Faculty and Staff Notes

Alicia Smith-Tran, William G. Smith Associate Professor of Sociology and Comparative American Studies, presented on a panel at the Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association on October 24 in Chicago. The session was titled "Racialized Bodies, Athletic Experiences and Creative Exchange: Reflections from an Interdisciplinary Symposium about Sport."

Professor of Psychology and Environmental Studies Cindy Frantz and Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology John Petersen published the paper "Translating Data into Feelings: Empathetic Character Gauges Transform Real-Time Electricity and Water Use into Emotions Designed to Motivate Conservation" (Sustainability, 18[20], 10331). Frantz also coauthored a paper with emeritus professor Steve Mayer and two students: "The connectedness to nature scale revised (CNS-R): A version for use with children, low-income samples, and non-US samples" appeared in the Journal of Environmental Education. 

Associate Professor of Creative Writing Ghassan Zeineddine was invited to discuss his story collection Dearborn virtually with students from Johns Hopkins University and Villanova University.

Associate Professor of Creative Writing Ghassan Zeineddine participated in a panel about forthcoming books by midwestern authors at the Heartland Fall Forum in Minneapolis. Zeineddine discussed his new story collection, There’s Plenty of Sunshine Where You’re Headed (Tin House/Zando, 2027).

Frederick R. Selch Associate Professor of Musicology James O'Leary's book, The Middlebrow Musical, was listed by the American Society for Theater Research as a finalist for the Bernard Hewitt Award, which recognizes the year's best book in theater history.

John Petersen (Environmental Studies and Sciences and Biology) and Cindy Frantz (Psychology and Environmental Studies and Sciences) just had a paper accepted for publication in the Journal Sustainability. Petersen, J., C.M. Frantz. 2026.  Translating Data into Feelings: Empathetic Character Gauges Transform Real-Time Electricity and Water Use into Emotions Designed to Motivate Conservation.  Sustainability 18(20), 10331; https://doi.org/10.3390/su182010331

Assistant Professor of Data Science and Computer Science Joshua Davidson co-organized the Data Science at Liberal Arts College conference at Denison University in October. It include more than 30 liberal arts faculty from across the United States who are building data science courses and programs at their institutions. Davidson led the workshop "Why Data Science Belongs in the Liberal Arts."

Assistant Professor of Data Science and Computer Science Joshua Davidson presented two papers at the annual meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning in October: "Modeling intercity accessibility by bus following station relocation" and "Queer mobilities and public transit." The first paper was coauthored with Reefayat Bin Shahjahan ’25 and Aahil Singh '26; both feature coauthors from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan.

Professor of Classics Kirk Ormand recently published "Father Lycambes and the Frog Brigade" in /TAPA/ 156: 179-189.  Ormand's article is a transcription of his Presidential Address, which he delivered at the 2026 Meeting of the Society for Classical Studies in San Francisco last January. In his piece, Ormand uses the invective poetry of the 7th c. BCE Greek poet Archilochus to highlight public critiques of recent actions by the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and to expose the threats to academic freedom and moral failings of President Trump's Executive Order 14168.

Ruberta T. McCandless Professor of French Matthew Senior published “Between Horror and Sadness: The Plague Paintings of Poussin, Sweerts, and Mignard” in Papers on French Seventeenth-Century Literature. The article analyzes restraint and decorum in plague paintings by classical painters compared to shocking depictions of the plague by Boccaccio, Defoe, and others.