Current Stamps Scholars

The Israeli Counter-Enlightenment: Revisionist and Religious Zionism

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Elan studies history, concentrating on intellectual history and political thought. Through the generosity of the Stamps Foundation he is currently researching the intellectual history of the Israeli right. His focuses are Counter-Enlightenment thought in the Mandatory Palestine period and the strange crossing of American conservative thought into Israeli political culture and the institutions that facilitated that crossing. In the fall quarter of 2024, Elan is conducting archival research in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and studying German in Berlin. As part of his research, he participated in the conference "100 years of the Israeli Right" in Sde Boker, Israel. In the long run, he hopes to make a career in writing. He posts essays and works-in-progress on his substack: elankluger.substack.com.

Faculty mentors: Darrin McMahon, History and Susannah Heschel, Religion

Deciphering the liver-brain axis in Alzheimer's Disease

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Vedant is a '26 from Plano, TX, majoring in Neuroscience, investigating the liver-brain axis in Alzheimer's Disease through the Stamps Scholars program. This research project involves analyzing liver and brain data from a mouse model of Alzheimer's Disease and additionally examining potential transference of disease between these two organs. During his second year, he will focus on further exploring disease mechanisms while preparing an honors thesis and presentations at scientific conferences. In addition to his interests in neuroscience and Alzheimer's, Vedant serves as President of Dartmouth Generations, visiting older adults in the Upper Valley, and works on a mobile app for early-stage Alzheimer's patients. He has also worked as an intern at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, studying frontotemporal dementia.

Faculty mentor: Arti Gaur, Medicine

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Rivers on fire: Igniting river-community connection and environmental justice

Mia is a '26 double majoring in Environmental Studies and Geography and minoring in English, investigating "Rivers on Fire: Igniting Urban Identity Amidst Restoration and Justice" through the Stamps Scholars program. This research project integrates her interests in human-nature relations, river systems, and her hometown Cleveland. During her first year, she will conduct ethnographic fieldwork in Cleveland, Buffalo, and Detroit—Rust Belt cities with rivers that have caught on fire—to understand the social dimensions of urban river restoration and environmental justice. During her second year, she intends to complete an honors thesis and present her findings at a national conference. Additionally, Mia is a member of the varsity Cross Country and Track & Field team.

Faculty mentors: Coleen Fox, Geography and Christopher Sneddon, Environmental Studies

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The Impact of Russia's Invasion of Ukraine on Post-Soviet Frozen Conflicts

Alex Joel is a '25 from McLean, Virginia, double majoring in Government and Russian. He is interested in Russian foreign policy, illicit finance, and Eurasian regional studies. Alex interned on Capitol Hill for Senator Mark Warner and at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the Licensing and Enforcement Divisions. As a Presidential Research Scholar, he investigated Russian subversive statecraft with Professor William Wohlforth. After his first year, Alex studied advanced Russian language as a Fulbright-Hays scholar in Yerevan, Armenia. His Stamps research focuses on the impact of Russia's re-invasion of Ukraine on Eastern European and South Caucasus foreign policy, particularly as it relates to frozen conflicts. In Fall 2023, Alex used Stamps funding to travel to Tbilisi, Georgia, to interview scholars at the Rondeli Foundation for Strategic and International Studies to support his Government honors thesis on oligarchic state capture and foreign policy alignment in Georgia. On campus, Alex serves as the chapter president of the Alexander Hamilton Society and is also a member of the Mock Trial Society

Faculty mentor: William Wohlforth, Government

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A visual ethnography of herbalists in rural Vermont

Brandon is a filmmaker from Chicago who studies Anthropology, Middle Eastern Studies, and Arabic at Dartmouth College. Brandon believes in using anthropological methods to tell compelling stories through documentary film. For his stamps project, he is exploring political ecology and rural life in New Hampshire and Vermont by working with herbalists and beekeeping communities in the region on documentary film projects that tell stories about rural experiences in the region. 

Faculty mentors: Eman Morsi, Comparative Literature and Maron Greenleaf, Anthropology

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Development of Neurobiological Therapies for Social Dysfunction and Neuropsychiatric Illness

Catherine is a '25 double majoring in neuroscience and economics, conducting a research project entitled "Development of Neurobiological Therapies for Social Dysfunction and Neuropsychiatric Illness" through the Stamps Scholars Program. During her first year of the research project, Catherine presented her findings on the behavioral effects of peripubertal social disruption on adolescent motivation at the Winter Conference on Brain Research in Colorado. Additionally, she spent her off term studying neuronal differentiation in Drosophila in London, England, with a molecular neurobiology group at Imperial College. The second year of her project will focus on quantifying the role of a social motivation pathway in the rat brain using a fiber photometry technique. In addition to her interest in neuroscience research, Catherine is a member of the Women's Club Hockey team, a Women in Science Project (WISP) peer mentor, and is a tour guide in the Admissions Office.

