Faculty and Staff Notes

The Elyria Chronicle Telegram covered the five-year anniversary of the Latino Lorain History Project and the release of Professor of Comparative American Studies Gina Pérez's new book Sanctuary People: Faith-Based Organizing in Latina/o Communities. The Latino Lorain History Project is a a collaboration with the Lorain Historical Society, El Centro de Servicios Sociales and Oberlin College faculty and staff, including Professors Pablo Mitchell and Gina Pérez and the Bonner Center.

Associate Professor of Financial Economics Udara Peiris has published an article in Economic Theory. “Capital Flow Freezes” was coauthored by Anna Sokolova and Dmitrios Tsomocos. Franklin Sanchez-Colburn ’25 was acknowledged for his assistance.

Peiris also recently published in Annal of Finance. “Commodity Cycles and Financial Instability in Emerging Economies” was coauthored by Mikhael Andreev, Aleksandr Shirobokov, and Dimitrios Tsomocos. Peiris’s paper “Does ‘Lean Against the Wind’ Monetary Policy Improve Welfare in a Commodity Exporter?” was published recently in The Journal of International Money and Finance.

Assistant Professor of Violin Francesca dePasquale recently launched Hypermobile Musician, an online resource for hypermobile musicians as well as educators seeking to support their hypermobile students. The website contains free, educational information on the types of hypermobility, impact on musicians, as well as resources for pain management, strengthening and movement, nutrition and sleep, and more. Visit hypermobilemusician.com and follow @hypermobilemusician on Instagram and YouTube.

Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Jason Belitsky was awarded a Top Poster Award at the 2024 PanAmerican Society for Pigment Cell Research Annual Meeting. His poster, "Melanin Chemistry in the Undergraduate Laboratory," describes a collaboration between the Belitsky research lab and CHEM 254 (Bioorganic Chemistry), highlighting the contributions of CHEM 254 students.

Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Lisa Ryno has recently published an article with student coauthors. “ L-Rhamnose Globally Changes the Transcriptome of Planktonic and Biofilm Escherichia coli Cells and Modulates Biofilm Growth” was published in Microorganisms with Charlotte Hantus ’25, Isabella Moppel ’25, Jenna Frizzell ’23, Anna Francis ’23, and Kyogo Nagashima ’24.

Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Biggs Professor of Natural Science Matt Elrod has published an article in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry. This publication, "Thermodynamics and Kinetics of Atmospherically Relevant Acetalization Reactions," is coauthored by Shira Presberg ’24, Cara Waters ’21, and Sophie Lyon ’22.

Associate Professor of Art History Matthew Rarey has won the 2024 Murdo J. MacLeod Book Prize for Insignificant Things: Amulets and the Art of Survival in the Early Black Atlantic (Duke, 2023). Given annually by the Latin American and Caribbean Section of the Southern Historical Association, the award honors “the best book published in the previous year in the fields of Latin America, Caribbean, American Borderlands and Frontiers, or Atlantic World history." While the MacLeod is typically reserved for historians, the prize committee called Insignificant Things compelling across disciplinary boundaries.

Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers's collection of creative nonfiction, Miss Southeast: Essays, came out on September 15 from Curbstone/Northwestern University Press. From the press: "A collection of narrative essays on femininity, sexuality, community, and belonging, Miss Southeast explores the strange, often contradictory cultural circumstances of being queer and female in the American South and beyond."

Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Jillian Scudder discussed a wide range of astronomical topics in a live, hourlong interview with WWL Radio in Louisiana on September 9.

Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Religion Shari Rabin published pieces in two newly-released edited volumes: “‘Thy Soul be Accepted’: A Jewish Gravestone in Eighteenth-century Charleston” in American Contact: Intercultural Encounters and the Boundaries of Book History (University of Pennsylvania Press) and “From Beautiful Rabbi to Queer Kohenet: Gender and Judaism in and Beyond Transparent,” in Blessings Beyond the Binary: Transparent and the Queer Jewish Family eds. Nora Rubel and Brett Krutzsch (Rutgers University Press).