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Multidisciplinary Honors Conference
"The Big Picture"
March 24-25, 2025

Multidisciplinary Honors Conference

About the Conference

So much great work is created through a process. That process might involve questioning, discovering, retooling, and navigating challenges. This conference celebrates the journey of creative, research, and community engagement. 

We welcome presentations on research projects, community engagement, and creative activities that are either complete or works in progress, meaning that we welcome presentations on work at various stages, from those just starting out and looking for feedback to those with conclusions and results they want to share. These projects may be, for example, a research study on water quality, an exploration of how you are preparing for a musical performance, or reflections on your leadership of a student group.

We welcome presentations lasting 7-10 minutes using PowerPoint or similar formats. 

The Big Picture

Our theme this year is, "The Big Picture." Each presentation will need to address in some way the broader cultural, environmental, political, scientific, and/or social contexts that make your project meaningful and timely to a general audience of your peers. 

Your presentation should also share the methods you're using or thinking about using to explore these issues, and any challenges you have encountered or anticipate encountering along the way.

A Celebration of Multidisciplinary Connections

This conference also celebrates multidisciplinary connections. We welcome undergraduate students of all years, fields, and majors. We especially encourage first-year honors students to attend and/or present works in progress at this conference as a way to connect with other students, faculty, and staff who share your interests. 

Presentations will be grouped into panels on related topics across disciplines. Presenters will also have the opportunity to hone their presentation skills in advance of the conference through preparatory workshops.

Submit a Proposal to Present

The deadline to submit proposals has now closed. Please check back next year for details about the 2026 Multidisciplinary Honors Conference.

Past Awardees

Learn more about past awardees and their projects by clicking on the year.

2025 Awardees

  • Best Presentation by a Student with Freshman Class Standing: Kieran Bakunas, "A Weed Is but an Unloved Flower: Using Art to Make Activism More Accessible"
  • Best Presentation by a Student with Sophomore Class Standing: Elizabeth Savitski, "Window Pain: A Survey of Avian Window Collisions on Ohio University's Athens Campus"
  • Best Presentation by a Student with Junior Class Standing: Octavia Hogue, "Temperature Regulation of Virulence in Staphylococcus aureus"
  • Best Presentation by a Student with Senior Class Standing: Nora Anderson, "Investigating the Role of Supercoiling on Gene Expression in Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus"

2024 Awardees

  • Best Presentation by a Student with Senior Class Standing: Quinn Bennett, “CO2 Mineralization Reactor Design and Testing”
  • Best Presentation by a Student with Junior Class Standing: Gabriel Morgan, “Decoding Infectious Disease in Appalachian Ohio”
  • Best Presentation by a Student with Sophomore Class Standing: Anna Miller, “Understanding the role of Sirt5 in obesity-associated osteoarthritis development in the hip joint”
  • Best Presentation by a Student with Freshman Class Standing: Matthew Doron, "Reimaging Renaissance: Three Elizabethan Comedies, One Forest”

2025 Conference Presentation Schedule

Monday, March 24

1:30 to 2:20 = Land, Place, and Space within the Arts
Cayla Otto, “Sustaining the History of the Athens Insane Asylum with Land-conscious Artwork”
Eliza Russo, “Carved Out: An Exploration of Immersive Design without Actors”
Kieran Bakunas, “A Weed Is but an Unloved Flower: Using Art to Make Activism More Accessible”
Leanne Abel, “Writing a Novel: Murphy Hall

2:30 to 3:20 = Land Histories and Futures in Ohio
Sophia Kuhar, “Out of the Fire, Into the Heat: Heat Resilience in Cleveland, Ohio”
Rose Mogford, “Our Dearly Departed: Immersive History Tour of the West State Street Cemetery”
Elizabeth Savitski, “Window Pain: A Survey of Avian Window Collisions on Ohio University’s Athens Campus”
Ella Spremulli, “From Home to Hazard: The Impact of Industrial Pollution on Cheshire, Ohio”

3:30 to 4:20 = Community Expression and Support in Appalachian Ohio
Thomas Faber, “There’s No Place Like SCO-me: Finding Purpose and Home in the Student Cooperative Organization”
Emily Meckler, “Bringing Science Olympiad to Appalachia”
Levi-Joseph Facun, “The Impact of the Baileys Trail System on Regional Economic Growth”
Owen Keller, “Making SPOTLIGHT

