Take a look at some of Schwalbenberg’s most eclectic possessions in the second installment of our What’s on My Desk series, where we highlight interesting objects displayed by professors in their offices. 

A Goodbye Gift from the People of Micronesia

Schwalbenberg’s office is home to dozens of trinkets and souvenirs from his travels and those of his students. Among them is a model of an ocean-going canoe—a goodbye gift from the people of Micronesia, where he worked for three years. Also pictured here are cups from a state fair in Minnesota, where his great-great-grandfather settled after immigrating from Germany.

A Photo with the President of the Philippines

Among the mementos is a framed photo of Schwalbenberg hooding Benigno S. Aquino III, the 15th president of the Philippines, when he received an honorary doctorate from Fordham in 2011.

A Photo of Ms. Schwalbenberg

Schwalbenberg also has a framed photo of his wife, Alma, whom he met thanks to Jesuits in the Philippines. “I was teaching at Ateneo de Manila University, and some of the Jesuits there introduced me to her family. At the time, I was studying at Columbia. Her family told me that she was studying at Fordham. They arranged an introduction. She told me she wanted to learn how to ice skate, so I took her ice skating, but she actually had no interest in learning how to ice skate. That was just a ploy,” Schwalbenberg said, chuckling.

The Dorothy Marinucci Bell

Hot Sauce from New Orleans for President Tetlow

Sitting on his desk are two brand-new bottles of cajun hot sauce from Tulane University. At a graduate school fair for returned Peace Corps volunteers, a Tulane recruiter gifted Schwalbenberg the hot sauce to celebrate Fordham’s president, Tania Tetlow, who grew up in Louisiana and both studied and worked at Tulane. “I was thinking I should give it to her,” said Schwalbenberg, who is not a fan of hot sauce himself. When asked if he could handle spice, he answered, “Probably not.”

The ‘You’ve Got Five Minutes’ Timer

In front of his chair is an hourglass reserved for students. “I give my students a hard time. When they come in and say, ‘I only need a minute to talk to you,’ I say, ‘OK, you’ve got five minutes,’” Schwalbenberg said, while turning over the hourglass. “They usually stay beyond that.”

Schwalbenberg I and Schwalbenberg II

His most unique possession is a life-sized cardboard cutout of himself, a birthday gift from former IPED students. “Sometimes I put it in people’s offices and scare them,” Schwalbenberg admitted. 

Behind the two Schwalbenbergs is a world map that encapsulates his decades spent traveling, teaching, conducting research, and attending conferences, as well as the diversity of countries that his students hail from. 

His favorite country is Micronesia — the first place that felt like home outside of the U.S. He spent three years on an island in the middle of the western Pacific Ocean, teaching at a high school and studying the relationship between his two homes. “They adopted me,” joked Schwalbenberg, who lived in Micronesia in his 20s. 

The IPED Program

Schwalbenberg’s students in the IPED master’s program prepare for careers improving food security, education, and gender disparities abroad. For undergraduates, Fordham offers a major in international political economy. 

International experience is important for students, said Schwalbenberg. “We think they are going to be better people for that, having a deeper understanding of how other people live. We hope it makes them better professionals in whatever career they choose.” 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

1. MLK Day 2025

Join the Museum of the Moving Image in honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday with inspiring talks, tours, a documentary screening, and more. Plus, enjoy free museum admission every Thursday from 2 to 6 p.m.

Jan. 17 through Jan. 20; Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, New York 

2. Astronomy: The Winter Sky

Who says you can’t see the stars in the city? Clear winter nights offer the perfect canvas for stargazing. Let the Urban Park Rangers be your guide as you bundle up and enjoy the pretty skies filled with stars, planets, and all the cosmic wonders—right in the Bronx. 

Jan. 18, 6 – 7:30 p.m.; Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx

3. Under the Radar Festival

Discover bold and boundary-pushing performances at Under the Radar, New York City’s premier festival for experimental theater. Held in more than 30 venues across the city, the festival celebrates creativity, equity, and collaboration with over a dozen groundbreaking productions from visionary artists from across the globe. 

