Support for research is provided through the College’s sabbatical leave program, with funds from the College at New Paltz Foundation, by active participation in such statewide SUNY-UUP collaborative programs as the Drescher Awards for pre-tenure, tenure-track women and minority faculty members, and through funding for professional travel from the budgets of departments and the Office of the Dean. Funds also are made available on a competitive basis to pay students for assisting with faculty research. Additionally, colleagues are strongly encouraged to seek outside financial support for their work. Assistance in identifying potential funders and in applying is provided by the Office of Sponsored Programs. Matching resources are committed in support of applications by the Dean’s Office and the Office of the Provost.

 

A number of members of the Liberal Arts & Sciences Faculty have achieved national or international prominence as researchers and writers in their fields. Some examples:

 

L.H. Roper, Associate Professor and Chair of History, works on the history of early modern Britain and its empire from a transatlantic perspective. With the help of a sabbatical in Spring 2004 and funding from the Offices of Academic Affairs and the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, he has most recently published Conceiving Carolina: Proprietors, Planters, and Plots, 1662-1729 (Palgrave Macmillan 2004), Constructing Early Modern Empires: Proprietary Ventures in the Atlantic World, 1500-1750 (w/Bertrand Van Ruymbeke, Brill, 2007).

 

Nancy E. Johnson is an Associate Professor in the Department of English whose research has focused on British novels of the 1790s and eighteenth-century law and literature. In 2004, she published The English Jacobin Novel on Rights, Property, and the Law: Critiquing the Contract (Palgrave). Her current book project, The Court Journals and Letters of Frances Burney, Vol. 6, 1790-June 1791 is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. Professor Johnson has had a leave funded through the UUP/SUNY Drescher Award program. She also has received SUNY New Paltz Research and Creative Projects Awards, and was on sabbatical leave in 2006. In addition, Dr. Johnson has received two Senior Warnock Fellowships for her work on the Yale Boswell Editions. 

Brian Obach, an Associate Professor of Sociology, is the author of a very well received book published by the MIT Press on Labor and the Environmental Movement: The Quest for Common Ground (2004). He is currently conducting a research project sponsored by the National Science Foundation on the role of social movement coalitions in shaping federal organic agriculture policy.

Glenn Geher, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, has gotten national attention for his development of the notion of "mating intelligence," derived from his earlier work on emotional intelligence and human mating. His book, Mating Intelligence: Sex, Relationships, and the Mind's Reproductive System, edited with Geoffrey Miller of the University of New Mexico and published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, explores theoretical and empirical questions concerning mating and intelligence. Several SUNY New Paltz students and alumni have helped Professor Geher with his research, supported by a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience grant, an Academic Year Undergraduate Experience grant, and a Provost's Research Award.

Eugene Heath, Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy, does research on eighteenth-century British moral philosophy, with a current focus on Adam Ferguson. His essay, "Ferguson's Moral Philsophy," may be found in The Manuscripts of Adam Ferguson, ed. Vincenzo Merolle (London: Pickering & chatto, 2006) and his edited collection on Adam Ferguson: Selected Philosophical Writings, a volume by Imprint Academic (Exeter, 2007) is part of its "Library of Scottish Philosophy" series. Some of this work was completed during his sabbatical leave in 2006. Reflecting his supplementary interests in business ethics and the morals of markets, Dr. Heath's most recent publication is "Markets, Promises, and Responsibility: Reconsidering Pensions and Ethics," in Robert Kolb, ed., Corporate Retirement Security: Social and Ethical Issues (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007).

Individual student research projects, pursued in collaboration with faculty, are highly encouraged. Students who participate in the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE ) program work full-time on a project under the guidance of a faculty mentor and present their research results to the campus community each fall. The 2007 student researchers from Liberal Arts & Sciences (with teachers and departments in parentheses) were:

Igor Gembitsky, “Study of melanogenesis stimulation by Psoralea corylifolia and Heracleum maximum plant extracts and their coumarin constituents in murine B16 melanoma cells” ( Maureen Morrow, Biology in Liberal Arts & Sciences and Preeti Dhar, Chemistry, in Science & Engineering)

Rodica Buzu, “The Effect of Interviewer Expectations and Cognitive Style Upon Confirmatory Behavior and Judgments During the Interview” (Douglas C. Maynard, Psychology)

Rana Balesh, “Women’s Experiences of Objectification” (Melanie S. Hill, Psychology)

Annet Nakamya, “Women’s military roles in national liberation wars and internal conflicts in Africa: implications for political empowerment” (Eudora Chikwendu, Political Science)

James W. Smith, “Relationship Between Political Party Systems and Mass Movement Participation” (Igü Özler, Political Science)

Regina Klein, “The effects of nutrition on sleep patterns in Drosophila melanogaster” (Aaron Haselton, Biology)

Nicole Vitillo, “Crystallization of HUG1” (Jennifer Waldo, Biology)