Academic News (News2Note)

News2Note, the academic newsletter of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, is published monthly during the academic year by Debra Stoudt, associate dean for policy and faculty affairs. Academic news can be submitted to her directly at dstoudt@vt.edu.

Macie Alford, a first-year History major, served as the moderator for an online panel discussion,  “Black Rural Education:  A Front Porch Conversation,” on February 21 in honor of Black History Month.  The discussion was hosted by the Center for Rural Education and featured Assistant Professor of Counselor Education Tameka Grimes among the panelists.

The 2024 ASPECT Graduate Conference titled “Reimagining Relationality” took place March  21–22 on campus and virtually.  The following ASPECT doctoral students gave presentations:  Samuel Beckenhauer, “QAnon Within the Scripted Political”; Jack Bernardi, “The Crown and the Coin:  An Introduction to Heterodox Monetary Theory”; Ana Maria Camargo Palomino, “Addressing Food Insecurity in Migrant Communities Through Community Food Work”; Sean Pierre Chambers, “Black Capitalism Helps Church Friendships and Others”; Marie-Lys Chambraud, “Christianity and the Other:  Alienation and Danger”; Armin Firouzi and Aziz Ardiç, Visiting Graduate Fellow in the Institute for Policy and Governance, “Rethinking the Right to the City Through the Historical Unrecognized Cultural Capital of the Subaltern”; Hannah Gignoux, “Critical Political Economy Within and Without a Labor Theory of Value”; Hannah Glasson, “Examining Two Trajectories in Twentieth Century Biological Research”; Elhom Gosink, “Violence and the Construction of a Political Subject”; Sabrina Harris, “A Platform for Whom?  Paradoxes of Political Resistance and Governmentality in the United Nations”; Cory Higgs, “The Moth Man and ‘His’ Vernacular Creativity in Digital Storytelling”; Trevor Jeyaraj and Chayne Wild, “Worlding Together from Worlds Apart:  The Convergence of Ancestry, Kin, and Language in Robin Wall Kimmerer and George Jackson”; Andreza Jorg and Lianne Carvalho, Visiting Scholar, Universidade de Brasília, “Black Women in Brazil:  Colonial Representations and Amefrican Resistances”; Jessica Long, “A Different Kind of Rapture:  American Evangelical #deconstruction”; Luther McPherson, “‘Security is the Continuation of Culture by Other Means’:   Reflections on Martial Culture and Education in 19th-Century Prussia”; Vasilije Mesarovic, “Christendom and the (Non)Human – Reifying the Other”; Zahra Modarres Vahid, “Pragmatism in Black Feminist Thought:  Navigating Continuity and Change in Scholarship Discourse”; Rebekah Mui, “Re-Inhabitation:  A Political Theology of Reclamation for the Colonized Body”; Shreya Hari Nurani, “The Religious Landscape of Ujjain:  The City of Temples”; Leah Ramnath, “Cynical Mythologies:  How Myths Are Made and Legends Are Born”; Michael Senters, “A Digital Language of Hate:  Language Games, Memes, and the Online Far-Right”; Muhammed Shah Shajahan, “The Legitimacy of Truth:  Muslims in Travancore Courtrooms”; Maria Siddiqui, “State and Shari’a:  The Genealogy of Irreconcilability”; Aline de Souza, “Art, Aesthetics, and Anesthetics in Early Twentieth-Century Germany:  Analysis of Two Artworks”; and Hannah Steinhauer, “Where is the Feminist Internet?  Queering Information Technologies Through Algorithms of Care.”  In addition, the following graduate students in other units in the College gave presentations:  Landon Erickson, Political Science master’s student, “Masks, Frames, and Tables:  An Analytical Approach to Televised Repression in Putin’s Russia”; Elizabeth Mennitt, Political Science master’s student, “Incorporating Gender into Louis Althusser’s Theory of Ideology”; Elena Roe, Political Science master’s student, “My Vagina, My Vagina, Me:  Butler’s Gender Performativity and Limits to Resistance in Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues”; and Rebecca Steele, Higher Education doctoral student, “Utilizing Aerial Circus Arts as a Diverse Space for Physical Movement.”

