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Queens College Welcomes Our New Faculty for 2007
This year's diverse new faculty include internationally recognized artists and critics, prolific writers and award-winning journalists, as well as experts in the arts and linguistics, critically acclaimed musicians, even a rock star! They are joined by experts in education theory and practice, scientists in fields from biology to psychology, as well as historians and social scientists, all with extensive national and international exposure. Our new faculty have collectively produced ground breaking research and numerous published works including editorial pieces, books, dissertations, and scholarly articles for academic journals in their respective fields.
Arts & Humanities | Education | Math & Natural Sciences | Social Sciences
Dr. Christopher D. M. Atkins joins the Art Department, as Assistant Professor of Art History with a specialization in 17th century Dutch Painting. Dr. Atkins was awarded the Ph.D. with distinction from Rutgers in 2006 for his groundbreaking work on Frans Hals, but had already begun his scholarly career with a major publication derived from the dissertation in 2005. Dr. Atkins also has the unusual distinction of having studied and learned the actual painting techniques practiced in Holland in the 16th and 17th centuries in Amsterdam, followed by a year-long program of study at the University of Leiden. In addition, he brings nearly five years of museum expertise to the classroom, beginning with a stint at the Pierpont Morgan Library and followed by four years as Curatorial Research Associate at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Dr. Atkins has had a broad range of teaching experience, most recently at Northwestern University, which, in combination with his first-hand understanding of painting techniques and his rich curatorial experience in Boston, make him a dynamic presence in the classroom.
Dr.Vasileios Marinis joins the faculty as Assistant Professor of Art . Under the aegis of the Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, he will teach half of his time in the Art Department and the History Department. Trained as a specialist in Byzantine Art, Architecture, Liturgy, and History, Dr. Marinis holds degrees from the University of Athens, the Sorbonne (Paris I), the Divinity School at Yale, the Pontifical Institute at the University of Toronto and the University of Illinois, and has enjoyed major fellowships from most of them, as well as from Dumbarton Oaks and the Université Pierre Mendes-France in Grenoble, among others. He has taught everything from Early Christian Art to Modern Architecture at Yale and the University of Illinois. Dr. Marinis also brings a wide range of research and museum experiences to the classroom. He has assisted with major exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, for whom he was a consultant on the extraordinary exhibition of Icons from the Monastery of St, Catherine on Mount Sinai. In 2005, he organized a major, on-going project to catalogue the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine manuscripts in the collection of the Gennadeios Library at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.
Sami Shalom Chetrit, Assistant Professor in Classical, Middle Eastern & Asian Languages & Cultures, received his undergraduate and graduate education at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he completed his Ph.D. degree in 2001. In addition, he holds an M.A. degree from Columbia University (1991). Dr. Chetrit is an internationally recognized critic and poet. He has published several collections of poetry, numerous articles, and his first novel appeared in Israel in May of 2007. Dr Chetrit is also a highly-regarded scholar of Hebrew language, literature, culture, education, and politics. His dissertation in Hebrew has been published in Israel (Am Oved, 2004). An Arabic translation was published in 2005, and an English translation entitled Mizrahim in Israel: Between Integration and Alternative, 1948-2003 is nearly complete. Dr Chetrit’s most recent affiliations are Sapir College in Israel and The Center for the Study of Religion at UCLA.
Akhtar Khan, Lecturer (English), has an M.A. degree in English from Queens College and has done graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has taught English in the Queens SEEK Program for the past fifteen years. Her area of specialization is Asian/South Asian American literature.
Amy Wan, Assistant Professor (English), has an M.A. degree in English from SUNY Binghamton and a doctorate in English with a concentration in Writing Studies from the University of Illinois-Urbana. Her dissertation, "Producing Good Citizens: Literacy and Citizenship Training in Anxious Times" studies "productivity imperatives in early 20th century literacy training of immigrants and industrial workers."
Andrea Janet Walkden, Assistant Professor (English), has a master's degree in Early Modern French from Oxford and a doctorate from Yale in English and Renaissance Studies. Her dissertation, "Lives, Letters, and History" discusses the prevalence of biographical forms in Restoration literary culture. She has an essay forthcoming on "Izaak Walton's Lives" and will be teaching Shakespeare and our English Literature survey I in the fall.
Eric Byung Chan Song, Assistant Professor (English), has an M.A. degree in Humanities from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Virginia, where he specialized in Early Modern Studies. His dissertation on Milton identifies "a powerful tension between English nativism and expansionism inspiring the post-Restoration writings of John Milton." This fall, Professor Song will be teaching our 17th century literature course.
Jeffrey Cassvan, Lecturer (English), is ABD in the English Program at CUNY Graduate Center. He has been teaching in the Queens College English Department since 1994. His areas of specialization are Medieval literature, Irish literature, modern poetry, and literary theory.