4:30 to 5:20 = Knowledge and Identity across Cultural Contexts
EllieAna Shanklin, “The Implementation of Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in Climate Change Adaptation”
Kate Wiselogel, “Exploring the Complex Gende and Power Dynamics of the Battle with Grendel’s Mother in Beowulf
Quentin Cole, “Northern Thai Culture and Identity: What is ‘Lanna’ in 2025?”
Bill Putney, “Piracy or the Natural Waves of Cultural Fusion?: A Historical Inspection of White Rock Artists Covering Black Art”

5:30 to 6:20 = Examining Existence on Different Scales across STEM Fields
Jacqueline Kuroda, “Commissioning of New High-Purity Germanium Detector for the Edwards Accelerator Laboratory”
Andrew Pagan, “Investigating the Evolution of Back-Pattern Polymorphisms in a Lizard Species on Small Islands in the Bahamas”
Cierra Willis, “Searching for Coydogs: Exploring the Environmental Correlates of Coyote-Dog Introgression in Ohio and Indiana”
Octavia Hogue, “Temperature Regulation of Virulence in Staphylococcus aureus

6:30 to 7:35 = Community and Family Care across Disciplines
Paige Harris, “Heart of Athens Outreach”
Lydia Smith, “An Exploration of Pregnancy in Film”
Hiley Kresse, “Investigating the Role of Memorable Messages and Narratives of Motherhood within Generation Z”
Cami Henry-Seymour, “Working with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio”
Angelina Fierro, “How House Bills 8 and 68 Will Affect Social Workers in the Field”

Tuesday, March 25

1:30 to 2:20 = The Evolution of Honors Education and Experiences at Ohio University
group presentation from Sarah Braun, Lola Morana, Eliza Russo, Kate Wiselogel, and Carissa Woods

2:30 to 3:20 = Community Care in Appalachian Ohio and Beyond
Lily Chongswatdi, “Appalachian String Initiative”
Arthur Bargainer, “Middle School Mayhem: Reflections on the Athens Youth Community”
Ava Wood, “Sustainable Sisterhood: A Study on Sorority Waste Management at Ohio University”
Cara Finnegan, “Mom360: Parenting in the Digital Age”

3:30 to 4:20 = Data, Narratives, and Our Ways of Knowing
Natalie Esquivel, “Neoliberalism in Detroit and Flint, Michigan: What the Study of Urban Political Development Reveals about Economics, Inequalities, and Awareness”
Thien Pham, “‘How Will I Convey the Story?’: The Role of Storytelling in Publicly Engaged Scholarship”
Yashvita Kanuganti, “Exploring Mind/Body Dualism in Religious Theory”
Emma Ingraham, “Fourier and Wavelet Analysis of Bird Vocalizations”

4:30 to 5:20 = Health Research across Disciplines
Claire Smith, “Assessing the Therapeutic Potential of a Probiotic Bacteria, Lactococcus lactis, for the Prevention of COVID-19”
Luke Davenport, “Investigation of Chiral Zirconium Nitride Thin Films and Their Applications in Biosensing”
Paul Gbadebo, “Binding Isotherm Analysis of TAMRA-Labeled RNA and BHQ2C/U Quencher”
Nora Anderson, “Investigating the Role of Supercoiling on Gene Expression in Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus

5:30 to 6:20 = Neuroscience for Social Good across Disciplines
Cameron Reedy, “Diving into American Sign Language Comprehension: A New Perspective”
Lauren Mansfield, “Analysis of Baseline Concussion Data in University Marching Band Students”
LJ Arnold, “Brain AVM without Bodyguards”
Leah Fraker, “R is for Rohypnol: The Physiological and Social Effects of ‘Roofies’”

6:30 to 7:35 = Impacts of Representation and Misrepresentation across Cultures
Eleanor Cruz, “Gabriel García Márquez’s ‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ and Contexts of Immigration”
Emily Hall, “Behind the Iron Curtain: East German Intelligence and the Soviet Influence”
Hali Bridges, “Rediscovering Black Histories in Spain: Cultural Contributions and Overlooked Legacies”
Julianna Rittenberg, “Don’t Let the Hate Distract You: Anti-LGBTQ+ Attacks as a Tool of Campaign Disinformation”
Lily Waskiewicz, “Myanmar: Disinformation, Hate Speech, and the Rohingya Muslim Genocide”

  • Register to Volunteer

    Volunteers are needed for panel moderation, the prize committee, and with conference set up. Please email ohp.con.progress@gmail.com with your preference and availability during the conference dates.

  • Questions?

    If you have questions, please email Chris Lewis at christopherlewis@ohio.edu and/or Amy Strieter at as074121@ohio.edu.