Fall 2018 Faculty Updates

Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing Eli Anders presented "‘The English Riviera for the Convalescent Workers’: Constructing Landscapes of Convalescence in Late Victorian England" at the meeting of the North American Conference on British Studies in Providence, R.I., on Oct. 28.

Professor of Fine Arts Markus Baenziger was one of over 20 national and international artists invited to create site-specific public art installations along a 1.3-km-long urban path in the Old Town of Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India as part of the Bhubaneswar Art Trail (BAT 2018). Reviews of that work were published in The New Indian Express, The Times of India, The Daily Pioneer, and Orissa Diary. Baenziger also spoke in Kedarnath Gaveshana Pratisthana, Bhubaneswar, as part of BAT’s Artist Talk Series on Nov. 10.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Laura Been published an article, "Towards a Neurobiology of Aggression,” co-authored with Alison Gibbons '19, in Neuropharmacology. Been also took five Haverford students—Dylan Gearinger '19, Alison Gibbons '19, Kagan Harris '21, Achint Singh '19, and Hannah Wild '19—to the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, Calif., where they gave three poster presentations.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing and Writing Fellow Natasha Bissonauth gave an invited talk, “Chitra Ganesh’s Tales of Amnesia: Re-Remembering Goddess Iconography through Queer Form,” at the Bryn Mawr Visual Studies Colloquium in September. She also spoke on “Irreverent Play in the Light Works of Elizabeth and Iftikhar Dadi” at the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present 10th Annual Conference in New Orleans in October.

Ruth Marshall Magill Professor of Music Curt Cacioppo was invited to the Conservatorio di Milano “Giuseppe Verdi” di Milano to present a series of seminars and masterclasses for students and faculty in piano, musicology, and composition on Native American music and his and other composers’, both Native and non-Native, creative response to it. The residency culminated in a recital by Cacioppo in the Sala Puccini. His program included music by the Native American composer Fred Cardin (Quapaw), the European premiere of Christopher Shultis’s “World’s End Preludes,” premieres of five of his own compositions along with readings of his poetry, and traditional Native singing. From Milan, Cacioppo traveled to Bari for a performance of his “Hamlet Elegy” by Abbiati prize-winning violinist Francesco D’Orazio at a Time Zones Festival concert sponsored by the Piccinni Conservatory. Following this, he went on to Venice to hear the Quartetto di Venezia play his String Quartet No. 7 (Nebbia lagunare), which the ensemble commissioned for its 35th anniversary season. Cacioppo’s new Walt Whitman setting, (“I, madly struggling, cry”), commissioned by the Post Classical Ensemble, received its world premiere at the Washington National Cathedral, and various other compositions were performed in Toronto, Philadelphia, and at Haverford. He also poduced two new videos:  “Tritton Fanfare,” and “…of dark and bright…” 

Assistant Professor of Linguistics Jane Chandlee gave three conference talks this semester: "A Computational Account of Tone Sandhi Interaction" and "Output-based Computation and Unbounded Phonology" (co-authored with Kevin McMullin of the University of Ottawa), at the Annual Meeting on Phonology at the University of California San Diego in October, and "Quantifier-free least fixed point functions for phonology" (co-authored with Adam Jardine of Rutgers University), at the Northeast Computational Phonology Meeting at MIT in November.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Lou Charkoudian '03 and Bashkim Kokona (Haverford Chemistry) led 17 undergraduate students in publishing research findings originating from the 2016 Biochemistry Superlab course in a special issue of AlChE Journal. Marco Rivas '19 and Valentine Courouble '18 continued working on this project upon completion of the course as part of their senior thesis work and are co-first authors on the manuscript. Additional authors include all students enrolled in the course, Ashley Sisto '20, Chemistry Research Associate Adam Huff, Professor of Biology Robert Fairman, and Drexel Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology Joris Beld. Charkoudian and Visiting Assistant Professor of Independent College Programs Kristin Lindgren, along with Lindsey Lopes '15, Sarah Waldis '15, and Stephanie Terrell '18, published a manuscript, "Vibrant symbiosis: Achieving reciprocal science outreach through biological art," in PLOS Biology. This manuscript describes a collaborative project between Haverford College and the Center for Creative Works, an arts studio focused on developing the creative potential of and a cultural identity for people with intellectual disabilities. Charkoudian also gave invited seminars at the National Cancer Institute, Duke University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois Chicago, and participated in the 2018 Scialog Scholars meeting.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science Tom Donahue signed a contract with Oxford University Press to publish his book, Unfreedom For All: How Global Injustices Harm You. He also helped host the annual meeting of the Association for Political Theory, which welcomed 250 scholars and students to Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges in October.

Associate Professor of Computer Science John Dougherty attended the Association of Computing Machinery’s Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing to explore how his work on accessible computing could extend beyond serving people with disabilities and into universal design.

Emily Judson Baugh Gest and John Marshall Gest Professor and Professor of Global Philosophy Ashok Gangadean is currently in the process of initiating a video channel as a global portal to present his research in global philosophy. A sample video, "The Missing ((Source Science)): Why /Activism/ Fails,” is currently available.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Myron Gray published two articles: a book review of Charles E. Brewer’s Singing Sedition: Piety and Politics in the Music of William Billings, which appeared in the fall 2018 edition of American Music, and "Music," which appeared in the fall 2018 edition of Early American Studies.

Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Daniel Grin gave several talks this fall. He gave a presentation on how astronomical observations can help us sort out the makings of dark matter at the Delaware Valley Astronomy Association's monthly meetup on Nov. 16. He spoke on a panel at a postdoctoral fellow career forum at the Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics (KICP) at the University of Chicago, his final postdoctoral home, on Oct. 15, sharing his experiences in the liberal arts college job market and at Haverford. Grin also spoke about his research on ultra-light axions as dark matter and dark energy candidates, focusing particularly on cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations, at the Nuclear and Particle Physics Seminar at Rice University on Nov. 29. Additionally, he attended a CMB Stage-4 collaboration meeting in Princeton, N.J., and participated in discussions about sections in the collaboration's upcoming Decadal Survey Report (to the National Academies) on dark matter and dark energy, as well as preliminary discussions on submitting a "white paper" about gravitational probes of ultra-light axions to the decadal review.

Douglas & Dorothy Steere Professor of Quaker Studies David Harrington Watt signed a contract with Penn State University Press to co-edit a book, The Quakers, 1830-1937: The Creation of Modern Quaker Diversity. He also gave two presentations at the annual convention of the American Academy of Religion in Denver, in November: “The Archives in Which We Work” and “What if Quaker History Is Women’s History?”

Executive Director of the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship Eric Hartman co-authored two essays: “Ethical Global Partnerships: Leadership from the Global South,” which was included in The Handbook of Service-Learning for Social Justice (Wiley, 2018), and “To Hell and Back with Good Intentions: Global Service-learning in the Shadow of Ivan Illich,” which was included in Conflict Zone, Comfort Zone: Ethics, Pedagogy, and Best Practices (Ohio University Press, 2018). He also served as a plenary speaker for the annual Global Engagement in the Liberal Arts conference, held at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, on Sept.18, where he gave a talk on “Ethical Global Engagement and the Special Role for Liberal Arts Colleges.”

Benjamin R. Collins Professor of Social Sciences Anita Isaacs and Professor of Economics Anne Preston co-authored an article, “Tear Gas and Intimidation Won’t Fix the Root Xauses of Migration,” that appeared in The Washington Post on Nov. 26.

Associate Professor of Music Heidi Jacob had three musical compositions performed: “Scherzo for Flute and Marimba” (2018) at the Festival Osmose 2018 on Nov. 30, in Espace Toots, Evere, Belgium, by Amélie Debecq and Damien Delvaux; “Metamorphosis I” (2012) at San Francisco Music Days, Intermusic San Francisco and the Veterans Memorial in San Francisco, California on Sept. 30, by Thalia Moore; and “Fantasy for Piano” (2005) at a Philadelphia Young Pianists’ Academy/Academy of Vocal Arts concert on Aug. 11, by Charles Abramovic and at a Music of the Americas concert on Sept. 23 at Temple University’s Las Américas en Concierto Piano Rock Hall, also by Charles Abramovic. She also served as a judge for the 2018 James Ramos International Video Competition.

Professor of Fine Arts Hee Sook Kim received her 16th honorable mention from the Enter-into-Art Awards held in Königswinter, Germany. Her work was featured in a solo show, Invitation to Paradise, at Haverford College’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, and seven international group shows: Spectrum Miami at the Artblend Gallery as part of Art Basel, 2018; Sunrises, Sunsets at the Kyo Gallery in Alexandria, Va.; The Plastic Club at the American Color Print Society in Philadelphia; ACPS Board Members Exhibition at the Bob Jackson Gallery in Philadelphia; 16 Times Art at Weißenthurm Town Hall Gallery in Germany; and American Color Print Society and Masterfufl Group Show at Chestnut Hill Gallery in Philadelphia. Kim was featured in two publications, 16 times ART and Meditaterra.de Blog.

Robert and Constance MacCrate Professor of Social Responsibility and Professor of Religion Ken Koltun-Fromm co-edited Comics and Sacred Texts: Reimagining Religion and Graphic Narratives (University of Mississippi Press, 2018), which was dedicated to late Associate Professor of Classics Robert Germany.

Associate Professor of Religion Naomi Koltun-Fromm co-edited The Routledge Handbook on Jerusalem (Routledge, 2018) and contributed a letter to American Values, Religious Voices: 100 Days, 100 Letters (University of Cincinnati Press, 2018).

Assistant Professor of Linguistics Brook Lillehaugen gave two invited talks: “Integrating Community Engagement, Hands-on Research, and Digital Humanities in an Undergraduate Classroom” at the annual meeting of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities in Chicago on Oct.23, and “Digital Scholarship and Collaboration with Stake-holding Communities: Ticha, a Digital Text Explorer for Colonial Zapotec” at a colloquiem on educational technology at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., on Oct.1.

