Hilda C. Landers Library & Archives

Jessica Malisch is an Assistant Professor of Biology who has worked at St. Mary’s for 3 years.  After completing a Bachelor’s of Science at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, she earned a PhD in biology at the University of California, Riverside.  Fun fact–her doctoral diploma is signed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the “governator” of California at the time. Jessica was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Montana, then a visiting professor at Claremont Colleges in California before landing here at St. Mary’s (you’ll recognize that as a brilliant pun shortly).  We sat down with Jessica to learn more about her approaches to research and antics set to the music of Britney Spears.

What are your current research interests?

I’m an ecological physiologist with a speciality in endocrinology.  Specifically, I study hormones and their influence on the metabolism and behavior of songbirds.  I conduct research on the songbirds here at St. Mary’s and in Yosemite during the summer with a group of SMCM student researchers.

Additionally, I’m conducting research with Dr. Pam Mertz, Professor of Biochemistry, and rising senior Ivy Atunes (recent Flores Award recipient) to develop a novel assay for hormone transport proteins in bird blood. This assay (the scientific word for “method to measure something”) will enable students in my lab to measure the protein and help us understand the role of this protein in the stress response. We plan to share this assay with other labs to encourage more research in this area. These types of interdisciplinary collaborations with faculty and students is one of the many reasons I enjoy being a part of the liberal arts experience and the St. Mary’s community.

I am looking forward to a year of intensive research ahead, as I was recently awarded a 1 year fellowship.  The fellowship from the American Association of University Women gives me an opportunity to focus almost exclusively on conducting research and mentoring undergraduate research students here at St. Marys. Mentoring student researchers is my favorite aspect of my job.

What are some of your recent publications?

In the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, I published this article: “Stress-Induced Hyperglycemia in White-Throated and White-Crowned Sparrows: A New Technique for Rapid Glucose Measurement in the Field.”  (You can read it here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29847208)  This paper examines the relationship between acute stress and glucose mobilization in 2 songbird species, taking a unique approach to studying this phenomenon.  Researchers hold songbirds for 30 minutes (thus inducing acute stress) and take 3 blood samples at different intervals to compare their blood glucose levels. In general, I’m interested in what predicts the amount of glucose levels produced under stress and the ways this links to the survival of individuals. I am particularly proud that his paper has three St. Mary’s undergraduate co-authors, these students contributions were essential to complete the research.

How does the library help you in your research and/or the classroom?

InterLibrary Loan (ILL) is my best friend for conducting research.  All of my students in my class are required to create an ILL account so they can get familiar with it and find articles for their research using this fantastic service. I also teach First-Year Seminar so, I rely on the library during that course to help my students learn research skills and information literacy.

What’s one thing you think students or faculty should know about the library, archives, or media center?

In addition to ILL, know the library faculty and staff–they’re here to help you!

What are some interesting books or articles you’ve read recently?

This will tell you a lot about me:  I’ve been finding a textbook on avian physiology absolutely fascinating.  I was excited to find my work cited several times in the book, Sturke’s Avian Physiology, as I happened to pick up the book more or less by chance.

Favorite book?

The Last Season by Eric Blehm.  The story follows the disappearance of Randy Morgenson, an Eastern Sierra ranger who worked along the Muir Trail in Yosemite for many years. Because I also migrate to the Sierras each summer and have annual field seasons, Morgenson’s story really resonates with me.

Favorite class you’ve taught?

My absolute favorite is working with pre-SMP students in directed research classes.  We design research projects together, and I really enjoy helping students get to know what ecological research is like. Shout-out to Comparative Animal Physiology too, this is my upper division specialty and I teach it using a flipped classroom design. It is highly interactive.

If you could invite anyone, dead or alive, to guest lecture in your class, who would it be?

David Attenborough in POB2 (Principles of Biology II).  The class focuses on the diversity of life on the planet, and there’s no other expert who knows more about this field of study.  He clearly has a passion for the subject.

What else would you like our readers to know about you?

I love to play practical jokes.  In one of the classes I co-taught, I planted a Bluetooth speaker in the ceiling, playing bird calls and then Britney Spears while another instructor held class.  Pranksters be cautioned: this type of stunt requires a great deal of planning ahead and a scientist’s attention to detail!

Daniel Yu is a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at St. Mary’s College of Maryland who joined the faculty in August 2018.  Daniel sat down with us for an interview about his research and the library services that prove useful in the classroom.

What is your academic background?

