Two College of Humanities professors are among interdisciplinary research teams awarded grants under the University of Arizona’s first Big Idea Challenge. 

The initiative, created by the Office of Research and Partnerships, incentivizes transdisciplinary, convergent research teams to incubate ideas, generate new insights, and launch transformative, high-impact projects with the potential for future extramural support. 

Matt Mars, Professor and Interim Head of the Department of Public and Applied Humanities, and Ken McAllister, Associate Dean of Research & Program Innovation and Professor in the Department of Public and Applied Humanities, were each on one of the six teams selected. Additionally, College of Humanities researchers were on 12 of the 72 proposals submitted, six of which were semi-finalists and four of which were finalists. 

The Office of Research and Partnerships, the new name for the Office of Research, Innovation and Impact, created the challenge to focus on six strategic areas: Defense and National Security, Energy and Environmental Sustainability, The Future of Health and Biomedical Sciences, The Human Experience, Space Sciences, and Data, Information Systems and Artificial Intelligence. 

Mars joined a team including Mark Beilstein (School of Plant Sciences), Rebecca Schomer (School of Plant Sciences), and Claire Darnell McWhite (Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology) on the winning project “Summoning Microbial Allies to Reduce Nitrogen Fertilizer Dependency in Modern Agriculture.”

McAllister’s winning team includes Scott Saleska (Department Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), Jennifer L. Croissant (School of Sociology), Cristian Roman Palacios (College of Information Sciences), and Solange Duhamel (Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology). The project is “From Early Earth to Mars: Advancing an Integrated ‘Landscape Terraformation Science’ of How Life Transforms Planets with a Multi-scale Collaboratory Digital Twinning of Biosphere 2.”

The selections were based on how well the projects reflected transdisciplinary research that crosses traditional academic boundaries, integrating perspectives from science, engineering, business, social sciences, arts, design and humanities to create holistic solutions to global challenges. In addition, teams needed to illustrate how projects would nucleate teams and ideas and launch high-impact, large-scale research efforts with the power to attract major external funding.

"The teams selected as awardees of the 2025 Big Idea Challenge exemplify the kind of visionary thinking and convergent research that define Arizona’s research enterprise," said Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, senior vice president for research and partnerships. "They are not only pushing scientific boundaries, they are building solutions with real-world impact for Arizona and the world."

The other four projects awarded, are:

• Convergent Digital Health for Remote Access (CoDiRA): Srikar Adhikari (Department of Emergency Medicine) with Vignesh Subbian (Department of Biomedical Engineering), Shu Fen Wung (College of Nursing), Shravan Guruprasad Aras (Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics), and Nirav Merchant (Data Science Institute).
• Making Space for off-Earth Scalable Cloud Computing and Data Infrastructure: Krishna Muralidharan (Department of Materials Science and Engineering), Robert Norwood (Wyant College of Optical Sciences), Karthik Kannan (Eller College of Management), Roberto Furfaro (Department of Systems and Industrial Engineering), Elizabeth Baldwin (School of Government and Public Policy).
• Heat and Health Resilience Innovation Consortium: Amelia Gallitano-Mendel (College of Medicine – Phoenix), Freya Spielberg (College of Medicine – Phoenix).
• Invest in TIME! – a New $4M University of Arizona Facility Poised for Global Leadership in Interdisciplinary Earth Hazards Research: Charlotte Pearson (Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research and School of Anthropology), Bryan Black (Tree Ring Lab), Joe Giacalone (Department of Planetary Sciences and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory), Soumaya Belmecheri (Tree Ring Lab), Ashraf Moradi (Department of Planetary Sciences and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory).

Originally posted on UANews. 

When Alain-Philippe Durand was applying to be a school director at the University of Arizona, he searched about the university online and found a photo of the basketball team that said “What were you doing March 31, 1997?” 

In Tucson, that fabled date is readily known as the day the men’s basketball team won its first national title. At the time, Durand didn’t know the story of Lute Olson’s championship team, but the date was one he treasured as well. 

