Faculty Accomplishments

Andy Furman, professor of English, has a new book titled "Bitten, My Unexpected Love Affair With Florida." The book is about living in South Florida. NPR Radio interviewed Furman about the book. You can listen in at http://wlrn.org/post/unexpected-love-affair-florida">wlrn.org/post/unexpected-love-affair-florida

Lisa Swanstrom, assistant professor of English, was part of a research team that got an NEH Start-up Grant from the Office of Digital Humanities (ODH). The project is called CELL: a Search Engine for Electronic Literature.

Robert Rabil, professor of political science, has written a book titled "Salafism in Lebanon: From Apoliticism to Transnational Jihadism," in which he examines the emergence and development of Salafism into a prominent religious movement in Lebanon. Drawing on field research trips, personal interviews, and Arabic primary sources, the book explores the relationship between the ideologies of the various schools of Salafism and their praxis in relation to Lebanese politics. Rabil's book will be published in September 2014, at which time he will present it at Harvard University.

Kevin Wagner's (associate professor of political science) latest book, "Tweeting to Power," coauthored with Jason Gainous of the University of Louisville, provides an analysis of the effect of online social media on how people come to learn, understand and engage in politics. The book includes trends in a dataset comprising tweets from members of Congress during the 2010 Presidential campaign.

A paper co-authored by Mirya Holman, assistant professor of political science, has been selected as the Best Paper for the Women and Politics section of the "American Political Science Association." The paper, titled "Power, Conflict, and Community: How Gendered Views of Political Power Influence Women's Political Ambition" is an evaluation of the role that perceptions of political careers play in political ambition, particularly women's political ambition

Mehmet Gurses, associate professor of political science, has co-edited a book titled "Conflict, Democratization, and the Kurds in the Middle East: Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria." The volume contains a collection of essays from many of the most accomplished scholars from Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States working on the Kurdish issue and questions of democratization.

Patricia Widener, associate professor of sociology, recently returned from a sabbatical in New Zealand where she studied how New Zealanders were responding to new oil proposals, both offshore and fracking. This research complements her book titled "Oil Injustice," which examines how oil-impacted communities and their transnational allies mobilized in response to the construction of an oil project in Ecuador.

Michael Zager, Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Performing Arts, is producing an album titled, "Broadway Composers and Lyricists Sing Their Songs." The album consists of Tony Award-winning composers and lyricists singing their songs with only a piano accompaniment. To date, he has recorded Charles Strouse (Annie, Applause and Bye Bye Birdie), Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin and Godspell), Sheldon Harnick (Fiddle on the Roof and Fiorello), Stephen Lutvak (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder-winner of the Best Musical Tony Award 2014), Jason Robert Brown (The Bridges of Madison County-Tony Award for Best Composer and Best Orchestrations 2014) and Adam Guettel (The Light in the Piazza).

Josephine Beoku-Betts, professor, Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, received the 2015 SWS Feminist Activism Award from Sociologists for Women in Society, recognizing her "contributions to feminist activism and her consistent use of sociology to better the lives of women."

Kyle Prescott, associate professor of music, received an Award for Excellence and Innovation in Undergraduate Teaching at the 2014 FAU Honors Convocation.