Through Jan. 19; Various locations 

4. MoonGARDEN Installation

Step into an illuminated world where storytelling, public art, and mesmerizing light installations come together to create an unforgettable experience. Grab a few friends and enjoy a night of inspiration and exploration.

Through February; Fulton Street & Seaport Square, Manhattan 

5. Ice Skating at Bryant Park 

Lace up your skates and enjoy free ice skating at Bryant Park. Whether you’re an ice skating pro or just starting out, the rink is the perfect spot for some winter fun. Don’t have skates? No worries—rentals are available on site (for a fee)! 

Through March 2, 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.; Bryant Park, Manhattan 

The Mandarins (1954) by Simone de Beauvoir 

The Middlemarch or War and Peace of the mid-20th century—an incredible novel about Paris intellectuals trying to remake the world along better lines after the Second World War, based on the lives of the existentialist circle. It features a love affair based on Beauvoir’s real-life relationship with the American writer Nelson Algren.—Keri Walsh

Devil’s Teeth (2006), The Wave (2011), and The Underworld (2023) by Susan Casey

Susan Casey, a popular science writer specializing in the ocean, is a fantastic writer who I use for writing exercises. With her vivid descriptions of undersea life and skillful integration of sources, she is a great example of the mid-range of expository prose that’s not academic but notches above Wikipedia and Reddit. Her three best books are Devil’s Teeth (about great white sharks), The Wave (about waves and surfing), and The Underworld (about deep-sea exploration).—Martin Northrop

Salvage: Readings from the Wreck (2024) by Dionne Brand

This book is an important read for anyone, especially for literary scholars, and especially as we encourage people from all different backgrounds to join the English department. Brand rereads classic English novels, pointing out that “learning to read English literature involved learning not to notice who, or what, was missing.”—M. Gaby Hurtarte Leon

The Demon of Unrest (2024) by Erik Larson

Earlier this fall, I read Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest, which looks at the four months in 1860-61 between Abraham Lincoln’s election and his inauguration (which back then, was held in March). It’s about the growing secessionist crisis leading to the firing on Fort Sumter, and the new president’s response to it.

Larson manages to tell some of the critical moments of the Fort Sumter siege almost like a “tick tock” (to use an old journalist’s phrase). It’s hour by hour at some points, as telegrams fly and emergency meetings are hurriedly convened (and recorded). You really feel like you’re at a cabinet meeting in the White House, or sitting nervously behind an artillery battery in Charleston harbor. And the narrative is told through the eyes of about seven individuals from the north and south, including Lincoln. And it’s all seamlessly woven together. 

I mentioned it to my students as a wonderful example of creative nonfiction, in the sense that it’s well-researched history, but told in a creative, artful way.—John Hanc

An Authentic Life (2024) by Jennifer Chang

An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang is filled with poems that I needed these last few months, not only because their topics—ranging from patriarchy to war to school shootings to religious doubt to marriage—seemed crucial, but because of the sublime way Chang mixes syntactical care with the precise wielding of wild imagery.—Meghan Dahn

The Copenhagen Trilogy (2022) by Tove Ditlevsen

This Danish novel is quite close to a memoir: like the protagonist, Ditlevsen grew up poor in Denmark during the early 20th century, and despite many obstacles, found a way to become a writer. It’s a beautiful, melancholy short trilogy (all in one volume), with poverty, political engagement, and the world wars on the margins of a very special coming-of-age story. I read it last winter and it has stuck with me all year. The scenes of her bicycling around Copenhagen are glorious. A beautiful book. —Anne Fernald

Counternarratives (2016) by John Keene 

A fascinating, richly layered collection of stories and novellas about the history of colonialism in the Americas. Wildly experimental and electric historical fiction. For anyone interested in immersing themselves in the intricate entanglements of the multi-century encounters of colonial crisis.—Shonni Enelow

My Struggle, Books 1-6 (2013-2019) by Karl Ove Knausgaard 

I’m finally reading this six-volume series from the 2010s––one of the defining works of that decade, along with Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels. Like those, Knausgaard’s books are consuming, addictive, and kind of manic––unlike them, they are fundamentally non-dramatic, all about the banal details of the everyday that he manages to make totally compelling.—S.E. 

