Faculty Focus – Feb. 28, 2022
Faculty members put their knowledge into action so students and others are able to benefit from it. Recently, faculty published journal articles, presented at conferences and events, and were selected as non-resident scholars.
Ryan Acton
Assistant Professor of History Ryan Acton published a journal article, “The Search for Social Harmony at Harvard Business School, 1919-1942,” which considers the development of conservative thought and tools of social control at the Harvard Business School in the first half of the twentieth century.
Acton is a cultural and intellectual historian of the twentieth-century United States. His research interests include the histories of business, capitalism, socioeconomic class, political culture, and social and critical theory. Acton is currently working on a book that explores how some Americans came to believe that the nation was a "meritocracy" in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
Chandreyi Basu
Associate Professor of Art and Art History Chandreyi Basu discussed Indian comparisons and meanings of a Pompeii object during a virtual presentation with Pia Brancaccio of Drexel University as part of New York University’s online series, Indian Ocean Figures that Sailed Away.
Basu frequently writes about the patronage and iconography of Mathura sculpture as well as cross-cultural transmission of imagery, female ascetics, animal-human interactions, and body markings. Among the courses she teaches at St. Lawrence are Survey of Art I, Icons of Islamic Architecture, Buddhist Art and Ritual, and Arts of South Asia, Gender Issues in Asian Art. Basu holds a Ph.D. in Art History from Pennsylvania University and an M.A. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
Howard Eissenstat
Associate Professor of History Howard Eissentat was recently named a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based institution dedicated to the study of the Middle East and provides expert policy analysis and professional development services.
Eissenstat's research focuses on nationalism and Islam in the 19th century Ottoman Empire and the history of the Turkish Republic. At St. Lawrence, he teaches courses on Middle Eastern history and politics and in the First-Year Seminar (FYS). 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.
Jeff Frank
Associate Professor of Education Jeff Frank published a chapter in the book “Exploring the Importance of Teacher Feedback.” As part of a Swedish research-funded grant project he was invited to participate in, Frank explores the gap between “high-performing” and “low-performing” classrooms. The chapter is peer-reviewed and open access.
Frank has taught a First-Year Seminar (FYS) titled What Does it Mean to be Educated and courses such as Contemporary Educational Policy, Teaching and Teachers, and American Philosophies of Education. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and education from Columbia University and a B.A. in philosophy from Middlebury College.
Melissane Schrems
Associate Professor of History and Coordinator of Native American Studies Melissane Schrems gave a presentation in honor of Black History Month titled, “Col Lewis Cook, Intersectionality and Me in the Colonial North Country” at SUNY Plattsburgh.
Schrems' research interests include Native American, European and African diasporic, and settler-colonial American history. She has taught courses on Native American history, colonial British America, African American, and Adirondack history. Schrems is currently working on a piece for Humanities NY for its Land, Liberty and Loss Project and holds a doctorate in history from Boston University.
Dennis Simiyu
Visiting Professor of World Languages, Cultures, and Media Dennis Simiyu published a research article in the seventh edition of Ruaha Journal of Arts and Social Sciences. The article, “Kiamu na Usomi wa Kale wa Waswahili (Kiamu and Ancient Language of Instruction of the Swahili People),” explores how the Kiamu dialect was used as a language of instruction among the Swahili people on the East African coast before the arrival of foreigners and the standardization of Kiswahili.
Simiyu also published a research article in the International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science. The article, “Blended Learning: The Post Covid-19 Solution to Higher Education in Kenya (A Case of KCA University),” uses KCA University as a case study to examine if blended learning should be used as the post-COVID-19 solution to teaching and learning in Kenyan Higher Education.
Simiyu is an instructor of elementary Swahili at St. Lawrence. He holds a bachelor of education arts degree and a master of arts degree in Swahili Studies from Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Swahili Studies and has taught Swahili for eight years at the high school and university levels. Simiyu has published academic papers, is an ardent researcher in Swahili language, literature, and culture, and is an expert in translation.
St. Lawrence’s Faculty Focus is a new regular roundup that features noteworthy faculty news.
