College of Arts, Sciences, and Education
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Dear CASE alumni, faculty, staff and students,
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Walter Benjamin (1892–1940), the renowned philosopher and cultural critic, once wrote:
“If, to use a simile, one views the growing work as a burning funeral pyre, then the commentator stands before it like a chemist, the critic like an alchemist. Whereas, for the former, wood and ash remain the sole objects of his analysis, for the latter only the flame itself preserves an enigma: that of what is alive. Thus, the critic inquires into the truth, whose living flame continues to burn over the heavy logs of what is past and the light ashes of what has been experienced.”
Leading a college like CASE is an intellectually enriching experience — one where the "chemist and the alchemist" work side-by-side. One day, I immerse myself in the cutting-edge, highly technical research of an astrophysicist; the next, I am captivated by the profound social critique of one of our philosophers. The interplay between rigorous analysis and imaginative inquiry makes this community a truly extraordinary place to be.
Our faculty and students alike understand the unwritten contract of university education: I am here to be unsettled, to be intellectually challenged and to let go of cherished yet fallacious beliefs of the past. I am deeply grateful to each of my "chemist and alchemist" colleagues who, through their inquiries in the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, enrich the intellectual lives of our students. Please continue to lend us your wisdom — we are all the better for it.
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Nominate a faculty member for recognition
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The College for Arts, Sciences, and Education (CASE) Faculty Leadership Council invites nominations for six faculty awards: Research, Innovative Teaching, Department Citizen, Inclusion & Belonging, Student Impact and Community Outreach. You can read the description of each award and download the nomination form on the CASE website. All award nominations are due Monday, March 3. Current and prior students can nominate faculty for the “Student Impact Award.”
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Dr. victoria braegger, assistant professor of English and technical communication, holds bachelor’s degrees in history and English from Utah State University. She earned a master’s degree in technical communication from Utah State while working as a technical communicator in the utility billing industry. She later completed a Ph.D. in rhetoric and composition at Purdue University, where she received multiple research and teaching awards, including the Professor Patricia Sullivan Scholarship, the Professional Writing Award for Innovative Pedagogy and the Quintilian Award. Her doctoral research was supported by a fellowship at the Strong National Museum of Play and the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) Graduate Research Award.
Dr. braegger's research sits at the intersection of technical communication and game studies, focusing on peripheral design, usability, UX/UI, gamer identity and accessibility in digital spaces. She has presented at national and regional conferences, including the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, ATTW, Console-ing Passions and the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association. Her publications appear in the Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics and the Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Design of Communication, and she has contributed chapters to The Ethics of Playing, Researching, and Teaching Games in the Writing Classroom and Historiographies of Game Studies: What It Has Been, What It Could Be. She is an active member of Not Your Mama’s Gamer and the Learning Games Initiative, advocating for public scholarship in game studies.
Dr. braegger has taught undergraduate courses in technical and business communication, multimedia communication and game studies. She currently teaches courses titled Writing for Social Media and Technical Marketing Communication, and she looks forward to offering graduate-level courses in research methods and visual design.
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The Laboratory for Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Research (LAMOR) in physics has launched a new seminar series, "Quantum Materials School," organized by Dr. Halyna Hodovanets and Dr. Hyunsoo Kim. This initiative serves as a key platform for the upcoming quantum initiative during the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.
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The seminar aims to deepen understanding of contemporary quantum science at S&T, foster interdisciplinary collaboration in quantum research and provide graduate students with opportunities to present their work and refine their communication skills. The inaugural session welcomed 18 undergraduate and high school students, marking a strong start to this new endeavor. A sincere thank you to everyone who contributed to making this initiative a success!
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1870 minutes of giving in April
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Celebrate 1870 minutes of giving – join us for S&T Giving Days!
Join us for S&T Giving Days on April 10-11! Whether you’re a faculty member, staff, or alumnus, your participation is essential to the success of this initiative. Together, we’ll tap into the power of collective impact to support Missouri S&T’s future and create lasting change.
In honor of our founding year, we’re aiming to raise support over 1,870 minutes of giving — a tribute to our rich history and an investment in the future. A gift of just $18.70 is all it takes to make a meaningful difference for the students and leaders of tomorrow.
Here’s how you can make an impact:
Every gift makes a difference. Whether large or small, your donation plays a crucial role in building a brighter future for Missouri S&T.
Support the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education. As a vital unit on campus, your support for CASE helps ensure continued growth and success for students in this college, fostering the development of future leaders, educators and innovators.
Help spread the word. Encourage others to join in to unlock challenge gifts and help CASE reach its fundraising goals.
How to get involved:
Between 10 a.m. Thursday, April 10, and 5:10 p.m. Friday, April 11, visit our Giving Days website when it goes live to make your gift. Whether you’re giving $18.70 or $1,870, your participation is part of the collective effort that will shape the future of Missouri S&T.
Ready to be a Giving Days ambassador for CASE?
Email Megan Fowler at roarkme@mst.edu.
Let’s show our Miner pride and make a real difference for the future of Missouri S&T — together!
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Faculty, staff and student news
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Dr. victoria braegger, assistant professor of technical communication, received the Suellen and Glenda Adams award from the Department of Public and Applied Humanities at the University of Arizona. The award recognizes her research on video game controllers presented at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association's annual conference, as well as her collaboration on how concepts from the conference might benefit students in the Game Studies emphasis in the University of Arizona's bachelor’s degree program in applied humanities. Dr. braegger's presentation explored how “elite” and “pro” controllers can be better understood as accessibility devices.
