Showcasing Faculty Research: The Detective Issue
Illumination seeks to highlight faculty ingenuity, capture alumni and student stories, and showcase the rich range of disciplines in the Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.
For a special report on faculty research, I chose to tell stories through the lens of detective work. In one feature, for example, historians tackle cold cases files: Why was the mutiny on the Hermione the bloodiest in British naval history? How did 123 soldiers die in a dungeon overnight? And what happened to a World War I veteran who had commanded the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets?
Other articles explore missing persons, the dark web, the lessons of detective fiction, and tools of detection, from point clouds to shape files, algorithms, and old-fashioned gumshoe work.
