Assistant Professor of History Justin Rivest and co-editor E.C. Spary have published Exoticizing Consumption: European Drug Cultures, 1670-1740, with the University of Pittsburgh Press. DESCRIPTION Exotic drugs and spices, from tea to opium, were among the first fruits of European commercial expansion in the sixteenth century. By the eighteenth, many had become profitable products of the European empires that had spread across the globe.

Professor of Spanish Kate Hedeen and Professor Emeritus of Spanish Víctor Rodríguez-Núñez have published a translation of Antonio Gamoneda's Burn the Losses, with Action Books. DESCRIPTION: Shaped by a childhood during the Spanish Civil War and a youth under the censorious Franco dictatorship, Antonio Gamoneda’s poetry chronicles both memory and oblivion with an intensity and strangeness that pushes back against all oppressive forces that seek to flatten and reduce our experiences, our language.

Karen Hicks, ​​Peter Rutkoff Distinguished Professor in Diversity and Inclusion & Professor of Biology, has received National Science Foundation funding for her proposal "RUI: Genetic approaches to uncover mechanisms governing seasonal reproductive development in Physcomitrium patens." DESCRIPTION: Seasonal information, including temperature and daylength, is used by many plant and animal species to coordinate their reproduction with the environment, so that their offspring are produced at an appropriate time of year.

Keija Parssinen, Associate Professor of English, has published two articles in World Literature Today. Her review of Najwan Darwish's No One Will Know You Tomorrow: Selected Poems, 2014–2024 was published in the July-August 2025 issue on "Gaza Voices". Described by The New York Review of Books as "one of the foremost contemporary Arab poets," Darwish is a resident of Haifa.

Lin Li, James P. Storer Assistant Professor of Asian History, with co-authors Sona Kazemi, Wang Zheng, and Yi-Chun Tricia Lin, have published "Resisting Multiple Empires, Cultivating Transnational Solidarity: A Conversation among Feminists-of-Color Scholar-Activists," in International Feminist Journal of Politics, September 2025. DESCRIPTION Framed around the concept of “multiple empires,” the discussion examines how various imperial formations – US, Chinese, and Iranian – collude in suppressing feminist and queer resistance.

Daniel Mark Epstein, Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in IPHS, has published Constellations: The Collected Poems of Daniel Mark Epstein, with LSU Press. DESCRIPTIONDaniel Mark Epstein’s poetry has been in the public eye for nearly sixty years, since the magazine publication of the poems in his groundbreaking first book, No Vacancies in Hell (1973). Constellations collects, for the first time, the nine books of poems published by a modern master of lyric, dramatic, and narrative poetry.

Joy Brennan, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, has published "The karma of this place" in The Imminent Frame, August 27, 2025. SUMMARY The moral problem attendant on many deployments of the concept of karma is that it has been used to “blame the victim.” That is, karma has been used to explain the suffering of those who are victims of events—like social oppression, disease, war, and famine—as in fact of their own making.

Irene López, Professor of Psychology, has been selected to serve on the National Screening Committee (NSC) for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program expands perspectives through academic and professional advancement and cross-cultural dialogue. In partnership with more than 140 countries worldwide, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers unparalleled opportunities in all academic disciplines to passionate and accomplished graduating college seniors, graduate students, and young professionals from all backgrounds.

Orchid Tierney, William P. Rice Associate Professor of Literature, has 3 poems included in the new anthology Te Pūrere: Te Paenga Kōrero ā Ngā Kaitito Toi o Aotearoa/The Exodus: The Anthology of Expatriate New Zealand Poets from Cold Hub Press. DESCRIPTION There are myriad Aotearoa New Zealand poets who live overseas; several eminent, others relatively unknown. This significant anthology is the first to give voice to these expatriate Kiwi and their distinct perspectives, widening the parameters of New Zealand poetry well beyond its shores.

Natalie Wright, Associate Professor of Biology, with co-authors Katherine Crawford K'22, Olivia Rataezyk K'24, and Abigail Garcia K'24 have published "Tags temporarily decrease takeoff velocity and trajectory in Passer domesticus (House Sparrow)" in Ornithology, September 16, 2025. ABSTRACT We examined how mock tracking devices impact takeoff flight velocity, wingbeat frequency, trajectory, and change in body mass using 84…

David Maldonado Rivera, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, has published "‘Not about Orthodoxy and Faith’: Eunomian Polemic, the Valences of Asceticism, and Ethnic Argument in Philostorgius’s Church History" in Discipline, Authority, and Text in Late Ancient Religion: Essays in Honour of David Brakke, edited by Ellen Muehlberger and Bradley K. Storin. BOOK DESCRIPTION This collection of essays on religious practice in the Mediterranean, Near East, and Middle East (ca.

Katherine Elkins, Professor of Comparative Literature and Humanities, has published Beyond Plot: How Sentiment Analysis Reshapes Our Understanding of Narrative Structure in The Journal of Cultural Analytics, volume 10, issue 3, September 2025. ABSTRACT Sentiment analysis, particularly with the advent of large language models, is reshaping our understanding of narrative. Emotional arcs in both fictional and non-fictional narratives surface latent structures that challenge traditional notions of plot and character.

Ric Sheffield, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Legal Studies, has published False Promises: The Struggle for Black Voting Rights in 1800s Ohio, with Swallow Press. DESCRIPTION In False Promises, the fight for Black voting rights in Ohio comes alive through narratives of men of color who defied the state’s nineteenth-century restrictions on suffrage. Though ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment ostensibly extended the franchise, state election laws still forced men of color into a perilous struggle for full citizenship. Ric S. Sheffield depicts their courage and determination, revealing their humanity through stories of sacrifice, resistance, and hope.

