| by Caitlin Fillmore

News Stories

Wei Liang
Professor Wei Liang presented at the faculty showcase on an experiential learning trip to Vietnam and Thailand that she co-led with Professor Jessica Teets.

COVID-19 and financial crime. Urban forests. Hydropower geopolitics.

These are just a few of the areas that Middlebury Institute faculty have been researching lately—often with their students supporting and learning alongside them.

Professors gave a taste of what they’re working on at the spring faculty showcase.

“Hydropower is always linked to injustice,” Professor Wei Liang told faculty, staff, and students in attendance. Liang and Jessica Teets, a political science professor at Middlebury College, developed an experiential learning trip to Vietnam and Thailand, guiding 10 graduate students to do intensive research there in January 2024.

Because the Mekong River crosses through six nations, it provides a rich environment for students to get hands-on experience with topics as varied as environmental protection and U.S.-China relations. Students examined the politics around damming the Mekong River and were able to contribute new observations to the dynamics surrounding the watershed.

Liang and Teets reported a deeper understanding of Thailand and Vietnam and close collaboration with the locals through the research they conducted during the course.  

“The heat will kill you first,” said Professor Fernando DePaolis, quoting the title of Jeff Goodell’s 2023 book. “Urban heat will kill more people sooner.”

DePaolis shared some of his initial work on urban heat islands on the Monterey Peninsula. Urban heat islands happen when trees, hedges, and bushes are replaced with pavement and buildings. The increased absorption of heat from man-made surroundings helps accelerate the effects of an already warming planet, DePaolis explained.

DePaolis’s goal is to gather 20 to 30 years of congruent data to see how urban forests are changing in size and species. The professor, who teaches data analysis, is working with student researchers to identify and catalog individual trees in the Del Monte Forest in Pebble Beach. Innovative drone and artificial intelligence technologies are currently being tested on detecting individual trees and determining their species. 

Professor Moyara Ruehsen provided fascinating insight into a researcher’s mind when she shared her initial curiosity with how the COVID-19 pandemic affected her field of study: financial crime.

“Cash is king for criminals,” Ruehsen said. “And the pandemic shut down cash-intensive businesses.”

Ruehsen explained all of the different tactics employed to launder money, from passing cash through casinos or restaurants to “structuring,” which is splitting up a large sum into several deposits under $10,000.

As pandemic-related shutdowns provided few other alternatives, financial criminals increasingly turned to structuring to conceal illegal money. Reports of suspicious structuring activity “skyrocketed” by 69 percent during the pandemic, Ruehsen said.

Professor Marie Butcher shared the story of a developing poetry anthology called Peace, Poetry & Policy: A Multilingual Anthology of Poetry Dedicated to Peace. Butcher developed the 127-poem anthology with three Institute graduate students in just one semester. 

As Butcher finished her presentation, a prospective student from the audience asked to contribute to the anthology—which was in its final manuscript stage. Butcher agreed to consider her poem.

Other presenters included these professors:

  • Dr. Maha Baimyrzaeva, who shared insights on moving from a problem-focused to a solution-driven approach drawing from her training as a coach and expertise in institutional capacity building.
  • Dr. Netta Avineri, who shared her process in publishing a new textbook, titled An Introduction to Language and Social Justice: What Is, What Has Been, and What Could Be. 
  • Phil Murphy, who presented a data analysis comparing how connections are formed during in-person vs. online learning. 
  • Daniel Chatham, who shared how he’s using generative AI in the classroom with a model that helps emulate realistic problem solving when working with a third-party client. “It encourages higher-order thinking,” Chatham said.
  • Dr. Kate Petrich, who shared helpful strategies for new faculty and faculty coming from professional backgrounds.
  • Dr. Robert Rogowsky, who discussed how China and the U.S. might find a path toward more constructive long-term negotiation as an alternative to an economic cold war.

For More Information

Financial Crime Management