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Faculty and Staff Class Notes
Judy Albakry (Honors advisor) was awarded Advisor of the Year for 2024. She also presented at the 2024 annual conference of the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students in St. Louis. Her session, titled “Engagement and Belonging: Using High-Impact Programs to Foster Transfer Student Success,” explored student engagement and sense of belonging as critical elements for student success.
Claudia Barnett (English) won first place in the 2024 Science Playwriting Competition for her short play Almost Certainly Not Real, inspired by astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. She also staged a reading at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University in the spring.
Jon DiCicco (Political and Global Affairs) published two chapters in academic books: “Trump and U.S.-China Strategic Competition as the ‘New’ Normal” in Chaos Reconsidered: The Liberal Order and the Future of International Politics, edited by Robert Jervis, Diane Labrosse, Stacie Goddard, and Josh Rovner (Columbia University Press, 2023), and “Whose Status Quo Is It, Anyway? Regions, Hierarchies, and Satisfaction” in Turmoil and Order in Regional International Politics, edited by William R. Thompson and Thomas J. Volgy (SpringerNature, 2023). Last summer he spent just over a month in Rome as a visiting professor at Sapienza University of Rome. His appointment was a result of a competitive application process and was facilitated by a grant contribution of 5,000 euros from the University. Additionally, he was appointed director of MTSU’s Master of Arts in International Affairs program, the only degree program of its kind in Tennessee.
Sisavanh Houghton (Art and Design) recently received MTSU's inaugural Conference USA Faculty Achievement Award, which honors the exceptional achievements of faculty members at conference universities.
Robin E. Lee (Honors strategic communications specialist) presented on a panel titled “What Makes a Winning Newsletter” at the annual National Collegiate Honors Council conference in 2023.
Joan McRae (French and Francophone Studies) published her fourth book, An Introduction to Literary Debate in Late Medieval France: From “Le Roman de la Rose” to “La Belle Dame sans Mercy.” It was published by University Press in Florida.
Philip E. Phillips (Honors associate dean), who has been re-elected president of the Poe Studies Association, chaired “Revisiting The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym” at the Modern Language Association’s annual convention. He also chaired “Poe and the Global Gothic: New Perspectives,” and he led the annual Poe Studies Association business meeting at the American Literature Association Conference in 2024. His most recent edited collection of essays, Poe Spaces, is under review by a university press. With the support of the Honors College and an MTSU Faculty Professional Development Travel Grant, he conducted research for an Oxford Bibliographies Online article on Robert Frost at Dartmouth College’s Rauner Special Collections Library this year. Phillips drew from his research and other activities in New Hampshire to offer a new graduate seminar at MTSU on “Frost and his Contemporaries” in summer 2024. Additionally, he traveled to Rome to consult ninth- through 12th-century manuscripts at the Vatican Library in support of a collaborative book project on Boethius, Cassiodorus, and The Consolation of Philosophy that he is editing and revising.
MTSU alumna Miura Rempis-Locke (’21, History/Political Science) has returned to the Honors College, now serving as the student engagement and programming coordinator after earning a Master of Public Administration and Policy from American University. She will advise the Honors College ambassadors and Omicron Delta Kappa.
John R. Vile (Honors dean) authored two new books. The Christian Cross in American Public Life: An Encyclopedia (2024, Cambridge Scholars Publishing) is part of a series of similar writings, including Prayer in American Public Life: An Encyclopedia (2022, MTSU’s The First Amendment Press) and The Bible in American Law and Politics: A Reference Guide (2020, Rowman and Littlefield). The Encyclopedia of Presidential Vetoes from Washington Through to Biden (William S. Hein and Co.) also was published in 2024.
Outstanding Honors Faculty Award
Mary Evins, History/American Democracy Project
Exemplary Faculty Service Award
Katie Foss, Journalism and Strategic Media
Exemplary Staff Service Award
Franck Mukendi, Information Technology Division
