Ibtesam Al Atiyat, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
During my fall 2024 sabbatical, I plan to research anti-feminist and anti-gender mobilizations in Palestine. This study will explore their distinct local characteristics within a broader transnational context. I argue that despite unique triggers, such as the increasing visibility of LGBTQI+ rights advocacy and activism against gender-based violence, these mobilizations share striking similarities with global counterparts. They consistently vilify feminism, advocate for the erosion of women’s rights, and frame gender equality as a threat to cultural values like human nature, family unity, idealized parenthood, divine order, and cultural identity. Notably, they strategically use content from far-right groups in the US, often overlooking associated racism and Islamophobia. My research aims to understand the effectiveness of their discourse, sources of support, and the social, economic, and political anxieties they exploit. To achieve this, I will conduct virtual interviews with Palestinian activists and analyze anti-feminist and anti-gender online content.
Francesca Anderegg, Associate Professor of Music
I have a long career track record of being an active performing musician. During the upcoming sabbatical, in addition to the usual performances, I will conduct research toward the eventual production of two works – one pedagogical article, and a book of arrangements. My research project involves geometrical and trigonometric concepts that are inherent in violin technique, but are not articulated in the pedagogical literature or practices. Articulating and building awareness of these concepts can enhance and refine both pedagogy and individual mastery of stringed instrument technique. I will also engage with and build upon my multi-year collaboration with Brazilian pianist Erika Ribeiro. We will notate and publish violin-piano arrangements of the Brazilian jazz pieces that we have created and recorded for Naxos Records. Publishing these with permission of the composers would be a unique addition to the violin/piano repertoire. Erika and I have also been invited to perform in Brazil at the Sala Cecilia Meireles, the most important concert hall in Rio de Janeiro, and conduct a performance and teaching residency in Sao Paulo through the non-profit agency SESC. These public-facing events will give us the opportunity to present our work.
Lisa Bowers, Associate Professor of Biology
I study cell development and nutrient uptake in the environmental bacterium, Caulobacter crescentus. My recent work with St. Olaf students has uncovered a novel genetic pathway regulating stalk development in Caulobacter. The first part of my sabbatical will focus on analyzing data from RNA sequencing experiments and using this preliminary data as the basis for writing a grant proposal to be submitted to the National Institutes of Health during the sabbatical. The rest of my sabbatical work will focus on writing three manuscripts for publication. Two are from my research lab and a third manuscript will describe a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience that I have developed for my Microbiology class where students design and carry out authentic research experiments to understand Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm formation. These projects will further my professional development in terms of publication record, seeking grant funding, and creating novel authentic research experiences for my students.
David Carter, Professor of Music
I propose to strengthen my skills as a jazz improviser and a performer on the viola da gamba, and to spend considerable time reading and researching materials that deal with diversity and inclusion specifically in music performance, the music industry, and the musical consumers of the 20th century.
Sian Christie, Entrepreneur in Residence
Reflective practices are crucial for learning and they are especially important in the experiential learning environment (Perry, 2012) such as internships and study abroad. Previous CURI research (2017-18 & 2019-2020) found that entrepreneurial thinking complements reflective thinking. That is, entrepreneurial thinking is the next step to reflection on off-campus study programs. Through working with a host institution as a Fulbright specialist I will identify entrepreneurial skills and/or mindsets that promote collaborative problem solving. I also intend to look at the systems that support creativity and innovation in the country where I am hosted such as: Universities, Innovation Councils, Government agencies, Incubators, Venture Capitalists and local entrepreneurs. It will be enlightening to compare these resources with the support systems in other countries.
