Wofford College

This semester, 62 Wofford students from both of Dr. Alysa Handelsman's Anthropology of Childhood classes completed a research project on youth perspectives and experiences across Spartanburg's neighborhoods. Wofford students interviewed 73 third graders about their daily routines, their actual neighborhoods and their visions for their dream neighborhoods.They presented posters showcasing their findings in a community data walk on May 13 at E.P. Todd.

Last summer, Katie Stewart '26 created an experiment to investigate how rising temperatures and invasive species impact native crayfish abundance and behavior in Lawson's Fork Creek in Spartanburg County. In February, she took her findings to the South Carolina American Fisheries Society Annual Conference in Beaufort and won the award for best poster presentation. She says her Wofford mentors have helped her find a passion for research.

Using zebrafish as a model organism, two Wofford students spent the summer studying a little-understood gene called Tango6 and the role it plays in embryonic development.

Chanson Bullard '26 and Dr. Matt Cathey have been invited to Oxford University to present their research on King George III's mysterious illness at the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies' annual conference in January. They will also participate in a roundtable discussion featuring scholarship from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. Bullard and Cathey spent the summer reviewing royal physician diaries and recording values for information logged, such as sleep, pulse, medicines administered, mood, bowel movements, exercise and much more. The database they developed has more than 100 categories.

Five Terriers have joined forces with Dr. Kimberly Hall this summer to discover how artificial intelligence can more effectively be incorporated in a college setting. Susann Breazele '26, an English major from Pickens, South Carolina; Maggie Head '26, a chemistry and philosophy double major from Lexington, South Carolina; Kate Podrebarac '26, a computer science and applied mathematics double major from Friendswood, Texas; Sam Turnipseed '25, an English and philosophy major from Columbia, South Carolina; and Rivers West '25, an environmental studies major from Oak Ridge, North Carolina, signed up to take part in Hall's research project "Developing Undergraduate Humanistic AI Research Capacity at a Small Liberal Arts College." Hall, an associate professor of English who leads the college's AI Working Group, says current research focuses on how faculty and administrators view generative AI - a platform like ChatGPT for instance. She is making sure student perspectives are included.

Five Wofford College students are spending the summer filling a void in the college's recorded history, and their research will contribute to ongoing campus conversations. The students will collect stories from Black alumni, primarily from the late 1960s through the late 1980s, as the first part of a research project organized by the college's Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

Emily Lang '23 recently presented her summer research on the science of aging at Harvard University. The research involved Lang, a psychology major from Lexington, South Carolina, working with Dr. Kara Bopp, professor of psychology, to look at resources available to seniors in Spartanburg County while conducting interviews and creating a definition of successful aging.

Dr. Youmi Efurd and Emma Humphries '22 are delivering hope and comfort to local individuals who are homeless. Efurd, Wofford's curator, has designed art activities and programming for clients of the Spartanburg Opportunity Center, which provides individuals in the community who are homeless with food, showers, clothing, laundry services and access to additional resources. Each Friday, Efurd and Humphries, an art history and government double major from Gaffney, South Carolina, lead the center's clients in a variety of activities, including painting, coloring, journal writing, meditation and gardening.

Dr. Lori Cruze and Dr. John Moeller and their students are working on a research project that's for the birds. Really. The purpose of the project is to measure the impact of different variables on the foraging habits of songbirds. Cruze, assistant professor of biology, and one of her classes started the project in the spring, setting up bird feeders on the periphery of campus. They measured the amount of seed the birds ate and whether the amount changed depending on whether the seeds were shelled or unshelled. They also introduced predators (fake owls) to gauge the impact of their presence on the birds' eating habits.

Three Wofford College students have received research funding through South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities.

Five Wofford College students have received funding through the Student/Faculty Research Program of South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities Inc. (SCICU) for 2016.