Traveling Scholars

CAS faculty bring lessons learned around the world back to class

Students are often (rightly) encouraged to travel to broaden their perspectives. In 2024, CAS faculty led eye-opening study trips to New York City, Dublin, and Rwanda; many more students took advantage of Alternative Spring Break programs around the country, or spent time interning or studying abroad. But venturing beyond campus can be just as beneficial for educators. 

Faculty from across the College of Arts & Sciences have embarked on meaningful scholarship endeavors beyond Boston—pursuing their artistic passions, delving into research archives, and connecting with colleagues and cultures around the world. 

Here are a few of their recent stories of connection and inspiration:

Kristen Mallia wears sunglasses as she stands between the walls of an Italian ruin
Professor Kristen Mallia spent three months in Italy exploring art and design, archaeological sites, and rocky landscapes in Rome, Venice, Naples, Milan, Turin, Sorrento, and Sardinia. Of the transformative experience, generously supported by a Committee for Teaching and Scholarly Development summer research stipend, Mallia says: “I attended the Venice Biennale for the first time, exploring over 25 pavilions of international art, visited the Parco Archeologico di Pompei, climbed Mount Vesuvius, attended various artist talks and exhibition openings, studio visits and demonstrations, met with artists, curators, and critics, wandered ancient Nuraghe ruins in Sardinia at Parco Archeologico Naturalistico Santa Cristina, explored rocky shorelines, hiking, photographing, and collecting geological specimens. I created site-specific recordings of various beaches around Sardinia with cyanotype printing using the ocean water, attended the Ferragosto Festival (The Descent of the Candelieri) in Sassari, and participated in a host of other local rituals at various institutions, memorial sites, and places of worship. This research is informing my self-publishing practice and supporting the continued development of several series of multimedia installation work within my interdisciplinary studio practice.”
Three students pose with Professor Barbara Abrams and her husband, Rabbi David Kudan, in Bagnowka Jewish Cemetery
History, Language & Global Culture Department Chair Barbara Abrams led students on a study trip to Bialystok, Poland this summer where they worked with the Bialystok Cemetery Restoration Project to help unearth and catalog over 1,000 pre-WWII graves. Once used by one of the largest Jewish communities in Poland, Bagnowka Jewish Cemetery was destroyed during the war and in the Communist occupation that followed. For Abrams, the trip was also deeply personal, as she followed volunteer work at Bagnowka with a search for her own ancestors’ birth and burial places in nearby towns. Learn more. 
Composite image showing the International Space Station in orbit above Earth
In July, Kelsey Stocker, associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Chemistry, Environment, and Physics, traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to present at the International Conference on Environmental Systems. The research she presented, entitled “Estimating Physical Properties of Oxidized Volatile Methylsiloxanes,” will contribute to NASA's models of trace contaminants on the International Space Station. Stocker’s scholarship in this area and her travel were financially supported by her research contract with NASA. Stocker returned with exciting ideas for future research projects in her lab and new professional contacts that will generate research funding and student career opportunities.
An orange building on an Oslo city street
This summer, travel funds from a Whiting Fellowship enabled Professor Erika Gebo, chair of the Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice, to visit Sweden and Norway. She discussed emerging research at the Stockholm Criminology Symposium, met with colleagues at the University of Oslo, and got an insider’s view of Norway’s prison system. Returning exhilarated from the experience, Gebo now has nuanced insights from behind the walls of the Scandinavian criminal justice system to weigh in her research and share with her students—along with a new slate of international experts who can Zoom into her courses and perhaps even collaborate on future projects. Learn more about Gebo's experience. 
Iani Moreno stands outside in front of a historic site in Mexico
Professor Iani Moreno, history, language & global culture, spent several weeks in Mexico training to develop new courses that will help Suffolk students become bilingual professionals equipped to use Spanish in healthcare, law, and business careers. Moreno attended intensive course preparation sessions in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico from the world renowned Cemanáhuac Foro Academico. Living with a host family in Cuernavaca, Moreno practiced new recipes with her hosts while learning about current politics and Mexican culture. She attended intensive classes, and conducted field interviews with healthcare providers from different modalities, including alternative and folk medicine. She also embarked on several study tours to religious centers and historical sites taught by experts in archaeology and history. Says Moreno: “I gained valuable information that I will be able to use in my classes on Mesoamerica such as SPAN-302 and SPAN-303, as well as some of my upper classes such as SPAN-390 and SPAN-425. The trip was made possible with the support of Dean Sparks. I would also like to thank Professor Marjorie Salvodon and Professor Barbara Abrams for their support.”