Kora Radella, Assistant Professor of Dance, is premiering a duet, Before an Immense Sky, with music by Ross Feller, Professor of Music, at the Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival on September 26th & 27th, 2025 at 7:30 PM. Before an Immense Sky is danced by Kenyon seniors Dasha Aminia and Diego Connolly and is one of eight dances chosen out of 169 festival submissions. 

Víctor Rodríguez Núñez, Professor Emeritus of Spanish, has just published a new book, the nineteenth in his career as a poet, la piedra de amolar (the grinding stone), with RIL Editores. The work was presented on June 20 at the Documenta bookstore in Barcelona, and will have a second presentation on October 21 at the Universidad de Los Andes in Santiago, Chile.

Thomas B. Greenslade, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Physics, has published "Daniel Davis, Jr., and his Manual of Magnetism" in the American Journal of Physics, June 2025. ABSTRACT In the preface to his 1842 Manual of Magnetism, the Boston scientist and manufacturer of electrical apparatus, Daniel Davis, Jr., wrote, “Magnetism and Electricity have become related sciences within such a short a period, and their growth has been so rapid, that many important facts which have been observed have not been collected in any scientific treatise, and the amount of unwritten knowledge has been constantly increasing.” His book served as a companion to the apparatus that he manufactured, and it supplied the scientific background to experiments using these instruments. This paper traces the development of some of these instruments and explains their operation, showcasing their ingenuity and inspiring demonstrations for contemporary physics classes.

Bruce Hardy, J. Kenneth Smail Professor of Anthropology, will give a talk titled "A Twist on Ancient Technology: Fiber, String, and More" for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Human Origins Today series on September 18, 2025. SUMMARY The early archaeological record consists primarily of two things- stones and bones. And yet, we know that the material culture of the past had to be predominantly organic in nature.

Peter Kropp, Assistant Professor of Biology and Harvey F. Lodish Faculty Development Chair in the Natural Sciences, with co-authors Katherine Spilsbury K'25, Jing Wu, and Michael Reidy, has published "The mitochondrial trans-2-enoyl-coA reductase is necessary for mitochondrial homeostasis in C. elegans" in Genetics, August 19, 2025. ABSTRACT Fatty acids function not only as signaling molecules and for energy storage, but also as essential cofactors for mitochondrial enzymes.

Michael Leong, Robert P. Hubbard Assistant Professor of Poetry, has published a new collection of poetry, Dear Vase Already Shattered Against the Fragile Floor, with Black Square Editions. SUMMARY Dear Vase Already Shattered Against the Fragile Floor is the third volume in a projected pentalogy that draws on literary collage, formal constraint, and rhetorical complication to concentrate, transform, and re-release the contingencies of chaos.

James McGavran, Associate Professor of Russian, has published a translation of Ilya Vinitsky's The Graphomaniac: A Literary-Historical Discussion of Dmitry Khvostov with Northwestern University Press, July 2025. DESCRIPTION The only Russian Count of Sardinia, Dmitry Ivanovich Khvostov (1757–1835) didn’t achieve fame in his lifetime—he achieved infamy. Pathologically prolific and delusionally dedicated to a craft for which he had no talent, the count was renowned for his compulsive output, driven by a passion for poetry that was as strong as his abilities were weak.

Karen Snouffer, Professor Emerita of Art, has an exhibition titled "Serious Play" at Hammond Harkins Galleries in Columbus, Ohio, from September 5th to 30th, 2025. ARTIST STATEMENT The abstract, two- and three-dimensional works in this show reveal the processes I utilize repeatedly while working in the studio, not unlike that of young children who play seriously, full of intense focus, willing to experiment, mine the imagination and even fail (whatever that may mean to a child).

Henry Tonks, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for the Study of American Democracy and the Department of History, has published “‘Downtown Lowell is a Fun Place to Be’: Postindustrial Regeneration and the Making of the ‘New Liberals,’ 1974–1992” in Modern American History, July 2025. ABSTRACT In the 1970s, deindustrialization and urban decay forced national, state, and local policymakers to focus more intensely on public-private partnerships as mechanisms of economic regeneration.

Manami Ishimura, Assistant Professor of Studio Art, has an exhibition with Kristen Tordella-Williams titled "森をつかむ、つつむーBranching Outー" at the Shiga Kogen Roman Museum from July 13 to September 29, 2025. The exhibition explores the intersections of labor, craft, and technology, mainly using Uchiyama washi paper. Both artists invited community participation and amassed communal memories of the landscape for the exhibition.

Zachary McGee, Assistant Professor of Political Science, with co-authors Christine C. Bird and Jonathan M. King, has published The Influence of Federalist Society Affiliation on Senator Voting in Federal Judicial Nominations in The Journal of Law and Courts, August 15, 2025. ABSTRACTWe argue affiliation with an American conservative legal movement key player, the Federalist Society (FedSoc), provides a low-cost, high-information cue to senators voting on nominees.

Wade Powell, Professor of Biology, has published "Evaluating the World Health Organization Toxic Equivalency Factors of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins, Dibenzofurans, and Biphenylsfor Applicability to Amphibians using an In Vitro Ah Receptor Transactivation Assay" with co-authors Cameron H. Collins, Nonnie E. Cook, and Jon A. Doering in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. ABSTRACTThe World Health Organization (WHO) coordinated an expert meeting to streamline ecological risk assessments for complex mixtures of dioxin-like compounds (DLCs) by establishing 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) equivalency factors (TEFs) for mammals, fishes, and birds.