Board of Governors recognizes scholarly excellence in faculty achievements

Wayne State University's Board of Governors upheld its tradition of honoring faculty excellence at its April 25 meeting by presenting the annual Faculty Recognition Awards. This year, five full-time faculty members were selected for this prestigious honor based on their outstanding accomplishments during the previous academic year, including their notable publications.

"The Board of Governors is proud to honor these faculty members whose dedication to advancing knowledge reflects the very best of Wayne State University," said Shirley Stancato, chair of the Board of Governors. "These scholars lead with curiosity, creativity, and impact, and we are proud to celebrate their remarkable contributions to knowledge and society."

Each recipient receives an award of $2,500. The award focuses on a specific work of merit completed within the 12-month period immediately preceding the award year. Recipients are selected by an advisory committee of their peers, all of whom are previous winners.

"These awards highlight the drive and purpose that define our faculty," said Dr. Kimberly Andrews Espy, Wayne State University President. "Their innovative work not only strengthens our academic foundation but also shapes the future - inspiring students, informing communities, and influencing thought across disciplines and borders."

Here are this year's recipients:

• Anne Duggan, professor in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

• Boris Mordukhovich, distinguished professor in the Department of Mathematics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

• Jack Blaszkiewicz, assistant professor in the Department of Music in the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts

• Chun Shen, associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

• Arash Javanbakht, associate professor (clinical scholar) in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences in the School of Medicine

Anne Duggan was recognized for the publication of The Lost Princess: Women Writers and the History of Classic Fairy Tales (Reaktion Books, 2023).

In The Lost Princess, Duggan brings to light the untold story of French women writers who helped shape the fairy tale tradition we know today. In the book, Duggan reveals their role in popularizing fairy tales across Europe and beyond. Duggan's work gives these overlooked women their rightful place in fairy tale history, showing how their creativity and influence helped define the stories that continue to captivate audiences today.

"I want people to understand that women played an important role in the rise of the fairy tale as a genre," says Duggan. "It is always an honor to see your work getting recognition, and I'm excited to say that The Lost Princess came out in Chinese in 2025. This opportunity to reach an even wider audience allows me to share the untold contributions of these women and the lasting impact they've had on storytelling across cultures."

Boris Mordukhovich was recognized for the publication of Second-Order Variational Analysis in Optimization, Variational Stability, and Control: Theory, Algorithms, Applications (Springer, 2024).

Mordukhovich is an expert in variational analysis, a branch of math that helps solve real-world problems in areas including artificial intelligence, machine learning, economics and engineering. His new book is the first to focus completely on advanced topics in this field, including helpful math tools, step-by-step methods and real examples. It's written for students and researchers who want to understand both the theory and how to apply it in practice. Each chapter includes exercises and notes, which can be utilized as instructional material in class.

"I wrote this book not just to share advanced knowledge, but to inspire curiosity and creativity in the next generation of thinkers," says Mordukhovich. "My hope is that students will see the power of variational analysis and be motivated to apply it to the real-world challenges of today and tomorrow."

Jack Blaszkiewicz was recognized for the publication of Fanfare for a City: Music and the Urban Imagination in Haussmann's Paris (University of California Press, 2024).

Blaszkiewicz is a historian of urban culture and music whose work examines how sound shapes the identity of cities. His new book looks at Paris during the Second Empire (1852-70), a time when the city was rapidly changing. By exploring music in places like cafés, markets, exhibitions and city streets, Blaszkiewicz shows how sounds - from street songs and cabaret tunes to opera and military parades - helped shape the image of a modern Paris. His book offers a new way to understand how everyday music influenced the city's past and future.

"It is an honor for my book to be recognized at the university-wide level," says Blaszkiewicz. "Interdisciplinary work is fascinating but risky, as it pushes you to ask questions you weren't necessarily trained to answer. This award is a validation of those risks."

Chun Shen was recognized for the publication of Viscosities of the Baryon-Rich Quark-Gluon Plasma from Beam Energy Scan Data (Physical Review Letters, Volume 132, 2024).

Shen's book explores the research behind what happens when tiny atomic particles collide at extremely high speeds. When the collisions occur, they create a super-hot, super-dense state of matter called the Quark-Gluon Plasma - a kind of "soup" of particles that existed just after the Big Bang. His findings help scientists better understand one of the universe's earliest and most mysterious forms of matter, a big step forward in the world of physics.

"This is an important recognition from the university for my research work," said Shen. "It encourages my research group at Wayne State to continue making breakthroughs in fundamental science and provides students at Wayne State opportunities to participate in cutting-edge research in physics."

Arash Javanbakht was recognized for the publication of Afraid: Understanding the Purpose of Fear and Harnessing the Power of Anxiety (Rowman and Littlefield, 2023).

Javanbakht is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist whose work bridges science, emotion and everyday life. In his book Afraid, he helps readers understand fear not just as a medical issue, but as part of the human experience. Using science, real-life stories and everyday examples, Javanbakht explains how fear, anxiety and trauma shape our minds, bodies, relationships and even the world around us. He also explores how fear connects to creativity, what it means to be brave and why we sometimes enjoy being scared.

Javanbakht completed this book near the desert mountains of Tucson - not far from the Grand Canyon, where years earlier he faced and overcame his own fear of heights.

"The biggest challenge was finding time to write this book," Javanbakht explained. "I wrote this book while balancing full-time clinical, research and teaching. It started as a passion project and grew into something deeper - not just about fear, but about resilience and the strength we gain by facing what scares us. The hardest part was rewriting and cutting nearly a third of it to make it clear, engaging and human. I even learned a lot myself, especially about the neuroscience of bravery and how fear fuels creativity."