ICYMI - Faculty and Department Kudos
In Case You Missed It
Spring and Summer 2022
Biological Sciences
July - Dr. Thomas Sutter, professor and W. Harry Feinstone Chair of Excellence in the Department of Biological Sciences, was awarded $215,250 from the National Institutes of Health for his project “A core transcription factor complex of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor.”
April - Dr. James Adelman awarded $118,272 from Virginia Tech with the National Institutes of Health.
April - Dr. Thomas Sutter awarded $215,250 from the National Institutes of Health.
Feb - Dr. Michael Kennedy, awarded $10,000 from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
Center for Advancement of Youth (CAYD: Socialwork)
Feb - Dr. Gregory Washington, awarded $250,757 from the Women's Foundation for a Greater Memphis.
Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI)
July - Dr. Chris Cramer, research professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $51,327 from the U.S. Geological Survey for his project “Coastal Plain Amplification and Hazard Model for the National Seismic Hazard Maps: Collaborative Research with University of Memphis, North Carolina State University.”
July - Dr. Christodoulos Kyriakopoulos, assistant professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $67,930 from the U.S. Geological Survey for his project “Characterizing earthquake rupture propagation during the 1811-12 New Madrid earthquakes using dynamic rupture model.”
July - Dr. Charles Langston, director and professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $91,790 from the U.S. Geological Survey for his project “Embayment Seismic Excitation Experiment 2022 (ESEE 2022).”
July - Dr. Mitchell Withers, associate research professor in the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, was awarded $154,194 from the U.S. Geological Survey for his project “Operation of the Mid-America Integrated Seismic Network 2020-2024-CERI.”
May - Dr. Thomas Goebel awarded $549,995 from the U.S. Department of Energy.
March - Dr. Thomas Goebel awarded $619,996 from the National Science Foundation and $30,000 from the Southern California Earthquake Center with the National Science Foundation.
March - Dr. Robert Smalley awarded $59,359 from the U.S. Geological Survey.
March - Dr. Mitchell Withers awarded $702,675 from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Chemistry
July - Dr. Paul Simone, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry, was awarded $48,740 from Foundation Instruments with the National Institutes of Health for his project “SBIR Phase II: Evaluation of Feasibility of the TotalTHM-NOW for drinking water treatment plants to improve water quality, reduce costs, and lower cancer risks.”
May - Dr. Abby Parrill-Baker awarded $59,138 from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health.
Feb - Dr. Kensha Clark, awarded $590,000 from the National Science Foundation.
Computer Science
July - Dr. Xiaolei Huang, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $5,000 from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities for his project “Causal Modeling of Human Confounding Bias in Patient-reported Outcome Assessment.”
July - Dr. Santosh Kumar, director of the NIH Center of Excellence for Mobile Sensor Data-to-Knowledge (MD2K) and Lillian and Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $115,445 from the National Institutes of Health for his project “mHealth Center for Discovery, Optimization & Translation of Temporally-Precise Interventions.”
July - Dr. Weizi Li, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $174,789 from the National Science Foundation for his project “CRII: III: Towards Effective and Efficient City-scale Traffic Reconstruction.”
July - Dr. Vasile Rus, Jack and Jane Morris professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $650,600 from the U.S. Department of Education for his project “CODE: Investigating and Scaffolding Students' Code Comprehension Processes to Improve Learning, Engagement, and Retention.”
July - Dr. Christos Papadopoulos, professor and Sparks Family Chair of Excellence in Global Research Leadership in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $299,582 from the National Science Foundation for his project “EAGER: C2DIT: Community Continuous Distributed Internet Traffic Datasets.”
July - Dr. Thomas Watson, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $88,857 from the National Science Foundation for his project “CAREER: Structural Communication Complexity.”
July - Dr. Myounggyu Won, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $99,764 from the National Security Agency for his project “GenCyber 2022.”
July - Dr. Xiaofei Zhang, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded $148,749 from the National Science Foundation for his project “Collaborative Research: PPoSS: Planning: Efficient and Scalable Learning and Management of Distributed Probabilistic Graphs.”
