Winter 2025 Faculty Update
![Faculty member writes on a blackboard](https://www.haverford.edu/sites/default/files/styles/marquee_top_image/public/Office/Communications/faculty-update.jpg?itok=ylN8UlNw)
Details
Highlighting faculty professional activities, including conferences, exhibitions, performances, awards, and publications.
Solidarity Cities: Confronting Racial Capitalism, Mapping Transformation by Maliha Safri, Marianna Pavlovskaya, Stephen Healy, and Professor of Political Science Craig Borowiak was published on Jan. 7 by University of Minnesota Press. The book is available in print and as a free digital Manifold edition.
In December, Variety reported that the recently filmed adaptation of Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature Roberto Castillo Sandoval’s novel Muriendo por la dulce patria mía was picked up by Disney+. It is scheduled for theatrical release throughout Latin America in August 2025 and for streaming on the platform shortly thereafter. The screenplay was co-written by Gonzalo Maza, who wrote A Fantastic Woman, the 2018 Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Film.
Associate Professor of Linguistics Jane Chandlee co-organized the symposium Computational Models of Learnability and Acquisition of Morphology and Phonology at the Annual Meeting of the Linguistics Society of America, held in Philadelphia in January. Chandlee also published a monograph titled Quantitative and Computational Approaches to Phonology with Cambridge University Press.
Professor of Chemistry Lou Charkoudian published "Strategic Acyl Carrier Protein Engineering Enables Functional Type II Polyketide Synthase Reconstitution In Vitro" in ACS Chemical Biology. Undergraduate co-authors include Kevin Li '24, Meg Bowen '23, Rebecca Koweek '22, June Hoang '21, and Grayson Hamrick '21. She also gave an invited talk at the fifth International Conference on Natural Product Discovery and Development in the Genomic Era in San Diego.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Lee Dietterich co-authored the article “Root characteristics vary with depth across four lowland seasonal tropical forests” in Ecosystems, describing how roots change from surface soils to 120 cm depth in four forests in Panama chosen for their variation in rainfall and soil fertility. He also co-authored “Elemental composition and potential toxicity of the riverine macrophyte Podostemum ceratophyllum Michx. reflects land use in eastern North America” in Science of the Total Environment, investigating land-use effects on the chemical composition of an ecologically important aquatic plant throughout the eastern United States.
This fall, the John C. Whitehead 1943 Professor of the Humanities and Professor of Music Richard Freedman was appointed by the American Council of Learned Societies as their delegate to the Union Académique Internationale, the global organization for scholarly societies in the humanities and social sciences. He was also named distinguished fellow, faculty of humanities, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2024 – 2026).
This spring, Freedman is a visiting researcher at the Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance (Tours, France), thanks to a fellowship from Le Studium, the Loire Valley Institute for Advanced Studies.
He has also recently presented and published the following papers:
(With María Elena Cuenca Rodriguez, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), “Pedagogía del análisis computacional para repertorios renacentistas: el proyecto CRIM y las misas de Pedro Fernández Buch,” Resonancias, 28/55 (2024), pp. 11-44. http://doi.org/10.7764/res.2024.55.2
(With Daniel Russo-Batterham, Melbourne University), "Musicology in a Time of Technological Transformation," International Musicological Society: Musicological Brainfood, Aug. 2 (2024).
(With Marcel Klinke, Heidelberg University), “Lasso takes a Second Look: An Imitation of an Imitation Mass?” The Annual Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference, July 4 to 7, University of Granada, Spain.
“The Lost Voices Project in 2024: Reflections on a Decade of Digital of Reconstruction of Renaissance Music,” Reconstructing and Re-sounding Early Music, Geneva, Oct. 14 to 16, 2024
Freedman was also part of an international team of scholars appearing in a new film directed by noted Belgian director Joachim Thôme: Orlando, une vie de compositeur à la Renaissance (Productions du Vergier, 2024).
