Faculty Notes
December 2020
Victoria Ruiz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Biology, was among the leading authors in two publications that were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. This work focused on the effects of early-life antibiotic treatment on host microbial communities and its impact on colitis and enteric infections:
A Single Early-In-Life Antibiotic Course Increases Susceptibility To DSS-Induced Colitis (Ozkul, Ceren; Ruiz, Victoria E; Battaglia, Thomas; Xu, Joseph; Roubaud-Baudron, Claire; Cadwell, Ken; Perez-Perez, Guillermo I; Blaser, Martin J Genome Medicine. 2020 07 25; 12(1):65)
Long-Term Effects Of Early-Life Antibiotic Exposure On Resistance To Subsequent Bacterial Infection (Roubaud-Baudron, Claire; Ruiz, Victoria E; Swan, Alexander M; Vallance, Bruce A; Ozkul, Ceren; Pei, Zhiheng; Li, Jackie; Battaglia, Thomas W; Perez-Perez, Guillermo I; Blaser, Martin J)
Additionally, Dr. Ruiz organized the What CanYou Be With Your Science Degree symposium in November 2019. This conference showed current SFC students the career opportunities available to them in the sciences, while introducing them to various professional development modalities. The symposium attracted more than 150 students and included a panel of respected SFC alumni and additional doctors, scientists, and allied health professionals as speakers.
John Dilyard, Ph.D., Professor, Management & Information Technology, presented on “What Makes a City Sustainable: The Importance of Stakeholder and Community Engagement” at the International Conference on Sustainable Development, Columbia University, September 24, 2019; presented on “The Production-Consumption Dilemma: What It Is and What To Do About It,” at the International Conference on Sustainable Development, Columbia University, September 24, 2019; created and chaired a panel, “Can MNEs Be a Force for Good?: Lessons from History” for the 2019 European International Business Academy conference at the University of Leeds, Leeds, UK, December 13-15, 2019; Created, chaired and presented in a panel, “The Role of International Marketing in Encouraging Responsible Production and Consumption” at the 2020 annual conference of the Academy of International Business, held online July 1-9, 2020; Created, chaired and presented in a panel, “Integrating Sustainability Education in an IB Curriculum,” at the 2020 annual conference of the Academy of International Business, held online July 1-9, 2020.
Additionally, Dr. Dilyard co-created and had approved in August 2020 a new Shared Interest Group in the Academy of International Business called “Sustainability-SIG,” which is devoted to addressing the multiple interactions that exist between the activities of international businesses and the pursuit or economic, social and environmental sustainability. This Shared Interest Group is just the fourth to be created within the Academy of International Business; Member of the Scientific Committee, along with Professor Sintia Molina, on the topic “Food Production, Waste Management and the Circular Economy,” for the 2020 International Conference on Sustainable Development to be held online September 21-22, 2020; Member of the Scientific Committee on the topic “Turning Supply Chains Into Engines to Support the SDGs,” for the 2020 International Conference on Sustainable Development to be held online September 21-22, 2020.
Dr. Dilyard was named as a co-track chair on the theme “MNEs and Sustainable Development” for the 2020 conference of the European International Business Academy to be held online December 10-12, 2020.
Belén Lowrey-Kinberg, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Sociology and Criminal Justice, published two peer-reviewed papers: “Perceptions of the Police: Defining Trust and Legitimacy by Race” in the American Journal of Criminal Justice and “Unpacking the Black Box: How Interaction Style and Social Dominance Orientation Affect Perceptions of Police” in Policing: An International Journal. Lowrey-Kinberg also authored the chapter “Language in Traffic Stop Interactions: Patterns in Language Use and Recommendations for Fostering Trust and Compliance” that will be published in the forthcoming book Handbook of Policing, Communication, and Society, and co-authored the chapter “Interrogations and False Confessions” forthcoming in the Routledge Handbook of Forensic Linguistics.