Veronica Schanoes, Assistant Professor (English), has an M.A. degree in English, a Women's Studies Certificate, and a Ph.D. degree in English from the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation, "Re-Visionary Fantasies: Feminism, Fairy Tales, and Classical Myth" argues that feminist revisions of fairy tales and classical myths entail a sympathetic relationship between the revised and original stories. In 2002, she won the William Carlos Williams Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets.
Wayne Moreland, Lecturer (English), has an M.A. degree in American literature from NYU, and has taught in the Queens English Department since 1987. His areas of specialization are American, African-American, post-colonial, and poetry. He is a published poet.
Babak Ebrahimian, Assistant Professor (Drama, Theatre and Dance), received his Ph.D. degree in Theatre Studies (Ph.D. minor in Comparative Literature) and recieved his Master's Degree in Directing and Dramaturgy at Stanford University. While at Stanford, he founded the Experimental Theatre Lab, where he developed the key elements of the cinematic theatre. Also, worked closely with and assisted directors Carl Weber and Liviu Cuilie, and has been a guest at the Deutsches Theater, Schaubune, Ariane Mnouchkine's Theatre de Soleil and Pina Bausch's Wuppertal Danztheatre. Productions include the US premiere of Helene Cixous' Portrait of Dora, Chekhov's the Wedding, Heiner Muller's Hamletmachine and Mariveaux's the Island of the Slaves. In addition, articles on theatre, cinema and popular culture in PAJ, Theatre Journal, Communications and Feminist Media Studies, he has two books on the theatre: The Cinematic Theatre (Scarecrow Press, 2002) and Sculpting Space in the Theatre: Conversations with the top set, light and costume designers (Focal Press, 2006). He is currently working on his third book, which is a critical examination of "mimetic mechanisms" in dramatic literature. Prior to coming to Queens College, he taught at Stanford and Columbia Universities.
Elizabeth Ijalba, Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders, did her doctoral study in Speech & Hearing Sciences at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, following degrees earned from Rutgers University and Kean University, and twenty years of professional practice in Speech-Language Pathology with monolingual and bilingual persons with speech, language and literacy disorders. Professor Ijalba has taught at the College of New Rochelle, Teachers College, Columbia University, Universidad Centroamericana in Nicaragua, and the New York Center of the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriques Urena. Her primary research interest is in bilingualism and cross-linguistic impacts on literacy and language disorders. Her dissertation study addressed `Unidentified Dyslexia in Adult Spanish-Speakers who Report Severe Difficulty Learning English'. Professor Ijalba has presented more than two dozen papers at national and international meetings, including the American Speech Language Hearing Association, the International Dyslexia Society, Congreso Internacional de Psicologia in Lima Peru, International Symposium on Bilingualism in Barcelona, International Symposium on Communication Disorders, South Africa, and the Sociedad Latin americana de Neuropsicologia in Montreal, Canada. She has also published work on the cross-linguistic aspects of dyslexia and on bilingual aphasia.
Karen Ball, Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders, received her bachelor's degree, cum laude, from SUNY Geneseo, a M.S. degree in Communication Disorders from Boston University, and a Master's degree in Public Administration from New York University. She has been a speech language pathologist for 25 years, spending the majority of her professional career at medical centers. She is nationally known as an expert in a number of highly specialized areas, such as swallowing, voice disorders, laryngectomy, and neurogenic communication disorders, including aphasia, apraxia, dysarthria, and cognitive impairments. She has over a dozen presentations at national professional conventions and symposia, and within the past 7 years has served as Principal Investigator and participant in two comprehensive NIH funded research projects at Beth Israel Medical Center. Since 2000, she has been an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders at Queens College, teaching a graduate level class on dysphagia.
Kathy Downing, Instructor in the Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders, received her M.A. degree in Speech Language Pathology from Queens College in 1991. Since receiving her degree, Ms. Downing has held a variety of positions providing speech language evaluations and intervention to a wide range of clients in both hospital and school settings. Ms. Downing has a particular expertise working with the pediatric neurogenic population, as well as with children who are afflicted with autistic spectrum disorders. Ms. Downing was the Rehabilitation Supervisor for a large Early Intervention and Preschool Center, where she coordinated therapeutic services and supervised a staff of occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech language pathologists. She has spent many years mentoring clinical fellows and graduate students in speech language pathology. Most recently, Ms. Downing was an Adjunct Instructor in the Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders at Queens College, providing mentorship and supervision to first year graduate students in the Speech Language Pathology program.
