From the Desk of John Griffin

Dean John Griffin Presents the FASC Spring/Summer 2025 Newsletter

Posted in Alumni News, Faculty News, Featured News, News, Newsletters, Student News.

Explore this Newsletter

Department/Program Highlights
Faculty Highlights
  Appointments
  Awards and Honors
  Collaborations
  Documentaries
  Fellowships
  Grants
  Media Appearances and Mentions
  Patents
  Podcasts
  Presentations/Lectures/Panels
  Publications
  Reviews
  Screenings
  Service
  Tenure and Promotions; Reappointments
Post-Doc Highlights
Alumni Highlights
Student Highlights

As July turns to August, and our minds slowly begin to shift from summer days to back-to-school shopping, I first want to acknowledge the remarkable 2024-2025 academic year before launching into the new one. 

Our departments and centers are transforming lives and commemorating excellence. The Department of Education and Teacher Preparation has partnered with the Camden Education Fund, placing six students to teach in Camden schools through the Camden Teacher Pipeline initiative. The Rutgers–Camden Center for the Arts (RCCA) celebrated 50 spectacular years of the Stedman Gallery with a fantastic exhibit, Emerging: The Stedman Gallery’s 50th Anniversary Show, and a slew of related programming.

Faculty continue to impress and achieve. Dr. Georgia Arbuckle-Keil, Professor of Chemistry, received the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award; Dr. Katherine Epstein, Professor of History, received the Presidential Outstanding Faculty Scholar Award; and Dr. Ana Laguna, Professor of Spanish, was awarded a Fulbright award through the Fulbright Finland Foundation, just to name a few. Dr. Nathan Link, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, was appointed to the New Jersey Advisory Committee by the US Commission on Civil Rights. Lauren Grodstein, Professor of English, and fresh off rave reviews and a “Read with Jenna” Today Show pick for We Must Not Think of Ourselves, is out with a new novel, A Dog in Georgia, this August. 

Our students and alumni continue to impress with their achievements. 2025 graduate Sophia Westfall, an English and digital studies double major, received a Fulbright award for graduate study in Wales. Tania Martinez (CCAS ’22) was named a Schwarzman Scholar, the first-ever Rutgers–Camden student to receive the honor.

Commencement concluded the academic year, with two ceremonies in which we graduated 535 undergraduate students and 245 graduate students, of which seven earned their doctoral degrees. Honored speakers included acclaimed multidisciplinary artist Mickalene Thomas and Jacquelyn A. Suárez, Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs. 

These incredible accomplishments are just some of what our faculty, staff, students, and alumni have achieved these past six months. I hope you take the time to read through our newsletter to see what else we have been busy doing here on the Rutgers–Camden campus, and to get energized for what is sure to be an incredible 2025-2026 academic year!

I hope the rest of your summer is one of health and happiness. See you in September!

John D. Griffin, Ph.D.
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences–Camden

Department/Program Highlights

Department of Childhood Studies

  • Meredith Bak, Associate Professor of Childhood Studies; Dr. Lauren Silver, Associate Professor of Childhood Studies; and Dr. Anthony Wright, Assistant Professor of Childhood Studies, formed a delegation and traveled to Department of Child Studies at Linköping University in Sweden to participate in an international workshop: “Child/hood Studies: A theoretical and empirical cross-fertilization through a cross-cultural interdisciplinary lens,” in March 2025.
  • The Department of Childhood Studies will continue to offer programs and opportunities through a grant awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The $800,000 grant, “Rethinking Race and Justice Through Childhood Studies,” has supported two post-doctoral fellows, a yearly student internship program, the Centering Black Childhoods Speaker Series, two international conferences as well as funding for student and faculty research and conference travel.

Center for Urban Research and Education (CURE)

  • This summer CURE selected students to serve as Community First Fellows. Fellows are Rutgers–Camden graduate students who receive training on conducting community-engaged research while placed with local community partners to work on projects that support the partner’s mission. This summer’s program will run from June through late August. Students and their placements are as follows:
    • The Neighborhood Center’s Teen “Bridges” Program. Fellow: Moloud Soleimani, studying for PhD in Childhood Studies.
    • Camden Faith and Mental Health Work Group at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. Fellow: Samrawit Gebretensay, studying for MA in Psychological Sciences.
    • Camden Lutheran Housing Inc. Fellow: Prakash Kandel, studying for PhD Public Affairs.
    • Camden, We Choose. Fellow: Olorunfunmi Adebajob, studying for MA in Public Administration.
    • Heart of Camden. Fellow: Hannah Beck, studying for MA in Public Affairs and Community Development.
    • Hispanic Family Center of Southern New Jersey, Inc. Fellow: Samantha Vega, studying for PhD in Prevention Science.
    • Omegas 4 Education & Community Service. Fellow: Samrawit Gebretensay, studying for MA in Psychological Sciences.
    • Parkside Business & Community in Partnership. Fellow: Joseph Abbas, studying for PhD in Prevention Science.
    • Saint Joseph’s Carpenter Society. Fellow: Morenike Alugo, studying for PhD in Prevention Science.
    • United Black Agenda. Fellow: Joseph Abbas, studying for PhD in Prevention Science.
    • We Can’t til We Can. Fellow: Samantha Vega, studying for PhD in Prevention Science.
    • CURE – Hidden Hands Research. Fellow: Sydney Jones, studying for MA in City and Regional Planning & MA in Urban Spatial Analytics at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design (visiting student placed through support from Penn).
    • CURE – One Camden Research. Fellow: Giovi Sarubbi, studying for PhD in Public Affairs and Community Development.
    • CURE – Y-Plan Lot Activation Project. Fellow: Les Engels, studying for PhD in Prevention Science.
  • CURE also sponsored many events, such as a Giving Day event on March 12, a Community-Engaged Scholarship Celebration as part of the newly remained Research Week, SPARK!, on April 9, and a CURE Seminar featuring Dr. Katharine Nelson of the Rutgers Center on Law, Inequality, and Metropolitan Equity (CLiME) on April 30.
  • CURE continues to support South Jersey Institute for Population Health (SJIPH). This spring, CURE helped to launch newest cycle of funding for collaborative research to address health disparities in South Jersey. CURE is also working with recipients of SJIPH’s first round of Partnership Development Award recipients to help community organizations build relationships with faculty members. 

