Faculty Focus-February 4, 2025
Faculty members put their knowledge into action so students and others are able to benefit from it. Recently, faculty published academic journal articles, gave invited presentations, launched research programs, and were interviewed by international media.
Mindy Pitre
Associate Professor and Chair of Anthropology Mindy Pitre recently co-authored a paper with alumna Marika Stauring ’24, titled “An abnormal connection: bilateral non-osseous calcaneonavicular coalition in the Old Burial Ground in Heuvelton, New York,” published in the Journal of Anthropological Science. The paper stemmed from an analysis of skeletal remains belonging to a 15-year-old individual from the Old Burial Ground in Heuvelton, New York. Dating back to the 19th century, the remains revealed tarsal coalition, a condition where the bones in the foot are abnormally fused. This rare case, one of the few documented in the North American archaeological record, offers valuable insights into the health of settlers in rural upstate New York.
Read more about the remains here.
Zane Griffin Talley Cooper
Assistant Professor of Digital Media & Film Zane Griffin Talley Cooper is co-launching a new research program at Data & Society Research Institute called Climate, Technology, & Justice, which will investigate how technologies impact and influence the environment, and how communities participate in or resist these processes.
The program is led by Senior Researcher Tamara Kneese, along with Cooper, and multimedia artist and scholar Xiaowei Wang. The group's work is already supported by grants from the Internet Society Foundation and the National Science Foundation, which are actively funding multiple projects studying the environmental and infrastructural footprint of artificial intelligence. Cooper looks forward to building collaborations with Data & Society, St. Lawrence students, and the Center for the Environment as the CTJ group embarks on this journey to better understand the intersections of digital technology and the environment.
Patti Frazer Lock
Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Patti Frazer Lock recently gave an invited presentation on "Navigating the Frontier: Statistics, Data Science, and AI in the First Two Years" at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Seattle held January 8 – 11.
The Joint Mathematics Meetings is the largest gathering of mathematicians in the world, and Lock's presentation was part of an invited panel of experts in the field.
Howard Eissenstat
Laurentian Associate Professor and Chair of History Howard Eissenstat was interviewed by various international publications including Berlin’s Der Tagesspiegel, Vienna’s Die Presse, and Struttgart’s Stuttgarter Zeitung regarding the latest wave of politically-motivated arrests in Turkey.
Eissenstat’s research on authoritarianism in Turkey was also recently cited in a World Politics Review essay on Trump’s expansionist rhetoric.
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St. Lawrence’s Faculty Focus is a regular roundup of noteworthy faculty news.
