Faculty Civic and Community Engagement

We are pleased to introduce Assistant Professor Naila Ansari of the dance program in the theater department. Naila’s research, The Movement of Joy is an ongoing performance archive collecting and sharing testimonies of joy through movement, music, oral interviews, art, and film. Most recently, Naila along with the Movement of Joy artist collective teamed up with the AARP Community Challenge, Grassroots Gardens WNY, and LISC to create a virtual performance for the Community Candlelight Vigil. The collective also created a work for Salve Regina University in Rhode Island as well as the Swoon: Seven Contemplations for the Albright-Knox Northland gallery premiering in January 2021. The forthcoming podcast entitled "The Movement of Joy" premieres in Spring 2021, where Naila conducts interviews with people who have discovered their joy through service and political "movements" to create joy for others.

Kathy Doody, associate professor of exceptional education, and Gliset Colón, assistant professor of exceptional education, have a new chapter featured in, Early Childhood Special Education Programs and Practices, recently published by SLACK Incorporated. The book, edited by Karin Fisher and Kate Zimmer, is a new early childhood textbook that uses real-life anecdotes to illustrate evidence-based practices and procedures. Emphasizing high-leverage practices, and aligned with the standards recommended by the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division for Early Childhood, the book "prepares pre- and in-service teachers with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to deliver evidence-based instruction to promote positive academic and behavioral outcomes for young children (pre-kindergarten through second grade) with development delays and/or disabilities."

Dance at SUNY Buffalo State College delivers a liberal arts education and embraces a civic and community engagement philosophy in all aspects of the program. In addition to rigorous studio training that enhances the physical experience of the art form, the diverse curriculum is designed to deepen students’ understanding of the cultural, historical, and aesthetic value of dance, while addressing local and global societal needs through numerous service-learning, artistic, and outreach projects. The COVID-19 pandemic is tremendously affecting artists, yet it is the arts that brings joy to people’s lives during unsettling times. Now more than ever we need to educate the broader public on the impact of dance on our lives.

Jevon Hunter, Woods-Beals Endowed Chair of Urban Education, and Gliset Colón, assistant professor in exceptional education, were awarded the 2021 English Journal Edwin M. Hopkins Award from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). The Edwin M. Hopkins Award is a prestigious award that recognizes the most outstanding article written by non-classroom teachers during the previous year's volume. Their article, “#TeenPoetsMatter: Writing Critical Micropoems as Urban Social Critiques,” was selected from other featured articles published during the volume year 2020-2021. In the article, Hunter and Colón argue for a novel approach to poetry writing, something they refer to as critical micropoetry, that centers the lived experiences of youth by using the local area, in this case 716, as a structure for youth to articulate problems they face as well as their solutions. "While we are truly pleased to have been selected for this award," said Hunter, "we are more than thrilled and humbled to know that our work honors local youth as they live, learn, and love in the city of Buffalo."

The Scholarship of Engagement recognizes a faculty member’s academically relevant work that simultaneously meets campus mission and goals as well as community priorities in a collaborative process to contribute to the public good. This month I am pleased to introduce Dr. Dae-Young Kim and Dr. S. Marlon Gayadeen, Associate Professors of Criminal Justice specializing in corrections and race and crime, respectively. Their recent community-engaged research examined the needs of prisoners returning to the community, discussed the challenges faced by reentry practitioners in offering support and assistance to ex-prisoners in the community, and provided specific suggestions. Their study was conducted with a local reentry program and will advance an understanding of the prisoner reentry process in Buffalo.

Buffalo State faculty Dan MacIsaac, David Abbott and Arjun Pathak of Physics, Chris Shively of Elementary Education, Literacy and Education Leadership, Joe Zawicki of Earth Sciences and Science Education along with Keisha Brandy of the Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural Education and Jennifer Serniuk and Maureen McCarthy of the Community Academic Center have been working collaboratively to provide STEM Outreach to under-resourced multilingual family elementary and middle school children. Programming started with live in-person science activities at PS45 and was moved online when the schools closed due to the pandemic. Technology and support were provided by both the College and Buffalo Public Schools, currently led by Serniuk and McCarthy.

