Creative Work: 

Abravanel, Genevieve. (2025) “Here to Save You.” Chicago Quarterly Review 41 (Spring): 260-270. 

Creative Work: 

Abravanel, Genevieve. (2025) “The Light in America.” Zone 3 39(1). https://zone3press.com/fiction-entries/the-light-in-america/ 

Book Review: 

Abravanel, Genevieve. (2025) Book review: The Book of Eve. by C. R. Chatem-Johnson. “A Middling Review of Original Sin.” Electric Lit/The Commuter No. 362. https://electricliterature.com/the-book-of-eve-by-genevieve-abravanel/ 

Article: In exotic atomic systems with hadronic constituent particles, it is notoriously difficult to estimate the strong-interaction correction to energy levels. It is well known that, due to the strength of the nuclear interaction, the problem cannot be solved using Wigner–Brillouin perturbation theory alone. Recently, high-angular-momentum Rydberg states of exotic atomic systems with hadronic constituents have been identified as promising candidates in the search for new physics in the low-energy sector of the Standard Model. We thus derive a generalized Deser–Trueman formula for the induced energy shift for a general hydrogenic bound state with principal quantum number n and orbital angular momentum quantum number ℓ, and we find that the energy shift is given by the formula δE = 2α_{n,ℓ} β_ℓ (a_h/a_0)^{2ℓ+1} E_h/n^3, where α_{n,0} = 1, α_{n,ℓ} = Π_{s=1}^ℓ (s^{−2} − n^{−2}), β_ℓ = (2ℓ + 1)/[(2ℓ + 1)!!]^2, E_h is the Hartree energy, a_h is the hadronic radius and a_0 is the generalized Bohr radius. The square of the double factorial, [(2ℓ + 1)!!]^2, in the denominator implies a drastic suppression of the effect for higher angular momenta.

Adkins, Gregory S. and Jentschura, Ulrich D. (2025) "Short-range hard-sphere potential and Coulomb interaction: Deser-Trueman formula for Rydberg states of exotic atomic systems." Atoms 13: 81. https://doi.org/10.3390/atoms13090081 🔓 

Article: We evaluate the energy levels of the deuteronium bound system, which consists of a deuteron and an antideuteron, with a special emphasis on states with nonvanishing orbital angular momenta.  The excited atomic bound states of deuteronium constitute probes for the understanding of higher-order quantum electrodynamic corrections for spin-1 particles in a bound system where the typical field strength of the binding Coulomb field (at a distance of the generalized Bohr radius) exceeds Schwinger's critical field strength.  For states with nonvanishing angular momenta, effects due to the internal structure of the deuteron and virtual annihilation contributions are highly suppressed.  Relevant transitions are found to be in a frequency range accessible by standard laser spectroscopic techniques.  We evaluate the leading and next-to-leading energy corrections of orders $\alpha^3 m_d$ and $\alpha^4 m_d$, where $\alpha$ is the fine-structure constant and $m_d$ is the deuteron mass, and also investigate internal-structure corrections: hadronic vacuum polarization, finite-size effects, and strong-interaction corrections.

Adkins, Gregory S. and Jentschura, Ulrich D. (2025) "Bound Deuteron--Antideuteron System (Deuteronium): Leading Radiative and Internal--Structure Corrections to Bound-State Energies." Physical Review Research 7: 043300. https://doi.org/10.1103/zrp8-jx3w 🔓 

Article: Three-loop electronic vacuum-polarization corrections due to irreducible diagrams are evaluated for two-body muonic ions with nuclear charge numbers 1 ≤ Z ≤ 6. The corrections are of order alpha^3 (Z alpha)^2 m_r, where alpha is the fine-structure constant and m_r is the reduced mass. Numerically, the energy corrections are found to be of the same order of magnitude as the largest of the order alpha^2 (Z alpha)^4 m_r corrections, and are thus phenomenologically interesting. Our method of calculation eliminates numerical uncertainty encountered in other approaches.

Adkins, Gregory S. and Jentschura, Ulrich D. (2025) "Irreducible three-loop vacuum-polarization correction in muonic bound systems." Physical Review D 111: 056016. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.056016 🔓

Grant: Many organisms are threatened by exposure to extreme weather – including cold spells. Exposure to cold classically slows or arrests development; however, cold exposure early in life can also change how organisms develop in ways that affect their ability to cope with extreme weather later in life. This project will test whether developmental cold exposure influences the subsequent response to dynamic temperatures, and how this process occurs. It will integrate experimental approaches in wild birds, data from a long-term study population, and analyses of publicly available continent-scale data, to address how dynamic environments affect individuals and populations, and which processes drive resilience and robustness to stress. The broader impacts of this project will also address the vulnerability of the millions of birds that nest annually in nest boxes to extreme weather. Additional experimental studies and analyses of continent-wide data will inform the development of site-specific recommendations for nest box design, which will be disseminated widely in partnership with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project Nestwatch.

This project will address central questions in organismal biology, including the mechanistic underpinnings of organism- and population-level responses to climate change, and how interactions between organisms and their environments determine the emergence of complex traits. Coordinated experiments will assess potential mediators of developmental plasticity, including neuroendocrine systems and transcriptomic and epigenetic processes. A key advance will be in illuminating when ecologically relevant cold challenges trigger adaptive plasticity. Most of what is known about the effects of developmental cold exposure in homeotherms comes from studies in which individuals were reared in captivity, often at consistently cold temperatures. Manipulating the temperature of natural nests is a powerful approach for testing the likely impacts of changing thermal regimes, as the effects of ambient temperatures on offspring can be augmented or buffered by parental behavior. This research will also provide insight into the drivers of resilience (returning to a stable state following disturbance). To understand the emergence of this phenomenon at higher levels, it is necessary to connect sub-organismal processes with their individual- and population-level consequences. Using a combination of experimental, environmental, and large-scale population monitoring and abundance data, this research will test whether developmental plasticity modifies resilience in individuals and in populations. By integrating data across levels this project will also elucidate whether cold-induced plasticity will buffer the effects of dynamic temperatures on a widespread but declining songbird.

Ardia, Daniel. (2025-2028) Grant Award: National Science Foundation Award (IOS): “Developing in a dynamic environment: from integrative mechanisms to population-level consequences.”

Article: Between 1907 and 1912, the famous Yiddish poet and playwright, H. Leivick (1888-1962), was incarcerated in Tsarist prison camps and then sent into exile in Siberia.  Almost fifty years after his escape, he published an account of those years in Yiddish, Af Tsarishe Katorge (In Tsarist Penal Servitude.)  My essay draws on the thought of Emmanuel Levinas to shed light on the ethical concerns that structure Leivick's account, while simultaneously illuminating Levinas's philosophy through the poet's concrete examples. I argue that both authors understand the ethics at the heart of the Jewish tradition in very similar ways, in multiple layers of tension with the political.  I suggest that the period in which both Leivick and Levinas wrote, not only soon after the Second World War but also in the midst of the Cold War, motivated what they choose to emphasize about Jewish ethics.

Aronowicz, Annette. (2025) "Ethics and Politics: Intersections between H. Leivick and Emmanuel Levinas," in Shem LiShmuel: A Festschrift in honour of Shmuel Wygoda. Eds. Daniel Reiser, Ynon Wygoda, Itamar Brenner. Herzog College Press: Tevunot The Melton Centre for Jewish Education: 537-558. 

Article: Mental simulation theories of language comprehension propose that people automatically create mental representations of objects mentioned in sentences. Mental representation is often measured with the sentence-picture verification task, wherein participants first read a sentence that implies the object property (i.e., shape and orientation). Participants then respond to an image of an object by indicating whether it was an object from the sentence or not. Previous studies have shown matching advantages for shape, but findings concerning object orientation have not been robust across languages. This registered report investigated the match advantage of object orientation across 18 languages in nearly 4,000 participants. The preregistered analysis revealed no compelling evidence for a match advantage for orientation across languages. Additionally, the match advantage was not predicted by mental rotation scores. In light of these findings, we discuss the implications for current theory and methodology surrounding mental simulation.

Sau-Chin Chen, Erin M. Buchanan, Zoltan Kekecs, Jeremy K. Miller, Anna Szabelska, Balazs Aczel, Pablo Bernabeu, Patrick Forscher, Attila Szuts, Zahir Vally, Ali H. Al-Hoorie, Mai Helmy, Caio Santos Alves da Silva, Luana Oliveira da Silva, Yago Luksevicius de Moraes, Rafael Ming Chi Santos Hsu, Anthonieta Looman Mafra, Jaroslava V. Valentova, Marco Antonio Correa Varella, Barnaby Dixson, Kim Peters, Nik Steffens, Omid Ghasemi, Andrew Roberts, Robert M. Ross, Ian D. Stephen, Marina Milyavskaya, Kelly Wang, Kaitlyn M. Werner, Dawn Liu Holford, Miroslav Sirota, Thomas Rhys Evans, Dermot Lynott, Bethany M. Lane, Danny Riis Sahlholdt, Glenn P. Williams, Chrystalle B. Y. Tan, Alicia Foo, Steve M. J. Janssen, Nwadiogo Chisom Arinze, Izuchukwu Lawrence Gabriel Ndukaihe, David Moreau, Brianna Jurosic, Brynna Leach, Savannah Lewis, Peter R. Mallik, Kathleen Schmidt, William J. Chopik, Leigh Ann Vaughn, Manyu Li, Carmel A. Levitan, Daniel Storage, Carlota Batres, Tyler McGee, Janina Enachescu, Jerome Olsen, Martin Voracek, Claus Lamm, Ekaterina Pronizius, Tilli Ripp, Jan Philipp Röer, Roxane Schnepper, Marietta Papadatou-Pastou, Aviv Mokady, Niv Reggev, Priyanka Chandel, Pratibha Kujur, Babita Pande, Arti Parganiha, Noorshama Parveen, Sraddha Pradhan, Margaret Messiah Singh, Max Korbmacher, Jonas R. Kunst, Christian K. Tamnes, Frederike S. Woelfert, Kristoffer Klevjer, Sarah E. Martiny, Gerit Pfuhl, Sylwia Adamus, Krystian Barzykowski, Katarzyna Filip, Patrícia Arriaga, Vasilije Gvozdenović, Vanja Ković, Fei Gao, Jingxiang Li, Jozef Bavoľár, Monika Hricová, Pavol Kačmár, Matúš Adamkovič, Peter Babinčák, Gabriel Baník, Ivan Ropovik, Danilo Zambrano Ricaurte, Sara Álvarez-Solas, Harry Manley, Panita Suavansri, Chun-Chia Kung, Belemir Çoktok, Asil Ali Özdoğru, Çağlar Solak, Sinem Söylemez, Sami Çoksan, İlker Dalgar, Mahmoud Elsherif, Martin Vasilev, Vinka Mlakic, Elisabeth Oberzaucher, Stefan Stieger, Selina Volsa, Erica D. Musser, Janis Zickfeld & Christopher R. Chartier. (2025) “Investigating object orientation effects across 18 languages.” Current Psychology 44:  19148–19174.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-08304-x  🔓

Article: Semantic priming has been studied for nearly 50 years across various experimental manipulations and theoretical frameworks. Although previous studies provide insight into the cognitive underpinnings of semantic representations, they have suffered from small sample sizes and a lack of linguistic and cultural diversity. In this Registered Report, we measured the size and the variability of the semantic priming effect across 19 languages (n = 25,163 participants analysed) by creating the largest available database of semantic priming values using an adaptive sampling procedure. We found evidence for semantic priming in terms of differences in response latencies between related word-pair conditions and unrelated word-pair conditions. Model comparisons showed that the inclusion of a random intercept for language improved model fit, providing support for variability in semantic priming across languages. This study highlights the robustness and variability of semantic priming across languages and provides a rich, linguistically diverse dataset for further analysis.

Erin M. Buchanan, Kelly Cuccolo, Tom Heyman, Niels van Berkel, Nicholas A. Coles, Aishwarya Iyer, Kim Peters, A. E. van ’t Veer, Maria Montefinese, Nicholas P. Maxwell, Jack E. Taylor, Kathrene D. Valentine, Patrícia Arriaga, Krystian Barzykowski, Leanne Boucher, W. Matthew Collins, David C. Vaidis, Balazs Aczel, Ali H. Al-Hoorie, Ettore Ambrosini, Théo Besson, Debora I. Burin, Muhammad Mussaffa Butt, A. J. Benjamin Clarke, Yalda Daryani, Dina Abdel Salam El-Dakhs, Mahmoud M. Elsherif, Maria Fernández-López, Paulo Roberto dos Santos Ferreira, Raquel Meister Ko Freitag, Carolina A. Gattei, Hendrik Godbersen, Philip A. Grim II, Peter Halama, Patrik Havan, Natalia C. Irrazabal, Chris Isloi, Rebecca Kvisler Iversen, Yoann Julliard, Aslan Karaaslan, Michal Kohút, Veronika Kohútová, Julija Kos, Alexandra I. Kosachenko, Tiago Jessé Souza de Lima, Matthew H. C. Mak, Christina Manouilidou, Leonardo A. Marciaga, Xiaolin Melinna Melinna, Jacob Francisco Miranda, Coby Morvinski, Aishwarya Muppoor, F. Elif Müjdeci, Yngwie A. Nielsen, Juan Carlos Oliveros, Jaš Onič, Marietta Papadatou-Pastou, Ishani Patel, Zoran Pavlović, Blaž Pažon, Gerit Pfuhl, Ekaterina Pronizius, Timo B. Roettger, Camilo R. Ronderos, Susana Ruiz-Fernandez, Magdalena Senderecka, Çağlar Solak, Anna Stückler, Raluca D. Szekely-Copîndean, Analí R. Taboh, Rémi Thériault, Ulrich S. Tran, Fabio Trecca, José Luis Ulloa, Marton A. Varga, Steven Verheyen, Tijana Vesić Pavlović, Giada Viviani, Nan Wang, Kristyna Zivna, Chen Chu Yun, Oliver James Clark, Oguz A. Acar, Matúš Adamkovič, Giulia Agnoletti, Atakan M. Akil, Zainab Alsuhaibani, Simona Amenta, Olga A. Ananyeva, Michael Andreychik, Bernhard Angele, Danna Catalina Arias Quiñones, Nwadiogo Chisom Arinze, Adrian Dahl Askelund, Bradley J. Baker, Ernest Baskin, Luisa Batalha, Carlota Batres, Maria Soledad Beato, Manuel Becker, Maja Becker, Maciej Behnke, Christophe Blaison, Anna M. Borghi, Eduard Brandstätter, Jacek Buczny, Nesrin Budak, Álvaro Cabana, Zhenguang G. Cai, Enrique C. Canessa, Müge Cavdan, Luca Cecchetti, Sergio E. Chaigneau, Feria X. W. Chang, Christopher R. Chartier, Sau-Chin Chen, Elena Cherniaeva, Morten H. Christiansen, Hu Chuan-Peng, Patrycja Chwiłkowska, Montserrat Comesaña, Chin Wen Cong, Casey Cowan, Stéphane Daniel Dandeneau, Oana A. David, William E. Davis, Elif Gizem Demirag Burak, Barnaby James Wyld Dixson, Hongfei Du, Rod Duclos, Wouter Duyck, Liudmila A. Efimova, Ciara Egan, Vanessa Era, Thomas R. Evans, Anna Exner, Gilad Feldman, Katharina Fellnhofer, Chiara Fini, Sarah E. Fisher, Heather D. Flowe, Patricia Garrido-Vásquez, Daniele Gatti, Jason Geller, Vaitsa Giannouli, Anna Sergeevna Gorokhova, Lindsay M. Griener, Dmitry Grigoryev, Igor Grossmann, Hesam Ghasemi, Giacomo Handjaras, Cathy Hauspie, Zhiran He, Renata M. Heilman, Amirmahdi Heydari, Alanna M. Hine, Karlijn Hoyer, Weronika Hryniszak, Janet Hui-wen Hsiao, Guanxiong Huang, Keiko Ihaya, Ewa Ilczuk, Tatsunori Ishii, Andrei Dumbravă, Katarzyna Jankowiak, Xiaoming Jiang, David C. Johnson, Rafał Jończyk, Juhani Järvikivi, Laura Kaczer, Kevin Leander Kamermans, Johannes A. Karl, Alexander Karner, Pavol Kačmár, Jacob J. Keech, M. Justin Kim, Max Korbmacher, Kathrin Kostorz, Marta Kowal, Tomas Kratochvil, Yoshihiko Kunisato, Anna O. Kuzminska, Lívia Körtvélyessy, Fatma Ebru Köse, Massimo Köster, Magdalena Kękuś, Melanie Labusch, Claus Lamm, Chaak Ming Lau, Julieta Laurino, Wilbert Law, Giada Lettieri, Carmel A. Levitan, Jackson G. Lu, Sarah E. MacPherson, Klara Malinakova, Diego Manriquez-Robles, Nicolás Marchant, Marco Marelli, Martín Martínez, Molly F. Matthews, Alan D. A. Mattiassi, Josefina Mattoli-Sánchez, Claudia Mazzuca, David P. McGovern, Zdenek Meier, Filip Melinscak, Michal Misiak, Luis Carlos Pereira Monteiro, David Moreau, Sebastian Moreno, Kate E. Mulgrew, Dominique Muller, Tamás Nagy, Marcin Naranowicz, Izuchukwu L. G. Ndukaihe, Maital Neta, Lukas Novak, Chisom Esther Ogbonnaya, Jessica Jee Won Paek, Aspasia Eleni Paltoglou, Francisco J. Parada, Adam J. Parker, Mariola Paruzel-Czachura, Yuri G. Pavlov, Saeed Paydarfard, Dominik Pegler, Mehmet Peker, Manuel Perea, Stefan Pfattheicher, John Protzko, Irina Sergeevna Prusova, Katarzyna Pypno-Blajda, Zhuang Qiu, Ulf-Dietrich Reips, Gianni Ribeiro, Luca Rinaldi, S. Craig Roberts, Tanja C. Roembke, Marina O. Romanova, Robert M. Ross, Jan Philipp Röer, Filiz Rızaoğlu, Toni T. Saari, Erika Sampaolo, Anabela Caetano Santos, F. Çağlar Sarıçiçek, Kyoshiro Sasaki, Frank Scharnowski, Kathleen Schmidt, Amir Sepehri, Halid O. Serçe, A. Timur Sevincer, Cynthia S. Q. Siew, Matilde Ellen Simonetti, Miroslav Sirota, Agnieszka Sorokowska, Piotr Sorokowski, Ian D. Stephen, Laura M. Stevens, Suzanne L. K. Stewart, David Steyrl, Stefan Stieger, Anna Studzinska, Mar Suarez, Anna Szala, Arnaud Szmalec, Daniel Sznycer, Ewa Szumowska, Sinem Söylemez, Bahadır Söylemez, Kaito Takashima, Christian K. Tamnes, Joel C. R. Tan, Chengxiang Tang, Peter Tavel, Julian Tejada, Benjamin C. Thompson, Jake G. Tiernan, Vicente Torres-Muñoz, Anna K. Touloumakos, Bastien Trémolière, Monika Tschense, Belgüzar Nilay Türkan, Miguel A. Vadillo, Caterina Vannucci, Michael E. W. Varnum, Martin R. Vasilev, Leigh Ann Vaughn, Fanny Verkampt, Liliana M. Villar, Sebastian Wallot, Lijun Wang, Ke Wang, Glenn Patrick Williams, David Willinger, Kelly Wolfe, Alexandra S. Wormley, Yuki Yamada, Yunkai Yang, Yuwei Zhou, Mengfan Zhang, Wang Zheng, Yueyuan Zheng, Chenghao Zhou, Radka Zidkova, Nina Meret Zumbrunn, Ogeday Çoker, Sami Çoksan, Sezin Öner, Asil Ali Özdoğru, Seda Merve Şahin, Dauren Kasanov, Alexios Arvanitis, Cameron Brick, Melissa F. Colloff, Albina Gallyamova, Christopher Koch, Ivan Ropovik, Yucheng Zhang, Xingxing Zhou, Sneh Patel, Jordan W. Suchow & Savannah C. Lewis. (2025) “Measuring the semantic priming effect across many languages.” Nature Human Behaviour 10: 182–201. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02254-x

Article: When processing and analyzing empirical data, researchers regularly face choices that may appear arbitrary (e.g., how to define and handle outliers). If one chooses to exclusively focus on a particular option and conduct a single analysis, its outcome might be of limited utility. That is, one remains agnostic regarding the generalizability of the results, because plausible alternative paths remain unexplored. A multiverse analysis offers a solution to this issue by exploring the various choices pertaining to data-processing and/or model building, and examining their impact on the conclusion of a study. However, even though multiverse analyses are arguably less susceptible to biases compared to the typical single-pathway approach, it is still possible to selectively add or omit pathways. To address this issue, we outline a novel, more principled approach to conducting multiverse analyses through crowdsourcing. The approach is detailed in a step-by-step tutorial to facilitate its implementation. We also provide a worked-out illustration featuring the Semantic Priming Across Many Languages project, thereby demonstrating its feasibility and its ability to increase objectivity and transparency.

