As we enter a new year, we've gathered the top stories from the last one. It was an eventful 2022. Our notable coverage included a Pulitzer Prize; a National Book Award; millions of dollars in research grants; faculty experts weighing in on the biggest news stories of the year; and brilliant collaborations between our alumni, faculty, students and our home city of Newark, NJ. Below are just a few of the highlights.
Faculty Research & Expertise
- Putin’s Ukraine Invasion: A Q&A with Professor Alexander Motyl
In our most-read story of the year, political scientist Alexander Motyl, who specializes in Soviet and post-Soviet-politics, Ukraine, comparative politics, nationalism, revolutions, theory and empires, discussed the invastion of Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin. - Research Team Compares Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease Among African Americans and the Yoruba of Nigeria
CMBN neuroscientist Mark Gluck and his lab received NIH funding to explore interactions between genetic and lifestyle risk factors for Alzheimer’s Disease among African Americans and the Yoruba people of Nigeria. - Youth and Gun Violence Expert Paul Boxer Provides Recommendations for Reducing Mass Shootings
In the wake of the Uvalde elementary school and Buffalo supermarket shootings, psychologist and youth violence expert Paul Boxer shares recommendations for reducing mass shootings backed by research. - Neuroscientist Travis Baker Wins $2.5 Million Grant to Treat Substance Abuse Disorder
CMBN neuroscientist Travis Baker won a $2.5 million grant from the NIH to develop new brain-based interventions to correct aberrant reward processes that sustain substance-use disorders.
Awards & Honors
- John Keene Wins National Book Award for Latest Poetry Collection
John Keene, chair of the Department of Africana Studies, has won the National Book Award for Poetry for his latest collection of poems, Punks: New & Selected Poems, which also won the Lambda Literary award and the Thom Gunn Prize for Gay Poetry earlier this year. - Rigoberto González Named Principal Humanities Advisor for National Latino Poetry Project
Rigoberto González, director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing, has been selected by Library of America (LOA) to be Principal Humanities Advisor for Latino Poetry, a national public humanities initiative planned for 2024–25. The project is funded in part by a grant from the NEH and will include a groundbreaking literary survey titled, Latino Poetry: A New Anthology, edited by González, the first anthology to embrace the entire tradition of Latino poetry in all its many strands and from its 16th-century beginnings to the present. - Elena Galoppini Named Deputy Editor of New Chemistry Journal
Distinguished Chemistry Professor Elena Galoppini was named Deputy Editor of ACS Applied Optical Materials, a new journal recently launched by the Publications Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The new publication will provide an international forum for cutting-edge interdisciplinary research in optical materials, focusing on emerging applications that integrate chemistry, materials science, engineering, optics and physics.
- Salamishah Tillet Receives Pulitzer Prize
Salamishah Tillet, a Henry Rutgers Professor of Africana Studies & Creative Writing at Rutgers-Newark and the director of Express Newark, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in criticism for her New York Times essays on race in arts and culture.
Community Engagement
- SASN Breaks Record, Donates 800 Pounds of Items in Spread the Love Food Drive
In September 2021, SASN banded together to bring in more than 600 pounds of items in just one week to help stock the shelves of PantryRUN, the school’s food pantry, which played an essential role by feeding families during the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic. In February 2022 SASN shattered that record by bringing in 800 pounds of essential items for RU-N students and families in need.
- Lives in Translation Team Testifies at NJ State Senate Hearing on Need for Language Accessibility
Since 2016, Lives in Translation (LiT) has been leveraging RU-N’s diversity by recruiting undergraduate volunteers to serve as interpreters and translators for immigrants, nonprofits and businesses seeking legal and other types of services. In early November 2022, senior members of the LiT team testified in front of the NJ State Senate Government Committee, in Trenton, on a bill that would improve accessibility for limited-English-proficiency residents by requiring state government agencies to provide translations of vital documents into the 15 most used non-English languages in the state.
- Tapping the Power of Jazz and Poetry
The mulitifaceted City Verses project, which launched in 2019 with a $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, has brought together RU-N and NJPAC for a series of performances elevating the profile of jazz poetry and offering a broad platform for writers from across the Greater Newark community to share their work. In November 2022, three RU-N alumni played key roles in events hosted by City Verses.
- Public Art Partnership with Audible Urges Viewers to Raise Their Voice
In May 2022, Newark artists and city leaders celebrated the completion of 14 new public installations created through a partnership between Audible and 20 Newark artists and collectives, including RU-N alumni, as part of the Newark Artist Collaboration project, which was coordinated by SASN alumna Rebecca P. Jampol.
Alumni & Student Excellence
- Public Policy Leader Richard Roper Inducted into Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni
Richard Roper, whose career as a prominent public policy leader included directing planning for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was inducted into Rutgers University’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni in November 2022. Induction to the Hall of Distinguished Alumni is the highest honor given to Rutgers graduates. Roper, a Maplewood, NJ, resident, earned a degree in economics from RU-N in 1968 and a master’s from Princeton University in 1971.
- Uncovering the History of RU-N's First African-American Female Student
While Dr. Quintus Jett was researching the school’s history while working on a project for RU-N's Advancement Team from 2016 to 2018, he happened upon an important figure largely unknown to the RU-N community, Louise Lottie Bullock, who graduated with a degree in psychology in 1937 from RU-N's predecessor school, the University of Newark, and whom Jett believes was the first African-American female graduate of the colleges that became RU-N, and possibly the first Black female graduate in Rutgers University’s history.
- Alumnus George Hill’s Remarkable Journey Brings Him Full Circle to SASN
Dr. George Hill (GSN ’99) majored in history as an undergraduate at Yale University while taking a host of pre-med courses. From there he decided to pursue medical school at Harvard because he "didn’t know at the time that you could make a living being a historian.” In 2022, after a decorated career as a surgeon, medical school professor, hospital administrator, and Navy Reservist surgeon and researcher, the indefatigable, 89-year-old Hill was indeed working as a historian and published his latest book, Health Matters: A New View of Human History, for which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Science and Liberal Arts at NJIT, which is part of the Federated Department of History with RU-N.
- Two Gallery Aferro Summer Shows Feature SASN Faculty, Alumni
Two new shows at Gallery Aferro in June 2022 included the work of several artists from SASN. In the main gallery, “Tell Me More About Yourself (Self-Portraits and Other Autobiographical Endeavors)”, featured ACM faculty Anthony Alvarez and Emanuel Cacciatore, and alumni Noelle Lorraine Williams and Bryant LeBron, while “Flow: Neo-Latino Collective”was curated by ACM alumna Lisette Morel and included a painting by ACM alumnus Hugo X. Bastidas.
- Celebrating Student Achievements in the Arts & Sciences
Every year, the Office of Academic Services works together with the Office of the Dean and the academic departments across SASN to present awards to a select group of students, mostly seniors, for going above and beyond in their chosen areas of study. On May 3, 2022, outstanding RU-N students were honored at the SASN Annual Awards Banquet surrounded by their professors, mentors and peers. It was the first time the ceremony had occurred in person since 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The event was livestreamed on YouTube for family and friends who could not attend and is available to watch SASN's YouTube channel.