
Volume 2, Issue 1 (2024) Issue 1
Letter From the Editors
Dear Reader,
I am deeply honored to present the first issue of Volume 2 of The Cardinal Edge (TCE), the University of Louisville’s pioneering undergraduate research journal. TCE provides a platform for undergraduate students to showcase their invaluable contributions to the vibrant research community at UofL and allows them to engage in meaningful academic discussions with peers and faculty in their field.
This year’s issue covers a wide range of topics, from an analysis of the role men have in contemporary feminism to fresh perspectives on the myth of Circe. The issue also includes three spotlight interviews addressing Louisville’s housing crisis, environmental justice, and groundbreaking work in UofL Health’s Pediatric Cardiology department. We proudly announce TCE’s Best Paper of 2023-24, Good Grief!: The Challenging of Middle-Class Life by Youth Culture in Mafalda and Peanuts, which examines the social and political undercurrents of these iconic cartoons. Additionally, we debut a special topics section focused on aging's biological processes.
During this publication cycle, TCE increased our staff by twelve first-year members and worked with countless graduate students and faculty reviewers, whose insight and expertise continue to serve as the foundation of our journal. Partnering with the Center for Engaged Learning, we have continued with the publication of the second supplemental issue to the journal, which will feature over 50 abstracts from university research symposiums.
We would like to express our gratitude to our faculty advisors, Drs. Mark Running and Shira Rabin, for their guidance and advice. We are also grateful to Dr. Paul DeMarco, Director of the Center for Engaged Learning, for his sponsorship and support. Along with Dr. Rafael Demarco for his organization of the special topics section. Thank you to ThinkIR, our researchers, reviewers, and most importantly, you—the reader—for supporting undergraduate research and innovation at UofL.
In my time as the Executive Editor-in-Chief of TCE, I have continued to be amazed by the commitment and dedication of our journal staff. I am immensely grateful to my fellow editor-in-chief, managing editors, and cohort team members for their diligence and efforts in pushing us through this first cycle post-graduation of our founding members. I eagerly anticipate TCE’s continued role in fostering a thriving undergraduate research community at UofL.
Happy reading,
Kamal Amirneni
Executive Editor-in-Chief
Yaara Aleissa
Associate Editor-in-Chief
Loghan Currin
Design Managing Editor
Abigal Stranger
Review Managing Editor
Amani Ikram
Spotlight Managing Editor
Annalise Hale
Outreach Managing Editor
Brief Research Reports
Can men be feminists?
Abigail M Stanger
Disease and Discrimination: The Persecution of Jews in the Holy Roman Empire during the Black Death
Abigail M Stanger
SDF-1α Mediates Primary Tumor Escape in Glioblastoma Through Activation of Mesenchymal Transitions
Charles T. Froman-Glover
A hopeful overview on Aging
Rafael Demarco
Faculty Spotlights
The Louisville Housing Crisis
Rebecca Klukowski
Louisville’s Roots in Pollution: A Battle Against Environmental Injustice
Harshith Gontla, Sireen Khader, Rianna Pais, and Swetha S. Nathan
Full-length Research Reports
Resilience and Evolution: The Transformative Impact of the Black Death on Women’s Roles in Medieval England
Kaylee N. Vitato
An Analysis of the Environmental Account of Obesity as a Form of Financial Neo-Imperialism
Zahara Alzubaidi
Good Grief!: The Challenging of Middle-Class Life by Youth Culture in Mafalda and Peanuts
Eden E. Baize
The Impact of Chronic Stress on the Aging Process
Toriana Alfieri
Literature Reviews
Autoimmunity and the Epigenome
Jeffrey S. Miller Jr
Anti-Aging Properties of Cosmetics
Anna Lipinski
The Relationship Between Protein Synthesis and Aging
Christopher A. Jackel

Chief Editorial Board
Yaara Aleissa, Executive Editor-in-Chief
Gita Jaikumar, Associate Editor-in-Chief
Kamal Amirneni, Senior Editorial Advisor
Lindsey Lankford, Design Managing Editor
Sireen Khader, Spotlight Managing Editor
Preeti Tanwani, Review Managing Editor
Hailey Turiczek, Outreach Managing Editor
Design Cohort
Alexis Abboud, Team Member
Emma Fellows, Team Member
Kendall Neundorfer, Team Member
Tanushree Senthil Kumar, Team Member
Molly Robinson, Team Member
Gada Qasem, Team Member
Spotlight Cohort
Amani Ikram, Team Member
William Murphy, Team Member
Rianna Pais, Team Member
Saumya Sikhwal, Team Member
Swetha Senthil Nathan, Team Member
Priya Viswakumar, Team Member
Review Cohort
Harshith Jella, Team Member
Kusum Kumar, Team Member
Tuesday Shaw, Team Member
Sai Jeyaprakash, Team Member
Brody Johnson, Team Member
Rayan Haq, Team Member
Sol Jetter, Team Member
Adnan Shaik, Team Member
Nathan Woolery, Team Member
Outreach Cohort
Allie Redden, TeamMember
Benjamin Mackay, Treasurer, Team Member
Sabeen Nadeem, Team Member
Veena Pendyala, Team Member
Savannah Thompson, Team Member
Faculty Advisors
Dr. Mark Running, Department of Biology
Dr. Tommy Roussel, JB School of Engineering
Journal Sponsor
Dr. Paul DeMarco, Center of Engaged Learning
Special thanks to Mahathi Gavuji for designing TCE's logo!
For questions or comments please contact cardedge@louisville.edu