LEHIGH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES SCHOLARSHIP, RESEARCH, AND CREATIVE WORK REVIEW | 2025
2 LEHIGH UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES content s MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN Advancing Scholarship, Educating Students, and Addressing Challenges | 3 HIGHLIGHTS Black Women’s Discourse on Religion in the Woman’s Era | 4 Charting the Psychology of Teen Friendships | 4 PhD Candidate Domenica Fertal Earns ACS WCC Merck Award | 5 Designing for Connection | 7 Wes Hiatt Named to National Housing Equity Cohort | 8 Saimonth Muñoz ‘26 Earns Prestigious Goldwater Scholarship | 10 New Statistical Tool Enhances Prediction Accuracy | 10 Fictions of the Forgotten | 11 How One Bacterium Is Changing Disease Control | 13 Beyond Pride and Prejudice: A Professor’s Podcast Makes the Case for Jane Austen—and the Humanities | 14 Student Intern’s Research Helps Advance Wound Healing for Military | 17 SPOTLIGHTS Designing Understanding | 6 Beneath the Surface | 9 Decisions, Decisions | 12 Algebraic Geometry and Andrew Harder’s Cosmic Research Path | 15 The Tales We Tell | 16 BY THE NUMBERS | 18 COVER IMAGE: “Under A Restless Sky,” an immersive installation and musical score by Nathalie Miebach exploring climate patterns across the Southeast. Courtesy of Nathalie Miebach
INQUIRY | SCHOLARSHIP, RESEARCH, AND CREATIVE WORK | REVIEW 2025 3 Advancing Scholarship, Educating Students, and Addressing Challenges WELCOME to Inquiry, a review of research in the College of Arts and Sciences. Research is at the heart of everything we do at Lehigh. It drives discovery, fuels innovation and transforms both our understanding of the world and our ability to address its most pressing challenges. At Lehigh, research is more than an academic exercise—it is a dynamic force that bridges theory and practice, connecting classroom learning with real-world impact. Our faculty’s scholarship spans disciplines and crosses traditional boundaries, from studying bacteria’s potential to fight mosquito-borne diseases to exploring the cultural influence of graphic design. This interdisciplinary approach reflects our commitment to addressing complex problems that require diverse perspectives and expertise. What makes research at Lehigh especially powerful is how closely it integrates with our educational mission. Our students are deeply involved in our labs, creative spaces, and studios. Whether analyzing environmental stressors in labs, conducting fieldwork in national parks or collaborating with international research teams, students gain hands-on experience that shapes their academic journey and prepares them for meaningful careers. The impact of our research extends far beyond campus. Faculty discoveries advance science, inform policy and address societal needs. Through partnerships with local communities, federal agencies and private foundations, our research creates pathways for positive change that benefit both our region and the world. Research also cultivates critical thinking and problem-solving skills essential in a complex world. It teaches persistence in uncertainty, creativity in tackling challenges and the importance of evidence-based decision-making—qualities our graduates carry throughout their lives. As we continue to invest in infrastructure and support innovative scholarship, we remain committed to fostering an environment where curiosity thrives and discovery flourishes. message from the dean contributors CO-EDITORS Hayley Frerichs Robert Nichols M.Ed.’17 CAS ADVISORY BOARD Robert A. Flowers II, dean Kelly Austin, R. Michael Burger, Dawn Keetley, Jessecae Marsh, associate deans DESIGNER Kayley LeFaiver CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Hayley Frerichs Vicki Mayk Robert Nichols Lauren Thein PHOTOGRAPHERS Christine Kreschollek Christa Neu Inquiry is published annually by the College of Arts and Sciences at Lehigh University. COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Lehigh University 9 West Packer Avenue Bethlehem, PA 18015 cas.lehigh.edu Robert A Flowers II Herbert J. and Ann L. Siegel Dean CAS.Lehigh lehigh_cas lehighu-cas @lehigh_cas @Lehigh_CAS Douglas Benedict
4 LEHIGH UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES History Black Women’s Discourse on Religion in the Woman’s Era America in the late 19th and early 20th century, often called the Woman’s Era by some historians, was a time of intense activism by women striving for racial and gender equality. A key organization in this movement was the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), founded in 1896, which advocated—and continues to advocate—for the rights of both women and African Americans. Historian Joseph Williams is delving into how Black women engaged with religion, the divine, and the afterlife during this period. Williams’ research, which will culminate in a monograph, draws from a range of mediums including books clubs, organizational meetings records (such as those from the NACW and its conferences), newspapers, magazines, and speeches. “The purpose of the book is really to both map those ideas, but also to document how these women use those ideas to shore up their campaign for racial and gender equality,” he explains. One prominent voice Williams examines is Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, social activist and journalist from Boston, who established The Woman’s Era magazine, an offshoot of her Woman’s Era Club. A publication Williams discovered while studying at DePaul University, there’s a particular report in the magazine that captured his attention. The club hosts Ednah D. Cheney, a prominent lecturer, who spoke on religious toleration and spiritualism. The account of the event in The Woman’s Era offers an interesting discussion on the role of religion in community and how it applies to equal rights. Williams uses this exchange as a departure point for his project, highlighting how these women created a space for Black women to engage in a conversation generally associated with the academy or private clubs. These spaces weren’t for the elite but everyday readers and women, some of whom lacked formal education. While some of the women are fairly familiar to historians, Williams is also centering women whose stories have not been told. Previous historical scholarship has explored Black women’s Christian experiences. Williams