Nigel James, assistant professor of health studies, along with Jada Pederson, ’27, Huong Doan, ’27, Liam Hayes, ’28, and Leah Suggs, ’27, published “Food Insecurity and Mental Health Among High School Students: Evidence from National and Virginia Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Data” in the Journal of School Health.
Ben Pettis, assistant professor of rhetoric and communication studies, presented "Standardizing and Optimizing Education: Constructing the Neoliberal User in Learning Management Systems" at the 76th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference.
Nigel James, assistant professor of health studies, along with Julia Messerman, ’28, and Callia Nickels, ’27, published “‘It’s Not Just Cost’: Barriers to Mammography Screening Access Among Low-income Women in the United States –– A Scoping Review” in the Journal of Cancer Prevention.
Eugene Wu, associate professor of biology and biochemistry, along with Amanda Walsh, ’15, and Hye Rhee Kim, ’28, published "A thymine dimer stalls a high-fidelity DNA polymerase by provide no template information in the same manner as an abasic site" in Biochemistry.
Rick Mayes, professor of health policy, published the chapter “Policy Process: Problem Identification and Agenda Setting” in Milstead's Health Policy and Politics: A Nurse's Guide.
Ben Pettis published "Subscribe, Follow, Save: Podcast Preservation in the Platform Era" in the Journal of Radio and Audio Media. The article discusses the PodcastRE project and the ongoing changes in the podcasting industry and audio distribution platforms which create challenges for digital archiving projects.
“Z” by Harrison Moenich, manager of photography arts and media equipment, was selected from their photograph series Q.M.C. for inclusion in Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art's Made in VA Biennial 2026.
Over the next three years, Stephanie Spera, associate professor of geography, environment, and sustainability, Hemali Oza, assistant professor of health studies, and Todd Lookingbill, professor of geography, environment, and sustainability and biology, will work closely with the local environmental justice nonprofit Southside ReLeaf on a community-led study of flooding on the Southside of Richmond with the support of a grant from the Jeffress Trust.
David Brandenberger, professor of history and global studies, was appointed Samuel Chiles Mitchell-Jacob Billikopf Professor of History and Global Studies.
Laura Knouse, professor of psychology, was appointed MacEldin Trawick Professor in Psychology.
Christopher Shugrue, assistant professor of chemistry, received a summer research grant from Organic Syntheses for the project "Development of Oxidative-Ring Openings of Benzoxazoles for the Construction of Amido-Substituted Quinone Derivatives." Grants are awarded to faculty at principally undergraduate institutions who work with a student in their department.
Melinda A. Yang, associate professor of biology, received a National Science Foundation CAREER award of more than $990,000 to support her research on genetic adaptations in modern humans. Over the next five years, Yang, an ancient DNA expert, will build an easy-to-use tool that combines present-day and ancient DNA data to help researchers identify the genetic changes that have helped humans adapt and survive over time. Yang will also develop a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) using ancient DNA datasets for students taking her Human Evolutionary Genomics course at UR.
