Seaside Symposium

Join Academic Affairs as returning sabbatical faculty present their latest research and scholarship to the campus community. You will have the option to register for individual sessions below. Attendance is not required for the entire day! 

To view the full schedule, click here. 

Coffee & Connect 
9:00am | LSB Lobby
Catch up with colleagues over coffee and pastries before the start of sabbatical presentations. 

Larry Volk, MFA
“Re•Cognition”
9:45-10:15 a.m. | Klebanoff Auditorium

 In this solo exhibition, the two bodies of work presented continue an exploration of family history and memory through the use of a personal archive and ephemera. The Re•Cognition series is comprised of five hand-bound artist books that address my mother’s history during the Holocaust and my changing perception of that history as I have come to understand her experiences through my own experience as a parent. The second series, Les Souvenirs, approaches memory from a different perspective. While Re•Cognition considers how the present can reshape our understanding of the past, Les Souvenirs examines the role photographs themselves play in constructing recollection. The two bodies of work are an expression of the mutability of memory as photographs, personal experience, and the passage of time continually reshape our understanding of the past.

Michael Kilburn, Ph.D.
“Geosophy: the science and art of geohumanistic practice”
10:15-11 a.m. | Klebanoff Auditorium

Geosophy, proposed by the humanist geographer John K. Wright in 1947, is the study of the human experience of geography, from encounters with the physical environment, to orientation and wayfinding, to creative expressions of landscape and home, to the realization of our biological and cultural interconnection. My sabbatical project investigated the roots and developments of human geography with the intention of compiling a field guide and handbook of geosophy to introduce a general audience to basic concepts in geography. It also contains a set of practical exercises for experiential learning to deepen and literally ground human experience in geographic understanding.

Sergio Inestroza, Ph.D.
“The Process of Developing a Medical Spanish Textbook”
11-11:30  a.m. | Klebanoff Auditorium

Endicott launched a micro-credential, Spanish for Healthcare Professionals, and charged me with developing the curriculum and instructing the initial courses. While teaching, I recognized a distinct need for a dedicated Medical Spanish textbook—one tailored not only to nursing students, but to doctors and allied health professionals more broadly. This talk explores the process of writing and refining the first draft of that textbook.

Sara Allen. MFA
“House of Many: Found objects and connected narratives from a 1668 hand-carved banister to the 2026 Ipswich Boys LAX scandal”
12:00-12:30 p.m. | Hempstead Commons Seminar Suites | Lunch will be provided; RSVP required

A somewhat accidental archaeology of artifacts unearthed from a first period home reveals multi-family histories and secrets meant to remain buried. Researching the long dead owners of everyday objects (patent medicine bottles in flower beds, an iron bed frame in a dirt cellar, fragments of whiteware dishes from a trash pile under a shed) through ledgers, letters, journals, and court documents in historic archives uncovers a serial public drunk, drowned fishermen, Puritan lawsuits, and sisters and daughters of accused witches. Through braided narratives, tying the past to today’s teenage revenge stabbings, substance abuse and mental health crises, and breaking social systems and strained economies, it is clear that nothing stays the same. And somehow, it is the same as it ever was.

Grace Kwan, Ph.D.
“Back to school in the age of AI: A data science sabbatical”
1:15-1:45 p.m.. | Klebanoff Auditorium

During my sabbatical, I became a student again to expand my computational data analysis skills in SQL and R. My experiences highlighted the strengths and pitfalls of AI-mediated learning. As a “sabbatical capstone,” I applied my new data science skills to a project examining the effect of urbanization on squirrel microbiomes. Analyzing messy, complex data with AI as a coding assistant reinforced the importance of human expertise and judgment when using AI tools.

Chris McDaniel, Ph.D.
“Lessons Learned from L.L.M.s”
2:00-2:30 p.m. | Klebanoff Auditorium

Shock waves have rippled through the mathematics community these past few months, as A.I. has been tackling some of its most famous open problems.  During my sabbatical, I had the opportunity to apply this new tool to my own research problems, which has led to some surprising successes.  In this talk, I will discuss some takeaways from my experience using Large Language Models to do research mathematics.  

 

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