For the Record provides information about recent professional activities of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Recent media and presentations include the following:

Media

Doctoral alumna Ai Hisano was the subject of an interview in The Atlantic about her research concerning the use of dye in American food. In the article, “Americans’ Bizarre Relationship with the Color of Their Food,” Hisano discusses how, starting in the early 19th century, businesses began using artificial coloring as a way to market food products.

Earlier this year, Hisano won the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools’ dissertation award for her doctoral research on the use of color by the food industry. Now the postdoctoral Harvard-Newcomen Fellow in Business History at the Harvard Business School, Hisano earned her Ph.D. in history at UD in 2016.

Presentations

William A. Sullivan, managing director of Marriott’s Courtyard Newark at the University of Delaware campus hotel, has been selected to deliver the keynote commencement address to graduates of the Hospitality School of Delaware. The Hospitality School is a nonprofit organization that provides workforce development and job placement assistance in culinary arts and hospitality training for adults who have faced barriers to long-term successful employment. The ultimate goal of the program is to get students to achieve inner personal growth, move from dependence to independence, reinforce personal life changes, change thinking and behavior, which then leads to the ability to gain valuable employment.

A team from the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies presented a project designed to improve sustainability and reduce textile waste at the TechConnect World Innovation Conference and Expo in Washington, D.C., this week. Faculty members Kelly Cobb and Huantian Cao and graduate students Elizabeth Davelaar, Cara Tortorice, Bai Li and Ahmed Sabab Sharek proposed the use of 3-D technology to enable the apparel industry to create virtual prototypes instead of physical samples that are often discarded. Textile waste represents about 5.7 percent of total municipal waste in the U.S., the group said. More information about the project is available here.

Students in the capstone Policy Studio course for the urban affairs and public policy master’s degree program this semester explored possible opportunities to expand youth participation in Wilmington (Delaware) city government. Working with Nina David, assistant professor of public policy and administration, Madison Helmick and Rebecca McColl conducted research and made recommendations to the city, including surveying young people to determine their perspectives on policymaking, training staff members on youth involvement, adding young people to boards and commissions and implementing a youth internship effort. The students presented their findings this week to City Council President Hanifa Shabazz.

To submit information for inclusion in For the Record, write to publicaffairs@udel.edu.