Accolades

Awards

Professor Ananya Chatterjea (Theatre Arts & Dance) received a Creative Impact Award from the United States Artists and Joyce Foundation. This award recognizes artists and organizations that have enriched the Great Lakes region through creativity and culture.

Awards

Professor Brenda Child (American Studies) received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Indigenous History at the recent meeting of the Western History Association.

Mapping Prejudice, a former Liberal Arts Engagement Hub residency, has won a 2025 W. K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award. 

Anna Seastrand (faculty member in Art History and a Religious Studies Core Faculty Member) won the 2025 Religion and the Arts Book Award for Body, History, Myth: Early Modern Murals in South India.

Dr. Katie Levin (Center for Writing) has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the NCPTW’s Ron Maxwell Award for Distinguished Leadership in Promoting the Collaborative Learning Practices of Peer Tutors in Writing (The NCPTW Ron Maxwell Leadership Award). The NCPTW Ron Maxwell Leadership Award is presented annually to a writing center professional who has contributed with distinction to undergraduate student development through mentoring peer writing tutors involved in collaborative learning. The NCPTW Ron Maxwell Committee often recognizes individuals who have provided extraordinary service to the evolution of the NCPTW organization and conference.

Awards

Professor Maggie Hennefeld (Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature) received the David Shepard Career Achievement Award from the Denver Silent Film Festival on September 12.

Assistant Professor Carlo Antonio Villanueva (Theatre Arts & Dance) has been named a 2025 Dance Research Fellow at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. His project, titled "Live Dancing and the Archive: Locating Improvisation in Bill T. Jones’ Choreographies," tracks changes in Jones' choreography across time and bodies in order to understand an archive's ability to hold liveness.

PhD Candidate Snigdha Kumar (Sociology) was awarded the Caroline Rose Student Paper Award for the Sociologists of Minnesota at the Graduate Level for their paper, "Blessed by the State: The Platformization of Finance and its Mutually Constitutive Relationship with the State."

PhD Candidate Chris Robertson (Sociology) was named a 2025 Hawkinson Scholar by the Hawkinson Fund for Peace and Justice.

Assistant Director of the Religious Studies Program Nathanael Homewood has been awarded the 2025 Anne Bolin & Gil Herdt Book Prize for his book Seductive Spirits: Deliverance, Demons, and Sexual Worldmaking in Ghanaian Pentecostalism (Stanford University Press, 2024). This annual award recognizes a book of significance in the field of human sexuality.

Publications & Creative Activities

Professor Michelle Phelps (Sociology) and PhD Candidate, Daniel Cueto-Villalobos (Sociology), recently published an article titled "Making racial demands: tracing the struggle over public safety in Minneapolis." This article argues that the charter debate in Minneapolis illustrates how social movement organizations work to construct public perceptions of what is in minoritized groups’ interests, a process we conceptualize as making racial demands.

Awards

Assistant Professor Maria Nieves-Colón (Anthropology) has been named a 2025 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences. Her research will investigate the genetic and health impacts of the influx of millions of Africans to Latin America during the colonial period. 

Graduate student Christopher Robertson (Sociology) has been awarded the prestigious American Bar Foundation's Law and Society Association postdoctoral fellowship in Law & Inequality.

Assistant Professor Ed Cornelius (Sociology) was awarded the Best Graduate Student Paper Award for the ASA Section on Global and Transnational Sociology. His article, "Discursive mismatch and globalization by stealth: The fight against corruption in the Brazilian legal field" was previously published in the Law & Society Review in 2023.

Fellowships & Grants

Publications & Creative Activities

Professor Douglas Kearney (English) published his ninth book, the poetry collection I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always (Wave Books, 2025). Kearney wrote the libretto for the opera The Comet/Poppea, composed by George Lewis, which received its New York premiere at the Lincoln Center, performed by the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*).

Assistant Professor Megan Giddings (English) published her third novel, Meet Me at the Crossroads (Amistad).

