Following is a sampling, by topic, of Clark University faculty and administrators – leading experts in their fields—who serve as experienced and articulate resources on timely topics for journalists in several media.
To connect with these and other expert sources at Clark, contact the Office of Media Relations, at 1-508-793-7554; 1-508-365-8736. We also will help locate relevant student and administrative sources. A complete faculty directory is also available.
Politics — elections, reform, POTUS, SCOTUS
Valerie Sperling, author of Sex, Politics, & Putin: Political Legitimacy in Russia — Globalization and accountability, social movements, gender politics, patriotism and militarism, and state-building in the post-communist region. Recent coverage: Why Putin — and Some of his Female Fans — Go Shirtless (Huffington Post)
Political scientist Robert Boatright — American political behavior, political parties, campaigns and elections, interest groups, political participation, and political theory. Editor: “The Deregulatory Moment? A Comparative Perspective on Changing Campaign Finance Laws” (University of Michigan Press) and author of “Interest Groups and Campaign Finance Reform in the United States and Canada” (University of Michigan Press). Recent: Brookings Institute panel/Midterm Elections
Michael J. Butler, associate professor of political science — Expertise in security studies and policy (national, international, and human security). Recent activity: Presented “New Decade, New Dilemmas? The National Security Implications of COVID-19” at the Worcester World Affairs Council, March 10, 2020. Author of “Securitization Revisited: Contemporary Applications and Insights” (Routledge 2019) featured on the ClarkNow.
Political scientist Heather Silber Mohamed – Latino politics, immigrant socialization and participation, immigration policy, and identity politics in the U.S., with a focus on the influence of race, class, and gender. Recent coverage: Latinos seen as ‘sleeping giants’ in 2016 race (Providence Journal)
COVID-19
Biology
Nathan Ahlgren, professor of biology (microbial ecologist) expertise in viruses, created COVID-19 data plots for Worcester, Mass. Featured in “Nathan Ahlgren creates tangible impact in fight against COVID-19; Biology professor 3D-prints face shields for health care workers” (ClarkNow), Professor Nathan Ahlgren makes face shields.
Economy
John C. Brown, professor of economics
Education, learning loss, summer slide
Holly Dolan, Professor of Practice, Adam Institute for Urban Education and School Practice. Quoted in “Shutdown could have lasting effects on schools, students, say experts” (Worcester Telegram & Gazette)
Feminist writer
Cynthia Enloe, research professor in the Sustainability and Social Justice (formerly IDCE) Department and affiliate faculty in the Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies departments. Author of “COVID-19: ‘Waging War’ Against a Virus is NOT What We Need to Be Doing” and “COVID-19: Turning Swords into Ventilators? Or is it Ventilators into Swords?” (Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom)
Film, movies (future of)
Soren Sorensen, lecturer in screen studies in the Visual and Performing Arts Department
Generations (Emerging Adults, Established Adults, Reimagining Adulthood)
Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, senior research scholar. Quoted in “Coronavirus is causing people to miss once-in-a-lifetime moments” (Yahoo! Finance) and “Young people told to stay at home amid coronavirus, but where is home?” (The Washington Post).
Management, remote work
Laura Graves, professor of management, Clark’s School of Management. Quoted in “Working from home – strategies for success” (Worcester Business Journal) and “4 keys to mastering remote work” (Ragan.com)
Men’s mental health (depression and anxiety), men’s help-seeking
Michael Addis, professor of psychology, director of the Men’s Well-Being Research Group. Author of “Invisible Men: Men’s Inner Lives and the Consequences of Silence.” Quoted in “Anxiety looks different in men” (Wall Street Journal), interviewed for “Understanding How Anxiety Might Be Different For Men” On Point (WBUR).
