ICYMI - Faculty / Department Kudos (in case you missed it...)
Summer 2021/Fall 2021
Interdisciplinary Project
Dr. Jennifer Turchi (School of Public Health) and Dr. Tim McCuddy (Criminal Justice) are co-PIs of a 2022 CoRS grant to fund "Convening minds to address youth justice and youth violence in Memphis, TN," a day-long symposium that will bring together community stakeholders and UofM faculty who are working to address youth violence and youth justice in Memphis. Community organizations, including justice-impacted youth, and faculty will present their work and discuss collaborative opportunities. This effort is designed to help bridge the gap between academe and community to address the important issues facing youth in Memphis. Dr. Brenna Breshears (Counseling, Education Psychology & Research), Dr. Minhae Cho (Social Work) and Dr. Lindsey Feldman (Anthropology) are co-collaborators on this interdisciplinary project.
Department of Anthropology
Dr. Keri Brondo, professor and chair for the Department of Anthropology, was awarded $21,516 from Innovate Memphis for her project “Ethnographic Support for City Innovation.”
Congratulations to Dr. Micah Trapp on her chapter: “Grocery Auction Games: Distribution and Value in the Industrialized Food System” in Why Food Matters: Critical Debates in Food Studies. Check out the book link here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/why-food-matters-9781350011427
Congratulations to Dr. Lindsey Feldman who has been elected to the board for the Society for Visual Anthropology!
Department of Biology
Dr. Jennifer Mandel, associate professor for the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $19,748 from the National Science Foundation for her project “EAGER: Resolving the Evolutionary History of the Sunflower family in the Face of Rampant Gene and Genome Duplications.”
Dr. Duane McKenna, William Hill Professor in the Department of Biology, was awarded $506,597 from the National Science Foundation for his project “Investigating chemosensory evolution in longhorned beetles using a comparative phylogenomic framework that integrates genomic, morphological, and biochemical data.”
Dr. James Adelman, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was co-author of the paper "Disease tolerance alters host competence in a wild songbird" published in Biology Letters.
Congratulations to Dr. Shawn Brown and colleagues for their new publication "Taxonomic Evaluation of a Bioherbicidal Isolate of Albifimbria verrucaria, Formerly Myrothecium verrucaria." J. Fungi 2021, 7, 694. In this study, the authors report that the candidate bioherbicide CABI-IMI 368023, previously identified as M. verrucaria, was found to be most consistently aligned with the other representatives of A. verrucaria when analyzed morphologically and genetically. You can read the paper at the link below and the Brown lab at https://www.microbialmemphis.com/
Bornblum Judaic Studies
Dr. Shaul Bar, Bornblum Chair of Excellence in Judaic Studies, had his article "Saul and the Witch of Endor" published in Hebrew Studies. This internationally recognized scholarly journal is devoted to studies of the Hebrew language and literature of all periods.
Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI)
Dr. Eunseo Choi, associate professor of the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $52,128 from the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) for his project “Viscoelastic numerical modeling of crustal deformation in the Korean Peninsula after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.”
Dr. Robert Smalley, research professor of the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $9,550 from the United States Geological Survey for his project “GPS Array for MidAmerica - monitoring deformation in the New Madrid seismic zone.”
Dr. Mitchell Withers, associate research professor of the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $201,159 from the United States Geological Survey for his project “Operation of the Mid-America Integrated Seismic Network 2020- 2024-CERI.”
Center for Information Assurance (CfIA)
Dr. Dipankar Dasgupta, Hill Professor in Cybersecurity and director in the Center for Information Assurance, was awarded $1,014,076 and $251,346 from the National Security Agency for his project “Cybersecurity education for Critical Infrastructure protection (in Community Development) through Regional Coalition” and “Developing application-specific shared-trust framework for accessing sensitive information.”
Department of Computer Science
Dr. Thomas Watson, assistant professor of the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $7,617 from the National Science Foundation for his project “CAREER: Structural Communication Complexity.”
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Dr. Randolph Dupont, professor of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, was awarded $45,000 from the City of Memphis Police Department (CMPD) for his project “City of Memphis Police CIS.”
Department of English
Dr. Evelyn Wright was quoted in a National Geographic article, "Why Learning A New Language is Good for the Whole Family." You can read the article on their Family website.
