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Publication Restricted Let’s Stick Together: Investigating the Distribution of Micro-Multicellular Phenotypes Across 1,000 Isolates of S. cerevisiae(2026-05-14)Brewer’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is a facultatively multicellular microbe, meaning that it can exist as single-celled microbe or form multicellular structures. Yeast has been observed to form a variety of multicellular phenotypes, including biofilms, flors (floating mats) and pseudohyphae. Aside from these complex multicellular structures that can be seen by the naked eye, S. cerevisiae can form microscopic multicellular aggregates, which are the focus of this study. Multicellularity and adhesion are important microbial adaptations to stress, including ethanol toxicity and nutrient limitation. The reversible aggregation of yeast cells in liquid media is known as “flocculation,” and is often selected for in beer-brewing environments to facilitate yeast precipitation from the liquid beer pitch. The trait of flocculation or cell aggregation is not uniform across S. cerevisiae strains and can vary depending on aggregation mechanism and growth medium. In this study, using a panel of 1,000 strains of yeast isolated all around the world from different environments, I investigate the distribution of micro-multicellular phenotypes across the global population of S. cerevisiae. I seek to identify potential correlative factors that may contribute to micro-multicellular phenotype, including environment of isolation, genetic background, and flocculins, members of the FLO gene family which encode adhesive cell-surface proteins. Results indicate that specific environments of isolation, such as biofuel environments, are correlated with aggregating phenotypes. However, environment of isolation is not a powerful predictive factor for aggregate phenotypes across the collection. Clade, or evolutionary history, on the other hand, has a significant contribution to variance of aggregates. In addition, there is bi-directional plasticity of aggregate phenotypes when yeast is grown in nutrient-rich and nutrient-poor conditions.Publication Restricted L.A. Freak, C'est Sheik: Localism, Cultural Labor & Celebrity in Eve Babitz's Authorship(2026-05-06)Artist and writer Eve Babitz is frequently, if not wholly omitted from the Los Angeles and broader Californian literary canon. In the context of the New Journalism movement, Babitz's work emerges as a powerful example of literary localist activism, countering dominating geocultural narratives. Through close literary analysis and archival research, Babitz offers unparalleled insights into sociocultural and class dynamics of Los Angeles during the 1960s, 1970s and beyond.Publication Restricted Naked Nanas and Militant Mothers: Tactics and Resilience in Women's Protest Movements in Francophone West Africa(2026-04-30)As people power movements have proliferated and overturned political systems, the contributions of women in sub-Saharan Africa and the protest tactics they use have been overlooked. This thesis investigates the unique mobilization tactics used in women’s maximalist protest movements in Francophone West Africa. Examining these movements, I argue that women in Côte d’Ivoire and Togo disrupt the established socio-political order through maximalist protests, implementing tactics that exist within an established "genealogy of resistance,” demonstrated by the persistent use of protest tactics, resilience in women’s contestation, and the nonlinearity of resistance struggles in women’s movements in Francophone West Africa. These genealogies create inherited modes of resistance that are maintained through contemporary protest movements. I propose an alternative model of success in these movements that challenges the binary success-failure framework commonly used to study protests. Instead, I argue that women’s resistance movements should be analyzed through the lens of genealogies of resistance and phenomenology. This study uses image and textual analysis, open-source and archival data, and discourse analysis to examine African female modes of resistance, such as nude protests, public funerals, sex strikes, protest signs, and symbols. Several theoretical currents inform this work, including Afro-feminism, decoloniality, necropolitics, and non-violent resistance theories.Publication Open Access Unexpected Origins: Mapping Assisted Female Immigrants to New South Wales(Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, 2026-05-12)During the transition from convict societies to free settler colonies, the Australian colonies encouraged immigration by young, unmarried, working-class women to fill labor shortages and to marry into the community. The tens of thousands of women and girls who arrived under these schemes over the course of the nineteenth century fundamentally changed colonial society. New digital tools for compiling, analyzing, and visualizing data on these women permit closer examination of the characteristics of the group, and of individual outliers. Using historical shipping records, this article delves into the places of origin for 3,768 women and children who arrived on subsidized passages in Sydney between 1848 and 1887. Digital maps confirm the overwhelming predominance of immigrants from the United Kingdom and Ireland. The visualizations also highlight a minority of immigrants from other parts of the world, uncovering new patterns of colonial connections, multi-stage journeys, and return migration which complicate the narrative of female assisted migration.Publication Restricted How to Write a Play in 12 Easy Steps(2026-05-12)An exploration of a one-man stage show centered around a nervous playwright undergoing the twelve steps of the hero's journey.