Denison University
AC-9: Research and Scholarship

Biology
Dr. Rebecca Homan
My research focuses on understanding the habitat requirements of pond-breeding amphibians, as well as on expanding the ways in which effects of habitat loss can be measured and monitored. Wetlands themselves have gained some protection in recent years, however many wetland organisms, including amphibians, rely heavily on the terrestrial upland. It is crucial to the protection of native wetland species that we understand both the quantity and quality of terrestrial habitat required to support a healthy population. Many pond-breeding amphibians, particularly Ambystoma species, can live for a decade or more, and this long life span can make traditional population studies challenging. Developing alternative techniques that can supplement, or in some time sensitive cases, replace traditional population studies may aid in the relatively rapid identification of at-risk populations, as well as enable the implementation of more effective management strategies. To that end, I am currently planning several experiments including a long-term population study of a pond-breeding salamander (A. maculatum) and several studies of potential rapid assessment techniques for identifying populations at risk of severe decline or extinction at local ponds.

Dr. Warren Hauk
As a plant systematist, I am interested in studying how plants evolve, and how understanding their evolutionary history can help us classify them in more meaningful ways. My research focuses on primitive ferns of the family Ophioglossaceae (adder's tongue ferns), and I use both whole organism and molecular methods. I employ DNA sequencing to help understand evolutionary relationships among species, and a PCR based technique (ISSR markers) to evaluate genetic variation within and among populations of closely related species.

Dr. Andrew McCall
I am broadly interested in the interactions among plants and their environment and visitors. In particular, I investigate how mutualisms such as plant-pollinator systems can withstand interruptions by other insects. I do this in two main study systems, with opportunities to work both in the greenhouse and in field conditions.

Dr. Jessica Rettig
I study the ecology of small ponds, focusing on how organisms interact with each other and their environment. I often use field studies and lab experiments with fish and invertebrates as a means of understanding the basic ecology of aquatic systems.

Chemistry
Dr. Annabel Edwards
She studies the diffusion of water in mixed-phase thin films to better understand water movement in complex mixtures such as those found in atmospheric secondary organic aerosols and hydrophobic coatings in nature.

Dr. Jordan Katz
A materials and physical chemist, I work on synthesis and characterization of semiconducting nanomaterials for use in solar cells that produce clean and renewable fuels. Combined with low-cost synthetic methods that rely on self-assembly to make nanostructures, I use electrochemical and spectroscopic methods to probe and better understand interfacial electron-transfer reactions in working solar cells.

Dr. Joe Reczek
Interested in developing new organic materials, potentially for use in molecular electronics, and specifically for use in low-cost solar cells. His research integrates organic synthesis and characterization of self-assembling liquid crystalline materials along with the actual fabrication and testing of devices.

Communications
Dr. Lizbeth Lipari
Dr Lipari's work has been published in a number of scholarly journals including Argumentation and Advocacy, Communication Theory, Discourse Studies, International Journal of Listening, Journal of Communication, Journal of Popular Culture, Media Culture and Society, Philosophy & Rhetoric, Political Communication, and The Quarterly Journal of Speech, as well as in several edited volumes including 'After You,' Human Sciences on Ethics in Dialogical Counseling; Black Writers of the Chicago Renaissance; Encyclopedia of Identity; Encyclopedia of Communication Theory; Queering Public Address: Sexuality and American Historical Discourse; and Politics, Discourse, and American Society. Her work has also been presented at a range of scholarly conferences including the International Association for Dialogic Studies; at an Interdisciplinary Expert Seminar held in the Faculty of Theology, Katholieke Universiteit; A Critical Symposium on Race, Communication, Media, and Counter-Racist Scholarship; at The Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation; at the New Agendas in Political Communication; the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research; the National Communication Association; and the International Communication Association.

Dr. Jeffrey Kurtz
Dr. Kurtz's teaching and research interests circle around issues of textual interpretation and rhetorics of reform and advocacy, particularly from the antebellum era, the African-American civil rights movement, and the intersection of religious and civic discourse in American public life. His articles and review essays have appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Speech, The Review of Communication, Rhetoric and Public Affairs and the Journal of Communication and Religion.

Dr. Kurtz teaches classes across the Department's spectrum of offerings, including Rhetoric and the American Experience; The Rhetoric of Citizenship; Public Address; and Research Methods.

Jeff lives in Granville with his wife, Laura, and their daughters Eliza and Emerson. He enjoys sports, movies, and chasing after his kids.

Dr. Hollis Griffin
I research the cultural politics of media culture, especially (though not only) as they pertain to questions of sexual identity and desire. Of particular interest: how media forms like cinema, television, social media networks and internet memes inform and are informed by ideas about emotion as they circulate in the contemporary U.S. My research is animated by questions like: How does anger shape our experiences of using the internet? Why might we raise an eyebrow at a particular movie or internet meme? How is sexuality represented in various media forms and what does it tell us about U.S. national identity?

