Grace Gipson, Ph.D. (African American Studies), gives shape to how the Afrofuturism movement has influenced our culture in a six-part series on Audible. Gipson traces the movement’s history and introduces listeners to the ways in which Afrofuturism engages with topics ranging from literature, fashion, and architecture to comic books and graphic novels, film, television, and music.

Heather A. Jones, Ph.D. (Psychology), who co-directs the Primary Care Psychology Training Collaborative and is the director of trainee development for the VCU Institute for Women’s Health, was awarded two grants totaling $3.6M. The grants are intended to expand pro bono care and develop new practitioners to counterbalance the mental health challenges lingering after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Mimi Winick, Ph.D. (World Studies), was awarded a two-year, $60K grant by the nonprofit organization Interfaith America. The Faith & Health Campus Grant will support two projects at VCU — one focused on undergraduate and graduate teaching and mentoring, and a second focused on research collaborations among humanities researchers and clinicians.

Edgar Kunz (English), has been named a 2026 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellow, awarded on both prior career achievement and his future work. Kunz is the author of two books: “Fixer” (Ecco, 2023), a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection, and “Tap Out” (Ecco, 2019). His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, Oxford American, Yale Review, and American Poetry Review.

Heather Nunnally, Ph.D. (Mathematics and Statistics), along with several other VCU colleagues, will work with school divisions in a project supported by a $1.5M grant from the Virginia Department of Education. They will provide coaching and support to educators from five divisions — Charles City, King and Queen, King William, Mathews, and Williamsburg-James City counties — as they assess district-level data, identify math curriculums that target their needs, and design strategies to introduce them into the classroom. 

Matthew Hartman, Ph.D. (Chemistry), received $2M in new grants to explore cancer chemical biology. Supported by an award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Hartman’s lab hopes to help researchers create molecules that can be developed into drugs that combat cancer’s challenging proteins. 

Katy Hanggi, Ph.D. (Focused Inquiry), received a $50K content creation grant from the academic library consortium of Virginia (VIVA) to create an open-education resource for UNIV 111: Introduction to Focused Inquiry: Investigation and Communication, and UNIV 200: Advanced Focused Inquiry: Literacies, Research, and Communication classes. The faculty-created ebook incorporates student voices. Using an open-education resource saves VCU students $100K annually in textbook costs.

Michael Southam-Gerow, Ph.D. (Psychology), was awarded $1.07M from the Virginia Department of Medical Services (DMAS) to support the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based programs in behavioral health. Southam-Gerow will provide consultation and support to DMAS and the state in the implementation of ongoing training and quality assurance (QA) related to the Comprehensive Assessment of Needs and Strengths, and in the development and implementation of training and QA for state practitioners related to adult and youth rehab services. 

Marilyn Bishop, Ph.D. (Physics), was awarded a $53K grant from the National Institutes of Health for her research project, “Basics of Sickle Cell Therapy.” Bishop is developing an interactive visualization software to build potentials and statistical models of molecule chains featuring sickle hemoglobin — misshapen red blood cells that slow blood flow — and eventually simulate the interactions of the sickle hemoglobin molecules. 

Jeffrey Green, Ph.D. (Psychology), was awarded a $254K grant from the Templeton Foundation for a project investigating how nonreligious individuals create moral frameworks and find existential meaning to their lives. 

Hani El-Kaderi, Ph.D. (Chemistry), in collaboration with Alfaisal University, received a $26K grant to develop lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) using an integrated, advanced manufacturing framework for high-performance LSBs via 3D printing. The overarching goal is to establish scalable design and creation strategies for stable, high-energydensity LSBs with extended lifetimes. LSBs have the potential to store significantly higher amounts of energy compared to lithium-ion batteries but face inherent degradation issues that must be addressed.

Christopher Gough, Ph.D. (School of Life Sciences and Sustainability), was awarded a grant of $38K from the U.S. National Science Foundation. The grant will support efforts to characterize how increasingly frequent ice storms affect forest productivity and resilience. Ice damage substantially affects forests, causing major damage to local economies that amounts to billions of dollars annually for the forestry sector.

Sachi Shimomura, Ph.D. (English), was awarded $10K from the Modern Language Association of America to finish developing an Introduction to Health Humanities course with continued input from medical faculty, and design associated core curricula in the health humanities. These interdisciplinary studies cross arts and social sciences with medicine to prepare more well-rounded health professionals, which will aid career readiness for VCU undergraduates.

Victor Olesen, Ph.D. (Forensic Science), was awarded a $75K grant from Commonwealth Cyber Initiative. Olesen and DeepRunAI Labs are advancing a new software product, from proof of concept to commercial-ready, designed for offline or isolated digital forensic and incident response labs that collect and safeguard digital evidence and investigate cyberattacks and malicious online actions.

Amy Rector, Ph.D., (School of World Studies), and colleagues at the Ledi-Geraru Research Project in Ethiopia, using ancient teeth they previously discovered, have revealed a new species of Australopithecus that lived alongside early members of the Homo genus 2 million to 3 million years ago. “What we found during that time period are two different species living at the same time, potentially sharing space and time, evolving at the same time, really showing us that human evolution has been much more of this kind of bushy tree,” said Rector. The team’s next step is to analyze the teeth’s enamel to find out what the new species might have been eating millions of years ago.

Just Published

David Coogan, Ph.D. (English), published the “Cambridge Companion to American Prison Writing and Mass Incarceration,” which traces history through inmates’ eyes. From the onset of mass incarceration in the early 1970s to the 21st century, the collection brings together accounts from figures including political activist Assata Shakur, journalist Wilbert Rideau, and author and death row inmate Jarvis Jay Masters. Coogan also published “After Jail, Before Freedom,” a sequel to his book “Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs From Jail,” which tells the story of five men, joined together by their experience in a writing class at the Richmond City Jail, who get out of prison and try to stay out. 

Andrew Crislip, Ph.D. (History), published “Ascetic Passions: Emotion in Early Christianity,” which explores the emotional landscape of early Christianity, illuminating how emotion shaped Christian identity, community practices, and theological understanding. Crislip investigates five emotions in detail — joy, sadness, anger, disgust, and envy — revealing how they were understood, experienced, and expressed in the formative years of the Christian tradition.

Olivia Landry, Ph.D. (Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies), published “Cinema of Crushing Motherhood: A New Feminist Cinema,” which explores 21st-century films that put into focus the challenging realities of mothering.

Brook Newman, Ph.D. (History), published “The Crown’s Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery in the Americas,” which documents the untold truth behind the British royal family’s centuries-long involvement and investment in slavery. Newman was featured across American and British media, including the likes of The New Yorker, The Guardian, and the BBC. 

SJ Sindu, Ph.D. (English), published “Tall Water,” a graphic novel inspired by the 2004 tsunami that devastated her native Sri Lanka. Originally developed as a YA novel, Sindu pivoted to a graphic novel geared toward an older teen and adult audience to “unflinchingly” show both the beauty of her homeland and the devastation that the natural disaster wrought. 

Jessica Trisko Darden, Ph.D. (Political Science), published “The Accused: How Women Faced Justice for Nazi-Era Crimes,” an examination of hundreds of Nazi atrocity criminal cases, prosecuted in Germany and formerly Nazi-occupied countries, to understand what led women to commit war crimes — and the consequences they ultimately faced.

Devon Walker-Figueroa (English), published “Lazarus Species,” her second poetry collection, which explores themes that cover space and time. Her influences ranged from Sumerian and Babylonian myths to neuroscience, from historical figures to hydroelectric and aerospace technologies. The poems were drafted in classical forms and shaped by modern anxieties.