{"id":32473,"date":"2026-05-28T13:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/?p=32473"},"modified":"2026-05-28T13:48:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:48:46","slug":"from-guatemala-classrooms-to-virtual-reality-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2026\/05\/from-guatemala-classrooms-to-virtual-reality-history\/","title":{"rendered":"From Guatemala Classrooms to Virtual Reality History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Memoir explores the lasting impact of medical trauma<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sarah Rossmann Deschamps \u201988 published a new memoir, I Couldn’t Tell You<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>The book builds on her previous memoir about her daughter\u2019s medical crisis overseas, focusing on the emotional and psychological struggles the family faced after returning to the United States. Deschamps\u2019 father, Professor Emeritus Dr. Jack Rossmann, is recording an audiobook version for blind and low-vision readers in Minnesota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From newcomers to national contenders<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For the first time, Macalester was represented at the QatarDebate Championship, held at the University of Illinois Urbana\u2013Champaign. Competing as a team of all first-year students with no prior QatarDebate experience, Aya Halabi \u201929, Mulham Dalla \u201929, and Tala Khodre \u201929 delivered an outstanding performance, placing second at the Midwest Arabic Debate Championship and qualifying for the national tournament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individually, Khodre, who is from Tartus, Syria, earned a silver medal as the second-best speaker in the native speaker category, while Halabi placed fifth in the same category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are incredibly proud of this achievement and excited to join teams from across the country at the national tournament this upcoming fall,\u201d Khodre said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added that the team sees potential for expanding opportunities within Macalester\u2019s forensics program, including increased participation from both native and nonnative speakers and possible engagement with related competitions such as the Model Arab League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An elite workshop for scholarly growth <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The National Humanities Center selected<\/a> Macalester history professor Linda Sturtz as one of twenty scholars for its second annual Scholarly Writing Institute.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representing sixteen colleges and universities across ten states, participants will spend nine days in residence this July advancing their research and writing. The institute provides dedicated workspace, group sessions, and one-on-one guidance from an acclaimed writing coach and leading academic presses to help scholars make significant progress on their projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New works on justice and opportunity <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Walter Greason, Dewitt Wallace Professor of History, contributed to three major publications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Such a Time as This<\/em><\/a>, a report from the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, examines the history of African-Americans in New Jersey and proposes policies to address racial segregation statewide. Greason described it as \u201cthe culmination of my career work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also contributed to Hidden Voices: Stories of the Global African Diaspora, Volumes 1 and 2<\/em><\/a>, published by the New York City Department of Education. The collaborative social studies text explores 5,000 years of African diaspora history and is designed to support student engagement and language arts proficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Greason contributed to Building a State of Opportunity<\/em><\/a>, a policy report published by the state of New Jersey focused on creating a just and inclusive state economy. He noted that methodologies and data that appear in the report were tested in his advanced Macalester courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new view of New Orleans<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Professor<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Walter Greason, DeWitt Wallace Professor of History, contributed to Shifting Landscapes<\/em><\/a>, a groundbreaking virtual reality experience that immerses users in the history of the French Quarter in New Orleans through the perspectives of enslaved African Americans in 1860.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis collaborative project was a mission to demonstrate the power of new media to communicate advanced historical research,\u201d Greason said. \u201cThis site demonstrates the viability and importance of virtual reality technologies in the teaching and research of world history.\u201d<\/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 Maccolades form<\/a>. For recent book publications, please use this book publication form<\/a>.<\/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. Below are highlights from May 2026.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":875,"featured_media":32475,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[277],"class_list":["post-32473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-newswire","tag-maccolades"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_link_url":"","custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","article_type":false,"post_thumbnail_style":"default","flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_downloads":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32473","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=32473"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32491,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32473\/revisions\/32491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}