Environmental Science graduate student Joseph Barnes and undergraduate student Natalie Landaverde were awarded AU's Deputy Provost and Dean of Faculty’s Pilot Grant Award for their project "Effects of biofilm biodiversity and biomass on microplastics in the Potomac River".

Andrea Brothers (staff member, CAS Dean’s Office) was recognized for her work with AU’s electron microscopes in support of research and teaching in the Hall of Science in JEOL. 

Data Science students and faculty were featured on EdSurge for creating a free app to help teachers build data literacy skills in the classroom.

Dustin Friedman (Literature) was a guest on the Ivory Tower Boiler Room Podcast to discuss his research and teaching related to LGBTQ culture in Victorian literature.

Holland Gormley (alumna, Arts Management), a public affairs specialist with the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress was featured on Performance.Gov for her work on the Music Modernization Act.

Abdallah Hendawy (Arab World Studies) published a new book, Bleeding Hearts: From Passionate Activism to Violent Insurgency in Egypt, which ranks third on Amazon’s bestseller list for Middle Eastern Studies for November 2021.   

Peter Kuznick (History) spoke with the Sputnik News Agency, RTVI, CGTN America, RT America, the Washington Times, and CrossTalk about a variety of topics. 

Peter Kuznick (History) spoke with RTVI, Republic TV India, RG, Zvezda TV, NTV Russian Television, acTVism Munich, Sputnik International, and CGTN about various topics, including Biden’s presidency, Donald Trump, and US-Russia relations.

Gregory Lane (Economics) was awarded $29,249 by the World Bank Group for the project titled “Fostering Resilience in Low-Income Countries.”

Research on microplastics in local watersheds by Jesse Meiller, Barbara Balestra, and graduate student Elisa Davey (Environmental Science) was featured in Washington City Paper.

Alumna Valzhyna Mort (MFA 2011) won the 2021 International Griffin Prize for her third poetry collection, Music for the Dead and Resurrected (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), which was named one of the best poetry books of 2020 by the New York Times.

Celine-Marie Pascale (Sociology) published “The federal poverty line struggles to capture the economic hardship that half of Americans face” in The Conversation.

David Pike (Literature) was featured on PopMatters related to his forthcoming book, Cold War Space and Culture in the 1960s and 1980s: The Bunkered Decades.

Michael Robinson (Mathematics) was awarded $12,000 by NASA for his project titled “Advances in DTN simulation and game-theoretic modeling.”

Professor Elizabeth Rule (CRGC) has received the Library Company of Philadelphia’s 2021 Innovation Award for Guide to Indigenous DC, which includes a digital map, mobile application, and monograph of sites of Indigenous importance in the nation’s capital. This biennial award goes to a project that critically and creatively expands the possibilities of humanistic scholarship.

Anastasia Snelling (Health Studies) received $60,000 from DC Central Kitchen for “Healthy Corners Program Evaluation 2022,” an annual evaluation assessing the role of corner stores for promoting and selling fresh produce.

Professor Sybil Roberts Williams (CRGC/AFAM) is the playwright for “The Black Flute,” a work produced by the IN-Series opera company and made into a film that was screened on the National Mall October 8. “Black Flute” reimagines Mozart’s classic work “Magic Flute” in DC’s historically Black neighborhoods and explores what it means to be young, black, and gifted in today’s world.

Alexander Zestos (Chemistry) received $55,000 from the American Chemical Society for his project "Fundamental Reactions of Phenols on Heterogeneous Polymer-Modified Microelectrode Surfaces.”

Fall Achievements

Reza Akbari (PhD candidate, History) published “Raisi, the Presidency and Iran’s Foreign Policy” in the Iran Primer, published by the United States Institute of Peace. 

Michael Bader (Sociology) is part of a team of researchers based at Columbia University that was just awarded $42,321 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to research alcohol-related and built environment factors that can be modified to prevent pedestrian road traffic deaths. This represents year one of an expected $182,278 four-year award.

Braxton Boren (Audio Technology), Philip Johnson (Physics), and Bei Xiao (Computer Science) are co-principal investigators as part of a $1 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for their project “MRI: Acquisition of Volumetric Capture System for the Institute for IDEAS,” which they will work on with co-principal investigator Larry Engel and principal investigator Krzysztof Pietroszek.