The 27th Annual Brian Bertoti Innovative Perspectives in History Conference featured 19 presentations by students from eight institutions globally.  The conference was organized by Department of History graduate students; faculty from the department served as discussants.  The following Virginia Tech students presented papers; all of them are master’s students in History, unless otherwise noted:  Raaj Aggarwal, Social Science Education undergraduate, “The Neglect of Progressive Educators Throughout the History of Testing in Virginia”; Micaela Applebaum, Material Culture and Public Humanities master’s student, “Examining the Exhibition and Interpretation of 19th-Century Sex Work at the Historic Birdcage Theater”; Paige Carter, “Whores and Holy Women:  Understanding the Interconnected Relationship Between Society and Religion Through the Lives of Medieval Women”; Armin Firouzi, ASPECT doctoral student, and Aziz Ardiç, Visiting Graduate Fellow in the Institute for Policy and Governance, “Rethinking the Concept of ‘Right to the City’ Through History of Othering”; Kaylen Griles, “American Espionage:  The Culper Spy Ring in the American Revolution”; Kaitlynn Harless, “Women Agitators:  Resistance and Gender Defiance in the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strikes, 1912–1913”; William Ingalls, History major, “Why an Axe?  Defining the Use of Axes in Battle by Norse Warriors in the Viking Age (793–1066 CE)”; Jared Kimball, “Die Südstrategie:  Politics of the German 48ers in Richmond, 1852–1864”; Julia Lucas, “The Rise and Fall of Lovely Mount:  How Small Communities in the New River Valley Were Affected by the Coming of the Railroad”;  and Todd McDonald, Public Administration and Public Affairs doctoral student, “The Veteran Problem?  Representations of American WWII Veterans in Academic and News Media Policy Discourse.”  The conference took place at the Hahn Horticultural Garden Pavilion and the Graduate Life Center on March 22–23.

Public and International Affairs master’s student Ashton Bliss has been awarded a Fulbright Open Research Award for the 2024–2025 academic year.  She will pursue research at the Hungarian Research Network Centre for Social Sciences in Budapest, Hungary.

Planning, Governance, and Globalization doctoral student Shukriya Bradost published “Are Iran and Turkey on a Collision Course over West Azerbaijan?” on the Middle East Institute website on February 27.

Brenda Brand, Education, is piloting a partnership program with Lezly Taylor, Shaw University, a historically Black university in Raleigh, North Carolina, to create a pipeline for students who have already graduated from a historically Black college or university with a STEM-related bachelor’s degree to pursue a graduate degree in teaching at Virginia Tech.  Two Shaw students participated in the program this year; both served as student teachers at Christiansburg Middle School during the Fall 2023 semester.

Glenn Bugh, History, presented the Archaeological Institute of America’s Ettinghausen Lecture on March 24 at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey; the title of the lecture was “Kevin Andrews and the Castles of the Morea.” 

ASPECT PhD student Marie-Lys Chambraud presented “Peoplehood, Resilience, and Survivance:  Eastern Band Cherokee Code Talkers of the World Wars” at the Southeast Native Studies Conference, which took place March 21–22 online and at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Amanda Demmer, History, published “Framing the Narrative of the Indochinese Diaspora:  The Citizens Commission on Indochinese Refugees, Domestic Political Actors, and U.S. Foreign Relations,” Rethinking U.S. World Power:  Domestic Histories of U.S. Foreign Relations, ed. Daniel Bessner and Michael Brenes (Cham, Switzerland:  Springer Nature/Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), pp. 209–40.

Alexander Dickow, Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, published “The Rhetoric of Reason:  Language in Benjamin Fondane,” MLN 138.4 (2023):  1288–306.

Carlos Evia, Professor of Communication, Associate Dean for Transdisciplinary Initiatives, and CLAHS Chief Technology Officer, edited Content Operations from Start to Scale:  Perspectives from Industry Experts (Blacksburg, Virginia:  Virginia Tech Publishing, 2024).  His individual contributions to the volume were “Introduction,” pp. 1–12, and “Operationalizing Content Creation,” with Rahel Bailie, pp. 43–74.  The volume is available via open access.

Matthew Gabriele, Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion and Culture, published Between Prophecy and Apocalypse:  The Burden of Sacred Time and the Making of History in Early Medieval Europe (Oxford, United Kingdom, and New York, New York:  Oxford University Press, 2024).

Thomas Gardner, Professor Emeritus of English, published a reprint of Poverty Creek Journal:  On Life and Running (London, United Kingdom:  Daunt Books Publishing, 2024).  This 10th-anniversary edition features an added foreword as well as an added introduction.

Carmen Gitre, History, published “Taking Comedy Seriously:  Theater in the 1920s,” The Oxford Handbook of Modern Egyptian History, ed. Beth Baron and Jeffrey Culang (Oxford, United Kingdom, and New York, New York:  Oxford University Press, 2024), pp. 402–19.

