The Academic Minute for 2018.09.17-09.21

Academic Minute from 9.17 – 9.21

Monday, September 17th
Steven Pirutinsky – Touro College
Benefits of Volunteering for Older Adults
Steven Tzvi Pirutinsky has a B.T.S. from Beth Medrash Govoha, an M.S. in Clinical Psychology from Teachers College – Columbia University, and a Ph.D. Columbia University. He joined Touro Graduate School of Social Work in 2016.

Dr. Pirutinsky is a licensed clinical psychologist whose practice has included a variety of different services such as individual and group psychotherapy for adults and children, psychological and educational testing, risk assessments, family and couple’s therapy, foster care services, treatment of youth with sexual behavior problems, and career counseling and assessment. Before joining the Touro faculty full time, Dr. Pirutinsky taught at Columbia University, Georgian Court University, and Ocean County College. His research focuses on the intersections between spirituality, religion, culture, mental health, and well-being particularly within the Orthodox Jewish community. He frequently publishes peer-reviewed research in journals such as Criminal Justice and Behavior, the Journal of Affective Disorders, Health Psychology, the Journal of Family Psychology, and the Journal of Positive Psychology. He is also interested in cutting-edge research methods and statistical analyses as well as experimental methods, and serves as a statistical consultant for a number of large ongoing research projects.

Tuesday, September 18th
Jamie Maguire – Tufts University
Postpartum Depression
Jamie Maguire is an assistant professor of neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine and a member of the Neuroscience and the MS in Pharmacology and Drug Development Program faculties at Tufts’ Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences. The Maguire laboratory is investigating how stress triggers neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, ranging from epilepsy to depression, how the stress response is regulated and how dysregulation may contribute to these disorders.  Research focuses on the role of receptors of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which mediate the majority of inhibitory synaptic transmission in the brain, in the regulation of stress-relevant circuits. Maguire received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from George Washington University and her postdoctoral training at the University of California, Los Angeles.  Her discoveries have helped pave the way for development of the first drug specifically addressing postpartum depression for which FDA approval is expected to be sought.

Wednesday, September 19th
Elizabeth Anderson – Florida International University
Dams are Changing Amazonian Rivers
I received my PhD from the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia. I’m originally from the outskirts of Atlanta, GA. I had my first field experiences working in the extraordinary streams of the southeastern USA. But since 1998, my geographic focus has been mainly on tropical and subtropical rivers. I’m interested in the relationships between river flow and ecology, and river flow and riparian human communities. My research explores these topics in the Andes-Amazon and East Africa regions.

Thursday, September 20th
Kevin Bruyneel – Babson College
Settler Memory
Kevin Bruyneel is Professor of Politics at Babson College. He wrote The Third Space of Sovereignty: The Postcolonial Politics of U.S.-Indigenous Relations. He presently writes on the relationship between race, colonialism and collective memory. He is writing a book, entitled Settler Memory: The Disavowal of Indigeneity in the Political Life of Race in the United States, which will be published in the Critical Indigeneities Series of the University of North Carolina Press. He has recently published articles in History & Memory, Settler Colonial Studies, Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal, and The Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy. He was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Bruyneel completed his B.A. at Simon Fraser University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. at the New School for Social Research in New York City. At Babson College, Bruyneel teaching courses in Political Theory, American Politics, Critical Race Studies, Indigenous Studies, and Radical Politics. He lives in Somerville, MA.

Friday, September 21st
Hilda Speicher – Albertus Magnus College
Stigmatizing Single Adults
Dr. Speicher joined the Psychology Department at Albertus Magnus College in 2003 and is the Coordinator of the Psychology Accelerated Degree Program (ADP) in the Professional and Graduate Studies (PGS) Division as well as the Coordinator of the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence.  Recently she has been working with colleagues to develop a college community garden as a vehicle for High Impact Practices (HIPs), to be connected to courses on campus, internships, and service to the local neighboring community, technically a “food desert.”  Dr. Speicher’s research interests focus on intimacy.  She has developed an individual differences self-report measure of intimacy capability and motivation (Speicher Trait Intimacy Capability and Intimacy Motivation; STICIM) and a projective measure using artwork of intimacy in a relationship (the Draw Your Relationship; DYR).  Her research also has examined stigma connected to being single and more recently is focused on the impact of technology and social media on social relations and well-being.  Dr. Speicher has authored and co-authored with colleagues and students nearly 40 talks and poster presentations at various professional psychology and Dominican Colloquium conferences. She has also been invited by academic institutions to speak on how to involve students in faculty research.  Dr. Speicher is a native of Greenwich Village in New York City, currently residing in the New Haven, CT region.  She is a nature photographer, volunteers for the Audubon Society, and is an organic gardener.