College of Psychology and Liberal Arts faculty were honored to be published in a number of distinguished publications and to present at many prestigious events during the past few months. They include:
School of Arts and Communication
Kevin Burke, associate professor of music, wrote a chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Video Game Music and Sound, edited by William Gibbons and Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard. His chapter is titled “Hard Limitations and Soft Possibilities: A ‘Systematic’ History of Early Video Game Sound Technology.” According to publisher Oxford Academic, Burke “surveys and assesses the hardware and software that powered early video game sound and analyzes how the hardware limitations and innovative software led to specific compositional styles across platform developers.” The book is available for purchase through Oxford University Press, Amazon and other retailers.
Natalie M. Dorfeld presented “Let’s Agree to Disagree: Extended Play with AI and Intertextuality” at the 2025 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Annual Convention in Baltimore in April.
In January, Dorfeld was presented with the Distinguished Colleague Award from the Florida College English Association. Then, in March, she was awarded the Kerry B. Clark Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching.
In September, she will compete in her second ultramarathon 8-mile ocean swim in Islamorada, Florida. She finished in the top 20 in the women’s division in 2024.
The Rev. Randall Meissen, Florida Tech’s chaplain, director of Catholic Campus Ministry and an adjunct faculty member in the College of Psychology and Liberal Arts, has published a new book chapter, “Contemplating Bats and Bees,” in the academic compendium The Dominicans in the Americas and the Philippines (c. 1500–c. 1820), edited by David Thomas Orique, Rady Roldán-Figueroa and Cynthia Folquer. The book was published online in August 2024 by Routledge. Meissen’s chapter examines Friar Francisco Ximenez—the man credited with preserving the only surviving Mayan language texts—and explores the influences of Dominican spirituality on natural history. Ximenez was an 18th-century Dominican priest and missionary linguist known for his preservation of the Maya–K’iche’ creation myth, the Popol Vuh. Meissen conducted research in the rare book archives of Guatemala and Spain. He developed the chapter from a presentation he gave at the International Conference on the History of the Order of the Preachers in the Americas several years ago.
Yanek Mieczkowski, assistant professor of history, explores a story of defeat, death and resilience during World War II through the experiences of his parents, Bogdan and Seiko Mieczkowski, in his new book. Surviving War, Oceans Apart: Two Teenagers in Poland and Japan Destined for Life Together tells the harrowing but ultimately uplifting story of Bogdan Mieczkowski, a member of the Polish resistance who fought the Germans in the Warsaw Uprising and later spent time in multiple prisoner-of-war camps, and Seiko Kawakami, a teenager who was forced to leave school and work in a Japanese wartime factory. Both later came to the United States to pursue their education. Job opportunities brought them to New York City, where they met, married and started a family. The book is available for purchase through McFarland Press, Amazon and other retailers.
Moti Mizrahi, Ted Petersen and Heidi Hatfield Edwards earned a grant from the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication to fund research examining how news media cover artificial intelligence. The Page Center’s 2025 Page/Johnson Legacy Scholar grants were awarded to proposals focused on the ethics of generative AI in public communication. Florida Tech’s project, “AI Hype Machine: Understanding the News Media’s Role in and Ethics of Hyping Generative AI,” was one of nine selected from nearly 90 proposals—a record number of submissions, the Page Center noted. Over the next year, Edwards, Petersen and Mizrahi will study how AI is hyped in the media and the ethical implications of that hype. The $6,000 grant will help fund student involvement and software to aid in data analysis.
Hatfield Edwards also presented “Practical Strategies for Crafting Effective Narratives” to the Space Coast chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA). Held at the county’s Emergency Operations Center, the event served as a professional development opportunity for FPRA members. Storytelling is central to public communication, Hatfield Edwards noted, and understanding how to craft a narrative is an essential part of a communicator’s toolkit. During her presentation, she discussed why storytelling is effective in conveying messages to the public and ways to do so successfully.
In August 2024, a published paper from Hatfield Edwards, Petersen and YJ Sohn titled “Deciphering Misinformation and Disinformation: Insights from Structural Coupling and Penetration” examined a darker aspect of communication—misinformation and disinformation. Published online in the journal Kybernetes, the paper explored the distinct origins, mechanisms, growth paths and societal impacts of misinformation and disinformation through the lens of Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory, focusing on structural coupling and penetration. The authors found that misinformation and disinformation can cause social conflict. Rather than always being negative, such conflict may spur social systems to grow or adapt and, as the authors posit, “serve society as an immune mechanism.”
Anna Muenchrath was one of 62 scholars to receive a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) in April. She received the $66,000 fellowship for Amazon Crossing: Translation Publishing, Algorithmic Data, and the Future of the Literary Marketplace ($66,000). In addition, Muenchrath published two books in 2024: Selling Books with Algorithms by Cambridge University Press, as part of its Cambridge Elements in Publishing and Book Culture Series, and Making World Literature: Actors, Institutions, and Networks in the United States since 1890, published by University of Massachusetts Press as part of its Page and Screen Series.
Muenchrath also published “The Statistical Unconscious: Hermeneutics and/of Computational Literary Sociology” in March in a special issue of Journal of Literary Theory on “Literary Sociology” edited by Urs Büttner, Carolin Amlinger and David Christopher Assmann. In addition, her article, “From Great Books to World Literature: Anthologies as Institutional Supplements Around 1900 and Today,” was published in College Literature, vol. 51, No. 4, 2024 (532–559), in a special issue of College Literature on “American Institutions around 1900,” edited by Sheila Liming, Florian Sedlmeier and Alexander Starre.
