#72: A Vacant Walmart in Albuquerque with Arianna Aguirre ’24, Anthropology

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Arianna focused on the impacts of the closure of a Walmart in her hometown of Albuquerque for her thesis in the anthropology department. She also tells us about how Reed College’s Anthropology Student Fund helped to support her research, and how her thesis adviser helped her re-work her initial thesis ideas using a concept from environmental anthropology.

Reed community members can read Arianna’s thesis, “One Albuquerque? Crime, Security, and Dispossession in Albuquerque’s Sacrifice Zone” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.

#71: Bags of Chemistry with Amelie Andreas ’24, Biochem and Molecular Biology

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Amelie started out in the biology department at Reed because she wanted to study bacteria and living things, but then she got a chance to start learning from the biochemists on the faculty. They helped her build the bridge from chemistry to life, which led her to switch her major from biology to biochemistry and molecular biology.

Amelie was also the second student producer for Burn Your Draft, working with us from 2021–22, and it was a delight to get to talk to her.

Reed community members can read Amelie’s thesis, “MntR: The Mastermind of Manganese Ion Homeostasis” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.

#70: Value of a Tony with Emma Bramson ’23, Economics

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Emma’s economics department thesis explored the effect that Tony awards have on the consumer demand for Broadway shows.

Reed community members can read Emma’s thesis, “‘It’s All About the Green’: The Tony Award’s Effect on Broadway Show Demand” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.

#69: Inventing the Future with Ocean Chamberlain ’23, Comparative Literature

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We’re back for the 2025–26 school year after taking a hiatus last spring. Today, Ocean shares his thesis experience with us which was focused on studying writers from the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, especially Édouard Glissant, and tells us why he thinks poetry and art is important.

Ace Lackey ’27, our new student producer, produced this episode for us. Welcome to the podcast Ace!

Reed community members can read Ocean’s thesis, “ rhizophora” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.

#68: Ellison’s Invisible Man with Juno Kerelis ’24, English

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Juno Kerelis ’24 was the third student podcast producer on Burn Your Draft, and we’re so happy to get to speak to them on the other side of their time at Reed. If you’ve been listening since Juno hosted the podcast, you may have noticed little musical interludes during some of the episodes. Most of those were composed by Juno! Thank you for your work on the podcast, and for coming to talk to us about your year studying the Invisible Man.

Reed community members can read Juno’s thesis, “Yams Extending Infinitely Across Time: A Blues Philology of Ellison’s Invisible Man” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.

#67: Antimicrobial Innovation with Josie Bicknell ’24, Biology

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Josie wrote a pharmaceutical development thesis about looking for a new way to develop antibiotics. She also tells us about her interest in biology and chemistry and looking for bridges between the disciplines, and how chemistry can be used to do things like examine snake poop to learn about snake evolution.

Reed community members can read Josie’s thesis, “A Codrug for Resistant Coinfection: The First Clinically Relevant Antimicrobial-Antiviral Ionic Cocrystal” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.

#66: Psychosexual Gothic Romance with Jordan Kappler ’24, English

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Jordan spent a year writing an analytical thesis on Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, which Jordan calls a “psychosexual gothic romance novel” in the introduction of her thesis. She also talks to Avis about the surprising amount of time she spent learning about British estate taxes while studying this novel.

Reed community members can read Jordan’s thesis, “Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca: The Poetics, Places, and Gender Politics of the Lesbian Gothic” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.

#65: Carb-Conscious Planes with Aroon Das ’24, Economics

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Aroon tells us a bit about airline economics under potential carbon taxes, wanting to become an entrepreneur, and deciding to come to Reed because it seemed mysterious.

Reed community members can read Aroon’s thesis, “Airline Profitability & Fleet Strategies in a Carbon-Tax Environment” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.

#64: Return if Found with Courtland Dorris ’24, Anthropology

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Photo of Courtland, grinning at the camera.

Courtland talks about her thesis work on the federal law called the National American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the controversies surrounding it, and the new regulatory changes to the law that just went into effect in 2024. She also tells us how a high school teacher helped her find Reed.

Reed community members can read Courtland’s thesis, “Returning to Repatriation: An Examination of the Evolving Forces Behind the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.

#63: Confounding Variables with He Bai ’24, Mathematics

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He Bai ’24 tells us about how she chose math and statistics as her fields at Reed, what drew her to Reed in the first place, and how the Squidward Constant came to be in her thesis.

Reed community members can read He’s thesis, “Extending Targeted Function Balancing to Models without Linear Representations,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.