March
Sociology doctoral student Tamar Ballard published “‘Callin’ Out My Own Name’: Black Women’s Music, Sexual Agency, and Sounds of Pleasure,” Shuddhashar (শুদ্ধস্বর) 46, special issue on Subversive Art (February 2026).
Shannon Bell, Sociology, and her collaborators at the High Knob Destination Center in Norton, Virginia, were awarded a grant from Virginia Humanities to expand the educational and outreach programming for the Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument, a public humanities initiative funded by Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia in 2023 and created in partnership with Appalachian Sustainable Development, the City of Norton, and forest botanicals practitioners.
Jay Burkette, Philosophy and Political Science, published Upside-down Utopia: Directionality for the City of God (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2025).
Danille Christensen, Religion and Culture, published “‘Already Acquainted With the Methods of Mr. Appert’: Bottled Gooseberries, Imperial Science, and Vernacular Knowledges in the Early Modern Anglophone Atlantic,” Global Food History 12.1 (2026): 49–83.
Carolyn Commer, English, published “Teaching Technical Editing Today: How Teachers Navigate Pedagogical Constraints and Affordances in a Technical Editing Course,” Programmatic Perspectives 16.2 (Fall 2025): 112–41, with Rhetoric and Writing alumna Kelly Scarff.
Robert Denton, Jr., W. Thomas Rice Chair Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Communication, edited The 2024 Presidential Campaign: A Communication Perspective (Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell, 2025). Contributing to the volume were the following School of Communication faculty members: Natalia Mielczarek, “From Party Conventions to Election Day: Campaign 2024 in Editorial Cartoons,” pp. 219–53; Cayce Myers, “Campaign Finance and Its Impact on the 2024 Presidential Campaign,” pp. 351–74; and John Tedesco, Professor and Director of the School, “Televised Political Advertising in the 2024 Presidential Election,” pp. 125–56, with Scott W. Dunn.
Jason Dossett, Education, published “Exploring Mentorship in Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates (REEU) Programs Focused in Agri-food Systems,” SAGE Open 16.1 (January–March 2026), with Ana D. Martin-Ryals et al.
School of Education faculty members Brett Jones and Jesse “Jay” Wilkins published “Relationships Between Math Class Perceptions, Math Identification, and Choice of STEM Major: Racial and Gender Differences,” International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology 13.6 (2025): 1527–55, with Educational Psychology alumnus Sachiel Mondesir.
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies doctoral students Alessandra Fehrman-Prestipino, Andrew Fox, Dana Fox, Tiffany House, and Aaron Palmer, and School of Education faculty member Charles Lowery published “Educational Leadership Goes to the Movies: Doctoral Students’ Reflections on Theory Through Popular Film,” Educational Leadership Review 26.1 (Fall 2025): 23–40.
Educational Psychology doctoral student Zeynep Ambarkutuk and School of Education faculty member Brett Jones published “Applications of the MUSIC Model of Motivation and Its Associated Inventories: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology 10 (2025), Article 67, with Dale Schunk.
Educational Psychology doctoral student Hande Fenerci and School of Education faculty members Brett Jones and Jesse “Jay” Wilkins published “Investigating the Motivational Climate of a Mathematics Education Course as a Complex Dynamic System,” International Journal of Complexity in Education 6.1 (2025): 5–42.
Educational Psychology doctoral students Hande Fenerci and Jennifer Gallagher and School of Education faculty member Brett Jones published “Assessing the Motivational Climate in a University Course: Considerations for Motivating All Students,” Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice 22.4 (2025) with Margaret O. Ellis and Frances A. McCarty.
Donna Fortune, Education, published “‘Windows Into Refugee Lives’: Using Graphic Novels to Cultivate Empathy and Understanding Across K-12 Classrooms,” Virginia English Journal 73.2 (2025), Article 2, with Anna Kambach.
Lillian Frost, Political Science, published “Ambiguous Elimination: Jordan’s Denationalisation of West Bank Palestinians,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 52.4 (2026): 989–1010.
Matthew Fullen, Education, published “Strategies for Integrating Aging and Older Adulthood Into Counselor Training,” Adultspan Journal 24.1 (2025), Article 2, with Jordon Westcott et al., and “‘My Life is Not Over’: An Evaluation of a Standardized and Manualized Eight Week Warm Calling Phone Intervention for Community Dwelling Older Adults,” Aging and Mental Health 30.1 (2026): 20–29, with Kirsty Houston et al.