Dr. Jeff Chalfant, assistant teaching professor of education, and Dr. Michelle Schwartze, associate teaching professor of education, presented on Improving MEES Scores with Culturally Responsive Lessons at the Missouri Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (MACTE) spring conference in Columbia, Missouri, on Feb. 18. They discussed strategies preservice teachers can use to make sure they meet the standards that focus on incorporating diverse perspectives and communication into your lessons.
Dr. Gerald Cohen, professor of German, published two new items as part of his work suggesting that the most ancient Greek writing known as Linear B (deciphered in 1952) had an Egyptian hieroglyphic component. The items appear in Comments on Etymology, a series of working papers on various topics that he has been editing since 1971. See here and here.
Celia Freed, undergraduate student in psychological science, under the direction of Dr. Clair Kueny, chair and associate professor of psychological science, will present a poster at the annual Midwestern Psychological Association Conference in April. Her poster is titled "Systemic Biases in Faculty Evaluations: Can We Eliminate Them?" and focuses on addressing the problem of bias in faculty performance evaluations, which disproportionately affects women and underrepresented groups.
Dr. Irina Ivliyeva, chair of arts, languages, and philosophy and Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of Russian, delivered an invited talk “At your service! Artificial Intelligence and the Philologist: Strategies for the Future” at the International Academic Conference for Students and Educators of Doctoral Study Programs at the University of St. Cyrill and St. Methodius, Slovakia on Jan. 29. This sixth transnational meeting of the Erasmus+ project was focused on the innovation of the concept and curriculum of doctoral study programs and increasing their effectiveness.
Gaurav Khairnar, physics graduate student, is the first author of the paper “Helicity modulus and chiral symmetry breaking for boundary conditions with finite twist" in Physical Review E. His advisor is Dr. Thomas Vojta, chair and Curators’ Distinguished Professor of physics.
Dr. Shelley Minteer, director of the Kummer Institute Center for Resource Sustainability and professor of chemistry, received a $69,932 grant from Fulcrum Bioscience, LLC for a project titled “STTR: Biosynthetic Xylolipid for PFAS Substitution.”
Dr. Simeon Mistakidis, assistant professor of physics, published an article titled "Effective approaches to the dynamical properties of two distinguishable Bose polarons” in the APS Physical Review A journal with collaborators from the University of Hamburg, Germany, Desy. This work explores possibilities to control the quantum dynamics of induced correlations among Bose polarons and the dynamical crossover from correlated to anticorrelated quasi-particles by constructing suitable effective model reductions to the full many-body system.
In addition to this, Mistakidis published a second article titled "Two-component droplet phases and their spectral stability in one dimension” in the APS Physical Review A journal with his collaborator from San Diego State University. This work unveils the existence of exotic self-bound many-body states of matter arising in strongly attractive quantum simulators.
Dr. Ross Channing Reed, lecturer in philosophy, published a new article, "Are We Really in the Midst of a Trauma Pandemic?" in the February issue of The Philosophical Salon. A philosophical counselor in private practice since 1998, Reed's research spans existentialism, ethics, philosophical psychology, philosophical counseling, philosophy of religion, addiction and trauma.
Dr. Kathleen Sheppard, professor of history and political science, gave three online talks in February about the history of women in Egyptology to audiences around the world. On Feb. 5, she spoke to the American Society for Overseas Research (ASOR) about "Women’s Work in Abydos: Margaret Murray, Amice Calverley and Myrtle Broome." On Feb. 7, she gave a lunchtime talk for the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan titled "Were there really Women in the Valley of the Kings?” Finally, on Feb. 11, she spoke to the First Egyptological Cafe in Barcelona (Catalonia) on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, talking about "The Voices and Legacies of Women Egyptologists."
Dr. Chariklia 'Lia' Sotiriou-Leventis, chair and professor of chemistry, and Dr. Amitava Choudhury, associate professor of chemistry, along with their research teams, published an article in ACS Applied Energy Materials titled "High-Capacity Anode for Sodium-Ion Batteries Using Hard Carbons Derived from Polyurea-Crosslinked Silica Xerogel Powders." Their study demonstrates that these xerogel-derived hard carbons, with embedded silica, exhibit stable high capacity, excellent electronic conductivity, and can be used as an anode material without the need for added conductive carbon.
Dr. Alexey Yamilov, professor of physics, is the lead author of the article "Anderson Transition for Light in a Three-Dimensional Random Medium," published in Physical Review Letters. The paper has received special recognition as both an Editor's Suggestion and a featured article in Physics — a distinction reserved for work of exceptional importance, innovation and broad appeal. Publication in Physical Review Letters is already a significant achievement, as the journal accepts only about 20% of submissions and ranks first among physics journals in five-year Google Scholar h-index and total citations recorded by Journal Citation Reports. An Editor's Suggestion carries additional prestige, as only one in six published Letters receives this designation. These highlighted papers are downloaded more than twice as often as average Letters, receive substantially more press coverage, and are cited at nearly twice the rate. Further underscoring its impact, the American Physical Society published a news release on Yamilov’s research, and he was interviewed about the paper’s findings.
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Disclaimer: CASE does not endorse the viewpoints presented in the essays featured in this section of the newsletter. We share these essays purely as "food for thought" and encourage our informed audience to independently evaluate and form their own opinions on the topics discussed.
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College of Arts, Sciences, and Education
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Missouri University of Science and Technology
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