Heyman, Tom Pronizius, Ekaterina Lewis, Savannah C. Acar, Oguz A. Adamkovič, Matúš Ambrosini, Ettore Antfolk, Jan Barzykowski, Krystian Baskin, Ernestm Batres, Carlota, Boucher, Leanne Boudesseul, Jordane Brandstätter, Eduard Collins, W. Matthew Filipović Ðurđević, Dušica Egan, Ciara Era, Vanessa Ferreira, Paulo Fini, Chiara Garrido-Vásquez, Patricia Godbersen, Hendrik Gomez, Pablo Graton, Aurelien Gurkan, Necdet He, Zhiran Johnson, Dave C. Kačmár, Pavol Koch, Chris Kowal, Marta Kratochvil, Tomas Marelli, Marco Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando Martínez, Martín Mattiassi, Alan Maxwell, Nicholas P. Montefinese, Maria Morvinski, Coby Neta, Maital Nielsen, Yngwie A. Ocklenburg, Sebastian Onič, Jaš Papadatou-Pastou, Marietta Parker, Adam J. Paruzel-Czachura, Mariola Pavlov, Yuri G. Perea, Manuel Pfuhl, Gerit Roembke, Tanja C. Röer, Jan P. Roettger, Timo B. Ruiz-Fernandez, Susana Schmidt, Kathleen Siew, Cynthia S. Q. Tamnes, Christian K. Taylor, Jack E. Thériault, Rémi Ulloa, José L. Vadillo, Miguel A. Varnum, Michael E. W. Vasilev, Martin R. Verheyen, Steven Viviani, Giada Wallot, Sebastian Yamada, Yuki Zheng, Yueyuan Buchanan, Erin M. (2025) “Crowdsourcing multiverse analyses to explore the impact of different data-processing and analysis decisions: A tutorial.” Psychological Methods. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000770 🔓

Article: Psychological studies on close relationships have often overlooked cultural diversity, dynamic processes, and potentially universal principles that shape intimate partnerships. To address the limited generalizability of previous research and advance our understanding of romantic love experiences, mate preferences, and physical attractiveness, we conducted a large-scale cross-cultural survey study on these topics. A total of 404 researchers collected data in 45 languages from April to August 2021, involving 117,293 participants from 175 countries. Aside from standard demographic questions, the survey included valuable information on variables relevant to romantic relationships: intimate, passionate, and committed love within romantic relationships, physical-attractiveness enhancing behaviors, gender equality endorsement, collectivistic attitudes, personal history of pathogenic diseases, relationship quality, jealousy, personal involvement in sexual and/or emotional infidelity, relational mobility, mate preferences, and acceptance of sugar relationships. The resulting dataset provides a rich resource for investigating patterns within, and associations across, a broad range of variables relevant to romantic relationships, with extensive opportunities to analyze individual experiences worldwide.

Marta Kowal, Piotr Sorokowski, Biljana Gjoneska, Katarzyna Pisanski, Gerit Pfuhl, Leonardo Aguilar, Steve M. J. Janssen, Benjamin Gelbart, Patrícia Arriaga, Jan Antfolk, Katarina Zvončáková, Linda H. Lidborg, Jorge Contreras-Garduño, Mikhail V. Kozlov, Taciano L. Milfont, Marco A. C. Varella, Valerija Križanić, Mahmoud Boussena, Tina Kavčič, Diana Ribeiro da Silva, Brahim Hamdaoui, Fatima Zahra Sahli, Karlijn Massar, Eliane Deschrijver, Tatsunori Ishii, Hakan Cetinkaya, Oksana Senyk, Farida Guemaz, Koen Ponnet, Yahya Don, Dušana Šakan, Gyesook Yoo, Ravit Nussinson, Joaquín Ungaretti, Ali R. Can, Izzet Duyar, Jiří Čeněk, Joao Carneiro, Norbert Meskó, Luca Kozma, Ellen K. Nyhus, Mona Vintila, Oulmann Zerhouni, Farid Pazhoohi, Maja Zupančič, Sinem Söylemez, Austin H.-E. Wang, Marietta Papadatou-Pastou, Irena Pavela Banai, Pavol Prokop, Mohd Sofian Omar Fauzee, Reza Afhami, Jean C. Natividade, Roberto Baiocco, Mara Morelli, Toivo Aavik, Ezgi Toplu-Demirtaş, Singha Tulyakul, Anna Wlodarczyk, Razieh Chegeni, Anabela C. Santos, Dmitry Grigoryev, Dmitrii Dubrov, Dimitri Chubinidze, Gözde Ikizer, Nana Burduli, Johanna Czamanski-Cohen, Rizwana Amin, Petros Roussos, Evgeniya Hristova, Rūta Sargautytė, Ekaterine Pirtskhalava, Tenuunjargal Avirmed, Arooj Najmussaqib, Abdelilah Charyate, Shagufta Batool, Tatiana Volkodav, Yoshihiko Kunisato, Yuki Yamada, Asako Toyama, Mariia Perun, Seda Dural, Tetyana Mandzyk, Anna Studzinska, Ognen Spasovski, Felipe E. García, Caterina Grano, Merve Boğa, Mehmet Koyuncu, Sangeeta Singh, Ju Hee Park, Derya Atamtürk, Samuel Lins, Martin Pírko, David Lacko, Balazs Aczel, Ferenc Kocsor, Ádám Putz, Tobias Otterbring, Pavol Kačmár, Efisio Manunta, Théo Besson, Nasim Ghahraman Moharrampour, Çağlar Solak, Bojana M. Dinić, Ignacio Estevan, Merve Topcu Bulut, Nicolas Kervyn, Moises Mebarak, Jackson G. Lu, Nejc Plohl, Bojan Musil, Adil Samekin, Kirill G. Miroshnik, Clément Cornec, Isabella Giammusso, Ulf-Dietrich Reips, Maria Rosa Miccoli, Miriam Parise, Sabrina Stöckli, Tiago Marot, Sibele D. Aquino, Amanda Londero-Santos, Antonio Chirumbolo, Aybegum Memisoglu-Sanli, Jaroslava V. Valentova, Cemre Karaarslan, Ivana Hromatko, Kevin Sevag Kertechian, Ogeday Çoker, Matheus F. Ribeiro, Carlota Batres, Ilker Dalgar, Stephanie J. Eder, Katarina Mišetić, Marios Argyrides, Vita Mikuličiūtė, Silvia Mari, Elisabeth Oberzaucher, Kathrin Masuch, Alan D. A. Mattiassi, Salma S. Omar, Elena Piccinelli, Eda Ermagan Caglar, Diogo Lamela, David A. Frederick, Aleksander Kobylarek, Ma Criselda T. Pacquing, Marc Eric S. Reyes, Marcos Zumárraga-Espinosa, Feten Fekih-Romdhane, Talía Gómez Yepes, Edgardo Etchezahar, Katarzyna Galasinska, Jan P. Röer, Ayşegül Şahin, Miguel Landa-Blanco, Izuchukwu L. G. Ndukaihe, Arkadiusz Urbanek, Chee-Seng Tan, Rita Castro, Ksenija Cunichina, Anna Krasnodębska, Daniel Conroy-Beam, Franciszek Ostaszewski, Izabela Chałatkiewicz, Beatriz Abad-Villaverde, Bastien Trémolière, Alexios Arvanitis, Gulmira T. Topanova, William J. Chopik, Grace Akello, Ariela F. Pagani, Silvia Donato, Peter Fedor, Tomasz Frackowiak, Simon Ozer, Marlon Mayorga-Lascano, Farah Khan, Maryanne L. Fisher, Princess Lovella G. Maturan, Tatiana Semenovskikh, Sanjana Dutt, William Tamayo-Agudelo, Gulnara Ismukhanova, Laith Al-Shawaf, Luisa Angelucci, Adam Bode, Sercan Balım, Jovi C. Dacanay, Chiemezie S. Atama, Kai A. D. Morgan Campbell, Tchilissila A. Simões, Barış Özener, Paula Błauciak & Filipe Prazeres.  (2025) “Cross-cultural data on romantic love and mate preferences from 117,293 participants across 175 countries.” Scientific Data 12: 1103. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05365-2 🔓

Article: Previous research has studied the extent to which men are the default members of social groups in terms of memory, categorization, and stereotyping, but not attitudes which is critical because of attitudes’ relationship to behavior. Results from our survey (N > 5000) collected via a globally distributed laboratory network in over 40 regions demonstrated that attitudes toward Black people and politicians had a stronger relationship with attitudes toward the men rather than the women of the group. However, attitudes toward White people had a stronger relationship with attitudes toward White women than White men, whereas attitudes toward East Asian people, police officers, and criminals did not have a stronger relationship with attitudes toward either the men or women of each respective group. Regional agreement with traditional gender roles was explored as a potential moderator. These findings have implications for understanding the unique forms of prejudice women face around the world.

Curtis Edward Phills, Jeremy K. Miller, Erin M. Buchanan, Amanda Williams, Chanel Meyers, Elizabeth R. Brown, Janis Zickfeld, Selina Volsa, Stefan Stieger, Elisabeth Oberzaucher, Vinka Mlakic, Martin Vasilev, İlker Dalgar, Sami Çoksan, Sinem Söylemez, Çağlar Solak, Asil Ali Özdoğru, Belemir Çoktok, Chun-Chia Kung, Panita Suavansri, Harry Manley, Sara Álvarez-Solas, Danilo Zambrano Ricaurte, Ivan Ropovik, Gabriel Baník, Peter Babinčák, Matúš Adamkovič, Pavol Kačmár, Monika Hricová, Jozef Bavoľár, Lisa Li, Fei Gao, Zhong Chen, Vanja Ković, Vasilije Gvozdenović, Patrícia Arriaga, Katarzyna Filip, Krystian Barzykowski, Sylwia Adamus, Gerit Pfuhl, Sarah E. Martiny, Kristoffer Klevjer, Frederike S. Woelfert, Christian K. Tamnes, Jonas R. Kunst, Max Korbmacher, Margaret Messiah Singh, Sraddha Pradhan, Noorshama Parveen, Arti Parganiha, Babita Pande, Pratibha Kujur, Priyanka Chandel, Niv Reggev, Aviv Mokady, Marietta Papadatou-Pastou, Roxane Schnepper, Jan Philipp Röer, Tilli Ripp, Ekaterina Pronizius,Claus Lamm, Martin Voracek, Jerome Olsen, Janina Enachescu, Carlota Batres, Daniel Storage, Carmel A. Levitan, Manyu Li, Leigh Ann Vaughn, William J. Chopik, Kathleen Schmidt, Peter R. Mallik, Savannah Lewis, Brynna Leach, Brianna Jurosic, David Moreau, Izuchukwu Lawrence Gabriel Ndukaihe, Nwadiogo Chisom Arinze, Steve M. J. Janssen, Alicia Foo, Chrystalle B. Y. Tan, Glenn P. Williams, Danny Riis, Bethany M. Lane, Dermot Lynott, Thomas Rhys Evans, Miroslav Sirota, Dawn L. Holford, Kaitlyn M. Werner, Kelly Wang, Marina Milyavskaya, Ian D. Stephen, Robert M. Ross, Andrew Roberts, Omid Ghasemi, Niklas K. Steffens, Kim Peters, Barnaby Dixson, Marco Antonio Correa Varella, Jaroslava V. Valentova, Anthonieta Looman Mafra, Rafael Ming Chi Santos Hsu, Yago Luksevicius de Moraes, Luana Oliveira da Silva, Caio Santos Alves da Silva, Mai Helmy, Mariah Balderrama, Ali H. Al-Hoorie, Tyler McGee, Zahir Vally, Attila Szuts, Patrick Forscher, Pablo Bernabeu, Balazs Aczel, Anna Szabelska, Sau-Chin Chen, Christopher R. Chartier, Zoltan Kekecs. (2025) “Multi-region investigation of ‘man’ as default in attitudes.” PLoS One 20(6): e0323938. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0323938 🔓

Article: Infectious diseases are often associated with decline in quality of life. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between personal history of communicable, i.e., infectious and parasitic diseases and self-rated health.

Gerit Pfuhl, Filipe Prazeres, Marta Kowal, Toivo Aavik, Beatriz Abad-Villaverde, Reza Afhami, Leonardo Aguilar, Grace Akello, Laith Al-Shawaf, Jan Antfolk, Chiemezie S. Atama, Derya Atamturk Duyar, Roberto Baiocco, Sercan Balım, Carlota Batres, Yakhlef Belkacem, Théo Besson, Adam Bode, Merve Boğa, Jordane Boudesseul, Mahmoud Boussena, Hamdaoui Brahim, Nana Burduli, Ali R. Can, Hakan Cetinkaya, Antonio Chirumbolo, Dimitri Chubinidze, Clément Cornec, Bojana M. Dinić, Seda Dural, Izzet Duyar, Samuel O. Ebimgbo, Edgardo Etchezahar, Peter Fedor, Tomasz Frackowiak, David A. Frederick, Katarzyna Galasinska, Felipe E. García, Talia Gomez Yepes, Dmitry Grigoryev, Farida Guemaz, Ivana Hromatko, Gözde Ikizer, Steve M. J. Janssen, Julia A. Kamburidis, Tina Kavčič, Nicolas Kervyn, Farah Khan, Aleksander Kobylarek, Mehmet Koyuncu, Yoshihiko Kunisato, David Lacko, Miguel Landa-Blanco, Linda H. Lidborg, Samuel Lins, Tetyana Mandzyk, Silvia Mari, Tiago A. Marot, Martha Martinez-Banfi, Alan D. A. Mattiassi, Marlon Mayorga-Lascano, Moises Mebarak, Norbert Meskó, Maria Rosa Miccoli, Vita Mikuličiūtė, Taciona L. Milfont, Katarina Mišetić, Mara Morelli, Jean C. Natividade, Izuchukwu L. G. Ndukaihe, Felipe Novaes, Salma S. Omar, Mohd Sofian Omar Fauzee, Tobias Otterbring, Barış Özener, Simon Ozer, Ju Hee Park, Irena Pavela Banai, Farid Pazhoohi, Mariia Perun, Martin Pírko, Ekaterine Pirtskhalava, Katarzyna Pisanski, Nejc Plohl, Koen Ponnet, Pavol Prokop, Matheus F. F. Ribeiro, Frederico Rosário, Ayşegül Şahin, Fatima Zahra Sahli, Dušana Šakan, Oksana Senyk, Henrik Siepelmeyer, Diana Ribeiro da Silva, Sangeeta Singh, Çağlar Solak, Sinem Söylemez, Anna Studzinska, Chee-Seng Tan, Gulmira T. Topanova, Merve Topcu Bulut, Ezgi Toplu-Demirtaş, Bastien Trémolière, Singha Tulyakul, Joaquín Ungaretti, Jaroslava V. Valentova, Marco A.C. Varella, Mona Vintila, Tatiana Volkodav, Anna Wlodarczyk, Yao-Yuan Yeh, Gyesook Yoo, Oulmann Zerhouni, Marcos Zumárraga-Espinosa, Maja Zupančič, Piotr Sorokowski. (2025) “A preliminary study on the role of personal history of infectious and parasitic diseases on self-reported health across countries.” Public Health 242: 220-227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2025.02.030 🔓 

Article: Previous research has found that mothers are more likely to ascribe paternal resemblance to newborns. Moreover, studies have found that fathers who perceive that their children resemble them invest more in those children. In this study, we aimed to examine if maternal claims of paternal resemblance exist even with very limited visual information by asking parents whom they believed the fetus looked like during an ultrasound. We found that mothers, but not fathers, were more likely to say that the fetus resembled the father. Additionally, we found that women who were not married were even more likely to say that the fetus resembled the father. By claiming phenotypic similarity with the father, mothers are reducing paternity uncertainty and, consequently, securing investment for their offspring from when they are in utero.

Carlota Batres, Amy Mullen, Sonya Krofl, Lauren Trainor. (2025) “Investigating perceptions of fetal resemblance.” Evolution and Human Behavior 46(2): 106670. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106670

Article: Love is commonly hypothesized to function as an evolved commitment device, disincentivizing the pursuit of romantic alternatives and signaling this motivational shift to a partner. Here, we test this possibility against a novel signaling-to-alternatives account, in which love instead operates by dissuading alternatives from pursuing oneself. Overall, we find stronger support for the latter account. In Studies 1 and 2, we find that partner quality relative to alternatives positively predicts feelings of love, and love fails to mitigate the negative effects of desirable alternatives on relationship satisfaction—contradicting the classic commitment device account. In Study 3, using a longitudinal design, we replicate these effects and find that changes in partner quality relative to alternatives predict changes in love over time. In Study 4, we replicate the relationship between love and relative partner quality across 44 countries. In Study 5, we find a nearly one-to-one correspondence between the extent to which partner-directed actions are diagnostic of love and reductions in romantic alternatives' attraction to the actor. These results suggest that love may not act as a commitment device in the classic sense by disincentivizing the pursuit of alternatives but by disincentivizing alternatives from pursuing oneself.

Benjamin Gelbart, Kathryn V. Walter, Daniel Conroy-Beam, Casey Estorque, David M. Buss, Kelly Asao, Agnieszka Sorokowska, Piotr Sorokowski, Toivo Aavik, Grace Akello, Mohammad Madallh Alhabahba, Charlotte Alm, Naumana Amjad, Afifa Anjum, Chiemezie S. Atama, Derya Atamtürk Duyar, Carlota Batres, Mons Bendixen, Aicha Bensafia, Boris Bizumic, Mahmoud Boussena, Marina Butovskaya, Seda Can, Antonin Carrier, Hakan Cetinkaya, Ilona Croy, Rosa María Cueto, Marcin Czub, Daria Dronova, Seda Dural, Izzet Duyar, Berna Ertugrul, Agustín Espinosa, Ignacio Estevan, Carla Sofia Esteves, Luxi Fang, Tomasz Frackowiak, Jorge Contreras Garduño, Karina Ugalde González, Farida Guemaz, Petra Gyuris, Iskra Herak, Ivana Hromatko, Chin-Ming Hui, Jas Laile Jaafar, Feng Jiang, Konstantinos Kafetsios, Tina Kavcic, Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair, Nicolas Kervyn, Truong Thi Khanh Ha, Imran Ahmed Khilji, Hoang Moc Lan, András Láng, Georgina R. Lennard, Ernesto León, Torun Lindholm, Trinh Thi Linh, Giulia Lopez, Nguyen Van Luot, Alvaro Mailhos, Zoi Manesi, Sarah L. McKerchar, Norbert Meskó, Girishwar Misra, Conal Monaghan, Emanuel C. Mora, Alba Moya-Garófano, Bojan Musil, Jean Carlos Natividade, Agnieszka Niemczyk, George Nizharadze, Elisabeth Oberzaucher, Anna Oleszkiewicz, Mohd Sofian Omar-Fauzee, Ike E. Onyishi, Baris Özener, Ariela F. Pagani, Vilmante Pakalniskiene, Miriam Parise, Farid Pazhoohi, Annette Pisanski, Katarzyna Pisanski, Nejc Plohl, Edna Ponciano, Camelia Popa, Pavol Prokop, Muhammad Rizwan, Svjetlana Salkicevic, Ruta Sargautyte, Ivan Sarmány-Schuller, Shivantika Sharad, Razi Sultan Siddiqui, Franco Simonetti, Stanislava Yordanova Stoyanova, Meri Tadinac, Marco Antonio Correa Varella, Christin-Melanie Vauclair, Luis Diego Vega, Dwi Ajeng Widarini, Gyesook Yoo, Marta Zatková, Maja Zupancic. (2025) “The function of love: A signaling-to-alternatives account of the commitment device hypothesis.” Evolution and Human Behavior 46(2): 106672. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106672 🔓 

Book Review: Giovanna Faleschini Lerner’s Women and Migration in Contemporary Italian Cinema: Screening Hospitality is an important critical study that applies a gendered and transnational lens to contemporary Italian cinema, intersecting the Derridean notion of hospitality with human (specifically female) migrant mobility and cultural circulation within and through the Italian cinematic borders.

Benini, Stefania. (2025) Book review: Women and Migration in Contemporary Italian Cinema: Screening Hospitality by Giovanna Faleschini Lerner. Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies, 13(4): 498-501. https://doi.org/10.1386/jicms_00298_5 

Book Review: Laura Di Bianco’s Wandering Women: Urban Ecologies of Italian Feminist Filmmaking is an eco-critical ‘travelling shot’ through Italian cinematic landscapes, following the urban flaneries of women as protagonists within the films and as filmmakers at the intersection of eco-cinema and feminist filmmaking.

