Five students presented on a range of topics from the cultural significance of West Coast hip hop to the institutionalization of Yellowstone National Park at a panel entitled Reimagining the U.S. West: Power, Culture, and Identity Across Time last week.
The formal presentations were part of BC’s annual research event ASPIRE (A Celebration of the Arts, Scholarship, Performance, Innovation and Research Excellence), held April 7-15, 2026.
This panel consisted of five students from Dr. Maria Paz Esguerra’s HIST-431: History of the U.S. West, in which students explored “the unique history of the West as both an idea and a place in U.S. culture and in American popular imagination.”
Esguerra said this course aimed to give students a historical foundation for understanding the U.S. West and practice methods of writing and studying history.
Each year, the College hosts ASPIRE to encourage and celebrate student achievements in research across many fields of study. This year’s event included more than 40 presentations from students and faculty on a wide variety of research topics.
ASPIRE gives students the opportunity to share their hard work outside the classroom and often provides an outlet for students to further their knowledge in an area of interest.
Esguerra said she enjoys teaching the class and expressed how thankful she was to the students for being willing to present their work publicly for the event.
“It’s fun to see the students take topics from class and combine them with personal interests.”
Jefferson Contreras ’26 offered the audience a deeper understanding of how rap was the voice of Afro-Latino communities in Los Angeles and across the West that gave them a platform to speak out against racial injustice. Emphasizing intersections of race, gender and power, the session highlighted the West as both a site of national mythology and a space of resistance and redefinition.
Contreras said he was able to expand on his research from the panel and adapt it to write a sociology paper. His presentation “The Birth of West Coast Rap” had a personal significance to him as well.
He shared how listening to rap helped him learn English when he first moved to the U.S. and is the first thing he thought of when Esguerra prompted the students to choose a topic about the history of the U.S. West.
Grace Elder ’26 explored how women gained more choice over their dating lives through marriage ads in the 1870s where women would post descriptions of themselves and their desired partners in the newspaper in hopes of getting married. Elder emphasized how this new structure that arose during early American settlement gave women the power to make the first move and communicate their preferences.
Other student panelists included Jory Cardoza ’26, Shelby Herrold ’27 and Dominic Lancey ’27.
A yearly event, ASPIRE gives students and faculty a chance to share their research through poster sessions, oral presentations and performances. Students such as Contreras and Elder contribute to the hands-on learning environment at BC through their willing participation and presentation of impactful research.
– Rosie Clark ’26
4/20/2026
