Accomplishments

Faculty Accomplishments: College of Arts & Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences is excited to share recent accomplishments from our faculty and staff members.

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Accomplishments are listed by date of achievement in reverse chronological order, with the most recent first.


All Recent Accomplishments

Jonathan Goldman, Ph.D., professor of English, was interviewed for a two-hour interview with renowned media expert and archivist Gerry Fialka for the video series "I'm Probably Wrong About Everything," on April 3, 2024.

Robert G. Alexander, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and counseling, published an article titled “Why did Rubens add a parrot to Titian's The Fall of Man? A pictorial manipulation of joint attention” in the April 2024 issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Vision. This is a case study comparing two paintings: one by Rubens and another by Titian. The study aims to evaluate how Ruben's changes while copying Titian's painting altered the eye movements of the viewers.

Amanda Golden, Ph.D., associate professor of English in the Department of Humanities, presented the paper, “Greenhouse Poetics: Sylvia Plath and Theodore Roethke” at The Greenhouse Effect: Atmospheres of the Botanical Humanities Symposium, held at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts on March 29, 2024.

Claude E. Gagna, Ph.D., professor of biological and chemical sciences, published a peer-reviewed journal article titled "Novel B-DNA Dermatophyte Assay for Demonstration of Canonical DNA in Dermatophytes: Histopathologic Characterization by Artificial Intelligence" in Clinics in Dermatology. The article was published on March 27, 2024, and describes a novel assay and artificial intelligence-driven histopathologic approach identifying dermatophytes in human skin tissue sections (B-DNA dermatophyte assay) and demonstrates, for the first time, the presence of dermatophytes in tissue using immunohistochemistry to detect canonical right-handed double-stranded B-DNA. The assay resulted in superior identification, sensitivity, life cycle stages, and morphology compared to traditional stains.

Claude E. Gagna, Ph.D., professor of biological and chemical sciences, published an article on March 18, 2024, titled "Tinea Amianacea: Attack of the Living Dead, Revisited", in the SkinMed Journal. It discusses dermatophytes as a pathological condition affecting millions of people throughout the world. Tinea is the name of a group of diseases caused by a fungus.

Nicole Calma-Roddin, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and counseling, presented at and served as a panelist for the Virtual Ongoing Interdisciplinary Collaborations on Educating with Song (VOICES) "Song Swap & Lesson Plan Jam" event on March 7, 2024. This event showcased songs and parodies related to teaching and learning STEM content and included a discussion of the creation and classroom implementation of such songs. "The Hypothesis Testing Song" parody, which she presented, was written in collaboration with psychology and counseling students Kaitlyn Broderick, Serra Issi, Serena Onbasi, Irham Saeed, and Deborah Benitez as part of a class research project.

Nicole Calma-Roddin, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and counseling, presented a paper, "Effectiveness for learning and student enjoyment for a text-only narrative game" at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association in Philadelphia, Pa., on March 1, 2024.

Claude E. Gagna, Ph.D., professor of biological and chemical sciences, published an abstract in the March 2024 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2024 DISCOVER BMB annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, titled "Structural Spatial Transcriptomics: Novel Omics Technology". This method allows for the identification and quantification of different RNA structures, such as canonical A-RNA and non-canonical Z-RNA in individual cells. Structural Spatial Transcriptomics will allow researchers to identify spatial interactions, specific RNA biomarkers, and cancer transcriptomes in their natural tissue architecture, helping investigators to identify potential RNA structure-based drug targets.

Jamel Vanderburg, M.P.A., adjunct instructor of interdisciplinary studies, presented during the second day of the International Graduate Student Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii held from February 15 to 17, 2024. He discussed distorted disasters in communities of color, comparing Hurricane Katrina and the Maui wildfires. He advocated for the removal of personal politics to help people.

Amanda Golden, Ph.D., associate professor of English in the Department of Humanities, delivered a discussion on February 15, 2024, titled "Writing about Archives" as part of the Modern Language Association's Sit and Write series.