CEGU / Environmental and Urban Studies
2025 BA Thesis & Capstone Symposium
Friday, May 30, 2025
8:30am–5:00pm
Lecture Hall, Swift Hall
Join graduating CEGU/Environmental and Urban Studies majors for presentations of their BA Thesis and Capstone research. Seven panel discussions with thesis writers are interspersed with video+poster sessions by capstone-track students throughout the day.
Thesis Presentations by Zach Ashby, Lena Birkholz, Juliet Cairney, Owen Castle, Dougie Donaghy, Ava Hedeker, Laurel Hicke, C Hugh, Gabi Karlan, Sam Klein, Benjamin Kreiswirth, Ellen Ma, Maya McWilliams, Jada Potter, Polly Ren, Sam Shelffo-McGrath, Tanvi Siddhaye, Alex Szmyd, Ella Tang, Jed Whalen Stewart, and Georgia Wluka.
Capstone Videos by Karina Iman, Kennedy Jones, and Iovanni Romarion.
Capstone Posters by Max Broening, Nico Brown, Zuri Cofer, Adera Craig, Joseph De Leon, Sofia Erlin, Benjamin Gallai, Dakota Harris, Kobi Johnsson, Sara Macedo, Raghav Pardasani, Mehak Rattan, Amelia Specht, Jojo Wang, Evy Wyman, Austin Yang, and Emma Zhu.
9:00–10:15am | Thesis Session 1: Transit
9:00–9:10am | Gendered Dynamic Choice Profiles: Costs of Transportation in Chicago for Women and Men
Tanvi Siddhaye
9:10–9:20am | Good transit versus good development: Evaluating the importance of transit service quality and transit-oriented development on post-COVID-19 CTA ridership recovery
Benjamin Kreiswirth
9:20–9:30am | Transit in theory and in practice: Incorporating aspects of lived experience into measures of transit accessibility and justice
Jada Potter
9:30–9:40am | Going the Extra Mile: Investigating the relationship between bikeshare and public transit
Polly Ren
9:40–10:00am | Q&A
Moderator: Christopher Kindell
10:00–10:10am | Capstone Video by: Karina Iman
10:15–11:15am | Thesis Session 2: Environmentalism, its cultures, and its tensions
10:20–10:30am | Going the Distance: Supercommuters and American car culture in tension with metropolitan identity in Rockford, IL
Georgia Wluka
10:30–10:40am | Until They Hear Us: Motivations, Justifications, and Effects of Extreme Climate Change Activism in the 21st Century
Samuel Klein
10:40–10:50am | Practicing US Environmentalism From the Isolation of One’s Own Home: The Emotional Consequences of Green Consumerism
Ava Hedeker
10:50–11:05am | Q&A
Moderator: Raymond Lodato
11:05–11:15am | Capstone video by: Kennedy Jones
11:15–11:30am | Coffee Break
11:30am–12:20pm | Thesis Session 3: Farming, Resources, and the Environment
11:35–11:45am | Cultivating a Legacy: Exploring Inheritance and Succession Planning Strategies on Intergenerational Family Farms in Rural Georgia
Juliet Cairney
11:45–11:55am | “Better” Chicken: Economic, Ethical, and Environmental Implications of the U.S. Industrial Broiler Debate
Gabi Karlan
11:55am–12:05pm | Who Gives a Dam? An Examination of Stakeholder and Sovereign Perspectives on Dam Removal and Restoration of Lower Snake River Salmon Populations
Jed Whalen Stewart
12:05–12:20pm | Q&A
Moderator: Grga Bašić
12:20–12:55pm | Thesis Session 4: Histories and Futures of Energy and Extraction
12:25–12:35pm | Empowering Sovereignty: How Tribal Energy Enterprises Can Transform Native American Renewable Energy
Alex Szmyd
12:35–12:45pm | Undermined Landscapes: The History and Geography of Iron Mining in Republic, Michigan, 1869–1996
Owen Castle
12:45–12:55pm | Q&A
Moderator: Evan Carver
1:00–2:00pm | Lunch & Capstone Poster Session
2:00–2:50pm | Thesis Session 5: Transformation of Urban and Commercial Space
2:05–2:15pm | Beyond Convenience: Public Space, Urban Transformation, and Narratives of Bronzeville’s Neighborhood Retail Space from the mid-20th Century to the Present
Zach Ashby
2:15–2:25pm | From Cheap Eats to Fine Dining: The Survival of Local Restaurants Amidst the Evolution of Capital in the San Gabriel Valley
Ellen Ma
2:25–2:35 pm | From Lots to Lush: Repurposing San Antonio’s Underutilized Spaces to Combat Water Scarcity, Food Deserts, and Urban Heat
Dougie Donaghy
2:35–2:50pm | Q&A
Moderator: Evan Carver
2:50–3:50pm | Thesis Session 6: Housing resilience and resistance, urban and rural
2:55–3:05pm | Building on Fault Lines: Seismic Resilience and the Impact of 20th-Century Earthquakes and Housing Policy on 21st-Century Housing Affordability in San Francisco and Tokyo
Ella Tang
3:05–3:15pm | Advocacy or Complicity? Affordable Housing Organizing in Rural Communities
Laurel Hicke
3:15–3:25pm | “Whose Blok? Our Blok.” Understanding Motivations Behind Community Resistance to Post-Socialist Urban Developments in New Belgrade
Maya McWilliams
3:25–3:40pm | Q&A
Moderator: Hong Jin Jo
3:40–3:50pm | Capstone video by: Iovanni Romarion
3:50–4:00pm | Coffee Break
4:00–4:50pm | Thesis Session 7: Chicago History and Humanities
4:05–4:15pm | Mapping Fantastic Chicago: Fantasy Literature and the Urban Imaginary
Lena Birkholz
4:15–4:25pm | Central Planning and Peripheral Protest: Contested Urbanism and Suburban Annexation in Paris (1852–1871) and Chicago (1889–1909)
C Hugh
4:25–4:35pm | “Many Girls Just Like Her”: Vice Districts, Gender Transgression, and the Fear of Female Modernity in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago
Sam Shelffo-McGrath
4:35–4:50pm | Q&A
Moderator: Jessica Landau