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Voices Amplified:

Faculty Research, Publications and Presentations

Winter 2023

2022 was another prolific year for Ramapo College faculty, with approximately 100 publications in prestigious journals, publishing houses, and the media. Below is a list of books published by faculty. Additional, exceptional work, including collaborative research and presentations with students, provides by the Office of the Provost, can be found here.

US-China-Taiwan in the age of Trump and Biden book bover
Political Science Professor Dean Chen, School of Humanities and Global Studies: US-China-Taiwan in the Age of Trump and Biden: Towards a Nationalist Strategy, Routledge, July 2022.
Operation Pedro Pan: The Migration of Unaccompanied Children from Castro's Cuba book cover
American Studies Professor John Gronbeck-Tedesco, School of Humanities and Global Studies: Operation Pedro Pan: The Migration of Unaccompanied Children from Castro’s Cuba, Nebraska Press, October 2022.
Radio Static book cover
Creative Writing professor James Hoch, School of Humanities and Global Studies: Radio Static, Green Linden Press, December 2021.
Last Pawn Shop in New Jersey book cover

Creative Writing Professor James Hoch, School of Humanities and Global Studies: Last Pawn Shop in New Jersey, LSU Press, January 2022.

Music and Mystique in Muscle Shoals book cover

Music professor Chris Reali, School of Contemporary Arts: Music and Mystique in Muscle Shoals, University of Illinois Press, June 2022.

Human Rights in Latin America, 2nd edition book cover

Political Science Professor Rebecca Root (co-author), School of Humanities and Global Studies:  Human Rights in Latin America, 2nd edition, University of Pennsylvania Press, July 2022.

Spanish for Health Care and Human Services: An Interdisciplinary Approach book cover

Spanish Professor Natalia Santamaria-Laorden (co-author), School of Humanities and Global Studies: Spanish for Health Care and Human Services: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Cognella Academic Publishing, 2023.

