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Promotions

Loyola celebrates the attainments of its faculty members who were recently tenured and/or promoted, one of the most important career milestones in a faculty member's career.

During the 2023-24 academic year, 10 Loyola faculty members were tenured and/or promoted. Their accomplishments will continue to strengthen student learning experiences, and their scholarly contributions will continue to enrich human and universal understanding and experience.

The profiles of these distinguished faculty members, which follow, describe the faculty members' areas of expertise and give insight into their most significant and rewarding career dimensions.

Maren Blohm, Ph.D.

Promoted

Professor of Biology

Research Interests

My research focuses on plant responses to environmental stresses. I am particularly interested in stresses that are linked to climate change such as water quality and temperature.

Favorite Courses Taught at Loyola

  • BL 311 - Research Methods in Plant Science
  • BL 361 - Plant Physiology
  • BL 281 - General Genetics

Recent/Noteworthy Publications or Presentations

  • Veatch-Blohm, M.E., G. Medina, and J. Butler. 2023. Early lateral root formation in response to calcium and nickel shows variation within disjunct populations of Arabidopsis lyrata spp. lyrata. Heliyon, 9: e13632. Doi.org/10.1016.j.heliyon.2023.e13632.
  • Veatch-Blohm, M.E., I. Chicas, K. Margolis, R. Vanderminden, M. Gochie, and K. Lila. 2021. Screening for consistency and contamination within and between bottles of 29 herbal supplements. PLOS One 16(11): e0260463.
  • Veatch-Blohm, M.E., B.M. Roche, and T. Sweeney. 2019. The effect of bulb weight on salinity tolerance of three common Narcissus cultivars. Scientia Horticulturae 248: 62-69.

Most Significant Service to Loyola, Your Professional, and/or Baltimore Community

  • Chair of the Committee on the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
  • Acadmic Senator for the Biology Department
  • Science Club for Warren Elementary

Grants/Fellowships Awarded

  • "Genetic mechanisms of heavy metal tollerance of serpentine and non-serpentine populations of Arabidopsis lyrata subspecies lyrata" Maryland Native Plant Society grant, $2,610. Project Period June 2023-May2024.
  • "The Incorporation of Graphite-Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy Across the Chemistry Curriculum" NSF-CCLI grant for graphite furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometer for $117,611. Awarded June 2010.

What is Significant or Rewarding about Loyola

The most rewarding activity during my time at Loyola has been mentoring students in research. I believe that science comes alive as students participate in the research process. I strive to help them gain skills that they can later use no matter what their ultimate goals or academic skills are. The very act of research builds skills that are applicable and transferable to more than just science, such as problem solving and troubleshooting. My hope is that they catch the excitement of contributing new knowledge to the field and this will lead to a lifelong love of learning and exploration.

Marianna Carlucci, Ph.D.

Promoted

Professor of Psychology

Research Interests

I have a varied academic background that lies, mainly, at the intersection of psychology and the law. I also have a second area of interest and expertise in gender and sexuality.

Favorite Courses Taught at Loyola

  • Research Methods in Psychology (Graduate Level)
  • Psychology of Gender
  • Forensic Psychology

Recent/Noteworthy Publications or Presentations

  • Garcia, J., Johnson-Evans, A., Carlucci, M. E., & Grover, R. (2020). The impact of mental health diagnoses on perceptions of risk of criminality. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 66, 397-410.
  • Henninger, A. L., Iwasaki, M. I., Carlucci, M. E., & Lating, J. (2020). Reporting sexual assault: Survivors' satisfaction with sexual assault response personnel. Violence Against Women, 26, 1362-1382.

Most Significant Service to Loyola, Your Professional, and/or Baltimore Community

  • Equity Fellow for Academic Affairs 2020-2023

Grants/Fellowships Awarded

  • American Academy of Sleep Medicine: Community Sleep Health Award

What is Significant or Rewarding about Loyola

I could not be happier or more fortunate for having landed at Loyola in 2011. I often tell my students this: I have a bachelor's degree and a doctoral degree and yet, the most learning I've ever done has been at Loyola. I believe the Jesuit pedagogical tradition can be transformative, and it has allowed me to lean in, more fully, to my intellectual passions. Thank you to my colleagues in the Psychology Department, who have been my greatest teachers, and thank you to the broader Loyola community who has embraced me in the last few years as Equity Fellow for Academic Affairs. It has been a pleasure and I hope to continue to learn and grow alongside fabulous, hardworking, and gifted colleagues.