Benini, Stefania. (2025) Book review: Wandering Women: Urban Ecologies of Italian Feminist Filmmaking by Laura Di Bianco. Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies, 13(4): 492-494. https://doi.org/10.1386/jicms_00297_5 

Book: Aristophanes' Knights was a sensation in its time, famous for its assault on the Athenian politician and demagogue Cleon in the first comic drama devoted to a sustained, open satire of an individual political figure. It is also the first play Aristophanes produced in his own name, and the one that solidified his reputation as a leading comic dramatist. This is the first full-scale commentary on Knights in over a century. The Greek text is based on a fresh analysis of the manuscripts, papyri and other ancient sources. The extensive commentary situates the play in its linguistic, literary and intellectual context and allows full appreciation of its original performance context. Particular attention is paid to the poet's language and to the social and literary traditions of his time, and abundant citations and quotations of parallel passages ranging far beyond the comic poets are offered, with all Greek translated.

Biles, Zachary P. and S. Douglas Olson. (2025) Aristophanes Knights. Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries series no. 67.Cambridge University Press. 

Article: Phytophthora is a long-established, well-known, and globally important genus of plant pathogens. Phylogenetic evidence has shown that the biologically distinct, obligate biotrophic downy mildews evolved from Phytophthora at least twice. Because, cladistically, this renders Phytophthora “paraphyletic,” it has been proposed that Phytophthora evolutionary clades be split into multiple genera (Crous et al. 2021; Runge et al. 2011; Thines 2023, 2024). In this letter, we review arguments for the retention of the generic name Phytophthora with a broad circumscription made by Brasier et al. (2022) and by many delegates at an open workshop organized by The American Phytopathological Society. We present our well-considered responses to the genus splitting proposals, both in general terms and in terms of the specific proposals for new genera, alongside new information regarding the biological properties and mode of origin of the Phytophthora clades. We consider that the proposals are mostly non-rigorous and not supported by the scientific evidence. Further, given (i) the apparent lack of any distinguishing biological characteristics (synapomorphies) between the Phytophthora clades; (ii) the fundamental monophyly of Phytophthora in the original Haeckelian sense (Haeckel 1877); (iii) the fact that paraphyly is not a justification for taxonomic splitting; and (iv) the considerable likely damage to effective scientific communication and disease management from an unnecessary breakup of the genus, we report that workshop delegates voted unanimously in favor of preserving the current generic concept and for seeking endorsement of this view by a working group of the International Commission on the Taxonomy of Fungi.

Clive M. Brasier, Niklaus J. Grünwald, Tyler B. Bourret, Francine Govers, Bruno Scanu, David E. L. Cooke, Tanay Bose, David L. Hawksworth, Z. Gloria Abad, M. Victoria Albarracin, Wael Alsultan, Astrid E. Altamirano-Junqueira, Arild R. Arifin, Matthew J. Arnet, Herbert Dustin R. Aumentado, József Bakonyi, Wei H. Belisle, Alessandra Benigno, John C. Bienapfl, Guillaume J. Bilodeau, Jaime E. Blair, Leticia Botella, Andrea Brandano, Santa Olga Cacciola, Ignazio Carbone, Vanina L. Castroagudin, Narayanan Chaendaekattu, Jonathan D. Consford, Tamara Corcobado, Paul A. Covey, Hazel A. Daniels, Antonio Deidda, Anne E. Dorrance, Erika N. Dort, André Drenth, Fryni Drizou, Edouard Evangelisti, Sebastian N. Fajardo, Yufeng Fang, Christopher M. Ference, Susan J. Frankel, Erica M. Goss, David I. Guest, Giles E. S. J. Hardy, Anna R. H. Harris, Mehari Desta Hawku, Kurt Heungens, Chuanxue Hong, Ian J. Horner, Marília Horta Jung, Olumayowa J. Iyanda, Brittney-Aidan Jamieson, Steven N. Jeffers, Howard S. Judelson, Muhammad Junaid, Eleni Kalogeropoulou, Sophien Kamoun, Seogchan Kang, Takao Kasuga, Tomáš Kudláček, Jared LeBoldus, Christopher A. Lee, DeWei Li, Alejandro K. Llanos, Horacio D. Lopez-Nicora, Helena Machado, Gaetano Magnano di San Lio, Cristiana Maia, Kajal Mandal, Patricia Manosalva, Frank N. Martin, Michael E. H. Matson, Rebecca L. McDougal, John M. McDowell, Richard W. Michelmore, Ivan Milenković, Salvatore Moricca, Reza Mostowfizadeh-Ghalamfarsa, Zoltán Á. Nagy, Ekaterina V. Nikolaeva, Paula Ortega-López, Trudy Paap, Camilo H. Parada-Rojas, Francesca Peduto Hand, Ana Pérez-Sierra, Martin Pettersson, Pramod Prasad, Alina S. Puig, Milica Raco, Nasir A. Rajput, Jean B. Ristaino, Suzanne Rooney-Latham, Michael F. Seidl, Simon F. Shamoun, Alejandro Solla, Christoffel F. J. Spies, Martha A. Sudermann, Tedmund J. Swiecki, Miaoying Tian, Sucheta Tripathy, Seiji Uematsu, Kris Van Poucke, Aikaterini E. Vichou, Monika Walter, Joan F. Webber, Nari M. Williams, Michael J. Wingfield, Dhananjay Yadav, Xiao Yang, and Thomas Jung. (2025) “Preserving the biologically coherent generic concept of Phytophthora, ‘plant destroyer’.” Phytopathology 115(6): 573-586. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-11-24-0372-LE 🔓 

Chapter: The Wiley-Blackwell reader in Geography is generally considered a high quality, authoritative compendium on the topic area. This chapter offers an overview of the climate change issue. It argues that climate change is not simply a reality of tremendous physical importance but also one that requires a relational perspective. The chapter briefly discusses the physical science of climate change and notes some underappreciated dimensions of climate change that deal with psychology and social and cultural relations. Social and cultural geography helps us understand these relationships through its central concern with the interrelationships between humankind, place, and space. The chapter furthers knowledge about how the more-than-human world can inform the design, governance, legal, and ethical questions underpinning Earth systems taking shape in personal, local, national, regional, or global scales.

Bratman, Eve. (2025) “Humanizing Climate Change,” in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Social and Cultural Geography. Eds. Ishan Ashtoush and Jamie Winders, John Wiley and Sons: New York: 517-534. 

Book: Bringing together dance and science, two paradigms that explore the nature and possibilities of the body, this volume illuminates the meanings and articulations of dance in nineteenth-century societies. This global collection of studies reveals how the two fields informed each other’s development and engaged with dominant European worldviews in a time of unprecedented colonial expansion.

The chapters in Dance and Science in the Long Nineteenth Century examine how trends and developments in the performing arts reflected scientific thinking of this era, including the categorization of “types” of bodies and the ranking of cultural and religious beliefs, as well as how dance served as an active site of inquiry where the workings and limits of the human body could be studied. Researchers discuss topics including the influence of plant biology on the aesthetics of ballet, technological advancements in the staging and recording of performances, arguments for the use of Eurhythmics in promoting a stronger “race,” and European fascination with Indian dance and yoga.

Featuring response essays that put leading scholars in conversation with one another and offer new perspectives, this volume is unique in its geographic scope and its discussion of diverse bodies, cultures, themes, and scientific disciplines. It sheds light on a historical interplay that has shaped many of today’s political and cultural realities.

Dance and Science in the Long Nineteenth Century: The Articulate Body. Edited by Lynn Matluck Brooks, Sariel Golomb, and Garth Grimball. University Press of Florida, 2025. https://floridapress.org/9780813079264/dance-and-science-in-the-long-nineteenth-century/ 

Book: An expansive study of Philadelphia’s significant contributions to dance during the nation’s political, social, and intellectual development

Theatres of the Body is Lynn Matluck Brooks’ critical examination of danced stage productions in antebellum Philadelphia. Starting in the 1820s, Brooks explores visual art and social and theatrical dancing across different classes, focusing on the work of E. W. Clay. Continuing through the 1830s, she looks at pantomime ballets and blackface minstrelsy through a political lens, asking questions regarding citizenship, slavery, and freedom. At the time, the city boasted the largest number of native-born ballet dancers in the young nation. Philadelphia also became a creative home to blackface star T. D. Rice, who helped popularize that performance genre.

Reviewing print culture in the 1840s, Brooks shows how newspapers, magazines, and popular fiction provided documentation of dancing in Philadelphia as well as the responses of dance commentators, practitioners, and moralists. Theatres of the Body also considers the interplay of science with dance in the 1850s, which impacted both dance practices and reception.

Providing an expansive historiography of these significant contributions to dance in the United States, Brooks deepens our understanding of antebellum culture and history.

Brooks, Lynn Matluck. (2025) Theatres of the Body: Dance and Discourse in Antebellum Philadelphia. Temple University Press. https://tupress.temple.edu/books/theatres-of-the-body 

Article: This essay treats the works of Edward W. Clay (1799-1857), citizen of Philadelphia, who created prints and caricatures of life in the United States. His artistic output reveals his interests, observations, and prejudices, as well as those of the young nation’s early residents. Focusing on three of Clay’s dance-themed works, this essay asks what these drawings reveal about the anxieties and aspirations early U.S. residents experienced as they grappled with the cultural and social unfolding of the nation. Laban Movement Analysis is utilized as the methodology for understanding the selected artworks, demonstrating the advantages and shortcomings of this system for understanding the selected artworks.

Brooks, Lynn Matluck. (2025) "La danza dibujada: E. W. Clay y el baile social en la Filadelfia anterior a la guerra civil." Anales de Historia del Arte 35: 137-150. https://dx.doi.org/10.5209/anha.101107 🔓 

Article: The ubiquitous presence of motorbike taxi drivers on the streets of Kampala, Uganda, has long been the subject of academic inquiry. This article interrogates the visible political symbols displayed on the motorbikes and the clothing of drivers, arguing that the aesthetic choices of drivers offer new ways of imagining Ugandan state pasts and futures. While the 2021 Ugandan presidential election has often been framed as a binary choice between President Museveni and Robert Ssentamu (popularly known by his stage name Bobi Wine), I propose that drivers’ conscious decision to display divergent political symbols must be understood through the history of cosmopolitanism in Kampala. Taking seriously the diversity of political visions suggested by the aesthetic markers of drivers enables us to appreciate the multifaceted challenges and possibilities for Uganda’s political future.

Chalifoux, Christine. (2025) “Aesthetic Interruptions: Boda Drivers and Political Expression in Kampala.” Africa 95(2): 141–57. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972025100934 

Article: Marshall Sahlins's understanding of kinship as cultural rather than biological has been salutary to kinship studies, but his definition of kinship as "mutuality of being" leaves untheorized those aspects of kinship relations experienced as negative, burdensome, or ambivalent. In defining witchcraft as "negative kinship," Sahlins gets at something important, but also overlooks the tradition deriving from Emile Durkheim in which kinship connection is understood as in tension with egoistic self-regard, such that amity and resentment are flip-sides of the same coin.

Chalifoux, Christine. (2025) "Enchanted Relations: On Sahlins, Kinship, and Magic." Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 20(1): 10-19. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2025.a965574 

Article: Various health departments worldwide needed to react to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: first, conveying information about the virus itself, and later, announcing and promoting vaccinations. Multilingual, multimodal communication is essential during a crisis. Studies from early in the pandemic show some positive efforts and shortfalls in language inclusivity. We build on these to study COVID-19 communications with a later issue, vaccination, in South Africa and the United States. Analysis of online resources available from national government websites and one sub-national government from each country (Western Cape and Pennsylvania) followed O’Brien et al.’s (2018) framework of availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability. Both countries only partly implemented their language policies and the number of English resources available exceeded that of other languages. Also, both countries had multimodal resources. Although there were resources in non-majority languages, they offered only isolated materials in less populous minority, indigenous, and migrant languages. The use of automatic translation or professional translators affected acceptability. Websites varied in the accessibility or ease of finding materials in languages other than English.

Cox, Jessica G, Michael M Kretzer. (2025)  “COVID-19 vaccination campaigns for diverse language groups in Pennsylvania/USA and Western Cape/South Africa: Examples from national and sub-national levels.” Applied Linguistics, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amae082 

Article: The Moon Tilt illusion confuses the viewer about the direction of illumination of a waxing or waning moon. In this paper, we explain how the illusion arises from standard (but surprising) aspects of perspective projections, and we relate the illusion to familiar perspective drawings and photographs of objects such as clocks and cubes.

Crannell, Annalisa. (2025) “Illuminating Geometry in the Moon Tilt Illusion.” Mathematics Magazine 98(4): 249–263. https://doi.org/10.1080/0025570X.2025.2535267 

Grant: The Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium (PSGC) is one of 52 members of “NASA Space Grant.” NASA Space Grant is a national network of colleges and universities in every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico that were created and now supported by NASA. The 52 consortia fund fellowships and scholarships for students pursuing careers in science, mathematics, engineering and technology (STEM) as well as curriculum enhancement and faculty development. Member colleges and universities also administer pre-college and public service education projects in their states. https://sites.psu.edu/paspacegrant/

Crawford, Fronefield. (2025-2029) Grant Award: "The Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium." Subaward from NASA, F&M Budget: $39,008. 

Article: We provide experimental results of an investigation into the detectability of small, low-metal-content (LMC) landmines using multiple sensors in field conditions. The sensors tested were an impulse ground penetrating radar (GPR), a metal detector (MD), and a holographic subsurface radar (HSR). By using the combined sensors, we were able to reliably detect the presence of both M14 and Type 72 landmines buried at shallow depths in damp soil. The sensors were mounted on a remotely operated robotic platform, which provides enhanced safety in real minefield conditions. The results indicate that this combination of sensors could provide an effective method for safely identifying the presence of minimum metal landmines in real postconflict zones. Such mines are not currently detectable with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), so this ground-based approach is complementary.

L. Capineri, G. Pochanin, V. Ruban, L. Bossi, P. Falorni, T. Ogurtsova, T. Bechtel, & F. Crawford. (2025) "Enhancing Minefield Detection: A Robotic Approach for Multi-Sensor Detection and Discrimination of Small Low-Metal-Content Landmines." IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 63: Art no. 5108711: 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2025.3619806 

Conference: This paper addresses the challenge of detecting and localizing antipersonnel landmines in clay soil using impulse ultra-wideband (UWB) ground-penetrating radar (GPR). The proposed system employs a 1Tx–4Rx antenna configuration and analyzes the spatial-temporal structure of the received signals. The detection approach is based on contrast filtering and a combined indicator that integrates signal energy coefficient and correlation coefficient metrics. Experimental results demonstrate the ability of the system to detect and localize PMN-1 and PMN-4 mines buried in clay soil, highlighting the system’s potential for practical applications in humanitarian demining.

G. Pochanin, V. Ruban, I. Pochanina, T. Ogurtsova, V. Korzh, A. Puzak, L. Capineri, T. Bechtel, & F. Crawford. (2025) "Detection of Antipersonnel Landmines Buried in the Clay Soil with UWB Impulse GPR." 30th International Seminar/Workshop on Direct and Inverse Problems of Electromagnetic and Acoustic Wave Theory (DIPED 2025). Tbilisi, Georgia. https://doi.org/10.1109/IWAGPR65621.2025.11109038

Conference: In this work we propose a comparison between multisensor imaging systems for the detection and mapping of anti-personnel mines developed by two different research groups: the portable dual sensor ALIS [2] and a team of cooperating robots controlled remotely [3]. Both approaches use a combination of sensors among which the main ones are penetrating microwave radars and metal detectors, and they were demonstrated together on the field during the event reported in [4]. The work presents first a comparison between the various characteristics of the two systems to identify not only their advantages and disadvantages, but also their complementary aspects. For the detection and mapping, the 2D/3D images obtained from radar scans of some samples of anti-personnel mines buried at low depth will be compared. 

L. Capineri, G. Pochanin, T. Bechtel, F. Crawford, & M. Sato. (2025) "Multisensor Imaging Systems for Landmines Detection." URSI Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference (URSI AP-RASC 2025). Sydney, Australia. https://doi.org/10.46620/URSIAPRASC25/BREQ4219

Conference: Detection of explosive ordnance by radar in the microwave range is proving to be increasingly effective in determining the location and characteristics of such objects buried at shallow depths in the ground. As is known, the variability of the shape and the different materials used for the manufacturing of anti-personnel mines require considerable effort in finding approaches that can constrain the number of false alarms while maintaining a high probability of correct detection. Microwave propagation in the ground in the 1-3 GHz band is an optimal compromise between spatial resolution and penetration depth (e.g., 10 cm) for the selected terrain.

L. Capineri, G. Pochanin, F. Crawford, & T. Bechtel. (2025) "A Complementary Approach Based on Ultrawideband and Narrow Band Radar for Anti-Personnel Landmine Detection." URSI Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference (URSI AP-RASC 2025). Sydney, Australia. https://doi.org/10.46620/URSIAPRASC25/RCEF5976

Conference: In recent years, various approaches to mine detection have been introduced. To enhance the speed and safety of this process, systems such as remotely controlled flying drones and terrestrial robotic systems have been developed. These systems are equipped with a range of sensors that utilize different physical principles, including optical imaging, thermal imaging, LiDAR, magnetometry, metal detection, and various types of ground penetrating radar. Additionally, a global trend has emerged that involves the use of artificial intelligence to analyze the large volumes of data collected by these sensors. This paper presents a review of the latest methods for landmine detection, identification, and positioning.

G. Pochanin, I. Pochanina, T. Ogurtsova, F. Crawford, L. Capineri, & T. Bechtel. (2025) "Perspective Approaches to Landmine Detection, Identification, and Positioning." 13th International Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar (IWAGPR2025). Thessaloniki, Greece: pp.1-5 https://doi.org/10.1109/IWAGPR65621.2025.11109038

Conference: This project has fully demonstrated a new paradigm using a team of cooperating robots carrying different sensors, with data fusion for detection and discrimination of surficial and buried landmines. The system is operated remotely with negligible risk to the operator. The integration of information collected by three robots has been achieved by software architecture. With this architecture, it is possible to plan the mission path, optimize the sensor settings and visualize the data from a remote terminal (e.g., a tablet or smartphone).

L. Capineri, L. Bossi, V. Ruban, E. Vivoli, T. Bechtel, G. Pochanin, & F. Crawford. (2025) "Multi-Sensor Cooperative Robots for Shallow Buried Explosive Threat Detection: Radar Sensors and Optical Sensors Integrated by System Software." 13th International Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar (IWAGPR2025). Thessaloniki, Greece: pp. 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1109/IWAGPR65621.2025.11109008

Conference: We describe a new paradigm using cooperating robots and multi-sensor data fusion for surficial and buried plastic and metal-cased landmine detection. The system operates remotely minimizing risk for the operator. With this architecture, it is possible to plan a mission, optimize sensor settings, and visualize the data from a remote computer or handheld device.

L. Capineri, P. Falorni, V. Ruban, T. Bechtel, F. Crawford, & M. Maiboroda. (2025) "Multi-sensor Cooperative Robots for Shallow Buried Explosive Threat Detection: System Architecture, Mission Strategy, and Test Field Results." 13th International Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar (IWAGPR2025). Thessaloniki, Greece. pp. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1109/IWAGPR65621.2025.11109051

Article:Aims. Double neutron star (DNS) systems are superb laboratories for testing theories of gravity and constraining the equation of state of ultra-dense matter. PSR J1946+2052 is a particularly intriguing DNS system due to its orbital period (1h 53 m), as it is the shortest among all DNS systems known in our Galaxy.

Methods. We aim to conduct high-precision timing of PSR J1946+2052 to determine the masses of the two neutron stars in the system, test general relativity (GR), and assess the system’s potential for future measurement of the moment of inertia of the pulsar. 

Results. The timing campaign resulted in the precise measurement of five post-Keplerian parameters, which yield very precise masses for the system (total mass M = 2.531858(60) M⊙, companion mass Mc = 1.2480(21) M⊙, and pulsar mass Mp = 1.2838(21) M⊙), and three tests of GR. 

L. Meng, P. C. C. Freire, K. Stovall, N. Wex, X. Miao, W. Zhu, M. Kramer, J. M. Cordes, H. Hu, J. Jiang, E. Parent, L. Shao, I. H. Stairs, M. Xue, A. Brazier, F. Camilo, D. J. Champion, S. Chatterjee, F. Crawford, Z. Fang, Q. Fu, Y. Guo, J. W. T. Hessels, M. MacLaughlin, C. Miao, J. Niu, Z. Wu, J. Yao, M. Yuan, Y. Yue, & C. Zhang. (2025) "The Double Neutron Star PSR J1946+2052 I. Masses and Tests of General Relativity." Astronomy and Astrophysics 704 A153: 16pp. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202555689 🔓

Article: We have reprocessed the data archived from the Parkes 70 cm (PKS70) pulsar survey with an expanded dispersion measure (DM) search range and an acceleration search. Our goal was to detect pulsars that might have been missed in the original survey processing. Of the original 43,842 pointings, 34,869 pointings were archived, along with 440 additional pointings for confirmation or timing. We processed all of these archived data and detected 359 known pulsars: 265 of these were detected in the original survey, while an additional 94 currently known pulsars were detected in our reprocessing.

