In mid-April, Anita Charles, Senior Lecturer and Director of Teacher Education, traveled to Pune, India, in order to participate in a unique teaching opportunity through the Government of India¡¯s Ministry of Human Resource Development. Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN ¨C a Hindi word of its own that translates to ¡°knowledge¡±) is a Higher Education program that invites foreign faculty to teach intensive one- or two-week university-level courses which get recorded to become part of a repository of available courses for others. The GIAN program¡¯s goals are ¡°to augment [India¡¯s] existing academic resources, accelerate the pace of quality reform, and elevate India¡¯s scientific and technological capacity for global excellence.¡±

Anita collaborated with an Indian faculty colleague at the Interdisciplinary School of Science at Savitribai Phule Pune University, to teach a 15-hour, week-long class entitled ¡°Education: Concepts, Pedagogy, and Innovative Practices.¡± The course participants, in-person and online, included undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty from various disciplines across universities. Anita brought an engaging student-centered approach to the Indian context, modeling strategies and concepts that dovetailed with the course content itself. The week¡¯s topics covered: a brief history of Indian and US education, contemporary issues, technology trends, theories of learning, inclusive practices, innovative strategies, lesson planning and assessment. Activities throughout the week included collaborative and competitive quiz-style games, hands-on activities and puzzles, think-pair-share, use of visuals, and small group discussions. She says, ¡°It was a vibrant and fun experience for all!¡±

As a Fulbright Scholar in India in 2016 and again in 2023, Anita taught undergraduates and explored issues of literacy and inclusion in preK-12 schools and programs. Subsequent to her first Fulbright, she engaged in research on inclusive education for children with disabilities in India. Thanks to a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½-specific Phillips Fellowship, she recently conducted a study on education nonprofits in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN)
Pune, India
Ministry of Human Resource Development

Assistant Professor of Asian Studies, Hanna McGaughey¡¯s research interests include gender history, intellectual history, performing arts, and digital humanities. For her latest publication, Hanna has contributed to the Handbook on Performance-Related Concepts in Non-European Languages, with a chapter entitled ¡°³Û¨±²µ±ð²Ô.¡± ÓÄÐþ She reaches back to sixth and seventh century China to find the origins of the concept that in the Japanese Heian period was used in poetic thought. Eventually, Zeami ÊÀ°¢ÃÖ (1363?¨C1443?), a performer during the first half of the Muromachi era, was the first to apply the word¡¯s meanings to work on the stage. 

³Û¨±²µ±ð²Ô ÓÄÐþ describes an aesthetic that is aristocratic, feminine, profound, otherworldly, and subtly sexual. Yet depending on the context, the word¡¯s meaning seems to shift. While Zeami sought to integrate ²â¨±²µ±ð²Ô into noh in order to please the aristocratic tastes of his martial patrons, his son-in-law Zenchiku expanded the meaning to find ²â¨±²µ±ð²Ô in all things, even rocks, trees, gold, gods, and demons and pushing ²â¨±²µ±ð²Ô into the realm of the grotesque in his play ¡°Teika.¡±

In her doctoral thesis at the University of Trier, she examined the onstage construction of gender in noh theater as described by noh performer, playwright, director, and critic Zeami in his theoretical writings. Arriving at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 2023, Hanna came from a position as a postdoctoral researcher at Hosei University in Tokyo, where she digitized manuscripts from the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries constituting a part of Zeami¡¯s textual heritage.

¡°³Û¨±²µ±ð²Ô.¡± In Handbook on Performance-Related Concepts in Non-European Languages, edited by Erika Fischer-Lichte, Torsten Jost, and Astrid Schenka, 482-7. Routledge, 2024.

Human activities have caused the global decline of large carnivore populations, as habitat loss and land conversion reduce the space available for these species. The situation is especially acute at the edges of protected areas (PAs), where animals like the African lion (Panthera leo) range outside PAs and into human-dominated landscapes. There, they frequently prey on free-ranging livestock¡ªoften triggering retaliatory or even preemptive killings by people trying to safeguard their livelihoods. Over the last ~50 years, lion populations have declined by about 90%, driven largely by habitat loss and conflict with humans. To better understand how lions navigate these high-conflict zones, Assistant Professor of Biology and Africana Eric G. LeFlore and his team tracked and monitored lions in Botswana¡¯s eastern Panhandle of the Okavango Delta, a human-lion conflict hotspot but also a critical lion conservation area.

