Immigrant groups are also increasingly dissimilar to the host society, contributing to feelings of distrust and the rise of authoritarianism within these host countries, said , a professor of psychology in Georgetown University ������Ƶ & Sciences. 

, published in January 2026 by Cambridge University Press, focuses on questions raised by the current immigration landscape. Moghaddam wrote the book with co-authors (MPP’19, G’22), who received her Ph.D. in psychology from Georgetown in 2022, and (MPP’22, G’25), a Ph.D. graduate from the Department of Psychology and Jesuit priest who received the .

From a purely fiscal perspective, that immigration boosts economic growth. “But people are not rational,” said Moghaddam. “People are driven by irrationality, emotions. Often, they are driven by fears, hatred, anger.”

Studying and researching the issue of immigration from the perspective of psychology opens the door to examine the emotional and behavioral aspects to modern immigration. 

“Why are we seeing immigration as a threat? This is a perception. It’s a psychological experience,” Moghaddam said. “On the immigration side, what are the perceptions and aspirations and hopes of immigrants as they arrive in America? That’s a psychological feeling as well. So on both sides, both the immigrants and the hosts, the key to their relationship is psychological.”

Advocating for Omniculturalism

“Immigration is inevitable, so the question is, how do we manage it?” Moghaddam said. The new book aims to answer this question.

Approaching the issue from a global perspective, The New Immigration Challenge explores challenges of managing this inevitable migration while immigrants are increasingly dissimilar from the host society. 

“It’s this dissimilarity that creates threats or feelings of threats in the host population and creates this backlash against immigrants,” Moghaddam said. “In the United States and in Europe, this backlash is the foundation for the rise of authoritarian political movements and leaders.”

The book is based on Moghaddam’s research into immigration, which he has been examining since the 1980s, and on the Ph.D. theses completed by co-authors Hendricks and Salas-Schweikart. Hendricks’ research focuses on American identity and immigration, and Salas-Schweikart’s focuses on diversity and trust.

“We often hear about immigration in the news and how much people are against it — and of course others speaking out against those who are against it,” Hendricks said. “I think the book’s focus on the psychological perspective is important because it helps to explain why this is and also maybe more importantly, highlights that it’s not just the U.S. and it’s not just ‘western’ countries. These feelings or attitudes are global.”

In The New Immigration Challenge, the authors advocate for omniculturalism.

“Omniculturalism is the celebration of similarities,” Moghaddam said. “Based on scientific evidence, human beings are much more similar than they are different, and our focus should be on how we are similar so that we can meet challenges of nuclear proliferation, human-induced global warming and more.” 

The authors argue for the idea of omniculturalism so that societies can celebrate commonalities and focus on common challenges.

“That’s how psychology can help us: by acknowledging the challenges that we face when relating with immigrants, and how we can navigate these challenges by highlighting the commonalities,” Salas-Schweikart said.

Impacts of Inequality on the Human Mind

The book was published as part of the , edited by Moghaddam for Cambridge University Press. The series highlights research on the impacts of inequality on the human mind, a blindspot in the field of psychology.

Poverty and food insecurity shape psychological processes such as intelligence and decision making. However, mainstream psychology “completely neglects” these impacts, Moghaddam said.

“If we look at any introductory psychology text, there’s a lot of discussion about the impact of different group memberships, including gender and ethnicity and even religion, but there’s almost nothing about poverty and social class,” he said.

Moghaddam started the series to draw attention to the impacts of poverty and class inequality on psychology and how these forces shape the brains of almost who live in poverty. There are in the series and one more is set to be published this February. Moghaddam is the author of three other books in the series: , and .

As the latest book of the series, The New Immigration Challenge contributes to the collection through its analysis of immigrants and poor populations of the host nation, Moghaddam said.  

“The common plight of working-class whites and working-class immigrants, that’s something that needs to be taken up,” he said. “The common theme has to be poverty and dealing with poverty, not the color of your skin.”

He is a native of Monaghan, a town on the border of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and his father was a high school history teacher in Ireland. Books about Irish history surrounded Gannon at home. 

“There was an element of cultural immersion in the subject,” he said.  

