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January 2025

Nicholas Ball, associate professor of chemistry, completed his sabbatical visiting scholar position at Pfizer, Inc. in Groton, Connecticut. At Pfizer, Ball worked on high-throughput experimentation and related work in collaboration with Internal Medicine/Medicinal Chemistry at Pfizer.

Ball published a paper titled “” which focused on using a variety of Lewis acid catalysts for sulfur fluorine exchange reactions—useful in making bond connections of high interest in drug discovery. This work featured five ����AV student co-authors, including Theo Yassa ’24, Yuxin (Emily) Fang ’24, Lana Ravelo ’26, Sanah Anand ’26 and Saira Arora ’26.

Ball was the keynote speaker at the University of Manitoba 2SLGBTQIA+ in Stem Day, discussing his research and inclusive excellence. Ball also gave research talks at Smith College, University of Oregon and Pfizer. He also shared his research at the 2025 Winter Fluorine Conference.

Ball was appointed chair of the Beckman Scholars Executive Committee. He will serve a one-year term.

Malachai Komanoff Bandy, assistant professor of music, was awarded a Paul Oskar Kristeller Fellowship by the as well as the 2025 Diversity and Inclusion Research Award by the to support archival research for his book project handling esotericism, mysticism, queer theology and embodiment in Dieterich Buxtehude’s 1680 Passion cycle Membra Jesu nostri.

Bandy played viola da gamba and G violone with Bach Collegium San Diego, led by guest director (artistic director of the Washington Bach Consort and director of the Historical Performance Institute at Indiana University) in the program , which featured works by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Francis Poulenc and Pierre Villette in two performances in San Diego.

Charlotte Chang, assistant professor of biology and environmental analysis, published a study in with The Nature Conservancy showing that the natural climate solutions which have the highest capacity to mitigate carbon emissions also have abundant evidence for their impacts to human and environmental wellbeing. Chang also co-authored a publication in focused on insect ecology and conservation in Southeast Asia, which used digital data sources to examine public awareness toward different insect taxa. This work emerged in part from her Steele Leave sabbatical visit to the Asian School of the Environment at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Chang was an invited speaker to the Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology department at UC Riverside and the School of Sustainability and the Environment at the University of Michigan.

Jennifer DesCombes, instructor in computer science, authored a commentary, “,” in Scuttlebutt Sailing News, edited by Craig Leweck. DesCombes’ submission was the lead item in the January 8 issue of Scuttlebutt Sailing Newsletter, a nationally distributed online sailing newsletter.

David Divita, professor of Romance languages and literatures, was interviewed by Cécile Evers, assistant professor of anthropology, about his recently published book, Untold Stories. The interview appears on the .

Stephan Ramon Garcia, W.M. Keck Distinguished Service Professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, gave a colloquium talk titled “What can chicken McNuggets tell us about symmetric functions, positive polynomials, random norms, and AF algebras?” at Washington State University on January 16.

Dean Gerstein, director of sponsored research, and corecipients Beth Jager at Claremont McKenna College and Nicole Wallens at Harvey Mudd College received a $5,000 grant from InfoReady and the National Organization of Research Development Professionals for the project “Steps Toward PUI/ERI Presubmission Peer Review Networks (P3RNs).” This project will explore the development of collaborative networks of faculty members across collectives of predominantly undergraduate institutions (PUIs) and other emerging research institutions (ERIs) to critique and strengthen draft grant applications.

Elizabeth Glater, associate professor of neuroscience, co-authored with students in her Genes and Behavior class and her research students an article, “,” in microPublication Biology. The student co-authors are Vaughn E. Brown ^’25, Ella Bradley ’26, Tymmaa A. Asaed ’25, Sokhna B. Lo ’25, Zach S. Bellini ’24, Dylan J. Blackett ’24, Jeremy J. Callaway ’24, Jacob Hallesy ’24, Zoey E. Joshlin ’23, Taryn L. Kaneko ’24, Catie H. Kaneshiro ’24, Kae R. Kidd ’24, Jacinda Lee ’24, Kaitlyn M. Leung ’23, Janelle S. Li ’23, Ben P. Luo ’23, Charlene C. Mbaeri ’24, Alanna O’Neill ’23, Precious Omomofe ’24, James D. Schmidt ’23 and Minh Truong ’24.

Glater was the moderator for a Society for Neuroscience live webinar, , on January 22.