Faculty Research, Publications, and Presentations

Information provided thanks to the Office of the Provost

    Anisfield School of Business
    • Professor Wilson Rose (Accounting) had his article, “Do Tax and Expenditure Limitations Disproportionately Reduce Municipal Service Expenditures? It Depends on Your Perspective” accepted for publication in the Economics and Business Journal: Inquiries and Perspectives.
    • Professor Rikki Abzug’s (Management) article, “Using Conditional Inference Trees to (Re)Explore Nonprofit Board Composition,” was accepted for publication in the journal Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
    • Professors Timothy Burns (Information Technology Management) and Cherie Sherman (Business Law & Information Technology Management) had their co-authored article published: Burns, T., Sherman, C., (2022). Reflections on the Creation of a Business Analytics Minor. Information Systems Education Journal20(1) pp 22-35. http://ISEDJ.org/2022-1/ ISSN : ISSN: 1545-679X. 
    • Professor Juan Cabrera (Finance) published in the Journal of Financial Markets: Juan Cabrera, Eleni Gousgounis, The dynamics of short sales constraints and market quality: An experimental approach. Journal of Financial Markets, Volume 53, 2021, 100549, ISSN 1386-4181, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.finmar.2020.100549.
    • Professors Thierry Rakatobe-Joel (Management) and Gladys Torres-Baumgarten (International Business) had their co-authored article published: Gladys Torres-Baumgarten & Thierry Rakotobe-Joel (2022) Sustainability Discourse in Emerging Market multinationals: The Case of South Africa’s Largest Firms, Journal of African Business, DOI: 10.1080/15228916.2022.2048513.
    • Richard Klas, a senior Accounting major, presented a paper (co-authored with Professor Alex Olbrecht) entitled “Do High Tax States Chase Away Free Agents in Major League Baseball?” at the Eastern Economic Association conference in May 2022.
    • Professor Alexandre Olbrecht (Economics) and Ramapo alumnus Jeremy Rosen, Class of 2017, collaborated on an article that used an advanced statistical model and mathematical methodology to predict how well college quarterbacks, who are likely to be selected in the first three rounds of the draft, will perform during their NFL careers. 
    • Professor Christina Chung (Marketing) co-authored an article, “What Motivates American and Filipino Students to Take Online Classes?” that will be published in the Journal of Educators Online.
    • Professor Fariba Nosrati (Information Technology Management) co-authored an article, “The Power of Stories for Impression Management: Evidence from a City Cultural Digital Storytelling Initiative,” that will be published in the journal Information Technology & People.
    • Professor Alexandre Olbrecht (Economics) presented “State Level Income Taxes and Free Agency in Major League Baseball” at the Northeast Business & Economics Association Conference in November. The paper is co-authored with ASB Economics recent alumni Richard Klas and Alexander Cardazzi. In addition, Professor Olbrecht’s research applying statistical analysis to the professional football quarterback draft has been featured on ESPN.com and Footballoutsider.com.
    School of Contemporary Arts
    • Several Communication Arts students, advised by Professor Satarupa Dasgupta (Communication Arts – Applied Communication) presented their research papers at recent conferences. Angelina Reyes presented on the impact of menstrual stigma on women at the New Jersey Women and Gender Studies Consortium (NJWGSC) Undergraduate Colloquium on March 25. Emma Gaglione presented on music and psychology, Gabriella Fonseca presented on creating awareness about the opioid crisis in New York, Hailey Drake presented on destigmatizing mental health awareness campaigning, Lucrecia Kleinmann spoke on the pitfalls of fast fashion, and Luke Tedford talked about his campaign on banning plastic bags at the New Jersey Communication Association (NJCA) annual conference on March 26th.
    • Curated by Professor Yolanda del Amo (Art, Photography & Digital Media), the Visual Arts Senior Thesis Exhibition Blended was on view from April 27th through May 11th in the Berrie Center Kresge and Pascal Galleries. The exhibition showcased 21 graduating Visual Arts seniors’ works in painting,  photography, animation, mixed media, and film. Featured artists included the following: Ife Ali, Sofia Autore, Kevin Backman, Aminah Barrow, Eduardo Cermeno, Logan Devine, Alex Eich, Catriona Gilio, Mars Grasso, Lacey Large-Schlaudecker, Rachel Leifer, Dana Leone, William Loos, Caroline Mazzarone, Ward Miller, Veronika Miller, Sean Morgan, Remi Nichols, Olivia Reaves, Denean Ritchie, and Nina Sclafani.
    • Professor Gilad Cohen (Music Performance & Theory) has presented at several conferences recently including the following:
      • “When multiple swing feels comingle: Alternations, adjustments, hints, and overlaps of samba and jazz swing feels in Brazilian jazz played in New York City,” Analytical Approaches to World Music, Annual Conference (hybrid), University of Sheffield, UK, June 15, 2022.
      • “Ruth Finnegan’s ‘Pathways’ Globalised: Interpreting Professional Musicians in Contemporary New York City,” British Forum for Ethnomusicology, Annual Conference (hybrid), Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, April 10, 2022.
