Director of Student Inclusion and Diversity MyKella Mitchell, a higher education advocate, mentor, and speaker, successfully defended her dissertation focused on Black women faculty in STEM at Ivy and Ivy+ institutions. Her research explores their experiences, challenges, and triumphs within elite academic spaces, offering important insight into representation, persistence, and belonging in higher education.

Associate Vice President for Human Resources Jennifer Charles has been named a 2026 HR Impact Awards nominee by the Austin Business Journal. The annual awards honor HR leaders across Central Texas who are building the best climate, team atmosphere, benefits, and most importantly, engaged employees. The Austin Business Journal will be recognizing the HR Impact Awards nominees at an awards luncheon at Kalahari Resort & Convention Center in late June.

Assistant Professor of History Bryan Kauma presented a paper titled “‘Put it in their food:’ Food, Power and Social Control in Zimbabwe” at the Workshop on Southern Africa (WoZA), held in Connecticut from May 1–3. The paper stems from an ongoing SURF project exploring the gendered history and politics of African foodways.

University Chaplain and Director of Spiritual Life Ron Swain participated in the Rotary International District 5870 Conference and Service Cruise to Cozumel, Mexico. Ron was on the team that assembled wheel chairs for 25 recipients. He also was captain of the team to install and dedicate a “Peace Pole” at the soon-to-be-named “Rotary Way” in Cozumel.

Southwestern was well-represented at the Consortium for Computer Sciences in Colleges: South Central Region Conference at McNeese State University on April 24, with eight students presenting their software engineering capstone work. While only some members from each capstone team traveled, all are named here for their contributions. Two of those students also presented their research. All projects were supervised by Lord Chair and Professor of Computer Science Barbara Anthony. The research poster by Evelyn Harrington ’26 and Camille James ’26 on “What Differentiates a BA from a BS in CS? Insights from Liberal Arts Colleges in the CCSC:SC Region” won 4th prize in the poster competition. Evelyn and Aaron Garza ’26 also presented “Chunch Volunteer Management System,” done in collaboration with teammates Reid Williams ’26 and Eleanor Wagner ’26. Camille also presented “Pantry Inventory Review and Tracking Enhancement (PIRATE)” with Nhi ‘Amy’ Tran ’26, done in collaboration with teammates Cade Doehler ’27 and Aidan Fitzgerald ’26. Alyanna Martinez ’27 presented “SU University Knowledge Assistant,” done in collaboration with teammates Frank Desilets ’26, Emilio Salas ’26, and Evan Williams ’26, which won 5th prize in the poster competition. “Matching with your Pirate Crew,” presented by Aidan Balakrishnan ’26, Ben McKallip ’26, and Matthew Volkin ’26, was done in collaboration with teammate Tanner Klein ’26.

Professor of Sociology Maria Lowe and business and sociology alumna ThuyMi Phung ’23 presented their co-authored work, “White Grievance as a Predictor of Opposition to the Black Lives Matter Movement,” at the Southern Sociological Society annual meeting in Jacksonville, FL from April 8–11. The presentation, co-authored with art history and sociology alumna Katherine Holcomb ’23, extends their research examining the dimensions of white grievance, how it attempts to undermine racial justice efforts, and effective strategies for countering this ideology.

Assistant Professor of Economics Hieu Nguyen has been appointed as a non-resident SLAR Scholar at Stanford University. During this one-year appointment, he will interact with the Center for Latin American Studies and leverage Stanford’s extensive library resources to further his research agenda and teaching endeavors related to Latin American economies.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse’s book review of Feminist African Philosophy: Women and the Politics of Difference by Abosede Priscilla Ipadeola was published by the journal philoSOPHIA. The review can be accessed here.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper published the first edition of Margaret Bonds’ “The Night Shall Be Filled with Music,” for soprano solo and mixed chorus, with ClarNan Editions (Fayetteville, AR). Written for use in a 1965 festival titled “Songs of Freedom” that was organized by Rabbi Abraham J. Klausner, who is noted for his role in helping Holocaust survivors in Dachau and elsewhere to recover their faith and reconnect with loved ones after World War II, the composition uses the last five stanzas of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Day Is Done” (1844). It begins by urging sad and weary souls to turn to the words of “some humbler poet” rather than “the grand old masters and bards” and teaches that when we lend our own voices, however sad and weary, to the poet’s rhyme, “the night shall be filled with music” – a perfect message for a festival devoted to “present[ing] the trials, hopes and aspirations of those who have too long borne the yoke of oppression, made heavier by the silence of so many of us,” and for Margaret Bonds’ own life’s work of using her art to celebrate the dignity and inherent humanity of the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden. “The Night Shall Be Filled with Music” was published on the 54th anniversary of Margaret Bonds’ transition.

Professor of Art History Allison Miller virtually presented the paper, “古代中国 “紫色”的再考：染料，颜料，与色彩等级 [Reconsidering Ancient Chinese Purple: Dyes, Pigments, and Color Hierarchies]” at 制器尚象,第三届 [The Third Conference of “Making Artifacts by Modeling Images”], held at Northwest Normal University 西北师范大学 in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper and Part-time Instructor of Music Christopher Washington traveled to North Carolina for the world premiere of Margaret Bonds’ musical Bitter Laurel (1968-1969). Working with the surviving libretti, lead sheets, and other musical scores, Cooper and Washington created a fully performable version of the two-hour work, which was left complete, but not concluded, at Bonds’ sudden death in 1972. There is poetry to this premiere having happened at Queens University. Elizabeth Keckley (1818-1907) was an African American who eventually became an activist on behalf of formerly enslaved people and the best friend and confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States. Keckley rose to that station from enslavement by the Burwell family, whose name was proudly emblazoned on the main administration building of Queens University until 2020. The University, which has since removed the Burwell name from its properties due to the family’s cruelty in enslaving Keckley and others, decided to honor Keckley using Bonds’ music, as a means of doing a belated right where so much wrong was done before. The musical was a great success, with an instant standing ovation at the end of Act II: mission accomplished.

Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco-Wyner wrote an article in The Conversation, which examined the unexpected seagrass comeback on Florida’s east coast after Hurricanes Ian and Nicole. The article can be read here.

Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco-Wyner published “Recording seagrass growth in Mosquito Lagoon, Florida after Hurricanes Ian and Nicole” in Frontiers, along with physics major Dominic Mashak ’27 and environmental studies alumni Hailey Vickich ’25. The paper uses machine learning to classify seagrass recovery in Florida’s Mosquito Lagoon and can be read here.

Part-time Assistant Professor of Business Charles deWitt’s book, The Broken Chord: The Blackwood Brothers Quartet and their Influence on Southern Gospel Music, has been accepted for publication and should be published by this summer.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Zoe Moss published an article titled “Bad Sex and the Evolution of Heteropatriarchal Power in the Post-#MeToo era” in the journal Feminist Theory. The article uses interviews with young women and the testimony of Stormy Daniels at the civil trial of Donald Trump to theorize the experience of “Bad Sex,” or sex that is legally permissible, yet also morally and politically harmful.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth and the SU German Club hosted a group of visitors from Germany on campus on April 15. Students and teachers from a high school in Augsburg enjoyed their campus day, participating in classes and discussions over lunch during a stroll to the square and on their campus tour. The visitors are in Texas for their German American Partnership Program (GAPP). Founded in 1972, GAPP supports school-to-school exchanges between the U.S. and Germany. With a network of over 775 U.S. schools and more than 400,000 alumni, GAPP is the largest bilateral exchange program between the U.S. and any other country. SU’s German Program regularly contributes to connecting students, educators, families, and communities – supporting learners of languages and cultures in building lifelong friendships and global connections.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned two grants from the German Foreign Office and German Academic Exchange Service – Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). The grants cover curated collections of German language publications, including selected literary works published in 2025 and a collection of learning-teaching materials. Students will engage with the collections in their studies of German language, literature, and cultures at all proficiency levels and in their training as educators, some in preparation for Fulbright ETAs. Continued success with DAAD materials grants is made possible through Berroth’s commitment to community engagement as a DAAD Ortslektorin.

Assistant Professor of Theatre Gabriel Peña performed as invited guest artist in Notes from the Field, the final production of Sewanee University of the South’s theatrical season, presented at the Tennessee Williams Center in Sewanee, TN. The docu-drama, compiled from hundreds of interviews with individuals impacted by the school-to-prison pipeline, features Gab portraying three distinct characters in this powerful multimedia work. Rehearsals began remotely, then integration with the local production team took place in March, and the show ran from April 15–April 19. Additional information is available here.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby and two Southwestern undergraduate students attended the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) Biomaterials Day conference at Rice University. Biochemistry major Sabina Martinez Carreon ’27 presented a poster titled “Post-Print Reinforcement of GelMA+HAMA Scaffolds Via PEGDA Infiltration” and applied physics major Amanda Mejia ’26 presented a poster on her King Creativity chocolate printing project. Both posters were well-attended and generated significant interest among conference-goers. Amanda was awarded first prize for her poster!

Assistant Professor of English Vallaire Wallace presented on a panel at CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies’ “Queer-Class Relations Conference,” held at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. The panel was called “Queer Erotics of Class Crossover,” and was facilitated by Aaron Lecklider of UMass Boston. Dr. Wallace’s paper, titled “Homosociality At Sea: Hughes, The Big Sea and Class Consciousness,” focuses on reading Langston Hughes’ 1940 biography The Big Sea through a queer lens, with attention to how same-sex desire shadows his class encounters abroad, especially while in Nigeria.

Associate Professor of Theatre Kerry Bechtel designed the costumes for The Stranger at Unity Theater in Brenham, TX. One of Agatha Christie’s more obscure works, The Stranger is a 1930s psychological thriller pitting a young woman against a charming grifter. Tickets are available at unitybrenham.org. The Stranger runs from April 23–May 10.

Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco-Wyner and environmental studies major Zoe Van der Walt ’26 co-authored a publication, titled “Pathways to Sustainable Land Stewardship in South Africa’s Wine-Producing Regions,” with colleagues at the University of Tennessee, the University of Florida, and Michigan State University. The article is published in Sustainability and can be read here.

Members of the Education Department attended and presented at the American Educational Research Association, held in Los Angeles, CA from April 8–12. Assistant Professor of Education Alexandrea Melgoza gave a talk titled “Agents of New Knowledge: A Transcendental Phenomenology of BIPOC Mothers Traversing Texas’ Special Education.” Assistant Professor of Education Raquel Sáenz Ortiz and education and Spanish double major Ximena Ling Uribe ’28 presented research from a 2025 SURF project, titled “Towards a model of culturally sustaining pedagogy for Roma youth.”

Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science Alex Norris published an essay in Liberal Currents on the Trump administration’s approach in Iran and Venezuela, titled “The Moral Arc of the Universe Bends Toward Finding Out.” It can be read here.

Physics majors Brooke Ramey ’27 and Dominic Mashak ’27, along with Professor of Physics Steven Alexander, had their research, “Late Acceptance Hill Climbing for the Discovery of Stable Two-Dimensional Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides,” accepted to the 2026 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), taking place July 13–17 in San José, Costa Rica. The peer-reviewed research will be presented as a poster at the conference, and a four-page extended abstract will be published in the companion to the proceedings.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper published Florence Price: Three Cotton Dances with Hildegard Publishing Company (Worcester, MA). The volume’s premise is a puzzle of sorts pertaining to Price’s life and work: though born and raised in Little Rock, AR, in the western end of the cotton-rich Arkansas Delta, she joined the Great Migration and moved from the agrarian south for good in 1928. Even though she flourished in her adopted home city of Chicago in the remaining 25 years of her life, she never stopped writing about the south, especially its lands and climes as these pertained to African American life. The three works presented here offer a cross-section of her musical reflections on cotton country that spans some 15 years and displays the richness and variety of her musical engagements with it.

Assistant Professor of Education Marilyn Nicol and her co-author, Dr. Tye Martin, Ph.D. of the University of New Mexico Albuquerque, presented a study titled “Didn’t We Almost Have It All: Disability, Technicism, Resistance and Internalized Ableism in Higher Education” at the annual Pop Culture Association conference in Atlanta, GA. They presented their autoethnographic research on navigating doctoral programs and disability services. Tye, who has muscular dystrophy, and Marilyn, who is the primary caregiver to her daughter who has a life-threatening rare disease, detailed their experiences in Ph.D. programs in the face of “normalcy” and social conditions that create barriers to access.

Art history major Emma Hargrove ’27 presented her poster titled “Ox-Demons and Snake-Spirits: Supernatural Iconography in a Maoist Era Cartoon” at the ASIANetwork conference, hosted by North Central College in Naperville, IL on March 27 and 28. The poster was based on a paper written in Professor of Art History Allison Miller’s course.

The Department of Theatre sent four seniors to the United States Institute of Theatre Technology conference in Long Beach, CA from March 13–17. Aidan Balakrishnan ’26, Warren Mullinnix ’26, Piper Swisher ’26, and Marley Wickersham ’26 took part in sessions ranging from stage and production management to lighting, scenic, and audio design. The students also networked with professional companies and artists, and presented their digital portfolios as part of Associate Professor of Theatre Kerry Bechtel’s capstone course.

Associate Professor of Psychology Carin Perilloux presented a poster titled “Update on the Parental Investment (PI) Scale” at the annual meeting of the Northeastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS) in Pittsburgh, PA. This is her latest presentation of data associated with creating a new scale to measure parental effort, inviting feedback prior to conducting the final validation study this summer in SURF.

Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies Meagan Solomon and psychology major and feminist studies minor Karla Vazquez ’26 attended the 2026 National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) Conference in San Antonio. They attended many illuminating sessions that bridged Chicanx studies, feminism, and anti-imperialist praxis, including workshops on Chicanx-Palestine solidarity and Chicana feminist zine-making.

Director of Public Engagement Manda Wittebort co‑facilitated a session titled “Between Story and Action: Where Dialogue Creates Change” at the Campus Compact 2026 Conference, “Hope Found Here,” where workshops had an acceptance rate of 30% and the conference saw a record number of attendees. The session guided participants through grounding practices, identity reflection, and dialogue skill‑building to explore how personal stories and positionalities shape community engagement. Wittebort and co‑facilitator Neda Kikhia led attendees in examining the role of storytelling in belonging, bridge‑building, and community action. The session was noted by participants as a conference highlight.

Senior Creative Director Matt Madsen was invited to and served on the panel of judges for the Counterspace Design Exhibition at UT Arlington’s chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). The categories Madsen scored were branding, layout, and typography. AIGA is the oldest and largest professional membership organization for design, with numerous student chapters at universities across the country. More information can be found here.

Professor of Education Michael Kamen, along with Professor Emerita of Teaching and Learning at New York University Pamela Abder, Adjunct Professor of Physical Sciences at Suffolk County Community College Nina Leonhardt, Professor Emerita at the University of Calgary’s Werklund School of Education Bonnie Shapiro, and Faculty Member at Paderborn University Gabriela Jonas-Ahrend, presented “Hopeful Strategies to Address Challenges Currently Facing Teacher Preparation Programs: International Perspectives” at the International Consortium for Research in Science and Mathematics Education (ICRSME) 2026 Virtual Conference.

Professor of Education Michael Kamen and Associate Professor of Curriculum, Instruction, and Learning Sciences at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Debra Plowman, presented “Ian Inquiry Speaks: Fictional Stories to Support Preservice Teachers in Math and Science” at the International Consortium for Research in Science and Mathematics Education (ICRSME) 2026 Virtual Conference.

Mathematics and psychology alumna Daniela Beckelhymer ’20 has been named the 2026–2027 American Mathematical Society (AMS) Congressional Fellow, in conjunction with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Beckelhymer expects to complete her Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Minnesota this May. The Fellowship is for a year on Capitol Hill to support a congressional committee or a member of Congress by providing a mathematical or technical perspective. More information is available here.

The Southwestern Mathematics and Computer Science Department had a strong involvement at the 105th Annual Meeting of the Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), held at Baylor University in Waco on March 27 and 28. Associate Professor of Mathematics John Ross was honored as the recipient of the 2026 Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. Ross also helped organize sessions as a co-leader of Texas NExT, a professional development service that helps early-career mathematics faculty refine their teaching practices. Atkin Junior Professor and Associate Professor of Mathematics Noelle Sawyer gave the closing invited address, titled “Using Loops to Make Good Maps.” Garey Chair and Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr presided over the meeting as the MAA Texas Section Chair. She also sponsored a team of five students in the Math Bowl competition: biochemistry major and math and neuroscience double minor Elizabeth Ayalew ’28, biology and physics double major Linh Nguyen ’29, physics and math double major Brooke Ramey ’27, math major Joshua Rodkey ’29, and biochemistry and math double major CeCe Sullivan ’29. Sullivan also won a book through a raffle. Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton and Assistant Professor of Instruction of Mathematics Will Tran also attended. Marr and Ross also attended the Meeting of the Texas MAA Executive Committee, over which Marr presided, and the Meeting of Department Liaisons.

Professor of Political Science Alisa Gaunder presented “Pathways to Inclusion: How Historical Legacies, Left Party Strength and Conservative Leadership Have Shaped Immigration Policy in Japan and Germany” (co-authored with Dr. Sarah Wiliarty) at the Western Political Science Association Meeting in San Diego, CA on April 2. She also served as the panel chair of “Gender and Politics in Global Contexts.”

Political science major Sam Hoffman ’27 presented his paper “Truman’s Recognition of Israel: Strategic Interests or Domestic Politics?” on the panel “U.S. Foreign Policy and Public Opinion” at the Southwest Social Science’s annual conference in Nashville, TN on April 2. The work uses famed political scientist Robert Putnam’s two-level game theory to help explain the impact of international and domestic factors on President Harry Truman’s decision to recognize the newly-created state of Israel in 1948. The paper grew out of Hoffman’s work in Professor of Political Science Bob Snyder’s 2025 “U.S. Foreign Policy” class.

Physics major Dominic Mashak ’27, along with Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum and Professor of Physics Steven Alexander, had their research, “Multi-Objective Evolutionary Design of Molecules with Enhanced Nonlinear Optical Properties,” accepted to the 2026 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), taking place July 13–17 in San José, Costa Rica. The peer-reviewed research will be presented as a poster at the conference, and a four-page extended abstract will be published in the companion to the proceedings.

