News

Center for Interdisciplinary Study

2022
- Drexel Community Confronts Antisemitism by Telling Their Stories
  
  April 27, 2022
  
  Pennoni Honors College Dean Paula Marantz Cohen’s hope is that Confronting Antisemitism Through Storytelling, a collaborative event April 28 among Pennoni, Drexel Hillel, Jewish Studies and the College of Arts and Sciences, will spark conversations that are so often dampened by our current society. Rather than taking the form of a panel discussion or conference, the event will focus on the deeply personal, real-life stories of those who have experienced antisemitism first-hand, whether as Jews or allies.
  
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- National Traveling Exhibit Returns to Celebrate Women of Color in Psychology
  
  March 03, 2022
  
  The I Am Psyched! national touring exhibit has returned to Drexel and is being presented in person this month after last year’s virtual presentation due to the pandemic.
  
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- Biological Sciences Major Lakshmi Parvathinathan Dreams of a More Inclusive Future
  
  February 15, 2022
  Lakshmi Parvathinathan has dedicated herself to fight for Documented Dreamers—students who have grown up in the United States as child dependents of long-term visa holders but who will age out of their dependent status and face deportation on their 21st birthdays.
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- Student Interns in Drexel Publishing Group Produce Book Honoring Black Alumni Experience
  
  February 10, 2022
  During Homecoming Weekend, the Drexel Black Alumni Council (DUBAC) launched a special collection of essays. Titled A Legacy to Share, the new book honors over 50 years of history since the first wave of Black students arrived on Drexel’s campus in the late 1960s. Student interns in the Drexel Publishing Group were responsible for copy editing, proofreading and applying styles for formatting the book.
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- Resilience & Joy: Lessons of Da Land
  
  January 12, 2022
  Led by environmental science major Alexis Wiley, a twelve-week cocurricular program introduced Drexel students and community members to food sovereignty and land justice issues in Black Philadelphia. The course also moved outside of the classroom and offered a hands-on participatory experience. Working with local community partners, students supplemented their coursework with harvesting, planting, seedkeeping, land rebuilding and food preparation workshops to better understand the Lessons of Da Land.
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2021
- Sociology Event Explores Intersection of Racial Justice and the Environment
  
  November 10, 2021
  For decades, studies have shown that Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) communities and low-income communities face greater environmental and climate threats, while contributing the least to these problems. However, the environmental justice movement has not always considered how these populations are disproportionately affected by environmental issues. To call attention to environmental racism, the Department of Sociology kicked off a new series of social justice-themed events.
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- Keisha April MS ’18, PhD ’20 Works to Change Policies, Practices in Criminal Justice
  
  October 27, 2021
  Keisha April, PhD, a recent graduate of Drexel’s Clinical Psychology PhD program, won the Art Nezu Dissertation Diversity Award for her dissertation “Let’s ‘talk’ about the police: The role of race and the intergenerational transmission of police legitimacy attitudes in the legal socialization of youth.” This prestigious award recognizes an individual whose doctoral dissertation makes an outstanding contribution to the field of professional psychology and diversity and/or multiculturalism.
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- BEES Major Calvin Keeys Awarded Scholarship for Black and Latinx Birders
  
  October 21, 2021
  First-year environmental science student Calvin Keeys was recently named a recipient of the Black and Latinx Birders Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded by Amplify the Future, an organization whose mission is to amplify opportunities for equity in conservation.
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- History Alum Alina Palimaru ’08
  Works to De-Radicalize Violent Extremists
  
  October 18, 2021
  With extremism on the rise, Drexel history alumna Alina Palimaru ’08 has turned her work to addressing it. The associate research analyst at the RAND Corporation will deliver a virtual talk on the topic on Thursday, November 18. Here she discusses the importance of studying history, her current work, truth decay and her least favorite memory of Drexel, among other things.
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- CoAS Relaunches Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
  
  October 05, 2021
  Seeking to fulfill its commitment to a justice-oriented curriculum for all of Drexel University, the College of Arts and Sciences relaunched its Center for Interdisciplinary Studies to support collaboration across three key interdisciplinary programs. With new directors in place, the College’s programs in Africana Studies, Jewish Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies will work across disciplines and areas of inquiry to foster greater inclusion and understanding across the University.
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- Meet Assistant Professor of English and Africana Studies Jakeya Caruthers, PhD
  