Michelle Gawerc, Ph.D.

Promoted

Professor of Sociology

Research Interests

Much of my research, since tenure, has been guided by a unifying theme: how can people accomplish working across differrence and inequality to advocate collectively for justice and peace. I am now engaged in a new project focused on truth commissions for racial healing and transformation in the United States.

Favorite Courses Taught at Loyola

  • SC203D: Globalization and Society
  • SC377: Social Movements and Social Protest
  • SC441: Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation in Divided Societies

Recent Noteworthy Publications/Presentations

  • Gawerc, Michelle I. (2022). Constructing a Sense of ‘We’ Across the Lines of Conflict and Occupation: Joint Peace Movement Organizations in Israel/Palestine. In Fatma Müge Göçek & Gamze Evcimen (Eds.), Handbook of Sociology and the Middle East (pp.34-44). I.B. Tauris. 
  • Gawerc, Michelle I. (2021). The Centrality of Difference in Coalition-Building Across Divides: Palestinian, Israeli, and International Organizations in the Occupied West Bank. Contention: The Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest 9(2), 20-48.
  • Gawerc, Michelle I. (2021). Coalition-Building and the Forging of Solidarity Across Difference and Inequality. Sociology Compass 15(3), 1-14.

Most Significant Service to Loyola, Your Professional, and/or Baltimore Community

  • Council member for the American Sociological Association’s Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section (including serving as chair/member of three award committees, co-chair of its mentoring committee, and member of its nomination committee)

  • Founding steering member of Loyola's Peace and Justice Studies program (and 2018-2019 Interim Director of the Office of Peace & Justice)

  • Member of Loyola’s Interfaith Advisory Board, Loyola’s Committee on Engaged Scholarship, and the Global Studies Steering Committee.

Grants/Fellowships Awarded

  • Fellow, Reignite Community-Engaged Seminar
  • Hanway Faculty Development Grant, Loyola University Maryland
  • Summer Research Grant, Loyola University Maryland

What is Significant or Rewarding about Loyola

As a faculty member, I most appreciate Loyola’s commitment to social justice, community-engaged learning, and value-engaged scholarship. It is a privilege to be able to encourage students to cultivate values for the “greater good,” to recognize their power to shape society through action, and to create for themselves a life philosophy that integrates their values, commitments, and the type of change they would like to see in this world.

Margarita Jácome, Ph.D.

Promoted

Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures

Research Interests

I explore cultural productions on drug trafficking and their local and globalized forms of consumption. I am also interested in fictional and non-fictional representations of the Colombian armed conflict in relation to the violence in the countryside, forced displacement, and disappearance.

Favorite Courses Taught at Loyola

  • SN306: Music and Social Movements in Latin America
  • ML392D: Intro to Latin American and Latino Studies
  • SN360: Latin American Testimony

Recent Noteworthy Publications/Presentations

  • Book: La mirada opuesta. Voces de victimarios en la literatura latinoamericana contemporánea. Co-edited with Ana María Mutis. Bonilla Artigas Editores, 2021.
  • Invited Lecture: "Conversatorio: la narcocultura se apodera de la academia." Congreso Narcotransmisiones globales. October 5-9, 2020.
  • Book chapter: "Narrar la historia: identidades armadas en la narcoliteratura colombiana reciente." Narcodependencia. Escenarios heterogéneos de narración y reflexión. México: humbold Kolleg-Colegio Nacional, 2018. 546-91.

Most Significant Service to Loyola, Your Professional, and/or Baltimore Community

  • Director. Latin American and Latino Studies Program.
  • Associate Chair for Student Issues. Modern Languages and Literatures.
  • Equity and Inclusion Faculty Fellow First Cohort: Having Difficult Conversations.