An Earthquake is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth (2024) by Anna Moschovakis 

Full disclosure: I haven’t read this yet, but I’m so excited to. I love Moschovakis’s writing: it’s sparse, elegant, and strange. And––another full disclosure––my book, A Discourse on Method, apparently makes a cameo in it!—S.E.

Book recommendations were edited for clarity.

Below, take a look at some of Knobel’s most fascinating possessions in the first installment of our What’s on Your Desk? series, where we highlight interesting objects and keepsakes displayed by professors in their offices.

‘The Mets Deserve Their Little Corner of Fordham’

Knobel has a “Mets shrine” on her bookshelf, home to bobbleheads, a replica of Shea Stadium, and more. “The Bronx is Yankees country, but I feel like the Mets deserve their little corner of Fordham,” said Knobel. “I made my peace with the Yankees, thanks to people like Michael Kay, as well as Justin Shackil and Ryan Ruocco, who were in my very first class I taught at Fordham. I’m so happy for their success.”

(Future) Taekwondo Master Knobel

Knobel is a third-degree black belt in taekwondo who proudly displays her first and second degree black belts in her office. “I’m scheduled to go up for my fourth-degree black belt in June, which is the first rank of mastery. People at my taekwondo school will have to call me Master Knobel. I will be the first woman at my school to make master, so that’s super exciting,” she said.

An Autograph from the Last Leader of the Soviet Union

Knobel cherishes her autographed photo of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union. “This was a 40th birthday present from a friend at CBS who knew that I admired Gorbachev greatly. I wrote my dissertation about Gorbachev and how he used the press as a strategic tool in governing. That’s why I started going to Russia. I actually fell in love with a Russian journalist on my first trip, and then eventually moved there,” said Knobel, who served as the Moscow bureau chief at CBS News for seven years.

Advice to an Afghan President on How Not to Get Assassinated

Pinned to a bulletin board behind her desk are press passes from her 20-year career as a journalist, including passes for the Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan and a U.S. presidential visit to Russia. Beside her own press passes are her son’s. “When I was a foreign correspondent, my son needed an accreditation card as a member of my family to enter the country,” she said. “You can see him growing up in those little cards.” 

There are also photos of Knobel with former colleagues, including Scott Pelley and Bill Owens from CBS News—and even well-known political figures. “That’s Hamid Karzai, back when he was president of Afghanistan, and our team interviewing him in 2002,” Knobel said, pointing to a group photo. “We gave him advice on how to not get assassinated.”

A Message from ‘The Most Trusted Man in America’

Knobel also has an autographed photo of revered American journalist Walter Cronkite. “It would be fascinating to talk with him today about the importance of objectivity,” she said. “In the Cronkite years, TV news didn’t tell people what to think—but what to think about. Not all news does that anymore.”

An Emmy for Covering a Hostage Crisis in Russia

Knobel earned an Emmy for her role as a producer in CBS News’s coverage of the 2002 Moscow theater siege, where nearly 1,000 people were taken hostage by terrorists. 

“As a producer, you’re aiding the correspondent, looking at the script and making suggestions, talking to the cameraman and editor to make sure they’re getting all the pictures that they need, and putting it together in a way that makes sense to a viewer who doesn’t know a lot about Russia or this hostage situation,” said Knobel. “I remember sitting in a car, two blocks away from where this was going on, and feeling so powerless to help those people inside, but trying to make sure that whatever we reported was accurate and fair.”

A Miniature Burqa for a Barbie Doll

At first glance, a blue cloth sitting atop a stack of plastic cups doesn’t seem unique. But it’s actually a burqa for Barbie dolls—a keepsake from Knobel’s reporting trip to Afghanistan. 

“It’s a reminder to me of how different our world is, yet the same. Everyone plays with dolls and dresses them in their native clothing,” said Knobel. “To me, all of my work as a teacher and a journalist has essentially been about bringing understanding to the world. It’s a representation of how journalism is the coolest job in the world.”

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The Calder Center is a 113-acre property in Armonk, New York, where Fordham faculty and students conduct ecological research in a relatively undisturbed area of wilderness, just 25 miles north of New York City. Chomri Khayi arrived at the center in February, and ever since she’s been hard at work mentoring students, forging partnerships with local conservation groups, and developing a land management plan for the property.

