Omar Quintero-Carmona, associate professor of biology, and John Warrick, associate professor of biology published "Transcriptomic Analysis of CAD Cell Differentiation" in MicroPublication Biology, along with students Lillie Wendt '26, Carlos Cevallos, '17, Anna Leigh White, '20, Brooke Fazio, '21 and GC '22, Jasmine Feng, '20, and Dora Posfai, '13.
Christopher von Rueden, professor of leadership studies, co-published the article "Why collective music-making is sometimes rare: A study of four indigenous societies" in Evolution and Human Behavior.
Crystal Hoyt, professor of leadership studies and psychology, co-published the article "Gender identity awareness as a shadow pillar of the gender hierarchy: How it can undermine women in leadership" in Sex Roles: A Journal of Research.
Nigel James, assistant professor of health studies, presented “Conflict, Climate, and Child Health: Evidence from Sub Saharan Africa” at the Population Association of America Annual Meeting.
Nigel James, assistant professor of health studies, presented “Does Health Insurance Coverage Reduce Childhood Morbidity? Evidence from Zimbabwe” at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health Annual Conference.
Joonsuk Park, associate professor of computer science, published the paper "tRAG: Term-level Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Zero-shot Retrieval" in Proceedings of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL).
Joonsuk Park, associate professor of computer science, published the paper "Return of EM: Entity-driven Answer Set Expansion for QA Evaluation" in Proceedings of the International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING).
Camilla W. Nonterah, associate professor of psychology, published "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in Organ Transplantation" in the American Journal of Transplantation.
Kathryn Jacobsen, William E. Cooper Distinguished University Chair and professor of health studies was promoted to Global Burden of Disease (GBD) principal collaborator at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The position is the highest tier within the GBD Collaborator Network.
Miriam McCormick, professor of philosophy, was appointed Lewis T. Booker Professor in Ethics.
Karina Vázquez, senior teaching faculty of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies, published "Escritoras que nos rescatan. La reedición literaria en el aula universitaria como práctica de investigación-creación / Female Writers Come to the Rescue: Literary Reedition as a Research-Creative Pedagogy in the University Classroom" in (an)ecdótica.
Karina Vázquez, senior teaching faculty of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies, presented “Bridging the Gap: Students Translators and Interpreters within the Community” at the National Council Undergraduate Research Conference.
Joonsuk Park, associate professor of computer science, published the paper "AdvisorQA: Towards Helpful and Harmless Advice-seeking Question Answering with Collective Intelligence" in Proceedings of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL).
Jeremy Drummond, associate professor of art, will present his latest film, Monument, at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival and the MicroActs Intimate Histories. He will also present the film as an Official Selection at the 28th Brooklyn Film Festival, the St. Moritz Art Film Festival, the Umbria Underground Film Festival, and the TerraLenta International Environmental Documentary Film Festival.
Patrick Martin, assistant professor of computer science, along with students Tyeon Ford, ’27, and Jordan Attys, ’27, developed the robotics algorithms and wearable computing systems that facilitated the live choreography of humans and robots in “Interconnected,” an improvisational dance performance.
Karina Vázquez, senior teaching faculty of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies, published “Intimate Experiences: War and Food in Lee Miller” in The Recipes Project.
Nigel James, assistant professor of health studies, presented "The Impact of Old Age Non-contributory Pension Programs on Depression in Low and Middle Income Countries: The case of Rural Mexico" at the Population Association of America Annual Meeting and the Consortium of Universities for Global Health Annual Conference.
Courtney Blondino, assistant professor of health studies, published "Latent Structure of Past 12-Month Tobacco Use in Wave 6 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health: Examining for Differential Substructure by Generational Status" in Substance Use and Misuse with students, Fernanda Moya Quezada, ’26, and Caitlyn Hall, ’26.
Mariama Rebello de Sousa Dias, associate professor of physics, published "Anisotropic Optical Response of Gold-Silver Alloys" in Physica Status Solidi (RRL) - Rapid Research Letters.
Kathryn Jacobsen, William E. Cooper Distinguished University Chair and professor of health studies published “Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific burden of diarrhoeal diseases, their risk factors, and aetiologies, 1990–2021, for 204 countries and territories: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021” in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Karina Vázquez, senior teaching faculty of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies, presented "Bridging Humanities, Professions and Communities" at the University of Georgia. The talk highlighted course design strategies that connect the humanities with Career Services and community partners through experiential learning, interdisciplinary projects, and student reflections on professional growth and social agency.
Douglas Winiarski, professor of religious studies, was awarded the annual John M. Murrin Essay Prize for “Revisioning the Shawnee Prophet: Revitalization Movements, Religious Studies, and the Ontological Turn” for the best article published in Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal in 2024.
