The Scripps Voice

By Alle Hsu ’11
Guest Writer

I wouldn’t recommend that any future Scrippsie try what I did this year. But, in retrospect, it was challenging, inspiring and a very rewarding experience for me. I might not recommend the experience, but I also wouldn’t do anything differently.

I double majored in Asian Studies and Media Studies. My Asian Studies thesis was over one hundred pages, a comparative study about women in China in the 1920s and today. For my Media Studies project I produced a film entitled “Women: Cultural Revolution to Capitalist Revolution.” I love all my advisors and readers. They were wonderful and made the experience rich and enlightening.

There were a few interesting elements with both my written thesis and film. My written thesis included a primary research source: my great grandfather’s master’s degree thesis from Columbia University. Written in 1921, his thesis was about women in China in the 1920s. The thesis was fascinating because it was from and about the 1920s: a pivotal period in women’s emancipation in China. My thesis research gave me an opportunity to learn about my great grandfather, one of the most famous poets from China.

My film about women from urban China involved interviewing over 20 women and men in Shanghai about the status and role of women. It was an extraordinary experience to be able to conduct these interviews. They covered a wide range of topics, including family, marriage, relationships, careers, job opportunities and discrimination. Women spoke openly about what issues they face in China today. My film only featured about eight women, but after graduation I hope to produce a film that also includes the other women. I would like to be able to go deeper into the issues women face in China. The women included with my interviews lived through significant periods of China’s history, from pre-Cultural Revolution to the current Capitalist Revolution.

What made my research such an enriching experience was that it covered many different disciplines: Asian history, women rights, Chinese culture and practices, Chinese and English literary history and sociology were all involved. And then there were the aspects of media studies, such as filmmaking and editing.

As if this wasn’t enough, I was also co-captain of the Athenas tennis team. I loved being part of the team and will cherish my friendships with teammates, but CMS sports are demanding. Especially on top of thesis. (On a side note: come out this Friday to watch the seniors play our final home match against Chapman! And root for the Athenas at the NCAA Championships later this month.)

By Tiffany Yau ‘12
Arts & Entertainment Editor

COURTESY OF SUZANNE CALKINS. "Miasma," Fall 2010, 40x30 in painting.

Suzanne Calkins (‘11) talks about her roots, her work and what it’s like to be a Scripps art major. Her senior thesis, “Vespertine,” will be on display in the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery through May 15.

Tiffany Yau: How did you become an art major? Did you know you would pursue an art major, or did you fall into it?

Suzanne Calkins: I have been consistently involved in art for as long as I can remember. But being as indecisive as I am, I was not sure when coming into Scripps if I wanted to be an art major. I was also interested in biology, psychology, philosophy, writing. Scripps ended up being a great fit for me because I could still pursue all those interests while taking art classes. After trying a little bit of everything, I realized that art really was what made me the happiest (and I still had room to take classes in other subjects). So I decided to ignore the “So what do you do with an art major?” question and officially became an art major!

TY: Can you talk about the theme of your paintings and where the subject of your works came from?

SC: In my series of drawings and paintings, I have been exploring the theme of wandering in solitude through ambiguous landscapes of darkness. I am interested in how landscapes can serve as introverted portraits of an emotional or psychological space that slips between dreams and memories. The images fluctuate between abstract and figurative forms, creating familiar scenes that are not quite grounded in reality. I named the series “Vespertine,” which is derived from the Latin word vesper, meaning evening. It is a term used to refer to something of, relating to, or occurring at night.

It is difficult to say exactly where all of this came from. I guess it’s a combination of reoccurring themes that I have been obsessed with over the past several years. They are based in traditionally “romantic” themes of isolation in beautiful (and threatening) landscapes. I became interested in Romanic landscape painting because while it is seen largely as a worn out cliche, there are plenty of contemporary artists who still borrow from this tradition.

The images themselves are mostly based off of photographs I have taken or are painted from memory. I spent the Spring of last year living in a town of 200 people in rural Ireland. My walk to and from school was a 40 minute hike through fields, over stone walls, and through a few patches of woods. There were no streetlights or anything. Quite a few times I would end up staying in my studio at school really late at night and would realize I had forgotten my flashlight. So I would use the light of my cell phone to stumble home. We’re not used to walking alone in complete darkness anymore (at least I wasn’t, having lived in the Los Angeles area my whole life). On one hand darkness is a very mundane thing, it happens every day. But on the other hand, darkness has the power to transform the most familiar places into the strange. The psychological experience of being literally in the middle of nowhere trying to find your way home in a landscape so dark is really fascinating to me.

TY: What inspires you to keep going and how do you keep yourself motivated?

SC: Painting and drawing never get boring for me. I get bogged down sometimes, but usually something as simple as good music fixes that. I always have to listen to music when I paint or draw. Everything I have made this year has a very specific soundtrack attached to it. I also obsessively collect images I come across that I like, both through my own photography and other artists. I cover all walls available to me in them. When I need inspiration I usually just look over all of them and do some sketches.

TY: Any words of advice for aspiring artists/art majors?

