College of Humanities & Fine Arts 2023–2024 Annual Report

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As dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts (HFA), I am proud to lead a community dedicated to amplifying the narrative that the humanities uphold a just, thoughtful, equitable, and thriving society.

During a time in which the value of the arts and humanities is publicly debated, the college has flourished and remained steadfast in its commitment to ensuring our academic programs respond to the needs of students and society in addressing 21st-century issues. Yet we know we can do even more.

That is why we are collectively developing a concrete, actionable strategic plan to unite the college under a clear vision and elevate what we do. By aligning our resources and initiatives, we aim to create a cohesive and dynamic environment that enhances our programs, attracts top talent, ensures that our college remains a leader in humanities and fine arts space, and supports academic, creative, and personal growth for all.

Community engagement remains a cornerstone of our mission. Through partnerships with local organizations, cultural institutions, and community projects, we will continue to address societal challenges and contribute to the well-being of our broader community. We will also expand the HFA’s presence on the university’s Mount Ida campus, which serves as a center for student-focused experiential learning and a hub of research-industry collaboration. Our students will gain career preparation and experiential learning opportunities in the Greater Boston area, benefiting from the city’s rich arts, history, and culture scene.

I am also particularly passionate about furthering support for study abroad programming. Study abroad experiences—such as that of Hayley Kaye ’24, who shares her thoughts later in this report—are vital in broadening our students' perspectives, enhancing their cultural understanding, and preparing them for a globalized workforce.

Through this report, I hope you’ll gain insight into the meaningful work the College of Humanities and Fine Arts community achieved during the 2023–2024 academic year. I believe in this college's purpose and promise, and I am eager to see where we go next. I hope you are, too.

All best,

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Maria del Guadalupe “Lupe” Davidson, PhD
Dean, College of Humanities and Fine Arts

Professor of History Marla Miller was named associate dean for strategic initiatives, focused on collaborative efforts that further the college’s strategic plans.

Associate Professor of Architecture Pari Riahi was named associate dean for research and engagement, aimed at building relationships with staff and faculty and implementing and evaluating innovative programs in the college.

Professor of Mediterranean Archaeology Anthony Tuck was named associate dean for faculty and academic affairs, offering support for and promotion of research, writing, and performance of faculty within the college.

Pamela Ciminera was promoted to associate dean for administration, finance, and operations, providing critical organization, direction, analysis, delivery, management, and leadership in core services.

These associate deans join Lupe Davidson, dean; Lisa Green, associate dean for graduate education and student success; Nancy Noble, associate dean for undergraduate education and student success; and Cara Takakjian, associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion and professional development.

The W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, the Department of Music and Dance, and the Fine Arts Center collaborated to present concerts and presentations in October 2024 in celebration of the 100th birthday of Max Roach, legendary jazz drummer, activist, and one of the first jazz musicians to teach full-time at the college level right here at UMass Amherst. 

The event featured current faculty and students as well as visiting scholars, artists, and alumni.

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The inaugural HFA Days, held in spring 2024, invited the UMass community and public to experience different facets of the college’s teaching and learning, creative and scholarly work, and outreach by its students, staff, and faculty.

Organized by Associate Dean Pari Riahi in collaboration with the college’s faculty, staff, and students, HFA Days included Open Classrooms, Faculty Lightning Talks, an Interdisciplinary and Public Initiatives Panel, and special programs that encompass additional events hosted by departments and communities. All events were open to the public.

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“HFA Days highlighted the intellectual environment, vibrant learning and creativity, and groundbreaking research happening within our college. The collection of events showed the profound impact of our community,” says Joye Bowman, professor of history and former dean of the college. “I appreciate Associate Dean Pari Riahi’s vision and dedication to bringing this collaborative effort to life. It's our hope HFA Days has helped increase the understanding and visibility of the vital work we do on campus and beyond.”

Through HFA Days, community members gained valuable insight into what research, teaching, learning, and collaboration look like in the humanities and fine arts.

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Open Classrooms welcomed participants into HFA classrooms across campus. Courses covered topics such as architectural design, Greek mythology, theoretical linguistics, feminism and social justice activism, Italian studies, stage movement in theater, and more. The HFA Open Classroom initiative was conceived in collaboration with the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) under the supervision of Claire Hamilton, associate provost and director of CTL, and in consultation with Bethany Lisi, assistant director of CTL.

Faculty Lightning Talks featured HFA faculty as they presented 10-minute (“lightning”) presentations on their ongoing research and creative projects. Topics spanned everything from AI language models and human readers to humor in U.S. feminism to Pakistani traditional folk art/culture and contemporary politics. 

The Interdisciplinary and Public Initiatives Panel highlighted the college’s major ongoing projects and initiatives, including the Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy, which is devoted to sustainable alternatives to militarism, authoritarianism, and environmental degradation; the UMass Cornerstone Scholar Initiative, a curricular reform building meaningful engagement with the humanities; and Slavery North, an academic and cultural destination producing research that transforms understanding of the neglected histories of transatlantic Slavery in Canada and the U.S. North.

Special programs hosted during HFA Days included undergraduate and graduate networking events, gallery visits, a walking tour of prominent architectural buildings, a music rehearsal, and more, reflecting work and art from each of the departments.

The second HFA Days will be held in spring 2025.

Empowering Future Leaders through the HFA Opportunity Scholars Program

Opportunity Scholars is a multi-year program specially designed to support historically underrepresented and first-generation students as they begin their journey in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

Offering connection and support, the program brings these students together as a close-knit cohort, uniting them in a shared First-Year Seminar class during their initial semester. But its influence extends beyond academics, aiding in the personal development of its students.

