Accolades
December 2024
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.
Fellowships & Grants
Two CLA faculty received $500,000 grants from the Mellon Foundation:
- Assistant Professor Jessica Horvath Williams (English); Disability Studies Initiative: Interdisciplinary Scholarship and Community Engagement towards Social Justice
- Assistant Professor Dwight Lewis (philosophy); Changing the Face of Philosophy Through the Center for Canon Expansion and Change (CCEC)
November 2024
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.
October 2024
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.
September 2024
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.
August 2024
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).
July 2024
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."
June 2024
Awards
Congratulations to Associate Professor Saje Mathieu (History) who was selected to receive a Fulbright U.S. Scholar fellowship. Fulbright Scholar Awards are prestigious and competitive fellowships that provide unique opportunities for scholars to teach and conduct research abroad. Fulbright scholars also play a critical role in U.S. public diplomacy, establishing long-term relationships between people and nations. Alumni include 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows, and thousands of leaders and world-renowned experts in academia and many other fields across the private, public, and non-profit sectors.
Congratulations to members of OIA's Marketing and Communications team for receiving 2023 Maroon & Gold Awards:
- Tessa Eagan, Lisa Miller, Laura Johnson, and Amelious Whyte, Maroon award in the digital category, Dream Initiative landing page
- Laura Johnson, Gold award in writing, Making it in Minnesota
Publications & Creative Activities
Associate Professor of English V. V. Ganeshananthan (English) has won the 2024 Women's Prize for Fiction with her 2023 novel Brotherless Night. The Women’s Prize for Fiction was established in 1996 to highlight and remedy the imbalance in coverage, respect and reverence given to women writers versus their male peers. The Prize is awarded annually to the author of the best full-length novel of the year written in English and published in the UK. The winner receives £30,000 and the ‘Bessie’, a bronze statuette created by the artist Grizel Niven. This award is in addition to the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, which Ganeshananthan won earlier this spring.
May 2024
Awards
- Adriana Taborda (Office of Undergraduate Education)
- Aleks Zarnitsyn (Philosophy)
- Amanda Schmit (Psychology)
- Anna Freyberg (Liberal Arts Engagement Hub)
- Carter Griffith (Language Center)
- Clancy Theade (School of Music)
- Clarence Wethern (American Studies; American Indian Studies; Chicano and Latino Studies)
- David Olsen (Liberal Arts Technology Innovation Services)
- Deana Selvaggio (Office of the Dean)
- DeAnn Strenke (Office of Undergraduate Education)
- Eric Gregor (Fiscal Administration)
- Jessica McCarty (Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences)
- Laura Scroggs (Liberal Arts Technology Innovation Services)
- Lena Schroeder (French and Italian; German, Nordic, Slavic, and Dutch)
- Melissa Collins (School of Music)
- Melissa Grosso (Office of Undergraduate Education)
- Mona Clemensen (Office of Undergraduate Education)
- Nora Livesay (American Indian Studies)
- Patrick Maloney (Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature; Classical & Near Eastern Religions & Cultures)
- Sierra Hough (Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication)
- Will Shuford (Economics)
Publications & Creative Activities
Professor Carl Elliott's (Philosophy) book The Occasional Human Sacrifice was published by WW Norton. His book is an intellectual inquiry into the moral struggle that whistleblowers face, and why it is not the kind of struggle that most people imagine.
Assistant Professor Danni Gilbert's (School of Music) research project "Women’s Perceptions of Advancement Opportunities in Higher Education Music Settings: A Mixed Methods Study," was recently published in the College Music Symposium: Journal of the College Music Society. This project pertains to issues of gender equity and work-life balance among collegiate music faculty based on a nation-wide survey of members of the National Association for Music Education and the College Music Society. Results revealed a statistically significant difference between the perceptions of men and women based on their responses
April 2024
Awards
Associate Professor Lisa Channer (Theatre Arts & Dance) is a recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board - Arts Experiences award for a Theatre Novi Most production of “Sickle,” a play by Abbey Fenbert.
Congratulations to CLA's recipients of the President's Award for Outstanding Service:
- Professor Karen Z. Ho (Anthropology)
- Associate Professor Emeritus David Lawrence Feinberg (Art)
Associate Professor VV Ganeshananthan (English) has won this year's Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, for her novel Brotherless Night. This is the second year of the prize, which awards English-language writing by women and nonbinary authors.