Digital Studies Center (DiSC)

  • The Digital Studies Center hosted artist and computer programmer Lauren Lee McCarthy (UCLA) for a workshop and talk, “What do you want me to say?” Professor McCarthy discussed her work examining social relationships amid surveillance, automation, and algorithmic living. This lecture was made possible by a Chancellor Year of the Arts grant.
  • As part of the Federated Practices speaker series, DiSC hosted scholar-activist Trebor Scholz (New School) to give a talk titled “Own This!  How to Take Back the Internet.”  Professor Scholz discussed his work as founder and director of the Platform Cooperative Consortium and the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy at the New School in New York City. This event was funded by a Conference and Symposium Award from the Dean’s Office.

Digital Studies Center (DiSC) – AI Ethics Lab

  • The AI Ethics Lab, led by Nathan C. Walker,is pleased to announce the publication of the whitepaper “Promoting and Advancing Human Rights in Global AI Ecosystems,” which was presented at a side event of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 20–21, 2025. The paper advocates for an international, human rights-focused convention on artificial intelligence. This paper is the result of an independent collaboration among more than twenty researchers and experts worldwide in AI and human rights, committed to fostering a global dialogue beyond institutional and political affiliations. Dr. Walker began collaborating on this paper in July 2024 when he participated in the International AI and Human Rights Summit. Several of the leading contributors to this project are serving as editors and contributors to the AI Ethics Lab’s next publication, the AI & Human Rights Index. 
  • The AI Ethics Lab formed a team of undergraduate researchers, who created a visiting scholar’s program, welcoming John Maldonado, and formed a research partnership with All Tech is Human. They are engaged in an ongoing collaboration with the Technical University of Munich, Germany, and Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
  • As part of its service to Rutgers, the AI Ethics Lab supported the Institutional Review Board in New Brunswick by contributing to the development of a new Consent Compendium, which outlines best practices for the ethical use of AI in human-subject research. Thanks to the support of colleagues at the Rutgers University Foundation, the Lab also launched the Humans First Fund, a new initiative through which tax-deductible donations will help sustain and expand this important work.

Department of Education and Teacher Preparation

  • The Department of Education and Teacher Preparation graduated their first student in the Family and Consumer Studies Certification, Rachel Ho. Rachel is a current student in the graduate teacher education program. The MAT is one of only a small handful of certification programs in New Jersey who offers this teaching license.
  • Through the unique partnership with the Camden Education Fund(CEF), a local non-profit organization dedicated to improving the Camden public school system, the Education Department will be placing 6 students in Camden for the upcoming school year with the assistance of the Camden Teacher Pipeline Our inaugural year saw the successful placement and completion of 4 MAT students, all who are looking to start their careers in Camden City schools.

 Institute for Empowering Equitable Education in STEM (E-3)

  • The E3-STEM Institute held its inaugural E3-STEM Forum at the end of February, with this year’s event focusing on topics surrounding tenure and promotion evaluation for inclusive education. 
  • The E3-STEM Institute received the REACH Grant (from the Rutgers Equity Alliance for Community Health), designed to create pathways for local Camden high school students to explore and excel in STEM fields.
  • The E3-STEM Institute also received a grant from the Glenn W. Bailey Foundation (GWB), awarded in order to help fund the tuition for E3-STEM Student Leaders to take a 4-credit math course during the E3-STEM Summer Bridge Program. 

Department of Mathematical Sciences

  • For the past two years, the Department of Mathematical Sciences has hosted 8th grade students from Voorhees Middle School to participate in seminar-style learning on the Rutgers-Camden campus. Randy Mershon, Assistant Teaching Professor of Mathematical Sciences, and Christopher Lim, Assistant Teaching Professor of Mathematical Sciences, have been the lead faculty for this program. They have been assisted by graduate and undergraduate math students in helping to craft and deliver presentations on topics that would not typically be covered in a standard school curriculum, such as number theory, differential equations, modelling expected value, etc. The students come for three days in the summer and five times during the course of the academic year, where they not only get to participate in mathematics enrichment, but also get a small taste of college life at Rutgers-Camden.

Department of Political Science

  • On April 2, 2025, in conjunction with the Rutgers Democracy Lab, the Department of Political Science hosted “Talking Politics: What’s Happening. Why Does It Matter, and How Can You Get Engaged?” This event was open to all current Rutgers students.
  • The Department of Political Science hosted the annual Baron Lecture and Awards Ceremony on April 29, 2025. Assemblyman Don Guardian served as the guest speaker, and presented “Bridging the Divide: My Experience of Bi-Partisanship in Trenton.” Student award recipients include Guneet Kaur and Joseph Lescht, who received the Jacob Abraham and Mildred Amelia Baron Fund Award; Justin Bamgboye, Alan Mitchell, Alexis Munroe, and Joshua Stapleton, who received the Jack and Lenore Weiner Memorial Prize; and Willa McBride, who received the Robert D. Packard Service Award. Students were also inducted into the Pi Sigma Alpha National Honor Society.

Rutgers–Camden Center for the Arts (RCCA)

  • RCCA celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Stedman Gallery in 2025 and, with that, nearly 50 years of providing free-of-charge arts education to young people from the city of Camden, in partnership with area schools and community organizations. We honored the milestone with the Spring 2025 exhibition, Emerging: the Stedman Gallery 50th Anniversary Show, featuring 87 works from the Rutgers–Camden Collection of Art exploring place and identity. Programming included talks by John Gianotti, Professor Emeritus and sculptor; Erik James Montgomery, photographer and social activist; Jackie Neale, curator; and Joe Clementi, photographer.
    • The Fall 2024 exhibition, Alonzo Adams: These Eyes Have Seen, featured contemporary portraits and narrative paintings depicting Black life in America, by a Mason Gross alumnus. Adams visited Camden to interact with guests in the Stedman Gallery, deliver an artist talk, and visit Camden high schools.
    • The late Spring 2025 exhibition, VMPA Thesis Exhibition: Ask Me Anything, featured a range of works by 28 accomplished student artists, showcasing the results of visual experiments and investigations during their time at Rutgers–Camden. This exhibition celebrates the first cohort of graduating students enrolled in the newly established BFA program in Visual Arts.
  • RCCA delivered free-of-charge arts education to nearly 4,500 K-12 students and 300 adults and older adults in partnership with Camden City School District, LEAP Academy, Kroc Center, The Free Books Project, The Neighborhood Center, Northgate II Residence, and Roosevelt House.
  • RCCA received the following grants:
    • NEA/Arts Midwest Big Read Grant in the amount of $20,000.00 for the book You are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, a poetry anthology edited by Ada Limon, the twenty-fourth poet laureate of the United States.
    • NJ State Council on the Arts’ Creative Aging Initiative Grant, worth $10,000.00, and a FY 2026 General Programs Grant, in the amount of $200,090.00.