Zoë Charlton (Studio Art) and Tim Doud (Art) published the book Out of Place: Artists, Pedagogy, and Purpose (Punctum Books).

Alumna Rebecca DeWolf (History) has published Gendered Citizenship: The Original Conflict over the Equal Rights Amendment, 1920-1963 (University of Nebraska Press).

Jessica Gephart (Environmental Science) received an $50,000 award from the Environmental Defense Fund for the project “Global seafood trade and nutrition.”

Stephanie Grant (Literature) published “Disgust: On the Uses and Abuses of the Most Difficult Emotion” on LitHub, unpacking the emotion of disgust in relation to the January 6th riots on the US Capitol. Professor Grant published “Why My Daughter Got (Temporarily) Married at 13” in the New York Times’ Modern Love column.

Sam Hanna (Health Studies) published “Blockchain Integration With Digital Technology and the Future of Health Care Ecosystems: Systematic Review” in the Journal for Medical Internet Research. 

Jeffrey Kaplan (Biology) received an $8,223 award from Kane Biotech for his project “Antibiofilm activities of dispersin B against Cutibacterium acnes.”

Mieke Meurs (Economics) was awarded $800,000 from the Open Society Foundation (OSF) for her project “RENEWAL of grant to support the organizational strengthening of the Program on Gender Analysis of the Economy: PGAE Global Scholars.”

Danielle Mysliwiec (Studio Art) exhibited her artwork at McKenzie Fine Art in New York City from September 10 to October 24.

Pamela Nadell (History) discusses how antisemitism fuels white nationalism on PBS’ “Exploring Hate: Antisemitism, Racism and Extremism.”

Kara Reynolds (Economics) spoke with BBC News about bottlenecks in the global supply chain.

Elizabeth Rule (CRGC) contributed to the Washington Post article, “We’re talking about a big, powerful phenomenon: Multiracial Americans drive change,” discussing how mixed-race Americans affected the most recent census.

Rachel Louise Snyder (Literature) published an essay titled “I Don’t Want to Hit My Children” in the New York Times, addressing domestic violence and anti-violence hotlines. She also appeared on Join Washington Post Live to discuss the mental health impact of domestic violence and how the pandemic has renewed efforts to pass legislation to combat abuse.

Jon D. Wisman (Economics) published “Why Has Labor Not Demanded Guaranteed Employment?” in the Journal of Economic Issues. 

Sauleh Siddiqui (Environmental Science), Kiho Kim (Environmental Science), Jessica Gephart (Environmental Science), Annie Claus (Anthropology), and Stacey Snelling (Health Studies) are part of the team of researchers recently awarded a five-year, $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Titled "Multiscale Resilient, Equitable, and Circular Innovations with Partnership and Education Synergies (RECIPES) for Sustainable Food Systems,” the project will study food waste and work toward sustainability and equity in food systems under the leadership of AU principal investigator, Siddiqui.

Andrew Demshuk (History) has published Three Cities after Hitler: Redemptive Reconstruction across Cold War Borders (University of Pittsburgh Press).

Jessica Gephart (Environmental Science) received a $785,240 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for her project, “Collaborative Research: HNDS-I: A global seafood trade network database for sustainable food systems, human health, and nutrition security.”

Stephanie Grant (Literature) had an essay published in the New York Times Modern Love column on August 27. Her new memoir, Disgust (Scuppernong Editions), will be released in November.

Justin Jacobs (History) completed filming 24 episodes for his Great Courses series, "UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Exploring the World's Greatest Places." A Chinese translation of his latest book, The Compensations of Plunder: How China Lost Its Treasures (University of Chicago Press, 2020), is being published serially in the Xiyu wenshi.

Sara Clarke Kaplan, the new executive director of AU’s Antiracist Research & Policy Center, spoke with NPR affiliate KPBS News (San Diego) on critical race theory. Kaplan’s latest book, The Black Reproductive: Unfree Labor and Insurgent Motherhood (University of Minnesota Press), was published in June.