is broadening the scope to pluralist religious experiences. “I wanted to reflect on what it meant to identify as a certain part of a religion, but engage or embrace practices and speech that might compromise that identity or conflict with that identity. I think people do that all the time,” he says, citing his own grandmother as an inspiration for the project. The women in Williams’ study were not merely engaging in abstract theological discussions. Their intellectual pursuits were deeply intertwined with their activism. “[They] are engaging in this type of work for a very specific goal.” These goals included dismantling Jim Crow laws, advocating for women’s suffrage, challenging gender norms, reforming the church, and persistently championing education for all. “I’ve learned to appreciate discourse and the potential it brings for social change,” Williams concludes, underscoring the enduring power of these women’s intellectual and activist legacies. Psychology Charting the Psychology of Teen Friendships Friendships during adolescence are widely understood to be critical for emotional and social development. Yet, as developmental psychologist Sarah Borowski’s research underscores, her work offers a nuanced understanding of how supportive interactions among peers can foster resilience— or, under certain conditions, exacerbate emotional difficulties. Borowski’s research focuses on the ways in which adolescents seek and provide emotional support within peer relationships, particularly during a developmental period characterized by increasing autonomy from parents. She identifies close friendships as strongly associated with improved emotional competence, reduced depressive symptoms, and the development of healthier romantic relationships later in life. However, adolescents, lacking the emotional maturity of adults, may engage in behaviors that inadvertently reinforce negative emotional patterns. Joseph Williams Christine Kreschollek, Boston Public Library HIGHLIGHTS
INQUIRY | SCHOLARSHIP, RESEARCH, AND CREATIVE WORK | REVIEW 2025 5 (CONTINUED ON PAGE 7) One such behavior, co-rumination, is a central focus of Borowski’s work. Co-rumination involves repetitive, negative discussions of problems, and while it fosters a sense of closeness, it also intensifies emotional distress. Notably, findings from Borowski’s lab and other research labs reveal that this behavior not only intensifies individual depressive symptoms but can also facilitate contagious depression. “If you have a friend who has higher levels of depressive symptoms, over time, you look more like your friend in terms of their depressive symptoms,” says Borowski, assistant professor of psychology. As director of Lehigh’s Peer Relations Lab, Borowski and her team examine how these behavioral, physiological, and emotional mechanisms affect adolescents’ development and well-being. Her longitudinal study, Teens Talking, follows friend pairs over time, allowing for the identification of behavioral and physiological patterns predictive of future emotional health. Adolescents initially come into the lab with their friends and answer a battery of questions about their friendship and how they’ve been feeling, how they manage emotions on their own, and different stressors that they’re currently experiencing. Borowski’s team applies three heart rate sensors, a respiration belt, and skin conductance sensors to measure participants’ physiological responses. Then they sit in a room with their friend for 16 minutes while researchers record their physiological responses, as well as video and audio record their conversations while they talk about the problem. Researchers study their “micro-social” behaviors — how friends respond to each other’s emotional disclosures — and how their physiological responses are linked during supportive interactions. Participants return after a year for follow-up assessments. Adolescent friendships are seen as crucial because they are voluntary, foster conflict resolution skills, support intimacy and emotional disclosure, and are deeply rewarding neurologically, laying the foundation for future relationships. Preliminary findings from this research suggest that individual differences in emotional regulation moderate the effects of co-rumination. Adolescents who exhibit adaptive physiological regulations in response to stress appear protected against the depressive consequences of co-rumination. By identifying the conditions under which friendships promote resilience versus risk, Borowski’s work holds important implications for interventions aimed at fostering healthier peer relationships during this formative period. Chemistry PhD Candidate Domenica Fertal Earns ACS WCC Merck Award Domenica Fertal, a PhD candidate in Lehigh University’s Department of Chemistry, has been named a recipient of the 2025 ACS Women Chemists Committee (WCC) Merck Research Award, presented by Merck Pharmaceuticals. The WCC Merck Research Award honors eight outstanding young chemists who will present their research at a special awards symposium during the Fall American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting. “I am so proud of Domenica for her hard work over the years that has led to her recognition as a WCC Merck Research Award recipient,” said Elizabeth Young, associate professor of chemistry and Fertal’s advisor. “It has been a joy to watch her research skills and confidence grow the past couple of years as she has developed into an independent researcher here at Lehigh. I have been incredibly impressed with Domenica’s maturity, and the awareness and empathy she demonstrates on a daily basis. Congratulations to Domenica for this wonderful recognition!” Fertal, a fourth-year graduate student in the Young Lab, conducts research on the photodegradation of azo dyes— pollutants commonly produced by the Sarah Browski (right) and undergraduate researcher Ariana Arken (left) observe the placement of a heart rate sensor. Christine Kreschollek
