Jonathan Beller, FT faculty

Jonathan Beller, Associate Professor, English & Humanities
I am interested in finding ways to streamline senate processes and increase the ability of the senate to fulfill its mandate, specifically, to serve the interest of the faculty, the students and the institute in creating an exemplary learning environment. In my own view the senate spends far too much time reflecting on its own process, revamping its internal structure and rehearsing its historical trauma and too little time on issues of substance such as how money is allotted and spent and what kind of institute-wide changes might usher Pratt into the 21st century. With much of the difficult organizational work already accomplished, the senate, rather than being mired in its own bureaucratic process, should address with greater imagination and focus issues that have for a long time been avoided, including financial transparency, the hiring of more teachers and scholars with specialties outside the Western canon, the creation of an endowment, and an overall upgrading and updating of Pratt.

If you would like to send a message of this kind to the senate and to the campus at large then vote for me; if not, then clearly it is in your interest to vote for someone else. :-)

Damon Chaky, FT faculty

Damon Chaky, Assistant Professor, Mathematics & Science
I am a new member of the faculty, having joined Pratt last fall as a member of the Math and Science department. My area of research is environmental chemistry, specifically the sources and behavior of pollutants in the urban environment. Prior to joining Pratt, I served on the executive committee for the science component of the undergraduate core curriculum at Columbia University.

Within the Senate, I am most interested in academic programs and curriculum development. Through course offerings in SLAS and initiatives such as Writing Across the Curriculum, we can assure that Pratt graduates are known as expressive, well-rounded critical thinkers as well as gifted artists, designers and professionals. I would be honored to represent the SLAS FT faculty and help to make certain that our students leave Pratt equipped with the intellectual grounding necessary to have a positive impact on society.

Please visit my website to learn about my research and the classes I teach.

Lisabeth During, FT faculty

Lisabeth During, Assistant Professor, Social Science & Cultural Studies; is a philosopher who was educated in the US and the UK, where she received the PhD from Cambridge University. She came to Pratt in 2005 after teaching for many years in the Philosophy Department at the University of New South Wales, Australia, as well as in the College of Fine Arts, where she started new courses in Art Theory and Writing on the Visual Arts. A brief career as an illustration major at Pratt in the 1970s helped to confirm her suspicion that she was better suited for the quiet life of theory, but she continued her efforts to re-animate the philosophic ghost in the visual and performing arts by introducing the teaching of Film Theory and History into academic philosophy in Australia, and through her involvement in the Performance Space, a inter-arts venue in inner-city Sydney, specialising in dance, fringe theatre, music and photography. She was also active in the Women in Philosophy organisation, and curated a performance week at the international conference of WIP, Sydney, which was enthusiastically attended but sadly failed to become a regular fixture. Within the Australian university system, Lisabeth served in a number of positions, directing the Postgraduate program in philosophy, the joint Faculty of Arts seminar, and participating in the steering committees for the inter-disciplinary degrees in Gender Studies, European Studies, and Media.


???I look forward to a different context for my energies in the academic and governance areas at Pratt, and, after an intense year of involvement in the new Critical and Visual Studies program, for which I have helped to revise the curriculum, I hope to get a broader knowledge of the Institute as your representative on the Senate.

As someone who works at the intersection of philosophy and the arts, I am tantalised by the possibilities offered by Pratt and frustrated by the isolation of the School structure. I want to continue promoting the BA in Critical and Visual Studies, now offered wholly within SLAS, but see it develop more vigorous links with the Schools of Art and Design and Architecture, and with individual faculty members. Working on the Senate would give me a chance to pursue such collaboration, already thriving on the Academic Initiatives Committee. I have a lot of experience in university administration, even if in a different cultural and economic setting, and I would not be surprised if something of what I have learned could be applied here. In SLAS, one of our biggest problems is lack of time and support for research; I hope to push for greater recognition and resources in this area, without which Pratt can???t flourish as an institution.???

Gerson Sparer, FT faculty

Gerson Sparer, Professor, Mathematics & Science

I have a Ph.D. in mathematics. I am also a member of the Union grievance team.

I believe at the present time what is needed on the Senate is a gadfly. I was just looking at the outcomes assessment on the senate website. Most of it is hot air. But when it does become substantive, it requires a great deal of additional work for the faculty. Most of which I think should be done by a good chair. I think the Senate has lost its way. The Senate has become an extension of the administration, instead of complementing the administration and the faculty. I think it is important for the Senate to avoid the vanity of its association with the Board and the upper administration and let academic issues be its driving force.

Adele Rossetti-Morosini, PT faculty

Adele Rossetti-Morosini, Visiting Assistant Professor, Mathematics & Science
At present I have the pleasure to be teaching at Pratt, besides Light, Color and Design for the Fashion Department, four classes which I have written: Scientific Drawing and its Color version, Scientific Drawing in Color, and two classes on Botanical Morphology: Morphology of Trees and of Herbaceous Plants. These I co-teach with Dr Gerry Moore, Director of Science and Dr. Mark Tebbitt, Director of Taxonomy at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

I am an exhibiting artist and scientific illustrator. My research and publications are on the semiology of Art images, especially drawing, and on Ethnobotany and Morphology based Taxonomy. A manuscript in progress for which I have received support from Pratt Institute, Oxford University, UK, and the Mellon Foundation explores the Elizabethan popular and literary meanings of plants as employed in Shakespearean texts.

I find the diversity of interests and opinions of my Pratt colleagues stimulating and would look forward to hearing and representing my constituents in the Senate.

Kumru Toktamis, PT faculty

Kumru Toktamis, Adjunct Instructor, Social Science & Cultural Studies

I have been teaching at Pratt since 1998. One of my prime prides in life is the fact that many of our former students stay in touch with me and we continue working on several personal or public projects. During my 13 years of adjunct teaching throughout the tri-state area, I have noticed with dismay the unfortunate process of college education turning into upgrading ticket in the job market, and college administration turning into a business to be managed. It is disappointing that hard-earned fragile principles such as having universal access to knowledge are ignored by administrations who are now managers, and consequently by students. I see my role in the senate, as an extension of my role in the classroom; i.e. to make sure that it is not forgotten that college is where we practice our right to have universal access to knowledge, and freedom to discuss, negotiate, revise, reconstruct and re-conquer it.

Sameetah Agha, Chair

Sameetah Agha, Chair, Social Science & Cultural Studies

Carole Sirovich, Chair

Carole Sirovich, Chair, Mathematics & Science