Sarah Gustafson, assistant professor of politics at The Catholic University of America, led the discussion, titled “The Declaration of Independence and the American Political Imagination.” Gustafson’s research is focused on 19th century political thought, particularly the work of French political thinker, Alexis de Tocqueville, whose writings on American democracy became a central focus of her presentation.

Gustafson described the Declaration as an urtext of the American story. Although the Constitution and Bill of Rights carry greater legal authority, she said the Declaration continues to have “rhetorical and sentimental force.” Its language, she explained, has been repeatedly used by Americans to discuss the country’s ideals, including in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

Rather than treating the Declaration as an isolated historical document, Gustafson used Tocqueville’s observations to explore the political culture that existed around it. Tocqueville traveled through the United States in the 1830s and later published “Democracy in America,” a detailed study of American democracy and political life.

One of the examples Gustafson highlighted was Tocqueville’s experience in Albany, New York, on July 4. He witnessed military demonstrations, Revolutionary War veterans being honored, and copies of the Declaration being printed in the street. The celebration concluded with a public reading of the document.

Tocqueville found the experience had “something deeply felt and truly great about it.” For Gustafson, the celebration showed how Americans are able to pass down history and traditions through local communities and organizations rather than relying on institutions

Gustafson compared those formal institutions to the first floor of a house, supported by a basement made up of families, clubs, religion, ethics and other informal institutions.

“They provide the dynamism, strength, and support, without which that first floor would not hold.” said Gustafson.

During the question and answer session, Gustafson encouraged students to apply those ideas locally rather than focusing exclusively on national politics.

“Go build something,” Gustafson said. “Go work with your hands. Go work with other people.”

For Gustafson, civic education is about more than memorizing founding documents. It is about developing a ‘political imagination’ that connects the words of those documents to the communities, relationships, and traditions that give them meaning.

The Constitution Day program came during a year of national attention on the Declaration’s 250th anniversary. The event was supported by a grant from the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History and organized with support from the Department of Political Science and Public Policy.

“The research I do has nothing to do with dance,” says Scherich, the A.L. Hook Emerging Professor in Science and Mathematics and assistant professor of mathematics and statistics at Elon. “Dance is just the mechanism in which I communicate my research.”

Scherich’s research focuses on topology, a branch of mathematics that studies flexible geometric shapes that remain preserved through deformation such as twisting, stretching or bending without opening holes, tearing or passing through themselves. More specifically, her research centers on knot theory, a field examining mathematical knots and braids.

Advanced mathematics requires years of foundational knowledge and technical language that can be difficult to explain to those outside the discipline. This challenge prompted Scherich to think creatively about how to share her work with broader audiences in an accessible way.

“Mathematics can be very abstract and uses a lot of specific jargon language,” Scherich says. “It can be difficult to tell somebody about your work, because first you have to define years’ worth of math before you can even get started. I was looking for ways to explain what math is in a way where you do not necessarily understand the technicalities, but you can get a flavor for what we are studying.”

Dance allows her to bypass that barrier, not by simplifying math but by translating it into a story with motion and emotion.

“Dance is a really effective way to emotionally story-tell,” she says. “I don’t really think in terms of dialogue. I think in terms of movement.”

Scherich’s work intentionally challenges stereotypes surrounding mathematics. Many of her videos feature female dancers and traditionally feminine aesthetics, in contrast to what has historically been a male-dominated field.

“When you think of a ballet dancer, you think of a woman,” Scherich says. “When you think of a mathematician, you probably don’t.”

The intersection of dance and mathematics flows into her work with students. She collaborated with Sol Addison ’25 and Lila Snodgrass ’26 on research examining how dancers move across a stage over time to define a new knot invariant called the danceability index.

In the classroom, Scherich uses videos of her dances as part of a larger narrative. She might begin a lecture by introducing different branches of mathematics such as algebra, geometry and topology through movement, giving students a conceptual framework before diving into formal definitions. One of her recent pieces uses , a foundational result in knot theory. The videos do not replace traditional instruction but provide students with another way to grasp complex ideas.

