The College of Humanities sends condolences to the family and friends of Stephen Douglas Todd, who passed away in January.

Steve was a generous supporter of the University of Arizona, creating the Stephen D. Todd Interdisciplinary Humanities Scholarship, which supports students studying in both the College of Humanities and the College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences.

Read more in the Arizona Republic.

Basic language courses across the College of Humanities instruct thousands of University of Arizona students each semester, majors and non-majors alike, giving them the building blocks of a second language. 

But beyond the basic language classes, faculty members research and teach about multilingualism in broader contexts, specializing in how humans acquire and maintain languages, the various contexts in which people learn languages, successful language learning methods and strategies, and the intricate ties between language, culture, place and identity. 

Peter Ecke, Professor in the Department of German Studies, developed “Becoming Multilingual: Learning and Maintaining Two or More Languages” in 2015 to introduce undergraduate students to research on bilingual and multilingual people. The course includes information to show students how myths about bilingualism and language learning persist, as well as the realities.   

In the general education course, usually about half of the students describe themselves as monolingual or second language learners, and half describe themselves as bilingual and multilingual. 

Though its home department is German Studies, the course draws students from across campus, with high numbers of Hispanic and international students, as well as some Native American students. For some of those students, being bilingual is not something extraordinary or special, but examining misperceptions about multilingualism is an important part of the course.

“What these groups of students have in common are frequent challenges related to their perceived language proficiencies and cultural identities. Some may feel isolated or living in between cultures, not really belonging to a particular one. But in the course, these students realize that their experiences are shared by many others,” Ecke said. “Many students we have who come from African countries find their multilingualism totally normal and they may use three, four, or five languages regularly. They’re not equally fluent in all these languages, but each has its place and is used in their everyday life. In the course, they may reflect on their language use and issues of language loss.”

For some assignments, Ecke asks students to provide advice with respect to real-life scenarios, explaining responses to different challenges, for example, a friend or family seeking help about an international work opportunity, or a bilingual couple considering how to raise a child in terms of language and culture.

“They learn what it means to acquire, maintain and forget languages, and are provided with insights that help them make informed decisions as language learners in college, in their careers and in their families,” he said.

Associate Professor Liudmila Klimanova in the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies focuses on the intersections of language studies, multilingualism, multiculturalism and identity.

“We can think about multilingualism as a borderland,” she said. “Knowing multiple languages gives you a set of skills that extends far beyond your linguistic ability to communicate and connect with different communities. Evidence shows that knowledge of multiple languages contributes to building comfort with uncertainty and reduces anxiety in complex situations, which adds a unique strength to someone’s professional identity.” 

Part of Klimanova’s research and teaching centers on the relationship between language, identity, and larger social and cultural contexts in Russia and the Post-Soviet world. Like other examples across space and time, sociolinguistic categories are created that can be tied to inclusion or exclusion. Essentially, monolingualism can become a political tool to impose control on segments of a population. 

“Multilingualism empowers you in so many different ways. It has given people a power to think independently, but there’s a history of suppression of multilingualism and bilingualism, when it’s perceived as a weapon,” she said. 

Studies and applications of multilingualism also consider how the linguistic diversity of a place impacts identity and how languages become inter-related. Southern Arizona is a good example, with more than 40 languages spoken in Tucson. The U of A is an Hispanic Serving Institution, but its multilingualism extends far beyond that. 

“Multilingual speakers really see the world differently. You learn a whole way of viewing and thinking about the world from people who bring multiple languages to the table,” she said. “That creates a very beautiful, multifaceted, rich understanding of what the world is all about, and translates into very important work-related skills and social skills.” 

In teaching her “Religion and Film” course, DeAnna Daniels centers on Black horror, using the genre as a way to understand religion and film in all of its multiplicities. 

Daniels and her students spend the semester exploring the relationship between religion and visual storytelling and analyzing various ideological and moral topics and messages. 

“Horror is the perfect genre,” Daniels said. “It provides catharsis, it provides escape and it helps you wrestle with those thoughts around what we are afraid of, culturally and societally, and wrestle with what happens after death. It gets to the questions of human existence and gives us an outlet to visually see them.” 

Daniels, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Religious Studies, extends the theme to her research, which includes a current project co-editing a collection called “The Sinners Reader: Black Horror, Black Religion(s), and Contemporary Popular Culture.” 

The prevalence of horror films across countries and cultures provides a number of different vantage points to consider the existential questions around death, the afterlife and what people both fear and embrace. 

“The western cosmological system is not the only one that experiences death and dying, or supernatural entities or spiritual beings,” Daniels said. “Taiwanese horror is going to have a conversation about the afterlife. Japanese horror is going to have a conversation about the afterlife. Black horror is going to have a conversation about the afterlife. These beings, these monsters, these entities, are going to help you wrestle through what’s possible. We don’t know what happens after death and horror is a great way to explore that.” 

