Faculty Accomplishments
Our faculty members are active and accomplished scholars that demonstrate extraordinary commitment to and skill in teaching undergraduates. Each year, members of the faculty produce an average of 350 papers, books, articles, exhibits, and more.
September 2026
The following list contains summaries with the newest entries added to the top.
- New research by Assistant Professor of Literature & Creative Writing Tara M. Holman has been published by Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory. Holman’s article analyzes Lorna Simpson’s art, focusing on her works Interior (2009) and Chess (2013). Posted September 29, 2026
- Thomas Wilson, professor of history and the Bates and Benjamin Professor of Classical and Religious Studies, recently gave an invited talk on his new book, Confucian Gods: An Archaeology of Devotional Practice (Oxford University Press, 2026), at the East Asia Center of the University of Virginia. Posted September 28, 2026
- Assistant Professor of Russian Jason Cieply’s forthcoming book, Voicing Soviet Enthusiasm: Revolutionary Feeling and the Politics of Interclass Imitation, has been selected to receive a subvention through the Fall 2026 Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies First Book Subvention Program. Posted September 27, 2026
- A book review by Nhora Serrano, director of academic technology, teaching, and research services, is included in the American Civil Liberties Union’s 2026 Back-to-School Bookshelf, a national reading list highlighting books that engage with civil liberties, civil rights, and the work of building a more perfect union. Posted September 23, 2026
- Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies Amy Marvin recently co-curated a night of trans short films in Buffalo featuring a Q&A with filmmaker Nyala Moon. Posted September 21, 2026
- Associate Professor of Psychology Keelah Williams’ collaborative research paper titled, Sometimes we want vicious friends: People have nuanced preferences for how they want their friends to behave toward them versus others, was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize at a ceremony in Zürich, Switzerland, on Sept. 3. Posted September 3, 2026
- Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies Jack Martínez-Arias recently published an article titled “Indigenous Bodies: Sacred Craft and Forbidden Desire in Retablo (2017)” in the peer-reviewed journal South Atlantic Review. Posted September 18, 2026
- Maurice Isserman, the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History and author of Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering, is featured prominently in Pete Takeda’s Alpinist article “Stepping into the Syllabus: A Veteran Alpinist Sees the Himalaya Through the Eyes of College Students” (Issue 94, Summer 2026), about Isserman’s course History and Literature of Himalayan Mountaineering, from the Nineteenth Century to the Present. Posted September 3, 2026
- Professor of Religious Studies S.B. Rodríguez-Plate recently made presentations in Singapore and Scotland. In Singapore, they were invited to run a half-day workshop on publishing at Singapore Management University’s College of Integrative Sciences. Posted September 16, 2026
- Assistant Professor of Chemistry Ryan Martinie published a study on the biosynthesis of the antibiotic pantocin A in the journal ACS Chemical Biology. The study was coauthored by alumni Blake Levy ’23, Nyaari Kothiya ’23, Ben Jakubczak ’23, Natalie Beebe ’24, Anastasia Passalaris ’24, Taylor Bartels ’25, Isis Riviere ’25, and students Anika Amann ’27, Akmaral Tezekbaeva ’27, Rachel Alpert ’27, Tara Houser ’27, and Alice Lee ’28. Posted September 16, 2026
- Alan Cafruny, the Henry Platt Bristol Professor of International Relations, chaired a panel at the annual conference of the European International Studies Association in Lisbon, Portugal, on Sept. 4. Posted September 14, 2026
- Assistant Professor of Government Catherine Chen was elected to the governing council of the Organized Section on Public Policy at the American Political Science Association (APSA) at the 2026 APSA annual conference in Boston on Sept. 4. Posted September 10, 2026
- Assistant Professor of Anthropology Spencer Chen and Senior Fellow Carter Higgins ’27 presented their co-authored paper titled “#grindrtale: Modulated Sociality, Narrated Intimacies, and Mediated Desires on Grindr” at Lavender Languages and Linguistics 32: Queer (dis)belonging at the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, U.K., on Sept. 3. Posted September 8, 2026
- Marianne Janack, the John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy, published her most recent column with 3 Quarks Daily about reading. Posted September 6, 2026
- A co-written essay by Professor of Philosophy Russell Marcus and Ashley Scheichet ’25, “A Contemporary Connections Option for Early Modern Syllabus Diversification,” was recently published in Teaching Philosophy, the premiere journal for the scholarship of teaching and learning in philosophy. Posted September 4, 2026
- In the days following the passing of country music legend Dolly Parton on Aug. 25, media outlets reached out to Lydia Hamessley, the John and Anne Fischer Professor of Fine Arts in Music, for her expertise as an author of two books about the singer and her songs. Posted September 3, 2026
- Heidi M. Ravven, professor and director of Jewish Studies, gave an invited presentation on “Spinoza and Freud on Moral Responsibility and Law,” at the Center for Philosophy, Psychology, and Psychiatry, Norton College of Medicine, SUNY Upstate Medical University, on Aug. 18. Posted August 27, 2026