Scherich’s path to mathematics was far from linear. Growing up in California, she left high school early to pursue performance opportunities and began college at 14, initially planning a future in performing arts. Encouraged by her father, a high school math teacher, she also enrolled in math courses as a backup plan.

I was looking for ways to explain what math is in a way where you do not necessarily understand the technicalities, but you can get a flavor for what we are studying.��— Nancy Scherich

She changed majors several times — performance, French, biochemistry, chemistry — before mathematics finally stuck. The turning point came during a calculus class when she learned how to calculate the volume of a three-dimensional shape created by rotating a two-dimensional object.

“I was like, ‘I think I just became a mathematician; this is so cool. I’m in,’” Scherich says.

For years, Scherich kept dance and math separate. That changed during graduate school at the University of California, Santa Barbara when she learned about Science magazine’s “Dance Your Ph.D.” competition. Encouraged by a friend, she spent an entire summer creating a dance video inspired by her dissertation research. The project went on to win the competition.

“I feel like the video I created is probably my life’s masterpiece,” Scherich says. “So much love and passion went into that dance video. Since then, every time I am doing research or learn a new piece of mathematics, or I’m having trouble explaining math to someone, I think ‘Can I make a dance about this?’”

While the approach is unconventional, Scherich says the response from the mathematics community has been overwhelmingly positive.

“People will come up to me at conferences and say, ‘You’re the math and dance girl, right?’” Scherich says. “They appreciate that it’s making math accessible and fun.”

The 2025-26 academic year also marked major milestones in Scherich’s career. She was named the A.L Hook Emerging Professor in Science and Mathematics and received a $125,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to support her research and community building within Elon’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

Through her work, Scherich continues to demonstrate that mathematics is not limited to formulas and symbols on a page. By combining movement, storytelling and research, she offers students and audiences a new way to see mathematics — as dynamic, creative and deeply human.

With the support of the Departments of Art History, English, History, Philosophy, Religious Studies and World Languages and Cultures, a slate of events from Oct. 5-9, 2026, are intended to communicate the value of the humanistic disciplines in a digital age.

All Elon community members are welcome to join. Contact Associate Professor Ariela Marcus-Sells (amarcussells@elon.edu) with any questions.��

Monday, October 5

• Trivia Night at 6:30 p.m. at the Oak House

Tuesday, October 6

• Social Media Takeover with Humanities majors

Wednesday, October 7

• Career Paths for Humanities Majors at 6 p.m. in Lakeside 212 and 213

Thursday, October 8

• Being Human Coffee, from 9:50 – 10:20 a.m. in Numen Lumen

Friday, October 9

• Being Human Alumni Reception and Networking from 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. on the Spence Pavilion Patio

Visit the Humanities Week webpage for updated information.

“I’ve always been a writer, but I never believed I could write a whole novel,” said Schramm, who majored in philosophy and journalism in 2008. “But during the pandemic I saw all these people living their dreams and I thought maybe I could do that too. This is when I came up with the idea for my novel and started writing.”

The young adult novel, “,” tells the story of high school senior Sydney Hoffman as she sees pink neon countdown clocks over people’s heads 72 hours before they die. This has left her cynical, closed off and alone until she meets Peter Beckett, who changes everything she believes about life and death. Peter convinces Sydney she does not have to handle the countdowns alone, and together they help strangers live their best final hours.

“It felt like everyone around me had a clock over their head during the pandemic and I was really struggling to figure out how to live a meaningful life with the threat of the world possibly ending at any moment,” said Schramm. “I was sort of learning alongside the main character, Sydney, how to enjoy life and be present.”

During this time writing the novel became cathartic for her.

“My classes at Elon influenced my writing so much,” said Schramm. “This book is very philosophical and so many of the ideas in there are from my time eating bread around the fireplace in the philosophy building talking about existentialism and what it means to live an examined life. One of the teachers in the book is named in honor of one of my favorite philosophy professors, Dr. Jegstrup. She pushed me harder than any teacher ever has, and I owe so much to her and her classes.”

