Faculty Focus - May 10, 2021

 Recently, faculty published essays, served as panelists, presented original research, and were named to national academic leadership positions.

Associate Professor of Sociology and Department Chair Stephen Barnard, whose research focuses on issues relating to media, culture, technology, and social change, recently shared his expertise about shadow bans with BuiltIn, an online community for startups and tech companies.

In the story published on May 6, Barnard comments on the perceptions of the moderation technique, which is used to secretly block users from posting to a social platform, across political parties--particularly in the wake of public bans on elected officials. 

“‘Shadow banning’ sounds quite nefarious, and I think that is part of its success in the public discourse. It has this sense of a faceless entity, and it’s conspiratorial. It contains a more or less explicit assertion that these liberal tech executives from California are censoring us and conspiring to force their progressive agenda throughout American politics.”

Barnard is an instructor for courses in St. Lawrence University’s First-Year Program and offers a community-based learning class that works with incarcerated people and administrators at a local county jail.

Professor of English Bob Cowser recently had his essay, Hersey, Renais and Representing Hiroshima: Toward an Essayistic Historiography, published in a new book of literary theory, The Essay At The Limits, published by Bloomsbury Press on Wednesday, May 5.

Cowser is the author of three nonfiction books, including 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.  He has taught courses in nonfiction writing, film, and American literature since 1998 and has taught abroad in France, England, and Denmark. 

Associate Professor of History Howard Eissenstat, whose recent work focuses on contemporary Turkish domestic and foreign policy, provided insight into President Biden’s recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide for the podcast History As It Happens with award-winning broadcaster Martin Di Caro on Tuesday, May 4. 

“At least part of the reason why Biden was willing to do this, where previous presidents were not, is precisely because the U.S.-Turkish relationship is not what it once was and he doesn’t feel as bound by Turkish preferences as previous administrations have,” said Eissenstat.

Eissenstat's research focuses on nationalism and Islam in the 19th century Ottoman Empire as well as the history of 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 Justice and Development Party (AKP). In addition to traditional academic work, Eissenstat served for over a decade as a Turkey Country Specialist for Amnesty International-USA. He has lectured at the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. military, and the Canadian Foreign Service Institute, as well as given testimony to the Canadian Senate and offered briefings to Congressional Committees.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Alanna Gillis participated in a national panel, The Future of Education: Identifying Challenges and Opportunities in Pandemic Learning, on Thursday, April 29. As the only sociologist on the panel, Gillis offered insight on how the impact of the pandemic has been unequally felt by students of different backgrounds, and how this will impact different types of students over time. The panel discussion was released as a podcast and a video.

Gillis’ research focuses on inequality in higher education. She is currently working on multiple research projects about the pandemic's impact on higher education, including how the pandemic impacted first-year students' transition to college at St. Lawrence, the effectiveness of simultaneous remote and in-person teaching, and the impact of the emergency remote transition in Spring 2020 on classroom pedagogy and students' lives.

Visiting Assistant Professor of European History Carolyn Twomey presented at the virtual annual meeting of the Medieval Academy of America on Thursday, April 15.  Based on her work during a St. Lawrence-sponsored summer research trip in 2019, Twomey presented her original research on the reuse of ninth-century stone standing crosses, and how digital techniques can allow scholars to reinvestigate medieval and post-medieval histories through 3D modeling.  Elements of her work were also published in the edited collection of Insular Iconographies in 2019 and will be expanded into a chapter of Twomey’s monograph, Living Water, Living Stone: A Material History of Baptism in Early Medieval England. 

Twomey’s research is interdisciplinary between the fields of history, art history, archaeology, and religious studies of the early Middle Ages. Her work focuses on the cultural and religious meaning of objects and places. At St. Lawrence, she teaches introductory courses on European studies that emphasize hands-on learning about physical and digital medieval objects.

Associate Professor and Chair of Geology Alexander K. Stewart was recently elected Vice President of the North Eastern Province of the Earth Sciences Honorary Society, Sigma Gamma Epsilon. The society, established in 1915, recognizes scholarship and professionalism in the earth sciences. 

 Stewart’s research covers all aspects of surface geology. He has worked with students on numerous geologic research projects such as dating rockfall events in Alaska, leaf-wax work in the Adirondacks, glacier-lake sediments in the High Andes, and the impact of geomorphology on the Battle of Sackets Harbor. Stewart is retired from the U.S. Army and is a veteran of the Cold War and three foreign wars.

St. Lawrence’s Faculty Focus is a regular roundup that features noteworthy faculty news. Submit news for an upcoming edition.