The findings presented in his recent paper published in the Journal of Mammalogy highlight how the movements and space use of this social carnivore can vary based on system-specific ecological and anthropogenic pressures. Studying systems beyond park boundaries with high levels of human¨Clion conflict and establishing conservation programs that account for both ecological and sociocultural dimensions will better aid lion conservation efforts moving forward (Decker et al. 2012; LeFlore et al. 2019; Weise et al. 2019; LeFlore et al. 2020; LeFlore 2021). 

Eric joined the faculty at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 2023 and leads the LeFlore Lab for Human-Wildlife Coexistence, an interdisciplinary research unit. He and his students study the movements and distributions of carnivores in response to anthropogenic pressures, as well as the accompanying human dimensions. Current projects include a camera-trapping assessment of bobcat (Lynx rufus) distributions in central Maine and a sociocultural analysis of stakeholder perceptions of wildlife conservation efforts in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.

LeFlore, E.G., T.K. Fuller, and A.B. Stein. Lion (Panthera leo) movements in a multiuse area of the eastern Panhandle of the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Journal of Mammalogy 104: 1317-1328.

All photos courtesy of Eric LeFlore

Darren Gallant, the Associate Dean and Director of the Center for Global Education, completed his Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) Education Policy, Organization and Leadership program this past fall through the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

As one might imagine, Darren¡¯s concentration was Global Studies in Education and his dissertation was titled, World Language Requirements for Study Abroad: Impact on Student Intention and Participation. Darren explained, ¡°My dissertation looked at the impact of world language requirements on study abroad participation and world language study intentions. It’s a topic that I had been interested in since I was an undergraduate and continued as I became a professional in international education. Through my interviews and data analysis, I did find that world language requirements encourage already motivated language students to further their world language study. The impact on other students was inconclusive but provided insights on how to consider world language learning and study abroad for a broader population.¡±

The research Darren pursued is directly related to his work in the Center for Global Education at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, influencing his understanding of how students perceive world language requirements for study abroad. 

Darren explained the impetus behind getting his Ed.D. He finished a Master’s in Higher Education Administration about 10 years prior to starting the doctoral program. He notes, ¡°Living in Lewiston without easy access to doctoral granting institutions, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to continue my academic career. It was through seeing students go online with their learning that I then started looking into remote programs. I found UIUC through a colleague, tried out a remote class, and then entered the program. It ended up being the perfect balance for me, given my busy work schedule and occasional travel.¡± Darren was able to participate in classes while in India, Italy, Ireland, and Lewiston given the flexibility of remote study! He also is grateful for the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College education benefit which helped make pursuing another degree a financial reality.

When asked about advice to others thinking of graduate level study, he said, ¡°I do not think an advanced degree is necessary for everyone but I really enjoyed being a student again. I recommend being a student to everyone and I know that I will look for ways to be a student again in the future.¡±

Mark Lewis Tizzoni, Assistant Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies, has co-authored a new paper in The Palgrave Handbook of African Christianity from Apostolic Times to the Present. ¡°Christianity in Roman Africa, I: Communities and Religious Movements,¡± provides an updated, post-colonial exploration of the development of Christianity in the late antique Maghreb (modern-day Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and western Libya).

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The timeframe for this study is a ¡°long late antiquity,¡± roughly 180-700 CE, including both the later Roman Empire and its aftermath. The essay focuses on the ways in which community, consensus, and identity were built despite¨Cand often through¨Ccontroversy and resistance. During late antiquity, membership within the Christian movement, and what that meant, remained fluid, and this work examines the ways in which ancient Africans negotiated their own complex identities in relation to each other and broader cultural, social, political, and religious communities. Of particular importance for understanding these negotiations, the works argues, are the cult (and community) of the martyrs and the impact and legacies of Roman colonization.

Mark came to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 2020. His research employs Latin poetry to investigate the dynamic processes that shaped post-Roman cultural, social, and political landscapes, with a focus on the Maghreb and Iberia in the fifth through seventh centuries CE. He is particularly engaged with questions of social cohesion and identity¨Cethnicity, gender, and race¨Cand the application of feminist and critical race lenses to a body of sources historically studied in non-theoretically critical ways. Forthcoming works examine the identity- and race-making efforts of the court poets of sixth-century Carthage and curricular transformation in seventh-century Iberia. He is also working on an open-access book entitled The Maghreb in Late Antiquity. 

