2022 Summer Faculty Fellows

Tom Alberts is an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics. His main research interests are in Probability Theory and Statistical Mechanics with some previous experience in Statistics. He will use his time at the Taft-Nicholson Center to complete a book on Gaussian analysis that is geared towards senior undergraduate and beginning graduate students. He will also be completing research papers on random matrix theory for composite materials.

Rachel Mason Dentinger is an assistant professor in the Department of History. Her research focuses on the history of science and technology, particularly biology and medicine. She is currently revising her book project Waging Nature’s War: How the Coevolutionary Theory of Natural Insecticides Made Combatants of Us All, the first historical study of coevolutionary theory. For the duration of her stay at the Taft-Nicholson Center, she intends to rewrite a chapter focused on the biological and historical agency of nonhuman organisms, which considers the way that biologists encounter insects and plants in the field.

Michael K. Middleton is an associate professor of Argumentation & Public Discourse, and the Director of the John R. Park Debate Society in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah. Mike’s research focuses on rhetoric, argumentation, public discourse, and cultural studies in the contexts of political advocacy and social movements. He plans to use his time at the Taft-Nicholson Center to complete a draft chapter for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Communication, which will focus on rhetorical ethnography and rhetorical field methods.

Jeremy Rosen is an associate professor of English at the University of Utah. He studies contemporary American and global fiction, with an emphasis on genre, the publishing industry, marketplace, literary institutions, and the blurry line between literary and popular fiction. His work has appeared in ASAP/Journal, New Literary History, Contemporary Literature, Post-45, and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Literary Theory. His first book, Minor Characters Have Their Day: Genre and the Contemporary Literary Marketplace, was published as part of Columbia University Press’s “Literature Now” series in 2016. As Summer Faculty Fellow, he will be finishing his book Genre Bending, which considers the adoption of previously “low” forms of genre fiction by esteemed contemporary writers of literary fiction.

Roseanne Warren is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Her research in the Advanced Energy Innovations Lab investigates new nanomaterial structures and advanced nanofabrication techniques for electrochemical energy storage applications. Her areas of expertise include electrochemical capacitors, sodium-ion batteries, biodegradable energy storage materials, carbon nanotube synthesis, and atomic layer deposition. She will use her time as a Summer Faculty Fellow to complete the first full draft of an engineering design textbook.

Sara K. Yeo is an associate professor in the Department of Communication. Her research interests include science and risk communication, public opinion on STEM issues, and information seeking and processing. Her work has been published in journals such as Risk Analysis, Energy Policy, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, and Materials Today. She has also written articles for popular science magazines, such as The Scientist and New Scientist. While at the Taft-Nicholson Center, she will be working on a proposal for a project that uses the COVID-19 pandemic as a lens to look at the challenges in science and health communication.