WCSU - Social Sciences Faculty Bios

Social Sciences Faculty Bios

Jim Bellano is an Assistant professor of Political Science at Western Connecticut State University. For almost twenty years, he has taught Political Science, American Politics, and Law at various colleges and universities in the tri-state area. He is also a consultant and public speaker in the areas of economic development, government, politics and public policy. Mr. Bellano is best recognized for his commentary and analysis on the subject of balancing the interests of private entities, state and local governments and taxpayers with respect to economic development policy. Specifically, Mr. Bellano has weighed in on topics ranging from the use of casino gambling and eminent domain as a tool for economic development to the interpretation of the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution and its impact on the ability of states and municipalities to create economic development policy. For six years, Mr. Bellano served as Executive Director of Economic Development for the Housatonic Valley (Northern Fairfield County) region of Connecticut and, in 2004, was appointed as the first Director of Economic Development for the City of Danbury. During that time, he advised local communities, state agencies, and private corporations on initiatives related to the retention and expansion of existing businesses, the recruitment of new businesses through government tax incentives, investment in transportation and infrastructure and workforce development. Prior to his tenure in Economic Development, Mr. Bellano was an attorney in private practice. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association and is admitted to the New York State Courts, the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. Mr. Bellano is the author of numerous articles on the governmental process, politics, economic development and public policy. He served as the Economic Development columnist for Inside Business Magazine and has been published in the New York State Bar Journal. Mr. Bellano has also appeared as a panel speaker for seminars and on cable television. Mr. Bellano received a Juris Doctor from the Quinnipiac University School of Law and a Masters of Science in Political Science from Long Island University. In addition, he worked as a District Representative for Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey and as a Legislative Intern to the Judiciary Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly.
Carina Bandhauer, Associate Professor of Sociology, earned a Ph.D. at the State University of New York – Binghamton. Bandhauer is committed to teaching, research and working with the people of El Salvador. She is involved with U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities, a national grassroots organization of U.S. citizens and residents who have formed ongoing partnerships with rural communities in El Salvador. Bandhauer served as creative consultant on production of the film, “El Pueblo Unido,” which documented her work in El Salvador and premiered at the Montreal Film Festival in 2004. She specializes in the sociology of racism and in migration studies and is currently working on a book based on her research on racism targeting Latinos and on the anti-immigrant movement. In June of 2006 she married David Amdur whom she met while doing solidarity work in El Salvador.
Damla Isik, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, earned her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona, Tucson with a Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies. She also has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. Isik did ethnographic fieldwork in Turkey and examined the effects of globalization on labor and gender politics within the context of the carpet weaving industry. During her research, she got engaged in and promoted a village weaving cooperative in Western Turkey. She specializes in globalization and gender and her current research interests are on the interconnections between Muslim pious practice, globalization, and changing labor laws and regulations in Turkey as well as in the Middle East. She is also very much interested in issues of representation and media studies that pay specific attention to gender. She is an amateur poet and loves reading fiction. Additionally, she is passionate about animal rights and environmental justice.
Christopher Kukk, Associate Professor of Political Science, is the Director of WestConn’s Honors Program and was the founding coach of the university’s Roger Sherman Debate Society. Kukk, who received his Ph.D. in International Politics from Boston College and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, is a former International Security Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a 2007-2008 Fulbright Scholar at the University of Tartu in Estonia. His research and publications focus on political economic relations over fresh water resources as well as the creation and sustainability of civil society. Before entering the field of higher education, Kukk was a counter-intelligence agent for the United States Army, a research associate for Cambridge Energy Research Associates, and is often asked by the media (e.g., Associated Press, National Public Radio, and the Economist magazine) for his analysis on issues regarding American politics and United States foreign policy. Kukk is married to his high school sweetheart, Elly, and they have three sons who love baseball, soccer, and rock-n-roll.
R. Averell Manes, Professor of Political Science, earned a Ph.D. in Political Science and Conflict Studies from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, at Syracuse University. A conflict analysis and resolution specialist since 1993, Manes teaches comparative politics, conflict studies and research methodology courses. She also teaches at Syracuse University’s Summer Institute on Conflict Resolution, an affiliate of the Program on the Analysis, Resolution and Conflict (PARC). Manes is founder and director of the Conflict Resolution Project at WestConn. She is also founder of, and advisor for, the conflict resolution minor at the university and the former director of WestConn’s Center for Collaboration. An experienced conflict intervener and consultant as well as a New York State “certified” mediator and former American Arbitration Association arbitrator, Manes has worked in these capacities – including as a management consultant and trainer – for government agencies, public and private schools, businesses, non-profit and religious organizations, political parties, town councils and private individuals. Her book, “The Pieds-noirs: A Case Study in the Persistence of Sub-Cultural Distinctiveness,” was published by Academica Press in 2005.