Clayton Shoppa, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Philosophy, taught a new Honors seminar, “Myth and Social Order.” The interdisciplinary course examines how myths serve as the foundation of cultures in the past and today. He was invited to serve as a peer reviewer for a new ethics journal based in Germany. He published a book review in a journal devoted to teaching and learning about philosophy. And he moderated a panel about animal consciousness at the annual Moral Sense Colloquium, organized by the English Department’s Dr. Gregory Tague.
Halyna Lemekh, Ph.D.. Assistant Professor, Sociology and Criminal Justice, delivered the following scholarly presentations: 115th Annual Meeting of American Sociological Association Speaker: “Quo Vadis, Palisades Park? Immigrants’ Transformation of a Koreatown.” (August 2020); 90th Annual Meeting of Eastern Sociological Society in Philadelphia Speaker: “Immigration and the Changing Landscape of a Koreatown.” (February 2020); 22nd Conference on the Small City and Regional Community at University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point Speaker: “Palisades Park, New Jersey: Immigrification of an American Town” (October 2019).
Dr. Lemekh organized events and speakers as the co-director of SFC Forum on Migration, including: Priya Singh. Ethiopia/Domestic Labor Migration: A Qualitative Study, September 25, 2019; Daniel Kaplin. Providing Therapy with Asian Immigrant Families, October 23, 2019; Screening of HOME documentary and Q&A with director Dawn Scibilia, October 28, 2019; Vrinda S. Jagan. Immigration Law, November 18, 2019; Sintia Molina, Chasing a Dream: Dominican Migration to NYC, November 25, 2019; Bernadette Ludwig, Becoming a “Refugee”—A Blessing or a Burden, December 4, 2019.
Dr. Lemekh co-organized the Second Annual SFC Forum on Migration, which was scheduled for March 2020 and canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
John Edwards, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, published his second monograph with Mohr Siebeck in October of 2019, which is entitled The Gospel According to the Epistle of Barnabas: Jesus Traditions in an Early Christian Polemic. In July of 2020 he was elected to the prestigious international society, STUDIORUM NOVI TESTAMENTI SOCIETAS (Society of New Testament Studies).
Gale Gibson Gayle, Ed.D., AVP of Online Learning and New Program Development, and Ms. Jennifer Graham, Assistant Director of Institutional Research and Planning, were selected to present at the 28th European Access Network (EAN) Annual Conference: Drivers for Change: Policy and Practice at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences in Ghent, Belgium, October 28-30, 2019.
The EAN conference theme centered on highlighting inspiring practices for the future, and strategies for widening participation of underrepresented groups. Dr. Gayle and Ms. Graham’s presentation focused on re-engaging adult learners and degree completion strategies through experiential learning. The session showcased St. Francis College’s Terriers Come Home (TCH) program. TCH re-engages long-standing readmit students back into the College using a variety of methods (CLEP, DSST, transfer credits, Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) / Work-Life experience, Military, industry certifications, etc.) that facilitate and accelerate adult learners’ continuation of their college studies. Data showed that the targeted population had completed a significant amount of college credits at SFC but not obtained a degree, and in many instances, had not attended school for several semesters and were in good academic standing. As one of the underlying tenets of the College’s mission to underpin “life-long learning” and in support of the goal of “enabling the smooth transition of the student body into the college community,” the Terriers Come Home program puts policy into action.
Lynne Jackson, Ph.D., Professor of Communication Arts, had her 2003 documentary collaboration with Betty Puleston, “Race or Reason: The Bellport Dilemma,” chosen by the distributor Documentary Educational Resources for inclusion in its Summer 2020: Watch from Home series. More than a dozen SFC students (now alumni) helped produce it. The film considers the impact of student videos on the racial strife at Bellport high school in 1969-1970.
Danielle DiMeglio, Lecturer. During the Spring/summer 2020, DiMeglio served as moderator for SFC Faculty Online Certification Course and was acknowledged in Accounting Information Systems: Controls and Processes, 4th Edition, published by Wiley.
Marie Segares, MPH, MBA, Assistant Professor, Management and Information Technology Department. In collaboration with Eda Sanchez-Persampieri, MS, MBA, Assistant Professor, Management and Information Technology, Segares published two case studies in Bloomsbury Fashion Business Cases: “Rothy’s: Triple Bottom Line Plus Aesthetics and Comfort” and “Embargo of Flotilla.”
