Cornell University Press Relations Office

Body Image| Civil Engineering | Communication and the Internet | Copyright and New Media | Diversity | Economics and Social Behavior | Education policy K-12 | Energy, renewable resources and oil | Environmental policy or regulations | Election Experts | Food and marketing | Immigration | International Economy and Labor | Law | Obesity | Self-Injury |

Please contact the Press Relations Office if you are interested in finding an expert to speak on any topic. We can be reached by phone at 607-255-6074 or by email at pressoffice@cornell.edu.

Expert Video Clips

Cornell Close-Up with Janis Whitlock (RealPlayer Video)
Director of the Cornell Research Program on Self-Injurious Behaviors discusses the disturbing phenomenon of self injury.

Cornell Close-Up with Jeffrey Hancock (RealPlayer Video)
Assistant Professor of Communication and Information Science discusses the world of digital deception

Cornell Close-Up with David Harris (RealPlayer Video)
Vice Provost of Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology discusses why it is critical
to address and attempt to close the minority achievement gap in higher education.

Cornell Close-Up with Robert Frank (RealPlayer Video)
Professor of Economics and Economic columnist for the New York Times
speaking about his interests in the economics of social behavior.

Experts

Body Image

• Joan Jacobs Brumberg, professor emerita of human development and gender studies. Brumberg is a social historian of American childhood and author of works such as The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls.
  Keywords: women's health and sexuality, body image, eating disorders, adolescent behavior, American childhood.

Civil Engineering

• Christopher J. Earls, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. In addition to his duties as an associate professor, Earls is Editor-In-Chief of the Americas for the international journal, Steel and Composite Structures.
  Keywords: steel, steel structures, civil engineering, environmental engineering.
• Anthony R. Ingraffea, professor of engineering. Ingraffea's research concentrates on computer simulation and physical testing of fracturing processes. He also serves as Director of the Cornell Fracture Group.
  Keywords: bridges, structures, civil engineering, fracturing processes.
• Thomas D. O'Rourke, professor of civil and environmental engineering. His research and professional practice covers a wide range of geotechnical engineering areas, such as foundations, slope stability, and soil/structure interaction.
  Keywords: earthquake engineering,impact of earthquakes, ground-movement effects, infrastructure.
• Harry E. Stewart, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Civil Infrastructure Laboratories. Stewart has done extensive research on the impact of earthquakes on foundations and buried conduits.
  Keywords: geotechnical engineering, foundation engineering, buried conduits, slope stability.

Copyright and New Media

• Tarleton Gillespie, assistant professor of communication. Gillespie's most recent book, Wired Shut: Copyright and the Shape of Digital Culture (MIT Press, June 2007) discusses the issues of technical copyright and the potential effect on politics, economics and culture.
  Keywords: copyright, new media, entertainment industry, campus piracy.

Communication and the Internet

• Jeffrey Hancock, assistant professor of communication. Hancock research includes examining computer-mediated social interactions. His most talked about work has focused on language-based indentification of deception online.
  Keywords: lying, digital deception, social behavior, online.

Diversity

• Maria Cristina Garcia, professor of history. Garcia is the author of numerous published works, including Seeking Refuge: Central American Immigration to Mexico, the United States, and Canada (University of California Press, 2006).
  Keywords: immigration, refugee policy, Latinos in the US, US-Cuba relations.
• David Harris, professor of sociology, vice provost for social sciences and director of the Institute for the Social Sciences. Harris's research focus addresses several diversity topics, including the social consequences of being multiracial.
  Keywords: diversity, race and ethnicity, stratification, public policy, racial classification, multiracial.
• Robert L. Harris Jr., professor of African-American history and director of graduate studies for the Africana Center. Harris is a national historian for the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity (established at Cornell, 1906) and is currently working to revise and expand its history book.
  Keywords: African-American thought, culture, historiography.

Economics and Social Behavior

• Robert Frank, professor of economics. Frank's most recent book The Economic Naturalist takes a look at the economics of social behavior - why some seemingly "odd" behaviors make perfect economic sense. He is also an economics columnist for the New York Times.
  Keywords: savings, interest, taxes, loans, debt, credit, stereotypes, armchair economist.