Professors and acclaimed scholars Ellen Messer-Davidow and John Watkins retired this year after decades of service to the English department. Watkins was honored with a festschrift edited by Professor Katherine Scheil and PhD alum Linda Shenk, Early Modern Improvisations: Essays on History and Literature in Honor of John Watkins (Routledge).

Curriculum Administrator Kyle Edwards and Professor August Nimtz (Political Science) have published their book The Communist and the Revolutionary Liberal in the Second American Revolution (Haymarket Books). The book presents "a unique comparative look at two of the most influential historical figures of the nineteenth century: Karl Marx and Frederick Douglass."

• PhD student JoJo Bell's Red Stained: The Life of Hilda Simms 
• Alum Joe William Trotter, Jr.'s (PhD '80) Building the Black City: The Transformation of American Life

Awards

Congratulations to Associate Professor Hiromi Mizuno (History), whose article "Okinawa Agriculture and the Sterile Insect Technology" received the 2024 Vernon Carstensen Memorial Award for the best article published in the journal Agricultural History (Nov 2024) from the Agricultural History Society.

Associate Professor Alice Lovejoy (Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature) was awarded the Artis Bohemiae Amicis Medal by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. This is a state award given for long-term, significant contributions to Czech culture.

Professor Kathleen Collins (Political Science) has received the Fulbright Global Scholar Award (2025–26), the most competitive program awarded by the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, and the College of Liberal Arts Social Science Research Grant (2025–27). The awards support her research on pathways of postcommunist military reform.

Associate Dean for Arts and Humanities and Associate Professor Tracey Deutch (History) received the 2025 President's Award for Outstanding Service. The University of Minnesota President's Award for Outstanding Service was established in 1997 to recognize faculty and staff (current or retired) who have provided exceptional service to the University, its schools, colleges, departments, and service units.

Awards

Congratulations to two CLA instructors whose courses have been selected as recipients for this year’s Canvas Course Site Hall of Fame Excellence in Canvas Engagement award. This student-nominated award recognizes an intentional commitment to excellence in course design and using tools within Canvas to support student learning.

• Lecturer Tara Zahler (Writing Studies): WRIT 1301 University Writing
• Assistant Professor Michael Bennett McNulty (Philosophy): PHIL 3601 Philosophy of Scientific Thought

Congratulations to the following recipients of the 2025 Awards for Academic Unit Service:

• University of Minnesota Unit Service Award ($10,000)
  • Professor Kathryn Scheil (English), University of Minnesota Unit Service Award ($10,000)
• Provost's Unit Service Award ($5,000)
  • Assistant Professor Brian Reese (Linguistics), Provost's Unit Service Award ($5,000)
• Award for Excellence in Academic Unit Service ($500)
  • Associate Professor Sophia Beal (Spanish & Portuguese Studies)
  • Assistant Professor Dan Card (Writing Studies)
  • Senior Lecturer David Cram Helwich (Communication Studies)
  • Associate Professor Scott Curie (School of Music)
  • Audiology Clinical Supervisor Shaeleen Fagre (Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences)
  • Associate Professor Andrew Gallia (History)
  • Assistant Professor Laura Garbes (Sociology)
  • Associate Professor Jessica Gordon-Roth (Philosophy)
  • Director of Graduate Studies, Visiting Associate Professor Thomas Gurke (German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch)
  • Associate Professor Kyle Herkenhoff (Economics)
  • Senior Fellow Scott Libin (Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication)
  • Lecturer William Lindeke (Geography, Environment, and Society)
  • Lecturer Charles McNamara (Classical and Near Eastern Religions and Cultures)
  • Assistant Teaching Professor Liza Meredith (Psychology)
  • Professor Michael Minta (Political Science)
  • Associate Professor Elliott Powell (American Studies)

The Distinguished McKnight University Professorship program recognizes outstanding faculty members who have recently achieved full professor status. Recipients hold the title “Distinguished McKnight University Professor” for as long as they remain employed at the University of Minnesota. Congratulations to the following CLA faculty who were recognized as 2025 Distinguished McKnight University Professors:

