Winter 2021 Faculty Update

Professor of Physics and Astronomy Suzanne Amador Kane’s research group, including Theodore Bien '22 and Luis Contreras-Orendain '21, presented research on the biomechanics of spotted lanternflies in a poster and talk at the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology and at the American Physical Society meeting.

Francis B. Gummere Professor of English Kim Benston gave a presentation, "Teaching Race and Gender in Renaissance Drama," to the teaching faculty of "Literature-Humanities" at  Columbia University. He also gave a lecture, "Shakespeare, (Ante)Racism, and Hybridity,"  for the DuBois Institute Symposium Series at Harvard University.

Visiting Instructor of Visual Studies Sally Berger published an essay, "Standby Snow: Chronicles of a Heatwave" in the Spring/Fall 2020 double issue of the Millenium Film Journal. The essay is about the environmentally based, public art initiatives of Mountain Time Arts, including a large-scale, place-based, multimedia art project co-directed by Mary Ellen Strom and Laine Rettmer for the Story Mill Grain Terminal in Bozeman, Montana. Berger was also the moderator for a panel discussion on experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer organized by and held at the Rosendale Theatre in update New York.

Assistant Professor of Economics Carola Binder was a panelist for a discussion of Nicole Baerg’s Creating Consensus for an International Women's Day virtual event hosted by the University of Essex. Binder presented "Inflation Expectations and Consumption: Evidence from 1951" at the National Bureau of Economic Research Monetary Policy meeting, and was an invited discussant at the Bank of International Settlements Office of the Americas Conference on Central Bank Communication. She also published "Political Pressure on Central Banks" in the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking. Binder gave invited virtual research talks at Marquette University, the H.O. Stekler Research Program on Forecasting at George Mason University, and the Banque du France, presenting her work with GwangMin Kim on learning-through-survey effects.

Associate Professor of Chemistry Lou Charkoudian published a paper, "Probing the structure of acyl carrier proteins to unlock the strategic redesign of type II polyketide biosynthetic pathways," in the Journal of Biological Chemistry alongside current Haverford students Ariana Sulpizio '21, Callie Crawford '22, and Rebecca Koweek '22. Charkoudian also gave an invited seminar at Union College.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Clyde Daly gave a talk to the alumni affinity group Sustainable Fords.

Visiting Assistant Professor of English Thomas Devaney's poem "When You Were Blessed" was featured on the Healing Verse Philly Poetry Line, a toll-free telephone line that offers callers a 90-second poem by a Philadelphia-connected poet each week. The project is curated by the city Poet Laureate Trapeta Mayson and is hosted by the Kelly Writers House.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Independent College Programs Richard Kent Evans’ book MOVE: An American Religion (Oxford, 2020) was named a finalist for the Pauli Murray Book Prize for the best book in Black intellectual history. Named after lawyer, author, and women’s rights activist-intellectual Pauli Murray, this prize recognizes the best book concerning Black intellectual history (broadly conceived) published between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 by a member of African American Intellectual History Society.

Executive Director of the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship Eric Hartman and Fellow for Ethical Global Learning Nora Reynolds served as invited speakers and facilitators for the Elon University Project Pericles Program. The three-part series in March was titled "Ethical Global Engagement." Hartman was also the keynote speaker for the annual conference of the Utah Campus Community Engagement Network (UCCEN), where he presented “Civics Beyond Dichotomies: In and of Campus and Community Local and Global Interdependence.”

Professor of Music Heidi Jacob’s and Charles Abramovic’s score for the documentary My Sister Hali was a Bronze Winner at the December 2020 Latitude Film Awards. That film was also chosen as one of the top 25 documentaries at the UK International Festival.

Assistant Professor of Biology Roshan Jain’s students Rodrigo Zúñiga Mouret '20 and Hannah Doll '21 each presented their summer research projects in Jain's lab at the Philadelphia Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience (PCSfN) summer 2020 meeting. Rodrigo earned an award for the Best Technician Poster for his work on the impact of the autism-associated gene AP2S1 on acoustic learning and decision-making in young zebrafish. Hannah earned the Best Undergraduate Poster award for her research as a Velay Scholar on how that same AP2S1 gene also regulates visually-guided behavior in unexpected ways. Emma Iacobucci '21 and Nicholas "Cole" Roland '21 synthesized and presented the work of their “Biology Superlab” spring 2020 course exploring the effect of serotonin on learning and decision-making behavior in zebrafish at the PCSfN summer 2020 conference, the fall 2020 Neuroscience Undergraduate Research Virtual Symposium (NURVS), and the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS 2020). Ivan Ruiz '23 presented his KINSC Summer Scholar research project in the Jain lab at the ABRCMS 2020 conference, focused on identifying how the AP2S1 gene impacts hunting behavior in zebrafish. Ivan earned a Neuroscience Poster Presentation Award for his research presentation at this national conference.

