Ilokano (also Iloko, Ilocano) is an Austronesian language native to Northern Luzon, Philippines. It is the regional lingua franca and a common second language for Filipinos both in the country and the diaspora, with 11 million current speakers. The prominence of Ilokano speakers has not lent itself to frequent syntactic study; in fact, there has been very little scholarship in theoretical Ilokano syntax. This thesis investigates the internal hierarchy of the Ilokano verb phrase, specifically the structural distinction between Patient and Theme arguments in ditransitive constructions. In Ilokano, both the recipient and the object are marked with the oblique particle ‘iti’ when another argument serves as the pivot subject. This surface-level identity masks an underlying ambiguity: it is unclear whether the Patient and Theme are identical structurally, or if one inherently c-commands the other prior to movement. Complicating this study further is the nature of Austronesian-Type Voice Systems more generally, which exhibit a particular pattern of alternations in case-marking and verbal morphology that alters word order while preserving semantic relationships. By utilizing novel native-speaker grammaticality judgments on binding asymmetries, this work provides a formal probe into object constructions. The findings offer a more granular understanding of verb phrases and challenge the existing assumption that Philippine-type languages exhibit uniform argument licensing behavior.

This project examines how gender shapes the representation and critical reception of queer narratives in Dracula and Carmilla, asking why male-coded queer narratives have historically received greater scholarly and cultural attention than female-coded queer narratives. Through close reading, the project identifies queer subtexts in scenes of desire and transgression, while a comparative analysis places the two texts in conversation to examine differences in tone, narrative framing, and characterization. A reception study further analyzes critical scholarship and cultural engagement to investigate disparities in academic and popular responses. The analysis suggests that both texts construct the vampire as a queer, destabilizing figure that threatens Victorian heteropatriarchal order; however, female and male queerness are represented unequally. In Carmilla, female queer desire is hyper-visible and punished, whereas in Dracula, male queerness is obscured and contained through narrative control and reaffirmations of masculinity. These gendered dynamics persist beyond the texts themselves, shaping their reception: Dracula is privileged while Carmilla remains comparatively marginalized. Ultimately, the project argues that the Vampiric Gothic does not represent queerness neutrally but structures it through gendered hierarchies. Recognizing how Victorian gender bias continues to shape both the texts and their reception highlights the need for a comparative, gender-conscious approach to expose ongoing imbalances within literature.

In this thesis, I attempt to explore the ways in which nature can be both used as a weaponized political tool for counterinsurgency and a catalyst for resistance in the dystopian setting presented in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. This is emphasized through the exploration of themes of pastoral depictions, social class divisions, humanism and posthumanism, and self-identity, primarily through the series’ main character, Katniss Everdeen, and how her relationship with natural environments contributes to significant change in her world. The first chapter focuses on the relationship between class and nature, showing how the Capitol attempts to control both natural resources and people by manipulating access to food, landscapes, and education. I argue that through Katniss’s interactions with the natural world, the narrative diverges from traditional pastoral ideals, revealing that even seemingly free natural spaces remain subject to domination. The second chapter examines the blurred boundaries between humans and animals, drawing on posthuman and humanist theory to analyze how they are exploited within the Capitol’s system. Through the recurring symbol of the Mockingjay and other genetically modified animals, I explain that the Capitol's attempts to control nature ultimately fail because natural forces are unpredictable. Katniss herself becomes a posthuman figure with a hybrid identity that challenges the limits imposed by the government and exposes their fragility.

This project examines how Sufi literary traditions and Korean shamanic practices construct female “holy madness” as a meaningful form of spiritual authority. While madness is often defined within modern frameworks as pathology, both traditions frame ecstatic speech, possession and poetic excess as culturally legible and spiritually significant. This study asks how women’s religious expression, often marked as irrational or excessive, becomes authorized within these distinct yet comparable systems. Using comparative textual analysis and historical contextualization, I analyze Sufi narratives of figures such as Rabia alongside ethnographic and literary accounts of Korean mudang. The project focuses on language, ritual performance and narrative form, paying particular attention to how gender shapes the interpretation of ecstatic experience. In Sufi discourse, spiritual transcendence often dissolves gender distinctions while still relying on masculinized frameworks of authority. In Korean shamanism, women occupy socially marginal positions yet gain ritual and economic power through possession and performance. By transforming excess into meaning, these traditions create spaces where women can articulate suffering, negotiate power and access the sacred.

Paper Dolls is a collection of short stories and poems that explore the female experience as it intersects with disability and queerness. These pieces follow young women as they struggle to break free from the containers in which they have been placed. Through surrealist, dream-like pieces, Paper Dolls explores the extent to which mothers and female partners are expected to make sacrifices for their loved ones, followed by an examination of the complications women often find in relationships with men who cannot neatly be categorized as kind or cruel. The rape myth is also explored, with a subsequent insistance that the victim is never at fault. Paper Dolls concludes with a search for forgiveness in a world in which all people are contained by the patriarchy.

The “Bruins as Birds” layer of the Multispecies Bruins Map, created in Dr. Vetri Nathan’s Multispecies Futures Lab, is an interdisciplinary exploration of the bird life on the UCLA campus that challenges anthropocentric visions of human-dominated spaces. It asks: what does the UCLA Campus look like when more-than-human life is recognized as part of the community? This project seeks to analyze how scientists can communicate the value of the natural world in ways that inspire care, combining ecological survey data with narrative reflection in order to visualize the campus in its multispecies reality. Bird surveys were conducted across 16 sites from November 2025 - February 2026 using both visual identification and audio identification with the Merlin Bird ID app. Biodiversity patterns were mapped through species richness calculations of species geospatially. This project connects diverse data, complementing a quantitative approach with reflective field journals. These field journals were guided by ecocultural questions, documenting encounters and moments of co-becoming. The results reveal that areas with greater habitat diversity, like the Mathias Botanical Garden, support higher species richness, while also demonstrating the limitations of plain maps in capturing dynamic, mobile life. By layering narrative and scientific modes through thick-mapping, the project expands the definitions of the UCLA community to include nonhuman life. This work contributes to interdisciplinary approaches in environmental science by offering a mo