Dr. Amanda Gunn

Dance
Michael Morris

Economics
Dr. Quentin Duroy
Ecological economics; institutional economics; evolutionary economics; climate change and sustainability; European integration.

Dr. Fadhel Kaboub
My research is in the Post Keynesian and Institutionalist tradition in the fields of macroeconomic theory and policy, monetary theory and policy, and economic development, with a particular emphasis on job creation programs and social justice through full employment. I argue that the United States and other countries with sovereign monetary systems, can afford to end poverty, ensure full employment and price stability, provide universal healthcare, and ameliorate ecological conditions at a fraction of the costs that society endures under fiscal austerity. I firmly believe that life with dignity for all can only be achieved in a society that guarantees the right to decent jobs with a living wage for all members of the community. My recent work focuses on the Political Economy of the Arab Uprisings, youth unemployment, and economic inequality. Building upon Modern Money Theory (MMT), I argue that many developing countries need to develop policies that help them regain financial sovereignty in order to achieve full employment and sustainable prosperity.

If you’d like to follow my work, I tweet regularly from @FadhelKaboub.

Dr. Andrea Ziegert
My research is focused in two main areas: economics of market failure and economic education. First, as a micro economist interested in public policy issues surrounding market failure, I’m interested in the interface between markets, government and public policy. My early research was in the area of health and education finance. More recently, I’ve focused on poverty and income distribution, particularly centered on families with children. My second area of research is economic education, particularly service learning and experiential education. I’m interested in how economic educators can be more effective in the classroom and beyond.

Education
Dr. Emily Nemeth
Kinloch, Valerie, et al. “Reframing Service-Learning as Learning and Participation With Urban Youth.” Theory Into Practice, vol. 54, no. 1, (Feb. 2015): pp. 39–46.

English
Dr. James Weaver
Dr. Linda Krumholtz
Selected Publications:

“From Mysteries to Manidoos: Language and Transformation in Louise Erdrich’s The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse.” Western American Literature, forthcoming.
“Blackness and Art in Toni Morrison’s Tar Baby.” Contemporary Literature 49.2 (Summer 2008): 262-291.
“Tar is Art: Blackness and the Power of Fiction in Tar Baby.” The Fiction of Toni Morrison: Teaching and Writing on Race, Identity, and Culture. Ed. Jami L. Carlacio. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2007. 77-84.
“Reading and Insight in Toni Morrison’s Paradise.” African American Review 36 (2002): 21-34.
“Native Designs: Silko’s Storyteller and the Reader’s Initiation.” Leslie Marmon Silko: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Louise K. Barnett and James L. Thorson. Albuquerque NM: U of NM Press, 1999. 63-86.
“Reading in the Dark: Knowledge and Vision in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon.” Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Toni Morrison. Ed. Nellie Y. McKay and Kathryn Earle. New York: MLA, 1997. 106-112.
“‘To Understand This World Differently’: Reading and Subversion in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Storyteller.” Critical Visions: Contemporary North American Native Writing. Ed. Jeanne Perreault and Joseph Bruchac. Ariel 25 (1994): 89-113.
“Dead Teachers: Rituals of Manhood and Rituals of Reading in Song of Solomon.” Toni Morrison. Ed. Nancy J. Peterson. Modern Fiction Studies 39 (1993): 551-574.
“The Ghosts of Slavery: Historical Recovery in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” African American Review 26 (1992): 395-408.
“The Web of Stories: Reading and Change in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Storyteller.” All of Us Remembering: New Perspectives on Leslie Marmon Silko’s Storyteller. Ed. Catherine Rainwater, 115-131. University of NM Press, 2016.

Environmental Studies
Dr. Abram Kaplan
Dr. Olivia Aguilar
My research interests include environmental education and education for sustainable development (particularly with under-represented groups), environmental attitudes and behavior, environmental justice, multi-cultural education, theories of learning, and science education reform.

Dr. Doug Spieles
I study the ecological development of constructed wetlands. The number of constructed and restored wetlands in North America is growing through mitigation for legal compliance and conservation efforts, but we still know very little about ecosystem assembly. I study the communities that develop in newly created or restored wetlands and the nutrient and energy flow through those communities. Some of my work describes research at this level: nutrient flow through constructed wetlands (Ecological Engineering Vol. 14), invertebrate community development in constructed wetlands (Wetlands Vol. 20 No. 4), and energy flow through the primary and secondary production of developing wetlands (Ecological Modelling Vol. 161). Such community/ecosystem level research is valuable in that it contributes to our understanding of freshwater wetland structure and function and as it improves our ability to successfully restore or create wetlands. I’m also interested in ecosystem structure and function at larger spatial scales, as published in the Journal of Freshwater Ecology 28(5) and ISRN Ecology 2011:1-10.

