Nigel James, assistant professor of health studies, along with Jada Pederson, ’27, Huong Doan, ’27, Liam Hayes, ’28, and Leah Suggs, ’27, published “Food Insecurity and Mental Health Among High School Students: Evidence from National and Virginia Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Data” in the Journal of School Health.
Ben Pettis, assistant professor of rhetoric and communication studies, presented "Standardizing and Optimizing Education: Constructing the Neoliberal User in Learning Management Systems" at the 76th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference.
Nigel James, assistant professor of health studies, along with Julia Messerman, ’28, and Callia Nickels, ’27, published “‘It’s Not Just Cost’: Barriers to Mammography Screening Access Among Low-income Women in the United States –– A Scoping Review” in the Journal of Cancer Prevention.
Eugene Wu, associate professor of biology and biochemistry, along with Amanda Walsh, ’15, and Hye Rhee Kim, ’28, published "A thymine dimer stalls a high-fidelity DNA polymerase by provide no template information in the same manner as an abasic site" in Biochemistry.
Rick Mayes, professor of health policy, published the chapter “Policy Process: Problem Identification and Agenda Setting” in Milstead's Health Policy and Politics: A Nurse's Guide.
Grant Rissler, assistant professor of organizational studies and chair of the SPCS department of interdisciplinary and professional studies, published “The Commonwealth Enriched: Immigrant Paths to Progress,” a chapter in the book We the People: The World in Virginia, published by the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.
Ben Pettis published "Subscribe, Follow, Save: Podcast Preservation in the Platform Era" in the Journal of Radio and Audio Media. The article discusses the PodcastRE project and the ongoing changes in the podcasting industry and audio distribution platforms which create challenges for digital archiving projects.
Grant Rissler, assistant professor of organizational studies and chair of the SPCS department of interdisciplinary and professional studies, published “Reimaging Information Architecture: Community-Centered and Collaborative Digital Infrastructure in Refugee Service Ecosystems” in Computers and Composition.
Daniel L. Hocutt, SPCS web manager and adjunct professor of liberal arts, was among co-authors of a paper that received the IEEE ProComm James M. Lufkin Award recognizing the best conference paper submitted to IPCC Proceedings 2026.
“Z” by Harrison Moenich, manager of photography arts and media equipment, was selected from their photograph series Q.M.C. for inclusion in Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art's Made in VA Biennial 2026.
Over the next three years, Stephanie Spera, associate professor of geography, environment, and sustainability, Hemali Oza, assistant professor of health studies, and Todd Lookingbill, professor of geography, environment, and sustainability and biology, will work closely with the local environmental justice nonprofit Southside ReLeaf on a community-led study of flooding on the Southside of Richmond with the support of a grant from the Jeffress Trust.
Crystal Hoyt, professor of leadership studies and psychology, co-published the article "Challenging the Gender Status Quo: How Low Gender System Justification Predicts Pro‐Women Leadership Bias" in the Journal of Organizational Behavior.
David Brandenberger, professor of history and global studies, was appointed Samuel Chiles Mitchell-Jacob Billikopf Professor of History and Global Studies.
Laura Knouse, professor of psychology, was appointed MacEldin Trawick Professor in Psychology.
Julian Maxwell Hayter, professor of leadership studies, wrote the epilogue in the book The Buried Cause: Unearthing Hidden History in the Lee Monument Cornerstone, published by University of Virginia Press.
Julian Maxwell Hayter, professor of leadership studies, wrote the chapter “Unveiled History: Confederate Memorialization and the Politics of Race and Place after Emancipation” in U.S. History in 15 Photographs: 1865 to the 21st Century, published by Bloomsbury Press.
Christopher Shugrue, assistant professor of chemistry, received a summer research grant from Organic Syntheses for the project "Development of Oxidative-Ring Openings of Benzoxazoles for the Construction of Amido-Substituted Quinone Derivatives." Grants are awarded to faculty at principally undergraduate institutions who work with a student in their department.
Melinda A. Yang, associate professor of biology, received a National Science Foundation CAREER award of more than $990,000 to support her research on genetic adaptations in modern humans. Over the next five years, Yang, an ancient DNA expert, will build an easy-to-use tool that combines present-day and ancient DNA data to help researchers identify the genetic changes that have helped humans adapt and survive over time. Yang will also develop a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) using ancient DNA datasets for students taking her Human Evolutionary Genomics course at UR.
Jennifer Jones Cavenaugh, professor of theatre and dean of the School of Arts & Sciences, published “Reclaiming Narrative Authority: Gendered Violence and Feminist Reauthorship in Sharon Pollock's Saucy Jack” in Frame, Journal of Literary Studies.
