Spotlight

In the Spotlight: April 21-25, 2025

Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs.

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  • Communication studies major Evelyn Ramos won the Michael Dues top paper award for her research paper “Women Fight Back: A feminist critique of SZA’s Kill Bill” at the Southwest Communication Association C.A.R.E.S. Conference. Ramos also presented this paper in a panel discussion with fellow communication studies student Suzanne Moreno, who discussed her paper “Terra Lume: Illuminating Leadership Through Care, Purpose, and Meaning.” 
  • At the same conference, School of Communication associate teaching professor Jermaine Martinez presented his paper “Elevating Awareness: Dealing with speech anxiety during delivery” and served as the conference’s web editor.  
  • Marie Baker-Ohler, the communication studies program director, was elected to serve as the president of the Southwest Communication Association for the 2025-26 academic year. Baker-Ohler previously served as the association’s vice president in the 2024-25 academic year.  
  • John Doherty, librarian and head of research and instruction services, presented a paper at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The paper discussed the influence of author Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “The Library of Babel” in the futuristic representations of libraries in “Star Trek.” Doherty was also recently appointed to the editorial board of the Museum of Science Fiction’s Journal of Science Fiction. 
  • Theresa Carlson, librarian and head of content and discovery services at Cline Library, joined Doherty to co-facilitate a panel on using open educational resources (OER) at the OERizona Network Annual Regional Conference. The panel included Department of Global Languages and Cultures assistant teaching professor Karen Lopez Alonzo; Jessica Barnes, associate teaching professor for the Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation; Department of English associate professor Sandra Davis; School of Communication assistant professor Ashleigh Day; Joshua Merced, assistant teaching professor for the Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation; and Michael Rulon, associate teaching professor for the Department of Global Languages and Cultures. Rulon also participated in a faculty panel of Arizona university and community college OER adopters called “Inspiring Creative Change with OER.” 
  • Tracy Glau, assistant librarian in research and instruction services at Cline Library, was invited to present at the Northeast Historical Film Summer Symposium. Her paper, “Twentieth Century Postcards: Travel Logs Before Travel Blogs,” draws from a collection of more than 1,000 postcards from 1900-1999 to discuss the images, linguistic notes, histories and personal stories present within the medium. 
  • Catherine Lockmiller, health sciences librarian at Cline Library, authored the article “False Positive: Transphobic Regimes, Ableist Abandonment, and Evidence-Based Practice,” published in the peer-reviewed journal In The Library With The Lead Pipe. Lockmiller’s paper explores evidence-based practice (EBP) as a system of knowledge governance, its implementation in library work and the means by which librarians’ commitments to EBP serve the interests of oppressive regimes.  
  • Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science (APS) professor Christopher Edwards and research scientist Cheng Ye co-authored the article “Remote Determination of Martian Chloride Salt Abundances,” published in JGR Planets. The article details researchers’ efforts to produce high-resolution, site-specific salt abundance maps of Mars’ surface using visible/near-infrared reflectance spectra.  
  • Allen also presented at the 2025 Arizona Astrobiology Symposium, a two-day student-organized event hosted at Arizona State University geared toward those interested in life beyond Earth.  
  • APS professor Mark Loeffler received a $439,000 grant from the NASA Solar System Workings program for his work, titled “Electron-Induced Sputtering of Condensed Gases Relevant to Outer Solar System Surfaces.” Loeffler’s research aims to predict whether and to what degree exospheres may form around icy bodies in Earth’s solar system.  
  • APS associate professor Cristina Thomas attended and presented at the “Apophis T-4 Years: Knowledge Opportunity for the Science of Planetary Defense” workshop in Tokyo. The two-day workshop focused on international collaboration opportunities for Earth-based observations and investigations, placing the greatest emphasis on the asteroid Apophis and related science. 
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