St. Lawrence faculty put their expertise into action throughout the summer, earning national recognition, advancing research, sharing insights with international audiences, and creating new opportunities for student learning.
Habib Battah
Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Film Habib Battah received the National Press Club's 2026 Arthur E. Rowse Award for Examining the News Media from the National Press Club, one of the nation's leading journalism organizations. He received the award with collaborators Christina Cavalcanti and Annia Ciezadlo for their investigative reporting project, “Israel's Willing Propagandists: What the Media Won't Tell You When it Embeds with the Military,” published by The Public Source—was among 18 entries honored for excellence, impact, and public service.
The National Press Club Journalism Awards recognize outstanding journalism from across the country that demonstrates excellence, impact, and public service. This year's awards honored 18 journalism entries across multiple categories.
An investigative journalist, political analyst, and founder of Beirut Report, Battah has covered Lebanon and the Middle East for more than 20 years with work appearing in The Guardian, BBC News, Al Jazeera English, CNN, Fortune, Jacobin, and other international media outlets. He is also a former journalism fellow at Oxford University and the American University of Beirut. His reporting has also been recognized with the Columbia University Oakes Award and the Samir Kassir Press Freedom Award.
Joseph Braimah
Assistant Professor of Public Health Joseph Braimah presented research from his ongoing study of climate change’s health impacts on older adults in Ghana’s Upper West Region at the 8th International Climate Change and Population Conference on Africa. His presentation explored how age-related challenges—including declining health, limited mobility, and economic insecurity—intersect with extreme heat, drought, food insecurity, and limited access to health care, compounding risks to older adults’ health and well-being.
Braimah also served as a panel discussant on climate change, social protection, and population well-being in northwestern Ghana. Drawing on evidence from Ghana’s Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty program, he discussed how social-protection initiatives can strengthen climate resilience, improve well-being, and support women’s empowerment amid environmental shocks.
Rafael Castillo Bejarano
Visiting Assistant Professor of World Languages, Cultures, and Media and co-coordinator of Caribbean and Latin American Studies Rafael Castillo Bejarano published a peer-reviewed article in Cervantes: Journal of the Cervantes Society of America. In "Una fuente portuguesa del Viaje del Parnaso: Primeyra e segunda parte dos romances (1596) de Francisco Rodrigues Lobo," Castillo Bejarano examines works by the poet, novelist, and courtly essayist Francisco Rodrigues Lobo as sources for passages and motifs in Cervantes’ poem.
The article highlights the cross-fertilization of Hispano-Lusitanian literary relations during a period of redefinition of linguistic and national parnassuses, expanding the map of connections between a global Cervantes and the literary culture of his time.
Paul Doty
Special Collections and Archives Librarian Paul Doty published “Stannard Rock: A Third Gospel According to Alfred” in the July 2026 issue of Midnight Mind Magazine. The 2,829-word narrative poem is the third in a series written in the style of a biblical gospel and follows used-car dealer Alfred as he becomes the keeper of a helical-spiral sandstone lighthouse on Lake Superior.
The magazine published the first poem in the series, “The Gospel According to Alfred,” in fall 2025; the middle installment is forthcoming.
Howard Eissenstat
Laurentian Associate Professor and Chair of History Howard Eissenstat spent the summer as a guest researcher at Istanpol, a Turkish think tank, examining the effects of the war in Gaza on Turkey and contributing to the organization’s policy work. In July, he joined a closed-door panel on NATO’s southern flank, focusing on tensions between Turkey and Israel and the United States’ role in the eastern Mediterranean. He also contributed to an Istanpol expert roundup on Turkey’s place in NATO.
Eissenstat’s recent policy report for Stockholm University’s Institute for Turkish Studies on Turkish-Israeli tensions was synopsized by the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet and discussed widely in the Turkish press. He also provided analysis to The Times of London on Turkey’s opposition crackdown and on global political corruption; to The New York Sun on Turkey’s “dismal” human-rights record in the context of the NATO Summit; to Al Jazeera on the 10th anniversary of the 2016 attempted coup in Turkey; and to U.S. funded Arabic-language news site Alhurra on a new military alliance among Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.
Anna Fahr
Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Film Anna Fahr’s debut narrative feature, Valley of Exile, is now available on demand through Watermelon+, a global streaming service featuring Palestinian, Arab, and world cinema as well as films from underrepresented communities.
The film screened at 30 international festivals across six continents and earned 10 awards before its acquisition by the Chicago-based distribution company Watermelon Pictures. It is also available through Apple TV in Canada and Vimeo On Demand.
Jeff Frank
Professor of Education Jeff Frank published “Education and the Three-City Problem of Modern Life” in Theology and Philosophy of Education.
Frank was also invited to Napa Valley to lead a workshop on the three-city problem at the ZOE Conference, which brings together scholars, religious leaders, and innovators in technology and business.
Precious Hall
Associate Professor of Political Science Precious Hall received a $10,679 Grant to Individuals for Vocational Exploration from the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education. The grant supports projects that expand scholarship, conversation, and teaching about vocation in undergraduate education.
Hall will use the funding to develop Politics as a Vocation, a new course that embeds vocational reflection in political science. Grounded in Max Weber's 1919 lecture “Politik als Beruf,” the course will challenge students studying political science to grapple with and cultivate their ethic of responsibility and the necessary balance among passion, responsibility, and proportion. Students will examine the ethics of political leadership, engage in analysis of several political leaders, and practice structured reflection to identify values, responsibilities, and purpose. The project will also produce a course syllabus for wider use, an article for Studies in Vocation and Calling, and a submission to the Vocation Matters blog.
Patti Frazer Lock
Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Patti Frazer Lock attended an invitation-only summit at Harvard University in May, where leaders in mathematics and statistics developed a vision for modernizing undergraduate mathematics. The summit was organized by Transforming Post-Secondary Education in Mathematics and funded by the Gates Foundation.
In August, Lock participated in two national conferences in Boston. At the Joint Statistical Meetings, she organized and chaired the invited panel “Communities in Action: Advice from College GAISE.” At MathFest, she served as an invited panelist on modeling education at the intersection of mathematics and statistics, led a minicourse with Professor Robin Lock on recommendations for introductory statistics, and co-organized a session on attracting students to the mathematical sciences. In that session, Lock and Professor Daniel M. Look presented “Outreach with Math & Everything.”
Sahar Milani
R. Sheldon ’68 and Virginia H. Johnson Associate Professor of Economics Sahar Milani published the chapter “Teaching Financial Literacy Through the Lens of Career Exploration” in the Springer Nature volume Financial Literacy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. The chapter presents an approach that connects personal-finance topics—including budgeting, credit cards, insurance, and investing—with students’ professional goals.
Milani has been involved in financial-literacy education for more than 15 years and teaches Personal Finance, a course that emphasizes practical life skills and career readiness to help students build financially secure futures.
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