After earning a BA in English at UC Irvine, I completed an MFA in creative writing with an emphasis on poetry there.  While earning the Master’s degree, I took some literature and critical theory classes, choosing to shift my focus to comparative literature.  My PhD from Emory University is in Comparative Literature. As I completed the PhD program, I was a fellow for Emory’s Center for Faculty Development & Excellence.

What are your current research interests?

Through comparative literature, I draw parallels between linguistic and cultural literary traditions.  Specifically, I am interested in the concepts of generosity and reciprocity in 18th century literature.  I take an interdisciplinary approach to examine the question of what makes a good gift, making connections between literary depictions of generosity and the rise of industrial capitalism.

During the 18th century, ideas about self-interest are changing; individual greed becomes a force understood to have a positive influence on general prosperity.  I’m interested in examining the question of what role generosity or beneficence plays in this context. I look at the ways morality, aesthetics, and economics are tied together in sentimental novels, and the ways morality provides a contrast to reason or logic.  In contemporary society, the act of generosity has utility, meaning even gestures of radical generosity undergo a cost-benefits analysis, which I explore through the frame of continental philosophy and postmodern thinkers.

Alongside the major socioeconomic changes happening in the 18th century is the novel as a form coming into its own.  I think of 1719 as a seminal year (and, coincidentally, this year marks the 300th anniversary!), when two significant works were published:  Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and Eliza Haywood’s Love in Excess.

Do you have recent publications or presentations you’d like to tell us about?

Most recently, I presented at the ASECS conference — the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies — on “snuffbox spirituality” in the Laurence Sterne’s novel A Sentimental Journey.  In the 1700s, tobacco represents an exemplary gift; it’s a luxury, not a necessity, and it’s shared as a way to solidify a friendship or alliance.  In the novel, the protagonist exchanges snuff boxes with a monk, Father Lorenzo, and uses the box as a religious or magical implement. I examined the religious and social connotations here in my presentation.

I also have a recent article on Robinson Crusoe in the journal 18th Century Fiction, “Sociality and the Good Faith Economy in Robinson Crusoe.” (Btw, SMCM users can read the full text here!)

The English department here at SMCM is fortunate to have a long-standing partnership with the University of Ljubljana that has involved a student and faculty exchange for several years.  I’m taking a trip to Slovenia this summer to give a talk on the novel The Woman of Colour, about a Creole heiress who must travel to England to marry her cousin.  

How does the library help you in your research and/or the classroom?

It’s indispensable.  The access to databases is vital to my research–there’s no other way to do research in literary studies.  I’ve depended on the library’s copies of novels taught in class for students to get access to materials. I haven’t yet made Interlibrary Loan requests, but I’m looking forward to getting access to such a breadth of materials through that service!

What’s one thing you think students or faculty should know about the library, archives, or media center?

The library is staffed with experts who will help you.  One thing I find unique about St. Mary’s is how engaged the librarians are across campus–they are in classes teaching and are integrated into many courses.

What is one 18th-century novel more people should read?

The sequels to Robinson Crusoe are great:  The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe.  Many people don’t realize the novel is the first in a trilogy published from 1719 to 1720.  The third volume is actually a series of moral lessons drawn from the novels, as Daniel Defoe was unapologetically a moralist.

Favorite reads, whether research related or not?

I love The Expanse, both the book and the TV series.  There are 8 books in the series written under the pen name James S.A. Corey.  Since I commute an hour each way, I listen to the audiobooks to keep the drive interesting.  The novels and the show are really well done in terms of racial representation and, from a science nerd perspective, provide a realistic depiction of space travel.

Can you tell us about an interesting class you’ve taught?

ENG 284 is a course I’m looking forward to teaching again in the fall.  The course examines literature and history before 1800, and I approach this through the lens of self-writing, or autobiography.  I’m hoping to build on the reflective journal writing students completed as a way to think about the self. Introspection is so important, and we don’t take enough time to do it.

If you could invite anyone, dead or alive, to guest lecture in your class, who would it be?

Adam Smith — he must have been a very conflicted guy.  Within a few years, he wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations:  two texts that contain almost contradictory messages about human nature.

Shanen Sherrer is an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at SMCM.  She joined the college faculty in August 2017. After earning a B.S. in Biochemistry at Miami University (Ohio) and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Ohio State University, Shanen completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University.

I sat down with Shanen for an interview to learn more about her research–and to get a crash course in the basics of biochemistry.  For starters, an introduction to what exactly biochemistry is.