• Professor Manual Amador (Economics)
• Professor Tanisha M. Fazal (Political Science)

The goal of the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship Program is to advance the careers of assistant professors at a crucial point in their professional lives. The designation of “McKnight Land-Grant Professor” is held by recipients for a two-year period. Congratulations to the following CLA faculty who were recognized as 2025 McKnight Land-Grant Professors:

• Assistant Professor Emily Fairfax (Geography, Environment & Society)
• Assistant Professor Megan Finch (English)
• Assistant Professor Aaron Hall (History)
• Assistant Professor Jessica Lopez Lyman (Chicano & Latino Studies)

Congratulations to Professor Timothy R. Johnson (Political Science) for receiving the 2025 Vickie R. Courtney Award for Outstanding Service to University Senate Governance. This recognition acknowledges faculty, students, academic professional and administrative (P&A) staff, and civil service staff systemwide who have made a significant impact on University Senate governance.

Congratulations to Associate Professor V. V. Ganeshananthan (English), 2025 recipient of the Sara Evans Leadership Award. This award recognizes faculty and academic professionals who are leaders in the advancement of women or gender-marginalized people at the University of Minnesota through leadership, academic excellence, advocacy, engagement and/or program development.

Congratulations to the following CLA faculty who were recognized for their outstanding contributions to graduate and/or professional education:

• Professor Elizabeth Heger Boyle (Sociology)
• Professor Bruce Braun (Geography, Environment & Society)
• Professor Timothy Andres Brennan (English and Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature)

Congratulations to Professor Teresa Toguchi Swartz (Sociology), recipient of the 2025 Distinguished Teachers Morse-Alumni Award. This honor is awarded to exceptional candidates nominated by colleges in their quest to identify excellence in undergraduate education. 

Congratulations to Resident Fellow Douglas Allchin (History, Philosophy), elected to the 2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) class of Fellows. Allchin joined the class of 471 scientists, engineers, and innovators across 24 disciplinary sections recognized for scientific and social achievements.

Awards

Professor Shaden M. Tageldin (Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature) was awarded the Honorable Mention for the 2025 Nineteenth-Century Studies Association (NCSA) Article Prize for her essay “Hugo, Translated: The Measures of Modernity in Muḥammad Rūḥī al-Khālidī’s Poetics of Comparative Literature,” PMLA 138.3 (2023): 616–38.

Associate Professor Kathryn Pearson (Political Science) is the 2025 College of Liberal Arts Dean's Medalist. Dean’s Medalists are scholars who exemplify the highest standards of research, instruction, interdisciplinary reach, University citizenship, academic leadership, and local and national engagement. 

Assistant Professor Chotsani Elaine Dean (Art) is the 2025 Waldfogel Scholar of the College and Assistant Professor Michael Esposito (Sociology) is the 2025 Scholar of the College.

Professor Jane Blocker (Art History) and Professor Kirsten Fischer (Art History) are the 2025 recipients of CLA's Arthur “Red” and Helene B. Motley Exemplary Teaching Award.

Senior Lecturers Sara Finney (Spanish & Portuguese Studies) and Marisol Galicia Estévez (Spanish & Portuguese Studies) are the 2025 recipients of CLA's Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award.

Graduate Programs Coordinator Allie Cooperman (Department of Writing Studies) and Assistant Professor Gabriela Spears-Rico (Chicano & Latino Studies, American Indian Studies) are the 2025 recipients of CLA's inaugural Excellence in Graduate Student Career Support Award.

Associate Professor Claire Segijn (Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication) is the 2025 recipient of CLA's Career Readiness Teaching Award.

Congratulations to the Spring 2025 Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop Awardee. The Hub is thrilled to support this multi-year project that directly engages in reparative work with communities affected by the University's colonial collecting practices.