Schramm was originally only a journalism major, but that all changed after she took a philosophy class taught by Associate Professor Elsebet Jegstrup.

“After the first class, I walked directly to the registrar’s office and immediately changed my major to philosophy,” Schramm said. “I only needed one day for it to change everything.

Publishing a novel was not exactly what she thought it would be. While writing her debut novel, Schramm learned from other authors how the publishing world worked.

“One of the things I didn’t realize was how long publishing takes,” Schramm said. “My auction for “72 Hours of You” happened in early 2024 and it just recently came out.”

Life as a debut author has been a dream come true for Schramm. She has had the opportunity to meet many creative colleagues and visit stores to sign copies of her book.

“I feel wildly lucky that this is my job,” Schramm said. “To see my debut novel translated into so many different languages has been such an incredible gift.”

Now working on her second young adult novel, “Kiss Me Like the Last Time,” about a girl who kisses someone for the first time while also experiencing her last kiss with them at the same time, which is set to publish in 2027.

Schramm is also publishing her first debut adult novel in 2028 titled “The Eternal Deaths of Hattie Gold,” about a woman who is training to become Gen-Z Death.

While at Elon, Schramm participated in Greek Life and developed strong relationships with faculty.

“I loved attending Elon and being in the Department of Philosophy,” Schramm said. “The philosophy department was such a special tight-knot space, and I am forever grateful that I changed my major to philosophy.”

Schramm is earning her PhD in creative writing.

The article analyzes the extent to which Welles’s technical innovations with mobile framing and disjunctive editing elicit a phenomenologically responsive mode of spectatorship that mirrors the reader’s engagement with Kafka’s prose. In this way, the essay argues that Welles’s adaptation both preserves and expands Kafka’s exploration of cognition under modernity’s crisis of attention.

Appearing in The Routledge Companion to James Baldwin, Burns’s book chapter, titled examines two adaptations of Baldwin’s influential novel, one unfinished and one completed decades later.

The first is Baldwin’s own screen treatment for Universal Studios, conceived alongside the book’s publication in 1974 but abandoned shortly thereafter. Available only among the author’s papers at the New York Public Library’s , this special collection includes production notes and studio correspondence that trace the project’s thwarted commercial development. Burns’s archival research at the Schomburg was supported by New Faculty Summer Research funding through the Provost’s Office.

The second is Barry Jenkins’s Oscar-winning 2018 feature, which translates Baldwin’s alternately rhapsodic and polemical prose into an intimate visual style. Read together, the two projects reveal how creative and cultural conditions shaped adaptations of the same literary work across distinct eras.��Examining the director’s use of slow cinema aesthetics and gaze theory, the chapter argues that Jenkins’s visual treatment resolves—rather than reproduces—a supposed divide between the “two voices” of Baldwin’s narration.

Kranec, an applied mathematics and biomedical engineering major, whose research focuses on using a mathematical model to better understand how the immune system responds during COVID-19 and how that response may contribute to heart damage. She developed a system of differential equations that describes the interactions between the virus, immune cells and cytokines in the heart. Kranec has conducted this research with Associate Professor of Mathematics Hwayeon Ryu.

Their goal is to better understand how immune dysregulation can lead to cardiac complications during infection.

“As an applied mathematics and biomedical engineering student, I’ve always been drawn to how mathematics can be applied in real-world health problems,” Kranec said. “COVID-19 really highlighted how complex the interactions between the immune system and an infection are, and I was super interested in how mathematical modeling could help to answer biological questions that might be different to experimentally study.”

This research project allows Kranec to combine her interests in mathematics, biology and medicine.

“Receiving this award is incredibly meaningful to me,” Kranec said. “It is a privilege to have my presentation recognized by other researchers and educators in the mathematical community. This award reflects not only the research itself, but the mentorship we received and the collaborative effort that went into this project. Being award this prize has given me more confidence in pursuing interdisciplinary research in the future.”