“It's a great program to be in not only because I get to make closer connections—I’ve made so many friends from the class—but I also carry a role that allows me to connect with incoming students,” says Alex Szanton, a junior in the Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies.

Financial support is another pillar of the Opportunity Scholars program. Students who excel in the First-Year Seminar class with a GPA of 3.00 or higher become eligible for a textbook stipend for the following semester. This support not only alleviates financial burdens—it also underscores the program's commitment to academic success.

“Opportunity Scholars gave me a place to be with people from HFA,” says Norah Thomas, a junior vocal jazz major. “The program has allowed me to meet more people who have shared similar experiences."

The benefits of the program extend well beyond the first year. Alumni connections, fine arts cultural trips, and opportunities for research presentations await those within the program. The program furthers the personal development of its students, offering not just academic support but also invaluable career advice and development.

“This is a great opportunity for us," says Szanton. “Being a part of this programhas allowed me to create connections both inside and outside of the HFA community.”

Written by Amaya Morris ’24

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Hammer Time: How Students, Faculty, and Local Businesses Are Teaming Up to Fight the Housing Crisis

They call it “Paper House”: a modular, 500-square-foot, high-performance, net-zero, low-carbon house designed and built by the students in UMass DesignBuild, a joint effort between the Department of Architecture, the Building and Construction Technology program at UMass Amherst, and the Five College Architectural Studies program.

DesignBuild is now entering its third year, and it seeks to address major problems, both in the educational world and in the broader world at large.

"UMass DesignBuild is a unique program that supports true cross-disciplinary collaboration and peer-to-peer learning between students from the Department of Architecture and the Building and Construction Technology program. [It] aims to give students the experience and leadership skills needed to make an impact as young professionals in the allied fields of architecture and construction after graduating from UMass," explained Robert Williams, assistant professor of architecture. "Students gain literal hands-on experience addressing the intersecting challenges of climate change, the affordable housing crisis, and climate equity."

The DesignBuild class seeks to bridge this gap between the builders and designers with a two-semester sequence.

In the spring semester, students are given a set of design parameters—the house’s overall footprint, budget, and materials—and with those in place, design the building and produce construction documents that will direct the construction.

Then, in an eight-week summer session, they build the house.

Upon completion, the home is transported to Holyoke, Massachusetts—the Paper City—where OneHolyoke CDC, a nonprofit dedicated to improving and supplying housing for low- and moderate-income residents in Holyoke adds it to their inventory. This helps to solve a major social issue: the affordable housing crisis. The Pioneer Valley alone has a shortage of 16,000 housing units.

Though the house is small, its quality is evident. It’s designed for solar and materials are low carbon. When occupied, the house will make more energy than it uses.

“One of the things I loved about DesignBuild,” says Ben Leinfelder, a graduate student in the architecture program, “is how diverse all the students were in terms of ages, genders, and academic backgrounds. We spent every day together—sweaty and gross, but smiling. We all had discoveries as we learned from our mistakes and saw exactly what was involved in building a house.”

Support UMass DesignBuild

In summer 2024, the college community mourned the loss of Alon Confino, director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies (IHGMS) and professor of history and Judaic and Near Eastern studies. He died on June 27. A celebration of his life and legacy was held in September 2024.

Confino joined the UMass Amherst faculty in 2017 and was appointed Pen Tishkach Chair of Holocaust Studies in 2018. Meaning “lest you forget” in Hebrew, pen tishkach is the guiding principle behind the anonymously endowed chair, which is awarded to a distinguished scholar of the Holocaust who serves as director of the IHGMS.

The author of A World Without Jews: The Nazi Imagination from Persecution to Genocide, Confino was an expert on modern German and European history, the Holocaust and genocide, Zionism, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Under Confino’s leadership, the IHGMS broadened its subject matter to include genocide, mass violence, racial discrimination, and other topics related to the Holocaust, including different Palestinian and Jewish experiences of the foundation of Israel in 1948, about which he was completing a book before his death.

An important public intellectual who wrote essays on the use and misuse of the Holocaust by the media, he recently helped organize and draft an influential global definition of antisemitism, known as the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism.

“A highly regarded scholar in the international community, Alon was known within his department for his creative ability to bring together differing voices and focus on the importance of dialogue,” says Joye Bowman, former dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts and professor of history.

“Professor Confino was my irreplaceable friend and colleague in both of his roles as a member of my department and director of the IHGMS,” says David Mednicoff, chair of the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies and associate professor of Middle Eastern studies and public policy. “His deep expertise, erudition, and empathy for diverse people’s experience around genocide and prejudice made him a cherished source of wisdom and role model around engaged scholarship and teaching. During these challenging days of global and local political polarization, and the ongoing war in Gaza, I am especially sad that we are deprived of my friend’s essential and clear-headed voice.”

A native of Jerusalem, Confino previously held concurrent appointments as a professor of history at Ben-Gurion University in Israel and the University of Virginia from 2013–17. He joined the University of Virginia faculty in 1992 as an assistant professor and was appointed professor in 2006.

The author of five additional books and dozens of articles and book chapters, Confino was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011. While on a Woodrow Wilson International Fellowship at the Wilson Center in 2016–17, he worked on a book on 1948 in Palestine and Israel that tells two stories: one based on the experience of Arabs, Jews, and British drawing on letters, diaries, and oral history, and the second placing 1948 within the global perspective of decolonization, forced migrations, partitions and postwar diplomacy, and the Cold War.

