Awards & Honors

Awards and Honors

2025-26 Academic Year

David Sterling Brown, Associate Professor of English served as a CTL Fellow and Office of Community and Belonging Faculty Fellow this year.  Both opportunities allowed him to strengthen connections with colleagues while learning from them and having opportunities to contribute to the campus community in different ways.  One highlight from this experience was having the opportunity to collaborate with students to host a Cinestudio film screening of Moonlight followed by a public conversation.

Dang Do, Assistant Professor of Political Science, won a competitive Impact Grant with the CT OER Council, sponsored by the state, to finish the Legislative Internship Program project on an updated CT State Politics book. The chapters of the book is written by the LIP students/interns. The grant award is $7500 and will be used to pay for professional editing and typesetting.

Michelle Kovarik, Professor of Chemistry, received the J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education is awarded by the American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry to an awardee who has “enhanc[ed] the personal and professional development of students in the study of analytical chemistry”. This is a national award that includes a presentation by the awardee at a special award symposium at the fall national meeting of the ACS, held in August.  Additional info here: https://acsanalytical.org/award/the-j-calvin-giddings-award-for-excellence-in-education/.

Kirsti Kuenzel, Associate Professor of Mathematics, was invited to become an editor of the student-centered journal Involve, a Journal of Mathematics, and has been a part of the editorial board since July of 2025.

Channon S. Miller, Assistant Professor of History, was awarded the 2025 Letitia Woods Brown Article Prize for the Best article in Black women’s history for her most recent article, “Drowning in a Dead River,” published in the Journal of African American History in 2024.  It was awarded by the historic and leading association for the study of Black women’s history – the Association of Black Women Historians.

Sarah A. Raskin, Associate Dean for Faculty Development, was named an Inaugural Fellow of the International Neuropsychological at the 2026 North American meeting.

Leslie Ribovich, Director of the Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Associate Professor of Public Policy & Law, was a finalist/short-listed for Best First Book in the History of Religions from the American Academy of Religion, the largest scholarly society dedicated to the academic study of religion for her work Without a Prayer: Religion and Race in New York City Public Schools.

Sally B. Seraphin, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, was the Fall 2025 Faculty Fellow in Artificial Intelligence at the Library & Informational Technology, Hartford, CT.  Sally also participated in the Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience:  Public Outreach: 2025 Discussant: Neurolaw. 3rd Annual Dana Foundation Career Network in Neuroscience & Society and Simply Neuroscience Virtual Career Fair; Conference Proceedings and Lecture Series with others, “Impacts of stress-induced early-hatching or late-hatching on the growth, mortality, and experience-dependent transcriptome of red-eye tree frog (Agalychnis callidrayas) tadpoles,” (Late Breaking Science Abstract); and with co-author, “Prison brain: the next frontier in neurolaw for criminal justice reform,” (Theme K Abstract).

2024-25 Academic Year

David Sterling Brown, Associate Professor of English “Querying the White Other,” Shakespeare Lecture Series, Hobart and William Smith Colleges (October 2024) “Page to Stage in the Digital Age,” Digital Theatre+ and Shakespeare Association of America Webinar (September 2024) “Shakespeare’s White Others and Black Shakespeare,” Contours: The Cambridge Literary Studies Hour Webinar (September 2024). “Hood Pedagogy: Exploring Shakespeare from Within,” International Shakespeare Conference, Stratford-Upon-Avon, England (July 2024)

Tasmin Jones, Ellsworth Morton Tracy Lecturer and Associate Professor of Religious Studies “Erotic Responsibility: Phenomenology, Ethics, and the Study of Religion,” keynote address at the Northeast Philosophy of Religion Colloquium, Huntington.

Isaac Kamola, Associate Professor of Political Science Director of the American Association of University Professors’ new Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom. Funded by a two-and-a-half-year $1.5 Million Mellon Foundation grant to the AAUP, Isaac will be responsible for collaborating with AAUP staff and outside experts to research and write a “threat assessment” and disseminate the research to varied audiences.  Read more in Trinity News.

Robert Kirschbaum, Professor of Art Recipient of a 2024-25 Fellowship Grant in art from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. These grants are designed to assist Jewish individuals and organizations in carrying out independent, scholarly, literary, or art projects in a field of Jewish specialization, and contribute to the ongoing preservation and creation of global Jewish culture.

Susan Masino, Professor of Psychology President’s award to Professor Masino and students, Thea Nguyen and Dyna Chhem, for their Public Humanities Collective Project titled “Voices of Keney Park.”