Education policy K-12:

• Stephen F. Hamilton, professor of human development, associate provost for outreach and director of the Family Life Development Center. Hamilton's academic focus is on adolescent development and education with an emphasis on the transition from school to career.
  Keyword: youth programs, youth work and service, mentoring, youth development, Cooperative Extension.
• John Sipple, associate professor of education. Sipple's research interests look at the responses of public school districts to changes in state and federal policy. His outreach efforts support the Rural Schools Association of New York State.
  Keywords: rural schools, education and social policy, school reform, socioeconomics and education.

Election Experts

Agriculture and agricultural issues:

• Stanley "Lee" Telega, senior extension associate in animal science. Telega's primary focus is the educational component of New York state's Agricultural Environmental Management (AEM) Initiative. See more about these programs on the PRO-DAIRY webpage.
  Keywords: agricultural industry, agriculture and the environmen, farm productivity and profitability.

Campaign tactics:

• Theodore J. Lowi, the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions. Lowi's latest book, Arenas of Power: Reflections on Politics and Policy which presents his model of policy analysis along with key applications and case studies, is due out in August 2008.
  Keywords: politics of globalization, Democratic party, policy analysis.

Demographics:

• David L. Brown, professor of development sociology, co-director of the Cornell Community and Rural Development Institute and associate director of the Cornell Population Program.. Brown's academic focus centers on social demography and community sociology. His most recent publication, Rural Retirement Migration (Springer, 2008), examines the trend of rural migration among retirees in the U.S.
  Keywords: rural migration, spacial inequality, social integration, commuting behavior.
• Warren A. Brown, senior research associate with the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center and director of the Program on Applied Demographics. Brown's work is focused on the practical application of demographic information to assist in the research, planning and support of various types of development.
  Keyword: revitalizing downtown districts, residential and workforce planning, environmental protection.
• Douglas T. Gurak, professor of development sociology. Gurak's research focuses on the process of human migration with a special interest in the immigrant population of the U.S. He is also examining aspects of women and fertility in India and Sub-Saharan Africa.
  Keywords: internal migration, ethnic integration and differentiation, U.S. Census Bureau
• Thomas A. Hirschl, professor of development sociology. Hirschl's major scholarly focus is on social class differentiation in contemporary societal development, while his outreach focuses on youth development and poverty issues.
  Keywords: social class, youth development, youth social behavior, living wage, poverty.

Diplomacy & international relations:

• Peter Katzenstein, the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies. Katzenstein's recent publications include Anti-Americanisms in World Politics, coedited with Robert O. Keohane (Cornell University Press, 2007).
  Keywords: U.S. foreign policy, anti-Americanism, religion and popular culture, regionalism in world politics.
• Jonathan Kirshner, professor of government, director of the Peace Studies Program (as of 07/08). Krishner's most recent publication, Appeasing Bankers: Financial Caution on the Road to War (Princeton University Press, 2007), examines how financial interests may influence decisions about war and peace.
  Keywords: international relations, national security, politics of money.

Diversity, ethnic and racial:

• Maria Cristina Garcia, professor of history. Garcia is the author of numerous published works, including Seeking Refuge: Central American Immigration to Mexico, the United States, and Canada (University of California Press, 2006).
  Keywords: immigration, refugee policy, Latinos in the US, US-Cuba relations.
• Robert L. Harris Jr., professor of African-American history and director of graduate studies for the Africana Center. Harris is a national historian for the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity (established at Cornell, 1906) and is currently working to revise and expand its history book.
  Keywords: African-American thought, culture, historiography.
• Michael Jones-Correa, professor of government. Jones-Correa is currently completing a book looking at the re-negotiation of ethnic relations in the aftermath of civil disturbances in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Washington D.C.
  Keywords: politics of race, immigration, Latinos, dual nationality, urban and suburban politics.
• James E. Turner, professor of Africana studies.Turner is the founder of the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell and noted political sociologist.
  Keywords: U.S.-African foreign policy, African politics, Pan Africanism, educational equity, social justice.

Economy (national):

• Harold Bierman, professor of business administration. Bierman's interests are in investment and corporate financial-policy decisions. He has consulted for many public organizations and industrial firms, including IBM, Xerox, Dow Chemical, and Exxon.
  Keywords: corporations, policy, finance.
• Francine D. Blau, the Frances Perkins Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Labor Economics. Blau has written extensively on gender issues and international comparisons of labor market outcomes.
  Keywords: affirmative action, discrimination, equal opportunity employment, immigration, wage inequality.