Before joining Fordham, Khayi worked in land management and conservation at Yale. There, she conducted field research on the ecological recovery of dry tropical forests, developed a plant identification resource for a national park in Ecuador, and helped to manage the health and resilience of over 8,000 acres of forest in Connecticut and New Hampshire.  

Khayi sat down with Fordham Now to discuss her new role. 

What does a typical workday look like for you? 

I usually have volunteers or interns come in. Right now we’re doing an inventory of the forest. We have a brief meeting, gear up, then we head out into the woods. 

What does it mean to do an inventory of the forest? 

In order to manage a particular woodland, you need to know what’s there in terms of the plants and the wildlife, as well as the stressors in that environment.

We have around 37 plots all across the property, and in each plot, we collect data on the mature trees, the smaller trees, the understory vegetation, and also invasive species. We also check the light availability to see if there’s a big canopy opening.

Then we extrapolate data from those small plots to the whole property to understand species diversity and distribution, and use that knowledge to develop management strategies. 

What are some of the challenges related to conservation at Calder? 

The biggest challenge ecologically is the non-native invasive species. 

Not all non-native species are invasive, but the ones that are can get really aggressive, and they can out-compete the native plants since they don’t have natural predators. 

You can’t eradicate all non-native species, and some of them have benefits, but the challenge is managing them. And that’s difficult, considering we’re about 25 miles away from New York City, a big hub of international trade. We have a lot of things coming into the ports, outdoor recreationists that may inadvertently aid seed dispersal, and residential areas where they may bring in seeds and ornamentals (decorative garden plants) that may prove to be aggressive.  

What impact will your work have beyond the Calder Center?

We’re part of several regional partnerships, like PRISM, EMMA, the New York Botanical Garden, Vassar College, and others. We’re not just looking at our own land. We’re collaborating with other sites in the lower Hudson Valley to exchange knowledge and create a network for early detection and monitoring. 

Calder also creates a good opportunity for students to try out different interests and see what they like, or simply provides a green space for students to enjoy. If they really commit and spend a summer or a year at Calder, they would have a very unique, boots-on-the-ground experience. In his role, I really want to continue building this community of students that nurtures their relationships with natural areas and with each other.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

They’re coming off a 6-5 2023 season highlighted by a thrilling last-second victory against league-rival Lehigh at the annual Homecoming game. And although they dropped the Aug. 29 season opener against Football Bowl Subdivision opponent Bowling Green State University, they’re returning eight out of 11 starters on both offense and defense—and preseason polls indicate that the rising Rams are set to challenge defending-champion Lafayette for the Patriot League title.

The Rams’ first home game will be the Homecoming matchup against Stony Brook University on Saturday, September 14. 

Here are three things to watch this season. 

An Explosive, Dynamic Offense

Junior quarterback CJ Montes—a finalist for the 2023 Walter Payton Award, given to the nation’s most outstanding offensive player in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)—had an outstanding first season with the Rams last year after transferring from the University of New Mexico. He led the Patriot League in passing yards and passing touchdowns.

And he has racked up many preseason honors, including being named to the 2024 Walter Payton Award watch list.

Montes will be joined once again by senior running back Julius Loughridge, who was third in the Patriot League in touchdowns and fourth in rushing yards per game last year.

Veteran Presence on Defense

Last year’s team MVP, lineman Matt Jaworski, kicks off this season with multiple preseason recognitions, including being named the 2024 Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. Jaworski said he and fellow returning starters, including senior linebacker James Conway and grad student defensive back Nahil Perkins, will help the Rams have a balanced attack. 

“That’s been a big emphasis for us all summer—putting all pieces together with offense and defense grooving more together, rather than just having a good defensive game or a good offensive game,” Jaworski said. 

The defense also added a familiar face to its coaching staff: Ryan Greenhagen, GABELLI ’22, ’23, is now an assistant coach, working with the outside linebackers. Greenhagen, who played linebacker for the Rams, graduated as the team’s all-time leading tackler and was a finalist for the William V. Campbell Award, nicknamed the “Academic Heisman.”