May - Dr. Lan Wang awarded $101,566 from Peraton Labs Inc.
March - Dr. Thomas Watson awarded $87,652 from the National Science Foundation.
Feb - Dr. Lan Wang, awarded $906,190 from Perspecta Labs Inc. with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Feb - Dr. Kan Yang, awarded $1,261,161 from the National Science Foundation.
Criminology and Criminal Justice
July - Dr. Amaia Iratzoqui-Greenfield, associate professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, was awarded $376,524 from the State of Tennessee, Office of Criminal Justice Programs with the U.S. Department of Justice for her project “Increasing Collaboration among Domestic Violence Agencies.”
Earth Sciences
July - Dr. Dorian Burnette, associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, was awarded $39,786 from the National Science Foundation for his project “Collaborative Research: Medieval to Modern Climate Variability and Climate Change in the Great Plains.”
July - Dr. Youngsang Kwon, associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, was awarded $22,326 from the U.S. Geological Survey for his project “Mapping Spatio-temporal Groundwater Storage Changes in Memphis Aquifer: Integration of GRACE satellite, Ground-based Estimates and Hydrologic Modeling approach.”
May - Dr. Arleen Hill awarded $47,298 from Vanderbilt University in collaboration with the National Science Foundation.
Feb - Dr. Daniel Larson, awarded $32,000 from the City of Collierville.
Mathematical Sciences
July - Mr. Manohar Aggarwal, instructor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, was awarded $9,900 from the National Science Foundation for his project “ICODOE 2022.”
Physics and Materials Science
July - Dr. Francisco Muller-Sanchez, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Material Sciences, was awarded $315,791 from the National Aeronautics and Space Admin for his project “The Keck OSIRIS Nearby AGN Survey: Characterizing the Physical Mechanisms Driving Feeding and Feedback in Active Galaxies.”
April - Dr. Francisco Muller-Sanchez awarded $134,566 from National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
March - Dr. Mohamed Laradji awarded $102,822 from the National Science Foundation.
March - Joanne Rhodes awarded $15,000 from Vanderbilt University with the National Aeronautics and Space
Admin.
Psychology
July - Dr. Kristoffer Berlin, associate professor in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $17,896 from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville with the National Institutes of Health for his project “Translating basic habituation research to childhood obesity treatment.”
July - Dr. James Murphy, professor in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $35,018 from the National Institutes of Health for his project “Behavioral economic and wellness-based approaches for reducing alcohol use and consequences among diverse community-dwelling emerging adults” and $10,713 from the University of Rhode Island with the National Institutes of Health for his project “Developing a Positive Approach to Substance Use Prevention in North American Indian Adolescents.”
July - Dr. John Sabatini, distinguished research professor in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $41,097 from the U.S. Department of Education for his project “Developing and implementing a technology-based, reading comprehension instruction system for adult literacy students.”
April - Dr. Xiangen Hu awarded $220,843 from the U.S. Department of Defense with the United States Army Research Laboratory.
April - Dr. James Murphy awarded $36,814 from the University of Kansas Center for Research with the National Institutes of Health and $13,919 from the University of Kansas Center for Research with the National Institutes of Health.
April - Dr. John Sabatini awarded $13,760 from the Manhattan Strategy Group.
March - Dr. James Murphy awarded $315,140 from the National Institutes of Health.
Feb - Dr. James Murphy, awarded $36,112 from Washington State University with the National Institutes of Health.
Feb - Dr. John Sabatini, awarded $39,925 from the Educational Testing Service with the U.S. Department of Education.
Public and Non-Profit Administration
April - Dr. Elizabeth Gillespie awarded $8,755 from the Women's Foundation for a Greater Memphis.
March - Dr. Susan Elswick awarded $4,000 from the University of Tennessee - Knoxville.
Public Safety Institute
Feb - Bill Gibbons, awarded $35,000 from the Shelby County Government.
Sociology
March - Dr. Wesley James awarded $234,489 from the Delta Health Alliance with the U.S. Department of Education.