Faculty mentors: Kyle Smith, Psychology and Jon Cavanaugh, Psychology and Brain Sciences

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Redistricting and democracy: The Impact of Independent Redistricting Commissions

Carson is a '25 from Nashua, NH, double majoring in Government and Quantitative Social Science. Carson's Stamps Scholars project is entitled "Redistricting and Democracy: The Impact of Independent Redistricting Commissions," which studies the tradeoff between minority representation and competitive elections created by independent redistricting commissions. He hopes his research advances a stronger, more inclusive government by exploring the impact of redistricting on political representation. His Stamps project will culminate in a Government thesis which includes analyzing election data, interviewing legal scholars, and conducting survey experiments. This past Spring, Carson presented part of his Stamps research at the New England Political Science Association Conference. As a Presidential Scholar with Professor Jason Barabas, Carson also presented research at the Elections, Political Opinion, and Voting Behavior Conference. Carson's Stamps research has positively influenced his involvement on campus, where he serves as the editor-in-chief of the Dartmouth Law Journal, President of the Rotaract Club, and Vice President of Dartmouth Minority Pre-Law Association, and off-campus experiences, including his internship at the New Hampshire Supreme Court with Justice Bassett.

Faculty mentor: Jason Barabas, Government

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Theorizing Energy Justice in Brazil and Chile: The Need for Just Energy Transitions

Originally from Porto Alegre, Brazil, Nadine Lorini Formiga is a senior at Dartmouth, majoring in Geography and minoring in Sustainable Energy and Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies. Nadine is also a dedicated climate and human-rights activist, currently raising funds and organizing environmental education events to support climate refugees displaced by flooding in her hometown. She has worked as a Geospatial Data Intern at Mighty Earth, an Event Management Intern at Future Earth, and a Research Assistant in the Energy Justice Clinic at Dartmouth.

Faculty mentors: Sarah Kelly, Geography and Maron Greenleaf, Anthropology

Class of 2024

• Katherine M. Arrington, 2024: The inextricability of art and society: Investigating creativity as a sociological phenomenon
• R. Christian Beck, 2024: VidsForKids: The therapeutic effect of digital storytelling for pediatric cancer patients
• Jessica M. Chiriboga, 2024: An environmental history of Latinos in twenty-first century California
• Lindsay R. Harley, 2024: A summer enrichment math in the context of sustainable engineering program
• Montana R. Murphy, 2024: Modern Yupiaq perspectives on well-being through culture and identity
• Manu Onteeru, 2024: Eating disorder pathology and body image dissatisfaction among sexual minority adolescents
• Eleanor L. Sullivan, 2024: Preventing a genocide: examining American voters' willingness to intervene in crises
• Ningning Sun, 2024: Oil and gas extraction in Arctic Alaska and Norway: impacts on Indigenous communities
• Nikolaos Vichos, 2024: Economic shocks and the rise of independence movements in wealthy European regions
• Jacob T. Zikan, 2023: Understanding how human behaviors influence wildfire systems

Class of 2023

• Spencer S. Allen '23: Investigating the role communication plays in the spread of COVID-19
• Amanda N. Calhoun '23: Biogenicity of stromatolites: Experimentation and computational analysis of biosedimentary structures
• Jessica R. Ferraioli '23: Water ethics: The valuation and governance of indigenous water resources in North America
• Emily A. Hester '23: Cold War public diplomacy: The analysis of U.S. and U.S.S.R. government-sponsored informational films and newsreels
• Katherine F. Lasonde '23:  Quanta image sensor: the future of single photon detection
• Nicholas S. Mancini '23: The environmental factors that influence ESA candidate species listing decisions
• Theodore E. Press '23: Medicinal chemistry: studying SOD-1's link to ALS, Dementia, and Alzheimer's with ITC
• Vi N. Tran '23: Leveraging technology to increase financial literacy among low-income adults
• Ananya N. Vaidya '23: Taking the blackpill: Studying the creation of the incel
• Daniel E. Westphal '23: A statistical analysis of microburst dependence on whistler mode chorus wave activity

Class of 2022 

• John J. Cho '22: How Asian Americans vote: The effect of partisanship and ideology on descriptive representation
• Maria N. Goldman '22: Close probability: How prediction error influences our attention to others
• Erika Hernandez '22: Exploring maternal health experiences of Nikkei-Peruvian immigrants in Japan
• Maxwell J. Holden '22: The development of wireless agricultural sensors
• Wylie Z. Kasai '22: Modernizing museums: The employment of mixed-reality devices in art exhibition
• Dominique Mobley '22: Sharing the ordinary genius of Black Americans through film, TV, and other storytelling media
• Ian D. Stiehl '22: The implications of space biology on interplanetary space travel
• Victor Y. Wu '22: Data sharing and hydropower development in the Mekong River Basin
• Jason Zavras '22: The impact of economic recessions on population health outcomes under varying healthcare environments
• Brandon Zhou '22: An optimality theory analysis of English phonology for Cantonese learners

