s culture. So the knowledge gap is that analog space research already acknowledges chronic survey non-compliance and missingness.

However, individual level predictors or survey compliance and ICE teams remains undermodeled. We don’t have a clear guidance on what type of people are most likely to disappear from the data set, so my project is designed to help close that gap. So within this data set, participants completed pre-mission surveys which included measures such as conscientiousness, emotional regulation difficulties, team identification, and collectivism.

So during the mission, they received daily and weekly self-report surveys about their experience and well-being, and my main outcome is survey compliance, so this is defined as the percentage of assigned surveys each person completes over the mission. So based on this, I have five different hypotheses. First is higher conscientiousness will predict greater survey compliance.

Second, better emotional regulation will predict greater survey compliance. Stronger collectivism, stronger team identification, and collectivism moderates team ID compliance. All of this, I’m going to assume it will increase greater survey compliance.

Now with OSCAR’s help, I was able to visit MDRS in person, and these photos here show the habitat. It shows the people that I was with out there, and it really helped me understand what it’s like to be living in one of these space analog stations. So my next step is to run descriptive analysis on all of the hypotheses that I just showed you, and so that will be what I’m doing next semester.

The expected implications is that if my hypotheses are supported, this work suggests that voluntary survey compliance in ICE analogs is not random. It’s a predictable citizenship-like behavior rooted in personality, emotional regulation, and how people relate to their teams and groups. So this has several implications such as pre-mission screening, low burden monitoring, and then just identifying patterns of non-response, but also if my hypotheses are not supported, it means we should be looking somewhere else other than the OCB literature, which right now is where the main source of research is coming from when it comes to non-response and surveys.

So I want to thank my mentor, Dr. Lauren Kuykendall, Andres Käosaar, Dr. Seth Kaplan, Dr. Brielmaier, my psychology honors cohort, the MDRS director, and of course OSCAR URSP. If you would like a link to all of my resources that I’ve used, here’s a QR code for that. Thank you so much for listening.