History master’s student Kaitlynn Harless created the exhibit “Women in Appalachia:  Food, Drink, and Community” with Kira Dietz, Library Special Collections.  On display through March on the fourth floor of Newman Library, the exhibit honored the resilience, creativity, and generosity of Appalachia’s community-centered women. 

Jennifer Hart, Professor and Chair of the Department of History, published Making an African City:  Technopolitics and the Infrastructure of Everyday Life (Bloomington, Indiana:  Indiana University Press, 2024).

Department of History master’s students Miles Abernethy and Elizabeth Bucklen  and undergraduate major Jillian Sasso served as presenters for the showcase of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies ongoing outreach projects during the 2024 Civil War Weekend at Virginia Tech.  Sponsored by the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, the event took place March 22–24 at the Inn at Virginia Tech.

Erin Hopkins, Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management, published “Well-Being in Response to Gratitude Interventions:  A Student Elicitation Approach,” Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education 2.1 (2024), Article 2.

Buddy Howell, Communication, received the award for Excellence in Teaching First-Year Seminars at the 2024 annual conference of the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, which was held February 18–21 in Seattle, Washington.

Two Human Development and Family Science faculty are members of teams that were awarded seed grants from the Whole Health Consortium, which is housed in the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment.  Brittany Howell, also Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, is a member of  the research team project “Stressed Out Moms:  Targeting the Body to Treat the Brain and Prevent Intergenerational Transmission of Mental Health Issues,” and Jody Russon, is part of the research team project “Community Advisory Groups to Inform Youth Mental Health Needs in Southwest Virginia.”

The following Integrative STEM Education doctoral students and faculty gave presentations at the 2024 International Technology and Engineering Education Association Conference.  Jessica Amos presented the poster titled “Design-Based Learning in Undergraduate Chemistry”; Natalie Crosby presented “STEM Preparedness of Current K-12 Teachers” with Brent Curran et al.; Angela Morris gave a presentation titled “BioDomes in Biology”; and Parkpoom Pengsuwan with faculty member John Wells presented “Introducing Integrative STEM Education in Thailand.”  The conference took place March 6–9 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Rachelle Kuehl, Education, published “Guarding Against Book Challenges With Professionalism and Confidence,” Kappan 105.7 (2024):  38–43, with Adriana L. Medina and Edwina Pendarvis.

Timothy Luke, University Distinguished Professor, Chair of the Department of Political Science, and Interim Director of the School of Public and International Affairs, published “The Environmental Defense Fund:  Fighting the System by Guarding the Lifeworld as a Defensively Funded Environment,” New Political Science 46.1 (2024):  61–80.

Carol Mullen, Education, published “Speaking of Allyship – It’s Time to Leap Together in Educational Leadership,” UCEA Review 65.1 (2024):  13–21, which she presented as the presidential address at the University Council for Education Administration annual convention in November 2023.

Robert Perdue, Sociology, was awarded 2023 Best Article Prize by the journal for “Trashing Appalachia:  Coal, Prisons, and Whiteness in a Region of Refuse,” Punishment & Society 25.1 (2023):  21–41. 

Joel Peters, Public and International Affairs, coedited the Routledge Handbook on Israel’s Foreign Relations (Abingdon, United Kingdom, and New York, New York:  Routledge, 2024), with Rob Geist Pinfold.  His individual contributions to the volume were “Introduction,” pp. 1–18, and “Israel, the Caucasus, and Central Asia” with Pinfold, pp. 229–41.  Also included in the volume was a contribution by Ariel Ahrem, Public and International Affairs, “Israel and the Kurds,” pp. 268–77.

Department of Philosophy major Meghan Flaherty and faculty member Justin Horn presented “Ethics Bowl and Moral Growth” at the 33rd Annual Association for Practical and Professional Ethics International Conference, which took place February 22–25 in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Flaherty is the president of the Ethics Bowl at VT and Horn serves as the coach.

The 2024 volume of The Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Review was published in association with Virginia Tech Publishing; the journal publishes work by current and recent undergraduate students worldwide and is housed in the Kellogg Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE).  The editor-in-chief of this year’s volume is Delaney Moran, PPE and International Trade and Development.  Peer review editors are Claudia Budzyn, Environmental Policy and Planning and PPE; Antonio Robles, PPE; Phoebe Scarborough, PPE; and Eireann Maybach, Communication and Political Science.  The contents of the volume are available here.

