The Academic Minute for 2019.09.02-09.06

The Academic Minute from 09.02 – 09.06

Monday, September 2nd
Manata Hashemi – University of Oklahoma
Cultures of Conformity
Dr. Manata Hashemi is the Farzaneh Family Assistant Professor of Iranian Studies in the Department of International and Area Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Hashemi studies inequality, urban poverty, and the role of culture in socioeconomic practices. In her research, she explores how people’s moral understandings influence their behaviors and life outcomes, particularly in low-income contexts in the Middle East. Her forthcoming book, Coming of Age in Iran: Poverty, Social Mobility, and the Struggle for Dignity (New York University Press, 2020) examines how a group of economically disenfranchised youth attempt to move up the social ladder in Iran. Through ethnography and interviews, she reveals that by conforming to socially sanctioned codes of conduct, these young men and women both contest and reproduce systems of stratification within their communities.

Tuesday, September 3rd
John Galbraith – Marist College
Chemical Bonding
In 1992 I received my BA in Chemistry from the Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO and my PhD in Physical Chemistry in 1997 from the University of Georgia in Athens, GA.  While at the University of Georgia, I worked with Professor Henry F. Schaefer III on computational studies of small molecules.  From 1997 to 1999 I held a postdoctoral position at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel working with Sason Shaik.  In Israel I began the line of research that occupies me to this day: computational studies of chemical bonding using Valence Bond theory. I held a second postdoctoral position at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA where my duties were split between teaching General Chemistry and doing Computational Chemistry research with Weston Thatcher Borden. Beginning in the Fall of 2001 I have been on the faculty at Marist College as an Assistant (2001-2007) and Associate (2007- ) professor of Chemistry.  While at Marist I have taught courses in General Chemistry, Introduction  to Organic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, Computational Chemistry, and Research Methods all the while conducting research primarily with undergraduates.  I have published 31 peer reviewed articles, 10 of which were with undergraduate authors, in Journals such as The Journal of The Journal of Physical Chemistry, Molecular Physics, and Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry.  In addition, I have served as a referee for The Journal of Physical Chemistry, The Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, Molecular Physics, and the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund as well as serving on the editorial board of ISRN Physical Chemistry.

Wednesday, September 4th
Nicole Holliday – Pomona College
What We Do Assume Based on the Voices We Hear
Nicole Holliday is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Pomona College in Claremont, California. She received her Ph.D. in linguistics from New York University, where her dissertation focused on how individuals with one black parent and one white parent use linguistic variation to construct and perform their racial identities. Her scholarly writing has appeared in journals such as American Speech and Language in Society and she is currently working on a study on the relationship between use of African American language and students’ experience of discipline in U.S. high schools.

Thursday, September 5th
David Gunderman – University of Colorado
Gottingen
David Gunderman is a PhD student in the Applied Mathematics department at Colorado University-Boulder.

He received his AB Summa Cum Laude in Mathematics and German from Wabash College, spent a year in Germany on a Fulbright Scholarship, and is currently researching applications of radial basis functions to partial differential equations.

Friday, September 6th
Jenny Wilkerson – University of Florida
CBD
Jenny Wilkerson, Ph.D., joined the University of Florida College of Pharmacy in November 2017 as a research assistant professor in the department of pharmacodynamics. Wilkerson received her Bachelor of Science degree in cellular/ molecular biology, with a minor in chemistry, from Northwest Missouri State University, and her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine’s department of neurosciences. Upon completion of her doctoral studies, Wilkerson completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University in the department of pharmacology and toxicology, where she was the recipient for the competitive Ruth L. Kirschstein F32 Individual National Research Service Award. Her research interests broadly encompass the involvement of the immune system in preclinical models of pathological pain and neurodegeneration, with an emphasis on endogenous cannabinoid (endocannabinoid) system modulation. Additionally, an area of keen interest of Wilkerson’s is the examination of the adjunct administration of experimental preclinical compounds to produce enhanced analgesic opioid effects, with diminished drug abuse liability.