Dear Faculty, Staff, Students, and Friends of CSSH:
Over the past six months, it has been a privilege to meet many of the staff and faculty and to discover all the programs and initiatives led by members of CSSH. I have also been impressed by the many ways CSSH has kept our community engaged over the summer.
A Look Back at Summer
The Ethics Institute hosted a number of summer residential programs, including IDEAS, NEWLAMP, PIKSI-Logic, and the Summer Training Program to Expand the AI and Data Ethics Research Community. These programs allowed students to deepen their knowledge of ethics, science, philosophy, law, and AI. The programs aim to help the next generation learn how to think critically and systematically about the ethical risks posed by technology and how to develop technology responsibly and in ways that are beneficial.
Meanwhile, this year’s Summer Bridge Scholars Program saw Professor Régine Jean-Charles lead an introduction to Africana Studies. Throughout the class, Professor Jean-Charles had students listen to music and read poetry by Black artists and held discussions about intersectionality, feminism, and the #MeToo movement. She also asked them to reflect on their own experiences and develop connections between themselves and the material.
CSSH’s new Sustainability Committee continued to meet over the summer and has drafted detailed recommendations on how to embed sustainability into our operational practices and curriculum.
Faculty Accomplishments and Media Appearances
Now that the fall semester has started, I want to celebrate the many accomplishments of CSSH faculty. In June, Sheila F. Winborne, Teaching Professor of Religion, was recognized with the Katie Geneva Cannon Excellence in Teaching Award from the American Academy of Religion. The university honored Moira Zellner, Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, with the Heart of CommUNITY Award. Natasha Frost, Associate Dean of Research and Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, has been elected to serve as President of the American Society of Criminology (ASC) in 2025-2026. Kabria Baumgartner, Dean’s Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies, received the Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History. Madhavi Venkatesan, Associate Teaching Professor of Economics, received the EconEd Instructor Innovation Award from Macmillan Learning.
Additionally, Kabria Baumgartner received recognition for an archeological dig that led to the discovery of the home of King Pompey, a former African American slave in the 18th century. Silvia Prina, Professor of Economics, led a study examining how racial bias and political rhetoric against Asians and other underrepresented groups in the United States impacted their employment status in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and found that all underrepresented groups–though, most notably Asians–performed poorly in the post-pandemic job market compared to white employees. Finally, Kris Manjapra’s book, Black Ghost of Empire, is being developed into a documentary by Ibram X. Kendi’s production company Maroon Visions.
As the 2024 presidential election draws closer, we’ve seen many of our faculty lend their expert opinions to media outlets of all sorts. Costas Panagopoulos, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, spoke with Newsweek about why attacks against Tim Walz, the Democratic candidate for vice president, don’t appear to be working. Nicholas Beauchamp, Associate Professor of Political Science, talked with Tallahassee Democrat about Project 2025’s seemingly being tested on Floridians. Katherine Haenschen, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Communications, David Lazer, University Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Computer Sciences, and Martha Johnson, Associate Professor of Government at Mills College, spoke with Northeastern Global News about how television and different forms of social media alter voter perception of political candidates. Finally, James Alan Fox, Lipman Professor of Criminology, Law, and Public Policy, spoke with The Boston Globe about how the assassination attempt on Donald Trump will likely lead to tighter security screenings at political events.
Beyond politics, Ramiro Martinez, Professor of Sociology and Criminology and Criminal Justice, and Jacob Stowell, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, were featured in a Northeastern Global News article, “How these Northeastern researchers are rewriting the immigration-crime narrative,” which discusses how their research disproves assertions that immigration has caused a rise in crime in American communities, and rather shows that immigrants have positive effects on communities. Damon Hall, Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Public Policy, and David Sittenfeld ’26, Law and Public Policy PhD, were also featured in a Northeastern Global News article, “Can we make ‘citizen science’ better?,” about their efforts to create a model of community science that is beneficial to the communities where it takes place.
Faculty and Staff Welcomes and Milestones
Heading into the new academic year, I’m incredibly excited to welcome our new faculty members to CSSH. Katheryn Russell-Brown is joining CSSH as an Elmer V.H. and Eileen M. Brooks Trustee Professor of Crime, Law, and Justice and Director of Crime, Law and Justice Initiatives in January 2025. Lauren MacLean will be starting her new position as a Professor and Chair of Political Science in January 2025. And Tiffany Nichols has joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor of History and Civil and Environmental Engineering. These are just a few of the talented and impressive faculty we’ve added to CSSH this year. I invite you to learn about all our new faculty and the new staff members who have joined the team to support academic and administrative operations and help make CSSH an incredible place to work and study.
