Faculty members put their knowledge into action so students and others are able to benefit from it. Recently, faculty published journal articles with students and alumni, presented scholarly papers at conferences, showcased artwork with alumni, and shared their career journeys with doctoral students.
Shuwei (Jolly) Zhang
Assistant Professor of Economics Shuwei (Jolly) Zhang published a paper in the peer-reviewed academic journal, The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics. The paper, "Assessing the Role of Sentiment in the Propagation of Fiscal Stimulus," explores the role of consumer sentiment in the transmission of fiscal stimulus by examining the dynamic effects of the fiscal policy shock on private activity using an array of vector autoregressive models for the post-war U.S. data.
Zhang’s research focuses on fiscal and monetary policy and time series econometrics. At St. Lawrence, she teaches Money and Banking and co-teaches the Fed Challenge course with Bansak. Zhang holds a Ph.D. in applied economics from Auburn University.
Howard Eissenstat
Associate Professor of History Howard Eissenstat served as a panelist during a virtual Cornell University doctoral student career event and shared his experience finding a career that allows him to work with students and discuss Turkish domestic and foreign policy.
“What I want to highlight is how much I’ve gotten professionally and personally from my engagement with the policy world,” Eissenstat said. “It has made me a better public speaker, a much more effective writer, and it has taught me the value of talking to people about issues that don’t necessarily have my same starting places.”
Eissenstat's research focuses on nationalism and Islam in the 19th century Ottoman Empire and the history of the Turkish Republic. His recent work has focused increasingly on contemporary Turkish domestic and foreign policy, especially on issues of rule-of-law, minority rights, and the reshaping of political culture under the Justice and Development Party (AKP). In addition to traditional academic work, Eissenstat served for over a decade as a Turkey Country Specialist for Amnesty International-USA. He has lectured at the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. military, and the Canadian Foreign Service Institute, as well as given testimony to the Canadian Senate and offered briefings to Congressional Committees.
Melissa Schulenberg
Professor of Art and Art History Melissa Schulenberg and Brendan Reilly '20 each displayed their Mokuhanga prints during The World Between the Block and the Paper art exhibition at the Southern Vermont Arts Center. For this exhibition, artists were asked to extend an invitation to either their teacher or their student. Schulenberg invited Reilly.
Schulenberg is an artist and printmaker whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most notably in Australia, Ireland, Japan, and New Zealand. Her work takes inspiration from observed organic forms, the natural landscape, and her immediate surroundings. At St. Lawrence, Schulenberg teaches in the First-Year Program and Seminar, Drawing I and II, Beginning and Advanced Printmaking, Book Arts, and Senior Seminar.
Reilly is a member of St. Lawrence's Class of 2020 and was a religious studies and modern languages double major.
Peter Pettengill
Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Peter Pettengill co-authored an article with Liesl Magnus ’21 that explores U.S. state park responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism. Their paper highlights the importance of pre-visit safety messaging and provides examples of how park managers can target visitor use with management communications and actions.
Pettengill has worked for the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management and conducted fieldwork in Acadia, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Zion National Parks. He holds a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont, an M.S. in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School, and a B.S. in Environmental & Resource Economics from the University of New Hampshire.
Magnus, a member of St. Lawrence’s Class of 2021, majored in environmental studies and government and currently works for the Appalachian Mountain Club in New Hampshire.
Ivan Ramler and Choong-Soo Lee
Jack and Silvia Burry Associate Professor of Statistics Ivan Ramler, Associate Professor of Computer Science Choong-Soo Lee, and Sarah Strong ’19 published a paper in the proceedings for the 2021 Foundations of Digital Games. Their paper, “Investigating Match Performance Differences between Genders of League of Legends Champions,” analyzes approximately 1.9 million matches from the video game "League of Legends" to determine if there was a systematic gender bias in the way the male and female characters are created and played. Their findings showed that, while there are a few champions that are counter to classic video game stereotypes, many of the champions still fit these stereotypes.
Ramler and Lee have co-authored five papers and one book chapter together on esports. Combined, they have mentored 14 students on projects associated with gaming.
Ramler teaches statistics and data science courses at St. Lawrence and holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Statistics from Iowa State University. Lee teaches computer science courses at St. Lawrence and holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science from Worchester Polytechnic Institute. Strong is a member of St. Lawrence’s Class of 2019 and majored in sociology and minored in statistics. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in data science at The London School of Economics and Political Science.
Cynthia Bansak, Sun Ki Choi, Emre Balicki, and Amir Tayebi
Four economics faculty members presented their papers at the Southern Economic Association's 91st Annual Meeting, a multi-day event in which economists around the world share their interests in economic scholarship.
Cynthia Bansak
Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics Cynthia Bansak presented her co-authored paper, "The Impact of Grandparents on Children's Academic Performance: An Analysis of the Intergenerational Effect of Human Capital Investment," which examines the importance of being taken care of by grandparents on children’s academic performance in China.
She also presented her co-authored paper, "Market Outcomes of Immigrant Women Left Behind," which investigates the impact of removals under the Secure Communities (SC) program on the labor market outcomes of immigrant women remaining in the U.S.
Bansak's work has been published in various academic journals and she has co-authored a textbook on the Economics of Immigration. Among the courses she regularly teaches at St. Lawrence are Econometrics, Labor Economics, The Fed Challenge, and Money and Banking. Bansak received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at San Diego and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Yale University.
Sun Ki Choi
Assistant Professor of Economics Sun Ki Choi presented his paper, “Student Debt Loans and Labor Market Outcomes: A Lesson in Unintended Consequences," which examines the early‑career labor market choices of college graduates who obtained student loans to finance their higher education.
Choi's research focuses on labor, public, and educational economics. At St. Lawrence, he teaches Quantitative Methods in Economics. Choi holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Kentucky and a master's degree in Economics from NYU and Syracuse University.
Emre Balicki
Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics Emre Balikci presented his co-authored paper, "The Challenge of 'Doing Business with Strangers:' Financial Audit Reports as a 'Costly Signaling' Instrument," which explores how firms in Turkey have used audit reports of companies like Deloitte as a "costly signaling" instrument.
Balikci's research focuses on the economic history of Turkey and the Middle East, the global political economy, and institutional economics. He holds a Ph.D. from Marmara University.
Amir Tayebi
Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics Amir Tayebi presented his paper, "The Electoral Outcomes of Contractions in Mortgage Credits," which investigates the effects of the contractions in mortgage credits on elections in the U.S.
Tayebi's research interests include applied macroeconomics and financial economics. In particular, he is interested in growth and development topics. He is also interested in the political economy of finance and credit markets. At St. Lawrence, he teaches courses on financial economics and economic development.
St. Lawrence’s Faculty Focus is a new regular roundup that features noteworthy faculty news.
Submit News for an Upcoming Faculty Focus
