The Sway | November 2026

Bison Trailblazers | Howard PhD Student William (Jake) Lowe Joins Global Ocean Expedition

by Anna De Cheke Qualls | When the research vessel sets sail on the US GO-SHIP Pacific Reoccupations expedition in spring 2027, Howard Chemistry PhD student William (Jake) Lowe will be onboard, embarking on a seven-week scientific journey from New Zealand into the freezing waters of Antarctica before heading north to the tropical climate of Tahiti. Competing against applicants nationwide for only three available student slots across the entire New Zealand-to-Alaska voyage, Lowe secured his top choice: the Southern Ocean leg.

Word to the Wise | From the Tarmac to the Campus: A Blueprint for Howard Scholars Turning Research into Reality

by Anna De Cheke Qualls | Carl E. Brown, Jr who currently serves as the State/Executive Director of the District of Columbia Small Business Development Center (DCSBDC) located at Howard, has dedicated over four decades to small business development and economic empowerment. His journey began in Rochdale Village in Jamaica, Queens, New York, a highly competitive, mixed-race community that taught him early lessons about discipline, resilience, and personal accountability. From starting a paper route delivering the Long Island Press six days a week at just twelve years old, to designing and selling jewelry, and even selling mixtapes as a disc jockey, Brown learned that success is rarely accidental.

Bison Trailblazers | Giving Voice to the Invisible: Howard PhD Student Digna Mosquera Champions Domestic Workers' Rights

by Anna De Cheke Qualls | Digna Mosquera, an economics PhD student at Howard University, was working from her home when she received an email from the University of Wisconsin bearing exciting news: she had won the 2026 Graduate Student Research Workshop Award. Mosquera views the award and its funding as a crucial validation of her academic path. "This recognition means a lot to me, especially in this stage of my journey, when you are constantly questioning your own topic, your methods, and whether if your research will be meaningful to someone outside academia," Mosquera shared.

Word to the Wise | From Joliet to Howard: Micah Clemens’ Mission to Demystify Credit and Build Generational Wealth

By Anna De Cheke Qualls | From a high school classroom in Joliet, Illinois, to the front lines of consumer lending in Austin, Texas, Micah Clemens has always been driven by a singular question: how can financial systems be harnessed to build lasting wealth for underserved communities? Today, as a Master of Arts candidate in Economics at Howard University, Clemens is transforming his real-world banking experience into rigorous, data-driven research. His path toward advanced economic analysis was forged not in abstract theory, but through the daily realities of borrowers fighting for access to capital.

By Daja Elum | Atmospheric Science PhD Student | In Southwest Detroit and the neighboring communities of River Rouge and Ecorse, Michigan, environmental hazards are difficult to separate from everyday life. Oil refining, steel production, freight traffic, major highways, wastewater infrastructure, and other industrial sources sit alongside residential neighborhoods, schools, parks, and places where families have lived for generations. This summer, a group of Detroit-area high school students spent a week learning how to investigate some of those same questions using the tools of environmental scientists, regulators, planners, and geospatial analysts.The Spatial Justice Summer Academy, created by Howard University atmospheric science PhD student Daja Elum through her nonprofit organization, The Earthly Advocate, introduced students to geographic information systems (GIS), environmental data, community air monitoring, remote sensing, and digital storytelling.Read more...

If you're a graduate student at Howard, you've probably been asked some version of "so, what's the plan?" more times than you can count. I'd like to offer a different question, one that has carried me further than any plan: what have you built, and where could it matter?

When I was a doctoral student here, my plan was simple. I would study the mechanisms of biological systems, earn my PhD, and become a professor who trained the next generation of bench scientists. Well… sort of. Two decades later, I've worked in science policy, biodefense, and strategic communications, and I now help doctoral-trained professionals navigate this exact question. None of it was in the plan. What I did have was a foundation, and Howard gave it to me. It didn't prepare me for one job. It prepared me to walk into rooms I had never been in and figure out how to contribute once I got there. Read more...

By Davion Washington | From Mecca to the World, faculty from the Graduate School will lead global learning experiences for Howard University’s College of Arts and Sciences in Spring 2027. Three of those courses are led by faculty who also serve the Graduate School, and they will take students to Morocco, Trinidad, and Paris and London. Each course pairs up a semester of study with a week abroad, so students arrive prepared to engage with the places they visit rather than simply see them. For students, it is a chance to connect what they learn at Howard to communities and histories around the world. Students in Howard University’s College of Arts and Sciences can choose from 27 courses across 4 continents, having the opportunity to apply for up to three courses.Read more...

Howard PhD alum Latoya Hogg was recently was awarded the BSW Adjunct Award in Teaching Excellence from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Marja Lankinen, an English PhD student, recently published a chapter in The Routledge Companion to James Baldwin. The Companion is a collection of essays edited by Yasmin Y. DeGout, Anna Pochmara, and Tyechia L. Thompson.

A Howard University team won the Grand Prize in the 2026 National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Public Health Case Challenge Competition this October. The interdisciplinary team included students from Health Management (1), Public Health (1), Pharmaceutical Sciences (1), and Medicine (2), making this a truly collaborative Howard University accomplishment. Read more...

A review titled "Quantum Biology 2.0," led by researchers Drs Margaret Christ and Philip Kurian from Howard University’s Quantum Biology Laboratory and published in Protein Science, synthesizes nearly 600 studies to evaluate how quantum mechanical processes operate inside biological systems. The publication examines key quantum phenomena occurring within biological structures, including collective light emission (superradiance) across protein fiber networks, energy transfer dynamics, and molecular movements that enable quantum tunneling during enzyme reactions. Read more...

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The Sway | November 2026