Faculty and Staff Accomplishments

November 2024

Lise Abrams, Peter W. Stanley Chair of Linguistics and Cognitive Science, co-authored two poster presentations at the 65th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, held November 21-24 in New York. These posters, 鈥溾 and 鈥溾 were collaborations with colleagues at Rhodes College and the University of Florida, respectively.

Aimee Bahng, associate professor of gender and women鈥檚 studies, traveled to the in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, for a leadership workshop with directors of humanities centers around the country. Bahng also traveled to the in Baltimore, where she presented her work on 鈥淐oral Futures: Banking on Resilience鈥 and chaired another panel on 鈥淪overeign Exposures: Cultures of Health on Toxic Grounds,鈥 which will be developed into a series of published essays in Masculine Toxicities.

Malachai Komanoff Bandy, assistant professor of music, was a featured soloist (viola da gamba, violone, and tenor viol) in the Warner Bros. major motion picture , with music by Hildur Gu冒nad贸ttir and starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. Additionally, the documentary film , featuring Bandy as a nyckelharpa soloist in Grant Fonda鈥檚 original score, premiered at the Cambridge Film Festival. Bandy was also featured as a viola da gamba soloist in Bear McCreary鈥檚 score to (all episodes), which premiered on November 22 on streaming platforms worldwide.

Bandy presented the paper 鈥淢usical Theologies of Time and Memory in Buxtehude鈥檚 Jesu dulcis memoria (BuxWV 57)鈥 at the fall meeting of the , held at La Sierra University (Riverside, California).

In San Diego and Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, Bandy performed with Bach Collegium San Diego and GRAMMY庐-nominated tenor Nicholas Phan, in a also recorded for later release in Phan鈥檚 international media project . On November 2 in Pasadena, California, Bandy played baroque double bass in Con Gioia Early Music Ensemble鈥檚 program 鈥,鈥 directed by Preethi de Silva and featuring works by Christoph Graupner, J. A. Hasse and J. S. Bach. On November 15 and 17, Bandy joined the 麻豆影视 Choir for their fall performances directed by Donna M. Di Grazia, David J. Baldwin Professor of Music, as a member of the instrumental ensemble Harmonologia Pomona, performing on G violone, viola da gamba and modern double bass. He also contributed the program note for Dieterich Buxtehude鈥檚 Ad Manus from Membra Jesu nostri (1680).

Bandy programmed and led a for SoCal Viols (chapter, Viola da Gamba Society of America), held November 2 in South Pasadena, California.

Colin J. Beck, professor of sociology, published an article co-authored with Mlada Bukovansky: 鈥淪treets and Elites: Corruption Grievances in Contemporary Revolutions鈥 in Political Power and Social Theory.

Graydon Beeks, emeritus professor of music, performed as continuo harpsichordist in three arias by Johann Sebastian Bach in a November 2 concert by Con Gioia in Pasadena, California.

Ralph Bolton 鈥61, emeritus professor of anthropology, presented a paper at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Tampa, Florida. His presentation was part of a session organized by the Association of Senior Anthropologists titled 鈥淒ynamic Reciprocity in Ethnographic Research: Explorations in Giving Back and Collaborative Praxis.鈥 In his paper 鈥淏eyond Reciprocity: Solidarity? An Ethnographer's Commitment to Friends, Colleagues and Community in Peru,鈥 Bolton urged anthropologists to move beyond mere reciprocity to solidarity with the people whose cultures they study.

Paul Cahill, associate professor of Spanish, published a journal article, 鈥溾Mejor esto que nada鈥: Employment and Exploitation in Pablo Garc铆a Casado鈥檚 Dinero,鈥 in .

Cahill presented a paper, 鈥淢ultilingual Memory in Reyes Mate鈥檚 鈥Relatos de un viaje por los campos de exterminio,鈥欌 at the 17th biennial Lessons and Legacies Conference: Languages of the Holocaust, held at Claremont McKenna College and the University of Southern California from November 14-17.

Eileen J. Cheng, professor of Asian languages and literatures and faculty director of Oldenborg Center, delivered a paper, 鈥淎esthetics of the Ephemeral in Eileen Chang鈥檚 Wartime Memoir, Written on Water鈥 at the annual PAMLA conference in Palm Springs, California, on November 7.

Erin Michelle Collins, registrar, was voted in as president-elect of the Executive Board for the at the 2024 Annual Meeting in Seattle. She served as secretary of the Executive Board November 2022-November 2024. Collins will serve as president-elect beginning November 2024 and then as president November 2025 through November 2026. The mission of PACRAO is to provide its members opportunities to learn, engage, collaborate, inform, gather, contribute and promote the best practices and general advancement of higher education and our professions.