Menevis Cilizoglu, Associate Professor of Political Science
I will undertake two research projects during my semester-long sabbatical. The first, in collaboration with Colin Harris (Economics), examines when the United States Congress imposes sanctions on foreign countries. Our focus is on how media coverage impacts Congressional decision-making to adopt sanctions bills. We hypothesize that negative media coverage of a target country prior to Congressional deliberations increases the likelihood of sanctions impositions, and these sanctions are likely to be more comprehensive. To test our hypothesis, we use text analysis. My second project investigates the effectiveness of donor states in securing policy concessions through foreign aid. We hypothesize that a negative recipient-country perception of the donor can backfire and fail to create public demand for policy concessions. Conversely, when the recipient country views the donor favorably, it becomes more amenable to policy concessions. To test our hypothesis, we will conduct survey experiments in Turkey and Poland.
James Demas, Associate Professor of Biology and Physics
Many animals can sense the Earth’s magnetic field and use it to orient and navigate, critical behaviors for finding food, breeding sites, and shelter. Despite the prevalence and obvious importance of the magnetic compass, its location within the nervous system and the mechanism it uses to measure magnetic fields are not understood. The leading hypothesis is that the magnetic compass is located in the retina, but there is no direct physiological evidence to support this claim. By studying neural responses in the retina while varying magnetic field orientations, my research aims to determine whether or not the compass is located in the retina. If it is located in the retina, I will use this experimental strategy to probe the underlying mechanism behind the retinal magnetic compasses. This research is valuable because the magnetic compass is poorly understood and also because electromagnetic pollution from human activity disrupts the magnetic compass.
Dana Gross, Professor of Psychology
I plan to complete three projects. 1) I will build on my previous experiences with community-engaged research and apply my scholarly knowledge to ongoing social change efforts in Rice County to support children from birth to age 5 years. The most significant impact of the project on my professional competence will be the opportunity to create a foundation for sustainable, community-engaged child development research, involving community members and other stakeholders in all steps of the research process. 2) I will complete the process of revising the 4th edition of my infancy textbook and prepare updated versions of pedagogical materials and supplements. I will promote my book by attending and giving presentations at professional conferences. 3) I will gather information and explore the potential for my new Interim course, Gender Equality in Norway, to count for the Ole Experience in Practice requirement in the OLE Core.
Anne M Gothmann, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Physics
The composition of fossil coral skeletons can be used to understand past natural fluctuations in climate and to contextualize modern environmental change. We call the compositional indicators in coral skeletons that track environmental change ‘proxies’. The most common coral proxies are derived from analyses of the mineral part of coral skeletons. However, for decades, it has been known that coral skeletons also contain ~1% by weight of water. This water has never been visualized in situ. The gap in our understanding of where coral skeletons archive water limits the ability to leverage water in corals as an environmental proxy. To address this gap, I will use my sabbatical to answer the question: where does water exist in coral skeletons?, using cutting edge nanometer scale compositional imaging techniques and isotope labeling experiments. I will also submit manuscripts for publication that discuss the results of ongoing research projects in my lab.
Olaf Hall-Holt, Associate Professor of Computer Science
My research is in the area of designing computational tools for use in early mathematics education, including kindergarten and first grade. We design and develop tools to catalyze the development of a deep conceptual foundation for arithmetic and algebra. We value cross-cultural, distributed approaches to teaching and learning that are useful on multiple continents. The tools we design are both physical (e.g. built by slicing on a laser cutter and 3D printing) and virtual (custom apps for tablets and smartphones). We intend for these tools to always be free, for the benefit of children and teachers everywhere. I intend to continue work on this research at Ashesi University in Ghana, West Africa, where I will also be teaching computer science courses.
Colin Harris, Tomson Family Associate Professor of Economics
This project will explore the relationship between media narratives, public sentiment, and legislative action related to crime and policing across the United States. By leveraging a unique dataset comprised of text data from news articles, television transcripts, Congressional records, and local government meetings, I will investigate how media coverage of crime and public safety, police and police misconduct, and the varying narratives about racial, economic, and immigrant subgroups, collectively shapes public opinion and influences legislative action on crime and policing policy, including ‘three-strikes’ laws, ‘tough on crime’ initiatives, mandatory minimum sentencing, and voting rights for those formerly incarcerated.
