News at Adelphi

I have been slowly sharing the news of Nick Petron, MA ’70’s retirement after 50 years at Adelphi, the first 10 as professor and director and approximately 30 as chair of the Department of Theatre. Once they get over their surprise, many acknowledged that “it’s the end of an era.” Nick was my instructor and…

To study theater at Adelphi University is to find accomplished working professors, friends-for-life classmates, the proximity of New York City and a legacy of successful, supportive alumni. Adelphi trains “people of the theater,” said Maggie Lally ’82, associate dean of faculty programs and associate professor of theater. “The professional experience of our faculty and their…

Adelphi University is a welcoming choice for its more than 1,000 international students from 72 countries. Lately, a number of Mongolian students have chosen to pursue their educations at Adelphi. “By coming to Adelphi, our Mongolian students have entrusted their futures with us,” said Vincent Wang, PhD, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.…

Students new to Adelphi will have expanded First-Year Seminar (FYS) options this fall, when a pilot program of interdisciplinary offerings launches. Designed to enhance opportunities for community building and provide a multifaceted approach to subject matter, each course follows a cohort model with classes led by two to four professors from different academic disciplines. Students…

Jan-Henry Gray, assistant professor of English and director of Adelphi’s MFA in Creative Writing program, sat in on Professor Emerita Judy Baumel’s Forms of Poetry graduate course in Spring 2021 as a way to revisit and rediscover poetic forms. It was during this “refresher” course that he wrote the earliest draft of “Ghazal of Oranges,”…

March 2023 is an exceptional month to view fine art from our community. Faculty and alumni artwork—in oil, sculptures, sketches and watercolor—explore diverse topics and facets of the human experience. Here is your guide to inspiring works of art around the Adelphi campus—as well as online.

Christopher Storm, PhD, provost and executive vice president, has announced the honorary degree recipient and keynote speaker for Adelphi’s 2023 Commencement ceremony: entrepreneur and humanitarian Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO of Chobani. A leader in the food manufacturing industry, Ulukaya built Chobani on the foundation that it would do well by doing good. He was raised in a dairy-farming…

Two Adelphi students have been selected to represent the University as United Nations youth delegates. This year’s representatives are Sarah Delannoy, a graduate student majoring in social work, and Nino Burjanadze, an undergraduate student majoring in political science. They will join over 550 young people from 100 countries across the globe benefiting from the program,…

During the pandemic, Paul Thaler, PhD, professor in the Department of Communications in the College of Arts and Sciences, didn’t set out to write a horror tale that pays homage to the American writer, poet, editor and literary critic Edgar Allen Poe. But as Dr. Thaler delved more deeply into his writing project, he brought…

You won't find the dinosaur known as Xixianykus terrorizing people in Jurassic Park.

Kirsten Ziomek, PhD, associate professor and director of Asian studies, has been recognized with a fellowship for research on Japan in World War II. Her expertise on forced labor and colonial soldiers brings a new understanding of the Asian-Pacific operations.

A collaboration between two faculty members and 10 undergraduates provides valuable new information about HVI reagents.

When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, three Adelphi alumni—international students Aleksandar Aleksiev ’11, Gabriel Hardy-Françon ’14, and Camille Pajor ’09, MBA ’16—quickly decided they couldn’t stay on the sidelines. All three made humanitarian trips to the border—and inside Ukraine—to bring aid and to help refugees escape and get resettled away from the war zone.…

Just two days before Thanksgiving last fall, The Kelly Clarkson Show announced to the world that The Fairview School Choir from P.S. 14, a Queens, New York, elementary school, had been named the 2022 NBC Star Choir. That meant that a couple of weeks later, the students, dressed in festive red and green, were singing and…

Research shows that CBD and other plant extracts could revolutionize psychological treatments.

On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an artist revisits personal loss and a national tragedy.

In Spring 2022, Associate Professor Jacqueline Olvera, PhD, became director of Latin American Studies. She succeeded Raysa Amador, PhD, now professor emerita of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, who became the first head of the program in the early 1970s. Dr. Olvera began planning a transition for the program, based on review of the program over two…

Many consider the American South as the place where the struggle against Jim Crow laws, school segregation and civil rights took place. Yet, racism was just as deeply rooted in the North—and in Boston. Despite its reputation as the historic “cradle of liberty” and headquarters of the abolitionist movement, racial conflict exploded in Boston in…

In 2020, Carolina Cambronero Varela ‘09 and adjunct faculty member and artist Argie Agelarakis, MA ‘00, began working on a special project—to harness the power of art in support of social activism. Together, with the critical support of Stephanie Lake, PhD, director of Adelphi’s criminal justice program, they inaugurated Artivism in the spring of 2021.

Longtime Adelphi political science faculty member Regina Axelrod, PhD, died on November 3, 2022, with a legacy as an esteemed professor, campus leader, and faculty and student advocate. 

Carole Katz-Fetner ’68 honed her leadership and communications skills as an English major at Adelphi and had a powerful mentor and lifelong friend in Dean Emerita Ruth S. Harley ’24, ’50 (Hon.), alumna and namesake of our University Center in Garden City, New York.

The Hunter Performing Arts Scholarship will help propel the careers of drama majors in Adelphi’s Department of Theatre.

Adelphi University has received the prestigious Innovative Academic Support Initiative award from the American College Personnel Association's Commission for Academic Support in Higher Education (CASHE).

Recent Adelphi field hockey graduate Jackie Brown ‘21, MBA ‘22, was recognized as an NCAA Woman of the Year Top 30 Nominee at the 2023 national NCAA Convention in San Antonio, Texas, on January 12, 2023. She is the third Adelphi student-athlete to make the Top 30, following Alison Johnson ‘20, MA ‘21, and Chelsea Abreu ‘19, MBA ‘21.

A multidisciplinary team's research could inform the way zoos and other groups design new homes for wildlife.

Honors College alumna Camille Pajor ’09, MBA ’16, shares her inspiring life story and explains how her career brought her to the war-torn Ukrainian border to assist refugees. It’s a story of determination, compassion and strength.

Melanie Bush, PhD, professor of sociology and an expert in teaching methods around the globe, has been awarded a Fulbright Specialist Award. During her three-year tenure, she will develop new insights into the ways we can make education more just and equitable for all.

Chuck D ’84, ’13 (Hon.), who earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Adelphi, is rediscovering his college roots as an illustrator. The hip-hop pioneer is releasing his first fine art book this month, Livin’ Loud. An homage to legendary musicians in hip-hop, rap and rock, it features more than 250 of his works.

Malika Burieva, a first-generation Uzbek American, is passionate about the cultural heritage that she said has “made me into the person that I am today.” The junior majoring in communications and minoring in graphic design will spend her summer in Uzbekistan studying Uzbek at the Critical Language Institute, sponsored by The Melikian Center at Arizona…

Kirsten L. Ziomek, PhD, Adelphi University associate professor of East Asian history and director of Asian studies, has been awarded a $60,000 Fellowship for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan by the Japan-United States Friendship Commission and the National Endowment for the Humanities (JUSFC-NEH).