W. Xia, F. Crawford, S. Hisano, T. Jespersen, M. Ficarra, M. Golden, & M. Gironda. (2025) "Reprocessing of the Parkes 70 cm Survey and Discovery of a New Radio Pulsar in the Large Magellanic Cloud." Astrophysical Journal, 991(6):10pp. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adf8e8 🔓

Article: We present the results of a search for nonlinear gravitational-wave (GW) memory in the NANOGrav 15 yr data set. We find no significant evidence for memory signals in the data set, with a maximum Bayes factor of 3.1 in favor of a model including memory. We therefore place upper limits on the strain of potential GW memory events as a function of sky location and observing epoch. We find upper limits that are not always more constraining than previous NANOGrav results. We show that it is likely due to the increase in common red noise between the 12.5 and 15 yr NANOGrav data sets.

G. Agazie, A. Anumarlapudi, A. M. Archibald, Z. Arzoumanian, J. G. Baier, P. T. Baker, B. Becsy, L. Blecha, A. Brazier, P. R. Brook, S. Burke-Spolaor, R. Burnette, J. A. Casey-Clyde, M. Charisi, S. Chatterjee, T. Cohen, J. M. Cordes, N. J. Cornish, F. Crawford, H. T. Cromartie, K. Crowter, M. E. DeCesar, P. B. Demorest, H. Deng, L. Dey, T. Dolch, E. C. Ferrara, W. Fiore, E. Fonseca, G. E. Freedman, E. C. Gardiner, N. Garver-Daniels, P. A. Gentile, K. A. Gersbach, J. Glaser, D. C. Good, K. Gultekin, J. S. Hazboun, R. J. Jennings, A. D. Johnson, M. L. Jones, D. L. Kaplan, L. Z. Kelley, M. Kerr, J. S. Key, N. Laal, M. T. Lam, W. G. Lamb, B. Larsen, T. J. W. Lazio, N. Lewandowska, T. Liu, D. R. Lorimer, J. Luo, R. S. Lynch, C.-P. Ma, D. R. Madison, A. McEwen, J. W. McKee, M. A. McLaughlin, N. McMann, B. W. Meyers, P. M. Meyers, C. M. F. Mingarelli, A. Mitridate, P. Natarajan, C. Ng, D. J. Nice, S. K. Ocker, K. D. Olum, T. T. Pennucci, B. B. P. Perera, P. Petrov, N. S. Pol, H. A. Radovan, S. M. Ransom, P. S. Ray, J. C. Runnoe, A. Saffer, S. C. Sardesai, A. Schmiedekamp, C. Schmiedekamp, K. Schmitz, B. J. Shapiro-Albert, X. Siemens, J. Simon, M. S. Siwek, S. V. Sosa Fiscella, I. H. Stairs, D. R. Stinebring, K. Stovall, J. P. Sun, A. Susobhanan, J. K. Swiggum, J. Taylor, S. R. Taylor, J. E. Turner, C. Unal, M. Vallisneri, R. van Haasteren, S. J. Vigeland, H. M. Wahl, C. A. Witt, D. Wright, & O. Young. (2025) "The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Search for Gravitational-Wave Memory." Astrophysical Journal, 987:5: 10pp. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/add874 🔓

Article: Pulsar timing array observations have found evidence for an isotropic gravitational-wave background with the Hellings–Downs angular correlations between pulsar pairs. This interpretation hinges on the measured shape of the angular correlations, which is predominantly quadrupolar under general relativity. Here we explore a more flexible parameterization: we expand the angular correlations into a sum of Legendre polynomials and use a Bayesian analysis to constrain their coefficients with the 15 yr pulsar timing data set collected by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav). 

G. Agazie, J. G. Baier, P. T. Baker, B. Becsy, L. Blecha, K. K. Boddy, A. Brazier, P. R. Brook, S. Burke-Spolaor, R. Burnette, J. A. Casey-Clyde, M. Charisi, S. Chatterjee, T. Cohen, J. M. Cordes, N. J. Cornish, F. Crawford, H. T. Cromartie, M. E. DeCesar, P. B. Demorest, H. Deng, L. Dey, T. Dolch, E. C. Ferrara, W. Fiore, E. Fonseca, G. E. Freedman, E. C. Gardiner, K. A. Gersbach, J. Glaser, D. C. Good, K. Gultekin, J. S. Hazboun, R. J. Jennings, A. D. Johnson, D. L. Kaplan, L. Z. Kelley, J. S. Key, N. Laal, M. T. Lam, W. G. Lamb, B. Larsen, T. J. W. Lazio, N. Lewandowska, T. Liu, J. Luo, R. S. Lynch, C.-P. Ma, D. R. Madison, A. McEwen, J. W. McKee, M. A. McLaughlin, P. M. Meyers, C. M. F. Mingarelli, A. Mitridate, J. Nay, D. J. Nice, S. K. Ocker, K. D. Olum, T. T. Pennucci, P. Petrov, N. S. Pol, H. A. Radovan, S. M. Ransom, P. S. Ray, J. C. Runnoe, A. Saffer, S. C. Sardesai, K. Schmitz, X. Siemens, J. Simon, M. S. Siwek, T. L. Smith, S. V. Sosa Fiscella, I. H. Stairs, D. R. Stinebring, A. Susobhanan, J. K. Swiggum, J. Taylor, S. R. Taylor, J. E. Turner, C. Unal, M. Vallisneri, R. van Haasteren, J. Verbiest, S. J. Vigeland, C. A. Witt, D. Wright, & O. Young. (2025) "The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Harmonic Analysis of the Pulsar Angular Correlations." Astrophysical Journal  985:99: 12pp. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adc997 🔓 

Article: The NANOGrav 15 yr data provide compelling evidence for a stochastic gravitational-wave (GW) background at nanohertz frequencies. The simplest model-independent approach to characterizing the frequency spectrum of this signal consists of a simple power-law fit involving two parameters: an amplitude A and a spectral index γ. In this Letter, we consider the next logical step beyond this minimal spectral model, allowing for a running (i.e., logarithmic frequency dependence) of the spectral index [see figure online].

G. Agazie, A. Anumarlapudi, A. M. Archibald, Z. Arzoumanian, J. G. Baier, P. T. Baker, B. Becsy, L. Blecha, A. Brazier, P. R. Brook, S. Burke-Spolaor, J. A. Casey-Clyde, M. Charisi, S. Chatterjee, K. Chatziioannou, T. Cohen, J. M. Cordes, N. J. Cornish, F. Crawford, H. T. Cromartie, K. Crowter, M. E. DeCesar, P. B. Demorest, H. Deng, L. Dey, T. Dolch, E. C. Ferrara, W. Fiore, E. Fonseca, G. E. Freedman, E. C. Gardiner, N. Garver-Daniels, P. A. Gentile, K. A. Gersbach, J. Glaser, D. C. Good, K. Gultekin, J. S. Hazboun, R. J. Jennings, A. D. Johnson, M. L. Jones, A. R. Kaiser, D. L. Kaplan, L. Z. Kelley, M. Kerr, J. S. Key, N. Laal, M. T. Lam, W. G. Lamb, B. Larsen, T. J. W. Lazio, N. Lewandowska, T. Liu, D. R. Lorimer, J. Luo, R. S. Lynch, C.-P. Ma, D. R. Madison, A. McEwen, J. W. McKee, M. A. McLaughlin, N. McMann, B. W. Meyers, P. M. Meyers, C. M. F. Mingarelli, A. Mitridate, C. Ng, D. J. Nice, S. K. Ocker, K. D. Olum, T. T. Pennucci, B. B. P. Perera, N. S. Pol, H. A. Radovan, S. M. Ransom, P. S. Ray, J. D. Romano, J. C. Runnoe, A. Saffer, S. C. Sardesai, A. Schmiedekamp, C. Schmiedekamp, K. Schmitz, B. J. Shapiro-Albert, X. Siemens, J. Simon, M. S. Siwek, S. V. Sosa Fiscella, I. H. Stairs, D. R. Stinebring, K. Stovall, A. Susobhanan, J. K. Swiggum, S. R. Taylor, J. E. Turner, C. Unal, M. Vallisneri, S. J. Vigeland, H. M. Wahl, C. A. Witt, D. Wright, & O. Young. (2025) "The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Posterior Predictive Checks for Gravitational-wave Detection with Pulsar Timing Arrays." Physical Review D 111: 042011.  https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.042011 🔓

Article: We present the results of a search for nonlinear gravitational-wave (GW) memory in the NANOGrav 15 yr data set. We find no significant evidence for memory signals in the data set, with a maximum Bayes factor of 3.1 in favor of a model including memory. We therefore place upper limits on the strain of potential GW memory events as a function of sky location and observing epoch. We find upper limits that are not always more constraining than previous NANOGrav results. We show that it is likely due to the increase in common red noise between the 12.5 and 15 yr NANOGrav data sets.

G. Agazie, A. Anumarlapudi, A. M. Archibald, Z. Arzoumanian, J. G. Baier, P. T. Baker, B. Becsy, L. Blecha, A. Brazier, P. R. Brook, S. Burke-Spolaor, J. A. Casey-Clyde, M. Charisi, S. Chatterjee, T. Cohen, J. M. Cordes, N. J. Cornish, F. Crawford, H. T. Cromartie, K. Crowter, M. E. DeCesar, P. B. Demorest, H. Deng, L. Dey, T. Dolch, D. Esmyol, E. C. Ferrara, W. Fiore, E. Fonseca, G. E. Freedman, E. C. Gardiner, N. Garver-Daniels, P. A. Gentile, K. A. Gersbach, J. Glaser, D. C. Good, K. Gultekin, J. S. Hazboun, R. J. Jennings, A. D. Johnson, M. L. Jones, D. L. Kaplan, L. Z. Kelley, M. Kerr, J. S. Key, N. Laal, M. T. Lam, W. G. Lamb, B. Larsen, T. J. W. Lazio, N. Lewandowska, R. R. Lino dos Santos, T. Liu, D. R. Lorimer, J. Luo, R. S. Lynch, C.-P. Ma, D. R. Madison, A. McEwen, J. W. McKee, M. A. McLaughlin, N. McMann, B. W. Meyers, P. M. Meyers, C. M. F. Mingarelli, A. Mitridate, C. Ng, D. J. Nice, S. K. Ocker, K. D. Olum, T. T. Pennucci, B. B. P. Perera, N. S. Pol, H. A. Radovan, S. M. Ransom, P. S. Ray, J. D. Romano, J. C. Runnoe, A. Saffer, S. C. Sardesai, A. Schmiedekamp, C. Schmiedekamp, K. Schmitz, T. Schroder, B. J. Shapiro-Albert, X. Siemens, J. Simon, M. S. Siwek, S. V. Sosa Fiscella, I. H. Stairs, D. R. Stinebring, K. Stovall, A. Susobhanan, J. K. Swiggum, S. R. Taylor, J. E. Turner, C. Unal, M. Vallisneri, R. van Haasteren, S. J. Vigeland, R. von Eckardstein, H. M. Wahl, C. A. Witt, D. Wright, & O. Young. (2025) "The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Running of the Spectral Index." Astrophysical Journal Letters 978:L29, 14pp. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad99d3 🔓

Article: The cosmic merger history of supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) is expected to produce a low-frequency gravitational wave background (GWB). Here we investigate how signs of the discrete nature of this GWB can manifest in pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) through excursions from, and breaks in, the expected [see figure online] power law of the GWB strain spectrum. 

G. Agazie, A. Anumarlapudi, A. M. Archibald, Z. Arzoumanian, J. G. Baier, P. T. Baker, B. Becsy, L. Blecha, A. Brazier, P. R. Brook, S. Burke-Spolaor, J. A. Casey-Clyde, M. Charisi, S. Chatterjee, T. Cohen, J. M. Cordes, N. J. Cornish, F. Crawford, H. T. Cromartie, K. Crowter, M. E. DeCesar, P. B. Demorest, H. Deng, L. Dey, T. Dolch, E. C. Ferrara, W. Fiore, E. Fonseca, G. E. Freedman, E. C. Gardiner, N. Garver-Daniels, P. A. Gentile, K. A. Gersbach, J. Glaser, D. C. Good, L. Guertin, K. Gultekin, J. S. Hazboun, R. J. Jennings, A. D. Johnson, M. L. Jones, A. R. Kaiser, D. L. Kaplan, L. Z. Kelley, M. Kerr, J. S. Key, N. Laal, M. T. Lam, W. G. Lamb, B. Larsen, T. J. W. Lazio, N. Lewandowska, T. Liu, D. R. Lorimer, J. Luo, R. S. Lynch, C.-P. Ma, D. R. Madison, A. McEwen, J. W. McKee, M. A. McLaughlin, N. McMann, B. W. Meyers, P. M. Meyers, H. Middleton, C. M. F. Mingarelli, A. Mitridate, C. J. Moore, C. Ng, D. J. Nice, S. K. Ocker, K. D. Olum, T. T. Pennucci, B. B. P. Perera, N. S. Pol, H. A. Radovan, S. M. Ransom, P. S. Ray, J. D. Romano, J. C. Runnoe, A. Saffer, S. C. Sardesai, A. Schmiedekamp, C. Schmiedekamp, K. Schmitz, B. J. Shapiro-Albert, X. Siemens, J. Simon, M. S. Siwek, S. V. Sosa Fiscella, I. H. Stairs, D. R. Stinebring, K. Stovall, A. Susobhanan, J. K. Swiggum, S. R. Taylor, J. E. Turner, C. Unal, M. Vallisneri, A. Vecchio, S. J. Vigeland, H. M. Wahl, C. A. Witt, D. Wright, & Olivia Young. (2025) "The NANOGrav 15 year Data Set: Removing Pulsars One by One from the Pulsar Timing Array." Astrophysical Journal 978:168, 18pp. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad93aa 🔓

Article: Pulsar timing array observations have found evidence for an isotropic gravitational-wave background with the Hellings–Downs angular correlations between pulsar pairs. This interpretation hinges on the measured shape of the angular correlations, which is predominantly quadrupolar under general relativity. Here we explore a more flexible parameterization: we expand the angular correlations into a sum of Legendre polynomials and use a Bayesian analysis to constrain their coefficients with the 15 yr pulsar timing data set collected by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav).

G. Agazie, P. T. Baker, B. Becsy, L. Blecha, A. Brazier, P. R. Brook, L. Brown, S. Burke-Spolaor, J. A. Casey-Clyde, M. Charisi, S. Chatterjee, T. Cohen, J. M. Cordes, N. J. Cornish, F. Crawford, H. T. Cromartie, M. E. DeCesar, P. B. Demorest, H. Deng, T. Dolch, E. C. Ferrara, W. Fiore, E. Fonseca, G. E. Freedman, N. Garver-Daniels, J. Glaser, D. C. Good, K. Gultekin, J. S. Hazboun, R. J. Jennings, A. D. Johnson, M. L. Jones, A. R. Kaiser, D. L. Kaplan, L. Z. Kelley, J. S. Key, N. Laal, M. T. Lam, W. G. Lamb, B. Larsen, T. J. W. Lazio, N. Lewandowska, T. Liu, J. Luo, R. S. Lynch, C.-P. Ma, D. R. Madison, A. McEwen, J. W. McKee, M. A. McLaughlin, P. M. Meyers, C. M. F. Mingarelli, A. Mitridate, P. Natarajan, D. J. Nice, S. K. Ocker, K. D. Olum, T. T. Pennucci, N. S. Pol, H. A. Radovan, S. M. Ransom, P. S. Ray, J. D. Romano, J. C. Runnoe, S. C. Sardesai, K. Schmitz, X. Siemens, J. Simon, M. S. Siwek, S. V. Sosa Fiscella, I. H. Stairs, D. R. Stinebring, A. Susobhanan, J. K. Swiggum, S. R. Taylor, J. E. Turner, C. Unal, M. Vallisneri, S. J. Vigeland, H. M. Wahl, L. Wilson, C. A. Witt, & O. Young. (2025) "The NANOGrav 15 yr Data Set: Looking for Signs of Discreteness in the Gravitational-wave Background." Astrophysical Journal 978:3, 14pp. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad93d5 🔓

Article: We have reprocessed the available archival radio pulsar search observations of SNR 1987A taken with the Parkes 64 m telescope, some of which have not been previously published. We conducted a standard periodicity search on these data as well as a single pulse search at a range of dispersion measures. We found no convincing candidate signals, and we calculate flux density, luminosity, and single pulse fluence limits from these observations. The derived luminosity limits are comparable to the luminosities of three young, energetic pulsars (the Crab pulsar, PSR B0540−69, and PSR J0537−6910), and so we cannot rule out the existence of a pulsar in SNR 1987A with a similar radio luminosity.

F. Crawford & H. Xu. (2025) "No Pulsar Detected in Reprocessed Archival Parkes Observations of SNR 1987A." Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society 9(11): 311.  https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ae2081 🔓

Article: We have used a fast folding algorithm to search for radio pulsations at long periods (1–30 s) from 75 unidentified radio sources. These sources were originally identified in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey as radio bright, unresolved, and highly linearly polarized, suggesting that they could be previously undetected pulsars. These targets had been observed with the Green Bank 43 m radio telescope and searched for repeating pulses using standard Fourier techniques as well as for dispersed single pulses. This new search of the data is more sensitive to large periods and small duty cycles than the previous Fourier search. We found no promising signals and extend the flux density limit of the original search of ∼3 mJy to this larger spin period range.

F. Crawford & K. Banerjee. (2025) "A Fast Folding Algorithm Search for Long-period Pulsars in Unidentified Bright Radio Sources." Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society 9(10): 286. https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ae1693 🔓

Conference:

N. Lewandowska, M. McLaughlin, P. Demorest, T. Dolch, & F. Crawford. (2025) "High Time Resolution Study of Single Radio Pulses from the Crab Pulsar." 245th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, id. 171.06. Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society 57, No. 2. https://doi.org/10.3847/25c2cfeb.c924491d

Article: The search for origins of human linguistic behavior is a consuming project in many fields. Philosophers drawing on studies of animal behavior are working to revise some of the standard cognitive requirements in hopes of linking the origins of human language to non-human animal communication. This work depends on updates to Grice’s theory of communicative intention and Millikan’s teleosemantics. Yet the classic idea of speaker meaning on which these new projects rest presupposes coherent, stable, individual, internal, and prior intention as a cognitive or mental state, which is also the framework presupposed in theory of mind. This framework neglects the co-authored nature of communicative intentions and is thereby at odds with enactivist views of cognition. In this paper we draw on the idea of participatory sense-making alongside research on non-human animal communication to identify utterances—co-authored meaningful acts—as the token of communicative activity cross-species. Utterances by our definition are expressive, relational, and work without mindreading. In closing we propose the possibility of dialogical subjectivity, and engage with animal studies to show that some species exhibit its traits.

Cuffari, E.C., Figueiredo, N.M. (2025) “Intentions in interactions: an enactive reply to expressive communication proposals.” Synthese 205, no 46: 30pp. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-024-04836-0 🔓 

Article: This paper presents findings from an experiment/workshop, which was motivated by the ever-increasing need in today’s fractured and complex world to foster engagements between people of diverse backgrounds, positions, and identities. The workshop taught and employed the PRISMA method, which provides a way for researcher-participants to study the experiential dynamics of participatory sense-making in social interactions. PRISMA can be seen as an analogue process technology or a participation technology. It is used to refract the experience of interaction dynamics as we engage in interactions. In this study, we invited participants to interact by drawing together on shared sheets of paper. We found that participants engaged in what we call paradoxical practices of being with each other, and that the materials through which people interacted influenced the emotions and sense-making that emerged. We present the research findings in a way that can be followed step by step by a reader in a traditional fashion, but also give the reader structured options to engage with the findings presented in a participatory way, true to the message of the paper. Finally, we draw conclusions from this work for the use of technology in human co-becoming, enactive ethics of participation and difference, and how to enhance interaction “literacy”. This research deepens the understanding of participatory sense-making, and sheds light on the interactive tensions at the roots of languaging and co-becoming. The findings contribute to both scientific knowledge and practical implications for navigating complex social interactions.

De Jaegher, H., Preiser, R., & Cuffari, E. C. (2025) “Paradoxical practices of being with others: Some experiential dynamics at play while interacting across differences.” Language Sciences 111 101731: 28pp. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101731 🔓 

Article: In this paper we address a challenge posed to enactivists that defend the life-mind-language continuity thesis and we propose an enactive view on the emergence of symbolism in human praxis. The challenge is an apparent paradox lying between the claim that wherever one finds life one finds language and the claim that languaging is a practice that only social beings engage in. We address this issue by resorting to the distinction between pervasiveness and complexity. We show that both these characters of linguistic phenomena are not only compatible with each other but also, together, central to the life-language continuity thesis. To further support this move, we offer an enactive take on the emergence of symbolism by (i) specifying an enactive conception of symbols and human languaging and (ii) identifying four conceptual steps of symbolic emergence dynamics, namely, enacting bodily, material, cultural and system continuity. There is also a YouTube video available.

