Pregnancy is a critical period during which various factors, including work status, can significantly impact a woman's well-being and birth outcomes. In general, work status has a notable effect on the overall stress and health of women. Previous studies have shown that women who work and have children have increased fatigue and decreased perception of their health; this relationship is especially prominent in women working more than 40 hours a week. However, little research has focused on the effect of various work statuses on the stress level of pregnant women. Our study aims to fill this knowledge gap by examining five different work status variables: women who have a job, have a job while studying in school, are studying in school, are on maternity leave, and have no job. This study utilizes self-reported longitudinal data obtained from Wave 2 of the Mothers Cultural Experiences study (MCE), which includes a sample of 107 Latina women. The stress level of these pregnant women was measured with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Our project utilizes a linear regression approach to determine if the work status of a pregnant woman correlates with the PSS. We predict that pregnant women who are employed will report the highest stress levels. This is because the demands of the workplace may contribute to additional stress while they manage their pregnancy and health. This research is important as stress levels could potentially impact both the health of the mother and the baby.

In this project I draw from 6 years of observations I have made of jazz musicians in LA having near-pro level skills in the Nintendo fighting game Super Smash Bros. This trend was significant enough that I began asking these musically inclined friends why they found themselves always being able to run a set of Smash after or in between jamming tunes. Several overlapping factors emerged. Not only is the context of play similar, but the creative potential for play in Smash and Jazz appears to tap into a similar corner of the brain according to many of these musicians, and some said it provided a competitive setting to complement the collaborative setting of music. I argue in this study that this is more than coincidence, and is rather the result of distinctly coincident factors that give jazz musicians an affinity for playing Smash. My findings are based on observations made while living with multiple jazz musicians as well as semi-structured interviews and 360-camera field recordings of subjects in both contexts of play. I will be conducting more interviews and field recordings to develop my findings into a thesis, though presently I theorize that this study has relevance to anthropological understandings of play and the co-mingling of distinctly different hobbyists.

The adoption of new technological advancements in the field of archaeology has shifted methods of data preservation. The incorporation of these technologies, such as early photography, created new ways to record visual data. Although the use of photographic film material in archaeology paved the way for new sources of documentation, it continued to be surrounded by familiar limitations associated with manually recorded practices. The handling and digitization of the Sisupalgarh films I performed under Professor Monica L. Smith provided firsthand experience in evaluating the various restrictions– ranging from limited resources to complex digital management– and the impacts it offered in facilitating accessibility and strengthening preservation efforts. This study explores the use and contributions of film photography in archaeology and discusses the continuous limitations faced when handling the film. However, issues continue to arise within digital databases which highlights the unreliability of technological dependence. The digitization of the archaeological record is an ongoing area of discussion as technological innovations continue to develop. It is important to explore the contributions of digital practices in shaping preservation methods while actively acknowledging their own restrictions. Thus, this allows digital advancements to not be viewed as a single solution to long-term archaeological conservation, but rather, supports the ongoing discussion of preservation tactics in data collection.

As the popularity of online video games has increased over recent years, the amount of sexual harassment that women experience in these communities has increased as well. Prior research has shown that over half of women who play online video games have experienced sexually-motivated harassment. A popular explanation for this trend is that men are more likely to play video games than women. However, this is statistically untrue and undermines the experiences of women who have experienced this harassment. Using data gathered from focus groups of women who have experienced sexual harassment in online video games, a better understanding of why this type of harassment happens and what can be done to alleviate this issue can be developed. Additionally, theories of intersectionality and hegemonic masculinity are used to interpret the study’s findings. These findings will provide the video game industry with insights to make their games safer and more inclusive for the women that play them.

Even in the most turbulent times, humanity finds time to accessorize. Fashion trends, particularly those in jewelry, can be an apt litmus test of the state of political, social, and cultural atmospheres. Such is true in the world of Etruscans. Jewelry could provide a window into the impact of the cultural transformations that rippled through Etruria during the Classical and Hellenistic periods (roughly 5th to 1st century B.C.). The stories told about ancient civilizations typically end abruptly at the point of their colonization. However, just in appreciating the appropriation of many Etruscan cultural customs and material practices (for example, the adaption of Etruscan techniques into Roman temples), it can be inferred that Etruscan culture was not entirely effaced just because their provincial power was. Vestiges of Etruscan culture remained and continued to proliferate as Roman colonial subjects. I want to investigate whether jewelry production and ornamentation was one such practice. Tracing the ornamental trends of Etruscan rings and pendants the Classical and Hellenistic periods (5th to 1st centuries B.C.) will demonstrate the sustained evolution of Etruscan jewelry, the adoption of various methods and materials from proximal and integrated cultures, and a shift in the symbolic value of jewelry through the region’s provincial decline and subsequent Romanization.