Spring 2023 Accolades

Awards

Associate Professor Hanne Løland Levinson (Classical & Near Eastern Religions & Cultures) has won the R. B. Y. Scott Award for outstanding book in the areas of Hebrew Bible and/or the Ancient Near East; Canadian Society of Biblical Studies. Her book The Death Wish in the Hebrew Bible: Rhetorical Strategies for Survival was published by Cambridge University Press in 2021.

Graduate faculty member Jie Ding (School of Statistics, Department of ECE & Data Science Program) received the highly esteemed ARO Early Career Program (ECP) award. This award recognizes outstanding scientists embarking on their independent careers and is regarded as one of the most prestigious honors bestowed by the Army.

Professor Paul Sackett (Psychology), is part of the author team for this year’s winner of the Scholarly Achievement Award presented by the Human Resources (HR) Division of the Academy of Management. They are receiving the award for a paper titled “Revisiting meta-analytic estimates of validity in personnel selection: Addressing systematic overcorrection for restriction of range” published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. This important award is given each year to recognize the author(s) of one paper identified as the most significant published article during the previous year in HR management.

Assistant Professor Juan Del Toro (Psychology) has been named a recipient of the American Psychological Association Division 7’s Boyd McCandless Award. This award stands as a testament to Del Toro’s substantial contributions to the field of developmental psychology since earning his PhD.

Fellowships & Grants

Congratulations to Associate Professor Maggie Hennefeld (Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature) and Associate Professor Lorenzo Fabbri (French & Italian), who were awarded the Imagine Fund Arts, Humanities, and Design Chair Award for a project entitled, "Curating Diversity: Community Engagement through Film Programming". 

Doctoral student Margie Tang-Oxley (History) is a 2023 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellow. In addition to a generous research and living stipend, this fellowship also provides students with the opportunity to connect with other ACLS fellows in a cohort and collaborate with a mentor. Learn more about Margie's exciting project here.

Doctoral student Risa Luther (Anthropology) published a piece titled Bare Your Teeth: How Watching Monkeys Eat Can Teach Us About Our Evolutionary Origins & Teach Us About Ourselves in SPARK! SPARK is an eZine that amplifies the research, experiences, and voices of graduate researchers who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color (BIPOC). Learn more.

Publications & Creative Activities

Doctoral student Andrea Wiglesworth (Psychology) was recognized for her outstanding contributions to psychological science in the June issue of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Science Spotlight. Her expertise is highlighted in the panel “Navigating Your First Year of Graduate School” as a part of APA’s “Becoming a Psychological Scientist” series, which the Spotlight focused on. 

Awards

Congratulations to the following recipients of the 2023 President's Award for Outstanding Service, recognized for their exceptional service to the University, its schools, colleges, departments, and service units:

• Managing director of the anthropology laboratories Matt Edling (Anthropology)
• Professor, director of First-Year Writing, and director of Faculty Engagement for Student Success Amy Lee (Department of Writing Studies)
• Director, Katherine E. Nash Gallery Howard Oransky (Art)

Congratulations to Professor Mark Pedelty (Communication Studies) for being recognized as a Community-Engaged Scholar Awardee.

Fellowships & Grants

Congratulations to the following faculty who have been awarded Grand-in-Aid of Research, Artistry and Scholarship (GIA) funding:

• Assistant Professor Dan Card (Writing Studies), "Engaging science online: a rhetorical-computational study of climate deliberation on Reddit"
• Professor Carl Flink (Theatre Arts & Dance), "Creating “Battleground,” A Dance Work Examining the United States' Perpetual State of Warfare and Violence"
• Associate Professor Bonnie Klimes-Dougan (Psychology), "The Neural Correlates of Sexual and Gender Minority Stress"
• Associate Professor Alice Lovejoy (Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature), "Militant Chemistry: Film and its Raw Materials"
• Professor Ann Waltner (History), "Zhou Qi in Her Own Words"

Congratulations to these two distinguished CLA faculty who were named McKnight Presidential Fellows:

• Associate Professor Christian Uwe (Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature), "Reading and shaping our political lives with literature" 
• Associate Professor Elizabeth Wrigley-Field (Sociology), "New ways to understand racial inequity in disease and death" 

Awards

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Pao Houa Her (Art), Professor Tetsuya Yamada (Art), and Edelstein-Keller Writer-in-Residence Kao Kalia Yang (English)–three extraordinary faculty members from the College of Liberal Arts who were awarded prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships. Out of nearly 2,500 applicants, the trio was selected as one of the 171 honorees through a rigorous peer review process. Forbes reports that the University of Minnesota is ranked among the top ten institutions with affiliated winners for this year. 