His career included many prestigious fellowships and appointments both in the United States and internationally. Confino received his BA in history in 1985 from Tel Aviv University before pursuing graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was awarded his MA in 1986 and his PhD in 1992.

Mellon Foundation Awards UMass Amherst $2.65 Million to Expand Slavery North Initiative, Led by Art Historian Charmaine A. Nelson

UMass Amherst has been awarded a $2.65 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to expand the Slavery North Initiative, led by founding director Charmaine A. Nelson, provost professor of art history. 

Slavery North is a one-of-a-kind academic and cultural destination where scholars, thinkers, and artists research and build a community that transforms society’s understanding of the neglected histories of transatlantic slavery in Canada and the U.S. North. To date, this is the largest Mellon grant awarded to UMass Amherst. 

Support Slavery North Initiative

The three-year grant will support the development of Slavery North’s fellowship program for graduate and undergraduate students, a three-person staff, a lecture series, Black History Month panels, an academic conference, an edited academic book, a podcast series, workshops, art and cultural exhibitions, and a historical database that houses primary sources for the study of slavery in Canada and the U.S. North.

“A fellows program is at the heart of this grant so that we can grow this field of research. Since there are not many scholars studying slavery in the U.S. North and Canada, the ability to grow the field is limited,” Nelson says. “Mellon’s generous support will provide fellows with the space, time, and a like-minded community in which to develop their own research and the field at a more rapid pace.”

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Cornerstone Initiative Seeks to Revitalize Role of Humanities in Education through Curriculum Reform

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Professor Moira Inghilleri, Associate Professor Patrick Mensah, and Senior Lecturer Barry Spence from the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures have developed a curriculum reform initiative to revitalize the role of humanities in general education. Called the Cornerstone Initiative, the program is supported by a grant from the Teagle Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Participating faculty mentors have begun teaching two new Gateway General Education courses aimed mostly at incoming students. These classes help build a sense of intellectual community among students and faculty through common learning and teaching experiences.

Students who complete the Gateway courses then have the option to complete the Cornerstone Scholar Certificate program in one of four thematically organized clusters: environmental humanities, science and technology and the humanities, business and the humanities, and global studies and the humanities.

Learn more about the Cornerstone Initiative

UMass Amherst Researchers Help Expand Public Access to Records on the History of Slavery

A team of UMass Amherst faculty, librarians, staff, and students have partnered with the Pioneer Valley History Network to develop the Documenting the Early History of Black Lives in the Connecticut River Valley (DBL) project.

DBL is a community-based research project that documents the lives of free, enslaved, and formerly enslaved Black residents of the Connecticut River Valley prior to 1900. To date, DBL researchers have amassed 4,500 entries into the project’s public dataset of local Black history.

Their project has been supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which will allow the local project to expand and become accessible through Enslaved.org.

Learn more about DBL

Mellon Foundation Awards $100,000 to UMass Amherst Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded $100,000 to the UMass Amherst Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) as part of its “Affirming Multivocal Humanities” initiative to advance the study of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.

WGSS will use this funding to support both established and novel curricular programs and co-curricular activities ranging from undergraduate internships and guest speaker series to microgrants for programs to promote a clear understanding of the fields to the public.

Among the first women, gender, and sexuality studies programs established in the United States, the department is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary with a series of lectures, panels, book discussions, community events, and more.

“The Mellon grant will help us amplify and celebrate the work of WGSS faculty and students,” says Kiran Asher, professor and chair of the WGSS Department. “Our work truly embodies and exemplifies feminist interdisciplinarity, intersectionality, and principles of abolition justice.”

Keep reading about the award

Symposium Celebrates ‘Solid Roots’ of Latinx Theater and Performance

In spring 2024, the Department of Theater hosted the collaborative “Building Bridges as We Walk: A Latinx Theater Symposium” to highlight and celebrate a broad and diverse range of perspectives on Latinx theater and performance.

Curated by Priscilla Maria Page and Elisa Gonzales, assistant professors of theater, the symposium celebrated the release of The Routledge Companion to Latine Theatre and Performance, a landmark anthology edited by theater scholars Noe Montez and Olga Sanchez Saltveit and featuring essays by Page and Gonzales. The symposium brought together many of the anthology’s contributors—as well as theater students, scholars, and practitioners—for talks, panels, and excerpted readings of plays.

The event created a dynamic blend of academic discourse and practical insights, creating a space for dialogue and shared understanding. It was both a celebration of Latine theater and a testament to the resilience, diversity, and transformative power of the Latinx/Latine community in the realm of performing arts.

Page says the showcased works challenge traditional theater perceptions and illustrate its potential to effect change within communities.

“I think, sometimes, there's a general perception of what theater is and who has access to theater. A lot of times that idea is very white,” Page says. “Theater as a field is contending with whiteness and contending with an oversaturation of white voices, white perspectives. We're seeing things radically shift right now. What I want people to think about and to see is that there are longstanding traditions by Latinx/Latine folks. We have very solid roots.”

Read more about Building Bridges

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English’s Malcolm Sen Honored with Distinguished Teaching Award

Associate Professor of English Malcolm Sen has been named a recipient of the 2023–24 Distinguished Teaching Award by the Center for Teaching and Learning.

