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.

Biko Agozino, Sociology, received the 2024 Division on Critical Criminology & Social Justice of the American Society of Criminology Lifetime Achievement Award.  The award is the division’s highest honor and is reserved for those who have demonstrated sustained and distinguished scholarship, teaching, and service in the field of Critical Criminology.  Agozino was recognized by the selection panel for his scholarly work as well as his tireless commitment to the values and principles of the division, which includes his many years of mentorship and pedagogy to scores of students.

Ariel Ahram, Public and International Affairs, published “Breaking Iran’s Axis of Resistance, One Proxy at a Time,” The Hill, on October 6. 

Planning, Governance, and Globalization doctoral student Shahed Alhadyan published “A Tactical Urbanism and Economic Inclusivity:  Evaluating the Impact of Spacena Project in a Marginalized Urban Area,” Journal of Contemporary Urban Affairs 8.2 (2024):  342–63, with Mohammad AlRahahleh and Mysaa Khwaileh.

Sociology doctoral student Tamar Ballard published a review of How Hip Hop Became Hit Pop:  Radio, Rap, and Race by Amy Coddington in Contemporary Sociology 53.6 (2024):  506–07.

Planning, Governance, and Globalization doctoral student Gopi Krishan Bhamidipati published “Modi 3.0:  India Confronts New Realities in a Chaotic Middle East” on the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington blog on October 2.

Planning, Governance, and Globalization doctoral student Shukriya Bradost published “Can Iran Replace Hezbollah,” in The National Interest on October 7.

Ralph Buehler, Public and International Affairs, published “Factors Influencing Bikeshare Service and Usage in a Rural College Town:  A Case Study of Montgomery County, VA,” International Journal of Sustainable Transportation 18.4 (2024):  291–300, with Cat Woodson et al.

Two retired CLAHS faculty members have each established an endowed scholarship to help students afford to study abroad.  Alumni Distinguished Professor of Spanish Emerita Jacqueline Bixler, who retired in 2023 after a 43-year career at Virginia Tech, established the Bixler Scholarship Fund, for which students studying Spanish can apply next fall.  The scholarship, which is geared toward underrepresented and first-generation college students, will allow one student to travel abroad each academic year.  Professor of English Education Emerita Patricia Kelly, who retired in 2003 after 26 years at Virginia Tech, established the Patricia Proudfoot Kelly Teaching and Learning Scholarship.  Open to undergraduate students preparing for teaching careers in K–12 education or graduate students in the School of Education, the scholarship will cover study abroad expenses for one student each academic year.

CLAHS faculty members Max Stephenson, Jr., Professor of Public and International Affairs and Director of the Institute for Policy and Governance, and Laura Zanotti, Political Science, coedited Critical Praxis and the Social Imaginary for Sustainable Food Systems (Lausanne, Switzerland:  Frontiers Media, 2024), with Kim Niewolny and Anna Erwin.  Their individual contributions to the volume were:  “Editorial:  Critical Praxis and the Social Imaginary for Sustainable Food Systems,” with Niewolny and Erwin, pp. 5-8, which was also published as “Editorial:  Critical Praxis and the Social Imaginary for Sustainable Food Systems,” Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 8 (September 2024), Article 1487397; and “Sustainable Agriculture and Food Sovereignty in Haiti:  Sharing Knowledge and Shaping Understanding of Food Systems at the University of Fondwa,” with Lesly Joseph and Scutt Ricot, pp. 140–52.  Stephenson also contributed:  “Building Agroecological Traction:  Engaging Discourse, the Imaginary, and Critical Praxis for Food System Transformation,” with Lia R. Kelinsky-Jones and Niewolny, pp. 106–15.  In addition, Todd Schenk, Public and International Affairs, published “Transformative Learning to Promote Transformative Evaluation of Food System Praxis” with Dickson Otieno et al., pp. 22–34.

School of Education faculty members Charles Lowery and Carol Mullen published “Democratic Educational Leadership and Teaching:  A New Conceptual Framework,” Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue 26.2 (2024):  249–64.

A Virginia Tech faculty working group, led by Tom Ewing, Professor of History and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research, was awarded a $50,000 Humanities Connections grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the project “Human Dimensions of Infectious Disease.”  The Humanities Connections program seeks to expand the role of the humanities in undergraduate education between humanities faculty and their counterparts in other areas of study and specifically to expand the role of the humanities in the undergraduate curriculum.  The project partners CLAHS faculty with colleagues in the College of Science and the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine to develop courses that will likely be offered next fall across departments.  The courses will focus on a range of issues related to infectious diseases and will reflect the expertise of the faculty, which includes health communication, health and medicine rhetoric, biomedical ethics, history of medicine, global-international health issues, biology, and infectious disease modeling.  CLAHS faculty participating in the project are:  John Aggrey, Science, Technology, and Society; Julie Gerdes, English; Rebecca Hester, Science, Technology, and Society; Adrienne Holz, Communication;  Cora Olson, Science Technology, and Society; Edward Polanco, History; and Patrick Ridge, Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures.  Along with funding faculty workshops, the grant will support visits to Virginia Tech by guest speakers, who will share their expertise in connecting humanities and public health approaches to infectious diseases. 

