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

Recent appointments, presentations, publications, honors, exhibitions and grants include the following:

Appointments

Justin C. Wing, director of budget and strategy in the Library,  Museums and Press, has been appointed by Gov. Matt Meyer to serve on the Delaware Council on Libraries (COL), effective May 20, 2026. The council meets monthly to discuss library services and policies across the state, including setting library standards, overseeing construction projects and administering programs such as the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). This appointment provides the University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press with direct representation on the state's primary library policy body, strengthening UD’s connection to Delaware's statewide library ecosystem and ensuring academic library perspectives are included in state-level decision-making.

Presentations

Stephanie Smith Budhai, associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development's School of Education, participated in a webinar hosted by Harvard Education Press titled “Navigating AI in the Classroom: Risks, Opportunities and Practical Strategies for Teachers" on May 7, 2026. The webinar addressed how middle and high school teachers can use AI in their classrooms responsibly and how to develop a critical mindset when considering new AI tools on the market. Budhai specializes in technology, education and civic engagement across K-16 settings.

UD’s Center for Research in Education and Social Policy (CRESP), housed in CEHD, played a key role in a featured breakout session at the Navigating Delaware Pathways: An Education and Workforce Development Summit, sponsored by the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce on April 28, 2026. The session, titled “National Lessons: A System for Data‑Driven Decision‑Making,” featured LeAnn Fong‑Batkin, senior project manager for intersegmental data systems at WestEd Center for Economic Mobility, who shared national lessons from developing integrated education and workforce data systems, including California’s Cradle‑to‑Career Data System. CRESP staff members Nermin Zubaca, Gail Headley and Jeff Klein assisted with facilitation, helping connect national insights to Delaware’s ongoing efforts to build a modern, data‑driven education and workforce infrastructure. 

Several CEHD faculty members and students presented at the 2026 National Association for Research in Science Teaching annual conference from April 19–22, 2026, in Seattle, Washington. Participating CEHD students and alumni included Ariadni Kouzeli, Maisha Mouli, Rosa Mykyta-Chomsky, Subrina Niranjan, Tamara Turski and Faezeh Vahdat Nia. Participating CEHD faculty included Jennifer Gallo-Fox, associate professor in CEHD’s Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, and Zoubeida Dagher, professor in CEHD’s School of Education, as well as Tyler Van Buren, assistant professor in the College of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical Engineering:  

• Dagher, Z., Mouli, M., Gallo-Fox, J., Vahdat Nia, F. & VanBuren, T. “Beyond Building: Teacher Discourse and the Development of Elementary Students' Epistemic Engineering Practices.” 

• Mykyta-Chomsky, R., Gallo-Fox, J. & Mouli, M. “Early Childhood Preservice Educator Opportunities to Learn to Teach Science and Engineering During Undergraduate Field Placement Experiences.” 

• Gallo-Fox, J. & Mykyta-Chomsky, R., “Young Learners, Big Questions: Multiple Lenses for Understanding Early Science Education within a Single Program.” 

• Kouzeli, A. & Gallo-Fox, J. “Interdisciplinary science and creative arts instruction in a nature-based preschool classroom.” 

• Mouli, M., Niranjan, S., Gallo-Fox, J. & Kouzeli, A. “Splish, splash, squish, crack: Young children explore water concepts through play-based learning.” 

• Niranjan, S., Gallo-Fox, J., Mouli, M. & Kouzeli, A. “Engaging 2- and 3-year-olds in Science and Engineering: A Case-Study.” 

• Turski, T. “From Nature Walks to Bloomz Posts: How Preschool Educators Communicate about Science with Families.” 