Sara Pappas, associate professor of French and visual culture, published the book Naturalism's Imaginary Museum, French Art, and the Eclectic Nineteenth Century.
Joonsuk Park, associate professor of computer science, published the paper "Are LLM-Judges Robust to Expressions of Uncertainty? Investigating the effect of Epistemic Markers on LLM-based Evaluation" in the Proceedings of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL).
Eric S. Yellin, associate professor of history, participated in the American Historical Association’s Congressional Briefing, offering historical perspectives on the federal civil service.
Christopher von Rueden, professor of leadership studies, co-published the article “Fiercely egalitarian”: Thematic cross-cultural analysis reveals regularities in the maintenance of egalitarianism across four independent African hunter-gatherer groups in Cross-Cultural Research.
Christopher von Rueden, professor of leadership studies, co-published the article Cross-cultural evidence that intergroup conflict heightens preferences for dominant leaders: A 25-country study in Evolution and Human Behavior.
Guzel Garifullina, assistant professor of leadership studies, received the 2025 Frank Cass Prize for Best Article published in the journal Democratization for her article "Ambition without Democracy: When the Cautious Seek Office."
Sam Director, assistant professor of leadership studies, published the article "Does Black Box AI in Medicine Compromise Informed Consent?" in Philosophy and Technology.
Michael Marsh-Soloway, teaching faculty of literatures, languages, and cultures, published The Mathematical Mind of F. M. Dostoevsky: Imaginary Numbers, Non-Euclidean Geometry, and Infinity.
Corey Payne, assistant professor of sociology, published "Billionaires and Capitalist Development in World-Historical Perspective," in the journal Sociology of Development. A newly released dataset on the wealthiest individuals in the world between 1450 and 1914 is featured in the article.
Rhiannon Graybill, Marcus M. and Carole M. Weinstein & Gilbert M. and Fannie S. Rosenthal Chair of Jewish Studies, was tapped as founding co-editor for a new Bloomsbury book series called Sexing Scripture. The series publishes cutting edge research on gender, sex, sexuality, and religious texts.
Cynthia Price, associate vice president for communications and media relations, won 1st place in the Writing – Specialty Articles – Green/Environmental category for “Lessons in nature on the University of Richmond Campus” in the Virginia Professional Communicators 2025 communications contest.
Alicia Díaz, associate professor of dance, reflects on the MAPA dance project in “Excavando juntas en el paraíso,” in categoría cinco. The collaborative performance took place in the ruins of the Cine Paradise, a former movie theater in downtown Río Piedras, Puerto Rico.
Timothy Barney, professor of rhetoric and communication studies, was awarded the 2025 Mednick Faculty Fellowship Award from the Virginia Foundation for Independent Collegesin the amount of $2,800 for the project, "Mapping the Ford Foundation," a digital humanities initiative co-led with Nicole Sackley, associate professor of history and American studies. The University of Richmond selects one faculty member annually to apply for the grant.
Associate professor of art, Jeremy Drummond’s film Monument, has been acquired for distribution by The Film-Makers' Cooperative, the largest archive and distributor of independent and avant-garde films in the world. The film has also been acquired by Video Pool Media Arts Center for international distribution.
Jeremy Drummond, associate professor of art, won the Special Jury Award for Creative Achievement for his film, Monument, at the 33rd Annual Arizona International Film Festival.
Shweta Ware, assistant professor of computer science, and Laura Knouse, professor of psychology, along with students Allison Baun, '26, Peiyi Wang, '25, Caleb Kwakye, '25, Sofia Dimotsi, '24, Ethan Swift, '24, and Nikoloz Gvelesiani, '26 published “ADHDSymTracker: Predicting ADHD Symptoms using Apple HealthKit Data” in Smart Health.
Rachel Reynolds, adjunct assistant professor of nonprofit studies, presented her doctoral research at the Leading Change Conference 2025 at James Madison University in Harrisonburg. Her presentation was titled “Ambidextrous Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations: The Role of Joint Space.”
As We Speak: The Future of Free Expression, the documentary film in which Erik Nielson, professor and chair of liberal arts, served as both a consulting producer and expert on the use of rap lyrics in criminal trials, has been nominated for an Emmy award as an Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary.
Brian Henry, professor of English and creative writing, was named to the shortlist for the 2025 Griffin Poetry Prize, the world's largest prize for a book of poetry. He was selected for his translated and edited edition of Tomaž Šalamun's Kiss of the Eyes of Peace, Selected Poems 1964-2014.
