At the Margins of the Plantation: Alternative Modernities and an Archaeology of the Poor Whites of Barbados

This dissertation is an historical archaeological examination of the poor whites or Redlegs of Barbados. Excavations were undertaken from October 2012 to July 2013 in an abandoned tenantry, Below Cliff, on the east coast of the island, once inhabited by dozens of families locally referred to as the poor whites or Redlegs , said to be the descendants of seventeenth century European indentured servants. Combining archaeological, ethnographic, and historical methodologies, this dissertation explores class relations of Below Cliff residents to processes of capitalism as well as other island laborers, including Afro-Barbadians. Additionally, racial categories are interrogated through an analysis of complex and interracial genealogies of Below Cliff residents that call into question the legitimacy of determinate racial categories of black and white. I argue that Below Cliff is best understood as an alternative modernity, a place in which residents were directly affected by processes of modernization, but through their own ways of relating to economic forces and their own experiences of race relations they were able to engender alternatives to modernity that were all their own

Pope’s double mistress : Oriental philosophy and the Scriblerian dialectic

My dissertation, “Pope’s Double Mistress: Oriental Philosophy and the Scriblerian Dialectic,” addresses the aesthetic form and literary history of an eighteenth-century genre known as Scriblerian satire. The study recovers a hitherto unacknowledged technique of Orientalist imitation crafted by Alexander Pope and featured in the “Double Mistress” episode in The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus (1741). By uncovering Pope’s esoteric Scriblerian design, we gain a clearer understanding of his archive and reception into the literary canon. My study documents the surprising impact of Pope’s Scriblerian Orientalism on British literary history, tracing its influence over a series of controversies surrounding the posthumous suppressions and revelations of his Double Mistress episode.Englis

Quantitative biometric phenotype analysis in mouse lenses

The disrupted morphology of lenses in mouse models for cataracts precludes accurate in vitro assessment of lens growth by weight. To overcome this limitation, we developed morphometric methods to assess defects in eye lens growth and shape in mice expressing the αA-crystallin R49C (αA-R49C) mutation. Our morphometric methods determine quantitative shape and dry weight of the whole lens from histological sections of the lens. This method was then used to quantitatively compare the biometric growth patterns of lenses of different genotypes of mice from birth to 12 months. The wild type dry lens weights determined using the morphometric method were comparable to previously reported weights. Next we applied the method to assessing the lenses of αA-R49C knock-in mice, which exhibit decreased αA-crystallin protein solubility, resulting in a variety of growth abnormalities including early cataract formation, decreased eye and lens size, failure to form the equatorial bow region, and continued lens cell death, sometimes resulting in the entire loss of the lens and eye. Our morphometric methods reproducibly quantified these defects by combining histology, microscopy, and image analysis. The volume measurement accurately represented the total growth of the lens, whereas the geometric shape of the lens more accurately quantified the differences between the growth of the mutant and wild-type lenses. These methods are robust tools for measuring dry lens weight and quantitatively comparing the growth of small lenses that are difficult to weigh accurately such as those from very young mice and mice with developmental lens defects

Museum Exhibition Assignment

This is a general assignment requiring students to think critically about museum exhibitions in major New York City institutions: The American Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Options are provided for students to visit these spaces virtually or in person

The Diffusion of Politically Expert Opinion Within and Among Groups

This paper employs a small group experiment to study the process of political influence within social networks. Each experimental session involves seven individuals, where privately obtained information is costly but communication within the group is free. Hence, individuals form prior judgments regarding candidates based on public and private information before updating their priors through a process of social communication. In general, individuals select expert informants with political preferences similar to their own, and we consider the dynamic implications for individual and group preferences. In particular, we address the diffusion of information based on a DeGroot model which provides a dynamic formulation of the influence process. We are particularly interested in the implications that arise due to varying levels of information among participants for (1) the construction of communication networks, (2) the relative influence of better informed individuals; (3) relative levels of reliance on priors and communicated messages; (4) the consequences of memory decay for the influence of experts; and (5) the diffusion of information and patterns of persuasion

The nocturnal negotiations of youth spaces in Havana

Based upon ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Havana, this dissertation explores the linkages between youth and public space by arguing that the spatial practices of youth in public space reveal that young Cubans are negotiating the current period of change and uncertainty by creating new social spaces and identities. This project focused on a thirteen-block area of Calle G, a centrally located boulevard in Havana that is appropriated every weekend by youth from all over the city. This public space serves as a venue in which to display the various lifestyles of Cuban youth, lifestyle choices that are often predicated on access to hard currency. The impact of broader socio-economic changes underway in Cuba is clearly reflected in the discourse of these young people and the identity politics they engage in. Youth are creating their own social space outside of the sphere of state regulation and influence, and this venue provides Cuban youth with a space to explore and create their own identities in relation to local as well as transnational cultural flows. Therefore much of this project evaluates the capacity of public space to empower a form of associational life for the youth in the city. Furthermore this project addresses the role of urban culture through both music and fashion in the evolution of youth subcultures. Findings reveal the importance of these cultural flows in the lives of youth and the ways that youth adapt and appropriate these cultural references for their own identities. In this way, Cuban youth are also actively transforming and appropriating global flows of information, culture, and technology and not simply negotiating conditions of socio-economic uncertainty. This work documents the fact that youth cultures are spatially open and are one of the main entry points for cultural globalization. For the youth of Havana, through their nocturnal negotiations, their play and their imagination, they have transformed the abstract space of Calle G into a collectively created alternative social space. Therefore these youth are claiming their spatial rights, their rights to be in public and be a public, thus they are claiming their right to the city