Faculty & Staff Pursuits
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T. Adamson, Lecturer of Playwriting, saw his play Usus named Top 10 Theater of 2024 by The New Yorker and New York Magazine . The New Yorker described Usus as “One of the finest, slyest works I’ve ever seen at the always excellent Clubbed Thumb Summerworks festival.”
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Billy Blanken, Lecturer of Dance, was awarded a GO Queens grant for his dance company, Sheep Meadow Dance Theatre. The operational grant was provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation and administered by Flushing Town Hall. The grant supports artists and organizations that work in Queens and use arts and culture to enrich and enliven their community.
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Erika Ebbs, Assistant Professor of Biology, published the article “Legacy parasite collections reveal species-specific population genetic patterns among three species of zoonotic schistosomes” in Scientific Reports , 15, 9410 (March 19, 2025).
Marianne Eggler, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art History, published a book review of Michelangelo Sabatino, The Edith Farnsworth House: Architecture, Preservation, Culture in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians , 84 (2): 267–269, June 2025.
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Lauren Harburger, Assistant Professor of Psychology, presented research co-authored by Joseph Pamiotto ’23 and Litzy Valdovinos ’23 at the Cognitive Science Society’s conference, Cog Sci. The conference took place July 30-Aug. 2, 2025, in San Francisco. The presentation, entitled “The effects of hormone contraceptives on spatial task performance in young women,” describes research performed at Purchase College investigating the impact of progesterone-only contraceptives (POCs) and combined hormonal contraceptives (CHCs), which include both estrogen and progesterone, on spatial memory. These results indicate that the use of hormonal contraceptives does not significantly influence spatial ability.
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A. Dean Irby, Associate Professor of Acting, received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 52nd Annual Vivian Robinson AUDELCO Recognition Awards—the VIV Awards—celebrating his significant contributions to the performing arts. The November 2024 event also honored former faculty member and guest director Trazana Beverley with the same award.
As a longtime faculty member, Irby has helped shape generations of performers through his work as both a professor and professional director. His directing credits span numerous productions across New York theatre, including work with the New Federal Theatre and the Negro Ensemble Company.
An acclaimed actress and director, Beverley previously taught first-year acting at Purchase and has returned as a guest director.
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Allyson Jackson, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, was awarded a NYDEC Community Reforestation Grant for $499,943 to restore a degraded area between the Commons and the West Loop. The grant allows student technicians and interns to help with the project over five years, providing real career experience while also bettering the campus. (See grant details in NewsBriefs.)
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Keith Landa, Associate Librarian and Director of the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center, received a Special Service Commendation from SUNY Chancellor John B. King for his work as Trustee and President of the University Faculty Senate on June 3, 2025. Landa also led the planning for and hosted Public Good U: Strengthening the Case for Public Higher Education, a national conference held in Albany Feb. 7–9, 2025.
Elise Lemire, Professor of Literature, was awarded the 2025 Walter Harding Distinguished Achievement Award by the Thoreau Society. “Lemire’s work exemplifies the very best of archival scholarship and stands as a model for all of us, showing how academic work, done with principle, reaches far beyond the academy to help us move towards the kind of America people in Concord [Massachusetts] and beyond have long imagined.”
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Kerry Manzo, Assistant Professor of Global Studies, joined scholars from around the world at All Souls College, University of Oxford in Oxford, England, for Achebe Redivivus, a conference hosted by British Academy Conferences on July 3–4, 2025. This conference aims to showcase fresh insights into the works of Chinua Achebe, often credited as being the “father of African literature.” In his research, Manzo explores the conflict between two aspects of Achebe’s work: his criticism (though limited) of rigid colonial ideas about sex and gender, and his texts’ support for a “national masculine” ideal that depends on those same rigid gender categories. Each presenter from the conference will additionally have their research published as a chapter in the forthcoming Chinua Achebe in Context by Cambridge UP.
