WELCOME TO THE
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Welcome to the Fall 2025 DHP Newsletter! 2025 was a turbulent year for academia across the nation, and for DHP, the waters were far from calm as well – perhaps this is why our 2025-26 motto is “We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat!” Bracing the waves, our bright students and indefatigable faculty have continued to thrive, and I am proud to highlight their milestones and accomplishments in this newsletter.
We have had some big positive changes. In August, we welcomed two faculty members to DHP as Dr. Joyce Avotri and Dr. John Cuda moved into the department. The addition of these two faculty members also means that DHP is now the home of both the Sociology and Anthropology minors. We also were very fortunate to have Nascene Grant join us as our new Academic Program Coordinator for our National Security Affairs and International Relations M.S. program. Finally, just as the fall semester began, we received the news that our own Dr. Aileen Miyuki Farrar had been selected to direct the Farquhar Honors Program.
In other departmental news, DHP celebrated a new travel-study course in the fall, with both Irish History undergraduate and Transatlantic Security Studies graduate students traveling to Ireland in the brisk month of December. The trip was a smashing success, as students got to experience Dublin, Belfast, and Galway over an 8-day period with Dr. David Kilroy. We also renewed our partnership with Montachem International – and selected new students for the InSight Fellowship, advised by Drs. Ransford Edwards and Amanda Furiasse and in partnership with NSU’s Applied Humanities Center, directed by Dr. Marlisa Santos.
In the following pages you will see updates regarding all of the wonderful things happening in the department, from the scholarship of our faculty to the performance of our academic teams, to the variety of co-curricular activities you all make possible. I urge you to take a look and see just how much we have accomplished.
To our students and alumni especially, as we begin the Winter semester, remember all of us here at DHP are here for you! Whether you need some scheduling advice or are looking to reconnect – you know where to find us (2nd floor of Mailman Hollywood – unless the parking lot is closed, flooded, or the fire alarm is going off).
-Nelson Bass
Model United Nations
It was a very busy fall for our Nova International Relations Association (NIRA) – which serves as our Model United Nations team here at NSU. First, in October the team and all of the students in the POLS 2400 Model UN class traveled to Gainesville for the Florida Collegiate Model UN Conference (formerly known as FMUN – now FCMUN). 15 students from the class accompanied returning team members Paula Recio Rey (NIRA President), Rahul Pandit (NIRA Vice President) and Imad Zmarou. This was our 14th year at the conference and, as always, the students did not disappoint. Representing 11 countries in three different committees the team walked away with 7 awards! Notably, Paula Recio Rey, Caroline Miller, were awarded a “Distinguished Delegation” award for their work as France. Daniella Contes won a “Distinguished Delegation” as the Bahamas. And Rahul Pandit, Savannah Hall, and Imad Zmarou won an “Honorable Delegation” award for their portrayal of the Republic of Korea. In addition, several students won individual awards: Caroline Miller won “Best Delegate”, Rahul Pandit and Caroline Miller won awards for “Outstanding Position Paper”, and Giordly Vilfort won an award for “Most Improved Delegate.”
On November 8th, NIRA hosted for the second time a scrimmage with the Model UN team from Broward College in preparation for their participation in the Southern Regional Model United Nations (SRMUN) Conference in Atlanta. The team hosted Broward to a day of diplomacy, pizza, and negotiations.
The weekend of November 19th NIRA took six exceptional delegates to SRMUN in Atlanta. Here the team also performed admirably, representing Rwanda and Cuba over three committees. After a long weekend of intense Model UN-ing, the team was excited to be awarded a “Distinguished Delegation” award for their work as Rwanda. In addition, NIRA President Paula Recio Rey was awarded “Outstanding Chair” for her work.
Looking forward to the winter semester, the team is still deciding which conference they would like to attend, but I feel certain they will continue to represent NSU to the best of their abilities!
THE REEL AND FIN FILMS
NSU's Annual Film Series, The Reel, launched its ninth year of film screenings and discussions with its biggest semester yet, hosting four shows that were attended by nearly 200 students, faculty, and members of the community. Coordinated and curated by Dr. Yair Solan, the series presents free movie nights with faculty-led audience discussions.
The Reel's 2025-26 season kicked off with a screening of the dark satire The Death of Stalin, co-sponsored by the student-run film club Fin Films and accompanied by Dr. John Vsetecka's illuminating discussion of the film's historical basis. As in the past few years, The Reel hosted Halmos College's Homecoming movie night, which this fall featured a showing of Moana with a Disney-themed costume contest and an engaging discussion led by Dr. Amanda Furiasse.