Edray Herber Goins, professor of mathematics and statistics, was active at the annual in Seattle. On January 9, he was a panelist for “Integrating into a New Institution'” as part of the MAA Project NExT Panel. The same day, he gave a talk titled “Adinkras as Origami?” as part of the AMS Special Session on “Number Theory and Field Theory.” On January 10, he gave the keynote address titled “����AV Research in Mathematics Experience (PRiME): Reflections on a Research Learning Community” as part of the AMS Special Session on “Rethinking Number Theory: Highlighting the Research and Discussions of the RNT Workshops.”

On January 10, Goins led an eight-hour SLMath (MSRI) Special Session on “ADJOINT Mathematics Working Groups.” The program provides opportunities for U.S. mathematicians, especially those from the African Diaspora, to form collaborations with African-American research leaders on topics at the forefront of mathematical and statistical research; Goins is the co-creator and lead director of the NSF-funded project. The special session concluded with a panel discussion titled “ADJOINT: The First Five Years.” It focused on the first five years of ADJOINT and the future of our efforts to foster a community of African Americans in the mathematical and statistical sciences.

Nicole Desjardins Gowdy, senior director of international and domestic programs, presented with colleagues Jenn Fullick, Ph.D., IFSA Director for Health, Safety, and Security, and Wayne James, Ph.D., IFSA Associate Vice President for Partner Engagement, when the International and Domestic Programs Office collaborated with the to host a workshop on “” on January 10 at ����AV for professionals in study abroad, student affairs, mental health services, and risk management from institutions across the western region as part of IFSA’s Educator Events series. Gowdy also presented at a webinar titled on January 14 alongside colleagues from and Bates College to discuss the current state of programs in China, recent adjustments to the State Department travel advisory for China, and supporting students.

Esther Hernández-Medina, assistant professor of Latin American studies and gender and women’s studies, shared her research experience on “Lessons about the Participatory Budgeting around the World” at the webinar on January 16. She was also part of a virtual panel of experts on participatory budgeting (PB) hosted by the to foster interest in their new round of grants to implement new PB projects in the state.

On January 31, Hernández-Medina facilitated the Research Incubator session on “Latin American Feminisms” at the Winter Meeting of in Jacksonville, Florida. The feminist sociologists from Latin America and the United States who participated in the session discussed research about Latin American feminist movements and how U.S.-based scholars and activists can learn from and collaborate with them.

Marja Liisa Kay, program administrator of the Department of Theatre, formed a new non-profit Nordic vocal folk music ensemble, , of which she is now executive director. The Kollektiv celebrates the traditional music of Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden in innovative ways. The ensemble recently performed their first concert January 26 in downtown Los Angeles as a benefit for those who faced losses during the recent fires in Los Angeles.

Talya Klein, visiting assistant professor of theatre, was granted full professional certification from Intimacy Directors & Coordinators (IDC), and her latest intimacy coordination project The Surrender (starring Kate Burton and Colby Minifie) will have its world premiere at SXSW this March.

Andrew Law, assistant professor of philosophy, presented a paper at the meeting for the American Philosophical Association (Eastern Division) on January 10. The paper was titled “Free Will Skepticism, the Quarantine Model of Punishment, and the Right to Self-Defense.”

Rachel Levin, William A. Hilton Professor of Zoology and professor of biology and neuroscience, was quoted in “Trump executive order declaring only ‘two sexes’ gets biology wrong, scientists say” (STAT, January 23) and “After his executive order on sex, is Trump legally the first female president?” (The Guardian, January 25).

Jingyi Li, assistant professor of computer science, received a along with collaborators from UC Berkeley in the Media Education Research Lab for creating resources on teaching undergraduates how to tag and analyze diversity in film and television.

Joyce Lu, associate professor of theatre and Asian American studies, acted in a performance with High Desert Playback Theatre Company titled Our Freedom Can't Wait: A Playback Theatre Gathering for Racial Healing at Explora! in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January 23. The event was sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Sara Masland, associate professor of psychological science, published “” in the journal Psychopathology. This paper results from a collaborative project with researchers at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

April Mayes, associate dean and Warren Finney Day Professor of History, started her term as the president of the Haitian Studies Association, a scholarly organization that “provides a forum for the exchange and dissemination of ideas and knowledge in order to inform pedagogy, practice, and policy about Haiti in a global context.” She delivered the and hopes to bring the conference to Southern California next year.

Susan McWilliams Barndt, professor of politics, presented a paper to the University of Washington Political Theory Colloqium on January 16. The paper was titled “A Tale of Two Liberalisms: Desegregating American Political Thought.”

McWilliams was awarded the William F. Podlich Distinguished Fellowship from Claremont McKenna College for the 2025-2026 academic year.

McWilliams’s book The American Road Trip and American Political Thought was featured on Faculti.Net.

Bilal Nasir, assistant professor of Asian American studies, published “Internationalist Islam and the Question of Palestine” in Review of Middle East Studies.

