Inside UMassD September 24, 2026

Campus Community Accomplishments

College of Arts & Sciences Dean Philip Scher published the chapter "Remembering for the Future: Reenacting the Canboulay Riots in the Trinidad Carnival" in Critical Perspectives on Caribbean Modernisms. The chapter explores changes within a historically based public display event in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, the yearly theatrical re-enactment of the Canboulay Riots of 1881.

Professor Nikolay Anguelov (Public Policy) and Assistant Professor Leili Soltanisehat (Decision & Information Sciences) co-published "European Union's extended producer responsibility and sustainable procurement of water-repellent textiles" in Academia Environmental Sciences and Sustainability. The paper explores how the transition from voluntary to mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation in the EU affects the Durable Water Repellent (DWR) global supply chain.

Assistant Professor Katrina Velle (Biology) co-published "Naegleria amoebae seek confinement and crawl persistently through narrow spaces" in PNAS. The paper examines Naegleria amoebas, which seek out tight spaces and move quickly through them, which may help explain how the related "brain-eating amoeba" can travel from the nose to the brain.

Assistant Professor Anna-Marie Tabor (Law) was featured in an article about how a new federal escrow rule could cloud mortgage markets. The rule could let national banks avoid paying interest on some mortgage escrow accounts, potentially costing homeowners money and giving those banks an advantage over local lenders.

Assistant Teaching Professor Basil H. Aboul-Enein (Health & Society) recently co-published "A Scoping Review of Interventions for Men Convicted of Violence Against Women" in Deviant Behavior. This scoping review maps interventions delivered specifically to men who are convicted, incarcerated, or paroled, by integrating research across cultural, moral, psychological, neurocognitive, and restorative domains, for violence against women and girls.

Drake Ssempijja (Doctoral Candidate) and Professor Pingguo He (Fisheries Oceanography) co-published "Transboundary Management of Abandoned, Lost, and Discarded Fishing Gear: A Comparative Analysis of Lake Victoria and North America's Great Lakes" in Fisheries Management and Ecology. The piece explores how better cross-border cooperation, consistent data collection, recycling and reuse, and stronger fishing-gear policies can protect waterways and support healthier fisheries.

Haleigh Nogueira (Doctoral Candidate), Samuel Sonnega (Doctoral Candidate), Eleanor DiNuzzo (Doctoral Candidate), Assistant Professor Sarah Donelan (Biology), and Associate Professor Michael Sheriff (Biology) co-published "The influence of predator lethality on prey behavior and growth" in Ecology. The paper found that prey animals do not always react most strongly to the deadliest predators; their response also depends heavily on predator and prey size. 

Associate Professor Walter M. Stroup (Education) contributed presentations and working demonstrations to the first international NetLogo user conference hosted by the NetLogo Center. Stroup's materials foregrounded critical systems literacy to help teachers and students use code, models, and shared inquiry to investigate how local interactions can produce large-scale social and scientific patterns.

Associate Professor MWALIM (Morgan James Peters) won Best Blues Artist at the 2026 YOUR Music Awards. The public selected winners through nominations and voting.

Assistant Professor Lauran Brewster received $97,766 from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for "Quantifying Fishermen's Ecological Knowledge for Incorporation into Stock Assessment". The project will develop a framework for directly incorporating fishermen's ecological knowledge into fisheries stock assessments, improve how environmental influences on fish populations are represented, and strengthen collaboration between scientists and the fishing industry. 

Assistant Professor Kristopher Jackson (Nursing) was selected by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) to co-chair the national revision of the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Scope and Standards of Practice. This national leadership role recognizes his expertise in acute care nursing and nursing education.

Komal Pandit (Juris Doctor Candidate) has been named a 2026-27 Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact, recognizing her commitment to community engagement and potential as a civic leader. A first-generation law student and daughter of immigrants, Pandit has focused much of her community engagement and advocacy on issues affecting immigrant communities, housing justice, and survivors of domestic violence. 

Ruiqi Huang '29 and Professor Dilshod Achilov (Political Science) presented their co-authored research at the 2026 American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting. The presentation focused on regime breakdown and mass mobilization in the Middle East and North Africa and used fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis.