Faculty Focus - June 18, 2026
Faculty members put their knowledge into action so students and others are able to benefit from it. Recently, faculty published papers in prestigious outlets and presented at renowned conferences.
Diane White Husic
Diane White Husic, Executive Director of the Center for the Environment, was an invited presenter on two panels at Second Nature's Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit in Chicago in March.
On the first panel, "Building Youth Capacity for Climate Action," she joined colleagues from John Jay College and George Mason University to present a model for cultivating youth leadership in climate justice, drawing on her work with students at UN climate meetings and her involvement with the NSF-funded Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education project.
On the second panel, "Centralizing Climate Action in Highly Fragmented Institutions," she joined the Academic Leaders Alliance alongside representatives from Oregon State University and Gonzaga University to share lessons learned in building and funding climate and environmental centers as a bridge between campus and community. The panel was facilitated by Timothy Carter, President of Second Nature.
Melissane Schrems
Associate Professor of History Melissane Schrems was recently interviewed by WPBS TV in Watertown as part of the station's "America @ 250" series for WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories.
Schrems, whose scholarship centers on Native American history and the early American republic, brings a distinctly North Country perspective to the nation's semicentennial conversations about democracy, land, and belonging.
Schrems also led a public talk at Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site as part of the "Place and Story" discussion series, co-hosted with Hay Memorial Library. Her presentation explored how the stories of Indigenous peoples and the American landscape are intertwined, focusing on how Mohawk decisions to form, break, or maintain alliances during the Revolutionary period shaped land use and self-determination in the North Country.
Zeyno Ustun
Zeyno Ustun, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Digital Media and Film, has published a new article in New Perspectives on Turkey titled "The Slow Build: Material and Regulatory Infrastructures and the Rise of Turkey's Networked Authoritarianism." The piece challenges the widely held view that Turkey's authoritarian turn was triggered by the 2013 Gezi protests, arguing instead that its foundations were laid gradually through decades of privatization, legal control, and media consolidation.
Ustun has also been invited to join the Global Media and Internet Concentration Project (GMICP), an international research initiative led by Carleton University in Ottawa that tracks concentration, ownership, and power across media, internet, and communications industries worldwide. The project brings together researchers from more than 50 countries, with datasets made publicly available to support open research and inform policy on media systems and digital platforms.
Gisele El Khoury
Gisele El Khoury has published a new article in FLTMAG titled "5 Takeaways from The AI Illusion." The piece draws on The AI Illusion: Why Machines Aren't Creative by Luc Julia, co-creator of Siri, to challenge common misconceptions about artificial intelligence.
El Khoury's article encourages educators and language professionals to approach AI tools with both curiosity and critical awareness, recognizing their capabilities while keeping human expertise at the center of learning.
Grace C. Huang
Grace C. Huang, Charles A. Dana Professor of Political Science, was recently featured on the podcast Dialogues in Holocaust Studies and the Second World War, where she joined Canadian international relations expert Ari Barbalet to discuss her book Chiang Kai-shek's Politics of Shame: Leadership, Legacy, and National Identity in China, published by Harvard University Asia Center.
The conversation ranged widely, covering the role of emotions in international politics, Chiang Kai-shek's use of shame as a political tool before and after the 1931 Mukden Incident, what constitutes fascism, and the relevance of this Confucian concept of shame to the present moment.
Neil Forkey
Neil Forkey, Archie F. MacAllaster and Barbara Torrey MacAllaster Professor of North Country Studies and Associate Professor of History, and Chair of the Canadian Studies department, presented a paper at the New York History Conference at Marist University in Poughkeepsie on June 11-12.
His paper, "Paul Jamieson: Bard of the Adirondacks and Protector of its Waters," reflects his ongoing research into the literary and environmental history of the North Country region.
Antun Husinec
Antun Husinec, James H. Chapin Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, recently traveled to Osijek, Croatia, to participate in the Fourth General Assembly of Beneficiaries of the DANSER Project as a member of its international Advisory Board. DANSER is a European Union-funded initiative focused on sustainable sediment management across the Danube River Basin and the Black Sea region.
Drawing on his expertise in sedimentology and carbonate systems, Husinec contributed to discussions on sediment transport, river restoration, and the role of sediments in maintaining healthy aquatic ecosystems. The project brings together researchers, engineers, and environmental managers from across Europe to develop science-based strategies for one of the world's most important river systems.
Learn more about the DANSER Project.
Zane Griffin Talley Cooper
Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Film Zane Griffin Talley Cooper recently traveled to Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off the coast of British Columbia, as part of the SSHRC-funded research project Land, Sea, Sky: Digital Infrastructure in Northern Landscapes and Communities.
During the visit, Cooper led a hands-on workshop on building solar-powered servers, gave a talk on AI and Arctic environments, and participated in community forums with local residents, policymakers, and business leaders on the expanding reach of undersea fiber networks and the broader impact of the AI boom on the island.
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St. Lawrence’s Faculty Focus is a regular roundup of noteworthy faculty news.