Margaret Gest Professor of Global Philosophy Ashok Gangadean inaugurated his ((Source Media Network)) initiative with five episodes of his lifelong quest for the missing ((Logos Code)). A prospective biographer of Gangadean’s life’s work sought his guidance and advice on how best to "narrate" his ((quest)) since deeper access to the long emerging ((Logos Code)) calls for a new form of ((narration)). Five episodes are now available on YouTube.
"Using HI observations of low-mass galaxies to test ultralight axion dark matter," by James Garland ’22, Professor of Physics and Astronomy Karen Masters, and Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Daniel Grin, has been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. This article is based on research done by the trio from 2022 to 2024, and shows that surveys for galaxies using 21-cm-wavelength radio waves could test the nature of dark matter. Specifically, ultra-light "axion" dark matter would reduce the numbers of very-low-mass galaxies in a way that could be empirically tested by upcoming experiments.
"Fuzzy Dark Matter Constraints from the Hubble Frontier Fields," by Jackson Sipple (University of Pennsylvania), Adam Lidz (University of Pennsylvania), Grin, and Guochao Sun (Northwestern University) has been submitted to the astrophysics arXiv preprint website, and is in the peer review process. The article describes work by the authors, in which they used data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to determine what the mass of a hypothetical particle (the axion) must be if predictions for very distant and old galaxy populations are to be consistent with HST data. The article also presents quantitative forecasts for how well ongoing surveys (using the James Webb Space Telescope or JWST) can improve sensitivity to axions.
"Accurate method for ultralight axion CMB and matter power spectra," by Rayne Liu (University of Chicago), Wayne Hu (University of Chicago), and Grin has been submitted to the astrophysics arXiv preprint website. The article builds on past work by Grin, Tessa Cookmeyer ’17 (started during her senior thesis), and others. The paper establishes new quantitative methods and provides new computational tools for predicting numerous astronomical observables under the hypothesis that some dark matter is composed of hypothetical particles called axions. The results could significantly impact the analysis of future cosmic microwave background data.
Executive Director of the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship Eric Hartman published an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer highlighting the importance of recruiting and retaining international students and scholars, along with advancing understanding of Pennsylvania's role within global political economy, entitled, "For Pennsylvania’s sake, let’s root for the Eagles — and the Steelers."
Associate Professor of History Darin Hayton wrote an article reflecting on uroscopy (diagnosis through the visual inspection of urine) as a long-lasting medical diagnostic technique. Although it seems reasonable, the point Hayton makes is that uroscopy was always and remains a performance of expertise. Strangely, despite modern analytical techniques, uroscopy remains common. The article appeared in Distillations, a journal published by The Science History Institute. Read the online version.
Professor of Music Heidi Jacob's “Suite for Flute and Piano” was performed by Lindsey Goodman, flute, and Clare Longendyke, piano, on Jan. 24 at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York. The suite, featured on the recording In the Company of Music received a bronze medal for outstanding achievements in the Global Music Awards Contemporary Classical category.
A performance of avoir de la mémoire for violin and piano with violinist Barbara Gavotas and pianist Cynthia Raim at the Chamber Music Residency Program, held at Campbell Village, Kimberton Hills.
New works by Phlyssa Koshland Professor in Fine Arts Ying Li were presented in Ying Li, Weather Report, a two-part joint exhibition at Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery and The Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia. This exhibition was accompanied by a publication featuring Li's artworks and an inclusive essay on her work by Barry Schwabsky '79, chief art critic for The Nation and co-editor of international reviews for Artforum. An artist talk with Schwabsky was held during the opening reception.
In addition, Li was invited to be a visiting critic at The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture in the fall and was invited to conduct a painting workshop titled "Chinese Calligraphy as a Starting Point" at The Truro Center for the Arts in Truro, Massachusetts.
In November, "Big Ball of Energy: Conversation with Ying Li" was conducted by Elizabeth Johnson at Art Sync. Li was also invited to be a Juror for a Faculty Fellowship at Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia.
Professor of Computer Science Steven Lindell was designated a 2025 AEN fellow after attending a fully subsidized short course from January 6 to 9 aimed at countering antisemitism, opposing the denigration of Jewish and Zionist identities, advancing education about Israel, and promoting academic freedom and open inquiry.