Her research poster was submitted as part of the MAA MathFest presentation session for �þ��� students. Kranec recalled being surprised and honored to receive the award at MathFest.

“I had seen many other impressive projects being presented at the conference, so I was grateful that the judges held my work in the same high esteem,” Kranec said. “It was a very rewarding and exciting moment.”

At the MAA MathFest conference, Kranec enjoyed the opportunity to explain her research on how mathematical models can be used to provide insights into complex biological systems and hearing questions and new perspectives from others.

Keopagnapech Ngoun ’26, James Felder ’27, and Andrew Pipeling ’29 also contributed to this project.

“Receiving this award was an honor, and although my research group members were not able to attend the conference, I am grateful to have represented our team’s research at the conference,” Kranec said.

Kranec attended the conference with Ryu through support from a National Science Foundation grant to fund Ryu’s research on COVID-19.

“As a mentor, there is nothing more rewarding than watching a student grow in confidence and begin to see herself as a researcher,” Ryu said. “Lisa has worked hard on her project, so seeing her research recognized at a national conference was a very proud moment for me. This award is a wonderful recognition of her curiosity, persistence and growth, but it also shows what �þ���s can accomplish when they are given meaningful opportunities to engage with research. This is just the beginning for Lisa, over the next two years, she will continue her interdisciplinary research through her Lumen project, Mathematical modeling of excessive collagen production in cardiac fibrosis, under the joint mentorship of Efrain Rivera-Serrano and I. I’m excited to see how she continues to grow as an interdisciplinary researcher.”

Ayesh Awad ’24 received this award at the 2024 MathFest conference.

Established in 2007, the Janet L. Andersen Award for Undergraduate Research in Mathematical or Computational Biology honors Janet Andersen, professor of mathematics, at Hope College.

Assistant Professor Danny Frye will oversee in 2026-27 the “Fire of the Carolinas” Marching Band, the Wind Ensemble, the Concert Band and the Pep Band.

“We are so excited to welcome Dr. Danny Frye to our university,” said Associate Professor Ally Wente, chair of the Department of Music. “Danny has already been in the thick of it for several weeks now, leading marching band camp with energy, warmth and dedication. We couldn’t ask for a better start to his term as interim director of bands.”

Frye is a percussionist and music educator with over two decades of leadership and �þ��� experience in K-12 and collegiate music programs, including those at Wake Forest University, High Point University, Pfeiffer University and UNC Charlotte.

Frye has appeared as a guest artist at the Festival Internacional de la Puerto Rico, the Southeastern Percussion Festival and the Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina Days of Percussion. He has led clinics, recitals and masterclasses at universities throughout the country.

A professional percussionist, Frye earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has performed with Aretha Franklin, Lorrie Morgan and symphonies across the Carolinas in Charleston, Greensboro and Winston-Salem.

McKayla “MK” Phillips, adjunct assistant professor of music, will serve as interim percussion instructor and interim assistant director of bands.

Frye succeeds Associate Professor Jonathan Poquette, the university’s previous director of bands, who joined the music faculty this summer at Bethel College in Kansas alongside his wife, Kelly, another music educator.

Martin’s 22-year astrophotography project captures the shape of Earth’s shadow through a series of lunar eclipses. The collage is the culmination of a long-term astrophotography project that began with Martin’s first digital photograph of a lunar eclipse in 2003. By combining multiple images across eclipses, he completed the collage in March 2025 that shows the complete shadow of the Earth.

The project was inspired by the observation and documentation of lunar eclipses by the ancient Greeks who concluded the reason why occasional full moons look different was due to the Moon passing into the shadow of the Earth. Martin’s interest in astrophotography began as an eighth grader in the early 1980s when he photographed lunar eclipses for a science fair project.

“As I have taught this for years, I started to compile several images to outline the shadow of the Earth,” said Martin. “After a number of eclipses, I realized that I had enough data to mostly show the shadow of the Earth.”