Priscilla Erickson, assistant professor of biology, along with co-first authors Mia Hollekim, '26, and Lucy Smith, '26, published “Invasive African fig flies (Zaprionus indianus) have reduced cold acclimation ability compared to cosmopolitan drosophilid species” in microPublication Biology.
Sandy Williams IV, assistant professor of art, is exhibiting 00:10:00 (The Declaration of Independence) as part of the City of Alexandria’s Time and Place 2026 project that commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Bill Ross, professor of mathematics and Roger Francis and Mary Saunders Richardson Chair in Mathematics, received a National Science Foundation grant to host the SEAM 42 Conference: Southeastern Analysis Meeting at the University of Richmond. The annual meeting focuses on recent work and advances in operator theory, classical complex analysis and harmonic analysis, function theoretic operator theory, and related areas.
Jonathan Shank, associate university librarian for budget, operations, and technical services, was selected for the 2026 UCLA Library Senior Fellows cohort. The three-week program brings together emerging leaders for an immersive experience focused on the evolving role of academic libraries.
David Giancaspro, associate professor of Spanish, received the El Corazón Award from the Latinx Student Programming Board. The award recognizes outstanding dedication and commitment to uplifting the Latinx community at the University of Richmond and honors passion, advocacy, and meaningful contributions that have impacted the lives of Latinx students, staff, and faculty.
Adam Stanaland, assistant professor of psychology, published “Falling in line: Children’s gender conformity after feedback signaling gender atypicality” in Developmental Psychology.
Lionel Mew, assistant professor of information systems, has published the article “Enhancing Programming Productivity for Individuals with ADHD through Generative Artificial Intelligence: An Inductive Analysis” in the Journal of Information Systems Applied Research and Analytics. The article identifies four primary mechanisms by which generative AI tools mitigate ADHD-related programming challenges.
Alexander T. Englert, assistant professor of philosophy, published “Why Gödel believed in the afterlife” in Synthese. Gödel's philosophy of religion remains understudied, yet Englert reveals a thinker whose religious convictions rested on sophisticated philosophical reasoning.
Michelle Kahn, associate professor of history, won the Waterloo Centre for German Studies Book Prize for her book Foreign in Two Homelands: Racism, Return Migration, and Turkish-German History.
Nigel James, assistant professor of health studies, published “Conflict, Climate, and Child Health: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa” in Population and Development Review.
Nigel James, assistant professor of health studies, published “Quality of care and health insurance uptake in Namibia” in Journal of Public Health in Africa.
Jorge A. Wong Medina, assistant professor of classical studies, published "Sappho’s flowers: Lyric ἄνθεσιν and the Aeolic dative” in Glotta.
Linda Fairtile, head of Parsons Music Library and adjunct lecturer of music, published a critical edition of Giacomo Puccini's opera Edgar. The edition reconstructs the orchestral score from historical sources since the original complete score did not survive.
Nigel James, assistant professor of health studies, has been appointed to the YIELD Hub Advisory Board. The group of global leaders are committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), youth leadership, gender justice, and systems change across the world.
Grant Rissler, assistant professor of organizational studies, co-presented a paper titled “Immigrant Success Stories: The Positive Deviance Project” at the 2026 Migration Studies Research Symposium, held at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.
Wendell C. Roberts, adjunct associate professor of education, served as a panelist at the Virginia State Bar Diversity Section 2026 Annual Forum. Roberts contributed to the panel titled “The Continuing Evolution of DEI in Legal Education.”
Wade Downey, professor of chemistry, along with Eric Zhou, ’27, and Helen Xia, ’24, published “Friedel–Crafts Addition of 3-Alkylated Indoles to Aldehydes: 2-Hydroxyalkylation Promoted by Trimethylsilyl Trifluoromethanesulfonate” in The Journal of Organic Chemistry.
Caitlin Giustiniano, visiting assistant professor of Russian studies, was awarded a fellowship by the American Councils for International Education for a four-week immersive program that combines language and cultural study in Kazakhstan.
Melinda A. Yang, assistant professor of biology, Stephanie A. Spera, associate professor of geography, environment, & sustainability, and Beth Zizzamia, spatial analysis lab GIS operations manager, along with students Flora Yi, '27, and Elliot Delroba, '24, published "The AADR Visualizer: an ArcGIS online visualizer for ancient human DNA from the Allen Ancient DNA Resource" in the Bioinformatic Advances. The AADR Visualizer is the associated tool. The groundbreaking project lets users explore ancient human DNA through an interactive global map.
Rania Kassab Sweis, associate professor of anthropology, presented "The Politics of Medicine in the Middle East" at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago in honor of National Arab American Heritage Month.
