By Rachel McCoy
What do you think of when you think of people doing research? Do you picture people in a lab, running tests and reactions? Or maybe you think of someone sitting in a library searching through mountains of books for that one important phrase uttered 200 years ago.
While this might be the case for some, the five women below have all pursued research outside of the lab and the library and gotten out into the field. The projects they have pursued are incredibly diverse and interesting. A number of them got started through grants like the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Award (DURA) and the Woodrow Wilson Undergraduate Research Fellowship, while others found projects through talking with professors on campus. They discussed their projects, how they got started, challenges they’ve faced, and advice for people looking to pursue their own research.
Julia Chavarry ‘17
What is your project about?
I work on mathematical modeling of ecosystems in the ocean. My goal is to create a simple but precise model that can be used to determine the relationship between various primary producers and secondary and tertiary consumers within different locations in the ocean. I am currently exploring the best way to model an inverted biomass system that would be present in places such as coral reefs. Currently, the accepted mathematical models have a variety of parameters that have never been, or are difficult to be, measured. By eliminating these parameters I can create a model that functions well on a global scale rather than in discrete locations. From this, it might be possible to determine the productivity, resilience, and diversity of an area by using a basic set of oceanic parameters. The long-term goal is to reduce the amount of fieldwork that must be conducted in order to understand the ecosystem of a location.
Once he realized I was interested in doing research he was very open to working with me.
How did you get started doing this research?
One of my favorite professors, Anand Gnanadesikan, works in the department of Earth & Planetary Sciences. After he was my professor for Oceans and Atmospheres sophomore year I knew that I wanted to work with him. Reaching out to him was exceptionally easy! Once he realized I was interested in doing research he was very open to working with me. He helped me pinpoint what I was interested in working on, and together we began to work on ecosystem modeling.
What challenges have you faced (if any) in conducting research?
The hardest part of conducting research outside of a laboratory is the discipline required to schedule and maintain continuous work. That being said, one of the best parts of my research is I can do it anywhere at anytime.
What advice would you have for students interested in getting involved in research?
Reaching out to several professors is helpful if you are not sure where to begin; usually talking to many people will help you discover what you really want to focus your research on. However, if you do find a professor that does work that absolutely fascinates you, they should be your top priority. Do not be afraid to let your excitement show and reach out to them. Typically professors are very receptive to passionate students! With the heavy workload Hopkins typically affords students, having a research project that you are personally invested and interested in is very helpful.
Elizabeth Hassas ’16
What is your project about?
My project is about Greek and Turkish youth relations in Cyprus. Cyprus is an island nation south of Turkey and east of Greece that was occupied by the Turks in 1974. I travelled there to interview college students (aged 18-24) to speak with them about how they perceive the Turkish presence on the island 40 years later. I also spoke with Turkish youths on the other half of the divided city Nicosia and got their perspective on how they are treated in Cyprus.
How did you get started doing this research?
I got started because my family is from Greece originally and I have some distant relatives who were in Cyprus at the time of the war and occupation. I have always been really interested in the history but never got an opportunity to travel there. The DURA gave me the funding I needed to take the trip!
I think that being a woman made it a little bit more challenging to conduct interviews on the Turkish side of the island. I think this is largely because the Turkish side is considered to be a Muslim country, and people were very skeptical about a woman walking alone
What challenges have you faced (if any) in conducting research?
The largest challenge I faced was definitely getting people to speak with me. It’s one thing to read about it in books, and it’s a completely different thing to approach college students, some of whose native language you don’t speak, explain the premise of a project and conduct an interview.
Did you find that being a woman made any difference in approaching people for interviews and their reactions? For instance, many solo female travelers find that they have an easier time making connections with locals than the male travelers that they meet.
I think that being a woman made it a little bit more challenging to conduct interviews on the Turkish side of the island. I think this is largely because the Turkish side is considered to be a Muslim country, and people were very skeptical about a woman walking alone, stopping strangers to talk to them in the streets and in schools. The most important challenge I faced, was trying to convince people in Cyprus that I was working on a serious project. I spoke mostly to men, because the women in the Turkish community tended to not be in public without a spouse or male family member. I had a bit of trouble at the beginning of each interview trying to get the men I was interviewing to stop making inappropriate comments and to focus on the interview. There were a few interviews I was not even able to conduct for that reason. Luckily, at Hopkins both before and after my trip I have gotten nothing by support in writing my article!
What advice would you have for students interested in getting involved in research?
My biggest piece of advice would be to find a professor that is truly passionate about what you are doing. Professors have wonderful insight and can often provide a completely different dimension to your project that you had never even considered. Definitely don’t be worried to contact professors outside of your department to find someone who is really interested in helping you with what you want to do!
Zoe Demko ‘17
What is your project about?