Class of 2021 

• Christopher Cheng '21- My Pill Box, a voice-activated medication adherence tool for geriatric patients
• Amy Hu '21 – China's real-time payment system as a model for empowering low-income consumers in America
• Rachel Kent '21 – Ethnographic research of small-scale farmers through experiences with WWOOFing
• Yakoob Khan '21 – Mobile app facilitating meals together to combat loneliness on college campuses
• Michael McGovern '21 – Species preservation of Sumatran tigers through ecological-economic study
• Ameena Razzaque '21 – Women's health in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asian (MENASA) regions
• Rachna Shah '21 – Developing the Youthquake curriculum in Chicago-area schools
• Paige Xu '21 – Ecotourism in China's Honghe prefecture

Class of 2020

• Klara Barbarossa '20 – Empathy through brain imaging and virtual reality
• Jessica Campanile '20 – Communication between healthcare providers and patients with disabilities
• Aaron Lit '20 – Marine conservation and fashion design
• Hugh Mac Neill '20 – Oral history of the Log Cabin Republicans
• Rebecca Miller '20 – Bedrock geologic mapping of Arctic Alaska and the Yukon
• Sia Peng '20 – Virtual reality and film in ethnographic research
• Karla Rosas '20 – Anthologizing the experiences of female veterans since 9/11
• Armin Tavakkoli '20 – The neuroscience of PTSD
• Sirey Zhang '20 – Colonialism and health outcomes in Tanzania
• Gabriel Zuckerberg '20 – Preserving Romaniote Jewish music

Class of 2019

• Allyson Block: The Normalization of Gun Violence in US Schools
• Connor Bondarchuk: HIV Teatment Adherence in South Africa
• Michael Everett: Field-Based Cave Modeling in South Africa
• Kevin Griffee: Traditional Medicine & the Stress-Modulating Effects of Tai Chi
• Evan Morgan: Data-Driven Journalism of the Opioid Epidemic
• Colleen O'Connor: Female Empowerment Through Entrepreneurship in South America and East Asia
• Mary Pedicini: Art and the Value of Insects
• Sheppard Somers: Bulding Community Through Shared Items and Stories
• Arvind Suresh: Improving Health Through Music and Complementary Therapies
• Lillian Zhao: Socioeconomic Mobility Among Undergraduates at Elite Institutions

Class of 2018

• Leah Alpern: Choosing to Be Grateful: Ethical Reasoning in Seneca's On Benefits
• Maggie Baird: A Phonological Account of Word-Final Vowel Deletion and Reduction in Gulmancema
• Kate Dumanian: An Inheritor and Respondent: Theorizing the Modern Walker Across Landscapes of Modernity
• Emily Grabowski: Tone and Voice Quality in Santo Domingo Albarradas Zapotec
• Saba Kaboly Nejad: Exploring Medical Physics and Finding a Cure for Cancer
• Rafael Nunez: The Resurgence of Argentine Tango and Poetics of Resistance in the 21st Century
• Sumita Strander: Understanding and Comparing the Experience of Elderly Indians Living with Dementia in New Jersey, USA and Kolkata, India
• Madison Sabol: A Socioeconomic and Ecological Survey of Wine Production in the Bordeaux Region of France
• Douglas Tallmadge: Helium-Deuterium Based Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusor

Class of 2017

• Dondei Dean: Black Women's Activism at Dartmouth: An Oral and Visual History
• Robert Halvorsen: RunRite SmartSole
• Terren Klein: Dartmouth Pulse, The Reliable College Public Opinion Platform
• JoRee LaFrance: Reconnecting Crow Elders and Youth Through Storytelling of Our Sacred Lands
• Julia Marino: Basil O'Connor, The Founding Father of Modern Philanthropy
• Jessica Tong: Untold Stories from the Chinese Cultural Revolution
• Amy Zhang: Communicating Science Through the Visual Arts

Class of 2016

• Katherine Crane: ArtxChange Social Enterprise
• Connie Jiang: Investigating the Spread of Correlations in Quantum Spin Chains with Long Range Interactions
• Rachel Margolese: Life Cycle Analysis of Energy Use at Dartmouth College
• Andrés Mejía-Ramón: Local Hydrology in Teotihuacan: A Study of Ancient Canals and Water Basins
• Melissa Padilla: Ni De Aqui, Ni De Aya: DREAMers Find "Home"
• Patrick Saylor: Testing the Iron Hypothesis in the North Pacific Using the Dust and MSA records in the Mt. Hunter Ice and Mt. Logan Cores
• Thomas Wang: Millennial Action Coalition
• Leehi Yona: Arctic Issues

Class of 2015

• Andrew Nalani: Transformative Learning and Youth Leadership Development in East-Africa
• Lucia Pohlman: Finding Leverage Points for More Local Healthy Food in the Dartmouth Food System