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Dear Students, Faculty, Staff, and Friends,
Welcome, or welcome back, as we begin a new academic year!
The Division of Humanities and Arts is a place where imagination, creativity, and discovery create new possibilities for the world. Our students participate in the swirling, complicated, and sometimes conflicted medium of experimentation and exploration. The breadth of experiences that our students, faculty, and staff bring to these encounters is our superpower: our learning environment is shaped by people with an extraordinary array of backgrounds, perspectives, and ideas.
This newsletter highlights some of the exciting work of our Humanities and Arts faculty—work that enriches and informs the discussions and activities in our classrooms. We are also delighted to welcome a sizable cohort of new faculty members, and we look forward to the ideas, energy, and contributions they will bring to our community.
Sincerely,
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Philosopher Nickolas Pappas is CCNY’s 2026-27 Stuart Z. Katz Professor | | |
The City College of New York Philosophy Professor Nickolas Pappas has been selected as the Stuart Z. Katz Professor in the Division of Humanities & the Arts for the 2026-27 academic year.
This endowed professorship is supported by a $1 million gift to CCNY by alumnus Stuart Z. Katz, Esq. ‘64. The gift supports one outstanding professorial faculty member in the Division for one academic year. Emerging from a competitive selection process, Pappas will receive $10,000 to support his research and creative activity for the current academic year.
The 10th faculty member to hold this professorship since its establishment in 2016, Pappas came to City College in 1993. His research concentrates on ancient philosophy and aesthetics, and the overlap between how poetry and other arts were understood in the ancient world. In the past decade, he has developed an interest in how the thinkers of the ancient world, particularly Plato, perceived foreigners, immigrants, and others who were either ethnically or linguistically different.
“There were many, often surprising categories for understanding different types of strangers,” he said. “What is striking to me is that those categories for faraway people informed even how people saw their nearest neighbors.”
To deepen his understanding of categories for strangers, Pappas will travel to Greece this summer to visit lesser-known, small museums that hold relics from civilizations, such as Egypt and Syria, that exported art, furnishings, and jewelry to the country. He expects that examining these artifacts will yield insights into Plato’s stereotypes about foreigners that appear in his political writings.
These explorations will inform Pappas’s upcoming book, “Strangers in the House of Philosophy,” the subject of his Stuart Z. Katz Lecture to be delivered at his formal installation on Monday, Oct. 26. The event is free and open to the public.
“My wife and I are so glad the 10th Katz Professorship was awarded to Professor Nickolas Pappas, a City College veteran for over 30 years, and a professor of philosophy and classics, subjects dear to my family,” said Katz. “Professor Pappas was mentored by the late philosophy professor Stanley Cavell of Harvard University, a giant in his field. My wife and I look forward to getting to know Professor Pappas and to learn about his studies.”
| | This fall, the Division of Humanities and Arts welcomes an impressive group of new faculty to various departments. Below is a brief introduction to each; full Q&As with each professor are available on the H&A blog. | | | | |
Artist Jose De Jesus Rodriguez joins the Art Department as assistant professor. A graduate of the Yale School of Art and UC Santa Cruz, Rodriguez works across painting and printmaking, with current interests in surface, support, plaster, and the histories embedded in materials. At CCNY, he looks forward to conversations with students and colleagues, and he hopes to introduce students to the art of fresco.
Read full bio and Q&A
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Opal Gay joins Black Studies as assistant professor. An artist, sociologist, and policy researcher, Gay earned their PhD from Georgia State University and studies how social power shapes the lives of Black queer people. Their teaching brings together empirical research and creative practice, encouraging students to think expansively about data, art, and social change.
Read full bio and Q&A
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Writer and journalist Lucas Iberico Lozada joins the English Department as assistant professor of Creative Writing. His fiction, essays, reporting, and criticism have appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Nation. At CCNY, he is especially excited to expand the College’s offerings in creative nonfiction and explore the possibilities of the form alongside students.
Read full bio and Q&A
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Philosopher Britt Currie joins CCNY as assistant professor of Philosophy. Her research bridges the philosophy of cognitive science and moral psychology, examining empathy, moral decision-making, the role of social norms in everyday interactions, and a careful consideration of both the practical and ethical dimensions of whether we can, or ought to, simulate aspects of social cognition within artificial systems. At City College, she looks forward to interdisciplinary collaboration and to building a creative, curious learning community.
Read full bio and Q&A
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Actor and educator Maya Smoot joins Theatre and Speech as assistant professor. An MFA graduate of UC Irvine and SAG-AFTRA member, Smoot has taught acting, voice, speech, Shakespeare, and scene study across the country. Her classroom emphasizes actor autonomy, joy, creative freedom, and meaningful connection. She is eager to build collaborations across CCNY.
Read full bio and Q&A
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Congratulations to Professor Mike Holober on receiving a 2026 Chamber Music America New Jazz Works Grant, one of the field’s leading awards for jazz composition. Funded by the Doris Duke Foundation, the highly competitive program supports artists in the creation and performance of new jazz works.
Holober is one of 15 artists and ensembles selected for the 2026 cohort, with recipients receiving grants ranging from $30,000 to $36,000. This marks Holober’s second New Jazz Works award; he previously received the grant in 2017.
Also among this year’s grantees is Emelio Teubal, a graduate of the CCNY Jazz Program.
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Congratulations to Professor Annie J. Howell, who co-wrote the screenplay for Yellow Rose, on the film’s UK theatrical premiere as part of BALIK BAYAN, a month-long celebration of Filipino stories, identity, and community presented by MilkTea Films with support from the British Film Institute.
Directed by Diane Paragas and starring Eva Noblezada and Lea Salonga, Yellow Rose follows a Filipina teenager from a small Texas town as she pursues her dream of becoming a country music singer while facing a difficult choice between her family and the only home she has ever known.
The film screened in London, Glasgow, Manchester, and Birmingham throughout July as part of the festival.
Learn more about Annie J. Howell and her work at her Linktree.
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Professor Matthew Carter has released a new album under the name MK CARTER. Titled Dissertion, the album is out today, September 2, and streaming on all major platforms.
The release follows a new music video for one of the album’s tracks, which premiered on August 27. Listen to Dissertion, watch the new video, and explore MK CARTER’s latest work here.
| Eduardo Lerro | English '12 | |
Eduardo Lerro has recently started a publishing company and has published his first novel, Insurrection! “Part political thriller, part cautionary tale, Insurrection shows us what can happen when government is weaponized against a community that refuses to go quietly.” Eduardo Lerro recently joined the English faculty of Minneapolis College, where he teaches primarily incarcerated students through the TREC program and develops curricula tailored to the needs of justice-impacted learners. He holds an MA and PhD in Comparative Literature from Princeton University.
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