Additionally, Lindell was appointed as a Distinguished Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Professor of Physics and Astronomy Karen Masters traveled to the University of Kentucky to give the Bullitt Lecture “Browsing in the Astronomers Library” on her recent book. She also gave a colloquium, “Spirals in Galaxies,” for the university’s physics and astronomy department on Oct. 11.
Masters also attended the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Radio Frequencies (CORF) fall 2024 meeting at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Green Bank, West Virginia, from Nov. 20 to 22.
Masters also reports that the department held its first open observatory/public observing night which made use of a new inflatable planetarium that the department recently purchased to support teaching astronomy. This piece of equipment is set up with an inflatable dark dome that perfectly fills the newly renovated observatory classroom, allowing about 20 people to see planetarium shows in the observatory at one time. During public observing on Dec. 7, students ran four shows for approximately 75 members of the public.
Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in the John B. Hurford '60 Center for the Arts and Humanities and Visiting Assistant Professor of Peace, Justice and Human Rights Xerxes Minocher had two new publications:
Minocher, X. (2024). “The technological drama of AI: AlphaGo, from private power to player engagement.” Journal of Digital Social Research. https://doi.org/10.33621/jdsr.v6i440465
Ahmed, A.H., Yew, R., Minocher, X., & Venkatasubramanian, S. (2025). “Navigating Dialectal Bias and Ethical Complexities in Levantine Arabic Hate Speech Detection.” COLING: WACL-4. [pre-print, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2412.10991]
Professor of Classics Bret Mulligan co-organized a panel/workshop on "Teaching with Role-Immersive Games in a Variety of Classroom Settings" at the Society for Classical Studies Annual Meeting in January.
He also delivered "Vocabulary and Readings for the Revised Advanced Placement Latin Syllabus" at two conferences: Philadelphia Classical Society (November) and Classical Association of the Atlantic States (October).
Earlier in the fall, a collaborator (H Patterson III) delivered a co-authored paper "A Corpus with Latin Poetry have you: The Lost OLAC Discourse Type" at Language Documentation and Archiving during the Decade of Indigenous Languages (2024).
Mulligan also published a review: Siegenthaler, Pierre. Les Aenigmata de Symposius: jeux et dissimulations. Berlin; Basel: Schwabe Verlag, 2023, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2024.09.20.
Associate Professor and Chair of Anthropology Zolani Ngwane published “‘Looking Back I know that I was not a Man that Day': Nelson Mandela and the Ambiguities of Tradition in South Africa” in the Journal of Southern African Studies. DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2024.2433845
Professor Emerita of Classics and Comparative Literature Deborah Roberts co-organized (with Stephanie McCarter) a panel, "Translation and Creative Adaptation," at the annual meeting of the Society for Classical Studies in Philadelphia, held Jan. 2 through 5.
Associate Professor of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Jill Stauffer presented "What is skepticism, for Levinas?: temporalities of return and refutation," at the conference Emmanuel Levinas’s “Otherwise than Being” at 50 held at Texas A&M University, Dec. 10 to 11.
In November, Douglas & Dorothy Steere Professor of Quaker Studies David Harrington Watt made the presentation “Blackmore’s Analysis of Friends’ Groundbreaking Work for Gay Liberation” at the annual conference of the American Academy of Religion.
In January, Watt was named a founding editor of a book series: New York University Press’ North American Religions.
Vice President for Institutional Equity and Access and Professor of Religion and Gender and Sexuality Studies Nikki Young published "Escaping Impossibility: Musings on Freedom, Fugitivity, and Black Queer Ethics" in QTR: A Journal of Trans and Queer Studies in Religion (Vol 1.2).
Young also presented “Direction Matters: Justice as a Pathway to Good” on the keynote panel at the Society for Christian Ethics conference in Chicago, held January 9-12.
Finally, Young completed her tenure on the Board of Directors for the American Academy of Religion in January 2025.