Election rules:

• Richard F. Bensel, professor of government. Bensel's primary fields are American politics and political economy. His specific interests include American political development, parties and elections, and the United States Congress.
  Keywords: politics, economy, government.
• Theodore J. Lowi, the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions. Lowi's latest book, Arenas of Power: Reflections on Politics and Policy which presents his model of policy analysis along with key applications and case studies, is due out in August 2008.
  Keywords: Democratic party, politics of globalization, policy analysis.

Foreign policy:

• Peter Katzenstein, the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies. Katzenstein's recent publications include Anti-Americanisms in World Politics, coedited with Robert O. Keohane (Cornell University Press, 2007).
  Keywords: U.S. foreign policy, anti-Americanism, regionalism in world politics.
• Jonathan Kirshner, professor of government, director of the Peace Studies Program (as of 07/08). Krishner's most recent publication, Appeasing Bankers: Financial Caution on the Road to War (Princeton University Press, 2007), examines how financial interests may influence decisions about war and peace.
  Keywords: international relations, national security, politics of money.

Inequality and poverty:

• David Harris, professor of sociology, vice provost for social sciences and director of the Institute for the Social Sciences. Harris's research focus addresses several diversity topics, including the social consequences of being multiracial.
  Keywords: poverty, inequality, diversity, stratification, public policy.

International relations/International law:

• Muna B. Ndulo, professor of law and director of the Institute for African Development. Ndulo is a board chair of Gender Links, a nongovernmental organization promoting gender equity in southern Africa.
  Keywords: human rights, constitutions, election monitoring, international development.
• David Powers, professor of Islamic history and law. In addition to his teaching and research, Powers is the editor of the journal Islamic Law and Society.
  Keywords: Islam, Near East, Middle East, Qur'an.

Pensions and Social Security:

• Richard Burkhauser, professor of policy analysis and management. Burkhauser's research focuses on how public policies affect the economic behavior and well-being of vulnerable populations, e.g., older persons, people with disabilities, and low-income households.
  Keywords: demography, economics, gerontology, public policy.

Terrorism:

• Charles C. Geisler, professor of development sociology. Geisler's research currently focuses on the environmental consequences of war and terrorism.
  Keywords: environmental justice, "win-win" ecology, land and natural resource ownership.

Energy, renewable resources and oil:

• Tim Mount, professor of applied economics and management. Mount is currently researching market restructuring of electricity and its relationship to pricing, customer rates and the environment.
  Keywords: smog, acid rain, global warming.
• Norm Scott, professor of biological and environmental engineering. Scott believes that sustainable development is one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century and has devoted his research pursuits to explore ways to "engineer" sustainable communities.
  Keywords: sustainability, renewable energy, conservation.
• Larry Walker, professor of biological and environmental engineering and director of the Northeast Sun Grant Initiative. Walker's interest is in renewable energy resources, and he pursues this with the Northeast Sun Grant Initiative, which takes the lead in biomass energy research and outreach.
  Keywords: biofuels, plant biomass, biodiesel, ethanol.

Environmental policy or regulations:

• Jon Conrad, professor of applied economics and management. Conrad is interested in how society allocates natural resources over time and whether that use maximizes social value.
  Keywords: fishery management, old-growth forest, oil, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
• Daniel J. Decker, professor of natural resources. Decker is a co-author for Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management in North America (Wildlife Society, 2001), which probes the many aspects of human and wildlife coexistence.
  Keywords: human-wildlife interaction, wildlife management.
• Charles C. Geisler, professor of development sociology. Geisler's research currently focuses on the environmental consequences of war and terrorism.
  Keywords: environmental justice, "win-win" ecology, land and natural resource ownership.
• Barbara Knuth, senior associate dean in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and professor of natural resources policy and management. Knuth acts as co-leader for the Human Dimensions Research Unit, which researches human behavior and provides possible solutions to resource management issues.
  Keywords: community-based natural resource management, human stewardship, fish contamination.
• Steven A. Wolf, assistant professor of environmental social science. Wolf's research includes examining debates arising from efforts to create "working forests" within The Northern Forest.
  Keywords: environmental governance, sustainable development.