6 LEHIGH UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES SPOT LIGHT LEHIGH UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES AT THE CROSSROADS of cultural inquiry and technological exploration, Kevin Lahoda is charting a design practice that is as thoughtful as it is future-facing. A designer whose work is influenced by a background in anthropology, Lahoda’s scholarship interrogates what it means to do research in design and what it means to teach it. Today, his research focuses on how graphic and interactive design can be used to make complex, often invisible systems visible and comprehensible. But the story doesn’t begin with pixels or posters. “When we talk about data visualization, what interests me is how designers, whether through research or practice, are exploring alternative ways of turning data into stories,” says Lahoda, assistant professor of design in the Department of Art, Architecture, and Design. Data can be experiential, but Lahoda’s research emphasizes the importance of data literacy and physicalization—the process of turning abstract information into physical, tangible objects or experiences, such as sculptures, installations, wearables, or interactive environments. The goal is often to make data more engaging, accessible, and meaningful by involving the body and senses, he says. By interacting with data in a physical space—touching it, walking around it, manipulating it—people can develop a deeper, often more intuitive understanding of the information. Lahoda’s students are immersed in his design ethos from day one. In an information design class, one student recently created a visual narrative charting the ecological cost of artificial intelligence—translating the abstract energy demands of AI into tangible metrics. ChatGPT “drinks” roughly a half liter of water for every 50 or so queries, so the student scaled the metaphor to bathtubs and Olympic-sized pools, transforming an invisible infrastructure into an evocative, data-driven story. “Basically, the idea was back-of-the-napkin kind of math,” he says. “It’s a little loose, but it’s making a point. It’s data-informed, this idea that anytime you put a prompt in for a ChatGPT, there is a cost connected. That student didn’t just learn about AI’s environmental impact by being told about it. They learned about it through the design process—by translating data into form and meaning.” Lahoda’s emphasis on discovery, iteration, and critical thinking is woven into his teaching. He encourages students to dwell in uncertainty, explore ambiguity, and ask deeper questions before arriving at polished outcomes. There is often a rush in the industry to get to the deliverable, he says. But if you fast-forward through discovery, you miss the human insight. And that’s frustrating for students who want to go deep. “It’s great to see when students are engaging on that level of critical thinking and then cultivating some critical discourse around it. Multimodal engagement, which is something that we can do with interactive media, has a lot of potential for engagement. And then, ideally, going back around to the idea of design as an advocate for something, or getting people to do or think something different.” ■ Designing Understanding Kevin Lahoda in the classroom. A web and design project, “Behind the Meter” sheds light on the climate impact of cryptocurrency mining in New York State (below). Christine Kreschollek, Courtesy of Kevin Lahoda
INQUIRY | SCHOLARSHIP, RESEARCH, AND CREATIVE WORK | REVIEW 2025 7 textile industry. Her work explores light-driven degradation mechanisms with the goal of informing future environmental remediation strategies. In addition to her research, Fertal has mentored 10 undergraduate students, helping them navigate the academic research environment. “Mentoring undergraduates has been a rewarding experience that reminds me every day where we all started from,” Fertal said. “I am proud of the work that I have done thus far to get to where I am currently, and I am endlessly thankful for the support I receive from my advisor and lab mates, as well as my friends and family!” Originally from Georgia, Fertal earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Columbus State University before joining Lehigh University in 2021 to pursue her doctorate. Looking ahead, she aspires to continue her research in the renewable energy sector. As part of the award, Fertal will receive a $1,500 stipend to support her participation in the Fall ACS National Meeting, where she will present her findings at the WCC/Merck symposium. She will also be recognized at the Awards Symposium Luncheon and the WCC Luncheon. Political Science Designing for Connection At the base of Bethlehem’s Fahy Bridge, nestled just behind a curtain of urban obscurity, lies a small triangle of green space that most passersby barely notice. But for Karen Beck Pooley and her environmental studies students, this unassuming patch of land— currently a little-known bus stop—has become a site for envisioning more equitable, accessible, and sustainable urban infrastructure. Pooley, professor of practice in political science and the co-director of Lehigh’s Small Cities Lab, directed a community and economic development project in Fall 2024 that offered students a rare opportunity—reimagine public transit access at the intersection of policy, design, and lived experience. Collaborating with the Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority (LANTA), the City of Bethlehem, and South Side community organizations, students were asked to investigate a deceptively complex question—how do we make a bus stop visible, functional, and meaningful? This site is tucked literally behind everything, Pooley notes. It sits in a park, at the edge of a dense urban area, and most Lehigh students don’t even know it exists. So, they started to brainstorm, “Well, how do we design these bus stations?” Since the Fahy Bridge stop is closest to Lehigh, LANTA gave the students free rein to think about what kind of amenities would make sense here. At the heart of the initiative was a realworld design challenge. Students were not only asked to propose infrastructure improvements, but also to understand the human barriers that shape transit use —especially among those most in need of affordable transportation options. Using fieldwork and interviews, students identified key deterrents to ridership, such as confusing pedestrian pathways and unsafe intersections. The class presented their ideas to representatives (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5) (CONTINUED ON PAGE 8) Christine Kreschollek, Science Source, Courtesy of LANTA Domenica Fertal researches photodegradation of synthetic organic dyes (above). Brightly colored fabric is dyed in a factory (left).
