Westmont Magazine Faculty News
Scott Anderson (art) contributed an illustration to the October issue of Men’s Health for an article about the rising usage of pea-based protein. His illustration of the late designer Milton Glaser was selected for the American Illustration 40 annual book, the premiere juried competition of professional illustrators.
Martin Asher (economics and business) co-authored an article, “Losing the Forest for the Trees: On the Loss of Economic Efficiency and Equity in Federal Price-Fixing Class Actions,” which will appear in the winter edition of Virginia Law & Business Review. It details how defense economists and counsel have used statistical sleight-of-hand to persuade some courts to reject motions for class certification in nationwide price-fixing cases, effectively ending the litigation and allowing the alleged conspirators to retain their cartel profits. The article presents a proper method for courts to use in conducting a rigorous analysis on the issue of class certification.
Katherine Bryant (political science) attended the International Studies Association-West Conference in Pasadena, California, where she presented “Examining the Impact of Faith-Based Organizations in Development.” She also chaired two panels and served as a discussant. With two co-authors, Bryant published “Integrating the Use of Statistical Software into Undergraduate Political Methodology Courses” in PS: Political Science and Politics.
Kristi Lazar Cantrell (chemistry) and her collaborators published an article, “Catalytic Cross Talk between Key Peptide Fragments That Couple Alzheimer’s Disease with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,” in Journal of the American Chemical Society. Written in collaboration with research groups
at UCSB, the article includes work by Westmont students Grace Schonfeld ’21 and Ellen Trapp ‘21.
Stephen Contakes (chemistry) edited a popular book, “30-Second Biochemistry,” which seeks to explain 50 of the most important concepts in biochemistry to educated adults. It includes contributions by an international team featuring Westmont professors Kristi Cantrell, Stephen Contakes and Steve Julio.
Lisa De Boer (art history) recorded an hour-long session with Peter Bouteneff, a theologian at Saint Vladimer’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, on her book, “Visual Arts in the Worshiping Church,” for the podcast “Luminous: Conversations on Sacred Arts.”
Barbara DeVivo (economics and business) published an abstract of original research, “Secret sauce in collaborative tumor boards: Team-based characteristics that optimize tumor board functionality,” in the peer-reviewed journal for the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She also evaluated three manuscripts for the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management.
Daniel Gee (music) premiered his commissioned composition “Annunciation at the Scrovegni Chapel,” for oboe and marimba at the 2021 Lilly Fellows Program National Conference at the Church of St. Ignatius in Boston in honor of Mark Schwehn, founding director of the Lilly Fellows Program.
Adam Goodworth (kinesiology) published two articles in the Journal of Neurophysiology: “Postural mechanisms in moderate-to-severe cerebral palsy” relates to trunk postural control in children with severe cerebral palsy; and “The role of vestibular cues in postural sway” describes how vestibular thresholds relate to standing balance.
Brandon Haines (chemistry) co- authored an article published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, “Light Directs Monomer Coordination in Catalyst-Free Grignard Photopolymerization,” with professors at Northwestern University.
Jonathan Hicks (theater) and Danielle Draper ’16 designed lights for “OH, THANK YOU!” by Diana Small ’09 starring alums Heather Ostberg-Johnson ’11, Marie Ponce-DeLeon ’10 and Paige Tautz ’14 at the Community Arts Workshop managed by Casey Caldwell ’08. Hicks was elected treasurer for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 442 to fill out his work as secretary-treasurer and a member of the board of trustees. His relationship with the Local strengthens both professional and educational opportunities for Westmont’s theatre arts and film programs as students gain experience working behind the scenes in the tri- county arts and entertainment industries.
Nathan Huff (art) presents a second solo exhibition with Sullivan Goss Gallery, “Almost Here,” which runs through December 27. The show features new paintings and sculptures that explore the thresholds between interior and exterior spaces.
David Hunter (mathematics) and Chisondi Warioba ’21 published an article, “Segregation Surfaces” in the June 2021 issue of Mathematics Magazine. The paper develops new measurements and geometric techniques for analyzing segregation patterns applied to U.S. census data. The fourth edition of Hunter’s textbook, “Essentials of Discrete Mathematics,” features 60 new activities designed to facilitate inquiry-based learning.
