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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March 2026

March 5, 2026

Muhammad Salar Khan, assistant professor of public policy, co-authored the white paper “Financing the AI Triad: Compute, Data and Algorithms.” The paper proposes a framework for financing national AI ecosystems and argues that investments in compute, data, and algorithms should be treated as core economic infrastructure and outlines strategies for countries to build domestic AI capacity through coordinated public and private financing. Co-authors are researchers from the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative at the University of Oxford and partner institutions including Schmidt Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, Toronto Metropolitan University, and Georgetown University.
March 4, 2026

Evan Selinger, professor in RIT’s Department of Philosophy, participated in the 2026 Social Science Foo Camp at the Microsoft AI campus in Mountain View, Calif., from Feb. 20-22. Foo Camp, an annual event hosted since 2003, is invitation-only and organized by Tim O’Reilly, Microsoft AI, Sage, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
March 3, 2026

Richard Fadok, assistant professor of anthropology, gave an invited lecture on Feb. 26 at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, City College of New York. As part of the Spring 2026 Sciame Lecture Series, his talk was titled "Ghosts in the Glass: An Architectural Hauntology of Bird-Window Collisions in the United States."

February 2026

February 25, 2026

Nickesia Gordon, associate professor in the School of Communication, was a panelist for the WXXI Indie Lens Pop-Up screening event of The Inquisitor, a documentary about the life and legacy of revered Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, on Feb.16. The screening was at The Little Theatre and was followed by a panel discussion.
February 18, 2026

Kelley Holley, assistant professor of performing arts, published the chapter "Delectable Viewing: Baking, Spectatorship, and Digital Theatre" in the newly published book Performing the Edible: Sustenance, Sensation, and Sustainability. The chapter examines how alternative types of audience engagement serve as a response to digital performance, and how these practices establish a sense of shared theatrical space.
February 11, 2026

Rebecca Scales, professor in the Department of History, published the chapter "La politique familiale de la Colonie de Saint-Fargeau, 1919-1939," which explores the history of France's first dedicated polio rehabilitation facility in the new book Histoires des handicaps à travers les siècles: Identifications, trajectoires, institutions et sociabilités.
February 11, 2026

A new book co-authored by Evan Selinger, professor in the Department of Philosophy, and Albert Fox Cahn, founder in residence of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, has already received accolades since being published by Cambridge University Press on Feb. 5. Move Slow and Upgrade: The Power of Incremental Innovation discusses the risks of the pervasive “move fast and break things” ideology of disruptive innovation, while urging readers to lean into upgrades that offer a more sustainable, realistic approach to technological progress. New Scientist praised it as one of the best new popular science books published this month
February 6, 2026

Hinda Mandell, professor in the College of Liberal Arts, has published the anthology Global Craftivism since the Pussyhats: Handcraft Responses to Violence, War, Illness and Isolation with Bloomsbury.
February 6, 2026

Silvia Benso, professor in the College of Liberal Arts, was an invited speaker at the International Conference Vulnerable Lives: Cohabitation, Violence and Difference. Benso's contribution focused on the book Love without Fear: On Friendship and Sisterhood.
February 6, 2026

Muhammad Salar Khan, assistant professor in the College of Liberal Arts, co-authored the paper “Invention complexity, latent innovation capabilities, and economic development in upper middle-income countries” in Technological Forecasting & Social Change. The study offers theoretical and empirical contributions at the intersection of innovation economics, economic complexity, and development economics, with important implications for development policy and strategies to escape the middle-income trap. It shows how latent innovation capabilities drive economic growth among upper middle-income countries.