{"id":28777,"date":"2025-12-01T14:34:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=28777"},"modified":"2026-03-10T14:23:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T14:23:56","slug":"faculty-at-full-throttle-star-level-access-a-legacy-celebrated-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2025\/12\/faculty-at-full-throttle-star-level-access-a-legacy-celebrated-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty at full throttle, star-level access, a legacy celebrated, and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maccolades is a monthly round-up of the most recent accolades and accomplishments earned by members of the Macalester community. Below are highlights from November 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honoring five who elevate Macalester<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Five faculty members received Trustee Awards this fall: Sam Asarnow (Philosophy), Darcy Burgund (Psychology), Paul Cantrell (Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science), Bill Moseley (Geography), and Lisa Mueller (Political Science).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Established in 2013 by Trustee Steve Euller \u201971, the Trustee Awards provide $5,000 to faculty demonstrating exemplary achievement in teaching, scholarship, and service. The awards recognize outstanding contributions to the Macalester or professional community.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A rare chance with a powerful telescope <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Jackson<\/figure>
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Macalester graduate Jackson Codd \u201923 was awarded coveted observing time on the National Radio Astronomy Observatory\u2019s <\/span>Very Large Array<\/span><\/i><\/a> \u2014 one of the world\u2019s most powerful radio telescopes. As principal investigator, Codd will observe the rho Ophiuchi star formation complex. Securing observing time on this competitively scheduled telescope is difficult for any researcher, making this post-baccalaureate accomplishment especially remarkable.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A remarkable contribution to Islamic Studies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Literature Haci G\u00fcnd\u00fcz was <\/span>named co-winner<\/span><\/a> of the 2025 Alwaleed Bin Talal Dissertation Prize in Islamic Studies by Harvard University\u2019s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program. The honor includes a $1,500 award.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. G\u00fcnd\u00fcz\u2019s dissertation, \u201cA R\u016bm\u012b in the Lands of Sh\u0101m: Life, Poetry and Legacy of a Janissary-Turned-Poet M\u0101mayya al- R\u016bm\u012b (d. 985-7\/1577-9),\u201d examines 16th-century Damascene poet M\u0101mayya al-R\u016bm\u012b, whose popular poetry was later excluded from the modern Arabic literary canon. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khaled El-Rouayheb, faculty director of the Islamic Studies Program, praised the dissertation as \u201ca remarkable achievement and substantial contribution to the field of Islamic Studies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. G\u00fcnd\u00fcz earned his doctorate in Arabic and Islamic studies from Harvard University.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Professor<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Moot Court on a roll<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Over two weekends, every duo Mac sent to the Moot Court regional competitions returned home with a trophy. Needing to finish in the top 25% of the field to advance in the national competition, Sayuri Cumaranatunge \u201927 and Kofi Anyimadu \u201928 finished 2nd in Akron, where Willow Albano \u201926 and Reece Robinson \u201926 also secured their bid. Then in Des Moines, first-year competitors Mae Bradford \u201929, Breanna Elmer \u201929, Julia Taitano \u201929, and Rohini Chatwani \u201929 secured their bids with semifinal runs, with Guillermo Munoz-Calanche \u201928 and Lillie Perez \u201929 advancing to the quarterfinals. Four bids is a team best. Five of these students also won individual speaker honors. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making a splash in the Hall of Fame<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Former Macalester head swimming and diving coach Bob Pearson was selected for induction into the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America Division III Hall of Fame: Class of 2026. He will join 20 fellow inductees during the association\u2019s annual awards celebration in May 2026. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samantha Barany, executive director of the association, underscored the significance of this year\u2019s class: \u201cThis recognition honors swimmers, divers, and coaches whose exceptional careers have made a lasting impact on Division III swimming and diving,\u201d she said. \u201cWe celebrate these inductees not only for their achievements in competition but for the meaningful contributions they\u2019ve made to their programs, their communities, and the sport as a whole.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bob<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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A long tradition of global citizenship<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Institute of International Education <\/span>recognized Macalester<\/span><\/a> with an <\/span>Open Doors <\/span><\/i>75 Seal of Excellence. A historical review identified Macalester as one of 642 U.S. colleges and universities that reported international student data in both 1949 and 2024. The <\/span>Open Doors<\/span><\/i> report is the only long-standing, comprehensive information resource on international students and scholars in the United States, as well as U.S. students studying abroad for academic credit.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to be considered for future Maccolades<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you or someone you know recently earned an award, fellowship, or honor and would like it to be considered for inclusion in next month\u2019s Maccolades, please let Communications & Marketing know by filling out this <\/span>Maccolades form<\/span><\/a>. For recent book publications, please use this <\/span>book publication form<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maccolades is a monthly round-up of the most recent accolades and accomplishments earned by members of the Macalester community.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":875,"featured_media":28779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[277],"class_list":["post-28777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-newswire","tag-maccolades","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false,"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28777"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29079,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28777\/revisions\/29079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}