“I knew exactly that I was doing and where I was on that day, by far one of the best days of my life. That’s the night our first daughter was born,” he said. 

March 31 was also the date of his campus interview, albeit in 2010, and as Durand rose through the professorial ranks to become Dorrance Dean of the College of Humanities, several colleagues told him it was all meant to be. 

Durand told the story at a May 21 ceremony where he was bestowed with the l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques rank of Officer, France’s highest academic honor. 

The ceremony concluded a day-long visit by the Consul of France in Los Angeles and his diplomatic delegation, who met with administrators, faculty and students to discuss current and potential collaborations. 

The Consul of France in Los Angeles, the Honorable Adrien Frier, was making his first visit to Arizona since being elevated to his current position in fall 2024. Accompanying Frier were Higher Education and French Language Attaché Benoît Labat, the French Embassy’s Higher Education Attaché Jean-Christophe Dissart, and the Honorary Consul of France in Arizona Nathan J. Fidel. 

The delegation held meetings with representatives from the France-Arizona Institute for Global Grand Challenges and French National Center for Scientific Research, faculty and graduate students from Department of French and Italian, and top university leadership, including President Suresh Garimella, and Vice President of Arizona International and Dean of International Education Jenny Lee. 

At the Palmes Académiques ceremony, Frier presided over the formal presentation, commenting about French hip-hop, one of Durand’s areas of expertise, and detailing Durand’s scholarly accomplishments. 

“Your life’s journey has exemplified the power of intellectual curiosity,” he told Durand. 

Frier discussed the history of the Palmes Académiques, which was instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1808, making it one of the oldest civil distinctions awarded by the French Republic. It honors professors for their valuable contributions to education, research and the promotion of French language and culture. There are three grades, Commander, Officer and Knight. In 2007, Durand was made a Knight. 

“I am proud to recognize you as a major contributor to the relationship between France, Francophone countries, and the united states of America,” Frier said. 

The ceremony included introductions from Lee, the Dean of International Education, and Patricia Prelock, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. 

“Well before I started, our dear friend Dean Durand has been such a champion of internationalization broadly, not just of France and Europe. This is a long overdue recognition,” Lee said. 

Prelock said that it was only her third day on the job, but she’s already heard so many amazing things about Durand and what he’s accomplished. 

“This is a considerable honor for A-P and it’s an honor to participate in such special events like this as I begin my time as provost. A-P is a tireless advocate for the College of Humanities and promotes its accomplishments far and wide. The college has a reputation as a national and international leader,” Prelock said. “As my humanities colleagues at University of Vermont said, ‘You’re going to a place that really appreciates and understands the value of the humanities.’ He’s thinking beyond just the traditional framework of the humanities and that’s what we need as we think about the future of higher education.” 

Durand thanked his family and colleagues throughout the years for all their contributions to his career and ongoing advocacy of the humanities. 

“I’m so proud to be French. I love my country. I’m so proud to be an American. I love my adopted country too. And I’m so proud to be a University of Arizona Wildcat,” he said. “I love this university and my colleagues. I love to be dean and I love my job.” 

Earlier, the French delegation met with professors and graduate students in the U of A’s French program, talking about the value of language education, for personal enrichment as well as career potential in a global marketplace. 

“It’s not only about having people with a more open mind because they are taught other languages,” Frier said. “Being taught French is not only a gateway to France, but there are 350 million people in the whole Francophone world. That is a great asset.” 

Several graduate students who chose to attend the U of A from outside the United States said that what drew them to the campus was discovering research papers by faculty members and the importance of a department with a strong academic reputation. 

“This university is an amazing place,” Durand said. “What I love most about it is we are constantly thinking outside the box and constantly developing interdisciplinary collaborations.” 

One faculty member in the Department of Religious Studies and Classics has been promoted, demonstrating excellent performance in teaching, service and research.

Dr. Konden Smith Hansen is promoted from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer. 