I spent ten weeks in Durban, South Africa this past summer, working with an NGO on a tuberculosis screening project. The screening protocol we were implementing was a novel one for South Africa, as we trained community-based screeners to use smart phones to screen in their rural communities. My role involved a lot of data collection and analysis, as well as managing the project’s database. Overall, we were trying to see if mobilizing community members to screen rather than relying on clinic-based health professionals would be a more effective and cost-effective method of finding cases.
How did you get started?
I started this particular project when I got a grant from the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health. My specific grant was through the Global Heath Established Field Placement program, which I would definitely recommend to any students looking to get experience abroad in health. They provide a stipend for travel and living expenses, so it was an amazing opportunity. I had been interested in tuberculosis well before the project, as I’m also a Woodrow Wilson Research Fellow, and will be doing my own project on TB screening this coming summer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
What challenges have you faced (if any) in conducting research?
The most difficult part for me at first was the technical learning curve. While in South Africa, I was working mostly with graduate students who were already proficient in the programs and statistical methods used in health research. This took me several weeks to catch onto, and I am definitely still learning. Another challenge with which I had to come to terms was the language barrier. Many of the people with whom I worked were native Zulu or Xhosa speakers, and had trouble understanding my English or the questionnaires I was administering, which made collecting data very difficult.
What advice would you have for students interested in getting involved in research?
The best advice I have is to start early and be persistent. My first attempts to get into research did not pan out, but I continued asking my principal investigator if he had work for me until he finally invited me to go to Brazil with his team. Apply for things even if you don’t think you’ll get them; my position in South Africa was listed as graduate only, but I emailed the project manager and asked if I could still apply, and I ended up getting it anyways.
Jesse Chen ‘16
What is your project about?
My project is a sociological study of contemporary Asian American identity and experiences. I spent summer 2014 traveling around the country and interviewing Asian American scholars, community members, activists and artists and recording the interviews. Currently I am working on compiling the interviews into a documentary.
How did you get started?
I started in high school with an AP US history research project. We were given the opportunity to research any topic so I chose to research Asian American history and immigration, something I grew interested in because of the shift in demographics between my hometown, which had a high percentage of Asian Americans, and the town I moved to, which was much more Caucasian, and the micro-aggressions I encountered there. When I started coming up with ideas for a Wilson proposal I knew I wanted to expand my previous research in a new direction and with a new, more creative medium, not just a more formal academic paper—thus the decision to propose a documentary.
What challenges have you faced (if any) in conducting research?
One challenge has been my lack of experience in filmmaking and in sociology; I basically learned film, video editing, and production from scratch and via classes at school. I also didn’t know much about interviewing or about the formal process of getting a sociological study approved. Finding a sociology professor to advise me was also difficult since I didn’t have any coursework in that area but my advisor is great!
What advice would you have for students interested in getting involved in research?
Reach out to professors and students involved in the kind of research you’re interested in to learn more about possible projects, funding, and opportunities. Definitely don’t be afraid to ask questions or apply for grants because you never know what will happen!
Jennifer Lee ‘16
What are your projects about?
My freshman year I conducted an independent research on educational disparities in rural China focusing on a case study in a vocational school in Guizhou. My junior year, with the International Honors Program, I conducted anthropological public health fieldwork on infrastructural amenities in India, South Africa, and Brazil. Our five person case study team explored the question of how does a lack of infrastructural amenities (electricity, water, trash, and sanitation) disproportionately affect the health status of women living in informal settlements (slums, townships, favelas). The following semester, I conducted a research project with the Oxford student think tank on attitudes and stigma towards welfare policies. In the summer of 2015 (before my senior year) I went back to South Africa with the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Award (DURA) to research racial attitudes towards east Asians in post-Apartheid South Africa. Over a period of 2 months, I independently established contacts with over 100 diplomats, community leaders, professors, students, local businesses, and fellow researchers. I conducted 54 in-depth interviews in Johannesburg and Pretoria, and photographed 30 individuals who will be featured in a photo exhibit as part of my senior honors thesis in April 2016.
How did you get started doing research?
I’ve been a life-long voracious reader. I love writing, conducting research, writing, and presenting interesting things I’ve learned. College gave me opportunities to combine these skills and explore a variety of interests. Part of Hopkins’ appeal was its focus on research, and I took advantage of these opportunities.
What challenges have you faced (if any) in conducting research?
Groundbreaking and valuable research tends to be research that explores a question that hasn’t been asked before. But this tends to be the most difficult kind of research. When there is little background information, peer-reviewed articles, and knowledge pertaining to your research question guiding you, it’s easy to get discouraged. But especially in sociological research, it’s critical to take initiative, make your own contacts, read and digest as much of the existing literature as possible, and go out there and find the answer to your question.
What advice would you have for students interested in getting involved in research?
Take a rigorous research methods class. If you’re doing any sort of research, it’s critical to understand the ethical issues that guide researchers in their work and how you should be setting a framework to implement your research. Applying these research methods in the field is the best way to learn, but before you can do this, you must understand the method by which to do so.