Nel de Jong, Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders, received her Ph.D. degree in Humanities from the University of Amsterdam. Since then, she has been a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh. She received an award from the Dutch Association for Applied Linguistics for the best M.A. thesis in the field of applied linguistics. Her principal area of specialization within the field of applied linguistics is second language acquisition, more specifically, second language teaching methodology, oral fluency development, and second language comprehension and production skills. She has published in several applied linguistics venues, and has given professional presentations in the Netherlands, Germany, The United Kingdom, as well as in The United States. She has extensive experience with a number of professional software programs, and is proficient, to varying degrees, in 10 languages.
Yael Neumann, Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders, did her doctoral study in the Speech and Hearing Sciences Program at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her undergraduate and master's degrees were earned at Brooklyn College, where she was a summa cum laude graduate. Professor Neumann's research interests are in neurolinguistics, lexical access in typical aging and in adults with aphasia, and the use of event-related potentials in assessment and treatment. Her dissertation focused on the nature of word finding problems in healthy young and older individuals using event-related potentials. Professor Neumann has extensive clinical experience in working with a wide variety of speech, voice, language, and fluency disorders in both children and adults, and has held clinical supervisory positions at Adelphi University, Long Island University, and Hunter College. She has previously taught undergraduate and graduate courses at local universities and online courses for the University of Cincinnati and Nova Southeastern University. She has presented several papers at national and international meetings, including the American Speech Language Hearing Association, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, and the Science of Aphasia Conference.
Joy Fuqua will be joining the Department of Media Studies in the Fall of 2007, Dr. Fuqua received her Ph.D. degree in Cultural and Critical Studies at the University of Pittsburgh in 1997. She has taught at the University of Pittsburgh and most recently at Tulane University's Department of Communication, where she was Director of the Cultural Studies Program. While at Tulane, Dr. Fuqua led in the development and implementation of Tulane University's new Center for Public Service, an academic center devoted to facilitating student civic engagement. She has published in the area of health and communication, and is completing a book entitled Healthy TV: Television and Medical Media for Duke University Press. Inspired by her experience in post-Katrina New Orleans, Dr. Fuqua's current research focuses on the cultural phenomena that materialize in the wake of natural and economic disaster.
Salman Ahmad, Visiting Distinguished Lecturer in Music, is a doctor by training and a rock musician by profession. Salman went to school in his birthplace of Lahore, Pakistan, and then moved with his family to New York, where he went to Tappan Zee High School in Tappan. He then earned his medical degree from Pakistan’s King Edward Medical college in Lahore. While in medical school he was also a member of Pakistan's first pop band, Vital Signs, whose debut album sold a million copies. He left Vital Signs in 1990 and founded what would become South Asia’s biggest rock band, Junoon. Junoon has sold over 25 million albums worldwide and has the distinction of being the first rock band to be invited to perform at the U.N. general assembly by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2001. Also, he is a U.N. goodwill ambassador for HIV/AIDS, has personalized the "I care, do you?" U.N. poster campaign in Pakistan by paraphrasing a popular quranic verse, “Saving one life (from AIDS) is like saving the whole of humanity.” Recently he has appeared in two documentary films: It's My Country Too, about Muslim Americans, and Rockstar and the Mullahs, which has won a SAJA award. Both films have been broadcast worldwide on PBS and the BBC.
Dr. Sherry Overholt, Visiting Assistant Professor in Music, received her bachelor's degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Miami, and M.A. and D.M.A. degrees in performance from Yale University. She has performed extensively both in the U.S. and internationally, with performances including the title role in the world premiere of Frank Lewin's opera Burning Bright, which was recorded in 2003. Bruce Norris, a member of the faculty of New York University and organist with the Metropolitan Opera, described her performance as follows: "She sang the leading role in this exceptionally difficult modem opera with aplomb as well as vocal ease. Her dramatic portrayal was intelligently crafted and compellingly delivered. Her performance was received enthusiastically not only by the audience, but by critics as well." Other letters of reference are similarly enthusiastic about her performances. She has sung with the Baltimore and Portland Symphonies, the Philadelphia Virtuosi, and has been on Columbia Artist's Community Concert roster as operatic soloist for ten years. Dr. Overholt has taught at the Hartt School of Music (1990-1993), Purchase College Conservatory (1999-present), and New York University (2001-OS), and has given master classes and lectures throughout the U.S. Two years ago she founded the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute, a summer festival which draws faculty from the Metropolitan Opera and instructs young opera singers at Sarah Lawrence College. She has served as Adjunct Assistant Professor of voice at the Aaron Copland School of Music since 2002.
Dr. Christopher M. Oliva, Special Education, Educational and Community Programs, focuses his work in the area of applied behavior analysis, positive behavior supports, and curriculum development for individuals with severe disabilities, dual diagnosis, and severe challenging behavior. He has worked with individuals and their families in public and private schools as well as in adult settings, and has collaborated with state governments in educational and behavioral policy development. Dr. Oliva's research focuses on the development of positive strategies to address the most severe behavior problems, and staff development.