Grants/Fellowships Awarded

  • Loyola University Maryland and Sellinger School Summer Research Grants

What is Significant or Rewarding about Loyola

As an educator, scholar, and lifelong learner, I am fortunate to have been afforded opportunities at Loyola to grow and excel in teaching, research, and service and integrate them. This ability to interlace teaching, research, and service is what makes Loyola special.

Nicholas Miller, Ph.D.

Promoted

Professor of English

Research Interests

My research is interdisciplinary, and focuses primarily on early animation history and the intersections between time-based media and modernist print and visual cultures. My published scholarship includes work on independent animation, nineteenth- and twentieth-century Irish and British literature, Irish national cinema, neurological research on memory, comparative aesthetics (literature, visual art, film, animation), and psychoanalytic theory.

Favorite Courses Taught at Loyola

  • Imagined Innocents: The Child Narrator in Fiction and Film (English Department Senior Honors Seminar)
  • The Art of Reading (Messina First-Year Seminar)
  • The Animation Imagination (200-level Core or Upper-Division English Seminar)

Recent Noteworthy Publications/Presentations

  • “Farther Figures: Locating the Author Father in Coraline,” Mihaela Mihailova, ed., Coraline: A Closer Look at Studio LAIKA's Stop-Motion Witchcraft, Animation: Key Films/Filmmakers series London: Bloomsbury Press, 2021.

  • “‘A Printing Machine for the Memory’: Stillness, Metamorphosis, and the Poiesis of Memory in Ruth Lingford’s Death and the Mother,” Animation and Memory, Maarten van Gageldonk and László Munteán, eds., London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2020.
  • “Dreaming while Black”: The Sesame Street Animation of Tee Collins and Jim Simon,” Sesame Street and the Animating Imagination, Society for Animation Studies 34th Annual Conference, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, June 12-16 2023.

Most Significant Service to Loyola, Your Professional, and/or Baltimore Community

  • 2023-present: Chair, Department of English, Loyola University Maryland
  • 2012-present: Director, Film Studies, Loyola University Maryland
  • 2004-10: Director, Honors Program and Chir, Honors Review Committee

Grants/Fellowships Awarded

  • 2021-22: Loyola NEH Summer Research Fellowship Matching Grant
  • 2017: Loyola University Maryland Faculty Award for Excellence in Transformative Teaching (Inaugural Award)
  • 2014: Center for the Humanities Grant Funding, The Baltimore Cinema History Project, an initiative that supported original student-led archival research on Baltimore's neighborhood cinemas, student-hosted screening at the historic Senator Theatre in Belvedere Square, and ultimately, a continuing institutional/community partnership between Loyola and its neighborhood cinema, The Senator.

What is Significant or Rewarding about Loyola

When I joined the Loyola English Department in 1998, I was delighted to find that I had landed in a place that truly values excellence in teaching. In the research-centered universities where I earned my undergraduate and graduate degrees, it was something of an open secret that teaching didn't really matter as much as publications and grants. I'm grateful to the talented and generous colleagues at Loyola, and in the English Department in particular, who have shared their pedagogical expertise with me over the years. The evidence of their support and encouragement is visible in the teacher I have become.
 

Sara Scalenghe, Ph.D.

Promoted

Professor of History

Research Interests

My main research interests are Middle Eastern History, Disability History, and the History of Women and Gender.

Favorite Courses Taught at Loyola

  • Women and Gender in the Middle East
  • Global Histories of Disability
  • Seminar: Migration, Displacement, and Refugees in the Middlle East

Recent Noteworthy Publications/Presentations

  • “Disability in the Premodern Arab World.” In The Oxford Handbook of Disability History, edited by Catherine Kudlick, Kim Nielsen, and Michael Rembis, 71-84. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
  • “The Body and Revolution in the Middle East.” Co-authored with Sherene Seikaly. In Routledge Handbook on Women in the Middle East, edited by Suad Joseph and Zeina Zaatari, 135-146. New York: Routledge, 2022.
  • “Disability Studies in The Middle East and North Africa: A Roundtable.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 51, no. 1 (2019): 109-134.