Dr. Smith Hansen (Ph.D. in Religious Studies, Arizona State University) specializes in American Religious History, with a particular expertise in Mormon Studies. He is the author of award winning Frontier Religion: Mormons in America, 1857-1907 (University of Utah Press, 2019) and the co-editor of the award winning The Reed Smoot Hearings: The Investigation of a Mormon Senator and the Making of an American Religion (Utah State University Press, 2021). He teaches courses on American and world religions, film and religion, religious violence and terrorism, Mormonism, and religion and popular culture. He was the Burns Faculty Fellow for 2014-2015. 

One faculty member in the Department Spanish and Portuguese has been promoted, demonstrating excellent performance in teaching, service and research.

Dr. Abigal Martinez Sotelo is promoted from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer.

One professor in the Department of German Studies has been promoted, demonstrating excellent performance in teaching, service and research.

Dr. Joela Jacobs is promoted from Assistant Professor to tenured Associate Professor.

Jacobs is Director of Graduate Studies for the MA and PhD programs in Transcultural German Studies, including the dual PhD/Dr. phil. degree program with the Universities of Leipzig and Cologne in Germany. She is affiliated faculty at the Arizona Institutes for Resilience: Solutions for the Environment and Society, the Department of Gender and Women's Studies, the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, and the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program on Social, Cultural and Critical Theory. After earning her Ph.D. in Germanic Studies at the University of Chicago, she held a postdoctoral position as Humanities Teaching Scholar there. Prior to coming to the US from Germany, she studied at the Universities of Bonn, St. Andrews, and the Freie Universität Berlin to receive her M.A. in German and English Philology. 

Dr. Jacobs' research focuses on the intersection of 19th-21st-century German literature and film with Plant Studies, Animal Studies, Environmental Humanities, Jewish Studies, the History of Sexuality, and the History of Science. Current books include the monograph Animal, Vegetal, Marginal: The German Literary Grotesque from Panizza to Kafka (Indiana University Press, 2025, see below), Plant Poetics: The Literary Forms and Functions of the Vegetal (Brill, 2025, co-edited with Isabel Kranz and Solvejg Nitzke), and Microbium: The Neglected Lives of Micro-Matter (punctum books, 2023, co-edited with Agnes Malinowska), in addition to several journal special issues (on the literary lives of plants, animal narratology, third-generation memory literature, and the author Oskar Panizza) as well as a forthcoming Metzler Kulturwissenschaftliches Handbuch on plants (co-edited with Isabel Kranz). She has published articles on topics as different as monstrosity, literary censorship, biopolitics, asexual ecologies, pollen, roses, plant exhibits, animal epistemology, zoopoetics, Nazi rabbit breeding, and German/Jewish/American graphic novels (for more information about publications, see here). In the Environmental Humanities, she has written several pieces about environmental education initiatives for refugees and asylum seekers in Germany, showing how a specific cultural understanding of environmentalism is instrumentalized for "integration." In Plant Studies, she working widely on phytopoetics, the way plants shape literary writing and cultural currents, with a specific focus on vegetal eroticism and violence. When it comes to animals, she has published on the tradition of the canine narrator, from Berganza to Doge. She co-founded the Literary and Cultural Plant Studies Network in 2016 and has facilitated it since. 

Dr. Jacobs enjoys being in the classroom, both to teach the intricacies of German literature and language and to explore interdisciplinary connections surrounding fundamental questions about life and living beings with students. She has taught a wide range of courses on all levels of the German undergraduate and graduate curriculum and in adult & general education on topics such as German environmentalism, transatlantic perspectives on national trauma, (a)typical emotions in poetry, zombies, monsters, and fairy tales, Kafka's oeuvre, expressionist film, romanticism, and German Jewish literature. As a certified Teaching Consultant, she is always interested in talking pedagogy and classroom technology. In 2019, she received the College of Humanities Distinguished Teaching Award, and in 2020, she was honored with the University of Arizona Foundation Leicester and Kathryn Sherrill Creative Teaching Award. 

Two professors in the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies have been promoted, demonstrating excellent performance in teaching, service and research.

Dr. Anastasia Gordienko is promoted from Assistant Professor to tenured Associate Professor, and Suzanne Thompson is promoted from Assistant Professor of Practice to Associate Professor of Practice. 

