Posted on Monday, October 19, 2026
Westminster College faculty members will share their research, creative works and scholarly insights during a daylong Faculty Scholarship Celebration on Wednesday, Oct. 21, followed by the annual Henderson Lecture at 6 p.m. featuring Dr. Timothy Grieve-Carlson, assistant professor of religion and philosophy.
The Faculty Scholarship Celebration will feature concurrent presentations throughout the day in the Witherspoon Maple Room and the Witherspoon Lakeview Room, covering topics ranging from education and the humanities to biology, chemistry, physics and social sciences. The evening Henderson Lecture, “The Icy Earth Swung Blind: A Human History of Climate Change,” will explore how people experience climate change not simply through data and scientific models, but as a lived human reality. All events are free and open to the public.
Established by the late Dr. Joseph R. Henderson and his wife, Elizabeth, the Henderson Lecture recognizes and encourages original research and scholarship among Westminster faculty members and provides an opportunity to share that work with the academic community.
“The Faculty Scholarship Celebration is an opportunity for students to see the passions that drive faculty members' curiosity and how they translate their questions into rigorous investigations that produce new knowledge claims. Such claims are the currency of academia and hearing how faculty produce them is a great opportunity to learn tactics that will help students succeed in their own studies. It is also a good way to discover questions almost guaranteed to get your Westminster instructors talking," said Dr. Jamie Frueh, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the College.
Faculty presentation schedule
8:10-9:10 a.m., Witherspoon Lakeview Room
Dr. Patricia Kardambikis, assistant professor of education, will present “Strengthening Teacher Self-Efficacy in Schools.” Kardambikis joined the Westminster faculty in 2026. She earned a B.S.N from Carlow College and M.Ed. degrees from Slippery Rock University and The Pennsylvania State University, as well as a Ph.D. from Kent State University.
Kristen Czubiak, lecturer of education, will present "Beyond Performance Assessment: Using the Reflective Approach to Teaching Practicum Debriefing (RATPD) to Illuminate Pre-Service Teacher Learning Within the Pennsylvania PDE-430 Evaluation Framework." Czubiak joined the Westminster faculty in 2024. She earned a B.A. from Grove City College and an M.Ed. from Westminster College.
9:20-10:20 a.m., Witherspoon Maple Room
Dr. Robert Craven, assistant professor of English, will present a poetry reading titled “East Palestine Train Derailment.” Craven joined the Westminster faculty in 2022. He earned his B.A. from Westminster College, a master’s degree from Duquesne University and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon.
Dr. David Swerdlow, professor of English, will read poems from his latest books, “Empty the River,” and “Nightstand.” Swerdlow joined the Westminster faculty in 1990. He earned a B.A. from the University of Maryland and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Ohio University.
9:20-10:20 a.m., Witherspoon Lakeview Room
Dr. John Robertson, associate professor of biology, will present “Getting to Know Two Venerable Families of Fishes.” Robertson joined the Westminster faculty in 2000. He earned his B.S. from the University of Massachusetts, an M.S. from the University of Rhode Island and a Ph.D. from Arizona State University.
Dr. Patrick Lackey, associate professor of chemistry, will present “Understanding the Role of Uridylation in Histone mRNA Degradation.” Lackey joined the Westminster faculty in 2016. He earned a B.S. from Duquesne University and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina.
10:30-11:30 a.m., Witherspoon Maple Room
Dr. Claire Fauzey, assistant professor of education, will present “Teach, Thrive, Repeat: Building Bridges: Connecting Families, Classrooms and Communities.” Fauzey joined the Westminster faculty in 2025. She earned a B.A. and an M.Ed. from Westminster College, as well as an M.Ed. and an Ed.D. from Slippery Rock University.
Dr. David Horst Lehman, assistant professor of history, will present “Westminster’s Artifact Collection." Lehman joined the Westminster faculty in 2023. He earned a B.A. from Goshen College and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
10:30-11:30 a.m., Witherspoon Lakeview Room
Jeremy Christensen, lecturer of communication, will present “Fordism’s Vanishing Frontier: ‘American Graffiti’ and the Formation of Blue-Collar Nostalgia.” Christensen joined the Westminster faculty in 2026. He earned a B.S. from Black Hills State University and an M.A. from the University of South Dakota.
Dr. Jeffrey Bersett, professor of Spanish, will present “Modern Murder Mystery, Estilo Español: Javier Cercas and Terra Alta.” Bersett joined the Westminster faculty in 2002. He earned an A.B. from Washington University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Virginia.
