Grad Student Lunch Seminar | From Redlines to Ant Trails with Sylvana Ross

Sylvana Ross, a fourth-year graduate student in Entomology, will present dissertation research on how ants in historically disinvested neighborhoods show measurable physiological and molecular adaptations. She is also developing a long term ecological research (LTER) initative in Cincinnati, Ohio that combines biodiversity monitoring, environmental justice, and community-led science. Through partnerships with local organizations and high school students, this project is designed to generate ecological data for the city while empowering residents to lead research on the environmental conditions shaping their neighborhood.

The Graduate Student Lunch Seminar is a recurring forum for graduate students connected to the Center to share their research and receive substantive, multidisciplinary feedback in a supportive setting. Each seminar features one fellow presenting their current work, creating space for the kind of engaged, cross-disciplinary conversation that enriches scholarship and strengthens intellectual community within the Center.

All are welcome, and undergraduate fellows are especially invited to attend, making the seminar a bridge across stages of academic development. For undergraduates weighing whether to pursue graduate study, these sessions offer something rare: an honest, up-close view of how research actually unfolds, alongside the chance to learn from near-peers navigating that path.

Lunch seminars take place from 12–1:30pm at the Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures at 235 Garden Street (3rd Floor, CCC Building). Lunch will be provided free of charge. Please register in advance to let us know you're coming and tell us if you have any food allergies we should be aware of.

We encourage you to join us for all Grad Student Lunch Seminars this year:

• Tuesday, September 8: Emma Cox on leveraging theory-driven communication interventions to bolster support for policies that advance racial equity
• Tuesday, November 10: Sylvana Ross on racism's influence on urban wildlife adaptations
• Tuesday, January 19: Ash Kopetzky on speculation and the social life of vacancy in Seattle's third places
• Tuesday, March 2: Hanna Lin on rethinking racial capitalism with chinese hukou (household registration) system