The Property Management program in the Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, and the Property Management Advisory Board awarded $66,000 in scholarships to 33 students in the major last year.  Each student received $2,000 toward tuition or travel expenses for conferences they were eligible to attend.  The board was created in 1984 and currently includes representatives from some 36 real estate and related companies.  Since its inception, the board has awarded more than $1.3 million in scholarships to students in the program.

Andy Scerri, Political Science, was awarded a Research Stays for University Academics and Scientists grant from the German Academic Exchange Service/Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD).  With DAAD support, Scerri will travel to Germany this summer and engage in research collaboration with Dirk Jörke at the Technische Universität Darmstadt.

ASPECT doctoral student Muhammed Shah Shajahan presented “The Legitimacy of Truth:  Muslims in Travancore Courtrooms” at the 21st South Asia Graduate Students’ Conference, which took place March 7–8 at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois.  In addition, Shajahan presented “Charity, Sovereignty, and the Brahmin Problem in Travancore” and organized the panel titled “The Politicized Princely States of South Asia” at the Association for Asian Studies Conference, which was held March 14–17 in Seattle, Washington.

The College notes with sadness the death of Alex Stubberfield, former instructor and adjunct faculty member in the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Political Science.  Stubberfield also earned three degrees at Virginia Tech:  two master’s degrees in 2105, one in Philosophy and one in Public and International Affairs, and in 2019 a doctorate from the ASPECT program.  Additional information can be found in the funeral home obituary and the Virginia Tech In Memoriam.

Pam Teaster, Professor of Human Development and Family Science and Director of the Center for Gerontology, is serving as a 2023–2024 Fellow of the Health and Aging Policy Fellowship program, a competitive national program based in Washington, D.C.  Placed with the Administration for Community Living, an operating division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Teaster is working with the administration through September on projects related to elder mistreatment, the long-term care ombudsman, and guardianship, traveling to Washington as needed.

The annual Virginia Tech Authors Recognition Event took place February 26 in Newman Library.  The event honored authors’ academic contributions to the University.  Faculty who were recipients of funding from the Library Open Subvention Fund for the publication of articles are listed here.  The list of CLAHS faculty who authored, coauthored, and edited works can be found here.  There were 36 entries from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, including four faculty with two submissions and two with three.  Among the featured speakers at the recognition event were Dean Laura Belmonte and Amanda Demmer, History.

The College is pleased to welcome Michael Webb as Assistant Dean for Advancement; in this role he will spearhead the College’s development, alumni relations, and communications operations.  Before coming to Virginia Tech, Webb served in the following academic roles:  Director of Advancement in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Director of Development in the College of Arts and Sciences at East Tennessee State University; and Director of Alumni Relations at King University.  Webb joined the Office of the Dean Leadership Team on March 1.

John Wells, Education, received the 2024 Gerhard Salinger Award for Enhancing STEM Education through Technological/Engineering Design-Based Instruction, along with Phillip Reed (Old Dominion University), Otsebele Nare (Hampton University), and Bingyu Zhao (Virginia Tech) from the Council on Technology and Engineering Teacher Education.  The award is presented annually to an individual or a team whose work has exemplified, promoted, investigated, and/or enhanced teaching and learning in STEM through the effective application of technological/engineering design activity.  The team was recognized for its years-long research initiative conducted throughout Virginia titled “STEMbot Multigenerational Collaborative:  Transdisciplinary T/E Design Based Biotechnical Learning,” which enhanced middle school, undergraduate, and graduate student learning through minds-on/hands-on design challenges embedded in technological/engineering content and practices.  The award was presented at the 2024 International Technology and Engineering Education Association Conference, which was held March 6–9 in Memphis, Tennessee.

LaDale Winling, History, was awarded a 2024–2025 National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars Fellowship for his project titled “Property Wrongs:  The Forty Year Battle Over Race and Real Estate,” which examines racial covenants, redlining, and segregation ordinances.  Details about Winling’s research on racial covenant can be found here.

Research by Zuleka Woods, Planning, Governance, and Globalization doctoral student and graduate research assistant for the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies, and Professor of Political Science Laura Zanotti is the basis for the exhibit “Hidden in Plain Sight:  The Politics of Memorialization of Slavery in Charleston, S.C.”  The exhibit examines themes in the memorialization and representations of slavery in Charleston’s public spaces including Southern charm and nostalgia, Southern charm and violence, and enslaved narratives.  The exhibit is on view on the second floor of Newman Library from February 19 to May 12 during library hours; in addition, Woods, Zanotti, and Scott Fralin built an online exhibit featuring the research.

2024

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