Fellowships & Grants
Congratulations to CLA’s IAS Residential Faculty Fellows for 2024-25:
- Associate Professor Hakim Abderrezak (French & Italian): “Burning the Sea: Clandestine Crossings in the Mediterranean Seametery”
- Assistant Professor Megan Finch (English): “Black Women Unhinged: Idiocy, Madness, and Perverse Relations in Post-1960s Black Women’s Novels”
- Professor Christine Marran (Asian & Middle Eastern Studies): “Documenting Environmental Displacement and Trans-Pacific Immigration with Creative Nonfiction as Method”
- Associate Professor Cawo Abdi (Sociology) : “Intractable Public Education Inequities and The School Choice Debate: Somali Students in Minnesota”
- Associate Professor Lisa Channer (Theatre Arts & Dance): “Eileen in '60: A Documentary Film”
- Regents Professor Jean O'Brien (History): “Memory and Mobility: Grandma's Mahnomen, White Earth”
- Assistant Professor Catharine Saint-Croix (Philosophy): “Blades of Grass: Protest, Attention, and the Epistemic”
- Assistant Professor Jamele Watkins (German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch): “From Solidarity to Terror: East Germany and Race Through the ’Free Angela Davis Campaign‘”
March 2024
Awards
Associate Professor Lamar Peterson (art) was awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Peterson’s selection comes after a rigorous application and peer review process, one in which just 188 individuals were selected from almost 3,000 applicants based on outstanding achievement and exceptional promise.
Associate Professor Kat Hayes (Anthropology) is the recipient of the 2024 CLA Dean’s Medal.
Associate Professor Kelley Harness (School of Music) was named 2024 Scholar of the College and Professor Andrew Oxenham (Psychology) was named the 2024 Waldfogel Scholar of the College.
Associate Professor Kathleen Collins (Political Science) and Assistant Professor Jessica Lopez Lyman (Chicano & Latino Studies) are the 2024 recipients of CLA's Arthur “Red” and Helene B. Motley Exemplary Teaching Award.
Professor Katherine Scheil (English) is the 2024 recipient of CLA's Career Readiness Teaching Award.
Communications Specialist Terri Sutton (English) is the 2024 recipient of the CLA Career Readiness Advocate Award.
Senior Lecturers Fahima Aziz (Economics) and Katrien Vanpee (Asian & Middle Eastern Studies) are the 2024 recipients of CLA's Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award.
CLA recognizes the following staff members for their commitment and achievement as 2024 Outstanding Service Award recipients:
- Alexis Cuttance, Political Science
- Rachel Drake, English
- Keiko Ehret, French & Italian; German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch
- Elleni Fellows, LATIS
- David Hanzal, School of Music
- Karen Haselmann, Art/LATIS
- Sarah Jahn, Psychology
- Lisa McDaniel, Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication
- Lisa Sass Zaragoza, Chicano & Latino Studies
- Charissa Blue, Undergraduate Education
- Amanda Nelson, History
- David Olsen, LATIS
- Liz Olson, Classical & Near Eastern Religions & Cultures
- Millie Reid Rivera, Theatre Arts & Dance
- Lamar Roberts, Undergraduate Education
- Carmen Sims, Communication Studies
- Amanda Steepleton, Liberal Arts Engagement Hub
Finance Documentation Team (workgroup)
- Kyle Blume
- Keiko Ehret
- Jennifer Franko
- Anna Freyberg
- Pam Groscost
- Royce Hunter
- Cheryl Oulicky
- Michael Sallberg
- Kory Schmitz
- Eric Short
Ted Mann Concert Hall (workgroup)
- Sari Baker
- Ben Eng
- Ben Kent
Workflow Hiring (workgroup)
- Corissa Arko
- Elleni Fellows
- Kara Kersteter
- Rana Murphy
- Patrick Russell
- Christopher Stordalen
Associate Professor Lisa Channer (Theatre Arts & Dance) received an IAS Fellowship for Spring 2025 and a Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Individuals Grant for a new film entitled “Eileen in ‘60.”