Christianity in Roman Africa, I: Communities and Religious Movements,¡± with Er¨ªc Fournier, in Handbook of African Christianity from Apostolic Times to the Present, edited by Andrew Barnes and Toyin Falola, pp. 377-97. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024.

Renee Dana, the Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty, recently earned her Masters of Science in Higher Education Administration degree from Southern New Hampshire University.

She explains the focus of her studies throughout the program was the faculty relationship to changes and the process to garner agreement and participation. ¡°Throughout my classes, I was the student challenging classmates on how their proposed processes would be implemented, as many of my classmates were new to higher education or had student perspectives on processes.¡± 

Renee previously earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine at Farmington in Business Economics and a minor in Psychology.

Her final paper tackled the topic of the implementation of a change to the general education requirement of a small liberal arts college. Conversations at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ centering on various graduation requirements and ways to ease paths for students to complete their studies inspired her research for the paper. She created a fictitious institution (lovingly named Dana College) and set a two year deadline for all changes required for this shift. This implementation required an institutional pause and shift in thinking to meet the needs of career-focused enrolled students. Among the obstacles for Dana College, Renee found, was that the required changes in advising, major declaration, and course restrictions challenged many institutional norms.

She encourages others to continue their studies and knows the research completed for this degree will be of benefit to her work at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Renee feels the degree was, ¡°a credentialing of all the work I have done in my years and years of administrative work in higher education spanning three institutions. The work for the degree provided another side of what goes into budgeting, conflict management, marketing, and admissions.¡± She also credits the expertise of those around campus in expanding her understanding of topics in our real world setting. In particular, Leigh Weisenburger, Dre Gauger, and Gwen Lexow were immeasurably helpful throughout several courses and she appreciated support from colleagues and friends. She also credits much of her degree success, ¡°to my loving partner, Michael, who spent many Thursdays and Sundays reminding me that I had important work to do.¡±

How do the language learners¡¯ perceptions of competence or incompetence impact their engagement in a digital storytelling project? In a chapter of the new work, The Politics of Incompetence: Learning Language, Relations of Power, and Daily Resistance, edited by Neriko Musha Doerr, Lecturer Keiko Konoeda analyzes three narratives from students in her Japanese language class to explore what shaped the three students¡¯ varied approaches to digital storytelling. This analysis highlights the role of plurilingual repertoires¡ªlearners’ diverse language backgrounds¡ª and the ideologies embedded in different language teaching approaches in shaping their  identities. In this work, Keiko sheds light on the complex dynamics of language learning, emphasizing the importance of valuing students’ multifaceted linguistic resources and critically examining classroom ideologies.

One reviewer wrote, ¡°Recognizing that ideologies of language are embedded in second language instruction, the contributors to this deeply thoughtful collection ask us to consider ¡®incompetence¡¯ in a new way. The authors challenge readers to move beyond the usual instrumental goal of teaching language as a static, abstract object to be mastered by urging us to value idiosyncratic and messy language learning experiences. Detailed case studies from different ethnographic contexts forward the argument that language learning is a journey that should engage with forms of incompetence as a productive resource.¡±

¡ª Laura Miller, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Konoeda, K. (2024). Identities of (in-)competence and plurilingual repertoires: Three stories of digital storytelling in a Japanese language classroom.  In N. M. Doerr (Ed.) Politics of ¡°incompetence¡±: Learning language, relations of power, and daily resistance (pp. 49-80). Rowman & Littlefield.

Symbolic racism, a form of racism whereby unconscious bias and subtle beliefs serve to justify discrimination against a racialized group, is frequently illustrated through support of laws and policies that undermine or oppose equality. Individuals who purport that they are not racist nonetheless hold negative racial beliefs which impact aspects of their behavior such as voting and political attitudes. In, ¡°The relations among explicit prejudice measures: Anti?black affect and perceptions of value violation as predictors of symbolic racism and attitudes toward racial policies,¡± published in the new ¡°Cambridge Handbook of Implicit Bias and Racism,¡± Professor of Psychology Michael Sargent and colleagues have taken a previously untested approach to question the origins of racial prejudice. Instead of the previously hypothesized origin, they found that the data are consistent with a “mediational chain.” In particular, holding the belief that Black people violate traditional values mediates the effect of “anti-Black affect,” on individual attitudes of policies with racial objectives. In other words, anti-Black affect (negative feelings toward Black people) leads to the belief that Black people don¡¯t conform to traditional values (such as hard work), and those beliefs in turn lead to opposition to race-targeted policies. Sargent and his coauthors view these data as consistent with a ¡°rationalization hypothesis¡±: when White people endorse the belief that Black people violate traditional values, those beliefs may simply be rationalizations for negative feelings toward Black people, rationalizations that then affect policy attitudes. Such research helps inform our collective understanding of the underpinnings of public opinion on racial policy.