Virginie A. Duzer, professor and chair of Romance languages and literatures, participated in the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association鈥檚 annual conference in Palm Springs, California, discussing the use of AI in French advanced literature classes in general (and the peculiar case of her fall 2023 Surrealism class) November 10.

Stephan Ramon Garcia, W.M. Keck Distinguished Service Professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, was a panelist at the Teaching and Learning Center panel discussion 鈥淪upporting Student Thesis and Independent Research鈥 at the Claremont Colleges Library on November 11.

Garcia gave a talk titled 鈥淭he linear targeting problem鈥 at the conference Advances in Operator Theory with Applications to Mathematical Physics at Chapman University on November 18.

Esther Hern谩ndez-Medina, assistant professor of Latin American studies and gender and women鈥檚 studies, presented the paper 鈥La Contraofensiva Conservadora Anti-G茅nero y Anti-LGTBQ en la Rep煤blica Dominicana鈥 (鈥淭he Anti-Gender and Anti-LGTBQ Conservative Backlash in the Dominican Republic鈥) on November 6 at the ) in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. On November 14, Hern谩ndez-Medina presented the paper 鈥淭he Right to a Complete Life: The Feminist Movement and the Conservative Backlash in the Dominican Republic鈥 at the in Detroit as part of the panel 鈥淭he Right-wing War on Women and Gender, and Feminist/LGBQ+ Responses in Latin America鈥 with colleagues from Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia.

Ben Keim, associate professor of classics, delivered two lectures in Buenos Aires, Argentina. On November 8 he delivered a conference paper, 鈥淭he Rhetoric of Honor in Xenophon鈥檚 础苍补产补蝉颈蝉,鈥 at the triennial meeting of the International Xenophon Society; on November 11 he delivered an invited paper, 鈥淴enophon and the Fourth-Century Politics of Athenian Honour,鈥 at the second Sokratikoi logoi, Platonikoi logoi conference hosted by the Pontificia Universidad Cat贸lica Argentina.

Talya Klein, visiting assistant professor of theatre, was selected to present her research at the first annual Intimacy Directors鈥 and Coordinators鈥 Summit in Minneapolis, Minnesota, this coming April. Her presentation is titled 鈥淭he Balanced Badass: Having Your Own Back During Difficult Conversations.鈥

Jun Lang, assistant professor of Asian languages and literatures, delivered a talk titled 鈥淭oxic Language in Chinese Online Communication: Shifting Meanings and Usages鈥 for the panel 鈥淟anguage, Culture, and Linguistics鈥 at the 121st Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) Annual Conference in Palm Springs, California, on November 9.

Andrew Law, assistant professor of philosophy, had three articles accepted for publication: 鈥淩easons-Responsiveness and the Demarcation Problem鈥 (with co-author Taylor W. Cyr) in Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 鈥淭ime Travel, Foreknowledge, and Dependence: A Response to Cyr鈥 in Faith and Philosophy and 鈥淭he Fixity of the Past, the Fixity of the Independent, and Local-Miracle Compatibilism鈥 in Theoria.

Joyce Lu, associate professor of theatre and Asian American studies, performed with Pangea Playback Theatre Company, directed by Hannah K. Fox, as part of a residency at the University of Oregon hosted by the Division for Equity and Inclusion.

尝耻鈥檚 project was featured in a trailer filmed and edited by Lola Salgado. Sustenance was supported by a Neighborhood Engagement Arts Residency Grant from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

Richard McKirahan, Edwin Claremont Norton Professor of Classics and professor of philosophy, was one of three invited presenters at the annual (Zoom) meeting of the Society of Ancient Greek Philosophy on November 16. The title of his paper was 鈥淚ntroducing Philolaus.鈥 Philolaus was a Greek philosopher who until recently has received only a little attention. McKirahan presented a version of the same paper in a colloquium at the University of California at Santa Barbara on November 22.

McKirahan was elected as a member of KOMVOS-node, which describes itself as 鈥渁 think-act, because it undertakes initiatives for the implementation of actions that, taking advantage of the dynamic of Hellenism, will have immediate effect on Greek society, throughout the improvement of the everyday life of Greeks, through the improvement of the economic, cultural, and scientific level.鈥

Susan McWilliams Barndt, professor of politics, published 鈥淲hy Study the Humanities When People Are Dying?鈥 in the peer-reviewed journal Public Humanities on November 6.

