Research Highlights |April 2026, FAU BOCA RATON | | Organizers Nicholas Baima and Sarah Malanowski with Keynote, Christopher Bartel | | |
Philosophy of Video Games Conference
The Fourth Annual Philosophy of Video Games Conference was hosted by the Department of Philosophy and sponsored by the Center for Peace, Justice and Human Rights, and the Center for the Future of Mind, AI, & Society. Held over two days, the conference brought together more than 70 attendees and more than 20 presenters from across the country to examine the ethical, aesthetic, metaphysical, social, and political dimensions of games and play. The program featured a keynote address by Christopher Bartel, author of "Aesthetics and Video Games and Video Games, Violence, and the Ethics of Fantasy: Killing Time."
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The Festival for America's 250th
More than 1,000 people attended events related to the Festival for America's 250th on the Boca Raton campus. Organized by Jason Sharples, Department of History, this 7-week Festival brought scholars from across the country with lectures about the revolutionary origins of our nation. The Festival concluded with the annual O'Sullivan lecture, organized by Nicole Anslover, Department of History. The lecture featured Nicole Chervinsky, executive director of the George Washington Library at Mt. Vernon. Concerts and a symposium celebrating this anniversary continue throughout the year.
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Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency Celebrates 20th Anniversary
More than 400 people attended the 20th annual Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency, featuring three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Doug Mills. Mills has photographed every president since Ronald Reagan, and currently works for the "New York Times." The public lecture was preceded by a student forum in the Larkin Presidential Study in the Wimberly Library. MORE
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Archaeological Dig Site on Boca Raton Campus
Kat Napora, Anthropology, has collaborated with Florida Atlantic Laboratory Schools to build an 1100-square-foot educational archaeological dig site on the FAU Laboratory School campus in Boca Raton. At the site, students not only learn how soil layers reveal timelines, they can apply math to map excavation grids, explore ecological systems to understand ancient environments or even examine how modern technologies – from chemical analysis to AI – can help archaeologists interpret artifacts.
Since the opening in fall 2025, more than 460 students have participated in 38 different curricular experiences developed by K-12 educators in partnership with Florida Atlantic Laboratory Schools’ Research Program leads Tricia Meredith, Lauren Simonitis, and Jamie Thompson. Students excavate permanent and movable structures modeled after real, ongoing excavations. MORE
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Jeffrey Huber Recognized as Named Principal in Renowned Firm Brooks Scarpa Huber
The School of Architecture proudly congratulates Professor Jeffrey Huber on a major professional milestone: the acclaimed architecture firm Brooks + Scarpa has rebranded as Brooks, Scarpa, Huber, formally adding Huber as a named principal to the practice’s identity. This change recognizes his leadership in design work that spans housing, public space, sustainability, and community-focused projects. MORE
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Film Project Accepted at Four Film Festivals
"Shoot Happens," the first ever film project produced by the Department of Theatre and Dance, directed by Ted deChatelet, has been accepted into the Key Biscayne Film Festival, Miami Beach Film Festival, Sunscreen Film Festival (Tampa), and the South Beach Film Festival. The film was written, performed, produced, and edited by more than 40 FAU students from across campus. Additional screenings (South Beach FF, Sunscreen FF) will take place in May in Miami and Tampa.
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Barbara Ganson Served as Guest Curator
Barbara Ganson, Department of History, was the guest curator at the Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum in Middle River, Maryland for the exhibition “American Women with Wings at Home and Abroad,” and another on the history of Glenn L. Martin, an aviation pioneer, record setter, inventor, and major aircraft manufacturer and designer - the “Martin” of the aerospace company Lockheed Martin.
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Melissa Sclafani, Department of Visual Arts and Art History
Melissa Sclafani received a $10,000 unrestricted award through Ooite Arts. The award is designed to celebrate and recognize artists’ careers in a variety of visual arts practices.
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Dramatist Guild Foundation Recognition
Gretchen Suárez-Peña, Department of Theatre, was selected as part of the Dramatist Guild Foundation's National Fellows Class of 2026. This highly competitive and historic program, offered by the Dramatist Guild Foundation (DGF), is a virtual cohort of nine playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists located across the United States. During her participation, Suárez-Peña will be mentored by industry professionals in New York and will be awarded a stipend for artistic research and creation. She will also be flown to New York to participate in the DGF's annual gala in October.
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Southern Region American Choral Directors Conference
Vocalis, under the direction of Stacie Rossow, Department of Music, was selected to perform at the Southern Region American Choral Directors Association Conference in Memphis, TN. They performed a concert of Ireland and the Americas.
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Amy Broderick - Department of Visual Arts and Art History
Broderick’s photography is included in O, Miami Poetry Foundation's new book, Literally Everyone's Invited: An Ode to South Florida.
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Visual Arts Alum in Solo Exhibition
Woody De Othello, Visual Arts BFA, Ceramics, had his first major solo exhibition at the Perez Art Museum. The exhibition was curated by Jennifer Inacio, a visual arts and art history alum who also worked at the University Galleries as a student. Ignacio is the associate curator at the Pérez Art Museum Miami.