Director of Public Engagement Manda Wittebort and English alum McKenzie Rentie ’25 facilitated an interactive workshop session, titled “Time Together as Ritual: Practicing the Art of Facilitation,” at South by Southwest EDU. Nearly 100 nationwide participants from a diversity of sectors continued to find both facilitators throughout the entirety of the conference to offer positive feedback and express a desire to learn more from them. Attending their first SXSW, the pair was incredibly excited to build connections and community, and to speak to the importance of collaborative culture-making. Grounded in social justice and lived experience, attendees were invited to reflect on the knowledge they all are already equipped with to build meaningful connections and create sub-cultures, consider what roadblocks and challenges are keeping them from the approaches they already know, and utilize the power of storytelling as a space for changemaking.

Communications and Latin American and border studies double major Mia Santoscoy ’26 and political science major and Latin American and border studies minor Natalia Morales Robles ’27 presented, along with Associate Professor of History and Latin American and Border Studies Jethro Hernández Berrones, at the Southwestern Council of Latin American Studies 73rd Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, NV. Their presentation, titled “Mapping Midwives from Mexico City: A Visualization Project Introducing Undergraduates in the United States to the History of Reproduction in Mexico,” described the methodology to produce historical digital maps and a website showcasing the history of the Free School of Obstetrics and Nursing in Mexico City in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the work of some of its graduates. Students discussed their contributions to the project and the impact this work has had on their academic experiences and skill development. The website can be viewed here.

Computer science majors Camille James ’26, Alyanna Martinez ’27, and Nhi ‘Amy’ Tran ’26 competed in Southern Methodist University’s 8th annual ASA DataFest from March 27–29. The team analyzed a large real-world dataset and presented their findings and insights to judges and fellow competitors.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Chelsea Massaro and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey gave talks on their research at the American Chemical Society Spring National Meeting in Atlanta, GA in March. Chemistry and physics double major Annalina Slover ’26 and biochemistry major Carolyn Waldie ’26 gave talks on their research conducted with Dr. Massey. Chemistry major Andres Garza ’27 presented a poster on his summer research conducted at the University of Arkansas. Biochemistry majors Cindy Foka ’28 and Lara Alswafta ’28 presented posters on their summer research conducted at the University of North Texas.

Associate Professor of Spanish María de los Ángeles Rodriguez Cadena presented her paper “Los recuerdos del camino, el camino de la vida: remembranza ambulatoria a caballo en la película histórica Huérfanos” at the 60th Southern Council of Latin American Studies conference that took place from March 5–7 in Mexico City.

Business and international studies double major Cassidie Gomez ’26, Spanish and Latin America border studies double major Gerardo Ortiz ’27, biology major Adriana Salazar ’28, and sociology major Abigayle Stubby-Kern ’26 presented papers in Spanish at the Undergraduate Latin American and Latinx Studies Symposium at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL on March 27. Gomez, Ortiz, and Salazar presented a group project titled “De trabajadores a personas: la revindicación de la dignidad humana en la película mexicana La delgada línea amarilla” as part of the panel “Mexico: Community, Culture, and Development.” The group project was written for Associate Professor of Spanish María de los Ángeles Rodriguez Cadena’s course “Leisure and Play in Latin America” in Fall 2025. Stubby-Kern presented her paper “El lenguaje cinematográfico en la construcción de lo humano y el deterioro de las instituciones en la película argentina Un Hombre Mirando al Sureste” as part of the panel “Art, film, and identity in Latin America.” The paper was written for Dr. Rodriguez Cadena’s course “Conversation through Hispanic cinema” in Fall 2025. Dr. Rodriguez Cadena mentored her students during the process of research, writing, and presentation at the Symposium.

Anthropology majors and race and ethnicity studies minors Karim Clarke ’26 and Nia Cannon ’26 presented their capstone research at the Southwestern Anthropological Association annual conference in Claremont, CA on March 27. Karim presented “Between Constraint and Autonomy: The Labor of Black Care and the Practice of Self-Defined Belonging at a Predominantly White Institution” and Nia presented “Beyond Being ‘Diverse’: The Lived Experiences of Black Women at PWIs.” Their presentations were very well received with at least one audience member initially believing they were faculty members themselves. The research emerged out of coursework with both Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed and Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson, as well as the SU Racial History Project, and Dr. Johnson’s current anthropology capstone course.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby and three Southwestern undergraduate students attended the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) Annual Meeting and Exhibition in Atlanta, GA. Biochemistry major Rishi Rajesh ’27 presented a poster titled “Post-Print Reinforcement of GelMA+HAMA Scaffolds Via PEGDA Infiltration” and applied physics major Amanda Mejia ’26 presented a poster on her King Creativity chocolate printing project. Both posters were well-attended and generated significant interest among conference-goers.

Part-Time Assistant Professor of Music Jeanne Hourez was invited to take part in the symposium “Desinvisibilization of women composers,” jointly organized by the French National Library and the University of Paris 8. The event, held in Paris on March 27 and 28, was dedicated to concrete actions aimed at increasing the visibility of women composers. Dr. Hourez presented a paper on the Boulanger sisters and how their unique relationship created a pathway for supporting the visibility of future generations of composers.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse was invited to workshop their work, alongside Texas A&M University Assistant Professor of Africana Studies & Hispanic Studies Benjamin P. Davis, at a Philosophy of Race Workshop during the 55th annual North Texas Philosophy Association (NTPA) Meeting, hosted by the Philosophy Department at the University of Texas at Dallas from March 27–28. Dr. ka’Nobuhlaluse shared a draft of their paper “Black M/othering, Prison, the Doek: the production of Black women’s fungibility under Apartheid.”

Alumna Katie Markey ’25 and Professor of Business Debika Sihi led a special session at the American Academy of Advertising (AAA) 2026 Annual Conference, held in Austin from March 26–29. They developed a workshop based on their research examining how AI is transforming marketing and advertising practice. In the session, they introduced participants to the CRAFT framework (Curate, Refine, Assess, Frame, Transform), a structured approach for guiding effective engagement with AI-generated outputs.

Assistant Professor of Business Di Wang attended the 2026 Midwest Economic Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, the largest annual gathering of economists in the midwest, where he presented two research papers: “Bilateral FDIs in a Multilateral World: An Empirical Study of the Role of Economic Integration and Political Turnover,” and “Does More Energy Consumption Drive Economic Growth? A Panel Data Analysis of High- and Low-Energy-Consumption Countries Using PostgreSQL.”

Assistant Professor of Business Di Wang represented Southwestern University at the Quinnipiac Global Asset Management Education Forum in New York City, the world’s largest student-run financial conference, which this year drew over 135 universities and 1,300 participants. During the event, Dr. Wang collected up-to-date information on undergraduate finance programs from peer institutions and is using these insights to support the development of the new finance major in the Department of Economics and Business.

Professor and Garey Chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry Maha Zewail-Foote presented her research at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., highlighting how alternative DNA structures and DNA damage influence repair and the development of mutations. This work contributes to understanding genetic instability and human disease, and provides new insight into the mechanisms underlying genetic instability and human disease.

Professor and Garey Chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry Maha Zewail-Foote delivered a presentation, titled “From Curiosity to Confidence: Inclusive Teaching in Undergraduate Chemistry and Biochemistry Courses,” at the AAC&U Transforming STEM Higher Education Conference, highlighting strategies to support student engagement and success in STEM, and was also invited to serve as a session chair.

Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco-Wyner presented her talk, titled “Implementing Learner-Centric Pedagogy in Environmental GIS: A Case Study from Southwestern University,” at the American Association of Geographers Conference (2026) in San Francisco. She also co-authored a paper presentation at the conference with Clare Stauber ’27, titled “From Archive to Interactive Map: Digital Storytelling of Midwifery in Mexico City after the Revolution.”

Professor of Music Michael Cooper’s work in exposing Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s lamentable forgery of a composition by Florence Price in their 2026 new year’s concert has been featured in articles published by The Guardian and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Tom Service’s article in The Guardian is available for free here, and Peter Dobrin’s paywall-protected piece in The Philadelphia Inquirer is available here. Those interested in seeing what it’s all about can read Cooper’s three blog posts that have been cited. The first of these, from February 1, is available here, with follow-up posts on March 15 available here and March 21 available here.

Anthropology graduate Zacharia Arifi ’24 recently published “Hors Place: Discursive Identities of the Modern Franco Kabyle” in The Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography, Volume 15, No. 1. His article is based on a project he worked on while at SU. Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed oversaw its development in the anthropology capstone, and Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson assisted Zacharia in creating a journal article publication. The article is available here.

Professor of Business Debika Sihi presented on complementing data intensive coursework with outdoor experiential learning at the Marketing Management Association Conference, held March 19–20 online… thus, #1 dog Winston could listen along with the other faculty. In addition, she moderated a session on innovations in marketing education, examining customer prediction models and the use of generative AI in brand messaging, as well as another session on sales education.

Margarett Root Brown Chair in Fine Arts and Professor of Theatre Desiderio Roybal designed stage scenery for the production Little Women, presented April 16–26 at the Mary Moody Northen Theatre on the campus of St. Edward’s University in Austin. The production, written by Kate Hamill, is a fresh, fierce adaptation of the beloved classic, reimagined for a new generation–boldly exploring love, ambition, and the power of sisterhood.

Professor of Spanish Carlos de Oro’s article, “Melodrama y denuncia social: estrategias narrativas de resistencia en La pasión de Gabriel y Operación E” was accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Romance Studies. He also presented a paper on the same topic at the 2026 Congreso Internacional de Literatura y Estudios Hispánicos in Arequipa, Peru from March 11–13.

Professor of Education Michael Kamen and Associate Professor of Curriculum Instruction and Learning Sciences at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Debra Plowman published “Dramatic Science” in the Winter 2026 Newsletter of the International Consortium for Research in Science and Mathematics Education. Their quarterly column tells the ongoing story of the fictional character, Ian Quiry, as he studies and struggles to learn how to be an effective elementary school STEM teacher. The column can be read here, starting on page seven of the newsletter.

Assistant Professor of History Soojung Han presented the paper “Identity Changes of the Elite Xianbei in Medieval China” at the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2026 Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.

Assistant Professor of History Soojung Han was invited to give a talk titled “From Kin to Pseudo-Kin: The Transformation of Kinship Politics and Diplomacy from the Early Medieval Period to the Liao–Song–Jin Era” at The Great Entanglement: Reframing East Eurasian Histories in the Longue Durée workshop hosted by the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. The workshop was sponsored by the University of British Columbia, Cornell University, and the James P. Geiss & Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation.

Professor of Religion and Culture and Environmental Studies Laura Hobgood was recently a featured guest on the Relationscapes podcast episode titled “How Dogs Domesticated Humans.” As the author of A Dog’s History of the World: Canines and the Domestication of Humans, Hobgood provided her expertise on the long, complicated co-evolution of humans and dogs. Hosted by award-winning journalist Blair Hodges, the Relationscapes podcast explores relationships, gender, sexuality, race, ability, and culture, focusing on ideas that inspire deeper connection and a more humane life. Listen to the episode here. 

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby co-authored an open-access article, titled “Digital light processing 3D printing enables versatile fabrication of human engineered heart tissues,” that was recently published in Cell Biomaterials. Briefly, the authors demonstrated that engineered heart tissue (EHT) molds from inexpensive polymer resins could be deployed to fabricate heart tissue with enhanced cytoskeletal and metabolic maturity. The work can be accessed here.

Several sociology faculty members and students attended the Eastern Sociological Society annual meeting in Washington, D.C. from March 5-8. Three sociology majors presented their capstone research: Rylan Hastings ’26 presented “One Nation, Many Teams: Americans’ Attitudes About Sport as a Unifier or Divider in Society,” Aris Morgan ’26 presented “The Perception of the West Under Threat: American Attitudes on China,” and Greta Nelson ’26 presented “They Don’t Belong Here: Understanding American Opposition to Undocumented Immigration.” Faculty and students also presented on their collaborative research projects: Assistant Professor of Sociology Amanda Hernandez, Morgan, and Nelson presented their 2025 SURF project “Stay Off Our TERF: Predictors of Anti-Trans Feminists Opposition to Trans Girls in K-12 Sports,” and Professor of Sociology Maria Lowe and Claire Adams ’27 presented “Suspicious Person Posts and Racial Profiling Anxiety in Neighborhoods.” In addition, Hernandez presented work from ongoing research, “But Is It Feminist? The Highlights, Challenges, and Opportunities of Creating a Sociological and Transdisciplinary Podcast.”

Violin and chemistry double major Seth Sagen ’26 was selected to perform violin with the Austin Symphony in their recent Masterworks concerts. He performed Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” a masterpiece of classical music which is also featured in the beginning of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. He shared the stage with his teacher, Assistant Professor of Violin, Viola, and Chamber Music Jessica Mathaes, who is concertmaster of the Austin Symphony and performed the concertmaster solos in the piece.

Assistant Professor of Violin, Viola, and Chamber Music Jessica Mathaes performed a week-long residency in Jackson, WY public schools, working with high school orchestra students and presenting to elementary students. Mathaes is concertmaster of the Austin Symphony and a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, and was invited to Jackson this March to represent the festival as a violinist and educator. The Grand Teton Music Festival has been recognized by The New York Times as one of the top 10 music festivals in the United States.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper published a de facto diptych of beauty and power from the pen of Margaret Bonds: a setting of the spiritual “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me,” arranged for four-part mixed choir and piano, and another setting of that same spiritual, titled simply “Walk with Me,” scored for solo voice, solo cello, and piano. Both scores are published by Hildegard Publishing Company. The first work was written for seventh- and eighth grade voices and reflects Bonds’ interest in providing high-quality music for young musicians (none of that trashy John Williams stuff, or the sappy Disney fare!). The second was arranged from the “Lament” of Bonds’ series of musical snapshots of key moments in the freedom struggle – a movement that, according to Bonds’ written explanation, depicted the responses of the African American community and the world after the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Montgomery, AL on September 15, 1963. The arrangement published here was composed for performance at the first anniversary of that tragedy – a musical commemoration of the event, and a way of inscribing the names of victims, Addie Mae Collins (14), Cynthia Wesley (14), Carole Robertson (14), and Carol Denise McNair (11), into public memory by means of music, the language that, for Bonds, said more than mere words ever could.

Professor of Education Alicia Moore, Assistant Professor of Education Marilyn Nicol, and Professor of Education Michael Kamen presented “Healing Through Play, Stories, and Literature: Supporting Children’s Grief, Loss, and Resilience in Early Childhood Classrooms” at the 2026 Live and On-Demand Conference of the International Play Association (IPA-USA).

Duncan Chair and Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura, along with her collaborator, artist Jiabao Li, gave a talk at The Association for the Study of Play (TASP) 52nd annual conference, organized by Professor of Education Michael Kamen and held at Southwestern University. The talk, titled “Math/Art Collaboration Through Play: A Report From the Triangle Program,” focused on the role of play in our interdisciplinary collaboration, which ultimately culminated in the idea of the math playground.

Duncan Chair and Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura gave a talk at the Gathering 4 Gardner 16 in San Francisco, CA, a puzzle/magic/art/math conference to celebrate the popular recreational math writer Martin Gardner. During each day were dozens of six-minute lightning talks given by attendees on projects they are working on. Futamura discussed three projects, updates from the mathematical art manifesto group she has been organizing over the past six months, the math playground funded by the Simons Foundation Triangle Program, and a general audience book on what can be gleaned from understanding the geometry of space in art and other 2D media, to be published by Princeton University Press.

Professor of Education Michael Kamen is the president of The Association for the Study of Play (TASP) and organized the 52nd annual conference at Southwestern. TASP is the premier professional organization in academia dedicated to interdisciplinary research and theory construction concerning play throughout the world. Presently, the Association publishes a quarterly newsletter titled Play Review and an annual volume titled Play & Culture Studies. The Association’s broad multidisciplinary focus includes the fields of anthropology, biology, communication studies, cultural studies, dance, ecology, education, ethology, folklore, history, kinesiology, leisure studies, musicology, philosophy, psychology, recreation, sociology, and the arts.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Ariel Wood exhibited their work in a solo show at Southwestern University’s Fine Art Gallery. The show, titled “porous,” takes as its primary point of reference the detention basins neighboring carceral facilities in Georgetown. These forms of infrastructure—sometimes themselves referred to as detention facilities—are stormwater management systems designed to temporarily collect runoff and release it gradually until fully drained. Typically dry, these concrete depressions punctuate the landscape with a brutalist austerity, their ambiguous function compounded by the uncanniness of government landscaping. Their work will be on view until March 26.

Professor of Spanish Katy Ross presented her paper “Purchasing Pregnancy: Egg Donation in Spain” at the NeMLA conference in Pittsburgh, PA on March 6.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed and Head of Distinctive Collections and Archives Megan Firestone were both interviewed and featured in the documentary “Segregation on Trial: Integrating Georgetown Schools,” filmed and produced by City of Georgetown Communications Manager Keith Hutchinson. The film debuted and was screened at the Georgetown Public Library on February 26, where Naomi and Megan both sat on a panel to discuss the film’s creation and importance with the larger Georgetown community. The film can be viewed here. The panel discussion is available here.

Assistant Professors of Music Julia Escobar (flute) and Jeanne Hourez (piano) performed and presented a recital in celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8 at the Oak Branch Concerts venue in Austin. The recital program exclusively featured historic women composers who are often underrepresented in classical music. This included several works from Dr. Escobar’s forthcoming publication that highlights trailblazing women composers.

Professor of English Michael Saenger was an invited speaker at a conference held at Texas Hillel in Austin. The conference addressed productive and meaningful ways to engage in religious and political difference, and was covered in the local media, available here.

At Together We Dine (TWD), Chaplain and Director of Spiritual Life Ron Swain was presented with Common Ground USA’s Texas Civility Award for his leadership of Courageous Conversations in Georgetown.

Chaplain and Director of Spiritual Life Ron Swain gave a presentation on the topic of peace building at the Gateway College Preparatory School’s Peace Garden Dedication Ceremony. This is the 17th Peace Garden created at area schools by the Racial Unity and Peace Building Committee of the Rotary Club of Georgetown. Swain is the Committee’s convener.

Professor of Political Science Bob Snyder’s article “Trump’s Foreign Policy Is Not Transactional. It Is Tributary.” appeared in the online magazine Open Canada, which is published by the Canadian International Council.