An Autumn Matchup Against the Defending Champs on Family Weekend

Last year’s Patriot League champion Lafayette is set to visit Rose Hill on Saturday, October 5, during Fordham’s annual Family Weekend celebration. The Leopards are heading into the season strong, ranked 17th and 18th in national polls for the FCS conference. Get your tickets now to see the Rams in action against one of the best teams in the league.

“I’ve been fortunate to have had exposure to a broad set of different roles within the university,” said Burgher, who joined Fordham on July 1 as vice president for finance and assistant treasurer.

He transitioned his career into higher education in 2007 after working as a management consultant at EY and other companies. An Indiana native, he is the son of two elementary school teachers, and he and his wife are raising three school-age children. He is also a student himself, finalizing his Ph.D. at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, focusing on a topic close to his heart: the potential for universities to achieve financial sustainability and have a positive impact on society.

Why did this role appeal to you?

Because it called for being a strategic partner across campus and working collaboratively to further the mission of the University. I think that the work that Fordham does to be active in communities and around the world is really important. It’s great to be able to spend my days working with service- and mission-driven individuals and supporting the education of leaders who will address the world’s environmental, economic, and social challenges.

What unique experience do you bring to the role?

My background’s definitely different compared with a lot of finance VPs. I have taught, conducted research, and been involved in leading and supporting a lot of aspects of the university—enrollment, financial aid, student success. I’m also focused on financial sustainability, both in terms of efficiently allocating financial resources and identifying new revenue opportunities.

Not all finance VPs have doctorates. Why are you pursuing one, and what’s your focus?

I started my Ph.D. program because I was working with faculty who were research active, which was something I wanted to understand better. I have a lot of respect for faculty and researchers in higher education, and it’s been helpful for me to have that context as I’m out there supporting them.

The title of my dissertation is “Enhancing Social, Environmental, and Economic Impact Efforts In and Through Universities,” and it offers a framework and tools for universities to plan for and realize their desired impact. For instance, I proposed a measure for how a center within a university could track their impact on reducing recidivism in the criminal justice system. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of recidivism in the world, and there are efforts out there to address that through employment and education opportunities. Quantifying the impact of efforts such as this provides support for strategic planning and investment.

It seems like a challenging time to be in higher education finance, given national trends. How do we invest in top-notch academics while also adapting to new revenue constraints?

It is a challenging time for higher education as we try to balance the achievement of our mission with long-term financial sustainability. It’s critical to consider the overall portfolio of programs, research, and initiatives underway, along with their individual impacts on the mission and on financial sustainability, and by proactively managing our investments in this portfolio, we can achieve pretty much anything. For example, an individual program may not have a positive financial impact; however, it could be very important for our mission and important to include in our portfolio. It’s also a matter of investing in students, faculty, and research, which makes Fordham, from a brand perspective, more attractive to prospective students as we see people achieve the objectives that they have for their education.

What’s been your favorite role outside of finance?

I love teaching and being in the classroom. I taught for over a decade, and for a couple of years I was a full-time faculty member teaching management and applied analytics classes. It’s just great to see where the students come in and then where they end up.

1. Coney Island Friday Night Fireworks

Summer isn’t complete without a trip to Coney Island! After enjoying a day of rides, hot dogs, and fun on the beach, the spectacular fireworks show is a must! 

Friday nights in August, 9:45 p.m., boardwalk between West 10th and West 15th streets, Coney Island 

2. Bryant Park Yoga

What’s better than doing yoga amid the iconic skyscrapers of Manhattan? Register for one of the yoga classes at Bryant Park and take a calming break from the hustle and bustle of our favorite city. 

Through Sept. 25, Bryant Park, Manhattan. Tuesdays at 10 a.m.; Wednesdays at 6 p.m. through August and at 5:30 p.m. in September.

3. Wonderland: Curious Nature | New York Botanical Garden

Wonderland is real—and it exists right next to our Rose Hill campus! Escape down the rabbit hole and experience the NYBG like never before. Dive into a Wonderland-inspired adventure full of art, flowers, and exhibits. 

Through Oct. 27, Botanical Garden, the Bronx 

4. Smorgasburg

It’s a foodie’s dream at Smorgasburg! Feast on a variety of delicious dishes from all kinds of amazing vendors. This market is an absolute classic and a must-visit on our list! 