Mark Laubach (Neuroscience) received a grant for $50,000 from George Washington University’s District of Columbia Center for AIDS Research (DC CFAR) for his project, "Effects of HIV1 Tat and Antiretroviral Therapy on the Rodent Frontal Cortex.”

Anthony Panzera (Health Studies) received a $95,739 grant from the District of Columbia Department of Health, sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture – WIC Telehealth Evaluation Collaborative, for the “THIS-WIC Telehealth Project.”

Malgorzata Rymsza-Pawlowska (History) has been named to the Board of Directors of the Humanities Council of Washington, DC (HumanitiesDC) and served as chair of the Program Committee of the DC History Conference and as series editor for the National Council on Public History and National Park Service’s 2021-2025 American Revolution 250th Commemoration Scholars' Forums.

History alumnus John Schmitz (CAS/PhD ’07) published Enemies Among Us: The Relocation, Internment, and Repatriation of German, Italian, and Japanese Americans during the Second World War (University of Nebraska Press).

Sauleh Siddiqui (Environmental Science) spoke on CNN about why we need to adjust our approach to infrastructure to protect the most vulnerable from climate change.

David Vine (Anthropology) wrote an op-ed in Business Insider on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. His new book, The United States of War: A Global History of America’s Endless Conflicts (University of California Press), is out in paperback.

Summer 2021

Alexander Zestos (Chemistry) received a grant for $50,000 from George Washington University's DC Center for AIDS Research for his project "Assessments of potential impacts of cognitive deficits on drug use and their implications for HIV intravenous drug users."

Stephen MacAvoy (Environmental Science) coauthored a new book, Climate Change, Science, and the Politics of Shared Sacrifice (Oxford University Press).

David Vine (Anthropology) wrote two op-eds, "After 20 years of destruction, the US has a moral obligation to let in 1 million Afghan refugees," for Business Insider, and "Why the US Is Trapped in "Endless War" for Big Think.

Stefano Costanzi (Chemistry) received a grant for $429,000 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project "Virtual screening for the identification of ligands of GPR101, an orphan GPCR involved in X-linked acrogigantism (X-LAG)."

David Gerard (Mathematics & Statistics) received a grant for $188,694 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project "A U-statistic approach to population genetics."

Douglas Fox (Chemistry) received a grant for $40,000 from Vireo Advisors, LLC., for his project "Nanocellulose Fluorescence Labeling."

Barbara Balestra (Environmental Science) received a grant for $12,000 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for her project "Predicting Changes in Ocean Habitability on Earth and Other Ocean Worlds."

Anastasia Snelling (Health Studies) received a grant for $66,000 from DC Central Kitchen for “Evaluation Services for the Healthy School Food Program's Nutrition Education and Engagement Activities.”

Mary Hansen (Economics) received a grant for $29,876 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for “Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: A Comparison of Value of Statistical Life Estimates Derived from Revealed and Stated Preferences.”

E. Andrew Taylor (Performing Arts) published a new book, The Artful Manager: Field Notes on the Business of Arts and Culture (Arts Axis Press).

Kelly Jones (Economics) received a grant for $26,552 from the Manhattan Strategy Group and the Department of Labor for her project about improving FMLA coverage in underserved communities.

Onaje Woodbine (Philosophy & Religion) received a $40,000 First Book Grant for Scholars of Color from the Louisville Institute for his book, Take Back What the Devil Stole: An African American Prophet's Encounters in the Spirit World (Columbia University Press).

Michael Alonzo (Environmental Science) received a grant for $37,914 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for his work in improving models of forest ecosystem structure and function through fusion of 3D data derived from stereo imagery and lidar.

Laura Cutler (Center for Israel Studies) received $25,000 from the Israel Institute for a teaching expansion grant for 2021-22.

Monica Jackson (Mathematics & Statistics) received a $125,000 grant from the National Security Agency (NSA)for American University's Summer Program in Research and Learning Program (SPIRAL).

Nicole Kramer (Health Studies) received a $6,260 grant from the Society for Research in Child Development for her Covid Forward study.

Melissa Scholes Young (Literature) was interviewed by AU alum Corinne Ahren for Ms. Magazine about her new novel The Hive.

January-May 2021 Archive