On November 15, McWilliams published two pieces on the 2024 election: 鈥淭hinking With the Enemy鈥 in a forum on 鈥溾 in The Chronicle of Higher Education and 鈥淲e Just Watched the Last Television Election鈥 in a forum on 鈥溾 in Current.

McWilliams was featured in an article in Newsweek about 鈥.鈥 On November 7, she appeared on 鈥溾 on Fox 26 to discuss the same subject and she was also quoted in a November 11 Psychology Today article that asked the question: 鈥溾

McWilliams spoke at a Claremont McKenna College Open Academy Forum on 鈥淪hould SCOTUS be reformed?鈥 She also gave a talk to students at Williams College on interpretive methods in political science. On November 22, McWilliams served as a discussant at the 鈥淏aldwin At 100鈥 conference at Claremont McKenna, in honor of James Baldwin鈥檚 100th birthday.

Char Miller, W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History, guest edited the Journal of Arizona History鈥檚 . He commissioned and edited the contributions, including a co-authored article for which Lisa Crane, Western Americana Manuscripts Librarian at The Claremont Colleges Library, was the lead author. Miller also contributed two essays, 鈥溾 and 鈥.鈥

Miller was appointed to the inaugural board of editors for Journal of Texas History.

Miller co-organized the ninth annual meeting of the Eastern Sierra History Conference and presented on his new book Burn Scars: A Documentary History of Fire Suppression, From Colonial Origins to the Resurgence of Cultural Burning. Miller also shared insights on the book in a .

Thomas Muzart, assistant professor of Romance languages and literatures, chaired the panel 鈥淯topian and Dystopian Imaginaries in the Francophone World鈥 at the 121st Annual Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association Conference on November 8.

Jeff Noh, visiting assistant professor of English, delivered an invited lecture titled 鈥淔loppy Disk Counterfactuals: The Korean War Orphan in Octavia E. Butler鈥檚 Unfinished Novels鈥 as part of the visiting speaker series at Loyola University Chicago鈥檚 Department of English on November 13.

Dan O鈥橪eary, Carnegie Professor of Chemistry, co-authored the review article 鈥淚n Memoriam: The Life and Scientific Accomplishments of Frank A. L. Anet (1926-2024),鈥 which was featured on the cover of the . A UCLA chemistry professor, Anet built some of the first high-field nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, now standard equipment in chemistry laboratories worldwide, and used the instruments to discover bedrock principles in organic chemistry and magnetic resonance.

Alexandra Papoutsaki, associate professor of computer science, co-authored an article titled 鈥溾 in the CSCW issue of the Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction with collaborators from UC Irvine.

Karen Parfitt, professor of neuroscience, published a paper in the journal Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience with Jessica Phan 鈥19, Jiwon Yi 鈥17, Julia Foote 鈥18, Asia Ayabe 鈥15, Kevin Guan 鈥15, and Theodore Garland Jr. (UC Riverside). The title of the paper is 鈥溾 and includes senior thesis data from these alumni.

Mary Paster, professor of linguistics and cognitive science, presented a talk titled 鈥淟anguage and food as sites of shaming and resistance鈥 at the Food x Language International Conference at Ca鈥 Foscari University of Venice in Venice, Italy.

Paster published a peer-reviewed article co-authored with Jackson Kuzmik 鈥20: 鈥淰owel hiatus resolution in Kikuyu鈥 in Pushing the Boundaries: Selected Papers from the 51st-52nd Annual Conference on African Linguistics.

Lina Patel, lecturer in theatre, shot a guest-starring role in ABC鈥檚 hit show Will Trent in Atlanta.

Patel was named director of Rogue Machine Theatre鈥檚 next New Play Festival.

Frances Pohl, emerita professor of art history, published a short essay titled 鈥溾 in the online publication Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art.

Pamela Prickett, associate professor of sociology, published the coauthored article 鈥溾 (with Stefan Timmermans, UCLA, and Mirian Martinez-Aranda, UC Irvine) in Mortality.

Prickett鈥檚 recent book The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City Angels made three 鈥渂est of 2024鈥 lists: , and AirTalk Host Larry Mantle鈥檚 favorite L.A. books at .

Colleen Ruth Rosenfeld, professor of English, published the essay 鈥淪hakespeare鈥檚 Canvas鈥 in a special issue of Shakespeare Survey 77 dedicated to Shakespeare鈥檚 poetry, edited by Hannah Crawforth and Elizabeth Scott-Baumann.