Gannon is passionate about communicating Irish history to audiences at Georgetown and beyond, and last month, he was awarded the (Special Recognition Prize) for his 2023 book, .��

“The highest form of recognition really is that of your academic peers,” Gannon said. “To receive this award for me personally represents a form of career recognition by the Irish academy.”

Gannon’s book suggests that the actions, activities and attitudes of Irish nationalists in Britain were essential to the creation of the modern Irish state, he said, and it has contributed to recent national discourse in Ireland.

“We are proud to see Professor Gannon’s work recognized with the NUI Irish Historical Research Prize,” said , a professor and chair in the Department of History. “This award is particularly meaningful because it validates the global approach to history that we champion here at Georgetown. Professor Gannon’s scholarship — specifically his monograph, Conflict, Diaspora, and Empire — does not just recount events; it reimagines them across borders.”

Irish Nationalism in Britain

The book and Gannon’s research findings grew out of his Ph.D. thesis at Maynooth University and involved extensive archival research across Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Traditionally, Ganon said, the actions of Irish nationalists in mainland Britain were characterized as a “sideshow” to the revolutionary events that took place on the island between 1912 and 1922. But the book suggests that Irish nationalism in Britain was integral to contemporary Irish and British assessments of the Irish Revolution. It also shows that the role of Irish immigrants was invaluable to the creation of the Irish state, Gannon said.

The book and Gannon’s arguments have earned considerable media attention and commentary in Ireland and led to national debate. Publications and news organizations like , and , Ireland’s national broadcaster, have reviewed the book.

“This thoroughly researched, well written and insightful study addresses a significant gap in our knowledge of Irish Nationalism in Britain during the Revolutionary period and makes a convincing case for a need to reframe how we look at Irish Nationalism and the Revolutionary period in Ireland,” the NUI Awards selection panel wrote. “Professor Gannon is the first to place Irish Nationalism in Britain, which until now was regarded as marginal, more centrally within the wider context [of] the Irish Revolution.”

The selection panel also praised Gannon for “presenting a convincing argument that Home Rule activists, Sinn Féin supporters and IRA activists, operating in Britain had greater significance in shaping the Revolution back in Ireland than has hitherto been recognized.”

Maintaining peace on the island of Ireland requires embracing both British and Irish heritage, Gannon said, and the book attests to the importance of the shared past, shared future narrative through empirical research.

Georgetown’s Irish History

When Gannon received a in 2022, he chose to come to Georgetown because of the Global Irish Studies program and the comparative and transnational focus of the history department.

“I think the incredible breadth of research interests in the Department of History really set Georgetown apart from every other institution in my mind,” Gannon said.

Collins, the chair of the history department, believes that Gannon’s book, with themes of migration, empire and transnational identity, mirrors the wider ethos of the department, where scholarly analysis that crosses geographic and thematic boundaries is encouraged.

Gannon said he feels at home at Georgetown, and considers the NUI award an international endorsement of the value of Irish history at the university. Gannon noted that both Georgetown University founder and president were of Irish descent.

“I’m really passionate about promoting Georgetown’s historic Irish heritage, and positioning Georgetown’s Global Irish Studies as the premier Irish studies program in the world,” Gannon said. “I consider this award a significant milestone towards those aims.”

The event highlighted the results of a semester-long research partnership between Georgetown and the and featured four panels of student researchers whose work will support public interpretation of Barton’s life and legacy. 

Kevin Patti, a park ranger and site manager for the Clara Barton National Historic Site, told the crowd gathered at the symposium that Barton’s story remains urgent and relevant.

“Clara Barton died 113 years ago, and yet we still have a great deal we can learn from her life and her service,” he said. 

He praised the Georgetown students, who also served as volunteer researchers with the NPS, for producing work that will strengthen interpretation at the site as it prepares for .

“The work they have done in a Clara Barton-focused class this semester will be used by the National Park Service to educate people and connect people to the Clara Barton National Historic Site — online, on social media and in other ways at the site,” Patti said.

A Mutually Beneficially Collaboration

Manning, a Civil War historian and professor in the Department of History at the ������Ƶ & Sciences, designed and taught the history seminar, Hands on DC History: Researching Clara Barton for the NPS.