      • “Trinational Musical Circulations: Professional Musicians between Japan, Israel, Brazil, and the United States,” LASA/Asia Virtual Congress, Latin American Studies Association and East Asian Network of Latin American Studies, February 18, 2022.
    • Professor Satarupa Dasgupta (Communication Arts – Applied Communication) published the following two articles:
      • Dasgupta, S. (2022). Combating Stigma, Violence, and Marginality: Community-Based Health Communication as a Strategy for Change Among Commercial Sex Workers in India. In: Baikady, R., Sajid, S., Nadesan, V., Przeperski, J., Islam, M.R., Gao, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87624-1_177-1).
      • Dasgupta, S. (2022). The Impact of COVID-19 on Support-Seeking and Service Uptake Among Immigrant Victims of Intimate Partner Violence. In: Baikady, R., Sajid, S., Przeperski, J., Nadesan, V., Islam, M.R., Gao, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Problems. Palgrave Macmillan. (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68127-2_271-1).
    • Professor John Peffer (Art History) had an article accepted for publication:  ‘Maybe he thought I was dead.’ A tale of moral rights and image ethics in South Africa,” in Ysolde Gendreau, ed., Research Handbook on Intellectual Property And Moral Rights (Edward Elgar, in press, 2022).
    School of Humanities and Global Studies
    • Professor Cathy Hajo submitted a chapter, “Making the Jane Addams Papers Accessible to New Audiences,” for the Oxford Handbook on Jane Addams.
    • Professor Sarah Koenig (History) was invited to deliver an endowed lecture at Whitman College. Whitman College is currently reassessing its relationship to its namesake, Marcus Whitman, a missionary to the Cayuse people, in light of Whitman’s role as an agent of Anglo-American colonialism and Native displacement. This is the topic of Professor Koenig’s book, Providence and the Invention of American History, and the lecture she will delivery provides an opportunity to help shape the College’s conversations about how to address its colonial past and present a history that incorporates indigenous perspectives. In addition, Professor Koenig was invited to interview on the podcast “The Way of Improvement Leads Home” and speak about her book.
    • Professor Sam Mustafa (History) and Ramapo History graduate Samantha Sproviero, who is now a PhD candidate at Temple University, co-authored a chapter for the Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars, December 2021.
    • Professor Stacie Taranto (History) has been named a guest editor for the Washington Post’s daily online page for political historical analysis, which is entitled “Made by History.” 
    • Professor Edward Shannon (Literature) has published his article “’Trash of the Veriest Sort: Huck Finn’s Missing Sex Life.” Mark Twain Annuals. Vol. 19. 2021. 176-194.
    • Professor Natalia Santamaria Laorden (Spanish Language Studies) was this year’s co-recipient of the Henry Bischoff Excellence in Teaching Award. The Bischoff Award is conferred annually to a Ramapo faculty member whose work as a teacher embodies the best of the College’s teaching culture.
    • Professor Yvette Kisor (Literature) has two recent publications:
      • “Children’s Beowulfs for the New Tolkien Generation.” Beowulf as Children’s Literature: Studies in Adaptation for Youth. Britt Mize and Bruce Gilchrist, eds. University of Toronto Press, 2021, pp. 243-64.
      • “‘The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun’: Sexuality, Imagery, and Desire in Tolkien’s Works.” Tolkien Studies, vol. 18, 2021, pp. 19-62.
    • On March 21st, Professor Jeremy Teigen (Political Science) talked to West Point Cadets taking a class on American Politics about the role of military veterans in congressional and presidential politics. 
    • Professor Hugh Sheehy (Creative Writing/Literature) has stories appearing in the new editions of the literary magazines Fence and Crazyhorse. This summer, his short story “Amontillado” will be read by an actor as part of the Crystal Radio Sessions at the Ancram Opera House in Ancram, NY. He also has a review forthcoming at Full Stop.
    • Professor Pinar Kayaalp (Middle Eastern & Islamic History) was invited to present two modules, equivalent to upper-level undergraduate or master-level courses, on the topic of Islamic banking at Anglia Ruskin University in June 2022.
    School of Social Science and Human Services
    • Professor Sharon Leathers (Literacy) has a paper under final review review: “Community-based PLCs: Re-envisioning teacher collaboration, agency, and professionalism in urban education” in S. Jones-Fosu & C. Lewis (Eds.) Economic, Political, and Legal Solutions to Urban Education and the Implications on Teacher Preparation.
    • Professor Virginia Gonsalves-Domond (Psychology) presented her work on “Promoting Cross-Cultural Research in the Caribbean” at the Athens Institute for Education and Research in Athens, Greece in May 2022.
    • Professor Kathleen Ray (Social Work) presented on “Higher Education Post-COVID:  An Investigation into the Transition to Remote Learning” at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention in Chicago in May 2022.
    • Professor Emily Leskinen (Social Science) presented her work, Disrupting the Mainstream: Integrating Social Justice Pedagogy into General Education, at the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in Puerto Rico in June 2022.
