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Loyola University Chicago’s 17th annual Celebration of Faculty Scholarship reflected a faculty that ranges widely and publishes ambitiously.
The event, held Wednesday, April 22, in the Information Commons on the Lake Shore Campus, drew faculty, administrators, and guests to a reception showcasing work published or produced during 2025. Organized by University Libraries, more than 100 submissions were received, including peer-reviewed articles, books, book chapters, artworks, films, conference presentations, and digital projects across the University.
“This Celebration of Faculty Scholarship is an invitation to step beyond our individual disciplines and encounter the broader constellation of work unfolding across this community,” said Provost Douglas W. Woods. “It is a source of immense pride to see these publications, books, papers, and creative works brought together in one place.”
Among the works on display, a handful illustrated the mix of disciplines and formats.
- Betsy Odom, faculty member in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts, exhibited a small sculpture—a twisted tennis racket, roughly 16 by 9 inches—that was recently featured in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s large-scale exhibition which explored the intersection of sports and contemporary art.
- Ayesha Abouelazm, faculty member in the School of Communication, submitted “The Forgotten Victim,” a short film she wrote, directed, and co-produced. The film is a social commentary on how media coverage of mass shootings tends to spotlight perpetrators rather than victims.
- Emily Yuko Hallett, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, was among the authors of a study published in Nature in June, reporting that a major expansion in the range of human behavior and diet preceded the dispersal of early humans out of Africa.
- Mike West, faculty member in the School of Communication, produced and wrote a one-hour documentary broadcast on WTTW, Chicago’s PBS station, exploring the history, hidden corners, and public life of Chicago’s lakefront. The film aired in April and features host Geoffrey Baer.
- Lavar Pope, clinical professor in Arrupe College, traced how geography and culture shape rap music in his book, American Rap Scenes: An Analysis of 25 Locations.
Other works ranged from Sandra Kaufmann’s performance blending dance and quantum physics, to Robyn Mallett’s NSF-funded study on belonging and retention for Loyola’s own faculty of color, to a study by Eric Chan-Tin with fourteen student collaborators on gender differences in emoji use, to Kelli Evans’s visual history of 1980s punk flyer art from a legendary Ohio-Kentucky club.
Faculty-student collaboration was a key feature across more than a dozen submissions. Loyola undergraduates and graduate students appeared as co-authors or contributors in fields ranging from chemistry and environmental science to public health and computer science.
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