Our newest members highlight the wide range of scholarship NCIS members engage in, and include legal theory, electrical engineering, Theravada Buddhism, medical imaging and anthropology.

Corentin Briat received both his Engineer's degree and Master's degree in electrical engineering with specialization in control in 2005 from the Grenoble Institute of Technology, Grenoble, France. He received a Ph.D. in systems and control theory from the same university in 2008. From 2009 to 2011, he held an ACCESS postdoctoral position in the ACCESS Linnaeus Center at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, where he worked on the modeling of congestion control in large-scale communication networks. From 2012 to 2017, he held a postdoctoral position in the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology - Zürich, Switzerland, where he worked on the modeling, analysis and control of biological networks. He is now an independent researcher. His interests include general systems and control theory, applied mathematics, optimization and theoretical problems arising in the modeling, analysis, design and control of communication and biological networks.

Dawid Bunikowski holds a doctorate in legal theory and a master of law degree from Nicholas Copernicus University in Poland. He researches in Poland (a doctoral research-project) and Finland (postdoctoral research project) and cooperates with the University of the Arctic, where he leads the sub-group of philosophy of law. Bunikowski has published extensively in the fields of axiology of law, law and morality, enforcement of morality by law, legal interpretation, public law, criminal law, European law and its philosophical foundations, legal pluralism, law and language, indigenous rights in the Arctic, moral and political philosophy, and theory of politics. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Eastern Finland Law School from 2013 to 2015. He served as acting vice-dean in the Torun School of Banking from 2009 to 2011, and as an assistant professor from 2009 to 2015. Bunikowski has been a visiting scholar at numerous universities, including Oxford, Edinburgh, Cardiff, London, Navarre, Elche, Alicante, Zagreb, Minsk and Istanbul.

After retiring from a career in the U.S. government, Jason Jellison is beginning a graduate program in in Bangkok, Thailand, building on his research in southeast Asia. Jellison writes a successful monthly newspaper series in The Phuket [Thailand] News, “All About Buddhism,” focused on Theravada Buddhism. He won the RECONSA Regional Conference on Student Activism at UNIMAS-Petronas, Malaysia, in 2016 and his 2015 research project was the subject of Thailand's national news.

Sunday Moulton earned an American Fellowship from the American Association of University Women in her final year of writing her dissertation, which was focused on natural disasters, a subject she turned to after her losing her mother in the hurricane that tore through Joplin, Mississippi, in 2011. In 2016, her dissertation was selected as the top 50 anthropology dissertations and while at SUNY Buffalo, Moulton received a Presidential Fellowship. Now launching her career, she seeks to focus her research to help prevent disaster-related deaths while improving the recovery process for impacted communities.

Narenda Pulimia, a Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from JNTU, Hyderabad, India, and an M.S. at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). A former Motorola employee, Pulimia holds eight U.S. government-approved patents and submitted numerous patent disclosures.

A passionate mental health clinician and scholar, Bridget Sanchez seeks to generate important contributions to the field of mental health and mental health practices with historically underrepresented populations, specifically related to Latino immigrant mental health issues. She received her Master’s degree  from Purdue University Northwest in Marriage and Family in 2016 and works full time at one of Chicago's largest Hispanic serving agencies. Sanchez also has worked as a limited-term lecturer conveying to the next generation a passion for advocacy, change, and representation. I am a proud first-generation American who enjoys laughing, animals, and dancing.

Arul Venugopal, a radiology technologist, completed a Master’s degree in Medical Imaging and has learned Medical Imaging Coding and Processing. With a passion for medical imaging, he has initiated and learned many cross-functional skills, such as Coding (C, C++, Python), Medical Image analysis and artificial intelligence, and aspires to become a medical imaging scientist.
 

NCIS welcomes 12 new members based in Thailand, Ireland and United States with disciplines that include community medicine, Arabic and Islamic studies, film, and human resource management.

Safa Abdalla Abdalla, a member of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of Ireland since 2012, has have taught, mentored and examined undergraduate and postgraduate students in Sudan and Ireland on various topics in public health. Abdalla, who holds a medical degree and a doctorate in Community Medicine in 2006 from the University of Khartoum, previously was assistant professor in University of Khartoum and worked part time as a biostatistician at Stanford University. Abdalla researched and published on the burden of disease in Sudan, ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities in Ireland and more recently on injury epidemiology in Sudan. He also serves the editorial board of the journal Injury Prevention.

An historian of the Middle East with a focus on late antique Iran and the late antique Roman empire, Keenan Baca-Winters received a doctorate from the University of California, Irvine in 2015 and a master’s degree from San Diego State University in 2010.