• Kat Hayes (PI), Anthropology and Heritage Studies & Public History
• Dylan Goetsch, NAGPRA Coordinator, Office of Native American Affairs
• Audrianna Goodwin, Red Lake Nation, TRUTH (Towards Recognition and University-Tribal Healing Project) Project Research Assistant and Red Lake Tribal Research Fellow
• Ellen Holt-Werle, Institutional Archivist, University Archives, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries
• Stewart Koyiyumptewa, Director of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, representative of the Mimbres Advisory Committee
• Samantha Porter, Advanced Imaging and Visualization Research Associate, Liberal Arts Technologies and Innovation Services (LATIS), College of Liberal Arts

The University's Office for Public Engagement administers public engagement awards that recognize the breadth and depth of community-engaged research, teaching, and service across the University system. Congratulations to:

• Professor Cheryl Olman (Psychology), recipient of the Exemplary University-Community Partnership Award. This award recognizes an individual staff member for an exemplary community-engaged program or project.
• Associate Professor Elizabeth Wrigley-Field (Sociology), recipient of the Societal Impact Award. This award recognizes an individual researcher, a collaboration among individuals, or a particular research project or program for exemplary academically-based community-engaged service and outreach.

Fellowships & Grants

Professor David Chang (History) was awarded a long-term residential fellowship next year at the Newberry Library for his research project "Indigenous History is about the Future: California Native History and the Purposes of the Past."

Doctoral candidates Olivia Comstock (Art History) and Taylor Rose Payer (Art History) are recipients of the 2025 Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship in American Art.

Fellowships & Grants

The University of Minnesota Twin Cities received two $500,000 grants from the Mellon Foundation:

• Assistant Professor Dwight K. Lewis Jr. (Philosophy) and Associate Professor Jessica Gordon-Roth (Philosophy): Transforming the Face of Philosophy to Effect Global Change Through the Center for Canon Expansion & Change (CCEC)
• Assistant Professor Jessica Horvath Williams (English), Associate Professor Jennie Row (French & Italian), Research Assistant Angela M. Carter (RIDGS), and Assistant Professor Erin Durban (Anthropology): A Critical Disability Studies Initiative: Interdisciplinary Scholarship & Community Engagement towards Social Justice

The University of Minnesota Twin Cities also received a $150,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation for the third phase of Professor Karen Mary Davalos' (Chicano & Latino Studies) project, Mexican American Art Since 1848. 

Awards

• PhD student Jake Harmon (Economics) and Ethan Cannon from the School of Public Health earned honors in the sixth Annual Interdisciplinary Health Data Competition (IHDC), hosted by the Business Advancement Center for Health (BACH) at the University of Minnesota. Their project, Bridging the Digital Divide. A Pathway for Small Practices in Promoting Interoperability, took third place.

Awards

Professor Helen Kinsella (Political Science) and Professor Josephine Lee (English) are recipients of the 2024 Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Award. The JEDI Award honors faculty who have done significant research, teaching or service/leadership to advance justice, equity, diversity and inclusion at the University, in the person's field of study, or in our broader community. 

Assistant Professor Kurt Fraser (Psychology) was named recipient of a 2024 Scialog Collaborative Innovation Award. Scialog, short for “science + dialog,” supports research by stimulating intensive interdisciplinary conversation and community building around a scientific theme of global importance.

Associate Professor Lisa Channer's (Theatre Arts & Dance) theatre company Theatre Novi Most was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) "Challenge America" grant for their upcoming project, AN OCEAN AWAY. Challenge America offers support for projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved communities.

Dreaming our Futures: Ojibwe and Očhéthi Šakówiņ Artists and Knowledge Keepers, co-edited by Nash Gallery Director Curator Howard Oransky and Northrop Professor of American Studies Brenda Child, has been named a 2025 Minnesota Book Awards finalist in the Anthology category.

Red Stained: The Life of Hilda Simms by PhD candidate JoJo Bell (History) has been named a 2025 Minnesota Book Awards finalist in the General Non-Fiction category.

The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America by Professor Michelle Phelps (Sociology) has been named a 2025 Minnesota Book Awards finalist in the Emilie Buchwald Award for Minnesota Nonfiction category.