Martin’s collage brings together images captured from numerous locations, including Australia, over the course of 22 years. Each eclipse presented a different opportunity and a different challenge. Weather conditions, the time of night and the position of the Moon within Earth’s shadow all had to align for Martin to capture the images he needed.

“At first I was just watching and photographing eclipses,” Martin said. “It was only in the last decade that I started intentionally working on creating this image. It was still a long time for the creation of the image and one that can’t be easily replicated without waiting on celestial alignments,” Martin said.

In March 2025, he finally completed the image by photographing the lunar eclipse on Elon’s campus. Shortly after completing his collage, Martin submitted it to NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, a website that has showcased astronomy images from around the world since the 1990s. The site reaches millions of viewers and is translated into more than 20 languages.

Martin initially expected the photograph might be published sooner. When he received an email notifying him that NASA had selected the image, his disappointment over the wait quickly turned into excitement.

“I was super excited when I got the email a few days ago,” Martin said. “I wanted to share this long-term project with the larger community of folks who are interested in astronomy and space science.”

The timing of NASA’s selection also makes the recognition particularly fitting. The photograph is being featured in conjunction with an upcoming lunar eclipse on Aug. 27, giving viewers an opportunity to see the phenomenon that inspired Martin’s project.

Over the years, Martin has used a combination of cameras and telescopes to photograph the lunar eclipses. He has used early generation digital cameras and his current Nikon Z8 camera paired with a 600 mm telephoto lens.

Martin joined Elon in 2020, his scholarly areas of expertise include astronomy, meteorology and geology.

“The magic of Elon College lies in the people who teach our students,” said Hilton Kelly, Dean of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences. “Our new faculty members embody a commitment to the liberal arts. They are curious, inspiring and interdisciplinary thinkers. We are delighted to welcome them to our community.”

New Professors for 2026-27 in Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences

• Jackson Cooper, assistant professor of arts administration, earned an MFA from Seattle University. He will teach Arts Administration and Community, Legal Aspects of Art and Entertainment and COR 1100: The Global Experience.
• Joseph Frey, assistant �þ��� professor of human service studies, earned a PhD from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He will teach Social Policy and Inequality and The Art and Science of Human Service Studies.
• Rachel Johnson, assistant professor of biochemistry, earned a PhD from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She will teach General Chemistry and Biochemistry.��She will join in the Winter Term to teach General Chemistry and Biochemistry.
• Ariana Montoya-Lozano, assistant professor of political science and public policy and environmental studies, earned a PhD from Purdue University. She will teach Introduction to Environmental Science 1150 and Environmental Policy 3230.
• Aditi Vyas, assistant professor of biology, earned a PhD from Ohio University. She will teach Cell Biology and Genetics.
• Danny Frye, interim director of bands, earned a DMA from University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

About Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences

Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences provides the foundation for the study of the liberal arts and sciences at �þ���. The college is comprised of 19 departments across three branches: the arts and humanities; natural, mathematical and computational sciences; and social and behavioral sciences. It hosts Elon’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest honor society celebrating excellence in the liberal arts and sciences.

Committed to the growth of students’ intellectual curiosity, intercultural competence and critical thinking, the college champions disciplinary knowledge and interdisciplinary applications to reflect upon, respond to and offer solutions to complex problems in an interconnected and changing world.

With more than 45 majors and 65 minors, the college is �þ���’s largest academic division. Two-thirds of the nearly 1,600 students who graduate from Elon annually do so with at least one major or minor in the college. Within a year, over 90% of college graduates report employment in their chosen field or enrollment in top post-graduate programs.

College faculty are prolific and preeminent scholars and creators in their fields, recognized for expertise at national and international levels. Each year, its more than 300 full-time faculty publish hundreds of articles, chapters, and books, and they present at scores of conferences and events. Their scholarship results in grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Institutes of Health and other prominent centers of research.

Nearly 1,600 new students arrived at �þ��� on Friday, Aug. 21, as the university welcomed the Class of 2030.

