Spring 2024 Faculty Update

The Edwin E. Tuttle 1949 Professor of Fine Art Markus Baenziger was part of the group exhibition "Luminous Reveries,” which was on view Jan. 31 to Feb. 9, 2024, at Travancore Palace, New Delhi, India.

Associate Professor and Chair of Economics Carola Binder discussed the paper "Why do we dislike inflation?" at the Brookings Institute's conference, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. She gave a seminar on "Partisan Expectations and COVID-Era Inflation" at the University of California, Berkeley. She was interviewed on NPR’s Marketplace, "Here’s the economic 'in' and 'out' list of 2024" and "Federal Reserve survey shows consumer inflation expectations holding steady."

Binder was also appointed to the board of editors for American Economic Review and gave a talk on her forthcoming book, Shock Values: Prices and Inflation in American Democracy, at Hillsdale College. She published "A new way to measure the drivers of consumer inflation expectations" (with Jeffrey Campbell and Jane Ryngaert) on the Brookings website.

Associate Professor and Haverford Chair of Linguistics Jane Chandlee was an invited panelist at the 48th Penn Linguistics Conference, which was held in Philadelphia March 16 and 17. Her talk was titled “Learning Underlying Representations via Function Decomposition.”

Professor of Chemistry Lou Charkoudian was awarded the 2024 Centennial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from Iota Sigma Pi, National Honor Society for Women in Chemistry.

Charkoudian also gave a research seminar at Bucknell University. She was invited to join the NSF-funded Center for Chemoenzymatic Synthesis as a founding member of BioCatNet. Charkoudian also served on the Council of Undergraduate Research Innovative Mentor selection committee and the Spring Chemical Synthesis and Biosynthesis Study Section at the National Institutes of Health.

Assistant Professor of Biology Amy Cooke, with Silina Awad*, William Skipper*, William Vostrejs*, Kendall Ozorowski, Kristen Min, Liva Pfuhler, and Darshan Mehta, published “The YBX3 RNA-binding protein posttranscriptionally controls SLC1A5 mRNA in proliferating and differentiating skeletal muscle cells.”

Additionally “Post-transcriptional control of the RNA-binding protein YBX3 in skeletal muscles,” Silina Awad*, William Skipper*, Will Vostrejs, Kristin Min, Liva Pfuhler, and Amy Cooke, was presented as a poster at the Protein Synthesis and Translational Control Meeting in Heidelberg, Germany.

(*Co-first authors)

Updates from Professor of Chemistry Clyde Daly:

Publications
C. A. Daly Jr.**, E. Wolk, and L. M. Seebald, “Employing Metadynamics to Clarify the Mechanism of Antibacterial Carboxy-2H-Azirine Natural Products” ChemRxiv 10.26434/chemrxiv-2024-m8v9m (2024) [**this author is both the first and corresponding author] Access at: https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2024-m8v9m

R. Senanayake, C. A. Daly Jr., R. Hernandez, “Optimized Bags of Artificial Neural Networks Can Predict the Viability of Organisms Exposed to Nanoparticles” Journal of Physical Chemistry A 128, 2857 (2024). Access at: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.3c07462

K. Streu, S. Hunsberger, J. Patel, X. Wan, and C. A. Daly Jr., “Development of a Universal Method for Vibrational Analysis of the Terminal Alkyne C≡C Stretch” Journal of Chemical Physics 160, 074106 (2024). Access at: https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0185580

Presentations
“Investigating the pH Dependent Surface Structure of Citrate Coated Silver Nanoparticles” Invited Presentation at the American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition. New Orleans, LA. March 2024.

“Applying Anharmonic Localized Normal Mode DVR Calculations to the Raman Spectroscopy of Terminal Alkynes” Invited Presentation at the American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition. New Orleans, LA. March 2024.

“Applying Anharmonic Localized Normal Mode DVR Calculations to the Raman Spectroscopy of Terminal Alkynes” Invited Presentation at Swarthmore College. Swarthmore, PA. March 2024.

“Applying Anharmonic Localized Normal Mode DVR Calculations to the Raman Spectroscopy of Terminal Alkynes” Invited Presentation at the University of Delaware. Newark, DE. March 2024.

“A Decade of Nanomaterials Physical Chemistry” Invited Presentation at the College of The Holy Cross. Worcester, MA. February 2024.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Lee Dietterich and colleagues published three articles based on their work on global change in tropical forests: "Viewpoint: Toward a coordinated understanding of hydro-biogeochemical root functions in tropical forests for application in vegetation models" in New Phytologist, "Extreme drought impacts have been underestimated in grasslands and shrublands globally" in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and "Tropical forests & global change: biogeochemical responses and opportunities for cross-site comparisons, an organized INSPIRE session at the 108th Annual Meeting, Ecological Society of America, Portland, Oregon, USA, August 2023" in New Phytologist.

Associate Professor and Chair of Classics Matthew Farmer and Swarthmore College Associate Professor of Classics Jeremy Lefkowitz published a volume of essays entitled A Companion to Aristophanes in Wiley-Blackwell's series of Companions to the Ancient World.

