Faculty Focus-March 17, 2026
Faculty members put their knowledge into action so students and others are able to benefit from it. Recently, faculty appeared on syndicated podcasts, published groundbreaking book chapters, and presented at international conferences.
Richard Lauer
Assistant Professor of Philosophy Richard Lauer recently published a chapter in a new volume of the book Cultural Evolution and Social Ontology titled “Cultural Evolution and Naturalized Social Ontology.”
The volume came out of a workshop titled, “Cultural Evolution Meets Social Ontology" at the Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany, which Lauer was invited to in December 2023. That workshop brought together an international group of scholars interested in understanding how and whether studies in cultural evolution might contribute to debates in philosophy about social ontology. The former is the study of evolutionary change in cultural systems, often borrowing resources from evolutionary biology. The latter is a field of philosophy focused on asking questions about the nature of social categories and objects—like races, economies, social and economic classes.
In his chapter, Lauer argues that we should ground ontologies, or philosophical accounts of reality, in methods that are the most discerning of the available scientific methods. He argues that the most discerning methods we can use to ground an ontology are empirical and/or quantitative methods. He applies this to the case of cultural evolution by examining abstract, mathematical models of the evolutionary origins of gender, and contrasting them with empirical studies of the evolutionary origins of matrilineal and patrilineal social structures that rest on phylogenetic inference. He shows that his approach undercuts putative insights offered by alternative, less empirical, approaches to social ontology.
Mathematics Faculty
Four St. Lawrence faculty members in mathematics presented papers or organized sessions at the recent Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, DC.
Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Patti Frazer Lock and Charles A. Dana Professor of Mathematics Daniel Look presented a paper on “Mathematics and Social Justice.”
Martha E. '62 and Gregg E. Peterson Professor in Mathematics Duncan Melville presented a paper on “Interpreting Euclid: Henry Hill’s Algebraic Elements.”
Assistant Profess or Math, Computer Science, and Statistics Daniel Condon co-organized a panel on “Meeting and Exceeding Accessibility Standards.”
The Joint Mathematics Meetings is the largest gathering of mathematicians in the world.
SLU Faculty
Three St. Lawrence faculty members recently presented at a New York Six webinar titled “Translating Classroom Learning into Career Skills” aimed at helping students translate their academic experiences into career competencies.
The webinar featured Associate Professor of History and Faculty Director of the Sophomore Program Mary Jane Smith, Associate Professor of Anthropology Adam Harr, and Associate Professor of Music In-Sil Yoo, all of whom presented.
The webinar emerged out of a fall meeting with the National Association of Colleges and Employers and the invaluable assistance of our career development colleagues across the Consortium.
Howard Eissenstat
Laurentian Associate Professor and Chair of History Howard Eissenstat recently spoke to host Martin Di Caro of the "History as it Happens" podcast about Turkish-Israeli tensions in the context of the current U.S./Israeli War on Iran.
Eissenstat's research focuses on the intersection of nationalism, religious identity, and policy in 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 AKP.
Eissenstat served as a Turkey Country Specialist for Amnesty International-USA from 2006–2017 and was a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Project on Middle East Democracy from 2017-2020.
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St. Lawrence’s Faculty Focus is a regular roundup of noteworthy faculty news.