Department of History
July: Congratulations to Ms. Amanda Lee Savage, one of the twenty educators selected by the National Humanities Center to serve on their Teacher Advisory Council for 2021-22. Full Details
Institute for Intelligent Systems
Dr. Leah Windsor, research assistant professor for the Institute for Intelligent Systems, was awarded $450,000 from the National Sciences Foundation for her project “Multimodal Signaling and Communication Analysis of World Leaders.”
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Dr. Bentuo Zheng, professor for the Department of Mathematical Sciences, was awarded $8,400 from the Simons Foundation for his project “The Geometry of Banach Spaces.”
Roberto Triggiani, as an MSRI Research Professor, gave a 60-minute presentation at the Spring Semester "Mathematics of Fluids", held at The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, University of California, Berkeley, on May 27, 2021. The title of his presentation was: Uniform boundary stabilization of 3D Navier-Stokes equations and 2D-3D Boussinesq systems by finite dimensional, localized, static, boundary feedback controllers in Besov spaces of low regularity".
Roberto Triggiani was one of 5 main speakers at the IV Miniworkshop on Partial Differential Equations, held at the Department of Mathematics, IBILCE/UNESP/Sao Jose do Rio Preto/Brazil, on March 18, 2021. The title of his 50 minute presentation was:" Uniform boundary stabilization of 3D Navier-Stokes equations and 2D-3D Boussinesq systems by finite dimensional, localized, boundary feedback controllers in Besov spaces of low regularity".
George Anastassiou was an one hour keynote speaker in "Online International Conference on Applied Analysis and Mathematical Modelling" (ICAAMM 2021), Biruni University, Istanbul, Turkey, June 11-13, 2021. Title of lecture: "Iyengar -Hilfer Fractional Inequalities".
Department of Political Science
Congratulations to Dr. Kris-Stella Trump! Her article “Lessons for COVID-19 Vaccination from Eight Federal Government Direct Communication Evaluations” (co-authored with Heather Barry Kappes, Mattie Tomal, Rekha Balu, Russ Burnett, Nuole Chen, Rebecca Johnson, Jessica Leight, Saad B. Omer, Elana Safran, Mary Steffel, David Yokum, and Pompa Debroy) has been accepted for publication in Behavioral Science & Policy.
Department of Psychology
Dr. Kristoffer Berlin, associate professor, Clinical (Child and Family) Psychology, was awarded $14,433 from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville with the National Institutes of Health for his project “Translating basic habituation research to childhood obesity treatment.”
Dr. Kathryn Howell, associate professor, Clinical (Child and Family) director of Child and Family Studies Research, was awarded $182,110 and $57,429 from the University of Notre Dame with the National Institutes of Health for her projects “Pregnant Moms' Program” and $12,500 from the Mental Research Institute for her project “Examining pandemic-related stress among IPV-exposed mother-infant dyads.”
Dr. Mark LeDoux, research professor for the Department of Psychology, was awarded $414,665 from the National Institutes of Health for his project “The Pathobiology and Treatment of the UBTF E210K Neuroregression Syndrome.”
Dr. Philip Pavlik, associate professor of the Department of Psychology and affiliate of the Institute for Intelligent Systems, was awarded $431,594 from the U.S. Department of Education for his project “Using Adaptive Practice to Improve Recall and Understanding in Postsecondary Anatomy and Physiology.”
Dr. Kathryn Howell, associate professor of the Department of Psychology and director of Child and Family Studies Research, was awarded $112,500 from The Urban Child Institute for her project “Promoting Health and Well-being in Children and Families: Expansion of a Prenatal Intervention Program.”
Department of Public and Nonprofit Administration
Dr. Elizabeth Gillespie, assistant professor in the Department of Public and Nonprofit Administration, was awarded $4,567 from the Assisi Foundation of Memphis for her project “Empowering "Chief Everything Officers" to Fundraise Effectively.”
Public Safety Institute
Dr. Abby Parrill-Baker, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and professor for the Department of Chemistry, was awarded $525,000 from the Memphis and Shelby Crime Commission for her project “Public Safety Institute.”
School of Social Work
Dr. Susan Neely-Barnes, professor, director and chair for the School of Social Work, was awarded $466,762 from the Health Resources and Services Administration for her project “INTEGRATE (INterprofessional TEams GRounded in Apprenticeship, Telehealth, and Evidence).”
