ACLS Community in the News: June 2025

Leadership Moves

• UCLA has named Ralina Joseph F’19 vice provost for inclusive excellence.
• Kate Murphy F’13 has been appointed dean of Cal Poly’s College of Liberal Arts.
• Ethan Pollock F’11 has been named dean of the College at Brown University.

Publications and Opinion Pieces

• Amanda Frost F’19 explores the question the administration couldn’t answer about birthright citizenship in The Atlantic.
• In the Summer 2025 issue of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Buddhism Public Scholar Zim Pickens F’19, F’24 interviews historian Sarah Jacoby F’12, G’20 on women’s sexual agency in Tibetan Buddhist literature. Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Senior Advisor to The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies, also authored “A New Buddhist Canon” in the issue.
• Martha S. Jones F’13 and her latest book The Trouble of Color are featured in the New York Times.
• In Public Books, ACLS Program Officer Jessica Taylor writes about Love in the Time of Self-Publishing by Christine Larson F’21 and reflects on success and failure in academia.

Exhibits and Digital Humanities Projects

• The exhibit Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States, curated by Laura E. Ruberto F’20 and Joseph Sciorra, is on view at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute in New York through September 26, 2025.
  
• Marcus Smith F’24 launched the Black Grassroots Heritage Preservation Network, a digital storytelling, advocacy, community, and interactive mapping platform for Black grassroots heritage preservation projects across the US. The project was supported by Smith’s Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship.

ACLS Scholars in Action

Elevating the Voices of Black Womxn and Girls

Leading Edge Fellow Amber Reid F’23 uses her humanities PhD as a research analyst at the Afiya Center in Dallas, TX.

Innovating Dissertation Methods

/2023 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellows share their pathbreaking research methods and fellowship experiences.

Researching Uyghur Dispossession and Terror Capitalism

Luce/ACLS Fellow in China Studies Darren Byler F’21, G’14 shares his research on Uyghurs and other minoritized groups in Northwest China.

Supporting Scholars at HBCUs

Trushna Parekh F’24, Lamon B. Lawhorn G’24, and Ana Lucia Araujo F’24 share their research and the impact of the ACLS HBCU Faculty Fellowship and Grant Program.