Newsmakers

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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October 2026

  • October 30, 2026

    Kristoffer Whitney, associate professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, presented a public lecture at the New York State Museum and a colloquium talk at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on his biographical research of Wallace Craig, a deaf ornithologist of the early 20th century.

  • October 27, 2026

    Richard Fadok, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology in the School of Humanities, Languages, and Social Sciences, published “Building, Dwelling, Killing” in NiCHE: Network in Canadian History & Environment. His essay asks what it means to dwell when the everyday American home has become a site of ecological violence toward birds.

  • October 19, 2026

    Hinda Mandell, professor in the School of Communication and English, presented “The potential for soft power in a world on the brink” at the University of College Dublin symposium on Craft: Activism, Literature, Labor, on Oct. 15. Her talk accompanied the textile workshop “Small wins are big deals,” sponsored by University College Dublin's Humanities Institute.

  • October 12, 2026

    Katrina Overby, assistant professor of journalism, joined Janaka Lewis and artist Isis Davis-Marks for an interdisciplinary conversation at Brewer Harris Projects on Oct. 9, in Syracuse, N.Y. Held in conjunction with the Mosaic Narratives exhibition, Overby drew on her scholarship in Black feminist communication and creative practice as a DJ, exploring how food, music, and textiles preserve cultural memory, communicate identity, and foster community and belonging.

  • October 11, 2026

    Amit Batabyal, interim director of Golisano Institute for Sustainability and Arthur J. Gosnell Professor in Economics, has been named a 2026 Icon Honors awardee by Rochester Business Journal. Icon Honors, one of the most distinguished recognitions granted by Rochester Business Journal, celebrates leaders whose careers have shaped Greater Rochester, and people whose success, leadership, and generosity reach beyond their own field.

  • October 9, 2026

    Jessica Pardee, associate professor of science, technology, and society, will complete her term as the president of the Mid-South Sociological Association this October during its annual meeting. As president, Pardee sees sociology as a discipline well-positioned to provide trained scholars who understand the impact of research methodology on knowledge construction, and whose work will become of increasing service to the public in the years to come.

  • October 2, 2026

    Noah Baumgaertel, a fourth-year political science and industrial design double major, and Caitlin Ciancanelli, a fourth-year psychology major, presented at the New York State Political Science Conference on Sept. 26, alongside Divya Ramjee, assistant professor of public policy and criminal justice, and Marjorie Prokosch, assistant professor of psychology. Their paper, “How Does Political Identity Affect Support for Collective Action? A Text Analysis Study on Prototypes of Climate Change Impact,” uses NLP and text analysis techniques to better understand how political ideology impacts how people imagine individuals impacted by climate change and how these depictions ultimately impact their support for environmental policy and desire to take collective action.

September 2026

  • September 17, 2026

    Silvia Benso, professor of philosophy and director of the women's, gender, and sexuality studies program, presented “Reconfiguring Power and Subjectivity through Carla Lonzi’s Feminism” at the international workshop on Thinking War Otherwise: Critical and Genealogical Perspectives at the New School for Social Research on Sept. 14. The presentation explores notions of power and subjectivity that allow for collective empowerment without turning into oppressive forms of imposition, domination and exclusion.

  • September 16, 2026

    RIT Libraries received a 2026 Institute of Museum and Library Services Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian planning grant for the project ”Building Workforce Capacity in Emerging Imaging Technologies for Library Professionals,” led by Greg Decker, manager of metadata and digital scholarship services, and Juilee Decker, director of the museum studies program. Project team members include Tom Rieger, Professor of Practice in the College of Liberal Arts Nicholas Paulus, digital initiatives specialist for RIT Libraries; Michael Buffalin IV, director of the SHED Makerspace; and peers from University of Rochester and Colgate University. The two-year project will assess workforce needs, develop and pilot openly licensed educational resources and training, and create a scalable model to help library professionals implement sustainable, standards-aligned digitization programs.