Sara B. Woolf has a B. A. degree in Psychology from Brown University and an M.A. degree in Deafness Rehabilitation from New York University. She joins the ECP Department as an Educational and Behavioral Consultant who works with individuals with disabilities, their families, classroom teachers, administrators, and school teams to enhance educational and quality of life outcomes. Ms. Woolf focuses on the use of positive behavioral supports, curricular modifications, team building and collaboration to achieve and sustain positive outcomes. Her primary areas of interest include teacher training and support, applied use of positive behavior supports, enhancing family-school partnerships, systems change and collaboration.
Franklin Turner, Assistant Professor in EECE, is currently completing a Ph.D. degree in Urban Educational Policy with a concentration in educational psychology at Rutgers University. He has been an adjunct professor in the Psychology Department at Kean University in Union, New Jersey where he taught courses in experimental psychology, tests and measurements, and the psychology of learning. He has been a middle school teacher, and a graduate student counselor at the Cook College Counseling Center at Rutgers. He has a strong record of community service, having worked as a volunteer for habitat for Humanity in New Orleans, Louisiana, and a volunteer grant writer for the After-School Boxing Program in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He is a co-author of a recent article in Current Issues in Counseling and Psychotherapy.
Sunghee Shin, Assistant Professor in EECE, has a doctorate in Instructional Technology and Media from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her dissertation is entitled "A Study on Network-based Art Criticism Through an On-line Art Gallery: A Synthetic Approach to Media Literacy". Dr. Shin’s academic work draws on her interests in instructional technology theory and design, children and media, aesthetic education, and the social impact of new technology. Before coming to QC, she was an adjunct faculty member in the Media Center at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. Her work has been published in the Korean Journal of Applied Linguistics and Current Issues in Comparative Education. She has a strong record of community service, having volunteered at the Korean Community Center for Children where she taught K-8 students from the Korean Community. In addition to her work in technology, Dr. Shin is also a freelance art critic.
Theodore B. Kesler, Assistant Professor in EECE, is completing his doctorate at Teachers College, Columbia University. The focus of his dissertation is a case study of teachers negotiations between balanced literacy and high-stakes standardized tests. Ted has most recently been a staff developer with the Reading & Writing Project at Teachers College, Columbia. In this capacity, he has worked in public schools in New York City, the Metropolitan Area, and school districts around the country to design and implement a new literacy curriculum. A former New York City classroom teacher, in 1996-1997 Ted was featured in a series of nine articles about his 3rd grade class. The series was entitled “Class 3-223: Mr. Kesler’s Struggle,” and was written by the well-known New York Times journalist, Jacques Steinberg. Kesler is also the co-author with Lucy Calkins of Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing.
Brian Murfin, Assistant Professor (Secondary Education & Youth Services), received a B.S. degree in Biology from Bowling Green State University in 1977. He then joined the Peace Corps and taught at the Secondary School of Science in Swaziland and Botswana for 12 1/2 years. After returning to the U.S., he completed his Masters degree and Ph.D. in Science Education at Ohio State University in 1993. He has held faculty positions at Queens College, New York University and Adelphi University. Also, was the Manager of the Office of Educational Programs at Brookhaven National Laboratory. His research interests are virtual learning environments, the use of technology in science teaching and learning and the relationship between science and culture.
Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Else J. Fjerdingstad, Assistant Professor (Biology Department); received a M.S. degree in Biology in 1994 and Ph.D. in 1996 from Aarhus University, Denmark, funded by the Danish Science Foundation and Danish Research Academy. This work was done at the Department of Ecology and Genetics with Dr. Koos Boomsma as advisor. She worked as a Carlsberg Foundation post-doctoral researcher at Lausanne University, Switzerland, with Dr. Laurent Keller in the Department of Ecology and Evolution from 1997-1999, and then moved to Australia to work as post-doctoral researcher with Dr. Ross Crozier first at the Department of Evolution at LaTrobe University, VIC (1999-2000), then at the School of Tropical Biology at James Cook University, QLD (2000-2001). Afterwards, she worked as post-doctoral researcher at Department of Ecology, University Pierre & Marie Curie in Paris, France, with Dr. Jean Clobert from 2002-2006. Her main research interests are social evolution, mating system evolution and their interaction, using mainly social insects as study organisms. Specific areas include reproductive strategies and conflicts; selection at different levels; sociality genetics; paternity skew; co-variation between phenotype, behavior and fitness; gene-environment-social environment effects on phenotype; resource allocation conflicts; sex ratios; evolution of worker castes and sexual size dimorphism; and host-parasite co-evolution. She is also very interested in the evolution of dispersal in semi-social ciliated protozoans, in particular in the context of kin competition and benefits. Her work has been published in Evolution, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Molecular Ecology, American Naturalist and other journals. She also enjoys teaching all aspects of evolutionary genetics and ecology, and stimulating students to develop critical minds and excelling in research.