Faculty Highlights

Appointments

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice

  • Nathan Link, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, was appointed to the New Jersey Advisory Committee by the US Commission on Civil Rights.

Awards

Department of Biology/Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

  • Anthony Geneva, Assistant Professor of Biology, received the 2025 Chancellor Award for Research & Creativity, and the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (Tenure-Track).
  • Eric Klein, Associate Professor of Biology, received the 2025 Chancellor Award for Research & Creativity.
  • Xingyun Qi, Assistant Professor of Biology, received the 2025 Chancellor Award for Research & Creativity.
  • Maria Solesio, Associate Professor of Biology, received the Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence.

Department of Chemistry/Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

  • Georgia Arbuckle-Keil, Professor of Chemistry, received the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award.
  • Catherine Grgicak, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Henry Rutgers Chair, received the 2025 Peter M. Schneider International Scholar Award from the International Society of Forensic Genetics.
  • David Salas-de la Cruz, Associate Professor of Chemistry, received the Rutgers Torchbearer Award. This award honors leaders in promoting diversity, inclusion, equity, and access at Rutgers through their academic research, teaching, community engagement, and/or workplace engagement, program development, and leadership.

Department of Economics

  • Noha Emara, Associate Professor of Economics, received the 2025 Chancellor Award for Research & Creativity.

Gender Studies Program

  • Kelle Carbone, Lecturer of Gender Studies, received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (Lecturer).

Department of History

  • Katherine Epstein, Professor of History, received the Presidential Outstanding Faculty Scholar Award.
  • Carly Goodman, Assistant Professor of History, received the Edgar S. Furniss Book Award from the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The Ohio State University for her book Dreamland: America’s Immigration Lottery in an Age of Restriction.

Department of Mathematical Sciences

  • Sara Leshen-Gross, Associate Teaching Professor of Mathematical Sciences, received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (Non-Tenure Track).

Department of Mathematical Sciences/Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

  • Benedetto Piccoli, Distinguished Professor of Mathematical Sciences, is a PI on the CIRCLES Consortium, which received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Institutional Lead Award.
    • The IEEE Control Systems magazine devoted a whole issue in 2025 to the 100-AV experiment that the CIRCLES consortium performed (the world’s largest of its kind).

Department of Psychology

  • Tamara Nelson, Assistant Professor of Psychology, received the 2025 Chancellor Award for Research & Creativity.

Department of Public Policy and Administration

  • Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration, received the Jay A. Sigler Award for Teaching Excellence, the Department of Public Policy and Administration’s annual award for the best instructor.

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice

  • Julio Alicea, Assistant Professor of Sociology, received the Chancellor’s Award for Academic Civic Engagement.

Department of World Languages and Cultures

  • Carla Giaudrone, Associate Professor of Spanish, received the Rutgers Research Council Manuscript Review Award, to support the final stages of a book project.
  • Ana Laguna, Professor of Spanish, was selected for a Fulbright award through the Fulbright Finland Foundation in partnership with the University of Oulu.

Collaborations

Department of World Languages and Cultures

  • Ana Laguna, Professor of Spanish, formed a research partnership with the Instituto Cervantes in Milan and the University of Milan.

Documentaries

Department of World Languages and Cultures

  • Levi Guerrero, Lecturer of Spanish, is working on a documentary project titled Generation 1.5: Language and Identity.

Fellowships

Department of Biology/Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

Department of Chemistry/Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

Department of Childhood Studies

  • Lauren Silver, Associate Professor of Chemistry, received the Cheryl Wall Faculty Fellowship.

Department of History

  • Nick Kapur, Associate Professor of History, received the Japan Foundation Long-Term Research Fellowship for his research “The Politics of Non-Politics in Postwar and Contemporary Japan,” from January – August 2025.
  • Wendy Woloson, Professor of History, received the David Jaffee Fellowship in Material Culture to be a month-long research fellow at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, MA.

Department of World Languages and Cultures

  • Silvia Perez-Cortes, Associate Professor of Spanish, is a member of the 2025-2025 Honors College Fellows cohort. The fellows will design courses for students in the program related to the theme “Human/Inhuman.”

Grants

Department of Chemistry/Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

  • Jinglin Fu, Professor of Chemistry, was awarded a National Institutes of Health Research Enhancement Award Grant (R15) for his project “Enhancement of Genome Editing in Hematopoietic Stem Cells by Nucleic Acids Nanoparticles Delivery of CRISPR/CAS System.” This is a collaborative research project with the Coriell Institute of Medical Research and will provide biomedical training opportunities for students at Rutgers-Camden. 

Center for Urban Research and Education (CURE)

  • Michael Hayes, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration and CURE Fellow, and Dr. Stephen Danley, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration and Director of CURE, received funding from the Rutgers Equity Alliance for Community Health (REACH) for their project, “One Camden,” through which they will conduct a school enrollment equity analysis. Other CURE faculty fellows and students have also contributed to this project.
  • Stephen Danley, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration and Director of CURE, and Melissa Thompson, a doctoral student in the public affairs program, received grant funding for their project to support a proposed community-owned grocery store project and foster greater investment in a healthier Camden. The project uses the youth participatory curriculum Y-PLAN (Youth – Plan, Learn, Act Now). This spring, we have worked with partner Urban Promise to engage local youth and support the development of their ideas.
  • Stephen Danley, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration and Director of CURE, received funding from the Rutgers Equity Alliance for Community Health (REACH) and the Rutgers-Camden Urban Innovation Fund for the project “Hidden Hands,” which examines the trend of LLC property ownership in Camden.
  • Lori Minnite, Professor of Public Policy and Administration, received funding from Rutgers Equity Alliance for Community Health (REACH) and the American Political Science Association (APSA) for the project “Camden We Choose,” to do community organizing in Camden on Universal Basic Income.

Department of History

  • Nick Kapur, Associate Professor of History, received the Rutgers Interdisciplinary Research Council Grant for “The Materiality, History, and Art of Japanese Woodblock Prints.”

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice

  • Nathan Link, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, received a grant jointly funded by Arnold Ventures and the City of Philadelphia, for his investigation of a process evaluation of the City of Philadelphia’s criminal justice debt relief program.