Publications & Creative Activities

Fellowships & Grants

Professor Nancy Luxon (Political Science) has been awarded a six-month residence as a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies-Leuphana in Germany. As Senior Fellow, Professor Luxon will be working on a book project titled, Alienation, Disalienation, and Freedom, which examines the intersection of politics and radical psychiatry in moments of political change, and monitoring junior Fellows from the Global South.

Assistant Professor Nida Sajid (Asian & Middle Eastern Studies) was awarded a seed grant under RIO's new Sustainable GeoCommunities initiative for her project Alliance for Waste Equity (AWE): Transforming Waste Management with Sustainable Community-Engaged Solutions.

Associate Professor Elizabeth Wrigley-Field (Sociology) has been named a 2025-2026 Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar.

Awards

Professor Jessica Lopez Lyman (Chicano and Latino Studies) has received a 2024 U of M Outstanding Community Service Award. This award recognizes faculty, staff, students, and University-affiliated community partners who, by devoting their time, talents, and expertise to serve the public good, have made significant, demonstrable, and direct contributions to society's well-being.

Congratulations to PhD candidate Vanessa Anyanso (Psychology) for being named a 2024 Graduate and Professional SEED Awardee by the University's Office for Equity and Diversity. These awards honor underrepresented undergraduate, graduate, and professional students for their outstanding work in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion while at the University of Minnesota and in the community.

Publications & Creative Activities

Assistant Professor Nick Estes’s (American Indian Studies) book Our History Is the Future was listed in the New Yorker article “The Twenty-first Century’s Best Works of Native American History” list, compiled by 2023 National Book Award winner Ned Blackhawk. 

Awards

Associate Professor Sinem Casale (Art History) won the 2024 Religion and the Arts Book Award from the American Academy of Religion for her book Gifts in the Age of Empire: Ottoman-Safavid Cultural Exchange, 1500–1639.

Assistant Professor of speech, language, and hearing sciences, Natalie V. Covington will accept The Award for Early Career Contributions in Research from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in December. This award is designed to acknowledge significant scientific accomplishments by individuals beyond the dissertation and within five years of receiving their doctoral degree, other terminal degrees, or completion of post-doctoral training. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association that represents the field of Speech-Language-Hearing Science.

On October 11, 2024, King Felipe VI of Spain presented The Spanish Orders History Prize (Premio de Órdenes Españolas) to Dr. Carla Rahn Phillips, Union Pacific Professor Emerita in Comparative Early Modern History.

Congratulations to PhD student Caitlin Baulch (Rhetoric and Scientific & Technical Communication), winner of the 3-Minute Thesis (3MT®) research communication competition. Her presentation is titled, "'That’s Just an Old Wives’ Tale': Pregnancy on Social Media and in the Archive."

The Research and Innovation Office (RIO) has awarded approximately $50,000 each to two projects through its Artist-in-Residence program. Both projects will debut in fall 2025.

• "Elemental Explorations" – Professor Sonja Kuftinec (theatre arts & dance), Senior Teaching Specialist Luverne Seifert (theatre arts & dance), and Kara Baldwin (College of Biological Sciences) will showcase earth's elements in a theatrical trail performance
• "The Rules of Life" — Choreographed by Professor Carl Flink (theatre arts & dance) blends dance and biomedicine to illustrate biological conflicts. 

Publications & Creative Activities

Assistant Director of the Immigration History Research Center Michele Waslin published Private Violence: Latin American Women and the Struggle for Asylum in October 2024. The book, co-written by Dr. Carol Cleaveland of George Mason University, examines how immigration laws and policies shape the lives of Latin American women who seek safety in the United States.

Publications & Creative Activities

Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies David Perry (History) has published a new book Oathbreakers, The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe. A dramatic history of the Carolingian empire, the book will be available December 10, 2024.

