Research Highlights |September 2025, FAU BOCA RATON | | | | |
Message from the Dean
At the College of Arts and Letters, our research and creative achievements reflect a commitment to innovation, societal impact, and interdisciplinary collaboration. In the past two years, we have increased funded research by 50 percent, advancing projects that span from analyzing the future of AI and consciousness, to tackling the affordable housing crisis, to cultural research that addresses the human condition. Our faculty are earning recognition at international conferences and events, and right here at home. Through competitive grants, collaborative centers, influential publications, performances, and exhibitions, we are driving discovery and shaping the future of research at Florida Atlantic.
Michael J. Horswell, Ph.D.
Dean, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
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Jeffrey Huber Featured in Architectural Record
Jeffrey E. Huber, FAIA, School of Architecture, was recently featured in Architectural Record magazine for a Ft. Lauderdale park he designed with Lawrence Scarpa, his partner at Brooks and Scarpa Architects, that addresses coastal resiliency. READ MORE
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Susan Schneider to Present at Several International Conferences on AI and Consciousness
With the continued importance of discussions around the development of consciousness in Artificial Intelligence, Susan Schneider, Ph.D., Department of Philosophy and the Director of the Center for the Future of AI, Mind and Society, has been invited to present at several international events:
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How the Light Gets In Philosophy and Music Festival MORE
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NASA Goddard, Maryland -- AI and space MORE
- The FAU Center for the Future of AI, Mind and Society is cosponsoring a human rights AI policy event in London
- Google workshop on AI and Consciousness at Google’s headquarters in New York
- Science of consciousness conference in Japan
- Conference at Tufts University commemorating Daniel Dennett’s life and work
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Irena Kofman Participates in Academic Engagement Network Conference
Irena Kofman, DMA, Department of Music and Director of Keyboard Studies, is representing Florida Atlantic around the world:
- Participated in Academic Engagement Network, held in Washington D.C., to discuss the current situation in the Middle East with other scholars MORE
- Participated as Distinguished Piano faculty at the Cremona International Music Academy in Italy
- Presented Master Classes at Escuela de Musica IBP in Lima, Peru
- Invited to perform at the Bosendorfer Hall in Tokyo in October, 2025
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Kevin Wilt wins Global Music Award
Kevin Wilt, DMA, Department of Music, recently won the Silver Medal from The Global Music Awards (GMA) for his chamber music album “Tavern Music” that was released earlier this year. Wilt won in the composer and album categories. GMA is a top-tier international music competition that honors talented musicians around the world. Home | Global Music Awards
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Choma Nominated for Marcus Prize
Joseph Choma, Ph.D., School of Architecture, was recently nominated for the 2025 Marcus Prize for Architecture Innovation. Former recipients include celebrity architects: Sou Fujimoto, Diébédo Francis Kéré, Jeanne Gang, Tatiana Bilbao, Joshua Prince-Ramus (REX), Alejandro Aravena, Frank Barkow + Regine Leibinger, Winy Maas (MVRDV) and others. READ MORE
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Best Paper Award From the Public Management Research Association
An article published by Alka Sapat, Ph.D., School of Public Administration, with one of her former Ph.D. students, Ryan J. Lofaro, won the Riccucci-O’Leary Award. The award is presented annually by the Public Management Research Association for the best article on diversity published in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory or Perspectives on Public Management and Governance. The award recognizes articles that contribute to understanding diversity. The paper, titled “Deservingness, Humanness, and Representation Through Lived Experience: Analyzing First Responders’ Attitudes,” appears in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. The award was presented at the Public Management Research Conference in Seoul, South Korea, June 25–28. READ MORE
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Staged Reading Award
Gretchen Suarez-Peña, MFA, Department of Theatre and Dance, won the Staged Reading Winner award at the Tampa Bay Theatre Festival for Epiphany. This is her third time winning this award.