Amber Pitt, Associate Professor of Environmental Science Served as an invited expert in the latest update of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Assessment of tortoises and freshwater turtles, which occurred 18-19 November 2024, at the Turtle Conservancy’s headquarters in Ojai, California, USA.

Daniel Said Monteiro, Visiting Assistant Professor of History Awarded the 2025 Dissertation Prize of the Division of History of Science and Technology in the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (DHST-IUHPST) for his doctoral dissertation “Monitored Connections: Transnational Nagasaki and the Circulation of Hybridized Cosmologies in Early Modern Japan (1630–1720),” completed at Université Paris Cité in 2023.

Sally B. Seraphin, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Fall 2024 Visiting Fellow, Exeter College, Oxford, UK. Fall 2024 Visiting Academic, Evolutionary Biology Section, Department of Biology,University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. Summer 2025 Karush Fellowship, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA.

Ewa Syta, Associate Professor of Computer Science Prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar award for 2024-25 to conduct research in her native country of Poland. In collaboration with researchers at Poland’s National Research Institute (NASK) under the supervision of the Ministry of Digital Affairs, Syta plans to develop a long-term strategy for the implementation of a digital identity wallet for Poland.  Read more in Trinity News. Scientific Supervisory Committee Member, Cybersecurity Training Expert Center (ECSC), Ministry of National Defense, Poland.

Professional Leadership

David Sterling Brown, Associate Professor of English In collaboration with WGRAC, took the lead on inviting Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs to Trinity as our Women’s Herstory Month keynote speaker, and served on the Women’s Herstory Month Planning Committee.  Read more here. Invited to be the Respondent for a Shakespeare Association of America seminar: “Whiteness and the Comic,” seminar led by Sarah-Gray Lesley, Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Denver, Colorado, April 2026. The Respondent assumes a thought-leader role within the seminar. Initiated a professionalization session within the Shakespeare Association of America (SAA): CV Review and Career Mentoring session. This inaugural 2026 session, which received support from the SAA Trustees and Officers, was a success and will be part of the 2027 conference program. It aims to support grad students and early career scholars. I collaborated with the SAA Graduate Committee to make this happen.  View the Shakespeare Association of America Bulletin here.

Hasan Comert, Associate Professor of Economics Launched Katman Portal with four co-founders and a network of over fifty researchers, and have already published more than one hundred pieces. Co-founded with Betul Mutlugun and three more colleagues, the platform is a non-profit, volunteer-driven initiative. It focuses on economic issues in developing countries—especially Türkiye—through a pluralist and critical lens. Katman combines policy analysis with theoretical and empirical work, maintaining academic depth while remaining accessible to a broader audience.  Access the portal here.

Susan DiVietro, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology Selected as an honoree for the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence’s “First 100 Plus” Class of 2023, which recognizes leaders working across Connecticut to improve the lives of domestic violence survivors and their children.

Lucy Ferris, Writer-in-Residence, Emerita Named the president of Afghan Female Student Outreach, an international collective of 70 professors teaching remote, synchronous classes to approximately 400 university women within Afghanistan who were expelled from university by the Taliban.

Scott Gac, Professor of History and American Studies Named to Board of Trustees, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford, Conn. Member of the Glastonbury MLK39 Mural Project Community Advocate Group, Glastonbury, Conn.

Francisco Goldman, Allan K. Smith Professor of English Language and Literature Appointed to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) Honorary Council, a leading research and advocacy organization advancing human rights in the Americas.

Susan A. Masino, Vernon D. Roosa Professor of Applied Science Received the 2023 Louise Hanson Marshall Special Recognition Award, honoring an individual who has significantly promoted the professional development of women in neuroscience through teaching, organizational leadership, public advocacy, or other efforts that are not necessarily research-related.

Reo Matsuzaki, Associate Professor of Political Science Elected to serve on the Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies for a three-year term starting March 2026.

Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre, Professor of History Elected president of the Northeast Conference on British Studies. Completed a two-year term as a member of the Board of Education in Wethersfield, Conn., in November 2023.

Craig W. Schneider, Charles A. Dana Professor of Biology, Emeritus Appointed Vice President Overseas of the British Phycological Society, London.

Grants & Awards

(To view a comprehensive list of external grants awarded to Trinity faculty, visit the Grants Office website.)

Stefanie Chambers, John R. Reitemeyer Term Professor of Political Science Fellowship with the Africana Studies Summer Institute to Advance Equity through Research on Women and Girls of Color, University of Connecticut, August 2024.

