2023 News
- Villanova Theatre Alum Wins Top Performing Arts Award in Czech Republic November 14, 2023 - Villanova Theatre alum Becka McFadden '04 CLAS, '07 MA won the 2023 Thálie Award for Alternative Theatre for the solo performance of Black Dress. The Thálie is the leading performing arts award in the Czech Republic, where McFadden has been living and working for the past five years.
- MPA Grad Honored with CLAS Graduate Alumni Medallion November 13, 2023 - Latesha D. Beasley '14 MPA has deep professional roots in the nonprofit and educational sectors, where she has advocated for social justice and sustainable change throughout her career. Currently, Beasley is the Vice President of Operations at Girard College. She was honored with the CLAS Graduate Alumni Medallion at a special celebration at the Inn at Villanova on October 26, 2023.
- Fall 2023 Graduate Research Symposium October 27, 2023 - The Fall 2023 Graduate Research Symposium highlighted the outstanding and diverse scholarship being conducted by graduate students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Students gave either Three Minute Thesis-style oral presentations in the East Lounge in Dougherty Hall or presented posters in the Connelly Center Art Gallery.
- Villanova Theatre Debuts New Play from Award-Winning Author October 25, 2023 - Villanova Theatre proudly presents celebrated playwright Wendy MacLeod’s new play Posterity, directed by Theatre Professor Edward Sobel, on stage November 9 to November 19 in the Court Theatre at the John and Joan Mullen Center for the Performing Arts. As part of its longstanding commitment to new work and living playwrights, the Theatre Department has also named Posterity the latest recipient of its annual Sue Winge Playwriting Award.
- Record Water Temperatures Testing Resilient Coral Reefs October 24, 2023 - Lisa Rodrigues, PhD, professor of environmental science, is an expert in coral reef ecosystems and ocean environments and has been following the reports of coral bleaching since they began surfacing in July. Record water temperatures stemming from a strong El Niño weather pattern caused coral bleaching and death events in reefs throughout the world.
- History Graduate Student’s Research Opportunities Give Way to Professional Development, Historical Findings and Igniting Change September 25, 2023 - Colin McCrossan ’23 MA began conducting independent research after he graduated from McGill University with a BA in History in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He never imagined his research on the history of slavery in southeastern Pennsylvania would lead him to Villanova University’s History graduate program, but after being introduced to Professor Judith Giesberg, PhD, the Robert M. Birmingham Chair in the Humanities, McCrossan couldn’t pass up the opportunity to learn more about his home state’s history with slavery. He quickly found that Villanova History was the perfect place to both continue his research and prepare for a career in law.
- Environmental Science Alum Guides Philadelphia on Path to Sustainability August 30, 2023 - In her role as Program Manager for Renewable Energy at the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Sustainability, Charlotte Shade ’19 MS focuses on municipal energy conservation, efficiency and emissions reductions. Some of her responsibilities include buying renewable electricity for city buildings, mapping the potential for solar panels and analyzing energy use data. Shade’s research work and use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Villanova’s master’s program in Environmental Science helped prepare her for a career that blends her passion for sustainability with the skills to help solve complex environmental issues.
- Four CLAS Graduate Students Earn Fulbright Awards July 25, 2023 - Four graduate students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences earned Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards for 2023-24. In total, 25 Villanova University students and alumni received the competitive grant this year. The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program, offering students grants to conduct research, study and teach abroad. Villanova has been listed among the nation’s top producers of Fulbright Students for more than a decade.
- Applied Statistics and Data Science Master’s Program Evolves to Meet Industry Demand, Expand Career Options July 24, 2023 - For many years, U.S. News has ranked “Statistician” as one of the best and fastest growing jobs in the country. More recently, “Data Scientist” has also appeared high in those rankings, a trend that mirrors changes in the industry. To better match industry demand and evolution of the program, Villanova has adjusted the curriculum and changed the name of its master’s program in applied statistics to “Applied Statistics and Data Science.”
