Baruch PAC Production Dead as a Dodo Nominated for Drama Desk Award

Baruch Performing Arts Center’s January co-presentation with Wakka Wakka Productions, Dead as a Dodo, has been nominated for a 2025 Drama Desk Award in the category of Best Puppetry. The Drama Desks are among the most prestigious honors in New York theater, recognizing outstanding achievements across Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway productions. Winners will be announced on June 1.

New Book by Professor Alison Griffiths Nomadic Cinema Out Now—Launch Event Coming This Fall

Distinguished Professor of Film and Media Studies in the Communication Department Alison Griffiths has released her latest book, Nomadic Cinema: A Cultural Geography of the Expedition Film, now available everywhere. This marks Griffiths’s fourth title with Columbia University Press and continues her influential scholarship at the intersection of film, space, and cultural history.

Nomadic Cinema explores the expedition film as a unique genre that traverses borders—geographical, cinematic, and cultural—disclosing topics such as colonialism and environmental storytelling.

A book launch celebration is being planned for September 2025 at Baruch PAC. Stay tuned for the official date and RSVP details.

Congratulations to Professor Griffiths on this exciting new publication!

Sultan Catto Honored for Literary and Scientific Contributions



Sultan Catto, Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center, recently received a series of significant international honors recognizing his literary and scholarly achievements.

Two of Catto’s poetry collections were recently translated and published in Serbian, and his book of short stories has been translated into both Italian and Chinese, with publication expected within the coming months. In recognition of his contributions to literature, he will be honored as a Distinguished Life Member of the World Congress of Poets (WCP) at its 44th meeting this September in Monterrey, Mexico, where he will also receive WCP’s most prestigious distinction: an Honorary Doctorate in Literature.

Catto has also been notified by the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASAL) of plans to induct him as a permanent member later this year in Salzburg, Austria. He also received a Literature Prize from the Academy of Tomitana in Constanta, Romania, and will soon receive their Shakespeare Medal, becoming a permanent member of the Romanian Academy of Arts.

Apart from these accolades, Professor Catto remains deeply engaged in his scientific research. He is currently working on a groundbreaking mathematical framework—A Nouvelle FG(16) Algebra—which he plans to present at international conferences this summer. Early assessments suggest this new algebraic structure could represent one of the most important advances in mathematical physics in the past century.

Rafael Walker Receives 2025 Feliks Gross Award

Rafael Walker, newly minted Associate Professor of English at Baruch College, has been selected as a recipient of the 2025 Feliks Gross Award for Outstanding Research for Assistant Professors, presented by the CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences. The award recognizes scholarly achievement among junior faculty across the CUNY system. Walker will deliver a research talk during the upcoming Feliks Gross and Henry Wasser Lecture Series, where the award will be officially conferred. The award includes a $1,000 stipend

Prof. John Maciuika Joins Neue Galerie Lecture Series

Professor John Maciuika of the Fine and Performing Arts Department and an expert in modern architecture and visual culture, was invited to deliver a talk for the Neue Galerie’s spring lecture series, joining scholars from Princeton and Columbia. His lecture, presented on April 10, explored the art of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) in the context of early 20th-century movements across the fine arts, applied arts, and architecture. Drawing connections from the Wilhelmine era to the Weimar period, Professor Maciuika explored the deeper cultural and historical roots of this movement.

Lizbeth De La Cruz Featured in Billboard for Connecting Students with Latin Music

Baruch College’s Professor Lizbeth De La Cruz was recently featured in Billboard for facilitating a dynamic classroom experience built around the visit of the chart-topping regional Mexican band Eslabón Armado to New York City. Professor De La Cruz brought students from her Latinx culture and media class to engage directly with the band, offering them a firsthand encounter with one of the most influential voices in contemporary Latin music.

Eslabón Armado, known for modernizing traditional sierreño music with Gen Z sensibilities, spoke with students about their rapid rise to fame, their creative process, and what it means to represent Mexican American identity on a global stage.

Communication Studies Lecturers Speak at TEDxCUNY 2025

Heather Schultz Gittens and Marie Della Thomas, both full-time lecturers in Baruch College’s Department of Communication Studies and alumni of the College, were selected as speakers for TEDxCUNY 2025, which took place on Friday, May 2, at John Jay College

The event’s theme, “Fast Track,” brought together nine speakers from across the CUNY system. TEDxCUNY was free to attend for all current CUNY students.

Esther Allen Reviews New Vision of Hemispheric History in Los Angeles Review of Books

Esther Allen, Professor of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature at Baruch College and the Graduate Center, recently contributed a review to the Los Angeles Review of Books titled “Gulf of América.”

In this piece, Allen examines Greg Grandin’s America, América: A New History of the New World, exploring the book’s reinterpretation of the Americas’ historical narratives. Allen's analysis delves into Grandin’s approach to hemispheric history and its implications for understanding the intertwined destinies of the American continents.

Read the article here.

Rianne Subijanto's Book on Indonesia's Red Movement Reviewed in Jacobin

Rianne Subijanto, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Baruch College, recently published Communication against Capital: Red Enlightenment at the Dawn of Indonesia (Cornell University Press, 2025).

In a review published by Jacobin, Alex de Jong discusses how Subijanto's work sheds light on the left-wing organizing of this period, not only against colonialism but also against restrictive customs and traditional forms of exploitation. The review emphasizes the book's focus on the "red enlightenment," a process where emancipation was seen as stemming from the human capacity to rationally understand and change the world, rather than from transcendental sources.

For more details, read the full review in Jacobin: Indonesia’s Communists Helped Forge Its National Identity.

David Gruber Co-Authors Article on AI and Animal Rights, to Keynote CUNY Research Celebration

David Gruber, Professor of Biology and Environmental Science at Baruch College and the Graduate Center, recently co-authored a law review article that explores how artificial intelligence and bioacoustics could reshape the legal rights of nonhuman animals.

Titled “What If We Understood What Animals Are Saying? The Legal Impact Of AI-assisted Studies Of Animal Communication,” the article is forthcoming in Ecology Law Quarterly and was written in collaboration with researchers from NYU School of Law's More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Program and UC Berkeley.

The article has already drawn attention in national media, including a feature in National Geographic under the provocative headline: "Whales could one day be heard in court—and in their own words."

In addition, Gruber served as keynote speaker at the Third Annual CUNY Undergraduate Research Celebration this past month.

Carolyn Abott Featured on NY1

Carolyn Abott, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Baruch College, was featured in a recent NY1 segment, "Cuomo’s First TV Ad in Race for Mayor Focuses on Pandemic Leadership," offering expert commentary on former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s campaign messaging as he enters the New York City mayoral race.

Watch the full segment here.