Department of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts

  • Margery Amdur, Professor of Art, and Sheila Linz, Associate Professor of Nursing, received a Chancellor’s Grant for Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration for the project “Wearing the Inside Out.” “Wearing the Inside Out” is an interdisciplinary project exploring the intersection of healthcare, personal identity, and creative expression by designing and constructing functional, emotionally expressive garments. The project aims to foster collaboration among patients, healthcare staff, community members, art and nursing students, and faculty to create custom-designed healthcare garments. These garments will serve as therapeutic tools and symbolic representations of individual identity, providing comfort, healing, and personal expression in healthcare environments.

Department of World Languages and Cultures

  • Dr. Carla Giaudrone, Associate Professor of Spanish, and Dr. Sean Duffy, Associate Professor of Psychology, received the Chancellor’s Year of the Arts Grant for their mural-focused event, Walls That Speak: Public Art, Social Media, and Community Voices, which featured artists, curators, students, and community members.
  • Dr. Silvia Perez-Cortes, Associate Professor of Spanish, received the Chancellor’s Grant for Pedagogical Innovation for her course “(De)Humanizing the Other: Multilingualism and Linguistic Minorities in the US,” to be taught through the Honors College in Spring 2025.

Media Appearances and Mentions

Department of Chemistry

Department of Childhood Studies

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice

Department of World Languages and Cultures

Patents

Department of Chemistry /Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

Podcasts

Department of Childhood Studies

Department of World Languages and Cultures

  • Levi Guerrero, Lecturer of Spanish, launched a podcast titled Princeton Pa’lante, which highlights stories and voices from the Princeton community, with a focus on culture, education, and social impact.

Presentations/Lectures/Panels

Department of Childhood Studies

  • Valerie Adams-Bass, Assistant Professor of Childhood Studies, presented:
    • “Vicarious Black Joy and Fugitive Spaces: The Benefits of Freedom Schools to Black Parents” at the 2025 AERA Social Justice and Liberation for Marginalized Communities Conference;
    • “Mass Produced: Examining Relationships Between Consumer Culture, Media, and Social Change,” at the 2025 Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium.
  • Meredith Bak, Associate Professor of Childhood Studies, gave an invited lecture “Outside the Box: Cardboard in Contemporary Children’s Culture” at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in February 2025.
  • Naomi Fair, Assistant Professor of Childhood Studies, presented on her framework for critical teacher leadership development at the Council of Professors of Instructional Supervision (COPIS) Annual Conference. 
  • Lauren Silver, Associate Professor of Childhood Studies, presented her work on creative approaches to storytelling and testimony at the Workshop for Annual Meeting of the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA), in Detroit.
  • Anthony Wright, Assistant Professor of Childhood Studies, will present “The Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Movement: A Critical Analysis of Normative Models of Cancer Advocacy” was accepted for the 2025 meeting of the Asociación Latinoamericana de Medicina Social.

Center for Urban Research and Education (CURE)

  • Stephen Danley, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration and Director of CURE, and Dr. Paul Jargowsky, Professor of Public Policy and Administration and Founding Director Emeritus of CURE, presented the following respective research at the Urban Affairs Association International Conference in Vancouver:
    • “Why Protest Investment? White Space, Exclusion, and Indictments in Camden, NJ” and
    • “Don’t Count Me Out: Truly Accounting for Multiracial Individuals in Segregation.” 

Digital Studies Center (DiSC)

  • Dr. Anthony Wright, Assistant Professor of Childhood Studies and Associate Director of DiSC, presented “Depicting the Spirit of el Levantamiento: The Politics of Public Art in Cherán, Mexico” at the Twentieth International Conference on the Arts in Society at Carnegie Mellon University in May. 

Digital Studies Center (DiSC) – AI Ethics Lab

  • Nathan C. Walker, Director of the AI Ethics Lab, delivered a keynote on “From Smart to Wise Cities: Sustained Ethical Decision-making at Every Stage of the AI Lifecycle” for Virginia Tech’s Smart Cities for Good program.

Institute for Empowering Equitable Education in STEM (E-3)

  • Kwangwon Lee, Professor of Biology and Director of E-3), visited the Korea National University of Education (KNUE), where he gave a seminar on inclusive STEM education and discussed the various challenges that both countries’ educational systems face. 

Department of English and Communication

  • Jillian Sayre, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH), made the following presentations:
    • “On Humility,” a talk about maker-centered approach to book history at the Annual Meeting of the Bibliography Society of America (January 2025);
    • “Zine making and/as translation, or, the Promise of Reparative Pedagogy” on community outreach, zine making, and environmental justice in the “Voces de la comunidad” project at the Northeast Modern Language Association (March 2025); and
    • “(Not) Far From Home: Arctic Horror and Indigenous Refusal,” a portion of her manuscript-in-progress at the Rutgers-Camden Faculty Research and Creative Activity Symposium (April 2025).

Department of Health Sciences/Prevention Science Program

  • Kristin August, Professor of Psychology, presented the following research:
    • “Adapting a diabetes family coaching intervention for Spanish-speaking Latino populations,” at the EngAGEd Research on Aging at Rutgers University (virtual) in February 2025;
    • “Mobilizing communities to achieve health equity” at the Bridging the Gaps: Collaborative Pathways to Achieve Health Equity in New Jersey symposium, in Newark, NJ, in March 2025;
    • “Positive and negative interpersonal experiences and mental health among Black and Latino adults,” at the Eastern Psychological Association in New York, NY, in March 2025;
    • “Individuals’ experiences of care partner involvement in heart disease management,” at the Eastern Psychological Association in New York, NY, in March 2025;
    • “Romantic partners’ comments on unhealthy eating: Role of gender and sexual orientation,” at the Eastern Psychological Association in New York, NY, in March 2025; and the
    • “Body image, disordered eating, and interest in GLP-1 weight loss medications,” at the International Conference on Eating Disorders in San Antonio, TX, in May 2025.
  • Charlotte Markey, Professor of Psychology, presented the following research:
    • “Distrust of science and body image as predictors of disordered eating and dieting,” at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Denver, CO, in February 2025;
    • “Does porn make culture or does culture make porn? A quantitative analysis of pornographic utilization, antifat attitudes, and gender beliefs,” at the Eastern Psychological Association in New York, NY, in March 2025;
    • “Associations between women’s menstrual cycle and eating behaviors,” at the Eastern Psychological Association in New York, NY, in March 2025;
    • “Women’s body perceptions and consumption of violent and sexually explicit media,” at the Eastern Psychological Association in New York, NY, in March 2025;
    • “Exploring the Body Image Benefits of an Extended Social Media Break Among Youths,” at the International Conference on Eating Disorders in San Antonio, TX, in May 2025; and
    • “Body Image, Disordered Eating, and Interest in GLP-1 Weight Loss Medications,” at the International Conference on Eating Disorders in San Antonio, TX, in May 2025.

