{"id":4682,"date":"2025-06-09T12:47:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T16:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/?p=4682"},"modified":"2025-07-03T12:45:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T16:45:15","slug":"magnifying-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/2025\/magnifying-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Magnifying Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talented new faculty are bringing innovative ideas, a spirit of interdisciplinary <\/span>collaboration and a commitment to the student experience to all parts of the <\/span>Case Western Reserve University<\/span><\/a> College of Arts and Sciences<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Forty faculty members\u2014all standouts in their fields, from chemistry and dance to <\/span>philosophy and mathematics\u2014have joined the college since September 2023, with four <\/span>more to come this summer.<\/span><\/p>\n

The high-impact group reflects the college\u2019s strategic priorities and is part of a larger <\/span>Case Western Reserve plan announced in summer 2023 to hire at least 100 net new <\/span>tenure and tenure-track faculty over several years\u2014a 15% increase. The Faculty 100 <\/span>initiative aims to boost research and academic collaboration, enhance the vibrancy of <\/span>the intellectual community, foster inclusive excellence and encourage cross-campus <\/span>connections to solve the world\u2019s most pressing challenges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese outstanding scholars and teachers will further raise our research standing, <\/span>inspire our students and bring their creative energy to new collaborations around <\/span>campus,\u201d said Dean <\/span>David Gerdes<\/span><\/a>, PhD, who joined the college in March. \u201cI\u2019m thrilled\u00a0<\/span>that they have joined our community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Read on to meet five of the college\u2019s new hires.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"Ben

Ben Mauk | Photo by Carleen Coulter<\/p><\/div>\n

Chronicling narratives from around the globe<\/h2>\n

Ben Mauk<\/b><\/a>, MFA,<\/span> has turned the wanderlust he nurtured as a bookish child in Laurel, Maryland, into an award-winning journalism and filmmaking career that\u2019s taken him around the globe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He has chronicled floating villages in Cambodia, hiking trails in Kurdistan and a reeducation camp in China. His forthcoming book, <\/span>The Fugitive World, <\/span><\/i>features portraits of nomads and refugees from the equator to the Arctic Circle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was always fascinated by the idea of getting to know different parts of the world and immersing myself in other people\u2019s stories,\u201d said Mauk, the Shirley Wormser Professor of Journalism and Media Writing in the Department of English.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mauk previously was director of the Berlin Writers\u2019 Workshop, which he co-founded. He also co-created <\/span>The New Yorker<\/span><\/i>\u2019s 2021 documentary <\/span>Reeducated<\/span><\/i><\/a>. The film took viewers inside a detention camp in Xinjiang, China, and won an Emmy and a Peabody Award. His reporting also has appeared in <\/span>Harper\u2019s <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>The New York Times Magazine, <\/span><\/i>which last November published a 10,000-word i<\/span>nvestigation<\/span><\/a> he co-authored with Nyrola Elim<\/span>\u00e4<\/span> about Uyghurs\u2014a Turkic Muslim minority group\u2014in exile from China.<\/span><\/p>\n

The culmination of dozens of interviews and two years\u2019 worth of reporting from Thailand to Turkey, the piece drew attention around the world and serves as an example to Mauk\u2019s students of the tenacity, curiosity and attention to detail necessary to make it in the demanding and increasingly competitive field of journalism.<\/span><\/p>\n

He treats his classroom \u201clike a bullpen or a laboratory\u201d to spitball ideas, workshop leads, develop sources and pitch students\u2019 work.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy students are serious and sophisticated\u2014they\u2019re already writers,\u201d said Mauk, who taught his first classes on campus during the spring. \u201cMy job is to train them to bring knowledge into the world that didn\u2019t exist before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Vaia

Vaia Sigounas<\/p><\/div>\n

Tapping into the potential healing power of tech<\/h2>\n

As a physician scientist, <\/span>Vaia Sigounas<\/b><\/a>,<\/span> MD, PhD, is \u201cfascinated by how people use medical technologies,\u201d including prosthetics, neurological devices and implantable technologies, \u201cto reconstruct their identities and social relationships.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The assistant professor of anthropology studies the development, distribution and use of prosthetic legs by Ugandans\u2014largely women and children\u2014who have lost limbs, often after stepping on a landmine. That research inspired her forthcoming book, which explores the design and circulation of medical devices to low- and middle-income countries\u2014and how individuals use or alter devices to better meet their economic and social needs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her interest in medical anthropology was sparked by chance during her senior year at Harvard University, when she took a class on the subject to fulfill a social science requirement. When senior lecturer Jim Yong Kim, MD, PhD, a global health leader and former president of the World Bank, issued a charge to the class\u2014\u201cFigure out what the biggest problem is in the world and spend your life trying to change it\u201d\u2014Sigounas bolted upright in her chair.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kim\u2019s challenge led Sigounas to the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine. She trained as a surgeon, but as she saw patients trying to navigate the medical system, she wanted a better understanding of how social, cultural and other factors affect health and well-being. Sigounas then returned to UNC, earning a doctorate in medical anthropology,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since arriving at the college a year ago, Sigounas has enjoyed encouraging her students\u2014a mix of anthropology, engineering and pre-med majors\u2014to find their purpose. \u201cI want them to be exposed to the possibility that they can do a lot of good with their education and their lives.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A