I am also thrilled to celebrate members of our community who have reached milestones in their academic careers at CSSH this year. The longevity of so many of our faculty and staff speaks volumes to the strength of our community, and their achievements and contributions to the college are truly remarkable. (Note that the university measures these milestones based on continuous years of employment.)
10 years (hired in 2014)
- Linda Cook, Administrative Assistant, School of Criminology & Criminal Justice
- Bilge Erten, Associate Professor of Economics and International Affairs
- Jacquaetta Hester, Administrative Officer, History
- Martin Konan, Part-time Lecturer of Economics
- Alicia Sasser Modestino, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Economics; Research Director, Dukakis Center
- Daniel T. O’Brien, Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Criminology and Criminal Justice; Director, Boston Area Research Initiative; Director, PhD in Public Policy Program
- Michael P. Stone, Interim Chair and Teaching Professor of Economics
- Rebecca Westerling, Senior Co-op Coordinator: Economics (BA, BS), International Affairs (BA), Urban Informatics (MS), Urban Planning and Policy (MS)
15 years (hired in 2009)
- Linda Blum, Professor of Sociology
- Kevin Drakulich, Associate Director and Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Director of Race and Justice Lab
- David Lazer, University Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Computer Sciences
- Emily Mann, Teaching Professor of Human Services; Senior Research Associate, Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy
- Boris Rasting-Sera, Program Manager, World Language Center
- Berna Turam, Professor of Sociology and International Affairs
- Liza Weinstein, Department Chair; Associate Professor of Sociology
- Brandon Welsh, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Co-Director, Crime Prevention Lab
- Gregory Zimmerman, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Director of Big Data and Quantitative Methods Initiatives
20 years (hired in 2004)
- Tina Di Blasi, Finance and Administration Manager, School of Criminology & Criminal Justice
- M. Whitney Kelting, Associate Professor of Religious Studies
- Ilham Khuri-Makdisi, Associate Professor of History
An Eventful Fall
Since the return to campus following the peak of the pandemic, CSSH’s schools, departments, and programs have shown renewed enthusiasm for events, discussions, and opportunities for connection and collaboration across our global campuses.This remains true for the coming semester, with a roster of exciting events to engage our students, faculty, and community.
The Latinx, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies (LLACS) program will host a book talk series centering LLACS faculty and their recent publications. The series will launch on September 24 with a book reading from Professor Daniel Noemi Voionmaa, a cultural critic, chronicler, and scholar of Latin American literature and culture, on his new book Surveillance, the Cold War, and Latin America.
The Political Science Department and School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs will hold their Fall 2024 Resilience and Security Speaker Series from September through December, which will cover topics including health care, environment, urban resilience, natural disasters, and much more.
The ASL-IE Program will host a Visibility Day to raise awareness for American Sign Language on September 26. Visibility Day will provide an opportunity for current and incoming students to learn about the program and its mission–to prepare students to interact supportively with members of the American Deaf Community.
CSSH will be co-hosting the new Arts, Humanities, and Tech Weeks (AHTWeeks) across Northeastern’s Boston, Oakland, and London campuses, from September 19 through October 30. AHTWeeks will feature an exciting series of events, including conversations, hands-on activities, performances, exhibitions, and installations. AHTWeeks celebrates the power of the arts and humanities, and their interfaces with technologies, and draws connections across Northeastern’s diverse colleges, campuses, and cityscapes.
The Global Asian Studies Program will be hosting its Rethinking Korea Lecture Series, which invites an interdisciplinary roster of scholars to offer novel perspectives on Korea while situating its complex place within global developments. The first session of the series on October 3 will feature Dr. Chris Suh, an Associate Professor of History and an affiliated faculty member in the East Asian Studies Program at Emory University, who will present his inaugural lecture on “Confronting the Empire’s Allure: How Anti-Colonial Movements in Korea Shaped Anti-Asian Movements in the United States.”
Looking Ahead
I have high hopes for CSSH in the forthcoming semester and beyond. The College is already known for offering a world-class education with experiential and cross-disciplinary learning opportunities for highly motivated students from around the world, and I am committed to ensuring that CSSH is recognized and valued for cultivating digital age competencies that include creativity, curiosity, empathy, and resilience.
Meanwhile, we will continue to build our reputation and impact by collaborating with Northeastern faculty across our global network–and beyond. Interdisciplinary education, impact-oriented research, and community engagement are essential pillars in our strategy for nurturing the next generation of leaders and global citizens. We will invest in our faculty and students to support the creation of knowledge and understanding that is distinctively CSSH at Northeastern.
I am also deeply committed to positioning CSSH as an incredible place to teach and work. The values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging will inform all aspects of our hiring, our teaching, our work, and our identity as a community.
Warmly,
Kellee Tsai
Dean and Distinguished Professor
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