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Danni Gilbert (School of Music), who has received a Campus Climate Micro-Grant from the Office of Equity and Diversity for a project entitled, "Evaluating the Impact of MacPhail's Project Amplify: Music Educators' Perceptions." Prof. Gilbert also received an international travel grant for $1,500 from the Global Programs and Strategy Alliance to present at the College Music Society International Conference in Bogatá and Medellín, Colombia, South America. That project is, "Stressed, sad, and stuck: Women’s experiences in university music settings".

Fellowships & Grants

UMN Dance Programs director and its Jette Sween Professor of Dance, Carl Flink received an Imagine award for 2024-2026. The Imagine Fund has provided not only critical funding support for innovative scholarship but also valuable opportunities for faculty to learn about research and opportunities for collaborations across the system.

Awards

The documentary "Art + Medicine: Disability, Culture and Creativity," hosted in part by Assistant Professor Jessica Horvath Williams (English) received the 2024 Twin Cities PBS Midwest Emmy Award for Arts & Entertainment, Long Form Content. The work showcases artists and healthcare clinicians collaborating to forge alternative viewpoints on disability through personal narratives and impactful performances.

Fellowships & Grants

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Danni Gilbert (School of Music), who has received a Campus Climate Micro-Grant from the Office of Equity and Diversity for a project entitled, "Evaluating the Impact of MacPhail's Project Amplify: Music Educators' Perceptions." Prof. Gilbert also received an international travel grant for $1,500 from the Global Programs and Strategy Alliance to present at the College Music Society International Conference in Bogatá and Medellín, Colombia, South America. That project is, "Stressed, sad, and stuck: Women’s experiences in university music settings".

Awards

Post-doctorate Sofía Pacheco-Fores (anthropology), received an National Science Foundation (NSF) award through the Dynamics of Integrated Socio-Environmental Systems (DISES) program for a collaborative project entitled "Simulating social-ecological cascades during the second plague pandemic." Her role in the project will be to reconstruct the migratory histories of individual plague victims across medieval Europe via the stable isotope analysis of their bones and teeth. This will allow her to examine the interplay between social-ecological networks and the spread of disease during the second plague pandemic.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Program in the College of Liberal Arts has been selected as a recipient of the 2024 Outstanding Unit Award for Equity and Diversity. These awards recognize exemplary campuses, colleges, departments, or units demonstrating leadership in equity and diversity work. MLK Program Wins Outstanding Unit Award for Equity and Diversity.

Awards

Congratulations to José Aguirre, Language Program and Remote Instruction Coordinator, in Spanish & Portuguese Studies, on being selected for the Provost’s Unit Service Award. The University of Minnesota Awards for Academic Unit Service (Provost’s Unit Service Award, Award for Excellence in Academic Unit Service and University of Minnesota Unit Service Award) serve to emphasize and recognize the importance of individual contributions to the University’s success. 

Professor and Director Elisia Cohen (Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication) was appointed the Cowles Chair in the Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication. The Chair serves to marshal the related research interests and expertise of the faculty, and to assist the school in becoming a publications center for such studies in media management and the economic and governmental environments of today’s industry.

Fellowships & Grants

Congratulations to Associate Professor Lisa Channer (Theatre, Arts & Dance), whose company Theatre Novi Most will work with Belarusian playwright Andrei Kureichik and Ukrainian community members to create a new play about the experience of watching the Russian invasion from afar. Theatre Novi Most received a Minnesota Humanities Center Cultural Heritage Award to support this effort. 

Publications & Creative Activities

Associate Professor and Cowles Fellow in Media Management Valérie Bélair-Gagnon (Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication) published two books: The Paradox of Connection; How Digital Media Is Transforming Journalistic Labor (2024) and Happiness in Journalism (2023).

Publications & Creative Activities

Assistant Professor Ruth DeFoster's (Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication) book Catholic Horror on Television, Haunting Faith was published last month. Co-written by Ralph Beliveau, Laura Bolf-Beliveau and Erika Engstrom, the book "explores the significant intersection of horror media and the Catholic Church."