Wren Bareiss (Communication) was interviewed on the New Books Network podcast in July about the book he co-edited and contributed to, “Suicide in Popular Media and Culture: Studies in Framing a Social Catastrophe.”
Kara Davis (Human Performance and Health) presented “Missing Person Behavior: An Analytical Approach to Locating Missing Persons” at the Upstate Cold Case Coalition meeting. Her presentation focused on using behavioral patterns and available data to support missing-person search efforts.
Shirleatha Dunlap (Dean, Nursing) was elected to serve as chief nurse administrator on the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education board of commissioners.
Ona Egbue (ETM) and Mian Qian (Computer Science) received the American Society for Engineering Management’s 2026 Merritt Williamson Award for Best International Annual Conference Paper for “AI-based Cyber Incident Detection and Response Framework for Smart Grids.” The award will be presented at ASEM’s International annual conference in Madison, Wisconsin, in October. Egbue also is serving as the inaugural El Centro Public Scholar Faculty Fellow at Upstate this academic year.
Greta Freeman (Education) presented a session titled “Bridging the Gap Between Nomophobic Student Behavior and Professor Support” at the International Teaching and Learning Cooperative Lilly Conference in Asheville, North Carolina.
Charles Harrington (Interdisciplinary Studies) published “Native American Leadership Practices in Contemporary Perspective: Toward a Relational, Ethical, and Intergenerational Paradigm of Leadership” in the International Journal of Leadership and Innovative Management. He also published “The Transformative Potential of Artificial Intelligence in Interdisciplinary Studies Curriculum and Programs” in the International Journal of the Humanities.
Carmen Harris (History) has written the chapter “Visible, Yet Invisible: The South Carolina Negro Extension Service” in an upcoming book about the African American experience at Clemson. She is also serving as an external program reviewer at Arkansas State University.
Araceli Hernández-Laroche (Modern Languages) and El Centro Public Scholar students co-presented on civic leadership at the Southeastern Immigration Studies Association (SEISA) Conference at UNC Charlotte in April 2026. She was also featured on the cover of the September 2026 issue of Spartanburg Living, where she reflected on her multilingual family heritage and academic ties to France.
Jingyun Hu (Business Analytics) presented “The Trainer’s Dilemma: Operational Investment and Competitive Subsidization in Generative AI Platforms” at AMCIS 2026. She also has two papers that have been accepted for forthcoming publication: “Hero Products and the Value of Position in Live Streaming Commerce: Evidence from Douyin” in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services; and “When Building Is Cheap, Teach Them What to Build” in Faculty Focus.
Carol Hughes (Business & Economics) received two honors recognizing her leadership and service. She was awarded the American Accounting Association’s TYC Section Outstanding Educator Award at the AAA’s annual Global Connect Conference in Las Vegas in August. She was also awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine by North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein. The award is North Carolina’s highest civilian honor and recognizes exemplary service, achievements, and contributions to the state and its communities.
Colby King (Sociology) co-authored the chapter “Empowering diverse learners in sociology classrooms in the United States” in the book “Teaching Introduction to Sociology.”
Benjamin McCraw (Philosophy) co-edited the book “The Heaviest Ideas in the Universe: A Philosophy of Heavy Metal,” which was published this summer.
Maria Francisco-Montesó (Spanish) received the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Excellence in Teaching and Advising Award for 2025-2026 and was promoted to principal instructor of Spanish.
Rebecca Mueller (Education) published “Scratching the surface: Examining the influence of state standards on a teacher’s enactment of inquiry” in Social Studies Teaching & Learning.
Andrew Myers (American Studies) published the article “What Did He See? The Early Life and Military Career of T/4 Isaac Woodard” in the Winter 2026 issue of Army History. The article also was featured on the site “Line of Departure: Connecting U.S. Army Professionals to the Best Professional Writing.”
Lee Neibert (Theater) played the role of Capt. Matthew Markison in Centre Stage’s (Greenville, South Carolina) production of “A Few Good Men” by Aaron Sorkin in May.
Bernard Omolo (Mathematics) co-authored “Spatiotemporal antimalarial drug resistance saturation and emerging artemisinin tolerance in Western Kenya during a pilot multiple first-line treatment study” in Scientific Reports. He also co-authored “Integrating GOF tests and cross validation for copula model selection” in Scientific African.
Gimantha Perera (Industrial Engineering), Ona Egbue (ETM), Polinho Katina (AMM), Jeannie Chapman (Dean, College of Science and Technology) and Don Bent (Executive in Residence) co-authored “Building an Industrial Engineering Program Through Industry-Embedded Learning: The Upstate Experience,” published at the 2026 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition in June. Perera also co-authored “Sustaining Industry-Embedded Laboratories: A Case Study of The Upstate Experience,” which was also published for the conference.
Laura Rikard (Theater) spoke to the American Alliance for Theatre Education on “Consent in the Acting Classroom.” She also was voted secretary for the Association of Theatre in Higher Education.
Josh Ruppel (Chemistry) helped secure grant funding for the ER(Up)T Summer Research Program from the NSF-funded South Carolina Collaborative Academic Pathways in STEM (SC-CAPS) project. USC Upstate will receive more than $500,000 over the four-year grant period to expand the program to additional STEM fields.
Nolan Stolz (Music) presented “Improving Aural Skills Using Solfege Pairs, Interval Names, and ‘The Interval Chart’” at the MACRO Music Theory Pedagogy Workshop in Madison, Wisconsin. He also screened his music-film “Standing Waves” at several film festivals this summer, most notably at The North Film Festival in Midtown Manhattan.
John Strandholm (Economics) presented a paper titled “Idle Abatement Capacity: Usage Costs and the Design of Emission Fees” at the World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists 2026 in Cascais, Portugal.
Justin Travis (Psychology) co-presented “A Unified Leadership Perceptions Model” at the 41st annual Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology conference in April in New Orleans.
Refika Turgut (Education) co-authored the chapter “Seeing Science through an AI Lens: Integrating AI Literacy into Elementary Science Classrooms” in Innovate to Illuminate: Rethinking Elementary Science Instruction. She also co-authored “Unpacking the Sources of Computer Science Teaching Efficacy in In-Service Elementary Teachers” in the journal Computer Science Education.
Ginny Webb (Biology) and Kathleen Ferris (Biology), along with students Angel McJunkin and Molly Parker, co-authored “The Effect of Food Delivery on Microbial Load and Presence of Escherichia coli in Ground Beef” in the journal Hygiene.
Ugena Whitlock (Education) presented “Tasting Home: Food, Memory, and the Uneasy Work of Aging” at the 2026 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies. Her chapter, “There Ain’t No Sugar in Cornbread: Food and the Veil of Nostalgia in Southern Place,” was published this year in the book “Culinary Canvas: A Series on Integrating the Arts and Food into Higher Education.”