8 LEHIGH UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES from LANTA, the City of Bethlehem, and the SouthSide Arts District. City officials reviewed student recommendations for improving the Columbia Street corridor and prioritized those that are both feasible and aligned with ongoing city initiatives. While these projects are still in the early stages, the city remains committed to keeping them on the radar and moving them forward in concert with community partners. As Pooley sees it, this kind of university-community partnership exemplifies a shift in how Lehigh prepares students to think about public space: not as static, utilitarian infrastructure, but as dynamic civic terrain—shaped by policy, imagination, and justice. “This work is about visibility,” she says. “Not just of the bus stop, but of the people who need it most.” Architecture Wes Hiatt Named to National Housing Equity Cohort Architect Wes Hiatt has joined a select group of faculty with his selection for the 2025 Cohort of the Academy for Public Scholarship on the Built Environment: HOUSING EQUITY. The program is supported by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the ACSA Research + Scholarship Committee, in partnership with The OpEd Project. Hiatt, assistant professor of architecture in the Department of Art, Architecture and Design, is part of a cohort of 12 architecture faculty whose scholarship addresses housing equity and aims to influence the policies and narratives that shape the built environment. The cohort will participate in The OpEd Project’s virtual “Write to Change the World” workshops, which connect participants with diverse identities, voices and ideas. Members will also engage in a series of training modules led by experts on housing equity and public scholarship, including representatives from the AIA Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community and other allied organizations working toward housing equity. Hiatt is a designer and educator whose studio and design courses reflect his pedagogical interest in early-career learning and the foundational principles of design. His research focuses on coalition building, urban change, and community-led design visioning projects. He is deeply committed to reorienting architects away from traditional technocratic thought and market-based services, working instead through partnership coordination and place-based design proposals to imagine necessary change alongside communities. His work focuses on smaller cities and towns across the United States, which have historically been understudied and underserved relative to larger metros. Prior to joining Lehigh, he taught design studios at The Cooper Union, Yale University, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Southern California. Hiatt serves as co-director of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Small Cities Lab, an interdisciplinary research center focused on projects that reflect the interconnected nature of urban spaces. The lab supports research that bridges theory and practice across disciplines including architecture and urban design, urban planning and policy, the public humanities and social sciences, community and economic development, urban and environmental health, and climate change. Through place-based solutions that are locally relevant and nationally scalable, the lab helps close critical research gaps and strengthens the capacity of U.S. municipalities to address and proactively manage urban challenges which has received over $1.6 million in funding. Christine Kreschollek (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7) Architect Wes Hiatt in south Bethlehem and a model alley house in a Lehigh Valley neighborhood (below).
INQUIRY | SCHOLARSHIP, RESEARCH, AND CREATIVE WORK | REVIEW 2025 9 WHILE MANY ASSOCIATE volcanology with the dramatic spectacle of erupting lava and rugged fieldwork, geoscientist Meredith Townsend is approaching volcanoes from another perspective. Specializing in the internal processes that govern volcanic activity, Townsend’s research centers not on eruptions as they happen, but on the underlying systems that drive them — the movement of magma beneath the surface and the ways in which these dynamics interact with broader planetary forces. Part of Townsend’s research begins in regions where volcanoes have long gone quiet—extinct giants whose subterranean “plumbing systems” are now visible thanks to erosion. Townsend, an assistant professor of Earth and environmental sciences, studies regions where mountains have been worn down over millennia, revealing the hardened pathways once carved by ascending magma. Central to her research are geological structures known as dikes—fractures in the Earth’s crust filled with once-molten rock. Her work investigates the forces that control the direction of dike propagation and whether dikes ultimately reach the surface or stall underground. These questions are critical not only for understanding how volcanoes form but also for improving the accuracy of eruption forecasting. Combining geological mapping with petrographic analysis, Townsend’s team examines the alignment of crystals within ancient magma flows—microscopic, time-stamped records of how and where the molten rock once moved. This approach enables Townsend’s team to reconstruct the pathways of magmatic ascent and, importantly, to identify the factors that determine whether a magma flow breaches the surface. Many seismic events that signal potential eruptions ultimately result in “failed eruptions,” where magma remains trapped beneath the surface. A better understanding of magma transport processes could help reduce false alarms and more reliably identify genuine eruption threats. “One of the big questions at any potentially active volcano is where will the next eruptive vent form? This is an especially important question for the large stratovolcanoes we have in the western U.S., such as Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier. We tend to think of eruptions as coming out the top of the volcano, but oftentimes volcanoes erupt at lower elevations, sometimes near the base or even not at the main center of the volcano at all. And a lot more people live at these lower elevations, so it’s definitely of interest to figure out why magma