She explained that the collaboration emerged when she learned that NPS staff wished they had the time and resources to look more closely into specific questions about Barton, who Manning describes in her course syllabus as “one of the most significant Americans in the 19th century.”

Barton’s home and the national headquarters of the American Red Cross are both located in the DC area, and students spent the fall reading Barton’s diaries, deciphering 19th-century handwriting together, visiting local historical sites and collaboratively analyzing and discussing archival discoveries. 

“Every single one of them has learned something new,” Manning said. “And now that knowledge is being used by the Park Service.”

A Humanitarian and Reformer 

The first panel examined how Barton’s upbringing, values and early professional experiences shaped her later humanitarian work, offering new perspectives that will inform how the National Park Service interprets Barton’s life for the public.

Carleigh Heckel (C’27) found that Barton’s views differed from evangelicals inspired by the Second Great Awakening. She held equally deeply felt moral views, but they sprang from Universalism, not evangelicalism. Barton was raised in a Universalist household, Heckel explained, but “most of the evidence we have shows she isn’t especially religious” in the way that mainstream evangelicals were. 

Fallon Wolfley (C’28) explored Barton’s poetry and how it helped her forge meaningful relationships during the Civil War. Barton exchanged poems with soldiers and reformers, using poetry to connect with others during the Civil War, and later, to illuminate her own experience. 

“Is Barton necessarily a good poet? … I’m not convinced,” Wolfley said. “But what’s more important is the story her poetry tells about emotions, connection and grief.”

Dahlia Lozier (C’28) focused on Barton’s short but revealing tenure as superintendent of the . 

Lozier argued that Barton’s emphasis on kindness, dignity and politeness subtly challenged prevailing reform models that sought to reshape incarcerated women according to rigid ideals of domestic femininity. Barton’s approach, Lozier suggested, foreshadowed later critiques of punitive reform systems.

A Public Health Pioneer

Barton was a public health pioneer who helped shape early approaches to mental health, emergency response and first aid education by extending care beyond hospitals and military settings to ordinary civilians.

Lily Marino (C’28) examined Barton’s lifelong struggles with melancholy through a modern psychological lens while emphasizing that any diagnosis would be speculative. By tracing patterns in Barton’s diaries, Marino argued that recognizing these episodes “puts in relief how much harder she had to push to do the spectacular things she did.”

Olivia Matlaga (C’28) highlighted Barton’s establishment of the in her early 80s. Matlaga’s project, Barton in a Box, creates an educational kit accompanied by online instructions and informational pamphlets linking early first-aid tools with modern ones. 

Barton’s efforts, Matlaga explained, “spread the ability to render aid to the hands of ordinary people … without waiting for the approval of larger institutions.”

Caroline Thomas (C’27) traced Barton’s evolution as an emergency-response leader, from delivering supplies after the to improvising battlefield care during the Civil War. Thomas argued that Barton’s work anticipated the development of disaster and emergency medicine long before the field was formally recognized.

Responding to Natural Disasters

Barton shaped the way that people responded to major natural disasters by systematizing relief efforts, preparing in advance for emergencies and developing recovery models that were later applied across the country.

Sophia Grossman (C’27) analyzed the , shifting attention from heroic relief narratives to the social dynamics of recovery. Grossman showed how class shaped access to housing and resources during reconstruction, revealing how post-disaster recovery could reinforce existing inequalities.

Sylvia Jordan, a second-year Ph.D. in history candidate, focused her research on the and found it was “the organization’s fifth largest domestic relief campaign” during Barton’s tenure and foundational for later responses in Johnstown, and Galveston, Texas.��

The Mount Vernon project, Jordan said, shows that “we cannot base everything we know about the early American Red Cross off just three major disasters.” 

Patti also singled out Jordan’s work, noting that it highlights “an aspect of Miss Barton’s work that has not been highlighted as it will be now because of Sylvia’s work.”

A Women’s Rights Advocate

Barton’s legacy includes expanding opportunities for women in public leadership and humanitarian work. 

Marie Kim (C’27) analyzed how Barton strategically navigated 19th-century gender norms, using domestic spaces and the performance of proper womanhood to gain authority in male-dominated political and humanitarian spheres.

