Faculty Focus-March 3, 2026
Faculty members put their knowledge into action so students and others are able to benefit from it. Recently, faculty published in prestigious outlets, published groundbreaking books, and hosted community events.
Bob Cowser
Professor of English Bob Cowser recently published an op-ed in USA Today suggesting that MAGA’s inserting itself in the U.S. men’s hockey gold medal postgame celebration marred the moment, took what might have been unifying for the country and made it divisive, and made him nostalgic for a time when being American made him proud.
“Last Sunday proved to be, like so much else these days, a divisive event, another litmus test of how far we’ve fallen, even from those post-Watergate, post-Vietnam days,” Cowser says in the article.
Cowser has taught courses in nonfiction writing, film, and American literature since 1998. He is the author of three nonfiction books, most recently Green Fields: Crime, Punishment and a Boyhood Between which won "Best Memoir 2010" from the Adirondack Center for Writers and was cited in the Best American Essays 2012. His first book Dream Season was named a New York Times editor’s choice and was listed among the “best-ever college sports books” by The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Melissane Parm Schrems
Associate Professor of History and MacAllaster Professor of North Country Studies Melissane Parm Schrems was recently unanimously elected to the Board of Directors of Humanities New York.
Humanities New York is the sole statewide proponent of public humanities programs. Through grant–making and events, the non-profit aims to bridge the gap between scholarly study and real-world impact. Their grants support community–centered activities such as workshops and reading groups, providing New Yorkers with opportunities for collaborative and engaged learning across the vast field of disciplines known collectively as the Humanities.
Schrems is also coordinator of Native American Studies at St. Lawrence, as well as the Native American Student Association faculty advisor. Her interests include Native American, European diasporic, African diasporic, and settler-colonial American history.
Neil Forkey
Associate Professor and Chair of Canadian Studies and Archie F. MacAllaster and Barbara Torrey MacAllaster Professor of North Country Studies Neil Forkey has published a book titled Defending a Borderland: Canadian and American Environmental Activism in the St. Lawrence Valley.
In the book, Forkey explores the transnational links between environmentalists within the St. Lawrence Valley-North Country region between the 1970s and 1990s.
A specialist in environmental history, Forkey is the author of Canadians and the Natural Environment to the Twenty-First Century and Shaping the Upper Canadian Frontier: Environment, Society, and Culture in the Trent Valley. Forkey’s articles have appeared in such scholarly journals as the Canadian Historical Review, the Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'étudescanadiennes, the American Review of Canadian Studies, Forest and Conservation History, Ontario History, and New York History.
Dan Look
Charles A. Dana Professor of Mathematics Dan Look recently organized an event at Jernabi Coffeehouse in Potsdam to raise funds for the Potsdam Humane Society.
The event included a short talk about his recent book Math Cats: Scratching the Surface of Mathematical Concepts, as well as a book signing by him and his four cats, and a silent auction for limited edition prints from the book.
In the end, Look helped raise $782 for the Humane Society along with donations of food and pet supplies.
Look’s new book uses cat puns to explain what Look likes to call bar math or coffee shop math—mathematical ideas that are easy to discuss over a beer or coffee and don’t require any sort of advanced mathematical background to understand.
Read more about Math Cats on the St. Lawrence website.
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St. Lawrence’s Faculty Focus is a regular roundup of noteworthy faculty news.
