Jolly Shi, Barbara Olivier, and Walter Burkat Complete Honors Theses in A&S

We are proud to announce that A&S majors Jolly Shi, Barbara Olivier, and Walter Burkat have completed excellent honors theses in the department and will graduate (or already have done so) with honors.

Jolly Shi graduated in December 2015 with honors after having successfully defended her thesis titled, “The Sociology of Smell in the Fragrance Industry.” In her thesis, Jolly investigated how college students perceive fragrances and how marketing influences those perceptions.

Walter Burkat explored language use and linguistic patterns among the U.S. Senegalese diaspora community in his thesis, “Language, Technology, and Society: Reimagining of Sociocultural and Political Structures in 21st Century Senegal through Written Communication Technologies.”

Barbara Olivier conducted qualitative interviews and ethnographic fieldwork for her thesis titled, “The Hidden Generation: Perceptions on YMSM of Color and Rates of New HIV Infections” with support from the A&S department’s Ethnographic Research Fund. In her thesis, among other things, she explores perceptions of HIV and the high infection rates among certain subgroups of individuals.

Congrats to Jolly, Walter, and Barbara!!!

Walter Burkat presenting his thesis

Barbara Olivier at her thesis defense