Most Significant Service to Loyola, Your Professional, and/or Baltimore Community

  • Chair, Department of History
  • Mentoring students
  • Director, Loyola International Nachbahr House, Leuven, Belgium

Grants/Fellowships Awarded

  • National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) $219,000 grant for "Global Histories of Disability," a Summer Institute for College and University held at Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, June 18 - July 13, 2018.

What is Significant or Rewarding about Loyola

Mentoring students, without a doubt. But my colleagues are pretty cool, too!
 

Qi Shi, Ph.D.

Promoted

Professor of Education Specialties

Research Interests

My research interests include school counselors' role in personal, social, and academic development of underrepresented student populations in K-12 schools, broadening the participation for immigrant youth and English Language Learners in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) majors and careers, and school counseling profession's development in international contexts.

Favorite Courses Taught at Loyola

  • Research and Evaluation in Counseling
  • Tests and Measurements in Counseling
  • Theories of Counseling

Recent Noteworthy Publications/Presentations

  • Shi, Q., Phillips, K., & Davis, J. (In Press). Latina English Learners’ sense of belonging in STEM programs: An intersectional view. Manuscript accepted for publication in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.
  • Shi, Q., Phillips, K., Moody, D., & Cordova, T. (2023). Adapted Strong Kids Curriculum for English Language Learners (ELLs) during COVID-19. Professional School Counseling (PSC), 27(1), 1-11.
  • Shi, Q., Cournoyer, C., Randolph, A., Scheffenacker, M., & Brown, J. (2022). Experiential learning of school counselors-in-training to work with English Learners. Journal of Educational Research and Practice, 12(1), 132–147.

Most Significant Service to Loyola, Your Professional, and/or Baltimore Community

  • President's Council on Equity & Inclusion (member), Loyola University Maryland, Fall 2022-present
  • Associate Editor (2019-present) and Incoming Editor (in 2024), Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy and Evaluation
  • Research Board Member and Institutional Lead for the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC).

Grants/Fellowships Awarded

  • Principal Investigator, Latinas’ Resistance Behaviors at Predominantly White Institutions and Hispanic Serving Institutions: An Intersectional View. National Science Foundation (granted), $498,270, 2023-2026
  • Co-Principal Investigator, Loyola University Maryland Noyce STEM Teacher Education Program (CREST): Recruiting, Preparing and Retaining High-Quality STEM Teachers. National Science Foundation (granted),
    $1,199,042, 2023-2028.
  • Principal Investigator, I Am/Was a Latina English Learner in STEM: A Phenomenological Analysis

What is Significant or Rewarding about Loyola

The most significant experience for me at Loyola is my director's role at the Center for Equity, Leadership, and Social Justice in Education (CELSJE) where I am able to embrace my passion and experience in research, evaluation, grants, and community service. Through this work, I could elevate faculty's expertise in research and build mutually beneficial relationships that lead to long-term commitments and jointly developed research agendas in the community. 

The most rewarding experience for me at Loyola is to be able to provide mentorship to graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and junior faculty members and be part of their journeys in becoming the next generation of professionals and academics. 

Kerry Tan, Ph.D.

Promoted

Professor of Economics

Research Interests

My research interests include industrial organization and applied microeconomics with a particular focus on strategic behavior in the U.S. airline industry.

Favorite Courses Taught at Loyola

  • EC 102: Microeconomic Principles
  • EC 460: Busness and Government
  • GB 707: Managerial Economics

Recent Noteworthy Publications/Presentations

  • Kim, Donggeun, Myongjin Kim, and Kerry Tan. (2021). "Tacit Collusion and Price Dispersion in the Presence of Southwest Airlines," Southern Economic Journal 88(1), 3-32.
  • Rupp, Nicholas and Kerry Tan. (2019). "Mergers and Product Quality: A Silver Lining from De-Hubbing in the U.S. Airline Industry," Contemporary Economic Policy 37(4), 652-672.
  • Tan, Kerry M. (2018). "Outsourcing and Price Competition: An Empirical Analysis of the Partnerships between Legacy Carriers and Regional Airlines," Review of Industrial Organization 53(2), 275-294.

