Faculty Research Interests

My research interests include online and hybrid education, developmental mathematics, and innovative approaches to teaching and learning.

Soft materials, such as granular media, colloids, emulsions, and foams, are the materials with both solid-like and liquid-like properties. They are very common in medical and industrial applications. For example, sand, blood flow, collective cells, cosmetics, petroleum, and soft robotics like an artery stent are made of soft materials.

In these systems, understanding and controlling their dynamic and structural properties, as well as their long-term evolution and stability, are of fundamental importance. My research interest is studying the properties of soft materials utilizing microfluidic techniques, microscopy and image analysis.

My research primarily focuses on organized labor in America. This work has explored the history and function of AFL-CIO central labor councils. This historical work ultimately led to research on contemporary labor councils and a co-edited book that has become the authoritative text on the subject. It also resulted in a Political Power and Social Theory article on the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), the American Labor Party, and Third Party Politics in the United States.

It also resulted in an article on the Milwaukee County Labor Council, which is one of the 50 most-cited articles in the Labor Studies Journal. My most recent work explores innovative organizing strategies being employed by the Service Employees International Unions (SEIU).

My research interests include implicit memory and memory improvement strategies.

I am involved in pedagogical research related to advanced-level undergraduate computer science courses, focusing on simulations and active learning strategies. I routinely attend conferences on computer science education and their affiliated workshops. 

My earlier research was in the area of programming language theory. It involved crafting formal specifications of program transformations and optimizations as well as the mathematical proofs verifying the safety and correctness of those specifications.  
 

My research focuses on the phylogenetic and functional diversity of microbial communities across gradient-driven ecosystems, from soils to estuaries to the deep sea. In these environments, microbes drive major biogeochemical cycles. Yet our understanding of how microbes transform carbon and nutrient compounds, the taxa involved in these reactions, and the impact microbes have on ecosystem function remains poorly constrained. Using both field and laboratory experiments coupled with next-generation sequencing, my research examines the functional adaptations and shifts in population structure of microbial communities across physical, chemical, and biological gradients. By determining how and why microbial community structure, genomic potential, and gene expression change across environmental gradients, we can better predict how ecosystems and their resident communities will respond to environmental change. 

My current projects include assessment of microbial diversity in grassland soils of Northeastern PA as well as studying the microbial populations associated with Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in Lake Erie.

I research the intersections between children, parents, and the media. This research varies from studying children's television content to helping parents use media as teachable moments with their children.

My research interests include 19th- and 20th-century narrative works. I have published articles on works of literature from the Andean region and Mexico as well as on Latin American Jewish writers, Latin American globalization, and so-called narco-literature.

My research focuses on the diverse interface between plants and insects. Plant-insect interactions are incredibly diverse and can largely be divided into interactions where plants co-opt insects as pollen vectors (for plant reproduction) and interactions where insects utilize plants as food sources and brood sites. Frequently these two sets of interactions are interrelated. I find it important to consider (1) insect perception of plant cues such as scent, color, shape, and texture, and (2) the multiple contexts in which plant cues, especially scent, may be used by the insect community.

Specifically, I am interested in ecological (multi-trophic) interactions related to floral and vegetative scents and how plant-to-insect olfactory signals function in concert with visual and/or tactile plant cues.

My research interests include (1) urban ecology in southeastern PA, spanning urban herpetofauna (reptiles and amphibians), urban invertebrates (principally nocturnal Lepidoptera and aquatic macroinvertebrates), and urban invasive plants; (2) biodiversity of Honduran Lepidoptera (new project involving field and archival work in collaboration with Zamorano University at the Uyuca cloud forest preserve in Honduras); (3a) pedagogy of academic service learning (locally in Chester, PA, and internationally in Honduras) to enhance student learning, civic engagement, and engagement in global human sustainability; (3b) pedagogy of undergraduate ecological education using practitioner research.

My scholarly projects have tended to explore three occasionally overlapping areas: 1) southern fiction and postmodernism, which extends work done for my dissertation, but with a sharper focus on humor (and a less dogmatic application of postmodern theory); 2) the intersection of rock music and literature/literary theory; and perhaps most significantly, 3) the art (and aesthetic philosophies) of Flannery O'Connor, which I have striven to approach from what might be called 'undoctrinaire' perspectives.

I have published several articles on O'Connor, as well as other authors, including Don DeLillo, James Dickey, William Faulkner, Barry Hannah, and Walker Percy. I've also published on Bruce Springsteen, and I am co-editing a collection of essays on explorations of evil in rock music.

My research is focused on understanding the structure and content of mental representations. In one line of research, I examine the influence of individual and motivational differences on cognitive processing by studying how different individual-difference variables, such as self-construal and regulatory focus, interact with task environments. For example, a set of studies demonstrated how induced or chronic negative stereotypes interact with the task reward structure (e.g., gaining points) to produce performance decrements consistent with stereotype threat. My recent work is focused on how goal orientations influence language learning, including learning computer programming languages.