Dr. Melissa Hirschi, assistant professor for the Department of Social Work, was awarded $544,268 and $299,829 from the Health Resources and Services Administration for her projects “Peers Engaging and Empowering Recovery (PEER)” and “Memphis Opioid Workforce Paraprofessional Expansion Program.”
Dr. Elena Delavega, professor of the Department of Social Work, was awarded $60,000 from Church Health Center of Memphis for her project “Improving Behavioral Healthcare for the Latinx Community in Memphis.”
Dr. Susan Elswick, associate professor of the Department of Social Work, was awarded $195,000 from The Urban Child Institute for her project “School Mental Health Access to Resources through Teletherapy (SMART) Research, Training, and Treatment Center.”
Dr. Susan NeelyBarnes, professor, director, and chair of the Department of Social Work, was awarded $615,768 from Health Resources and Services Administration for her project “Memphis Social Work Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (MSW-SDS).”
Department of World Languages and Literatures
Dr. Diana Ruggiero presented “The Future is Blended: Ideas, Achievements, and Challenges” at the SYNCH 2022 virtual conference: Going the Distance at John Tyler Community College on January 6, 2022
Dr. Will Thompson’s article “A New National Park Celebrates the French Heritage in the American Midwest” has been published in the National Bulletin of the American Association of Teachers of French, vol. 47, no. 3 (January 2022).
Dr. Vania Barraza presented the paper “Cuerpo, migración y liminalidad en El diablo es magnífico, de Nicolás Videla,” at the 30th Conference of Association of Gender and Sexuality Studies (AEGS) (virtual presentation) (Nov. 2021).
Dr. Diana Ruggiero was invited to present “Exploring EFE Innovations for Professional Purposes in the United States” at the Second Latin American Meeting EFE (Spanish for Specific Purposes) Chile-USA 2021 on December 10th. The event was organized by the Pontificia Católica de Valparaíso University.
Dr. Will Thompson contributed two short articles, “2021 CFCS Conference Report” and “Recent Books on the French Colonial Presence in the United States” to Le Journal (Center for French Colonial Studies), vol. 38, no. 1 (Winter 2022).
Dr. Vania Barraza edited the special issue “El género ilimitado: márgenes, rupturas y transgresiones en el cine luso-hispánico” for the Journal of Gender and Sexuality Studies / Revista De Estudios De Género y Sexualidades, vol. 47.1 (2021) 1-182. https://doi.org/10.14321/jgendsexustud.47.1.fm
Dr. Robert Kelz’s chapter "The Schlichter Siblings and their Artistic Triumphs in South America. With Reflections on Ruth Weiss and her Advocacy for Civil Rights in South Africa and Rhodesia," has been accepted for publication in Festschrift für Ruth Weiss, ed. Frederick Lubich (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2022). In addition, Dr. Kelz’s article "Hope in Foreboding Times: The 1932 Goethe Year in Argentina," was accepted for publication in Goethe Yearbook Vol. 29 (2022).
Fall 2020/Spring 2021
Department of Anthropology
Dr. Keri Brondo, professor and department chair in the Department of Anthropology, was awarded $20,000 from the National Geographic Society for her project "Fishing Livelihoods & Lionfish Markets in Utila Keys."
Biological Sciences
Dr. Thomas Sutter, professor and Feinstone Chairman of Molecular Biology in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $50,000 from the National Institutes of Health for his project “A core transcription factor complex of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor.”
Dr. Duane McKenna, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $271,634 from Texas A&M University with the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project "Multidisciplinary Approach to Baioacoustics: Integrating phylogenomics, biophysics, and functional genomics to unravel the evolution of hearing and singing in katydids, crickets, and allies."
Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI)
Dr. Chris Cramer, research professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $94,482 from the U.S. Geological Survey for his project "Alaska Lg Tomography, Ground Motion Intensity Correlation Equation Development, and Subduction and Crustal GMM Alaska Regional Adjustments."
Dr. Thomas Goebel, assistant professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $76,642 from the U.S. Geological Survey for his project "Experimental Constraints on Preparatory Processes and Seismic Velocity Changes before Induced Slip: Collaborative Research between the University of Memphis and University of California Berkeley."
Department of Chemistry
Dr. Nathan DeYonker, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, was awarded $79,837 from Q-Chem Inc with the U.S. Department of Energy for his project “Online Nexus for Quantum Mechanical Cluster Modeling of Proteins and Enzymes.”
Dr. Tim Brewster and graduate student Malcolm Charles on the published a review on heterobimetallic systems in Coordination Chemistry Reviews. Read the full review.