  September 22, 2021
  Jakeya Caruthers, PhD, is a new assistant professor of English and Africana Studies. Her research attends to black political aesthetics within 20th and 21st century cultural production and to the study of race, gender, sexuality and state discipline.
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- Henry Israeli Appointed Director of Jewish Studies
  
  July 01, 2021
  Henry Israeli, from the Department of English and Philosophy, has been appointed to the position of Director of Jewish Studies, effective Fall 2021, to lead the planning and implementation of a range of initiatives to increase the visibility of the program both inside and outside the University while developing a strategic plan in collaboration with Amelia Hoover Green, PhD, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
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- Jennifer Yusin, PhD, Appointed Director of Women’s and Gender Studies
  
  June 28, 2021
  Jennifer Yusin, PhD, from the Department of English and Philosophy, has been appointed to the position of Director of Women’s and Gender Studies, effective Fall 2021, to lead the planning and implementation of a range of initiatives to increase the visibility of the program both inside and outside the university while developing a strategic plan in collaboration with Amelia Hoover Green, PhD, associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion.
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- Juneteenth Discussion Looks Back to Move Forward
  
  June 17, 2021
  On Wednesday, June 16, the Office of Equality and Diversity and the Center for Black Culture dedicated time to reflect on all that has happened and to think about what yet needs to be done in a panel discussion on the topic of Juneteenth and racial justice. Titled “Looking Back to Move Forward: A Frank Conversation in Commemoration of Juneteenth,” the event was moderated by Patience Ajoff-Foster, PhD, CDP, executive director for diversity and inclusive culture.
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- Abioseh Porter, PhD, Appointed Interim Director of Africana Studies
  
  June 14, 2021
  Abioseh Porter, PhD, professor of English, has been appointed to the position of Interim Director of Africana Studies, effective Fall 2021, to lead the planning and implementation of a range of initiatives to increase the visibility of the program both inside and outside the University while developing a Strategic Plan in collaboration with Amelia Hoover Green, PhD, associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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- History Professor Nic John Ramos, PhD, Troubles the Line
  
  May 26, 2021
  
  Award-winning Assistant Professor of History Nic John Ramos, PhD, does not easily fit into any one category. Though he teaches in the Department of History, his doctorate is in American Studies and Ethnicity, which he describes as really being at the intersection of Gender Studies and Ethnic Studies. Meanwhile, his research exists at the intersection of race and medicine. And in his classes, students are just as likely to encounter graphic novels and poetry as they are historical documents and books.
  
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- CoAS Students Present Research at UN Commission on the Status of Women
  
  April 26, 2021
  CoAS students Liz Pham and Zyrah Alvi recently presented their research on corruption at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 2021 Forum.
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2020
- “Feeling Medicine:” Q&A on Medicine and the Pelvic Exam
  
  December 07, 2020
  Pelvic exams play a pivotal role in medical education, often representing the first time medical students touch real humans in a professional manner. In her new book “Feeling Medicine,” published by NYU Press, medical sociologist Kelly Underman, PhD, takes us inside gynecological teaching programs — drawing from in-depth interviews with students, faculty and the gynecological teaching associates who use their own bodies to teach the exam.
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- Four CoAS Projects Funded in Support of Racial Equity
  
  October 28, 2020
  This summer, Drexel University’s Office of Research and Innovation funded projects by 22 faculty and staff across the university from its Rapid Response Research and Development Fund, which was designated for urgent action, short-term projects focused on racial equity. Learn more about the funded projects out of the College of Arts and Sciences, and how the researchers are tackling issues from bystandership among police officers to inclusive teaching practices.
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- Anti-Racism Syllabus Draws on Black History in Philadelphia to Inspire Change
  
  September 29, 2020
  Like many organizations, Drexel’s Department of Sociology spoke up with passion and eloquence after the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police and the nationwide wave of protests that followed.
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- Drexel MFA Student Opens Harriett’s Bookshop in Fishtown
  
  February 03, 2020
  Harriett’s Bookshop, named in honor of Harriet Tubman, features a monthly literary rotation curated according to a theme — a comingling of new voices and “old voices that are new again,” says owner Jeannine Cook, a community activist and student in Drexel University’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.
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