Spring 2025 Faculty Update

The Edwin E. Tuttle 1949 Professor of Fine Arts and Chair of Fine Arts Markus Baenziger had work included in two group exhibitions: Baer/A Place, on view through Aug. 24, at LÁ Art Museum, Hveragerði, Iceland, and Holiday, on view Dec. 14, 2024 to Feb. 23, 2025 at LABspace in Hillsdale, New York.

Professor of Chemistry Lou Charkoudian gave an invited Chemistry Seminar at the University of California, Berkeley. She also ran a workshop titled Engineering in Opportunities to Fail, Be Kind and Do Great Science as part of Berkeley's Science Leadership and Management series. 

Charkoudian published a pre-print entitled "A Phosphopantetheinyl Transferase from Dictyobacter vulcani sp. W12 Expands the Combinatorial Biosynthetic Toolkit" with undergraduate co-authors Kenneth Hsu '25, Charlie Ferguson '24, Christina McBride '23, Nicholas Bayan Mostaghim '23, and Kelsey Mabry '24. 

Charkoudian also served as a standing member on the Chemical Synthesis & Biosynthesis study section for the National Institutes of Health.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Lee Dietterich co-authored the article, “TropiRoot 1.0 – Database of tropical root characteristics across environments” accepted for Ecology, presenting a database which compiles tropical root data for broad reuse and application. He took two Haverford students to the annual meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Ecological Society of America, where they presented a poster on “Effects of heavy metal pollution and phytoremediation on belowground ecology in a grassland mountainside.” Dietterich also gave a talk entitled “The Riverweed model suggests strong biomass loss mechanisms for a foundational riverine macrophyte” at the same meeting.

This spring, Margaret Gest Professor of Global Philosophy Ashok Gangadean released a new web-based series in his ((Source Media Network)): ((The Greatest Story Never Told: Breaking the /Trance/)). The 13-episode playlist, published via YouTube and other sites, focuses on current urgent existential challenges facing our human condition. Gangadean and his collaborating son, Näthan, co-host these weekly ((Source Casts)).

Gangadean will present a keynote at the forthcoming gathering of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science 2025 at Star Island, New Hampshire, in June. The Theme of this retreat is Spiritual Experience: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Retreat. 

GANGADEAN'S PRESENTATION: ((Quest For the Missing Code of Logos))
Ashok Gangadean is the Margaret Gest Professor of Global Philosophy at Haverford College, where over the past 57 years he has pioneered the emergent frontier of ((Global First Philosophy)). In living with and through widely diverse First Narratives over the past 2,500 years it became evident that our most revered enlightenment teachings and scriptures were seeking with utter urgency for the Well Being of our Human Family that we make a profound shift in how we conduct our minds, our consciousness, our lives in our quest for individual and collective flourishing. However, it was evident that this call for a deep existential crossing to our Source of Life remained chronically eclipsed and marginalized by deeply entrenched patterns on “minding” that kept our diverse ((First Teachings)) in “silos” and alienation from the ((Primal Logos)) which is the Source of all lives, cultures, scriptures, narratives and forms of life. Once this frontier of ((Global Logos)) is opened and our diverse First Narratives is seen in a ((Global Light)) certain hitherto eclipsed astounding ((findings)) come to the fore with dramatic implications for our Human Journey to our ((Source)).

Gangadean inaugurated his ((Source Media Network)) initiative with five episodes of his lifelong quest for the missing ((Logos Code)). A prospective biographer of his lifework sought his guidance and advice on how best to "narrate" his ((quest)) since deeper access to the long emerging ((Logos Code)) calls for a new form of ((narration)).  

With Rayne Liu and Wayne Hu (University of Chicago), Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Daniel Grin submitted the manuscript "Accurate method for ultralight axion CMB and matter power spectra" to the arXiv preprint server, and the paper is under peer review. The work develops techniques for extremely accurate calculations of astronomical observables for a hypothetical dark matter candidate called an ultra-light axion, which would exhibit wave-like interference patterns on macroscopic scales.

Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor Ezgi Guner’s article “From Istanbul to Dakar and Dar es Salaam: Efendi Masculinity, Islamic Civility, and the Pedagogy of Adab” was published in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East in December.