Department of History

  • Katherine Epstein, Professor of History, gave invited talks on her book Analog Superpowers: How Twentieth-Century Technology Theft Built the National Security State at Yale, Temple, Stanford, Berkeley, and Cornell Universities, as well as to the IEEE-Consultants Network of Silicon Valley. Dr. Epstein also presented “The Military-Industrial Complex, Liberal Capitalism, and the American Way of War” at the College of the Holy Cross.
  • Carly Goodman, Assistant Professor of History, gave the following presentations/panel discussions:
    • Edgar S. Furniss Book Award Lecture at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The Ohio State University in February 2025;
    • “Stranded Between Borders – The Limitations of Categorizing People in Transit,” with Tobias Brinkmann for the German Historical Institute (virtual) in February 2025;
    • “Unlocking the ‘Black Box’ of Museum Design Firms,” at the National Council on Public History 2025 Annual Meeting in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in March 2025; and
    • “Today’s Attacks on Immigration and Immigrants in Historical Context,” at the Immigration and Ethnic History Society Organization of American Historians in Chicago in April 2025.
  • Nick Kapur, Associate Professor of History, gave the following presentations:
    • “The Politics of Non-Politics in Post-1960s Japan,” Kyushu University, Japan, January 2025;
    • “National Consensus in Postwar Japan: Between Idealism and Realism,” Waseda University, Japan, March 2025; and
    • “The Politics of Non-Politics in Postwar and Contemporary Japan,” Australian National University, May 2025.
  • Emily Marker, Associate Professor of History, served as a discussant at the first Washington History Seminar of the year on Isaac Stanley-Becker’s Europe without Borders in January 2025. Dr. Marker also gave an invited talk on her new book project, Lessons from my grandparents, at the Society of Fellows at the University of Idaho in April 2025.
  • Andrew Shankman, Professor of History, presented “From the Articles of Confederation to the Ratification of the Constitution,” at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA, in June 2025. Dr. Shankman also participated in the invited symposium “The British Constitutional Struggle Over Parliament’s Imperial Authority, 1768-69,” sponsored by the Liberty Fund in Providence, RI, in May 2025.
  • Wendy Woloson, Professor of History, was a member of a roundtable discussion about publishing edited volumes of scholarship at the Business History Conference in March 2025. Dr. Woloson also presented about the history of American throw-away culture for Haddonfield Green Week in April 2025.

Department of Mathematical Sciences/Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

Department of Public Policy and Administration

  • Patrice Mareschal, Professor of Public Policy and Administration, presented “Police Salaries and Staffing in New Jersey: Examining the Roles of Community Context, Conflict, and Control,” at the Labor Employment Relations Association Annual Conference in June 2025 in Seattle, WA. 

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice

  • Kimberlee Moran, Associate Teaching Professor, gave the following lectures:
    • gave a talk about forensic archaeology to the Delaware Valley chapter of Sisters in Crime in January 2025;
    • provided a seminar on forensic archaeology for the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Temple University in January 2025;
    • was a guest lecturer at Bryn Mawr College on the current ethical issues in BioAnth, BioArch, and Forensic Anthropology in January 2025; and
    • gave a forensic science careers talk for a forensic science class at the First State Military Academy in Delaware in May 2025.

Department of World Languages and Cultures

  • Próspero García, Associate Professor of Spanish, presented the following research:
    • “Implementing Concept-Based Instruction to Foster Aspectual Development in the Online-Asynchronous L2 Classroom,” at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Illinois Language and Linguistics Society at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in March 2025; and
    • “Fostering Creativity and Second Language Development in Online-Asynchronous Contexts through Conscious Conceptual Manipulation,” at the SPARK Faculty Symposium at Rutgers-Camden, in April 2025.
  • Carla Giaudrone, Associate Professor of Spanish, along with Dr. Jillian Sayre, Associate Professor of English, and undergraduate student Ashley Petthyng, presented “Telling Climate Stories: Collaborative Pedagogies and Community Engagement through Zines”at the 2025 Northeast Modern Language Association Conference (NeMLA), highlighting the VOCES project’s role in bridging environmental research and community storytelling.
  • Eveling Hondros, Assistant Teaching Professor of Spanish, presented “Strengthening Empathy in Medical Education: The Foundations of Humanized Care,” at the National Meeting of the Health Humanities Consortium, in April 2025.
  • Ana Laguna, Professor of Spanish, presented the following research:
    • “Strengthening Empathy in Medical Education: The Foundations of Humanized Care,” at the National Meeting of the Health Humanities Consortium, in April 2025; and
    • “In War and In Peace: Cervantes’ Healing Journeys,” at the Cervantes Festival at the University of Tennessee, in April 2025.
  • Silvia Perez-Cortes, Associate Professor of Spanish, presented the following research:
    • “The future is within: Centering Heritage Language research around intra-speaker variability,” at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Illinois Language and Linguistics Society at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in March 2025;
    • “Literacy development and reading among Latino families: an interdisciplinary collaboration between linguistics and pediatrics,” at the SPARK Faculty Symposium at Rutgers-Camden, in April 2025; and
    • “The Effects of Paradigm Frequency on Morphological Variability in Heritage Guatemalan Spanish,” at the International Symposium of Bilingualism at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language in San Sebastian, Spain in June 2025.

Publications

Department of Biology/Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

Department of Childhood Studies

  • Valerie Adams-Bass, Assistant Professor of Childhood Studies, co-wrote the following articles:
  • Meredith Bak, Associate Professor of Childhood Studies, published the book chapter “Cinema’s Playful Objects,” in The Routledge Companion to American Film History, ed. Pamela Wojcik and Paula Massood. New York: Routledge, 2025.
  • Sarada Balagopalan, Associate Professor of Childhood Studies, published a co-authored chapter on youth, education and insecure employment in a global economy in the Routledge Handbook of Childhood Studies and Global Development.
  • The peer-reviewed journal Photographies will publish an article by Dr. Dan Cook, Distinguished Professor of Childhood Studies, which recasts photography in terms of a practice of imaginative speculation.
  • Marilisa Jiménez García, Associate Professor of the Childhood Studies program, co-edited the Ethnic Studies and Youth Literature: A Critical Reader, published by SUNY Press.

Creative Writing Program

Department of English and Communication

  • J.T. Barbarese, Professor Emeritus of English, will publish Inventions on the Brink: Essays, a collection of essays on American poetry, through LSU Press.

