蘑菇传媒

Welcome to the latest SAS in Focus, a newsletter that reports what鈥檚 happening in the School of Arts and Sciences.

In this edition, we will highlight excellence in undergraduate teaching, a new podcast, and more.

Award-winning producer Erica Fee is the recipient of the 2025 Lillian Fairchild Award, which recognizes artists for their commitment to the Rochester community. Fee, a 1999 graduate of the URochester, is the CEO and founding festival producer of the .

The Fairchild Award was established in 1924 in honor of artist and poet Lillian Fairchild (1878-1910). The annual award bestowed by the celebrates a Rochester resident who has produced 鈥渢he most meritorious and praiseworthy creation of art, poetry, or literature of the imagination鈥� within the past twelve months.

 

Congratulations to Michael Clark, professor of instruction in the ; , associate professor of instruction and associate director in the ; and , professor of instruction in the .

Clark, Grzesik, and Foster are the 2025 recipients of the Goergen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Learn more about the award winners:

Michael Clark: Inspiring learning through the art of asking questions

Katherine Grzesik: Crunching numbers and sparking curiosity

David Foster: Guiding students to find their own path

 

A team of 14 蘑菇传媒 students from the School of Arts & Sciences and of Engineering & Applied Sciences earned top honors at the 2025 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition.

The team鈥檚 project, 鈥淧HAntom,鈥� aims to use bacteria to transform carbon dioxide into materials that may help astronauts build a sustainable life on Mars. In October, Team PHAntom submitted their research to the 2025 iGEM competition, a global event where student teams tackle real-world challenges using synthetic biology鈥攁 field that applies engineering principles to create biological systems inspired by nature.

The 蘑菇传媒 team was awarded a gold medal and four nominations in categories including 鈥淏est Space Project鈥� and 鈥淏est Hardware鈥� for their innovative approaches.

Learn more about the PHAntom project

 

, hosted by the , is now available on all major podcast platforms.

Each episode of The Humanities in the World will brings together leading thinkers and researchers from across the globe to explore the role the humanities play in shaping the world around us.

The explores how the humanities shape national narratives, public memory, and cultural identity in India and Mexico鈥攖wo nations deeply marked by colonial legacies and vibrant postcolonial transformations.

 

Specially designed kayaks are serving as floating laboratories for 蘑菇传媒 researchers and PhD students studying the Genesee River and Erie Canal.

笔谤辞蹿别蝉蝉辞谤听聽and Katherine 鈥淜atie鈥� Gregory, a PhD candidate in the聽have been conducting kayak-based research on the river to gather measurements of three dissolved gases鈥攎ethane, carbon dioxide, and oxygen鈥攁s well as a host of other atmospheric and river properties.

Read more about the 鈥榝loating laboratories鈥� on the Genesee River

 

Pulitzer Prize鈥搘inning historian and alumnus Steven Hahn 鈥�3 has spent years chronicling the political experiences of ordinary people, particularly those at the margins, such as white farmers and enslaved people. In his latest book,聽聽(W. W. Norton, 2025), he traces the enduring themes of exclusion, repression, and antidemocratic politics in the United States across centuries.

鈥淚lliberalism is not a backlash,鈥� Hahn insists. 鈥淏acklash is one of the most misleading words in the American political vocabulary, because it suggests that a political phenomenon only expresses ignorance and rage and nothing more than that.鈥� Instead, he argues,聽illiberalism is a coherent political culture with 鈥渄eep historical roots.鈥�

Read more about Steven Hahn and “Illiberal America”

 

, assistant professor of Black Studies, will discuss her new book, Local Color: Reckoning with Blackness in the Port City of Veracruz (University of California Press, 2025) with , an associate professor in the during a book launch and celebration hosted by the . The free event is from 5 to 6:30 p.m. today, Thursday, in the Gowen Room.

Local Color is an ethnographic exploration of how everyday people make sense and use of multicultural efforts to rewrite Blackness into Mexico鈥檚 past, present, and future. Through an analysis of music and dance communities, national and local discourse, and public history, the book argues that prior to the official recognition of Afro-Mexicans, Mexican Blackness foster regional rather than racial identification.

 

Mark your calendars: The will present The Philosophy of Andy Warhol from November 20 through December 6 in Sloan Performing Arts Center鈥檚 Smith Theater.

The theatrical adaptation of Warhol鈥檚 iconic memoir explodes with the raw, restless energy of being a young artist in America today. Warhol鈥檚 musings on fame, beauty, money, sex, and death collide in a dazzling, deadpan dive into the mind of the original Pop icon. Drawn from over 600 Warhol films, it鈥檚 a fragmented, funny, and haunting portrait of a world obsessed with image鈥攁nd the artists trapped within it.

Visit the International Theatre Program page for .

 

Send your SAS in Focus news tips to Director of Marketing and Communications Sheila Rayam at sheila.rayam@rochester.edu. Let her know about unique research, awards, publications, community collaborations and other interesting news. Please put 鈥淪AS in Focus鈥� in the subject heading.