Nicholas Drashner<\/p><\/div>\n

Making the theater experience more magical<\/h2>\n

When <\/span>Nicholas Drashner<\/b><\/a>, MFA,<\/span> was in Cleveland a few years ago to create the sound design for two showcase productions of the CWRU\/Cleveland Play House MFA Acting Program<\/a>, he had no idea he was auditioning for his next role.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Drashner\u2019s ability to craft an immersive sound experience that delighted audiences made a bold impression as he worked on the shows alongside faculty from the college\u2019s Department of Theater.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to leave my fingerprint on all the exciting work that\u2019s happening here,\u201d said Drashner, the department\u2019s first resident sound and projection designer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Drashner discovered he had an ear\u2014and a passion\u2014for music and audio production as a teenager. After earning a bachelor\u2019s in interdisciplinary computing in the arts at the University of California, San Diego, he found theater was the perfect outlet for his technical skills and creative vision.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a sound designer, Drashner said, he \u201cblends the artificial world with the action on the stage,\u201d enhancing an outdoor scene, for example, with singing birds, croaking frogs and chirping crickets\u2014either from a sound library or recorded by Drashner himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Previously on the faculty at Kent State University, Drashner\u00a0creates designs for several productions throughout the year, including the MFA showcase, and advises a student designer on another show. Drashner co-taught lighting design during the spring semester.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe theater department\u2019s standards of quality and scholarship are very high, which is an exciting challenge,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m enjoying working with students, who are incredibly engaged and very smart, and faculty and staff, who are committed to creating the best possible experience for them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A

Andrew Dacks<\/p><\/div>\n

Flying high on scientific collaboration<\/h2>\n

Entomologist <\/span>Andrew Dacks<\/b><\/a>, <\/b>PhD,<\/span> derives big insights about the brain from some of the tiniest research subjects.<\/span><\/p>\n

The associate professor of biology works primarily with the vinegar fly, studying the cellular and network mechanism by which the nervous system can flexibly encode sensory information. His research offers a window into how nervous systems allow even the smallest animals to adapt to a wide range of constantly evolving environments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Edmonton, Alberta, native\u2014who spent much of his childhood exploring the woods near his home\u2014was bitten by the entomology bug during his sophomore year at the University of Alberta.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe very first class, the professor told us to pack up our books and we just walked into the river valley and started to flip over rocks,\u201d Dacks said. \u201cMy eyes were suddenly opened to this amazing minute world that was just exploding everywhere around me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Since coming to the college last summer, Dacks has already forged collaborations involving data collection with researchers across the department.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[Partnering] with people from different fields of interest allows you to move forward in leaps and bounds, rather than the small incremental advances in knowledge that you make when you\u2019re working in isolation,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dacks also enjoys working with students, who, he said, bring a \u201cdeep curiosity\u201d to their studies. Last fall, Dacks tasked them with designing an experiment and accompanying funding proposal that built on the research they read during the semester. There were no limits, and students \u201cwent in all sorts of exciting directions,\u201d Dacks said. \u201cI thought, \u2018Boy, would I love to see some of these studies come to life.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"An

Benjamin Murphy<\/p><\/div>\n

Relishing experiences beyond the classroom<\/h2>\n

Benjamin Murphy<\/b><\/a>, PhD,<\/span> delights in making the short weekly walk with undergraduates in his \u201cIntroduction to Contemporary Art\u201d class to the <\/span>Cleveland Museum of Art<\/span><\/a>\u2014their classroom for the day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the thrills of being [at the college] is our institutional relationship with the museum,\u201d said the assistant professor in the Department of Art History and Art and its interim director of graduate studies. \u201cThe scale and richness of its collection are on par with [The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City] or the National Gallery [in Washington, D.C.].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The college\u2019s nearly 60-year partnership with one of the country\u2019s most preeminent museums is part of what drew Murphy\u2014a scholar of modern and contemporary art with a focus on Latin America\u2014to CWRU last summer.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the fall semester, graduate students in his \u201cMethodologies of Art History\u201d course wrote their final papers about\u00a0pieces from the museum. In 2026, he will co-teach a graduate seminar with one of the institution\u2019s contemporary art curators.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith modern and contemporary art, especially, there\u2019s never a right answer,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cModern life is confusing\u2014and modern art reflects that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Murphy came to the college from the <\/span>National Gallery of Art<\/span><\/a>, where he was the A.W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts.<\/span><\/p>\n

He is working on a book project about Latin American artists who began experimenting with video technology in the 1970s as an act of resistance amid the rise of authoritarian military regimes. Murphy is also researching a second book project about how 20th- and 21st-century artists have incorporated money\u2014from coins to cryptocurrency\u2014in their work and \u201chow that helps us think in new ways about capitalism and the conditions of modern life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talented new faculty are bringing innovative ideas, a spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration and a commitment to the student experience to all parts of the Case Western Reserve University<\/a> College of Arts and Sciences<\/a>.\u00a0 …Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":481,"featured_media":4684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2025\/06\/09123604\/Ben-Mauk-large-2025_Credit_Carleen_Coulter-.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4682"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4950,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4682\/revisions\/4950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}