World Languages and Literatures
May - Dr. Diana Ruggiero awarded $29,997 from the Tennessee Board of Regents.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
Spring/Summer/Fall 2019
Be sure and visit the Accolades Website for additional information on awards, presentations and publications.
Department of Biology
Angiosperm Evolution: Jurassic Leap for Flowering Plants
UofM Researcher in issue of Nature Plants
Dr. Jennifer Mandel, assistant professor in Biological Sciences, published a News and View Commentary in the forthcoming issue of Nature Plants.The article discussed the findings of the recent publication "Origin of angiosperms and the puzzle of the Jurassic gap" by Li et al. Dr. Mandel's commentary can be found at this link.
UofM's McKenna published in Genome Biology Journal recognized as the highest-ranked impact factor in its field
The work of Biology professor Dr. Duane McKenna and his post-doc Seunggwan Shin has been published in Genome Biology, the biological sciences journal with the highest global impact factor. The research identifies lineage-specific genomic signatures that accompanied dietary shifts towards plants in beetles over time. Significant to both biology and agriculture, this work supports the hypothesized role that interactions with plant chemical defenses play in driving beetle diversification. McKenna and Shin were coauthors on the paper. Read the article here.
CERI Joins the SCEC Board UofM's Kyriakopoulos will serve as University's Representative
The University of Memphis Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) is now a member of the board of the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC). SCEC has been, and continues to be, the premiere University consortium on earthquake physics and the science of seismic hazards. CERI's participation in its research programs and outreach activities is a natural fit for its mission and will raise the University's profile in this national arena.
Dr. Christos Kyriakopoulos, one of CERI's new assistant professors, will be the UofM representative to the SCEC board. For more information on this announcement, contact 901.678.2007. To learn more about this center, visit the CERI
Department of Computer Science
Map901 Project Featured on GCN
The Map901 project was featured in GCN this week for its potential impact on first responders' safety and efficiency. The project involves the use of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology to map building interiors.
Prof. Dasgupta Visits UK Universities
Prof. Dipankar Dasgupta gave an invited talk on his adaptive multi-factor authentication (A-MFA) research at the University of Oxford on a recent visit to the UK.
Department of English
Congratulations to Dr. Donal Harris on his recent award of Sophomore Mentor of the Year for the Memphis Grizzlies TEAM Membership program! This award truly is a testament to his commitment and passion for our Memphis Youth.
Emily Thrush, professor in Applied Linguistics and Professional Writing, delivers a plenary at the National Association of Teachers of English Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 17, 2019 This was part of 2 weeks of workshops and conference presentations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Estonia, sponsored by the U.S. State Department.
Department of History
Dr. Dennis Laumann honored in Ghana
Dr. Dennis Laumann was in Ghana for three weeks in July attending the 3rd Triennial Conference of the Ghana Studies Association and conducting archival and field research for various projects. This past Saturday at the conference's closing ceremony he was recognized for his leadership of and contributions to the organization. An original painting in his honor was commissioned from C.S. Wisely, a Ghanaian movie poster artist, based on the cover of his first book, Colonial Africa, 1884-1994, Oxford University Press. He was elected president of the GSA in 2007 and served until 2011.
Assistant professor Brian Kwoba in history and Dennis Laumann attended a conference entitled Africa-Asia, A New Axis of Knowledge, Second Edition in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Both received funding from Department of History and African and African American Studies.
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Dr. George Anastassiou, professor of Mathematical Sciences, attended the annual meeting of the American Mathematical Society Jan. 15-18 in Denver. He presented a paper titled "On the left fractional local general M-derivative."
Dr. Irena Lasiecka, professor and chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences, was interviewed in the December 2019 issue of IEEE Control Systems Magazine about receiving the 2019 Richard E. Bellman Heritage Control Award. Control Systems is a leading professional publication of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers).
Dr. Irena Lasiecka is the 2019 recipient of the annual Richard E.Bellman Control Heritage Award of the American Automatic Control Council, the highest award of such professional organization. She received the Award on July 11, in Philadelphia, at the annual conference of this society, before a gathering of over 1,000 people. In the 40-year history of this annual Bellman Award, this is the first time that a woman was selected.