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Music Alum Named Teacher of the Year
Katherine Yarbrough, Vocal Performance BA, was named Monroe Country Florida Teacher of the Year. Yarbrough is a teacher at Plantation Key School. She has significantly strengthened the music program, fostering a culture of excellence and passion for the arts, according to an announcement on the school district’s website.
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Nicole Anslover, Department of History, recently published "Nixon in China." The book reassesses Richard Nixon’s historic visit as the first American president ever to visit mainland China in 1972, personalizing the actors involved and exploring the event’s lasting impact. MORE
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Barbara Ganson, Department of History, has a new book about American Women and Early Aviation. Though often restricted as aviators, American women helped build a stable aircraft industry that became the envy of the world. Ganson delves into the lives of the women whose work as test pilots, flight school owner-operators, airport managers, flight instructors and in other roles impacted and reflected larger trends in society. Informed by interviews and rare archival information, "Lady Daredevils" tells the stories of the pioneering women of early aviation history and reveals their dynamic interactions with social and technological change. MORE
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Sarah Malanowski and Nicholas Baima, Department of Philosophy, have published a book on the ethics of video games: Virtue Theory and Video Games: Level Up Your Character. This groundbreaking volume explores the vibrant intersection of virtue ethics and gaming culture. Featuring contributions from both established and emerging scholars, the book offers fresh virtue-theoretical analyses of video game play, design, and storytelling. In doing so, it addresses key gaps in the growing literature on video game ethics and helps lay a foundation for the continued development of this exciting field. MORE
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Carmen Duarte, Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature, has a new book titled "Islands That Are No Longer." MORE
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Doug McGetchin, Department of History has a new book that examines debates within nonviolent movements, including labor movements in Europe, Gandhi’s Indian independence struggle, and Martin Luther King’s U.S. civil rights campaigns. MORE
| | | | Andrew Furman’s (Department of English) novel “The World that We Are” was named a Finalist for the Foreword Indie Awards. The winner will be announced in June. MORE | | |
Ilaria Serra - Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
"La casa e il bosco di Mario Rigoni Stern ad Asiago.” Included in the supplement of the issue gathering papers from the conference "Luoghi oggetti arredi e case d'autore.”
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Carissa Ma - Department of English
“Rethinking the Good Life: A Crip Critique of Hon Lai-chu’s Surrealist Short Stories.” On_Culture, no. 19, Autumn 2025, “Disruption,” The article explores how the aftermath of Hong Kong’s 2019–2020 protests reshaped ideas about stability, progress, and identity under the National Security Law. It shows how language around “health” and “normalcy” is used to encourage conformity, while the surreal stories of writer Hon Lai-chu challenge these pressures by highlighting lives that don’t fit those expectations.
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Marc Decker - Department of Music
“Striking the Right Notes: Empowering Students for Success in the Sight-Reading Room.” National Band Association Journal
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Carla Thomas - Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
“Sex and Sexuality in Medieval England,” in Sexuality in the Medieval West. The chapter provides an overview of sex and sexuality in medieval England from ca. 500-1500, drawing on a range of historical sources, such as penitentials, metrical charms, poetry, legal codes, canon law, religious prose, and architecture, to present a well-rounded view of how the medieval English world attempted both to control sexuality and to resist that control.
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Nuria Godón - Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
“As fontes da memoria: Os días afogados (2015), unha película do recordo.” [The Sources of Collective Memory: The Drowned Days (2015), a Film of Remembrance.].
The article highlights how the documentary by César Souto and Luis Avilés transforms home footage and silenced memories into both political critique and a collective archive.
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Michael Rapoport, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
The Tokat Institute for Advanced Islamic Studies (TIAIS) awarded Professor Rapoport as the recipient of its first-ever Article Prize for his essay, “The Unambiguous Truth (al-ḥaqq al-ṣarīḥ): Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī on Philosophy and the ‘Truth’ in His Compendium (Mulakhkhaṣ),” which appeared in the inaugural issue of the journal Islamic Intellectual Traditions.
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Alexander Slotkin, Department of English
"Constellating Jewish Rhetorics: A Call for New Directions from an Iraqi Jew.” constellations: a cultural rhetorics publishing space; and “Situating Public Memory as a Keyword in Technical and Professional Communication.” Technical Communication and Social Justice, this second article with April O'Brien.
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Stacey Balkan, Department of English
Balkan published a book review on "Unseasonable: Climate Change in Global Literatures," by Sarah Dimick; and has a book contract for her upcoming "Bicycling in Paradise: On Radical Cadence and Just Futures in the End Times."
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Festival Rep -- Little Women / The Hollow
The Department of Theatre and Dance will present the musical "Little Women" and Agatha Christie's "The Hollow" in June and July. Tickets on sale in May at fauevents.com
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Concerts, Performances, Exhibitions
For a full listing of Arts and Culture events in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, see the full season brochure HERE
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