Lindsay Burwell, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Health Sciences, and three research students, attended the Northeast Regional Yeast Meeting in July. Lindsay’s ongoing research project focusing on developing human disease models in yeast for drug screens was presented by one student, Bailey Hamm. The presentation received one of two poster awards open to postdoc, graduate, and undergraduate researchers.
Leah Elliott, Assistant Professor of Biology, presented a talk titled “Frankenyeast: Fusing Human and Yeast Homologs to Investigate Evolutionary Differences in the Cox20 Chaperone” at the 2023 Northeast Regional Yeast Meeting (NERY). The talk included work from Dakarai Esgdaille ’19, done while a student at Wells.
Andrew Hunt, Visiting Assistant Professor of Technical Theatre, successfully created the lighting design for an Off-Broadway musical in June of 2023. The project, named The Trouble with Dead Boyfriends, has been in development with Annie Pulsipher, Alex Petti, Stephen M. Eckert, Dani Joseph, and Oliva Hern for the past 7 years. This was the largest and most successful performance to date! The show received rave reviews and is positioned for a longer run in Indiana or NYC. In Augst, Andrew also served as the assistant lighting designer for Finger Lakes Opera’s production of Verdi’s Aida at the Auditorium Theater in Rochester NY.
Leslie Rogne Schumacher, Visiting Assistant Professor of History, was consulted as a subject matter expert by War on the Rocks, a foreign affairs and national security magazine, for a special report on the recent spike in deaths among asylum seekers attempting to reach Europe via Mediterranean sea routes.
Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing, James Miranda, served in his second summer as a Writing Professor for Thrive Scholars Summer Academy at Amherst College—a scholarship program for high-achieving students of color from under-resourced school districts and low-income backgrounds. The program is a five-week, intensive academic experience preparing rising seniors in high school for the college application process and offers support up through early career.
In April, Benjamin Steiner, Assistant professor of Health Sciences, submitted his paper titled “Smooth muscle cell derived Cxcl12 directs macrophage accrual and sympathetic innervation to control thermogenic adipose tissue” to Science. This is his second paper submitted this year with the first being published by Nature this February.
Dr. Jen Myers, Assistant Professor of Sustainability, presented her research titled Narratives of Resilience: Place Attachment in Vieques, Puerto Rico at the Environment, Justice, and the Politics of Emotions Symposium at the University California, Riverside.
CPF Executive Director Cynthia Heitzman reached out to Martha Hoag, Lecturer in Hospitality Management, for the CPF 40th Annual Awards Event, requesting to create a Wine and Winners event, pairing selected wines with Community Based public architectural rehabilitation projects throughout the state of California. The event occurred on April 20th 2023. This included meeting on an ongoing basis with the Project Sponsors, Judges, and Creative teams. Additionally, Martha presented the wine pairings with each winning project for a virtual learning event sponsored by the CPF (see attached video recording). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1t5aMhRAFE This was followed by the Annual Awards Dinner. Martha created a pairing menu for the event and worked with over 50 wineries in Napa and Sonoma Counties to provide both free wine for the event, as well as Silent Auction Items for the most successful fundraising event in CPF history.
Leslie Rogne Schumacher, Visiting Assistant Professor of history, attended the 2023 annual meeting of Britain and the World, held at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA in mid-April. There, he served as chair for two panels: the first on 19th-century British exploration in the Artic and Madagascar, and the second on nationalist themes in 19th-century British print media. A former vice-chair of the organization and the outgoing communications and social media director, he passed the baton to his successor and the board thanked him for his service over the last decade.
Laura McClusky, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, presented her sabbatical research at the Society for Applied Anthropology meetings in Cincinnati on March 30. Her paper Realizing ‘Social Justice’: Creating an Alternative Food System in Western and Central, NY and Haudenosaunee Territory was co-authored with Michael Niman (Buffalo State college – Communication Department). The abstract reads:
From access to tangible resources (land, water, funds, etc.) to owning and sometimes questioning the concept of “social justice,” our participants discuss their passion, their setbacks, and their privilege in doing the work of creating a just and sustainable food system. This paper is a brief overview of an on-going project using open-ended interviews and photographic methods.
Audrey Woolever ’17 Assistant Director of Alumnae and Alumni Engagement and Lecturer in Dance co-hosted with Allison Thomashefski the New York State Dance Education Association’s (NYSDEA) Western NY dance educator gathering at Nazareth College on March 25, 2023. This was NYSDEA’s first upstate NY gathering in over five years and the board was very pleased to have 35 dance educators from various sectors of Western NY in attendance. Audrey serves as the Director of Fundraising on the NYSDEA board.
Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo, Professor of Political Science, was invited to deliver a public lecture on March 17, 2023 at the Methodist University of Kindu in the Democratic Republic of Congo: the title of the lecture he delivered was: “Imagining New Roles of African Universities in the Context of the 4th Industrial Revolution and Hybrid and truncated Liberal Democracy”.
Tara Kohn, Assistant Professor of Art History, presented her paper “Sinking” at the American Comparative Literature Association Annual Conference in Chicago. She developed this new research—a study of the 1939 Yiddish-language film Without a Home—as part of her current book project and in conversation with the students in her seminar Becoming American: The Immigrant Journey in Art and Culture.
On March 13, 2023 Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo received a Wiley Certificate award for serving as a Reviewer for International Social Science Journal.
Marian Brown, director of the Center for Sustainability and the Environment, was invited to serve as a judge for student science projects for the Union Springs Academy STEAM Fair on March 12. She judged architecture projects produced by high school juniors and seniors.
Assistant Professor of English Megan Snell’s article, “Performing Babies and the Properties of Race and Ethnicity,” is now published in the most recent issue of Shakespeare. She also participated in the annual Shakespeare Association of America meeting in March.
Dr. Gehan Dhameeth, Associate Professor of Business, presented an “Online Customer Satisfaction: A Critical Evaluation of Grounded Theories” paper at the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Research in Social Sciences on February 20-21, 2023, in Dubai (UAE).
On February 8, 2023 Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo accepted the invitation to become a member of the Council for Development of Social Research in Africa College of the Academic Senior Mentorship Program in 2023-2024.
Assistant Professor of Studio Arts, Anna Ialeggio has received a significant grant from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation on behalf of The Soil Factory, an interdisciplinary project space in Ithaca, NY. The grant will fund the Soil Factory’s artist-in-residence program, which connects contemporary artists and cultural workers with scientists, farmers, and community members to discuss, experiment, and collaborate on creative solutions to global ecological & social issues.
In February, Benjamin Steiner had his paper titled “Age-dependent platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta signaling drives adipocyte progenitor dysfunction to alter the beige adipogenic niche in male mice” accepted for publication in Nature Communications. He additionally has two other papers under review by Nature and Cell Metabolism.