Lasiecka was named a 2019 Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. SIAM Fellows are nominated for excellence in research and/or industrial work, educational and community activities, or other forms of achievements related to the goals of the organization. Learn more about the 2019 Fellows recipients. Lasiecka was named a fellow for fundamental contributions to control theory of partial differential equations and their dissemination through numerous invited talks, administration positions in professional societies and the mentoring of many PhD students and postdoctoral associates. She is the first UofM faculty member to receive this honor and only the third in the State of Tennessee.
Department of Political Science
Dr. Dursun Peksen's article "Shadow Economies and the Success of Economic Sanctions" (co-authored with Bryan Early) has been accepted at Foreign Policy Analysis. FPA is a refereed journal published by the International Studies Association.
In addition, Dr. Peksen had three articles accepted recently: "Political Effectiveness, Negative Externalities, and the Ethics of Economic Sanctions," in Ethics & International Affairs; "When Do Imposed Economic Sanctions Work? A Critical Review of the Sanctions Effectiveness Literature," in Defence and Peace Economics; and - co-authored with Robert Blanton, - "Labor Laws and Shadow Economies: A Cross-national Assessment," in Social Science Quarterly.
Department of World Languages and Literatures
Dr. Heike Polster presented "Self-Archiving and the Creative Process: Peter Handke's Journals" at the German Studies Association conference in Portland, OR, on October 5. She served as a commentator on a panel entitled "Contending with the Vor/Nachlass" at the same conference.
Dr. Diana Ruggiero was the Key-note Speaker for a Conference on World Languages for Specific Purposes (September 20 and 21, 2019) at Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas.
Dr. Will Thompson presented "Identité et marginalisation d'une communauté francophone au Missouri: le cas de la Vieille Mine (Old Mines)" at the 2019 Congrès de l'Institut d'Histoire de l'Amérique Française in Ottawa, Ontario on October 19.
ARCHIVED INFORMATION AND EVENTS: Summer/Fall 2020
Additional award, research and presentation information can be found on the CAS Accolades website.
Anthropology
Sept - Dr. Lindsey Felman, assistant professor of Anthropology was recently quoted in the Sierra: The national magazine of the Sierra Club.
Aug- Dr. Lindsey Feldman, assistant professor of Anthropology, was quoted in a story in Drilled News on the use of inmate labor to fight wildfires in Arizona.
Aug- Dr. Keri Brondo, professor and chair of Anthropology, provided historical context for the article
"Minority Group Fears 'Genocide' in Trump-Backed Honduras" in the Daily Beast.
Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change
Aug- Daphene McFerren, executive director of the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change, wrote a
column about Congressman John Lewis for The Daily Memphian.
Biological Sciences
Prothonotary Warbler feeding the kids
Dr. Keith Bowers shared a video of his research. In it, a male prothonotary warbler sings just before delivering food to his nest, passing it to his brooding mate, who then feeds their young. Much about these behaviors, and the decisions underlying them, is unknown. Ongoing research in the Bowers Lab (ekbowers.com) seeks to understand the evolutionary and physiological bases of these behaviors.
Congratulations to Drs. Malle Carrasco-Harris, Judy Cole and Steve Reichling for their publication in the Urban Naturalist entitled "Cozy in the City: The Morphology and Spatial Ecology of Copperheads in an Urban Forest". This study examines the home range of copper head snakes in Overton Park, an urban old growth forest in Memphis, TN.
Sept 30 - A new publication from Dr. Shawn Brown and colleagues studying the structure of the microbiome of Medicago truncatula, a small annual legume native to the Mediterranean basin.
Aug- Congratulations to Dr. Cassandra Nunez and colleagues for their recent article in Applied Animal Behavior Science entitled "Rising up to the challenge of their rivals: Mare infidelity intensifies stallion response to playback of aggressive conspecific vocalizations". This paper describes how feral mares changing social groups impacts feral males responsiveness to potential rivals.
