SUNY Empire Spotlight: Sept. 2024
(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — SEPTEMBER 30, 2024) The latest news on research efforts, awards, grants, and media appearances from Empire State University faculty and staff.
Julie Gedro, Dean of the School of Business, authored two chapters in a new book: “The Palgrave Handbook of Antiracism in Human Resource Development”. The first chapter is a co-authored chapter with Holly M. Hutches, Julia Storberg-Walker, and Laura L. Bierema, entitled “White Woman’s Work: Decentering Whiteness, Confronting Complicity, and Taking Action to Become More Inclusive Colleagues.” The second chapter was written solely by Gedro, titled “HRD Scholar and Practitioner Anti-Racist Identity: Working Through and Beyond Challenges.”
Chief Diversity Officer Xiomara Giordano was named to the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education board. Giordano will serve a three-year term and take an oath of office during NADOHE’s annual business meeting in March.
Andrew Hurd, assistant professor in the School for Graduate Studies, educated seniors in Malta, New York about the risks they face with scams and artificial intelligence on Sept. 9, 2024. Hurd used AI-generated images to pinpoint how to determine if the image is real and detailed steps seniors, and people of all ages, can take to prevent being scammed. Hurd’s presentation was featured on WAMC, WTEN, and affiliated news stations across New York State.
Karis Jones, assistant professor in the School for Graduate Studies, presented for the opening weekend of the Strong Museum of Play’s Dungeons and Dragons exhibit “Dungeons and Dragons: 50 Years of Storytelling,” on September 21, 2024, alongside librarians and educators from across New York State. The panelists, including Jones, Robin Lange-Fazio, Alex Kohl, and Rob Lamb spoke with audience members about supportive structures for creating school and library programs with critical literacy through D&D storytelling. Audience members asked questions about mechanics, world-building, and panelist experiences as GMs, teachers, and storytellers. The event was supported by the Empire State University Foundation. Jones also wrote a new article “Disrupting and restorying horror tropes through fan engagements with the interactive video game Until Dawn,” with Sahara Kruidenier, published in Transformative Works and Cultures. The article explores the horror stereotypes of race, gender, and mental illness by following a group of cosplayers as they live streamed “Until Dawn” together before attending New York Comic Con to see how they engage with those elements. The article includes insights on communal “restorying” with respect to problematic aspects within the game and how different fans can interpret it.
Mindy Kronenberg, visiting assistant professor in the School of Arts and Humanities, had a poem published in Moonstone Art Center’s anthology, created in honor of Banned Books Week September 22-28, 2024. The theme this year was “Freed Between the Lines.” Kronenberg also read her work in a literary series “Walking with Whitman: Poetry in Performance,” held at the Walt Whitman Birthplace Museum and State Historic Site in Huntington Station, Long Island on September 27, 2024. The birthplace is an active community center for a variety of literary events and educational programs, attracting visitors, lecturers, and performers from across the country and abroad.
Lynn Lubecki, an assistant professor in the School of Behavioral Science, was an invited expert panelist for the Help Me Grow Summit, a summit designed to build cross-collaboration and partnership between health, human services, and education. Her expertise in early childhood education and systems-level change was featured during the event held on September 26, 2024 in Buffalo, NY. The Summit’s theme, “Rooted in Relationships,” not only highlights the importance of creating meaningful connections among those adults caring for children but also highlights the success stories and innovative approaches that Lubecki is involved in with her work at Empire State University, NYAEYC, and New York State’s Pyramid Model, State-Wide implementation effort.
Gohar Marikyan, a professor in the School of Science, Mathematics, and Technology, was invited to present at The Future of Education conference in June in Florence, Italy. Marikyan presented “Common Sense and Word Problems,” based on an article published in Conference Proceedings of the Future of Education.
Njoki Mwarumba, assistant professor in the School of Behavioral Sciences, completed a two-week, senior-level leadership fellowship focused on thought leadership and professionalization in a complex emergency management landscape. Mwarumba discussed emergency management core conceptual frameworks, emerging challenges, policy, and practice through a series of focused discussions with top experts and peers, seminars, site visits with crisis leadership experts, and roundtable sessions. The fellowship was developed by FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI) in collaboration with the RAND Corporation and McChrystal Group, the Vanguard Fellowship brings together executive crisis leaders including elected officials, policymakers, private sector executives, academics, disaster researchers, philanthropists, and practitioners. Mwarumba was quoted in CNN on Sept. 24, 2024 regarding emergency management and hurricane preparedness in anticipation of Hurricane Helene.
Leah Perry, an assistant professor in the School of Arts and Humanities, published a new book “Indigenous Dispossession, Anti-Immigration, and the Public Pedagogy of the US Empire.” The book explores ways in which the United States created its empire through policy and media discourses surrounding indigenous dispossession, gendered state violence, and radicalized immigration.
Jeff Schurke, assistant professor in the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor, published a new book titled “Blue Collar Empire.” The book offers insights into why and how unions can, and should, weigh in on international issues through the history of unions’ involvement in the U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War period.
Roxana Toma, professor in the School for Graduate Studies, presented at the 15th Biennial International Transformative Learning Conference, “Getting Transformation Into Good Trouble: Making new spaces of possibility with community and in practice,” which took place Sept. 11-23, 2024 at the University of Siena in Italy. Toma’s presentation, titled “Toward Transformative Learning in Online Education: Testing a New Community Engagement Framework Model,” is part of an ongoing project with Ali Ait Si Mhamed, associate professor in the School for Graduate Studies, where they look at online student engagement fostered by course design and pedagogy. More specifically, they are asking what actionable factors have a significant effect on students’ self-perceived engagement, sense of community building, and resilience in the online learning process.
Gina Torino, interim dean of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor, published a new book with Billie Lee, a world-renowned writer, producer, and cast member on “Vanderpump Rules,” titled “Why Are You So Sensitive?” Torino provides insights on microaggressions in social and professional settings based on Lee’s lived experiences as a transgender woman and her research on systemic biases and cultural challenges.
Sarah Valentine, assistant professor, presented on September 13, 2024 at the 7th International Nursing Philosophy Conference held by the International Philosophy of Nursing Society. The conference was hosted this year by the Department of Nursing of the University of Ioannina, Greece. The central theme of the conference was “Wondering about Nursing: The Bedrock of Nursing Philosophy,” inspired by the Socratic idea that “wisdom begins with wonder.” Valentine spoke on “Wonderings on Agape and Eros: Relationship of Nursing Experience and Values to Liberal-Humanism and Post-Humanism.”
President Lisa Vollendorf was featured on Presidents Forum on Sept. 13, 2024 and discussed higher education access and reform, including different ways colleges and universities across the country can increase access and affordability.
Melissa Wells, assistant professor and director of teaching, learning, and faculty development, presented her paper, “A Discussion of Tobacco Use in Adolescents with Disabilities: A Literature Review,” at the 5th Edition World Congress on Pediatrics and Neonatology in Barcelona, Spain, on Sept. 20, 2024.