Awards & Honors

Awards and Honors

2026-2027 Academic Year

Shoshana Goldstein, Assistant Professor of Urban Studies, received an Honorable Achievement in the Tulane Prize for Climate Change Curriculum in the Built Environment for her course, Planning for Climate Justice. The award recognizes excellence and innovation in climate change curriculum development and honors faculty whose work advances education on climate mitigation and adaptation in the built environment.

Katsuya Izumi, Senior Lecturer in Language and Culture Studies, was selected to participate in the highly competitive Luce-ASIANetwork Summer Institute, joining a cohort of 12 faculty members from liberal arts colleges and teaching-centered universities. The institute focused on Teaching Global Asia/s and Asian Languages Futures and brought together participants to develop innovative approaches to undergraduate education and a collaborative project that will culminate in a white paper and scholarly presentations in 2027.

Juliet Nebolon, Associate Professor of American Studies, was named co-winner of the 2026 Association for Asian American Studies History Book Award for “Settler Militarism: World War II in Hawai‘i and the Making of U.S. Empire” (Duke University Press, 2024). The award recognizes the book’s significant contributions to scholarship on settler colonialism, U.S. militarism, race, indigeneity, and the history of Hawaiʻi and the Kanaka Maoli people.

Martha Risser, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, received a Senior Fellowship for Advanced Research in the Humanities from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and was selected for the Ernest S. Frerichs Annual Professorship at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research.

2025-2026 Academic Year

Catina Bacote, Associate Professor of English Awarded a fellowship to the Storyknife Writers Residency in Homer, Alaska, participating in a monthlong residency in April 2025

David Sterling Brown, Associate Professor of English Served as a CTL Fellow and Office of Community and Belonging Faculty Fellow. Collaborated with students to host a Cinestudio film screening of Moonlight followed by a public conversation.

Dang Do, Assistant Professor of Political Science Received a $7,500 Impact Grant from the Connecticut OER Council for the Legislative Internship Program’s updated Connecticut State Politics book. Grant funding supports professional editing and typesetting of a student-authored publication.

Michelle Kovarik, Professor of Chemistry Received the J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education from the American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry. National award recognizing outstanding contributions to the education and professional development of analytical chemistry students. Delivered a presentation at a special award symposium at the ACS National Meeting in August. Additional info here: https://acsanalytical.org/award/the-j-calvin-giddings-award-for-excellence-in-education/.

Kirsti Kuenzel, Associate Professor of Mathematics 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 Received the 2025 Letitia Woods Brown Article Prize for Best Article in Black Women’s History. Awarded for “Drowningin a DeadRiver,” published in the Journal of African American History (2024). Prize presented by the Association of Black Women Historians, a leading organization dedicated to the study of Black women’s history.

Sarah A. Raskin, Associate Dean for Faculty Development 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 Finalist for the Best First Book in the History of Religions award from the American Academy of Religion. Recognized for “Without a Prayer: Religion and Race in New York City Public Schools.” Honored by the largest scholarly society dedicated to the academic study of religion.

Sally B. Seraphin, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Fall 2025 Faculty Fellow in Artificial Intelligence at Library & Information Technology. Participated in the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. Served as a discussant for Neurolaw at the 3rd Annual Dana Foundation Career Network in Neuroscience & Society and Simply Neuroscience Virtual Career Fair. Co-authored research on stress-induced hatching and developmental outcomes in red-eyed tree frogs. Co-authored “PrisonBrain: The Next Frontier in Neurolaw for Criminal JusticeReform.”

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.

Chandranil Chakraborttii, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Awarded a $12,000 enterprise AI computing grant through the Connecticut AI Alliance (CAIA) AI Computing Access Program to support student research in AI storage security and undergraduate senior capstone projects at Trinity.

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.

Katsuya Izumi, Senior Lecturer in Language and Culture Studies Received a Northeast Asia Council Japan Studies Grant to support research on English and Japanese articles published in the Manzanar Free Press, examining how differences between the two versions illuminate the experiences of Japanese American internees during World War II.

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

2026-27 Academic Year

Catina Bacote, Associate Professor of English, Invited speaker, Black Feminist Think Tank Speaker Series, Georgia Institute of Technology. Invited speaker, Hermanns Lecture Series, University of Texas.

Clayton P. Byers, Donald L. McLagan Associate Professor of Engineering, Invited lecture, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization: “Investigating Triadic Interactions: From a Perturbed Boundary Layer to Heart Murmurs.” Invited lecture, University of Houston Department of Mechanical Engineering: “Triads in Turbulence and Unveiling Their Energy Cascade.” Invited lecture, University of Rochester Department of Mechanical Engineering: “Unveiling the Energy Cascade of Perturbed Scales in Turbulence.”

Tamsin Jones, Ellsworth Morton Tracy Lecturer and Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Keynote lecture, International Network in Philosophy of Religion, Paris, France: “Καλέω κάλλος:OnBeauty at theEnd.”

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.”