Phi Beta Kappa recognizes winning words and music of Charles Nichols, Ashley Shew, and Ella Moeltner

An album of string quartets, a book reimagining disability, and an essay about anti-fat bias all received honors this spring from the Mu of Virginia chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. 

Charles Nichols, a faculty member in the School of Performing Arts, part of the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design, and Ashley Shew, a faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, received Sturm Awards recognizing excellence in creative arts and research, while College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences student Ella Moeltner was honored for undergraduate writing.

Sturm Award for Excellence in Performance and Creative Arts

Violinist and composer Nichols, associate professor of composition and creative technologies, received the Sturm Award for Excellence in Performance and Creative Arts for his album “Crossing the Divide.” Released by Centaur Records, one of the oldest classical labels in America, “Crossing the Divide” was supported in part by grants from the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, University Libraries, the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, and the School of Performing Arts.

The album’s four original string quartets — two for acoustic instruments and two for amplified instruments processed with effects — each have their own origin story and purpose. For instance, “At the Boundary,” written for amplified string quartet and computer, “searches for the border between technically challenging music … and music that is fun to play and hear.”’ In creating it, Nichols found inspiration in sources as disparate as classical composers Bartók and Shostakovich and the Swedish metal band Opeth. “Verdigris,” on the other hand, began as nostalgic theme music for a radio history of Butte, Montana. 

Sturm Award for Excellence in Research

The Sturm Award for Excellence in Research was given to bioethicist Shew, associate professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, for her widely lauded book “Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement.”

Described as “a manifesto exploding what we think we know about disability and arguing that disabled people are the real experts when it comes to technology and disability,” “Against Technoableism” repudiates the belief that technology is a “solution for disability” and proposes envisioning disabilities “not as liabilities, but as skill sets enabling all of us to navigate a challenging world.” Booklist recommended Shew’s work as “an essential text for the nondisabled to use to educate themselves on the harms of technoableism,” and Publisher’s Weekly predicted it would “galvanize readers to demand genuine equality for people with disabilities.”

John D. Wilson Essay Contest Award

Given annually to the best analytical or interpretive essay by an undergraduate, the 2024 John D. Wilson Essay prize was awarded to Moeltner, a senior from Blacksburg majoring in sociology with ​​minors in visual arts and society and diversity and community engagement.

Moeltner’s essay addresses the role and causes of anti-fat bias in society, arguing that fatphobia stems primarily from “classist, sexist, and racist origins, the moralization of obesity, an oversimplification of the effect of fatness on mortality, and the many flaws associated with research on obesity currently available to the public.” Using social identity, attribution, and sociocultural theories, Moeltner argues that programs like Virginia Tech’s The Body Project can introduce more nuanced, empathetic ideas about body size, health, weight, and appearance.

As the country’s oldest and most widely known honor society, Phi Beta Kappa celebrates and advocates excellence in the liberal arts and sciences.