would go to the top versus out the sides.” Although Townsend began her career studying long-extinct volcanoes, her current research spans both deep geological time and urgent contemporary issues. In an ongoing project in southern Chile, she and a multidisciplinary team are investigating a potential feedback loop between volcanic activity and climate change. It is well established that volcanoes can influence climate by emitting gases such as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, which can drive global warming or cooling. But Townsend is exploring the reverse relationship: Can climate change influence volcanic activity? At its heart, Townsend’s work remains focused on one deceptively simple question: what allows some magma to erupt, while the rest cools unseen beneath our feet? The implications of this question reach far beyond geology, touching everything from hazard mitigation to the story of Earth’s evolving atmosphere. ■ The large crater on the northern face of Mount St. Helens in Washington State was a result of the 1980 eruption. Beneath the Surface Prisma Bildagentur / Universal Images Group via Getty Images SPOT LIGHT
10 LEHIGH UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES a boost in luminescence. When these entangled electron molecules merge together, under certain conditions, they will release a photon of light and, at a very high magnetic field, create a boost in luminescence, he said. Muñoz said the research team is studying the behavior of these excited particles and the probability at which they reunite, and are measuring how they evolve and interact over time. This research highlights the potential of condensed matter systems to contribute to fields such as quantum information science, particularly in quantum computing, and secure communication like cryptography, as well as renewable energy like solar technology. Mathematics New Statistical Tool Enhances Prediction Accuracy An international team of mathematicians, led by Lehigh statistician Taeho Kim, has developed a new method that could improve how scientists make predictions in health, biology and the social sciences. The approach, called the Maximum Agreement Linear Predictor, or MALP, is designed to produce predictions that better align with actual outcomes. It optimizes the Concordance Correlation Coefficient, or CCC, which measures how well pairs of observations fall on the 45-degree line of a scatter plot. This combines both precision, how tightly points cluster, and accuracy, how close they are to the line. Traditional methods, such as least squares, focus on minimizing average errors. While effective, they can fall short when alignment matters most, says Kim, assistant professor of mathematics. “Sometimes, we don’t just want our predictions to be close—we want them to have the highest agreement with the real becoming one of just 441 college students across the United States to receive a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship in 2025. At Lehigh, Muñoz conducts research on rubrene, an organic semiconductor that can transfer information through light, under quantum physicist Ivan Biaggio, professor and Joseph A. Waldschmitt Chair in Physics. Semiconductors are used to transfer information within devices. Advancements in semiconductors have caused them to shrink in size, which can lead to interference known as quantum mechanical tunneling, Muñoz said. Because of rubrene’s unique quantum mechanical properties, researchers are exploring it as an alternative way to transfer information for devices that may experience this interference, such as quantum computers. In Biaggio’s lab, Muñoz participates in experiments that involve the use of lasers to excite rubrene crystals, making them glow. The crystals absorb laser energy, their electrons get excited, then they go back to their ground state, releasing energy out in the form of light, Muñoz said. When rubrene absorbs light, it can create a pair of entangled excitons with opposite spin, meaning their quantum states are linked no matter how far apart they are. Interestingly, an applied magnetic field on the crystal has a notable effect on when it releases its light back out, Muñoz said. A magnetic field changes the quantum wave function and, in turn, the probability of the quantum entangled pairs joining back together and creating Physics Saimonth Muñoz ’26 Earns Prestigious Goldwater Scholarship After completing his first semester as an undergraduate student at Lehigh in 2021, Saimonth Muñoz ’26 began working for the Air National Guard as a radio frequency operator and became interested in learning how information is propagated through radio. He explored the theoretical physics behind it, which inspired him to pursue physics-related research at Lehigh and declare a physics major in addition to his electrical engineering major. This path— fueled by curiosity and motivation to solve societal challenges—led Muñoz to Christa Neu Saimonth Muñoz
INQUIRY | SCHOLARSHIP, RESEARCH, AND CREATIVE WORK | REVIEW 2025 11 (CONTINUED ON PAGE 13) This is the core of a new special issue of Nouvelles Études Francophones, published by the University of Nebraska Press, for which the editor is Taïeb Berrada, associate professor of French and Francophone Studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. Focused on French colonial massacres, it gathers a cohort of scholars who examine how contemporary Francophone cultural production reconstructs, reimagines, and resists historical silences. This special issue moves across continents and mediums. One article tackles the erasure of native voices in the Pacific; another examines violent memory in Caribbean contexts. Contributions also focus on Madagascar and Cameroon, whose histories are too often sidelined in broader discussions of colonial violence. Though diverse in geography, all these pieces share a common urgency—to counteract the institutional forgetfulness that colonialism so carefully engineered. Berrada contributes an article to the issue, which centers on the 1944 They also tested MALP on a body fat data set from 252 adults. Again, MALP delivered predictions that more closely matched actual values, while least squares produced smaller average errors. Kim says the choice between MALP and conventional methods should