De Figueiredo, N. M., & Cuffari, E. C. (2025) “The enactive continuity between life, language and symbol: working within a paradox.” Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences December: 30pp. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-025-10116-0 

Article: This study enhances our understanding of Late Miocene-Pliocene climate in the Atacama Desert of the Antofagasta Region in northern Chile. Field relations, petrography, and geochemistry from two previously undescribed, fossil springs within the Calama Basin’s Opache Formation demonstrate similarities between the springs, such as laminated crystalline carbonate, including freshwater aragonite botryoids, but differences in trace element and δ13C values. One location contains stromatolites, oncolites, and sedimentary structures indicative of flowing water including ripple marks and microterracettes, whereas such features are generally absent at the other site. Both study areas are associated with fault systems that transferred groundwater from regional aquifers to the surface, bringing water rich in strontium, magnesium, iron, and manganese, to coprecipitate with CaCO3 as either aragonite or calcite. This correlation between springs and tectonics is becoming more widely recognized in other continental settings

Our article was selected to be the journal's cover photograph (January 2026 vol. 53). The publication date for our paper is December 2025. 

de Wet, C.B., Godfrey, L., Caterham. C., de Wet, A., Brown, S., Lee, D. Hicks, C., and Mumby, L. (2025) “Late Miocene slope calcareous tufa, Atacama Desert, Chile: The role of faults, groundwater movement, and climate.” Andean Geology 53(1):1-33. http://dx.doi.org/10.5027/andgeoV53n1-3777 🔓 

Article: Increasing globalization and modernization correlate with improvements in LGBTQ rights in most parts of the world, but not in member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). These countries may have hardened their cultural or historical perceptions of sexuality and gender in response to a perceived Western threat to local identity and national sovereignty. Additionally, highly developed and globalized Muslim-majority countries may be better equipped to resist pressures to liberalize than their poorer counterparts. To improve LGBTQ rights, it is important to ensure that advocacy is not perceived as Western paternalism or the continuation of colonial dictates.

Hildebrandt, A., Rahman, I., Dicklitch-Nelson, S., Yost, B. (2025) “Barriers to the Global LGBTQ Progress (and How They May be Crossed).” Human Rights Quarterly 47(4): 633-666. https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2025.a972480 

Blog: The class project discussed in the blog post was supported by the Evans-Cogan Endowed Academic Affairs Fund for Strategic Initiatives of the Provost's Office

Di Giulio, Marco, Jocelyn Chow, Maggie Connors, Emma Riggs, Liddy Schulz. (2025) Blog post/presentation: "Teaching Disability History: Lessons from Franklin & Marshall College Archives and Museum." All of Us. March. https://allofusdha.org/research/teaching-disability-history-lessons-from-franklin-marshall-colleges-archives-and-museum/ 

Talk: This talk builds on research for my book, Women and Migration in Contemporary Italian Cinema, to offer a critical examination of the so-called Italian "migration cinema" in the first two decades of the 21st century. Focusing especially on the construction of female characters, the talk shows how the category of hospitality sustains the ethical and political structure of these films. While motivated by a humanitarian impulse, this ethic of welcome risks reinforcing essentialist views of gender and ultimately fails to generate new, inclusive models of citizenship and belonging.  In this presentation, I delineate new directions for my research, focusing on the work of first- and second-generation Italian filmmakers that have demonstrated a greater capacity for proposing new audiovisual narrative forms and building a more inclusive national imaginary. 

Faleschini Lerner, Giovanna. (2025) Invited talk: “Screening Hospitality: Women and Migration in Contemporary Italian Cinema.” University of Pennsylvania, November 19. 

Conference: This conference paper analyzes two novels by two Afrodescendant Italian authors, Esperance Hakuzwimana and Sabrina Efionayi, in which the protagonists experience that which Caterina Romei has called “the evaporation of race.” Both young women face the unique struggles of interracial adoption, including coming to terms with feelings of loss and abandonment in relation to their families of origin. Both navigate issues of class, as well as gender and race, especially in relation to other Black persons in Italy. By questioning – whether implicitly or explicitly – the primacy of the family in establishing a genealogy of belonging, the protagonists of these narratives offer new models of citizenship that challenge the genealogical structure of the Italian ius soli.

Faleschini Lerner, Giovanna. (2025) “Decolonizing the family in Sabrina Efionayi’s and Espérance Hakuzwimana’s writing.” Reframing the Family Romance: Narratives, Photographs, and Cultural Legacy. Panel at the AAIS Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA, March 14. 

Conference: Based on a forthcoming essay in the edited volume Thinking Italian Plants (Brill 2026), this contribution analyzes and interprets, from an environmental humanities perspective, the role that vegetable gardens, plants, and seeds play in the human migratory experience. The essay focuses in particular on three documentary film productions: El lugar de las fresas (Italy-Spain), Ibi (Italy), and Terra sogna terra/Earth Dream Earth [sic] (USA), where vegetal life makes it possible for migrant characters to cultivate a sense of belonging to their new land.

Faleschini Lerner, Giovanna. (2025) “Migrating Seeds: Vegetable Gardens in Transnational Italian Cinema.” Roundtable: Thinking Italian Plants. AAIS Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA, March 15. 

Talks: In these two talks, I use my book, Women and Migration in Contemporary Italian Cinema, as a spring board for new research trajectories that question the primacy of white Italian (male) auteurs in so-called Italian "migration cinema" in order to make space for the work of filmmakers, screenwriters and performers of migrant background. 

Faleschini Lerner, Giovanna. (2025) Invited talk: “Women and Migration in Contemporary Italian Cinema.” University of Padova, October 9. 

Faleschini Lerner, Giovanna. (2025) Invited talk: “Oltre l’ospitalità: per un nuovo immaginario del cinema italiano." University of the Republic of San Marino, October 6. 

Article: Climate warming promotes the upward advance of mountain treelines, thereby increasing allochthonous inputs of terrestrial organic matter (OM) into alpine lakes. Higher temperatures also accelerate glacial ablation, altering inputs of finely eroded rock particles, termed “glacial flour”. OM and glacial flour (GF) both affect aquatic ecosystems; however, a knowledge gap exists concerning their combined impact. To test for the direct and interactive effects of OM and GF, we conducted a crossed two-factor outdoor mesocosm experiment. We hypothesized that GF sequesters OM through adsorption, thus reducing its effects on the abiotic environment and phytoplankton community. Addition of GF decreased underwater attenuation of ultraviolet radiation by the OM amendment (i.e., a GF–OM interaction), but not the pronounced positive effects of OM on nutrients and phytoplankton chlorophyll. GF did mediate the effect of OM on phytoplankton community composition by suppressing diatoms. These findings highlight the potential for future shifts in allochthonous inputs away from GF and towards OM to stimulate high-elevation lake ecosystems as glaciers ablate and treeline vegetation migrates to higher elevations under a warming climate.

Dawson, C., J.M. Fischer, M.H. Olson, and R.D. Vinebrooke. (2025) “Effects of advancing tree lines and melting glaciers on alpine lake ecosystems: a mesocosm experiment.” Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 82: 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2024-0344 

Article: Experimentation in environmental policy is often lacking because of an assumption that scientific research stops when implementation starts. However, researchers and policymakers increasingly recognize that environmental policy would benefit greatly from a more robust culture of experimentation and innovation, as has begun to develop in the areas of health and education policy (Ferraro et al. 2023). In the context of achieving agri-environmental policy goals, trialing new management programs is critical to generating measurable improvements that have remained elusive for decades. 

In this article, we apply insights gained from behavioral economic experiments in the lab and field to a policy implementation trial at a multi-farm scale. Approaches for forming and incentivizing the policy trial are motivated by behavioral science results, such as those that demonstrate the benefits of pay-for-performance incentive structures (Schilizzi 2017), incentives for spatial coordination (Banerjee et al. Citation2021; Kuhfuss et al. 2016), information framing in terms of social norms and peer comparisons (Allcott 2011; Fleming, Palm-Forster, and Kelley 2021; Palm-Forster et al. 2022), and the necessity of building trust for stakeholder-engaged resource management (Ostrom 2010). We present key outcomes from the first year of the council’s work and discuss lessons learned from this approach.

Fleming, P.M., Palm-Forster, L.H., Connuck, H. and Fodor, A.E. (2025) “From lab to field to farm: Applying behavioral science insights to agri-environmental programs.” Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 80(1): 3-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224561.2025.2459580 🔓 

Creative Works: Performances in Measure for Measure (as Angelo, directed by Jeremiah Miller and Natalie Beckman for Lancaster Shakespeare Theatre in February 2025) and Macbeth (as Macbeth, directed by Ray Hilton for War of the Roses Theatre in August 2025) and directing Richard II (for Lancaster Shakespeare Theatre in November 2025)

Hopkins, Justin. (2025) Performance: as “Angelo” in Measure for Measure. Directed by Jeremiah Miller and Natalie Beckman for Lancaster Shakespeare Theatre, Lancaster, PA, February. 

Hopkins, Justin. (2025) Performance: as “Macbeth” in Macbeth. Directed by Ray Hilton for War of the Roses Theatre, Lancaster, PA, August. 

Hopkins, Justin. (2025) Director: Richard II. Lancaster Shakespeare Theatre, Lancaster, PA, November. 

Article: The field of rigid origami concerns the folding of stiff, inelastic plates of material along crease lines that act like hinges and are called the crease pattern of the origami. Crease pattern vertices in the interior of the folded material and that are adjacent to four crease lines, i.e. degree-4 vertices, and that can fold to a completely flat state have folding kinematics that are very well-understood, and thus they have been used in many engineering and physics applications. However, degree-4 vertices that are not flat-foldable or not folded from flat paper so that the vertex forms either an elliptic or hyperbolic cone, have folding angles at the creases that follow more complicated kinematic equations. In this work we present a new duality between general degree-4 rigid origami vertices, where dual vertices come in elliptic-hyperbolic pairs that have essentially equivalent kinematics. This reveals a mathematical structure in the space of degree-4 rigid origami vertices that can be leveraged in applications, for example in the construction of flexible 3D structures that possess metamaterial properties.

Hull, Thomas C. (2025) “A Rigid Origami Elliptic-Hyperbolic Vertex Duality.” Results in Mathematics 80, article #138. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00025-025-02457-8 🔓 

Article: A strip of square stamps can be folded in many ways such that all of the stamps are stacked in a single pile in the folded state. The stamp folding problem asks for the number of such foldings and has previously been studied extensively. We consider this problem with the additional restriction of fixing the mountain-valley assignment of each crease in the stamp pattern. We provide a closed form for counting the number of legal foldings on specific patterns of mountain-valley assignments, including a surprising appearance of the Catalan numbers. We describe results on upper and lower bounds for the number of ways to fold a given mountain-valley assignment on the strip of stamps, provide experimental evidence suggesting more general results, and include conjectures and open problems.

Hull, Thomas C., Adham Ibrahim, Jacob Paltrowitz, Natalya Ter-Saakov, Grace Wang. (2025) “The Stamp Folding Problem From a Mountain-Valley Perspective.” Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science, 27(3) October: 15454. https://doi.org/10.46298/dmtcs 

Article: A geodesic is the shortest path on a surface between two points. When the surface is a polyhedron, it is not clear what a geodesic path should do when it passes through a corner of the polyhedron. Quasigeodesics give a concrete way to handle this case. In this paper we focused on closed quasigeodesic curves on cube. We proved that there are only 15 different kinds of closed quasigeodesic  paths that can be drawn on a cube (aside from the three kinds of geodesics that can be drawn).

Hugo A. Akitaya, Erik D. Demaine, Adam Hesterberg, Thomas C. Hull, Anna Lubiw, Jason Lynch, Klara Mundilova, Chie Nara, Joseph O'Rourke, Frederick Stock, Josef Tkadlec, Ryuhei Uehara. (2025) “Quasigeodesics on the cube.” Proceedings of the 37th Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry: 78-84. https://cccg-wads-2025.eecs.yorku.ca/cccg-papers/32.pdf

Chapter: This entry, written for scholars in law and humanities, outlines the three dominant legal theories of the corporation and puts them in conversation with literary and political accounts of the corporation.

Jaros, Peter. (2025) “Corporation.” Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Law and Literature, ed. Robert Spoo and Simon Stern (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar): 124-27. 

Book Review: Review of Philip J. Stern's Empire, Incorporated, which emphasizes the role of corporations in building and administering the British Empire, for scholars of Early American literature and culture.

Jaros, Peter. (2025) Review of Philip J. Stern, Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations That Built British Colonialism. Early American Literature 60(3): 485-93. https://doi.org/10.1353/eal.2025.a972332 

Article: The history of the Pennsylvania Department of Correction’s recreational boxing program for inmates from the mid-1970s through the late 1990s sheds light on a wide range of issues in American life. Taking place as it did during the rise of mass incarceration, the boxing program provides an opportunity to examine a wide range of issues: hopes for prisoner rehabilitation; the ideal of sports as a social practice that could lead to change; and the effects of mass incarceration’s targeting of racial minorities. The extensive records in the Pennsylvania state archives, and popular media responses to the program and its participants, reveal the many aspirations people had for sports programs in prisons. However, controversies involving the program, the racial makeup of its participants, and its eventual demise, all shed light on the public pressures that hindered programs viewed as being “soft” on crime, especially when it came to racial minorities. 

Kaliss, Gregory. (2025) "'Make Them Feel Like a Human Being': Pennsylvania Prison Boxing in the Era of Mass Incarceration." Journal of Sport History 52(2): 40-62. https://doi.org/10.5406/21558450.52.2.03 

Book Review: This review essay analyzes two recent works about the Civil Rights Movement by noted scholar Peniel Joseph. 

Kaliss, Gregory. (2025) “When ideas mattered: rethinking the American civil rights movement and its legacies." The Global Sixties 18(2): 248-252. https://doi.org/0.1080/27708888.2025.2579483 

Conference: This paper explores correspondences between the instances in Emily Dickinson’s poetry inflected by her awareness of and response to the radical bloodshed of the Civil War and W.S. Merwin’s poetry written in direct response to the Vietnam War, especially seen in his pivotal volume The Lice published in 1967. It may be argued that the devastating effect of war profoundly heightened both poets’ inner distress in ways that left a lasting, consequential mark on their poetic development. I argue that both poets may have been pressed to develop the starkly distinctive poetic vision and syntax they did because of the emotional weight brought about by living through a nation terribly at war.

Kent, Rick. (2025) Virtual presentation: "An Ecology Devastated: The Wounding Effect of War in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson and W.S. Merwin." Emily Dickinson International Society, Wenshan International Conference: “Dickinson and Ecologies.” National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan, June 19-22. 

Creative Works: The three poems included in this modest publication by Commonweal Gallery concern the longing for a visceral connection to something larger than the self. Three poems in a juried publication in celebration of National Poetry Month, April 2025.

Kent, Rick. (2025) Poem: “Map of the Path of Totality.” Prophecy, Prediction, Revelation. Commonweal Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, April. 

Kent, Rick. (2025) Poem: “The Well of Oracles.” Prophecy, Prediction, Revelation. Commonweal Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, April.

Kent, Rick. (2025) Poem: “Field Recordings.” Prophecy, Prediction, Revelation. Commonweal Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, April. 

Creative Work: After a decade mostly working on a large landscape project driven by a well-defined concept, in 2016 I returned to documenting a far more various kind of landscape for a series that at first had no name but eventually became titled American Neighborhoods. The series has been my attempt to come to terms with and reflect—sometimes obliquely—a number of trends that inform the current American body politic: the collision of differing ideals; ongoing, disturbing undercurrents stemming from our past history; and outright, rancorous divisions fueled by corrupt or suspect leaders and operatives. The image I submitted to "Resistance--Seen & Unseen" belongs to this series. It speaks to the intensifying need to raise our voices against the intolerant powers that would gut democracy and stifle the freedom of inquiry and expression.

Kent, Rick. (2025) Selected work: “Supporting Trans People, Lancaster, PA,” from the series American Neighborhoods. Exhibition: Resistance: Seen and Unseen. Juror: David DeMelim (RI Center for Photographic Arts), Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, Providence, RI: July 17-August 15. https://www.riphotocenter.org/resistance-seen-or-unseen/ 

Chapter: As part of a series addressing the anthropological, scholarly, political, and personal difficulties connected to the rupture in Russian relations with Western countries, King analyzes his methods and relationships with Indigenous people in Kamchatka, Russia. He has been working with people there for 30 years and has witnessed the passing of elders, the growing of babies into full adults, and significant social, political, and personal changes in the lives of Indigenous Kamchatkans. These relationships have been critical to shaping his research, publications, and personal life. Anthropological research cannot be separated from personal relationships and the role of the anthropologist in the research. 

King, Alexander D. (2025) "Connections that cannot be fractured: Respect, trust, and gratitude that transcend a Fractured North." In Erich Kasten, Igor Krupnik, Gail Fondhal, editors.  A Fractured North – Maintaining Connections. Fürstenberg/Havel: Kulturstiftung Sibirien: 69-87. https://dh-north.org/publikationen/a-fractured-north-maintaining-connections/en

Creative Work: Combining mixtape aesthetics with philosophical reflection on technology, Processing… is a new form for philosophy.  

Philosophers contribute audio essays that our sound ecologists score and situate within a mix of mood setting interludes. The resulting soundscapes bridge academic inquiry and musical expression. Processing… is neither podcast nor playlist. It’s a philosophy mixtape.

Kroll, Nick and Vincent Smaldone. (2025) Producers: Processing...a philosophy mixtape.  Online & audio experience. https://www.mechanicalsurround.com/processingmix 

Article: Authors analyzed 78 syllabi from 48 unique schools the authors collected from their Phase 1 inquiries.

Findings: The authors identify course themes at the individual, organization and systemic levels. They develop a typology of six course types that incorporate natural and social science concepts to varying degrees, and which adopt a general business or a narrow functional perspective. The authors find that faculty themselves demonstrate interdisciplinarity in their formal education. Lastly, the authors conclude that despite its increasing popularity in business education, ecological sustainability remains largely an elective.

Originality/value: This study provides an updated snapshot of ecological sustainability in business education, with a coalescence around six types of courses, suggesting a maturing of the field.

Kurland, N.B. & Melkamu, E. (2025) “Charting the Landscape: A Typology of Ecological Sustainability in US Business Education.” International Journal for Sustainability in Higher Education 26(9): 301-318. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ijshe-06-2024-0402/full/html 🔓 

Chapter: The “realms” of Il gioco dei regni are concrete and conceptual places where ideas are contained and ideologies reign. The novel relates an extraordinary family saga whose real historical characters had a significant impact on twentieth-century history. It examines these histories—from the Liberal state, to Fascism, Zionism and Communism, from Europe to Palestine and the United Nations—through the lens of these historical actors who, from the same starting place, and with so much in common and so much love to bind them, took radically different, even adversarial, paths. It reveals how this history unfolds as a consequence of specific family dynamics. And it recounts a vendetta of sorts: against the author’s parents and most of all against the ideology of total subservience to party and cause. Ultimately, this highly innovative experimental novel, and the history that it reflects, take form around a web of symbolic killings of parents and rival siblings.

Lerner, L. Scott. (2025) “Playing the Realms: Clara Sereni’s Jewish Family Saga of the Twentieth Century,” in The Literary and Human Legacy of Clara Sereni. Eds.Giulia Po DeLisle and Susan Briziarelli. Vernon Press, DE: 93-110. 

Book Review: 

Lerner, L. Scott. (2025) Book Review: “Roberta Ricci and Chiara Benetollo, eds. Primo Levi: Essays in Dialogue with Nicholas Patruno.” Italica.102(2): 291-293. https://doi.org/10.5406/23256672.102.2.15 

Chapter: The Sullivan Expedition, a genocidal, scorched-earth campaign undertaken by the American Continental army in 1779, burned 40 Haudenosaunee villages and destroyed an incalculable number of cornfields and fruit orchards. Today, one can find at least 55 monuments to the Sullivan Expedition in PA and over 200 in NY that serve to enshrine this genocidal campaign and memorialize the events of American expansion. This chapter considers the memorialization of Catharine's Town, one of the villages destroyed by Sullivan's men, and its most famous inhabitant, Catharine Montour.

Levine, Mary Ann, James A. Delle. (2025) “Commemorating an American Genocide: Catharine's Town and the 1779 Sullivan Expedition against the Haudenosaunee,” in Grappling with Monuments of Oppression: Moving from Analysis to Activism. Edited by Christopher C. Fennell. Routledge:187-205. 