Maggie Stephens (C’28) studied Barton’s participation in international Red Cross conferences spanning the late 19th century. Barton fiercely defended the integrity of the Red Cross symbol and used conference speeches to highlight American relief innovations. Media coverage praised her as a female delegate operating on equal footing with international leaders.

Emma Vonder Haar (C’28) mapped how Barton is commemorated across the United States and abroad — from schools and roads to a Public memory, she argued, reveals what communities choose to value. 

“What do you see of yourself in Clara Barton’s triumphs, tragedies, or ordinary moments?” she asked.

Patti closed the event by thanking the students for “the wonderful program,” adding, “I know that your work will serve the park very well in the future.”

A key figure of merit for a magnet is the ability of its magnetization to strongly prefer a specific direction, known as magnetic anisotropy, which is a cornerstone property for modern magnetic technologies. 

Today, the strongest anisotropy materials for permanent magnets depend heavily on rare-earth elements, which are expensive, environmentally damaging to mine and vulnerable to supply-chain disruptions and geopolitical instability. For thin film applications, certain alloys of iron and platinum have become the materials of choice for next generation magnetic recording media, which contain precious metal platinum. Finding high-performance alternatives based on earth-abundant elements has therefore been a long-standing scientific and technological challenge.

A team led by professors and and graduate student Willie Beeson (G’25) in the at Georgetown University ������Ƶ & Sciences recently discovered a new type of strong magnets based on high entropy borides using earth-abundant transition metals and boron. The materials are both rare-earth-free and precious-metal-free, offering a compelling new strategy for sustainable magnet design. Their results are published in the journal .

“We offer a sustainable approach to making strong magnets that may be used for many applications, from future magnetic recording media to permanent magnets,” said Liu, one of the senior authors of the study. “More importantly, this points to the potential to alleviate the dependence on critical materials for magnets and other applications.”

High-entropy alloys are materials containing five or more elements in near-equal proportions. They have recently emerged as a powerful platform for materials discovery. Their vast compositional space enables access to novel electronic structures and properties. However, most studies of such alloys focus on chemically disordered cubic structures, which are ill-suited for strong magnetic anisotropy that prefers lower crystal symmetry.��

The researchers overcame this limitation by focusing on high-entropy borides, where boron promotes chemical ordering and lower-symmetry crystal structures. They targeted a crystal structure with tetragonal symmetry — imagine stretching a cube along one of its sides — called C16 phase. This structure is known in boron-based materials made from two or three elements but is largely unexplored in more complex materials.

Beeson synthesized these high-entropy borides using a combinatorial sputtering method in Liu’s lab, where atoms of the multiple target materials thoroughly mix by the time they are collected on a heated substrate. This approach also allowed rapid explorations of a large number of material compositions. On a single substrate, about 50 samples can be made simultaneously under identical conditions but with varying compositions.��

Key Findings

• Discovery of a new class of strong magnets: The team realized the first high-entropy borides in the C16 crystal structure using earth-abundant 3d transition metals — those that occupy the first row of the d-block of the periodic table — establishing a new class of ordered high-entropy magnetic materials.
• Anisotropy enhancement through chemical mixing: By introducing multiple 3d transition metals and systematically exploring composition space using a combinatorial co-sputtering approach, the researchers transformed the magnetization to point to a preferred direction with a significantly larger anisotropy.
• Record-level performance without rare-earths: Newly discovered quinary boride compositions exhibit strong magnetic anisotropy approaching that of rare-earth permanent magnets and exceeding previously reported values for rare-earth-free high entropy materials.
• Theory and experiment in agreement: Density functional theory calculations confirm the experimental trends and identify optimized electronic structure, particularly valence electron concentration and effective magnetic moment, as the origin of the enhanced anisotropy.

“We’re continuing exploring even better permanent magnets or recording media with different compositions on different underlying crystal structures,” said Yin, another senior author of the study. “With the help of machine learning we are hoping to make more rapid progress.”