The C.V. Starr Professor of Asian Studies and Professor of Chinese and Linguistics and Director of the Chinese Language Program Shizhe Huang presented a poster (as the second author) with Guilherme Zeus Dantas e Moura '24 (currently at University of Waterloo) titled “On [měi ‘every’ VP] in Mandarin Chinese” at the 2025 Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, which was held in Philadelphia in January.
 
Associate Professor of Spanish Ariana Huberman published “Looking through Layers of Jewishness in Latin America” in Moraña, Mabel, and Miguel Alejandro Valerio, eds. Mapping Diversity in Latin America: Race and Ethnicity from Colonial Times to the Present. Nashville, (Vanderbilt University Press, 2025).

Huberman also published the book review “Witte, Michael, ed. ReFocus: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky. ‎Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2023. ‎256 pages, ISBN-10, ‎1399505947.” LAJS 3.2 (Fall 2024).

Assistant Professor of English Elizabeth Kim published "'Crammed With Tongues': Cosmopolitan Creole in Cathy Park Hong’s Dance Dance Revolution,” in College Literature 52.2 (Spring 2025).

Professor of Fine Arts Hee Sook Kim was invited to present an artist talk and workshop at Hotchkiss School in Salisbury, Conn. She was also included in four group exhibitions at Print Philly (Philadelphia); the Center for the Visual Arts Gallery at Brookdale Community College (Lincroft, New Jersey); Abington Art Center (Abington, Pennsylvania); and Thompson Gallery (Zug, Switzerland). 

Professor of Computer Science Steven Lindell attended the Anti-Defamation League conference "Never is Now" at the Javits Convention Center in New York on March 3 and 4. Lindell’s attendance was part of an Academic Engagement Network (AEN) delegation that participated in a workshop sponsored by the Center for Antisemitism Research (CAR), as part of a new partnership between the AEN and the CAR.

Professor of Physics and Astronomy Karen Masters attended the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in January, which eight Haverford and Bryn Mawr astrophysics students also attended and presented research.

In April, Masters published "The Impact of Bars, Spirals and Bulge-Size on Gas-Phase Metallicity Gradients in MaNGA Galaxies" Wisz, Masters et al. 202 in Astrophysical Journal, 983 57 (Apr 4th 2025). This paper was based on the senior thesis work of Marie Wisz BMC '23 (and Haverford astrophysics major).

In March, Masters was the keynote speaker at The Royal Society’s Libraries of Science conference. She also attended the second meeting of the "Development of Galaxy Zoo: JWST" funded "International Team" meetings at the International Space Sciences Institute in Bern, Switzerland, through which the team is adding images from the James Webb Space Telescope into Galaxy Zoo.

The Laurie Ann Levin Professor of Comparative Literature and Chair of Comparative Literature Maud McInerney delivered a paper titled "A Tale of One Saint and Two Villages: Sainte Reine d’Alise (et de Flavigny)" at the Sewanee Medieval Conference in Sewanee, Tennessee, in late February.

Professor of Political Science Barak Mendelsohn published “Why Do Armed Nonstate Actors Introduce Codes of Conduct? Explaining al-Qaeda’s ‘General Guidelines for Jihad’” in the Journal of Global Security Studies. 

Mendelsohn also presented the paper "Women Interests and Terrorism: Explaining the Absence of American Terrorist Organizations for Women in the 1960-70s" at the International Studies Association's annual convention. He participated in two round tables during the conference, one dealing with antisemitism in academia and another focused on the experience of Israeli scholars since Oct. 7, 2023. 

Professor Emerita of Classics and Comparative Literature Deborah Roberts published the article entitled "Translating Male-Male Desire in Greek and Latin Literature: Jack Lindsay and his Illustrators" in Translation and Literature 34 (2025) 1-33.

In April, Roberts gave an invited talk at Temple University as the inaugural lecture for the annual Masciantonio-Davis Colloquium on Latin and Greek pedagogy. The title was "Teaching Latin and Greek, Teaching in and about Translation: Recollections in honor of Martha Davis and Rudolph Masciantonio."

Associate Professor of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Jill Stauffer’s book review of Critique of Critique by Roy Ben Shai will be published in Continental Philosophy Review, Volume 58, pages 161–165, (2025). 