Article: In 2019, self-employed individuals in the United States owned and operated more than 27 million non-employer firms and generated more than $1.3 trillion in revenue. Our study examines how self-employed workers adjust their operations in response to an exogenous regulatory change that places limits on how they can utilize their productive assets. Extending modern property rights theory of the firm (PRTF), we studied how self-employed for-hire truck drivers modified their operations in response to the required installation of electronic logging devices (ELDs) in their vehicles. The introduction of ELDs bolstered enforcement of preexisting legal hours-of-service limits, thereby weakening the drivers’ ability to accept hauls above statutory hours-of-service limits and reducing the strength of their economic property rights. Our difference-in-differences analysis that relies on self-employed truck drivers exempt from the ELD regulation as a control group reveals that the restrictions imposed by the ELD mandate, while effective at curbing major hours-of-service violations, prompted a change in a host of market behaviors among affected drivers, including a shift toward working as subcontractors, decreased labor supply, and increased exit rates from the industry. These findings contribute to the literature on PRTF. First, our findings underscore the significance of economic property rights in shaping self-employed workers’ operating decisions as legal property rights were largely left unchanged under the ELD regulation. Second, our findings with respect to subcontracting highlight that property rights restrictions placed on asset attributes may prompt self-employed workers to unbundle economic property rights and allocate them to exchange partners better equipped to maximize the economic value reaped from these rights. Such transfer of economic property rights common to intermediate forms of organizational design such as subcontracting embodies a multidimensional view of economic property rights. By demonstrating a range of consequences of restricting self-employed workers’ economic property rights, our study carries important implications for theory, managers, and policymakers.

Holzhacker, Martin, Loch, Harlow, Miller, Jason and Scott, Alex. (2025) "Property Rights Restrictions and Self-Employed Workers: Evidence From For-Hire Owner–Operators in US Trucking." Production and Operations Management 34(6): 1306-1325. https://doi.org/10.1177/10591478241280306 

Creative Work: In this exhibition, ”Comparisons,” inkjet prints on silk pair images of women from different ethnic backgrounds with architectural elements. Examples include a Portuguese woman in Tomar with ornamentation in Lecce, Italy; a Russian woman with a caryatid in Munich, Germany; a Ghanian woman balancing a basket with a column of nesting Corinthian capitals; a Lenni-Lenape woman with a zig-zag column from a French monastery.

Maksymowicz, Virginia. (2025) "Comparisons," solo exhibition, DaVinci Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA, October 30-November 23. 

Creative Work: Based upon on René Magritte's 1929 painting known as “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” ("This is not a pipe"), this artwork is a collaboration with Blaise Tobia. We painted the words onto the cloth of a store-bought US flag, juxtaposing them with a series of provocative questions. It is a response to the artist Dread Scott’s installation "What is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag?" at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which sparked a national controversy.

Maksymowicz, Virginia. (2025) Artwork entitled "This is Not a Flag" included in a group exhibition, "Fall of Freedom/Freedom of Expression," the Women's Caucus for Art, November 1-30, on the WCA National website. https://nationalwca.org/current-exhibitions 

Conference: This presentation was in conjunction with research conducted by Dr. Katherine Schwab, Classics Professor at Fairfield University, visualizing the hairstyling process manifest in the Erechtheion caryatids. It included a talk, a screening of a video by Dr. Schwab and a hands-on braiding demonstration by Stephanie Manzi, artist and adjunct professor at the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design.

Maksymowicz, Virginia. (2025) "Caryatids and Crowns: How to Braid a Classical Hairstyle," a presentation held at the Da Vinci Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA on November 15.

Conference: This was a presentation, as part of the ISC's online Artslam, about an unusual sculpture park in Bassano-in-Teverina (VT), Italy, founded by Lucilla Catania. I visited the park in September, photographed the work, and met with the founder.

Maksymowicz, Virginia. (2025) "Sculpture in Campo," presentation for the International Sculpture Center, November, 21. 

Conference: This was a presentation, as part of the ISC's online Artslam, about a recent sculptural work of mine titled "Epiphany." It was commissioned by Chris McNew for "The Clio Project," an exhibition planned for travel.

Maksymowicz, Virginia. (2025) "The Clio Project," presentation for the International Sculpture Center, February, 21.

Creative Work: Exhibition of artworks that are on or of paper; my works include two large drawings on rag paper and two life-size, handmade paper body casts overlaid with inkjet-printed photographs.

Maksymowicz, Virginia. (2025) "Seven Artists on Paper," group exhibition, 3808 Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, December 4 - 21.

Conference: This national three-day convening took place at the Blattner Presentation Space at the California College for the Arts.

Maksymowicz, Virginia. (2025) "The CETA Art's Legacy Project," panel presentation as part of "Forgotten Federal Art Legacies." Convening sponsored by the Living New Deal, San Francisco, March 8.

Conference: This conference was held in collaboration with Philadelphia Sculptors.

Maksymowicz, Virginia. (2025) Presentation about my sculpture: "Past/Present/Future" at the Dina Wind Art Foundation, June 1. https://dinawindfoundation.art/content/feature/43/image_standalone103/

Creative Work: The physical exhibition was held at TILT's gallery at the Crane; there is also an online version, which is accessible.

Maksymowicz, Virginia. (2025) Exhibition: Philly Photo Day, 2025, Tilt Institute for Contemporary Image. Crane Building, Philadelphia, PA, May 8-30.

Creative Work: Group exhibition

Maksymowicz, Virginia. (2025) Exhibition: "Perennial Visions" at the DaVinci Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA, December 6-21.

Creative Work: Group exhibition about artistic collaboration; he exhibited work, "Pillars of Grace," was in collaboration with photographer Blaise Tobia, Professor Emeritus, Drexel University

Maksymowicz, Virginia. (2025) Exhibition: "Under the Influence" LUX Center for the Arts, Lincoln, NE, May 2-June 28.

Article: During pandemics, physical distancing requirements and health care workers’ extended and irregular work hours may exclude many health care workers from studies using typical qualitative data collection methods. The aim of this project was to pilot the use of asynchronous smartphone-based qualitative data collection in research with nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. We describe the ethical considerations, study procedures, and lessons learned in recruiting, enrolling, and collecting data from participants using audio diaries recorded on the WhatsApp platform. Participants received text prompts with questions and were asked to respond with audio diary entries in the form of voice recordings. Prompts were sent over a period of 5 weeks. Forty-eight individuals expressed interest in the study, almost half downloaded the WhatsApp app, and 8 responded to one or more prompts. We share methodological considerations and lessons learned about using online enrollment and asynchronous mobile-phone-based audio diaries in longitudinal data collection. We report that using WhatsApp or similar smartphone technology for audio diaries has some important advantages, most notably allowing greater participant anonymity. However, researchers must address obstacles that can lower response rates. We discuss several possible causes for low response rates and suggest study design improvements to address some of them. We note that, despite its limitations, this method may be particularly useful for participants in stigmatized or vulnerable groups, and recommend further exploring the use of smartphone apps for audio diaries in future research.

Marshall, Emily, Harriet Okatch, Ed Novak, Kayla Cottiers, LaTonya Trotter. (2025) “Exploring the Use of Mobile-Device-Based Audio Diaries for Asynchronous Data Collection with Nurses During a Pandemic.” SSM – Qualitative Research in Health 8 (December):100648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100648 🔓 

Articles: Online activity creates a feedback loop, where algorithms, shaped by past behavior, return similar content, creating a self-reinforcing, often addicting digital reality. This cycle echoes traditional Buddhist concepts, where digital platforms act as a, "storehouse of karma (action)," trapping users in a continuous cycle of desire and distraction.

McMahan, David. (2025) “Algorithmic Karma in Digital Samsara.” The Immanent Frame: Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere. August 13. https://tif.ssrc.org/2025/08/13/algorithmic-karma-in-digital-samsara/

McMahan, David. (2025) “The Dilemmas of Digital Samsara.” Tricycle: The Buddhist Review Winter. https://tricycle.org/magazine/buddhism-and-technology/

Talk: 

McMahan, David. (2025)  Invited online talk: “On the Importance of Context in the Study of Meditation, or: Why There Will Never Be an Enlightenment Machine.” International Society for Contemplative Research, Victoria, BC, Canada, March 6.

Conference: Online conference on David McMahan's book: Rethinking Meditation: Buddhist Meditation Practices in Ancient and Modern Worlds

McMahan, David. (2025) Online panel presentation: “David McMahan's book, Rethinking Meditation: Buddhist Meditative Practices in Ancient and Modern Worlds.” Hosted by James Rowe, featuring responses from Joanna Cook and Seth Zuihō Segall. May 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNrr-7t0ank 

Conference: Running from 3–6 June, the prestigious four-day symposium is the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan’s fifth international Buddhism conference, organized and hosted by the Zhung Dratshang, Bhutan’s Central Monastic Body, and the Centre for Bhutan & GNH Studies (CBS).

Moving beyond the traditional Vajrayana emphasis of these international forums, which Bhutan has hosted since 2016, this fifth incarnation has warmly embraced voices from across Buddhist traditions as well as secular disciplines. The convocation brings together almost 500 dignitaries, guests, attendees, and speakers from Bhutan and around the world, including Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Japan, Latvia, Myanmar South Africa, Thailand, Ukraine, Venezuela, the United States, and more.

The attendees include distinguished scholars, scientists, philosophers, advanced practitioners of Vajrayana Buddhism, and senior spiritual figures from all Buddhist traditions. All have gathered to present, examine, and discuss Buddhist practices, thought, and perspectives as they seek to explore cross-disciplinary dialogues that shine the light of the profound wisdom of these ancient teachings on the realms of technology, research, and society in the 21st century.

McMahan, David. (2025) Invited lecture: “On the Importance of Context in the Study of Meditation.” At Science, Mindfulness, and Meditation Conference, Center for Bhutan Studies, Thimphu, Bhutan, June 5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AbqzOZKZq0

Conference: Although the influence of Buddhism on twentieth-century avant-garde art has been well documented, little research has been done on the impact of Buddhism on visual art in the twenty-first century.  This paper surveys a few contemporary artists who boldly incorporate Buddhist imagery and philosophical ideas into contemporary issues such as the fragmentation of attention and selfhood in the information age, the pervasiveness of commercial and entertainment imagery in modern life, the cosmic interconnectedness reflected in scientific and Buddhist cosmologies, and the realities of climate change, war, and terrorism.  It examines works by Nick Dong, Gonkar Gyatso, Xu Bing, and others.  These artists invite a fresh examination of the influence of Buddhist ideas, images, and sensibilities on contemporary art.  They suggest that prominent artists are inaugurating a new era of vigorous exploration of traditional Buddhist themes like impermanence, emptiness, non-self, and interdependence in light of contemporary psychological, social, and political realities.

McMahan, David. (2025) Presentation: “Reflection, Fragmentation, and Dust: Reconfiguring the Sacred in Buddhist-informed Contemporary Art.” At the Buddhism and Art from Transregional and Cross-Cultural Perspectives conference, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales, Paris, France, July 10. https://glorisunglobalnetwork.org/buddhism-and-art/

Talk:

McMahan, David. (2025) Invited talk on: “Annette Aronowicz’s book, The Thought at the Back of the Mind.” Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, October 28.

Talk:

McMahan, David. (2025) Invited online lecture: “Rethinking Meditation and Cultural Context.” At Meditation Artifacts conference, San Martin de Los Andes, Argentina, October 30.

Conference:

McMahan, David. (2025) Invitation-only: Working Group on American Buddhism. American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. Sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation Boston, MA. November 21. 

Talk:

McMahan, David. (2025) Online panel discussion: “David McMahan's book Rethinking Meditation: Buddhist Meditative Practices in Ancient and Modern Worlds.” Hosted by James Rowe, featuring additional responses by Joanna Cook and Seth Zuihō Segall. May 4.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNrr-7t0ank 

Article:  Mars shows unambiguous evidence of once-abundant ancient liquid surface water, driving exploration of the planet to assess habitability and the possibility of life. The global martian surface has been studied using orbital and ground-based observations, revealing mineralogical diversity and widespread evidence of mineral hydration. However, how exactly these ancient, hydrated minerals are affected by the cold, dry, and desolate surface conditions of modern Mars remains poorly understood, which limits our understanding of their original hydration state. To better address Mars surface mineralogy, mineral detectability, and hydration state, we exposed a suite of 27 hydrous and anhydrous minerals and carbonaceous materials to Mars-like surface conditions for 66 days (∼500 Pa, CO2, ambient temperature). The mineral phases included carbonates, halides, organics, oxides, phyllosilicates (micas and phyllosilicates), sulfates, sulfides, and zeolite. They were selected based on their relevance to past detection on Mars by remote sensing instruments and their importance for habitability and potential biosignatures. The minerals were periodically characterized with reflectance spectroscopy over the 0.35 to 2.50 μm wavelength region through a sealed sapphire glass window. Dehydration occurred for some, but not all, hydrated minerals, with decreased intensity of the hydration bands observed for halloysite, hectorite, illite, kaolinite, montmorillonite, nontronite, and trona. Our data indicated that dehydration can be gradual or abrupt, but none of our samples fully dehydrated, as the 1.90 μm absorption band persisted but became shallower in the seven samples that showed spectral changes. Hydroxyl (OH), as evidenced by a 1.40 μm region absorption feature and metal-OH absorption bands in the 2.00–2.50 μm region, was largely resistant to dehydroxylation under Mars-like surface conditions, with the exception of hectorite and trona. Data from this study is integral for the robust identification and interpretation of martian surface mineralogy observed by remote sensing instruments. The dehydration processes observed in this work suggest similar processes on Mars have likely occurred, which can affect spectroscopic mineral identification based on whether or not hydration absorption features are observed on both natural and abraded surfaces. Thus, this can have major implications for global estimates of the amount of ancient, mineral-bound water that is still present on the planet.

S.A. Connell, D.M. Applin, E.A. Cloutis, J.T. Poitras, D.T. Dixon, S.A. Mertzman, P. Mann, C. Royer, T. Fornaro, A. Broz, R.C. Wiens. (2025) “Spectral reflectance (0.35–2.50 μm) properties of minerals and organic-bearing compounds exposed to current Martian surface conditions.” Icarus 441: 116712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2025.116712 

Article: As the year turns to spring, seed displays and racks of luscious transplants at garden centers are both tempting. Which method should you choose for each vegetable?

Miklas, Lois. (2025) "Starting Your Summer Vegetable Garden—Seeds or Transplants?" PennState Extension February 24. https://extension.psu.edu/starting-your-summer-vegetable-garden-seeds-or-transplants 🔓

Article: If you enjoy growing garlic, delayed planting in the fall is one way to protect it from the Allium leafminer.

Miklas, Lois. (2025) "Plant Garlic Late to Avoid Allium Leafminer." PennState Extension September 8. https://extension.psu.edu/plant-garlic-late-to-avoid-allium-leafminer 🔓

Article: What is Pennsylvania's Noxious Weed List and how are plants designated for this list? 

Miklas, Lois. (2025) "Pennsylvania's Invasive Plant List – How It Works." PennState Extension October 3. https://extension.psu.edu/pennsylvanias-invasive-plant-list-how-it-works 🔓

Article: Can pets and holiday houseplants coexist? Find out which holiday plants to display with caution to keep your pets safe.

Miklas, Lois. (2025) "Holiday Plants and Pets." PennState Extension November 10. https://extension.psu.edu/holiday-plants-and-pets 🔓

Article: Quirky pumpkins are in vogue for fall decorating, including those covered with warts. Find out the causes for these bumpy beauties in this article.

Miklas, Lois. (2025) "Fall in Love with Pumpkins, Warts and All." PennState Extension September 23. https://extension.psu.edu/fall-in-love-with-pumpkins-warts-and-all 🔓

Article: Have you wondered whether you can replant seeds from your garden? Here is basic information to help you get started with saving seeds.

Miklas, Lois. (2025) "Seed Saving Basics." PennState Extension January 27. https://extension.psu.edu/seed-saving-basics 🔓

Article: Though periods of rain may convince gardeners that drought is not a concern, Lancaster County has been suffering drought conditions for several years. It is always wise to conserve water in the garden. 

Miklas, Lois. (2025) “In Wake of Drought, How to Conserve Water While Gardening: Master Gardener Column.” LNP | LancasterOnline, May 16. https://lancasteronline.com/features/home_garden/in-wake-of-drought-how-to-conserve-water-while-gardening-master-gardener-column/article_8c5bf2f4-cc4e-4376-a57d-3b2328d9befa.html

Article: Monarchs are a treasured native butterfly, yet their numbers are declining. What can gardeners do to ensure survival of this insect?

Miklas, Lois. (2025) “Here Are Ways We Can All Help Monarch Butterflies: Master Gardener Column.” LNP | LancasterOnline, August 15. https://lancasteronline.com/features/home_garden/here-are-ways-we-can-all-help-monarch-butterflies-master-gardener-column/article_3ff4196d-1af7-4d2a-b391-612b8cbbf110.html 

Chapter: A highly engaging anthology that offers an interdisciplinary and global perspective on the history of the FIFA World Cup, spanning from the inaugural tournament in 1930 in Uruguay to the politically charged 1978 tournament in Argentina and culminating with the most recent and controversial World Cup held in Qatar in 2022. The essays included in this collection not only examine European and Latin American nations, such as England and Argentina, traditionally associated with football, but also explore countries like Israel and India, where football does not necessarily occupy the status of a national sport. This volume invites both scholars and football enthusiasts to engage critically with the political, social, and economic dimensions of the sport, often referred to as the most important of the unimportant things.

Mitchell, Maria D. (2025) “The 'Tragedy' of Seville: Sport, Popular Culture, and Franco-German Postwar Reconciliation." In World Cup! History, Politics, and Art of the Beautiful Game, edited by Daniel Noemi Voionmaa. Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press: 9-40.

Chapter: Scholarship on women and religion has focused primarily on the intersection between women’s religious engagement and their emancipation. This volume illuminates the vital role religion has played in the private and public lives of German and European women. Because emotions are central to the expression of religiosity, it draws on approaches from the history of emotions to examines how women understood, felt, and practiced religion in their search for meaning.  

Spanning from the nineteenth century to the 1970s, the volume’s essays show how religion helped women to make sense of their lives. It also illuminates the degree to which women used religion and its attendant emotional scripts to shape modern society and how religious discourses in turn shaped women’s emotions and comportment in the public sphere. This volume builds on recent research that shows that religion—especially the religiosity of women—remained a pressing public concern in modern Europe. From anxieties over the religiosity of Bavarian servants to restrictive norms imposed on Jewish widows, from the interfaith commitments of kindergarten teachers to the autobiographical narratives of aspiring Protestant deaconesses, from the suffering of stigmatics in Germany and Belgium to Irish women’s public narratives of their religiosity, this book reveals how women’s faith and attendant religious emotions have been central to their public and private lives.

Mitchell, Maria D. (2025) “Maria Meyer-Sevenich and the Politics of Emotions, Gender, and Religion in Postwar Germany.” In Women, Religion, and the Emotions in Germany and Beyond, edited by Martina Cucchiara and Lisa Fetheringill Zwicker. Rochester, NY: Camden House. 

Creative Work: This pamphlet accompanies the eponymous 50-minute mixtape and movie (entered separately). The Me and My Monkey project is a counter to every binge-watching bender and microsecond stall in scrolling, to each social media post and Google doc update, to every AI prompt and every second of screen time. In offering a new kind of intellectual and artistic experience, the project urges you to pause and consider the degree to which you are turning yourself, and everything around you, into training data for AI systems.

Modern, John. (2025) "Me & My Monkey and the Origins of Artificial Intelligence." Pamphlet. A production of the Institute of the Mechanical Surround. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6765ad8746d3c80cbd754cdf/t/686c3fc09e65524ac3d6b9dc/1751924677294/MonkeyBooklet_digital.pdf

Creative Work: Through sonic collage and historical excavation, original scores and an archive of obscure samples, Me & My Monkey transports you back to a primal scene of the origins of artificial intelligence.

Modern, John. (2025) "Me & My Monkey and the Origins of Artificial Intelligence." Mixtape/Movie. A production of the Institute of the Mechanical Surround. https://www.mechanicalsurround.com/me-and-my-monkey-mixtape

Article: Rather than engage in philosophical or theological inquiry or grand historical speculation, about AI, this essay turns our attention to the human work involved in granting and training and engineering of “intelligence” in non-human forms. The article explores the nitty gritty work of conjuring a lifeworld (or deathworld, depending on your perspective) into existence. It also attends to how a rather specific understanding of human intelligence is manufactured, inhabited, and maintained as a matter of common sense.

Modern, John. (2025) “Artificial Intelligence.” Routledge Handbook of Religion and American Culture, edited by Chad Seales. NY: Routledge: 477-96.

Article: Essay considering Freud and the fetish for collecting in a secular age.

