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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July 2025

  • July 29, 2025

    Richard Fadok, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, was featured in Places Journal’s “Animal Architecture” series, speaking about Western architecture's influence on ecological destruction and species extinction and offering vision for how architecture can better accommodate other species as cohabitants of a shared environment.

  • July 29, 2025

    Wade Robison, Ezra A. Hale Professor in Applied Ethics in the College of Liberal Arts, was recently awarded the Hume Society’s inaugural Distinguished Service Award. The award recognizes those who have engaged in service that exemplifies visionary leadership, the outstanding development of programming or resources with widespread scholarly impact, the dedicated and efficient stewardship of society endeavors, or the performance of other professional duties that extend beyond ordinary expectations.

  • July 22, 2025

    Andy Head, associate professor in the School of Performing Arts and NTID Department of Performing Arts, and co-author Jill Marie Bradbury, won the American Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) 2025 Outstanding Book Award for Pedagogical Achievement, announced at the ATHE annual conference in July. Their book, Staging Deaf and Hearing Theatre Productions: A Practical Guide, is a reference manual for creating theatrical productions with d/Deaf and hearing artists for d/Deaf and hearing audiences. The guide is written for a range of practical applications in both academic and professional settings and features insight for directors, designers, performers, and producers. Along with winning the award, the authors were featured in a roundtable discussion at the conference.

  • July 18, 2025

    Anthony Jimenez, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, was awarded the American Sociological Association International Migration Section's 2025 Distinguished Book Award for The Third Net. The book, which he co-authored, reveals the presence of an informal system that provides free or low-cost healthcare to millions of migrants, creating a necessary safety net and filling the gaps left by the conventional system of health care in the U.S.

  • July 16, 2025

    The RIT Wind Ensemble has been selected to perform at the College Band Director’s National Association Eastern Conference in March 2026 in Amherst, Mass. The selection was the result of judging of submitted concert recordings by esteemed musicians. The ensemble is led by Robert Truan, lecturer and director of RIT Concert Bands.

  • July 16, 2025

    Ann Howard, professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, co-presented “Partnerships, Community Engagement and Appropriate Technology Transfer” at the annual conference of the Community Development Society on July 6 at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. This presentation highlighted RIT's ongoing partnership with Action for a Better Community, centered on urban data science and community-based participatory action research.

  • July 8, 2025

    Tom Dooley, director of the communication – journalism option program, served as a consultant on the documentary film, Ringside Stories: The Heart and Hustle of Pro Wrestling, which has won a Telly Award. The film, which premiered on WXXI, offers an intimate look into the lives of local professional wrestlers in Rochester, N.Y., exploring their passion, dedication, and the unique community they've cultivated within the sport. The Telly Awards annually recognize excellence in video and television across all screens.

  • July 1, 2025

    Jonathan Schroeder, the William A. Kern Professor of Communications, was part of a research team that won the Best Special Session award for their session titled “Consumer Research and Cultural Criticism” at the Consumer Culture Theory Conference, held in June at King's College London.

June 2025

  • June 17, 2025

    Katrina Overby, assistant professor in the School of Communication, served as one of five invited speakers for Tech Ed 2025, hosted by Macmillan Learning in Austin, Texas. Her workshop, “Creating Connection: Building Collaborative and Supportive Learning Communities,” guided participants on how to discover practical, relationship-centered strategies aimed at fostering trust, belonging, and meaningful collaboration among students—and between students and instructors in the classroom.

  • June 5, 2025

    Jonathan Schroeder, the William A. Kern Professor in Communications, was featured in an article titled “Self-Improvement Rewind” in the summer 2025 issue of Atomic Ranch. The article referenced his latest book, Designed for Success: Better Living and Self-Improvement with Midcentury Instructional Records.