    • Professor Leah Warner (Psychology) presented her work, Integrating an Intersectional Social Justice Course into General Education Programs, at the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in Puerto Rico in June 2022.
    • Professor Maya Poran’s (Psychology) article, Teaching Puberty for LGBTQIA + Diversity, Inclusion, and Beyond: A New Model of Expansive Pubertal Understanding, was published in the American Journal of Sexuality Education. (https://doi.org/10.1080/15546128.2022.2053259).
    • Professor Liat Shklarski (Social Work) co-authored a recent paper: Shklarski, L., Abrams, A., Bakst, E. (2022). Psychotherapy in the era of Covid-19: Therapists’ decisions to return to in-person, continue working remotely, or offer a hybrid method. Journal of Digital Psychology.
    School of Theoretical and Applied Science
    • Professor Eman Abdelfattah (Computer Science) co-authored three articles:
      • “Deep Neural Networks for Time Series Classification in Human Activity Recognition,” 12th IEEE Annual Information Technology, Electronics and Mobile Communication Conference (IEMCON), Virtual Conference, October 2021, Vancouver, Canada;
      • “The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin: Predicting Market Direction Using Machine Learning Models,” 12th IEEE IEMCON; and
      • “Analyzing Police Shootings in the US,” 12th IEEE Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics and Mobile Communication Conference (UEMCON), Virtual Conference, December 2021, New York.
    • Professor Anne Marie Flatekval (Nursing) was published in the Teaching Tips section in the November 2021 issue of Nurse Educator: “Gaming applications to increase classroom interaction.” Nurse Educator. 46 (6). E163. doi: 10.1097/NNE.0000000000001088
    • Professor Maxim Goldberg-Rugalev (Mathematics) has co-authored a paper: M. Goldberg and S. Kim, An explicit characterization of the domain of the infinitesimal generator of a symmetric diffusion semigroup on Lp of a complete positive sigma-finite measure space, Real Anal. Exchange 46(2): 345-358 (2021).
    • Professor Amruth Kumar (Computer Science) presented the following peer-reviewed papers:
      • “An Epistemic Model-Based Tutor for Imperative Programming”
        and “Long Term Retention of Programming Concepts Learned Using Tracing Versus Debugging Tutors” at Artificial Intelligence in Education (AI-ED 2021) conference in June 2021;
      • “Do Students Use Semantics When Solving Parsons Puzzles? – A Log-Based Investigation” and with Ramapo student Vanesa Getseva, the paper “Comparing Bayesian Knowledge Tracing Model Against Naïve Mastery Model” at Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS 2021) in June 2021; and 
      • “Using Markov Transition Matrix to Analyze Parsons Puzzle Solutions” at Educational Data Mining (EDM 2021) Workshop in June 2021.
        In addition, Professor Kumar’s co-authored paper, “Identifying Informatively Easy and Informatively Hard Concepts,” was accepted for publication in ACM Transactions on Computing Education (ACM TOCE), and he was appointed a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Education Advisory Committee.
    • Professor Catalin Martin (Physics) has authored three peer-reviewed papers and a fourth that was just recently accepted:
      • Review of Scientific Instruments with European collaborators: “Bidirectional reflectance measurement of tungsten samples to assess reflection model in WEST tokamak”, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 92, 093501 (2021): https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0046140;
      • Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, with co-author Professor Anderson and collaborators from Montclair State: “Magnetoelastic resonance of magnetic amorphous alloys at cryogenic temperatures”, Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 539 (2021) 168337: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304885321006132?via%3Dihub;
      • Physica Status Solidi B, based upon the work of Class of 2020 Ramapo alumnus student Jeetendra Gupta and co-authored by Ihor Sydoryk, Engineering Physics Lab Coordinator at Ramapo: “Robust Stability of Optical and Electronic Properties of Gallium-Doped Zinc Oxide Thin Films to Gamma Ray Irradiation”, Phys. Status Solidi B 2021, 2100469: https://doi.org/10.1002/pssb.202100469; and
      • Physical Review B, with collaborators from Brookhaven National Lab and elsewhere, just recently accepted: “Absence of long-range magnetic order in Fe1−δTe2 (δ ≈ 0.1) crystals” https://journals.aps.org/prb/accepted/ 99073Oa6O671c94bb1a283c649dbf9dcef9840948.
      • Professor Osei Tweneboah (Data Science) recently co-authored an article, “Modeling high frequency stock market data by using stochastic models,” which was published in Stochastic Analysis and Applications. June 2021 (https://doi.org/10.1080/ 07362994.2021.1942046). Additionally, he was co-organizer of the workshop Ghana Numerical Analysis Days 2021, which was held from August 25 to 26, 2021. 
      • Professor Anne Marie Flatekval (Nursing) co-authored a manuscript about the College’s partnership with New Bridge Medical Center last spring to administer COVID-19 vaccinations to the community. Corbo, S. & Flatekval, A. (2022). An academic-practice partnership to provide community vaccinations, Nursing Management. 53 (3). 36-42 doi: 10.1097/01.NUMA.0000821704.29642.ee (click here to read the manuscript).