Dr. Ahmed Soleman
Dr. Thomas Henshaw

Geosciences
Dr. Erik Klemetti
In my research, I am fascinated with the timescales of magmatic processes and the sources of crystals in magmas. To that end, I use radiometric dating techniques (238U-230Th, 226Ra-230Th, 40Ar-39Ar) and chemical analysis of minerals (using electron microprobe and ion microprobe techniques) to combine the temporal and compositional history of magmas to unlock their evolution. This is more complicated than it seems as many magmas are a “garbage bag” of crystals that have either grown in the magma, been scavenged from the crystal mush of previous eruptions or stolen from the host rock surrounding the magma chamber.

Dr. David Greene
Dr. David Goodwin
My current research involves documenting and interpreting records of environmental variation archived in the hard parts of modern and fossil organisms. This is accomplished primarily through calibration of environmental conditions with skeletal archives: specifically, geochemical variations and patterns of shell growth. The geochemical component of my work revolves around light stable-isotopes, while the analysis of growth patterns focuses on periodic increments deposited in response to environmental and astronomical pacemakers. Together, these analytical techniques, commonly referred to as sclerochronology, have enabled me to work in several different research areas. While each has a different focus, they are connected by a common theme: how are environmental conditions recorded in the geologic record in general, and in the skeletons of organisms in particular? And, how can these archives be used to address a variety of biological and geological questions?

History
Dr. Trey Proctor
Damned Notions of Liberty: Slavery, Culture, and Power in Colonial Mexico, 1640-1769. University of New Mexico Press, 2010.

“An ‘Imponderable Servitude’: Slave versus Master Litigation for Maltratamiento or Sevicia (Cruelty) in late-Eighteenth Century Lima, Peru,” The Journal of Social History 48:3 (2015): 662-684.

“‘From the land of Angola’: Slavery, Marriage, and African Diasporic Identities in Mexico City before 1650,” in Global Africa, Judith Byfield and Dorothy Hodgson, eds. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2017), 49-58.

Philosophy
Dr. Jonathan Maskit
Dr. Steven Vogel
Selected Publications

THINKING LIKE A MALL: Environmental Philosophy after the End of Nature, published by MIT in 2015.
On Nature and Alienation (in Andrew Biro, ed., Critical Ecologies: The Frankfurt School and Contemporary Environmental Crises, 2011)
Why ‘Nature’ Has No Place in Environmental Philosophy (in Gregory E. Kaebnick, ed., The Ideal of Nature: Debates about Biotechnology and the Environment, 2011)
Review of Thomas Heyd (ed), Recognizing the Autonomy of Nature: Theory and Practice (Human Ecology, 2007)
The Silence of Nature (Environmental Values, 2006)
The Nature of Artifacts (Environmental Ethics, 2003)
Nature as Origin and Difference (Philosophy Today, 1999)
Environmental Philosophy After the End of Nature (Environmental Ethics, 2002)
Grades and Money (Dissent, 1997)

Political Science
Dr. Paul Djupe
Dr. Katy Crossley-Frolick

Religion
Dr. David Woodyard
Books Published

“Liberation Privilege: The Breakthrough of God and the Persistence of Normality”, Circle Books (U.K.), 2016.
The Church in the Time of Empire. Circle Books (U.K), 2011.
Liberating Nature: Theology and Economics in the New Order. With Paul King. Pilgrim Press, 1999.
Risking Liberation: Middle Class Powerlessness and Social Heroism. With Paul King and Kent Maynard. John Knox Press, 1988.
Journey Toward Freedom: Economic Structures and Theological Perspectives. With Paul King. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1982.
Strangers and Exiles: Living By Promises. Westminster Press, 1974.
Beyond Cynicism: The Practice of Hope. Westminster Press, 1972.
The Opaqueness of God. Westminster Press, 1970.
To Be Human Now. Westminster Press, 1969.
Living Without God-Before God. Westminster Press, 1968.

Sociology & Anthropology
Dr. Mary Tuominen

Womens' Studies
Dr. Elizabeth Castle

Faculty either self-identified as doing sustainability research or through analysis of their research, were identified by the Office of Sustainability and the Campus Sustainability Committee.

Total faculty is calculated using the FTE for faculty. Individual faculty members conducting research are only considered if they teach a full course load/are full time faculty regardless of whether they are tenure, tenure-track, visiting, or adjunct.

Denison maintains an internal password protected website where most of this information resides. Public access web pages have limited information on this topic.