Roanoke College Research Blog

Ivey Kline is a history major with an interest in American history and archival research.  She has worked for the Roanoke College Archives and the Center for Studying Structures of Race for three years and spent the summer of 2021 carrying out extensive archival research.  At the Center, she helped create and launch the Genealogy of Slavery Project, a project dedicated to uncovering information about the enslaved people in Roanoke County who built Roanoke College.  Additionally, she processed collections for the Maurice Berger Memorial Archive and Library and interned at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage working on the festival curatorial team for the 2022 and 2023 Folklife Festival.  She is also president of Historical Society.

This summer, Ivey is working with Dr. Jesse Bucher on the project “The Legacy of Georgianna Saunders: Race, Gender, and Black Midwifery in Southwest Virginia, 1914-1940.” Georgianna Saunders is one of the most important and yet unknown figures in Salem, Virginia history. Born in 1866, Saunders was a member of the first generation of African Americans born to previously enslaved parents after the abolition of slavery.  From 1914 to 1940, Georgianna Saunders kept extensive birth records that provide insight into her work as a midwife.  During this Summer Scholars project, Ivey has been analyzing the records Saunders kept in her birth records notebooks and evaluating the segregation of medicine, importance of Black lay midwives, and the demographics of the poor, Black and White women Saunders aided. This project will fill an important scholarly deficit regarding Black midwives since most scholarly work regarding birth work focuses on White midwives or male doctors inventing obstetrics. 

During the weekend of June 24th, Dr. Lassiter took a couple of students to the International Zebrafish Society Conference in Montreal. Olivia Brichter and Allyson Herriges co-presented at their first international conference on the project, “Estrogen Exposure Results in Inhibited Tail Fin Regeneration in Embryonic Zebrafish (Danio rerio).” Together, they explored the effects of estrogen exposure on tail fin regeneration. Early data shows statistically significant effects, but future research will study the magnitude of effects at a genetic level. They explain their interest in this topic stems from the understanding of elevated levels of estrogen found in our water supply and they wish to explore the impact of estrogen on biodiversity. Olivia and Allyson enjoyed the experiences that the conference provided them. From networking with other developmental biologists and exploring graduate schools to learning about all the potential directions that their research could expand upon, it certainly sounds like an amazing first conference to have attended!

Both Allyson and Olivia have individual research projects that they are currently working on! Allyson is currently studying the effects of Zofran on genes correlated to autism and neural development. She explains that this project is in its preliminary stages of development and hopes to have it completed by spring. Olivia is currently studying the effects of estrogen on Pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) induced seizures in developing zebrafish.

Congratulations, ladies! We can’t wait to hear more about your research!

Megan Reynolds is a rising senior pursuing a double major in History and Music. A member of the Class of 2023, Megan dedicates her time to a variety of campus activities. On top of her regular coursework, Megan plays the bassoon in the Wind Ensemble, is the secretary of the Historical Society, is a member of the Fine Arts Committee, and has been Dr. Rosenthal’s research assistant for the Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project since Fall 2019. She knew that she wanted to be a history major since the early years of middle school. At Roanoke College, she has focused her attention on the histories of Imperial Russia and U.S. LGBTQ+ and women’s history. In her spare time, she enjoys painting, reading, making bassoon reeds, and spending time with her family, including various pets. After graduating from Roanoke College, Megan plans to attend graduate school in the Boston area to receive a Master’s Degree in Gender and Women’s Studies.

This summer, Megan is continuing her work with Dr. Rosenthal on the project “The Internal Lesbian Menace: Challenges within the Lesbian Feminist Movement, 1970 to the Present.” Lesbian feminism is a strand of feminism that has been a part of the larger women’s movement since the 1970s. This cultural movement emboldened lesbians to concentrate on constructing comradery between women with a focus on rejecting heteronormativity and men. The way lesbian feminists handled race and gender differences, however, ultimately led to the exclusion of bisexual women, transgender women, and women of color within movement spaces. This project will examine lesbian feminism through the lenses of inclusion and exclusion to show how a movement meant to bring women closer together created a legacy of division within LGBTQ+ communities.

Emma Richards had the opportunity to go to Merida, Mexico in May to study at an American-based veterinary clinic called Planned Pethood. In her month there, she went through rotations of what she observed, shadowed, and helped with. The first week she was there, she shadowed the veterinary technicians, doing general care, and helping with small procedures, such as cleaning wounds/changing bandages and giving medication through IV injection. During the second and third weeks, she spent her time observing surgeries and was taught how to do pre- and post-surgical procedures. While there, Emma got to scrub into an orthopedic surgery, helped reform a femur head, and got to perform a spay on a cadaver. Her final week in Mexico was spent in appointment rooms with doctors. She had the opportunity to take pulse and breathing rates, gave intramuscular and subcutaneous injections, removed sutures, and took tons of notes. Some of the other things she got to do included helping run chemical tests and inserting IV catheters into patients.

This is such an amazing opportunity and just shows how far research can take you here at Roanoke!