My research focuses primarily on all things poetry and poetics. My book, Adelante, is a collection of poetry that examines the relationships between place and loss, juxtaposing the death of my Cuban father with the suffering and resilience of the natural world. I am also interested in global poetic forms and ekphrastic modes. Other creative pursuits include creative nonfiction and place-based writing. My critical interests include immigrant, Latinx, and Caribbean literatures, and I have presented scholarship on writers such as Eduardo C. Corral and Derek Walcott. Whether crafting original poetry or critically engaging literature by others, I am interested in how images conceal and reveal ideas.  

• 20th and 21st Century American Poetry and Poetics
• Multiethnic American Literature
• Jewish Studies
• Ecopoetry

My research interests include urban space and urban populations with a particular focus on the human/environment relationship, urban planning and social geography, and transnational exchange and adaption of ideas about nature and cities. 

I am working on two research projects: One examines the assignation of meaning to and responsibility for public space through an examination of a particular park location that became a suicide destination in fin de sicle Paris. The other work considers Franco-British greenspace design and exchange from 1660–1880.

My research interests include the history of social and political movements, women's activism, anti-fascism, and pacifism. My current book project analyzes the political work of over twenty different British women’s organizations that opposed the rise of fascist regimes in Europe beginning in the early 1930s. While some former militant suffragists joined fascist organizations in Britain, British women’s organizations overwhelmingly understood fascism as the single largest menace to women’s rights. In the years before and during the Second World War, British women’s organizations used the threat posed by fascism to legitimize their engagement in political discourses and to emphasize the importance of protecting the democratic rights that women had fought for decades to obtain.

My research interests are focused on obtaining a structure through x-ray crystallography of the Neutral Cholesterol Ester Hydrolase 1 (NCEH1) protein to better understand its role in cancer and atherosclerosis. I'm also very interested in the pursuit of research in the progression of science education with the application of technology. I'd like to work with new methods to provide quality feedback and interactive learning outside of the classroom to further the conceptual understanding of material learned in the classroom.

My research includes studies on the integration of mathematical reasoning into computer science curricula, development and integration of innovative teaching approaches that aim to improve the learning process and enhance the comprehension of the study materials, evaluation and assessment of the effectiveness of the proposed techniques, curricular development issues related to core introductory programming courses, interdisciplinary courses, courses for non-majors, and elective courses for computer science and information systems majors.

Currently, in collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Shea at the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science, my students are exploring predator prey interactions using marine gastropod shell collections. Predators of marine snails often leave evidence of attempted and successful predation attempts on the shells of their prey, including drill holes and cracks in the shells. Paleontologists have used this type of predation evidence to describe ancient ecological interactions. In the Krumm lab, we are applying this technique to recent shell collections, allowing examination of predator-prey interactions of marine gastropod populations that are otherwise challenging to access due to location and depth. Our lab is currently working on:

1. Characterization of predator shell damage in Family Terebridae. Does damage differ in frequency, size, and other characteristics across species in recent (non-fossil) shells
2. Do different drilling predators of the Terebridae, distinguished by the shape of the drill hole, differ in where they attempt to create a hole in the shell? Is the hole location impacted by predator size or shell outer wall thickness?

The Krumm lab is also examining morphological variation in Family Xenophoridae, the carrier shells. These marine gastropods attach found objects in their environments to their shells, including shells and rocks. There are multiple hypotheses that attempt to explain this attachment behavior. We are currently working on:

1. Characterization and comparison of shell footprints between species in Family Xenophoridae. Do we see regional variation within species? Do species with overlapping ranges show similarities in shell footprint patterns, such as width and shape of footprint?

My research and service interests also extend beyond my laboratory at Widener University, leading to the creation of BCEENET (Biological Collections in Ecology and Evolution Network), a research coordination network in undergraduate biology education. Undergraduate research experiences were a pivotal point in my career trajectory, leading me to pursue research in ecology and evolution. I am committed to expanding those opportunities for both my students, and undergraduates beyond my institution. As PI of BCEENET, I’ve had the opportunity to support faculty at diverse institutions in embedding research in their courses as CUREs (Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences) through CURE development and faculty development workshops. Additionally, I am involved in a large-scale assessment of BCEENET CUREs, demonstrating the value of participating in these CUREs through measures of student belonging and skills building.

My research interests all aim to alleviate societal problems. They include alternative refrigerants to R-22 and their physical properties, flammability studies of partially fluorinated hydrocarbons, thermophysical properties of ionic liquids and of their mixtures, and the thermodynamic behavior of medicinally valuable compounds.