11:40 a.m.-12:40 p.m., Witherspoon Lakeview Room
Dr. Joshua Corrette-Bennett, associate professor of biology, and Trinity Lin, a sophomore biology major, will present “Exploring Inhibition of Biofilms Produced by Bacteria Within the Oral Cavity.” Corrette-Bennett joined the Westminster faculty in 2001. He earned a B.S. from Bates College and a Ph.D. from Brandeis University.
Dr. Joseph Balczon, associate professor of biology, will present “Antimicrobials and Antibiotic Resistance.” Balczon joined the Westminster faculty in 1997. He earned a B.S. from The Pennsylvania State University at Erie, Behrend College, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from The Pennsylvania State University.
12:50-1:50 p.m., Witherspoon Lakeview Room
Dr. Robert Badowski, associate professor of business, will present “Ghosted: Ghostwriting as Scholarship.” He joined the Westminster faculty in 2016. He earned a B.S. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and an MBA and a Ph.D. from Robert Morris University.
Dr. Jamie Frueh, vice president for academic affairs and professor of political science, will present “Teaching as Scholarly Identity.” Frueh joined Westminster in 2025. He earned a B.S.F.S. from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. from American University.
12:50-1:50 p.m., Witherspoon Maple Room
Dr. Matteo Luisi, assistant professor of physics, will present “The Dynamical State of Star-Forming Regions.” Luisi joined the Westminster faculty in 2021. He earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in technical physics from Graz University of Technology in Austria and his doctorate in physics from West Virginia University.
Dr. Adam Blumenthal, assistant professor of math and computer science, will present “Rumor Has It: How information Spreads.” Blumenthal joined the Westminster faculty in 2020. He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from Auburn University and a Ph.D. from Iowa State University.
2-3 p.m., Witherspoon Maple Room
Dr. Timothy Grieve-Carlson, assistant professor of religion and philosophy, will present “The Weirdness of Early Modern Climate Change.” Grieve-Carlson joined the Westminster faculty in 2022. He earned an A.B. from Drew University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Rice University.
Dr. Karen Resendes, associate dean of academic affairs and professor of biology, will present “Building Research Experience in High School.” Resendes joined the Westminster faculty in 2009. She earned her undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary and her doctorate from Brown University.
2-3 p.m., Witherspoon Lakeview Room
Dr. Jamie Chapman, associate professor of sociology and criminal justice studies, will present “Why Are People Attracted to True Crime?: A Q-Methodological Study.” Chapman joined the Westminster faculty in 2014. She earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from the University of Akron.
Dr. Angela Lahr, professor of history, will present "Conscience of a Historian: Telling Stories, Making Choices, and Doing the Right Thing." Lahr joined the Westminster faculty in 2013. She earned her undergraduate from the University of Evansville and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Northern Illinois University.
3:10-4:10 p.m., Witherspoon Maple Room
Dr. Dom Sirianni, assistant professor of chemistry, will present “Electrons Are Weird: Radical Insights from Quantum Chemistry.” Sirianni joined the Westminster faculty in 2025. He earned his undergraduate from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and his doctorate from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Dr. Pete Smith, professor of chemistry, will present "Scrap Magnets to KA Oil." Smith joined the Westminster faculty in 2002. He earned B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Tennessee.
3:10-4:10 p.m., Witherspoon Lakeview Room
Dr. Helen Boylan, professor of environmental science, and Valen Henry, a junior environmental science major, will present “Entrepreneurship and the Westminster Bee Company.” Boylan joined the Westminster faculty in 2001. She earned an undergraduate degree from Westminster College and a Ph.D. from Duquesne University.
Teresa Leone, adjunct professor of English, will present “Letterlocking.” Leone joined the Westminster faculty in 2019. She earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from Youngstown State University.
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Henderson Lecture, 6 p.m., Witherspoon Lakeview Room
Grieve-Carlson will present “The Icy Earth Swung Blind: A Human History of Climate Change,” exploring the human experience of climate change beyond scientific data and models.
The lecture draws from his current book project, under advance contract with Reaktion Books, which examines cultural responses to climate change during the Little Ice Age, a period of global cooling from roughly 1300 to 1850.
For more information about the Faculty Scholarship Celebration or the Henderson Lecture, please contact Frueh at fruehjj@westminster.edu.
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By Kristen Aleprete
Kristen Aleprete is a staff writer in Westminster College’s Office of Marketing and Communication.