Last week, Luke Jones attended the Association of Environmental Studies and Science conference. Working with Dr. O’Neill in the Environment Department, Luke presented his project “Planting for climate resilience: Using heat mapping to assess climate vulnerability and the need for future greenspace and urban tree cover in Salem, VA.”

This past weekend, Dr. Lassiter brought three students to Montreal for the International Zebrafish Society Conference. Olivia Brichter and Allyson Herriges presented together “The Effects of Estrogen on Tail Fin Regeneration in Embryonic Zebrafish (Danio rerio).”

Congratulations to everyone and we all look forward to see what you do next!

Maryam Nishtar is a rising senior at Roanoke College, from Islamabad, Pakistan majoring in Psychology and Biochemistry with a concentration in Neuroscience. Maryam is a member of the service organization Alpha Phi Omega and is a resident advisor on campus. She is also a medical scribe at Lewisgale Medical Center and plans to pursue a career as a physician-scientist. 

Maryam hopes to use that position to be an advocate for women facing healthcare challenges and dedicate her time to women’s neurological health and overall wellbeing. In her spare time, Maryam likes to explore the Roanoke Valley by going hiking and trying out different places. 

Maryam is working with Dr. David Nichols on the project “Physical Changes in the Brain as a function of Clinical Dementia Ratings in Women with Alzheimer’s Disease.” This project will identify differences in the brain structures of men and women with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), taking into consideration the role of clinical dementia ratings. A literature review will provide context for research about AD in women in relation to clinical dementia ratings in addition to an analysis of longitudinal MR and PET images. The purpose of the study is to identify brain regions affected by AD in the female brain as this may give insight as to why women experience AD more than men.

Haley Keene is a rising junior attending Roanoke College. She is from Abingdon, Virginia. She is majoring in biochemistry with plans off attending a medical school in her future. During her time at Roanoke College, Haley has become proficient in Excel data processing, NMR spectroscopy, and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. She has experience in gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, riding her bike, and going out to eat with friends. 

Haley is currently working with Dr. Johann on the project “Development of Methodologies to Analyze Antimalarial Drugs from Developing Nations.” As she explains, malaria is a disease caused by a parasite that is typically transmitted through mosquitoes. It can be serious and sometimes fatal to the infected. Coartem is a drug that is used to treat malaria. It has been estimated that thousands of individuals die each year from antimalarial drugs like Coartem that are not up to standard or have been falsified. Many developing countries do not have the resources necessary to test these drugs. This project, with samples sent by Notre Dame from developing countries, would involve analyzing the drug Coartem and making sure it is up to standard. Producing a method to analyze Coartem could potentially save the lives of those suffering from subpar antimalarial medication.

A recent honor places Roanoke College’s physics program in the top 10 percent nationally and internationally.

The Roanoke College chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) has won an Outstanding Chapter Award from the SPS National Office. That designation is given to fewer than 10 percent of all SPS chapters at colleges and universities in the United States and worldwide.

The honor recognizes chapters for their excellence as top-tier, student-led physical sciences organizations. SPS chapters are evaluated on their level of interaction with the campus community, the professional physics community, the public, and with SPS national programs. The Outstanding Chapter Award recognizes high levels of outreach as well as unique approaches to fulfilling the mission of SPS to “help students transform themselves into contributing members of the professional community.”

See the entire post here.

Next up, we have Davis Tingle. Davis is a rising senior expecting to graduate with math and computer science degrees. As a summer scholar, he is working on optimizing drone delivery in rural and city landscapes. Outside of academics, Davis is a lead guide with Outdoor Adventures and is one of two R-house volunteer coordinators.

This summer, Davis is working with Dr. Shende on the project “Drone Delivery Optimization in Mixed Fields.” He explains: My project’s focus is researching optimization methods for autonomous drone delivery. In recent years drones have become viable options for delivery agents as they are fast and environmentally friendly. Therefore, anyone who orders packages from the internet will benefit from this research. I plan to optimize a scenario in which a train drops off pods containing both goods and a drone to service the area. My goal is to find ways to minimize parameters like 1) total flight time and distance, 2) number of drones and pods used, and 3) the total time and distance for the train.

Happy Friday! We have two Summer Scholars to introduce today!

First up, we have Lillian Pingle. Lillian is a junior from Waynesboro, Virginia, who is majoring in Sociology and minoring in Religious Studies. She is in the Honors Program, on HrnsPAG, and the president of RC Lutherans. She also has two jobs, one as a tutor at the Roanoke College Writing Center and the other as a Wellness Peer Educator with Student Health and Counseling. She plans to graduate from Roanoke College in December of 2022 and go on to get her Master’s in Religion starting in the Fall of 2023.

Lillian is working with Dr. Trexler on the project “The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: The Whitest Christian Denomination in the United States.” Here is her description of her work: This project examines why the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has the highest percentage of white people of any other Christian denomination in the United States (Lipka 2015). I conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with pastors in the Virginia Synod to discuss why they believe that the ELCA is the whitest Christian denomination in the United States, and how they think racial diversity and justice might occur in the denomination. After these interviews, I will survey the laity in those pastors’ congregations to assess lay conceptions of racial justice in the ELCA.