Professor of History Melissa Byrnes took part in two roundtable sessions at the Society for French Historical Studies annual conference. For “Writing the French Empire Today,” she spoke about her 2023 book, Making Space: Neighbors, Officials, and North African Migrants in the Suburbs of Paris and Lyon (University of Nebraska). As part of “French History in the Small Liberal Arts Classroom,” she discussed “Using France to Teach about Race.”

Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of History Jessica Hower gave an invited talk titled “‘Bring[ing] Up the Bodies’: Queenship in History, Fiction, and the Public” at the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA.

Southwestern was well represented at the Western States Communication Association annual conference in San Diego from February 27–March 2. Two students from Professor of Communication Studies Bob Bednar’s fall capstone class presented research at the Undergraduate Scholars Research Conference. Chloe London Jordan ’26 presented her capstone paper “Return to Whiteness: How ‘Return to the Land’ Platforms White Supremacy” and John Reese ’26 presented “Deconstructing Far-Right Rhetoric on X: A Case Study of the X Account End Wokeness.” Professor of Communication Studies Valerie Renegar was there to clap and cheer before presenting her work with Dr. Kirsti Cole from North Carolina State University titled “The Weight of Stigma” about GLP-1 discourse.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse was invited to speak to the graduate students who are part of the Minorities in Philosophy (MAP) Chapter at Texas State University on February 24. Dr. ka’Nobuhlaluse shared about their research, graduate experiences (in South Africa and the US), and challenges and joys of navigating philosophy as a Black woman.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper published the first edition of Florence B. Price’s significant but hitherto unknown “Spring Journey” (for women’s chorus, piano, and orchestra, or women’s chorus and piano) as part of the Craig Hella Johnson Signature Series of E.C. Schirmer Music (St. Louis). Written in Chicago in December 1935 and premiered by the South Side Women’s Chorus, Price’s music gives vivid – and wonderfully mischievous – voice to the longing for springtime joys that regularly attend Chicago winters (to say nothing of the winter drears and dreads of 2025–2026).

Director of the Professor John Score II Learning Commons Maurice Wilson and Coordinator of the Professor John Score II Learning Commons Laurel Mulkey ’24 presented a roundtable session titled “From Last-Day Decisions to Early Intervention: Building Coherent Pathways for Academic Persistence” at the Texas Affiliate of the National College Learning Center Association (TxNCLCA) Conference in San Antonio on February 19. Their session advanced scholarship- and practice-informed frameworks for aligning student support structures earlier in the academic term to promote student persistence. They also facilitated professional dialogue on collaborative, proactive models of academic support. The roundtable emphasized shared responsibility, cross-unit collaboration, and practical strategies for strengthening retention and student belonging.

Head of Distinctive Collections & Archives Megan Firestone has been elected to a three-year term of the Executive Board of the Texas Library Association as the representative for special libraries. The Texas Library Association is the largest state library association with over 6,000 members.

Head of Distinctive Collections & Archives Megan Firestone presented on women’s education at Southwestern University and Laura Kuykendall to the local chapter of the Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO).

Head of Distinctive Collections & Archives Megan Firestone presented “A History of Women’s Education at Southwestern University” to the Daniel Coleman Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Duncan Chair and Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura, along with artist Jiabao Li and art director Ron Berry of Fusebox, have been awarded a $150,000 grant to build a math playground in Austin through the Simons Foundation Triangle Program. Math Playground is an outdoor installation and accompanying exhibition that turns abstract mathematical ideas into playful, embodied, large-scale sculptures. Visitors can climb, slide, swing, and spin on custom sculptures whose forms embody complex math concepts. A Klein bottle slide creates a continuous looping path. A shape called a Boy’s surface becomes a twisting climbing net that flips orientation. The Lissajous swing set draws patterns in the sand through harmonic motion. A merry-go-round zoetrope animates models through rotation and repetition. Math Playground makes math fun and intuitive, inviting people to experience symmetry physically, in their bodies, by moving through shapes usually understood only in theory. For preliminary renderings, visit here. For the announcement, visit here.

Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson presented “Revising the Early Social History of Belize, 1730-1820” at the Third International Caribbean Studies Forum at the University of Belize, Belmopan, on February 18. The talk can be viewed here.

Associate Professor of Theatre Kerry Bechtel designed the costumes and masks for Zach Theater’s beloved classic, Charlotte’s Web. This family-friendly production tells the story using live bluegrass music, aerial silk acrobatics, and mask work. Performances run through May 17. Get your tickets here!

Professor of Sociology Maria Lowe has been awarded this year’s Distinguished Contribution to Teaching Award by the Southern Sociological Society in recognition of outstanding achievements. Dr. Lowe will be honored during the Society’s Presidential Honors and Convocation Plenary, held at their annual meeting in Jacksonville, FL in April.

Professor of Psychology Fay Guarraci, along with several students and alumni, published an article titled “Chronic testosterone enanthate or estradiol benzoate affects sexual behavior and motivation in Long-Evans rats tested for partner preference” in Physiology and Behavior. This work was supported by summer research programs (SCOPE ’24 and SURF ’25) and conducted by psychology and biology capstone students. Raylee Bowling ’27 is first author, followed by Chance Bauer ’26, Iva Irabor-Ighedosa ’26, Kai Wilson ’26, and Anna Pavlova ’28. Alumna Alex Avila ’25 and visiting scholar Kole Petersen, a student from Colorado College, were also co-authors. This project tested a model of gender-affirming hormone therapy in an animal model.

Director of Study Abroad and International Student Services Monya Lemery presented with colleagues at the Forum on Education Abroad Virtual Conference, “AI in Action: Ethical and Pedagogical Uses for Education Abroad.” She has served as part of a working group on “Artificial Intelligence and Education Abroad” and developed a resource for faculty and administrators managing study abroad programs, located here. Monya is serving a 3-year term as a member of the Forum Council.

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Noelle Sawyer and her collaborators Benjamin Call, Dave Constantine, Alena Erchenko, and Grace Work had their paper “Local product structure for equilibrium states of geodesic flows and applications” published in the Journal of Modern Dynamics on February 10. The article focuses on statistical properties of equilibrium states on non-uniformly hyperbolic surfaces and strategies for working with the geometry there. The article can be read here.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper published a chapter titled “Luminaries” in a new book titled Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn in Context, edited by Benedict Taylor and Thomas Schmidt (Cambridge: Cambridge UP). Taking as its starting point the extraordinary number of cultural and political luminaries who were drawn into the Mendelssohn siblings’ respective cultural ambits (figures including Goethe, Prussian kings Friedrich Wilhelm III and IV, Hegel, Heinrich Heine, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Rahel Varnhagen von Ense, Chopin, Queen Victoria, authors Hans Christian Andersen and Achim von Arnim, mathematician Charles Babbage, painter Ingres, and dozens of others), the chapter traces the gendered dynamics of the two siblings’ circles and the gendered nature of their techniques for using their access to luminaries for promulgating their respective artistic and social agendas.

Three faculty and two students joined over 5,000 mathematicians at the largest math gathering in the world, the Joint Mathematics Meetings, in Washington, D.C. from January 4–7. Those attending participated in events sponsored by the American Mathematical Society (AMS), Pi Mu Epsilon (PME), and the Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America (SIGMAA). Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr co-presented “Difference Distance Magic Digraphs” in the AMS special session on research results by mathematicians from the EDGE Program. She also participated in multiple events in her capacity as co-Director of EDGE. Marr stayed an extra day in D.C. to participate in #MathSciOnTheHill Day, joining over 250 mathematicians advocating for mathematics funding on Capitol Hill, where she was joined by SU alumna Daniela Beckelhymer ’20. Associate Professor of Mathematics John Ross presented “Optimizing Under Constraints: Developing a Compact Undergraduate Research Program” in the SIGMAA special session on showcasing undergraduate research experiences. Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton organized and co-chaired an AMS special session sponsored by SIMIODE on “Creating, Doing, and Sharing Modeling Approaches to Teaching Differential Equations.” Ioana Burlacu ’26 and Ashlyn Cadena ’27 presented “Perimeter-minimizing rectangles using density M|x|^p + N|y|^q” in the AMS-PME Undergraduate Poster Session. This research was supervised by Ross as part of SURF 2025.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper and his work editing and publishing previously unknown compositions of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds were featured in an article by Kyle MacMillan on January 30. For readers of these Notables, it’s worth noting that the count of “72” of Cooper’s editions of Price’s music is actually an old figure; the current count is 158 by Price and 56 by Bonds, with another six by Price and eight by Bonds currently in the hopper. MacMillan’s article is available here.

Professor of Education Michael Kamen was an invited speaker at the January Clearview Sudbury School monthly community gathering in Austin. He presented “Play and Learning,” highlighting his recent and ongoing research.

Professor of Education Michael Kamen and Associate Professor of Curriculum Instruction and Learning Sciences at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Debra Plowman published “To Algorithm or not to Algorithm” in the Fall 2025 Newsletter of the International Consortium for Research in Science and Mathematics Education. Their quarterly column tells the ongoing story of the fictional character, Ian Quiry, as he studies and struggles to learn how to be an effective elementary school STEM teacher. The column can be read here, starting on page five of the newsletter. 

Assistant Professor of History Bryan Kauma published the article “‘Political Grains’: Hunger and the Struggles for Food in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, c.2000–2010” in The Journal of Asian and African Studies. This piece reflects on the everyday experiences of ordinary citizens in accessing food during the protracted crisis years in Zimbabwe’s history. The article can be read here.

Professor of History Melissa Byrnes took part in a roundtable review of Isaac Stanley-Becker’s book Europe without Borders: A History for the H-Diplo/Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum. The review can be read here.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Alex Goodwin and co-author Michael J. Nojeim had their book chapter, “The Prairie View Paradox: Age, Race, and the Evolving/Changing Landscape of Student Voting Rights at an HBCU in Texas,” published by De Gruyter in the edited volume Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses. The chapter examines the decades-long fight for student voting rights at Prairie View A&M University, focusing specifically on the Symm v. United States (1979) Supreme Court case.

Counselor Geneva Walker, LPC, recently presented a TEDx talk titled “Why Holding Both Is the Secret to Living Victoriously” at TEDx Round Rock Women. In her talk, Geneva explores resilience, grief, and emotional well-being, offering a framework for holding pain and purpose simultaneously while continuing to live with intention and meaning. Drawing from both clinical expertise and lived experience, the talk has sparked ongoing conversation around mental health, healing, and thriving after adversity. Members of the Southwestern community and beyond are invited to watch the talk, engage in discussion, or explore opportunities for classroom use, programming, or collaboration related to mental health education and resilience. Watch the talk here.

Professor of Political Science Alisa Gaunder served as a panel chair for two panels at the Southern Political Science Association Meeting held in New Orleans, LA from January 15–18. She chaired the panel “Parties, Leaders, and Candidates” and stepped in as an impromptu discussant when the scheduled discussant was unable to attend. She also chaired the panel “Comparative Perspectives on Feminist Movements.”

On January 20, Director of Admission Jaime Gonzalez was invited by Tuition Exchange and the Colleges That Changes Lives (CTCL) organizations to present about Southwestern’s unique student experiences to over 200 Tuition Exchange family attendees across the country, alongside other CTCL colleges. Tuition Exchange is a non-profit that awards up to full tuition scholarships to eligible students across member schools in 50 states/U.S. territories and nine countries, giving Southwestern a global platform and recognition.

Part-Time Assistant Professor of Music Michael Martinez presented the lecture recital “Multiphonics: A Brief History and Pedagogical Breakdown” at the 2026 Big XII Trombone Conference in Lubbock, TX from January 16–18. The lecture portion discussed the phenomenon of simultaneously singing and playing trombone, its history, and daily practice with healthy mindsets; the recital portion utilized compositions by Abbie Conant and Mike Svoboda to support key points in musical contexts.

Staff Instructor in Spanish Noelia Cigarroa-Cooke and Professor of Spanish Carlos de Oro presented the paper “Comparative Allegories of Authoritarianism in Contemporary Latin American Horror Cinema” at the 2026 Annual AIFOR Conference in Honolulu, HI from January 3–7.

Part-Time Assistant Professor of Music and Artist in Residence Hai Zheng Olefsky has returned from a successful tour in Asia. In October 2025, she was invited to lead a cello master class for students at the China Conservatory in Beijing, sharing her expertise with some of the country’s most promising young musicians. She has also been teaching and mentoring the exceptional young cellists in the greater Austin area. Her students achieved remarkable accomplishments in statewide and regional music competitions. Two of her top cello students earned placements in the All-State Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras, including the prestigious first chair of the All-State Symphony Orchestra. In addition, six of her students won auditions in the 2025–2026 Texas All-Region Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras, securing both the first and second cello chairs of the All-Region Symphony Orchestra. These All-State and All-Region auditions are sponsored by the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA), a leading organization promoting music education across Texas.

Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum attended the LEVEL UP AI Workshop in Phoenix, AZ on January 7 and 8, which stands for Launching an Educational Vision to Expand Leadership, Understanding and Progress in Artificial Intelligence. The workshop, supported by the National Science Foundation and organized by the Computing Research Association, focused on ways to enhance and expand undergraduate Artificial Intelligence education to help create an AI-ready workforce.

Professor of Theatre Sergio Costola recently published an article titled “Farò raddoppiare li segni pubblici de gaudio et letitia per la terra et per tutto. Lucrezia Borgia and Her Theatre of Diplomacy (1509–1512)” in Storie e Linguaggi 11.2 (2025). The article examines Lucrezia Borgia’s diplomatic activity during the wars of the early sixteenth century, showing how the courtly receptions, musical performances, dances, and fashion spectacles she organized in Ferrara functioned not merely as displays of power but as active instruments of political negotiation and mediation. The article is available open access here.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper published the first edition of the romantic piano waltz “Love’s Triumph” by Will H. Dixon (1879–1917) with Recital Publications. Dixon was one of the leading lights of the generation of African American creatives whose genius and resistance to the oppressive forces of anti-Black racism in the U.S. prepared the way for the Harlem Renaissance and Chicago Black Renaissance in the years after his death. A recording by Miami-Dade College Professor Wayne Bumpers of “Love’s Triumph,” commissioned by Cooper and Lawrence H. Levens of New York, can be found on YouTube here.

Professor and Chair of English Eileen Cleere participated in a roundtable at the Modern Language Association’s (MLA) annual meeting in Toronto, Canada from January 8–11. The roundtable featured conversation about how literature can help us navigate institutional spaces where faculty labor is increasingly gendered and generational. Her paper, “Becoming a Minor Character,” discussed the temporal mismatch between the timeline for meaningful institutional transformation and a “move fast and break things” incentive structure that requires immediate and assessable outcomes.

Professor of English Michael Saenger presented an invited talk at the Academic Engagement Network’s Short Course in Miami, FL. The talk was on how to combat rising antisemitism in academic societies. Immediately after the speaking engagement, Saenger travelled to Toronto to lead a diverse group of faculty advocating for campus civility and against antisemitism at the Modern Language Association (MLA) convention. At the convention, many faculty from around the country spoke passionately about how to protect a culture of campus safety and educational integrity. You can read about the controversy at the convention here.

Professor of Communication Studies Bob Bednar was featured as an interview source in a set of recent news stories produced by News 6 in Tulsa, OK, as part of their Roadside Memorial Project. The project, directed by News 6 reporter Katie Eastman, is comprised of several stories originally broadcast between December 22–26, 2025, including a documentary-style story about roadside memorials titled “Love on the Side of the Road,” and a separate news profile of Bednar as a researcher of roadside shrines and collective trauma. The written stories and videos are available here.

Assistant Professor of Music Jeanne Hourez was awarded the Programming Award by the International Alliance for Women in Music. This prize recognizes performers who have made deliberate, conscious efforts to achieve greater gender equity in their programming by including women/non-binary composers and/or performers.

Professor of History Melissa Byrnes organized and helped lead a workshop titled “Leadership in a Small Liberal Arts College History Program” at the American Historical Association’s (AHA) annual meeting in Chicago. Dr. Byrnes is co-chair of the AHA’s working group on small liberal arts colleges.

Professor of History Melissa Byrnes was featured on the New Books Network podcast for her book Making Space: Neighbors, Officials, and North African Migrants in the Suburbs of Paris and Lyon (University of Nebraska Press, 2024). The episode can be heard here. Dr. Byrnes’ book was also recently reviewed on H-Diplo. The review can be read here.

Professor of Political Science Alisa Gaunder and co-author Dr. Sarah Wiliarty published “Leadership in Crisis: Comparing Prime Minister Abe’s and Chancellor Merkel’s Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic” in the interdisciplinary journal Contemporary Japan on December 22. This article argues that Merkel was more effective in managing the first stage of the Covid-19 crisis compared to Abe due to new institutions created to coordinate between the local and national level as well as the execution of a policymaking narrative that focused on science and solidarity. Abe’s approach was hampered due to long-established structural inefficiencies in the bureaucracy as well as a policymaking narrative that called for cooperation and self-restraint without responding to public concerns. This comparison adds to our understanding of the impact of leaders on public policymaking in times of uncertainty as well as to the important relationship between leaders and institutions.

Director of Technology Support and Services Daryl Tschoepe and Mail Clerk Rita Alonzo assisted with renovating the Transformation Room at Cactus Ranch Elementary School in Round Rock, TX. Daryl contributed computer items, including sound equipment, and Rita volunteered to decorate the room to look like outer space by helping make satellites and stars. Transformation Room volunteers renovate a classroom at Cactus Ranch Elementary School to different themes throughout the year to help students get interested in a variety of subjects, including geography, other countries, Texas, and even space.

Lord Chair and Professor of Computer Science Barbara Anthony and co-authors Ananya Das of Middlebury College and Christine Chung, Charles Lincoln, Krishh Tipnis, and Kate Vento, all of Connecticut College, had their paper accepted to PRIMA 2025: Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems. Students Charles and Kate presented the paper on “Metric Distortion of STV on the Line and the Impact of Voter Turnout” at the conference in Modena, Italy. The paper, available here, analyzes the ranked choice voting mechanism Single Transferable Vote, provides theoretical results on metric distortion, or how much worse an elected candidate is than the socially optimal choice, and considers how distortion is impacted by voter turnout. It also studies the impact of voter turnout on the 2021 New York City Democratic Primary Election, which used ranked choice voting.

Assistant Professor of History Bryan Kauma recently published a book chapter titled “‘Agriculture is a scam!’: Agrotechnologies and the Agrarian Fallacy Among African Grain Farmers in Colonial Zimbabwe, the 1920s to 1970s” in Environment, Technology, and Development. The chapter explores the experiences of grain farmers and demonstrates the socio-environmental impacts that fertilizers and hybrid seeds had on African agriculture and food (in)security during the colonial years in Zimbabwe. This chapter is also available Open Access here.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Alex Goodwin and his co-author Ronald Goodwin had their book chapter “Comparing American Presidencies: Leadership in the First Hundred Days of Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden” published in an edited volume titled America in Crisis: Presidential Power, Populism, and the Global Struggle for Truth published by Springer International Press.

Professor of English Michael Saenger was interviewed for a story in the Times of Israel on academic boycotts and the harm they cause to Jews and to university communities as a whole. Saenger has been a leading advocate for academic freedom and antidiscrimination. The story can be read here.

Professor of Spanish Katy Ross had her second book, Narrating Infertility in Spain, published on December 9. More information is available here.

Professor of Sociology Maria Lowe, along with sociology graduates ThuyMi Phung ’23 and Katherine (Kat) Holcomb ’22, have published a mixed methods paper titled “White Grievance as a Predictor of American Attitudes Toward Critical Race Theory” in the journal Sociological Forum. This article is based on a faculty-student collaborative research project and can be accessed here.

Associate Professor of Spanish Abby Dings and co-author Tammy Jandrey Hertel of the University of Virginia presented a talk titled “The Use of Open Educational Resources in Medical Spanish Courses” at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Annual Convention and World Languages Expo held November 20–23 in New Orleans. The practice-oriented presentation aimed to showcase available open educational resources (OER) for Spanish for healthcare professions and guided attendees through materials addressing cultural practices and perspectives surrounding childbirth.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth shared her research at the AATG/ACTFL conference in New Orleans on November 21. Her presentation, “Advocacy and Leadership through Universal Design for Learning: UDL and Transparency in Learning and Teaching: TILT,” contributed to the panel “Single Faculty German Programs – Best Practices.” This well-attended session focused on German language programs in higher education, bringing together experienced single faculty instructors to discuss the challenges they face and the strategies they use to sustain and support their programs. German educators from Rice University, Belmont University, and Midwestern State University joined Berroth in sharing their best practices.

Assistant Professor of Economics Dinushka Paranavitana presented two papers at the 95th Annual Meeting of the Southern Economic Association on November 22–24 in Tampa. She presented her papers titled “The Price of Hate: The Effect of Title IX Exemptions on College Enrollment” and “Chiropractor Scope of Practice Laws” at two different sessions at the conference. She was also the discussant for a graduate student session, and provided feedback for an Economics PhD student on the job market this year.

Professor of Religion and Culture and Environmental Studies Laura Hobgood presented on the panel “Beyond Personhood: New Ways to Imagine Our Solidarity with Animals” at the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Annual Meeting in Boston. The Animals and Religion Group was founded by Dr. Hobgood and several colleagues in 2000 and has now been active in the AAR for 25 years.

Professor of Spanish Katy Ross led a workshop on AI in the L2 classroom at PAMLA, the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, in San Francisco on November 23.

Duncan Chair and Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura was invited by the Mathematical Association of America SIGMAA – Undergraduate Research group to co-present a webinar with Dr. Elizabeth Reid at Marist University on designing manageable and meaningful undergraduate projects. She talked about her students’ innovative ideas for application projects in Linear Algebra and Geometry and how some of these have led to continued research beyond the semester, presentations at regional and national conferences, and in one case, an award-winning publication.

Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson organized a double panel for the American Anthropological Association in New Orleans on November 22, along with Dr. Patrick Gallagher of the University of Texas–San Antonio. The sessions were titled “Predatory Politics: The Wily Animal-Human Relationships of Hunting and Fishing” Part 1–Sea and Part 2–Land. Dr. Johnson presented “Tigah Camp: Unruly Multispecies assemblages, Race and Gender in a Belizean Trophy Jaguar Hunting Camp” in Part 2–Land.

Assistant Professor of Education Marilyn Nicol and her colleague Bethanie Pletcher of Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi released the premiere episode of their podcast Ms. Behaving in Literacy. The episode featured an introduction to the concept and purpose of the podcast, to explore politics of literacy education policies and research through the lens of humor. The co-hosts also interviewed attendees of the Association of Literacy Education and Research annual conference in Oklahoma City, who shared their favorite experiences at the conference. The podcast can be seen here. The next episode will feature highlights from the most recent publication of the academic journal Literacy Research and Instruction.

Associate Professor of Psychology Carin Perilloux, along with psychology graduate Madeline Bollinger ’24, psychology graduate and Coordinator of the Professor John Score Learning Commons Laurel Mulkey ’24, and biology graduate Vy Nguyen ’23, have published a paper titled “Hooked on a feeling: Psychological and physiological responses to ASMR triggers” in the journal Technology, Mind, and Behavior. This article is based on three years worth of SCOPE projects and is published with open access here.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed presented her paper “A Healing African Diasporic Deconstruction of Ashkenormativity” at the American Anthropology Association Conference in New Orleans on November 20. The presentation was on the panel she also chaired, titled “Canonical Hauntings of the Body: On Harm and Healing—Knowledge Production and the Politics of Belonging.” Dr. Reed’s paper explores how the dismissal of whiteness by white presenting Ashkenazi Jewish Americans harms Jews of color and erases their experiences within the Jewish Diaspora. Through a critical inversion of the haunting paternalistic relationship between Jewish anthropologists and Blackness, she asks what Jewish Americans can learn from African Diaspora scholarship. She suggests that Jewish identity should be reconceptualized through African Diasporic notions of identity and race as a means to deconstruct Ashkenormativity and to fuel a healing critical recognition of Jewish diversity. Anthropology graduate Zacharia Arifi ’24 presented a paper on this same panel, titled “Bourdieu Awal and Me: Unraveling a Canon of Franco-Kabyle Ethnolography,” where they mediate the history of French ethnography with ethnographic fieldwork to posit how a legacy of disciplinal practice haunts ethnic identification among the French Kabyle. Particularly, they define how its corpus has codified and perpetuated hegemonic knowledge of belonging that supplant the diaspora’s autonomy in self-conceptualization. They consider, then, how its communities negotiate what it means to be Kabyle through living encounters with discursive expression. Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson served as the discussant for this panel. The conference program can be found here.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse had the essay, “An Ode to the Domestics, the Minors of Apartheid, My Grandmother Among Them,” published on the Caribbean Philosophical Association’s blog, Caliban’s Readings. It can be read here. The piece is a philosophical and personal meditation on Black women who worked as domestics under Apartheid, with a special focus on ka’Nobuhlaluse’s maternal grandmother. It explores how bureaucracy, racial capitalism, and patriarchal law rendered these women “minors,” even as their labour sustained families, homes, and the nation. Drawing on Black feminist and Africana philosophy, as well as autobiographical writing, ka’Nobuhlaluse thinks through archives not only as formal institutions but as living, intergenerational memory carried in bodies, stories, and ordinary objects. ka’Nobuhlaluse wrote this essay while teaching an FYS on Apartheid.

Chemistry and biochemistry majors Kaiden Salaz ’26, Alex Dow ’26, Ian Becher ’26, Saki’a Rivers ’26, Maddie Bridges ’26, and Kayla Moody ’26 presented posters and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey gave an invited talk at the American Chemical Society Southeast/Southwest Regional Meeting in Orlando, FL in October. Student presentations resulted from research done with Massey, Professor of Chemistry Emily Niemeyer, and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Chelsea Massaro, who also attended the conference.

Assistant Professor of Biology Sunny Scobell gave an invited seminar to the Department of Biology at Texas State University, titled “The physiological regulation and evolution of male pregnancy,” on November 14.

Assistant Professor of Biology Sunny Scobell gave an invited seminar to the Biology Department at Trinity University, titled “The mysterious male brood pouch: Structure and function of male pregnancy in seahorses and pipefish,” on November 10.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Amanda Hernandez presented a virtual book talk to women and gender studies students at California State University, Northridge on November 18. The focus of her talk was on feminist interview methodologies and the chapter “Wife – Mother – Girl Boss” from her 2024 book Intersectional Identities of Christian Women in the United States: Faith, Race, and Feminism.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Adriana Ponce was selected to participate in “Beyond Colonial Constraints: Cuir Feminist Praxis as Rupture and Healing across the Archipelago” at the NWSA annual conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico from November 12–16. The pre-conference opportunity was rooted in Boriken archipelago feminism to explore how gender and sexual minorities disrupt coloniality and embrace joy.

At the recent annual meeting of the Associated Colleges of the South’s student affairs leaders, Southwestern received the 2025 Student Retention and Persistence Laurels, given to a member institution demonstrating a significant program or service in support of student retention and persistence. The award recognized an initiative launched in Fall 2023 to provide students with documented financial need funding support for first-semester dues required to join a sorority or fraternity.

Associate Professor of Communication Studies Lamiyah Bahrainwala (LB) published the article “Muscular Anti-Muslim Sentiment” in the journal Women’s Studies in Communication. The article examines the overlaps between muscular Hinduism and muscular Zionism and how they function together transnationally. You can read more here.

Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies Meagan Solomon attended the 2025 National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico (Borikén) from November 13–16. She presented on a roundtable titled “Archiving Malflora: Latina/e Lesbian Memory Work as Decolonial Praxis,” along with four other members of Malflora Collective, her collaborative PEH project focused on preserving Latina/e lesbian histories. The roundtable focused on creative strategies for archiving community stories through zine-making, podcasting, and digital archival practices, while also contending with the fraught nature of online platforms.

Education majors Tiffany Ashcraft ’27, Emma Bethke ’27 (in absentia), Jonas Eaton ’26, Sydney Jackson ’27, Elisa Keese ’27, Ava Knez ’27, Catherine Matthews ’27, and Abigail Shuvalov ’27 presented at CAST (the Texas Science Teachers Conference) in Dallas with Professor of Education Michael Kamen and Assistant Professor of Education Alexandrea Melgoza. The session, “Hands-on Science Activities Presented by Preservice Teachers,” organized by Dr. Kamen, also included presentations by preservice teachers from The University of Houston–Downtown and The University of North Texas–Dallas.

Staff Instructor in Spanish Noelia Cigarroa-Cooke and Associate Professor of Spanish Abby Dings presented a talk, titled “Establishing Community Partnerships for Spanish for Healthcare Professions: Laying the Groundwork for Equitable, Experiential Learning,” at the 2025 NAMS/MOLA (National Association of Medical Spanish/Medical Organization for Latino Advancement) conference in San Antonio from November 6–7.

Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and holder of the Garey Endowed Chair in Chemistry Maha Zewail-Foote presented at the UNESCO Regional Centre for Quality in Education’s International Forum on World Quality Day. Her presentation, “Thinking Differently about Quality: Curiosity, Connection, and the Future of Learning,” explored how mentorship, inclusivity, and human-centered teaching can advance educational quality and innovation. Addressing an international audience of education leaders and policymakers, Dr. Zewail-Foote reflected on the power of curiosity and compassion in shaping the future of global education and advancing equitable, high-quality learning experiences.

Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum attended the Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE) conference with SURF research student Olivia Kilday ’28 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from November 12–14, to present their peer-reviewed research paper, “Text-to-Level Diffusion Models With Various Text Encoders for Super Mario Bros.” Computer science majors Emilio Salas ’26, Bess Hagan ’25, and Reid Williams ’26 were also co-authors on the paper, and the oral presentation was given by Olivia. The research details the creation of software models that create levels for the original Super Mario Bros. based on text descriptions. The AIIDE conference is a prestigious conference with an acceptance rate under 25%, which is sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).

Computer science and theatre double major Aidan Balakrishnan ’26, computer science and mathematics double major Tanner Klein ’26, and computer science major Matthew Volkin ’26 participated in the Association of Computing Machinery’s South Central USA Regional Programming Contest on November 8, solving seven out of 13 problems. Their team, the pi-rates, placed 4th among the 20 teams in the South Central USA Division. They participated in the competition at the University of Texas at Austin site, but were in competition with teams at other sites throughout the South Central USA Region. Teams in the Mid-Atlantic USA Region and Southeast USA Region competed on the same day, and across the entire conference, the pi-rates placed 17th out of 94 teams. The team was coached by Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum.

Head of Distinctive Collections and Archives Megan Firestone presented on Charles S. Belford, an early local builder, for the Preservation Georgetown Fall Lecture series.

Head of Distinctive Collections and Archives Megan Firestone presented on Distinctive Collections and materials related to Georgetown that are held in the collection to the Rotary Club.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby co-authored “Dynamic Regulation of Granular Hydrogels Through Guest-Host Interactions to Spatiotemporally Guide Cellular Migration” in the journal Advanced Science (IF = 14.1), along with several postdoctoral scholars and graduate students in the Burdick Lab at the University of Colorado–Boulder. The manuscript represents work undertaken during his pre-tenure sabbatical and demonstrates that printing granular hydrogels in particulate suspension paths can create a dynamic environment that can regulate cell migration. The work can be found, open access, at this link.

Assistant Professor of English Sonia Del Hierro presented a paper titled “Aesthetics in the flesh: Las Brown Berets and Chicana Resistencia” at the 11th Annual El Mundo Zurdo conference, hosted by Trinity University in San Antonio from November 6–8. This year’s theme was “Hope Sin Fronteras: Reclaiming Fluidity, Empowering Communities, and Enacting Resistance.”

Assistant Professor of Education Marilyn Nicol and her colleague Bethanie Pletcher of Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi published their article, titled “A collaborative and comprehensive model of professional support for implementing interactive writing in preschool,” in the Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education. The research report explored professional support and instructional coaching for the implementation of writing instruction in early elementary. The abstract can be read here.

Assistant Professor of Education Marilyn Nicol attended the annual national conference of the Association for Literacy Education and Research, where she presented preliminary findings from her current research study, titled “Teaching with Multicultural Literature during Troubled Times: A Community Engaged Learning Project.” She also hosted the inaugural fireside chat for the Teacher Education and Professional Learning special interest group with her colleague Bethanie Pletcher of Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. They discussed their publication, titled “Reclaiming the Pen: An Exploration of Interactive Writing in the Primary Grades.”

Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History Rachel Daphne Weiss published “Delineations: Jan Hackaert’s Graphic Geognosy” in Art History. It can be read here.

Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson and her Summer 2025 SURF students presented their findings at the 13th Race, Ethnicity and Place conference in Albuquerque, NM from November 5–7. Their panel was titled “Race, Gender, Slavery and Freedom in Everyday Life on the British coast of Central America, 1750-1830.” Dr. Johnson and three students presented their papers: anthropology and feminist studies double major Dina Gaxiola ’28 presented “The Case of Jane Trapp: Race, Gender, Slavery and Freedom in Early British Central America,” psychology and sociology double major Sophia Hernandez ’28 presented “From Enslavement to Influence; Gendered Agency, Racial Boundaries, and the Story of Ariadne Broaster,” Dr. Johnson presented “Living across lines of freedom in the early history of Belize: The origins of the Bonner family,” and biology and environmental studies double major Shae Whitney ’28 presented “Maria Middleton – Slave, Criminal, Transported Convict: Understanding Gender, Race and Freedom across the British Colonial World.” The students may have been the only undergraduates presenting papers at this conference. The papers were well received, with one audience member sharing that this was the most interesting panel they had attended.

Professor Emerita of English Helene Meyers published “Wrestling with Jewish Shame: a Review of Sarah Hurwitz’s As a Jew” in The Revealer. It can be read here.

Associate Professor of Music Jason Hoogerhyde’s new work for alto saxophone, Hollow, received its premiere performance at the College Music Society’s National Annual Conference in Spokane, WA, on October 31. The work explores the wide range of the instrument, motivically employing large melodic intervals across that range.

Associate Professor of Theatre Kerry Bechtel designed the costumes for A Charlie Brown Christmas at Zach Theater in downtown Austin. This musical is based upon the classic Peanuts family favorite and is a wonderful holiday event for the whole family. The production runs from November 7 through the end of the year. Tickets can be obtained here.

Theatre alumna Olivia Rose McCain ’22 was awarded a 2025 B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Hair and Makeup Design for her work on MotherTree at the VORTEX Repertory in Austin. Olivia is an actor, designer, and entrepreneur with a successful podcast called Gals & Goblins.

Part-Time Assistant Professor of Applied Music Katherine Altobello ’99 was a mezzo-soprano soloist in Mozart’s beloved “Requiem KV 626,” presented by the Texas Bach Festival, under the direction of Dr. Barry Scott Williamson, on June 29 at First United Methodist Church in Georgetown. Ms. Altobello performed the iconic quartet “Recordare” alongside soprano Jenny Houghton, tenor Dr. Jeffrey Jones-Regona, and baritone Dr. Tim O’Brien. The entire work can be heard here.

Professor of Communication Studies Bob Bednar presented an invited lecture titled “Remembering Jessie Daniel Ames: A Legacy of Social Activism Connecting Southwestern and Georgetown,” as part of the Preservation Georgetown Lecture Series, on October 15.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Adriana Ponce published her critical literature review on U.S. stepfamilies in the Journal of Sociology Compass. The article, “A Literature Review of U.S. Stepfamilies: Directions Toward an Intersectional, Feminist Understanding of Lived Experiences Centered on Social Justice Praxis,” is part of a special issue centering on intersectionality, titled “Beyond Boundaries: Reviewing the Multifaceted Dimensions of Intersectionality,” and identifies a glaring gap and directions for new knowledge creation centered on community engagement. The article can be read here.

Professor of English Michael Saenger was interviewed by J Life: Heart of New Jersey, on the topic of rising antisemitism in academic environments. The interview can be read here.

Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies Meagan Solomon published a peer-reviewed article, titled “Tejano Drag Kings: Reclaiming Space, Place, and Culture Through Performance,” in WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, a top feminist studies journal. This article theorizes Tejano drag king performance as a critical source of resistance to state repression and cisheteronormative cultural standards. While drag kings in general, and Latino drag kings in particular, remain marginalized subjects in popular drag discourse, this article spotlights the work of Tejano drag kings and theorizes how their embodied performance and parody of masculinity serves as a vessel for feminist worldmaking. The article can be accessed here.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Amanda Hernandez served as an invited panelist on an “Author Meets Critics” panel at the Sociology for the Scientific Study of Religion annual meeting in Minneapolis on October 31. The book, “Faith & The Fragility of Justice: Responses to Gender-Based Violence in South Africa,” by Meredith Whitnah is an exploration of non-governmental organization responses to gender-based violence in post-apartheid South Africa. Amanda’s comments focused on the author’s call to use intersectional frameworks in the sociological study of religion and the use of creative and innovative methodologies to do this work.

