Highlighting Excellence in Action at the Dietrich School and CGS
Volume 1, Issue 1
Africana Studies
Kamesha Spates, the William S. Dietrich II Chair and associate professor of Africana studies in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, recently led a team of researchers to a region of northeast Ohio where suicide rates among the local Black population had more than doubled from 2011 to 2021. Spates said the researchers plan to return to work with those communities to develop culturally relevant strategies tailored to their needs, citing the importance of involving communities in developing solutions. The team’s research was published earlier this year.
Anthropology
Assistant Professor Claire Ebert was awarded a Wenner-Gren Foundation Workshop Grant for the project “Sustainability and the Classic Maya ‘collapse’”. The workshop will be held in January 2024 and bring together archaeologists and modern Maya community leaders from Belize and Guatemala to examine the persistence of ancient and modern Maya communities in the face of climate change.
Biological Sciences
Jeffrey Brodsky, Avinoff Professor of Biological Sciences, was appointed Visiting Faculty Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford for 2023-24. Brodsky leads Pitt’s Center for Protein Conformational Diseases. He has served on the editorial boards of three journals, has published more than 250 scientific papers, holds three patents, and has acted as a scientific consultant for several disease foundations and biotech/pharmaceutical companies.
Chemistry
Professor David Waldeck earned a $7.5 million Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The award will fund a five-year project. MURI funds teams from across universities investigating high-priority topics and opportunities that intersect in more than one traditional technical discipline. Waldeck will lead researchers from seven universities, including Pitt, Duke University, and the University of Southern California, to develop an understanding of the interaction between electron spin and chiral matter.
Classics
This summer, Teaching Assistant Professor Maggie Beeler took fourteen Pitt undergraduate students to participate in an archaeological excavation in Greece as part of the Lechaion Harbor Land and Settlement Project (LHSLP), for which she is the Field School Director.
The LHSLP Archaeological Field School provides students with hands-on training in archaeological field methods such as excavation, artifact analysis, and conservation with an international team of scholars and specialists. Students also gain a background in the history and culture of Greece from guided tours and field trips to nearby museums and ruins.
Communication
Caitlin Bruce’s forthcoming book, “Voices in Aerosol: Youth Culture, Institutional Attunement and Graffiti in Urban Mexico,” is a case study of a Mexican city government’s shifting relationship with graffiti artists over an 18-year period. Bruce, an associate professor in the Department of Communication, chronicles what happened when writers and officials in León, Mexico, introduced a legal graffiti program and its bearing on urban planning, local politics, and gentrification.
East Asian Languages and Literatures
This summer, Elizabeth Oyler, associate professor and chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, taught Imagining Global Cities of the Future, a co-located, hybrid course that brought together a group of Pitt students with peers from Konan University to create cross-cultural experiences and study sustainable initiatives in both Pittsburgh and Kobe. The course culminated with the Pitt students traveling to Kobe, Japan, where the group visited the Kobe Farmers’ Market and the Farm stand cooperative; KIITO Design Center, where we learned how to make bread with the “Panji,” a group of retired men who build community through baking. Next summer the program will continue with Konan students visiting Pittsburgh.
Economics
This spring, Professor David Huffman was named Field Chief Editor (Editor-in-Chief) of Frontiers in Behavioral Economics. Huffman, whose research lies at the intersections of behavioral economics, labor economics, and personnel economics, has nearly 18,000 Google Scholar citations. His recent working papers include “Incentive Complexity, Bounded Rationality, and Effort Provision” and “The Complementary Nature of Trust and Contract Enforcement.”
English
R.A. Judy, professor of critical and cultural studies in the Department of English, has been selected by the University of Iowa as the 2023 recipient of the Truman Capote Literary Trust Award for Literary Criticism in Memory of Newton Arvin. The $30,000 prize—the largest annual cash prize for English-language literary criticism—is administered by the Iowa Writers’ Workshop on behalf of the estate of Truman Capote
French and Italian
David Pettersen is an associate professor in the Department of French and Italian and director of the Dietrich School’s Film and Media Studies Program. His work bridges film and media industry studies and the formal analysis of style with careful cultural, historical, and theoretical contextualization, and his 2023 book, “French B Movies: Suburban Spaces, Universalism, and the Challenge of Hollywood,” has been praised as “a thoughtful and highly informed discourse on identity politics in contemporary Western, multiracial societies that is of broad relevance.”