Grant Rissler, assistant professor of organizational studies, presented “Immigration Law and Policy Shifts in Trump 2.0” as part of the Richmond Peace Center’s 2025 teach-in event, “The First 80 Days of the Trump Administration.”
Michelle Kahn, associate professor of history, has been awarded a $26,000 National Humanities Center Fellowship for 2025-26 to support writing her book tentatively titled Neo-Nazis in Germany and the United States: An Entangled History of Hate, 1945-2000. Learn more.
Chris Miller, visiting assistant professor of political science, and Yucong Jiang, assistant professor of computer science, published "Congressional rhetoric on Twitter and the crisis of democracy" in Communication and Democracy.
Heather M. Russell, associate professor of mathematics published "Runs and RSK Tableaux of Boolean Permutations" in Annals of Combinatorics.
Pippa Holloway, Cornerstones Chair in History, won the A. Elizabeth Taylor Prize from the Southern Association of Women Historians for her article, “Virginia Penny’s ‘State of Desperation’: Anger, Insanity, and Struggle for Justice in Nineteenth-Century Kentucky,” which was published in Ohio Valley History.
Priscilla Erickson, assistant professor of biology, along with Camille Walsh-Antzak, ’24, published "Strength of Enemy Release From Parasitoids Is Context Dependent in the Invasive African Fig Fly, Zaprionus indianus" in Ecology and Evolution.
Elizabeth Baughan, associate professor of classics and archaeology, Lauren Henley, assistant professor of leadership studies, and Beth Zizzamia, Special Analysis Lab GIS operations manager, along with students Sydney Cameron, ’26, Alex Harry, ’26, Angela Nguyen, ’27, and Katherine Stobie, ’26, presented “Students Collaborating with Community in Richmond’s Black Cemeteries” at the IMPACT National Conference.
Jeff Seeman, visiting research scholar, published “Eureka Moments Shared by Chemists. Hints at Enhancing One’s Own Creativity (and Even One’s Joy)” in ACS Central Science. The article was highlighted in Chemistry World, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Peter Kaufman, professor of leadership studies, published Arendt's Disappointments and Our New Beginnings: Citizenship and Democracy Reimagined with Edinburgh University Press.
Osenga, K. (April 2025). Op-Ed. Commentary: To secure Virginia's tech economy, protect the patents. Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Vladimir Chlouba, assistant professor of leadership studies, published the article "The Precolonial Origins of African Nationalism" in Comparative Political Studies.
Daniel L. Hocutt, web manager and adjunct professor of liberal arts, presented “Examining the ‘Truth’ of GenAI: Digital Life Interventions” on the panel Cutting through the Noise: Data-Driven Research on Generative AI and the Teaching of Writing at the 76th annual convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in Baltimore.
Joe Essid, adjunct assistant professor of liberal arts and director emeritus of the Writing Center, and Cort Schneider, adjunct assistant professor of education and director of Disability Services, presented “Practicing Computer Love with Neurodiverse Writers” at the 76th annual convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in Baltimore.
Aaron Roussell, women’s basketball head coach, was named the 2025 Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year, presented by Her Hoop Stats. The award recognizes the most outstanding mid-major head coach in the country.
Julietta Singh, professor of English and women, gender, & sexuality studies, directed The Nest, a feature-length documentary, which will make its world premiere at the upcoming Hot Docs Festival in Toronto, Canada.
Sandy Williams IV, assistant professor of art, designed the large bronze sculpture, Authors and Architects, as a memorial to the role of slavery in the life of Roanoke College. Learn More.
Grant Rissler, assistant professor of organizational studies, presented on two panels at the 2025 annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). Rissler presented “GIS Mapping as a Tool for Improving the Accessibility of Immigrant Integration Research Findings” in the Innovations in Research on Immigrant Integration panel, and he addressed work/life balance in the Student and New Professionals Summit.
Olivier Delers, professor of French, and Mimi Hanaoka, associate professor of religious studies, have been named Associated Colleges of the South Mellon Academic Leadership Fellows for 2025–27.
John Peters, a biology professor at the University of Richmond, has received a $502,981 National Science Foundation award to support his neuroscience research on the mechanisms of learning and memory.
David Wilkins, professor of leadership studies, published the chapter "Moving Past the Flawed Equations of Blood and Property" in the edited volume "Beyond Blood Quantum: Refusal to Disappear" published by Fulcrum Publishing.
Ryan Conway, adjunct instructor of education and director of the Center for Education and Human Development at Glen Allen High School, was among four awardees from various Richmond organizations recognized as rising stars by Richmond Magazine. Last year, Conway received a R.E.B. Award for Teaching Excellence from the Community Foundation for a Greater Richmond to study teaching and learning in Asia.