depend on research goals. If minimizing error is the priority, traditional methods remain effective. If agreement is critical, MALP is the better option. “We need to investigate further,” Kim says. “Our goal is to remove the linear part so it becomes the Maximum Agreement Predictor.” Modern Languages and Literatures Fictions of the Forgotten In the histories of French colonialism, silence often speaks louder than fact. Archives disappear. Witnesses are silenced. Testimonies are buried under decades of censorship and state-sanctioned forgetting. But in the gaps left behind, literature, film, photography, and graphic novels begin to speak, insisting that the past is not past, and that memory is a political act. values,” he says. “The issue is, how can we define the agreement of two objects in a scientifically meaningful way? One way we can conceptualize this is how close the points are aligned with a 45 degree line on a scatter plot between the predicted value and the actual values.” Pearson’s correlation coefficient is often used to measure linear relationships. However, it can indicate a strong correlation even if points align to a line at 50 or 75 degrees, Kim says. “In our case, we are specifically interested in alignment with a 45-degree line,” he says. “For that, we use a different measure, the concordance correlation coefficient, introduced by Lin in 1989. What we’ve developed is a predictor designed to maximize the concordance correlation between predicted values and actual values.” The team tested MALP with simulations and real-world data, including eye scans and body fat measurements. In one study, they applied MALP to data from an ophthalmology study comparing two types of optical coherence tomography, or OCT, devices. The results showed MALP better matched actual Stratus OCT readings than least squares, though the latter slightly reduced average error. Taeho Kim Christine Kreschollek
12 LEHIGH UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES SPOT LIGHT EMERGING JOURNALISTS are joining the field as artificial intelligence threatens to dominate the field. Cognitive Science major and Brown and White journalist Rachel Gruber is researching how pre-professional journalists integrate AI into their work. By asking fellow journalists to mimic their workflow, Gruber is discovering what their answers can tell us about process and technology in the face of an ever evolving landscape. Before finalizing her research topic, Gruber collaborated with Haiyan Jia, associate professor of journalism, to explore the limitations of AI—particularly its capacity for empathy. Now, she is running a two-part study: first, a survey to assess perceptions and attitudes toward AI integration; and second, an hour-long observation session. “We’re trying to figure out how people not only use AI in their journalistic practices, but how they view AI,” Gruber explains. “Do they give credibility to the technology they’re using when they’re creating something? Do they think that the technology should get credibility? Would they like whatever task they’re using AI for to be fully automated?” By mapping their co-intelligence, Gruber is visualizing their mental model of the AI application they’re using or the generative AI they’re interacting with. Young journalists, like those in the Brown and White, are often tech-savvy, having grown up with technology. And as they prepare to enter the workforce, Gruber is exploring how journalists not only use AI, but how social and cultural factors, such as newsroom norms and guidelines, shape their cognitive response to generative AI. In a way, pre-professional journalists are responsible for building ethical, sustainable practices to protect what makes the field so integral to society, Gruber notes. She ran the community section of the Brown and White, getting to know the Lehigh Valley and building connections in the South Side. “I’ve seen so much of how journalists can impact a community in a positive way,” she says. “Seeing that and meeting so many awesome people from the community around Lehigh has been why I want to do this research to protect it.” Before AI dominated the scene, Gruber has always been interested in understanding why people do what they do. “I’m someone who just loves to talk to people,” she says. “And I think part of that is understanding people’s motivations and getting to know them on a more personal level.” In early March, Gruber presented at the Association for Education Journalism and Mass Communication conference. It was a daunting experience, but she notes the skills she gained at Lehigh prepared her well. She formed personal relationships with her professors who were firm, but supportive. “I am so thankful to my professors at Lehigh who have helped me become not only the student but the person I am today,” she says. After Lehigh, Gruber hopes to move and work in New York City, a lifelong dream, and maybe attend law school. “I think about writing laws that protect not only the sanctity of journalism, but again, going back to the technology integration, how are we adopting society to the fast pace of the world we’re in right now?” ■ Decisions, Decisions Christine Kreschollek Rachel Gruber
INQUIRY | SCHOLARSHIP, RESEARCH, AND CREATIVE WORK | REVIEW 2025 13 (CONTINUED ON PAGE 14) Thiaroye massacre in Senegal. The massacre remains a painful but under-acknowledged episode. West African soldiers, known as tirailleurs sénégalais, were killed by the French military after peacefully demanding back pay for their service in World War II. French authorities labeled them mutineers. But what the archives suppress, cinema and literature revive. Ousmane Sembène’s Camp de Thiaroye, for example, exposes the racialized betrayal at the heart of the incident, while a recent graphic novel adaptation translates this complex history into a visual language accessible to new generations. This editorial project runs parallel to a broader, long-term book endeavor on which Berrada is working. Tentatively titled French Colonial Massacres in Contemporary Works, it investigates how historical atrocities in Algeria, Senegal, Central Africa, and Madagascar are revisited in postcolonial cultural production. “How do we talk about something when we don’t have witnesses who are alive and who could tell their