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 2026

  • July 10, 2026

    Rebecca Scales, professor in the Department of History, presented several papers in June and July. She presented “La Colonie de Saint-Fargeau: un centre de rééducation modèle pour les polios ou une exception à la norme?” at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris on June 24; “Polio and Politics: Managing Epidemics in Mauritius, Madagascar, and Reunion during the Era of Decolonization, 1945-1949” at the Annual Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Association in Maynooth, Ireland, on June 26; and “Mobilizing for Polio: Disability, Philanthropy, and the Charitable Welfare State in France, 1950-1968” at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of French History in Groningen, Netherlands, on July 1.

  • July 1, 2026

    Silvia Benso, professor of philosophy, co-directed and co-organized the ninth annual meeting of the Society for Italian Philosophy, June 17-19, at the Edinburgh Futures Institute of the University of Edinburgh. The conference provided an international forum for the discussion of Italian philosophy in an international and global context. 

  • July 1, 2026

    Calvin Nau, Ph.D. candidate in RIT's Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, is the first author of “Fairness Without Discrimination: Individually Fair Outcomes in the Kidney Exchange Problem” in Decision Analysis. The article was co-authored with Katie McConky, department head, and Ali Baheri, assistant professor, both in the Kate Gleason College of Engineering; Cecilia Alm, professor of psychology and artificial intelligence program director; Reynold Bailey, professor of computer science; and researchers at SUNY Buffalo.

June 2026

  • June 30, 2026

    Evan Selinger, professor of philosophy, published the article “On the Right to Obscurity” in California Law Review. Co-authored with Woodrow Hartzog, the article argues for a legally protected right to obscurity—one of the most common yet underappreciated forms of privacy—that is tied to human dignity and the fundamental capabilities that enable us to flourish.

  • June 29, 2026

    Cecilia Alm, professor of psychology and artificial intelligence program director, participated in the NSF-organized panel “Transforming Graduate Education through the National Science Foundation’s Research Traineeship and Innovations in Graduate Education Programs” at the 2026 conference of the American Society for Engineering Education on June 23. She presented on AWARE-AI + Extensions and contributed to the panel discussion.

  • June 25, 2026

    Tracy Worrell, professor in the School of Communication, presented her work, “Defending Science: The Use of Community Notes for Crowd-Sourced Fact-Checking on X,” at the International Communication Association pre-conference on The “Dark Side” of Social Conversations Around Science: Contemporary Challenges and Potential Solutions for Science Communication, in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Part of the larger ICA conference in Cape Town, the full-day pre-conference was held at Stellenbosch University and explored the darker dimensions of science communication to identify constructive, evidence-informed ways forward.

  • June 25, 2026

    Christine Keiner, department chair of Science, Technology, and Society in the College of Liberal Arts, was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Susan B. Anthony Museum and House.

  • June 25, 2026

    Nickesia Gordon, associate professor in the School of Communication, published the article “Neglect, Silence, and Complicity: The Menace of Child Sexual Abuse in Queen Ifrica’s 'Predator’s Paradise' and 'Daddy Don’t Touch Me There'” in Springer Nature's International Handbook of Legal Language and Communication.

  • June 17, 2026

    Frank Marra, adjunct professor in the College of Liberal Arts, received an Educator of the Year award from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Rochester Chapter at the 2026 PRSA PRism awards ceremony. Additionally, students in Marra’s Communication 253 course received a PRSA Award of Excellence for their class project, “West Virginia University Online Classes Engagement,” and students in Marra’s Communication 212 (Public Relations) course received a PRSA Award of Excellence for their class project, “CPR You Ready,” at the ceremony.