Take a circular hair tie and set it on a table. That's an "unknot". Pick it up, cut it, twist it into a knot and then reconnect the cut ends, and now you've got the kind of knot that mathematicians study. Follow along as Erika takes us on a brief journey into her thesis focusing on knot theory. Reed community members can read Erika's thesis, “Khovanov Homology: Putting Pants on Knots,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/e4688b4e-d55b-46c4-a30e-0ebab9dd393c