With 20 years of experience in top management and administration, both in international and Thailand as well as in private and government sectors, Saifon Chairungruang received two medals of honor from the late King of Thailand for his work as a Specialist/Expert on Development Problems and Policy in Thailand’s House of Parliament. His is currently researching entrepreneurship, family business, strategy and performance, and culture. Chairungruang holds a Ph.D. in Human Resource Management from the University of Waikato, New Zealand in 2016, with the thesis, “A Secret Ingredient for SMEs Performance: Human Resource Management in Cafés and Restaurants in Auckland and Waikato, New Zealand.

Anchalee Chaiworaporn, an independent scholar since 2002, focuses on film studies in her home country, Thailand, and throughout Asia. She is currently working with a team on a three-year project, “Common Awareness in the Evolution of Thai Art and Criticism: Significant Milestones after 1932.” She received a partial scholarship to study long distance for her doctorate at the University of Southampton where her project will be “Border Crossings and the Cinemas of Thai U.S.-Educated Arthouse Directors.” Chaiworaporn’s website is http://www.thaicinema.org.

Following a Fulbright Fellowship in Madrid, Foster Chamberlain completed his dissertation in 2017 under a Harry F. Guggenheim Dissertation Completion Fellowship. His research focused on how the cultures of military institutions in Europe helped influence the course of the continent’s violent conflicts from 1914–1945 and contributed to the fall of interwar democratic regimes.

Dorothy J. Della Noce holds a Ph.D. in Communication Sciences from Temple University and a J.D. from Western New England School of Law. She taught at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels for more than 20 years. Her primary research interest is communication and social change. She is especially interested in how change occurs at the micro-level during human interactions – in dialogue, conversation, negotiation, debate, argumentation, group decision making, team-building, and so on. In 2013, Dr. Della Noce founded The Academic Writing Coach, which is now her full-time occupation. She is also currently an Assistant Editor for Online Learning Journal.

Justin Lev-Tov, a visiting assistant professor, University of Alabama, Birmingham, holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Tennessee. He has been a museum reports editor at the university of Alabama and a guest researcher, University of Mainz, Germany. Lev-Tov held a three-year doctoral study fellowship with the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.

Now a CEO of an historic research nonprofit, Tom Magnuson previously worked as general manager for the American Industrial Publications, a computer-based training and logistics system vendor, and an engineering director for a high-speed optical scanning manufacturer. He also has served in the U.S. Marine Corps and Merchant Marine.

A former assistant professor in the Political Science Department at East Carolina University, Steve Modlin holds a Ph.D. from Mississippi State University and an M.P.A. from East Carolina University, focusing on local government budgeting and finance in public administration and policy. Modlin also served as a managing consultant for the town of Princeville, North Carolina, and has published widely in journals that include the Public Administration Research, Public Administration Quarterly, Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs, Public Finance and Management, Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, and Public Budgeting & Finance.

Aisha Musa hold a Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic studies from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. Her research and teaching interests include Hadith and Sunna, translation of classical Arabic texts, Qur’anic interpretation, women’s issues, Islamic Law, and modern-day reformist and neo-traditionalist movements. Her work in the formative and classical periods of Islamic history, and her interdisciplinary work in the contemporary period, make it possible to bridge the divide between past and present.

An independent scholar, consultant, coach, writer, and wisdom seeker, Connie Taylor aims to foster an understanding of the value of our human connections in both our personal and business lives. Taylor holds a Ph.D. and MEd and has served both the for-profit and not-for-profit business sectors with strategic planning, business development, and execution strategies.

Emily Winerock, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based historian focuses on the practices and politics of dance in 16th- and 17th-century Europe. Her publications include essays in Playthings in Early Modernity (2017); The Sacralization of Space and Behavior in the Early Modern World (2015); and Worth and Repute: Valuing Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (2011); as well as reviews in Renaissance Quarterly, Early Theatre, and Dance Chronicle. She is a co-founder of the Shakespeare and Dance Project, and the founder and moderator of the Dance Historians Network on LinkedIn. A scholar-practitioner, she also teaches Renaissance dance workshops and choreographs for theatrical productions.

We at NCIS are delighted to be able to announce the winners of the 2017 Elizabeth Eisenstein Essay Prize. This year's award drew a strong field: as Committee Chair Joan Cunningham says: 

"We had some terrific submissions this year!  We all enjoyed reading these papers, and found the decision difficult"  In fact, there were some exceptional papers, of which two were neck and neck in the scoring so, rather than name one as winner and the other as runner-up, the EC, in consultation with Prof. Eisenstein's daughter Margaret DeLacy, agreed to split the prize money—and kudos—between two winners.

In alphabetical order, these are: 

• Toni Vogel Carey.  “Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand: A Brief History.”  Adam Smith Review 9 (2017) 88-104.

