Gayle Alberda
College of Arts and Sciences
Politics Department

Dr. Gayle Alberda is a political scientist with expertise in U.S. political behavior, campaigns, and elections. Her research focuses on election science at both the national and local level with a sub-specialty in pedagogical research. Her publications include peer reviewed articles in The Review of Regional Studies, PS: Political Science & Politics, Political Research Quarterly, and written chapters on election administration in edited books. She’s conducted more than 200 interviews with various media outlets, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, has given many invited talks to organizations such as The National League of Cities and the Conference of States Government West, and has provided testimony on election laws to Connecticut’s state legislature, State Elections Enforcement Commission, and the superior court. She co-founded the MPA Summit, helped bring the 2018 gubernatorial debates to campus, and established Ready to Run CT. She is serving her second year as the Master of Public Administration director, co-created and supervises the Public Administration minor, and advises student organizations.

Alfred Babo
College of Arts and Sciences
Sociology and Anthropology Department

Dr. Alfred Babo is an interdisciplinary scholar with expertise and experience in development anthropology, political science, and African studies. He has presented his work nationally and internationally and has published in numerous peer-reviewed journals in the United States, Africa, Europe, and Asia. He has written articles and essays on social change, community development, immigration, and post-conflict society which have been published in English and French. His recent and ongoing research projects and publications focus on the issue of refugee activism in Africa and the acculturation of refugee youth in the United States. He recently collaborated with academics and practitioners to launch a new initiative called Share the Platform to advocate for refugee self-representation. He is currently a member of the Scholars-at-Risk (SAR) board to help exiled professors and researchers.

Niall Brennan
College of Arts and Sciences
Communication Department

Dr. Niall Brennan is a media scholar whose work generally focuses on constructs of identity in the media, specifically on representations of gender, sexuality, and LGBTQ+ identity and politics and visibility in the media including in Latin America and Brazil. Niall co-edited RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Shifting Visibility of Drag Culture (Palgrave, 2017), and the forthcoming Drag in a Global Digital Public Sphere (Routledge, 2022). Niall’s research also appears in the journal Consumption Markets & Culture (2021); the International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication (Wiley, 2020); the anthology Gender and Contemporary Horror in Film (Emerald, 2019); the forthcoming TV Transformations and Female Transgression (Peter Lang, 2022), and the forthcoming Oxford Encyclopedia of Queer Studies and Communication (OUP, 2022). Niall teaches media literacy, popular culture, gender and sexuality, consumer culture, visual culture, and capstone and grad courses. Niall is a committee member of the BLPS, WGSS, and LACS programs, and is out-going chair of the Admission and Scholarships faculty handbook committee.

Sara Diaz
College of Arts and Sciences
Modern Languages and Literatures Department

Dr. Díaz is an Italianist whose research centers on comedy, authorship, and gender in Italian literature. Her areas of expertise cover a period spanning the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, beginning with Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, and extending through to the Baroque author and performer, Margherita Costa. In addition to publishing a number of peer-reviewed articles on each, Dr. Díaz also co-edited and translated Costa’s 1641 farce, The Buffoons, for “The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe Series.” Her most recent article on disability and the grotesque just appeared in the latest volume of Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, and she is at present completing a critical edition and translation of Costa’s 1639 Love Letters for the “Other Voice” series.

Annemarie Iddins
College of Arts and Sciences
Communication Department

Dr. Annemarie Iddins is a critical media scholar working at the intersection of global media and media industries. Her research focuses on the relationship between independent media and shifting cultural geographies associated with globalization and digital culture. She has published articles on innovation in transnational media industries, media and authoritarian governance, and independent media’s interventions in cultural politics in Morocco. Dr. Iddins is currently working on a book project analyzing innovations in Moroccan independent media and their implications for media-state relations from economic liberalization through the post-Arab Spring moment. During her time at Fairfield she has developed courses on topics including global mediated activism, media infrastructures, and digital debates about freedom of expression.

Jessica Karanian
College of Arts and Sciences
Psychology Department

Dr. Jessica Karanian is a cognitive neuroscientist with expertise in human memory and perception. She has published her research in a broad range of academic journals, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Cortex, and Cognitive Neuroscience. She has also served as the co-editor of a Special Issue at Brain and Cognition. In 2021, Dr. Karanian was named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science in recognition of her “innovative work that has already advanced the field, signaling great potential for continued contribution.” On campus, Dr. Karanian regularly mentors students on research projects in her lab. She also serves as the faculty advisor to the Psychology Club and on a number of committees, including the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee.

Michael Puleo
Dolan School of Business
Finance Department

Dr. Michael Puleo is a financial economist specializing in empirical corporate finance and corporate governance.  His research focuses on ownership structures and managerial incentives in public firms, with an expertise in executive hedging strategies. His work is published in many leading academic finance journals and quoted in Bloomberg News and other global financial press outlets.  Michael continually strives for innovative excellence in the classroom as well, consummately integrating new learning technologies into his graduate and undergraduate coursework. Complementing this effort, Dr. Puleo founded the Fairfield University FinTech (Financial Technology) Club and serves as its faculty advisor.

Nazuk Sharma
Dolan School of Business
Marketing Department

Dr. Nazuk Sharma is an artistic researcher, specializing in examining the use and effectiveness of stylistic elements like shadows, reflections, and white space in consumer advertising contexts. Her scholarly research has been published in leading peer-reviewed marketing and advertising journals including Journal of Advertising, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Journal of Consumer Marketing, and Journal of Consumer Behaviour. She has presented her work at premier marketing conferences like the American Marketing Association (AMA), Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP), and Academy of Marketing Science (AMS). She also serves as a reviewer on the editorial board for Journal of Consumer Marketing. She teaches digital marketing to Fairfield students, with a strong focus on application using simulation to enhance student learning.