Congratulations to Director of Clinical Programs in Audiology Dr. Kerry Witherell on her recent induction into the National Academies of Practice  (NAP) Class of 2023. The prestigious honor acknowledges outstanding achievements and recognizes faculty as leaders in their professions.

Publications & Creative Activities

Regents Professor of History and Asian American Studies Director Erika Lee published a preview of her presidential speech to the Organization of American Historians "In the War Against History, Los Angeles and Asian American History Offer Hope" in The Hill.

Professor Karen Mary Davalos (Chicano & Latino Studies) published her new book Self Help Graphics at Fifty: A Composition of Latinx Art and Collaborative Art Making.

Awards

Congratulations to the following faculty recipients of The MidCareer Faculty Research Awards:

• Associate Professor Mark Bell (Political Science), "The Stability of Nuclear Thinking"
• Associate Professor VV Ganeshananthan (English), "The Missing Are Considered Dead"
• Associate Professor Kate Lockwood Harris (Communication Studies), "Transforming Traumatized Organizations: A Relational Approach to Disorganizing Systemic Violence"
• Associate Professor Maggie Hennefeld (Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature), "Twenty-First Century Silent Film Culture"
• Associate Professor Lamar Peterson (Art), "Seeing The Invisible"

Fellowships & Grants

Doctoral candidate Jeffrey Cross (Classical & Near Eastern Religions & Cultures) has been awarded a prestigious postdoctoral Fulbright Scholarship to Hebrew University.

Doctoral candidate Ashley E. Kim Duffey (Art History) is the recipient of a 2023 Luce/ACLS Dissertation in American Art.

Associate Professor Luis Ramos Garcia (Spanish and Portuguese Studies) received Human Rights Initiative Research Funds for his project "The Impact of Human Rights Through International Collaborative Artistic Expression: Art, and Theater." 

Congratulations to the following faculty recipients of Brain Imaging Grants:

• Associate Professor Colin DeYoung (Psychology), "Neural Correlates of Goal Prioritization and Conscientiousness"
• Assistant Professor Nicola Grissom (Psychology), "Simultaneous Imaging of Bilateral Accumbens Dopamine Release During Reward"
• Professor Yang Zhang (Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences) and co-investigators Neuroimaging Staff Scientist Philip C Burton, Associate Professor Jason Wolff (Educational Psychology), Professor Hui Zou (Statistics), "Neural Mechanisms of Speech and Voice Processing in Children and Adults"

Director Jeanne Kilde (Religious Studies Program) and her community partner the First Church of God in Christ (FCOGIC) have been awarded a Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage (Legacy) Grant to complete the nomination of the FCOGIC building to the National Register of Historic Places.

Awards

Berne Christiansen, Senior Academic Advisor/Policy and Procedure Specialist, was a recipient of the 2022-2023 John Tate Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising.

Congratulations to the following faculty recipients of the 2022-23 Horace T. Morse Award:

• Associate Professor Brian Goldberg (English)
• Associate Professor Shaden M. Tageldin (Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature)
• Assistant Professor Elizabeth Wrigley-Field (Sociology)

Congratulations to the following faculty recipients of the Graduate and Professional Education Awards:

• Associate Professor Vicente M. Diaz (American Indian Studies)
• Associate Professor Lizbeth H. Finestack (Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences)
• Professor Patricia Frazier (Psychology)
• Professor Douglas Hartmann (Sociology)

Associate Professor Maggie Hennefeld's (Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature) essay “Queer Laughter in the Archives of Silent Film Comedy,” The Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema (Oxford University Press, 2021) received the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Best Essay in an Edited Collection Award.

Publications & Creative Activities

Professor Anatoly Liberman (German, Nordic, Slavic, and Dutch) published three books at the end of last year: Take My Word For It: A Dictionary of English Idioms (U. of M. Press) and two books of literary studies and literary criticism that appeared in Russia - the titles are given in translation: All Hands on Deck! and Leaving the Shelter of the Wall.