Congratulations to the following recipients of MidCareer Faculty Research Awards:
- Assistant Professor Erin Durban (anthropology), Enabling Ethnography: Towards Anti-Ableist Knowledge Production
- Associate Professor Kerry Ebert (Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences), Effects of Systematic Client Feedback in Children’s Speech-Language Treatment
- Associate Professor James Lee (psychology) and Post-Doctoral Associate Emily Willoughby (psychology), Genome-wide Association Study of Cognitive Aging, Reaction Time, and Brain Size in the UK Biobank
- Associate Professor Mandy Menke (Spanish & Portuguese), Student Language Use in Critical Approaches to Language Education
- Associate Professor Patricia Ahearne-Kroll (Classical & Near Eastern Religions & Cultures), Commentary on Aseneth: A Study of Three Greek Texts and The Book History of Their Respective Codices
And congratulations to the following recipients of Warwick MidCareer Faculty Research Awards:
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Associate Professor Claire Segijn (Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication), Media Effects and Ethical Ramifications of Phones ‘Listening’ into Offline Conversations
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Associate Professor Jane Sumner (political science), The Politics of Small Business Ownership
Publications & Creative Activities
Northrop Professor Brenda Child (American Studies) was named a 2024 National Book Awards Judge by the National Book Foundation.
Professor Ana Forcinito (Spanish and Portuguese Studies) and Carolina Añón Suárez, (Ph.D. 2021 from the University of Minnesota, currently an Assistant Professor at Fairfield University) received recognition from the City of La Plata in Argentina for their volume Generación Hijes: memoria, posdictadura, y posconflicto en América Latina (Generation of Sons and Daughters: Memory, Post Dictatorship, and Postconflict in Latin America), published by Hispanic Issues Online at the University of Minnesota. The co-edited book was designated as being of municipal interest due to its significant contribution to Memory, Truth, and Justice on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the delivery of the Final Report of the CONADEP, known as Nunca Más (decree of the Deliberative Council, March 14, 2024).
Fellowships & Grants
February 2024
Awards
Congratulations to CLA's recipients of the 2023-2024 John Tate Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising:
- Associate Professor Sarah-Jane (Saje) Mathieu (History)
- Associate Director of Advising Bavi Weston
Congratulations to CLA's recipients of the 2024-26 McKnight Land-Grant Professorship Award:
- Assistant Professor Shir Alon (Asian and Middle Eastern Studies)
Assistant Professor Madelaine C. Cahuas (Geography, Environment & Society)
Assistant Professor Serra M. Hakyemez (Anthropology)
Assistant Professor Josef Woldense (African American and African Studies)
Professor Jisu Huh (Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication) was named a recipient of the 2023-24 Award for Outstanding Contributions to Graduate and Professional Education. This honor is awarded to exceptional candidates who have been nominated by colleges for excellence in graduate and professional education.
January 2024
Awards
Assistant Professor Jamele Watkins (German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch) has been selected as a Residential Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Institute for Advanced Study for spring 2025 for her project From Solidarity to Terror: East Germany and Race Through the "Free Angela Davis Campaign."
Associate Professor & Director of Urban Studies Kate Derickson (Geography, Environment & Society) was recognized as a 2024 Fellow by the American Association of Geographers. The AAG Fellows is a recognition and service program that applauds geographers who have made significant contributions to advancing geography.
Regents Professor Julie Schumacher (English) has been long-listed for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, given annually to a "mid-career fiction writer who has earned a distinguished reputation and the approbation and gratitude of readers."
Publications & Creative Activities
Professor Michal Kobialka (Theatre Arts & Dance)’s book A History of Polish Theatre (Cambridge University Press, 2022) has been selected for special honorable mention recognition in the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America’s 2023 Anna M. Cienciala Award competition.
Associate Professor Kathryn Nuernberger (English) in January published, with co-author Maya Jewell Zeller, Advanced Poetry: A Writer's Guide and Anthology (Bloomsbury, 2024). Nuernberger is one of two University professors receiving funding through the inaugural Artist-in-Residence program of the Research and Innovation Office, awarding projects that bring art and science together to illuminate important ideas. Through “Katydid Songs and Silent Crickets: Poems in the Grasses,” poet Nuernberger will learn about local pond and grassland habitats with College of Biological Sciences Regents Professor Marlene Zuk and use this research to write poems answering the griefs of climate change and mass extinction with songs of hope and beauty.
Fellowships & Grants
Assistant Professor Katerina Korola (German, Nordic, Slavic and Dutch) was awarded a fellowship at the University of Basel's eikones Center for the Theory and History of the Image for the 2024-25 academic year.
Professor Christophe Wall-Romana (French & Italian) was awarded a prestigious fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities for his project entitled “Translation and Critical Edition of Selected Writings by Ismayl Urbain (1812-1884).” Qualifications for Success, 2023.