      • Professor Eman Abdelfattah (Computer Science) co-authored the following article with three students: Tenzin Sherpa, Eman Abdelfattah, Kristin Miyamoto, Tiffany La Torre, “U.S. Wildfire Risks and Prevention,” the 12th IEEE Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC) Virtual Conference, USA, 26-29 January 2022.
    • Three Engineering Physics students and Professor Catalin Martin (Engineering Physics) presented oral research contributions at the American Physical Society (APS) Meeting in Chicago in March 2022. The presentations were as follows:
      • Narayan Pokhrel: Effects of Topological Structures in Ribbons of Magnetic Amorphous Alloys
      • Prithivi Rana: Polarized Infrared Spectroscopy of FeTe2 Single Crystals
      • Tenzin Sherpa: The Effect of Ge-doping on Electronic and Lattice Vibrational Properties of FeGa3
      • Catalin Martin: Infrared Spectroscopy and DFT Calculations of Electronic and Lattice Vibrational Properties in FeGa3 
    • Assistant Dean of Nursing Programs Kathy Burke is the co-author of the third edition of Nursing Delegation and Management of Patient Care, published by Elsevier in April 2022. She also recently co-authored an article [i.e., Vandiver, K.M., Erdei, E., Mayer, A., Ricciardi, C., O’Leary, M., Burke, K. & Zelikoff, J.  (2022). Building Environmental Health and Genomics Literacy among Healthcare Providers Serving Vulnerable Communities: An Innovative Educational Framework. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.  19, 929. January 14, 2022].
    • Professor Anne Marie Flatekval (Nursing) published teaching tips in the July 2022 edition of Nurse Educator. The title of her article is Use of an Augmented Reality Tee Shirt to Enhance Health Assessment Skills.
    • Professor Amruth Kumar (Computer Science) presented his work on intelligent software tutors to help students learn computer programming at the Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Conference (ITiCSE 2022) in Dublin, Ireland in July 2022. Vanesa Getseva ‘21, attended the conference as well to present research on applying data analytics and artificial intelligence to analyze the data collected by intelligent software tutors, which summarizes work she conducted as a Ramapo student with Professor Kumar. 
    • Professor Lorraine Santangelo (Nursing) presented her dissertation, “An Interpreted Journey of Professional Growth Among Female Baccalaureate Nursing Students: A Hermeneutic Study of Mindfulness Practices” at the Seton Hall 34th Annual Reinkemeyer Research Conference in April 2022.
    • Professor Inderani Walia (Nursing) presented her work “Nurses’ Lived Experience with Physician Collaboration” at the 26th Annual Research, Evidence-Based Practice, and Performance Improvement in Healthcare Conference held at the University of Southern Indiana in April 2022.
    • Professor Amruth Kumar (Computer Science) is co-chairing the ACM/IEEE-CS/AAAI decennial task force to revise Computer Science curricular guidelines used worldwide (csed.acm.org).
    George T. Potter Library
    • College Archivist, Reference & Instruction Librarian Susan Kurzmann curated a collection of books and articles published by Ramapo faculty members, which was on display at the opening of the Learning Commons. Featured authors included the following: Professors Todd Barnes (Literature), Michael Bitz (Teacher Education), Brian Chinni (Teacher Education), Neriko Doerr (adjunct – International Studies), Pinar Kayaalp (Islamic & Middle Eastern History), Yvette Kisor (Literature), Iraida Lopez (Spanish Language & Literature), John McTighe (Social Work), David Oh (Communication Arts – Media Studies), Stacie Taranto (History), Jeremy Teigen (Political Science), Osei Tweneboah (Data Science), Lisa Williams (Literature), and Behzad Yaghmaian (Political Economy).
    • Christina Connor, Assessment and Instruction Librarian, helped organize a virtual Spring Workshop for N.J. academic librarians in April 2022. The workshop, entitled Assessment 101: Getting Back to Basics, focused on the fundamentals of why and how we assess. Participants learned about various assessment methodologies and Christina discussed strategies for outcomes development. She also participated in a panel on general best practices in assessment and how to best capture and utilize data at institutions. 
    • Librarian Madel Tisi presented a poster session at the New Jersey Library Association Conference (NJLA) on June 2, 2022. The presentation, titled “Pivoting to Virtual Scavenger Hunt for Information Literacy During Covid-19: Challenges and Lessons Learned,” highlighted the shift from a usual in-person activity to a virtual one using Google Forms. The poster included examples of questions used, as well as challenges and lessons learned from the virtual Scavenger Hunt, an activity in which her EOF classes participated in Summer 2021. NJLA is a professional organization that provides vision and leadership for the library community and serves as a voice for New Jersey libraries and library workers.
    • Dean of the Library & Learning Commons, Leigh-cregan Keller, was voted in as a member of the executive board of the Virtual Academic Library Environment (VALE) of New Jersey Consortium and is co-chairing the VALE Purchasing and Licensing Committee.

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