The Sweet Briar College Honors Committee has awarded Honors Summer Research Program fellowships to eight students for the summer of 2009.

The competitive eight-week program brings together students and faculty from all disciplines to create an intense academic experience for participants. Student researchers work one-on-one with a faculty member, in addition to meeting weekly for presentations by both faculty and students highlighting their ongoing research.

The program begins May 25 and will continue through July 17. A schedule of presentations will be posted on the HSRP Web site.

This year's recipients and project overviews are:

Courtney Cunningham '10 will be researching the deification of mortal men in the "hero cults" of ancient Greece, the "imperial cults" of the Roman Empire, and what could be called the "cult of the Christ" in early Christianity. Cunningham's focus for the project will be to compare the notions of the mortality of mankind in each of the religious cults and to look at the impact each had on its successor. Faculty sponsor: Eric Casey, associate professor of classical studies

Laura Hanold '10 will be continuing summer honors research begun last year, which led to synthesis of a compound with potential medicinal properties for treating diphtheria. This year Hanold will try to synthesize 3(2H)-furanones and study their photochemical properties. The idea is based on the recent discovery of inotilone, a chemical that has been found to be a selective inhibitor of the enzymes cyclooxygenase (COX) and xanthine oxidase (XO), which are responsible for inflammatory responses in rheumatoid arthritis and gouty arthritis, respectively. Faculty sponsor: Abraham Yousef, assistant professor of chemistry

MaryAnne Haslow-Hall '10 proposes to design and construct a prototype of a prosthetic hand. The hand will be made of plastic parts and will have fully-articulated joints and tendons. The thumb and index finger of the hand will be driven and controlled using closed-loop, DC servomotor system. The work builds on research by a group called the Open Prosthetics Project. Haslow-Hall's research will contribute to the Open Prosthetics Project by adding servo-motion controls to the hand. Faculty sponsor: Scott Pierce, assistant professor of engineering

Maggie Mae Nase '10 will conduct research toward producing a biography of Daisy Williams, daughter of Indiana Fletcher Williams, who founded Sweet Briar College in Daisy's memory. Nase will organize and read original documents and adolescent biographies about Williams, and will consider other critical sources concerning her child biography and life during the turn of the century. The ultimate goal of the project is to write a critical, academic biography of Daisy Williams. Faculty sponsors: Christian Carr, assistant professor of arts management and director of the Sweet Briar Museum and Carrie Brown, Margaret Banister Writer-in-Residence

Tiffany Rapetsky '11 will study the field and process of translation as well as the works of Spanish author Ana Maria Matute. While researching both the subtleties of translation and the intricacies of Matute's children's literature, Rapetsky also will work toward producing an original translation of a piece by Matute. Faculty sponsors: Pam DeWeese, professor of Spanish and Margaret Stanton, professor of Spanish

Tania Salas Platt '10 is writing a play based on the last few days in the life of Dolores Veintimilla, a female 19th-century Ecuadorian poet. "Desvelada" is about life, love, poetry, ideals, politics, power and death. It is a play about the struggle and suffering of a woman to make her voice heard in a conservative, intolerant society. Faculty sponsor: Bill Kershner, professor and director of the theater program

Caroline Sapp '09, recognizing that Spain today is considered one of the "problematic" European Union member states, will seek to understand the political situation in Spain, and how the country's historical domestic conditions have affected its agenda within the EU, specifically its objection to the further enlargement of membership. The project also will trace Spain's entrance into the EU and how its own road to the membership might have affected the enlargement policies it now pursues. Faculty sponsor: John Ashbrook, visiting assistant professor of history

Sarah Strapp '10 will research and experiment with 12th- to 15th-century manuscript production in Europe. Strapp will practice the techniques of those periods, including the manufacture of papers, inks and paints with historically accurate methods. She will apply the methods by making replicas of manuscript pages from selected texts, one in Latin, one in Arabic and one in Hebrew. The three texts should exemplify the world's three major monotheistic faith traditions, in addition to the major schools of European illumination. Faculty sponsor: Tracy Hamilton, assistant professor of art history