Taking a Stand and Changing Systems (speakers in order of appearance)
Megan Bull \u2721 “Examining Bias in Facial Recognition Programs” (Faculty Sponsor: Giancarlo Schrementi)
Facial recognition has been a breakthrough in the development of Neural Networks and Artificial Intelligence. However, when used in a real-world setting, rather than just a testing dataset, specific programs will misidentify women and people of color far more often than white men. As facial recognition becomes more widely deployed, these mistakes can have serious consequences. When police departments use biased technology to find suspects, it can lead to wrongful arrests and even convictions, as in the case of Robert Julian-Borchak Williams. The presenter plans to create a facial recognition program in which the algorithm is trained on a dataset that proportionally represents both men and women and people of color. To do this, the presenter will use Google Colab and TensorFlow to create Neural Networks to train on a proportionally representative dataset, aiming to create a more accurate program than one trained on a dataset that is disproportionately white men.
Emily Lauletta \u2722 “Radical Feminist Nuns\u27: Catholicism, Spiritual Activism, and the Power of (Sister)hood” (Faculty Sponsor: LeeRay Costa)
This presentation discusses two major concepts related to spiritual activism: first, how Catholic nuns throughout history have served as spiritual activists and advocates of social justice based on the critical theoretical framework created by key feminist scholars such as Gloria Anzaldua and Leela Fernandes; and second, how Catholic sisters who participate in acts of social justice have recently been labeled as radically feminist” by the Vatican. This research not only examines whether or not this is an appropriate label for these women, but also examines the dichotomy between performing feminist activism within a religious social institution, and how this division may or may not affect the way the Sisters feel about their identities as both Catholic, and as advocates for social reform, equity and justice. Rooted in scholarship on spirituality, feminism, and its intersections, the project includes an additional interview conducted with Sister Emily TeKolste from the non-profit organization NETWORK. NETWORK focuses on spreading awareness of social justice issues that the Sisters believe accompany Catholic liturgy, centering activism within the Catholic institution.
Kaitlyn Phillips \u2721 “Mothers, Morals, and Godly Motivations: Women in American Conservatism from Anticommunism to The New Christian Right” (Faculty Sponsor: Rachel Nuñez)
This presentation focuses on conservative women\u27s activism from the 1960s to the early 1980s, centering on women who were part of the larger focal shift on social issues that occurred in the American conservative movement in the middle of the twentieth century. This project came out of a curiosity to better understand what conservative women gained from their involvement in social activism. This research utilizes books, newspaper articles, pamphlets, and journal articles to analyze and draw conclusions. A variety of groups and individuals are examined, including the anticommunist activism of the Minute Women, Phyllis Schlafly\u27s anti-ERA, pro-family, pro-life fight, and evangelical Beverly LaHaye who used religion as her justification for active political involvement. Conservative women\u27s activism proves that women can seek power and influence, even if the movement they supported limited women\u27s autonomy