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FAU Hispanic Honor Society Named Honor Chapter
Florida Atlantic’s Rho Omicron Chapter of Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, has been named an Honor Chapter for its outstanding activities in 2024-25, an award that was bestowed to only 13 chapters nationwide in 2025. This is the 14th year in its chapter history that FAU enjoys this distinction, due in large part to Nuria Godón’s, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature, outstanding leadership with her students. In addition, because this award was obtained each year of Sigma Delta Pi’s 2022-25 triennium, Rho Omicron was also granted the prestigious Octavio Paz Award.
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Vocalis to Perform at American Choral Directors Association Conference
Florida Atlantic’s Vocalis, under the direction of Stacie Lee Rossow, DMA, Department of Music, has been selected to perform at the American Choral Directors Association 2026 Southern Region Conference in Memphis, Tennessee. This student ensemble has been selected through blind audition as the only collegiate treble ensemble to perform at the Southern Region Conference in March 2026. They will present a concert titled “Ireland and the Americas” and will feature a new work by Professor David Rossow to the Thomas Moore text “Teach Me to Love” as well as a movement from a work they premiered in 2023 by Michael McGlynn.
| | Stephanie Anderson, MFA, Department of English, had “Trouble and Hope in Regenerative Agriculture” published in The Invading Sea, and “Lessons from My Doppelganger” published in Pembroke MORE | | Stacey Balkan, Ph.D., Department of English, had the following essays published: “Losing Miami? Imagining Post-Extractivist Futures in the ‘Magic City,’” Ecozon@; “Cycling.” Power Shift: Keywords for a New Politics of Energy; “Reimagining sustainability: FAU students redesign South Florida’s Infrastructure.” The Invading Sea MORE | | Véronique Côté, MFA, University Galleries, collaborated with Daniela Rivera, undergraduate summer research fellow, to create the Florida Department of State–funded exhibition “Unearthed Futures: The Archaeology of Tomorrow.” MORE | | |
Marc Decker, DMA, Department of Music, had the following articles published: “The Clinician is in: Welcoming a Guest to Work with Your Band,” Florida Music Director and “Navigating the Cosmic Road: The Creative Journey of Michele Fernandez,” WASBE World Magazine.
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Emily Fenichel, Ph.D., Department of Visual Arts and Art History, wrote “Maria Asúnsolo by Florence Arquin: Portraits of a Modern Art Dealer” in Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture. (forthcoming 2025)
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Adriana Garriga-Lopez, Ph.D., Department of Anthropology, published the textbook “International Political Economy and the Global South: Perspectives from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East” with El Bernoussi, Z., Martiniello, G., & Saade, B. MORE
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Gaynelle Gasselin, Department of Theatre and Dance, had the article “Using Dance to Support Mental Health” published in the August/September issue of The Well of PBC MORE
| | Willa Granger, Ph.D., School of Architecture, had the article “Consuming Care: The Americana Corporation and the Advent of the Modern Nursing Home,” published in the Journal of the Society of Architectural MORE | | Sharon Lee Hart, MFA, Department of Visual Arts and Art History, participated in the juried exhibition “Context" at Filter Gallery Space, Chicago, IL. | | Sipai Klein, Ph.D., and Cindy Wedding, Department of English, published “A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Tutor Training with Emerging Technologies” in The Learning Assistance Review MORE | | Carissa Ma, Ph.D., Department of English, published two articles: “Deconstructing Neoliberalism's Promise: Chan Koonchung’s The Fat Years and the Potential for Change in the Present-as-Impasse,” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture; and “Subverting the Thana-Capitalist Logic through Counternarratives: Yun Ko-eun's The Disaster Tourist,” New Literaria: An International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities MORE | | Will McConnell, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, received a new 5-year grant from Palm Health Foundation. The "Healthier Aging in Boynton Beach" project is a an initiative funded by CVS Health Foundation to analyze and improve the system of health and social services for older adults and their caregivers living in Boynton Beach, FL. McConnell also co-authored an article with Neeraj Puro and Scott Feyereisen (FAU College of Business), “COVID-19 and nurse practitioner autonomy: a quantitative analysis and analytic narrative of nurse practitioner professionalisation amid physician dominance,” in Health Sociology MORE | | Becka McKay, MFA, Department of English, recently had her poem "Elegy Begun in July" published in “Red Wing Arts.” McKay also had an essay “Echoing Forward, Echoing Back: Thick Translation, the Song of Songs, and the Performance of Cultural Exchange” published in “Expanding Approaches to Bible Translation.” MORE | | |
