2023-24 Faculty Achievements
Our world-class faculty are breaking boundaries in research, teaching, mentorship and addressing issues around race, equity and social justice. They are dedicated leaders who excel in their fields of expertise and beyond.
Perla M. Guerrero, associate professor of American studies; Peter Mallios, executive director of the Honors College and associate professor of English; and Shevaun Lewis, assistant director of the Language Science Center, were among 57 staff and faculty from across campus to receive a Provost’s Do Good Innovator Award. The award recognizes excellence by members of the campus community who “create, nurture, expand and amplify social impact through education, programs, and research, both in and outside the classroom.”
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Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner, assistant professor in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, was named a National Science Foundation and Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation Ocean Decade Champion, making her an active participant in the United Nations’ Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
Dance Principal Lecturer Alvin Mayes received the 2023 Living Legacy Award from the Maryland Dance Education Association, recognizing an individual’s body of work and their significant contributions to the field of dance education in the state of Maryland. Read more.
Ruth Enid Zambrana, Distinguished University Professor in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, received a $500,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to examine how leaders in higher education are successfully supporting the advancement of historically underrepresented faculty in medical, public health and STEM sciences. Read more.
Maria Beliaeva Solomon, assistant professor of French and Francophone studies in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, received a National Historical Publications and Records Commission Mellon Planning Grant to support her work to create a digital scholarly edition and translation of the Revue des Colonies, a French abolitionist journal published between 1834 and 1842. Read more.
The Count Basie Orchestra, which counts Acting Director of Jazz Studies Mark Williams as one of its resident trombonists, won a 2024 Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for “Basie Swings the Blues.” Read more.
Janelle Wong, professor of American studies and government and politics and director of the Asian American Studies Program, was one of eight new fellows inducted into the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Read more.
Valérie Orlando, professor and head of French in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities summer stipend to support her research and writing for a book on the themes of history and memory in contemporary Algerian literature. Read more.
History Professor Holly Brewer, Burke Chair of American Cultural and Intellectual History and part of an 18-member historians’ Council on the Constitution for the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, was the lead author of an amicus brief filed in Trump vs. the United States that countered the former president’s claim that he should have immunity from prosecution for official acts. Read more.
Professor of Violin Irina Muresanu was elected to the European Academy for Sciences and the Arts.
American Studies Associate Professor La Marr Jurelle Bruce received a Stanford Humanities Center fellowship for 2024–25.
Assistant Research Professor Osama Eshera of the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies received a $150,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support efforts to make it easier for historians working with handwritten documents from the premodern Islamicate world—primarily in Arabic, Persian and Turkish—to identify geographic locations and place names. Read more.
John Horty, professor in the Department of Philosophy, was named Distinguished University Professor, the highest appointment bestowed to tenured faculty by the university. Read more.
Brooke Fisher Liu, professor of communication, was awarded the Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award, which honors senior tenured members of the faculty who combine outstanding scholarly accomplishment with excellence in teaching. Read more.
Associate Professor Emeritus Brian MacDevitt won the 2024 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Musical for “The Outsiders: A New Musical,” alongside Hana S. Kim; it was his sixth Tony. Assistant Professor Amith Chandrashaker received a nomination for Best Lighting Design of a Play for “Prayer for the French Republic.” Read more.
Notable Faculty Books and Podcasts
The College of Arts and Humanities launched the “Rhyme & Reason” podcast, which features Dean Stephanie Shonekan in conversation with some of the most compelling leaders in the arts and humanities at UMD. The first season, produced by ARHU faculty and staff, features topics including Indigenous feminist philosophy; immigrant rights; food and ethnic identity; Asian American, Latinx and Afrodiasporic cultures; the history of the modern Middle East; and more.
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History Professor Paul Landau was awarded the Martin A. Klein Prize from the American Historical Association for his book “Spear: Mandela and the Revolutionaries.” The prize, named for a professor emeritus of history at the University of Toronto, recognizes the most distinguished work of scholarship on African history published in English during the previous calendar year.
Associate Professor of English Lillian-Yvonne Bertram’s “Negative Money” was a finalist for the New England Book Award in Poetry. Calling the book “profound,” Publishers Weekly said the poems will “stir readers into necessary reflection.” Bertram also spoke to NPR’s Marketplace about the poems.
Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics Eric Adler discussed his book “Humanistic Letters: The Irving Babbitt-Paul Elmer More Correspondence” at a conference on the state of civic education, broadcast on C-SPAN.
Associate Professor of Musicology William Robin’s co-edited volume “On Minimalism: Documenting a Musical Movement,” was named one of NPR’s 2023 “Books We Love.”
Professor of English and Comparative Literature John E. Drabinski’s “Black Studies Podcast,” co-created by his colleague in the Department of African American and Africana Studies Ashley Newby, lecturer and director of undergraduate studies, was supported by a $100,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation. The podcast is a series of conversations examining the history of the field of Black studies spotlighting activists and scholars.