Faculty Highlights

Associate Professor of Economics Laura Gee was profiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis for her work studying philanthropy and gender differences in the labor market.

Vannevar Bush Professor of Biology Michael Levin has launched a new blog. Entitled “Forms of Life, Forms of Mind,” it weaves Professor Levin’s thoughts on the science and philosophy of embodied minds; the lives that can be; and the more personal, broader complements of his laboratory research on the biophysical mechanisms of embodied intelligence.

Professor of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning Justin Hollander, A’96, was interviewed and his research was cited in the national magazine Outside in the article "Can Car-free Living Make You Happier?" The article describes Culdesac, AZ, the first car-free city built from scratch, and references Hollander’s research using biometrics, which demonstrate that the benefits of car-free cities are real and measurable.

Associate Professor of History and Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora Kerri Greenidge's book, The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family (Norton 2022), was selected as a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Book Prize from the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. The book provides a counternarrative to the mythology surrounding the revered abolitionist Grimke sisters and reclaims the forgotten Black members of their family.

Professor of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning Justin Hollander and Fletcher School Professor Karen Jacobsen were awarded a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under their Program for Local and Urban Sustainability (PLUS) to continue their ongoing collaboration with Makerere University on urban development/pollution challenges in informal settlements in Kampala, Uganda. Numerous Tufts students have been a part of this work and three graduate students, Elijah Mensah, G24, Kyle Hammond A25, G26, and Sonya Sternlieb, G23, travelled to Uganda last year.

Associate Professor of Political Science Oxana Shevel was elected President of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES). The Slavic Studies Association in its various incarnations has been the leading international scholarly organization devoted to the region since 1948.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Meredith Mclain published a peer-reviewed article in Political Research Quarterly. Entitled "The Traceability of Presidential Policymaking in the Face of Congressional Sanctioning," the paper examines an original dataset of executive orders, published memoranda, and unpublished memoranda issued between 1981 and 2020. It demonstrates how presidents can overcome legislative checks by altering the traceability of their unilateral directives.