T. Wistar Brown Professor of Philosophy Danielle Macbeth published a paper, "A Non-structuralist Alternative to Formalism," in a special issue of the Journal of Applied Logics on the emergence of structuralism and formalism in mathematics. Macbeth also published  "Pragmatism: Then and Now" in the book Pragmatism and Its History: Recent Interpretations (Academic Project, 2018).

Associate Professor of Political Science Barak Mendelsohn’s book, Jihadism Constrained: The Limits of Transnational Jihadism and What It Means for Counterterrorism was published by Rowman & Littlefield. Mendelsohn spoke about the book at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and American University’s School of International Service. In addition, he participated in a panel on the future of counterterrorism cooperation held at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and published his article, “Bound to Fail: Transnational Jihadism and the Aggregation Problem," on the national security blog War on the Rocks.

Associate Professor of Classics Bret Mulligan staged the Tales of Troy exhibit fin VCAM rom Sept. 24 through Oct. 12 with the support of the John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities Center and Special Collections. The exhibit included antiquities depicting scenes from the Trojan War, Mycenaean artifacts (including a reproduction of the “Mask of Agamemnon”), a selection of prints commissioned in 1971 by the International Rescue Committee that interpret Aeneas' flight from Troy, 3D-printed reproductions (made in the VCAM Maker Space) of ancient sculptural depictions of the myth, and digital versions of two recent graphic novels. Mulligan also gave two invited lectures: one on "The Florilegium Philadelphiense or Teaching Local Latin" at the annual meeting of the Philadelphia Classical Society and another on “Disease as Meatphor” at the University of Pennsylvania.

Associate Professor of Political Science Zachary Oberfield gave an invited talk, “Parent Engagement and Satisfaction in Charter Schools and District Schools,” at the Rutgers University School of Public Affairs and Administration on Oct. 17. He also co-contributed a chapter to The Handbook of Public Administration (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018), entitled “Public Sector Diversity Research: Taking Stock.”

Emeritus Professor of Astronomy Bruce Partridge was part of an international group of scienctists awarded the prestigious Gruber Prize in Cosmology for their work on the Planck mission, a scientific initiative involving the design of a space observatory that produced unprecedentedly detailed maps of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation.

J. McLain King 1928 Professor in Mathematics and Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Joshua Sabloff gave talks at two conferences—Geometric Methods in Symplectic and Contact Topology  in Asilomar, Calif., in August, and the Mini-Workshop on Legendrian Submanifolds in Montreal in November—about the geometry and topology of Lagrangian surfaces in four-dimensional spaces. He also gave a series of three talks at Louisiana State University in October, aimed at undergraduates, graduates, and research specialists, respectively.  

Associate Professor of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Jill Stauffer gave a talk, " 'the closest thing that comes to my mind': Law, Genocide, and Decolonial Hearing," at Rowan University on Oct. 5  as part of its “Theorizing at Rowan” lecture series. She also wrote an essay, “Building Worlds/Thinking Together about Ethical Loneliness,” in the Spring 2018 edition of Philosophy Today featuring five essays on her book.

Assistant Professor of Health Studies Anna West co-organized a panel on classification in the age of algorithm and presented a paper, "Accounting for the Social: Verbal Autopsy and the Limits of Algorithmic Truths,” at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in San Jose, Calif., on Nov.16. She also co-organized a panel on health and medicine and presented a paper, "Life Is/As Capital: Figuring Futures in an American Behavior Change Project in Malawi,” at the annual meeting of the African Studies Association (ASA) in Atlanta, Ga., on Nov. 29.

Assistant Professor of Biology Kristen Whalen has two papers accepted for publication. “The chemical cue tetrabromopyrrole induces rapid cellular stress and mortality in phytoplankton,” will appear in Scientific Reports with two Haverford students (Nicholson '18 and O'Reilly '18) listed as co-authors. A second publication, “Mercury Speciation and Retention in a Salt Marsh Undergoing Long-term Fertilization” will publish in Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science.

Associate Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Studies Helen White published two papers, “Chemical characterization of natural and anthropogenic-derived oil residues on Gulf of Mexico beaches” and “Tar balls collected in the North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea from 1988 to 2016 have natural and anthropogenic origins” in Marine Pollution Bulletin. The first paper was co-authored by Alexandra Morrison ’18 and Charvanaa Dhoonmoon ’19 and was based on Morrison's senior thesis research. The second paper was a collaboration between White and her collaborators from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the Sea Education Association (SEA).

Audrey A. and John L. Dusseau Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Fine Arts William Earle Williams had work included in the Pennsylvania Landscape in Impressionism and Contemporary Art exhibition at the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood. It opened on September 22 and is on view through January 27, 2019. 

Associate Professor of English Christina Zwarg published "Temporal Effects: Trauma, Margaret Fuller and “Graphicality" in Poe” in The Oxford Handbook of Edgar Allan Poe (Oxford University Press, 2018). She also presented two papers, "Glimpsing Goethe's Corpse: Translating the Now in Fuller's Eckermann” at the North American Society for the Study in Romanticism (NASSAR) conference in Providence, R.I., in June, and “Virtual Douglass: Estranging the Temporality of Violence” at a conference on Frederick Douglass in Paris in October.