Dang Do, Assistant Professor of Political Science Won a competitive Impact Grant with the CT OER Council, sponsored by the state, to finish the Legislative Internship Program project on an updated CT State Politics book. The chapters of the book is written by the LIP students/interns. The grant award is $7500 and will be used to pay for professional editing and typesetting.

Johnny E. Williams, Professor of Sociology Recipient of the 2024 Lee Founders Award, the highest award presented by Society for Study of Social Problems.

Keynotes & Invited Talks

2025-26 Academic Year

Diana Aldrete, Assistant Professor of Language & Culture Studies Invited as guest speaker at two different institutions to present on her manuscript: “Women Writing for Justice in Mexico”, Sponsored by the School of World Languages and Culture Studies and Spanish; University of Vermont; Burlington, VT. Oct. 3, 2025. Learn more here. “Literature and Justice: Language and the Fight Against Feminicides.” Sponsored by the History Department and Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies; University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM); Milwaukee, WI. Nov. 7, 2025.  Learn more here.

David Sterling Brown, Associate Professor of English Served as an invited panelist on a panel focused on Christopher Marlowe’s work. He brought his critical race studies expertise to the conversation. “Marlowe Panel,” Modern Language Association Conference, Toronto, Canada, January 2026. Invited talk: “‘Honor Your Boundaries’: Exploring Shakespeare’s Queer Tragedy Timon of Athens Through a Black Feminist Lens,” Distinguished Scholar Speaker Series, Early Modern Working Group, University of Connecticut, February 2026.

Hasan Comert, Associate Professor of Economics Invited speaker:  gave a talk on Exchange Rate Shocks and Sellers’ Inflation in Turkiye at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkiye on April 27th, 2026.

Susan Masino, Professor of Psychology Invited talk, “Why Our Brains Need Wildlands.”

Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre, Professor of History Invited to provide the sole keynote, “When can you drink wine at the pub?”, at the Britain and the World annual history conference, Boston, MA, April 24, 2026.

Sally Seraphin, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Biomimicry as Panacea: Biopsychosocial Engineering for More Just Societies. Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Scheduled: April 23, 2026 (Host: Dr. Mandë Holford) https://www.oeb.harvard.edu/event/oeb-seminar-series-sally-seraphin.

Raul Zelada-Aprili, Assistant Professor of Economics Invited as a keynote speaker by the ‘Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla (Mexico)’ to present my research about inflation dynamics in Bolivia. The title of my presentation was: “Aspectos Macroeconómicos y de Economía Política de la Caída y Resurgimiento de la Inflación en Bolivia.”

2024-25 Academic Year

Pablo Delano, Professor of Fine Arts Plenary Speaker: / May 30, 2025 Center for the Arts in Society Annual Conference 2025, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA “The Museum of the Old Colony Does the Old World” Invited Speaker / Feb. 26, 2025 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn NY “The Museum of the Old Colony”

Tasmin Jones, Ellsworth Morton Tracy Lecturer and Associate Professor of Religious Studies Plenary Address: “Revelation and Practices of Reception,” Phenomenology and Revelation Conference 2023, Huntington, New York, August 16, 2024. Publication forthcoming in the Journal of Continental Philosophy of Religion.

Sally Seraphin, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Atypical Convergences: Folk Wisdom, Life History Theory, and the Evolutionary Developmental Neurobiology of Traumatic Stress. Evolutionary Biology Section Seminar, Department of Biology, University of Oxford, UK. November 26, 2024. (Host: Aziz Aboobaker, Ph.D.) Deciphering Developmental Timing: Gene Expression Patterns in a New Experimental Model System (Agalychnis callidryas) Illuminate Accelerated Maturation After Early Stress in Humans. Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. January 29, 2025 (Host: Dr. Linnaea Ostroff).

Ewa Syta, Associate Professor of Computer Science Panel Participant, “Who Benefits from Polish American Academic Exchange?”, European Congress of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, November 2024. Keynote Speaker: the 9th Workshop on Traffic Measurements for Cybersecurity (WTMC 2025), “Measuring Trust and Improving Security in Web-PKI: From Certificate Transparency to CTng”, June 2025. Keynote Speaker, Opening Address for the MAK (Mentoring Aktywnych Kobiet) Program, NASK – National Research Institute, Poland’s Ministry of Digital Affairs, May 2025. Speaker and Panel Participant, “Between Theory and Practice: Implementation Challenges of eIDAS 2.0”, Polish Bank Association (Związek Banków Polskich), March 2025. Panel Organizer and Participant, “Państwo Blockchain” Conference – Challenges and Solutions Related to the Implementation of the EU eIDAS 2.0 regulation and the EU Whistleblower Protection directive, May 2025.