VALUE OF A COLLEGE EDUCATION — Richard Guarasci, president of Wagner College, is the chairman of New American Colleges & Universities and former chairman of the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation, which administers New York State’s Tuition Assistance Program. He has written about the value of a college education for the New York Times and the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.).

WHITE PRIVILEGE — Psychology professor Amy Eshleman is co-author of "Seeing White: An Introduction to White Privilege and Race," the first introductory college textbook on the topic. In American society, white people enjoy a wide range of economic, social and political privileges to which black and brown people have only limited access — yet many white people are unaware that such a thing as "white privilege" even exists.

2012 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION — Wagner College political science professor Abraham Unger is an excellent source for informed comment upon the 2012 presidential elections. He was the lead researcher for the “Your Vote ’12” video series, produced by Meredith Video Studios, which will be distributed nationwide this year through the video on-demand services of several major cable TV systems.
 

EDUCATION POLICY & REFORM — Stephen Preskill, chairman of Wagner College’s Education Department, has written three books on education and several op-eds on education policy for the New York Times and the Wagner College News Service. His blog, "My Times & Life," is a running commentary on articles of interest in the New York Times.

INCA ARCHEOLOGY — As an Andean scholar, Wagner College anthropology professor Gordon McEwan has led archaeological research projects in Peru over the course of 23 field seasons at Pikillacta and Choquepukio, two sites built by the Wari civilization, which preceded the Inca. He has written or co-authored five books on the Inca and their predecessors. His next book, tentatively titled "Inca Origins," will bring together his work on the Wari, Choquepukio and the Inca.

J.S. BACH & SONS, music of — Music Department chair David Schulenberg, a native of New York City, is one of America’s foremost authorities on the music of the Bach family and an internationally respected performer on harpsichord and other early keyboard instruments. His books include the textbook and anthology “Music of the Baroque,” “The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach” and “The Instrumental Music of C.P.E. Bach,” and he has edited two volumes of C.P.E. Bach’s keyboard sonatas.

MALE STUDIES, psychology of boys and men — The pioneering struggle of Wagner College psychology professor Miles Groth toward establishing male studies as an academic discipline of its own — distinct from women’s studies, gender studies, even men’s studies — was profiled in an extended feature appearing in the New York Times’ quarterly Education Life supplement for Jan. 9, 2011.

NEW YORK STATE GOVERNMENT — Seymour Lachman, director of Wagner College’s Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government, is a former CUNY dean and retired New York state senator. He is the co-author of "Three Men in a Room: The Inside Story of Power and Betrayal in an American Statehouse" (2006) and the highly praised political biography, "The Man Who Saved New York: Hugh Carey and the Great Fiscal Crisis of 1975" (2010).

RECALL ELECTIONS — Joshua Spivak, a senior fellow at the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform, first studied the recall when he wrote his master’s thesis on recalls in California. He has written dozens of op-ed essays for newspapers across the United States on recall elections, in each case providing historic context for understanding current events. "The Recall Elections Blog" is Spivak’s nonpartisan, nonjudgmental look at the “hair-trigger” form of government.

STATEN ISLAND HISTORY — Lori Weintrob chairs the History Department at Wagner College and was co-chair of si350, the committee responsible for organizing activities commemorating the 350th anniversary of the European settlement of Staten Island (2010-11). She co-authored the book, “Discovering Staten Island: A 350th Anniversary Commemorative History."