Aug- Another paper... this one from Dr. Jim Adelman and colleagues. Their recent paper entitled "Employing very high frequency (VHF) radio telemetry to recreate monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) flight paths" in Environmental Entomology describes tracking monarch butterflies to quantify their movement patterns across agricultural landscapes.
Aug- More recent publications! Congratulations to Karl Rohrer & Dr. Michael Ferkin for their publication "Long‐term repeatability and stability of three personality traits in meadow voles" published in Ethology. This paper describes the consistency of animal personality traits over time and major life events.
Aug- A new publication by Drs. Carrie and Tom Sutter as well as undergraduate researcher Hailey Rainwater explores the role of dioxin-induced upregulation of nitric oxide synthase in skin cell differentiation.
Aug- It's been quite the week for good news! Congratulations to Dr. Shawn Brown who has been awarded a grant (as Co-PI) from Environmental Engineering at NSF entitled "Exploring Coupled Physical, Biological and Chemical Processes that Control Lead Fate and Transport through Plastic Plumbing Materials".
Aug- Congratulations to Kelsey Clark, Kaitlynn Messler and Dr. Michael Ferkin for their recent publication in Ethology. This paper describes how meadow voles use scent memory to choose between familiar and unfamiliar mates.
Aug- Congratulations to Dr. Duane McKenna for his recent publication in Current Biology. His paper entitled "Evolution: Symbiotic Microbes Mediate Host Rangeof Herbivorous Beetles" describes the evolution of metabolic interactions between an herbivorous beetle and its obligate bacterial symbionts.
Aug- Congratulations to Drs. Judy Cole, Dan Baker (CHEM) and Abby Parrill (CHEM) on their recent article "Benchmarking GPCR homology model template selection in combination with de novo loop generation" published in the Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design.
Aug- Congratulations to Prabin Shrestha and Dr. Tit-Yee Wang for their recent article "Synergistic and antagonistic interactions of triclosan with various antibiotics in bacteria" published in in J Environmental Sci Health, Part C: Toxicology and Carcinogenesis.
Chemistry
Nov - Congratulations to Drs. Xiaohua Huang and Yongmei Wang, current (Raymond Wilson & Caleb Gallops) and former (Ryan O'Connor & Elyahb Allie Kwizera) graduate students and collaborators on their recent publication.
Oct - The UM Dept of Chemistry congratulates Dr. Tim Brewster, undergrad student Kylie Loadholt, and their collaborators on their recent paper reinvestigating catalysis in an Iridium dihydroxybipyridine catalyst.
Oct - The UM Dept of Chemistry congratulates Drs. Nathan DeYonker and Qianyi Cheng, undergraduate student Maura Washington, graduate student Joseph Burns, and collaborator Dr. Ryan Fortenberry on their recent publication. This work helps to provide tools to help study metal complexes of dinitrogen as an important astrochemical species. Both student authors on this project were NASA TN Space Grant Awardees in 2019. Great work all.
Sept - The UM Dept of Chemistry congratulates Dr. Tim Brewster and grad students (Malcolm, Natalie, Angel, Connor, & TJ) and collaborators on the publication of their recent paper about aluminum bimetallic complexes in @DaltonTrans. "Systematic evaluation of the electronic effect of aluminum-containing ligands in iridium–aluminum and rhodium–aluminum bimetallic complexes"
July- Dr. Nathan DeYonker, assistant professor of Chemistry, was named by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement as one of 13 new Fellows for its Scialog: Chemical Machinery of the Cell initiative. Co-sponsored by RCSA and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Scialog: Chemical Machinery of the Cell aims to catalyze breakthroughs in the understanding of chemical processes in the living cell that will lead to a new era of advancement in cell biology. This program is supported and funded by the Research Corporation and the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation. This meeting brings together rising stars to form multidisciplinary teams to design novel projects and compete for seed funding. Congratulations Dr. DeYonker.
July- The UM Dept of Chemistry congratulates Dr Xuan Zhao & colleagues on their recent paper in Angewandte Chemie that extends their evaluation of Cobalt complexes as electro‐ and photocatalytic catalysts for hydrogen evolution in neutral water.