- Graduate Student Scholarship Celebrated at CONCEPT Launch Event June 23, 2022 - CONCEPT, the scholarly journal of graduate students in the Villanova University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, launched its 2023 edition with a recognition event this spring. The CONCEPT Graduate Research Prize was awarded to James Wojtal, a master's student in English, for "Legibility and Annotation: Reading Images and Words by Wendy Red Star, Thomas Harriot, and Theodore De Bry."
- New Paper by Villanova Counseling Professors Suggests Client-Centered Shifts in Diagnostic Models June 22, 2023 - The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is a guidebook so embedded into the US healthcare system that all mental health professionals—from counselors to social workers—must assign clients a DSM-generated diagnosis in order to receive reimbursement for their services. A new paper by Villanova professors Krista Malott, PhD, and Terence Yee, PhD, along with a colleague from New Zealand, critically evaluates this model.
- Villanova Liberal Studies Master’s Degree Helps Recent Grad Align Career and Life Goals with Personal Values May 17, 2023 - Krista Cantrell ’22 MA began her graduate studies in the summer of 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic and civil unrest. During this time of isolation and uncertainty, Villanova’s master’s program in Liberal Studies served as both an opportunity to connect with others and as a path to align her career with her personal values of equity and justice. Cantrell’s academic excellence led to her induction into the National Honor Society of the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs, and, today, she works for a national nonprofit focused on changing the conversation about mental health.
- Villanova University Graduates First Theology PhD Cohort May 16, 2023 - On Saturday, May 20, 2023, the three inaugural graduates of the Villanova University doctoral program in Theology will gather on stage at the Master's and Doctoral Degree Commencement and Recognition Ceremony inside Villanova Stadium. University President the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, PhD, ’75 CLAS, will bestow upon them their academic hoods—a symbolic act recognizing their successful completion of the program and their transition from students to colleagues of the faculty. The Rev. Rebecca Irwin-Diehl '23 PhD, Andre Price '23 PhD and Sister Theresa Dung Trang, LHC, '23 PhD, who all entered the program in 2017, will make history as the first cohort of Theology PhD students to graduate.
- Chemistry Master's Student Advances to 3MT Nationals May 5, 2023 - Villanova University graduate Chemistry student Eliana Uriona was the first runner-up at the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools (NAGS) Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition on April 28, 2023. Uriona advances to the Council of Graduate Schools national 3MT competition in December.
- Scholarly Publishing, a Broadway Debut and a New Opera for Villanova Theatre Faculty April 11, 2023 - The Villanova Department of Theatre and Studio Art boasts faculty who are accomplished scholars in the field and acclaimed practitioners of the craft. This spring, Associate Professor James Ijames, MFA, debuted his Pulitzer-winning play FAT HAM on Broadway; Associate Professor Chelsea Phillips, MFA, PhD, published two articles in scholarly journals; Assistant Professor Bess Rowen, PhD, edited and contributed an introduction to a revised edition of A Streetcar Named Desire; and Assistant Professor Peter Hilliard, BM, MFA, composed a new opera, Inbox Zero.
- Supportive Community, Faculty Connections Key to English Graduate Student’s Academic Growth and PhD Program Acceptance April 10, 2023 - Whether it is because of similar research interests, connections within the field or other, more nuanced factors, faculty play a large role in students’ choice of graduate school and are also instrumental in shaping the graduate student experience. Villanova English master’s student Theo Campbell '23 MA points to the kindness, generosity and support of Villanova faculty for helping them to flourish as a scholar and to gain acceptance to the English PhD program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where they will be starting in the fall.
- Psychology Master's Student Earns NSF Graduate Research Fellowship April 4, 2023 - Villanova Psychology master's student Grace Gervino '23 MS earned a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF-GRF) for her research examining the neural bases of stuttering. The NSF-GRFP is the country’s oldest fellowship program that directly supports graduate students in various STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. Gervino's application was selected out of a national pool of applicants as one of the best in her field.
