News

Leonora Anyango
Faculty Member Receives Harvard’s Derek Bok Public Service Award

Leonora Anyango, a faculty member in the Dietrich School's Department of English and a faculty fellow in the University's Frederick Honors College, received the Derek Bok Public Service Award from Harvard University, where she graduated with a Master of Liberal Arts in May.

Ian Copeland
Postdoctoral Associate Awarded Prize from Society for Ethnomusicology

Ian Copeland, a postdoctoral associate in the Dietrich School's Department of Music, was recently awarded the Richard Waterman Junior Scholar Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) for his article “Pop Goes the Postcolony: Britain Remixes Hugh Tracey’s Malawi” (Ethnomusicology Forum, 2022). The award, presented by the SEM Popular Music Section at the SEM Annual Meeting in Ottawa, Ontario, recognizes the best article in the ethnomusicological study of popular music written by a junior scholar.

Toi Derricotte
Professor Emerita Toi Derricotte on How Cave Canem Has Nurtured Generations of Black Poets

In 1996, Dietrich School Professor Emerita Toi Derricotte and colleague Cornelius Eady founded Cave Canem, which holds weeklong annual retreats, prizes and fellowships to help foster the growth of Black poets. Since then they have played a role in developing the voices and careers of some of the greatest poets of the 21st century.

Todd Reeser
Associate Dean Named Co-Chair of Pitt LGBTQIA+ Steering Committee

During an event Oct. 25, Clyde Wilson Pickett, vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion, announced that Todd Reeser, the Dietrich School's associate dean for faculty affairs and a professor in the Department of French and Italian, has been asked to serve as co-chair of the University's new LGBTQIA+ Steering Committee, which will provide advice and counsel to Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel and senior administrators.

Alaina Roberts
Dietrich School Faculty Member Says Black Westerns Are Emblematic of a Large Shift in Black Representation

This November, the "Yellowstone" universe expanded to include a miniseries called "Lawmen", and the first lawman featured is Bass Reeves, a Black larger-than-life 19th-century U.S. deputy marshal. Dietrich School historian Alaina Robers says this is emblematic of a larger shift in Black representation that, if we’re lucky, may be here to stay.

Alumnus Jim Zurcher and the first recipient of his named scholarship
Dietrich School Alum Creates Scholarship for Students in Need

Says Dietrich School alumnus Jim Zurcher (A&S ’56), "All I’m doing is paying back to somebody else what the University did for me. I want to help someone who couldn’t go to Pitt without some financial assistance, just like I could never have afforded an education."

Pitt cornerstone
Resources for Teaching in a Time of Conflict

Engaging with harm, loss, trauma, and conflict is difficult in the classroom. Teaching in a time of conflict requires instructors to consider a wide range of tools and instructional strategies. The Center for Teaching and Learning is offering resources in three areas for instructors as they engage with these conversations in their classrooms. Visit their website to learn more.

Pittsburgh's rivers
Water Collaboratory Releases Interactive Water Quality Map

The Pittsburgh Collaboratory for Water Research, Education, and Outreach (Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory), founded and directed by faculty members from the Dietrich School's Department of Geology and Environmental Science, released an interactive site on Pittsburgh's Three Rivers and Their Tributaries, the culmination of a years-long data collection effort. This project was funded by the University of Pittsburgh Year of Engagement.

compass of excellence
Dietrich School Faculty Member Among Black Excellence in the Academy Awardees

Jerome Taylor, associate professor in the Dietrich School's Department of Africana Studies, was recognized for his significant and lasting contributions to the University and the impact of his service throughout his academic career.

R.A. Judy
Dietrich School Faculty Member Receives 2023 Truman Capote Literary Trust Award

R.A. Judy, a professor of critical and cultural studies in the Dietrich School's Department of English, has been chosen as the 2023 recipient of the Truman Capote Literary Trust Award for Literary Criticism.

Yomna Badawi
Dietrich School Faculty Member Among CMRF Grant Recipients

Yomna Badawi, research assistant professor in the Dietrich School's Department of Neuroscience, is among 11 University of Pittsburgh biomedical researchers to receive a grant from the Competitive Medical Research Fund.

Cathedral of Learning with fountain
Dietrich School Faculty Member Wins ACS Award

Alexander Deiters, professor in the Dietrich School's Department of Chemistry, is the 2023 recipient of the Pittsburgh Award from the local branch of the American Chemical Society. Created in 1932, the honor recognizes outstanding local leadership and distinguished service to the field of chemistry.

tony novosel
Dietrich School Faculty Member Appointed to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

Tony Novosel, a senior lecturer and advisor in the Dietrich School, has been appointed as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his contributions to peace in Northern Ireland.

Adam Lowenstein with posters from George Romero movies
Just in Time for Halloween: Dietrich School Faculty Member Explores the Gifts of Horror

George Romero and his body of work, beginning with the 1968 classic, Night of the Living Dead, are an essential part of Pittsburgh’s identity. Romero worked in Pittsburgh as an independent filmmaker specializing in the horror genre for more than four decades. His work lives on, thanks to Adam Lowenstein, professor of English and of film and media studies at the Dietrich School and director of Pitt’s Horror Studies Working Group,

researchers and weather balloon
Dietrich School Researchers Head to Texas to Follow the Eclipse

This month a team of researchers from the Dietrich School's Department of Physics and Astronomy will collect atmospheric data for NASA as part of the agency’s Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning project. They’ll launch one weather balloon every hour for 31 hours, giving them a clear sense of conditions before, during and after the eclipse.