Mental health (general, children), telehealth
Nadia Ward, M.Ed, Ph.D., director of the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise
Parenting
Wendy Grolnick, professor of psychology, parenting during a pandemic, motivational development in children and adolescents. Author, “Pressured Parents, Stressed-out Kids: Dealing With Competition While Raising a Successful Child” – Recent coverage: “5 ways for parents to motivate their kids and avoid tantrums at home during the coronavirus, according to a parenting expert” (Yahoo! News)
Psychology (developmental)
Nancy Budwig, professor, Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology. Expertise in developmental and learning sciences, liberal education, engaged learning in the age of online delivery. – Recent coverage “Colleges Strive to Meet Demand for a More Hands-On Education” (Chronicle of Higher Education) and “Why Incentives for Innovation Don’t Work” (In a Special Report, “2018 Innovators: 6 Programs to Change Classroom Culture,” Chronicle of Higher Education).
Ana Marcelo, assistant professor, Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology. Quoted in “‘Are the germs gone?’ How to talk to young children about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic” (Sun Chronicle, Attleboro, Mass.)
Zoom, job interviews over videoconference
Gino DiIorio, professor of theatre
Syria, Middle East — war, policy, history, refugees
Ora Szekely – Non-state military actors, the politics of the Middle East, mass violence and civilian protection, new media, propaganda, and political mobilization. Recent coverage: What’s next for the Syrian regime’s non-state allies? (Washington Post)
Douglas Little – American diplomatic history, U.S. relations with the Middle East, U.S. response to radical Islam between the 1967 Six Day War and the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Recent Coverage: Empire – Syria and the US: The complicity of silence (Al Jazeera English)
Anita Häusermann Fábos — Refugees and forced migrants, especially refugees in urban areas in the Middle East and Africa; population displacement and mobility; gender, diaspora, and citizenship; anthropology of ethnicity and race; transnational Islam; Arab League states’ immigration and naturalisation policies; music and migration; Muslim Arab Sudanese diaspora. Recent coverage: How to Build a Perfect Refugee Camp (New York Times)
Wildfires, drought
Christopher Williams — Drought, terrestrial ecosystem ecology, ecosystem-climate interactions, global environmental change; energy-water-carbon exchanges. Recent coverage: Hundred-Year Forecast: Drought (New York Times); Mega-Droughts In Our Future (NPR On Point)
Dominik Kulakowski — Bark beetle outbreaks, disturbance ecology, landscape change, mountain forest ecosystems. Recent coverage: Powerhouse wildfire north of L.A. heralds a much longer fire season(Christian Science Monitor)
John Rogan — Geographer specializing in landscape ecology, fire ecology, optical remote sensing and GIScience. Recent coverage: Trees under multiple threats Worcester Telegram (Opinion)
Latin American politics
Paul Posner, associate professor and director of Latin American and Latinx Studies. Expertise in labor politics, the politics of social welfare resource distribution, the New Left and populism in Latin America, with specific focus on Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Current research focuses on democratization and political participation in Latin America. He teaches courses on Latin-American politics, U.S.-Latin American relations, comparative environmental politics, and democratic theory. Recent coverage: Chile’s political crisis is another brutal legacy of long-dead dictator Pinochet
International security, power politics, European Union/Brexit, North Korea
Michael Butler, associate professor. Expertise in international security (not only traditional ‘guns and bombs’ and power politics), negotiation and mediation (conflict management and resolution in general), humanitarian crisis, terrorism, climate change, foreign policy (U.S. and European) and European affairs, North Korea. Recent coverage: Trump’s North Korea policy shakes up South Korea’s ideological politics
Emerging adulthood, “boomerang children,” millennials and career