Kendall Hunt, adjunct instructor of education and middle school literacy specialist for Henrico County Public Schools, received the 2025 Literacy Teacher of the Year Award from James Madison University’s College of Education at the JMU Literacy Leader Awards ceremony held earlier this year.
Julian Hayter was promoted to professor of leadership studies. He is a historian whose research focuses on modern U.S. history, American political development, African-American history, and the American civil rights movement.
Christopher von Rueden was promoted to professor of leadership studies. An anthropologist with expertise in traditional human societies, his research focuses on how humans form status hierarchies, why we evolved to do so, and the demographic and ecological factors that cause our hierarchies to be more or less coercive.
Lauren Henley, assistant professor of leadership studies, published “Review of 'Murder in a Mill Town: Sex, Faith, and the Crime That Captivated a Nation' by Bruce Dorsey” in The Journal of American History.
Jennifer Bowie was promoted to professor of political science. Bowie specializes in judicial decision-making in federal, state, and comparative court, and is the former editor of the Law and Politics Book Review.
Mary Finley-Brook was promoted to professor of geography, environment, & sustainability. Finley-Brook specializes in environmental policy, climate justice, public health, energy transition, affordable access to renewable energy technologies, and equity in environmental, climate and energy governance.
Carrie Wu was promoted to professor of biology. Her research investigates the mechanisms of adaptive differentiation and speciation and examines how environmental variation influences phenotypic and genetic variation among natural plant populations.
Andy McGraw was promoted to professor of music. He has published extensively on Southeast Asian music, music and ethics, and rhythmic analysis. He is an active performer and directs a gamelan orchestra for the Richmond community.
Janelle Peifer was promoted to associate professor of psychology. She is a licensed clinical psychologist, and her research examines intra- and inter-cultural processes of college students’ intercultural competence development.
Stephanie Spera was promoted to associate professor of geography, environment, & sustainability. Her research seeks to understand landscape-level human-environment feedbacks regarding social, economic, and environmental drivers and consequences.
Jonathan Richardson was promoted to associate professor of biology. Jonathan integrates ecology, evolution and genomics to study applied issues related to urban ecology, epidemiology, and wildlife conservation.
Carrie Wu, professor of biology, published "Effects of experimental warming on floral scent, display, and rewards in two subalpine herbs" in Annals of Botany.
Art professor of experimental film, video art, and alternative media, Jeremy Drummond’s film, Monument, was selected to be featured at several film festivals including Bethesda Film Fest, Albany Film Festival, 2025 New Jersey International Film Festival, 33rd Arizona International Film Festival, Spatiotemporal Symposium: Experimental Film & Architecture, Denver Underground Film Festival, Alternating Currents Film Festival, Philadelphia Independent Film Festival, and the 25th Annual Moviate Underground Film Festival.
Tom Shields, associate professor and chair of graduate education & associate professor of leadership studies, presented the Can We Learn & Live Together 2.0: Housing & School Segregation in the Richmond Region report at the National Coalition on School Diversity 5th National Conference on School Diversity at Georgetown University Law Center.
Daniel L. Hocutt, SPCS web manager and adjunct professor of liberal arts, presented “Shifting Rhetorical Agency in Complex Information Deployment with AI” at the 14th annual Symposium on Communicating Complex Information (SCCI) held at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Agnieszka Szymańska, associate professor of art history, has been awarded membership to the Institute for Advanced Study, one of the world's foremost centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. Learn more.
Sandy Williams IV, assistant professor of art, features six new sculptures that embrace and elaborate on the nuances of time in their inaugural solo exhibition Life in Ellipsis with the Palo Gallery in New York. Their exhibition was also featured in Wallpaper*. Learn more.
Stephen Ferguson, visiting assistant professor of biology, published "Same data, different analysts: variation in effect sizes due to analytical decisions in ecology and evolutionary biology" in BMC Biology.
Ignatius G.D Suglo, assistant professor of rhetoric & communication studies, was elected to the board of directors of the West African Research Association (WARA).
Kurt Beals, visiting associate professor of German studies and humanities fellow in literary translation, published a new translation of Erich Maria Remarque's classic anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front.
Melinda A. Yang, assistant professor of biology, published "East Asian Gene flow bridged by northern coastal populations over past 6000 years" in Nature Communications.
Laura Knouse, professor of psychology, published "Avoidant Automatic Thoughts Are Associated With Task Avoidance and Inattention in the Moment: Replication in a Community Sample" in Journal of Attention Disorders along with Aditya Narayanan, ‘25, and Yueyi Fan, ‘23.
Julietta Singh, professor of English and women, gender, & sexuality studies, was interviewed in special issue on "Reckoning, Repairing, Reworlding" in Studies in Social Justice.