Jaclyn Conelius
The Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies
Nursing Department

Dr. Jaclyn Conelius is the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) program director and an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) who maintains a current practice. Her interprofessional clinical experience includes greater than twenty years in cardiology and primary care. Her primary research centers on advanced directives, heart failure, cardiac device therapy, and inter-professional nurse practitioner (NP) education. Her continued commitment to advancing clinical practice through innovation has inspired her to develop an extensive simulation training program. This pioneering work in teaching via simulation pedagogy led to being tapped to chair the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculty's (NONPF) inaugural Simulation Committee. Under her leadership, this committee has developed extensive training series, the first simulation portal; and issued the first-ever set of national guidelines for simulation-based NP education. She has published multiple articles and book chapters and a population health book. Her work is nationally and internationally recognized as she is a fellow of the international Heart Rhythm Society (FHRS), a fellow of the interprofessional National Academy of Practice (FNAP) and recently a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the most prestigious nursing honor.

Shannon Gerry
College of Arts and Sciences
Biology Department

Dr. Shannon Gerry is a comparative biomechanist who studies the swimming and feeding behaviors and muscle physiology of fishes. Her current work focuses on the effects of temperature change on fishes from Long Island Sound. She teaches courses in Human Physiology, Comparative Anatomy, and Marine Science. Dr. Gerry serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Zoology and is a regular reviewer for the National Science Foundation. She is the Chair of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee for Fairfield University.

Diana Mager
The Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies
Nursing Department

Diana Mager, a Class of 1988 Fairfield University alumna, is a Board-Certified Home Health Nurse through the American Nurse Credentialing Center, and has cared for patients across the life span, focusing her practice, research, and teaching on people receiving home care, hospice, and palliative services in the community. She continues to practice as a home health per diem nurse and consultant and is especially interested in medication use, mis-use and errors, as well as end of life care, authoring numerous related peer reviewed manuscripts, global webinars, a nationally available study guide to accompany the palliative care film “Defining Hope” with over 60,000 downloads, and a co-authored/co-edited textbook, Population Health for Nurses. Her certificate as a Train-the-Trainer from the national End-of-Life-Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC)© has enabled her to roll out ELNEC© curriculum and other educational programs to hundreds of nurses since 2018. Diana participates on numerous local and statewide committees, task forces. and boards to improve outcomes for patients living in their homes, and to build and enhance the home health nursing workforce. 

Marice Rose
College of Arts and Sciences
Visual and Performing Arts Department

Dr. Marice Rose, a Class of 1992 alumna of Fairfield, is an art historian with expertise in art of the late Roman empire and its intersections with gender and social status. She has also published on the topics of ancient hairstyling, art history pedagogy, and contemporary receptions of ancient Greek and Roman art such as in casinos and by bodybuilders. With colleague Katherine Schwab she co-curated the exhibition Hair in the Classical World at the Fairfield University Art Museum. In 2020 she was awarded the College of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Teaching. She serves on the national College Art Association’s Education Committee. Dr. Rose is currently Chair of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts.

Joyce M. Shea
The Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies
Nursing Department

Dr. Joyce Shea is a board-certified advanced practice psychiatric nurse (APRN) specializing in integrated behavioral and physical health care. She has presented her work both nationally and internationally and has published in many peer-reviewed journals including: Applied Nursing Research, Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship, and Clinical Simulation in Nursing. Having served for five years as secretary on the Board of Directors for the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, she recently co-chaired the national task force for revising the scope and standards of Psychiatric Nursing Practice. Dr. Shea has received more than $6 million in HRSA funding, and is currently PI for a grant focusing on telehealth care and inter-professional practice. At Fairfield, she has served as past undergraduate program director and current associate dean for graduate studies.

John Slotemaker
College of Arts and Sciences
Religious Studies Department

Dr. John Slotemaker is a medievalist who specializes in the development of Christian thought between 1100 and 1550. He has published several monographs on medieval philosophical theology, with a particular focus on Christian Trinitarian thought. He is also a Latin paleographer who works on fourteenth and fifteenth century medieval manuscripts, including the critical edition of Peter Gracilis's Lectura super Sententiarum as found in a single early fifteenth century manuscript housed in the British Library. Dr. Slotemaker has organized international conferences and colloquia, and has lectured widely in Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and the United States. He served as department chair of Religious Studies from 2017–2020.

Janet Striuli
College of Arts and Sciences
Mathematics Department

Dr. Striuli is a mathematician with interests in commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, and homological algebra. Her publications appear in several peer reviewed journals, including Advances in Mathematics which publishes research representing significant advances in all the field of pure mathematics. She has co-edited two volumes of research articles, one of which showcases research by women in Commutative Algebra. She is an editor for the new mathematical journal La Matematica, the official journal of the Association for Women in Mathematics. She has presented at several national and international conferences and organized workshops and conferences in her field. Dr. Striuli  served as program officer at the National Science Foundation in the division of the Mathematical Sciences supporting the funding of a diverse portfolio of projects. Dr. Striuli has worked with students at all levels to increase their access to mathematical inquiry and research.

Jiwei Xiao
College of Arts and Sciences
Modern Languages and Literatures Department

Jiwei Xiao is a literature and film scholar with expertise in Chinese fiction and cinema studies. Her publications have appeared in New Left Review, New York Review of Books, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Film Quarterly, and Cineaste, among others. A PhD in comparative literature, she is always interested in interdisciplinary research subjects and methods. Her reading of the Chinese “fiction of details” in her first book, Telling Details: Chinese Fiction, World Literature, was inspired and informed by studies of film and visual culture. She is currently working on a  project about Asian cinema as world cinema.