Robert and Constance MacCrate Professor of Social Responsibility and Professor of Religion Ken Koltun-Fromm’s book, Drawing on Religion: Reading and the Moral Imagination in Comics & Graphic Novels, was published in December 2020 by Pennsylvania State University Press.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing and Oral Communication Specialist Nimisha Ladva was featured twice on PBS's Stories from the Stage: on the Valentine's Day episode "Love Hurts" and the live competitive slam performance, "Love: Together and Apart," which she won. Ladva also published a paper, “Is the Communication Center Racist?,” in the Communication Center Journal. The paper will be the subject of a panel, "Responses to Nimisha Ladva’s 'Is the Communication Center Racist? An Inquiry into Black Linguistic Justice, Anti-Racism, and Assimilation,'" at the National Association of Communication Centers' Annual Conference.

Professor Emeritus of History and Visiting Professor in the Writing Program and Quaker Studies Emma Lapsansky was a seminar consultant for the American Philosophical Society’s “Revolutionary Stakeholders” to help plan upgrading its digital library metadata. She also gave a presentation, "Friends (Quakers) in the Neighborhood,” to Merion Friends Meeting, served as a guest editor for the Fall 2020 issue of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography; and  continues on the Advisory Board of the Philadelphia Center for Early  American  Studies. 

Associate Professor of Linguistics Brook Lillehaugen published “Ticha: Collaboration with Indigenous communities to build digital resources on Zapotec language and history” in Digital Humanities Quarterly (with George Aaron Broadwell, Moisés García Guzmán, May Helena Plumb ’16, and Haverford Libraries’ Felipe H. Lopez and Mike Zarafonetis) and the open educational resource “Cali Chiu? A Course in Valley Zapotec, 2nd edition” (with Pamela Munro, Lopez, and Benjamin Paul ’20). Her Ticha Project 2020 Blog Series was awarded the Best Digital Humanities Blog Post or Series of Blogs at the 2020 Digital Humanities Awards. Lillehaugen gave a presentation, “Caseidyneën Saën: The collaborative creation of open educational materials as a pedagogical practice and act of resistance,” at the online 7th International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (co-authored with Broadwell, Janet Chávez Santiago, Laura Curiel, Xóchitl M. Flores-Marcial, Guzmán, Rogelio Hernández Sernas, Eloise Kadlecek BMC ‘22, Collin Kawan-Hemler ‘22, Lopez, Edith Matías, Yaneth Molina, Plumb, Ignacio Santiago, and Maria Velasco-Vasquez). And she gave a presentation, “Learning about Zapotec Culture and Languages” with Felipe H. Lopez as a part of the Art Never Ends Series at the Consulate of Mexico in Philadelphia and Mexican Cultural Center. She also  presented on “El zapoteco del valle de Tlacolula y el activism digital” at  Universidad del Pueblo in Tlacolula, and was a panelist at the UN International Day of Mother Language Celebration at Tlacolula de Matamoros.

Director of College Writing Center and Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing Kristin Lindgren contributed “Hiding in Plain Sight: Laura Swanson’s Anti-Self-Portraits and the Problem of Difference” to Anti-Portraiture: Challenging the Limits of the Portrait (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020), which was edited by Fiona Johnstone and Kirstie Imber. Lindgren also gave an invited talk, “What Does Disability Studies Offer Medicine?” to Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

Professor Emeritus of Music Thomas Lloyd partnered with conducting colleague Donald Dumpson to produce an hour-long film for WHYY-PBS12 in Philadelphia, Christmas Together in a Time of Isolation. Their two choirs, the Bucks County Choral Society and the Philadelphia Heritage Chorale, respectively, made the most out of the postponement of a concert planned before the pandemic to come together singing safely outdoors, with masks and separation. The film includes interviews with choir members and the two directors about the process of working together over the course of several months in an effort to bridge the isolation brought about by COVID and the historical separation between urban and suburban communities. The film was viewed in prime time during the two days before Christmas by over 20,000 viewers. 

Assistant Professor of Computer Science Sara Mathieson was awarded a National Institutes of Health R15 grant for her project, "Adaptive evolutionary inference frameworks for understudied populations using generative neural networks.” She also published "Ancestral haplotype reconstruction in endogamous populations using identity-by-descent" in PLOS Computational Biology. 

Associate Professor of Political Science Barak Mendelsohn published to papers: “The Limits of Ideologically-Unlikely Partnerships: Syria’s Support for Jihadi Terrorist Groups” in Studies in Conflict & Terrorism and “Ayman al-Zawahiri and the Challenges of Succession in Terrorist Organization” in Terrorism and Political Violence. Mendelsohn also co-wrote (with Colin Clarke) “Al-Qaeda Is Being Hollowed to Its Core” in War on the Rocks, and he gave talks at American University (about foreign fighters) and UCLA and West Point (about the state of al-Qaeda). Additionally, he gave an invited talk, "Transnational Jihadism and the transnational-local tensions," at the conference "The Future of Overseas Counter Terrorism: Developing the Western Response" at Oxford University, and joined the editorial board of the journal Studies in Conflict & Terrorism.

Associate Professor of Classics Bret Mulligan delivered two papers: “Gameplay and Game Development for the Latin Classroom” at UMASS-Amherst and “The Need for Simplicity in a Complex World, a contribution to Errare et Docere Humane: Learning from Mistakes and the Accessible Classroom” at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Classical Studies in Chicago.

