In Memoriam
Matilde (“Mati”) Moros, Ph.D.
Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies
Matilde “Mati” Moros, Ph.D., was a talented teacher, scholar and activist. A social ethicist working in the field of gender, sexuality and women’s studies, Moros joined the College of Humanities and Sciences in 2015. She brought an interdisciplinary approach to her teaching, and through her decolonial feminist pedagogy, she emphasized that students’ lived experiences play a central role in facilitating individual and collective learning in the classroom.
Moros also worked diligently to mentor and encourage newer colleagues, seeing and nurturing the strengths in others. She was a person of incredible warmth, humor and kindness – one who made a tremendous impact on her students and colleagues here at VCU and far beyond.
Erich Damm, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
A passionate scientist and inspiring teacher, Erich Damm, Ph.D., was beloved by his colleagues, students and the VCU community. He joined VCU in 2019 and taught courses in stem cell biology and virology. He was also a dedicated researcher who investigated the role that specific genes play in zebrafish development and blood stem cell generation. His work was published in Nature Cell Biology, The Journal of Cell Biology, and The Journal of Cell Science, among others. Along the way, Erich mentored many undergraduate and graduate students, not just in the classroom, but in his lab. His loss was also felt on the MCV campus, as Erich was also a member of Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Before joining VCU, Erich was a postdoctoral research associate at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital for five years. He was also the recipient of the National Institute of Health’s Pathway to Independence Award, an award for highly promising postdoctoral scientists.
Read more about Erich Damm’s impact on his students.
David Golumbia, Ph.D.
Department of English
David Golumbia, Ph.D., was a distinguished scholar and educator whose influence reached far and wide within the academic community. He joined VCU’s Department of English in 2010 and was an expert on cyberlibertarianism, bitcoin, blockchain and the logic of computing. He was the author of “The Cultural Logic of Computation” (Harvard University Press, 2009) and “The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism” (University Of Minnesota Press, 2016). Golumbia’s final book, “Cyberlibertarianism: The Right-Wing Politics of Digital Technology,” will be published by the University of Minnesota Press in November 2024.
He was a substantial contributor to both the Department of English and a foundational member of the faculty contributing to the Media, Art and Text program, as well as a tireless and vocal advocate for faculty self-governance and faculty rights at VCU.