Yaaseen Mahomed, Charlie Crawford, Sanjana Gautam, Sorelle A. Friedler, Danae Metaxa. “Auditing GPT’s Content Moderation Guardrails: Can ChatGPT Write Your Favorite TV Show?” co-authored by Shibulal Family Computer Science Professor Sorelle Friedler with Yaaseen Mahomed, Charlie Crawford ’24, Sanjana Gautam, and Danae Metaxa will by presented at the Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT) in June.

The paper demonstrates that GPT's content moderation filters out much popular content, such as 69% of real TV show scripts tested.

The Emily Judson Baugh Gest and John Marshall Gest Professor of Global Philosophy Ashok Gangadean is featured on the new podcast series Podcetera, which features his pioneering work in Global Philosophy. The Producers of the show approached him recently to do an in-depth interview on his journey as a Global Philosopher. From 2002 to 2005, Gangadean served as the host of a weekly TV show (2002-2005) on WYBE TV called Philly Live, and his night was called “((Global Lens)).”

Gangadean was also invited to the First Pan African Logic Congress at The British University in Cairo to present his work on Global Logic: "((Global Logos)): The Missing Foundation of All Logics- Revealing the ((Logos of Nature))."

He was also invited to make a featured presentation at the 24th International EUROTAS Conference to be held at Oxford University (UK), which focuses on "Creative Bridges." Gangadean’s topic was "The Secret of Uncovering True ((Bridges)) Between Worlds: Sequel to our ((Greatest Story Never Told)),” which was presented earlier at the last EUROTAS in Tuscany. Gangadean has made several keynote presentations to this growing European TransPersonal Association in the past and has been elected to a leadership role in this international community.

Associate Professor and Chair of Biology Roshan Jain published a peer-reviewed research article in the international open-access journal iScience, featuring 10 Haverford student alum coauthors and their thesis work from across the last four years in collaboration with scientists in Paris, France & Lisbon, Portugal. The article is titled "The Adaptor Protein 2 (AP2) complex modulates habituation and behavioral selection across multiple pathways and time windows" and details the team’s work understanding the behavioral functions of the autism-linked gene AP2S1 using a zebrafish model system. The three alum authors that co-led the study are Rodrigo Zúñiga Mouret ’20, Jordyn Greenbaum ’20, and Hannah Doll ’21.

Publication details: Zúñiga Mouret R (’20)‡, Greenbaum J (’20)‡, Doll HM (’21)‡, Brody E (’21), Iacobucci E (’21), Roland NC (’21), Simamora R (’22), Ruiz I (’23), Seymour R (’20), Ludwick L (’20), Krawitz J, Groneberg AH, Marques JC, Laborde A, Rajan G, Del Bene F, Orger MB, Jain RA. "The Adaptor Protein 2 (AP2) complex modulates habituation and behavioral selection across multiple pathways and time windows." iScience. 2024, 27(4):109455. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109455

Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing Nimisha Ladva had her play Goddess at the Lucky Lady Motel featured in the Lift Every Voice Festival at the American Stage Theater in St. Petersburg Florida. Ladva was also selected as an inaugural fellow for the Powers Playwriting Fellowship through San Diego's Old Globe theater, one of three from a nationwide pool of nominees.

Assistant Professor of Music Mei-ling Lee presented her paper, titled “Exploring Data-Driven Instruments in Contemporary Music Composition” at the 2024 Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) National Conference, held at the Louisiana State University Digital Media Center (DMC) on April 5. It is published as a digital proceeding through the LSU Scholarly Repository. This paper illustrates the concept of data-driven instruments and their connection to traditional musical instruments. This paper was also accepted and presented in WOCMAT (Workshop on Computer Music and Audio Technology) National Conference in Taiwan in December.

Lee’s electronic music composition “Summoner” was selected for performance at the MOXSonic conference in Missouri on March 16. Created using the Kyma sound synthesis language, Max software, and the Leap Motion Controller, it explores the concept of storytelling through the sounds of animals in nature. Professor Lee was unable to attend the conference due to severe thunderstorms that caused flight cancellations, but video documentation of the performance is available on Vimeo.

Associate Professor of Linguistics Brook Danielle Lillehaugen spent the month of April as a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University’s Program in Latin American Studies.

She was awarded a $120,000 Mellon Planning Grant for Collaborative Digital Editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History and Ethnic Studies by the National Archives and Records Administration, National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for her project “500 Years of Zapotec (Alphabetic) Writing: Collaborative Planning of Architecture and Design for Digital Editions of Colonial Zapotec Texts.” In addition, she co-authored a presentation entitled “Creating a dictionary of Colonial Valley Zapotec from modern and colonial sources” that was presented (by her co-author) at the Workshop on Legacy Materials as data sources for language description and documentation in Paris in April.