- Psychology Thesis Award Winner Honored for Serotonin Deficiency Research April 3, 2023 - The Villanova University Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences is pleased to announce Allison Warner '22 MS as this year's Ingeborg L. and O. Byron Ward Outstanding Thesis Award winner. This award honors one Psychology master's student each year for a particularly excellent thesis and thesis project.
- Chemistry Master's Student Wins 2023 Villanova Three Minute Thesis Competition March 17, 2023 - Villanova University graduate chemistry student Eliana Uriona took First Place and the Audience Choice awards in the University's Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition on February 24 in the Mullen Center for the Performing Arts for her presentation “Optimizing Biochar Properties for Heavy Metal Immobilization in Contaminated Soils.” Uriona advances to the Northeast Regional Competition on April 28.
- Villanova MPA Students Win NASPAA Simulation Competition March 16, 2023 - Five Villanova Master of Public Administration (MPA) students participated in the 2023 Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) Student Simulation Competition Northeast Regional hosted by the University at Albany (SUNY) on March 4. Corie Alicea, Evan Butts and Melanie Menkevich joined three students from Syracuse University on the winning team. This team also won second place in the Global Super Judge Round, in which NASPAA judges evaluated each of the global site winners. Mark Donovan and Ellen Speake also competed and performed well at the competition.
- Combating Hate Speech in 2023 February 13, 2023 - Communication professor Billie Murray, PhD, notes that reflecting on America’s past starts with acknowledging the country’s history of and ever-growing propensity toward hate speech. Learn more about Murray's research and her book, Combating Hate: A Framework for Direct Action, which won the 2023 Franklyn S. Haiman Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Freedom of Expression from the National Communication Association.
- Computer Science Alum Shares Insights on How A.I. Can Help Solve Our Most Pressing Problems February 8, 2023 - Jessica Yarnall '20 MS is a graduate of Villanova University’s master’s program in computer science. In her academic work and in her work as a data analyst at a local children’s hospital, she’s studied and contributed to the major fields of artificial intelligence, from machine learning in data security to deep learning in the healthcare space.
- A.I. and Higher Education: The Rise of ChatGPT January 25, 2023 - ChatGPT. Maybe you’ve heard of it. Colleges and universities certainly have. It’s the chatbot that uses artificial intelligence (A.I.) to generate sentences based only on a brief prompt, writing anything from college-level papers to fanfiction. And as one might expect, the popular chatbot is taking the academic world by storm, raising questions about trust, academic integrity and even the future of college admissions. We turned to Seth Matthew Fishman, PhD, assistant dean of Curriculum and Assessment and director of the MA in Higher Education Leadership program in the Villanova University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, to get his thoughts.
- Villanova Graduate Programs Earn High Marks in Debt-to-Income Study January 19, 2023 - Is graduate school worth the debt? A recent study by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) shows that, in many cases, it is. In fact, the two Villanova College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) graduate programs included in the study, Human Resource Development and Public Administration, show a strong income-to-debt ratio, meaning that the median income of graduates far exceeds the median debt incurred during their studies.
- Theology PhD Student Wins Emerging Scholar Award from the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality January 18, 2023 - Theology doctoral student Trevor Williams was recently honored by the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality with its Founder's Circle Prize, which recognizes emerging scholars in the discipline. Williams was invited to present his paper at the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Annual Meetings this past November in Denver.
- Graduate Dean Accepts Advisory Roles with Key Education Organizations January 17, 2023 - Emory H. Woodard IV, PhD, Dean of Graduate Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), has recently accepted advisory roles with two organizations that have important connections to graduate education. Dean Woodard was named to the Executive Committee of the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools (NAGS), which is the regional association of the broader Council of Graduate Schools (CGS). He also joined the Advisory Committee for the Duolingo English Test, which is used to evaluate the language proficiency of international candidates for admission to universities in English-speaking countries.
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