Nasir was awarded a research grant from the for the project The War Within: Race, Religion, and Rebellion in Muslim Los Angeles.

Dan O’Leary, Carnegie Professor of Chemistry, published “” in the Journal of Chemical Education. The paper describes more than 30 molecular orbital models that provide learners with visual and tactile insights regarding organic chemistry concepts. The project was done in collaboration with Hiwot Endeshaw ’25, Christabel Akowuah ’25, Tymmaa Asaed ’25, Vaughn Brown ’25, Kendrick Cua ’25, Mai Dang ’24, Elizabeth Giwa ’25, Jaylyn Gonzalez ’25, Aysha Gsibat ’24, Sokhna Lo ’25, Santiago Serrano ’25 and Haddi Sise ’25.

Alexandra Papoutsaki, associate professor of computer science, co-authored an article titled “” in the GROUP issue of the Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction with Eryn Ma ’24, Priya Dixit ’23, Andy Han ’24, Nicholas Marsano ’22, Brooke Sparks ’23, Ashley Sun ’23, Lucas Tiangco ’23 and collaborators from Brown University. Eryn Ma ’24 presented the work at the ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work on January 14.

Adam Pearson, professor and chair of psychological science, was part of an international multidisciplinary consortium of researchers at 179 institutions around the world that developed the largest post-pandemic survey of public trust in scientists. The consortium surveyed over 72,000 individuals in 68 countries and included faculty in computer science, chemistry and climate science from Harvey Mudd College. Their findings were published in Nature Human Behavior (“”), with coverage in and global outlets.

Sheila Pinkel, professor emerita of art and art history, had her book Manifestation of a Cube included in the Getty Research Institute exhibition What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women 1843–1999: Twenty Women Artists from Southern California. Pinkel’s photo work is also included in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibition Works from the Photo Collection.

Hans Rindisbacher, professor of German, gave a guest lecture titled “Schwarz werden: Wie Friederich Dürrenmatt die Apartheid in Südafrika beendet” (Turning Black: How Friedrich Dürrenmatt ended Apartheid in South Africa) in the German Department at the University of Wrocław, Poland.

Sara Sadhwani, assistant professor of politics, discussed the new Congress and the House Speaker vote on CNN on January 7.

Sadhwani was a panel speaker at the Electoral Systems, Race and Political Equality Conference hosted by Harvard Law School’s in Puerto Rico.

Igor Santos, visiting assistant professor of music, was awarded a fellowship with the Lucas Artists Program at the Montalvo Arts Center. This three-month fellowship, spanning 2025 to 2027, will support his work on a series of musical compositions, including a large-scale intermedia and ensemble composition for the Talea Ensemble (NYC), a piano concerto for the Chicago Composers Orchestra and several smaller works.Santos also signed on to compose the score for a feature-length film, “����á����������,” produced by Autofac Films, a project based in his hometown of Curitiba, Brazil.

Gibb Schreffler, associate professor of music, published the article “Reclaiming ‘Shenandoah’: A Recovery of Working Chanty Form” in the peer-reviewed journal

Prageeta Sharma, Henry G. Lee ’37 Professor of English, was a recipient of a and signed a contract with Wave Books for a new collection of poetry titled Onement Won, which will be out this fall.

Cherene Sherrard-Johnson, E. Wilson Lyon Professor of the Humanities and chair of the department of English, as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance, published an article on the legacy of visual artist Laura Wheeler Waring in titled “Laura Wheeler Waring: A Luminous Palette.”

Gary Smith, Fletcher Jones Professor of Economics, published five opinion pieces: “” (MindMatters, January 6) (cited by The Algorithm from MIT Technology Review on January 13); “” (MarketWatch, January 16); “” (MindMatters, January 16); “” (MindMatters, January 17); and “” (MindMatters, January 30). He also did three MindMatters podcasts: (January 9); (January 16); and (January 18).

Smith’s paper “” was cited by on January 11.

Smith’s 18th book (and first novel), Reboot: A Business Novel of Money, Finance, and Love, co-authored with Margaret Smith, was published by BEP.

Feng Xiao, associate professor of Chinese, co-authored a book chapter titled “Assessing Pragmatic Routines in L2 Chinese: A Focus on Rating Scale Functioning and Rater Behavior” in , edited by Jing Jin and Sihui Ke and published by Routledge.

Samuel Yamashita, Henry E. Sheffield Professor of History, gave a talk titled “Chinese Food Along the Pacific Rim” to ����AV alumni in New York City on January 4. It was the 24th alumni talk he has given since he arrived at the College in 1983.