Oluwole Owoye, Professors of Economics, teaches microeconomics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, labor economics and economic development. He has presented research in these areas at national and international economic conferences. Owoye, who holds a Ph.D. from Northern Illinois University, has published numerous articles in periodicals such as “The Journal of Developing Areas,” “Global Economic Review” and “The Journal of International Trade and Economic Development.” He was a visiting Senior Fulbright Scholar in the department of economics at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in 2003, where he was among the initial group of professors who taught in the collaborative Ph.D. program for West, East, and Southern Africa at Ibadan, Nigeria. Since 2004, he has been a visiting professor of monetary economics in the collaborative Ph.D. program’s Joint Facility for Electives, African Economic Research Consortium in Nairobi, Kenya.
Zuohong Pan, Professors of Economics, earned a Ph.D.from Wayne Stat Universit. He teaches macroeconomics, microeconomics, money & banking, mathematicaleconomics, economic development, applied econometrics, contemporary domesticeconomic issues, social research issues and social research seminars. Hisresearch interests include international trade and finance, financial modeling & forecasting, economic development and urban economics. He has co-authored/edited a number of books, including Investment Banking in the United States and Taiwan in the 21st Century. Pan has published numerous papers in periodicals such as Urban Studies, China Economic Review, the Journal of Computational Intelligence in Finance and Computational Economics. He also reviews for professional journals, such as Urban Studies and China Economic Review.
Steve Skinner, Professors of Economics, holds a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut and has taught at WestConn since 1984. His areas of expertise include international economics, comparative economic systems, domestic economic issues, urban economics and intermediate microeconomics. Skinner’s research interest is in economic history with a focus on the southern New England maritime trade from 1789 to the late 1800s. In the 22 years he’s been at WestConn, Skinner has seen many positive changes at the university, most notably an increase of the depth and breadth of academic programs and the remarkable physical transformation of the Midtown campus. He appreciates that students continue to benefit from WestConn’s small class sizes that afford them individualized faculty attention. For Skinner, this is what makes the university an appealing place at which to teach.
Alex Standish, Assistant Professor of Geography, holds a Ph.D. in Geographic Education and Citizenship in American Schools from Rutgers University. His master's dissertation at Canterbury Christ Church University College considered the changing nature of geography education in England. His other research interests include the globalization of culture, political geography and the contemporary dynamics of communities in Western countries.
Steven Ward, Professor of Sociology, has been on WestConn’s faculty since 1995. He earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of New Hampshire. His primary teaching focus is social and cultural theory, urban sociology, modern and postmodern societies, class, status and power, as well as the senior research seminar. Since 2000, he has been the director of WestConn’s University Honors Program and has taught The Nature of Inquiry, a featured course in the program. His research interests include social inequality, the sociology of knowledge and social and cultural theory. He is the author of two books, “Reconfiguring Truth: Postmodernism, Science Studies and the Search for a New Model of Knowledge” and “Modernizing the Mind: Psychological Knowledge and the Remaking of Society.” He has published articles in journals such as American Sociological Review, History of the Human Sciences, and Sociology: The Journal of the British Sociological Association. He is currently working on two writing projects: a sociological critique of the cognitive revolution, and an examination of the rationalization of the education system in the United States.
Laurie Weinstein, Professor of Anthropology, received her Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University. She has authored and edited numerous books on Native Americans and women and the U.S. military. These include: “Gender Camouflage,” “Wives and Warriors,” “Enduring Traditions,” “The Wampanoag,” and “Native Peoples of the Southwest.” She is the general editor for Native Peoples of the Americas for the University of Arizona Press. Weinstein manages the archaeology program at WestConn whose focus is in the field of Cultural Resource Management. When she is not writing or administrating, Weinstein is herding her menagerie of animals, which includes cats, birds and rabbits. Her greatest passion is teaching compassion and teaching people to have respect for this earth as well as for the many different people, animals and plants that live upon it. Laurie Weinstein's homepage
Robert D. Whittemore, Professor of Anthropology, earned his Ph.D. at the University of California in Los Angeles. After serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer and teacher and educational director for a child development center in Massachusetts, he did ethnographic fieldwork among the Mandinka people of the Casamance region of the Republic of Senegal. He also worked in urban Los Angeles with the developmentally disabled. As an associate of the Institute for Writing & Thinking at Bard College, Whittemore, in his classes at WestConn, explores the relationship between writing and thought, underscoring the importance of developing the kind of ethnographic sensibility essential to global citizenship. His wife, Elizabeth, who has collaborated with him on some of his research and writing, is a poet, playwright and novelist. Their eldest daughter, Miranda, is a novelist and their youngest, Vanessa Kai, is a filmmaker.