Faculty Focus-February 3, 2026
Faculty members put their knowledge into action so students and others are able to benefit from it. Recently, faculty published in prestigious journals, were cited in international media, and had their work presented in renowned exhibits.
Stephanie Yingyi Wang
Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies Stephanie Yingyi Wang recently published an article in the special issue of “Queer Organizing in the Global South” in the Journal of Sexualities.
The article, titled “Decolonizing politics of (In)visibility and LGBT rights—being queer/tongzhi in China’s ‘new normal,’” began as an invitation to contribute to a chapter in a southern LGBT organizing anthology three years ago.
Through a feminist decolonial lens and informed by “queer Asia” as method and “queer regionalism,” the article explores how contemporary conceptualizations of non-normative gender and sexual identities in China shift from practices deeply embedded in historically hierarchical sex-gender systems of marriage and family, to a distinct sexual-social identity that is intimately connected to regional and transnational flows of ideas, symbols, and ways of organizing in the past three decades.
Obiora Udechukwu
Professor Emeritus of Art Obiora Udechukwu currently has his work featured in a special exhibit dedicated to Nigerian Modernism in the prestigious Tate Modern gallery of contemporary art in London.
Udechukwu, whose art in the exhibit reflects on the struggles of conflict during the Nigerian Civil War, taught art at St. Lawrence for 21 years before his retirement.
During his time at St. Lawrence, he received a Charles. A Dana Professorship, and helped bring prominent African artists to campus, including renowned novelist Chinua Achebe; Wole Soyinka, the 1986 Nobel Laureate for Literature; and Okwui Enwezor, one of the leading independent curators in the world.
Shu Jiang
Assistant Professor of Psychology Shu Jiang’s recent proposal, "Psychology Unbound," was selected for the Association for Psychological Science Fund for Teaching and Public Understanding of Psychological Science.
Her project is designed to address critical gaps in undergraduate psychology education, where many students feel disconnected from course material and lack exposure to diverse role models and career pathways. Traditional curricula, Jiang argues, often presents a limited view of the field, missing the rich diversity of modern practitioners and overlooking the vast array of non-academic careers available to psychology graduates worldwide.
To remedy this, the project will create a permanent, open-access digital library of professionally produced video interviews with contemporary psychologists from diverse cultural backgrounds, subfields, and career sectors—academic and applied. By centering on the personal and professional narratives of these individuals, the series moves beyond static job descriptions to offer relatable, inspiring, and practical insights into the realities of careers in psychology.
Howard Eissenstat
Laurentian Associate Professor of History Howard Eissenstat was quoted in an article in el Diario on Turkish-Kurdish negotiations in the wake of defeats of Kurdish forces in northern Syria. Eissenstat was also interviewed for an article on US-Turkish relations for the Viennese newspaper Die Presse.
Eissenstat also recently spoke with Die Presse about US-Turkish relations in the coming year and whether a fallout between Erdogan and Trump was likely. Eissenstat argues that relations are likely to be stable, but that Turkey's most important foreign policies are going to be focused on Europe and Middle Eastern powers like Saudi Arabia.
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St. Lawrence’s Faculty Focus is a regular roundup of noteworthy faculty news.
