Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich has been granted the title of Chancellor’s Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dr. Blitvich, a professor of linguistics, has focused her scholarly career on the cultural and technological shifts that define contemporary communication. Her recent research has centered on cancel culture, online public shaming, and moral panics.
Dr. Blitvich received her bachelor’s degree in Anglo-Germanic philology and both her master’s degree and Ph.D. in English, all from the University of Valencia in Spain.
Azenegashe “Ozzie” Abaye was named an Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, where she has taught for more than three decades. Dr. Abaye, the Thomas B. Hutcheson Jr. Professor of Agronomy, focuses her research on sustainable agriculture practices that improve the livelihoods of farmers, women, and children in West Africa. She also coaches the Virginia Tech Crops Judging Team, where students develop practical skills through regional and national competitions in crop, weed, and disease identification; grain grading; and seed analysis.
Dr. Abaye is a graduate of Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in biological science. She holds a master’s degree in animal and dairy science from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in agronomy from Virginia Tech.
Hannah Pollin-Galay was awarded tenure at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. A professor of history in the department of Judaic and Near Eastern studies, Dr. Pollin-Gray joined the university in 2025 as the Pen Tishkach Chair of Holocaust Studies and director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies. Before coming to the University of Massachusetts, she was head of the Jona Goldrich Institute for Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Her latest book is Occupied Words: What the Holocaust Did to Yiddish (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024).
Dr. Pollin-Galay earned her bachelor’s degree in Yiddish studies and English literature from Columbia University in New York and a master’s degree in Jewish history and a Ph.D. in general history from Tel Aviv University.
Dora Epstein Jones was named chair of the department of architecture in the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado Denver. She previously served as chair of architecture at Texas Tech University and as a professor of practice at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research examines the discipline of architecture as a set of practices, construction methods, precedents, canons, and tectonics.
Dr. Epstein Jones is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, where she majored in applied behavioral studies. She holds a master’s degree in urban planning and a Ph.D. in architectural history, theory, and criticism from the University of California, Los Angeles.