Larissa Rudova, Yale B. and Lucille D. Griffith Professor of Modern Languages and professor of Russian, gave a guest lecture, 鈥淥ut of the Closet: Russian YA Writers Exploring Gender Issues,鈥 at the Institute of German Literature, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, on November 4. She also delivered a guest lecture, Queer Characters and Familial Ties in Mikita Franko鈥檚 Fiction,鈥 at the Institute of Slavic Studies, University of Wroc艂aw on November 6.

Rudova presented a paper, 鈥淭he School Uniform: What does this Object of Materiality Represent?/Die Schuluniform: Was verk枚rpert dieses Objekt der Materialit盲t?鈥 at the online research colloquium (Kinderliterarisches Kolloquium), 鈥淭he Things of Childhood: Materiality of/in the Culture for the Young/Die Dinge der Kindheit. Materialit盲t (in) der Kultur f眉r Kinder鈥 on November 15.

Adolfo J. Rumbos, Joseph N. Fiske Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, published an article, 鈥,鈥 co-authored with Emer Lopera (Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Manizales, Colombia) and Leandro Rec么va (Cal Poly Pomona) in Electronic Journal of Differential Equations on November 11.

Monique Saigal Escudero, emerita professor of French, discussed her book with visitors at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., on November 3-4.

Saigal Escudero presented 鈥淎 Hidden Child of the Holocaust Shares Her Story鈥 to young students at Fauquier Hospital in Warrenton, Virginia, on November 7. Also in Warrenton, she presented 鈥淎 Holocaust Survivor Tells Her Story鈥 to retired teachers at Bethel United Methodist Church. She presented 鈥淎 Hidden Child of the Holocaust Shares Her Story鈥 at Oldenborg Center on November 15.

Igor Santos, visiting professor of music, had his composition carve performed by the Flannau Duo on November 13 at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois, and November 8 at the 12th NIU New Music Festival in DeKalb, Illinois. Carve was also recently performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble at the Polyaspora Festival in Washington, D.C. (Peabody Conservatory), as part of a program curated by George E. Lewis and Felipe Lara, moderated by Alejandro L. Madrid. Santos also received performances of two other duos鈥 anima and flautando鈥攂y Ensemble Dal Niente at the National Association of Schools of Music in Reston, Virginia.

Gibb Schreffler, associate professor of music, published the article 鈥溾樷 in the Fall 2024 issue of American Music. This research article is the third and final piece of a project begun during Schreffler's previous sabbatical, the earlier-completed companion pieces of which were an and the documentary film .

Gary Smith, Fletcher Jones Professor of Economics, published a book, , and wrote an opinion piece, 鈥溾 in MindMatters on November 15.

Jessica Stern 鈥12, assistant professor of psychological science, co-authored a paper examining the push-and-pull of family dynamics during adolescence. The paper was published in the journal . She also co-authored a reviewing psychologist Mary Main鈥檚 concept of conditional strategies in children and adults, published in the journal Attachment & Human Development.

Stern was recently quoted in in an article about the distinction between empathy and compassion. She was also interviewed about her research on teens鈥 empathy for podcast.

Keri Wilson, assistant professor of biology, published the article 鈥溾 in Hormones and Behavior. She and her colleagues demonstrate for the first time that receptors for oxytocin and vasopressin, which regulate parental sensory processing, are lateralized in the auditory cortex in males with higher expression in the left versus the right cortex.

Feng Xiao, associate professor of Asian languages & literatures, and Jonathan Becker 鈥24 led an online workshop titled 鈥淎I Optimization in the Teaching of Spanish and Portuguese鈥 at the 2024 conference of the Latin American Association of Computer Assisted Language Learning (LatinCALL) on November 9. Xiao and Cecilia Wade 鈥25 gave an online presentation titled 鈥淎I in Second Language Learning: A Review鈥 at the 2024 conference of LatinCALL on November 10.

Xiao joined a team at the University of Maryland on a research project titled 鈥淒oes dynamic writing sequence facilitate written word production in Chinese L2?鈥 The findings were presented at the poster session of the 2024 Psychonomic Society Conference on November 23.

Samuel Yamashita, Henry E. Sheffield Professor of History, contributed 鈥淪econd Thoughts on Confucianism in Wartime Japan, 1937-1945鈥 to New Horizons in Confucianism: Essays in Honor of Tu Weiming, a festschrift for Tu Wei-ming (Harvard University), published by Lexington Books.