White gallery walls display sculpture with the words "Steve Novick" on the wall
Art & Design Professor Steven Novick’s one-person exhibition, “What, exactly, has been lost,” at Farm Projects in Wellfleet, Massachusetts featured recent pieces, mostly done during his fall 2023 sabbatical. The show was an opportunity for Novick to reach a new audience, including during a well-attended and received artist’s talk, and to address his work in situ and in context. “During the show, discussions about my working process were highly beneficial and illuminating to me; that experience will help me refine my approach to classroom teaching,” says Novick. 
Two students in front of a glass display case that holds taxidermy specimens of deer
Eric Dewar, associate professor and co-chair of biology, spent July and August with students working the collections of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. His lab group is finishing a project about reconstructing escape behavior in extinct mammals, and Dewar says “that time in the basement [of the museum] was spent collecting data from the limb skeleton to find for differences associated with body size and habitat.”
A young boy in the back of a car shown in a still from Jeremy Levine's most recent film
This summer, Professor Jeremy Levine, communication, journalism & media, completed The Return, a documentary film that chronicles six years in the lives of a father and son from Guatemala after their forced separation at the US-Mexico border. The film will air on Al Jazeera this fall as well as at film festivals in the coming year. He edited the film alongside Suffolk student research assistants Carson Stiles and Kely Maloney (as well as recent graduate Pete Sethanant), worked on translations with Suffolk student David Rivera, collaborated with composer Bruno Cortina in Nicaragua, mixed and editing the film at Modulus Studios in Boston, and oversaw the color grade with Marika Litz in Brooklyn.
An open book in a library
English Professor Quentin Miller’s research involves an exploration of a relatively new approach to literature known as Affect Theory as it applies to the writings of Edith Wharton, whose papers are located at Yale’s Beinecke Library. Miller says, “It's always thrilling to see a great author’s writing process, and Wharton’s archives are a treasure trove of original drafts, corrected manuscripts, and letters. I hope the work I completed over the summer will lead to a well-placed article, and it will also be useful in a methods course I am teaching this fall entitled Introduction to Literary Interpretation (ENG-200) that features a novel by Wharton as a central text.”
Youpei Yan stands at a podium presenting slides at a conference
Thanks to a Committee for Teaching and Scholarly Development travel award, Professor Youpei Yan, economics, had the opportunity to attend the Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association (NAREA) Conference in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. There, she met environmental economists in her field and presented her study on estimating the shadow values of ecological lands using a dynamic programming approach to a national land use system.
Composite image showing a person with scrubs and a stethoscope with medical graphics
In June, Professor Eugenia Gold, biology, attended the National Association of the Advisors of the Health Professions in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a new advisor, she received a lot of information from other advisors and professional societies about best practices for advising undergraduates interested in a variety of healthcare careers. She is planning on incorporating novel strategies from this conference for information distribution, mentorship, and advising to Suffolk students.
Composite image of Audrey Goldstein through a window working on a gallery exhibit, then a close up of her hands preparing artwork
Supported by a Suffolk University faculty development grant, Professor Audrey Goldstein completed a two-week artist residency in Chautauqua, New York. The residency provided a focused, intense work and assessment time with curators and other artists from around the country. Participants formed a strong community of support and inquiry, says Goldstein, who noted that since this was the first two week program run at Chautauqua, she and her fellow artists had the opportunity to help shape the program for future participants. Goldstein says her work, “Ephemeral Bodies,” explored the relationship between permanence and ephemerality, and that she referenced the experienced female body while building the work.

See more College of Arts & Sciences faculty activities and achievements.

Contact

Greg Gatlin
Office of Public Affairs
617-573-8428

Andrea Grant
Office of Public Affairs
617-573-8410