For the novice, how do you define biochemistry?

Biochemistry means describing what you see in nature (biology) in terms of chemistry.  For example, a biologist may look at human nails and record things like their growth and appearance.  A chemist would observe the structure of the nail, identifying the minerals and elements in nails. A biochemist will combine these concepts, conducting experiments that search for reasons why nails are growing, such as looking for the absence or presence of particular chemical elements.

Tell us about your research experience (please).

As a postdoctoral research fellow at Duke, I worked with Paul Modrich on DNA mismatch repair and its relationship to preventative cancer treatment.  While I was there, Modrich won the Nobel prize for his research and I had to dodge some persistent reporters!

During my doctoral studies, I worked with Zucai Suo conducting research on enzymes and the time scale of reactions.  I also managed the work of undergraduates and other postdoctoral students because, according to Dr. Suo, I was one of the few people who told him no for some research requests!  My research at this time led to 12 publications, and for 6 of these I was first author (meaning I was the primary researcher and writer for these).  Despite never having touched a human heart in the lab, I had a fellowship with the American Heart Association–I learned from this that the worst thing to do is never apply.

Before this, I worked with Ann Hagerman, best known as the author of the Tannin Handbook.  My research with her involved characterizing the tannins in Lipton iced tea as well as other plants and an exercise study of the oxidative stress in rats.  Unfortunately, it was from this study that I learned I’m allergic to rats, so the research I pursued after this point doesn’t involve any interaction with them.  I did also learn how to manage a lab and that I can do great research in a small setting, like at SMCM. It was at this time the teaching bug was planted too.

What are your current research interests?

I have a continued interest in DNA mismatch repair and its relationship with particular metals; for example, why the presence of zinc may be effective in treatment against cadmium exposure only up to a certain point.

I’m working with several students as they conduct research and experiments for SMP projects.  One student, Martin Yepes, is working on research related to DNA mismatch repair and the impact cadmium has on the development of cancerous appearances.  Another student, Danielle Spaulding, is studying glyphosate, the main ingredient in weed killers like Round Up, and the ways it can cause health concerns by replacing the glycine in the body.  Kelly Healy is mapping metal binding sites on proteins using protein modeling software, molecular biology and fluorescent spectroscopy. Julian Heller is working on applying Kelly’s methods to a DNA mismatch enzyme.

How does the library help you in your research or the classroom?

In the classroom, students complete a bio-informatics project that uses library tools to find substantive sources that explore a subject beyond the surface level.  Students in this class learn about approaches like using InterLibrary Loan (ILL), completing subject searches, and other librarian secrets to success.

In my own research, I have used ILL countless times.  I have my own library on Google Classroom that contains over 2,000 articles I’ve accumulated.  When I work with students on research projects and SMPs, I usually direct them to pick a few articles of interest as they form hypotheses and find related information through searching library databases.

What’s one thing you think students or faculty should know about the library?

The use of the library is in your best interest to avoid wasted effort.  It’s easier to read a paper than to spend a year in the lab only to realize your topic isn’t feasible or already solved.

What have you read lately that you’ve found interesting?

I have a couple of articles sitting on my desk about oysters and exposure to metals (for example, through environmental pollution).  Once the metals are absorbed by the oyster, they can reduce their resilience to changes in temperature, which is one reason climate change can be so devastating for certain oyster populations.  When people ingest these oysters, the contaminant can affect us too.

What’s your favorite class you’ve taught?

Advanced Biochemistry.  This is a lab without a lecture attached, which can be intimidating, but it gives students the chance to really feel like biochemists.  Students conduct 3 experiments that are essential to biochemistry: a Western blot, protein purification, and enzyme experiments.

If you could invite anyone, dead or alive, to guest lecture in your class, who would it be?

Baldomero Olivera.  He’s known for his studies of poisonous snails and their chemical make-up, which has led to medical applications in the development of pain medication.  He always shows up with a big bag of snail shells and probably has a lot of great stories to share about dives in the Caribbean.

What else would you like our readers to know?

I have several reputations (that I’m aware of).  One is being known as “UV eyes” because I’m very sensitive to subtle color changes in solutions that others don’t always see.  I’m also the person who has survived living in a haunted dorm with a ghost for 2 years at Miami University. People may also know me for bringing my bird into the office, where she gets to roam freely (don’t worry–she’s potty trained!).  She’s not very talkative now, but you might hear some sound effects from her if you’re lucky!