As part of the 2025 Tucson Humanities Festival, Daniels shared a playlist of horror-related hip-hop songs on Halloween as a guest DJ on KXCI Community Radio. Daniels’ selections included: Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” discussing its stylistic music video and the connections between Afrofuturism and horror; Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s Grammy-winning “Tha Crossroads,” which she says offers a different perspective on theological concerns around how one dies well; and the Nicki Minaj verse on “Monster” as a metaphorical commentary on her artistry in a male-dominated arena. 

Daniels is a longtime fan of horror films, with the level of refined analysis she now brings to the genre developing throughout her academic journey. 

“I was always engaging with it, but I never had the language for it. Once it clicked, everything just made sense and it felt like a beautiful tapestry of connectivity. Now everywhere I go, I can say ‘That’s the horror, that’s the monster, that’s the gothic,’” she said. “It took time and education, but the themes were always there. Having the right vocabulary and tools to assess them properly came through education and Africana and Black Studies are prime for that.” 

Daniels said students often enroll in her course because they get to watch a film in class, but end up with an experience that goes beyond their expectations. 

“I think they stay because I have a pedagogy of tension. I want them to be uncomfortable, I want them to ask the uncomfortable questions and sit with what those answers might bring up,” Daniels said. “I just want them to think what’s possible, explore what they know already, find something new and try to tangle with it. Usually they’re ready to do the work.” 

Horror offers a lens to view experiences of being “othered,” whether that’s along lines of race, sexuality, gender and more, Daniels said. On screen, the monster, as well as the victims, can exist outside the norms of a society, but are given voice by the filmmakers. 

“How does the monster show up? What does the monster have to say? When they speak, it’s loud,” she said. 

In some ways, Michelle Durham can trace her career as a television executive back to a flight to Paris she took as a college student. 

“I got off of the plane and I thought ‘Yep, this is where I’m supposed to be.’ Studying abroad was an untouchable dream that I got to make happen. I could see that my world was going to open up beyond Arizona,” she said. “I had such an amazing time that it started to build that a muscle memory of you can do things that are scary and ridiculous. It’s going to make you better. It’s going to make you stronger. So have those feelings of fear, but don’t let them stop you from doing anything because you never know what’s going to change your life.” 

Until she was there, studying abroad felt out of touch. She was leaving the country for the first time, and at the time, it was the scariest thing she’d ever done. But these days, she remains dedicated to Paris, visiting once or twice a year. 

“I had fun, I learned the culture. My family I lived with, we had dinner together every night and I came back just energized and with a new community,” she said. “All of the women that I studied with, we stayed together through the rest of the major. We had somebody who now is a game theorist, somebody who is in veterinary sciences. I’m in television. We were just a weird group of people who all came together in the French classes.” 

Durham, who graduated in 2002 with a double major in French and Communication, is currently the Senior Vice President of Programming for Warner Bros. Discovery. In recognition of her distinguished career as a media executive, specializing in television programming, planning and research and bringing innovation in reshaping the industry into the multiplatform format of today, Durham is awarded the College of Humanities’ 2025-26 Alumna of the Year. 

Durham started her television career in Los Angeles, working in research with the marketing team for the international side of CBS. She studied how audiences interacted with television shows and then got into qualitative research, listening to audiences. 

“I was reading TV guides to find out what people were watching, internationally. And it was very easy for me to read what was happening in France, which is one of the biggest television markets for U.S. product,” she said. “So all of a sudden, all of these passions, all of these things that I wanted to do – television, language, international business – were coming together for the first time.” 

Durham didn’t stay in her international role for long, moving on to the programing side of the company after moving to New York, and steadily rising through the ranks. Today, she is in charge of strategy for 15 cable networks, including budget and operational oversight, managing a team of 26 and a multi-platform portfolio of live sports, original series and acquisitions. 

“Those lessons about what people want to watch, how they’re watching it, how they’re consuming stories, what moves them from one place to the other, that all stayed. Those foundations are in learning about language and culture,” she said. “So while I don’t speak French every day, those foundational lessons still apply.” 

When she arrived at the University of Arizona, Florence Luna tested out of her language requirement. But she didn’t want to take a shortcut and miss taking advantage of everything the university had to offer. 

Luna, a first generation American whose first language was Spanish, started exploring what she was interested in and decided she wanted to study something both practical and challenging. 

“I wanted to expand the communities with which I could connect and have a more well-rounded experience. For me, that meant picking up a language,” she said. “I knew I wanted to leverage my education as far as I could, so I looked into a lot of different, more challenging languages, like Russian, Mandarin and Arabic.” 