Sen is a past recipient of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts Outstanding Teacher Award, a former Lilly Teaching Fellow, and a Sustainability Curriculum team member. He teaches courses on postcolonial studies and literature covering environmental change and the climate crisis. He is also the founding member of the UMass Environmental Humanities Initiative and director of the specialization in environmental humanities in the English department.

Across these areas, Sen centers the importance of humanistic approaches to grappling with climate change that focus on the role of history, narrative, race, culture, and gender in our understanding of the current moment. He notes that “[his] teacher-scholar mission is to prepare resilient and resourceful students for a future which they, rather than [he], will inhabit.” In this way, Sen uses discussions and collaborative learning practices to build students’ interdisciplinary critical thinking.

As one student described, “Professor Sen shepherds and fields conversations between and among the disciplines, rather than bringing a diverse array of students into the classroom and funneling them into a specific way of learning and knowing.”

Music Historian Emiliano Ricciardi Named 2024 Spotlight Scholar for Tasso in Music Project

“Tasso’s poetry explores in depth human passions and affects,” says Ricciardi, associate professor of music history. “It’s almost like a lesson in love. Even though these pieces were meant for a specific context hundreds of years ago, they still tell us a lot about human beings in the year 2024.”

Music historian Emiliano Ricciardi was named a 2024 UMass Amherst Spotlight Scholar in celebration of his work creating positive social change through research, scholarship, and creative activity. Ricciardi leads a digital humanities project called Tasso in Music, which enables scholars and performers to explore works of and inspired by Italian poet Torquato Tasso.

After joining the UMass faculty, Ricciardi created the Tasso in Music Project in partnership with the Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities’ Craig Sapp, a leading authority in the fields of music encoding and computational analysis.

Since launching in 2017, the project has emerged as one of the leading digital projects devoted to the study of Renaissance culture. A rare achievement, it has garnered two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities: a Scholarly Editions and Translations grant (2016–19) and a Digital Humanities Advancement grant (2022–25). In 2021, the project also received an honorable mention for the Digital Innovation Award of the Renaissance Society of America, the largest scholarly organization in the world focused on culture from 1300 to 1700.

Today, Ricciardi is the director and general editor of the project, which features critical editions of more than 800 settings of Tasso’s poetry, encoded in a variety of non-commercial electronic formats.

Learn more About Ricciardi

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History’s Asheesh Siddique and English’s Ruth Jennison Earn 2024 College Outstanding Teacher Award

The college's 2024 College Outstanding Teaching Award recipients are Asheesh Siddique, assistant professor of history, and Ruth Jennison, associate professor of English. College Outstanding Teaching Award recipients are celebrated for exceptional teaching, mentoring, and curriculum development efforts, and for their impact on students’ lives.

Siddique is a historian of early America, early modern Europe, and the British Empire, whose research and pedagogy explore the role of collecting, managing, and using knowledge of the history of state formation and governance.

In his teaching statement, Siddique wrote, “Having taught at two major private research universities (Columbia University and the University of Southern California) and a major flagship public research university (Pennsylvania State University), I can state confidently and without reservation that the undergraduate and graduate students at UMass are the finest I have ever taught. The opportunity to work with such talented, dynamic, and curious learners at UMass has been the greatest experience and privilege of my career.”

Jennison is an author, educator, and scholar on 20th- and 21st-century American poetry, the avant-garde, Marxism, feminism, and critical geography.

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“I am always proud of my students’ eagerness and ability to embrace unknown and new texts in community with one another,” Jennison wrote in her teaching statement.   

Music and Dance's Jeffrey Holmes, Ayano Kataoka Named to 2023–2024 Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series

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Department of Music and Dance faculty members Jeffrey Holmes, professor of piano and trumpet, and Ayano Kataoka, professor of percussion, were named part of the 2023–24 Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series and recipients of the Chancellor's Medal. 

A nationally published composer/arranger, Holmes directs the award-winning UMass Jazz Ensemble I and Studio Orchestra and is the artistic director of the popular Jazz in July summer music programs. For his lecture, Holmes provided a historical overview of jazz improvisations that have defined the stylistic vocabulary through the 20th century and beyond. Holmes was accompanied by UMass colleagues Fumi Tomita (bass) and Tom Giampietro (drums), as well as vocalist Dawning Holmes as he examined celebrated solos by Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Clifford Brown (recorded with UMass Amherst’s own iconic drummer, Max Roach), Miles Davis, Chick Corea, and more.

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Percussionist and marimbist Kataoka dove into a personal and historical exploration of percussion music in Japan, with emphasis on the marimba, Japanese culture, and the influence of Keiko Abe. Listeners learned the role of the percussionist as actress, paying close attention to the intersection of theater, music, and visuality in performance. The discussion concluded with a look at the evolution of percussion as an exemplar of world culture, with Kataoka showing how innovations in the expression of timbre, rhythm, and physicality are pushing music in dynamic new directions. To illustrate the performance of music, each section showcased the works of not only Abe but also Stuart Saunders Smith and Iannis Xenakis.

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Ann Biddle, a lecturer in the Department of Music and Dance, recently received the National Dance Education Organization 2023 Outstanding Leadership in Dance Education PK–12 Award. Biddle, a Fulbright Scholar, has been a dance educator, staff developer, curriculum consultant, writer, and choreographer for the past 30 years.

"I feel so fortunate to have received this award and am thrilled to be able to bring my passion for dance education to UMass Amherst students in my dance education courses," Biddle says

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Lisa J. Green, '93PhD, distinguished professor in the Department of Linguistics and associate dean for graduate education, has been named a recipient of the Ubora Youth Award for 2023. Green was selected by the African Hall Committee of the Springfield Museums for her commitment to the Greater Springfield area and honored for her excellence in community service, education, science, academics, and the humanities.