story? There is that fictive part, but that fictive part is very important to understand what actually happened because of censorship inflicted by the French. That silence that lasted for decades. This is what literature can do, what fiction, what film can do to make us understand certain events that are porous and that have a lot of missing documents, and of course, also a lot of censorship.” Berrada’s book centers Africa, while the special issue spans the Pacific and Caribbean. Both ask: what happens when history forgets but art remembers? Colonial massacres persist in silence and bureaucracy, yet fiction, film, and visual culture transform remembrance into testimony—acts of memory and resistance across continents. Biology How One Bacterium Is Changing Disease Control Dylan Shropshire didn’t set out to become a microbiologist. As an undergraduate student studying insect behavior in Tennessee, he worked with flesh-feeding flies—critters he raised on rotting beef liver, no less. But while studying the flies, he began thinking about how the microbes in that complex environment might influence the lifestyle of the fly. When it came time to consider graduate school, Shropshire was drawn to microbiomes and aimed to join a lab focused on this area. That curiosity led him to a doctoral program at Vanderbilt University, where he was introduced to Wolbachia, a type of bacteria that lives inside the cells of its insect hosts. Wolbachia does some incredible things, says Shropshire, assistant professor of biological sciences. The bacterium defies easy classification. It’s neither strictly a parasite nor a mutualist. Instead, it inhabits a fascinating biological gray area, with the ability to manipulate its host’s reproduction, suppress pathogens, provide nutrients, and influence entire populations—all while being maternally transmitted from one generation to the next. A demonstration during the Algerian War for Independence in 1961. Dylan Shropshire (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11) Dominique Berretty / Getty Images, Christine Kreschollek
14 LEHIGH UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13) monograph about Austen’s work and its relationship to the humanities. The podcast coincides with the 250th anniversary of the novelist’s birth. Austen, Kramp notes, was the first woman to earn a place in the canon of English literature and her popularity endures. Austen is popular with readers both in and outside of academia because she is more accessible to readers, particularly in terms of her language. “You don’t need a decoder lens to understand her,” he says. Kramp says three things set Austen apart. “I talk about her versatility, her accessibility, and her ostensible safety, which are the three defining features that make Austen a distinct cultural figure,” he explains. For Kramp, the podcast is more than an homage to Austen. He is using his episode-by-episode examination of her work to make a case for the value of studying the humanities. Leveraging Austen’s appeal provides a way to have that conversation with public audiences. “Austen has a distinct cultural status that very few people have because she’s popular, respected, global, accessible, the effects of the “transgene” on host biology. In a recent study, the team also developed molecular tools to measure rare Wolbachia without the assistance of standard microbiology techniques. “We really want to get into reductionist biology,” Shropshire says. “We want to know the entire pathways involved in each of these different processes so we can use that information to understand why Wolbachia is the world’s most common animal-associated symbiont and improve tools for vector control.” Wolbachia’s potential is enormous. Insecticides are often untargeted, killing not only pests but also many other species. In contrast, Wolbachia can be used in select species to control specific diseases, with remarkable success rates. English Beyond Pride and Prejudice: A Professor’s Podcast Makes the Case for Jane Austen— and the Humanities Lehigh English Professor Michael Kramp remembers the first time he read one of Jane Austen’s novels. It was Pride and Prejudice—required reading in a college English class. “Ever since I first read Jane Austen at age 18, I have been pretty much enamored of her narratives, her characters, and her ideas,” Kramp says. It’s a statement he makes introducing each episode of his podcast, “Jane Austen and the Future of the Humanities.” The podcast can be found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other platforms. The podcast is one part of a larger public-facing project that includes a YouTube channel where videos of his ongoing interviews with artists, scholars, and writers from around the world can be viewed. Kramp is also writing a The real-world stakes of understanding Wolbachia are high. In 2010, Wolbachia-bearing mosquitoes were first released in Australia to curb dengue transmission. Since then, Wolbachia levels have remained above 90 percent, and virus transmission has plummeted. Similar releases are now underway worldwide to combat dengue, Zika, Chikungunya and other diseases. But as Shropshire points out, it took three years and a 0.125 percent success rate to move Wolbachia from the humble fruit fly into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Some releases also fail because the traits that help them spread aren’t strong enough. Shropshire and his team work with fruit flies using the same Wolbachia strain used in public health efforts. Their goal? To understand the genetic, cellular and ecological underpinnings of the microbe’s behavior so interventions can become more effective—and efficient. “We’re trying to understand how Wolbachia acts in nature so we can improve the way we use it to protect humans from disease,” he says. Because Wolbachia can’t be cultured outside host cells, traditional microbiological tools don’t work. But fruit flies, with their rich genetic toolkit and research history, provide a workaround. Shropshire’s team can inject Wolbachia genes into the fruit fly genome, clear the flies of natural Wolbachia, and study (CONTINUED ON PAGE 17) Science Source, Alamy Aedes aegypti mosquito An illustration of Caroline Bingley and Elizabeth Bennet at the Netherfield Ball in Pride and Prejudice.