Computer Science
Christos Papadopoulos Joins Department as Sparks Family Chair of Excellence
Sept - Dr. Christos Papadopoulos was recently appointed and joined the UofM in August as the Sparks Family Chair of Excellence in the Department of Computer Science. This chair of excellence, housed in the University’s Division of Research & Innovation, will provide flexibility to focused and/or interdisciplinary areas of research excellence to contribute toward the University’s strategic research goal of attaining and maintaining Carnegie R1 classification status. With this goal in mind, the position was assigned to Computer Science in July 2019. Full details can be found on the Computer Science website.
UMRF Ventures Professorship Awarded to Thomas Watson, Computer Science
Sept - The University of Memphis Research Foundation (UMRF) awarded Dr. Thomas Watson, Computer Science a UMRF Ventures Professorships in August for "Structural Communication Complexity." The professorship is awarded based on the progress of junior faculty in advancing the research capacity of the UofM. The professorship is for a period of two years beginning Sept. 1 and includes a stipend that can be utilized for research and other related expenses. Early Career Awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other federal funding agencies are among the most prestigious awards a junior faculty member can earn and are the best indicators of long-term research success. UMRF is committed to retaining and growing this top-level talent and offers these professorships to any recipients of Early Career Awards from major federal funding agencies.
Aug -The Department of Computer Science received a $10,000 grant from the National Center for Women & Information Technology to help recruit and retain female undergraduate students.
Aug- Computer Science professors Vasile Rus and Scott Fleming are co-PIs (principal investigators) on a new $3.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation's Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program. The project is titled "Advancing the Science of Learning Data Science with Adaptive Learning for Future Workforce Development."
Mathematical Sciences
Spring- Congratulations to Dr. Irena Lasiecka who was awarded the 2020 William R. Sparks Eminent Faculty Award. This is the highest honor awarded by the university to its faculty members, as indicated on the awards website, hosted by the Provost's Office.
Spring- Congratulations also to Dr. Roberto Triggiani, who received the 2020 UoM Alumni Association Award for Distinguished Research in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics. You may read about all the alumni awards at this website, scrolling about halfway down the page.
Spring- Congratulations to Yunusa Olufadi, second-place winner in the 32nd Annual Student Research Forum for the Math and Computer Sciences category. The judges found this research on A Method for Analyzing Multivariate Mixed Endpoints with High-Dimensional Covariates to be remarkable.
Spring- Congratulations to Misty Freeman who was selected as a faculty member for one of the statewide dual credit (SDC) content teams who will be creating new curriculum resources for high school teachers. This work will align high school and post-secondary education in Tennessee.
Spring- Congratulations to Mathematical Sciences faculty who were recognized at the University's Research Celebration on February 25, 2020. For being First Time Principal Investigators in FY19, Alpha Ba was recognized for his Dual Enrollment Grant from the Southwest Community College and Gisele Goldstein was recognized for her CBMS Regional Conference at Montgomerry Bell Park. George Anastassiou was recognized for being a 2019 Book Author/Editor.
Spring- Congratulations to Máté Wierdl, who has been awarded the Paul Erdős Professorship in Mathematics. He has been awarded this professorship for 2020-2023.
Political Science
Sept - Congratulations to Dr. Derefe Chevannes! His article "The Laboring of Black Politics: Decolonial Meditations on Claudia Jones" has been accepted for publication by the Political Research Quarterly. PRQ is among the leading, peer-reviewed generalist journals in political science, and is hosted by the Western Political Science Association.
Aug 28 - Congratulations to Dr. Eric Groenendyk! He has been elected to serve on the Governing Council of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP). As part of serving on the Governing Council, he will serve on one of ISPP's Operating Committees; write and review reports and recommendations from other committees, helping to drive the future direction of ISPP; review ISPP's finances and vote to approve ISPP's annual budget; and attend 2 Governing Council meetings per year. His election represents a significant recognition of his international standing in the discipline.