Through the last weekend in October. Fridays at the World Trade Center; Saturdays at Marsha P. Johnson State Park, Brooklyn; Sundays at Prospect Park, Brooklyn

5. 2024 Summer ‘Live in HD’ Festival

Want to check out the opera—for free? Right next to our Lincoln Center campus, dive into the Met’s 15th Summer HD Festival, featuring 10 amazing performances from their Live in HD series and a special screening of the Oscar-winning film The Red Violin. 

Aug. 23 through Sept. 2, Lincoln Center Plaza, Manhattan

If you walk through the “Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism” exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art—on view through July 28—you might be struck by many paintings and sculptures in their own right. But as you pass from gallery to gallery, you may also feel like you’re being guided through a conversation with everything you see.  

That kind of conversation—between works of art and viewers—is one that Fabiana Weinberg, FCLC ’07, hopes to facilitate in her role as senior exhibition designer at the Met.

“For me, it’s always a question of how do you breathe new life into these things every single time and provide the space for a dialogue with them?” Weinberg says. “I like the permanence of material culture, but also the ability to constantly think about it and marinate on it.”

The Harlem Renaissance exhibit gives people plenty to think about, including how to bring a “still-neglected art history out of the wings and onto the main stage,” as New York Times critic Holland Carter put it. The exhibit does that by featuring Black American artists from the 1920s to the 1940s like William H. Johnson, Laura Wheeler Waring, and Aaron Douglas—whose 1934 large-scale painting, Aspects of Negro Life: From Slavery Through Reconstruction, inspired the soft color palette for the gallery walls—along with portrayals of the African diaspora by European artists like Henri Matisse, Edvard Munch, and Pablo Picasso.

“This show is really exciting because there are a lot of paintings but also ephemera and magazines and books and sculpture,” Weinberg says. “It’s a really immersive experience going through the galleries. A lot of these works are on view for the first time, and it’s really about expanding the canon.”

Weinberg majored in visual arts and art history at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, and after graduating in 2007, she earned a master’s degree in architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design. She uses all that academic training to think broadly about the aesthetic and design choices that go into museum exhibits—from sketching design ideas, to using 3D-rendering software to move pieces of art around in a virtual replica of a gallery, to collaborating with tradespeople to build out the physical walls and cases and with curators to decide how to best showcase their selected works.

Her way of thinking about how people engage with art, though, began much earlier.

An Artistic Childhood and an Ideas-Driven Education

Weinberg grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. As a kid, she trained to be a dancer, and her parents—a mother who was a photographer and a Fordham grad and a businessman father who became a high school teacher after earning a Fordham degree—frequently brought her to museums and exposed her to a wide range of performing arts.

At Fordham, she initially focused on natural sciences, but something clicked when she took an art history course—she decided to change majors. She says that Fordham’s core curriculum also gave her a foundation that added texture to her studies. “One thing I really always liked about Fordham’s approach is it was always ideas-driven, like, ‘What are you trying to say? What are you trying to do?’ And what it looks like—that comes later.”

After finishing her master’s in 2012, Weinberg moved back to New York and worked a variety of jobs across the design landscape, from scenic design to lighting design. The following year, she saw a posting for an exhibition designer position at the Rubin Museum of Art in Chelsea. Although she had no experience in exhibition design, she heard back from the Rubin’s head of design, John Monaco, a former sculptor who saw promise in her application. She went on to spend four years at the Rubin before moving on to the Met in 2017.

‘Every Single Thing is a Decision’

In her time at the Met, Weinberg has designed or co-designed several premier shows, including 2020’s “Making the Met,” which looked back at the institution’s 150-year history; 2021’s Alice Neel retrospective; and “Before Yesterday We Could Fly,” an Afrofuturist period room that opened in 2021 and remains on display.

Last December, she gave a group of Fordham alumni a private, behind-the-scenes look at “Africa & Byzantium,” which highlighted the artistic connections between these two geographically distant ancient civilizations. Before seeing the exhibit, which was darkly lit and made use of striking gold wall text, the alumni gathered in a conference room in the museum’s design department, where Weinberg demonstrated the Vectorworks 3D design software she and her colleagues use to plan out exhibitions.

