Recent Achievements

• In April 2026, Nancy Yunhwa Rao published the article “Materiality, Thingness, and Memory in East Asian Contemporary Music” in The Oxford Handbook of Orchestration Studies. Rao also published “The Rise of Children’s Operas in 1920s Shanghai: The Case of the Grape Fairy” in the book Childhood and Operatic Imaginary Since 1900 from Oxford University Press in June. MUSIC 
• Pam Tanowitz created a new ballet for Miami City Ballet, with music by Michael Abels performed by the New World Symphony. She also premiered a new work for Juilliard Dance at Zankel Hall on April 20, 2026. Her Dispatch Duet, originally created for The Royal Ballet, was performed by the Vienna State Ballet as part of American Signatures on May 9. DANCE
• Kevin Farrell was a contributing composer for the feature film Original Sound, which was released in theaters on April 24, 2026. His original music has also been featured in broadcasts by CBS Sports and NBC, including coverage of NCAA March Madness and the 2026 Winter Olympics. MUSIC
• Christopher Doll delivered the paper “Modality as Experience” at the conference Modality in French Music at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, held at the Sorbonne in Paris in March 2026. MUSIC
• In March 2026, MyungJin Oh served as a fellow for The Sociable Fortepiano, a salon-style residency organized by the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies, where she presented “Ut Pictura Musica: Embodied, Multisensory Creation in Chopin and Delacroix” and performed on a nineteenth-century Viennese fortepiano. She also presented a faculty recital, Reflections on Chopin, on April 17. MUSIC
• Jeff Friedman authored the chapter “Oral History, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression: Theoretical Frameworks and Case Studies on the Embodied Interview” in The Handbook of Global Oral History. DANCE
• Alessandra Lebea Williams is featured in the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice‘s Archive Spotlight. Williams led a residency with David Roussève’s REALITY company, immersing Rutgers dance students in queer Black movement and intersectional choreography. DANCE
• Atif Akin created O, an installation on crude oil silos in Istanbul using Perlin noise algorithms to visualize pressure. The project merges art, science, and sustainability, with materials later repurposed into colorful blankets. ART & DESIGN
• Valerie Ramshur collaborated with Christopher Cartmill and Bret McCandless on an article titled “Wandering Minds, Staged Discoveries: Exploring Indirect and Direct Research in Dramaturgy, Design, and Library Instruction,” which was published in the Theater Library Association’s Performing Arts Resources, Volume 37. THEATER

Research Spotlights