Tieken advocates for colleges to rethink how they support rural students once they arrive on campuses far from their homes, not just in terms of miles, but in cultural markers. “We don’t have that vocabulary for how geography matters,” Tieken told .

In a June 11 Education Week story headlined “,” Tieken said, “The assumption is just so baked into the logic of closure decisions that it’s assumed closures will save money, so it can be really hard for leaders to combat that thinking. This is a really important piece of evidence as districts navigate these conversations and decisions.”

The reported that Jessica Anthony ’96, senior lecturer in English, was one of three Mainers to win the Guggenheim Fellowship for 2026. Fellowships were awarded to 223 people working across 55 fields, according to a release from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Nearly 5,000 people had applied.

Jess Anthony is the author of four novels, including The Most, which was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction in 2024.  Her 2020 novel “Enter the Aardvark” was a finalist for the New England Book Award in fiction. Anthony teaches introductory and advanced fiction and nonfiction workshops and advises students writing creative theses.

You can read more about �ֲ���ý’ two faculty winners here.

Myronn Hardy, associate professor of English, was one of three Mainers to win the Guggenheim Fellowship for 2026 recently reported in the. Fellowships were awarded to 223 people working across 55 fields, according to a release from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Nearly 5,000 people had applied.

Hardy’s Guggenheim is a career prize, celebrating his body of work while supporting future endeavors. Hardy has published six volumes of poetry, most recently, Aurora Americana. His books have received numerous accolades including the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the Griot-Stadler Prize for Poetry. 

You can read more about �ֲ���ý’ two faculty winners here.

Diamond-Stanic, whose research focuses on the evolution of galaxies and the growth of supermassive black holes through cosmic time, was joined on panel by Sarah Tuttle, host and producer of Maine Public Classical and Jessica Miller, host of Weekend Edition and radio operations announcer for Maine Public. His job? Explaining the science.

But he also spoke on the way the approaching solstice is celebrated in his native Serbian culture. He described Slava as a way to celebrate something that we are all experiencing but do not have control over. “Coming together in moments of otherwise darkness to bring light is really human [tendency],” Diamond-Stanic says.

“One woman told me she could still feel her mother’s hands over hers when she wove,” Bennett told EL PAÍS reporter Ana Rodríguez Álvarez. “That is the spirituality behind the textile.”

Bennett, who chairs the Anthropology department, has done extensive research on Maya women in Guatemala, tracking their attempts to protect their traditional weavings through intellectual property rights. The National Women’s Weaving Movement of Guatemala has been pushing back on the way national and international manufacturers, often fast fashion brands, have reproduced traditional designs without recognizing their creators or paying them for their designs.

“Global fashion wants inspiration,” Bennett told EL PAÍS.  “But what it often does is extraction. They take designs that have been collectively protected for centuries and register them as their own. It is a silent but devastating violence.” 

In August, Deadline covered Gonzalez Valencia’s&�Բ�����;, which supports filmmakers in developing their pitches, and invites them to present their works in progress to a panel of funders and distributors at Camden International Film Festival. The film, which is being shot in the U.S., Colombia, and Mexico, is a “hybrid documentary” in which a domestic worker and her filmmaker daughter co-create the fictional character of a writer to uncover the slippage between truth and fantasy. It tells a story about immigration, labor, dreams, and the power of fiction to spark emancipation.

 “Conspiracy Rhetoric,” which Kelley-Romano is teaching again this fall, focuses on the ways that rhetoric — the art of effective (and often persuasive) communication —  shapes conspiracy theories. Kelley-Romano explains that “when students understand how things function rhetorically, then they can see and create rhetorical campaigns.” She told the Chronicle that the course often helps students understand that “when more people have more rights and more support, the entire society does better.” 

Tieken studies rural education and students; her book Educated Out: How Rural Students Navigate Elite Colleges—And What It Costs Them, published by the University of Chicago Press and released in May, is a study exploring the ways that geography impacts the experiences of first-generation students from rural communities — from access to higher education, experiences during college, and postgraduation opportunities.

In August, Tieken, who received the 2024 Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching, was , the publication of Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she received both her master’s in education and her doctorate.