Arts and Sciences Faculty Highlights
The faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences are active in many ways both in the classroom, where many are acknowledged as among the best teachers in the SUNY system, and in their various research disciplines. While there are many deserving of recognition here, the following faculty members have in recent years received regional, national and/or international recognition for their research accomplishments and their teaching abilities.
Dr. Barbara Wisch
Professor, Department of Art and Art History
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
Renaissance Society of America/Samuel H. Kress Foundation Art History Fellowship
Visiting Professor of Italian Studies, University of Sydney
"All roads lead to Rome" is a saying that Dr. Barbara Wisch has taken seriously. At age eleven she did, in fact, toss coins into the famous Trevi Fountain--and she has been returning to the Eternal City ever since.... READ MORE
Dr. Terrence D. Fitzgerald
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
SUNY Distinguished Professor
It began innocently enough as a research assistantship studying an aphid in North Carolina. It blossomed into a fascination with the lives of caterpillars. A PhD in entomology quickly followed. Now he has more than 30 years of research experience on hand, and his passion for understanding caterpillars has not waned. Along the way Dr. Terrence Fitzgerald has inspired dozens of his own student assistants, he has traveled the globe, and he has recalibrated our understanding of "social" insects. Numerous publications and prestigious grants attest to his productivity and expertise. And then there's the mystery of the cyanide, the caterpillar and Kentucky's foal crisis. .... READ MORE
Dr. Herbert H. Haines
Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
SUNY Research Foundation Award for Exemplary Contributions to Research
and Scholarship
He has twenty-five years of experience studying American social movements. He is widely recognized as an expert on the anti-death penalty movement. He has explored the impact of ‘extremists’ on the fate of mainstream groups and their goals. So why is he now talking about "bridge units"? READ MORE
Dr. Peter Ducey
Professor, Biological Sciences
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching
SUNY Research Foundation Award for Exemplary Contributions to Research
and Scholarship
"Science is an amazingly powerful tool for understanding our universe and ourselves," says Dr. Pete Ducey, professor of Biological Sciences. He continues, "Many people are surprised to learn that doing science is not about reclusive geniuses making discoveries alone, but it's about direct and indirect collaborations among investigators, past, present, and future. Science progresses when we learn from the research done before us, exchange ideas with other researchers, help to train the next generations of scientists, and share with the general public what we've learned." Pete Ducey's career is all about such collaborations. READ MORE
Dr. Christopher Cirmo
Professor and Chair, Geology
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Exemplary Contributions to Research and
Scholarship
It has been a long and winding path for Dr. Chris Cirmo; he has more careers under his belt than you would expect from an accomplished Professor of Geology. Those years and those experiences have shaped his interest in hydrology and fueled his passion for research and teaching. Chairing his department, teaching classes and conducting research in the field were challenges enough. Today he faces a different kind of challenge: spending $35 million wisely .... READ MORE
Prof. Jeremiah Donovan
Professor, Art and Art History
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Internationalization
Passion and curiosity have taken Jeremiah Donovan a long way from the green fields of upstate New York. His reputation as one of the country's top ceramicists is well established, his work has been exhibited across the United States and as far away as China and Korea. The desire to understand traditional pottery forms and processes has led to the development of rich relationships with colleagues in China. The result has been a boon for Cortland students who work in his studio and who venture to China on one of his many study-abroad adventures. READ MORE
Dr. Timothy J. Baroni
Professor of Biological Sciences
Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching
Rozanne Brooks Dedicated Teaching Award
Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship
Cortland's Outstanding Achievement in Research Award
Tim admits that biology was not his first love, he was really hoping to break into major league baseball by being scouted in college, and at least playing a few years in the minors ..... READ MORE
Dr. Denise D. Knight
Professor of English
Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching
Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship
Denise has been instrumental in promoting scholarly interest in the American author and socialist Charlotte Perkins Gilman, whose most famous story, "The Yellow Wall Paper," is now standard fare in undergraduate literature classes ..... READ MORE
Dr. Robert J. Spitzer
Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science
Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship
Cortland’s Outstanding Achievement in Research Award
Bob credits George W. Bush’s presidency with providing him with the idea that American law, and the Constitution, are more, not less, relevant to understanding the American presidency than ever. This idea contradicts the conventional wisdom that the president’s formal, constitutional powers are of little importance when compared to the many political sources of power employed by modern presidents ..... READ MORE
Dr. Donald R. Wright
Distinguished Teaching Professor of History
Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching
Don recalls being interested in his dad's photos flying a B25 in North Africa in World War II, fooling with his brother's stamp collection ("I knew there was an Orange Free State somewhere in Africa before I knew what it was"), reading about the African nations that were gaining independence during his high school years, and wondering why Africa wasn't a topic commonly available for historical study ..... READ MORE