The Academic Minute for 2021.05.03-2021.05.07

The Academic Minute from 05.03 – 05.07

Monday, May 3rd
William Powers – University of Houston Clear Lake
The Transformative Effects of Higher Education for Incarcerated Students
Dr. William Powers, Jr.  completed his Ph.D. at Texas A&M University in May 1993 in the field of 20th Century US History, specifically– the Petroleum Industry.  His dissertation, “Over A Barrel:  Government Influence and Mergers and Acquisitions in the Petroleum Industry, The Case of Sun Oil Company, 1938-1989” is a macro-economic examination of a politically active Northeastern Petroleum conglomerate.  In 1997 he began teaching history in the Texas Department of Corrections Program at the University of Houston Clear Lake and, in 1999 became the program’s director.  He has served in that capacity for more than 22 years.  He has consulted with various higher education institutions who have made the decision to participate in correctional education and participated and chaired conferences and panels dealing with correctional education.

Tuesday, May 4th
Isabelle Kusters – University of Houston Clear Lake
Public Health and Everyday Life
Isabelle Kusters, Ph.D., MPH, is an assistant professor of public health in the Department of Clinical, Health and Applied Sciences. She also holds a secondary appointment as a Health Policy Scholar in the Center for Medical Ethics & Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Kusters’ current research focuses on health insurance coverage and access to care for immigrant and other underserved populations. She is also interested in the ways in which translation and interpretation services affect access to, and quality of, care for patients with limited English proficiency. Her teaching and research interests include the social determinants of health and health disparities, health care access and quality, health policy, and comparative international healthcare systems.

Wednesday, May 5th
Desdamona Rios – University of Houston Clear Lake
Multidisciplinarity, Interpretive Power, and Interdependence in Higher Education
Dr. Desdamona Rios is an Associate Professor of Social Psychology and Director of the Latinx and Latin American Studies program at the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL). She holds a joint doctorate in Psychology and Women’s Studies, and teaches courses on Personality, Social Psychology, and Psychology of Gender, Race, and Sexuality. Dr. Rios’s teaching practices and research reflect her commitment to diversifying spaces of higher learning. She has published on intersectionality in the academy including pedagogical practices, and faculty and student experiences.

Thursday, May 6th
Se-Hyuong Yi – University of Houston Clear Lake
Deliberative Dialogue: A New Kind of Political Talk
Dr. Se-Hyoung Yi is Assistant Professor and Director of Political Science at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. He has a Ph.D. in political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and MAs in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Korea University. He had previously held the roles of Assistant Professor of Political Science at Trinity Christian College and Research Associate at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation. He has published in the areas of ancient political philosophy, comparative political thought, deliberative democracy, and race and ethnic politics. In 2019, Se-Hyoung Yi received the Taylor L. Willingham Legacy Fund Award from the National Issues Forums Institute for his efforts in creating a space on campus for the development of deliberative dialogue and forums.

Friday, May 7th
Andrea Baldwin – University of Houston Clear Lake
Building Storytellers
Dr. Andrea Baldwin is a Lecturer in Communication at the University of Houston- Clear Lake and advisor to the UHCL Storytellers. Baldwin received a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Her research explores pedagogical experiences in spaces outside of the classroom and genealogical embodied mentoring in the academy. She has a background in Performance Studies with an interest in Storytelling, Adaptation, and Rhetoric.