Jeffrey Arnett, developer of the theory of emerging adulthood (on development from age 18–29) — Media uses in adolescence; responses to cigarette advertising. Author: “Getting to 30: A Parent’s Guide to the Twentysomething Years” (Workman Publishing 2014); “When Will My Grown-Up Kid Grow Up?” (May 2013). Director, Clark University Poll of Emerging Adults. Recent coverage: It’s Official: The Boomerang Kids Won’t Leave (New York Times); Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation (Time Magazine); What Is It About 20-Somethings? (New York Times); When do you become a grown-up? (The Today Show)
Climate Change/Land Use/Energy Technologies/GIS
J. Ronald Eastman – Geographic information systems, remote sensing, and cartography; director, Clark Labs; Earth Modeling blog. Recent coverage: Charting the Earth’s health (Boston Globe)
Karen Frey – Permafrost thaw on river biogeochemistry; impacts of sea ice variability; co-PI of The Polaris Project, and NASA ICESCAPE mission. Recent coverage: NOVA: On Thin Ice in the Bering Sea (WGBH TV)
William S. Lynn — Research scientist focusing on ethics and public policy, with an emphasis on environmental discourse, human-animal relations, and participatory governance. Recent coverage: Australia’s war on feral cats: shaky science, missing ethics (The Conversation); Examining the Ethical Implications of Killing Barred Owls (Oregon Public Broadcasting); An ethical dilemma: Is it OK to kill one species to save another? (Yakima Herald)
Holocaust and Genocide
Thomas Kühne — Holocaust history; the relation of war, genocide, and society with long-term traditions of political culture of Central Europe; the problem of locating the Holocaust and Nazi Germany in the social and cultural history of the 20th century. Director, Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Author of “Belonging and Genocide: Hitler’s Community 1918-1945” (Yale University Press)
Parenting
Abbie Goldberg – Gay/lesbian parenting; adoption; the transition to parenthood; work-family issues; family diversity; gender. Author: “Lesbian and gay parents and their children: Research on the family life cycle.” Recent coverage: Beyond Dolls vs. Trucks: How Children of Same-Sex Parents May Be Less Constrained By Gender Stereotypes, and Why It Matters (Huffington Post); The Way We Live Now – What Gay Parenting Teaches Us All (New York Times Magazine)
Wendy Grolnick — Motivational development in children and adolescents. Author: “Pressured Parents, Stressed-out Kids: Dealing With Competition While Raising a Successful Child” – Recent coverage: To parents, youth sports an ‘athletic arms race’ (Huffington Post), Coddling, Competition and the Common Core (Huffington Post)
Relationships
James Córdova — Director, Center for Couples and Family Research. Author: “The Marriage Checkup: A Scientific Program for Sustaining and Strengthening Marital Health” and “The Marriage Checkup Practitioner’s Guide: Promoting Lifelong Relationship Health.”- Recent coverage: CNN Newsroom with Fredricka Whitfield, “A Performance Review May Be Good for Your Marriage” (Wall Street Journal)
Deborah Merrill – research focuses on relationships between parents and adult children in later life as well as marriage, expertise on mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relations, caregiving. Author: “When Your Children Marry: How Marriage Changes Relationships with Adult Children” and “The Daughter-in-Law Rules” (Newsblaze.com). Recent coverage: Clark Professor explores parents’ relationships to gay in-laws (Worcester Telegram)
Biology
David Hibbett — Evolutionary biology/ecology of mushroom-forming fungi and relatives; uses of phylogenetic trees for studying the evolution of morphological and ecological characters. Recent coverage: ‘Death Angel’ Mushrooms Poison Mother, Son (WCVB-TV CH5 Boston)
Physics
Arshad Kudrolli — A broad range of non-equilibrium phenomena, granular materials, and biological physics. Active Matter: Recent coverage: What Holds the World Together? The Cheerios Effect (Fox News)
Charles Agosta — low-temperature experimentalist working in lower-dimensional materials in very high magnetic fields. Agosta and his students developed a pulsed magnetic field lab where experiments are performed in the highest magnetic fields available at any U.S. university. Agosta, as CEO of MachFlow Energy Inc., received a grant of $1 million from the Department of Energy. Recent coverage: Clark business gets $1M stimulus (Worcester Telegram)