Academic Minute from 11.26 – 11.30
Monday, November 26th
John Heitmann – University of Dayton
Cars and Government Regulations
John Heitmann is a history professor at the University of Dayton. He received his Ph.D from the Johns Hopkins University in 1983. His research explores the connections between science, technology, economics and culture, particularly with regards to the history of the automobile. He’s the author of numerous works, including The Automobile and American Life, which was recently released in its second edition. He also maintains a blog under the same title. Heitmann is a past president of the Society of Automotive Historians. In his leisure time, he continues to restore and drive a 1971 Irish green Porsche 911T Targa.
Tuesday, November 27th
Sean Gerrity – Hostos Community College
Maroons
Sean Gerrity received his Ph.D. in English with a Certificate in American Studies from The City University of New York’s Graduate Center in 2017. Since then, he has worked as an Assistant Professor in the English department at CUNY’s Hostos Community College in the Bronx. His research focuses on the intersections of race, slavery, freedom, and geography in US literature and the Atlantic world in the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries, with particular attention to maroons and marronage. He has published an article on marronage in the African American novel Blake; or, The Huts of America in the Fall 2018 issue of the peer-reviewed journal MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States.
Wednesday, November 28th
Douglas McKechnie – United States Air Force Academy
Government and Social Media
Professor McKechnie is an Associate Professor of Law at the United States Air Force Academy. He is an award winning teacher and scholar who focuses on constitutional law and theory. He has appeared in local, national, and international media outlets discussing legal issues in the news. His scholarship, which explores the intersection between civil liberties and technology, has been featured in USA Today and citied by federal district and appellate court decisions.
Thursday, November 29th
Loren Toussaint – Luther College
Forgiveness
Toussaint earned his Ph.D. in 1998. After his postdoctoral trainee experience at the University of Michigan, he served as an assistant professor at Idaho State University for three years (2001–4). “I taught undergraduates and graduate students in masters and Ph.D. programs and I loved it. But it was Idaho, not Iowa.”
Friday, November 30th
Alexandra Kosbia – University of Vermont
The Rebound of the Red Spruce
Alexandra Kosiba is a forest ecologist and dendrochronologist who specializes in understanding tree response to environmental change. She has worked with the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative over the years, first as a graduate student studying tree growth in the FEMCs long-term study site at Mt. Mansfield and as a part-time staff member to author the annual reports. She currently coordinates FEMC projects across the region.
