School of Sciences & Humanities Faculty Highlights
The faculty in the School of Sciences & Humanities have demonstrated excellence in scholarship, teaching innovation, and service to the academic community and beyond.
Ronald Bernier organized and chaired a session at the annual conference of the College Art Association, entitled "Spiritual Moderns: A Roundtable Conversation with Erika Doss," contributing to scholarly discourse in art history.
Benjamin Boe's major highlight was his extensive research, education, and outreach activities surrounding the 2024 total solar eclipse. This included leading an observation site with a WIT student, providing media interviews and public talks, and mentoring the Astronomy club's campus engagement efforts for the partial eclipse.
Chris Bode-Aluko received a Spark grant and actively participated in marketing the new Climate Resilience program, demonstrating his commitment to program development and sustainability initiatives.
Jody Gordon was appointed Faculty Fellow for Study Abroad and Global Education (SAGE) and authored a comprehensive report. She also published a book review in the American Journal of Archaeology and was invited to present a paper at the Society for American Archaeology conference.
Barry Husowitz contributed to scholarly knowledge through the publication of a book chapter.
Allison Lange collaborated with Professors Cynthia Williams, Kristen Rosero, and Jelena Nikolic, along with Susan Duffy, to design a new course supporting the Women's Leadership certificate, "HSSI 3800 US Women in the 21st Century." This interdisciplinary effort, now co-taught by Professor Lange and Professor Rosero, fosters engaging discussions on a variety of topics related to gender.
Mary Machado received a Hamilton pipette grant and presented her research at an ACS meeting, advancing scientific inquiry and sharing her findings.
Jill Macko joined the School of Sciences & Humanities as a new faculty member.
Gloria Monaghan was awarded a Sabbatical for 2025 to work on a book of poems, a Spark Grant for her 2025 book "Diary of St. Marion," and a Bistline Grant for a documentary on the life and work of Jose Ricon Mora. Her sixth book of poetry, "Diary of Saint Marion," was also published by Lily Poetry Review.
Andrew Seredinski organized the impactful Women in STEM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, engaging numerous students and faculty in adding significant content about undercelebrated women in STEM to Wikipedia. This initiative, part of the Ambassadors of Inclusive Excellence program, led to a $2k grant from the Wikimedia Foundation for a follow-up event in 2025. Professor Seredinski also had an article published in the American Journal of Physics, which was featured on the journal's cover.
Aaron Weinert was recognized with the President's Award for Outstanding Adjunct Faculty and was newly appointed as a Faculty Ambassador for Inclusive Excellence.
Cynthia Williams was elected Chair of the Faculty Senate for 2024, where she guided three new undergraduate degree programs to approval and established an AI Faculty Subcommittee. She presented her paper "Reading Irving on the Trail of Tears" at the Nineteenth-Century Studies Association conference and was one of only seven presenters chosen for a pedagogy roundtable at the Modern Language Association (MLA) conference. Her book review was published in the esteemed BARS Review, and she received approval to develop a new course for the COF Minor in Sustainability. Williams also collaborated on the development of the new Women's Leadership certificate course (as noted in Allison Lange's entry).
Allen Wong was the recipient of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences’ (ACJS) Award for Innovative Design. This annual competitive award—part of ACJS’ Teaching, Learning, & Scholarship division—is evaluated by a committee consisting of scholars with PhDs in criminal justice or in other related social sciences from various American universities across different regions. The award recognizes “outstanding and innovative pedagogical methods in criminal justice.”
This prestigious award highlights Wong's dynamic and impactful approach to teaching. His 2024 teaching highlights include developing a new course on urban criminology and continually refining pedagogical methods within existing curricula.
Keith Zengel's "Bat signal paper" was highlighted as a Scilight, bringing attention to his research in the scientific community.