July 7- Congratulations to Dr. Eric Groenendyk. His article "What Motivates Reasoning? A Theory of Goal-Dependent Political Evaluation" (co-authored with Yanna Krunikov) has been accepted for publication at the American Journal of Political Science. AJPS is considered one of the Top Three journals in political science.
June 29- Congratulations to Dr. Kris-Stella Trump. She has received one of the Small Research Grants from the American Political Science Association for her project "Lazy Natives" and "Hard Working Immigrants": Comparing the Impact of Deservingness Cues on Perceptions of Deservingness." APSA is the leading professional organization for the study of political science, and the award of $2,500 represents a very prestigious recognition of her work.
Dr. Dursun Peksen is the 2020 recipient of the Quincy Wright Distinguished Scholar Award. Recipients of the Quincy Wright Distinguished Scholar Award have an exceptional record of scholarship in international studies and a distinguished record of service to the International Studies Association. Among the many service activities Dursun has provided to the ISA is his current role as one of the editors of the International Studies Review, a leading journal of the International Studies Association. Dursun will receive the award and will be honored with a roundtable at the next International Studies Association Midwest Meeting in the fall.
June 2- Congratulations to Dr. Dursun Peksen His article (co-authored with Ryan Yu-Lin Liou and Amanda Murdie) "Revisiting the Causal Links Between Economic Sanctions and Human Rights Violations," has been accepted for publication at Political Research Quarterly. PRQ is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Western Political Science Association.
May 16- Congratulations to Dr. Kris-Stella Trump. Her article "The Effect of Postcard Reminders on Vaccinations Among the Elderly: A Block-Randomized Experiment" (co-authored with Nuole Chen, Stacy Hall and Quan Le) has been accepted at Behavioral Public Policy. Behavioral Public Policy is an interdisciplinary and international peer-reviewed journal devoted to behavioral research and its relevance to public policy.
Psychology
July- Dr. Roger Kreuz, associate dean, College of Arts & Sciences, Professor, Experimental (Cognitive) in Psychology, published "Why 'I was just being sarcastic' can be such a convenient excuse".
Aug - Dr. James Murphy, professor in the Department of Psychology, was awarded $35,881 from Washington State University with the National Institutes of Health for his project "Integration of Motivational Interviewing and Behavioral Economics Theories to Enhance Measurement of Client Language as a Mechanism of Behavior Change."
School of Social Work
Laura Taylor receives the 2020 Junior Faculty Award for the Council on Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Diversity of the Council on Social Work Education
Dr. Laura C. Taylor has been a faculty member with the University of Memphis Department of Social Work since 2011. She served as the director of BA field placements from May 2011 to June 2015. Dr. Taylor served as clinical assistant professor and director of MSW field placements from June 2015 to July 2017. In August 2017 she was promoted to assistant professor. Dr. Taylor's research interests involve social determinants of health that influence how African Americans seek out and experience mental health care. She has published five peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Taylor has 22 years of professional experience as a social worker. She runs a small clinical practice providing individual psychotherapy, with a specialization in African American women and mental health; supervision to master's level social workers pursuing clinical licensure; exam preparation to social workers seeking master's and clinical licensure; and consultation to practitioners and agencies.
Dr. Elena Delavega, MSW program director & associate professor in the School of Social Work, is a scholar who studies poverty, particularly poverty in urban areas. Delavega's article, "Mexico City buried its rivers to prevent disease and unwittingly created a dry, polluted city where COVID-19 now thrives", was recently published in The Conversation.
Dr. Robin Lennon-Dearing Announced as NASW-TN Social Work Educator of the Year
Dr. Robin Lennon-Dearing was recently announced as the NASW-TN Social Work Educator of the Year in a recent NASW-TN Newsletter Announcement
Lennon-Dearing, Associate Professor, received the "Social Work Educator of the Year"
Award from NASW Tennessee Chapter in April 2020. Dr. Lennon-Dearing consistently demonstrates
commitment to the core values of social work through her teaching, research and service.
