Research in the Time of Covid-19 (VIRTUAL)

Elsa Barron ‘21 is a senior studying Biology and Peace Studies with a minor in Sustainability. In the summer of 2018, Barron completed a research internship in India through the S.N. Bose Scholarship as well as the Madrasa Discourses Program, challenging her to think about the intersection of science with global issues and religion. In the fall of 2018, she joined the Kellogg International Scholars Program where she has been researching social factors that influence attitudes towards migrants in Europe and Africa. She has also studied migrant integration and interreligious dialogue in Athens through two grants from the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, supported by her Kellogg mentor. Back on campus, Barron joined a lab at Notre Dame working on developing a low-cost yeast biosensor for detecting substandard drugs in developing countries, which recently published their work. In 2019, Barron spent eight months in Jerusalem where she completed an International Summer Service Learning Program and a semester abroad. Her current passion is for understanding grassroots environmental peacebuilding and she is pursuing this interest through two virtual internships during the summer of 2020: one with the Environmental Peacebuilding Association in Washington D.C. and the other with the Institute for Climate and Peace in Hawaii. Additionally, Barron was recently selected as a Udall Scholarship Honorable Mention in Environmental Leadership. Looking forward, Barron has accepted a Boren Scholarship to learn Hindi and Urdu in India during the summer of 2021 while interning at an institute for sustainable and indigenous agriculture. 

Katie Calhoun '21 is a Senior studying Environmental Engineering who traveled to Greece over this last spring break. Calhoun's research project looks at microplastic distribution in the Greek Peninsula and its effects on the food chain. Calhoun's research builds off of a previous research experience in the Galapagos Islands, but was severely altered as she had to abruptly return home in the middle of her time in Greece this last March. 

Trevor Lwere ‘22 is a junior from Kampala, Uganda. He is an Economics major with a supplementary major in Global Affairs (African Studies concentration) and a minor in Philosophy, Politics & Economics (PPE). As a Kellogg International Scholar, Trevor works with Prof. Jaimie Bleck in the political science department on Youth Inclusion & Security in the Sahel region. He is also assisting Prof. Bleck with her project looking at the conditions under which civil society organizations in Mali are willing and able to hold public officers accountable. Trevor has also done independent research studying the effect of market structure on the farm gate prices received by smallholder coffee farmers in East-Africa. 

Jiyun (Jena) Yang ‘20 is from Seoul and Mishawaka, IN and graduated this spring with a major in Marketing and a minor in Asian Studies. With Liu Institute funding, over Winter Break, she was able to conduct research in Seoul for her capstone project examining the meaning of ethnicity and identity of North Korean defectors living in South Korea. She is starting her Masters in International Commerce at Seoul National University this fall.