John Dennehy, Assistant Professor (Biology); received a B.A.degree in Biology in 1995 from Merrimack College, a M.S. degree in Zoology in 1997 from the University of Idaho and a Ph.D. degree in Biology (2003) from Clark University. From 2003-2006, he has been a post-doctoral fellowship of the National Science Foundation at Yale University from 2006-2007, a post-doctoral associate at University at Albany. As a microbial evolutionary ecologist, Dr. Dennehy uses model microbial organisms, such as bacteria and viruses, and an interdisciplinary approach employing techniques from microbiology, epidemiology, population biology, molecular biology and mathematical modeling, to address open questions in ecological and evolutionary theory. Of particular interest are how the composition and distribution of host organisms in space affects the population dynamics and evolution of their parasites and the evolution of bacteriophage life history traits with a strong emphasis on how stochasticity in gene expression affects phage life history. Dr. Dennehy’s work has been published in the American Naturalist, Ecology Letters, Evolution, and was the subject of a Science Times article, “Scientists Explore Ways to Lure Viruses to Their Death” by Carl Zimmer.
Michael J.Hickerson, Assistant Professor (Biology); comes to Queens College from the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed 2 years of post-doctoral research on phylogeographic theory and modeling that looks at how co-distributed species are affected by large climatic and geologic changes. Dr. Hickerson received his Ph.D. degree in Biology from Duke University (2003), where he used population genetic data to study the effects of climate change on temperate rocky intertidal fishes. Dr. Hickerson is now primarily involved in developing computational methods that solve biogeographic puzzles such as, whether community assembly is driven by ecological interactions, dispersal, speciation and/or climate. Dr. Hickerson also works on methods of species delineation, conservation genetics, is on the editorial board of Systematic Biology and has published in eight academic journals. Funding from NSF supported his research at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Hickerson now teaches a graduate seminar in Biogeography and will be teaching Biometrics in the fall of 2007.
Mika Vesanen, Instructor (Department of Biology), received his Ph.D. degree in Biology from the University of Helsinki, Finland (1994). He continued his studies at the Rockefeller University and Cornell Medical School, NYC. His studies primarily focused on the natural history course of HIV infection, the impact of new antiretroviral therapies on HIV replication in infected individuals and developing new vaccine strategies against HIV infection. Dr. Vesanen is an author/co-author of twenty peer-reviewed articles published in scientific journals such as, Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Experimental Medicine and Journal of Virology. At Queens College, he currently teaches several courses including Virology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases.
Sanjai Kumar, Assistant Professor (Chemistry and Biochemistry); received his Master's degree (1990) from the Chemistry Department at Banaras Hindu University, India. Immediately after, he served as a scientist (1990-1996) at India’s premier research institute, Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Mumbai. In the fall of 1996, he came to Wesleyan University, CT to pursue a Ph.D. degree in the laboratory of Rex F. Pratt. His graduate research (1996-2002) involved work on beta-lactamases, a primary cause of wide spread antibiotic resistance. For his post-doctoral research (2002-2007), he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Zhong-Yin Zhang and Dr. David S. Lawrence at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY. His work there involved developing novel tools for use in chemical biology and functional proteomics of protein tyrosine phosphatases and protein kinases. His current research interests include design, synthesis and evaluation of inhibitors/sensors of therapeutically important proteins.
Uri Samuni, Assistant Professor (Chemistry and Biochemistry). Uri was born in Jerusalem, Israel. He received both his B.S. degree in Chemistry (1990) and his Ph.D. (1998) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel. His experience with matrix isolation spectroscopy allowed him to see the unique advantages of sol-gel encapsulation of proteins. He has combined this approach with resonance Raman spectroscopy first as a post-doctoral and later on as a research associate at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY. His current research includes resonance Raman and surface enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS). Sol-gel encapsulation of proteins. Development of nanogels and biomolecules encapsulated nanogels and their applications in imaging and drug delivery. Photonics and NanoBiophotonics applications.
Aviezri S. Fraenkel, Visiting Professor in Mathematics, was educated at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, in Electrical Engineering, graduating with a B.S., E.E. Diploma and M.S. He received a Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from UCLA, under the late Ernst G. Straus. He is a Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, and has published 200 research papers in the scientific literature, in the areas of mathematics, theoretical computer science, information storage and retrieval and Judaica. He has supervised about 35 M.S. theses and 10 Ph.D. theses. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Discrete Math., Electronic J. of Combinatorics, Theoretical Computer Science, and Internat. J. of Appl. Math., Internat. Computer Games Assoc. J.; and on the Advisory Board of INTEGERS — Electronic J. of Combinatorial Number Theory. He is a member of the Electronic Publishing Committee of the Europe. Math. Soc. He has been Chairman of the Israel Mathematical Union, and has held visiting positions at a number of universities in the USA, Canada, Australia, Europe and Israel.