Laura Knouse, professor of psychology and MacEldin Trawick Professor in Psychology, published “Efficacy of a cognitive-behavioral group intervention for ADHD in college students via telehealth” in the Journal of American College. The article examines a telehealth adaptation of a cognitive-behavioral intervention for college students with ADHD that focuses on organizational, time management, and planning (OTMP) skills.
Colleen Carpenter-Swanson, assistant professor of biology, published “Employing zebrafish to understand genetic drivers of epilepsy-related comorbid behaviors” in Frontiers in Pharmacology along with Kharma Hall, '24, and Olivia Beatty, '24.
Kurt Beals, visiting associate professor of German studies, received an honorable mention for the Stephen Mitchell Prize for Excellence in Translation for So the Day Begins: Grief Refrain, a translation of Anja Utler’s book of poetry.
Jack Singal, professor of physics, published “Observing Strategies for Making a 310 MHz Absolute Map with the Green Bank Telescope" in Research Notes of the AAS along with Owen Schardt, '27, about strategies for mapping the sky with the Green Bank Telescope.
John Peters, assistant professor of biology, published "Getting students excited about introductory biology" in ASBMB Today.
Jack Singal, professor of physics, published "Leveraging Redshift Probabilities and Machine Learning Classification to Identify Catastrophic Outlier Photometric Redshift Estimates" in The Astrophysical Journal along with Jason Yoo, '26, and Christine Gyure, '25.
Harrison Moenich, manager of photography arts and media equipment, presents their piece, Z, at the Queer Conscience 2026 exhibition at The Image Flow Photography Center. This is the first exhibition of Moenich's newest body of work, Q.M.C., which documents the rise of the Queer Moto Club in Richmond, Virginia.
Dean Simpson, professor of classical studies, received the 2026 Lurlene W. Todd Teacher of the Year Award from the Classical Association of Virginia. The award recognizes an outstanding Latin teacher or professor of Latin, Greek, classics, or archaeology on any instructional level in Virginia.
Kurt Beals, visiting associate professor of German studies, was named to the shortlist for the Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize for his translation of Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel All Quiet on the Western Front. The award is considered one of the top prizes for German-English translators.
Margaret Tait, assistant professor of health studies, presented "Platformed Persuasion: TikTok and the Marketing of Wellness through MLMs" at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA).
Robby Williams, lighting and sound supervisor in the Department of Theatre & Dance, received the University of Richmond 2026 Outstanding Service Award. The award recognizes staff from across campus who have made a unique difference to the University of Richmond community.
Mariama Rebello de Sousa Dias, associate professor of physics, received the 2026 School of Arts & Sciences (A&S) Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award. The award recognizes A&S faculty members who have accumulated an exemplary record in mentoring students working on research and creative projects outside of the classroom.
Heather Russell, associate professor of mathematics, received the 2026 School of Arts & Sciences (A&S) Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award. The award recognizes A&S faculty members who have accumulated an exemplary record in mentoring students working on research and creative projects outside of the classroom.
Carrie Wu, professor of biology, published “Wavyleaf basketgrass (Oplismenus undulatifolius) invasion is associated with changes in soil microbial communities” in mSphere.
Matthew Belk, physics lab manager, received the University of Richmond 2026 Outstanding Service Award. The award recognizes staff from across campus who have made a unique difference to the University of Richmond community.
Tianyuan Xu, assistant professor of mathematics & statistics, published "Branching rules of minuscule representations via a new partial order" in Combinatorial Theory.
Nigel James, assistant professor of health studies, received the 2026 Global Engagement Award. This annual award is given by the Center for Global Engagement and recognizes students, staff, faculty, and alumni who perform exemplary acts of internationalization to benefit the University of Richmond and communities beyond.
Daria Bozzato, visiting assistant professor in Italian studies, received a research fellowship from the Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD) in partnership with the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (BNP), to fund her research project "Domesticating the Deviant: Photography, Honor, and the Surgical Policing of Women in the Luso-Italian-American Asylum." The project investigates how psychosurgery and psychiatric photography functioned as tools for the "surgical domestication" of women across Portugal, Italy, and the United States.
Amy Treonis, associate professor of biology, published “Briny Biology: Nematodes From the Hypersaline Springs of the Central Namib Desert” in Ecology & Evolution.
Kathryn Owens, director of financial aid, has been elected to serve as president-elect of the Virginia Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (VASFAA).
Jeremy Drummond, associate professor of art, was a panelist for "Is Avant-Garde Our Last Defense?" at the 2026 Wide Open Experimental Film Festival at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, hosted by the Oklahoma City University film program. The panel focused on the political efficacy of experimental filmmaking and its connection to makers’ and audiences’ lived experiences.
