Kudos: Read about faculty, staff, student and alumni awards, appointments and achievements

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Sandra L. Barnes, professor of human and organizational development and professor of sociology of religion, was recognized with a 2019 Award of Distinction by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts for the documentary Gary, Indiana: A Tale of Two Cities (2018).

Heather Bloemhard, assistant director of federal relations, has been selected to lead the Association of American Universities Council on Federal Relations Humanities Task Force. CFR task force leaders work closely with AAU staff to shape and support the AAU’s federal advocacy activities in areas of critical importance to the association’s member institutions.

Kate Brooks, executive director of the Vanderbilt Career Center, and Grace Foy, senior career coach, presented “In Plain Sight: Visualize New and Better Career Solutions” at the National Association for Colleges and Employers 2019 annual conference held in Orlando, Florida. The presentation focused on how to use visual thinking and graphic organizers to enhance the job search process.

Farrar Hood Cusomato, senior lecturer in art, served as a panelist at the 2019 Southern Festival of Books. Cusomato discussed National Parks Conservation Association: A Century of Impact, which collects the history of the NPCA, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization with a mission to protect and maintain the standards of the National Parks in the United States.

E. Bronson Ingram College received the top honor in the 2019 American Institute of Architects Gulf States Honor Awards, which celebrate the quality of architecture in the five-state Gulf region and pay tribute to AIA architects for design excellence.

Austin Fann, a talent consultant in People and Engagement, is among 12 College and University Professional Association for Human Resources members selected nationwide to participate in the 2019-20 CUPA-HR Wildfire program, a 12-month leadership development experience for early-career higher education human resources professionals.

Dale Clark Farran, professor of education, emerita, has been awarded an honorary doctorate by Sweden’s Jönköping University for her significant contributions to research and education at the university. Farran has collaborated with the Children, Health, Intervention, Learning and Development (CHILD) research environment at Jönköping University’s School of Education and Communication for nearly 20 years.

Earl E. Fitz, professor of Portuguese, Spanish and comparative literature, has released Machado De Assis and Narrative Theory: Language, Imitation, Art, and Verisimilitude in the Last Six Novels (Bucknell, 2019) as a companion to an earlier study written by Fitz. In the book, Fitz establishes the late Brazilian author Machado de Assis as a major theoretician of the modern novel form.

Derek Griffith, professor of medicine, health and society, professor of health policy and associate professor of medicine, and Marino Bruce, research associate professor of medicine, health and society, are co-editors of Racism: Science and Tools for the Public Health Professional (APHA Press, 2019). The book explores racism’s influence on U.S. institutions and policy and highlights its manifestations in personal interactions.

Peter Guengerich, Tadashi Inagami, Ph.D. Chair in Biochemistry, has been named a fellow of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in honor of his demonstration of excellence in overall contributions to pharmacology as well as to the organization.

Sarah Igo, Andrew Jackson Chair in American History, was awarded the 2019 Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History from the American Philosophical Society for her book The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America (Harvard, 2018). The book also won this year’s Merle Curti Award for best book in American intellectual history from the Organization of American Historians.

Marion Kainer, adjunct associate professor of health policy, has received the 2019 Pumphandle Award from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. The award is given annually to honor a state, local, territorial or federal epidemiologist who has made extraordinary contributions to and outstanding achievements in the field of applied epidemiology.

Jane Landers, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities and professor of history, delivered a keynote presentation at the 25th Anniversary Meeting of the UNESCO Slave Route Project held in Cotonou, Benin. Landers presented on the Slave Societies Digital Archive.

Jessica Lee, a first-year student in the master of fine arts program, published the poem “Lust Must Have Struck for the First Time” in the Sept. 2, 2019, issue of The New Yorker.

Terry Maroney, professor of law and Chancellor Faculty Fellow, has been named to the inaugural editorial board of Affective Science, a research journal in the behavioral sciences. Affective Science is a new publication of the Society of Affective Science, on whose executive board Maroney serves.

Ralph McKenzie, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Szeged in Hungary.

Jonathan Metzl, Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and Medicine, Health and Society, has received the 2020 Benjamin Rush Award from the American Psychiatric Association for “contributions to the literature on the history of psychiatry.” The APA specifically cited Metzl’s books The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease and Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland.

Joseph Murphy, Frank W. Mayborn Professor of Education, was cited in the article “A Bibliometric Review of Research on Educational Administration: Science Mapping the Literature, 1960 to 2018” in the journal Review of Education Research. Murphy was listed as the sixth most influential researcher in education administration from 1960 to 2018.

Anthère Nzabatsinda, associate professor of French, has been appointed chair of the executive council of the Francophone Caucus of the African Literature Association.

John Sides, professor of political science, has been awarded the 2019 Richard E. Neustadt Prize for the Best Book on Executive Politics for Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America. The prize is given by the Presidents and Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.

Vanderbilt’s Social Media Team won honorable mention in the PR Campaign category for “College Athletics: The Vanderbilt Way” and honorable mention in the Use of Instagram category for “Social ’Dores: Student Ambassador Program” in PR Daily’s 2019 Digital Marketing and Social Media Awards.

Adela Soliz, assistant professor of public policy and higher education, has been named a 2019 William T. Grant Scholar. The award program supports the professional development of promising early career researchers in the social, behavioral and health sciences and provides $350,000 in research funding over five years.

Amie Thurber, a 2018 Ph.D. graduate of Peabody College’s Community Research and Action program, received the 2019 Best Dissertation in a Topic Relevant to Community Psychology award from the Society for Community Research and Action. The SCRA, Division 27 of the American Psychological Association, represents the field of community psychology. Thurber was honored at the Biennial Conference on Community Research and Action held in Chicago in June.

Steven Townsend, assistant professor of chemistry, received the 2019 Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society’s Infectious Diseases Division. The award recognizes outstanding young investigators in the infectious diseases field who are within 10 years of their last training experience or at the assistant professor level. In addition, Townsend was named to the “Talented 12” list by Chemical & Engineering News. The list recognizes young stars in the chemical sciences working to solve the world’s most challenging problems.

Jennifer Trueblood, associate professor of psychology, has been selected to receive the 2020 Young Investigator Award from the Society of Experimental Psychologists, one of the oldest, most prestigious professional organizations in the field of scientific psychology.

Vanderbilt Rowing earned the gold medal at Chattanooga, Tennessee’s Head of the Hooch Regatta, America’s second-largest regatta, against 38 other boats. Vanderbilt won the gold medal in the Men’s Collegiate 4+, silver in the Men’s Collegiate 8+, and took both the gold and silver in the Men’s Open 2- events. Additionally, the women’s team fielded a sixth-place finish in the Women’s 4+ event.

Mel Ziegler, Paul E. Schwab Chair in Fine Arts and professor of art, exhibited Activated Artifacts at Galerie Perrotin New York during summer 2019. The exhibition included new and recent works alongside his collaborative work with late partner Kate Ericson.