Most Significant Service to Loyola, Your Professional, and/or Baltimore Community

  • Economics Department: Messina core advisor
  • Sellinger School Chair of the Sellinger Faculty Assembly
  • Loyola University Maryland: Budget Committee/Loyola Conference

What is Significant or Rewarding about Loyola

I came to Loyola because I wanted to work alongside other active researchers in a student-focused setting. Teaching remains of fundamental importance to me and my identity as a college professor. I am still just as passionate to step into the classroom now as I wass on my first day at Loyola Back in 2012. I strive to have a positive impact on my students both academically and personally. I was especially touched and proud when a former student mentioned how I have made her believe in herself, believe she can handle tough classes, and learn how to learn. 

Rebecca Trump, Ph.D.

Promoted

Professor of Marketing

Research Interests

Experimental consumer psychology, particularly focusing on connections between brands and consumers' identities and on consumers' reactions to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and to technology.

Favorite Courses Taught at Loyola

  • MK 346D: Consumer Behavior
  • MK 448: Socially Responsible Marketing
  • GB 741: MBA Consumer Behavior

Recent Noteworthy Publications/Presentations

  • Newman, Kevin P., and Rebecca K. Trump (2022), “Addressing the Eco-Gender Gap in Men through Power and Sustainability Self-Efficacy,” Journal of Brand Management. Published online December 31, 2022.
  • Trump, Rebecca K., and Kevin P. Newman (2021), “Emotion Regulation in the Marketplace: The Role of Pleasant Brand Personalities,” Marketing Letters, 32 (2), 231-245.
  • Newman, Kevin P. and Rebecca K. Trump (2017), “When are Consumers Motivated to Connect with Ethical Brands? The Roles of Guilt and Moral Identity Importance,” Psychology & Marketing, 34 (6), 597-609.

Most Significant Service to Loyola, Your Professional, and/or Baltimore Community

  • Advising Students
  • Moderator of Student Club Loyola Marketing Ambassadors (LMA)
  • Vice Chair of the Faculty Affairs Committee at Loyola

Grants/Fellowships Awarded

  • Loyola Summer Research Grant

What is Significant or Rewarding about Loyola

Loyola's Jesuit Mission reflects my personal ideals and I so value being a part of the University that is dedicated to social justice, cura personalis, and Magis. I also appreciate Loyola's commmitment to excellence in teaching alongside supporting and valuing scholarship. Loyola helps me achieve my personal and professional goals and I am proud to contribute to this community.

Jeffrey Witt, Ph.D.

Promoted

Professor of Philosophy

Research Interests

Medieval Philosophy and Digital Humanities.

Favorite Courses Taught at Loyola

  • HN202: Medieval World
  • PL399: Philosophy of Information and Media
  • PL320: Logic

Recent Noteworthy Publications/Presentations

  • 2023 Commentarius in libros Sententiarum Liber 1, Lectiones 1-20, edited by Jeffrey C. Witt and John T. Slotemaker, Peer Reviewed by the Medieval Academy of America and the Digital Latin Library, 2023
  • 2023 (forthcoming) "Transparency and Discovery: Using a Text-Image Network to Study Manuscripts and Text Transmission", in Journal of Data Mining and Digital Humanities. On the Way to the Future of Digital Manuscript Studies (special issue), 2023
  • 2020 "Peter Plaoul and Intuitive Knowledge", In Philosophical Psychology in Late-Medieval Commentaries on Peter Lombard’s Sentences, edited by Monica Brînzei and Christopher D. Schabel, 21:81–102. Rencontres de Philosophie Médiévale. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.RPM-EB.5.119850

Most Significant Service to Loyola, Your Professional, and/or Baltimore Community

  • Served as Chair of the Philosophy Department from AY22-24

Grants/Fellowships Awarded

  • 2021 Collaborator on "The Digital Auctores Project" Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) $250,000CAD
  • 2018 Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Fellowship, Fellowship to work at the Digital Humanities Lab at Leipzig University.

What is Significant or Rewarding about Loyola

I've enjoyed the privilege of working closely with students one-on-one: e.g. finding subjects that students are passionate about and then inviting them into active research in those areas of interest. As a researcher, I've also enjoyed the ability to take risks at Loyola and try new things, for example, approaching traditional topics from new angles and/or publishing in new media.

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