Dragomir Saric, Assistant Professor in Mathematics, received his Ph.D. degree in mathematics (2001) from the City University of New York in the area of complex analysis. He subsequently held a NTT Assistant Professor position at the University of Southern California from 2001-2004 where he was a member of the Topology and Geometry group. Afterwards, he was appointed as a Lecturer at the Institute for Mathematical Sciences of the Stony Brook University from 2004-2006. While at the Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, he was a member and an organizer of the Dynamical Systems Seminar. He was also a visitor to the University of Maryland for one semester. In the spring of 2007, he was appointed to the Assistant Professor position in the Department of Mathematics at Queens College of the City University of New York. Also, is actively pursuing research in the fields of the Teichmuller theory, complex dynamics, topology and related areas. He has had several collaborative projects with other mathematicians. He is also teaching a variety of undergraduate and graduate mathematics classes at all levels.
John W. Kennedy, Lecturer in Mathematics, recieved his Ph.D., B.S., and F.R.S.C. After attaining a Ph.D. degree in mathematical chemistry from the University of Essex, England (1972), Dr. Kennedy held a number of research and teaching positions in several countries. His wide ranging mathematical interests include chemistry, physics, and mathematics education. His prime focus, however, lies with graph theory and combinatorics because of the wonderful models these areas of mathematics provide for insights into statistical mechanical systems, and the nature of the physical world. Dr. Kennedy's research activities have resulted in many published papers in these and other topics. Since its inception in 1980, Dr. Kennedy continues to serve as editor of the Graph Theory Notes of New York, a referenced journal published jointly by the New York Academy of Sciences and (since 2000) by Queens College. Although he gets a kick out of teaching all mathematics courses, Dr, Kennedy's special interests lie with courses in graph theory, combinatorics, mathematics problem solving, and mathematics discovery using Mathematica. He finds it exciting to experiment with innovative teaching techniques that appeal to and motivate students. Dr. Kennedy first came to the Mathematics Department at Queens College as Gorenstein Visiting Professor in 1999 and again during 2001-2002. He continued his teaching (part-time) and research at Queens and was honored with the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching: Adjunct Faculty, in Fall 2006. Since 2002, Dr. Kennedy has enjoyed composing challenging mathematics problems for the Annual Queens High School Mathematics Competition. He also enjoys driving to and exploring the Rocky Mountains during the Summer months, making sure to visit Cheyenne, Wyoming to keep himself supplied with shirts.
Chuixiang Yi, Assistant Professor (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences); received his B.S. degree in Physics from Liaoning Normal University in 1982, his M.S. in Theoretical Physics from Northeast Normal University in 1984, and his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from Nanjing University in 1991, China. He joined the Department of Geography at Beijing Normal University in 1991 and worked as an Assistant and then Associate Professor for five years. He has also worked for the eddy covariance flux community (Ameriflux) as Post-doctoral and Research Associates for more than nine years, which involves working at the unique tall tower in Northern Wisconsin (WLEF) and with a complex terrain tower site at Niwot Ridge in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Dr. Yi has published two books and 29 referred journal papers. The combined citations are more than 350 times. His research emphasizes how climate changes affect land surface processes and how land-atmosphere exchanges affect climate. His current research focuses on canopy fluid mechanics by developing theory, designing observations and performing numerical simulations to help understand the physical, biological and chemical processes that control the exchange of trace gas between the vegetation and the atmosphere.
Claudia Brumbaugh, Assistant Professor (Psychology); received her B.A.degree in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University in 1999 and her Ph.D. in Social-Personality Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007. Her research interests lie primarily in uncovering the processes that allow people to have similar thoughts and emotions across different relationships and over time. Her work is guided by the framework of adult attachment theory, coupled with social-cognitive paradigms. Based on her past research findings, she is inspired to continue to look for patterns and continuities in relational experiences and decisions. In the future she plans to continue to address questions such as the following: Do people’s desires for predictability and to confirm their existing beliefs sometimes sabotage their interpersonal growth? How do people select their social environments and what leads them to make those choices? How do people of different attachment types “fit” with their social environments and What are the features they value most in others? For instance, some people may be most satisfied when partners are secure, and others might be most happy when they feel that they are admired. She is also interested in individual differences in person perception, representational models of significant others, and evolutionary psychology.