Jeanine Meyer, Professor Emerita of Mathematics/Computer Science, taught the class Flapping Bird and Tato Pouch (Purse) at the OrigamiUSA Annual Convention in New York City, July 19–21, 2025.
Lisa Jean Moore, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, published a book chapter, “Freaks of Nature: Using Deep Reflexivity and Creative Writing to Understand Transgenics,” in Anke Tonnaer ed. Multispecies Ethnography and Artful Methods , Cambridgeshire: White Horse Press (July 2025); an essay, “‘I Didn’t Really Want to Care for These Animals’: Teaching about Nonhuman Animals in Prison,” in Markia Lindholm and Elizabeth A. Wood, eds. Between Us: Understanding Ourselves and Changing the World through Sociology , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 288-292. (September 2024); a literary nonfiction essay, “Engineering Obsolescence: A Spider Goat’s Tale,” on halfandone.com (February 2025); and a literary nonfiction essay, “Between Walls and Wave,” in Heartwood Literary Journal , Volume 19 (May 2025).
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Djordje S Nesic, Lecturer in Voice and Opera Studies, conducted the opera An American Dream by Jack Perla and Jessica Murphy Moo at the Manhattan School of Music, Dec. 14 and 15, 2024; taught a masterclass for young opera singers in Belgrade, Serbia, May 19–22, 2025; and conducted the Handel opera Alcina with Opera Seme in Arezzo, Italy, July 2025.
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Rebecca Albrecht Oling, Librarian and Director of Digital Accessibility, co-authored with Carli Spina The Digital Accessibility Handbook for Libraries , Chicago, IL: ALA Editions (2025); and co-authored with Colleen Lougen, Claire Payne, Shannon Pritting, and Carli Spina the article “A cohort model approach to addressing library accessibility in a large, devolved library system” in Library Resources & Technical Services , 68(4) (2024). Oling made the following virtual conference presentations: “Integrating accessibility: Serving all members of our community” at ARLIS/NA Annual Conference, and with Carli Spina, “Integrating accessibility into database procurement processes” at the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) Accessibility Symposium on June 19, 2025.
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Lenka Pichlíková-Burke, Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance, published two books in the Czech language: Michail Čechov a současná herecká pedagogika v USA (Michael Chekhov and the contemporary acting pedagogy in the USA), Praha/Prague: Edice Disk; and a book by her father, Karel Pichlík, PhD, dedicated to the Pešek acting family. The latter text was written in 1977 in only a few typewritten copies. It is being published for the public for the first time and is supplemented with chapters by current members of the family—Z. Hodková, L. Pichlíková-Burke, and M. Topferová—who have been dedicated to art since the mid-19th century, despite all the complexities of the 20th century. Lenka Pichlíková Burke, Andrea Jochmanová, eds, In Czech, 2025–Brno: Moravian Provincial Museum.
Pichlíková-Burke played the role of Martha in a filmed version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf , directed by Daniel Kuriakose, and conducted community outreach through 15 solo performances for elementary public schools in Stamford, CT, from September to November, 2024. She taught mime and acting and directed a circus show with children in March 2025, and spoke at the Michael Chekhov International Conference in Berlin, Germany in August 2025.
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Jack Tamburri, Lecturer of Theatre Arts, directed the world-premiere production of Drawing Lesson s, a new play written by Theatre & Performance faculty member Michi Barall, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance, at Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, MN. The play opened on Oct. 12, 2024, receiving extremely positive reviews, and was included in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune ’s year-end roundup of best theatre in the region.
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Amy Beth Wright, Professor of Practice in the School of Humanities’ Expository Writing program, received the 2025 Allen Shoup Memorial Fellowship for writers and communicators, an award from the Washington wine industry (comprising the Washington State Wine Commission, the Washington Winegrowers Association, the Washington Wine Industry Foundation, and the Auction of Washington Wines). The fellowship is intended to identify and elevate “the wine writers and communicators of tomorrow.”