Honours student research profiles

Cecilia Stuart is a fourth year honours student in the english department.

“My research looks at ecopoetry by Canadian women writers in the context of biosemiotic theory. Biosemiotics understands human language as one small component of a much larger system of sign interpretation that occurs within and between all life forms. In other words, our language is not as unique as we think it is, and because of this our conception of ideas like knowledge, interpretation and meaning-making as wholly human is flawed. When it comes to literature, this means that we can think about environmentally concerned writing as evidence of our culture’s understanding of itself, nature and the way those concepts interact with each other. I’m looking at how Canadian poetry by women in particular consciously plays with language in order to subvert anthropocentric linguistic norms in the face of the global climate crisis, which I think is really exciting and important.”

Olivia Adams is a fourth year honours student in the biochemistry department.

“I spent the summer researching papers, writing my thesis and working on previous students’ projects to submit for publication. I was also able to do a lot of cool lab work that will continue throughout the rest of the year. My hypothesis revolves around rising water temperatures that affect fish and how they swim in nature. I study rainbow trout and how they respond to changing temperatures by looking at oxygen consumption and calcium movement in their bodies while they swim. Throughout the rest of the year, I will continue to perform more tests in the lab and analyze the data. I’m excited to see what kind of conclusions I will have when I finish writing my thesis!”

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