Professor of Political Science Zachary Oberfield published an article, "Racial Discrimination and Street‐Level Managers: Performance, Publicness, and Group Bias," in Public Administration Review with Matthew Incantalupo. 

Associate Professor of English Lindsay Reckson  gave two recent invited talks to celebrate the publication of her book Realist Ecstasy: Religion, Race, and Performance in American Literature (NYU Press, 2020). The first was for Princeton University's Intersections Working Group in English and African American Studies, and the second for Oxford University's American Literature Research Seminar (in collaboration with the University of Manchester).

William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Classics Deborah Roberts wrote (with Sheila Murnaghan) a chapter, "Picturing Duality: The Minotaur as Beast and Human in Illustrated Myth Collections for Children," in Chasing Mythical Beasts: The Reception of Ancient Monsters in Children's and Young Adults' Culture (Universitätsverlag Winter, 2020), which was edited by Katarzyna Marciniak.

Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Assistant Professor of Visual Studies, and Director of Visual Studies Erin Schoneveld published "The Russia of the Shirakaba Group: Tolstoy in a Japanese Vision of Social Modernism,” in the volume Japan’s Russia: Changing the East-West Paradigm, edited by Olga Solovieva and Sho Konishi.

Professor of English Gustavus Stadler gave a book talk about Woody Guthrie: An Intimate Life with faculty and students from the University of Sussex (UK) School of Media, Arts, and Humanities. Stadler was part of an online discussion, "Left Pasts, Left Futures: A Conversation With Peter Coviello, Gustavus Stadler, and Kyla Schuller," hosted by Princeton’s Labyrinth Books, and he talked about his book with writer Robin Wheeler on C-Span2. He also talked about his book on Jacobin Radio, the podcast of Jacobin magazine. Stadler also published an article in Al Jazeera in wake of post-inauguration controversy about “This Land is Your Land.”

Associate Professor of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Jill Stauffer wrote an essay, "Law and Oral History: Hearing the Claims of Indigenous Peoples," that appeared in Logics of Genocide: The Structures of Violence and the Contemporary World (Routledge, 2020), which was edited by Anne O'Byrne and Martin Shuster.

As part of her ongoing practice-based research, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor in Visual Studies Raegan Truax performed "Recitation" for a consecutive 13 hours on March 11-12.

Douglas and Dorothy Steere Professor of Quaker Studies David Watt made a presentation at the Louisville Institution on the Society of Friends and the rise of Nazism. He was also named co-chair of the Quaker Studies Program Unit of the American Academy of Religion.

Assistant Professor of Biology Kristen Whalen published two papers: "Characterizing the culturable surface microbiomes of diverse marine animals" in FEMS Microbiology Ecology and "Identification of a bacteria-produced benzisoxazole with antibiotic activity against multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii" in The Journal of Antibiotics. The former was lead by Abigail Keller '17 and included student authors Ellysia Overton '19, Yuying Rong '20, Ruiyi Yuan '19, and Scott Pollara '19. The latter included student coauthors Shreya Kishore '21 and Lucy Zhao '22. Whalen also gave an invited seminar on her research investigating bacteria-phytoplankton interactions to the BIO & Geo Microbial Interactions Group at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Audrey A. and John L. Dusseau Professor in the Humanities; Professor of Fine Arts William E. Williams’ photographs were included in two exhibitions: Through the Lens: Modern Photography in the Delaware Valley at the James Michener Museum of Art in Doylestown, PA, which is on view through August 21, 2021, and (Un)Making Monuments at The Print Center in Philadelphia, which ran Sept. 30-Oct. 21, 2020. Williams gave an online lecture, “Philadelphia Party Pictures: A Journey from the Basement to the Penthouse 1979-1989,” at the Philadelphia Aethenaeum in which he contextualized those photographs within his larger career. He also—along with Photography Lab Technician Daniel Burns and photography students Cindy Ji BMC ‘21 and Ellen Kerns ‘22—managed the logistics for the 38th annual Oracle International Photographer Curator Meeting, which took place virtually on Zoom. The broadcasts for this gathering of curators from around the world took place were held in the Lutnick Library Seminar Room November 5–7. 

Associate Professor of Political Science Susanna Wing co-authored (with Alice J. Kang) an article, “Litigating Socio-Economic and Women’s Rights in Benin’s Constitutional Court,” in African Affairs for which Jack Anderson ‘20 provided essential research assistance. Wing also presented a paper, "Competing Legitimacies: International Agencies and Rule of Law in Mali," at the International Workshop "Rifle, Quill, and Rosary: Competing sources and corporate struggles for political legitimacy in Mali," which was convened virtually at the University of Münster in Germany.

Assistant Professor and Director of Choral and Vocal Studies Nathan Zullinger was selected as a semi-finalist in the professional choral division of The American Prize national nonprofit competitions in the performing arts. The recognition comes after the release of a CD, Seven Women of Ancient Greek Myth (Albany), that features Zullinger conducting the Viva Voce Chamber Singers in performing compositions by Emeritus Professor of Music Curt Cacioppo. 

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