An expert in syntax and African American English, Green founded the Center for the Study of African American Language at UMass in 2006 and currently serves as director. The center's goal is to foster and integrate research on language in the African American community and applications of that research in educational, social, and cultural realms.

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Assistant Professor of Classics Shannon LaFayette Hogue and Assistant Professor of Afro-American Studies Anne Kerth have been selected as the 2024–25 Lilly Fellows for Teaching Excellence by the Center for Teaching and Learning. 

Established in 1986, the Lilly Fellowship for Teaching Excellence supports the university’s strategic interest in developing academic leaders in teaching

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Assistant Professor of Music Theory Catrina Kim and Associate Professor of History Kevin A. Young have been named 2024 Public Engagement Faculty Fellows. 

In all, the Public Engagement Project selected eight fellows, who will draw upon their substantial research records to impact policy, the work of practitioners, and public debates. 

While Kim studies how music and sound convey messages about “the grind” in spaces where runners train and race, Young studies how the fossil fuel industry wields political power and how the climate movement can overcome industry resistance to a Green New Deal.

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In celebration of his retirement, University Distinguished Professor of the History of Art and Architecture Walter Denny was honored with a symposium hosted by the Department of History of Art and Architecture. The event celebrated Denny’s scholarship in Islamic art and his 53 years of teaching at the university. 

In fact, in fall 2022, Denny taught the course Art History 115 for the 48th time, which means that over the years, he has introduced more than 10,000 students to the basics of the visual arts, as well as trained master’s degree students as teaching assistants.

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A Yęmisi Jimoh, a faculty member in the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, was recently honored with the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS) Lifetime Achievement Award. Jimoh was recognized for her significant contributions to the MELUS organization as a past president; as a contributor, reviewer, and guest editor for the journal MELUS; and as a force behind the continuation and revitalization of the women in color caucus.

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Assistant Professor Robert Williams was selected for this year's AIAS/ACSA New Faculty Teaching Award, given by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). The award recognizes demonstrated excellence and innovation in teaching performance during the formative years of an architectural teaching career.

Williams, who joined the faculty as a full-time professor in 2020, has expertise in high-performance, low-carbon residential architecture. He teaches undergraduate and graduate design studios as well as digital communications courses. Williams has been instrumental in the development of UMass DesignBuild, an interdisciplinary two-semester sequence that offers students the opportunity to design and construct a small dwelling in partnership with a local housing-focused nonprofit organization. 

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For the third consecutive year, Director of Film Studies Barbara Zecchi and her videography work have been included in the list of “The Best Video Essays of 2023” by the monthly film magazine Sight and Sound, published by the British Film Institute, the United Kingdom’s lead organization for film.

This year’s list recognized Zecchi’s video essay, “Filling (Feeling) the Archival Void: The Case of Helena Cortesina’s Flor de España,” first published in the October 2023 issue of Feminist Media Histories. The essay delves into the systematic erasure and archival dispossession of works by early women filmmakers, using the case study of Helena Cortesina and her lost film, Flor de España (1922), which was falsely attributed to a male director.

This year, two HFA students were selected for the prestigious Rising Researcher awards: TJ LaLonde ’24 and Claudia Maurino ’24. The UMass Amherst Rising Researcher program recognizes undergraduate students who excel in research, challenge their intellect, and exercise exceptional creativity.

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TJ LaLonde '24

Exploring LGBTQIA+ Experiences through Art with TJ LaLonde '24

Animation major TJ LaLonde ‘24 creates art that spans a range of artistic mediums—from 3D modeling, animation, and illustration to graphic novels, film, poetry, and prose. Many of his works have even been featured at artistic festivals and in literary magazines.

“Art provides an avenue to normalize intersectional diversity, and it is personally important to me to use that avenue to shine a light on queer and trans stories,” LaLonde says.

Read the interview

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Claudia Maurino '24

Bringing Dreams to Life on Stage with Claudia Maurino '24

Theater and women, gender, sexuality studies major Claudia Maurino '24 has produced and directed two plays at the UMass Fringe Fest, including one she wrote herself.

“UMass is definitely a place where I feel like wild ideas and crazy dreams are nourished and get to come to life,” Maurino says.

Read the interview

Three HFA Students among 2024 21st-Century Leaders Award Recipients

Three HFA undergraduate students were named recipients of the 21st-Century Leaders Award in recognition of their strong academic records and exemplary achievements.

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Alina Antropova ’24

Alina Antropova ’24, a double major in English literature and social thought and political economy, demonstrated a combination of academic excellence and a deep commitment to social justice when she arrived at UMass Amherst. Her senior thesis, “Sigue Uno Caminando en la Oscuridad (One Keeps Walking in the Darkness): Theorizing the Abolitionist Sanctuary Model,” was centered around the immigration sanctuary movement in western Massachusetts, and her paper on neoliberalism in non-governmental organizations working with Syrian refugees in Turkey was published in UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity.

Over the last several summers, Antropova dedicated her time in service of immigration rights. She was a researcher at the Collaborative Site Program on Immigration Policy and U.S.–Mexico Border Communities at New Mexico State University—where she investigated the implementation of the CBP One™ app for asylum appointments—and served two terms as an AmeriCorps VISTA summer associate at the West Hill Refugee Welcome Center in Albany, New York.