As part of his Publicly Engaged Humanities project, Professor of English Michael Saenger was interviewed by KVUE Midday News Anchor Jenni Lee on the topic of rising antisemitism in academic life, and the need to support civil discourse around controversial issues. The interview can be seen here.

Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson participated in the Kulcha 2025 symposium, hosted by the Heritage Education Network Belize, from October 29–31. She presented “Early Belizean Social History: The case of the Crawford family” on October 29. The presentation can be accessed here at 4:54 (4 hours, 54 minutes); the live Q and A starts about 30 minutes later.

Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies Meagan Solomon, alongside her Mellon Publicly-Engaged Humanities (PEH) Research Assistant Mia Santoscoy ’26, attended the 2025 Lesbian Lives conference in New York City from October 24–26. They presented on a roundtable titled “Latina/e Lesbian Archival Praxis and Memory Work: A Plática/Roda de Conversa with Malflora Collective,” which included seven members of the Latina/e lesbian collective co-founded by Dr. Solomon with support from the Mellon PEH grant. In the roundtable, Malflora Collective members discussed the non-traditional and community-based archival practices that Latina/e lesbians engage in, arguing that their memory work is rooted in collectivity, lived experience, and cultural reclamation as a form of decolonial praxis. Together, they highlighted how noninstitutional archives and digital memory projects like Malflora Collective are crucial for preserving the stories of marginalized communities and fostering transnational solidarity in the face of cultural and political oppression.

Professor of English Michael Saenger was an invited speaker on the topic of “Academic Engagement Network’s efforts to confront antisemitism and support and protect Jews and Zionists in academic spaces” at the Jewish National Fund’s annual conference in Hollywood, FL from October 23–26.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse was invited to comment on Hannah Bacon’s paper, “A Critical Phenomenology of Carceral Time,” presented at the 63rd annual Society for Phenomenology Existential Philosophy Conference. This year’s conference was held online over two weekends, October 17–18 and 24–25.

Professor of Psychology Fay Guarraci and psychology alumnus Ian Klepcyk ’24 collaborated with colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin to finally complete a four year long project that was accepted for publication in Hormones and Behavior, titled “Chronic periadolescent leuprolide exposure affects the expression of multiple genes in the hypothalamus and pituitary gland with a different pattern of expression in female and male Long-Evans rats.” This project is one of the first studies to investigate changes in the brain associated with exposure to puberty blockers for a prolonged period of time in an animal model.

Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson led a workshop on the “Early Social History of the Lower Belize River Valley” for undergraduate students at the University of Belize (UB) from October 17–18. Eight students and two professors from UB spent Friday working with archival documents and information that Dr. Johnson has collected to start to tell the story of a family of color who lived in British Central America starting in the mid 1700s. The president of the university and two deans joined the workshop for Dr. Johnson’s presentation. The following day, Dr. Johnson organized a field trip for the group to Belizean Creole villages in the lower Belize River Valley, where the group learned about history and culture first hand from elders of the communities. Dr. Johnson worked closely with Lecturer in History and Coordinator of the Intercultural Indigenous Language Institute Delmer Tzib and Assistant Professor of English Christopher De Shield to develop the workshop. The activities were all sponsored by funding from the Mellon Foundation’s Grant to SU, “Deepening the Heart of Texas: Public-Engaged Humanities for Social Justice.”

Five mathematics majors presented preliminary work on their mathematics capstone projects at the 20th Annual Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference held this year at St. Mary’s University on October 17-18. Kristian Duddridge ’26 presented “What’s magical about hexagonal tiling?” Tanner Klein ’26 presented “A Different Type of Circuit: Exploring Graph Theory in Mario Kart World.” Sebastian Loder ’26 presented “Snakes and Snowmen: Exploring new classes of graphs within the Game of Cycles.” Kacy Miller ’26 presented “Path-finding and Patterns in Free Flow.” Avery Weatherly ’25 presented “Pip Pip Hooray! A mathematical exploration of Pips, a New York Times Game.” All five projects are being supervised by Garey Chair and Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr, who also attended the conference and moderated a session of talks. Daisy Orozco ’27 and Joshua Rodkey ’29 also attended the conference.

Garey Chair and Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr co-organized the successful Applied Mathematical Intersections (AMI) conference (celebrating the work of Dr. Ami Radunskaya) from October 3-5 at Pomona College. The conference kicked off Friday night with a math/music/Ami themed scavenger hunt and concluded Sunday morning with a reflection-based discussion of the weekend’s activities. In between, there was a music jam, an improv workshop, hands-on activities, collaborative problem solving sessions, a poster session, and two dual talks (inspired by our very own Paideia Connections lectures) that each featured one musician and one mathematician. Assistant Professor of Mathematics Noelle Sawyer also attended and led the logic puzzles hands-on activity. More information about the conference is available here.

Professor of History Melissa Byrnes was part of a roundtable on “The State of the Field: European Urban History” at the Urban History Association Conference in Los Angeles. Her opening remarks focused on cities as imperial (and postcolonial) spaces, renewed emphasis on community agency, and the rich intersection of local and transnational histories.

Assistant Professor of English Sonia Del Hierro co-published a brief essay titled “Algunos pensamientos sobre las señoras” in the Spanish-language feminist blog, Indisciplinadxs Linguistica Feminista. This essay/blog entry provides a framework for understanding linguistic, historical, and contemporary perspectives on the identity label “señora” within Latine/x and Mexican American communities. This work emerges from Del Hierro’s larger project, Señora Power, a multi-disciplinary project committed to writing Chicana feminist consciousness into public history.

Counselor Geneva Walker, LPC has been selected to deliver a TEDx talk on November 15. Her talk, titled “The Ache and the Answer: Holding Grief, Purpose, and the Courage to Live Victoriously,” explores resilience, mindfulness, and the power of thriving through adversity. In addition to her work with Southwestern students, Geneva is an advocate for mental health awareness and intentional living, bringing both professional expertise and lived experience to her message.

Director of Public Engagement Manda Wittebort and recent graduate McKenzie Rentie ’25, facilitated an interactive workshop session titled “Time Together as Ceremonial: Passage through the Spaces We Create” at Imagining America’s National Gathering this fall. The two curated a session dedicated to cultivating radical spaces driven by social justice, one’s lived experiences, and engaging in collaborative creative culture-making that brings people together in ways that foster empathy, joy, play, and connection. Attendees reflected on the knowledge they all are already equipped with to build meaningful connections and create sub-cultures, consider what roadblocks and challenges are keeping them from the approaches they already know, and utilize the power of storytelling as a space for belonging.

Professor of Physics Steven Alexander and four of his research students — Heidi Jackson ’26, Casandra Nunez ’26, Anshika Katrodia ’26, and Brooke Ramey ’27 — attended the Fall 2025 meeting of the Texas Section of the American Physical Society, held October 10-11 in Fort Worth. Dr. Alexander presented a poster titled “Using Molecular Annealing to Find Molecules with Specific Absorbance Peaks” and Brooke Ramey presented a poster titled “Verifying the Experimental Hyperpolarizabilities of Organic Molecules Using Density Functional Theory.” Heidi Jackson, Casandra Nunez, and Anshika Katrodia presented a poster titled “Analyzing Emission Spectra to Determine the Mass of a Black Hole.” All of the posters generated considerable interest and some insightful discussions.

Duncan Chair and Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura was invited by the Simons Foundation to be a math consultant to botanical gardens for their Math in Bloom program, part of the Infinite Sums initiative that seeks to make the beauty of mathematics accessible to a wide audience through programming initiated by non-mathematicians. Horticulturalists and directors from five botanical gardens around the country gathered at the San Antonio Botanical Garden to brainstorm ideas for a pi day (3/14), infinity day (8/8), and Fibonacci day (11/23) that will take place in 2026. More information is available here.

Supported by funds from the Garey Chair in Biology and the Mellon Grant for Publicly Engaged Scholarship, Professor of Biology Romi Burks gave a talk and tasting at the Northwest Chocolate Festival, titled “Get Origin(al): Educated by chocolate in Brazil and Peru.” Dr. Burks shared her professional development experiences abroad this summer learning about supply chains and post-harvest practices in two important origin countries that grow Theobroma cacao, the tree that provides the beans from which we make chocolate. She also participated in the “Unconference,” a networking opportunity for professionals in the chocolate industry.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed presented a talk, titled “Oral History as Liberation,” at the Universities Studying Slavery Consortium’s Fall Conference, “Second Foundings: Universities, Slavery, and Struggles for Justice in Texas and Beyond,” at Rice University in Houston on Saturday, October 11. She discussed the Southwestern University Racial History Project’s oral history collection and the critical methodology used to gather, preserve, and exhibit stories of alumni of color. Her talk featured an excerpt of the oral history of Eva Mendiola ’75 that was recorded by SCOPE 2022 student Kalista Esquivel ’26 as well as a clip of the forthcoming documentary that she created with Esquivel and SURF 2025 student Mia Santoscoy ’26 about Mendiola’s journey to founding women’s sports at SU. The conference program can be found here.

Part-Time Assistant Professor of Music Jeanne Hourez was invited to give masterclasses and perform recitals in Nevada and Utah during fall break. Dr. Hourez visited the University of Nevada – Las Vegas, Southern Utah University, and Snow College. Her recital program, dedicated to women composers, included pieces by Ania Vu, Mel Bonis, Marguerite Canal, Marie Jaell, and Agathe Backer-Grondahl.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby and three of his SURF research students — Sabina Martinez Carreon ’27, Bryan Guzman-Sanchez ’26, and Rishi Rajesh ’27 — attended the 2025 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting, held October 8-11 in San Diego. Dr. Crosby moderated two sessions at the international conference, a bioprinting session and a rapid-fire talk session for undergraduates in biomaterials. Sabina presented the group’s poster, titled “Post-Print Reinforcement of GelMA/HAMA Scaffolds via PEGDA Infiltration,” at the main conference and at the separate LatinX in BME Symposium. Both posters were well-attended by other conference-goers and generated some insightful and helpful discussions. Amanda Mejia ’27 and Gabriela Nicole Hislop Gomez ’26 also attended and participated in the conference.

Hispanic Academic Success Coordinator Amalia Merino co-created the recently-published Encuentra deck of NetVUE Conversation Cards, a resource designed to promote reflection on vocation, identity, and purpose through bilingual conversation. The Encuentra deck is part of the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE), which operates under the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). Decks may be ordered through Southwestern University’s NetVUE Campus Contact, available here.

For the first time, Southwestern University was represented at the 2025 HSI Battle of the Brains, a premier national competition that brings together top student talent from across the country to solve real-world business and technology challenges. Southwestern’s inaugural team included eight exceptional students: Asin Allavudeen ’27, Santiago Cuevas ’26, Cassidie Gomez ’26, Julyssa Hernandez ’27, Yeva-Mariya Hayko ’26, Anna Hulett ’28, Alyanna Martinez ’27, and Juan Carlos Martinez Varela ’27. Selected through a competitive internal application process, the students participated in a 24-hour cross-disciplinary challenge integrating computer science, marketing, finance, and sustainable business strategy. They also engaged in professional development workshops led by industry leaders from Dell Technologies, eBay, Thrivent Financial, Capital One, and The Home Depot. Southwestern’s team earned first place in the Video Marketing Challenge, an interactive activity sponsored by Kickin It ATX that tested their creativity and collaboration under a time constraint. In addition, Juan Carlos Martinez Varela was awarded scholarships from both Dell Technologies and eBay in recognition of his outstanding academic and professional accomplishments and his ability to make a lasting impression on company representatives throughout the event. Special thanks to the faculty and staff who coordinated the team’s participation: Hispanic Academic Success Coordinator Amalia Merino, Director of the Center for Career & Professional Development Adrian D. Ramirez, Associate Professor of Spanish Abby Dings, and Professor of Business Debika Sihi. Gratitude is also extended to the blind judges who assisted with the internal selection process, Assistant Vice President of Admission Christine Bowman, Director of Admission Jaime Gonzalez, and Professor of Kinesiology Scott McLean, as well as Visual Content Producer Todd White for photography and videography of the event.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper published the study score for composer Margaret Bonds’ setting of W.E.B. Du Bois’ “Credo” with Hildegard Publishing Company. Cooper published the first edition of this work, which Du Bois’ widow, Shirley Graham Du Bois, pronounced “a work of art that is eternal – that will live as long as people love each other and really believe in brotherhood,” back in 2020, and in that guise, Bonds’ “Credo” has been performed dozens of times on both sides of the Atlantic, earning a solid place in the modern concert repertoire. That score and the orchestral parts were available only on a rental basis, however. The present study score, available to libraries and individuals, as well as performing ensembles, will finally enable “Credo” to be studied, taught, and discussed as a worthy peer of iconic orchestral and orchestral/choral works by Bach, Beethoven, Bernstein, Mahler, and other canonical white Euro-American male composers.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse presented a paper titled “Towards a Black Consciousness like Black Feminist praxis” at the 43rd Annual Spindel Conference, hosted by the Philosophy Department at the University of Memphis from September 25-27. The conference proceedings will be published in a special issue of the Southern Journal of Philosophy.

Professor of Chemistry Emily Niemeyer and Southwestern graduates Mattigan Aga ’25 and Holly Lawson ’23 published a research article titled “Plant maturity differentially affects the phenolic composition and antioxidant properties of green basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) cultivars.” The article is part of a special issue that highlights undergraduate research in the American Chemical Society’s journal ACS Omega. The work was supported by The Welch Foundation and Southwestern’s Herbert and Kate Dishman endowment. The open-access article is available to read here.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth co-organized and hosted the 6th biennial joint conference of the three Texas Chapters of the American Association of Teachers of German at Southwestern on Sept 12-13. German educators from the Houston, South Texas, and North Texas chapters presented and collaborated on the conference’s dual focus topics: the uses of AI in teaching and learning, and best practices for recruitment and retention in German programs. Hueber Publishing, one of Germany’s premier textbook suppliers, provided an extensive book table and expert guidance to their K-16 materials. Representatives from the Houston Sängerbund promoted their scholarship for study abroad opportunities. Berroth’s SURF students Kendyl Feuerbacher ’27, Rylee Morris ’28, and Maglor Williams ’27 presented their summer research project on the Perry Rhodan science fiction collection, including reflections on how high impact experiences (HIEs) contribute to recruitment, retention in the German Program and beyond, and to their trajectories of personal and professional development. Head of Distinctive Collections and Archives Megan Firestone and Berroth shared insights into the benefits of collaborations among faculty and staff in integrating DISCO into the curriculum and providing and mentoring HIEs. Over 30 participants from middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities emphasized the importance of vertical alignments in curricular developments for teaching and learning languages and cultures. Participants could earn continuing education credits. This marks the third time Berroth brought the joint conference to SU’s campus, a significant commitment to community outreach, to increasing the visibility of SU’s Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, and to invigorating recruitment efforts.

Director of Study Abroad and International Student Services Monya Lemery is currently serving her second year of a three-year elected term on the Forum Council. In this role, she has been a leader in exploring the intersection of technology and international education, having co-led a “Member Mingle” on “AI in Education Abroad” in September. This year, she continues her work by serving on the “Working Group on AI in Education Abroad,” helping to establish professional standards for the field.

Professor Emeritus of Kinesiology Jimmy Smith and Professor of Religion and Culture/Environmental Studies Laura Hobgood were invited by Lifelong Learning (formerly Senior University) to teach a six-week class called “Going to the Dogs.” The course is based on their 20-year FYS taught at SU.

Professor of Art History Allison Miller published a review of the book Bronze Mirrors in Ancient China: Artistry and Technique by Kin Sum Li in caa.reviews, an online, open-access journal published by the College Art Association. You can read the review here.

Assistant Professor of History Bryan U. Kauma presented the paper “‘Political Grains:’ Bad Politics, Hunger, and the Weaponization of Grain in Zimbabwe, c.2000-2010” at the 2025 Rocky Mountain Workshop on African History, held at Portland State University from September 12-13. The paper has also been accepted for publication by the Journal of Asian and African Studies.

Professor of Education Michael Kamen and Associate Professor of Curriculum Instruction and Learning Sciences at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Debra Plowman published “Data Charts: Making Connections?” in the Summer 2025 newsletter of the International Consortium for Research in Science and Mathematics Education. Their quarterly column tells the ongoing story of the fictional character, Ian Quiry, as he studies and struggles to learn how to be an effective elementary school STEM teacher. The summer column can be read here, starting on page ten of the newsletter.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper published Four Pieces for Piano Solo by Will H. Dixon with Recital Publications (Fayetteville, AR). Dubbed “the original dancing conductor” by James Weldon Johnson in his iconic memoir Black Manhattan, Dixon (1879-1917) was one of the leading musical lights of the generation of African Americans who lived and worked in Manhattan’s “Tenderloin District” in the generation leading to the emergence of the Harlem Renaissance. Dixon, an actor, playwright, composer, pianist, and singer, was featured as a composer and performer on the great stages of Europe in the first decade of the dawning twentieth century. His music is a rich synthesis of African American vernacular musical traditions and Euro-American classical idioms. Most of his more than 100 surviving works remain unpublished. Dr. Cooper published these four from the privately curated Barnes/Dixon/Meyers Historical Harlem Papers, Archives, and Musical Manuscripts Collection. The volume contains two maxixes (Brazilian tangos) and two valses lentes (slow, romantic waltzes).

This summer, University Chaplain and Director of Spiritual Life Ron Swain, along with art alumna Georgianne Hewett ’90 presented “Courageous Conversations about Difficult Issues in Higher Education” at the United Methodist Campus Ministry Association’s Summer Institute. The two also facilitated a lunch conversation on trust.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper published Twelve Art Songs and Spirituals by Margaret Bonds, Florence B. Price, and Clarence Cameron White with Classical Vocal Reprints (Fayetteville, AR). The volume includes Cooper’s first four published editions of music by Clarence Cameron White, who before his posthumous erasure was considered the leading African American composer of classical music. The work also includes three never-before-published compositions by Florence B. Price (among these a moving setting of the first three stanzas of Robert Frost’s “A Prayer in Spring”) that Price wrote when she learned of the surrender of Nazi Germany, as well as five songs by Margaret Bonds that may all be considered revelatory, each in its own way. This volume brings the total number of Cooper’s first editions of music by Price to 152 and that of music by Bonds to 45.