Luna considered parts of the world where knowing the language could help her leverage her economics major, as well as what exposure she had to languages through pop culture, and landed on Mandarin. 

“I decided that I would just do one semester of Mandarin Chinese 101. After that, I went on to 202, and then I kept going and picked up Buddhist meditation and Japanese and Chinese nationalism and other courses until my advisor surprised me to say that I was only a few classes away from a degree in East Asian Studies,” she said. “At first, pursuing this out of a passion, I didn’t realize how it was a crucial component of preparing for my career.” 

Luna, who graduated in 2015 with a B.A. in East Asian Studies and a B.S. in Business Economics, is the recipient of the College of Humanities 2025-26 Young Professional Achievement Award. 

As an undergraduate, Luna studied abroad for one summer in Shanghai, an experience that helped develop her language skills and her appreciation for the culture, but also helped secure her first internship, with BMW in China. She also interned with Goldman Sachs and continued with the company after graduating. She went on to earn an MBA from Cornell University and today, she is co-founder and CEO of Fig Medical, which spun out of the university and secured investment capital. 

Reflecting on her career path, Luna said her East Asian Studies degree has helped in both expected and unexpected ways. 

“At first, I was pursuing this out of a passion. I didn’t realize how it wasn’t tangential to my career preparation, but actually a crucial component,” she said. “Mandarin was a difficult language, and it was incredibly enriching and fulfilling to be able to learn this incredibly difficult language. It gave me a lot of courage to continue to face other challenges, I was able to kind of use that same courage and kind of tap into all of those characteristics that I developed.” 

Luna also applies humanities skills at her healthcare startup, Fig Medical, a prior authorization software that streamlines the administrative burden for doctors by using AI to improve the likelihood that the prior authorization will be approved, getting patients care sooner and doctors reimbursed faster.

“The patients who are impacted, the doctors that we’re communicating with, the executives who are running hospitals, they are often coming from all sorts of places in the United States, and outside the United States, with all sorts of cultural backgrounds,” she said. “Understanding how to communicate across cultures, and also understanding how important a perspective is that is very culturally different than your own, is increasingly important to building solutions.” 

The growing Department of Public and Applied Humanities is adding Entrepreneurship as its latest emphasis, partnering with the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship to offer students a degree that integrates professional skills and a foundation in the humanities. 

The Entrepreneurship emphasis for the B.A. in Applied Humanities will launch in Fall 2026. 

Both the Department of Public and Applied Humanities and the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship are national leaders in their respective fields and the Entrepreneurship emphasis will integrate the technical and practical knowledge inherent to entrepreneurship with a foundation in the applied humanities that stresses collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, strategic storytelling and other high-demand career skills. 

“The Applied Humanities program is a premiere destination for the entrepreneurial humanities and a national model for 21st-century, career-oriented liberal arts education within public research universities,” said Matthew Mars, Professor and Interim Head of the Department of Public and Applied Humanities. “We’re pleased that students will have new opportunities as a result of this partnership with McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship, a longstanding, well-respected pioneer in the entrepreneurship education field that has cultivated an environment where innovation thrives, responsible leadership flourishes, and entrepreneurship becomes a powerful force for positive change across society-at-large.” 

The Eller College of Management was one of the College of Humanities’ first partners when the Applied Humanities major began in 2018, with the Business Administration emphasis one of four original options for students. 

“One of the goals of this emphasis is to help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset, the ability to identify opportunities, take informed risks, and act decisively in ambiguous, real-world situations. This mindset is increasingly essential regardless of career path, as industries, technologies, and jobs evolve at an accelerating pace. Rather than relying solely on predefined roles or stable career ladders, entrepreneurial thinkers are better equipped to adapt, create value, and lead change,” said Bob Griffin, Executive Director of the McGuire Center.

Entrepreneurship will be the 12^th emphasis students can choose in pursuing a B.A. in Applied Humanities, joining: Business Administration; Consumer, Market & Retail Studies; Engineering Approaches; Environmental Systems; Fashion Studies; Game Studies; Medicine; Plant Studies; Public Health; Rural Leadership & Renewal; and Spatial Organization & Design Thinking.

The Applied Humanities program has grown significantly since it began in 2017, with approximately 400 current majors and nearly 300 alumni. For Applied Humanities majors, an internship and pre-internship career readiness course are requirements for graduation, and many students have already designed their own entrepreneurial internships. 

For more information, contact Mars at mmars@arizona.edu. 

Albrecht Classen, University Distinguished Professor in the Department of German Studies, has received several recent accolades.

A prolific scholar and teacher of the Middle Ages and the early modern age, Classen has published 138 books and 887 articles. 