Pippa Holloway, Cornerstones Chair in History, testified as an expert witness in a special three judge panel trial court in the Shelby County (Tennessee) Circuit Court. The case, Moses v. Goins et al., challenges a law that permanently disfranchises Tennessee citizens following a felony conviction. Holloway presented historical testimony that included a historical analysis of the Free and Equal Elections clause of the Tennessee Constitution, which requires conviction by a jury before a person otherwise entitled to vote could be denied suffrage on the basis of a criminal conviction.
Kathryn Jacobsen, William E. Cooper Distinguished University Chair and professor of health studies, co-led the Global Health Educators Community workshop at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health 2026 Annual Conference, and Nigel James, assistant professor of health studies, served as a workshop facilitator.
Laura Knouse, professor of psychology and MacEldin Trawick Professor in Psychology, published “For adults with ADHD — or even those with just some symptoms — using smart strategies to start and complete tasks can make all the difference” in The Conversation.
Ben Pettis, assistant professor of rhetoric and communication studies, presented "Rumors of Twitter's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated: Examining the Persistence and Perseverance of Academic Twitter" at the Cinema and Media Studies in Solidarity with Palestine (CMSSP) conference.
Laura Knouse, professor of psychology and MacEldin Trawick Professor in Psychology, published “A narrative review of stigma and masking in ADHD: insights from English-language research and the Japanese cultural context” in Frontiers in Psychology. The paper examines how adults with ADHD may mask their symptoms to avoid related stigma and how that might differ between Japan and the United States.
Joanne Kong, senior teaching faculty of music, published Veggan Made Easy: A Practical Guide to Plant-Based Living. The book includes practical advice on adopting a plant-based lifestyle and how everyday choices are integral to more compassionate living.
Ladelle McWhorter, Stephanie Bennett-Smith, Chair of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Emerita, published Unbecoming Persons: The Rise and Demise of the Modern Moral Self. The book challenges our contemporary focus on personal identity and self-improvement, advocating instead for a greater emphasis on communal living and relational well-being.
Jeremy Drummond, associate professor of art, presented his latest film, Monument, at the Pambujan International Film Festival and the ImoIFF International Film Festival. The film has been named an Official Selection at the Wide Open Experimental Film Festival, the Fisura, International Festival of Experimental Film & Video, and the Cauldron International Film & Video Festival. See the full list of screenings.
Ben Pettis, assistant professor of rhetoric and communication studies, published “The two lives of Chuck Norris” in The Conversation about what happens when internet culture turns both celebrities and regular people into memes.
Matthew Lowder, associate professor of psychology, along with Gwynna Ryan '21, published "Retrieval Interference in the Processing of Relative Clauses: Evidence from the Visual-World Paradigm" in Language, Cognition and Neuroscience.
Courtney Blondino, assistant professor of health studies, and Joanna Wares, associate professor of mathematics, published "Beyond MAT Expansion: A Mathematical Modeling Analysis of Opioid Use Disorder Intervention Efficacy" in Mathematical Biosciences along with Maniha Akram, ’24.
Brittany Nelson, associate professor of photography and extended media, is exhibiting in Contains Multitudes at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Vladimir Chlouba, assistant professor of leadership studies, published "Seeing women govern encourages support for women in politics — with no apparent backlash from men" in The Conversation US.
Kurt Beals, visiting associate professor of German studies, is on the shortlist for the James Tait Black Prize for his translation of Jenny Erpenbeck’s essay collection Things that Disappear: Reflections and Memories.
Jillean McCommons, assistant professor of history and Africana studies, published "From Their Double Minority Position": Black Women's Leadership, Black Feminist Thought, and the Black Appalachian Commission, 1969-1975" in the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society.
Brittany Nelson, associate professor of photography and extended media, was awarded a Stepping Stone grant by the Trellis Art Fund, a New York–based nonprofit. The fund supports individual artists with unrestricted grants in a two-year program.
Matthew Lowder, associate professor of psychology, published "Dominance Norms for 274 Korean Homonyms" in the Journal of Psycholinguistic Research.
Jimmy Davis Jr., lead cook at the Heilman Dining Center, won a bronze medal from the American Culinary Federation at the National Association of College and University Food Services 2026 Mid-Atlantic Culinary Challenge in Washington, D.C, for his Coco Rico-glazed catfish with tempura fried okra dish.
Accounting professor Nancy Bagranoff has been named to Sentara Health's Board of Directors. Sentara Health is an integrated, not-for-profit health care delivery system, and is one of the largest health systems in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, and among the top 20 largest not-for-profit integrated health systems in the country.