Kyle C Helms, Associate Professor of Classics
Between the 12th and 14th centuries, a rich body of Latin hagiographic literature grew up around the veneration of three royal martyrs from Scandinavia: Saint Olaf of Norway, Saint Cnut of Denmark, and Saint Erik of Sweden. These were secular kings who died violent deaths—seemingly unlikely candidates for Christian sanctity—but they became venerated in medieval Scandinavia and beyond. The Latin legends and miracle collections of these saints are central for understanding religion in medieval Scandinavia, its intersections with politics and society, and early Scandinavian literature—but the central works remain dispersed and difficult to access. During my sabbatical leave, I will translate three Latin hagiographies of St. Olaf and St. Cnut, as part of my book project, Royal Martyrs of Scandinavia: Saints and Miracles in the Medieval North, which collects the central texts in this tradition and makes them available together in English for the first time.
Ashley Hodgson, Frank Gery Associate Professor of Economics
I am writing a book titled The New Enlightenment: Paradigm Shifts in Economics, Governance and Epistemics. There has been depreciation in some of the economic structures and institutions that underpin the economy, and the advent of the digital economy has sped up some of these problems. This depreciation is partly due to power-to-the-powerful forces that are natural in many types of systems, including both ecological systems and economic systems. Digital tools relating to blockchain technology and artificial intelligence could either feed into existing problems, or fix them, depending on how we wield those tools. Therefore, we need paradigm shifts in all three interconnected realms: economics, governance and epistemics. My book will lay out the necessary paradigm shifts using game theory, institutional economics, evolutionary economics and systems analysis.
Kiara Jorgenson, Associate Professor of Religion and Environmental Studies
Confidence in human ability to steward Earth is waning. Sobering data suggests time is running >out; we must resolve to mitigate the inevitable. This shift in collective consciousness has led religion and ecology scholars to critically reflect upon methods and impacts within the field. My current book project, Transversals: God and Materiality in the Anthropocene considers how ecotheology contributes to humanism’s urgent work of meaning-making in this new planetary era. My sabbatical project practically unpacks theocentric concepts of God as they relate to how humans view and understand themselves within “nature.” Three chapters of the book will be drafted during the sabbatical period: one on humans and minerality, another on microbes and humans as adamah (dirt), and a third on humanity’s deep kinship with animals. Together the chapters distinguish theocentric theologies from anthropocentrisms of old and demonstrate how generative concepts of materiality can inform eco-ethical insights on being human today.
Rehanna L Kheshgi, Associate Professor of Music
I plan to deepen relationships with Somali research collaborators in Minnesota while also engaging with new disciplinary fields: Indian Ocean studies, African/diaspora studies, Islamic studies, refugee/forced migration studies, and music education for students with limited/interrupted formal education. I will participate in Community-Engaged Scholarship Writing Retreats and prepare an article for publication. The sabbatical will allow me to dig deeper into a research project I’ve recently begun exploring through my teaching, thus enhancing the bond between my pedagogy and scholarship. I will sometimes position myself as a student, learning language and musical performance techniques from experts, and other times position myself as a music researcher, honing my observational skills in this new ethnographic context of Somali culture and performance, both in the US and in East Africa. I will make progress on a project that benefits our neighbors as well as our students—one that I find personally meaningful.
Karil Kucera, Professor of Art and Art History & Asian Studies
Building upon my previous sabbatical’s work, this project explores gender and sacred sites with a focus on pilgrimage. The three areas chosen as case studies are those associated with Hindu Shakti goddess worship in India, indigenous goddess worship of the Lady of the Realm in Vietnam, and female practitioners’ interactions with the Buddhist sites of Koyasan and Muroji in Japan. If funded, I plan to visit each country for a one month period within June 2024 – July 2025 in order to document the sites through various media. This will then form the core section on gender and sacred sites in the open-access digital textbook I am currently writing, Sacred Sites of Asia: New Approaches. This work will be the first of its kind in both Asian studies and art history. It is hoped that connections made with colleagues during my research will help in adding to the textbook going forward.