During the summer, Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse participated in a workshop on “African Voices in Global Intellectual History” in Konstanz, Germany from June 23 – 25. They presented their working chapter, which is a commentary on one of Mamphela Ramphele’s essays. The workshop aims to publish contributions into a book anthology that will feature African figures of the 19th and 20th centuries in annotated original documents. The reader aims to contribute to bringing African voices into the global historical perspective and thus stimulate new research.

Mail Clerk Hans Venable ’84 will appear in the roles of “Lane” and “Merriman,” described as “extremely judgmental butlers,” in Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy The Importance of Being Earnest at Austin Playhouse in Austin, TX. Wilde’s razor-sharp wit skewers social conventions as Victorian etiquette turns into pure comedic chaos with fake names, real feelings, and plenty of tea getting spilt. Performances are September 19 through October 19, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2:00 p.m. Sunday. Performances are at Austin Playhouse West Campus, located at 405 W. 22nd in Austin. For more information and to make reservations, click here.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey was awarded a Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (LEAPS-MPS) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This $250,000 research grant will support her lab’s research over the next two years, studying the effects of native environment and external stressors on diatom light-harvesting.

Associate Professor of Communication Studies Lamiyah Bahrainwala (LB) delivered a virtual invited talk titled “The Role of the Critic” to graduate students at Arizona State University. The graduate students were dope and gave LB hope.

Professor of Business Debika Sihi had her chapter titled “Advertising and Connected Experiences Through Smart Home Devices” accepted for publication in the forthcoming book Developing Digital Narratives in Marketing Communication. This chapter examines how smart home devices like speakers, TVs, and appliances create marketing opportunities through personalized, interactive ads. While convenience and relevance are benefits, challenges include privacy concerns and ad fatigue. Both marketers and consumers stress the need for trust, non-intrusive design, and ethical, transparent strategies as device adoption grows amid evolving privacy rules.

Professor of Chemistry Emily Niemeyer and Southwestern graduates Haley White ’20, Bailey Meyer ’20, Jared McCormack ’22, and Holly Lawson ’23 published a research article titled “Comparison of culinary and ceremonial matcha green teas: relationship between phytochemical composition and antioxidant properties” in the Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization. The research was supported by The Welch Foundation and Southwestern’s Herbert and Kate Dishman endowment. The open access article is available to read here.

Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum ’06 had his peer-reviewed article, “Text-to-Level Diffusion Models With Various Text Encoders for Super Mario Bros,” accepted for publication and oral presentation at the 21st Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE 2025), to take place in November 2025. The article is co-authored with Dr. Schrum’s SURF students Olivia Kilday ’28, Emilio Salas ’26, Bess Hagan ’25, and Reid Williams ’26. AIIDE is a highly selective venue with an acceptance rate under 25%. Videos and other content associated with the publication are available online here, and a pre-print of the accepted article is on arXiv here.

This summer, Part-Time Assistant Professor of Music and Artist in Residence Hai Zheng Olefsky was invited to serve as a guest judge for the 2025 Colburn-Pledge Music Scholarship Competition, presented by Musical Bridges Around the World (MBAW). MBAW, a nonprofit dedicated to multicultural arts and social impact, works to celebrate shared humanity by making global arts accessible to all. The Colburn-Pledge Music Scholarship provides college tuition assistance to outstanding young string players who aspire to professional careers in classical music.

Professor of Art History Allison Miller presented the paper “Origin Stories: A Bronze ‘Cymbal’ from Hepu as a Case Study” on August 19 at the 10th Worldwide Conference of the Society for East Asian Archaeology, held at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. The paper was given in a session titled “New Approaches to Gifting, Tribute, and Trade across Asia (11th c. BCE-10th c. CE).”

Professor of Political Science Bob Snyder had his paper “The Myth of Trump’s Transactional Foreign Policy” accepted for publication in the International Journal. It shows that Trump’s foreign policy has been more tributary than, as often characterized, transactional.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long was featured on NPR’s On Point with Magna Chakrabarti. The episode, titled “The Transformation of Austin, Texas,” explored Austin’s motley and often unjust history of urban development.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long presented the keynote address, titled “Climate Justice or Climate Apartheid: Interrogating trajectories of climate action and response,” at the 2025 CRE Conference in Montreal, Quebec.

Head of Distinctive Collections and Archives Megan Firestone presented as part of a panel at the 2025 TPS [Teaching with Primary Sources] Fest that included archivists from Kenyon College, the University of Maryland, and the Stratford Festival. The session “Exhibitions as Outreach: Preparing, Collaborating, Teaching, and Recovering When It All Goes Wrong” explored how exhibitions can serve as impactful outreach and teaching tools through collaboration with faculty, students, and community partners — highlighting both successes and lessons learned when plans go awry.

Assistant Professor of Economics and Business Raji Kunapuli organized a professional development workshop titled “AI-Enabled New Research Methods in Entrepreneurship and Strategy” at the Academy of Management Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. The workshop drew more than 250 research scholars and explored cutting-edge AI-based methods for management research, including text analysis and AI-enabled experimental designs.

Three faculty and an alumna participated in the 2025 MathFest, a national meeting of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) in Sacramento, CA from August 6–10. Professor and Duncan Chair of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura presented “Linear Algebra Class Projects to Research Projects.” Professor and Garey Chair of Mathematics Alison Marr presented “Trying, Flailing, Tweaking, Succeeding: A Grading Journey” and served on a Project NExT panel titled “Navigating the Shifting Tides of Academia in 2025.” Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton presented “Cholera Models with Pathogen Growth for Student Engagement in Undergraduate Differential Equations and Beyond.” She also co-organized the contributed paper session, “In the Real with Applications of Differential Equations for Learning,” jointly sponsored by SIMIODE and CODEE. Futamura, Marr, and Shelton also each provided professional service in monitoring MAA minicourses. Mathematics and computer science graduate Emma Kathryn Groves ’17 was a co-author on a presentation “Assigning Interconnected Projects in a Dynamical Systems Course.” She also co-organized the contributed paper session “From Theory to Practice – Applying Literature-Based Teaching Practices in the Real Classroom.” Dr. Groves achieved her Ph.D. in 2023 and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY.

Professor of History Melissa Byrnes presented a paper titled “French Anti-Salazarism in the 1960s: Allying against Imperial Violence” at the Global Consortium for French Historical Studies in Paris, organized on the theme of “Resistance.”

Professor of Psychology Fay Guarraci co-chaired and presented a workshop at the annual meeting of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, titled “Moving Forward: A Workshop on Issues Facing Transgender Research (Models, Community, and Funding),” in addition to a poster presentation, titled “Chronic periadolescent leuprolide exposure affects the expression of multiple genes in the hypothalamus and pituitary gland with a different pattern of expression in female and male Long-Evans rats,” co-authored by psychology graduate Ian Klepcyk ’24.

Assistant Professor of Violin Jessica Mathaes traveled to New Zealand, where she completed a three-month appointment as Associate Concertmaster of the Auckland Philharmonia. Selected through an international audition search process, Mathaes led the Auckland Philharmonia in many concerts during her tenure, playing alongside international colleagues, conductors, and soloists from throughout the world.

Sociology and feminist studies graduate Emily Dimiceli ’25 received an honorable mention for the prestigious Joe Feagin Undergraduate Paper Award for her fall 2025 sociology capstone project. This national award, presented by the Sociology of Racial and Ethnic Minorities section of the American Sociological Association (ASA), recognizes outstanding undergraduate scholarship. Emily accepted the honor at this year’s ASA meeting in Chicago. In its commendation, the award committee described Emily’s paper as “ambitious original research… well-grounded in racial theory, including conceptualizations of colorblind racism and historical racism.”

Assistant Professor of Sociology Amanda Hernandez and environmental studies graduate Sarah Ventimiglia ’24 traveled to Chicago to present at the Association for the Sociology of Religion Annual Meeting. Sarah presented their faculty/student collaborative research “Hashtag ChristianGirl: The White Commodified Self on TikTok.” Amanda’s 2024 book, Intersectional Identities of Christian Women in the U.S.: Faith, Race, and Feminism, was the subject of an “Author Meets Critic” book panel.

Southwestern’s Admission Office staff recently participated in admission workshops across Texas with the Private College Collective, a small group of select private colleges and universities, by offering admission presentations and a college fair. Assistant Vice President of Admission Christine Bowman and Associate Director of Regional Admission Josh Huggins presented in Austin and Dallas on holistic admissions beyond the GPA, using an interactive activity to help participants better understand how applications are reviewed. Director of Admission Jaime Gonzalez presented in Houston on the value of a private college education and the benefits that come with investing in a private college education. The Private College Collective includes the following selective private universities: Washington University, Vanderbilt University, Trinity University, University of Denver, University of Tulsa, Southern Methodist University, Drake University, and Southwestern University.

Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum recently attended the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference in Málaga, Spain to present his peer-reviewed paper, “A Quality Diversity Approach to Evolving Model Rockets,” co-authored with Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby. The article, freely accessible here from the ACM Digital library, describes the use of AI methods inspired by evolution to create designs for model rockets. An informative video about this joint research is also available here.

On July 30, University World News published an article by Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Jeff Doyle, titled “Universities must flex for the new student demographic.” The article can be read here.

Professor of English Michael Saenger was selected to join 50 faculty members from around the country to represent the Academic Engagement Network (AEN) at the annual Israel on Campus Coalition National Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. The AEN Delegation joined 750 students to learn about the Middle East and to form connections of solidarity to confront rising antisemitism at universities. This publicly engaged humanities project involved a serious engagement with politicians, authors, and community leaders, and culminated in an appearance by Ritchie Torres (D-NY).

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth participated in two international conferences this summer. She presented her research paper, “Memory, Objects, Landscapes: Ecosystems in Marica Bodrožić’s Texts,” at the FrideL (Frauen in der Literaturwissenschaft) conference in Stuttgart, Germany. The Conference offered a focus on gender in/and nature in German studies. At the XV Convention of the Internationale Vereinigung der Germanisten (IVG) in Graz, Austria, Berroth contributed to “Section 32: Narratives of Psychological Crises in Contemporary German Language Literatures.” Her research paper, “Pantherzeit und Lockdown-Lyrik: Kreativität und Reflexion in der Pandemie,” contributed to a series on literary representations of crisis experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Active since 1951 in international collaborations in German studies, the IVG meets every five years, bringing together 1,700 German studies professionals from over 60 countries worldwide.

Professor and Duncan Chair of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura presented a workshop on “Writing a Mathematical Art Manifesto” at the Bridges Math Art Conference in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Attended by artists, mathematicians, and those in between, the exercise prompted interesting discussions that explored the boundaries of what might be considered mathematical art, its reception in the math and art worlds, and its rich connection to feminine and indigenous arts: textiles, weaving, knots, crochet, tiling, quilting, basketmaking, etc.

For the first time (and almost certainly also the last), Professor of Music Michael Cooper was quoted at some length in an article by Investor’s Business Daily. Titled “Florence Price Composed Lasting Beauty Amid Horrific Tragedy” and written by Paul Katzeff, the article is in the journal’s “Leaders and Success” column. Cooper’s remarks dealt partly with issues of Price’s biography but mostly with the agency of racist and sexist music publishers in ensuring that Price’s music would be largely forgotten in the decades following her death in 1953. The article can be read here.

Professor and Chair of English Eileen Cleere presided over her final conference as President of Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies (INCS) in Genoa, Italy from June 18-21. In that capacity, Cleere ran a board meeting, planned upcoming conferences in Washington, D.C., Dallas, TX, and Rome, Italy, and introduced the keynote speaker, Professor Clair Pettitt, for a lecture held at the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace). Cleere also delivered a paper titled “The Quickening: Pregnancy and Pronatalism in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility,” and participated in a special roundtable called “Slowing Down Time: Embodied and Generational Resistances to Speed and Acceleration.” Her roundtable talk was titled “Becoming a Minor Character,” and suggested that the Victorian novel can help us understand models of institutional service generationally, with specific focus on the gendered and generational labor often required to sustain work in public facing (PH) and community facing (CEL) initiatives.

Associate Professor of Spanish Abby Dings presented a talk titled “Open Educational Resources for Spanish for Healthcare Professions” at the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) annual conference, held June 26-29 in Panama City, Panama. The presentation highlighted strategies for incorporating open educational resources (OER) into medical Spanish curricula to enhance accessibility, build communicative competence, and promote cultural humility.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper has won the 2025 Pauline Alderman Award from the International Alliance for Women in Music for his book Margaret Bonds: The “Montgomery Variations” and Du Bois “Credo” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023). This was the first book-length study of Margaret Bonds and her music (followed in Spring 2025 by Cooper’s biography of Margaret Bonds published with Oxford University Press). At just 164 pages, it’s a slight book, but not an insubstantial one. Adjudicators praised it for its “exceptional interdisciplinary analysis” and described it as “illuminating,” “monumental,” and “revolutionary.” More information about the honor can be found here and here.

Head of Distinctive Collections and Archives Megan Firestone was selected as one of only 20 participants to attend the Texas A&M Book History Workshop. She successfully completed the intensive, hands-on program, which offered an in-depth introduction to the history of books and printing.

Head of Distinctive Collections and Archives Megan Firestone was selected for the inaugural cohort of the Teaching with Primary Sources Institute. She successfully completed the six-week intensive program, which focused on topics and teaching strategies related to the use of primary sources in instruction.

Professor of Theatre Desiderio Roybal designed stage scenery and is the scenic charge artist for Magnolia Musical Theatre’s production of SpongeBob the Musical. This professional production is directed by Professor Emeritus of Theatre Rick Roemer, with technical direction by Scene Shop Manager Monroe Oxley. Students Ansh Tripathi ’28 and Yeva Tcharikova ’28 collaborated with Roybal and Oxley as academic interns in the fabrication and painting of scenery. Students Emma Hoover ’27, Olivia Hynes ’27, Piper Swisher ’27, and Emily Williams ’28 are scenic carpenters and painters. The production is running Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. from July 16 through August 16 at the Hill Country Galleria Pavilion in Bee Cave, TX. Attendees are encouraged to bring a blanket or lawn chair and their favorite beverage to be transported to Bikini Bottom for an unforgettable evening of entertainment featuring a talented cast and crew performing alongside a live orchestra.

Professor of English Michael Saenger delivered a paper titled “Unveiling Hermione and Other Deferrals” at the European Shakespeare Research Association Conference in Porto, Portugal. The paper addresses Shakespeare’s sense of time as a dramatic and poetic experience in The Winter’s Tale. This play includes an appearance of an old man dressed as Time midway through its performance, and it also includes very subtle and fascinating ways of hearing temporal change and stillness.

Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Jeff Doyle was interviewed for and quoted in an article published by Inside Higher Ed and Jenzabar titled, “Maximizing Data for Student Success – Data Storage and Analytics.” The article can be downloaded here.

Kinesiology major Raghav Sharma ’26 and Assistant Professor of Kinesiology Tatiana Zhuravleva presented their Summer 2025 SURF research project on the effects of attentional focus on rowing performance in experienced individuals at the NASPSPA Conference, held June 2–6 in Lake Tahoe, CA.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper published Six Songs on Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar by Florence B. Price with ClarNan Editions (Fayetteville, AR). Those who know Price’s other songs such as “Sympathy” or “Difference” know that Dunbar’s poetry, which the late Nikki Giovanni described as “peerless,” elicited particularly intense responses from Price’s musical imagination. But these six never-before-published songs shed new light on the beauties that emerged from the convergence of their creative spirits. Two of the songs are in the African American dialect, whose inherent poetry Dunbar famously celebrated, while four are in conventional English; collectively, they trace themes ranging from teem with wit, wisdom, and deeply human experience and emotion, in circumstances ranging from romantic love through despair, to end-of-life longing to be “called home” and rejoin long-departed friends and loved ones. This edition marks Cooper’s 149th publication of previously unknown music by Florence Price since September 2019.

Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco recently published a dataset, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and the United States Geological Survey. The data product provides a collation of estimates of species vulnerability to climate change that have been made using correlative niche models, which can be used by states in the southeastern U.S. when making their State Wildlife Action Plans. The dataset can be found here.

Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Jeff Doyle was recently interviewed for and featured on “The Connected College” podcast, on the topic of “Unconventional Ways to Predict Student Success.” Questions posed and answered included “How can you use the data you already have (but aren’t looking at) to predict student success?,” “How can you create incentives to drive the adoption of high-impact practices?,” and “How can you build caring, mentoring relationships that increase student success?” The episode can be streamed here. Jeff’s complete list of 100 variables that can be used to predict student success can be read here.

Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Jeff Doyle was interviewed for and featured in an article on “Top higher education trends for 2025” published by EdX. The article can be read here. His analysis of the top 15 trends in 2025 for higher education is available here.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Amanda Hernandez was interviewed on the “Classical Ideas” podcast about her 2024 book Intersectional Identities of Christian Women in the United States: Faith, Race, and Feminism. The episode can be streamed here. She also soft launched her forthcoming podcast “But Is It Feminist?,” which can be heard here.

In his final week of work at Southwestern, former Vice President and Dean for Student Life Brit Katz was notified that he had won the highest level of achievement and commitment to the principles and values upheld by the National Interfraternity Council (NIC) and its member fraternities. The NIC Silver Medal recognizes individuals for their lifelong service to the interfraternal community and significant contributions and dedication to the advancement and betterment of fraternities and the broader fraternal experience. More information on the awards is available here.

Education major Sydney Jackson ’27 was selected to receive the Student Travel Award by the International Consortium for Research in Science and Mathematics Education (ICRSME). Posted in the spring newsletter, “the ICRSME Student Travel Award is presented to one graduate or undergraduate student to offset the cost of attending an ICRSME consultation. This year’s recipient is Sydney Jackson from Southwestern University. Sydney was able to attend her first ICRSME consultation in Valladolid and share her research with other scholars in the field.” A photo of Sydney receiving the award can be seen here, on page 10 of the newsletter.

Professor of Education Michael Kamen and Associate Professor of Curriculum Instruction and Learning Sciences at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Debra Plowman published “Math is a 4-Letter Word” in the Spring 2025 newsletter of the International Consortium for Research in Science and Mathematics Education. Their quarterly column tells the ongoing story of the fictional character, Ian Quiry, as he studies and struggles to learn how to be an effective elementary school STEM teacher. The spring column can be read here, starting on page six of the newsletter.