INQUIRY | SCHOLARSHIP, RESEARCH, AND CREATIVE WORK | REVIEW 2025 15 SPOT LIGHT Christine Kreschollek, Science Source Algebraic Geometry and Andrew Harder’s Cosmic Research Path ALGEBRAIC GEOMETRY is one of the most abstract and far-reaching areas of modern mathematics, with strong connections to other fields. For researcher Andrew Harder, it offers both a framework for mathematical exploration and a link to contemporary physics. His work focuses on Calabi-Yau varieties—complex geometric shapes defined by polynomial equations—that are key to efforts to understand the universe at its most fundamental level. At the heart of his inquiry lies a deceptively simple yet far-reaching question: Are there finitely many Calabi-Yau spaces? The implications of this question extend beyond pure mathematics. If there are finitely many such spaces, it would suggest that the ways in which the underlying geometry of the universe can be configured are themselves limited, imposing fundamental constraints on the nature of physical reality. Imagine a shape that, no matter how closely you examine it, appears flat in small regions— much like how the Earth’s surface seems flat to someone standing on it, even though it’s part of a sphere. Such shapes are called manifolds. Calabi–Yau manifolds possess several mathematical characteristics that make them suitable for modeling the compactified dimensions in physics. The specific geometry of this manifold influences the properties of particles and forces in our universe, making Calabi–Yau spaces crucial for connecting theoretical physics to observable physics. Harder currently investigates an intriguing feature of Calabi– Yau manifolds called mirror symmetry. This is a phenomenon where two different Calabi–Yau manifolds can lead to parallel physical theories. A key development in his recent scholarship involves the use of Landau-Ginzburg models, a class of mathematical principles that mirror known physical theories. These models offer a dual perspective. By establishing connections between mathematical objects, researchers can transfer insights from one domain to another. “It’s like you have a correspondence between two different types of objects,” Harder says. “Sometimes, one of these types of objects is easier to study than the other. You study the easier object, then you use the correspondence to go back and gain insight into the [object] that you might’ve really wanted to explore.” As his field evolves, so too does Harder’s research agenda. One such shift involves an engagement with Feynman integrals—functions that describe particle interactions in high-energy physics. Harder’s recent work shows that certain Feynman integrals can be interpreted as periods of algebraic varieties, firmly situating them within the domain of algebraic geometry. His paper on so-called “banana graphs”—a term describing a fundamental type of particle interaction—offered one of the first concrete mathematical classifications of these integrals in terms of geometric functions. “When you have these particles coming in, they split up into different particles, and then they go back together into one particle,” Harder says. “One of the more basic types of particle interactions is this sunset or banana graph. We gave a very concrete characterization of the types of functions that appear there in terms of algebraic geometry. I thought it was a very nice answer in the end.” Looking ahead, Harder sees his work continuing to evolve in dialogue with physics, particularly in contexts where deep structure remains only partially understood. “I’m looking for new places to apply these methods,” he says. As the mathematical landscape shifts, his work remains rooted in the idea that abstract reasoning—when pursued with clarity and curiosity— can clarify the very fabric of the cosmos. ■ Mathematician Andrew Harder and computer artwork of Calabi-Yau manifolds (below), six-dimensional shapes thought to be the location of the extra six dimensions predicted to exist by string theory.
16 LEHIGH UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES SPOT LIGHT LEHIGH UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES IN CHAUCER’S The Canterbury Tales, a collection of narrative poems from the Middle Ages, characters entertain one another with stories on a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. Can such tales still connect with modern readers? Patience Agbabi, a contemporary British poet and Chaucer scholar, has remixed Chaucer’s work in Telling Tales. Jordan Ho ‘27 is comparing Chaucer, the “canon,” with this modern anthology, a task that is no tall tale. Ho, who is pursuing a double major in philosophy and English, is focusing her analysis on Agbabi’s adaptation of The Franklin’s Tale. Makar Frankie Lynn, the speaker of this tale, lives primarily on Pusher Street in Freetown Christiania. A tourist attraction today, Freetown Christiania is a failed utopian commune in Copenhagen, Denmark created by anarchists and artists on top of a former military base. “I look at her evocation of Freetown Christiania, and also her usage of rhyme royal, feminine and masculine rhyme, and subverted iambic pentameter,” Ho explains. She argues that dominating structures, like police violence and the proliferation of Chaucer’s form, are inconsistent with utopian possibilities. Another aspect of her analysis is thinking about how this utopian possibility is built on a physical structure of masculine violence. One of the challenges of analyzing “Makar (The Franklin’s Tale)” is its Scottish speaking narrator. “I’ve done research into how people from Edinburgh would pronounce certain things, which changes my analysis of syllable structure,” Ho says. For example, the pronunciation of the main character’s name, Arild, affects the feminine rhyme. There’s also not a lot of scholarship on Agbabi and there’s no recorded audio of her performing the Makar’s Tale. “A lot of my interpretations of pronunciation, which speak directly to my research conclusion, are based on my interpretations of how the poem would be spoken.” Agbabi’s subversion of rhyme royal—a stanza of seven 10-syllable lines popularized by Chaucer—points to the author’s interest in Fin ‘Amor rather than Chaucer’s interest in romantic overtones. “I argue that one of these utopian possibilities is the speaker’s own story in her own voice, but they’re filtered through Chaucer’s own form.” Ho presented her research at three academic conferences in March: the 56th Annual Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) in Philadelphia, the Lehigh Research in the Arts Symposium, and the Lycoming Undergraduate Humanities Research Conference. Next year, she’ll continue her studies as a visiting student scholar at Oxford University’s Mansfield College. This writing intensive program, with the first LGBTQ+ history teacher in the UK, aligns with Ho’s interests in queer feminist and post-colonial theories. “I don’t think the work is to deny that there is a literary canon,” Ho begins, “but the interesting work that Dr. [Suzanne] Edwards puts forth, and I think Patience Agbabi is as an example of that, is individuals who see literary canon as a place to adapt and subvert and change and create critical think pieces on how we see thought.” By illuminating the work of Agbabi, Ho is helping to “decolonize the canon.” ■ The Tales We Tell Christine Kreschollek, Alamy Jordan Ho presented at three conferences for her research on Telling Tales by Patience Agbabi (above).
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