Dan Jensen (engineering) co- authored a paper, “Health and Safety Innovations to Reduce the Spread of Contagious Disease,” for the IEEE 2021 International Symposium on Technologies for Homeland Security (HST) in November 2021.
Heather Keaney (history) published a book, “’Uthman ibn ‘Affan: Legend or Liability,” as part of the “Makers of the Muslim World” series with One World Academic. Fred Donner at the University of Chicago describes it as “an outstanding introduction to Islam’s nagging sectarian divisions and political thought.” The podcast “New Books Network” interviewed her about the book.
Blake Victor Kent (sociology) has co- authored six publications: “Resource Loss and Suffering During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Moderating Effects of Positive Religious Coping in a Prospective Sample of U.S. Adults with Chronic Illness” in Mental Health, Religion, & Culture; “Attachment to God and Psychological Distress: Evidence of a Curvilinear Relationship” in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion; “The Association between Religion, Spirituality, and Salivary Rhythms of Cortisol and DHEA in Postmenopausal Women” in Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology; “The R|S Atlas: Accelerating Epidemiological Research on the Influence of Religion and Spirituality on Human Health” in BMJ Open; “Stress and Spirituality in Relation to HPA Axis Gene Methylation among Black Women: Results from the BWHS and SSSH” in Epigenomics; and “R|S Atlas: Identifying Existing Cohort Study Data Resources to Accelerate Epidemiological Research on the Influence of Religion and Spirituality
on Human Health,” which involves the creation of a query tool that can be used to identify religion and spirituality variables in 20 major U. S. cohort studies.
Chandra Mallampalli (history) has been appointed Yang Visiting Scholar of World Christianity at Harvard Divinity School. He’s based in Boston this year, where he teaches two courses at Harvard and is completing his book “South Asia’s Christians: Between Hindu and Muslim.”
Mark Nelson (philosophy) presented a paper, “The Argument from Evil and ‘l’Esprit de l’Escalier” at the conference Dieu et la Morale at Aix-Marseille Université in October.
Caryn Reeder (religious studies) published an article, “Mary’s Sword: Women and War in the Gospel of Luke,” in Catholic Biblical Quarterly. She contributed a chapter, “Insiders and Outsiders: Community Violence in Deuteronomy,” to the Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew Bible and Ethics.
Steve Rogers (psychology) and students in his neuropsychology lab made multiple presentations at the 2021 annual conventions of the International Neuropsychology Society and American Psychological Association. Their projects examined the impact of anxiety on the processing speed of those with Parkinson’s disease (PD), the role of disinhibition on cognition among those with frontotemporal dementia and the way punctuality predicts degree of attention among those with PD.
Amanda Sparkman (biology) led a Bat Night Out with a maxed out crowd on campus October 22 to detect bat echolocation signals and identify bat species.
Lesa Stern (communication studies) and Kyle Mayl ’21 presented their research paper, “A Hopeful Intervention: Increasing Hope Through Discourse” at the Carolina Communication Conference in September. This research demonstrates that hope theory increases agency in students.
The Lilly Network Exchange Program for 2022 selected Cynthia Toms (kinesiology) as one of the faculty participants, who share distinctive signature projects, institutes or curricula highlighting the Christian character of their institutions and learn from each other. Toms also received a grant from the American Immigration Council and the Christian Council for Colleges and Universities for her project “Neighbors at the Table: Food as Memory and Mutuality.”
David Vander Laan (philosophy) presented three papers: “Coherence in a Life of Everlasting Growth” at the Midwest Regional Meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers; “There is No Highest Attainable Good” at the Princeton/Rutgers Philosophy of Religion Incubator Conference; and “Must Everlasting Progress Be Unsatisfying?” at the 2021 Mountain/Pacific Division Meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers.
Maryke van der Walt (mathematics) and her co-authors published a paper, “A Function Approximation Approach to the Prediction of Blood Glucose Levels,” in Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics in August 2021.
Sameer Yadav (religious studies) appeared on a panel on evangelicalism and race at the American Philosophical Association’s annual meeting and was featured in a podcast with Yale’s Center for Faith and Culture regarding his work on mysticism and social action. He was also selected for a summer colloquium funded by the Templeton Foundation, “Science Engaged Theology,” on causation and explanation in the philosophy of science to support his research on the nature of social causation involved in forming group identity and its implications for a doctrine of the church.