Professor Steven Manson (Geography, Environment & Society) published a new book Data Science and Human-Environment Systems.

Fellowships & Grants

Congratulations to the following faculty who received Imagine Fund Special Events Grants, awarded by the Institute for Advanced Study:

• Assistant Professor Erin Durban (Anthropology): Queer and Trans* Ecologies Symposium 
• Associate Professor Maggie Hennefeld (Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature): "Twin Cities Silent Film Project"
• Director, Religious Studies Program Jeanne Kilde: "Historic Artwork in a North Minneapolis Landmark; Or, How Zodiac Paintings in a Former Synagogue Bridged the Jewish and Black Communities"

Congratulations to the following individuals who received Human Rights Initiative Research Funds:

• Human Rights Initiative Coordinator Amelia Shindelar (Human Rights Program): "Individuals Impacted by Law Enforcement Violence: Networks for Justice"
• Minnesota Transform Postdoctoral Research Associate Ricardo A. Velasco Trujillo (History): "Advancing Sustainable Digital Ecologies for Grassroots Organizations Documenting Human Rights Activism and Reconciliation Initiatives "
• Associate Professor Luis Ramos Garcia (Spanish and Portuguese Studies): "The Impact of Human Rights Through International Collaborative Artistic Expression: Art, and Theater"

Congratulations to the following faculty who received fellowships from the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) for 2023-24:

• Assistant Professor Anuja Bose (Political Science): “Reconstructing an Internationalism of the Present: The Political Practices and Institutions of Global Black Politics”
• Assistant Professor Daniel Greenberg (Art History): “Mapping without Maps”
• Assistant Professor Atilla Hallsby (Communication Studies): “This Page Left Intentionally Blank: Rhetorical Forms of the Secret”
• Assistant Professor Dwight Lewis, Jr. (Philosophy): “Justice, Inclusion & Equity in Philosophy”
• Assistant Professor Kari Smalkoski (Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies): “American Dream Disrupted: Reframing Narratives on Asian American Youth, Gender, and Inequality in Schools”
• Assistant Professor Arash Davari (Political Science): “Insurgent Witness: Revolutionary Iran and the Question of Self-Determination”
• Associate Professor Katherine Gerbner (History): “Constructing Religion, Defining Crime”
• Professor David Gore (Communication): ”Communication & Religion: The Gift of Presence“
• Assistant Professor Zornitsa Keremidchieva (Communication Studies): “Irredentism and its Others”
• Professor Matthew Rahaim (Music): “Improvising Relationality”
• Assistant Professor Katie Van Wert (English, Linguistics & Writing Studies): “Writing at the End of Life: Exploring Legacy Narrative in Palliative Care”

Awards

Assistant Professor Aamina Ahmad (English) won the Best First Novel prize by the Writers Guild of Great Britain for her debut novel The Return of Faraz Ali - "a multi-layered tale of family, identity, and the politics of power in a caste-ridden society."

Publications & Creative Activities

Associate Professor V. V. Ganeshananthan (English) published her second novel Brotherless Night in January 2023.

Assistant Professor Megan Giddings (English) published her second novel The Women Could Fly in August 2022.

Associate Professor Douglas Kearney (English) published Optic Subwoof in November 2022.

Professor Josephine Lee (English, Asian American Studies) published Oriental, Black, and White: The Formation of Racial Habits in American Theater in October 2022.

Fellowships & Grants

Professor Penny Edgell (Sociology) has been awarded a residential fellowship from the Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholars Program. Professor Edgell will spend the 2023-24 academic year in New York working on her upcoming book The Reconfiguration of American Religion, 1990-present.

Professor and Raymond O. Mithun Endowed Chair in Advertising Jisu Huh (Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication) was selected by Meta for its 2022 People’s Expectations and Experiences with Digital Privacy Grant program. Professor Huh will partner with Wonsun Shin of the University of Melbourne (PhD '10) for a joint project, "Privacy and trust equilibrium of personalized social media ad acceptance."

Professors Alan Love (Philosophy) and Hui Zou (Statistics) were honored as lifetime American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows. AAAS - The American Association for the Advancement of Science is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.

Visit the current Accolades page