Publications 

Margaret Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and professor of humanities, continues to merge the writing of poetry with the scholarly subjects that she researches and teaches. This spring, while she was offering her "Virginia Woolf's Queer Legacies" undergraduate course at UD, she had a poem published in a special issue on "The Future of Nonbinary" of Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies (the journal of the Cultural Studies Association of Australia). Her poem, "Orlando in Oxbridge: For Virginia Woolf," which was inspired by Woolf's novel Orlando (1928), appeared in Continuum, volume 40, issue 3 (2026), p. 509. In addition, her poem "1895," which refers to life in London at the time of Oscar Wilde's prosecution for "gross indecency," was published this spring in Yellow: A Hue Are You Anthology, edited by Virginia Barrett (San Francisco: Jambu Press, 2026),  p. 93.

Wendy Bellion, Sewell C. Biggs Chair in American Art History, and alumna Kristel Smentek (Ph.D. 2008), associate professor art history in the Department of Architecture at MIT, co-edited the spring 2026 edition of Journal18, A Journal of 18th-Century Art and Culture. The special issue is dedicated to late 18th-century Atlantic revolutions to align with the United States’ 2026 semiquincentennial. The issue includes articles by associate professor of history and art history Zara Anishanslin, ”Finding William Lee: A Black Founder in Early American Portraiture,” and alumna Emily C. Casey (Ph.D. 2017), “Revolution’s Ends: American War, Patriotism, and Culture in a Dilating 18th Century.” Casey is an assistant professor of American art and culture at the University of Kansas.

Dominique Baker, associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development’s School of Education and the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, published “Who Gets Guggenheims?” in Public Books. The analysis, which looks at 30,000 fellowship winners over a 101-year period, made extensive use of the holdings available through UD’s Morris Library. Baker’s research in educational policy focuses on student financial aid, admissions policies and other policies related to inclusive and equitable campus climates in higher education. 

Honors

Stephanie Raible, associate professor of entrepreneurship, has been selected for a Fulbright Specialist award to collaborate with the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) University in Ecuador on The Creative Livelihood Project. During a 19-day period in June, Raible will work with ESPOL faculty to co-design curriculum, lead a Creative Livelihood Bootcamp and mentor students developing launch-ready micro-enterprises and freelance brands. The project focuses on creative entrepreneurship, sustainable livelihoods and community-engaged program development. The Fulbright Specialist Program is a merit-based initiative of the U.S. Department of State that supports short-term international collaborations between U.S. faculty and global institutions through projects in curriculum development, faculty training and strategic planning. ESPOL selected Raible for her expertise in inclusive entrepreneurship, applied learning and social and cultural entrepreneurship. The collaboration also creates opportunities for future research partnerships and virtual international learning initiatives between UD and ESPOL.

Muhammad Hassan Shaikh, a doctoral candidate in physics in Chitraleema Chakraborty’s laboratory, has received a Silver Award from the Materials Research Society (MRS). These awards honor and encourage graduate students whose academic achievements and materials research demonstrate a high level of excellence and distinction. As part of the selection process, Shaikh presented his research at the 2026 MRS Spring Meeting in Honolulu. His presentation, titled "Probing interfacial magnetism with defect excitons," highlighted the lab’s work to develop an optical method for detecting the magnetic behavior of antiferromagnets, paving the way for advanced computing and quantum technologies. 

UD’s chapter of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA) was awarded gold chapter honors for the 2025-2026 academic year. This is the first time the group was recognized at the gold level and the second year in a row the chapter has received honors. The award highlights a distinguished level of achievement in the areas of member recruitment and engagement, community outreach and service, legislative advocacy and fundraising. Chapter President Alexa Stachel said the students led community outreach activities in Wilmington and Trabant University Center, held numerous events, participated in legislative advocacy activities focused on reducing student loan debt and joined UDance in fundraising efforts to fight childhood cancer and to support families affected by it. NSSLHA is the only national student organization for pre-professionals studying communication sciences and disorders (CSD) that is recognized by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). The organization supports more than 11,000 members at 350 chapters nationwide. UD was one of only 108 chapters in the country to receive honors this year.

Exhibitions