Her hope is to attend law school to become an immigration attorney.

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Zoë Pearl Cohen ’24

Zoë Pearl Cohen ’24 graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music education. She is the first-ever recipient of the Jeff Poulton and Suzanne Jessee Drum Major Scholarship and was awarded the Howard M. Lebow Memorial Scholarship from the university’s music department.

In all aspects of her UMass experience, Cohen’s love of music and her outstanding talent shine. She was a founding member of the university’s first all-female trumpet ensemble and participated in the Chamber Choir, the highest-level classical voice ensemble at UMass. Since 2020, she has served as a drum major for the Minuteman Marching Band, assisting directors in leading rehearsals and conducting hundreds of musicians daily.

Cohen continued to take advantage of leadership opportunities by organizing a conducting recital at UMass—a highly unusual feat for an undergraduate student—and leading rehearsal and conducting a piece in performance as the conducting intern for the Smith College Wind Ensemble. She also served as president of the UMass Amherst collegiate chapter of the National Association for Music Education, the undergraduate representative for the Department of Music and Dance, and the social media manager for the Pioneer Valley Trumpet Guild.

Cohen plans to pursue a career as a high school band director and inspire the next generation of musicians.

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Rianna Jade Jakson ’24

Rianna Jade Jakson ’24 earned dual degrees in film studies and communication through the Bachelor’s Degree with Individual Concentration program, all while maintaining three on-campus jobs and serving as a peer advisor.

During her time at UMass, Jakson contributed research to two articles published by Project Censored’s Verified Independent News, including “School Hospital Program Bridges Education and Student Recovery.” She also built critical media literacy activities for the open-source e-book, Critical Media Literacy and Civic Learning: Interactive Explorations for Students and Teachers, which provides K–12 teachers with examples to support students’ understanding of media literacy education.

Jakson’s love of dance and film drew her to the UMass Fashion Organization (UFO), where she was the cinematographer for two fashion shows and the director of photography for 12 short films. She designed a more than 275-page “lookbook” for the spring 2023 fashion show and acted as editor-in-chief of two editions of UFO’s magazine, sourcing literary work from artists across the Five Colleges for the spring/summer 2024 issue. Her desire for other creatives to realize their potential led her to launch a Creator’s Grant for students.

Jakson hopes to work in fashion or dance filmmaking.

English Doctoral Student Thakshala Tissera Wins Three Minute Thesis Competition

Thakshala Tissera, a doctoral student in the Department of English, has been named the winner of the 2024 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. Organized by the UMass Amherst Graduate School, the 3MT challenges graduate students to describe their research in an engaging manner, using non-technical language, all in three minutes or less.

Tissera’s presentation, “Elephant Tales: Stories for Coexistence,” was selected by the distinguished panel of judges.

Watch the presentation

Afro-Am Department PhD Student Marcus Smith Earns 2024 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship

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Marcus Smith

Marcus P. Smith in the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies has been awarded a 2024 Mellon/American Council of Learned Dissertation Innovation Fellowship. He is among 45 awardees selected from a pool of more than 700 applicants.

The fellowships support doctoral students in the humanities and interpretive social sciences as they pursue bold and innovative approaches to dissertation research.

The research pursued by Smith employs an interdisciplinary methodology, drawing from history, ethnography, and landscape studies to examine the development of grassroots museums in historically Black rural, agro-urban, and coastal communities. His project investigates and recounts the narratives of museum inception, community mobilization, resource acquisition, curatorial decision-making, and establishing the museums as viable and sustainable institutions in different social, political, and economic contexts.

All Roads Lead to a Semester in Rome: Haley Kaye ’24 Reflects on Study Abroad Experience

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From her very first days as a UMass student, Haley Kaye ’24 knew she wanted to study in Italy. So, it was no surprise when she found herself in Rome during her junior year, studying with the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in a program focused on the history of Ancient Rome.

Her time in Italy brought the history Kaye had been studying to life.

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"In Rome, I was able to stand inside the images in my textbooks. I could reach out and touch the diagrams I’d seen on a professor’s slides. I was able to visit multiple monuments and areas I had written essays and discussions on, which in turn enabled me to make connections between the things I had researched at UMass and the things I was looking at in real time," Kaye explains.

She also saw how her studies at home and abroad were interconnected, not just through the curriculum but the people, too. Many of Kaye’s professors in Rome had worked with professors from the classics department. Outside of the classroom, Kaye says she had opportunities to expand her knowledge, make friends, and gain new experiences.

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"For me—and for so many others—studying abroad is not just a way to enhance your education, but a way to get out into the world and explore,” she says. “It’s a way to get out of your comfort zone, to learn how to rely on yourself, to meet new friends, and to see things you never would have seen otherwise.

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Team of UMass Amherst Students Earn Top Prize from Affordable Housing Development Competition

A team of UMass Amherst students, in collaboration with students from Clark University and Wentworth Institute of Technology, received a first-place prize of $10,000 in the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston’s 24th Annual Affordable Housing Development Competition. The winning proposal, called High Street Homes, aims to transform 10 underutilized parcels of land in Holyoke, Massachusetts into a mixed-use development of residential homes and communal green space.

Led by a UMass Amherst Master of Architecture (MArch) alumnus John Gilbert, the team included MArch students Jason Soares de Carvalho, Zahra Shah Mohammady, and Michael Chancellor, as well as undergraduate students in the Isenberg School of Management, Henry Schwarz and Samuel Hinrichs.

