Recent Faculty Scholarship

In the past year, Goucher College faculty members have published and presented on topics that highlight the global scope of their research as well as subjects that explore ideas closer to home. Here is a look at some of the new scholarship in arts, sciences, and other interdisciplinary studies.

Global Research

Political Science and International Relations Associate Professor Julie Chernov Hwang published “The Nihilistic Violent Extremist Ecosystem: A Global Threat” in the Global Terrorism Index 2026, which measures the impact of terrorism. Chernov Hwang notes that youth radicalization is on the rise and that a “growing threat is emerging from online subcultures and digital communities that fall under the banner of nihilistic violent extremism.” She also published a piece for the Soufan Center, where she’s a senior research fellow, on the “The Spillover Effects of the Iran War on Asia,” about how the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran has impacted energy, food, and labor markets across regions of Asia.

Sociology and Anthropology Associate Professor Carolyn Schwarz wrote the chapter “Religions of Aboriginal Australia” for The Oxford Handbook of the Anthropology of Religion, which looks at “how generations of anthropologists have tried to understand and explain the religions of Indigenous people living on the Australian continent.”

French Professor Florence Martin gave a lecture at Université Chouaïb Doukkali in Morocco on “Farida Benlyazid’s Unique Take on Filmmaking,” which is the subject of her book. She was also a member of an international film festival jury, the International Maghrebi Film Festival in Oujda, Morocco, and co-edited the book Transnational Moroccan Cinema: Critical Dialogues.

Theatre Associate Professor Rebecca Free and French Transnational Studies Professor Mark Ingram wrote “Commoning and Site-Specific Environmental Performance in Marseille” in Sinais de Cena, a performing arts and theatre studies journal. The article examines performances focused on the environment that involve non-artist participation and integrate social collaboration and environmental goals.

Arts and Literature

For Supernatural Studies, Writing Assistant Professor Katherine Cottle wrote “The Predation of a Legendary Chimera: Western Maryland’s Snallygaster, from Hex to Harry,” about a supernatural beast created from human fears. She writes that the snallygaster “remains elusive to this day in sightings and in scholarship. The weight of its shadow still scares and intrigues—the imprint of a society struggling to identify itself as predator versus prey.”

As 2025 was the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, pre-eminent Austen scholar and Literary Studies Professor Juliette Wells was busy throughout the year with public lectures around the world, podcast appearances, and the publication of articles in scholarly journals. Watch her discussion with actor, author, and youtuber Rajiv Surendra about letter-writing in Jane Austen’s day.

The Study of Teaching

Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs Jamie Mullaney presented at a workshop at this year’s American Conference of Academic Deans called “Faculty Resilience, Reciprocity, and Revitalization through Mentoring.” The workshop demonstrated how mentorship programs for faculty, including one at Goucher, build meaning, agency, and supportive networks.

Sociology Assistant Professor Sadie Ridgeway co-authored “Accessibility and Engagement: Applying Hybrid Pedagogical Techniques in Large Lecture Courses to Overcome Challenges Faced by Students” for Teaching Sociology. Analyzing exit surveys from a Sociology of Sport class, Ridgeway and her co-authors wrote that their findings underscored “the importance of addressing challenges that hinder accessibility and engagement for many college students.”

Psychology Professor Jennifer McCabe co-authored an article for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology about studying “the impact of syllabus language on student perceptions of instructor and course.” They found that a syllabus written in a warmer tone and with more inclusive language made students perceive the instructor and the course more positively.