For the Record provides information about recent professional activities and honors of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Recent publications and honors include the following:

Publications

Margaret D. Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies, is the author of a new article, "Netta Syrett’s Afterlife: From London to Hollywood," a study in the history and reception of feminist fiction by a late-Victorian "New Woman" writer whose career continued well into the 20th century and included the adaptation of one of her novels as a 1936 film starring Katharine Hepburn. It incorporates research on 19th-century newspaper clipping services that Stetz did in the archives of the Syrett family papers, now located in the Toronto Public Library and part of the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books. Stetz's article appears in a special issue, titled "Yellow Book Women," of Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies, 7.2 (2024), pp. 76-93. The journal is published by the Decadence Research Centre at Goldsmiths, University of London, U.K., and is affiliated with the British Association of Decadence Studies.

An article by an interdisciplinary team led by Kedron Thomas, associate professor of anthropology, and Kelly Cobb, associate professor of fashion and apparel studies, highlighting challenges and opportunities for the creation of a circular economy (CE) in the textile and apparel industry was recently published in the journal Sustainability. The paper presents the results of NSF-funded research into the perceptions industry stakeholders have of the significance and importance of textile circularity, the challenges that exist for transitioning from a linear system to a circular economy, and resources that exist to support this transition. In the current linear system, garments are thrown away after their life cycle, while in a CE the life of the garment’s fibers are extended, either through repair, recycling or reuse, keeping them out of landfills for as long as possible. The team also includes Huantian Cao, chair and professor of fashion and apparel studies and co-director with Cobb of UD’s Sustainable Apparel Initiative; Abigail Clarke-Sather, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Minnesota Duluth and former UD faculty member; and former graduate students Hira Durrani Julia Brady, Michelle Yatvitskiy and Kendall Ludwig. The research team also recently presented at the International Textile and Apparel Association conference. 

Honors

Sam Wagner, academic adviser in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Student Success Center, recently received the 2025 Region 2 Webinar Scholarship from NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. The group is the leading association for the advancement of student success through excellence in academic advising in higher education. The award recognizes an individual who seeks professional development through a NACADA webinar and is committed to arranging for others from their institution to participate in the webinar as well.

Thomas Keiser, a third-year student in the Health Behavior Science and Promotion PhD program, has been awarded a 2025 American Heart Association (AHA) Predoctoral Fellowship. The prestigious award enhances the integrated research and clinical training for promising students in pre-doctoral or clinical health professional degree training programs. Keiser’s research, under the mentorship of Freda Patterson, associate dean of research in the College of Health Sciences and professor of health behavior and nutrition sciences, focuses on understanding the sleep and circadian influences of cardiovascular disease risk. Through his research, Keiser aims to identify how the timing and regularity of sleep and exercise may influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk in early mid-life adults. “I am incredibly honored to have been awarded this fellowship from the American Heart Association. It is a tremendous validation of the importance of our research into the circadian and behavioral factors that influence the development and progression of cardiovascular disease,” said Keiser. “This fellowship will allow me to engage in further training in sleep and circadian science, supported by experts from around the world, and will play a key role in my future success as a scientist committed to reducing the global burden of cardiovascular disease.

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