School Notes: Faculty of Arts & Sciences
January/February 2026

Innovative new courses

FAS faculty taught numerous exciting, hands-on courses in the fall: Casey Dunn ’05PhD, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, taught a course about invertebrate biology out on Horse Island, a rugged piece of land just 12 minutes from New Haven. Nicholas Jones, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese, and Todne Thomas, associate professor of divinity and religious studies, brought students to the Beinecke to examine its rare collection of tarot cards. And Alka Menon, assistant professor of sociology, cotaught a course about the ethical and social questions raised by the use of AI in medicine. 

Discoveries and breakthroughs by science faculty

Our junior science faculty are making scientific breakthroughs, from cell biology to climate change. Binyam Mogessie, assistant professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, is shedding light on how female reproduction changes with age by creating a new method for simulating “aging-like” chromosome errors. Candie Paulsen, assistant professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, found a long-elusive mechanism in the body that sends pain signals. A project led by Elizabeth Yankovsky, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences, won a worldwide climate solutions competition that will utilize artificial intelligence to improve technologies that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the ocean. 

Faculty recognized for outstanding careers

Three FAS faculty members were recently celebrated for their groundbreaking careers in the humanities and social sciences. Elijah Anderson, Sterling Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, was awarded the 2025 Edwin H. Sutherland Award by the American Society of Criminology for his pioneering ethnographic research on urban crime. Marcia C. Inhorn, William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs, was honored with a 2025 Career Award from the Association for Feminist Anthropology for her lifetime accomplishments as a feminist anthropologist. And Matthew Jacobson, Sterling Professor of American Studies and History, received the 2025 Carl Bode–Norman Holmes Pearson Prize from the American Studies Association for his career and dedication to the mission and values of American studies.