Geology and Environmental Science
Rosemary Capo, associate professor in the Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences, has joined the second-ever cohort of the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Leadership Academy and Network for Diversity and Inclusion in the Geosciences (LANDInG) Academy.
AGU LANDInG Academy is a two-year, cohort-based professional development program for current and aspiring diversity, equity and inclusion leaders in the Earth and space sciences.
German
In October, Randall Halle, Klaus W. Jonas Professor of German Film and Cultural Studies and the Director of the European Studies Center, will deliver a lecture at Ohio State University’s Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. His presentation, “Germany in Eurafrika: Seeing the Shift from Colonialism to Developmentalism,” will explore Germany’s participation in the European colonial project after World War II.
Hispanic Languages and Literatures
Assistant Professor David Tenorio appeared on the Trama Urbana Podcast discussing “Queer Havana: LGBTQ Movements, activism institutionalization and the gentrification of the night.” Tenorio is a transdisciplinary scholar at the interstice of Latinx Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Feminist Theory, and Queer and Trans of Color Critique. His current book project examines how queer and trans cultural practices of relajo (playfulness), dancing, cruising, and longing shape the material infrastructures of queer and trans worldmaking.
History
Earlier this year, Ruth Mostern, professor of history and director of the World History Center, was awarded a $350,000 Digital Humanities Advancement Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Mostern’s grant will fund the expansion, development, and outreach of the World Historical Gazetteer — a digital platform containing an index of world-historical place names within a network of linked data and user tools to facilitate collaborative research.
History and Philosophy of Science
Edouard Machery, distinguished professor in the Dietrich School's Department of History and Philosophy of Science, and director of Pitt’s Center for Philosophy of Science, was awarded a grant for $260,000 from the John Templeton Foundation.
History of Art and Architecture
Earlier this year, Associate Professor Christopher Nygren co-authored an article on “Art History and AI: Ten Axioms” for the International Journal for Digital Art History. His teaching encompasses a wide array of themes, periods and geographies and since 2015, Nygren also researches the impact of advanced computation on the History of Art. He was Principal Investigator for “The Morelli Machine,” a project funded by the National Science Foundation that used advance supercomputing to test the hypothesis that the nexus of style and authorship can be interrogated computationally.
Linguistics
Associate Professor Matthew Kanwit co-edited Communicative Competence in a Second Language, a volume in the Routledge Second Language Acquisition Series. Kanwit’s research in Hispanic Linguistics focuses on the intersection of second language (L2) acquisition and sociolinguistic variation. Specifically, he studies the L2 acquisition of variable morphosyntactic structures, the impact of study abroad on acquisition, and native (i.e., expert) speaker morphosyntactic variation in Spanish.
Mathematics
Professor Ivan Yotov received a SimTech Visiting Professorship at the University of Stuttgart for the Spring of 2023. During his two-month research stay, he gave the colloquium “Mathematical and computational modeling of fluid-poroelastic structure interaction” and the short course “Discretization methods for multiphysics couplings.”
Music
Andrew Mellon Professor Eric Moe’s “Where Do You See Yourself In 5 Years” for flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, and piano, with fixed media, 18’ was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Collage New Music’s 50th anniversary. It premiered in spring 2023.
Neuroscience
Anthony Grace, distinguished professor of neuroscience, and professor of psychiatry and psychology, was awarded the Outstanding Translational Research Award from the Schizophrenia International Research Society.
Philosophy
Associate Professor Nandi Theunissen recently co-edited “Rethinking the Value of Humanity,” a collection of essays addressing topics including the value of persons, love and respect, dignity and moral standing, reasons and rights, and consent and sovereignty. Theunissen’s research works on foundational topics in ethics with a focus on the nature of value.
