Newsmakers | College of Liberal Arts

Highlighting the professional and academic accomplishments of College of Liberal Arts students, faculty, and staff.

Newsmakers are a quick and easy way to acknowledge the professional and academic accomplishments of RIT students, faculty, and staff, such as publishing an article in a scholarly journal, presenting research at a conference, serving on a panel discussion, earning a scholarship, or winning an award. Newsmakers appear in News and Events as well as the "In the News" section on faculty/staff directory profile pages.

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May 2025

May 21, 2025

Jessica Hardin, associate professor of anthropology and Conable Chair in Global Futures, has been selected for a writing residency at the Brocher Foundation in Switzerland. The foundation supports multidisciplinary research on ethical, legal, and social issues of medical developments and health policy. Hardin will complete revisions to her book manuscript, Complications: Prevention’s Paradox in the Pacific, in April 2026.
May 9, 2025

Rebecca DeRoo, professor in the School of Communication and director of the visual culture program, was awarded a 2025 Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Society to support archival research in London on Mary Kelly’s art activism.
May 9, 2025

Sarah Burns, associate professor in the Department of Political Science, was interviewed by La Presse, a French-language news outlet based in Montreal. The article, “Project 2025: The plan becomes reality,” reflects on correlations between Project 2025 and policies implemented in the United States since President Donald Trump took office in January.
May 5, 2025

Students in Technically Speaking, RIT’s student advertising and public relations agency, launched the “Imagine More” campaign, which reintroduced student engagement in Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival and refocused attention on students as the main inspiration behind the event. Technically Speaking reached students by utilizing social media and a campuswide scavenger hunt. The agency produced five videos featuring student exhibitors, behind-the-scenes clips and individual stories, and six infographic posts.
May 1, 2025

Joel Hunt, assistant professor in the School of Performing Arts, received the 2025–2026 Ronald D. Dodge Memorial Faculty Grant for "Intermedia Synthesis: Fostering Collaborative Audiovisual Creation for Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing, and Hearing Students." The initiative brings students together in a shared creative space to design and perform audiovisual works using modular synthesizers and accessible technologies such as haptic feedback.
May 1, 2025

Students from the Honors Leadership Seminar, in partnership with the local arts organization Free Art Collective, launched “A Note To You,” an online space reflecting on personal identity and experiences in a meaningful way. The notes shown on the website are responses from RIT students who were given the guided prompt “Write a note to your past or future self.”

April 2025

April 24, 2025

Hinda Mandell, professor in the School of Communication, discussed her teaching approach and led an invited zine-making and hand stitching workshop at the Manchester Jewish Museum on April 17 in England. Her involvement was a part of the museum's outreach effort to local communities.
April 24, 2025

Christine Keiner, chair of the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, presented at two conferences in April. The first was part of an invited session convened by the Organization of American Historians discussing State of the Field: U.S. Environmental History, and the second was the American Society for Environmental History's Annual Conference panel The Legacy of Jimmy Carter’s Environmental Politics and Policy, at Home and Abroad.
April 24, 2025

Jonathan Schroeder, William A. Kern Professor of Communications, has been named book review editor for the international journal Popular Music History. The journal publishes original historical and historiographical research that draws on the wide range of disciplines and intellectual trajectories that have contributed to the establishment of popular music studies as a recognized academic enterprise.
April 21, 2025

John Capps, professor in the Department of Philosophy, spoke as part of an invited symposium at the annual meeting of the American Philosophical Association's Pacific Division on April 19 in San Francisco. His paper, entitled "The Truth Isn't What You Think It Is: Pragmatic Truth in Science and Law," focuses on the importance of truth in a post-truth era.