“There’s still nothing like having a drawing that you see in your mind and then spatialize in a 3D model and then go into the gallery and see it being built,” she says of the work. “It’s thrilling.”

For the Harlem Renaissance exhibit, Weinberg says she tried to give viewers a sense of scale from room to room—and offer a contrast between some of the more esoteric written pieces on display and other sections with bursts of color and city life.

“At the beginning,” she explains, “there’s an introduction to the thinkers of the time, and we really wanted to create intimacy with these figures that really set the stage for what you’re going to see later. And then we have another gallery about city life that we wanted to open up. … So, using paint color and proportions of the space and dimensions, [we] give those different senses of scale between the intimacy of more domestic spaces and then more open, larger spaces.”

Weinberg says the breadth of her experience—from childhood museum visits to her understanding of space through dance—has helped her develop her eye for design. And while museum exhibition design wasn’t something she consciously thought about on all those childhood trips, it’s now front of mind for her. “When I go to museums, I can’t unsee how the spaces are designed,” she says. “Every single thing is a decision.”

We asked DiLella, a 2006 Fordham graduate who’s also an adjunct professor at the University, for his top summer Broadway picks. He threw in an off-Broadway recommendation and even gave us an insider’s peek at what’s coming this fall.

Merrily We Roll Along

Photo by Matthew Murphy

The critically acclaimed Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along—once an infamous flop—is now the winner of four Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical. Merrily centers around the turbulent journey of three friends: Franklin, Charley, and Mary—played by Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez. Groff and Radcliffe took home the Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Musical and Best Featured Actor in a Musical, respectively, for their performances.

Hell’s Kitchen

Photo by Chelcie Pary

The Alicia Keys musical Hell’s Kitchen is loosely based on her experience of growing up in Manhattan, and features her famous tunes like “Empire State of Mind” and “If I Ain’t Got You.” The show stars Broadway regulars Brandon Victor Dixon and Shoshana Bean, alongside newcomer Maleah Joi Moon. Moon is making her professional debut as the Keys-inspired character, Ali, and recently took home the Tony for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical.

Oh, Mary!

Photo by Emilio Madrid

Comic genius Cole Escola, widely known for playing characters in television shows like Search Party and Big Mouth, is now tackling Mary Todd Lincoln in the new play Oh, Mary! It’s opening on Broadway in July after a sold-out off-Broadway run. In the show, written by Escola and directed by Sam Pinkleton, Mary Todd Lincoln will do anything to fulfill her one big dream. The production features an ensemble cast, including Fordham Theatre grad Tony Macht, FCLC ’17.

Cats: The Jellicle Ball

Photo by Evan Zimmerman

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats is now playing off-Broadway at the Perelman Performing Arts Center like you’ve never seen it before. In this new, immersive restaging of the 1982 Broadway mega-musical, audiences are welcomed into the Jellicle Ball, which is inspired by the ballroom culture that burst onto the queer, gay, and trans scene in New York City more than five decades ago. Cats: The Jellicle Ball stars Tony Award-winner André De Shields as Old Deuteronomy; ballroom icon Chasity Moore, who goes by “Tempress,” as Grizabella; and Hamilton alum Sydney James Harcourt as Rum Tum Tugger.

A Look Ahead at Broadway’s Fall Lineup

Sunset Boulevard

Photo by Marc Brenner

Nicole Sherzinger’s acclaimed performance as film diva Norma Desmond is making its way across the pond from London’s West End. Sunset Boulevard arrives on Broadway this October in a stripped-down, minimalistic version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic. The show features direction by British sensation Jamie Lloyd, known for his radical reimaginings.

Gypsy

Photo by Allison Michael Orenstein

One of Broadway’s greatest works and greatest performers join forces this fall when Audra McDonald stars in Gypsy at the historic Majestic Theatre. Widely considered one of the best musicals of all time, Gypsy is the story of how far a determined stage mom will go to turn her daughter into a star. The show features a legendary creative team with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by the late Stephen Sondheim.

Listen to the special on WFUV.