Impact and Applications

The results establish a boron-assisted, high-entropy synthesis strategy for achieving strong magnetic anisotropy using earth-abundant elements alone. These materials are especially promising for applications that demand high anisotropy, such as:

• Heat-assisted magnetic recording media
• Spintronic devices and magnetic tunnel junctions
• Energy-efficient, rare-earth-free permanent magnets

By demonstrating that high magnetic anisotropy can be engineered without rare-earth elements, using only abundant transition metals, this research opens new pathways toward sustainable magnetic technologies. Beyond magnetism, this work highlights the vast and largely unexplored potential of ordered high-entropy materials as a discovery platform for advanced functional properties.

The team also included postdoctoral fellows and , and graduate student Bradley Fugetta (C’23). The work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF), 5E Advanced Materials and the Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem Services & Support (ACCESS) program. 

Beeson and Liu are co-inventors on on Boron-based and high-entropy magnetic materials filed by Georgetown University.

Contacts:

Kai Liu
Georgetown University, Department of Physics
Email: kai.liu@georgetown.edu

Gen Yin
Georgetown University, Department of Physics
Email: gen.yin@georgetown.edu

Three professors received Dean’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching: , , and . Two staff members received the Distinguished Service Staff Award: Karen Lautman and Leslie Byers. received the Stevens Award and received the Tosetti Award. received the Condé Nast Award and received the Farr Faculty Excellence Award.

“We are thrilled to celebrate the work and achievements of our esteemed faculty and staff,” said Interim Dean Andrew Sobanet. “The honorees for this year’s convocation are proof that the ������Ƶ & Sciences’ dedication to teaching, discovery, and service is thriving.”

Jo Ann Moran Cruz

Jo Ann Moran Cruz, the co-founder of the and a professor in the , received the Dean’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching. 

Cruz has held key administrative roles, including Dean of Humanities and Natural Sciences at Loyola University, New Orleans, and former chair of the department at Georgetown. A leading scholar in late medieval education and literacy, she authored The Growth of English Schooling, 1340-1530, co-authored Medieval Worlds, and has published extensively on education, literacy, and religious history. 

Her recent work includes studies on Dante, E.M. Forster, and Elizabethan family history, as well as an edited volume, The Cultural History of Education in the Middle Ages. She is currently working on her new book Gender and Power in Europe, 800-1600, for Routledge Press.

Christine So

Christine So, an associate professor in the , received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. 

Professor So, who joined Georgetown in 1998, is a specialist in Asian American Studies, Critical Race Studies, and literatures of the US empire. She authors the book Economic Citizens: A Narrative of Asian American Visibility, where she traces the logic of race, capital, and commensurate value in Asian American literature. She is currently at work on her book project, Unrecognizable Subjects: Reinventing Legal and Literary Epistemologies of Asian America, where she unpacks the law’s rigid and forceful ordering of what begins as a vague and indeterminate moment of Asian American emergence.

At Georgetown, she created and taught courses such as “Introduction to Asian American Studies,” “Introduction to Race and Ethnic Studies,” “Race, Law, and Literature,” and “Afterlives of US Empire.”

Clay Shields

Clay Shields, a professor in the , received a Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. 

Shields, who has taught on the Hilltop for some 25 years, teaches programming, security, and computer systems while continuing to research in computer and network security. He was born in Washington, D.C, and spent much of his childhood living overseas as required by the career of his stepfather, who was a covert agent for the CIA. 

Upon earning his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia, Shields served as an infantry officer. He later attended the University of California at Santa Cruz and for his PHD dissertation in Computer Engineering. Before coming to Georgetown in 2001, he worked as an assistant professor at Purdue University. 

Karen Lautman

Karen Lautman, who serves as the Department Administrator in the received the Distinguished Service Staff Award. 

This award is given to staff who have a record of extraordinary service within a department or program, and who have demonstrated selflessness as people for others, cura personalis, commitment to community in diversity, and creative leadership and service in support of academic excellence.

“Georgetown is a wonderful community. There are some very decent people on campus, and I am privileged to know many of them.”

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Lautman came to Georgetown in 1990 as part of the Lauinger Library administration team. After 4 years in the library, Lautman was offered a position in the ������Ƶ & Sciences Dean’s Office, where she remained for 6 years. In 2000 she was invited to become the Administrator of the English Department, where she has happily stayed for 24 years. 

