April 29, 2019

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

Fellowships

Laura Chamberlain, BA Environmental Studies and Sustainability ’19, was an alternate for a Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State.

Four College of Arts and Sciences students and alumni won Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation, which supports three years of research-based graduate study for promising students in NSF-supported STEM and social science disciplines. The recipients are Christian Cabuslay, PhD student in biological sciences, Hasreet Gill, BS biological sciences ’14, Mark Giovinazzi, BS physics ’18, and Vaughn Shirey, BS environmental science ’17. Rumaan Malhotra, BS biological sciences ’13, and Megan Quarmley, BS psychology ’12, were honorable mentions.

Two College of Arts and Sciences students won Fulbright Study/Research Grants. Sheridan Clements, BA Anthropology ’19, will pursue a master’s degree in Celtic archaeology at Bangor University in Wales, United Kingdom. Dakota Peterson, BA political science ’18, will research and formulate new strategies for peaceful post-conflict transitions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Sophia Courtney, BS Environmental Science ’19, was an honorable mention for a Udall Undergraduate Scholarship from the Udall Foundation.

Adam Knowles, PhD, assistant teaching professor of philosophy, received a fellowship from the Andrew Mellon Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation. He'll spend the 2019-20 academic year researching the German Literature Archive in Marbach, Germany for his forthcoming book, “Categories of Complicity: Philosophy Under National Socialism.”

James Minock, BS physics ’20, and Johannes Wagner, BS physics ’20, won Goldwater Scholarships, which support college sophomores and juniors who show exceptional promise of becoming the nation’s next generation of research leaders in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics.

Honors and Awards

Several College of Arts and Sciences faculty members were named part of the Office of Research’s Social Sciences Research Committee, designed to advance social science scholarship at Drexel University. The faculty members are Debjani Bhattacharyya, PhD, Brian Daly, PhD, Jordan Hyatt, JD, PhD, Hyunmin Lee, PhD, and Kelly Underman, PhD.

Rose Corrigan, PhD, associate professor of politics and of law, was named the director of the new Center for Law, Policy and Social Action at Drexel’s Kline School of Law. The Center will bring together scholars and practitioners from the Law School and the region to help faculty, students and community members become informed, effective advocates for policy innovation.

Rebecca Crochiere, PhD student in psychology, won a $1,500 grant from Psi Chi, an international honor society in psychology, for her proposal, “Integrating Sensor Technology and Machine Learning to Predict Dietary Lapses.” She was also awarded a travel scholarship from the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

Brian Daly, PhD, interim department head and associate professor of psychology, was awarded a three-year, $150,000 grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts to deliver and evaluate a socioemotional learning program for elementary school children attending Philadelphia public schools.

Britt Evans, PhD student in psychology, won a $1,000 Psychological Science Research Grant from the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students.

Victoria Grunberg, PhD student in clinical psychology, and Gabrielle Russo, MS student in clinical psychology, received Outstanding Graduate Student Poster Awards at the Helen I. Moorehead-Laurencin, MD, Sex and Gender Research Forum.

Lauren Johnson, PhD student in psychology, received the Provost’s Award for Best Oral Research Presentation for her project “Problem-Solving Approach to Moral Injury in Deployed Veterans at Risk for Suicide,” presented at the 2019 Drexel Emerging Graduate Scholars Conference.

Elizabeth Kimball, PhD, assistant professor of English, was appointed to a three-year term as co-chair of the executive board of the Philadelphia Area Council of Writing Program Administrators. The PWPA advocates best practices in writing programs for higher education institutions in our region.

Susan Kilham, PhD, professor of biodiversity, earth and environmental science, and Robert Brulle, PhD, professor of sociology and environmental science, were awarded the Collaborative Instructional Design Excellence Award from the Office of Faculty Affairs for their course on Global Climate Change.

Kirsten Kaschock, PhD, assistant teaching professor of English, won the Grant Prize in the fiction category for this year’s Summer Literary Seminar (SLS) for her short story “Mouths, Filled with Cinnamon.” She will receive all-expenses-paid participation at the SLS program in Tbilisi, Georgia this summer, and her story will be published in Fence magazine.

Stephanie Manasse, PhD, assistant research professor at the WELL Center, won an early career award at the Academy for Eating Disorders’ International Conference on Eating Disorders, while Kelsey Clark, PhD student in psychology, won a student award.

Billy McCullough, BS environmental science ’19, was the recipient of a $15,000 co-op entrepreneurship from the Close D. School of Entrepreneurship to support his tea company Puerh Panda.

Virginia Price, PhD candidate in physics, was one of just 50 graduate students out of 700 applicants selected to participate in the 2019 ComSciCon National Workshop. Participants build communication skills that scientists and other technical professionals need to express ideas to their peers, experts in other fields, and the public.

Chandler Puhy, PhD student in clinical psychology, was elected the Student Research Coordinator on the Association for Psychological Science Student Caucus Executive Board.

Mina Ratkalkar, PhD student in psychology, was awarded the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Sexual Attitude Reassessment (SAR) Scholarship from the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists, covering the full cost of one SAR workshop.

Gordon Richards, PhD, professor of physics, was awarded 500K hours of high-end computational resources and storage from the NSF-funded Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment for his project “Investigating the Effects of Non-Uniform Cadence on AGN selection in LSST.”

Donald Stevens, PhD, associate professor of history, was awarded the Crevenna/Sadlar Prize for Outstanding Service by the Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies.

Rebecca R. Weinstock, BSBA accounting ’19 and a Spanish minor, was awarded the Janice Bond Memorial Plaque and Award for Graduating Seniors by the Pan American Association of Philadelphia. Presented by Mayor Jim Kenney at the Union League in Philadelphia, the award was given to graduating seniors of area colleges and universities who were nominated by a professor for excellence in courses related to Latin America.

Presentations, Events and Conferences

Steve Dolph, PhD, assistant teaching professor of Spanish, helped to organize and facilitate an event that invited Drexel University students to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the Wikipedia Art+Feminism “Edit-a-Thon.”

Celeste Mann, instructor of Spanish, and María de la luz Matus-Mendoza, PhD, associate professor of Spanish, presented “The Interplay of Art, Technology and Language in L2 Classrooms” at the Northeast Association of Language Learning Technology’s annual conference at the University of Pennsylvania. They presented their work on Global Classroom Chile, a four-year partnership between the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile and Drexel’s Department of Global Studies and Modern Languages, designed to engage students through interactive technologies.

Rogelio Miñana, PhD, professor of Spanish and department head of global studies and modern languages, was interviewed in Melbourne for "The Stage Show" on ABC (Australian equivalent to NPR), speaking with host Michael Cathcart and Cuban choreographer Carlos Acosta on Ludwig Minkus' Don Quixote ballet. He also gave three lectures in Australia at the Instituto Cervantes, Melbourne University and La Trobe University.