Dr. John Vsetecka discusses the film The Death of Stalin at The Reel's September show
Two of The Reel's programs were co-sponsored by the Farquhar Honors Program. October's show was The Luckiest Man in America with by a talk by Dr. Jason Gershman, chair of the Mathematics Department, on statistical probability, game shows, and the real-life events of the film, plus a surprise clip of Dr. Gershman's appearance on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? from its pilot run in 1999. The last program of the semester was November's presentation of the sci-fi classic Blade Runner, in conjunction with the Honors Reading Seminar in which students read Philip K. Dick's original novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Filling the Mailman-Hollywood Auditorium to its capacity, this screening was followed by a discussion with the audience facilitated by Dr. Solan that touched on the film's influential post-apocalyptic style, issues of adaptation, and the questions it raises about humanity and technology.
Drs. Jason Gershman, Yair Solan, and Aileen Farrar at the Luckiest Man in America event
Fin Films organized regular movie nights across the semester as well, hosting screenings of films that included Superbad, Shrek 2, Spirited Away, and a showing of The Silence of the Lambs co-hosted with NSU's Forensic Psychology Club. Fin Films also inaugurated its new lunchtime TV watch parties with episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and the semester concluded with a special theatrical outing to see Wicked: For Good on its opening day. In November, Film Studies students Alivia Klipp, Jaden Lodge, and Ohanna Mantilla-Rodriguez joined Dr. Solan on the Mako Radio show That’s News To Us hosted by Dr. Eric Mason, where they discussed their study of film at NSU and participated in the program's wacky news quiz segments.
Dr. Amanda Furiasse leads discussion following the Homecoming screening of Moana
A packed audience joined The Reel and the Farquhar Honors Program for Blade Runner in November
The Reel and Fin Films have lined up another exciting slate of film programs in Winter 2026! For more information on Fin Films, check out the student club on Instagram @finfilmsnsu. For The Reel’s upcoming events, see its website or contact Dr. Yair Solan (ysolan@nova.edu)
Legal Studies (Prelaw) Events:
On September 4, 2025, a DHP faculty panel discussed how to “find your field” academically and professionally in a packed classroom. This event also kicked off the yearlong prelaw programming
Between September 12 and October 31, 2025, a stable group of students attended the Fall 2025 LSAT workshops. The Fall 2025 series was designed to speed up students’ preparation of LSAT by introducing the basics through practice test questions. Dr. Hibbs joined the students and showed students how to apply logic formula to real logical reasoning questions in the afternoon of October 17!
On November 12, 2025, two practitioners, Ms. Louize Fiore, Esq. and Ms. Inna Shapovalov, Esq., as well as Dr. Li hosted a Legal Studies Mini-lecture panel. The topic was “constitution and immigration law.” This panel continued the Legal Studies Mini-lecture’s academic pursuit, which is to discuss contemporary legal issues with undergraduates. The panelists analyzed administrative law principles and shared their experiences in practice.
Photo of Dr. Li with Louize Fiore and Ms. Inna Shapovalov
Alumnus Visits Stephen Levitt’s Class
On November 20, 2025, Mr. John Stevens visited Stephen Levitt’s Introduction to Legal Studies class. Scheduled on that day were four debates concerning whether the mandate to purchase health insurance under Obamacare went beyond the powers of the federal government according to the commerce clause found in Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Each team consisted of two students. The first debater had to argue the affirmative case – that the mandate was not justified by the cases on the commerce clause. The second speaker had to argue that the health care market can be distinguished from other markets and hence the rules from former law cases such as Wickard and Gonzales did not apply in this situation.
John Stevens, who visited the class and heard the debates, received his Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies in 1995 from NSU. In fact, John was in Stephen Levitt’s Profession of Law and Comparative Legal Systems classes all the way back in the fall of 1992. Mr. Stevens went from the NSU Farquhar College to the Shepard Broad Law School where he obtained his J.D. in 1998. Today John Stevens runs a thriving practice in Plantation, Florida specializing in condominium law. John Stevens is Florida Bar Board Certified in Condominium and Planned Development law.
Modern Language Activities
NSU's chapter of Alpha Mu Gamma and the Department of Humanities and Politics held its annual Fall Foreign Language Practice Event on Thurs. October 23 from 12:30-1:30 p.m. This lively event was held at the Student Affairs Bldg. patio and moderated by professors and advanced level students, including Dr. Joanne Urrechaga, Dr. Maria Pereira Jimenez, Dr. Yvette Fuentes, Prof. Maud Cassagnol and Dr. Ying Ma. Languages represented included ASL, Chinese, French and Spanish.