The Department of Chemistry at the University of Memphis congratulates Dr. Nathan DeYonker on his recently published astrochemistry paper, "Complex Organic Matter Synthesis on Siloxyl Radicals in the Presence of CO" in Frontiers In Chemistry. Read the full paper.
Dr. Paul Simone, associate professor and Chair in the Department of Chemistry, was awarded $18,582 from Foundation Instruments, LLC for his project "Development and Evaluation of the TotalTHM-NOW."
The Dept of Chemistry at the University of Memphis congratulates Dr. Nathan DeYonker and his colleague Dr. Ryan Fortenberry (Ole Miss Chemistry) on their inorganic astrochemistry review recently published in Acc. Chem. Res. Read the review.
Department of Computer Science
New $300K NSF Grant for Computer Science Education
Jan 14: The Department has been awarded a new $299,333 grant from the National Science Foundation for "Improving the Quality of Teaching Assistant Feedback to Undergraduate Students in Introductory Computer Science Courses." The three-year project will be led by PI Prof. Amy Cook, alongside co-PIs Prof. Vinhthuy Phan and Prof. Alistair Windsor (Mathematical Sciences). Visit the Division of Research website for full details.
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Dr. James McCutcheon, associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice, was awarded $117,650 from the City of Memphis Police Department with the U.S. Department of Justice for his project “Policing Innovation Strategies.”
University of Memphis highest-ranked in Tennessee for 2nd straight year by U.S. News
& World Report
Jan. 26, 2021 — The University of Memphis is the highest-ranked institution in Tennessee
for the second straight year by U.S. News & World Report in its 2021 rankings of online programs.
The Online Criminal Justice (graduate) program was one of the eight UofM Global programs that was ranked nationally and deemed U.S. News Best Online Programs as No. 21 (increased from No. 24 in 2020 and No. 51-67 in 2018). Read the full news release.
Department of English
Congratulations to WRTC Professor Dr. Will Duffy for his recent book publication, Beyond Conversation: Collaboration and the Production of Writing!
Department of Political Science
April: Congratulations to Dr. Dursun Peksen! His article Coercive Diplomacy and Economic Sanctions Reciprocity: Explaining Targets’ Counter-Sanctions," co-authored with Jin Mun Jeong, has been accepted for publication in Defence and Peace Economics.
January: Congratulations to Dr. Sharon Stanley! Her article "The Persistence of Myth: Brazil's Undead Racial Democracy" has been accepted for publication in Contemporary Political Theory. Contemporary Political Theory is among the top ranked, peer reviewed journals in political theory.
January: Congratulations to Dr. Leah Windor (Faculty Affiliate and MA '05)! Two of her articles have been accepted as part of a PS: Political Science & Politics symposium on the status of the profession. The first is "Not a leaky pipeline! Academic success is a game of Chutes and Ladders," co-authored with Kerry F. Crawford (James Madison University) and Marijke Breuning (UNT Denton). The other is "MENtorship: Men in the Middle and their roles as allies in addressing gender bias," co-authored with Cameron Thies (Arizona State). PS is published by the American Political Science Association and is the journal of record for the discipline of political science reporting on research, teaching, and professional development.
School of Social Work
Dr. Seok Won Jin, assistant professor in the Department of Social Work, was awarded $10,000 from the University of Memphis Foundation for his project “Assessing Disparities in Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination in the Mid-South.”
Department of Psychology
Dr. Deranda Lester, research assistant professor in the Department of Psychology was awarded $2,000 from Psi Chi for her project “Examining Whether Oxytocin Treatment Can Reverse Behavioral and Neurochemical Phenotypes Associated with Drug Abuse.”
World Languages and Literatures
Dr. Diana Ruggiero, Dr. Brianna Butera, and Jonathan Jones-Edwards (UofM WLL MA Grad) served as panelists for “Deciphering Dialects: When Words Vary Amongst Spanish Speaking Populations,” a virtual panel hosted by the Office of Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity at UT Health Science Center on Wednesday, September 22nd for National Hispanic Heritage Month. Professors, physicians, researchers, students and more gathered to learn about important dialectal differences that can occur in clinical encounters which could be a matter of life or death as well as practical strategies for interacting with Spanish-speaking patients.
Dr. Will Thompson presented “Fictional Portrayals of the French Creoles of the Illinois Country” at the annual history conference of the Foundation for Restoration of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, on September 18.