Harrison Moenich, manager of photography arts and media equipment, presented their work and spoke on the panel “Reflecting the Times: Image-Making and Education in the Shadow of Genocide” at the 2026 Society for Photographic Education annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
Eric S. Yellin, professor of history, published "Broken Covenants: Jewish Memory and Racial Restrictive Covenants in Greater Washington" in Modern American History.
Orianna Cacchione, deputy director and curator of exhibitions for University Museums, published Indelible Traces. The book accompanies an exhibition that she curated that is currently on view at the AD&A Museum UC Santa Barbara. Indelible Traces is the first scholarly monograph on the multi-disciplinary artist Tiffany Chung’s work over the last twenty-five years.
David Salisbury, associate professor of geography, environment, & sustainability, received the Conference of Latin American Geography (CLAG) Enlaces Award in recognition of his success and commitment to improve relationships between geographers and geography departments throughout Latin America.
Sandra Peart, dean of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies and E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in Leadership Studies, co-published "The Importance of Approbation in The Wealth of Nations" in The Independent Review.
Arryn Robbins, assistant professor of psychology, along with Yixuan Zhai, ’26, published “Face2Cam: A user-to-webcam distance estimation image dataset” in the Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications (Volume 3).
Brittany Nelson, associate professor of photography and extended media, discusses her current exhibition List Projects 34: Brittany Nelson in Bomb.
Jamelle Wilson, dean of the School of Professional & Continuing Studies at the University of Richmond, has been appointed by Governor Abigal Spanberger to serve on Virginia’s Board of Education. This is Wilson’s second appointment to the Board; she previously served from 2017–2021.
Carol Parish, Floyd D. and Elisabeth S. Gottwald Chair in Chemistry, along with students Marcos Hendler, ’25, and Travis Greene, ’23, and former postdoctoral research associate, Dominic A. Sirianni, published “The Effect of Chalcogen-Phosphorous Substituents on Enediynes Undergoing the Bergman Cyclization” in Inorganic Chemistry.
Carol Parish, Floyd D. and Elisabeth S. Gottwald Chair in Chemistry, published “Instability of Octahedral Symmetry in Si8O12H8 and Ge8O12H8: Consequence of the Pseudo-Jahn-Teller Effect” in the Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials.
Linda Boland, professor of biology, published “Colleges face a choice: Try to shape AI’s impact on learning, or be redefined by it” in The Conversation.
Bill Ross, professor of mathematics and Roger Francis and Mary Saunders Richardson Chair in Mathematics, published The Wonders of the Cesàro Operator. The graduate-level book surveys the classical Cesàro operator, covering its history, properties, and modern generalizations.
Michael Marsh-Soloway was promoted to senior teaching faculty of Literatures, Languages, and Cultures. His specialties include Russian literature and culture, linguistics, and intellectual history in the sciences.
Allison Brenning was promoted to senior teaching faculty of education. Here specialties include expeditionary learning, collaborative partnerships in inclusive classrooms, and elementary math methods and intervention.
Angela Leeper was promoted to senior teaching faculty of education. She is the director of the Education Studio, and her specialties include children’s literature and picture book illustration.
Solis Winters, assistant professor of health studies, published "How do repeated financial incentives affect HIV care-seeking behaviours over time? Evidence from a cluster-randomised controlled trial" in BMJ Global Health.
Kitty Hartvigsen, Trawick Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology, Kelly Lambert, professor of behavioral neuroscience and MacEldin Trawick Professor in Psychology, and Olivia Harding, psychology manager of labs, along with Megan Hooper, '23, Evelyn Barringer, '24, Isabel DiLandro, '25, Aditya Narayanan, '25, Brendan Crockett, '23, Yulia Shatalov, '25, Isabella Tome, '25, Paean Luby, '25, and Braden Wixted, '25, published "A rodent model of enhanced anticipation of positive events: sex-specific modifications in cognitive bias and emotional resilience" in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.
Kelly Lambert, professor of behavioral neuroscience and MacEldin Trawick Professor in Psychology, Jonathan Richardson, associate professor of biology, Kitty Hartvigsen, Trawick Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology, Olivia Harding, psychology manager of labs, and Jacy Jacob, adjunct lecturer of psychology and former Trawick Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology, along with Ava Wagner, '24, Isabel DiLandro, '25, Andres Mauco, '26, Paean Luby, '25, and Aditya Narayanan, '25, published “Comparative neurobiology of vigilance and stress adaptation systems in wild and laboratory rodents (Rattus norvegicus)” in Frontiers in Ethology.