• Patricia Silver.  “Remembering Abuela: Memory, Authenticity and Place in Puerto Rican Orlando.”  Latino Studies 13(3): 376-401 (September 2015).

The Eisenstein Committee believes it important to acknowledge the other candidates who were also on the short list (in alphabetical order):

• Amanda J. Haste. “A Third Gender? Expression of Gender Identity in Celibate Monasticism through Words and Music.” Constructing Identity in an Age of Globalization, ed. James E. Block and Amanda J. Haste. Paris: Ex Modio, April 2015. 
   
• Mary E. Zimmer.  “Seeking To Become All Things: The Neoplatonic Soul And The Next World In Sir Thomas Browne’s The Garden Of Cyrus.” Modern Language Review, Vol. 112, Part 1 (January 2017). 35‐53.

NCIS’s growing membership includes ten new independent scholars from the United States, Britain, France and Australia whose expertise includes psychology, biomedical engineering, urban planning and Southern Jewish history.

With a primary focus on language and English literature, Pamela Albert’s areas of research includes eighteenth-century British literature, transatlantic studies, world literatures in English, global Jewish migration and Jewish diaspora literature.

Mark Foster’s career living and teaching at a six day-a-week boarding school offered him the opportunity to create new courses and teach AP and senior level courses, including those outside his subject area, language and literature. With a research focus in romanticism, Shakespeare, and nineteenth century American history and literature, Foster welcomes professional and intellectual contacts and the opportunity to engage in scholarship now that he is no longer in the classroom.

Building on twenty years education, research, planning and urban design experience, Angela K. Frusciante, MRP, Ph.D., in 2016 founded Knowledge Designs to Change, where she consults for nonprofit organizations, collaboratives, networks and initiatives. A socio-political scholar whose research focuses on female-led change networks, Frusciante served as faculty member of Urban Design at Jackson State University and as Knowledge Development Officer for the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, where she was responsible for grants and contracts in areas such as organizational learning and management systems.

Christopher Gatti, a gymnast-turned-acrobat with a doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in machine learning and data analysis, divides his time between training, coaching, and working on programming projects. Gatti competed for the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, between 2001 and 2005 and obtained a BSE in mechanical engineering, followed by an MSE in biomedical engineering, all from the University of Michigan. Gatti currently coaches for Cirque du Soleil on a big top show, and researches on circus-inspired problems that incorporate elements of biomechanics and data analysis or machine learning.

Rachel Gisewhite uses philosophical methodologies to study youth phenomenological experiences with and activism for the natural world. She is most passionate about the world’s oceans and how students interact with their local aquatic environments to stimulate intellectual engagement for a deeper understanding of science content as well as the power of their decisions and actions to promote an active citizenry. She most recently was a chemistry and environmental science high school teacher in Memphis, Tennessee, and now lives in Mississippi.

Kay Goldman’s book, “Dressing Modern Maternity: The Frankfurt Sisters of Dallas and the Page Boy Label (Texas Tech University Press, 2013) relates the story of three Texas Jewish women who manufactured maternity dresses in Dallas during the Great Depression and continued their business through the early 1990s. In 2012, Goldman’s manuscript, based on her dissertation, won the Lou Halsell Rodenberger Prize in Texas History and Literature. Recently retired, Goldman is researching Texas Jewish history for her project, tentatively titled, “Intersecting Lives: Jews and Their Gentile Neighbors in Texas and Beyond, 1840 to 1900.”

Based in Provence, France, David Marks was most recently a psychology professor at City University in London, and between 2000 and 2010, served as a professor of psychology at Middlesex University.

Gail Spilsbury, a Boston-based writer and editor, has published four books—two cultural landscape histories about Washington, D.C., and two works of fiction. She also recently launched a fiction podcast, which airs on Boston radio station WBZA. Currently freelancing after a long and satisfying editorial career in museum and cultural publications, Spilsbury edits the weekly concert notes for the National Gallery of Art and serves as editor for Rizzoli and private authors.

Following a career in technical writing and publishing in the computer industry, Geri Walton returned to history, her first scholarly passion. She published her book, “Marie Antoinette's Confidante: The Rise and Fall of the Princesse de Lamballe” (Pen and Sword Books) in 2016, and is completing two books proposals.

Based in Australia, Ian Willis, Ph.D. and Honorary Fellow of the University of Wollongong since 2010, focuses on three areas of research: the history and impact of urban growth on Sydney’s rural-urban fringe; the Red Cross in New South Wales 1914-1945; and the history of the interaction between Europeans and indigenous Australians across the Cowpastures and Southern Cumberland Plain, 1788–1840. Willis also is editor of the Journal of the Camden Historical Society.