The Laurie Ann Levin Professor of Comparative Literature Maud McInerney presented a paper entitled “Black at Troy: Memnon the Ethiopian in Benoit de Sainte-Maure’s Roman de Troie” at the Sewanee Medieval Congress, April 5 and 6.

Professor of Political Science Barak Mendelsohn published “On the Horizon: The Future of the Jihadi Movement,” CTC Sentinel 17:3 (2024), 1-10.

Mendelsohn also presented the paper “Double Agents: Branch Leaders and the Onset of Conflict between Al Qaeda and the Islamic State,” (with Evan Perkoski) at the ISA annual convention in San Francisco, April 3 to 6. He also participated in a roundtable on Sarah Logan's book Hold Your Friends Close: Countering Radicalization in Britain and America.

Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science Yonca Ozdemir attended the International Studies Association (ISA) 2024 Annual Convention between April 3 and 6 in San Francisco. Ozdemir presented a paper titled "The Changing Dynamics of the Northern Cyprus and Turkey Relations" at the The Cyprus Stalemate panel. The paper examines the relationship between Northern Cyprus, the only democratic de facto state, and Turkey by focusing on the political developments in Northern Cyprus between 2000 and 2023, which involve intensified economic, political, and cultural interventions in Northern Cyprus by Turkey.

In April, Emeritus Professor of Astronomy Bruce Patridge had a two-week stay at a new university just outside Madrid. He gave a number of lectures to students at various levels on topics that included cosmology, pulsars, and global warming. The program resembles Philips Visits at Haverford but for a more extended period.

Assistant Professor of Biology Foen Peng’s lab published "Hybrid Mimulus flowers attract a new pollinator" in The New Phytologist. This work stems from the “Superlab” course in the biology department that Peng co-taught with Professor of Biology Karl Johnson. The visual analysis part was contributed by John and Barbara Bush Professor in the Natural Sciences Suzanne Amador Kane's lab in physics and astronomy.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology Zeynep Sertbulut published a chapter titled "Not Essential: The Controversial Status of Turkish Dizis" in Media Industries in Crisis: What COVID Unmasked (Routledge 2024). Edited By Vicki Mayer, Noa Lavie, and Miranda Banks, the book offers a global overview of the immediate impacts the COVID pandemic had on local and national film, television, streaming, and social media industries — examining in compelling detail how these industries managed the crisis.

The William H. and Johanna A. Harris Professor in Environmental Studies and Chemistry Helen White accepted an invitation from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to visit scientists in Cuba, which they describe in their formal invitation as follows:

"At AAAS, we believe in the unique role that scientific collaboration can play in building bridges between nations, particularly where there are challenging geopolitical circumstances. Since 1997, AAAS has worked to build connections between the American and Cuban scientific communities through diverse activities organized in collaboration with the Cuban Academy of Sciences.

The need for scientific communities to work together to address shared challenges is more important than ever, which is why I would like to invite you to participate in the professional meeting ‘Shared Challenges and Opportunities in Aging and Disaster Management: Potential for U.S.-Cuba Scientific Collaboration’ co-organized by AAAS and the Cuban Academy. The closed-door event will be held 19 – 20 March 2024 in Havana, Cuba. Due to your expertise in chemical oceanography and research on oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, the meeting will be greatly enhanced by your perspective and contributions.

Participants from government and non-governmental organizations will discuss key issues where the American and Cuban scientific communities have collaborated and have potential for future engagement, with a focus on two topics—aging and disaster management. It will continue conversations held in 2023 on shared challenges and opportunities in public health and environmental matters between the U.S. and Cuba."

Professor of Environmental Studies Jonathan Wilson co-authored a paper entitled "Functional traits of fossil plants" in the journal New Phytologist with 14 co-authors from around the world.

Wilson has presented his research eight times since the last update:

-A presentation at the European Geophysical Union conference entitled "Plant paleoecophysiology traits in deep time: hydraulic conductivity and drought resistance in late Carboniferous Period plants"

-A presentation at the Villanova Biology Department entitled "Evolution, environment, drought, frost: insights from extinct and living plants"

-A presentation at the Haverford Arboretum seminar series entitled "450 million years of novelty and convergence: a history of plant evolution"

-A presentation at the Delaware Valley Paleontological Society entitled "Evolution, environment, climate: insights from extinct and living plants"

-A presentation at the Philadelphia Botanical Club entitled "Plant-environment dynamics of Carboniferous and Permian floras"

-A presentation for the Valley Creek Restoration Partnership entitled "Water quality and forest health of an exceptional open space, Crabby Creek Park (Berwyn, PA)"

-A presentation for the Isaac Sharpless Inn at Court in Wilmington, DE entitled "Evolution, environment, climate: insights from extinct and living plants"

-A presentation, with students from his Environmental Studies 204 class, to the Tredyffrin Township Board of Supervisors on his research findings regarding forestry health and water quality in Crabby Creek Park.

Associate Professor of Political Science Susanna Wing published “Women Seeking Justice: Claims-making in Lower Courts in Benin” in the Journal of Modern African Studies 61.4 (December 2023): 569-582.