One online program week was led by MacIsaac and focused on the topic of Space Physics and Observational Astronomy. The result was the creation of a set of three publicly available YouTube activity videos suitable for most late elementary and middle school students. The videos include two craft activities with downloadable and printable paper templates and complete tutorials for constructing and using a Planisphere (Star finder) and Sun Clocks (pocket sundials) from file folders, paper, and glue. A third shorter video guides construction and launch of simple film canister Pop Rockets propelled by “Alka Selzer” tablets and water.
The videos can be found at https://tinyurl.com/CAC-STEM1. Currently, efforts are underway to produce STEM-themed Reading Theater activities led by Shively. Shively and his community-engaged learning students taught units, including send codes by light that are inspired by the Navajo code talkers. External funding proposals have been generated from these activities, and manuscripts are in preparation describing them. We are all looking forward to resuming live, in-person Fun Physics Fridays at PS45 in the Fall of 2021.

Since 2015, Germany has officially registered over 1.3 million refugees, many fleeing the Syrian civil war during the most recent European migrant crisis. The majority reaction of 82 million German citizens and their government to the crisis led to the welcoming culture (Willkommenskultur)—the development of multiple government, non-government organization (NGO), and private programs of accommodation, resettlement, German language training, and more general education, acculturation, and inclusion into German society for many of these refugees. With government and private funding for supplies, training, and administration, the German Physical Society (Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft or DPG) under the guidance of Professor Dr. Arnulf Quadt of Georg-August-Universität Göttingen established a program in which volunteers provide physics educational experiences to these refugee children and possible future German citizens called Physics for Refugees (Physik für Flüchtlinge or PfF).

We are pleased to introduce Assistant Professor Marko Miletich of the Modern and Classical Languages Department. Marko’s research, Bilateral Service: An Analysis of a Direct Service-Learning Project for Healthcare Interpreting Students, discusses a service-learning project with undergraduate students in a Spanish-English Interpreting in Medical Settings course taught at the University of Texas at Arlington during the Fall 2015 semester. The study included the analysis of qualitative data using multiple methods of data collection (written questionnaires, reflections, and an oral interview). The analysis reveals themes that emerged during the pre-service questionnaires and compares them to themes in the post-service questionnaires. It also examines the balance between service and learning during the project. In addition, the article examines what students learned through the experience that was not covered during class lectures and discussions.

Community-engaged research is a collaborative process between the researcher and community partner. Participation is beneficial to all stakeholders, and utilizes and incorporates campus and community assets in the design and conduct of the research. This month I am pleased to spotlight Dr. Pixita Del Prado Hill and Dr. Keli Garas-York, Professors in the Department of Elementary Education, Literacy, and Educational Leadership and Co-Directors of Professional Development Schools at SUNY Buffalo State. The Impact of PDS Partnerships in Challenging Times, published in 2020 by Information Age Publishing was edited by PDS Co-directors, del Prado Hill and Garas-York. The 22 chapters are written by SUNY Buffalo State faculty and other PDS stakeholders including school partners and teacher candidates. The editors and chapter authors discussed the book on Friday February 26 in a synchronous virtual session. The session was recorded for asynchronous viewing. To view the recorded format, please visit: https://pds.buffalostate.edu/professional-development-recordings

Alice Marie Villaseñor, Associate Director of Civic and Community Engagement provided a review of The Word on the Street: Linking the Academy and the Common Reader, by Harvey Teres which was included in the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning in Fall 2011.

Often faculty teach a course that supports and mirrors their specific research interests. When the course has a service-learning component that supports community-engaged scholarship, then students can act as research assistants. Such was the case when a donated painting, a pandemic that shut down local archives, and several graduate students intent on continuing their studies came together for a very interesting semester. As Museum Studies lecturer and assistant editor at Western New York Heritage, Noelle Wiedemer wore two hats as she acted as both academic researcher and community partner for the Fall 2020 Exhibit Design & Interpretation class. A painting of the bustling activity of a once prosperous railroad car wheel business at the foot of Forest Avenue became the inspiration for the virtual exhibit created in collaboration with Western New York Heritage.

The students flexed their research muscles as they combed through archives, both digital and in-person. With a widely diverse background in fine arts, museum studies, sociology and anthropology, archaeology, history and animal behavior/ecology and conservation, they brought their talents and expertise to the forefront and built a narrative for a virtual exhibit titled “Art & Iron” showcased on Western New York Heritage’s website. Attempting to research and design an exhibit during the pandemic proved to be a fantastic opportunity for both Professor Wiedemer and her students to flex their virtual skills. After encountering the difficulties of conducting research during the time of COVID, when much of the research was limited to what could be discovered online, they came to realize just how many archival records have not yet been digitized.

The narrated, slideshow-style virtual exhibit is presented in three parts for easy viewing in installments. It focuses on the New York Car Wheel Works—Buffalo’s largest rail car wheel manufacturer—as well as art by The Matthews-Northrup Company, another Buffalo business best known for map making.