Joshua Grace joined the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences as Associate Professor of History and Director of the Academy of Transdisciplinary Studies. The academy fosters teaching, research, and service activities that aim to solve complex problems that challenge the boundaries of traditional disciplines. It serves as the home of the following minors: Africana Studies, Communicating and Engaging with Science, Disability Studies, Displacement Studies, Integrated Security, and Tech for Humanity. Grace’s scholarship explores the intersection of technology and development in African history and aims to provide African-centered histories of both topics. He has been awarded research support from the American Council for Learned Societies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Fulbright. Grace previously taught at the University of South Carolina. He earned his doctoral degree from Michigan State University.
Anthony Kwame Harrison, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Sociology, published “The End of Black Aesthetics as I’ve Known It,” Shuddhashar (শুদ্ধস্বর) 46, special issue on Subversive Art (February 2026).
James Hawdon, Sociology, received the 2025 Outstanding Educator Award from the Southern Criminal Justice Association (SCJA). The award recognizes exceptional achievement in teaching, research, and service. Hawdon was selected for his “outstanding overall contributions to higher education in criminal justice, and [his] commitment to advancing [the] discipline at the highest levels.” He received the award at the SCJA annual conference, which took place September 9–12, 2025, in Charleston, South Carolina.
Stefanie Hofer, Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, coedited Wounded Scholar, Healing Witness: The Value of Life Writing in Coping With Traumas (Oxon, United Kingdom, and New York, New York: Routledge, 2026), with Idit Gil. Hofer’s individual contributions were: “Introduction: Wounded Scholar – Healing Witness” with Gil, “Kinship in Darkness: On the Humanities’ Intrinsic Potential to Foster Post-Traumatic Healing,” and “On Witnessing, the Responsibility of Transmitting, and the Healing Powers of Creativity: An Interview with the Jewish-Argentine Artist Mirta Kupferminc,” pp. 1–7, 25–38, and 136–51, respectively.
Brett Jones, Education, published “Examining the Motivational Climate in an Anatomy Course: Instructional Practices to Engage Students in Learning,” International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 19.2 (2025), Article 4, with Educational Psychology alumnae Emily Holt Foerst and Meghan Byrnes.
ASPECT doctoral student Onur Karabıçak published “The Making of the TRT Historical-political Series: State Television and Political Communication in Turkey,” Third World Quarterly (2026), with Ioannis N. Grigoriadis.
Charles Lowery, Education, published “Spatial-temporal Literacy for Critical Servant Leadership: Moral Presence and Moral Perseverance in Educational Leadership Praxis,” Leading With Soul: Examining the Praxis of Critical Servant Leadership Theory and Spiritual Leadership for School Administrators, ed. Rema Reynolds Vasser et al. (Leeds, United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing Limited, 2026), pp. 35–55; and “Considering a Framework for Democratic Literacy in Dewey and Sen,” Sen, Dewey, and Education, ed. Robert Karaba (New York, New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2026), pp. 86–105.
Rachel Midura, History, was awarded the inaugural Michael J. B. Allen Prize for the Best Book in Italian Renaissance Studies by the Renaissance Society of America for Postal Intelligence: The Tassis Family and Communications Revolution in Early Modern Europe (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2025).
ASPECT doctoral student Rebekah Mui Pei Ern presented “Curation, Creation, and Community: Anabaptism at 500 in Holmes County and Bluffton, Ohio” and “Religion in American Life: Exploring Interdisciplinary Curriculum Design and the Academic Literacies Approach” at the American Academy of Religion Southeast Regional Conference, which took place February 27-March 1 in Greenville, South Carolina.
Carol Mullen, Education, published “Equity Leadership in K–12 Online Communities Under Democratic Duress,” Education Sciences 16.2 (2026): 257–75; and “Administrator Influence on the Retention of Special Education Teachers: A Review Synthesis,” Education Leadership Review 26.1 (2025): 41–57, with 2025 Educational Leadership and Policy Studies alumna Ellen Glaser.
