Honors First Year Inquiry Series Faculty
Fall 2009
Jeffrey Burds, Department of History
Ph.D., Yale University
Jeffrey Burds is an Associate Professor in the Department of History, and a member of the core faculty in International Affairs. Prof. Burds completed his Ph.D. in 1990 in Russian and Soviet history. He taught at the University of Rochester for five years, and joined the NU faculty in 1998. The recipient of numerous grants and awards--and a finalist for the Excellence in Teaching Award in both 2004 and 2007--Professor Burds has published widely on the history of the Soviet secret police and Soviet espionage during the early Cold War. In 2007, he published a study tracking Soviet infiltration of foreign espionage networks in the 1930s. Currently, he is finishing a book manuscript on espionage and nationalism in Soviet Ukraine, 1944-1950.
This fall Prof. Burds will teach Spy Wars: The History of Covert Operations in WWII. Inquiries in Social Science- HONR2205 (NU CORE: S1).
Daniel C. Douglass, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin – Madison
Daniel Douglass teaches a variety of undergraduate courses including Dynamic Earth, Global Climate Change, Soil Science, and Glacial and Pleistocene Geology. Professor Douglass' research focuses on studying past environmental conditions in Argentina and Chile, especially during and since the last ice age, by determining the magnitude and timing of glacier fluctuations and examining the chemical weathering reactions occurring in glacial deposits after their deposition.
This fall, Prof. Douglass taught Understanding Climate Change in the 21st Century: Inquiries in Science and Technology – HONR2206 (NU CORE: T1).
Maureen Kelleher, Honors Program Director, Department of Sociology
Ph.D., University of Missouri at Columbia
Maureen Kelleher is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Honors Program. Her teaching areas include social deviance, drugs, social policy and child welfare. She has worked closely with the American Sociological Association on a number of teaching related projects including ones on juvenile delinquency and graduate education. Publications include Drugs and Society: A Critical Perspective and articles on child welfare. Her current research interest focuses on risk-taking among older adolescents and young adults. She became Director of the Honors Program in 2004. During the past few years she has worked closely with students on a variety of new honors initiatives including the First Year Reading Project, Welcome Week and the Networking Event in addition to starting the award-winning honors newsletter, the Honors Perspective.
This fall Professor Kelleher will teach Enhancing Honors - HONR1101 (required for all first year students) with a group of upper-class honors mentors during the fall term.
Jung Lee, Department of Philosophy and Religion
Ph.D., Brown University
Jung Lee is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies. He teaches in the areas of Chinese Religions, particularly early Daoism and Confucianism, East Asian Buddhism, the philosophy of religion, and comparative religious ethics. He has published articles in The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Asian Philosophy, The Journal of Chinese Philosophy, The Journal of Religion, Philosophy East and West, Religious Studies, Religious Studies Review, and is currently finishing a book on inner cultivation and the virtues in early Daoism. In addition to research projects on early Daoism, he plans to engage in work on the Mengzi and the role of ritual in early Confucianism. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Association for Asian Studies, and the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy.
This fall Prof. Lee will teach Theology, Ethics, and Practice in the World's Religions: Comparative Understanding of Cultures – HONR2200 (NU CORE: D1).
Spring 2010
Jennifer Cole, Department of Earth and Environmental SciencePh.D., Syracuse University
Jennifer Cole is an Assistant Academic Specialist and the Director of the Environmental Studies Program in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. She teaches a wide variety of introductory and advanced courses including Natural Disasters and Catastrophes, Environmental Science, Environmental Geology, Hydrogeology, Groundwater Modeling, and Groundwater Geochemistry. Her research interests include wetland systems, groundwater contamination, and nutrient cycling, and she has published several papers detailing the chemistry, biology, geology, and hydrology of the Glacial Lake Agassiz Peatland Complex in northern Minnesota.
In the spring of 2010, Prof. Cole will be teaching Wetlands: Policy and Science, Inquiries in Science and Technology- HONR2206 (NU CORE: S1).
Leonard Brown, Department of African American Studies and Music
Ph.D., Wesleyan University
Dr. Leonard Brown is a professional musician (saxophonist, composer, and arranger), teacher, ethnomusicologist and specialist in multicultural education. During his almost four decades as a performing musician, he has appeared with many outstanding artists including Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, George Russell, Bill Barron, Yusef Lateef, Alan Dawson, and Ed Blackwell. He has performed nationally with his group "JOYFUL NOISE" and is co-founder and producer of Boston's annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert. Established in 1977, this yearly performance tribute to the Coltrane legacy is the oldest event of its kind in the world.
Dr. Brown is an associate professor at Northeastern University in Boston with a joint appointment in the Music and African American Studies Departments. He has served as chair of African American Studies and Head Advisor for Music. Along with his academic responsibilities and endeavors, Brown serves as principal consulting ethnomusicologist and cultural historian to the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, MO, the first national jazz museum in the nation, where he also developed and served as director of the Kansas City Institute for Jazz Performance and History, a free summer educational program for youth age 10-18. Brown also functions as developer and organizer for the Charlie Parker Symposium held in March at the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, MO and he was principal contributor to the book "Kansas City..And All That's Jazz" (1999), a history of the Kansas City jazz legacy published by Andrews McMeel.
In 1998, Brown received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the John D. O'Bryant African American Institute at Northeastern University. He is a member of the Center for Black Music Research, the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, the International Association of Jazz Educators, the Society for Ethnomusicology, and the Sonneck Society of American Music.
In the spring of 2010, Prof. Brown will be teaching a music course focusing on the 20th century, Inquiries in Art and Humanities - HONR2204 (NU CORE: A1).