Gordienko's interests lie in the intersection of Russian and Ukrainian politics, history, culture, and identity. Her monograph Outlaw Music in Russia: The Rise of an Unlikely Genre (UW Press, 2023) explores a paradoxical quid pro quo synergy among Russian criminal music, the shanson, and Putin’s politics.

Dr. Gordienko’s secondary interest embraces the issue of collective remembering: her ongoing empirical study, “Memories of the Past” (Pamiatʹ proshlogo), investigates the role of collective memory in Ukrainian and Russian national self-identity and intergenerational transmission of memories for these nations. Additionally, Dr. Gordienko studies stardom, fame, and politics, with a focus on how the concept of Slavic celebrity evolves during significant socio-political changes.

Thompson, an alumna of the University of Arizona Department of Russian and Slavic Studies, worked for many years in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia as an embassy attache, disarmament contractor, and journalist.  She is excited to share her passion for all things Slavic with the next generation of Slavophiles.

Two professors in the Department of Public and Applied Humanities have been promoted, demonstrating excellent performance in teaching, service and research.

Dr. Jonathan Jae-an Crisman is promoted from Assistant Professor to tenured Associate Professor, and Dr. Nicholas Ferdinandt is promoted from Associate Professor of Practice to Professor of Practice. 

Crisman is an artist and urban scholar whose work considers the intersections between culture, politics, and place. His book Urban Humanities: New Practices for Reimagining the City (MIT Press, 2020), co-authored with Dana Cuff, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Todd Presner, and Maite Zubiaurre, stakes out new disciplinary terrain for the humanities. His current research focuses on the role that art and culture can play as forms of political engagement in gentrifying cities, and (with collaborator Maite Zubiaurre) on the forensic, cultural, and political practices around migrant death in the Borderlands. Work from his collaborative art practice has been shown at the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, the West Bund Biennial of Arts and Architecture, and the Reykjavík Arts Festival. He was formerly the founding Project Director and Core Faculty for the UCLA Urban Humanities Initiative, and was a research affiliate with USC’s Spatial Analysis Lab (SLAB) where he worked with Annette Kim on humanizing cartographic representation. He holds a PhD in Urban Planning and Development from the University of Southern California, Master of Architecture and Master in City Planning degrees from MIT, and a BA in Architectural Studies, Geography, and Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA. 

Ferdinandt completed his EdD in Educational Leadership at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, where he also completed his undergraduate degree in Russian. Dr. Ferdinandt’s MA in Slavic Languages and Literatures is from The Ohio State University. Dr. Ferdinandt has been a teacher and tutor trainer as well as an ESL instructor in the US, Brazil, and Mexico. He created the University Track Pathway in the Center for English as a Second Language (CESL) at the University of Arizona and came to Public & Applied Humanities by way of the directorship at CESL (2017-2020). Dr. Ferdinandt has many years of experience as a leader in language education as a course and program developer, as well as a language program evaluator. Dr. Ferdinandt has a variety of interests that include language program evaluation, intercultural training, leadership for intercultural understanding, and myth and story as social construction.

Congratulations to Alexander Maldonado Salas, the College of Humanities Outstanding Senior for Spring 2025! 

Maldonado is graduating with a triple major in  Applied Humanities, with a Business Administration emphasis, Spanish with a Translation and Interpretation emphasis, and Psychology, with a minor in Economics. 

Nicholas Ferdinandt, Professor of Practice in the Department of Public and Applied Humanities, said from the start, Maldonado was highly motivated and driven in the classroom 

“Mr. Maldonado’s dedication to and engagement in humanities enterprises embodies the spirit and values of the humanities broadly defined—learning and sharing through applying what you’ve learned to advance the interests of people around you with empathy, intercultural awareness, and selfless service,” Ferdinandt said. 

Outside the classroom, Maldonado served as the Project Research Lead for the 100 Thousand Strong Cacao for Peace Program, traveling to Colombia, and a student ambassador for the College of Humanities and worked on campus as an Educational Peer Mentor at the SALT Center, Market Research Student Analyst with Tech Launch Arizona, among other activities. 

