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

 

In some of Earth’s coldest places, soil freezes, thaws, and slowly creeps downhill, creating large, wave-like patterns across entire hillsides. The patterns resemble those made by familiar fluids—think paint dripping down a wall or icing down the side of a cake. But the physics behind those everyday materials can’t explain how the icy landscapes form.

University of Rochester researchers went looking for a better comparison. They found one in an unlikely place: oobleck. In a study published in AGU Advances, Rachel Glade, an assistant professor in the Departments of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Mechanical Engineering, and her URochester colleagues used mathematical modeling to compare how different fluids behave.

Their analysis suggests that solifluction patterns—the ripples formed as frost-heaved, water-saturated soil slowly moves downhill—form through a process analogous to the unusual behavior of oobleck, a mixture of cornstarch and water that becomes harder to move the harder it’s pushed.

Read more about the research into icy landscapes

 

Joel Burges, associate professor of English and Visual and Cultural Studies, and Kristin Doughty, associate professor of Anthropology, were selected as prize winners for the Central New York Humanities Corridor Outstanding Working Group in 2025-26.

The prize is part of a new initiative recognizing working groups and their organizers for collaborative efforts in humanities research and pedagogy. Four working groups were honored for their achievements during the 2025-26 academic year.

Burges was recognized as an organizer for the VAC3: Screen Cultures working group, which focuses on the creative and critical cultures that develop around screen media. Doughty was recognized as an organizer for the LLC39: War Ecologies working group, which anthropologically examines war’s ecological entanglements and reverberations across heterogeneous worlds.

 

Elizabeth Adetiba, assistant professor in the Frederick Douglass Institute and Department of Black Studies, received the 2026 Ida B. Wells-Troy Duster Award for Early Career Scholars from the American Sociological Association’s Science, Knowledge and Technology Section.

The ASA section promotes scholarly research and professional activity in relation to the sociology of science, knowledge, and technology.

 

Mical Raz, Charles E. and Dale L. Phelps Professor in Public Health and Policy and professor of History and Clinical Medicine, has a new book on the shelves: Breaking Families, Making Families: Adoption and Child Welfare in the 1990s (The University of North Carolina Press, 2026).

A talk and discussion about the book, and the adoption and the child welfare issues it chronicles, is scheduled for Oct. 5 from 5 to 7 p.m. in Rush Rhees Library, Humanities Center Conference Room D. The conversation will include Raz, Larry Marx (Children’s Agenda), Ashley Cross (Hope585), and Naishah Ebanks (lived experience expert).

 

Please welcome Claudia Burcke to the School of Arts & Sciences. Burcke join SAS as the Senior Staff Engagement and Development Specialist on Oct. 01. In her new role, Burcke will be responsible for developing and implementing strategic projects, operations and processes which are aligned with the Dean’s priorities and goals.

“I am so excited for my next chapter with the School of Arts & Sciences and working alongside the phenomenal team of educators and advocates,” says Burcke. “I am really looking forward to collaborating with staff, HRBPs, managers and leadership to collaborate on really exciting projects.”

A native of Rochester, Burcke most recently served as the assistant director of clinical administration in the Department of Pediatrics at Golisano Children’s Hospital. Burcke earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Western New England College in Springfield, MA.

Here are 3 fun facts about Claudia Burcke:

• Burcke is passionate about animal conversation. In 2012, she fulfilled a life-long dream by volunteering in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa at The Elephant Sanctuary.
• She is a long-suffering Buffalo Bills fan who enjoys trying new crafts and reading.
• Burcke and her husband, Matt, have a rescue cat named Sam, who is also affectionately known as Wee Man.

 

Theater fans, take note:

The International Theatre Program opens the season with Charles L. Mee’s iconic contemporary play, Big Love.  Blending myth, comedy, and brutality, Big Love – a post-modern riff on The Suppliants by Aeschylus– explores freedom, desire, and the costs of resisting tradition, bringing one of our earliest surviving dramas, kicking and screaming, into our own time. Performance dates: Oct. 8 –10 and Oct. 14 -17 at 8.p.m. Matinée: Oct. 11 at 2 p.m. (ASL interpreted).

For more information: sas.rochester.edu/theatre/productions/current-production.html. For tickets: securepay.rochester.edu/theatre-tickets/

The Todd Talks series of free online conversations with theatre and theatre-adjacent artists kicks off the ’26-’27 series at 5 p.m. on Oct. 5. Rachel Chavkin, the Tony-Award-winning director of the Broadway hit Hadestown, will be the featured guest. UR International Theatre Program Artistic Director Nigel Maister will moderate the talk. Todd Talks are free but pre-registration is required. Click here to register.

 

The Greene Center has launched new Faculty and Staff Toolkits to help respond to students’ career-related questions. Each toolkit provides quick, easy to reference information about common student questions, helpful resources, and where to direct students for additional support.

Whether a student asks about finding an internship, exploring career options, preparing for an interview, or applying for graduate school, the toolkit can help you point them in the right direction. Explore the Faculty and Staff Toolkits to learn more and keep these resources handy for your next student career question!

 

Send your SAS in Focus news tips to Sheila Rayam, director of marketing and communications for the School of Arts & Sciences, 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.