Professor Sargent is a social psychologist by training, but with interests in political psychology. Most of his research focus is on the ways that people¡¯s collective identities relate to how they think about politics, especially their opinions toward policies. He¡¯s especially interested in racial and ethnic identity as predictors of, and drivers of, policy stances. 

Stark T. H., Sargent, M. J., Rabinowitz, J. L., Krosnick, J. A., & Shull, A. C. (2025). The relations among explicit prejudice measures: Anti?black affect and perceptions of value violation as predictors of symbolic racism and attitudes toward racial policies. In J. A. Krosnick, T. H. Stark, & A. L. Scott (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of implicit bias and racism. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.

Associate Professor of Biology, Larissa Williams, has published a new ¡°Editor¡¯s Choice¡± and ¡°Featured Article¡± in the Journal Toxins, revealing that the low levels of pollutants in our waters has more of a detrimental effect on both the aquatic life living in those waters and the humans that consume that water, than previously understood. A common flame-retardant and plasticizer in use since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned the previously utilized and highly toxic polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) from commercial use in 2009, triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) is frequently used in such common products as hydraulic fluids, electronic equipment, glues, nail polishes, and casting resins given it¡¯s flame retardant properties. Given its widespread use, TPhP is frequently detected in fresh and marine environments and in this paper, is shown to adversely affect the growth of aquatic organisms. The development of larval zebrafish (Danio rerio) from waters with environmental significant levels of TPhP were found to be impacted at both the molecular and phenotypic (observable) levels with a loss of body length and pericardial edema.

Zebrafish were selected, ¡°since TPhP may particularly accumulate in aquatic vertebrates, its impacts on these species are critical to determine. Zebra?sh genetic and metabolic pathways are highly conserved with humans and other vertebrates, and as such these impacts are likely to be transferable to TPhP exposure in various vertebrate species and to humans¡± according to the authors. Clearly, studies such as this are vital to fully understand the impact of industrial compounds on the environment, and ultimately the unintended consequences on humans and the animals around us.

For this paper, Larissa worked with three talented ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students in her lab in Bonney Science Hall, Ben Schmandt ¡®22, Mfon Diduff ¡®24, and Gabrielle Williams, ¡®23. For each of the three, their insightful work in the lab has carried them forward after graduation. According to a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ News story on this paper, Ben is currently a research associate in the Claussnitzer Lab at the Broad Institute, Mfon is a research technician at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Gabrielle is now in veterinary school at Washington State University.

*Schmandt B, *Diduff M, *Smart G, Williams L. (2024). Environmentally-relevant concentrations of triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) impact cardiac development in zebrafish. Toxics, 12: 368. doi: 10.3390/toxics12050368.?

In a new article in Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, ¡°Drinking with the Dead: Libation Conduits from Rome¡¯s Columbaria to the Cortile at the American Academy in Rome,¡± Liana examines ancient Roman funeral customs which allowed the Romans to maintain connections to their deceased loved ones through rituals involving the offerings of food and drink. Liana focuses on libation conduits, special channels carved into marble epitaphs, known to modern scholars as infundibula, which have not been well studied to date. These conduits provided a means for liquids, like wine and water, to be poured directly into the tombs, which allowed the living to symbolically share a meal with their loved ones. Such a practice honored the deceased while maintaining a sense of continuity between the living and the afterlife. Liana notes that, ¡°Such commemorative strategies were especially prominent among the non-elite, for whom the perpetuation of memory was of special concern.¡±

Liana is a field archaeologist who excavates a Roman cemetery in southeast Italy. Her research has appeared in the Journal of Roman Archaeology, Proceedings of the Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, the Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, and in various edited volumes. She is currently working on a monograph, Corporeal Connections in Roman Burial Practices, which explores ongoing interactions between the living and the dead in Roman Italy.

Brent, L. ¡°Drinking with the Dead: Libation Conduits from Rome¡¯s Columbaria to the Cortile at the American Academy in Rome.¡± Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome vol. 69 (Fall 2024).