Dr. Robert Kelz published “Instrument or Inspiration? Commemorating the 1949 Goethe Year in Argentina” in Goethe Yearbook Vol. 28 (2021): 263-284.
Dr. Iván Ortega-Santos presented “Is there variation in the reliability of theoretical syntax data across languages?” at the 30th Colloquium on Generative Grammar, organized by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Dr. Fatima Nogueira, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, is this year’s recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Research Award in the Humanities (formally announced at college’s faculty meeting on August 19).
Dr. Vania Barraza Toledo, Professor of Spanish, has obtained a grant from the University of Memphis Campus Community Fund in the amount of $2,500 for the upcoming Hispanic Film Festival.
Our M.A. in Spanish is listed as number nine for “Best 15 Masters in Spanish Programs in 2021 by the bestvalueschools.org website.
Dr. Denis Grélé has been named one of four winners of the University of Memphis Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award.
Dr. Hironori Nishi was named the recipient of the 2021 Service Appreciation Award by the Southeastern Association of Teachers of Japanese (SEATJ) at the association’s 36th Annual Conference on February 27, 2021.
Dr. Diana Ruggiero has received a University of Memphis USRC Grant Writing Award of $1000 for her project “Integrating Diversity and Inclusion through Community Engagement in Online Learning: A Long-Term Research Project Involving University Campus Middle and Latino Memphis.” Dr. Ruggiero has also received a Travel Enrichment Grant from the College of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Brianna Butera was invited by the Spanish Club as a part of their Meet Your Professor series. She did an interactive presentation on language variation in Spanish. Attendees contributed to the discussion providing the diverse vocabulary they use in Spanish to talk about various foods and household items. They also listened to some clips of native speakers of Spanish and guessed where they were from based on their speech patterns.
Dr. Melanie Conroy gave the keynote lecture “On Networking: Enlightenment-Era French Salons” at the conference “The Salon and the Senses in the Long Eighteenth Century: Interdisciplinary Perspectives” at Rutgers University on March 4, 2021. Dr. Conroy’s tool review “Networks, Maps, and Time: Visualizing Historical Networks Using Palladio” was published in Digital Humanities Quarterly Volume 15 Number 1, 2021. Read the Tool Review.
Dr. Cosetta Gaudenzi has published “Between Reality and Fiction: Ammore e malavita by Manetti Bros,” in L'Avventura: International Journal of Italian Film and Media Landscapes. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2020. 119-130. On January 28, 2021, she participated in a presentation of the special issue of L’avventura at the Italian Culture Institute of Oslo, Norway (via Zoom).
Dr. Yuki Matsuda's article “On Bakhtin's heteroglossia and the Japanese typography in Shonen/ Shojo manga” was published in Nihongo-gaku (Journal of Japanese Linguistics) Vol. 40-1:102-111.
Dr. Diana Ruggiero, Dr. Scott Vann and Dr. Joanne Gikas, presented at the Online Learning Consortium Conference Innovate “Supporting Faculty Through the Transition Online: the Collaborative Creation and Implementation of Faculty Development in Response to Covid-19” in March. At the same conference Dr. Ruggiero conducted a workshop using the latest Kahoot! education tools for formative assessment of intercultural sensitivity in the classroom.
Dr. Denis Grélé, Dr. Diana Ruggiero, and Dr. Lan Zhang are all finalists for the University of Memphis Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award. Congratulations on this well-deserved honor!
Dr. Pilar Alcalde has been awarded a Professional Development Assignment for a term in the 2021-2022 academic year.
Ralph Albanese has published two articles in Papers in French Seventeenth-Century Literature, both in volume XLVII, 93 (2020): "Silence et parole dans Tartuffe," and "Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, ou les enjeux d'une crise identitaire."
Ivan Ortega-Santos presented "Educational Interpreting of Oral Languages in the US: Challenges in the Absence of National Standards" at the 2nd International Conference on Literacy, Culture, and Language Education (ICLCLE 2020), organized by Indiana University Bloomington.
Will Thompson's article "Ste. Geneviève National Historical Park Officially Established" has been published in Le Journal of the Center for French Colonial Studies, vol. 37, no. 1 (Winter 2021), pp. 11-14.
Francisco Vivar's article "Conocimiento y vida: "Licenciado Vidriera y Auto de fe" will be published in Studia Iberica et Americana.