Before moving to Washington, Lautman was a professional singer and has sung with numerous ensembles in the area in a range of musical styles. She was the house soloist at St. Patrick’s Church in downtown Washington for 19 years. 

Leslie Byers

Leslie Byers, a program coordinator in the , received a Distinguished Service Staff Award. 

Byers, born in Germany, has lived and traveled worldwide. She studied physiological psychology at the University of Utah and holds a certificate in social work. Before Georgetown, she worked as a social worker, au pair coordinator, master gardener, and TV producer. After 32 years at Georgetown, she retires in June 2025, continuing her gardening and community work. 

Reflecting on her time, Byers says, “I am very humbled to receive this award–I literally know a dozen other staff members who deserve it as much or more than I. It’s been a huge pleasure to work at Georgetown and serve so many fantastic and smart faculty, staff, and students over the years. I will miss it terribly.”

Rebecca Ryan

Rebecca Ryan, a professor in the , received the Stevens Award. 

​​The Stevens Faculty Excellence Award award honors excellent research, effective mentoring of student research, and innovation in a social sciences field.

Ryan researches how low income impacts parenting and child development. She focuses on parent-child interactions, resource investment, and interventions to enhance parental engagement. Her recent work includes a randomized trial using video chat to improve parenting and a field study on meal programs for low-income Latinx families. Her research has been continuously funded by both federal and private institutions, including the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the WT Grant Foundation.

Patrick O’Malley

Patrick O’Malley, a professor in the , received the Tosetti Award. 

The Tosetti Faculty Award honors excellent research, effective mentoring of student research, and innovation in the humanities.

O’Malley has taught in the English Department at Georgetown for 25 years, with a focus on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British and Irish literature, gothic novels, gender and sexuality studies, and critical theory. He has served as both Director of Undergraduate Studies and Director of Graduate Studies for the English Department. He’s the author of three award-winning books on Victorian and Irish literature. 

A highlight of his teaching has been interdisciplinary co-teaching first-year undergraduate seminars with faculty from the History Department in the Liberal Arts Seminar and, more recently, in the “Ways of Knowing” seminars offered by the ������Ƶ & Sciences.

Alison Mackey

Alison Mackey, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and Chair of the , received the Condé Nast Award. 

First awarded in 1966 by the College Student Council to honor the memory of the first President of the Yard, the Condé Nast Award is awarded annually by the ������Ƶ & Sciences to a faculty member who has served the College with distinguished teaching, research and service or leadership.

Mackey, a leading expert in second language learning and research methodology, is among the world’s top ten most-cited scholars in her field. She has published 100+ journal articles, 19 books, and received numerous awards, including the 2023 International TBLT Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award. 

A Georgetown professor for 27 years, Mackey has served on key university committees and was Editor-in-Chief of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics. She finds great joy in mentoring Ph.D. students and co-creating the Linguistics Department’s RULE class, which pairs undergraduates with advanced graduate researchers.

Micah Sherr

Micah Sherr, the Callahan Family Professor of Computer Science in the , received the Farr Faculty Excellence Award.

The Farr Faculty Excellence Award honors excellent faculty research, effective mentoring of student research and/or innovative dissemination of scientific knowledge in the natural sciences, computer science, mathematics and statistics and psychology. 

Sherr’s academic interests include censorship and censorship-resistance, electronic voting, wiretap systems, and more broadly, privacy-preserving technologies. He participated in two large-scale studies of electronic voting machine systems, and helped to disclose architectural vulnerabilities in deployed U.S. election systems. His current research examines the methods used by many nation-states to restrict access to information online, and investigates new censorship-resistance technologies aimed at evading them. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, and served as co-editor-in-chief of the Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies and associate chair of the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.

Balcells, a professor in the , is a leading expert in comparative politics and international relations. She earned her doctorate from Yale University and has previously held positions at Duke University and Princeton University. Her research has been published in esteemed journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and American Political Science Review. Her first book, , published by Cambridge University Press in 2017, was a runner-up for .