- An article co-authored by Associate Professor of Mathematics Jose Ceniceros and Angel Apollos ’26 appears in the Journal of Knot Theory and Its Ramifications. The paper is titled “Pointed Racks and Their Applications to Braid Theory.” After graduating, Apollos began a Ph.D. program in mathematics at Louisiana State University (LSU). Posted August 21, 2026
- Professor of French and Francophone Studies Martine Guyot-Bender will spend this fall in Cambodia studying the country’s emerging art-house cinema and teaching screenwriting at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, after having been selected for the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Her research will explore how a new generation of Cambodian filmmakers represents a society still navigating the legacy of the Khmer Rouge while moving toward modernization. Posted August 14, 2026
- Pavitra Sundar, professor of literature and director of cinema and media studies, published an article titled “Text, Technology, Time Bent: Cripping Access with Jay Afrisando and Simoné Goldschmidt-Lechner” in a special issue of Cinéma and Cie focused on disability, media, and accessibility. Posted August 10, 2026
- Assistant Professor of Theatre Emily K. Harrison recently directed a production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest at the Theater at Woodshill, a professional, not-for-profit summer theatre in Sauquoit, N.Y. The production included design expertise from Mike Revenaugh, instructional designer in digital innovation at Burke Library. Posted August 7, 2026
- Tara McKee, the Elizabeth J. McCormack Professor of Psychology, along with collaborator Adam Lalor ’04, vice president of neurodiversity research and innovation at Landmark College, presented a poster titled “I’m Not Like Everyone Else” at the 2026 conference of the Association on Higher Education and Disability in July. Posted August 5, 2026
- Associate Professor of Digital Arts Anna Huff and a team of collaborators completed and presented to a select audience “Channelers 3.0,” during a University of Washington hosted residency this summer. Posted August 4, 2026
- Assistant Professor of Anthropology Hannah Lau was a co-author on a paper on which Nandini Subramaniam ’22 was first author. Former faculty member Colin Quinn was another co-author on “A histological approach to mortuary variability in Early Bronze Age Transylvania” in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Posted August 3, 2026
- Head Men’s and Women’s Golf Coach and Associate Professor of Physical Education Lauren Cupp ’07 captured both a state and national golf championship in the same week. Posted July 31, 2026
- Russell Marcus, the Christian A. Johnson Professor of Teaching Excellence, presented new research, “Learning Moments,” and received the AAPTs Award of Merit at the 50th anniversary workshop-conference of the American Association of Philosophy Teachers at Eastern Michigan University, July 22-26. Posted July 30, 2026
- Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas delivered the keynote address at a public conference hosted by the University of Guyana. Additionally, he co-authored the article “Committed to the Cause of Humanity’: Guyana and the Morality of Cuban Medical Internationalism.” Posted July 24, 2026
- Language Center Director Claire Frances co-authored the article “Validating a Can-Do Self-Assessment Tool: Validity, Utility, and Student Reflections” in the journal Second Language Research & Practice. Posted July 21, 2026
- Nhora Lucia Serrano, director of academic technology, teaching, and research services, and Susan E. Kirtley, (Portland State University), co-authored the Ms. Magazine op-ed “Supergirl’s Long Fight to Escape Superman’s Shadow.” Posted July 20, 2026
- Katherine H. Terrell, the Margaret Bundy Scott Professor of the Humanities in Literature and Creative Writing, presented a paper at the International Conference of Medieval and Renaissance Scottish Language, Literature, and Culture, held at Bristol University (England) on July 5 to 9. Posted July 17, 2026
- “Pleistocene record of a dynamic, fluctuating lacustrine margin from the Turkana Basin, Kenya,” co-authored by Associate Professor of Geosciences Catherine (Cat) Beck, appears in the October issue of Quaternary Science Reviews from Elsevier. Posted July 16, 2026
- “(1850) The Psychic Highway,” an essay by Professor of Religious Studies S.B. Rodriguez-Plate for the Under Gods project of Indiana University, was recently published in the IU journal American Religion. Posted July 10, 2026
- “Contrasting public and healthcare worker perspectives on the denial of medical care to trans people in the United States: It’s (mostly) about gender,” co-authored by Chair and Associate Professor of Sociology Matthew Grace, was recently published in the Elsevier journal Social Science & Medicine. Posted July 6, 2026
- (Ed. note: Some readers might find title of the play offensive) Assistant Professor of Theatre Emily K. Harrison’s scholarly review of the 2025 World Premiere of Jordan Tannahill’s play Prince Faggot was published in the most recent edition of Theatre Journal (Volume 78, Number 20: June 2026). Posted July 2, 2026
- Marianne Janack, the John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy, will be contributing a monthly column to the online magazine 3 Quarks Daily, a magazine of new and unpublished articles as well as curated articles about science, philosophy, arts, and culture. Posted July 1, 2026