In collaboration with Esther Klein, Ph.D., Professor, Management and Information Technology; Corinne Smolizza, Lecturer, Management and Information Technology; Eda Sanchez-Persampieri; and Danielle DiMeglio, Lecturer, Accounting and Business Law; Segares presented at the Twenty-seventh International Conference on Learning in July. Their presentation was “Teaching Online in the Quantitative Disciplines: Faculty Tips for Success.”
Segares had a poster at the Fifteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society in June. The poster was “Technology Adoption Among Women Crochet Microentrepreneurs.”
Louis D’Elia, MA, Assistant Professor, Accounting and Business Law earned tenure in January 2020. He was selected as an honorary faculty member of the Duns Scotus Honor Society in May 2020. D’Elia published a case study in business ethics, Macrothink Publishers, June 2019.
Rachel Falkenstern, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Philosophy, published two articles in the 2019-20 academic year: “Hegel on Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and the Moral Accountability of Ancient Tragic Heroes,” Hegel Bulletin, vol. 41 no. 2 (2020): 159-76 (Cambridge University Press), and an edited version of her comments for an invited book symposium, “On Lydia Moland’s Hegel’s Aesthetics,” SGIR Review, vol. 3 nos. 1-2 (2020): 12-25. Dr. Falkenstern participated in the symposium for the latter at the American Philosophical Association’s Annual Eastern Division Meeting in Philadelphia in January 2020, where she was invited to also comment on the paper “Women and Comic Heroines: A Look at Hegel on Aristophanian Comedy.”
Dr. Falkenstern was invited to speak at Colby College in Maine in October 2019, where she presented a paper on Shakespeare’s tragic heroes. She is currently at work on an invited contribution to the Oxford Handbook of American and British Nineteenth-Century Women Philosophers.
Gregory Tague, Ph.D., Professor, English/Interdisciplinary Studies, published his sixth monograph, An Ape Ethic and the Question of Personhood. The book appears in the philosophy list of Rowman and Littlefield’s imprint, Lexington Books under environmental ethics/animal studies and makes the case that great apes are moral individuals because they engage in a land ethic as ecosystem engineers to generate ecologically sustainable biomes for themselves and other species. Student interns were involved in this project.
Literary Veganism: An Online Journal, edited by Dr. Tague and Fredericka Jacks, went live December 21, 2019, and since then has published work of over 35 poets, writers, and artists and has garnered nearly 8,000 direct hits. Student interns are involved in this project.
Kusumita P. Pedersen, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Religious Studies, co-authored Faith for Earth: A Call for Action, a joint project of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Faith for Earth Initiative and the Climate Action program of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, which Dr. Pedersen helped to start in 2016. The book was launched in early October 2020 at the online Faith for Nature conference of UNEP. It is a revised and updated version of the book published also by UNEP in 2000, Earth and Faith: A Book of Reflection for Action.
Ian Maloney, Ph.D., Professor, Literature, Writing, and Publishing, had his story “Models” published by Vol. 1 Brooklyn in its weekly Sunday Stories section (November 15, 2020).
Michael Tessler, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Biology, was among the authors of two recently-published papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Harbert, Robert, Seth W. Cunningham, and Michael Tessler. “Spatial modeling could not differentiate early SARS-CoV-2 cases from the distribution of humans on the basis of climate in the United States.” PeerJ 8 (2020): e10140.
Tessler, Michael; Jean P. Gaffney; Anderson G. Oliveira; Andrew Guarnaccia; Krista C. Dobi; Nehaben A. Gujarati; Moira Galbraith; Jeremy D. Mirza; John S. Sparks; Vincent A. Pieribone; Robert J. Wood; and David F. Gruber. “A putative chordate luciferase from a cosmopolitan tunicate indicates convergent bioluminescence evolution across phyla.” Scientific reports 10, no. 1 (2020): 1-11.
The bioluminescent paper was blogged about by the Museum of Natural History and written up in Popular Science.