Stephen Schreiber, chair of the Department of Architecture, says, “We are proud of this student team, which looked at issues of affordable housing in nearby Holyoke. The UMass students came from three colleges at UMass and worked effectively with each other and with the community partners.”

The High Street Homes initiative aims to create five buildings with 86 rental homes, rooftop amenities, first-floor community-centered commercial space, 10,890 square feet of communal green space, and a 3,300-square-foot daycare center. The development proposal features top-tier sustainable energy and water management systems. Space is set aside for gathering spaces in each building, cooking and seating areas on rooftops, and communal lounge space for residents.

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From Classroom to Conservation: How Art Students Collaborated with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Environmental Art Project

A group of art students recently partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to create an extensive online library of graphics to be used by National Wildlife Refuge System employees for educational materials and outreach efforts throughout the Northeast United States and beyond, bridging the gap between art and environmental impact.

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Spearheaded by Jacquelyn Sadowski, who works for USFWS Visitor Services, the project helped the organization meet its needs for wildlife graphics to be used in its junior ranger booklets, social media posts, events/programs flyers, presentations, and potential exhibit displays.

Professor of Art Jeffery Kasper led his students to create the graphics through his course ART364: Design Thinking for Social Innovation. The collaboration was a perfect fit, Kasper says, as his service-learning class was ready in rotation for the partnership. Both Kasper and Sadowski saw an opportunity for UMass students to make a tangible, real-world impact.

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“I’m honored that the USFWS took the time and care to create a system where these designs are going to have a life, and I’m happy that the students took on the process,” Kasper says. “It’s a good example that we can take what we can learn while also contributing to our community, beyond the walls of the university.”

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The HFA Senior Leadership awardee was music education major Zoë Cohen ’24. Cohen served as drum major of the Minuteman Marching Band for all four years, a first for director Tim Anderson. Her leadership of the 360-member band is characterized by her dedication to service, quiet confidence, faith in her abilities, exceptional musicianship as a conductor, and organizational skills.

William F. Field Alumni Scholars

Two HFA students were selected as William F. Field Alumni Scholars, recognized for their outstanding academic achievements as well as their respective contributions to the arts, athletics, research, or service to the campus community.

Music composition major Zac Brennan ’25 is a highly motivated and creative student, completing as a junior 151 credits with a near-perfect GPA, including several graduate-level music theory and music history seminars. He is an accomplished string bassist, performing with the UMass Symphony Orchestra, string chamber ensembles, and jazz ensembles. He plays for the Vocal Jazz Techniques class and regularly conducts the Amherst (College) Symphony Orchestra in addition to playing gigs throughout western Massachusetts on both acoustic and electric bass. Zac is also a member of Commonwealth Honors College.

Architecture major Kayla Sit '25 is known as an outstanding student who pushes the limits of design excellence, is exceptionally engaged, and is a leader. She directs the Freedom by Design effort in which students build accessibility ramps for local families. She is also active in the American Institute of Architecture Students and the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students.

2024 HFA Summer Internships

With support from the HFA Internship Assistance Fund, students don't have to face a tough choice between taking a low-paying or unpaid internship and working a summer job that doesn't align with their career goals. Instead, students can take an internship that aligns with their goals, make meaningful connections, gain one-of-a-kind experiences, and pave the way for their future. Below are a few students who benefitted from the fund.

Support the HFA Internship Assistance Fund

Ariana Locke ’26

Major: English (BA)
Editorial Diversity in Publishing Intern at Barefoot Books
Editorial Intern for the Travel + Leisure department at Dotdash Meredith

Medha Mankekar ’25

Major: Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies (BA)
Publishing Intern at The Writer’s Workout

Emma Grace Maroni ’26

Major: English (BA) 
Intern at Fund for the Public Interest

Eva Barajas ’27

Major: Art (MA)
Intern at the Monument Lab

Homecoming Highlights

The College of Humanities and Fine Arts hosted several events during the university's 2023 Homecoming Weekend, including From Here to Career, an afternoon alumni-student networking event; the Celebrating the Creative and Cultural Heart of UMass reception; a self-guided visual arts tour; the 49th Annual Multiband Pops Concert; and celebrations for the English department and the UMass Minuteman Marching Band's 150th anniversary.

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Aretha Miller ’92 Creates Legacy of Lifting Others Up

Aretha Miller ’92 was born in Jamaica and moved to the United States with her family during her teen years. Just two years into living in the United States, she enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It immediately became her second home.

Once on campus, Miller discovered New Africa House. At that time, it was a vibrant cultural space. There, she found her community, mingling with other students of color as well as international students—which, as an immigrant herself, gave her a vital sense of belonging. New Africa House created an opportunity for her to make deep connections at UMass Amherst.

“UMass helped me to find my voice as an individual,” Miller recalls. “It helped me to understand the importance of diversity and inclusion even though we did not use that term.”

Miller, who majored in Spanish, said she inherited a strong sense of service. She is now acting on her values by paving the way for future students through a charitable gift in her will.

The future gift will support the W. E. B. Du Bois Library, the Department of Literature, and scholarships in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. The Beryl Watson and Lurlene Embden Fund is named after Aretha’s mother and grandmother. They were major influences on her life and strong advocates for education.

Aretha’s fond memories of New Africa House, along with her involvement in the International Programs Office at UMass Amherst, have impacted her far beyond her undergraduate days. She currently owns and operates a boutique consulting firm that coaches nonprofits, schools, and community groups that serve underserved communities to find real, lasting solutions to their toughest problems so they can move forward and thrive independently. It’s a responsibility she does not take lightly as she continues her work to make education accessible for the next generation.