Planning, Governance, and Globalization doctoral student Amin Farzaneh presented the poster titled “Selecting Appropriate Methods for Creative Community Engagement” at the 2024 Engagement Scholarship Consortium Conference, which took place October 9–10 in Corvallis, Oregon.

Jessica Folkart was appointed Chair of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures.  Folkart is a Professor of Spanish who has published monographs and articles on Peninsular Spanish culture of the 20^th and 21^st centuries; her current research examines the representation of identity and immigration in contemporary Spanish literature.  She has won numerous teaching awards and is a member of the Academy of Teaching Excellence at Virginia Tech.  Folkart joined the Virginia Tech community in 1998; she earned her bachelor’s degree from William & Mary and her master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Kansas.

Gregory Galford, Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management, is coordinating a design competition for a monument that will be displayed in Bluefield, West Virginia, neighborhoods to commemorate the history of this once segregated area.  The competition is part of the project titled “The Travelers Inn:  Black Appalachian History in Bluefield,” which Galford directs with Vonnia Harris Davis and which is funded by Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia.  A design proposal will be selected by the end of the year, with an unveiling planned for the spring of 2025.

Caroline Hornburg, Human Development and Family Science, published the 10-book series, Our Mathematical World (OMW) (West Lafayette, Indiana:  David J. Purpura, 2024), with the OMW team.  The team included Human Development doctoral student Isabel Valdivia, doctoral alumna Jisun Kim, and undergraduate alumna Ninie Asad.  The illustrated books, published in English and Spanish, were designed to support elementary school students in their mathematical problem-solving skills.  

Janine Joseph, English, was the winner of the 2024 Virginia Literary Award for Poetry from the Library of Virginia for Decade of the Brain (New Gloucester, Maine:  Alice James Books, 2023).  In addition, Joseph was recognized as a finalist for the 2023 Big Other Book Award for Poetry for the same volume, which also received Honorable Mention for the 2023 Big Other Readers’ Choice Award.  Published since 2009, Big Other is an online arts and culture magazine. 

Barbara Lockee, Professor of Instructional Design and Technology in the School of Education and Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, published “The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning,” Handbook of Research in Online Learning, ed. Trey Martindale et al. (Leiden, The Netherlands:  Brill, 2024), pp. 511–22, with Charles B. Hodges et al.  The article is a reprint; it originally appeared in EDUCAUSE Review on March 20, 2020.

The College notes with sadness the death of Jay Mancini, Professor Emeritus and former Head of the Department of Human Development and Family Science.  Mancini joined the Virginia Tech community in 1977 and served as department head from 1989 to 1996; in 2009 he accepted the position of department head of Human Development and Family Science and Haltiwanger Distinguished Professor at the University of Georgia.  During his tenure at Virginia Tech, Mancini’s research focused on the well-being of military families, youth at risk for developmental problems, and inventions to support community capacity, which resulted in more than 100 scientific publications and Cooperative Extension reports.  He was honored with emeritus status from Virginia Tech in 2010.  Additional information can be found in the funeral home obituary and the Virginia Tech In memoriam.

ASPECT doctoral student Luther McPherson presented “Grand Strategizing as a State’s Theory of the Self:  The Case of Precolonial Prussia as German Unifier” and “Writing the National: Dramatic Performance, Martial Culture, and the Propaganda of Identity in 19^th-century Prussian Literature” at the International Studies Association West Annual Conference, which took place September 27–28 in Pasadena, California.

Carol Mullen, Education, published “Weaponizing Settler Slogans to Mandate Colonial School Policy in the Americas:  Transformation Through Indigenous Futurity,” Policy Futures in Education 22.8 (2024):  1540–53.

Emily Satterwhite, Religion and Culture, was named Edward S. Diggs Professor in Humanities by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.  The Diggs Professorship recognizes and promotes excellence in research and teaching in the humanities; recipients hold the position for a five-year term.  Satterwhite’s scholarship focuses on economic changes in coal regions, religious expression in rural communities, environmental activism in response to resource extraction, digital mapping, and myths of Appalachian exceptionalism.  The author of numerous articles and book chapters, Satterwhite also has garnered substantial internal and external grant support for her research.  She serves as co-director of the Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia project, which is funded by a $3 million grant from the Mellon Foundation.  Satterwhite joined the Virginia Tech community in 2005; she earned her bachelor’s degree from Transylvania University and her master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Emory University.

ASPECT alumnus Muhammed Shah Shajahan received the 2024 ASPECT Outstanding Dissertation award for his dissertation titled “The Brahmin Problem:  Charity, Expenditure and the Genealogy of Sovereignty in Travancore.”  The award was presented at the Annual ASPECT Student Recognition Event, which took place September 13.

Ashley Shew, Science, Technology, and Society, was recognized as a 2024 Virginia Literary Award finalist in the nonfiction category and a finalist for the Society for Social Studies of Sciences 2024 Rachel Carson Prize for her book, Against Technoableism:  Rethinking Who Needs Improvement (New York, New York:  W.W. Norton, 2023). 

2024

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