Joel R. Sneed, Assistant Professor (Psychology), received his B.A. degree in Psychology from New York University and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts in 2002. Upon completing his clinical internship at Bellevue Hospital, Dr. Sneed returned to NYU for an NIMH-funded fellowship in mental health statistics where he specialized in advanced statistical methods for the analysis of change. Dr. Sneed then accepted a fellowship in geriatric Psychiatry at Columbia University where he was able to apply his methodological and clinical skills to the study of vascular depression, a proposed subtype of late-life depression. Dr. Sneed’s NIMH-funded research focuses on the process of validating vascular depression as a distinct diagnostic entity of late-life. It emphasizes the use of psychometric methods in order to develop a scientifically based psychiatric nosology. As part of this effort, he is currently conducting an 8-week clinical trial examining the neurocognitive and neuroimaging mediators of response to the antidepressant escitalopram (Lexapro) in patients with and without vascular depression. This study is being conducted in collaboration with the Late-Life Depression Clinic at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, as well as the Geropsychiatry Service at Harlem Hospital. Dr. Sneed’s other research interests include using advanced statistical methods for the analysis of change to understand the development of personality and personality disorders across the life span. His work has appeared in Biological Psychiatry, the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, Journals of Gerontology, and Developmental Psychology.
Sajan Saini, Assistant Professor (Physics) joins the Queens College faculty this Fall. He received his Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT in 2004 specializing in microphotonic materials and his M.Sc. in Condensed Matter Physics from McGill University in 1997—specializing in nanostructured aluminum alloys. His current research interests includes the fabrication and characterization of nanostructured silicon-based materials and photonic crystals that investigate the fundamental physics of light-matter interaction. The mature processing history of silicon identifies it as an ideal material system with which to design and probe the influence, of nanometer-scale regions of matter or of confined light, on the properties of light emission and nonlinear optics. He has published for and taught short courses for the OSA and SPIE, and is the co-author of an upcoming textbook, Photonic Materials and Devices (Cambridge Press). He has taught classes in photonics and microelectronics.
Amy David, Lecturer in Accounting, has been teaching at Queens College since 2003. For the past two years, she has served as the weekend liaison for the accounting program, where she worked to encourage the Big Four accounting firms to hold recruiting events on the weekend and during the evening to accommodate those who work full time. Previously, Amy worked in Big Eight public accounting and corporate accounting as a CPA and in Assistant Controller positions. She is a recent graduate of the Queens College Masters of Science in Accounting program.
Michael Milo, Lecturer in Accounting, has a B.S. degree in Accounting from C.W. Post College and an M.S. in taxation from Long Island University. He has served as an adjunct instructor in accounting at Queens College, Queensborough Community College, SUNY Maritime and SUNY Old Westbury. He served as a senior auditor for Main Llafrentz and Company, CPA’s and served as a corporate controller for over twenty years.
Jeffrey Satenstein, Lecturer in Accounting, has filled a number of senior financial roles at JPMorgan Chase and its predescessor companies. From 1987 to 2000, he served as chief financial officer of global investment banking and trading with responsibilities for strategic planning, legal entity financial reporting, budgeting and performance reporting. From 2000 until 2003, he was managing director of operational risk management for the Investment Bank and led the merger integration activities at the time of the JPMorgan and Chase merger. Jeff holds a B.A. in Economics from Queens College and an M.S. degree in Accounting from New York University.
Jennifer Roff, Assistant Professor of Economics, recieved her Ph.D. degree at John Hopkins University in 2004, where she also trained as a labor economist. Prior to coming to Queens College she was an assistant professor of economics at Pace University. Her research focuses on how provision of child support affects individual decisions to obtain welfare support.
Magdalena Sokalska, Assistant Professor of Economics, was previously an Assistant Professor at the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland and a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Economics Department, UC San Diego. She also held a visiting position in the Department of Finance of the Stern School of Business, NYU. Her research and teaching interests include finance, financial econometrics, and market microstructure. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics from Cambridge University and M.A. degrees from Essex University and Warsaw School of Economics.
Ben Alexander, Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, received his Master's degree in British and American Literature from Columbia University and his Ph.D. in American Literature from The City University of New York. He combined his academic training with close to ten years experience working in Special Collections at The New York Public Library. Alexander has lectured across the United States and throughout Europe on issues relating to archival theory and practice. His dissertation, entitled Yaddo: A Creative History, is under review at the University of Georgia Press. His article, “The Lowell Affair,” is forthcoming in The New England Quarterly.
Linda Z. Cooper, Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, earned her B.A. degree in Art and a M.S. degree in Library and Information Studies from Queens College, and her Ph.D. Communication, Information, and Library Science from Rutgers University. Her areas of research include cognitive categories for information, the information behavior of children, and visual information. A former school library media specialist, she has published and presented her research in multiple venues including the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology and Library Quarterly. She will direct the School Media Studies program for GSLIS.
