Brown Bag Committee Members

Dr. Ivani Vassoler-Froelich

• Associate Professor, Politics & Intl Affairs
• Also, see https://www.fredonia.edu/polisci/facultystaff 
• W390 Thompson Hall
• E-mail:  ivani.vassoler@fredonia.edu 
• Phone: 716-673-3887

Her teaching load includes varieties of International Politics courses, including World Political Geography, Theories of International Relations, Film & Global Issues, Global Environmental Issues & Policies, and International Political Economy. Research interests concentrate on U.S.-Latin American Relations, Latin America's political development, including the region's urbanization process. Ivani authored Urban Brazil: Visions, Afflictions and Governance Lessons (2008) and co-edited Geography, Politics, and Architecture of Cities (2012). She is twice the recipient of the James Street Prize for her articles "Urban Visions: Governance Lessons from Two Brazilian Cities" and "Baron Rio Branco and the Construction of the Brazilian International Identity". Currently, she is the managing editor of the Middle Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies. For ten years, Ivani served as coordinator of the International Studies program at Fredonia. She is involved in a variety of international education initiatives including the organization of study abroad programs in Brazil and Mexico. Currently, she is vice-chair of the Global and Internationalization Engagement Council (GIEC), which promotes international educational projects and exchanges. Ivani was selected to participate in the SUNY Collaborative Online International Learning - COIL - teaching a joint class of Fredonia and Mexican students in the Spring Semester of 2016. Ivani Vassoler is a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching. Vassoler received a Ph.D. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, a MA in International Relations from the University of San Diego, and a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from the School of Social Communication in São Paulo, Brazil. She is fluent in three languages. During her journalistic career (print and radio), she had a variety of assignments with extensive coverage of politics and socioeconomic events in Brazil, Mexico, Central American countries, the United States and Canada. She worked for Brazilian news outlets, the BBC World Service (Portuguese), and Deutsche Welle Radio for Latin America.

Dr. Branden Birmingham

• Assistant Professor
• McEwen Hall
• 716-673-3410

Dr. Christopher Dahlie, PhD

• Assistant Professor
• Communication - Audio, Radio, and Sound Design
• McEwen Hall 315E McEwen Hall
• 716-673-3410

Jessica Finkeldey

• Assistant Professor, Social Cultural and Criminal Justice Sciences
• Also see https://www.fredonia.edu/academics/colleges-schools/college-liberal-art…
• W369 Thompson Hall
• E-mail:  jessicafinkelday@fredonia.edu
• Phone: 716-673-3421

Dr. Finkeldey’s research examines predictors of antisocial behavior and contact with the criminal justice system as well as the collateral consequences of contact with the justice system. As a whole, her research agenda involves timely considerations of an array of individual- and societal-level factors related to involvement in crime and the criminal justice system, wherein the historical progression and current state of social inequalities are particularly important to consider. For instance, she has a paper forthcoming (available online ahead of print) in Race and Justice that examines the effects of race, ethnicity, and skin color on arrest using structural disadvantage as a framework for exploring how social structural factors as well as antisocial behavior explain this relationship. Professor Finkeldey also has a paper forthcoming (available online ahead of print) in Social Problems that investigates the relationship between individual- and neighborhood-level rates of parental, maternal, and paternal incarceration on adult children’s subsequent neighborhood disadvantage. Furthermore, she has a paper forthcoming (available online ahead of print) in the Journal of Child and Family Studies that examines the association between parental incarceration and young adult children’s deviant self-identities and how this association varies by emotional independence, or freedom from the excessive need for parental approval. One of her current projects examines how self-identities, among other factors, act as pathways between parental incarceration and criminal activity for young adult men and women. Another current project examines the association between experiencing parental incarceration during childhood, secondary school characteristics (e.g., available school resources), and depressive symptoms in adulthood. 

Dr. Courtney Wigdahl-Perry

• Associate Professor, Biology
• New member of committee April 2021 
• Science Center 237
• 716-673-4622