In November, Classen’s article for the journal Dialogo was cited in the issue’s introduction:  “Prof. Albrecht Classen clearly emerges as the most renowned voice – his wide-ranging expertise and scholarly authority infuse the section with both gravitas and an expansive understanding of how literature continues to illuminate spiritual truth.” 

As of December 2025, his Academia.edu profile is in the top 1 percent, with almost 28,000 public views, and readers coming from 150 countries. 

Also in late 2025, for the second straight year, Classen was named a Highly Ranked Scholar - Lifetime by ScholarGPS. In the specialty of modern history, Classen is ranked second in the world, up from fifth last year, and the top in the United States. 

ScholarGPS analyzes scholarly activity, producing rankings based on a “continually updated, fully indexed compilation of metadata corresponding to over 200 million archival publications.” Highly Ranked Scholars are recognized for being in the top 0.05% of scholars in their specialties worldwide.

In January, Classen was elected to the Arizona Senior Academy Board of Directors, which serves the lifelong learning community of Academy Village. 

Classen, who began his career at the University of Arizona in 1987, specializes in German and European medieval and early modern literature and culture. He has won several prestigious teaching awards, including the Five Star Faculty Award (2009) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching 2012 Arizona Professor of the Year Award. He was knighted as Grand Knight Commander of the Most Noble Order of the Three Lions in 2017.

Sarah McCallum, Associate Professor of Classics, has been named a recipient of the Society for Classical Studies’ 2025 Award for Excellence in Teaching at the College Level. 

The Society for Classical Studies (SCS), founded as the American Philological Association in 1869 by "professors, friends, and patrons of linguistic science," was renamed in 2014 as the result of a strategic planning process and membership vote following a successful capital campaign. It is currently the principal membership organization in North America for the study of ancient Greek and Roman languages, literatures, history, material culture and the relationship of Greek and Roman culture to the broader ancient Mediterranean and beyond. 

The award description reads: 

“Dr. McCallum is a pedagogical wizard.” So her students testify, and the magic is evident across Dr. McCallum’s teaching. Whether she is teaching courses in introductory Greek, advanced Latin, or courses in translation, Dr. McCallum’s courses can be counted on to expand students’ skills and give them help in applying them, with a “consistency of excellence” that is recognized by students and colleagues alike.

Innovation and consistency may strike some as strange bedfellows, but both are hallmarks of McCallum’s approach. Students praised the clear rhythm to her courses, allowing for focus on the work itself, rather than keeping track of what was due next. McCallum herself prioritizes this weekly rhythm to help support student’s time management and attention, a practice which neurodivergent students appreciate. Assignments themselves, however, are far from routine, and students regularly testify to joyful engagement with unique twists on traditional assignments, from “Word Journals” and close reading exercises in her course on Homer in Translation to Latin projects working with the apparatus criticus.

McCallum’s ethos as a teacher centers around an “equity-driven” pedagogy adapted to individual student growth, with recognition of the diverse needs and wants of her students. Both revision of errors and reflection are regular parts of McCallum’s assessments, incentivizing and motivating students to learn from mistakes and to adjust their approach to the course material when necessary. McCallum meets 1-on-1 with every student in every course for mid-semester “progress and strategy” meetings, in which she is able to provide personalized (if time-intensive) support, and this personal approach in turn inspires heavy use of office hours from students seeking even more coaching and feedback. While this is no doubt a massive investment of time and energy, the results are striking. Her students testify to dramatic improvements in their language skills. And those who have gone on to success at Ph.D. language exams, specifically spotlight her courses as key to that achievement.

The care and nurture which Dr. McCallum invests into her courses is apparent everywhere. Syllabi, assignments, and course sites alike are beautifully designed and carefully organized. Students love “the amount of passion Professor McCallum had for the texts we examined, and the respect she paid to each student and their individual ideas,” as an anonymous student says in one course evaluation, “I always felt comfortable expressing my thoughts and reactions to what we read thanks to the environment she created and fostered in the classroom.” It takes a very special kind of teacher to generate students that not only find inspiration in her kindness and support, but also express appreciation that “she maintained high standards and never allowed me to take shortcuts in my work.”

Professor McCallum’s teaching has already been recognized with multiple awards and nominations at the University of Arizona, but the SCS is delighted to join the chorus by presenting Sarah McCallum with the 2025 Award for Excellence in Teaching of the Classics at the College and University Level. 

Previously, McCallum received the College of Humanities 2024 Distinguished Teaching Award. That same year, she was one of three university-wide recipients of the Provost Award for Innovative Teaching. 

She is the second recent Classics faculty member to receive the SCS Award for Excellence in Teaching at the College Level, following Robert Groves in 2020.