“I feel very honored to be receiving this award from the International Studies Association, which is a recognition of all the research I have been doing since I was a Ph.D. student,” Balcells said. “My work on security feels very timely now that the international order is changing and this is likely to have critical implications for national and international security. I hope that lessons from the past can help illuminate current and future developments.”

Professor Anthony Arend, chair of the Department of Government, spoke highly of Balcells’ achievements. “Professor Balcells is an amazingly productive and innovative scholar,” Arend said. “This Award is so well deserved. We are truly honored to have her as a colleague at Georgetown University.”

This was the Black Death, the first outbreak of the second plague pandemic, a series of epidemics that devastated the Mediterranean region and Europe for centuries. The loss of life was extreme, but plague did not equally impact all affected areas. Why some regions and some cities — and even some neighborhoods in cities — fared drastically worse is one of the most confounding and enduring mysteries of the Middle Ages. 

It’s a riddle that , a historical epidemiologist and environmental historian in Georgetown’s ������Ƶ & Sciences, hopes to finally solve nearly 700 years later. Newfield is part of an interdisciplinary and international team of researchers — EUROpest — that recently received a Synergy Grant from the European Research Council. That grant will fund a research program on plague’s differential toll with €10 million over the next six years.

Spreading Like the Plague

The second plague pandemic is one of the most well-known, and most misunderstood, events in human history, according to Newfield. 

“Every time a plague outbreak occurs or, for instance, a case emerges from within the United States, it is invariably linked to the Black Death and the second plague pandemic. Yet, our grasp of even some basic fundamentals of the second pandemic plague is weak,” said Newfield. “Just to start, how plague spread then and what variables caused the second pandemic to recede remain debated. Answering those questions and others will be of value for us today, considering the hefty cultural weight plague has and that it’s a global disease present in more than 25 countries.”

In academia and the public sphere, the second plague pandemic is often considered a universal killer that swept across the Mediterranean and Europe. But thinking of plague in this way or as a so-called “great equalizer” is misguided, according to Newfield. He points to individual outbreaks within the pandemic, like those that affected northern Italy and Tuscany around 1630, where the prevalence and mortality of plague was shockingly uneven. 

“In that outbreak, plague illness and death were irregular, from Venice to Prato and Milan to Florence. Why that is remains unknown,” said Newfield. “Over the last 15 years, we have had repeated confirmation from paleogenetics that plague was indeed responsible for the second plague pandemic, but plague is an extremely complex disease. Knowing that it was plague does not explain how it was transmitted. Of course, accounting for why plague’s spread was so irregular and so choppy will help us understand why plague shaped history in the way that it did.”

Plague Problem Solving

The Synergy Grant will allow the team to supercharge their research, putting money and workforce behind state-of-the-art tools and techniques. 

“With this grant, we will disaggregate more than 50 individual plague epidemics to account for what variables allowed plague to spread and kill the way it did,” said Newfield. “Too often we conceive of the microorganisms behind disease outbreaks as out there somewhere doing their own thing independent of us. Of course, people are at the heart of outbreaks. We are implicated in their emergence and their spread, and we shape the toll they take.”  

The research team is headed by four principle investigators — Newfield, Adam Izdebski, Elena Xoplaki, and Alexander Herbig — who will oversee a collaboration spanning ten institutions and involving historians, paleogeneticists, paleoclimatologists and paleoecologists. Together they will draw on a wide array of expertise with the intention of providing interdisciplinary solutions to seemingly intractable problems. 

With the data the team will amass and produce, researchers will be able to set epidemics into their cultural, economic and societal contexts. With new paleoclimate models and new pathogen paleogenomes, the team will also be able to set epidemics into their climate and epidemiological contexts. 

“Doing all this”, said Newfield, “will let us figure out what allowed plague to become the ��������ܱ�.”

“Interdisciplinary disease history is a super exciting space to work in. There’s a lot we don’t understand yet and because the data’s not finite, the ground is constantly moving under our feet and old ideas are being tossed out windows left, right and center.” “It’s challenging,” Newfield noted, “but more than that it’s just really exciting!”

This fall, Newfield was one of three associate professors at Georgetown to receive the , a $100,00 research award given to early-stage scholars in their post-tenure careers. With this award, he plans to study the origins of smallpox. Learn more about his research below:

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