Beatriz Nieto-Fernandez, School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, published the book chapter “Aeromexico’s DNA Discounts: viral advertisement, genomics, and post-coloniality in the U.S and Mexico.” In Vanspauwen, B. & Sanchez-Fuarroz, I (Eds), Postcolonial (air)mobilities: Branding, Cultural Heritage, and Tourism Imaginaries. MORE
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Christopher Robé, Ph.D., School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, co-authored with John F. Lennon, “Painting Over the Troubles: Street Art, Class, and Re-imaging Belfast,” Irish Studies Review; Co-authored with John F. Lennon, “The Minaw Collective: An All Female Force of Art,” Up Magazine; and co-authored with Todd Wolfson, “Mobilizing Workers: 1960s Detroit Revolutionary Union Movements and the Use of Newsletters in Collective Organizing,” Raising Class Consciousness: Labor Movements and Communication Power in the Information Age. MORE
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Abu Bakkar Siddique, Ph.D., School of Public Administration, published "Immigrant Population and Entrepreneurship Development in United States Metropolitan Areas," in Population, Space and Place, MORE and "Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of an Intensive Lifestyle Intervention Versus Usual Care for Latino Youth With Prediabetes," in Pediatric Obesity MORE
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Gerald Sim, Ph.D., School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, published an essay in Techno-Orientalism 2.0: New Forms and Formulations, titled “Techno-Orientalist Deflections: How Documentaries Frame China’s AI Threat.” MORE
| | Alexander Slotkin, Ph.D., Department of English, and student Clara Lechowski, published “Cookin’ Up a Multimodal Story: Community-Engaged Writing and a Cultural Rhetorics Cookbook” in Reflections; A Journal of Community Engaged Writing and Rhetoric. MORE | | Luisa Turbino Torres, Ph.D., Department of Political Science and Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, had the following articles published: (co-authored) Feminist Responses to Crises and Dehumanization: Transnational Perspectives, Routledge, Gender in a Global/ Local World series; and “Shifting the Game: Soccer Feminist Fandom Activism as a Catalyst for Sporting Innovation in Brazil,” Soccer, Globalization and Innovation: The Beautiful Game in the 21st Century. MORE | | Kevin Wagner, Ph.D., Department of Political Science, co-authored several recent publications. With colleagues, he examined global patterns of digital information consumption, corruption perceptions, and political trust in “Online Information Review." He also collaborated on a study of how trust in social media platforms shapes the political effects of dissident information flows , published in the “International Journal of Communication.” In addition, Wagner co-authored “The Politics of Evasion: The Missing Statehood Debate in Puerto Rico,” which appeared in “Party Politics.” MORE | | |
Jainism Philosophy Conference, Oct. 10-11, 2025
The philosophy of Jainism – one of the world’s oldest living traditions – offers a rich tapestry of complex and fascinating ideas with profound relevance for life and policy today. From abstract questions about how to discern truth in a multi-faceted reality to practical debates about what we should eat and how we value the environment, Jain thought invites us to rethink our assumptions and choices. Join us to explore these issues with leading scholars. Free and open to the public. Registration required at HERE
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Arreva's Driven by Cause Philanthropy Summit, Oct. 16-17, 2025
The School of Public Administration, the Spirit of Giving, and Arreva present the 2025 Arreva's Driven by Cause Philanthropic Summit, which is designed for local nonprofit executives, fundraisers, board members, consultants, and foundation leaders who want to expand their impact, deepen community engagement, and strengthen organizational sustainability. Tickets and registration are available online at Summit Driven By Cause - Arreva
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Concerts, Performances, Lectures, 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
| | The “In Conversation” Podcast series features FAU Faculty discussing research and creative activity that spans the arts, humanities, and social sciences. EXPLORE MORE |
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