First annual Celebration of Faculty Scholarship

By: Hannah Wiley, Features Editor, and Kaitlin O'Meara, Copy Editor

This past Wednesday, Oct. 22, the Canisius University IMPACT Center hosted the Celebration of Faculty Scholarship (CFS), to celebrate the work and research that Canisius faculty do outside of the classroom. 

The event consisted of two parts: a lightning presentation hour, where there were six 10-minute presentations on research; and a traditional poster presentation hour, where faculty were posted throughout Science Hall to discuss their research. The goal of this event was to let students know about the research that their faculty members do beyond the classroom as well as for faculty to inform students about opportunities that they have for students to participate in their research.

The first lighting talk was by Dr. Marc LoGrasso of the economics and finance department who talked about artificial intelligence, specifically ChatGPT. His research was entitled “Could ChatGPT have earned abnormal returns? A retrospective test from the U.S. stock market.” He came across the topic while looking into modern investing criteria to teach his students and it has evolved to the question of if people can use ChaptGPT for advice on what stocks to invest in and other financial advice that they would get from a financial advisor. 

Dr. David Moran of the counseling & human services department did his lightning talk on his research entitled “Assessing for cultural strengths through bilingual assessments.” His presentation centered around the importance of the counseling process and the lack of available resources to English language learners. He discussed how assessments could be developed in two languages and could be characterized based on a certain group’s cultural strengths. 

Next, Jennifer Trillizio-Smith and Aubrey Smith of the physician’s assistant (PA) department presented a joint lightning talk about the day in the life of a PA. They both discussed the wide array of fields the PA professors currently study in from surgery to dermatology and how they use these experiences to enrich their students with real-life clinical examples. “Our hope is also that we take our students and we create compassionate, kind clinicians,” Trillizio-Smith said. 

Dr. Chirantana Mathkari of the animal behavior, ecology and conservation department talked about her research entitled “The Mother-Milk Paradox: Analyzing the Role of the Cow’s Acclaimed Holiness in Indian’ Daily Consumption Intentions.” In India, which is the largest consumer and producer of milk, they view the cow as a mother who provides humans with a life-sustaining food source. Mathkari explores the “socio-cultural dynamic through analyzing [the] unique human-cow mother relationship.”

Dr. Sana Spector of the qualitative sciences department presented her work entitled “From Probability to Protection: Poisson Inequalities for Machine Learning in Cybersecurity.” Her research centers around how cybersecurity can be strengthened through mathematics and data technique. She discussed ways to detect threats and unusual activity more effectively. 

Finally, Dr. Shyam Sriram of the political science department presented his research entitled “Asian Muslim Immigration and Upcycled Religious Spaces in Western New York.” Through this he explores Protestant and Catholic churches that have been closed and then were made into mosques. He also discussed how he worked closely with United Student Association president, Analee DeGlopper, on this project. 

Following the lightning round, the poster presentation section began, which allowed attendees to learn more about what their faculty members are passionate about in their research. These topics ranged widely – from the impact of “Barbie” on discussions of feminism to the history of the essay to ecosystem ecology. This part of the event also lasted for an hour, so those in attendance had the opportunity to visit many different posters to learn about many different things.

Dr. Maura Snyder’s poster was a fan-favorite based on its bright pink, which matched perfectly with the theme of her research entitled “Beyond Barbieland: Launching Discussions of the Shared Female Experience.” Her research is being done with Dr. Alanna Peebles, an assistant professor of media studies at San Diego State University. Their research centers around if mothers are exposing their daughters to media like the Barbie movie, and having conversations about the female experience. They also studied whether college students were having these conversations. College students were more likely to report having deep conversations after viewing and also having more emotional reactions to the message of the movie. 

Dr. Graham Stowe, associate professor of English and director of the Writing Center, presented on the history of the essay and research on why and how AI affects essays. In his presentation, he highlighted the importance of voice in essays, as a reason why we continue to read them, as well as something we lose with AI. He stated, “[The essay] is a way of presenting oneself as oneself, which is to say, it’s part of us, it’s who we are. And so, what happens [is] as we’re writing is that we are doing some shaping of the world.” In the essay, how one says things and why they say them is crucial to why people keep reading, and how this is something that AI is not able to replicate. 

Dr. Jonathan O’Brien presented the research that he does in his lab, centering around ecosystem ecology, meaning in his lab “we look at the ecosystem like a big engine,” and figure out the ways in which the ecosystem is working and ways it could be improved. O’Brien looks not only at the way in which the ecosystem is working, but also the way in which humans have begun to interfere with these processes and the impact that it is having on the ecosystem as a whole. He is currently working with students on a project on restoring the ecosystem of the Scajaquada Creek. They are analyzing the impact that Buffalo’s industrial past and present have impacted the ecosystem as well as the shape of the habitat have impacted the organisms that have been able to live there. 

Dr. Richard Reitsma of the Spanish department presented on the research and trips he has gone on recently as he comes back from a year-long sabbatical. From articles, to presentations in Latin America and Europe, to trips with students, much of Reitsma’s research centers around topics on migration and identity, and the way in which it is expressed through literature and film. He described his most recent research as, “how queer narratives about migration are engaging with narratives of reconciliation.” This theme will be addressed in his spring honors course, HON 271: “The Body Erotic/The Body Politic.”

As Dr. Jonathan Rodgers noted during his introduction, Canisius faculty are not only professors and teachers, but scholars as well, and the work they do outside of the classroom enhances what they are able to teach and bring to the classroom. This was an excellent opportunity for students to learn more about the things their faculty members are interested in and become involved in it as well. Dr. Niland said, “When we stop being curious, we stop living, we stop learning, we stop evolving.” The Celebration of Faculty Scholarship sheds light on the importance of giving Canisius faculty the opportunity to celebrate their accomplishments and show off the hard work they spend on research.