Department of Health Sciences/Prevention Science Program

Department of History

Department of Mathematical Sciences/Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

  • Benedetto Piccoli, Distinguished Professor of Mathematical Sciences, and his research group, with members from UC Berkeley and FAU in Germany, published a paper on AI methods to solve conservation laws in the Journal of Computational Physics.

Department of Public Policy and Administration

  • Michael Hayes, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration, is the first author of “The state takeover of the Camden City District schools and students’ academic performance: A descriptive analysis,” published in Journal of Urban Affairs.

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice

Department of World Languages and Cultures

Reviews

Department of Childhood Studies

Department of History

Screenings

Department of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts

  • Robert Emmons, Associate Teaching Professor of Theater and Film, screened his documentary Palimpsest at the February 2025 Slamdance Film Festival as part of its Digital, Interactive, and Gaming (DIG) program. Palimpsest is an interactive documentary that traces childhood fear and anxiety from the Cold War to school shootings in America, while along the way connecting Archimedes, Choose Your Adventure books, Baseball, Ray Bradbury, Charles Dickens, Peter Pan, John Fahey, Turtles, and every demographic cohort from The Greatest Generation to Gen Z. Palimpsest scrapes at this messy history in an attempt to reveal causes and solutions for one of America’s greatest public health epidemics.

Service

Department of Childhood Studies

  • Valerie Adams-Bass, Assistant Professor of Childhood Studies, was named the Black Caucus Chair Elect for the Society of Research on Child Development.
  • Sarada Balagopalan, Associate Professor of Childhood Studies, continues as co-Editor of Childhood: A Journal of Global Childhood Research (Sage) and serves as area editor in Childhood Studies for Oxford Bibliographies Online.
  • Naomi Fair, Assistant Professor of Childhood Studies, serves as co-advisor for the ​Delta Alpha Pi International Honor Society.

Department of History

  • Carly Goodman, Assistant Professor of History, served as an advisor for “Scattered Birthday: The 1976 US Bicentennial,” hosted by the Paul Robeson Library at Rutgers–Camden in Spring 2025.
  • Andrew Shankman, Professor of History, was elected to a three-year term on the Executive Council of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR). He will serve as President-Elect in 2025-26, as President of SHEAR in 2026-27, and as Immediate Past President in 2027-28.
  • Wendy Woloson, Professor of History, helped organize New Jersey History Day, held on the Rutgers–Camden campus, in February 2025.

Department of Public Policy and Administration

  • Patrice Mareschal, Professor of Public Policy and Administration, completed the Rutgers-Camden Faculty Leadership Program for the 2024-2025 academic year. 

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice

  • Kimberlee Moran, Associate Teaching Professor, provided four hours of training to the FBI Philadelphia Field Office, Evidence Response Team on the topic of forensic archaeology and forensic ecology in April 2025.

Department of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts

  • Steve DeCusatis, graphic design lecturer, hosted a workshop for the 2025 Symposium for Interdisciplinary Arts, an annual conference at Rowan University. Steve led students through a hands-on packaging design workshop in April where students concepted and designed a custom label for various packaging structures.

 Department of World Languages and Cultures

  • Próspero García, Associate Professor of Spanish, was invited to serve on the editorial board of the Routledge Handbook of Hispanic Applied Linguistics series. Dr. García also:
    • Created, designed, developed, and launched the English as a Second Language certificate and the Bilingual/Bicultural certificate in conjunction with the Department of Education/Teaching Preparation Program; and
    • Organized a webinar series offered through the Master of Arts in Teaching Spanish program.
  • Carla Giaudrone, Associate Professor of Spanish, coordinated a workshop series in collaboration with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) and the Hispanic Family Center of Southern NJ. The initiative focused on amplifying local perspectives on climate justice and environmental health. This workshop series was offered through VOCES de la Comunidad, a community engaged project led by Dr. Giaudrone and supported by the Urban Innovation Fund.
  • Ana Laguna, Professor of Spanish, led the following workshops: “Feminism in the 21st Century” (March 2025) and “A Feminist Agenda for the 21st Century: Vision and Practice” (May 2025). Dr. Laguna also serves as the director of the Spanish for Health Graduate Certificate Program. She is also a member of the Centennial Steering Committee and the co-chair of the Vision for the Future subcommittee.
  • Silvia Perez-Cortes, Associate Professor of Spanish, is an awards reviewer for the Fulbright National Screening Committee, administered by the Institute of International Education.

Tenure and Promotions; Reappointments

Department of Biology

  • Maria Solesio was promoted with tenure to Associate Professor of Biology.

Department of Chemistry

Department of English and Communication

Department of Health Sciences

  • Sujoy Chakravarty was reappointed with tenure to Associate Professor of Health Sciences.

Department of History

Department of Mathematical Sciences

Department of Philosophy and Religion

  • Craig Agule was promoted with tenure to Associate Professor of Philosophy.

Department of Political Science

Department of Psychology

Department of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts

Post-Doc Highlights

Publications

Department of Biology

Student Highlights

Awards

Visit https://fas.camden.rutgers.edu/student-experience/student-honors/ for the full list of students who received awards at the annual Arts and Sciences Honors Convocation, and also for the list of students inducted into academic honor societies such as Phi Beta Kappa and Athenaeum.

Department of Biology/Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

  • Tanisha Dhakephalkar, a doctoral student in the computational and integrative biology program, won a third-place poster award at the Rutgers Microbiology Symposium.

Department of Education and Teacher Preparation

  • Hayley Feldman-Hills (GSC ’25) and Carley Kain, a current student in the teacher education master’s program, were both nominated for the 2025 New Jersey Distinguished Clinical Intern Award.

Digital Studies Center (DiSC)/Department of English and Communication

  • Sophia Westfall (CCAS ’25) was awarded the Postgraduate Fulbright Scholarship to attend the Creative Writing MA program at Cardiff University in Wales.

Prevention Science Program

  • Joseph Abbas, a doctoral student in the prevention science program, received the Association for Psychological Science RISE Research Award.

Department of Psychology

  • Chareina (Reina) Johnson (GSC ’25) received the International Society for the Science of Existential Psychology (ISEPP) Student Existential Psychology Research Conference Award and the William H. Tucker Award.

 Department of World Languages and Cultures

  • Raizel Febles (CCAS ’27) received the Chancellor’s Award for Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement: Student Civic Engagement for her work in several student-led initiatives, including the student organization MujeRes.
  • Amaya Solar (CCAS ’27) is the 2024-2025 Public Policy Leadership Conference (PPLC) recipient to attend the Harvard University Kennedy School’s 24th Annual Public Policy Leadership Conference.

