Faculty and Staff Notes

Visiting Assistant Professor of History Helen Shears won the Parker-Schmitt Dissertation Award with the European History Section of the Southern Historical Association. Shears’ dissertation, “The Treaties of Utrecht and the Making of the British Empire, 1713-1783,” examines the process of treaty-making in Europe as a tool of global empire building. She was nominated for consideration by her advisor, Philip Stern at Duke University.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Danielle Godon-Decoteau and three Oberlin ’24 graduates, Sahibpreet Kaur, Yuhki Ueda, and Allison To, presented a poster at the Asian American Psychological Association's Annual Convention in Atlanta, GA entitled "A Mixed-Methods Study: Asian Americans' Racial Experiences and Understandings in the Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic and 2020 BLM Racial Justice Protests."

Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies Matthew Berkman gave an invited talk at Grand Valley State University titled "A Critical History of the 'New Antisemitism' Paradigm: From the Six-Day War to 10/7."

Professor of Economics Ron Cheung recently published "All (Economic) Politics is Local: Voting Responses to Localized Price Shocks during the Great Recession" in The Journal of Regional Science. Economics major Yijia Gao ’19 provided research assistance with the data collection process.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen has published an article, "β3-Tryptophans by Iron-Catalyzed Enantioselective Amination of 3-Indolepropionic Acids," in Organic Letters. Her co-authors are Marisa Ih ’25 and collaborators from the University of Marburg, Germany.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology Beiyi Hu's new article, "Talking about Race in a Race-Taboo Land," was selected as the feature article in Contexts. Listen to Beiyi discuss the article in this podcast here.

Assistant Professor of History Caroline Wood Newhall recently published a piece, “It Is Not the Policy nor the Interest of the South to Destroy the Negro”: Black Prisoners of War and the Intersection of Race, Property, and Law in the Confederacy,” in the edited collection Race and Gender at War: Writing American Military History with the University of Alabama Press.

Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers's new book of essays, Miss Southeast, was reviewed on the LGBTQ+ news and cultural site, Autostraddle. Reviewer Stef Rubino praises the book, saying that Miss Southeast has "an extraordinary amount of detail and depth woven into every single essay."

Professor of Comparative American Studies Gina Pérez's essay, "We Have Better Stories To Tell About Immigration," appeared in the Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com on October 6, 2024.

Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Katie Oertel has coauthored a Perspective article, "Using Heritage Materials to Inspire New Understanding in Solid State Chemistry," in Chemistry of Materials. She wrote this Perspective with Professor Kristin Poduska from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador for a special issue of the journal in memory of their graduate advisor, Professor Frank DiSalvo.