“UMass allowed me to become the person I am. It’s hard for young people, especially first-generation students, [to go] to college, and it’s why I’m doing this. It’s what I can do, to just take a little bit of the pressure off,” says Miller. “For me, the pressure is associated with the soul-crushing cost of college, and I want to help mitigate this reality for first-generation students who live in the Greater Boston area.”

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Linguist Irene Heim '83PhD Wins Prestigious Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy

Linguist and alumna Irene Heim 82'PhD was the co-recipient of the 2024 Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy. 

The award, sometimes referred to as the Nobel Prize of philosophy according to the Daily Nous, celebrates the “conception and early development of dynamic semantics 
for natural language.”

Heim, professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, received the award with Hans Kamp, a former UMass Amherst faculty member 
who was part of the Department of Philosophy from 1982–84.

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Alumni Mentoring Matters: How Directing Student Kyle Boatwright Found Belonging with Theater Alum Dawn Monique Williams '11G

Kyle Boatwright, a graduate student in the theater department’s directing program, has long had her eye on the renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival, especially after Nataki Garrett's term as the festival’s first Black female artistic director, gracefully weathering COVID, wildfires, and threats from racists who didn’t want her leading the company.

When Boatwright learned that theater alumna Dawn Monique Williams was directing Twelfth Night during the festival, Boatwright reached out to Williams. Though the festival wasn’t offering internships, Williams willingly made room for Boatwright on the team, earning her what she calls “hands down one of the best experiences of my life,” shadowing Williams as she worked.

“It feels like what I’ve learned from Dawn and what she’s given me is wildly indescribable and ethereal," Boatwright says. “Because of the road that Dawn has paved, because of how she lightly held me and encouraged me, I now walk into a space knowing, unequivocally, that I belong.”

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Charles M. Sennott ’84 Receives World Press Freedom Award from James W. Foley Legacy Foundation

Charles M. Sennott ’84 was honored with the World Press Freedom Award by the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation during the 2024 Foley Freedom Awards.

The ceremony celebrated the foundation’s 10th anniversary honoring the legacy of James Foley ’03MFA, a conflict journalist murdered by ISIS in Syria in 2014. Awards were given to honor those who demonstrate moral courage and who share the foundation’s commitment to free Americans held unjustly captive abroad and to prevent future hostage-taking.

Sennott, founder and editor-in-chief of the GroundTruth Project, worked with Foley as executive editor and co-founder of GlobalPost. Foley was also a student at UMass Amherst from 1999 to 2003 in the MFA for Poets and Writers program in the English department.

Sennott, who has remained close with the Foley family through the last 10 years since Foley's death, is an award-winning journalist, best-selling author, and editor with 40 years of experience in international, national, and local journalism.

*Based on QS World University Rankings, 2023

New Funds Established in 2023–2024

Alexander Bentley Endowed Scholarship

The purpose of the gift is to provide scholarship support for in-state undergraduate students in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. Preference will be given to students who graduated from Gloucester High School in Gloucester, Massachusetts. It is the donor’s wish that fewer awards be made to make the greatest impact possible based on the available distributions. The scholarship is renewable for up to four years as long as recipients remain enrolled in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

Alexis Kuhr Memorial Scholarship

To support MFA students in art in their second or third year of the program with financial need, as determined by the university. Recipients should have a minimum GPA of 3.0 and demonstrate excellence in their art practice. Preference will be given to graduate students who are the first in their family to attend college.

Anthony Roux Internship Scholarship Fund

To support students in the art history program while they are participating in an internship. These funds may be applied to summer internship opportunities or those offered during the academic year, with preference given to those enrolled in a summer internship. This support is available to those participating in an unpaid internship and may also be used to supplement recipients who have secured a paid internship.

Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies Lecture Support Fund   

To provide support to a visiting lecturer(s) and related events in the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies.

Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies Support Fund

To provide annual technical support for lectures in the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies. Uses of the fund include, but are not limited to, purchasing equipment/technology and paying for AV/tech support to enhance lectures.

Gillespie Curatorial Fellowship in Shakespeare and the Book

To provide an annual competitive fellowship to undergraduate and graduate students formally affiliated with UMass Amherst. Fellows will work with the Gillespie Collection (on loan to the Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies at UMass Amherst) and with the Kinney Center's permanent and loaned collections. The fund will provide support for related expenses pertaining to the production and publicity of the Fellows’ exhibits. Fellows will be selected by a board of Renaissance studies faculty and rare book librarians.

Roznoy Endowed Scholarship

To provide scholarship support to undergraduate music majors in their freshman, sophomore, or junior years. Recipients must be string players in the UMass Symphony Orchestra.

Walter Wolnik Classical Music Fund

To support classical music education and classical music performance in the Department of Music and Dance at the university.

Departments, Institutes, and Centers

• W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies
• Department of Architecture
• Department of Art
• Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies
• Arts Extension Service
• Center for the Study of African American Language
• Department of Classics
• DEFA Film Library
• Digital Humanities Initiative
• Department of English
• Department of History
• Department of History of Art and Architecture
• Interdepartmental Program in Film Studies
• Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies
• Interdisciplinary Studies Institute
• Film Studies
• Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies
• Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
• Department of Linguistics
• Department of Music and Dance
• Department of Philosophy
• Department of Theater
• Translation Center
• Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies
• Warring States Project
• UMass Amherst Writing Program