Elizabeth Leer, Professor of Education
During my sabbatical I intend to learn from teachers who are embracing artificial intelligence (AI) as an educational tool in secondary school English/language arts classrooms. Through classroom observations, interviews, survey data, literature review, and my own exploration of AI applications, I will study the use of AI in middle and high school literature and writing courses, identifying both ideas for promising practice and pitfalls to avoid. Based on the data, I will develop ways to include AI productively into my own St. Olaf courses, both to enhance my teaching and to model best practices for my students, particularly my English education students. Further, I intend to serve as a resource for teachers and colleagues struggling to live successfully with this new technology.
Jeremy Loebach, Associate Professor of Psychology
Our ability to hear is not purely audiological, but rather is an ability that relies on the entire cognitive network dedicated to auditory processing. Much of the focus of research in the Speech and Hearing Sciences has been on finding and treating the source of hearing loss. Indeed, the broader cognitive systems that process the lower level auditory inputs are often overlooked. Similarly, in the broader disciplines of Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience, little attention has been paid to general auditory cognition, with studies favoring the higher level systems for spoken language. Auditory cognitive abilities are important to study as they undergird a variety of domains such as first language acquisition, second language learning, musical performance, adapting to new environments, tolerance to speech in noise, sound localization and navigation. Auditory cognitive abilities may also play an important role in developing coping strategies to stave off the effects of hearing loss as well as in adapting to assistive hearing devices or cochlear implants. Despite this, little is known about auditory cognitive processes that lie in between audibility and language. The goal of this project is to rectify these omissions.
Anthony Lott, Associate Professor of Political Science
This project explores ways to expand community-level explosive ordnance training in areas of the world afflicted by the presence of landmines and other unexploded ordinances left in the ground after armed conflicts. Finding ways to include community members in educating family, friends, and other members of their community in standard safety protocols has proven to both improve human security in these areas and empower local voices in communities often fractured by war. Working with members of the mine-clearance community, I will be collaborating on the production of and dissemination of explosive ordnance training materials.
Justin Merritt, Professor of Music
I will compose a new work for the St. Olaf band to be premiered in the 2025-26 season. The work will be a multi-movement piece called Dangerous Creatures that is a sister piece to Saint-Saëns Carnival of Animals . Rather than Saint-Saëns’ swans, tortoises, and fish, this piece will include killer bees, pterodactyls, and Deathstalker scorpions. In addition, I will do research into the capabilities and limitations of AI-generated music. The focus will be on evaluating how machine learning algorithms can replicate or augment human creativity in composing music across different genres. The research will involve both theoretical study and practical experiments, including collaborations with musicians and programmers.
Jonathan O’Conner, Associate Professor of Spanish
During my sabbatical, I will work on four pending projects. Several elements further work in new areas of inquiry I have developed while at St. Olaf College in order to support curricular >development in the Spanish program. This includes publications and presentations related to the workshops and process I developed for the revision of our third-semester Spanish course, as well as the development of a new fifth-semester course on gender and race in Latin America. I will also work on an article analyzing themes of multiculturalism, migration, and feminism in Spain as they manifest in Najat El Hachmi’s novel, La hija extranjera. A fourth project stems from previous work on 16th-century translations from Italian into Spanish that has received recognition in recent years by scholars in Europe working on related topics. The group will convene in Madrid to share presentations and develop publications that highlight and contextualize the surge in translations into Spanish during this period.
Jason J Ripley, Associate Professor of Religion
This sabbatical is devoted to two in-depth research projects. The first involves a complete re-visioning/rewriting of my dissertation (“Behold the Lamb of God!” Johannine Christology and the Martyrdoms of Isaac.) I will reframe the methodological lenses shaping the project, expanding beyond the primarily Jewish-contextual references to include Roman imperial pressures and the complex Jewish responses to it, of which the Gospel of John provides a particular viewpoint in these complex dialogues and debates. The second book-length explores the influence of the Greek literary portraits of Socrates on the Gospel of John’s portrait of Jesus. I will argue that the Gospel of John adopts and adapts the Greco-Roman genre of noble death, which begins with Plato (Apology, Phaedo), and continues with Plutarch (Life of Cato), Tacitus (Annals), and Petronius (Satyricon). The final chapters will explore how John “bends” this genre and what the social implications of this bending entail.