She also presented “Using Computational Methods to Critique Computational Methods in Cultural Production” at the Florida Digital Humanities Consortium in Orlando in October 2024. Also, Muenchrath discussed “Just Browsing: Time and the Online Bookstore” in a virtual invited talk on the Bookselling Research Network in March.
On Jan. 30, Muenchrath participated in an author talk on “Making World Literature,” a presentation held in the Link Room in Evans Library. Along with philosophy professor Moti Mizrahi, she also was a panelist in the discussion, “Algorithms and Us,” in early April in the library’s Digital Scholarship Lab. The discussion explored the impact algorithms have on everyday lives.
Gordon Patterson’s book Missiles, Mischief and Mayhem: The Secret History of Countdown College takes a unique and compelling look at the history of Florida Tech. Published in March 2024 and available on Amazon, the book includes chapters such as “The Great Quail Escapade,” “The Atomic Toilet” and “The Zotz Brothers Add ‘Fizz’ to Florida Tech.” It unearths amazing but true tales and spotlights key formative moments that provide an illuminating snapshot of Florida Tech’s development and evolution into one of the nation’s leading STEM institutions.
Angela Tenga and Jonathan Bassett published “Angel or Vampire: The unholy dichotomy of Midnight Mass,” in the journal, Horror Studies,in April. The article examines the eerie, dark 2021 Netflix series, “Midnight Mass,” from acclaimed writer and director Mike Flanagan. Tenga also has a new collection of scholarly essays, “The Post-Zombie: Essays on the Evolving Undead,” from McFarland Press. The essays were co-edited with C. Wylie Lenz and Kyle William Bishop.
School of Psychology
Julie Costopoulos, professor and head of the School of Psychology, and the SOP played a pivotal role in advancing the dialogue on mental health in the criminal justice system at the second annual Collaborative Conference for Justice Jan. 23.
Costopoulos served as moderator of the roundtable conference, which brought together Circuit 18 judges, attorneys, hospital executives and community program leaders to address the challenges individuals with serious mental illnesses face in the justice system. The goal was not just to identify obstacles but to collaboratively explore innovative solutions.
“It was exciting to see so many leaders from various elements of our criminal justice system join together to collaborate on addressing the challenges faced by individuals with mental illness,” Costopoulos said. “A common goal that stood out was treating people with dignity while ensuring the safety of all involved. The forensic psychology program’s students and faculty are passionate about the places where psychology intersects with the legal system. It is exciting to be a part of the solution.”
Marshall Jones, assistant professor and director of the Center for Applied Criminal Case Analysis, wrote a series of articles for The Georgia Police Chief magazine. The articles, titled “The Law Enforcement Leadership Pipeline,” offer a blueprint to help agencies better understand and strategically navigate challenges in maintaining their leadership pipeline. In the series, Jones introduces the Law Enforcement Leadership Pipeline (LELP) model—an adaptation of a proven business framework that aligns hiring, training, culture and leadership strategies for law enforcement settings. The model emphasizes that retention hinges on leadership, and leadership development must be intentional, sustained and cultural. Ultimately, Jones emphasizes that a strong leadership pipeline not only develops better officers but also improves morale, boosts retention and protects agency culture. His advice to agencies: Take one bite at a time, start somewhere and build forward.
Radhika Krishnamurthy presented “Embracing vs avoiding religious/spiritual content in clinical training,” in a session titled Competency addressing religion and spirituality: An invitation for graduate school training in January at the midwinter meeting of the National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology in New Orleans. In February, Krishnamurthy and Lisa Suzuki published “Trait considerations in clinical practice: A commentary” in Journal of Personality Assessment, 107(2), 265-266.
In March, she co-presented two presentations at the 2025 Society for Personality Assessment Convention in Denver: “The impact of race-related stress on MMPI-3 scores of a Black American community sample” with Cassandra Clayton in a session titled DEI and the MMPI-3; and “An empirical evaluation of the MMPI-3 Suicidal/Death Ideation scale among mental health outpatients” with Brittany Rhodes in a session titled Psychometric Studies of the MMPI Family of Instruments.
Mina Milsevic and Lisa Steelman, along with industrial-organizational psychologist Katherine Rau, explore why so many mergers and acquisitions fail to meet expectations—and how to fix that—in their Harvard Business Review article, “A Guide to Building a Unified Culture After a Merger or Acquisition.” Based on more than 70 hours of interviews across 15 acquisitions, the authors found that acquired employees often feel overlooked, disengaged and unsupported. To address this, they recommend that organizations focus just as much on employee experience as they do on financials and operations. Their guidance includes conducting culture assessments of both firms, developing a clear integration plan, mapping out the employee journey, empowering midlevel managers and staying flexible throughout the transition. Companies that invest in cultural alignment and communication early on can better retain talent, boost engagement and realize the full value of their acquisitions.
School of Behavior Analysis
David Wilder, professor and head of the School of Behavior Analysis, along with C. Sheppard, F. Izquierdo and K. Flynn, K., are publishing “A comparison of medium probability versus high probability instructions to increase cooperation in the context of the high probability instructional sequence,” (in press) in Behavioral Interventions. Wilder and F. Echeverria are publishing “Further evaluation of the Performance Diagnostic Checklist 1.1: Outcome agreement between supervisors and employees,” (in press) in Journal of Organizational Behavior Management.
Wilder and Sheppard published “A Caregiver Survey on Medical and Behavior Analytic Treatments for Idiopathic Toe Walking” in Behavior Analysis in Practice. Also, Wilder, along with Izquierdo, D. Cymbal and R.J. Clark, are publishing “An analysis of research designs in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (2000-2022)” (in press) in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management.
