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 2026

May 15, 2026

Richard Fadok, assistant professor of anthropology, was selected to attend the Scholarly Writing Institute in July. As a part of this, Fadok will travel to the National Humanities Center in North Carolina to work on a chapter from his book Design’s Anthropologies.
May 7, 2026

Muhammad Salar Khan, assistant professor of public policy, was an expert panelist for the U.S. Government Accountability Office report examining the opportunities, risks, and policy implications of artificial intelligence in federal small business contracting and innovation research programs. The report explored how AI could help agencies improve market research, proposal review, fraud detection, and communication with small businesses, while also highlighting concerns related to bias, privacy, transparency, and human oversight in government AI systems.

April 2026

April 27, 2026

Psychology students Maya Garaway and Rose Khoobyar from the RIT Comparative Cognition and Perception Lab presented their research on visual perception in fish at the International Conference on Comparative Cognition on April 16 in Montreal. Caroline DeLong, professor of psychology and lab director, also presented work on hand preferences in olive baboons and big-team science efforts to study memory in otters.
April 24, 2026

Katrina Overby, assistant professor, and Nickesia Gordon, associate professor, both in the School of Communication, published “A Black Feminist Perspective on the Role of Community Engaged Pedagogy in Communication Education” in Feminist Pedagogy. The article is a reflection on the importance of intersectional and culturally responsive community-engaged pedagogical practices in communication.
April 24, 2026

Abigail Block, a fourth-year ASL-English interpretation major, and Kaitlin Stack Whitney, associate professor in the Department of Science, Technology and Society, published “Closing the Preparedness Divide: A Case for Inclusive Climate-Disaster Communication for People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in the United States” in Case Studies in the Environment. Their research explored how climate-related disaster preparedness communications from U.S. state and federal governments did not have plain language and actionable images to make information more accessible to more people.
April 24, 2026

Amit Batabyal, the Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics and head of the Department of Sustainability, and Kendra Evans, director of RIT’s Spectrum Support Programs, were selected as recipients of Rochester Business Journal’s 2026 Impact and Inclusion Awards. These awards highlight the outstanding achievements of those who champion workplace cultures where everyone thrives, promoting equality and inclusion in the Rochester community. Honorees will be recognized on April 27 at the Impact and Inclusion Awards & Summit.
April 20, 2026

Psychology students Caitlin Ciancanelli, Maya Garaway, Gianna Giangrande, Morgan Keil, Sayyada Khaki, Rose Khoobyar, Nathaniel Kilbridge, and Kathryn Ogbata presented their research at the Western New York Undergraduate Psychology Conference on April 12. The students were mentored by Jessamy Comer, senior lecturer; Caroline DeLong, professor; and Marjorie Prokosch, assistant professor, from the psychology department.
April 20, 2026

Leah Flood, a fourth-year communications student, earned the Top Paper award for “Understanding Vaccine Perceptions in the Digital Age: Social Media’s Role in Vaccine Viewpoints” at the Eastern Communication Association Conference on April 10 in Pittsburgh.
April 20, 2026

Joseph Henning, professor in the Department of History, published “Japanese Students in the 19th-Century United States” in Research Encyclopedia of Migration Studies. The article focuses on the thousands of Japanese students who studied abroad as part of a national effort to learn about Western technology, science, politics, and culture.
April 10, 2026

Ben Smith, a fourth-year chemical engineering, and science, technology, and public policy BS/MS student, was named to the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge’s 2026 Student Voting Honor Roll. Smith was recognized as a Leadership Scholar with RIT’s Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement. This distinction highlights college student leaders for committing to nonpartisan democratic engagement and contributions to their local communities.