Exhibits

Department of Childhood Studies

  • Jordan Ellzy, former Department of Childhood Studies Mellon Foundation intern and 2025 CCAS graduate, created a permanent exhibit at the Historical Society, which recalls the history of the Green Book as well as Martin Luther King Jr’s time living in Camden.
  • Tiana Reed, Department of Childhood Studies Mellon Foundation intern, had an opening on May 9, 2025, for a permanent exhibit she curated at the Camden County Historical Society as part of her Mellon Humanities Internship. Her exhibit, titled, “Pencils Down, Picket Signs Up: Camden Teachers Fight For A Living Wage” focuses on the Black teachers’ strike of 1978, when students protested in solidarity alongside their teachers.

Fellowships

Department of Childhood Studies

  • E Lev Feinman, doctoral student in the childhood studies program, is a recipient of the Chancellor’s Dissertation Completion Fund and the Diversity Dissertation Fellowship to support their dissertation research in the 2025-2026 academic year.
  • Elaysel Germán, a doctoral student in the childhood studies program, has been selected for the prestigious Curriculum Inquiry Writing Fellowship and Writers’ Retreat, which will be held in Toronto in June 2025. 
  • Anusha Iyer, a doctoral student in the childhood studies program, and Dr. Mary Byrne, Childhood Studies Mellon Post-doctoral Fellow, have each been awarded fellowships for the 2025-2026 Rutgers Institute for Research on Women, “Shouting Fire? Feminism, Academic Freedom, and Democracy.” This prestigious fellowship recognizes their outstanding academic achievements and commitment to advancing important discussions in these critical areas.
  • Deborah Lynam, a doctoral student in the childhood studies program, served as an Eagleton Fellow with the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE), based in the Office of Learning Equity and Academic Recovery within the Division of Teaching and Learning and works as a Graduate Assistant on the NJ Tiered System of Supports for Early Reading project.
  • LaTiana Ridgell, a doctoral student in the childhood studies program, was awarded two fellowships for the 2024-2025 academic year: as a seminar fellow at the Rutgers Institute for Research on Women, and as a Graduate Student Fellow within the Rutgers Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Department of World Languages and Cultures

  • Raizel Febles (CCAS ’27) served as a RAJU Fellow as part of the Racial Justice Learning Community at The Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice (ISGRJ).

Presentations

Department of Biology/Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

  • Joshua Chamberlain, doctoral student in the computational and integrative biology program, was selected to present at the Theobald Smith Society Spring 2025 Symposium.

Department of Childhood Studies

  • Eunhye Grace Lee, doctoral student in the childhood studies program, presented her research on feminist activism and the #MeToo movement in South Korea at the International Conference on Sociology of Korea (I-CSK), University of Pennsylvania, and the Childhood Application Seminar Series at Stickton University.

Digital Studies Center (DiSC)

  • Wayne Reynolds (CCAS ’25) presented on the forms of accessibility afforded by the Xbox Adaptive Controller at the annual conference for the Foundation of Digital Games in Vienna and Graz. Wayne was also accepted to present this research at the University of Connecticut’s Postsecondary Disability Training Institute.
  • Tyler Walker (CCAS ’26) was accepted to present their research “Inside the Bitches Grotto: Diagetic Safe Space in Tell Me Why” at the Digital Games Research Association conference in Malta. This project is in collaboration with Professor Claire Stricklin, Assistant Teaching Professor of English.

Department of English and Communication

  • Sophia Westfall (CCAS ’25) presented her research on critical making and biodegradable books at the Annual Meeting of the Bibliographical Society of America (January 2025).

Prevention Science Program

  • Joseph Abbas and Lindsay Peck, doctoral students in the prevention science program, presented “Balancing the plate and the GPA: Exploring food pantry usage and academic performance in college students,” at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, in Washington, DC, in May 2025.
  • Morenike Alugo, a doctoral student in the prevention science program, presented “Leveraging GIS and data science to map health disparities: A community-driven analysis of social determinants and chronic disease in Camden, NJ,” at the Society for Prevention Research Annual Meeting in Seattle, in May 2025.
  • Dua Malik, doctoral student in the prevention science program, presented “Women’s body perceptions and consumption of violent and sexually explicit media,” at the Eastern Psychological Association (EPA), in New York City, NY, in March 2025.
  • Dua Malik, Alexis Richeson, and Violett Springate, doctoral students in the prevention science program, presented “Body image, disordered eating, and interest in GLP-1 weight loss medications,” at the International Conference on Eating Disorders, in San Antonio, TX, in May 2025.
  • Megan Mason, doctoral student in the prevention science program, presented the following research:
    • “Individuals’ experiences of care partner involvement in heart disease management: A pilot study,” at the Eastern Psychological Association (EPA), in New York City, NY, in March 2025; and
    • “Unlocking insights: AI analysis of peer specialist notes to address health and social needs of justice-involved individuals with opioid use disorder,” at the NYU Langone Health Catalyzing Innovation in Learning Health Systems through Research Symposium, New York, New York, in April 2025.
  • Lindsay Peck, doctoral student in the prevention science program, presented the following research:
    • “Investigating the benefits of living in a county with free community college,” at the National Center for Education Statistics Data Users Conference (virtual) in February 2025; and
    • “Planning and implementing a student academic success faculty fellows program at Rutgers University–Camden, at the Association of American Colleges & Universities CLASS Conference, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in April 2025.
  • Alexis Richeson, doctoral student in the prevention science program, presented:
    • “Social determinants of health contributing to mental health disparities and help-seeking behaviors within six-months postpartum: Evidence from New Jersey PRAMS linking birth certificate date 2017-2021” at the Eastern Nursing Research Society Conference, in Philadelphia, PA, in April 2025; and
    • “Social determinants of health contributing to mental health disparities and help-seeking behaviors within six-months postpartum: Evidence from PRAMS Survey and Birth Certificate Data,” at the Society for Research and Child Development in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May 2025.
  • Alexis Richeson and Violett Springate, doctoral students in the prevention science program, presented “Does porn make culture or does culture make porn? A quantitative analysis of pornographic utilization, anti-fat attitudes, and gender beliefs,” at the Eastern Psychological Association in New York, NY, in March 2025.
  • Violett Springate, doctoral student in the prevention science program, served as moderator for “Suicide Prevention in Academic and Professional Settings,” at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Suicide Research Symposium in April 2025.
  • Violett Springate, doctoral student in the prevention science program, presented “The Relationship Between Children’s Economic Connectedness, Exposure, and County-Level Suicide Rates,” at the Research on Education and the Arts in Childhood (REACH) National Convening in Philadelphia, PA, in April 2025.
  • Samantha Vega, doctoral student in the prevention science program, presented “Three Mile Island nuclear aftermath: Elevated depression rates and future implications” at the Eastern Psychological Association meeting in New York City, NY, in May 2025.

