Iranian colleagues of Rudi Matthee, John and Dorothy Munroe Distinguished Professor of History, published a three-volume Festschrift for him, titled Goftarha-i dar tarikh-e 'asr-e Safavi, Discourses on the History of the Safavid Period, which brings all his articles together in Persian translation. On Dec. 22, 2024, they also organized a book launch and a symposium about his work in Tehran.

Margaret D. Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and professor of humanities, is the author of a poem titled "The Two" that was recently published in the fall 2024 (Vol 19: 2) issue of Review Americana: A Creative Writing Journal (a publication of Americana: The Institute for the Study of American Popular Culture). This poem falls into the category of "ekphrastic" writing--meaning it is inspired by and/or responds to a work of visual art. In this case, it is the painting The Two Fridas by the Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo.

Adil Bentahar, associate professor at the English Language Institute with a joint appointment at the School of Education, published an empirical study in the EnglishUSA Journal alongside his colleague, Alisha Biler of Boyce College, titled “Reading Strategically: Comparing the Use of Metacognitive Strategies in L1 University and L2 IEP Students.” The findings reflect the great work IEP instructors do to support international students' reading proficiency. The implications will be helpful to colleagues at UD, ELI and the wider IEP community nationwide. 

Johann Ducharme, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and faculty director of the Siegfried Fellows, recently published “Discomfort as an entrepreneurship professor: Modeling empathy and intellectual humility” in the Annals of Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy. This article explores the role of character-informed pedagogy in entrepreneurship education, emphasizing how modeling intellectual humility and using discomfort as a teaching tool can foster creativity, resilience and empathetic behaviors among students. It also highlights the historical role of character education in universities and its relevance in today’s classrooms. A character-informed approach to teaching entrepreneurship fosters passion, a crucial learning outcome for today’s often disengaged university students.

Farley Grubb, professor of economics, is the author of “A Transaction-Cost Model of Chronic Specie Scarcity and the Evolution of Monetary Structures in Constrained Colonial Economies,” Cliometrica, February 2025, Open Access.

Presentations

Margaret D. Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and professor of humanities, was an invited participant in an international online research seminar organized by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Literary Research at the University of Essex (U.K.). Held on Jan. 23, 2025, this seminar explored the topic of "Claude McKay, Modernism, Empire and the Harlem Renaissance," and Stetz was there to talk about the links between McKay's poetry and late-Victorian works of the British Decadent movement.  

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