Faculty Focus - Jan. 25, 2021
Faculty members put their knowledge into action so students and others are able to benefit from it. Recently, faculty shared their expertise in academic journals and at conferences and were selected to serve in leadership roles within the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics Cynthia Bansak recently published research that examines how U.S. schools and families adapted to COVID-caused school closures in Spring 2020.
“Covid-19 Shocks to Education Supply: How 200,000 U.S. Households Dealt with the Sudden Shift to Distance Learning,” a paper Bansak co-authored with Martha Starr, was published by the Review of Economics of the Household.
According to Bansak and Starr, parents of K-12 children spent an average of 13 hours per week helping their children continue to learn after the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools. Using Census data on 200,000 U.S. households to study the pandemic-caused shift to online learning, their research found that parents spent more time helping children learn when teachers had “live” online time with kids, suggesting increased school inputs boost parents’ ability to help.
“Despite disparities in school resources and families’ access to technology, parents across the socioeconomic spectrum stepped up to help their kids learn,” the authors wrote.
Associate Professor of Francophone and African Studies and Coordinator of African Studies Eloise Brezault
Associate Professor of Francophone and African Studies and Coordinator of African Studies Eloise Brezault recently presented a paper, titled “Ecology, Femininity and Stigma: heterotopic bodies in The Prophecy by visual artist Fabrice Monteiro,” online at the Modern Language Association Annual Conference.
According to Brezault, the work of “Monteiro, an artist from Belgium and Benin, raises public awareness of global warming while claiming a particular aesthetic of femininity. The images represent creatures at once beautiful, dangerous and monstrous, covered with all kinds of waste, in apocalyptic landscapes ravaged by ecological disasters.”
Brezault notes that beyond the very committed environmental message that these photos offer, her paper reflected on the image of the body of these supernatural women that is offered in Monteiro’s work.
Professor of Gender Studies Valerie Lehr has been appointed as secretary to the Executive Committee of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), for the term January 1, 2021, through December 31, 2021.
Lehr was also re-elected as a Commissioner for MSCHE, a role she will remain in through the end of 2023.
Associate Professor of Government Ronnie Olesker recently reviewed two books for an article published in the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism by the Academic Studies Press. (A login is required to read the piece.)
Associate Professor of Government Ronnie Olesker
Olesker reviewed “The Movement and the Middle East: How The Arab-Israeli Conflict Divided the American Left” by Michael Fischbach, as well as “Hearts and Minds: Israel and the Battle for Public Opinion by Nachman Shai.
“Readers concerned with Israel’s international standing will find the joiner of Fischbach’s and Shai’s books a compelling and illuminating read,” Olesker writes. “While Fischbach focuses on how the Arab-Israeli conflict divided white activists within the American left throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Shai focuses more broadly on Israel’s (largely failed) public diplomacy array. Each book provides a different perspective on the difficult position Israel finds itself with western liberal publics.”
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