Jessica Walsh

Name:  Jessica Walsh

Department:  Psychology

What Award/ Scholarship did you receive? I received the Deans' Award for Undergraduate Research.

What year do you expect to graduate?  I will graduate in Spring 2020.

Where do you call home?  My family lives in San Diego.

With all of the choices for college, what made UC Santa Cruz stand out?  The forest was very pretty.

What is your field of focus?  My focus is social psychology/research.

What do you hope to do once you graduate from UC Santa Cruz?  I would like to be a researcher.

What is one memorable moment that stands out for you as a student here?  The first time I saw a banana slug was thrilling.

What is your one piece of advice for incoming students about life at UC Santa Cruz?  I would recommend that incoming students take advantage of office hours and keep in touch with professors they admire.

How will this scholarship impact your academic life /research?  I am hoping that my award will help me in my future professional and academic endeavors.

Comments from Jessica Walsh's faculty mentor:

Jessica Walsh received a Deans' Award for Comparing Sexual Themes in Rap Music by Female and Male Music Artists: A Qualitative Study. Her faculty mentor wrote in support of her research, “I have known Jessica for about a year, and in that time, she has shown a passion for social psychology and an eye for research. She was especially interested in the impacts of misogynistic rap music on women’s sense of safety and well-being, a topic on which she took initiative to conduct a short literature review and create a rough research outline in her free time. Her understanding of research design was highly advanced and her initiative to explore these topics without formal advising is unsurpassed in what I have observed in undergraduates over the past 12 years I have been at UCSC. Jessica also pursued her research interests in a paper she wrote for a qualitative methods class in our department. The research she conducted in the context of that class was on the sexual themes in rap music by female music artists and male music artists. She demonstrated insightful analysis and excellent application of feminist theories. She aptly parses apart, describes, and compares the themes within popular rap songs. Her literature review contains an in-depth synthesis of discourse surrounding female rappers’ self-presentation within mainstream rap music, as well as a discussion of transactional sex described in many mainstream rap songs. I believe her paper is a noteworthy addition to the scholarly ideas regarding sexual and gender roles in rap music. Overall, Jessica’s high-level feminist psychological analysis abilities and her genuine dedication to critical research make her a worthy candidate for the Deans’ award.”