September 29, 2020

We are pleased to recognize the recent grants, publications, presentations, awards and honors of the members of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Awards and Honors

Sophie Abber, MS psychology ’21, received a $1,030 Psi Chi Graduate Research Grant for her project “Shifting to Task-Switching: Re-Evaluating Cognitive Flexibility in Bulimia Nervosa.”

Meghan Butryn, PhD, assistant professor of psychology, was appointed Program Leader for the newly established Cancer Risk and Control Program at Jefferson’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. She joins two Drexel faculty members from the College of Medicine in serving on the SKCC senior leadership team.

Diane Dallal, PhD candidate in psychology, won the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science Student Spotlight Award, which was created “to highlight students who are doing important work in the CBS community whether for research, clinical, and/or volunteer-humanitarian efforts.”

Arthur Nezu, PhD, DHLL, ABPP, Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, was named Editor in Chief of the journal Clinical Psychology: Science & Practice as it changes publishers from Wiley to the American Psychological Association, publisher of many of the field’s most prestigious journals. Nezu has been Editor in Chief of the journal since 2019.

Emily Presseller, PhD student in clinical psychology, received the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students’ 2020 APAGS/Psi Chi Junior Scientist Fellowship. Her project, supported by the grant, will be the first to examine glucose variability in individuals with binge spectrum eating disorder, to determine glucose’s role in the maintenance of both negative affect and disordered eating.  

Mimi Sheller, PhD, professor of sociology, joined the Advisory Board of the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

Grants

Meghan Butryn, PhD, assistant professor of psychology, received a $404,000 R21 grant from the National Institutes of Health for her project “Optimizing an mHealth Intervention to Change Food Purchasing Behaviors for Cancer Prevention.”

Adrienne Juarascio, PhD, assistant professor of psychology, received a $336,000 supplement award from the National Institutes of Health for the project “Reward Re-Training: A New Treatment to Address Reward Imbalance During the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

Stephanie Manasse, PhD, assistant research professor in the WELL Center, was awarded a $796,000 K23 award from the National Institutes of Health for her project “Does Aberrant Decision-Making Prevent Success in Adolescent Behavioral Weight Loss Treatment?”

In the Media

Rebecca Crochiere, PhD candidate in psychology, was quoted in various media outlets such as Runner’s World, PhillyVoice and on NBC for her research on how exercise impacts appetite.

Scott Knowles, PhD, professor and department head of history, co-published an article titled, “For the COVID-19 Era, a United States Disaster Investigation Board.”

Sharrona Pearl, PhD, assistant professor of science, technology and society (STS), published “A Muslim Protagonist’s Angst: Jews Will Relate,” a review of the television series Ramy, in the blog of the magazine Lilith.  

Presentations

Mimi Sheller, PhD, professor of sociology, was an invited speaker at the Perry World House Global Shifts Colloquium at the University of Pennsylvania; an invited speaker at the Borders, Bordering and Sovereignty in Digital Space Online Symposium, sponsored by the London School of Economics and Political Science; and an invited lecturer at University of British Columbia on “Mobility Justice, Climate Migration and the Lessons of Pandemic (Im)mobilities.” She also was interviewed on Jamaican national radio for the “Talking History” program on Climate Reparations.

Publications

Amanda McMillan Lequieu, PhD, assistant professor of sociology, co-authored the paper “Performing Transparency, Embracing Regulations: Corporate Framing to Mitigate Environmental Conflicts” in the journal Environmental Sociology. She also wrote a blog post for the University of California Press blog on using case studies in the classroom.

Jonson Miller, PhD, teaching professor of history, authored the monograph “Engineering Manhood: Race and the Antebellum Virginia Military Institute,” published by Lever Press. The book examines the process by which engineers of the antebellum Virginia Military Institute cultivated whiteness, manhood and other intersecting identities as essential to an engineering professional identity.

Amy Slaton, PhD, professor of history, authored the edited volume “New Materials: Towards a History of Consistency,” published by Lever Press. The book explains eight cases of industrial materials development, broadly conceived, from North America, Europe and Asia over the last 200 years, and highlights their social effects.