Faculty and Staff Notes

Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Lisa Ryno coauthored a recently published manuscript, "L-Arabinose Alters the E. coli Transcriptome to Favor Biofilm Growth and Enhances Survival During Fluoroquinolone Stress" in the journal Microorganisms with Katie Austin ’24, Jenna Frizzell ’23, Audrey Neighmond ’24, and Isabella Moppel ’25

Lecturer of Creative Writing Amanda Hodes was awarded the 2024 Moondancer Fellowship for environmental writing from the Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow, where she  recently completed a summer writing residency and reading. Hodes also published her poem "Dark Tourism" in Cold Mountain Review (52.2), and her collaborative digital poem "Spinning Walks" was exhibited in the Electronic Literature Organization Conference's annual exhibition from July 11-13 in Toronto, ON.

The article “When Science Collides with Society: The Role of Scientific Illiteracy in the Trans Panic,” by third-year student Sunny Hunt, appears in the 2025 issue of Waves: An Undergraduate Journal. Developed and revised under the guidance of Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing and Communication Nathan DeProspo in his spring 2024 WRCM 101 course, the piece is, according to the editor, “a refreshingly personal essay that argues anti-trans moralism is built upon—and perpetuates—scientific illiteracy and misinformation.”

European Musical Competitions, 1700-1940, edited by Professor of Musicology Charles Edward McGuire, was released by the Belgian publishing company Brepols. McGuire also wrote an essay in the collection about British musical competitions that were patterned on and attempted to reject the Welsh Eisteddfod.

Assistant Professor of Politics Joshua Freedman attended the “Images of Order” book-in-progress workshop at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.

Conservatory Library Head Kathy Abromeit completed a three-year term as national chair of the Music Library Association’s Black Music Collections Interest Group.

Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Will Parsons coauthored the article “Synthesis and Evaluation of N-Arylsulfonylated Succinimides as Activity-Based Probes,” which was published in Synlett. His coauthors were Jo Chvatal ’24, Dat Nguyen ’24, and Alex Xie ’26.

Professor of Psychology Nancy Darling presented her research on adolescents’ medical adherence at Erasmus University in Rotterdam and Utrecht University in the Nehterlands. Related work by Darling and students Lorna Luo, Sophia Carter, and Nam Nguyen will be presented at the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood in June.

Professor of Psychology and Environmental Studies Cindy Frantz was quoted in the National Geographic article “Listening to Birds Sing Really Does Soothe Your Brain. Here’s Why.”

Emeritus Professor of English Sandra Zagarell led a class on American regionalism at Tulane University in April 2025. Zagarell virtually presented the paper “Jewett's Complicated Sympathy” at the Jewett Unbound conference in Paris in October 2024.