Assistant Professor of Economics Hieu Nguyen recently had a research article, titled “Who are we up against? Heterogeneous group contests with incomplete information,” accepted, and subsequently published, in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. In this paper, Dr. Nguyen and his two co-authors use a laboratory experiment to test the theoretical predictions of an inter-group Tullock contest model in which players have incomplete information about their opponent and may be subject to an advantage or disadvantage. In reconciling theory and experimental evidence, the researchers propose and test an extended model that incorporates some insights on players’ non-monetary utility of winning and in-group altruism from the social psychology literature. The article’s findings provide important implications for the future design of group competitions, and are potentially applicable to many legal, governmental, and scientific settings. The study’s published and preprint versions are available here and here.

Assistant Professor of Economics and Business Raji Kunapuli published an article titled “Expert Decision‐making Complexity in New Industries: The Case of Security Analysts” in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. This article examines how expert security analysts might be hindering the emergence of new technological firms.

Associate Professor of Psychology Carin Perilloux presented a talk titled “The Parental Effort Scale: Creation and Validation” at the annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) in Atlantic City, NJ in June. The talk described the 2+ year process of designing a new psychological instrument with SU psychology capstone students.

Assistant Professor of Education Raquel Sáenz Ortiz and SU alumna Rebecca Ramirez ’24 published an article titled “An undue burden: The impact of censorship laws on Ethnic Studies teachers in Texas” in the Ethnic Studies Pedagogies Journal. This article analyzes conversations and surveys with middle and high school ethnic studies teachers in Texas about the impact of censorship legislation (Senate Bill 3, passed in 2021) on their teaching.

Theatre alumnus Kyle Bussone Peterson ’24 is currently appearing as “Motel Kamzoil” in Fiddler on the Roof, now playing on the historic Angus Springer Stage at the Palace Theatre. Motel is a sweet and timid character who stands up for himself when he and Tevye’s daughter, Tzeitel announce their engagement. The production is directed by Professor Emeritus Rick Roemer, former Artistic Director and Chair of the Theatre Department. The show opened on May 30 and runs Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through July 6. Many performances are sold out, and remaining dates have limited seating available.

Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Jeff Doyle was part of presenting a webinar on “Maximizing Summer Months: A Roadmap to Year-Round Student Success.” Over 15 different colleges registered to learn about using summer to successfully engage incoming students and help them explore potential careers, majors, and classes. More information can be found here.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Alex Goodwin and Dr. Tony E. Carey, Jr. published an article titled “With All Due Respect: Respectability Politics and Black Support for Police Defunding and Abolition” in Political Behavior. This article examines how respectability politics shapes Black Americans’ views on policing and support for institutional reforms.

Professor Emerita of English Helene Meyers published “Making Good Jewish Trouble: A Review of Sandi DuBowski’s ‘Sabbath Queen’” in The Revealer. It can be read here.

Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Jeff Doyle’s article, “Using Summer as Powerful Predictor of Future Student Success” was featured as one of the Top Ten Higher Ed News Stories of the Day by Academica, one of the most trusted names in Canadian higher education. The full Top Ten list can be viewed here.

Duncan Chair and Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura was selected as an awardee of the Simons Foundation Open Interval Program, alongside artist and Assistant Professor of Design at the University of Texas at Austin Jiabao Li and co-director of Austin’s Fusebox arts organization Ron Berry. The trio was one of 15 selected from across the country to embark on seven months of “unbounded exploration.” They gathered with the other artists, scientists, and leaders of arts organizations in upstate New York to brainstorm and collaborate on research around the theme of symmetry. More information is available here.

Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Jeff Doyle published an article on how universities can more effectively engage incoming students in the summer. The article, titled “Using Summer as Powerful Predictor of Future Student Success,” was published in The Evolllution: A Modern Campus Illumination. The article can be read here.

At the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society’s Annual Meeting, held in Pittsburg, PA from May 21–25, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology Jennifer Stokes (in collaboration with colleagues from other institutions) presented a workshop on the “Social Determinants of Health” and how to integrate this important content into anatomy and physiology curriculum.

Alpha Phi Omega (APO) holds regular bone marrow donor drives on campus. The Gift of Life Marrow Registry recently notified our Southwestern chapter that, as a direct result of the November 2023 donor drive, a matching donor has been identified for a 63-year-old woman battling myelodysplastic disorder. APO is so excited to be a part of the Gift of Life’s lifesaving mission. APO is a gender-inclusive, national service fraternity celebrating 30 years at SU and 100 years overall.

Alumna Esmeralda Rosas ’24 recently published her biology capstone as part of an applied journal section called “Management in Practice” within the journal Management of Biological Invasions. Co-authored with fellow apple snail lab alumna, Cynthia Bashara ’23, this study reports a four-year monitoring effort with Austin community member David Christie that resulted in a local eradication of invasive snails. Success stories in invasion biology often get overlooked, but this paper, titled “Winning the shell game: environmental DNA (eDNA) confirms local control of the invasive apple snail, Pomacea maculata” provides a template for others to follow. A downloadable PDF of the paper is available here. Made possible by devoting time during a recent sabbatical, this publication represents the second outcome of the ongoing collaboration between Professor and Garey Chair in Biology Romi Burks, and Matthew Barnes ’06, Associate Professor at Texas Tech University.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper published the first edition of a floral meditation by Florence Price titled Coreopsis with ClarNan Editions (Fayetteville, AR). Price wrote the piece for two pianists at two keyboards, but alongside this, Cooper also included an arrangement for one keyboard and four hands, prepared by Po-Sim Head and Kowoon Lee. Those interested in hearing what the beautiful Coreopsis flower sounds like channeled through the musical imagination of Florence Price may hear this evocating gem here.

Professor of English Michael Saenger published “Faculty on Fifth Avenue” with The Times of Israel. The blog post argues for academic freedom and informed discussion about the Middle East. It can be read here.

Last summer, Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Jeff Doyle applied and was selected to complete a nine-month, 32-hour City of Georgetown Civic Leadership Academy. He and his ~30 fellow attendees “graduated” at the City Council meeting on May 13. The City of Georgetown Civic Leadership Academy seeks to educate, connect, and inspire leaders to develop a strong commitment to community service for the greater good of Georgetown. More information is available here.

Professor of Kinesiology Scott McLean was recognized as a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine.

Associate Professor of Art History Allison Miller gave a presentation, titled “The Gaze of Animals in Western Han Bronze Sculpture,” on May 9 at the “Same and/or Other? Animals in East Asian History” workshop, organized by the Chinese Animal Studies Network. The workshop was held at the Institute of Sinology and East Asian Studies at the University of Münster, Germany from May 8-10.

Associate Professor of Art History Allison Miller gave an invited lecture (in Chinese) at the University of Science and Technology of China (中国科学技术大学) in Hefei, Anhui Province, titled “Rediscovering Early China’s Polychrome Bronzes” (中国早期青铜器彩绘的再发现), on May 6.

Academic Success Coordinator Jennifer Frias founded a chapter of Alpha Alpha Alpha (Tri-Alpha), a national honor society for first-generation college students. The Southwestern University chapter, Mu Omega, was officially chartered on May 1. The purpose of Tri-Alpha is to promote academic excellence and provide opportunities for personal growth, leadership development, and campus and community service for first-generation college students. First-generation faculty and staff who are inducted into Tri-Alpha serve as mentors. The first cohort, Alpha, inducted 30 students, seven staff members, and three faculty.

Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Jeff Doyle, Ph.D., was quoted in North Carolina’s Shelby Star newspaper, in an article titled “How did Gardner Webb University score on Forbes’ list of universities in poor financial health?” about formulas used to estimate college closures. The article can be read here, with a subscription.

Professor Emeritus of Music Kiyoshi Tamagawa has an article in the forthcoming issue of the International Suzuki Journal  (June 2025). “Origins of the Suzuki Violin School Repertoire” demonstrates that many of the pieces included in Shinichi Suzuki’s renowned sequence of violin instruction books were compiled from instruction books and string repertoire already in circulation in the early twentieth century, for which other musicians were responsible. The mostly German sources reflect Suzuki’s study as a young violin student in Berlin and were largely unacknowledged when the first published Suzuki Method  volumes appeared in the 1950s. By tracing the editorial paths of three particular compositions from Books 2 and 3, Tamagawa shows how the versions in Suzuki’s method are substantially altered from the original works, and in at least one case, misattributed.

Kinesiology alumni Corban Ruiz’s ’23 “fun” COVID student research project turned independent study with Associate Professor of Kinesiology Ed Merritt, which morphed into a research assistantship data management role for biology major and kinesiology minor Iliana Hernandez ’27, was published in the International Journal of Exercise Science. The paper, “Age of Anaerobic, Aerobic, and Skill-Based Olympic Athletes 1988 – 2024” provides insight into the development of and, potentially, the onset of age-related declines in human metabolic systems. The good news for most of us is that there has been at least one 65-year old who has competed in the Olympics since 1988 in a non-equestrian event! The paper can be read here.

Professor of Business Debika Sihi was selected to the Marketing Management Association (MMA) Board of Directors to serve a three-year term. In this role, Debika will have the opportunity to help shape the strategic direction of the organization and contribute to the continued growth and success of future marketing scholars, including service related to doctoral student consortiums and editorial/review work for conference proceedings and affiliated journals.

Part-Time Assistant Professor of Applied Music Katherine Altobello ’99 has been invited to be the mezzo-soprano soloist with the European American Musical Alliance (EAMA) in Paris, France for the month of July. Altobello will be one of four singers to workshop and perform international new works in collaboration with the EAMA’s composition program. Composition faculty Philip Lasser, Benjamin C.S. Boyle, and Abbie Betinis will lead the month-long intensive. More information is available here.

Part-Time Assistant Professor of Applied Music Katherine Altobello ’99 has been invited to be the mezzo-soprano soloist in W.A. Mozart’s “Requiem” with the Texas Bach Festival, under the direction of Dr. Barry Williamson. The concert will be held on Sunday, June 29 at 3:00 p.m. at First United Methodist Church in Georgetown. More information is available here.

Part-Time Assistant Professor of Applied Music Katherine Altobello’s voice student, mezzo-soprano Kaley Williams, has been doing wonderful things on the operatic stage in Central Texas. In the summer of 2024, Ms. Williams performed as a young artist with the Classical Music Institute Festival (CMI), partnered with the San Antonio Opera. The festival was led by Dr. Christopher Besch and featured selections from Spanish operas, canción líricas, and zarzuelas. In the fall of 2024, Ms. Williams performed in the ensemble with Georgetown Palace Theatre’s production of Sweeney Todd, directed by Kristen Rogers. In March 2025, Ms. Williams performed the roles of “Tara” and “Tattooed Man” in Tyler Mabry’s new opera Ray Bradbury with One Ounce Opera in Austin, directed by Matt Smith. This summer, Ms. Williams will perform in Gilbert & Sullivan Austin’s production H.M.S. Pinafore, directed by Carol Brown, and conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Jones-Ragona. Ms. Williams began her vocal studies with Professor Altobello in the fall of 2022.

Associate Professor of Art History Allison Miller gave an invited lecture (in Chinese) at Guangxi University for Nationalities (广西民族大学), titled “Rediscovering Early China’s Polychrome Bronzes” (中国早期青铜器彩绘的再发现) on April 28.

John H. Duncan Chair and Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura was invited to give two talks at Indiana University Indianapolis (formerly IUPUI). She was the keynote speaker at the award ceremony for the IU Indianapolis High School Math Contest, and also gave a talk at the mathematics department colloquium. Both talks were on her research using mathematical perspective and projective geometry to analyze art.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby first authored “Fabrication of Microgel-Reinforced Hydrogels via Vat Photopolymerization” in the journal ACS Macro Letters with Abhishek Dhand and the Burdick Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder. The manuscript is the culmination of his pre-tenure sabbatical and demonstrates for the first time that micron-sized hydrogels can be incorporated at high densities in complex resin-printed geometries. The work can be found here.

Assistant Professor of Education Raquel Sáenz Ortiz and SU alumnae Rebecca Ramirez ’24 and Laura Carrasco Torres ’25 published an article titled “Centering community in fugitive pedagogy: Pláticas with Chicana Ethnic Studies teachers” in Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social. This article analyzes the impact of censorship legislation (Senate Bill 3, passed in 2021) on middle and high school Mexican American Studies teachers.

Sociology and feminist studies double major and race and ethnicity studies minor Emily Dimiceli ’25 has been accepted into the 2025 American Sociological Association’s (ASA) Honors Program. As a part of the program, she will present her capstone research paper, titled “‘Obama was voted president by white people’: Predictors of Americans’ Perceptions of Racism,” at this year’s ASA annual meeting in Chicago, IL.

On April 23, as a member of the American Physiology Society, Associate Professor of Kinesiology Ed Merritt met with staff in the Washington, D.C. offices of Senator Ted Cruz, Senator John Cornyn, Representative Lizzie Fletcher, and Representative Vincente Gonzalez, to discuss the importance of science research and education funding, highlighting the negative impact proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) will have on Texas’, and the country’s, health and education outcomes.

Biology major and kinesiology minor Iliana Hernandez ’27 presented research findings from the recently completed clinical trial “Exercise Training Adaptations in Middle-Aged Adults With and Without Post-Exercise Peanut Consumption” at the American Physiology Summit in Baltimore, MD on April 26. Co-authors on the study are kinesiology major Erica Otto ’25, Southwestern alumni Matthew Bierwirth ’24, Rachel Chiella ’24, Barrett Knapp ’24, and Zachary Moon ’24, and Associate Professor of Kinesiology Ed Merritt.

Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Jeff Doyle, Ph.D., presented on “Advisor AI: Providing Personalized, Holistic Support to Students Throughout Their Academic Journey” at HERDI (Higher Education Research and Development Institute) Innovate in San Antonio, TX on April 29. More information can be found here.

Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Jeff Doyle, Ph.D., was one of three presenters on a webinar for career advisors and counselors titled, “Transforming Student Success with Personalized, Holistic, and Intentional Support.” More information can be found here.

Professional Academic Advisor Jenny Terry Roberts ’95 received the Organization Advisor of the Year Award for her work with SU’s chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, the gender-inclusive national service fraternity. APO was founded 100 years ago on the principles of leadership, friendship, and service; the Alpha Gamma Kappa chapter was chartered at SU in 1991. Jenny joined in her first semester as a student at Southwestern and loves helping current students keep it going strong. Additional awesome SU APO Advisors include Faculty Advisor Debika Sihi, Community Advisor Paul Ford ’00, and Scouting Advisor Scott Roberts ’94.

Part-Time Assistant Professor of Applied Music Katherine Altobello’s voice student Will Mallick ’24 has been taking the musical theatre stage by storm in Austin. In October 2024, Mallick performed “Will Hanks” in a professional workshop of Mr. Hanks, A New Musical, written by Lane Rockford Orsak, composed by Francis McGrath, and directed by Laura Galt. In December 2024, Mallick performed “Apprentice Scrooge” in A Christmas Carol  at ZACH Theatre, directed by Dave Steakley. In February and March 2025, Mallick understudied and performed the role of “Bob Gaudio” in Jersey Boys  at ZACH Theatre, directed by Cassie Abate. In March and April 2025, Mallick performed as an “ensemble member” in Company with Roustabout Presents, directed by Adam Roberts. Currently, Mallick is performing the lead role of “Pigeon” in ZACH’s children’s musical production Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, directed by Nat Miller. This summer, Mallick will perform the title role “Conrad Birdie” in Bye Bye Birdie  at TexArts, directed by Kimberly Schafer. Will Mallick began his vocal studies with Professor Altobello in the fall of 2020.

Professor of History Melissa Byrnes contributed to a published roundtable review of Jack Snyder’s book Human Rights for Pragmatists  for H-Diplo and the Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum. It can be read here.

Staff Instructor in Spanish Noelia Cigarroa-Cooke and Professor of Spanish Carlos de Oro presented the paper “El monstruo político como una alegoría crítica en el cine latinoamericano contemporáneo” at the 2025 Secolas Conference in Mexico City, Mexico from April 24-26.

Assistant Professor of History Soojung Han presented the paper “Changes to Diplomatic Relations through Marriage Alliance Systems in Middle Period China (304-907)” at the T’ang Studies Society Conference, hosted by the T’ang Studies Society and the Elling Eide Center in Sarasota, FL.

Herman Brown Chair and Professor of Communication Studies Valerie Renegar returned to Postira, Croatia last week for the 7th Days of Ivo Škarić rhetoric conference. She presented a paper titled “The Weight of Stigma,” co-authored with Kirsti Cole of North Carolina State University. This international conference featured rhetorical scholars from 10 countries across three continents.

Professor of Political Science Eric Selbin was an invited participant at Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies 30th Anniversary Symposium. Selbin was invited by the Center’s Director, Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies, and Professor of Government Steven Levitsky to interact with former Chilean President (2006-2010; 2014-2018) and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (2018-2022) Michelle Bachelet Jeria, former Member of the National Assembly of Venezuela Maria Corina Machado (2011-2014), and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000). It was also an opportunity for Selbin to reconnect with an old friend, Dora María Téllez, Nicaragua’s famous Comandante Dos, who, since her 2023 release as a political prisoner, has been the Richard E. Greenleaf Distinguished Chair in Latin American Studies at Tulane University and is currently the Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professor of Latin American Studies at Harvard.

At formal ceremonies on April 22, six seniors were named to the “5 Points of Pirate Pride,” the undergraduate hall of fame for the most well-rounded leaders. Inductees are: Emily Dimiceli, Charlie Fournier, Bodhi Hassell, Luke Marx, Sophia Trifilio, and Madi Vela. Their formal portraits will be enshrined in the McCombs Center as role models for future classes.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse presented a paper titled “Living In Contemporarity: Towards an afro-fem ethic of sufficiency” and participated in a closed workshop on MJ Alexander’s book Pedagogies of Crossing: Meditations on Feminism, Sexual Politics, Memory, and the Sacred  at the philoSOPHIA Conference held at Texas A&M University in College Station on April 10.

Assistant Professor of Education Marilyn Nicol published an article with her colleague Dr. Bethanie Pletcher of Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, titled “Teaching Writing Skills Alongside the Writing Process: Interactive Writing in the Prekindergarten Classroom.” The article was published in The Reading Teacher  and highlights case study findings alongside practical tips for implementing interactive writing in primary grades. The article can be read here.

Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Raquel Moreira coauthored the forum essay, “Centering Latin America: gender politics, attacks on higher education, and lessons of resistance from Brazil,” with Dr. Raiana Carvalho of Furman University. The piece, published in the National Communication Association’s journal Communication Education, argues that by centering Latin America, and Brazil in particular, we hope to disrupt the hegemonic narrative that foregrounds the United States as the primary spreader of anti-higher education conservative ideologies. Instead, we offer evidence that these far–right attacks are transnational in nature, and that Latin America is at the center of both the articulation of such conservative ideas as well as of the organized resistance to such ideologies. The essay can be found here.

Sociology students and faculty members attended the Southern Sociological Society annual meeting in Charlotte, NC from April 9-12. Five sociology seniors presented their capstone research: Catherine Angell presented “Presidency or Penitentiary: Exploring Americans’ Attitudes Towards Felons’ Right to Vote;” Isabella Bahamon presented “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Choice: Predicting Americans’ Attitudes Towards Abortion Rights,” which won the 2025 Odum Award for Best Undergraduate Paper; Emily Dimiceli presented “‘Obama was voted president by white people’: Predictors of Americans’ Perceptions of Racism;” Mary Kate McAdams presented “‘It seems like the system has a few favorites’: Factors that Affect American Attitudes about Racial and Economic Bias in the Criminal Justice System;” and Chelsey Rocha presented “‘DEI is just racism against white people’: Americans Attitudes About Anti-DEI Bills in Higher Education.” In addition, faculty and students presented on their collaborative research projects. Assistant Professor of Sociology Amanda Hernandez and environmental studies major Sarah Ventimiglia ’25 presented their co-authored study titled, “Hashtag Blessed: Performances of White Femininity and Consumption on TikTok.” Professor of Sociology Maria Lowe presented her collaborative study (with co-authors Dr. Reginald Byron of the University of Denver, Brigit Reese ’24, and Carson Maxfield ’24) titled, “Residents of Color in non-Predominantly White Neighborhoods: Are They More Likely to Worry about Racialized Surveillance Than White Residents?”

Spanish minor Jessica McCutcheon ’28 presented a research paper titled “Cerrando Brechas: Desafíos de Salud Mental para los Inmigrantes Hispanos” at the Latin American and Latinx Studies Symposium held at Rollins College on April 4. Jessica’s paper addresses one of the most urgent and often overlooked public health issues in the U.S.—the systemic barriers to mental health care for Hispanic immigrants. At a time when mental health disparities are deepening, her research brings critical attention to the cultural, linguistic, and structural challenges affecting one of the fastest-growing populations in the country. Her participation in the symposium was sponsored by Endowed Professor of Spanish Carlos de Oro, who mentored Jessica in preparation for her presentation.

Part-Time Assistant Professor of Music Jeanne Hourez has been nominated for the 2025 Texas Music Teachers Association Outstanding Collegiate Teaching Achievement Award. This prestigious honor recognizes exceptional achievement in collegiate-level instruction in music performance, composition, theory, history, or any combination of these disciplines. Dr. Hourez was elected to represent the Central Texas region and was nominated alongside six other distinguished faculty members from across the state. The results will be announced in early June.

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Noelle Sawyer gave a plenary talk on April 11 at the Infinite Possibilities 2025 conference held at the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation at the University of Chicago. Her talk was titled “It Takes a Village(r)” and called for the audience to examine who is in their lives, who they are responsible for, and to think about adding to their community.

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Noelle Sawyer was the local invited speaker at the Math For All Austin conference on April 5. She spoke about how we can find interesting geometry all around us if we keep our eyes open for cone points in a talk titled “Embracing Hyperbolicity.”

Professor of Spanish Katy Ross published an article titled “No quiero ser mamá: Non-motherhood in Pronatalist Spain” in Letras Hispanas. This article analyzes how a graphic novel portrays a woman’s decision to not become a mother and the pushback she receives through her visual narrative. Read the article here.

Associate Professor of Communication Studies Lamiyah Bahrainwala (LB) published the article “Caste-Attentiveness” in the Quarterly Journal of Speech, the #1 ranked journal in communication studies. In this article, LB refuses caste as an “India-specific” problem and places it alongside anti-indigeneity, anti-Blackness, and settler colonialism as a global system demanding unrelenting critical attention. Read more here.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey gave a talk at the American Chemical Society Spring 2025 national meeting in San Diego on her recently published work with chemistry graduate Lexi Fantz ’21 on low energy chlorophylls in cyanobacterial light-harvesting.

Chemistry majors Jodi Glenn-Millhouse ’25, Kaiden Salaz ’25, Annalina Slover ’26, and Carolyn Waldie ’26 presented posters on their research on how photosynthetic diatoms adapt their light-harvesting under light and magnesium stress at the American Chemical Society Spring 2025 national meeting in San Diego. Their presentations resulted from research done with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Bonnie Sneed provided a pre-UIL clinic for five choirs at Copperas Cove High School. The all-day clinic involved over 15 pieces. A Sweepstakes Award-winning program, Copperas Cove High School has a professional staff of two full-time high school teachers and an accompanist.

Assistant Professor of History Bryan Kauma was awarded the inaugural American Society for Environmental History (ASEH) Research Fellowship at the just-ended ASEH annual conference in Pittsburgh. He also presented his forthcoming paper, “Farming the God’s Way: Rethinking Fertilizers and Hybrid Seeds in African Grain Production in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1950s to 1970s.”

Spanish major Maricruz Zacharias ’25 presented a research paper titled “Danzas aztecas: la representación ceremonial de las creencias” at the Latin American and Latinx Studies Symposium held at Rollins College on April 4. Maricruz studied how through the performative nature of dance rituals, the choreographic patterns were used to convey stories, spiritual beliefs, and communal values. Her paper comes from the independent study she is doing this semester with Associate Professor of Spanish María de los Ángeles Rodríguez Cadena, who mentored Maricruz to present at the Symposium.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Adriana Ponce and sociology major Chelsey Rocha ’25 presented “Intersectionality, Accessibility, and Fraudulent Behavior: Feminist, Qualitative Methodology and Emerging Virtual Recruitment” at the Southern Sociological Society (SSS) Annual Conference in Charlotte, NC. Dr. Ponce and Chelsey’s presentation wrestled with accessible recruitment practices for diverse stepfamilies while protecting the data from interested respondents misrepresenting their qualifications for the study.

Professor of Political Science Eric Selbin published a chapter titled “International Political Sociology & Resistance: Whither Revolution” in The Oxford Handbook of International Political Sociology, edited by Stacie Goddard, George Lawson, and Ole Jacob Sending (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025). This is the third piece in a three-year trilogy calling for a refiguration of revolution and with these provides the basis for a current book project.

Professor of Political Science Eric Selbin served as the external member on the doctoral dissertation committee of Katalin Amon, who successfully defended “The Mortgage Debtor, the Neighbor, the Homeless Citizen, and the Family: Understanding Citizenship and Housing Through Citizen Imaginaries” at Central European University in Vienna. Selbin is also currently serving as an external member on dissertation committees at the University of Cambridge and the University of Virginia.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby presented his sabbatical research, titled “Digital light processing 3D printing of microgel-reinforced hydrogels,” via a 15-minute platform presentation at the 2025 Society for Biomaterials (SFB) Annual Meeting held in Chicago on April 10. The first-author work is currently under review.

Physics majors Joseph (Joe) Dorsey ’26 and Amanda Mejia ’27 attended the Capital of Texas Undergraduate Research Conference (CTURC) hosted at the University of Texas at Austin. Joe presented platform presentations on his and Amanda’s research conducted in the bioprinting laboratory of Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby.

Lord Chair and Professor of Computer Science Barbara Anthony co-authored a paper, titled “Bachelors of Arts versus Bachelors of Science Degrees in Computer Science,” with Edward Talmage at Bucknell University and Andrea Tartaro at Furman University. The paper was published in the proceedings of the 29th annual Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Northeastern Conference. It finds that there is a lack of consistent definitions for each degree within computer science, but that insights can be gained along several dimensions for liberal arts institutions that offer both degrees.

Computer science majors Timothy Berlanga ’25, Rudy Guerra Jr. ’25, and Kyle Keleher ’25 attended the Consortium for Computer Sciences in Colleges: South Central Region Conference at McNeese State University on April 5. They won first place in the poster competition for their work “Better Picks: Using Machine Learning to Make Smarter Sports Betting Decisions.” This project, done along with Kade Townsend ’25 in the Computer Science Capstone taught by Lord Chair and Professor of Computer Science Barbara Anthony, built upon ideas first developed in the artificial intelligence course taught by Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum.

Part-Time Assistant Professor of Applied Music Katherine Altobello performed Dr. Chris Prosser’s 11-minute comedic operatic duet, titled “META Anthem,” at KMFA Radio’s Opera Austin Festival at the Draylen Mason Music Studio on November 16, 2024, in conjunction with LOLA (Local Opera Local Artists). The piece featured Altobello as mezzo soprano, baritone Brandon Morales, and pianist Brad Baker, and was directed by Rebecca Herman. A hilarious spoof on the ridiculousness of social media, the piece was written for Altobello and Dr. Tim O’Brien in the spring of 2023 and premiered at the Here Be Monsters Music Festival in Austin that summer.

Recent music graduate Makenna Palacio ’24, a student of Part-Time Assistant Professor of Applied Music Julia Taylor, has been accepted into the Houston Grand Opera (HGO) Young Artist Vocal Academy. All participants receive the opportunity to work on-site for a week of classes in character development, score preparation, diction, and movement, in addition to daily voice lessons and coachings with HGO music staff, including Director of Vocal Instruction Stephen King.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed organized and supported the submission, reception, and presentation of the panel “Salons, Skateboarding, and Tabletop Gaming: Stories of ‘Alternative’ Intersectional Gender Expression in Recreational Communities,” presented on April 4 at the 2025 Southwestern Anthropology Association Conference in Pomona, CA. During this panel, anthropology and classics double major Marley Sensenderfer ’25 chaired the session and presented the paper talk “Roll for Stereotypes: D&D and Gender Performativity Tabletop role-playing games,” anthropology major Emma French ’25 presented the paper talk “Gender and Skateboarding Culture,” and anthropology and environmental studies double major Rose Reed ’25 presented the paper talk “White Beauty Standards in a Hair and Nail Salon.” This panel was a collaboration of three student anthropology capstone research projects that deconstruct intersectional manifestations of gender in public space via insider (or native) ethnographic analysis. More information on the session and the conference can be found here.

Garey Chair and Associate Professor of Kinesiology Ed Merritt was interviewed by BBC News for an article about fat-burning during exercise. His expertise was featured in several international editions published in various languages, including Pashto, Portuguese, Swahili, Thai, and Turkish.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth earned two materials grants from the German Foreign Office and the German Academic Exchange Service, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). The grants cover two curated collections of German language publications: German language poetry across the ages, and German language texts in natural history, climate science, and the anthropocene. Students will engage with those collections in their studies of German language, literatures, and cultures at all proficiency levels. Success with DAAD materials grants is made possible through Berroth’s commitment to community engagement as a DAAD Ortslektorin.

Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson’s article “Tigah camp: unruly multispecies assemblages, race and gender in a Belizean trophy jaguar hunting camp” has just been published in the journal Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies. It can be read here.

Associate Professor of History Jethro Hernández Berrones presented a brief lecture titled “Mapeando las prácticas de partería de la ciudad de México: La Escuela Libre de Obstetricia y Enfermería y la visualización de los partos en casa después de la revolución. [Mapping Mexico City’s midwifery practices: The Free School of Obstetrics and Nursing and the visualization of at-home births after the revolution].” The presentation was part of the activities of the second workshop of MX.digital, an interdisciplinary group of scholars from the United States and Mexico, including historians, anthropologists, geographers, and computer scientists, interested in the creation of digital repositories and maps for the visualization of the history of Mexico, organized by the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE), Aguascalientes, and sponsored by John Hopkins University. He became a member of the curricular committee tasked to design a general and flexible curriculum to disseminate knowledge, methodology, and projects on digital and public history for the collection, organization, and visualization of historical information.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long presented a paper titled “Exploring the fractured imaginaries of climate-displacement and security” at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Detroit. At this same conference, Long also served as a discussant on Farhana Sultana’s “Author Meets Critics: Confronting Climate Coloniality” panel.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long co-chaired three sessions titled “Confronting Climate Apartheid” at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Detroit. Long also co-chaired a panel on the “Coloniality of Climate Change” at this same conference.

University Business  has agreed to publish an article by Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Jeff Doyle, titled “Has Student Affairs Become Too Decentralized to Best Help Students Succeed?,” in their April 2025 issue. One version of the article can be found here.

Olivia Bakke ’25, Zachary Collins ’25, Shobby Enakpene ’26, Christina Kuras ’25, Kacy Miller ’26, Abby Ryan ’25, Elise Samples ’25, and Vanessa Villarreal ’25 participated in the National Collegiate Digital Marketing Championship held at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business on April 1. All students demonstrated fantastic mastery of digital marketing strategy.

Head of Distinctive Collections and Archives Megan Firestone and Instruction and Student Success Librarian Emily Thorpe presented a session titled “From Concept to Creation: Designing Engaging Library Creator Kits” at the Texas Library Association Annual Meeting in Dallas.

Head of Distinctive Collections and Archives Megan Firestone was one of three panelists at the recent Texas Library Association Annual Conference in Dallas. The panel, titled “Navigating the Library Profession: Insights from Academic, Public, and School Librarians,” provided insight into each librarian’s journey and recommendations for navigating the field.

Head of Distinctive Collections and Archives Megan Firestone, at the request of the Texas Library Association (TLA), presented a session on “Reimagining Special Collections: Outreach, Engagement & Hands-On Learning” at the recent TLA Annual Conference in Dallas.

Three faculty and eight students participated in the 2025 meeting of the Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America, which took place March 28–29 at Prairie View A&M University. Garey Chair and Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr served on the Executive Committee as the section’s chair-elect. Associate Professor of Mathematics John Ross also served on the Executive Committee, in the role of Digital Media Editor. Ross also serves as a co-leader of Section NExT, a professional development program for early-career mathematicians. As part of his work for NExT, he led “Inquiry without Overhaul,” a session on introducing inquiry-based learning into mathematics classes in easy-to-digest pieces. Three students presented. Clay Elliott ’26 presented “Linear Algebra Behind Satisfactory,” which featured work done in his Linear Algebra class with Lord Chair and Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura. Georgia Micknal ’25 and Avery Weatherly ’25 presented “Antimagic Polydominoes,” which featured research done with Marr. Assistant Professor of Instruction of Mathematics Will Tran also attended, as did students Caytie Brown ’27, Ashlyn Cadena ’27, Camille James ’26, Robert Karcher ’27, and Dash Puentes ’27. All eight students competed in the Math Bowl as part of two different teams on Friday. Both teams finished in the top half of all teams competing.

Part-Time Assistant Professor of Applied Music Katherine Altobello ’99 was the mezzo-soprano section leader and vocalist for Congregation Beth Israel’s High Holy Day season in September and October 2024. Professor Altobello sang under the leadership of Cantor Sarah Avner, Conductor Dr. Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, and Collaborative Pianist Dr. Maimy Fong. This marks Professor Altobello’s ninth year singing High Holy Days with the synagogue, the oldest Jewish synagogue in Austin.

Associate Professor of Spanish Abby Dings published “Pedagogical Approaches to VE” with co-author Tammy Jandrey Hertel of the University of Lynchburg. The chapter, which appears in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Computer-Assisted Language Learning, edited by Lee McCallum and Dara Tafazoli, explores the use of virtual exchanges in second language teaching as a means to enhance the learning experience by providing opportunities to interact and communicate with speakers of the target language. More information on the volume can be found here.

Associate Professor of Communication Studies Lamiyah Bahrainwala steered several student projects that were accepted, presented, and recognized at a highly selective regional conference. Three Southwestern students traveled to Albuquerque, NM, to present their research at the 2025 Undergraduate Scholars Research Conference hosted by the Western States Communication Association. This marks the fourth conference Dr. Bahrainwala has mentored her students through. Faculty reviewers and the conference chair commended the students afterwards and attempted to recruit them to their graduate programs. Mia Santoscoy ’26 presented her paper “The Dehumanization of Palestinians in U.S. Media: Animal rhetoric through death tolls, Instagram infographics, CNN, and X.” Mia also received a standing ovation from the faculty speakers at the Palestine Solidarity day-long workshop on February 14. Vanessa Villarreal ’25 presented her paper “Mean Girl Feminism: Latina Narratives, TikTok, and the Fight Against Misogyny.” Elisabeth Barlin ’25 presented her paper “Sexy, Cute, and Popular to Boot: The Satirizing of Cheerleading within Bring It On.” Congratulations to these outstanding students.

Senior Aidan Gomez ’25 presented a poster titled “The Rules of Quotas Matter: Female Representation in the Italian and Japanese Legislatures” at the ASIANetwork Conference in San Antonio on March 29. The poster emerged from a paper written in Professor of Political Science and Vice President for Academic Affairs Alisa Gaunder’s Women in Politics in Europe and Asia course.

Assistant Professor of Classics Jeffrey Easton presented a paper at the Classical Association of the Middle West and South Annual Meeting in Champaign-Urbana, IL. The paper explored evidence from a set of eight Latin inscriptions which highlight a form of lateral social mobility among subaltern Romans. The paper suggests that while cases of extraordinary vertical social mobility tend to draw the most scholarly attention, cases involving incremental, multi-generational upward social and economic advancement represent a far more common experience for most Roman families.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Bonnie Sneed performed as the piano accompanist for four choirs from East View High School for their UIL performance in March. She performed on a total of eight pieces ranging from the 16th century to the modern period, including one with an East View clarinetist. The contest was held at Georgetown High School with three judges from across the state of Texas. This two-day event involved over 30 choirs from Region 26.

Senior Research and Instruction Librarian Katherine Hooker and Instruction and Student Success Librarian Emily Thorpe have received the 2025 Library Instruction Round Table “Project of the Year” award. Given by the Texas Library Association, this award recognizes an innovative or creative library instruction project or initiative in Texas. The recognized project was “Navigating Knowledge: Mastering the Ocean of Information,” a custom-built digital escape game that introduced information literacy and library information to incoming students in Fall 2024 FYS and AES courses.