Carol Giardina, Visiting Assistant Professor of History, earned her Ph.D. degree in U.S History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2004. Her past articles include "The Making of the Women's Liberation Movement, 1953 - 1970". She is now working on a Manuscript - to be published in Spring 2008 from University Press of Florida.
Kristin Celello, Assistant Professor of History, earned her Ph.D. degree from the University of Virginia in 2004. She was on a Post-doctoral Fellowship at Emory University's Center for Myth and Ritual in American Life in 2006-2007. Her book, Making Marriage Work: Marital Success and Failure in the Twentieth-Century United States is under contract at the University of North Carolina Press.
Professor Steven Bowman will be a Visiting Professor in the History Department, for 2007-2008. He received his Ph.D. degree in History from The Ohio State University in 1974. Publications include: The Jews in Byzantium 1204-1453 (University of Alabama Press, 1985; pb New York, 2000); Jewish Resistance in Wartime Greece (London, 2006). He has edited a number of books on the Holocaust of the Jews in Greece and is currently the editor in chief of the Sephardi and Greek Holocaust Library.
Sheryl McCarthy, Distinguished Lecturer in Journalism, has been a reporter and education editor of The New York Daily News, a correspondent for ABC News, and a special writer and columnist for Newsday and New York Newsday. She received the Meyer Berger Award from Columbia University for her columns about New York City, awards from the national Education Writers Association, a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard, and the "Maggie" award from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for her work on women’s reproductive issues. She is on the board of contributors of USA Today.
Gavin P. McCormick, Distinguished Lecturer in Journalism, graduated from the University of California at Berkeley School of Journalism, where he won awards for print journalism. He served for four years in Indonesia with volunteers in asia (VIA), where he taught English at a private university before becoming consultant to the nation’s preeminent journalism non-governmental organization and helping launch the country's first AIDS media center. His career includes stints with two daily newspapers, the Sentinel & Enterprise of Fitchburg, Mass., and The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Mass., as well as work as an Internet journalist, for the Associated Press, and as a managing editor for Internet.com (now Jupiter Media). Before coming to Queens College, he taught journalism and English at Mercer County Community College in New Jersey, where he also advised the student newspaper.
Annabel Herzog, Schwartz Eminent Visiting Professor in Philosophy, has taught in the School of Political Science at the University of Haifa, Israel, since 1997. She received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Paris 7 and is the author of Penser autrement la politique and more than twenty essays on ethics, politics, and hermeneutics. Her research focuses on the work of 20th-century Jewish philosophers, like Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Levinas, and Jacques Derrida.
Dr. Antonio Donato, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, is currently a Visiting Research Collaborator at Princeton University. From 2004-2006, he was a Lecturer in Philosophy at Oxford University in England. He has a Ph.D. degree in Medieval Latin from the University of Padua, Italy, and he recently completed his Doctorate's in Philosophy from Oxford University, with a thesis on "Aquinas' Doctrine of the Analogy of Being." Donato is a specialist in Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy.
Carl Bonomo, Lecturer in Political Science, attended Columbia University where he is currently finishing his Ph.D. dissertation in Political Science. His research interests are in law and political participation. Carl has taught Political Science at Queens for over fifteen years and has done consulting in the areas of public policy, the Constitution and public engagement. He teaches courses in American politics, Law and Politics, and serves as the College’s pre-law advisor.
Joseph Cohen, Assistant Professor of Sociology, earned his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees from Princeton University, and a bachelor's degree in international business from Carleton University, Canada. His interests include economic development, international finance, political economy, capitalism and the modern state, social order and breakdown, long-wave theory, the sociology of organizations, and research methodology. Two current projects concentrate on the relationship between national financial autonomy, economic development and the rise of contemporary financial capitalism, and the relationship between long-run inflation, hegemonic cycles and geopolitical order.
Suzanne Strickland, Lecturer in Sociology, has held senior management positions in government and in start-up companies; obtained passage of a bill by The Massachusetts Legislature; and enjoyed high profile political appointments. Currently, she is working on an investment strategy for Afghanistan that will use resources from several social investment funds to help invigorate Afghanistan’s private sector and public investments.
Dana-ain Davis, Associate Professor of Urban Studies, received her Ph.D. degree from the CUNY Graduate Center in anthropology in 2001. Since then she has been an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Coordinator of the Global Black Studies Program at SUNY/Purchase. Davis' areas of specialization include black studies, family and sexual violence, reproductive rights, poverty and welfare policy, and women's studies. She has published one book, Battered Black Women and Welfare Reform and is President-elect of the Association of Black Anthropologists. Professor Davis will serve as Associate Department Chair for Worker Education, based primarily at the Queens College Extension Center in Manhattan.