Welcome to the latest SAS In Focus, a newsletter that reports what’s happening in the School of Arts & Sciences.

In this edition, you will find the latest research project awards, Mt. Hope Family Center news, a photo spotlight from a lecture on free speech, and much more.

 

Stephen Schottenfeld, a professor of English, has been named the 2025 recipient of the President’s Ferrari Humanities Research Award for his project Neighborhood Watch.

The award recognizes creative research by a faculty member at the University of Rochester who is affiliated with the Humanities Center. It comes with a $25,000 prize endowed by Trustee Bernard T. Ferrari ’70, ‘74M (MD) and his wife, Linda Gaddis Ferrari.

“Professor Schottenfeld is a decorated novelist and his project, Neighborhood Watch, is a multimedia research project revisiting the themes of aging and loneliness in his 2023 novel titled This Room is Made of Noise through new experiments in narration in gaming and interactive storytelling,” said Peter Christensen, the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Director of the Humanities Center.

The 2025 award will support a collaboration between three departments and a team of Rochester students who will build a prototype of the video game central to Schottenfeld’s novel-in-progress.

“I feel so fortunate to have the encouragement of the selection committee,” says Schottenfeld. “And, of course, I’m exceedingly thankful for the financial support of the Bernard T. and Linda G. Ferrari Humanities Fund.”

 

Mt. Hope Family Center continues to receive national recognition for its important work supporting children and families with evidence-based intervention and prevention services.

Jennie Noll, a professor of psychology and executive director of  Mt. Hope Family Center; Sheree Toth, a professor of psychology and psychiatry and former executive director of Mt. Hope Family Center; and Dante Cicchetti, founder of  Mt. Hope Family Center and a professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota, received the 2025 American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal Award for Impact in Psychology.  The APF, the philanthropic arm of the  American Psychological Association, administers scholarships and research grants to students and early career psychologists.

The award recognizes work that is impactful, innovative, and transformational. The honor can be for a body of work that has made a lasting difference in the field, or for groundbreaking discoveries in psychology. Gold medal recipients typically receive a monetary prize and a travel stipend to attend the APA Convention to receive a plaque. The Mt. Hope Family Center recipients will donate their prize to the center.

Learn more about Mt. Hope Family Center’s mission and research.

 

Former ACLU President Nadine Strossen joined David Primo, Ani and Mark Gabrellian Professor and professor of political science and business administration, at Wegmans Hall on April 14 for a talk about the future of free speech. Strossen took questions from the audience during the second half of the 90-minute event.

 

William (Bill) Hauser, a professor emeritus of history, is being remembered for his distinguished teaching career and his research on the economic and social history of Japan’s Tokugawa period.

Hauser, who died at the age of 85, taught at the University of Rochester for nearly 40 years—from 1974 until his retirement in 2011, serving as department chair from 1979 to 1985. His intellectual curiosity knew few boundaries: As an undergraduate at the University of Chicago he majored in mathematics, which he followed with a master’s degree in East Asian studies and a PhD in Japanese history, both from Yale University.

Hauser was devoted to interdisciplinary teaching and sustaining the field of Japanese and East Asian history at the University, and he had a deep interest in Japanese film.

Read the full Hauser remembrance

 

The Center for Community Engagement will hold is first community-engaged learning summit next month.

The Building Resilient Relationships Summit, a convention for community-engaged learning partners, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on May 13 at Staybridge Suites. Admission is free and includes a complimentary lunch and refreshments.

According to the CCE,  the summit will address the more intimate aspects of community-university partnerships and facilitate space for sharing experiences in community-engagement work. Breakout sessions, discussions and networking are planned.

Register for the summit here or vist the Center for Community Engagement  page for more information.

 

The stage is set for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, the International Theatre Program’s production of the electropop musical by Dave Malloy. The musical, directed by Nigel Maister, opens at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 17 at Smith Theater at the Sloan Performing Arts Center.

Malloy’s multi-award-winning electropop musical brings Leo Tolstoy’s  War and Peace, to life.  With a ravishing score that crosses all genres, this cult musical’s unforgettable characters wrestle with love, infidelity, and picking up the pieces of lives they fear they might have wasted.

Show times are 8 p.m., April 17 –  April 19 and  April 23 – April 26 and 2 p.m. on April 20. There will be an ASL interpreted show at 8p.m. on April 23. Tickets are $10- $25. For tickets and more information, visit the box office or the  International Theatre Program page.

 

Congratulations to SAS faculty members who recently secured funding for sponsored research projects:

• Associate Professor David McCamant from the Department of Chemistry will receive $699,275 from the National Science Foundation for the project  “Mapping Electronic Decoherence Pathways in Molecules.”
• Kelly Douglass, an associate professor of instruction in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and director of the C.E.K. Mees Observatory, will receive $415,240 from the National Science Foundation for the renewal and continuation of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site in Physics, Astrophysics, and Optics at Rochester.
• Senior Research Engineer Craig McMurtry from the Department of Physics and Astronomy will receive a $287,173 subaward from  the University of California Los Angeles for the project “Near Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor Phase C/D.”
• Professor Regina Demina from the Department of Physics and Astronomy will receive $107,430 from the Fermi National Accelerator Lab for teh project “High Luminosity LHC CMS Detector Upgrade Project Outer Tracker – MaPSA testing.”

 

Send your SAS In Focus news tips to Director of Marketing and Communications Sheila Rayam at sheila.rayam@rochester.edu. Let her know about unique research, awards, publications, community collaborations and other interesting news. Please put “SAS in Focus” in the subject heading.