Faculty Achievements
2021
November
Dr. Laura Barbas Rhoden, professor of Spanish, published “Sustainability and the Pluriverse: from Environmental Humanities Theory to Content-Based Instruction in Spanish Curricula” in Education for Sustainable Development in Foreign Language Learning, Content-Based Instruction in College-Level Curricula.
Dr. Jennifer Bradham, assistant professor of environmental studies, and a colleague published “Perceptions by early career tropical researchers on the impact of COVID-19 six months into the pandemic” in Biotropica.
Dr. Natalie Grinnell, Reeves Family Professor in Humanities, has been appointed to the advisory board of the New Queer Medievalisms book series with De Gruyter and the Medieval Institutions Publications. Her first project will be to co-edit a volume on queer theory and the works of John Gower. Additionally, Grinnell was elected vice president of the Southeastern Medieval Association (SEMA) for 2021-23, and president of SEMA for 2023-25.
October
Dr. Natalie Grinnell, Reeves Family Professor in Humanities, has had her article, “Writing Into Hope: Laughter, Sadness and Healing in John Gower’s Confessio Amantis,” accepted for publication in Accessus: A Journal of Premodern Literature and New Media, which will be published in January of 2022.
Dr. Rachel Grotheer, assistant professor of mathematics, has had her article, “Iterative hard thresholding for low CP-rank tensor models,” published in the journal Linear and Multilinear Algebra. Additionally, Grotheer and coauthors have had the paper “Semi-supervised Nonnegative Matrix Factorization for Document Classification” accepted to the Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computer.
Dr. Kirsten Krick-Aigner’s article, “‘It is not to think that real strangers, as you are, give us so much love’: An Austrian Pen Pal’s Journey to a Safe Haven in the United States,” appeared in the Journal of Austrian-American History. Krick-Aigner is a professor of German.
Dr. Dawn McQuiston, associate professor of psychology, and coauthors published the article “Secondary trauma in the legal system: Stories, studies, and strategies” in Wake Forest Law Review.
Dr. Anne Rodrick, Reeves Family Professor of History, has been invited to present at a roundtable on the history of Mason College and the University of Birmingham (UK) in January.
Dr. Grace Schwartz, assistant professor of chemistry, and coauthors have had the article “Incorporating concentration-dependent sediment microbial activity into methylmercury production kinetics modeling” accepted for publication in Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts. Additionally, Schwartz and coauthors have had the article “Consistent controls on trace metal micronutrient speciation in wetland soils and stream sediments” accepted for publication in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.
Michael Webster, assistant professor of studio art, is participating in two exhibitions of his work: the South Carolina Biennial, at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia, S.C., and the Contemporary South Biennial, at the VAE Gallery in Raleigh, N.C.
September
Maya Michele Fein, assistant professor of theatre, presented “Tech Olympics: The Game Show,” which integrated theatre knowledge and gamification, at The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival 2021.
Dr. Cynthia Fowler, associate professor and chair of sociology and anthropology, has two new publications. “The Goodfire Campaign: Swaying Opinions about Prescribed Burning While Restoring Fire Adapted Ecosystems in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains” was published in Hotspots Fieldsites, an open access, online, peer review publication from the Society for Cultural Anthropology. Fowler and others wrote “When is it Appropriate to Reference Identities, Relationships of Belonging, or Knowledge Lineages in Ethnobiological Scholarship?” It was published in Ethnobiology Letters.
Dr. Kirsten Krick-Aigner’s professor of German, applied for and received a $10,000 grant from the Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies for research materials and travel expenses to archives and libraries in New York, London and Vienna to conduct research on the artistic legacies of exiled Jewish Austrian artists Bettina Bauer-Ehrlich, Lisel Salzer and Lisl Weil.
Dr. Patricia Nuriel, associate professor of Spanish, co-edited the volume “Interviews with Latin American Women Filmmakers,” a special issue of the journal Post Script: Essays in Film and the Humanities. She also contributed with one of the interviews, “Jeanine Meerapfel’s Films on Memory and the Argentine Dictatorship: A Retrospective.”
