Connie Chiang studies modern United States history, with specialties in environmental history, the history of the American West, social history, and Asian American history. Her current book project Nature Behind Barbed Wire: An Environmental History of the Japanese American Incarceration  explores how the environment shaped the confinement of over 110,000 people of Japanese descent during World War II. This is due to be published in August 2018.

Elena Cueto Asin focuses her research on modern Spanish literature, theater and film, with an interest in history and the global reach of Spain’s cultural production. Her latest book Guernica, en la escena, la página y la pantalla [Guernica on the Stage, on the Page, on the Screen] (2017) deals with iconic representations of the Spanish Civil War from 1937 to the present.  She is currently working on a project that studies the treatment of history and cultural heritage in recent Spanish television dramas. 

Michael Kolster is a photographer and 2013 Guggenheim Fellow. His November 2016 book, Take Me To The River, which features an essay by Associate Professor of History and Environmental Studies Matthew Klingle, explores four American rivers that flow into the Atlantic Ocean—the Androscoggin, Schuylkill, James, and Savannah—as they emerge from two centuries of industrial use and neglect. His next book of photographs, due out next year, will have as its subject the Los Angeles River. He is currently working on a series of photographs of Parisian parks and stereo images of plastic flotsam washed up on the beaches of Hawaii.

Vineet Shende‘s music has been called “impeccably written, at once ferocious and mystical” and often incorporates a wide variety of styles, ranging from North Indian classical music to rock music. His work has been performed throughout the US, Europe, and Asia by ensembles such as the National Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the Cassatt String Quartet.