“People know Mr. Maldonado to be enterprising, dedicated, and welcoming. He’s a person who looks out for others and tries to find solutions to human problems,” Ferdinandt said. “He also proved himself to be a persevering, hard worker, who didn’t just seek to learn, but also to apply his learning during the semester.” 

In his convocation address, Maldonado told fellow graduates that “if there’s one word that sums up what brought me to this moment, it’s perseverance. Not talent. Not luck.” 

“Balancing three majors, various internships and part-time work has not been easy, but it has instilled in me a deep sense of resilience and purpose that has allowed me to prosper and learn to overcome any challenges and seek innovative and creative solutions to any problems that I am faced with,” he said. “The humanities have been a constant source of inspiration and strength, reminding me of the power of stories, community, and adaptability in overcoming challenges.” 

After graduating, Maldonado will begin a master’s degree program in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at Arizona State University, with plans for a career in advancing workplace equity and fostering cross-cultural understanding. 

“Studying in the Humanities has been life-changing. Not only did it allow me to major in interesting subjects, but it has also taught me to think critically, combine human elements and apply them to any setting, and to see the world — and the people in it — through a more intercultural competent perspective. Sharing this journey with so many brilliant and passionate minds demonstrates the potential that the Humanities can have in the world,” he said. 

Wojtek Gornicki, a Ph.D. candidate in Transcultural German Studies, is the College of Humanities 2025 Outstanding Graduate Assistant in Teaching Award recipient.

Since joining the Ph.D. Program in Transcultural German Studies in fall 2019, Gornicki has been a graduate student representative, assistant language program director, an instructor of German in all teaching modalities (online, hybrid, face-to-face) and in the faculty-led study abroad program, Arizona Summer Study in Leipzig, Germany.

“In all these functions, Mr. Gornicki has exemplified professionalism and collegial generosity, and he has evolved into a true leader among the GATs in our department,” wrote faculty nominators Peter Ecke, Janice McGregor and Thomas Fuhr. “The difference that Mr. Gornicki has made in mentoring junior teaching colleagues and students, developing (online, hybrid, and in-person) classes, teaching materials and assessments, and problem-solving has been unmatched by GATs over the last few years.” 

Gornicki has become known as the “online-teaching wizard” for the German language program, having collaborated in the creation of four online German courses, which significantly increased enrollments in those classes. 

“Not only did he help to develop the courses themselves, he served as the first instructor and guinea pig for two of the courses, and consulted with other instructors, as they piloted new materials. Mr. Gornicki took the lead in exploring new uses of the technologies available to make sure that these asynchronous classes remained engaging and interactive,” wrote the faculty nominators. 

Gornicki has also excelled in his own teaching, at all levels in the basic language program, as a co-teacher for large online language classes, and also as a TA for larger courses. 

“He is an extraordinary GAT whose professional integrity, kindness, and leadership skills have set him apart. We believe that for his steadfastness in putting his humanities and applied linguistics training into practice and into service for the department and the college, Mr. Gornicki represents the excellence we strive for in the College of Humanities,” wrote the faculty nominators. “During his Ph.D. studies, he has contributed to the German Studies department in ways that will have a lasting influence on the program and its people.” 

Several students wrote in support of the nomination, with one highlighting Gornicki’s ability to make students comfortable speaking German in class through simple discussions that could transform a silent classroom into a lively and talkative one. 

“Something I always appreciated about Wojtek’s classes, both on the U of A campus and while abroad in Leipzig, was how well he was able to answer questions and explain things to students. Any teacher should, of course, be able to answer their students' questions, but over my time taking language classes, I have seen that there is a big difference between being able to speak a language and knowing how to teach it,” wrote one student. 

“Wojtek is a fantastic teacher, who reminds us what education entails,” wrote another student. “He always found ways to keep us involved and allowed us to interact with the course material in innovative ways. With Wojtek, every lesson felt like a new foray into German culture and history. His passionate yet empathetic instruction inspired my fellow students and me to put forth our best effort.”