Modern, John. (2025) “On Record Collecting, or The First Time I Encountered the Death Drive.” Collecting Religion. Online forum: April 21. https://collectingreligion.wordpress.com/2025/04/21/on-record-collecting-or-the-first-time-i-encountered-the-death-drive/

Article: Part of a scholarly roundtable on Bruno Latour and "Sensing the Social"

Modern, John. (2025) “Bored with Non-Specific Protestant Boredom.” The Immanent Frame: Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere. Forum on Religion, Science, and Sensing the Social: October 12. https://tif.ssrc.org/2025/10/12/bored-with-non-specific-protestant-boredom/

Conference: 

Modern, John. (2025) Respondent: “Author meets Critics” session on Myrna Sheldon’s Criticizing Science: Stephen Jay Gould and the Struggle for American Democracy. American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. Boston, MA: November 2025. https://aarweb.org/events/annual-meetings/future-dates/

Conference: Working member. The Harry Smith Archives. Workshop at The Center for Religion and the Human. Indiana University. Bloomington, IN (March 2025). Funded by the Henry Luce Foundation

Modern, John. (2025) Presentation on "The Occult Brain of Harry Smith." Event at The Center for Religion and the Human. Indiana University. Bloomington, IN: March. https://crh.indiana.edu/index.html 

Poems:

Montemarano, Nicholas. (2025) My Mother’s Death Is a Government Disaster- "DisasterAssistance.gov" & “Quiet Quit.” Electric Literature Jan. 22. Online. https://electricliterature.com/two-poems-by-nicholas-montemarano/

Montemarano, Nicholas. (2025) “Sinshine [sic].” The Hopkins Review 18(1): 31. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/952159/pdf

Poem: Selected for inclusion in The Best American Poetry 2025, an annual anthology showcasing the best poems of the year as selected by a Guest Editor.

Montemarano, Nicholas. (2025) “A Neighborly Day in This Beautywood.” The Best American Poetry 2025. Ed. Terence Winch. New York: Scribner.

Poem: Poem of the Week, selected by the Missouri Review

Montemarano, Nicholas. (2025) Poem of the Week: “After the Plague.” Missouri Review September 15. https://missourireview.com/after-the-plague-by-nicholas-montemarano/

Poem: For the past few years, I have been working on a poetry manuscript called Plague Songs. It includes elegies, of course, and poems more generally about plagues, and it repurposes some of the language of the pandemic, and the process has surprised me in many ways. One day, I read the submission guidelines for a journal I will not name, and they included the directive. Nicholas Montemarano is the author of five books, most recently a memoir, If There Are Any Heavens (Persea Books, 2022). Recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Hopkins Review, Bennington Review, Copper Nickel, and The Best American Poetry 2025. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, he is the Alumni Professor of Creative Writing and Belles Lettres at Franklin & Marshall College.

Montemarano, Nicholas. (2025) “Plague Song.” Notch Magazine 003: 37. 

Poems:

Montemarano, Nicholas. (2025) “C-Word.” The Account 22 (Fall). https://theaccountmagazine.com/article/montemarano-25/

Montemarano, Nicholas. (2025) “Plague Chorus.” The Account 22 (Fall). https://theaccountmagazine.com/article/montemarano-25/

Article: Uranium isotopes in carbonates have been used extensively to determine past extent of global oceanic anoxia. However, local spatial and temporal variations in reducing conditions and/or subsequent diagenesis can result in isotopic variations of U (238U/235U) that complicate the extrapolation of U isotopic variation in ancient carbonate sediments to global estimates of ocean anoxia. The fidelity of the U isotopic signal can also be impacted by the co-dissolution of U-containing non‑carbonate phases, such as aluminosilicates, manganese-oxide coatings, and iron-containing minerals, that might introduce an independent U isotopic signal that alters or biases the global ocean-derived δ238U value recorded by the carbonate component. Leaching protocols and/or precleaning steps have been introduced to avoid the dissolution of these non‑carbonate phases and extract the primary carbonate signal; however, these methods can lengthen the sample preparation time while also potentially introducing contamination. The work presented here suggests that a one-step partial dissolution procedure using excess 0.08 M nitric acid or 2 M acetic acid results in Ca, Mg, and Mn concentrations that are similar to concentrations determined from total dissolution methods. This approach precludes the complete dissolution of Sr, U, Fe, and Al (and occasionally Mg and Mn) in insoluble non‑carbonate phases. When targeting the dissolution of only ~80 % of the sample, the release of Fe and Al from non‑carbonate phases is minimized. This partial dissolution approach still results in release of sufficient U to permit interpretation of past reducing conditions. Measured δ238U values are nearly invariant regardless of acid type or concentration, suggesting that the dissolution of the non‑carbonate phases does not adversely affect the U isotopic signal.

Morford, J.L.,Elrick, M., Romaniello, S., Algeo, T.J., Gilleaudeau, G.J., Goepfert, T., Wilson, E., Meyers, K., Berry, L., Driscoll, E., Patzkowsky, S., de Wet, C. (2025) “Testing the robustness of the carbonate uranium isotope proxy: Evidence from a partial dissolution study.” Chemical Geology 692: 122949. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2025.122949 

Article: Abstract for "Keeping the Rat-Book": This essay analyzes descriptions of cane-rats, and rat-eating in particular, in Jamaica during the age of abolition. Reading the anonymous 1828 white creole novel Marly alongside natural histories and vernacular texts, I argue that the rat's viscerality—its ability to evoke strong, unmanageable feeling—disrupted proslavery writers' attempts to leverage the animal for their propaganda. Enslaved Jamaicans, in particular, kept their own histories of the cane-rat, its importation to the island, and its associated cuisine which centered their endurance in the face of enslaver cruelty and incompetence. This essay takes inspiration from a Creole dinner grace about the cane-rat and follows how the rat "ticks" to all Jamaican actors. I argue that its ability to manifest its own plantation networks undermines colonial narratives about agricultural productivity, racial alterity, and the civilizing progress of Jamaican slavery.

Myers, Jacob. (2025) “Keeping the Rat-Book: Marly and the Visceral Histories of Jamaican Agriculture.” Early American Literature 60 (1): 21-41. https://doi.org/10.1353/eal.2025.a951902

Blog: This is a blog post covering the Science History Institute's pesticide collections. Written while I was a year-long fellow, the essay gives an overview of how pesticide advertisements marketed new chemicals to women.

Myers, Jacob. (2025)  “The Woman’s World of Pesticides.” Blog post. Collections, Science History Institute. August 14. https://www.sciencehistory.org/collections/blog/the-womans-world-of-pesticides/

Conference: In the torture diaries of Jamaican overseer Thomas Thistlewood (c.1748-1768), he records a seemingly opaque aphorism about the turkey vulture: “If you hurt a Carrion Crow or her eggs, you will never be well until they be well, spoil’d or dead.” An avid collector of proverbs and other adages, Thistlewood records the vulture aphorism during a period when he had not yet been fully formed by plantocratic assumptions about the value of Afro-Caribbean knowledge nor when he could understand all the resonances of their speech. At the same time, the aphorism’s concision exemplifies the problems of interpretation in the archive of enslavement, where scholars navigate frustratingly brief mentions of Black life in ledgers, inventories, wills, and other documents that center enslavers’ worldviews. Analyzing the aphorism’s placement in Thistlewood’s diaries and its socio-ecological context, I argue the turkey vulture adage’s hermeneutic inexhaustibility demands reconceptualizing the content and form of the early Caribbean archive writ-large to center women’s environmental-spiritual knowledge. In this presentation, I expand the gendered histories of bird hunting and sexual violence against enslaved women – including Thistlewood’s own assaults – encoded in the aphorism’s discursive network. In doing so, I show how analyzing the aphorism as a mobile, emblematic form presents new opportunities to integrate Afro-Caribbean vernacular knowledge into the history of science.

Myers, Jacob. (2025) Presentation: “Hurting the Carrion-Crow: Early Caribbean Vulture Knowledge & Aphoristic Vernacular Science.” History of Science Society Conference, November. https://hssonline.org/page/HSS25

Conference: In the 1707 volume of Voyage, Hans Sloane lists provisions unique to Jamaica, including a remark that rats are “sold by the dozen, and when they have been bred amongst the Sugar-canes, are thought by some discerning people very delicious Victuals.” Rat-eating was a cultural taboo in early-modern Britain, and in the ensuing twenty-page extrapolation, Sloane rationalized the practice to assuage concerns about local food. Ironically, his remarks acknowledging white colonizers dined on cane-rat would be furiously rebutted by future enslavers who sought racialized food distinctions and painted rat-eating as exclusively a slave cuisine – a belief still held by many historians today. In this presentation, I explore how late-seventeenth-century Jamaican rat-eating was not yet codified by the island’s racial hierarchies. Linking Sloane with other early Jamaican sources, I follow how the cane-rat was a vexed symbol of Jamaica’s early subsistence crises and later boom. Joining critical eating studies and the history of colonial medicine, I argue that Sloane proposed an imperial theory of “discernment” to vouch for the dish’s health by linking Jamaica’s food with ancient Rome’s cuisine. The rat, in Sloane’s view, was an odd but beneficial by-product of sugar production, and its digestion attested to how both European and African bodies successfully adapted to the colonial environment. While his universalist defense of rat-eating was ultimately rejected by his successors, Sloane provides a glimpse into how the realities of early colonial cuisine forced the British to negotiate racial ideologies and narratives of imperial progress.

Myers, Jacob. (2025) Presentation: “Hans Sloane, Rat-Eating, & Imperial Discernment.” Where is Early America? McNeil Center for Early American Studies State-of-the-Field Conference, May. https://www.mceas.org/where-early-america

Conference: Obeah scholars have focused on how the syncretic Caribbean practice was viewed as an alternative colonial modernity. In imaginative representations of Antilles rituals, eighteenth-century Britons probed their own obsessions with rationality and self-possession. Despite this excitement around Obeah, colonial reports made clear that the practice threatened the European model of organized, liberal exploration. According to Bryan Edwards and Edward Long, Obeah practitioners were able to harm enslaved Africans by “fascinating” them: they froze victims and brought them under their control through an uncertain combination of “superstition” and plant and animal “poisons.” Planters tried to downplay Obeah’s power by dismissing it as only affective on the minds of Black laborers, but Jamaican residents Benjamin Moseley and Stephen Fuller nervously acknowledged that white people were believers as well. In this presentation, I explore how Obeah’s secretive reorganization of Caribbean life caused the English to meditate on their susceptibility to colonial stimuli. Reviewing Moseley’s medical treatise on Obeah and the John Fawcett pantomime it inspired, I argue Obeah’s “fascination” provided a novel aesthetic and physiological theory of how influencing the imagination through performance could spur the body into disorder. Whether enacted in the Kingston clinical encounter or London theatrical spectacle, Obeah raised the specter that a person’s feeling was not their own. The easy transportation of Caribbean rituals and their imaginative world reminded the European viewer that freedom from determination was limited by their own body’s openness to the environment – and to other people.

Myers, Jacob. (2025) Presentation: "Fascination, Obeah, & the Animacy of Performance.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, March. https://www.nemla.org/convention/past.html

Grant: The competitive grant is awarded to promising scholars to defray the costs of presenting their research at the History of Science Society's annual conference. This grant allowed me to present my paper, "Hurting the Carrion-Crow: Early Caribbean Vulture Knowledge & Aphoristic Vernacular Science."

Myers, Jacob. (2025) Grant Award: National Science Foundation Grant - History of Science Society.

Grant: This research fellowship will allow me to join the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin for six months, beginning June 2026. There, I will work on my book manuscript about how vermin were figured as emblems for environmental health in the early Caribbean. I will also join the working group, "Reclaiming Turtles All the Way Down (TAWD): Plural Practices of Animal Cosmologies," which studies western and Indigenous animal tales as both cultural narratives and the data of environmental science.

Myers, Jacob. (2025) Grant Award: Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Department III: “Artifacts, Action, Knowledge.” Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. 

Article: One method of achieving spatially specific, multi-component nanoheterostructures is to combine multiple forms of post-synthetic modification. Applying cation or anion exchange to Cu2–xS nanorods creates complex nanoheterostructures. Combining such anion and cation exchanges generates a system which uncovers the interplay between these two processes and understands the cooperativity between postsynthetic modifications more broadly. Cd2+ exchange was carried out on various plasmonic and nonplasmonic Cu2–xS/Cu2–xTe nanoheterostructures to test how the presence of Te2– ions would affect the extent of Cd2+ incorporation. Three hypotheses were presented for how the presence of Cu2–xTe could alter the incorporation of Cd2+ and these were used to interpret the observed changes in the extent of Cd2+ exchange and crystalline phase of the resulting particles. We found that Te2– anion exchange impedes subsequent Cd2+ cation exchange. Low extents of Te2– exchange cause a phase change where ion mobility is slowed by a decrease in Cu+ vacancies. Higher extents of Te2– exchange slow ion mobility due to the presence of large Te2– ions.

Doligon, Clarisse, Rudman, Eli, Ehrenberg, Noah, Nguyen Dinh Cat, Tuong, Luo, Qi, and Plass, K.E. (2025) "Anion Exchange Impedes Subsequent Cation Exchange: Ion Mobility Is Altered by Vacancies and Ion Size." Inorganic Chemistry 64(2): 978–985. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.4c04273 🔓

Article: Anion exchange is a powerful tool for postsynthetic transformation of nanoparticles that can be coupled with other transformations to create nanostructures unachievable by direct growth. Previous work implicated long-chain dialkyl diselenides as drivers of Se2– anion exchange on Cu2–xS, but it lacked mechanistic details. Here, we examined the reactivity trends of diphenyl, didodecyl, and dibenzyl diselenides as drivers of anion exchange to create metastable copper sulfur selenide alloys. We contrasted these reactivity trends with those of direct synthesis of copper selenide nanoparticles, demonstrating mechanistic orthogonalities between these pathways. Dialkyl diselenides were the only species that induced anion exchange. We rationalized the different reaction outcomes using thermal decomposition measurements together with MD simulations using a ReaxFF force field (trained against DFT data). Dialkyl diselenides were shown to release H2Se, which appears to be critical for achieving Se2– anion exchange. This demonstrates the utility of computationally inexpensive atomistic-scale simulations methods like ReaxFF in the rational design of nanoparticle syntheses. Using this insight, the dialkyl diselenides were identified as a new class of selenium exchange reagents based on initial MD simulations of H2Se release. This work provides mechanistic understanding of nanoparticle anion exchange and insights into decomposition processes crucial to use of diorganyl diselenides in nanoparticle synthesis.

Choi, Jiwoo, Schmidt, Benjamin A., Boleychuk, Mykhailo, Bedi, Kiran,Sandoval-Arteaga, Emily, Almonte, Kezia N., Boussard, Quentin M., Krebs, J. Kenneth, Kowalik, M., van Duin, A., Plass, Kate E. “Copper selenides via anion exchange versus direct growth – The role of diorganyl diselenides.” Inorganic Chemistry 64(47): 23294–23304. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.5c04328 🔓 

Article: This study invited dark tourism practitioners to comment on the salient academic discourses concerning dark tourism and propose new ways forward for research. Through a genre analysis of dark tourism literature and semi-structured interviews with an internationally diverse sample of dark tourism practitioners, this paper challenges current academic framings of dark tourism. The findings reveal that many practitioners reject the label dark tourism, preferring alternative signifiers that emphasize life and remembrance over death and suffering. The paper argues that dark tourism remains a predominantly academic construct, necessitating greater sectoral input to refine its conceptualization. By foregrounding practitioner perspectives, our analysis highlights the dissonance between academic frameworks and industry realities. While grounded in academic discourse, we argue that practitioners—those shaping visitor experience and interpretation—are well positioned to challenge and enrich conceptual debates. Their insights reflect the lived tensions of how dark tourism is defined and enacted. We advocate a shift toward co-created ideation, prioritising practitioner engagement over rigid classifications.

Wight, C., Podoshen, J.S., Wyatt, B., & Lennon, J. (2025). “Rethinking dark tourism: Practitioner perspectives and future research directions. Tourism Recreation Research July: 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2025.2521277 

Grants: Received two residential fellowships (competitive grants) for archival work.

Rauser, Amelia. (2024-2025) Grant Award: American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Fellowship, Library Company of Philadelphia. 

Rauser, Amelia. (2024-2025) Grant Award: Lewis Walpole Library Fellowship, Yale University. 

Article: In this paper, we examine the range of skin tones represented in publicly available online image search results through which non-medical audiences might seek information about skin cancer signs, symptoms, and risks. We use the Fitzpatrick scale, a numerical classification system grouping six human skin tones (or “phototypes”) in dermatology, as a guide for analyzing the skin tones appearing in (n=1600) Google image search results for search terms related to skin cancer. We find that light skin tones (1,2, and 3 on the Fitzpatrick scale) comprise the significant majority (roughly 96%) of those depicted in Google image searches of information about skin cancer signs and prevention; dark skin tones (4, 5, and 6 on the Fitzpatrick scale) appear with significantly less frequency (roughly 4%) in the same search results. Disparate representation of diverse skin tones—and, more specifically, omission of dark skin images—suggests that racial biases inflect the search results generated by seemingly race-neutral skin-cancer related search terms. This embedded racial bias privileges white normativity to the disadvantage of dark-skinned patients, who are most likely to be racially classified as Black.

Rondini, Ashley C., Genab Diallo, Foster Bryant, Rachel H. Kowalsky. (2025). “Searching for Equity: White Normativity in Online Skin Cancer Images.” Social Science & Medicine, 364 (January): 117523. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117523.

Article: I was writing this piece as a deluge of anti-transgender executive orders by the Trump administration, as well as a corresponding acceleration in discriminatory state and federal legislative measures, was contextualizing the erasure of the "TQ+" initials from the Stonewall Inn National Monument. A few short months later has seen the additional removal of the "B" in the remaining "LGB" acronym of the national memorial literature--erasing the existence of bisexual Americans.

Rondini, Ashley C. and David Cunningham. (2025) “tq+: Historical Memory, Structural Violence, and Transgender Erasure.” Contexts: Sociology for the Public 24 (2): 59—61. https://doi.org/10.1177/15365042251351978

Article: This piece from the American Sociological Association's Footnotes publication was inspired by the wisdom of F&M Alum Herman Art Taylor and my colleague in Sociology, Katherine McClelland, at Franklin & Marshall College.

Rondini, Ashley C. (2025) “Meeting the Moment: Why We Can’t Afford to Let Sociology Classrooms Become Places Where Hope Comes to Die.” Footnotes 53(3). https://www.asanet.org/footnotes-article/meeting-the-moment/

Article: Part of a Special Forum on my book Perilous Intimacies

Tareen, SherAli. (2025) “Theory, Theology, and Fraternal Friendship.” ReOrient: Journal of Critical Muslim Studies 9(2): 14-25.  https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/reorient.9.2.0013 🔓

Article: Part of a special forum on my book Perilous Intimacies in the journal Political Theology.

Tareen, SherAli. (2025) “Friendship, Sovereignty, and Political Theology.” Political Theology: Special Forum on Perilous Intimacies 26(8): 892-900. https://doi.org/10.1080/1462317X.2025.2590319

Article: A special forum on my book Perilous Intimacies in the Marginalia Review of Books; forum link below: This book had 3 different special forums in 3 prestigious journal venues in 2025 which is very rare.

Tareen, SherAli. (2025) “The Politics of Intimacy and the Intimacy of Politics.” Response to Marginalia Review of Books Forum on Perilous Intimacies. March 9. https://www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com/post/theologies-of-empire

Article: This article conducts a detailed reading of the paradigmatic South Asian Muslim modernist scholar Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s (d.1898) views on Indian Muslims dining with or eating the meat prepared and/or served by the British, as found in his Urdu/Arabic Text Rules on the Food of the People of the Book (Ahkam-i Ta‘am-i Ahl-i Kitab) composed in 1868. I argue that though Khan’s hermeneutic was saturated with Muslim traditionalist categories of inquiry and analysis, he ultimately remained wedded to a secular modernist privileging of a disembodied notion of religious authenticity that saw no harm in sites of embodied interreligious encounter like that of gastronomy. Conceptually thus, this article a) shows the impact and imprints of modern secular assumptions and desires on the thought of a Muslim scholar on a topic of profound ethical consequence, and b) highlights the limits but also the efficacy of the categories of modernist and traditionalist in the study of Islam.

Tareen, SherAli. (2025) "Meat and Religious Difference in Colonial India: The Courage and Contradictions of Sayyid Ahmad Khan." Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 68(7): 970-983. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341664

Grant:

Tareen, SherAli. (2024-2025) Grant Award: Fellowship/Membership to the School of Historical Studies. Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton, NJ. 