Physics and Astronomy
Professor W. Vincent Liu has been awarded $1.5 million from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to develop models in orbital physics. As part of the proposed project, Liu and his team will develop new theories and work to push forward the science of orbital physics by developing testable predictions for future projects. If successful, it will lead to the discovery of novel phases of matter with interesting and potentially beneficial properties in fundamental science.
Political Science
Associate Professor Tony Carey, Jr. co-authored the article, “The Ties That Bind: Public Opinion and Linked Fate Among Women of Color,” which was published this year in the Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy.
Psychology
Sophia Choukas-Bradley, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, served on an American Psychological Association presidential panel that created the first advisory of its kind for adolescent social media use.
The recommendations, which were endorsed by the U.S. surgeon general, note that platforms can promote healthy socialization, but their use should be preceded by training in social media literacy to ensure youth have skills that will maximize the chances for balanced, safe and meaningful experiences.
Religious Studies
Rachel Kranson, associate professor and director of the Jewish Studies Program, was awarded a research award and funding to be a scholar-in-residence at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute for the Spring 2024 semester for work on book project, “Religious Misconceptions: American Jews and the Politics of Abortion.” She also received a Joseph and Eva R. Dave Fellowship from the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati.
Slavic Languages and Literatures
Teaching Assistant Professor Olga Klimova was recognized for Excellence in Post-Secondary Teaching by the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages. Klimova’s academic interests include visual and popular culture of the late-Soviet and post-Soviet periods, instructional technology, instructional design, online teaching and learning, and curriculum development. Klimova is also a 2023 recipient of the Dietrich School’s Tina and David Bellet Teaching Excellence Award, which recognizes exemplary undergraduate instruction.
Sociology
Fernando Tormos-Aponte, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, and a team of researchers propose that scientists can defend and promote science for the public good by diversifying their advocacy efforts. The team’s work was published in Science Advances.
Statistics
Professor Tingting Zhang is co-author of the article “Deep Learning versus Conventional Statistical Methods for Missing Data Imputation: A Comparative Study,” which was published in October in the international journal Expert Systems with Applications.
Studio Arts
Omid Shekari, assistant professor in the Dietrich School's Department of Studio Arts, was awarded a two-month residency in October and November at Sculpture Space in Utica, New York. A prestigious, international residency, Sculpture Space is invitational with small cohorts of artists - no more than six at a time. Sculpture Space provides specialized space for professional artists to focus on sculpture and connect with other artists, curators, and professionals in the field.
Theatre Arts
Teaching Assistant Professor Britton Mauk served as Scenic Design of Pittsburgh City Theatre’s production of “American Fast.” Mauk has designed several world premieres, including Untitled and The Burdens at City Theatre, and Old Man and the Sea at Pittsburgh Playhouse.
College of General Studies
The Voice of the Adult Student: Celebrating 50 Years of Academic Excellence
The Voice of the Adult Student – ASL Alpha Chi: Celebrating 50 Years of Academic Excellence is a digital exhibit tracing the first years of Alpha Chi, the 45th Chapter of the Alpha Sigma Lambda National Honor Society for Non-Traditional and Adult students at Pitt. The exhibit—which is scheduled to open at Hillman Library in early November, in conjunction with Nontraditional Student Week—showcases photos, newspaper clippings, and archival documents chronicling events through the 1970s, with special emphasis on the period between 1971 and 1975.
This is a time in the history of the School of General Studies (now CGS) when the school offered evening classes and programs to extend access to Pitt education for the working adult. The students in these night classes were engaged learners who brought their work experience and maturity into the classroom. Many of them were also contributing, full members of their campus community, serving on committees and playing an active role in student and academic life, all while advocating for adult students in policymaking and the design of facilities.
The establishment of the Alpha Chi chapter in the early 1970s illustrates the significant acknowledgment of these students’ scholastic achievement, their desire for inclusion, and their drive for academic excellence despite barriers to higher education common in that era.
The exhibit tells the story of the founding members of the chapter, highlighting their efforts that led to establishing a strong student cabinet and the Alpha Chi chapter, as well as the many individuals (students, staff, and faculty) who advocated for the non-traditional student at Pitt.