Salem State University faculty and staff are educators, scholars, and leaders in their respective fields. Following are highlights and accolades celebrating the outstanding research and creative activities conducted by Salem State faculty and staff in December 2021.
Faculty and Staff News in December 2021
Director Mathew Chetnik (first year experience) was elected to the Voices Against Injustice board, which focuses on promoting awareness of human rights and social justice in contemporary society as a way of keeping alive the lessons of the Salem Witch Trials.
Coordinator Tara Gallagher (sustainability and EH&S) attended a ceremony at UMass Lowell’s University Crossing on December 9 to accept the Leading by Example Award on behalf of Salem State. The award recognizes Salem State’s work to develop a roadmap for eliminating fossil fuels in heating and cooling north campus. Salem State joined UMass Amherst, UMass Dartmouth and UMass Lowell in sharing the award recognizing the four universities' decarbonization planning efforts.
Professor Rebecca Hains (media and communication) was quoted in the CNN feature story “Why gender-neutral holiday presents matter for your children” published on December 20, 2021.
Professor Dane Morrison’s (history) new book, Eastward of Good Hope: Early America in a Dangerous World, was published by John Hopkins University Press, on November 30, 2021.
Professor Anne Noonan (psychology) is the lead author of a textbook with William Ming Liu titled “Psychology and the Social Class Worldview: A Narrative-Based Introduction,” available from Taylor & Francis/Routledge. The book is based upon Liu’s psychological social class worldview theory, as well as a pedagogical approach developed by Noonan teaching the theory via the use of creative nonfiction essays penned by a diverse group of authors.
Professor Emeritus Barbara Poremba (nursing) was interviewed by Boston Sunday Globe for her work as a pediatric Covid vaccinator at the Museum of Science.
Professor Roopika Risam (secondary and higher education) has been appointed to the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Commission on Fostering and Sustaining Diverse Digital Scholarship. She will work with the commission to develop recommendations on improving support, access, and sustainability of digital humanities projects related to social and racial justice.
Professor Vanessa Ruget (politics, policy and international relations) published a paper on "Migration and Soft Power" in Communist and Post-Communist Studies, a peer-reviewed journal published by the University of California Press. The fieldwork for the article was supported by a Fulbright Flex Award.
Librarian Rukmal Ryder won an award to attend the annual conference of the Association for Information Science and Technology, and she presented her conference experience at the New England Chapter Association for Information and Technology (Annual Meeting Experience Report) in November. She also presented at the MCCLPHEI (Massachusetts Commonwealth Consortium of Libraries in Public Higher Education Institutions) staff development event on Virtual Library Services in July.
Professor Kanishkan Sathasivam (politics, policy and international relations) was quoted in “US Military Withdrawal Likely To Strengthen Militants In Iraq,” a UrduPoint/Sputnik News story that analyzes the recently announced withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, and broader US policy in the Middle East under President Biden.
Professors Cindy Vincent (media and communication) and Sara Moore (sociology), Center for Civic Engagement Executive Director Cynthia Lynch, and co-authors Robert Awkward and Jacob Lefker published "Critically Engaged Civic Learning: A Comprehensive Restructuring of Service-Learning Approaches” in the Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning. Their article elaborates a new equity-based framework to guide the development, implementation, and assessment of community-campus partnerships to promote meaningful collaboration, civic learning, and social change.
Professor Stephen Young (geography and sustainability) and his son Joshua Young (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) coauthored a paper “Overall Warming with Reduced Seasonality: Temperature Change in New England, USA, 1900–2020” published in the journal Climate. This was a Covid-lockdown father-son project which when they saw the results, realized that they needed to be published. Results: New England is rapidly heating up, much faster than the world average.
Professor Young, with graduate students Steven Rao and Kayla Dorey (MS in Geo-Information Science), recently published the article: “Monitoring the erosion and accretion of a human-built living shoreline with drone technology” in the journal Environmental Challenges. This research illustrates a core area of the Geography and Sustainability department where high-tech tools and software are used to help solve environmental issues.
Professor Young, with colleagues from Kazakhstan: Gulnara Nyussupova and Gaukhar Aidarkhanova (Al-Farabi Kazakh National University), also recently co-authored the publication "The impact of the transformation of the economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the reproduction of human capital: socio-economic aspect" published in the Studies of the Industrial Geography Commission of the Polish Geographical Society.
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