On Nov. 3, the Faculty Research Committee and Office of Academic Affairs sponsored the New Faculty Research Showcase.

This time, there were three professors who were selected to present on the research that they are conducting currently or very recently.

Program director of Graduate Applied Intelligence, Pontus Krohn presented on “Regulating the Arctic: A Stone Cold Case?”.

Anthropology and Archaeology assistant professor, William Meyer presented his research on “What is Queer Archaeology?”.

Lastly, instructor of Nursing, Carolyn Zaffino, presented about “The Dangers of the Current Nursing Shortage.”

The three new faculty members, Krohn, Meyer and Zaffino have all joined Mercyhurst within the past two years. Each faculty member presented either current research or recent research that they conducted.

The showcase was held in the Waterford Room in Ryan Hall to account for the large crowd that attended. The event began at 3 p.m. in order to accommodate more student and faculty schedules as there are not many classes that begin during that time.

When asked about how she decided on her research topic, Zaffino said, “I am extremely passionate about safe staffing ratios, so I selected this topic all through my dual masters program to understand the dangers and potential ways to fix the issue.”

Earlier this year, Meyer was elected co-organizer of the Society for American Archaeology’s Queer Archaeology Interest Group (QAIG).

“I saw this as an opportunity to explain the work that my colleagues and I are engaged in there,” said Meyer.

“I will be presenting on queer archaeology, which is an approach I use throughout my research. I began working with a queer ap- proach years ago: not only did a queer perspective appeal to me as a gay man, but it offered a constant reminder that we need to look at archaeological (and broader anthropological) materials with fresh eyes, challenging our own assumptions about them.”

The benefit to having multiple professors is that there is a wide variety of topics that will be covered and attendees got to learn a lot of new information.

“I am thrilled at the opportunity to learn from fellow faculty members and spread the critical information I have learned to those not in healthcare,” said Zaffino.

“I am very excited to learn more about the work of the other new faculty members who will be presenting with me on Wednesday afternoon,” said Meyer.

Zaffino hopes that the main takeaway that people have from her presentation is that they recognize and understand how nurses struggle on a day-to-day basis especially being understaffed. She wants it to become a regular topic of conversation among non-healthcare workers in order for everyone to better understand what all nurses truly do for us.

“I hope that people will take away the same realization that queer archaeology always brings to me: that we need to reexamine the things we take for granted with very critical eyes,” said Meyer.

Be sure to keep an eye out for any upcoming events regarding faculty research as there will be more opportunities to hear about professors’ research throughout the year.