SC: Do it! Do not be intimidated by questions of practicality. There are so many answers to, “What do you do with an art major?” Clearly I am biased, but I think Studio Art is one of the best majors because it is so flexible. You can combine art with any subject, that’s what is so great about it.

Kyle Delbyck

History Major
“Analyzing Racial Politics and Narratives in Barack Obama’s Speeches”

Kyle’s thesis is on the racial discourse generated by Barack Obama’s speeches, as manifested in newspaper coverage of four of his most publicized orations. She will be specifically looking at the Father’s Day speech, the More Perfect Union speech, the 2004 Democratic Convention speech and the Inaugural Address. The ultimate goal of her thesis is to use these speeches and the ensuing reaction to them as a vehicle to examine whether or not Obama’s candidacy has changed the national dialogue on race—whether he has challenged or bolstered prevailing norms of racial discourse. She is focusing on four main areas of discourse: racial coding, the emphasis on the personal aspects of racism over the structural, the conception of a linear progression towards equality and notions of post-racialism. So far, she has found that the answer is more complex than she had anticipated—certain traditional narratives about race have actually been strengthened by Obama’s oratory, while others have been delegitimized.

Sydney Freggiario

Molecular Biology and Dance Double Major
“Characterizing THD14; A Class III Histone Deacetylase in Tetrahymena Thermophilla”

Sydney wrote her Molecular Biology thesis after working with Dr. Wiley’s lab and examining Tetrahymena genes that silence other genes. This field of study could potentially be used in cancer treatments to shut off cancer genes. Sydney was given THD14, a protein gene sequence. Then, she tacked on GFP (green fluorescent proteins from jellyfish) and used fluorescent microscopy to watch these proteins move about the cell. While prior research suggested that this protein was supposed to go to mitochondria, Sydney made the groundbreaking discovery that THD14 actually went to the nucleus. Moreover, she found that the protein is involved in a pathway very similar to apoptosis (cell suicide), giving this class of genes a novel function never previously discovered.
Sydney is currently publishing a paper on her research now and presented her findings at the Asilomar Chromatin Conference in Pacific Grove, California in December. Not only was Sydney the only undergraduate student present at that national conference, she also managed to convince 200 very professional scientists to do the PCR dance she created.

Nicole Greene

Studio Art Major
“Crafting the Multi-breasted Dress”

Nicole is very experienced with knitting and needlework, and wanted to apply her skills to a piece that would have social perspective. Her senior studio art thesis is about the lack of work by women artists in museums, collections and the art world in general. She is creating a garment that is a sort of dark parody of this inequality. She decided to take several stereotypically female elements, breasts, a big puffy dress and needlework (knitting, crochet, sewing), and combine them into a garment that is extremely cumbersome, thus highlighting the amount of effort it takes for female artists to “make it.”

Stephanie Ringstaff

Dual Major: Psychology and Theatre
“A Theatrical look at Revenge and Punishment, How we Pass Judgment”

Stephanie was drawn to theater and psychology by an interest in “understanding people, and why they make the decisions they make.” For her thesis, Stephanie created a play considering the nature of revenge and the importance of knowing all sides of an issue before passing judgment on others.  Stephanie’s play is a 45-minute production based on scenes of familial violence from the plays of Orstia, rooted in Greek mythology from the times of Helen of Troy to Agamemnon and so forth. Walker Wall should have updates about the performance, and red and black posters detailing the event will be posted around campus. Details on show times are listed under senior performances, listed on the right of this page.

Carrie Schneider

Anthropology Major
“Excavating Captain Oates: An Exercise in Ice Survey and Excavation”

Carrie became enthralled with Captain Oates upon discovering in her sophomore year that her friend was one of the last living relatives of this famous explorer. Captain Oates, part of the infamous Scott expedition to the South Pole, sacrificed himself to save his teammates, walking out of the tent into the unforgiving snow of Antarctica, never to be seen again. To this day, his body has not been found. Carrie’s thesis project is written in the form of a proposal to various groups for funding for an expedition to uncover the remains of Oates. In her thesis, she discusses survey methods, body preservation, and ethical excavation and display of human remains.

Emily Seaman

Humanities Major
“Lindy Hop: Swing Culture and Identity Politics from the 1920s to the Present.”

Emily has been an avid dancer and a member of the dance team for years. For her senior thesis she decided to explore the cultural history of lindy hop. Lindy hop is one of our nation’s earliest mass culture phenomena, and many people have argued that the dance was expressive of, even foundational to, the modern American identity. Since lindy hop is still wildly popular today, Emily feels that a critical analysis of the dance form can give us great insight into the ways that identity and body politics have (or have not) evolved since the early 20th century. For her thesis, she will be looking at the dance’s formation in African American communities at the end of the Harlem Renaissance, and the way that it has subsequently been whitened in popular culture. She will also consider how the dance can represent a variety of (often oppositional) ideals depending upon the context in which it is experienced. She is arguing that lindy hop has been used to both subvert and uphold traditional gender and racial hierarchies, and will analyze the radical and reactionary role it has played in American popular culture.