Faculty Highlights (2025-2026)
On Feb. 12th my edited volume Labor, Capitalism, and Class Power will be published by Brill Press.
Dr. Nelson Bass
Dr. Aileen Farrar
“Under the Moonlight: The Transcendent Allegory in Corelli and Schreiner.” Nineteenth-Century Women Writers, Astronomy and Gender, special issue of Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies, vol. 21, no. 1, Summer 2025
https://ncgsjournal.com/issue211/farrar.html.
Conference:
“We, Lost Mothers in ‘Janet’s Repentance’ and Story of an African Farm,” Victorians Institute Conference (VIC) in Greenville, SC, 13-14 September 2025.
Associate Professor Stephen Levitt:
Professor Levitt gave three LLI lectures in Fall 2025.
Crete and the Minoans, Wednesday, October 22, Crete and the Venetians, Wednesday, November 5, German Legal and Political Development after Napoleon, Wednesday, November 19
Dr. Ying Ma
My article “Queer Future and AI in Black Mirror’s ‘San Junipero’” will appear in Religion and AI Romance in Popular Media: Wired for Love, published by Bloomsbury in fall 2026 and edited by Amanda Furiasse.
Dr. Ransford Edwards
Assisted in organizing a beach cleanup as part of the IN-SIGHT Fellowship
Dr. Amanda Furiasse
“Artemisia annua and Traditional Medicine in Madagascar: Its History and Challenges.” History and Philosophy of Medicine 7, no. 3 (2025).
https://doi.org/10.53388/HPM2025012
“Trading Power: The Gender Politics Beneath America’s Labor Revival.” Women in Higher Education 34, no. 11 (2025).
https://doi.org/10.1002/whe.21605
Dr. Teng Li
Dr. Li was awarded an HCAS Dean’s Small Project Fund. The project, “Deeply Rooted in History,” is to invites students who take constitutional history courses to explore the use of the phrase “deeply rooted in this nation’s history and tradition” in recent Supreme Court opinions.
Dr. Li submitted the application for a Distinguished Speaker grant, administered by the Northeast Asia Council in the Association for Asian Studies, on behalf of the department. The grant has been approved. The grant will bring a distinguished speaker, Dr. Suma Ikeuchi at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to NSU. Dr. Ikeuchi will deliver the presentation “Migrants vs Robots?: Filipino Caregivers and Care Technologies in Aging Japan” on March 28, 2026, as part of the program for the 8th Annual Crossroads Humanities Studies Conference.
Dr. Marlisa Santos published “‘To live as a monster or die as a good man’: Shutter Island and Uncanny Cold War Para-noir-a.” Neglected Scorsese: Overlooked Films, Television Shows, and Commercials Ed. Phillip Sipiora and Gary D. Rhodes. Bloomsbury, October 2025.
Dr. Marlisa Santos
Dr. Yair Solan
Dr. Yair Solan presented "Caricature and Critique: Reading James Weldon Johnson's Film Scenarios" at the Modernist Studies Association Conference in Boston, MA, October 9-12, 2025, where he also participated in a workshop organized by the conference's Film Studies Special Interest Group. In addition, Dr. Solan facilitated DHP's First Wave Early Immersion Event on September 20, 2025, "Replay, Recreate, Reimagine: Film Adaptations, Remakes, and Sequels." In November 2025, Dr. Solan led the audience discussion on Blade Runner for The Reel's film screening co-sponsored with the Farquhar Honors Program.
Dr. John Vstecka
Dr. John Vsetecka: Published his book (co-edited with Dr. Daria Mattingly), The Holodomor in Global Perspective: How the Famine in Ukraine Shaped the World, in January 2026. https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-holodomor-in-global-perspective/9783838219530/
He was the recipient of an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) project development grant for his second book project entitled, “In Order to Expand the World’s Knowledge”: Investigative Famine Commissions and Transitional Justice during the Late Cold War
Dr. Jeremy Weissman
Dr. Jeremy Weissman published “Yes, Save the Children from Fake AI ‘Friends’” with Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective
ENGLISH SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS
The Department of Humanities and Politics congratulates the following students who were awarded the Phyllis M. Brown Scholarship! This departmental scholarship confers up to $1000 to students with a primary major in English.
-Nouha Belghmi
-Nicole Cruz
-Isabella Gonzalez
-Crystal Jobe
-Jaden Lodge
-Chetana Movva