Dr. Lennon-Dearing takes an innovative and engaged approach to teaching. She adds
a service-learning component to her classes so that students may apply what they have
learned in the classroom to the field. Her research exhibits her commitment to social
justice and empowerment of marginalized populations. She has been an HIV researcher
for 20 years and is currently using her findings to advocate for the modernization
of HIV criminal laws and policies in Tennessee. Dr. Lennon-Dearing has received national
recognition for her scholarship. In 2015, she won the Sexual Orientation and Gender
Identity and Expression Scholarship Award from the Council on Social Work Education
for her article on social worker's attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ population. Dr. Lennon-Dearing
is an active member of the National Association of Social Workers and has established
an annual mentor dinner for social work students to meet with professional social
workers in the community to seek advice and guidance about their careers. Over the
years Dr. Lennon-Dearing has had many accomplishments in the profession of social
work, at the University and in the community.
Sociology
Dr. Wesley James, associate professor in the Department of Sociology, was awarded $1,381,320 from Delta Health Alliance with the U.S. Department of Education for his project "Evaluate Impact of Health and Education Programs in the Mississippi Delta."
World Languages and Literatures
Dr. Vania Barraza was invited by the University of Chile research group on Chilean youth representation in the media to present "Las chicas en el cine" ("Girls in the Cinema") on Oct. 14th.
Dr. Robert Kelz presented "La colaboración del escritor antifascista Paul Zech con la revista chilena Deutsche Blätter, 1943-1946. Un puente entre culturas" at the symposium Charlas Argentino-Germanas del Centro DIHA, hosted by the Universidad Nacional de San Martín in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on August 10, 2020 (online).
Dr. Hironori Nishi's article "Bunmatsu de no kakokee no nijuushiyoo: kakokee + deshita ni tsuite no koosatsu" ["Two consecutive past-tense forms in Japanese: An analysis of past-tense form + deshita"], has appeared in the Proceedings of the 28th Central Association of Teachers of Japanese Conference (CATJ28), pp. 87-96.
Dr. Will Thompson was one of the presenters at the St. Louis Public Library History Zoom Expo on November 7, 2020. Dr. Thompson spoke about the activities of the Center for French Colonial Studies, in particular the Center's new digital archive of its quarterly publication, Le Journal.
Dr. Francisco Vivar has had his article "De persona de campo a escritor: Luis Landero y Pierre Michon" accepted to be published in 1616. Anuario de Literatura Comparada.
Melanie Conroy presented "Metrics for French Literary History" at the Digital Humanities 2020 Conference online on July 22; Dh3020 was originally scheduled to take place in Ottawa, Canada. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3l3y8SnuxY&t=6s
Patrick McFadden, adjunct instructor of Classics, was elected vice president of the American Classical League and started his term in July. The vice president is responsible for planning the ACL annual convention, the ACL Institute, and vetting submissions for the program.
Hironori Nishi's article, entitled "Japanese te iu ka as a sentence-final expression in writing," has been accepted for publication in East Asian Pragmatics.
Sept - Robert Kelz's essay "Routes to Buenos Aires" appeared in Vorstufen des Exils / Early Stages of Exile, ed. Reinhard Andress (Leiden: Brill, 2020): 149-161.
Errol M. O'Neill was elected to a two-year term as Communications Co-Coordinator of the Mid-Atlantic Association for Language Learning Technology (MAALLT), which includes Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC.
Aug 28 - Melanie Conroy presented "Frank Kafke and the intellectual work of digital humanities" at the inaugural digital Early Modern Quarantine Conference in the UK on Friday, June 26. Dr. Conroy also presented "Metrics for French Literary History" at the Digital Humanities 2020 Conference online on July 22; Dh3020 was originally scheduled to take place in Ottawa:
Aug 28 - Hironori Nishi presented his paper, entitled " Bunmatsu de no kakokee no nijuushiyoo: kakokee + deshita ni tsuite no koosatsu [Two consecutive past-tense forms in Japanese: An analysis of past-tense form + deshita]" at the 28th Central Association of Teachers of Japanese Conference hosted by Macalester College on May 30, 2020 (online).