Stauffer also presented “At home with foreign sounds: on listening, lapse, and learning to hear well,” during Listening in the Public Realm at Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University in January. 

Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology Zeynep Sertbulut presented her research at two academic venues this spring. At the 2025 Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference, she participated in the panel “Streaming Across Borders: Redefining Global in Media Industries,” where she presented a paper titled "Mediating Gender in Turkey's Streaming Industry." She also shared her work at the Spring 2025 Tri-Co Social Sciences Colloquium, “Elites,” delivering a paper titled “Displaced Elites and the Politics of Taste: Dizi Makers, Ratings, and Cultural Power in Contemporary Turkey.”

Associate Professor and Director of Gender and Sexuality Studies Gina Velasco was selected as a 2025 Voices of Our Nations Arts Fellow.

In addition, Velasco’s book Queering the Global Filipina Body: Contested Nationalisms in the Filipina/o Diaspora (University of Illinois Press, 2020) received an Honorable Mention for Best Book in Filipinx American Studies from the Filipinx section of the Association for Asian American Studies.

Associate Professor of Biology Kristen Whalen and Megan Coolahan '22 had the paper Coolahan. M., Whalen, K.E., (2025) “A Review of Quorum-Sensing and Its Role in Mediating Interkingdom Interactions in the Ocean” published in Communications Biology. This review paints a dynamic portrait of the influence of quorum-sensing molecules beyond bacterial communication, paving the way for future research on the roles of these cues in interkingdom communication between fundamental species that shape the structure and function of marine ecosystems. 

Whalen also co-organized the Marine Microbial Chemical Communication Conference (M2C2) held in Texel, Netherlands, in March. During this meeting, she presented a poster entitled “Elucidating triggers of HHQ production and its influence on phytoplankton-virus dynamics,” which included contributions from four Haverford students. Her postdoctoral investigator, Dr. Amanda Platt, gave an invited talk entitled “Identifying the molecular mechanism(s) by which a bacterial signal interferes with phytoplankton-virus dynamics” which included contributions from four Haverford students in the Whalen Lab.

Whalen also supported her senior thesis student Marta Wilbrink '25 present her research at the 2025 Aquatic Sciences Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, in March. She presented a poster entitled “Identifying the molecular mechanisms(s) by which a bacterial infochemical protects phytoplankton from virus-induced mortality”.

Whalen co-organized a workshop at the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting entitled “Balancing Act: A discussion on navigating diverse academic careers with dependents—strategies, tips, and systemic change” held in Seattle. The workshop focused on addressing systemic issues related to balancing dependent care responsibilities with career advancement in academia, particularly for early-career researchers.

Whalen was an invited speaker at the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute’s Science Forum and gave a talk entitled “Deciphering the ocean’s chemical landscape: explorations in chemical-mediated interactions within the phycosphere”. 

Endowed Professor of Environmental Biology Jonathan Wilson participated in the panel "A Transforming Earth: The Legacy of the Devonian Period" at the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University, an event celebrating "Life Onto Land: The Devonian"—a landmark exhibit of Devonian Period plant and animal fossils highlighting this fascinating period of evolutionary history where remarkable organisms moved onto land for the first time.

Wilson also gave an invited colloquium talk at the Penn State Department of Geosciences entitled "Evolution, environment, drought, frost: Insights from living and extinct plants," featuring past and ongoing student research.

Wilson also delivered a talk entitled "Community research on a ‘hidden gem’: Water quality and forest health of an exceptional open space, Crabby Creek Park (Berwyn, Pennsylvania)" featuring work by students in an ENVS 204 course for "Local Roots: Cultivating Environmental Stewardship in Our Community." The panel was co-hosted by the Radnor Conservancy and the Villanova University Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship.

Wilson presented his research, including four Haverford seniors as coauthors, entitled "Integrating ancient vegetation with paleoclimate and paleoecosystem models: Fossil xylem is the ‘missing link’ in reconstructing ecosystem water use in deep time" at the American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Finally, Wilson served as the keynote speaker for the 2025 Science Convention at the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy, delivering a talk entitled "Real-life 'Jurassic Park': Reanimating extinct organisms through paleontology."