Conference: The Kinzers Formation, long known for its late early Cambrian trilobites, notably a famous specimen with its antennae attached in place, embraces a much wider range of lithofacies and faunal assemblages than is generally appreciated.  At some localities, Lagerstätten have yielded taxa with soft, lightly sclerotized or readily disarticulated parts preserved, accumulated in distinctly different depositional environments.  Preservation of a mass-death assemblage of tiny stem group gastropods, with their paired sets of chaetae extending from the apertures of their shells, indicates that these animals were relaxed immediately post-mortem and soon preserved, before their chaetal fans were dispersed or decayed.  At a probably deeper water locality that historically yielded especially large and fully articulated olenellids, dwelling-tubes secreted by the hemichordate Oesia were formerly not uncommon.  They exhibit off-set spiral rows of openings, presumed to have facilitated suspension-feeding and respiration.  Patterns of precipitation of limonite associated with these tubes suggest that soft tissues decayed inside them producing organic acids which diffused out through the apertures, causing precipitation of micro-sulfides that would ultimately be transformed to limonite in later diagenesis.  At a locality yielding more diverse fossils representing various assemblages, a single, fully articulated specimen is known of a hymenocarine arthropod, related to Odaraia from the Burgess Shale.  The outline of its body is well-preserved, but it lacks any trace of appendages essential to systematic identification.  However, our SEM images and EDS analytical data have yielded a surprising result.  A reflective oval feature, previously hypothesized to have been a displaced eye or a part of the gut, consists of silica prisms, oriented perpendicular to its surface, which lies in the plane of the carapace.  We now infer that this structure represents the adductor muscle of the bivalved arthropod, silicified very early in diagenesis and thereby protected from early compression and later structural distortion.

Thomas, R. D. K., Minkowitz, C., Hegna, T. A., and Wilson, E. (2025) “Varied modes of ‘special preservation’ in the Kinzers Formation (Cambrian, Stage 4, ‘Olenellus Zone’) of Pennsylvania.” IGCP 735 Rocks 'n' ROL Regional Meeting in Llandrindod Wells (Wales, UK), July 4–11. Timetable and Abstracts, p. 29-30. https://rocksnrol.wordpress.com/meetings/

Article: Intensive study of recently discovered taxa and more-or-less concordant phylogenetic analyses have led to recognition and broad acceptance of four families of mainly Cambrian radiodonts. A single frontal appendage of a new radiodont from the Kinzers Formation is described as <i>Verrocaris kerrymatti</i>n. gen. n. sp. This appendage bears paired long and slender ventral endites, not alternating long/short, attached to 11 of 15 articulated podomeres. The endites lack auxiliary spines. These features are not consistent with those cited as diagnostic for any one radiodont genus or family. Among radiodonts supposed to have preyed largely on infaunal “worms,” auxiliary spines range from saw-tooth-like forms suited for manipulation of prey to spikes and distally bifurcating probes or pitchforks. In some taxa, all spines are relatively similar. In others, sets of auxiliary spines are differently adapted. Development of these radiodonts was modular, both axially and on two subsidiary levels, among endites and among their auxiliary spines. By contrast, numerous identical auxiliary spines of the suspension feeder <i>Tamisiocaris</i> are fully integrated as components of a single baleen-like net. We infer the new species to have been an endmember in the adaptive range of bottom-feeding anomalocaridids. Adapted to sweep loose, unconsolidated sediment in search of shallowly buried prey that it presumably ingested by suction and serial slicing, it is likely to have engulfed meiofaunal organisms adventitiously. Hence it represents a potential transition, requiring only the simplest developmental expression of accessory spines, pervasive among anomalocaridids, to give rise to a suspension feeder such as <i>Tamisiocaris</i>.

Oxman, K. L., Minkowitz, C. and Thomas, R. D. K. (2025) “Verrocaris kerrymatti n. gen. n. sp., a new ‘misfit’ anomalocaridid radiodont (Euarthropoda) from the Kinzers Formation. (Cambrian, Series 2, Stage 4) of Pennsylvania and its implications.” Journal of Paleontology Published online 2025: 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2025.10194 🔓 

Article: Hydrostatic skeletal support is widespread among animals. If modeled as an isovolumetric cylinder that is longer than it is wide, a hydrostatic structure should undergo large changes in length for relatively small changes in diameter. This presents an underappreciated consequence for the muscle fibers controlling hydrostatic skeletal shape: longitudinally oriented muscle fibers may experience remarkably long operating ranges. Superelongation, or the ability to produce relatively high forces over an extreme range of muscle lengths, may thus be necessary for longitudinally oriented fibers. We discovered superelongation and an interesting morphological specialization in an obliquely striated muscle of the polychaete worm Glycera dibranchiata. These worms have an eversible proboscis that is used for burrowing and prey capture. The proboscis retractor muscles extend from the body wall to the gut and likely undergo a large stretch during proboscis eversion. Like two other previously described superelongating muscles s in squid and leeches, the proboscis retractor muscles had a broad length-force relationship (LFR). At a given muscle length, however, some muscle fibers were folded while others were not (i.e., the folded fibers were longer than the whole muscle, at least when the muscle was partially contracted). The number of folded fibers and extent of folding was higher at shorter muscle lengths. We hypothesize that the short muscle fibers experience tension at all muscle lengths while the folded fibers only experience tension at long whole muscle lengths. Thus, each retractor muscle contains populations of fibers of different lengths that may contribute differentially to the broad LFR. Superelongation with varying fiber folding may represent a new strategy in in obliquely striated muscle for permitting high force production over a broad range of muscle lengths needed for hydrostatic skeletal support.

Taylor-Burt, K.R., William M. Kier, Sameeha Hossain, and Thompson, J.T. (2025) “It’s hard to be soft: length-force relationships in the obliquely striated muscles of hydrostatically supported animals.” Integrative and Comparative Biology 65(6): 1448-1460. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf045  

Article: Turning is critical for survival in the ocean, as marine animals need to maneuver to capture prey, elude predators, and navigate complex environments. While prior research has focused on turning performance of adult swimmers, less is known about early ontogenetic stages that locomote within lower Reynolds number (Re) regimes, especially young jetters. To evaluate squid paralarval turning proficiency and the role of the pulsed jet in maneuvers, recently hatched longfin squid Doryteuthis pealeii swimming in a viewing chamber were studied using digital particle image velocimetry and kinematic motion analyses. Paralarvae exhibited a wide repertoire of turning behaviors, including those performed arms-first and tail-first. Paralarval turns were broader and faster than older squids, with some turns (~8%) involving peak angular velocities >2,000 deg s-1. Relative to cuttlefish hatchlings, squid paralarvae exhibited tighter turns and faster turns. Paralarval jets ranged from isolated vortex rings (short pulses), some of which occurred near or below the theoretical limit of jet vortex ring formation, to elongated vorticity structures with and without leading edge vortex ring formation (long pulses). While strong relationships between jet length to diameter ratios and kinematic properties were not observed, short and long jets with higher angular impulse produced turns of greater speed and total angular displacement, and both turning radius and speed increased with higher Re. The ability of paralarvae to produce a diversity of directed jets at low/intermediate Re is integral to their turning versatility and ultimately survival.  

Bartol, I.K., Ganley, A.M., Krueger, P.S., and Thompson, J.T. (2025) “Squid paralarvae turn with high agility using jets near the Reynolds number threshold for viscous domination.” Journal of Experimental Biology 228(16): jeb250186. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.250186 

Conference: We have explored the advantageous use of a Hantzsch amido dihydropyridine for transfer hydrogenation to electron poor conjugated alkenes in solution and in the absence of solvent. Isolation of products is successful without chromatography.

O’Donnell, Anthony C., Allie E. Marks, Y Dang, Dylan M. Brandt, Robert Palkovitz, Jonathan Liu, Alisa Wang, Audrey Kinney, Jackie Guo, Bailey Sparks, and Scott A. Van Arman. (2025) Poster presentation: “Solvent-Free Transfer Hydrogenation by a Hantzsch Amide.” Abstracts of Papers, 49th National Organic Chemistry Symposium. Troy, NY: June 22-26. https://www.nationalorganicsymposium.org/ 

Creative Work: I made an original “modern classical ballet” within the general framework of the classical ballet Sylvia, to music from 1876 by Leo Delibes. I call it a modern classical ballet not because it was made recently, but because I choreograph in an extended movement vocabulary that draws on classical ballet and modern dance. 

Along with expert assistance and additional choreography from Rehearsal Directors Willow Donnachie and Isabella Williams, and Lighting Design by F&M’s Jacob Sikorski it was performed by a company of Lancaster County-area professional and pre-professional dancers, with student dancers from Susquehanna Dance Center and the support from Contemporary Ballet of PA (COBALT).  I greatly appreciated the opportunity to use the atmospheric Green Room Theatre and was delighted to use quirks of the space as features, for example lighting the upstage stairs to the dressing room to allow Artemis to ascend  in a halo of “moonlight” in the final scene. (Special thanks to dancer Magnolia Williams who walked serenely backwards up the steep stairs in a floor length skirt and to Jake for that lighting that moment exactly as I had hoped.) 

As a ballet, Sylvia is probably most distinctive for a scene with a corps de ballet of athletic huntresses.  I chose it specifically because it allowed our company to explore a story in dance that centered the emotional relationships among women, still uncommon in the dance world.  Dance being a brilliant conveyor of the concept of metamorphosis,  it was a joy for all of us in rehearsal and onstage to find innumerable ways to transform our everyday selves into gods, water, forest, trees, animals, landscapes, the moon and constellations and back again. My version of the pas de deux  was visually inspired by the Bernini sculpture of Apollo and Daphne in Rome’s Galleria Borghese (though crucially with Sylvia leading the action).  

It’s easy to think of a performance as the purpose of work in dance, but rehearsals can be just as magical and are an immersive group experience in communal memory, living in the music and finding expressiveness for everyone involved. I personally hold on to these rehearsal moments in Sylvia:  making a hunter’s dance in which Artemis and Sylvia shift into all the creatures they track, the shepherd Aminta falling asleep at the feet of Sylvia and startle her out of being a tree, listening to my dancers tell me why they are really just like Artemis, and the whole company crying in the studio when the Golden Doe was killed, even though everyone knew it would happen…and it's just a dance.

Vegso, Shari (2025) Sylvia: A Modern Classical Ballet. Original Choreography with Willow Donnachie and Isabella Williams, Performed by Contemporary Ballet of PA and the Susquehanna Dance Center. Lighting Design by Jacob Sikorski. May 23-25, Green Room Theatre, Lancaster, PA. 

Conference: In his 2020 memoir, rapper Raheem “Mega Ran” Jarbo writes, “I’m so very inspired by Japan and its culture… It’s the place that created so much of my fondest inspirations, from gaming to anime, even fashion and music... I call Japan my mecca, my homeland.” A century before Mega Ran wrote about Japan, US Black spiritual and intellectual leaders (e.g. W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and Elijah Muhammad) lauded imperial Japan as a global savior of darker races, offering a more civilized empire compared to the brutality of the white west. 

This paper observes contemporary US Black fascination with Japan, which I refer to as “Black Orientalism.” Drawing from concepts refined by Bill V. Mullen and Helen Jun, I interpret Black Orientalism as African Americans’ cultivation of the self in relationship to Asia. In studying attendees and presenters of BlerDCon and Dream Con (two large scale Blerd or “Black nerd” conventions that cater to Black anime fans) and conducting an ethnography of Black residents living in Japan, I show how Japan and Japanese culture (which includes but also goes beyond anime) represent a preferable lifestyle alternative to white-coded US culture. Although today’s Black engagement with Japan is rooted within a history of US empire (e.g. US military bases in Japan) and Third World solidarity movements, I also attribute this phenomenon to more recent global postmodern consumption practices that promote Japan as “cool.”

Some US Black people’s preference for Japan as a symbol and/or as a real destination—as a “mecca”—reveals an irony: they gravitate towards a former empire in Japan that benefits from its own brand of brazen racism while disfavoring and sometimes outright protesting ideas, belonging, and products from a faltering, racist US empire. In the 21st century, Japan has risen as a cultural empire not through war and violence like empires of yesteryear, but through irresistible consumer products and images that especially appeal to US Black communities. Overall, I argue that Black Orientalism expands the repertoire of Black worldmaking, wherein the fantastical East fosters a sense of Black global belonging. Whereas versions of early and mid-20th century Black Orientalism aspired for Global South revolution, today’s Blerds and Black residents in Japan seek different political goals: they pursue Japan’s promises of fantasy, peace, and an escape from US whiteness.

Villegas, Mark. (2025) Presentation: “‘I Call Japan My Mecca’: Black Orientalism as Escape and Belonging.” Late-Stage American Empire? Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico: November 21. https://theasa.net/annual-meeting/past-meetings/past-programs

Conference: The intersection of Black American and Asian communities has a long and multifaceted history, drawing from art, politics, war, migration, and solidarity movements. These global connections are evident in genres such as jazz, R&B, and martial arts films of the 1970s and 1980s. They are also prevalent in contemporary pop culture collaborations, including the appeal of anime and manga in the Black community, as well as the influence of hip-hop on K-pop and Asian streetwear. Panelists will examine the historical, cultural, and political relationships between Black and Asian people, and how these interactions resonate through shared experiences of identity, diaspora, marginalization, and resilience.

Villegas, Mark, Price, Zachary, Williams, Tolden. (2025) “Kung Fu Fighting, Grits, and Sushi: The Crossroads of Black and Asian Cultural Connection.” Panelist during an online session: Auburn Avenue Research Library’s Collecting Researching Writing Conference Online. November 14.  https://fulcolibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/68f6842064ad59251cb972b1 

Grant: Progressive myelin dystrophy, loss of synapses, and neuronal hyperexcitability are hallmark changes in the neocortex common to both normal aging and early-stage sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), a disease of aging. The precise relationships of these changes and how they drive age- and AD-related cognitive impairments remain elusive. In the rhesus monkey, a species unaffected by clinical AD, these sub-lethal age-related changes in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) correlate with degree of working memory (WM) impairment. Given that myelin dystrophy is an early and profound phenotype, it is likely that long-range heavily myelinated axons or those that have high myelin turnover may be most vulnerable. In monkey dlPFC, layer 3 (L3) pyramidal cells (PCs) extend horizontally oriented axon collaterals from the main axon to form periodically spaced columnar axonal plexus clusters. These clusters are implicated in sustained neuronal activity during WM and are the anatomical expression of interconnected L3 PCs forming excitatory reverberating circuits modulated by local inhibitory inputs. The parent L3 PC axons project to three targets: local intrinsic targets within the same cluster, long-range intrinsic targets in adjacent clusters, and long-range extrinsic targets in other cortical areas. Our preliminary data suggest that these target-specific axons differ with regard to their structural features including degree of myelination. We hypothesize that heavily myelinated axons/collaterals and their downstream targets are more vulnerable to the effects of normal and pathological aging than are lightly myelinated or unmyelinated axons/collaterals and this underlies specific WM dysfunction. Further, we hypothesize that remyelination of affected fibers is capable of rescuing neuron and circuit function in computational models. The organizational features of dlPFC circuits provide a rigorous framework for modeling and empirical validation across many spatial and temporal scales. Aim 1 will model the effects of selective myelin loss and its contribution to/interaction with hyperexcitability on action potential conduction of parent axons and their local and long-range collaterals, and how these changes impact synaptic communication in small circuits of neurons analogous to the clusters and gaps seen in dlPFC. Aim 2 will employ large-scale models of WM to answer the important question of how progressive changes in myelin, synaptic connections and neuronal excitability interact to effect WM and how the addition of neuron loss further impacts network function. Both Aims 1 and 2 will test the effect of variable and site specific remyelination on model function. Aim 3 will use quantitative anatomical and physiological approaches in rhesus monkey dlPFC across the adult lifespan to provide validation of model predictions and also help constrain models in an iterative manner. Results will be invaluable for the future development of biophysically realistic computational models of WM that incorporate multiple brain areas, layers, and cell types in the context of normal aging and AD. These insights, combined with precise techniques to perturb and rehabilitate neurons and networks, are essential for the development of therapeutics for cognitive decline in normal aging and in AD.

Weaver, Christina. (2025-2030) Grant Award: “Multiscale modeling and empirical studies of normal and pathological brain aging.” National Institute on Aging grant, R01AG092516, Principal Investigator Jennifer I. Luebke (Boston University School of Medicine). Professor Christina Weaver is a co-investigator. https://reporter.nih.gov/search/fW1jteh2YU61PDsVkALq1g/project-details/11112988

Article: Nerve cells called neurons communicate by sending electrical signals (action potentials) to downstream cells along their long, branching extensions known as axons. In healthy brains, many axons are wrapped in myelin, a protective coating that helps these signals travel quickly and reliably. However, myelin can become damaged in aging and neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and traumatic brain injury. We used computer models of neurons to explore how signal transmission is affected when some or all of the myelin in localized axonal regions is lost. While such damage can slow down or even block the signal—especially near points where the axon branches—some recovery can occur when myelin is repaired, or certain proteins are redistributed along axons. Our findings help explain how communication between neurons breaks down in disease and provide important building blocks for future simulation studies of normal and pathological brain aging.

Sengupta N, Luebke JI, Weaver CM. (2025) “Axon collateralization and focal myelin dystrophy alter action potential propagation in multicompartment pyramidal neuron models.” PLoS Computational Biology 21(12): e1013733. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013733 🔓 

Article: Assistive robots will be more effective if they can accurately reason about the intentions and beliefs of the user (i.e., have Theory of Mind (ToM)). ToM benchmarks allow us to examine how well an artificial agent (e.g., robot) is able to do ToM reasoning in a given scenario. However, there is a need for ToM benchmarks that are more representative of the challenges faced in assistive robotics. Existing benchmarks from AI and HRI make simplifying assumptions, such as simply defined goals, plans that are indicative of goals, and no user errors. To address the challenges from relaxing these assumptions, we propose the Theory of Mind of Children Assembling Tangrams (ToMCAT) dataset. The data is derived from videos of children building tangram puzzles while being assisted by a social robot. As a baseline benchmark, we evaluated two approaches for how well they can recognize which puzzle this child is building based on a single observation. Analogical reasoning correctly recognized the puzzle more than 75% of the time and had perfect accuracy for puzzle states that were close to complete. However, an out-of-the-box commercial LLM correctly recognized the puzzle only 60% of the time and was accurate on less than 80% of the completed puzzles. Our results suggest that the ToMCAT dataset offers challenges for recognizing the intended puzzle of a child. Furthermore, the dataset provides opportunities to examine additional ToM reasoning capabilities. Overall, the ToMCAT dataset provides a useful benchmark to facilitate the advancement of ToM reasoning for assistive robotics.

Wilson, J. R., I. Rabkina, M. Roberts and L. M. Hiatt. (2025) "ToMCAT: Benchmark for Socially Assistive Robots with Theory of Mind of Children Assembling Tangram Puzzles." 34th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN). Eindhoven, Netherlands: 2381-2388 https://doi.org/10.1109/RO-MAN63969.2025.11217737

Article: Research on gestures in human-robot interaction has largely focused on finding that children may learn better and enjoy interacting with robots that gesture more often. However, no research to date has examined how children themselves spontaneously gesture in the presence of a human vs. robot instructor. A child’s use of gesture might be indicative of engagement or rapport with the robot instructor and may provide key information about a robot instructor’s efficacy or opportunities for intervention. As such, the current study examines 5-8-year-old children’s rate of deictic and conventional gestures when being assisted by a robot vs. human instructor. Overall, we find age-related effects in children’s gestures relation to the specific instructors. There is a significant negative correlation between age and gesture rate when learning from the human instructor, but no significant correlation with the robot instructor. These results are discussed in relation to children’s perceptions of the instructor, task difficulty, and age-related cognitive development shifts.

Wilson, J. R., A. Langer, L. Howard and P. J. Marshall. (2025) "Age-Related Differences in Children’s Spontaneous Gesturing with a Robot versus Human Instructor." 34th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN). Eindhoven, Netherlands: 43-50. https://doi.org/10.1109/RO-MAN63969.2025.11217556

Conference: There is a lack of access to critical knowledge on machine ethics and the impacts technology has on individuals and communities in everyday life. This project pioneers an inclusive curriculum design process to increase accessibility to machine ethics education. Our approach is to use an inclusive co-creation design process to develop a machine ethics course that collaboratively builds curricular materials for other non-computer science courses. We discuss the inclusive design process, which is rooted in a co-creation model de- fined by continuous stakeholder feedback and regular transparent communication. Some of the products of this process are course materials that include underrepresented ethical frameworks and a final project design that reflects the needs and concerns of faculty and students. Our approach aims to cultivate a broad and culturally relevant understanding of ethical challenges in technology, while ensuring that the curriculum resonates with a wide array of student backgrounds through the use of diverse pedagogical tools that create both verbal and nonverbal learning experiences.

Muchuwa, E., Wilson, J. R., and Franklin, L. (2025) “Co-Creation and Inclusive Design: Developing a Machine Ethics Curriculum through Collaborative Pedagogy.”  Proceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education 2: 1757-1757. https://doi.org/10.1145/3641555.3705022