Dr. Anne Rodrick’s book project, “Lecturing the Victorians: Knowledge-based Culture and Participatory Citizenship,” has been accepted for publication by Bloomsbury Academic Publishing. Rodrick is Reeves Family Professor of History.
Dr. Patrick Stanton, assistant professor of finance, and Dr. Philip Swicegood, R. Michael James Professor and chair of accounting, business and finance, and others have published the article “Cost-Effective Portfolio Hedging: A Dividend-funded Derivative Approach” in the International Business & Economics Studies Journal.
Dr. James Stevens, assistant professor of finance, published the article “Do Changes in Industry Classification Systems Matter? Evidence from a GICS Change” in the Journal of Real Estate Research. He also co-authored the article “REIT Operational Efficiency: External Advisement and Management,” which was published in The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics.
March
Dr. Courtney Dorroll, assistant professor of religion, and Dr. Begoña Caballero, associate professor of Spanish, had the article “Creating Virtual Exchanges: Promoting Intercultural Knowledge When Study Abroad Is Not Possible” published in Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy.
Dr. Philip Dorroll’s book Islamic Theology in the Turkish Republic has been published by Edinburgh University Press. It’s the first book in English to comprehensively analyze Islamic theology in the modern Turkish language, from its beginnings in the 19th century to the present day. Dorroll is an assistant professor of religion.
Dr. Natalie Grinnell, Reeves Family Professor in Humanities, has had the article “Sex and Disability in the Middle Ages” accepted for publication in the forthcoming edition of the Companion to Sexuality in the Medieval West from ARC Humanities Press.
Dr. Grace Schwartz, assistant professor of chemistry, and co-authors had the article “Nutrient Exposure Alters Microbial Composition, Structure and Mercury Methylating Activity in Periphyton in a Contaminated Watershed” accepted for publication in Frontiers in Microbiology.
Dr. Yongfang Zhang, associate professor of Chinese, had the article “Contextualized Grammar Instruction at the Novice and Intermediate Levels: A Reflection on Grammar Instruction from a Cognitive Perspective” published in the Journal of International Chinese Teaching.
February
Dr. Peter Brewitt, assistant professor and chair of environmental studies, and Sheridan Kate Murray ’19 published the paper “Assessing the Efficacy of the Tiger Stamp: A Policy Tool Approach” in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences (2021).
Dr. Christine Dinkins, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Philosophy, and Dr. Jeanne Sorrell published the ethics column “Resisting Vaccination: How Can Nurses Respond Ethically?” in The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, Vol. 26, No. 1, January 2021.
January
Dr. Dave Pittman, professor of psychology, in collaboration with the University of Southern California, was awarded a five-year National Institutes of Health research grant titled “Roles for Glucosensors in Taste Function” in the amount of $400,755.
Dr. Grace Schwartz, assistant professor of chemistry, had the article “Demethylation or Sorption? Fate of Methylmercury in the Presence of Manganese Dioxide” accepted for publication by the journal Environmental Engineering Science.
Masha Vlasova, assistant professor of studio art, in collaboration with Moira O’Shea of the University of Chicago, had the article “Fluid Objects: On the Impermanence of Monuments” accepted for publication by the journal ASAP/Journal (Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present), Johns Hopkins University Press.
Vlasova also had the paper “Psycho-geographical Choreography: Hand-held Filmmaking and Pedagogy” accepted for the edited volume Constructions of the Real: Intersections of Practice and Theory in Documentary-Based Filmmaking. (Editors: Liz Baulch, Liz Burke, Catherine Gough-Brady, Kim Munro and Christine Rogers; Intellect Books).
Additionally, Vlasova’s short films “Her Type” and “The Imaginary Kaleidoscope” were selected for the following festivals: BLOW-UP Chicago International Art-house Film Festival; Transient Visions: The Moving Image Festival; Barcelona International Short Film and Video Festival; Mimesis Documentary Festival; The We Make Movies International Film Festival; and London Experimental Anti-Festival.