Department of Psychology

  • Jasmaine Allen (GSC ’25), doctoral student in the prevention science program, presented at the 2025 National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Conference on Student Success in Higher Education in Denver.
  • Samrawit Gebretensay (CCAS ’23), a master’s degree student in the psychology program, presented at the Association for Psychological Science in Washington, DC, in May 2025 and at the 8th Biennial American Psychological Association Division 45 Research Conference in July 2025 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
  • Chareina (Reina) Johnson (GSC ’25) presented her research findings from two studies at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention in Denver in February 2025. Reina also presented at the Association for Psychological Science in Washington, DC, in May 2025 and at the 8th Biennial American Psychological Association Division 45 Research Conference in July 2025 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Department of World Languages and Cultures

  • Elisa Alvarez-Outerino (CCAS ’23, GSC ’25) presented the following research:
    • “Implementing Concept-Based Instruction to Foster Aspectual Development in the Online-Asynchronous L2 Classroom,” at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Illinois Language and Linguistics Society at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in March 2025; and
    • “Aspectual Development in the Online-Asynchronous L2 Classroom through Concept-Based Instruction,” SPARK Graduate Symposium, in April 2025.

Publications

Department of Biology/Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

  • Truman Dunkley, a doctoral student in computational and integrative biology, had a publication in FEBS Letters that was featured as the cover story.
  • James Kelley, a doctoral student in computational and integrative biology, has led a study on variations published in
  • Sathya Vaidhyanathan, a doctoral student in computational and integrative biology, has led a publication in the journal RNA on a database of ribosomal RNA fragments. Sathya has also led a review paper published in Biomolecules with sixteen graduate student co-authors, discussing involvement of transfer RNA fragments in various human diseases.
    • Adesupo Adetowubo, a biology master’s degree student, has led a follow-up paper on these RNA fragments for the journal ncRNA.

Department of Childhood Studies

  • In Summer 2025, E Lev Feinman, doctoral student in the childhood studies program, published “The Child of Trans Studies,” in Routledge Companion to Gender & Childhood.
  • Moloud Soleimani, doctoral student in the childhood studies program, published several articles on feminist activism in Iran and two short stories. Moloud has also partnered with the Writers’ House and LEAP Academy to publish students’ creative writings, distributed exclusively to participants and their families.

Department of Mathematical Sciences/Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

  • Ryan Weightman (CCAS ’18, GSC ’21, ’25) graduated with his Ph.D. in computational and integrative biology. Upon graduation, he had published ten papers and won the prestigious Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Prevention Science Program

Scholarships

Prevention Science Program

  • Morenike Alugo, a doctoral student in the prevention science program, received the Walter Rand Institute Graduate Scholarship for Southern New Jersey Research Initiatives to conduct the study “The impact of social capital on healthcare access and substance abuse in Southern New Jersey: A pre- and post-pandemic analysis.”

Department of World Languages and Cultures

  • Amaya Solar (CCAS ’27) is one of twenty students selected nationwide for the Phi Beta Kappa’s Key into Public Service scholarship program.

Service

Department of Biology/Center for Computational and Integrative Biology

  • Graduate students in “Ecology of Soil Organisms” volunteered and ran three tables at the Franklin Institute’s Boom and Blooms event on April 25, 2025. The tables were The Microplastic Boom, Mushroom Booms, and Seed Bombs. The seed bomb table was a spin-off of the biology department’s on-campus event sponsored by the Chancellor’s Year of the Arts funding.  The on-campus events included a seed bomb making workshop run by the Biodesign and Ecology of Soil Organisms undergraduate students. Pictures attached

Department of Childhood Studies

  • Palak Vashist, doctoral student in the childhood studies program, led the planning and execution of the Feminist Climate Action Consortium at Rutgers University through her role as Program Specialist at the Institute for Women’s Leadership.

Alumni Highlights

Awards

Creative Writing Program

  • Isaac Blum (GSC ’13) was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen and was a National Jewish Book Award finalist for The Judgment of YoYo Gold.
  • Michael Deagler (GSC ’14) listed the following accomplishments:
    • Received the O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction for “The Pleasure of a Working Life,” published in Harpers in June 2024; and
    • His book Early Sobrieties has been listed on this year’s PEN/America shortlist.
  • Micaiah Johnson (GSC ’16) is the author of The Space Between Worlds, winner of several science-fiction awards and a New York Times Editor’s Choice Award.

Department of English and Communication

  • Susan Muaddi Darraj (CCAS ’97, GSC ’99)’s book, Behind You is the Sea, was listed on this year’s PEN/America shortlist.

Department of World Languages and Cultures

  • Nicole Santilli Doyle (GSC ’20) was named Employee of the Month at Rancocas Valley Regional High School, where she works as a Spanish teacher.

Fellowships

Creative Writing Program

  • Jacob Camacho (GSC ’15) received a Native American and Indigenous Studies Fellowship from Brown University.

Department of World Languages and Cultures

  • Tania Martinez (CCAS ’22) was named to the 2025-2026 Class of Schwarzman Scholars, considered one of the most selective graduate fellowships in the world.

Professional Developments

Creative Writing Program

  • Hulu optioned Anise Vance (GSC ‘14)’s Hush Harbor.

Department of English and Communication

  • Jochebed Airede (CCAS ’24) has just been accepted for graduate studies at Oxford University. She plans to study African Studies, with the goal to become a journalist reporting on humanitarian causes in Africa.
  • Jay Jolles (GSC ’19) defended his dissertation in American Studies at The College of William and Mary and accepted a position as Assistant Director of the Writing and Communication Center at The College of William and Mary.
  • Nicholas Silcox (GSC ’18) defended his dissertation in English at New York University and accepted a position as a tenure-track assistant professor at Colby College.

Publications

Department of Economics

  • Bracey Berard (CCAS ’02) authored Backyard Blooms, a full-color coffee table book featuring flowers in South Jersey.

Department of English and Communication

  • Liam Fleming (CCAS ’21, GSC ’22) published his first book, a collection of short stories titled Flytrap and Other Stories, with Sixth and Center Publishing.

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