November 2023
News and Inspiration from the College of Liberal Arts -
November 2023
An inside look
Inspiring people, amazing work.
"If you have ever gotten a vaccine or received an intravenous drug and did not come down with a potentially life-threatening fever, you can thank a horseshoe crab."
Horseshoe crab blood is vital for testing intravenous drugs, but new synthetic alternatives could mean pharma won’t bleed this unique species dry.
Department of Education grant will fund the development of new materials and curricula for Chinese, Italian, and Spanish courses that focus on STEAM
“I hope more students will be inspired to take on internships, co-ops, or other experiential learning opportunities where they can continue to further connect through languages other than English...” ...
“I love my job so much. I use the observational skills I learned through my graduate work with Dr. DeLong in the Comparative Cognition and Perception Lab every day when training my dogs."
...My experience at RIT has made me a really successful service dog trainer." — Irene Fobe, Experimental Psychology MS, '17
Hello, friend.
Get to know the people who keep the College of Liberal Arts moving forward in these regularly updated profiles.
Nominate a faculty or staff member for a future profile spotlight
Meet Jeffrey Wagner, Professor of Economics, Department of Economics
Favorite music (general style or specific band), podcast, book, or movie:
The Allman Brothers Band—unique blend of jazz, blues and rock.
Shameless brag:
I am proud of myself for completing a first marathon last month in 3 hours and 51 minutes.
Three foods I can’t live without:
My wife’s pecan pie, shrimp & grits, and wood-fire grilled pizza I like to make.
What or who inspires me?
The playwright and former president of the Czech Republic Václav Havel. He was a terrific writer of not only plays but of his own political speeches; I highly recommend to my family, students and friends a collection of his speeches published as The Art of the Impossible: Politics as Morality in Practice. His writings and his life story inspire me to try to do my best and to try be of service to others.
On my perfect day off, I'm most likely to be found...
Surf fishing in the Atlantic Ocean.

Newsmakers
December 7, 2023
O. Nicholas Robertson, associate professor of criminal justice, and Venita D’Angelo ’23 (criminal justice), a criminal justice master’s student, presented “Race and Crime in a Rustbelt Suburb: Irondequoit, NY” at the 2023 American Society of Criminology meeting, held Nov. 16 in Philadelphia.
December 7, 2023
Jonathan Schroeder, the William A. Kern Professor of Communications, presented “On Midcentury Vinyl and Cultural History” on Nov. 30 at Stockholm University Business School and “Better Living and Self-Improvement with Midcentury Instructional Records” on Dec. 4 for the Art Talk series at Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden.
December 7, 2023
Christopher Schreck, professor and chair of the Department of Criminal Justice, was invited to give presentations of his work on decision-making processes that people use to manage their victimization risk, including the acquisition of weaponry, at Tulane and Pennsylvania State universities.
December 1, 2023
Hinda Mandell, professor in the School of Communication, delivered an invited Zoom talk, “Craft Activism, Memory-Making, and Political Action,” to the MidAtlantic Fiber Association on Nov. 28.
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