Ariel Otruba, Institute for Policy and Governance (IPG), Max Stephenson, Jr., Professor of Public and International Affairs and Director of the IPG, and Yannis Stivachtis, Professor of Public and International Affairs and Director of the Center for European and Transatlantic Studies, coedited Violent Infrastructure: Protracted Displacement and Housing Injustice in Tskaltubo, Georgia (Blacksburg, Virginia: Virginia Tech Publishing, 2025), with Nino Dzotsenidze. Their contribution to the volume was “Conclusions,” pp. 107–12. Otruba’s individual contributions were “The Making of Violent Infrastructure: Ecologies of Decay and Displacement,” pp. 1–14, and “Emotional Ecologies of Infrastructural Violence and Housing Injustice in Tskaltubo,” pp. 47–77 with Dzotsenidze. Otruba and Stivachtis authored “Geographies of Protracted Displacement in Georgia,” pp. 31–46. Stephenson and Stivachtis contributed “The Human Rights of Displaced Populations,” pp. 15–30, with Neda Moayerian, IPG. Stephenson also authored “The Continuum of Housing Question and the Case of Georgia’s Displaced Population” with Moayerian, pp. 79–89. Other CLAHS faculty and students contributing to the volume were: Planning, Governance, and Globalization doctoral student Amin Farzaneh, “Photovoice: Learning From Lived Experiences With the Potential to Facilitate Social Change,” pp. 91–105, with Lara Nagle; and Katrina Powell, Alumni Distinguished Professor of English, who provided the foreword, pp. xiii–xvii.
Sarah Ovink, Associate Professor of Sociology, was appointed Director of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program effective January 2026. The program, which presents new ways of thinking about how race, gender, class, and sexuality shape society and experiences in it, is administered by the Department of History and is the home of the Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies minor and the Women’s and Gender Studies graduate certificate. Ovink’s research focuses primarily on inequalities in higher education pathways by race/ethnicity, gender, and income. She is the recipient of a 2015 NSF CAREER award. Ovink earned her bachelor’s degree from Kalamazoo College and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Davis.
Edward Polanco, History, published “They Who Have Stood as Women: The Nahua-Cihuateteoh Reciprocal Preventative Relationship in the Postclassic and Early Colonial Valley of Mexico,” Public Health in the Premodern World: Dynamic Balances, ed. G. Geitner et al. (Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2026), pp. 239–63.
Three CLAHS faculty are participants in research collaborations with the recently announced 2025–2026 +Policy Fellows and Scholars. Shalini Misra, Public and International Affairs, is serving as the collaborator of Junghwan Kim, Geography, and his project titled “Examining AI Use Policy for Transportation Planners in Virginia: Perceived Usefulness and Ethical Concerns for Daily Policy-Making Tasks.” Todd Schenk, Public and International Affairs is the mentor for Lu Zhang, Building Construction, and her project titled “Integrating Multisector Stakeholder Values for Collaborative Data Center Planning and Policymaking.” Heidi Williams, Sociology, is serving as the mentor for Sophie Wenzel, Veterinary Medicine, and her project titled “Cultivating Healthier Futures through Policy: Contraceptive and Substance Use Education and Access for Incarcerated Women.”
School of Public and International Affairs faculty members Shalini Misra and Todd Schenk published “Social–ecological–technological Drivers of Freshwater Salinization in the Occoquan Reservoir, United States,” Nature Communications Earth and Environment 7.1 (2026), Article 133, with Stanley B. Grant et al.
Wornie Reed, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, edited Getting Away With Murder: Obstacles to Police Accountability (Blacksburg, Virginia: Virginia Tech Publishing, 2025). His individual contributions to the volume were: “Introduction,” “Qualified Immunity Has Gone Too Far,” and “Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights,” pp. 7–15, 17–33, and 69–83, respectively.
Sociology doctoral student A B M Nurullah and Department of Sociology faculty member Liesel Ritchie published “The Role of Climate-Induced Disaster in Multidimensional Poverty: A Systematic Review and the Multidimensional Climate–Poverty Dynamics (MCPD) Framework,” Sustainability 18.3 (2026), 1667, with Shammy Islam et al.
The College is pleased to announce the Center for Sustainable Engagement in the Arctic, which prioritizes listening to Indigenous leadership to create sustainable solutions and foster connections with resources at Virginia Tech and beyond. Cana Itchuaqiyaq, English, serves as the center’s founding director. Launched last semester, the center conducts short-term consultations with Arctic community leaders and organizations to address immediate needs; develops medium-sized projects that grow from those consultations; and undertakes long-term initiatives tackling issues such as health, research infrastructure, and workforce development. Additional information, including details regarding current research projects, is available here.
Fabian Wendt, Political Science and PPE Core Faculty, published The Conduct of Politics, Elements in Political Philosophy (Cambridge, United Kingdom, and New York, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2026).
Philip Yaure, Philosophy, published “Sympathy in Struggle Against Servitude: Maria Stewart’s Black Civic Republicanism,” Women and the History of Republicanism, ed. Sandrine Bergès and Alan Coffee (New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2026), pp. 153–79.