[
    {
        "title": "Desert Under Unequal Conditions: Meritocracy, Luck, and Moral Worth",
        "type": "thesis",
        "publication_date": "2026",
        "cite_using_url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechThesis:06112026-220923932",
        "abstract": "[Introduction] Modern liberal societies remain deeply attached to the ideal of merit. We praise people for \u201cearning\u201d their success, assume that unequal outcomes are justified when they track talent and effort, and often treat market rewards as rough indicators of moral worth. Meritocracy is attractive because it seems to solve a real moral problem: it rejects hereditary rank, inherited title, and caste-like privilege without giving up the intuition that choices should matter. If one person studies harder, develops rare skills, or takes entrepreneurial risks, it seems fair that that person should receive some corresponding benefit. Meritocracy therefore presents itself as a reconciliation of equality and freedom. It rejects arbitrary hierarchy while preserving space for ambition, discipline, and responsibility. Yet this appeal already contains a danger: it can slide from the modest claim that agency should matter to the much stronger claim that winners straightforwardly deserve the full advantages they receive (Rawls 1999; Rowlingson and Connor 2011).",
        "author_list": "Hong, Qianhui (Natasha)"
    },
    {
        "title": "A Siren Chef on the Safe Preparation of a Pufferfish",
        "type": "thesis",
        "publication_date": "2026",
        "cite_using_url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechThesis:06112026-233303111",
        "abstract": "[None]",
        "author_list": "Lam, Navya L."
    },
    {
        "title": "The Fairy and the Goddess: Lady Audley and Clara Talboys as Competing Models of Femininity",
        "type": "thesis",
        "publication_date": "2026",
        "cite_using_url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechThesis:06112026-235119327",
        "abstract": "[Introduction] While Lady Audley and Clara Talboys\u2014in contrast to the novel\u2019s passive men\u2014both\r\npropel the sensational plot of Mary Elizabeth Braddon\u2019s Lady Audley\u2019s Secret, Braddon casts\r\nthese two women as opposing models of femininity. The novel associates Lady Audley with\r\nindividualism, modernity, social mobility, foreignness, and impermanence within the existing\r\nsocial structure; Clara, by contrast, embodies antiquity, English propriety, and stability in the\r\ncurrent social framework. Braddon\u2019s novel frames both forms of femininity in terms of its utility\r\nto the project of British masculinity. The two women come to triangulate the men of the novel,\r\nexerting opposing influences that either propel the men toward socially sanctioned masculinity or\r\ndivert them from it...",
        "author_list": "Lam, Navya L."
    },
    {
        "title": "The Geology of Light: Myth - Magic - Control After Gravity\u2019s Rainbow. A Pynchonic Archipelago",
        "type": "thesis",
        "publication_date": "2026",
        "cite_using_url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechThesis:06112026-212424793",
        "abstract": "<p>Screaming Across the Sky: Initial Conditions</p>\r\n\r\n<p>Burning On: After the Mean Operating Life</p>",
        "author_list": "Musk, Damian R."
    },
    {
        "title": "Coincidence.",
        "type": "thesis",
        "publication_date": "2026",
        "cite_using_url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechThesis:06112026-230827701",
        "abstract": "[Introduction] \r\n\r\nCall me David. \r\n\r\nNo one does, of course. In the security logs and performance dashboards I am a surname attached to timestamps, an engineer of record on a long chain of tickets. But in the quiet hours, when the office is a husk of humming machines and LED indicators, I use the name on myself the way you press a finger into a bruise. To see if it still hurts.",
        "author_list": "Schork, Bram Winter"
    },
    {
        "title": "The Tasmanian Devil: A Genomic Arms Race Against Extinction",
        "type": "thesis",
        "publication_date": "2026",
        "cite_using_url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechThesis:06112026-222932280",
        "abstract": "[Introduction] For millions across the globe, the Tasmanian devil is \u201cTaz,\u201d the spinning, snarling, perpetually hungry Looney Tunes character with an appetite for anything and everything. This cartoon caricature, however, does not totally resemble the real animal. The actual Tasmanian devil doesn't spin in a vortex, but does have a reputation for a formidable appetite and its mischievous nature is befitting, though perhaps in ways the cartoonists never imagined44. Consider the tale of one unlucky hiker on Maria Island. During a long day of trekking, the hiker discovered his hiking boot had vanished. The culprit was soon identified: a Tasmanian devil, attempting to make off with its prize. The boot, however, proved too bulky to fit through a nearby fence, thwarting the thief's getaway. Frustrated, the devil simply decided to finish the boot off on the spot, leaving it mangled with large bite marks and slobber, and the hiker was left to complete the rest of the journey in crocs16. This story, while comical, perfectly illustrates the reality behind the myth of Looney Tunes\u2019 \u201cTaz\u201d. The devil isn't a two-legged whirlwind of chaos but a powerful and opportunistic scavenger. The ruined boot is a testament to a jaw that can exert a force of 553 Newtons, giving it the strongest bite relative to its body size of any living mammalian carnivore with a force capable of crushing bone as easily as it crushes hiking gear. This incredible power, a key to its ecological success, has also become a central vector in the devil\u2019s story of near-extinction.",
        "author_list": "Yu, Clara"
    }
]