Despite a mix of rain and sunshine, staff members in Student Life and Residence Life worked to make the Move-In Day process as seamless as possible for students and their families. Student organizations and Elon Athletics teams also lent a hand, helping unload vehicles and carry students’ belongings into their new homes.

Familiar items in a new home

For many members of the Class of 2030, those belongings include more than the essentials for college life. As they begin a new chapter at Elon, students brought photographs, books, keepsakes and other reminders of the people and places they call home.

Ale Furano ’30 arrived at Elon from Greenwich, Connecticut, with three Polaroid photos of his family and friends. A Communications Fellow who plans to study sport management, Furano said he is looking forward to the opportunities ahead.

“I’m excited to meet new people and have a great opportunity and a new way of life,” Furano said. “I think the opportunities at Elon are really great, especially in the sport management field.”

Avery McTigue ’30, who plans to study nursing, is looking forward to joining clubs and organizations and exploring study abroad opportunities. Among the items making her new room feel more like home is an Elon-themed Jellycat plush toy with a special connection to her friends.

“The special item I brought from home is my Elon ‘Jellycat,’” said McTigue, who is from Bergen County, New Jersey. “My friends threw a ‘bed party’ for me, and it reminds me of them. Basically, they decorate your whole room, and it’s all Elon stuff.”

For George Schneider ’30, from Seattle, Washington, the move to Elon meant finding room for his vinyl collection. Schneider chose Elon because of its acting program. The Princeton Review recently ranked Elon No. 1 for Best College Theater, while The Hollywood Reporter included Elon on its list of the “25 Best Drama Schools in the World.”

“I’m very excited to be independent and expand on my training,” Schneider said. “I brought my record player and about 20 of my records. I knew I wasn’t going to bring a lot for my room, but I wanted to bring something to remember home by.”

An avid reader, Ryan Parker ’30, who plans to study journalism, made sure one of her books made the trip from Dallas, Texas. For Parker, attending Elon also means experiencing a new part of the country.

“I chose Elon because I felt it was the best for me, and I felt it would be a good transition as well,” Parker said. “I’m most excited to meet new people, especially being from Texas and being in a different part of the country.”

A class from around the world

The students arriving on campus bring a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and academic interests. Members of the incoming class come from 40 states and Washington, D.C., as well as 19 countries, including Singapore, Spain, Norway, Canada, Serbia, South Korea, China and New Zealand.

The most represented states are North Carolina, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Illinois.

Fourteen percent of incoming students are the first in their families to attend college. The class also enters Elon with a strong academic record, with an average high school GPA of 4.09.

�þ��� are bringing a broad range of academic interests to campus. The 10 most popular intended majors among incoming students are psychology, finance, biology, business analytics & AI, marketing, nursing, exercise science, elementary education, sport management and political science.

Several programs are seeing notable increases in interest compared with last year’s incoming class. The number of new students intending to major in elementary education increased 41%, while finance increased 39% and biology increased 16%.

The community classroom experience

Those statistics are reflected in the individual journeys bringing students to Elon.

Alexis Jacobs ’30 of Westport, Connecticut, was drawn to the university because of its size and sense of community. To personalize her new space, Jacobs brought handmade frames filled with reminders of the people, places and experiences important to her.

“I made these frames with different prints, photos, places I’ve been and family members,” Jacobs said.

Peter Matijevic ’30, who plans to study business analytics and applied mathematics, brought a reminder of his Massachusetts roots: a Drake Maye NFL jersey.

“It reminds me of Massachusetts and my favorite NFL player,” Matijevic said. “I chose Elon because it’s a beautiful campus and has small classes, so I could get to know my teachers.”

Elon’s teacher-scholar-mentor model among its faculty is a touchstone of the university’s academic experience. For five years in a row, Elon has been ranked best in the nation for �þ��� �þ���, and The Princeton Review recently ranked the university as No. 4 Best Classroom Experience.

Following Move-In Day, students attend New Student Orientation, including New Student Convocation on Saturday, Aug. 22.