Paul Roback, Professor of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science
My sabbatical proposal involves three key components: working on a second edition of my Beyond Multiple Linear Regression (BMLR) textbook, expanding St. Olaf’s Statistics and Data Science (SDS) curriculum through a Data Science 2 course and a course in Applied Bayesian Modeling, and serving on the Development Committee for the AP Statistics exam. A new edition of the BMLR textbook should give St. Olaf students (and students and practitioners elsewhere) a better experience learning these useful methods not often seen in undergraduate curricula. In addition, by improving Data Science 2 and developing an applied Bayesian modeling course, we will provide cutting-edge courses for our students and ensure that St. Olaf remains a leader in national conversations about SDS curricula. Finally, by helping develop AP Statistics exams, we will understand our incoming students better while also having a small opportunity to shape that course into something more valuable.
Gregory Walter, Professor of Religion
“Theology as Inquiry” is a project that argues that theology is a discipline that pursues and produces knowledge akin to any other academic field. Articulating this discipline requires ample consideration of the history of objections to theology as only a matter of personal or ecclesial concern as well as the many efforts throughout the modern era in which its advocates have transformed theology to conform with the standards of rationality or inquiry of the day. In particular, this project engages discussions in the philosophy of science and among pragmatists in order to articulate how open inquiry takes place in theological questions.
Colin Wells, Professor of English
For my sabbatical project, I propose to embark on a new and comprehensive research project on the poetry of the abolitionist movement in the pre-Civil-War United States. Drawing on methodologies employed in my previous two book-length studies, I plan to research the proliferation of abolitionist poetry and song during the early 1840s in the context of broader shifts in the discourses of slavery, abolitionism and US political policies around slavery from the 1830s to the early 1850s. My working hypothesis is that poetry played a significant role in the process by which abolitionism shifted from being treated as a radical, fringe idea to being embraced as a mainstream political goal by many Northern whites. I plan to use the sabbatical leave to research and draft 1-2 article-length pieces and lay the foundation for future publications in this area.
Thomas A Williamson, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
I plan to complete a book manuscript that examines American higher education in holistic perspective. Co-authored with a colleague at the University of Minnesota, we consider campuses as dynamic entities, comprising faculty, administrative staff, and students, set in particular locations and developing out of the larger arc of American history. Through the term “incoherent,” we emphasize how these campuses are sprawling institutions that often don’t coordinate well together. Campuses are not only academic entities, they also comprise complex operations in residence life, athletics, the arts, student management, career preparation, alumni connection, financial administration, and civic engagement. Each campus contains a dense assemblage of buildings, related facilities, and manicured landscapes, all set in a specific local context with often a global reach. It’s not surprising that American colleges and universities face considerable challenges of coherence in fulfilling their respective missions.
Livi Yoshioka-Maxwell, Associate Professor of Romance Languages
During my sabbatical leave, I intend to develop my book project on representations and theories of everyday life produced in the context of postcolonial, global France and/or in cultural spaces outside of Europe. This project grows out of my research on unconventional travel narratives as well as my work on authors associated with the French literary group Oulipo (founded in 1960), whose formally innovative work theorizing and representing everyday life is often evoked in relation to texts likewise evoking everyday life but whose social and cultural contexts differ dramatically from those shaping metropolitan (continental) French texts. My book project explores both the potential and the limitations of applying traditional French literary and theoretical models of everyday life to works that inscribe their representation of the everyday within landscapes whose past and present are marked, to a greater or lesser degree, by France’s (post)colonial history.