Food and Marketing

• Stephen A. Mutkoski, the Banfi Vintners Professor of Wine Education & Management. Mutkoski developed the "The Wine Professor" CD ROM series, an interactive multimedia training program with titles covering Bordeaux, Germany, New York, Napa, Sonoma and Italy.
  Keywords: wine tasting, food and beverage management.
• Giuseppe G. B. Pezzotti, senior lecturer of food & beverage management. Pezzotti has participated in several projects evaluating restaurant service standard, including a project with American Express.
  Keywords: Eastern and Western table etiquette, food and wine pairing, beer brewing.
• Rupert Spies, senior lecturer of food and beverage management. Spies academic work includes the study of restaurant and hotel supply chain management. He has worked as a chef and manager in numerous food service businesses throughout Germany, the Netherlands and the United States.
  Keywords: catering industry and trends, culture and cuisines, international restaurant management.
• Mary H. Tabacchi, associate professor of food & beverage management. Tabacchi's research focus includes studying onsumer preference for healthful food at home and while eating out.
  Keywords: travel cuisine, airline service, spa industry, resort management, marketing healthy travel.
• Brian Wansink, professor of applied economics and management, director of the Food and Brand Lab. Wasnink's research explores why people eat what they eat. His books include Mindless Eating (Bantam, 2006) and Marketing Nutrition (University of Illinois Press, 2005). Wansink is currently the executive director of the U.S.D.A.'s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion and will be returning to Cornell in January 2009. (See also "Obesity")
  Keywords: labelling, weight gain, marketing nutrition, mindless eating.

Immigration

• Maria Cristina Garcia, professor of history. Garcia is the author of numerous published works, including Seeking Refuge: Central American Immigration to Mexico, the United States, and Canada (University of California Press, 2006).
  Keywords: immigration, refugee policy, Latinos in the US, US-Cuba relations.
• Michael Jones-Correa, professor of government. Jones-Correa is currently completing a book looking at the re-negotiation of ethnic relations in the aftermath of civil disturbances in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Washington D.C.
  Keywords: politics of race, immigration, dual nationality, urban and suburban politics.
• Mary M. Kritz, senior research associate in development sociology. Kritz works closely with the U.S. Census Bureau and does research on the settlement, internal migration and other characteristics of U.S. immigrants.
  Keywords: United Nations Population Division, migration patterns, international student mobility.
• Max J. Pfeffer, professor of development sociology. Pfeffer's academic interest focuses on the sociology of labor markets with a special emphasis on rural areas and immigrant workers.
  Keywords: rural labor markets, immigration reform, public attitudes.

International Economy and Labor

• Kaushik Basu, the C. Marks Professor of International Studies and director of the Center for Analytic Economics in the Department of Economics. Basu writes a BBC News online column on South Asian economics and has authored several books, including The Oxford Companion to Economics in India. (Oxford University Press, May 2007)
  Keywords: socio-political economy, international labor standards, developing market economy.
• Victor Nee, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Sociology and director of the Center for the Study of Economy and Society in the department of sociology. Nee's current research focuses on advancing new institutional economic sociology, including a study of the effect of immigration on race relations in the American workplace.
  Keywords: global economy, race relations, new market economies, entrepreneurs.
• Eswar Prasad, the Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy in the Department of Applied Economics and Management. Prasad specializes in international finance and economics, including financial globalization and China, Hong Kong and India's economies.
  Keywords: International Monetary Fund, exchange rate, foreign currency reserves, monetary policy.

Law

• Valerie Hans, professor of law. Hans conducts empirical studies of law and is one of the nation's leading authorities on the jury system.
  Keywords: juries, jurors, social science and the law, psychology and the law.

Obesity

• David Levitsky, professor of nutritional sciences and psychology in the College of Human Ecology. Levitsky's research focuses on food intake and the control of body weight. He is especially well known for his research on the "Freshman 15."
  Keywords: obesity, dieting, body weight and food intake, nutrition.
• Brian Wansink, professor of marketing and the director of the Food and Brand Lab. Wansink's studies focus on "food pyschology" and how advertising and packaging can influence, and even encourage, overeating. Wansink is currently the executive director of the U.S.D.A.'s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion and will be returning to Cornell in January 2009.
  Keywords: obesity, weight gain, marketing nutrition, mindless eating.

Self-injury

• Janis Whitlock, senior research associate in the Family Life Development Center, director of the Cornell Research Program on Self-Injurious Behavior in Adolescence and Young Adults and lecturer in the department of human development. Whitlock research interests include adolescent social, emotional and mental health as well as contextual influences on adolescent development.
  Keywords: adolescent behavior, adolescent and college populations, adolescent development.