Main Interests
Social Theory; Sociology of Law; Deviance and Social Control; Criminology.
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Main Interests
Late antique and medieval political and cultural history, especially gender, sexuality, and the conception of scandal at the Carolingian court.
Other Interests
In my professional life, I am committed to supporting faculty at Wheaton and other institutions of higher education in their research and professional development.
In my personal life, I enjoy traveling the world, running and hiking, cooking, practicing mindfulness and meditation, and, of course, reading. I have a particular affection for the Himalayan, Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan where I have lived for nearly three years, including with Wheaton students on study-abroad semesters in Fall 2017, 2019, and 2023.
I am a complete bibliophile. I am always excited to talk to students, colleagues, friends, and (honestly) strangers about books, particularly classic and contemporary novels–and I recently started a book club with Wheaton History alumni!
Originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania, I consider NEPA (northeastern Pennsylvania) my home.
Main Interests
Music and cognition, the effects of musical listening and musical training on cognition, neuropsychological testing, and contemplative practices in the classroom.
Other Interests
Billiards, making sourdough bread, contemplative practices, and coffee.
Scott Gelber is a historian whose work focuses on the development of American education during the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries. He is the author of Grading the College: A History of Evaluating Teaching and Learning (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), Courtrooms and Classrooms: A Legal History of American College Access, 1860-1960 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015), and The University and the People: Envisioning American Higher Education in an Era of Populist Protest (University of Wisconsin Press, 2011), which won the Linda Eisenmann Prize of the History of Education Society. Gelber has published articles and essays in the Review of Higher Education, American Journal of Education, American Journal of Legal History, and History of Education Quarterly, among others. His research has been supported by the National Academy of Education, the Spencer Foundation, and the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. He is working on two research projects: a history of learning disabilities in higher education and a history of college mental health policies. Before arriving at Wheaton, Gelber taught high school in New York City and supervised student teachers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Main Interests
Physics, especially the interaction of radiation with matter; the role of science in society, politics, sports (basketball, bicycling, golf), and family.
I enjoy teaching Physics at all levels. My most recent teaching interest is in transforming the Introductory Physics courses from a lecture-based course to a combined lab/lecture format. This new format provides students with the opportunity to gain immediate insights, through experimentation, of the material being presented in class. The format seeks to have students actively engaged in learning for the entire class, and is based on the TEAL teaching format developed in part at MIT.
As an experimental physicist, I am especially interested in providing students with meaningful laboratory experiences, from the introductory course to the senior thesis projects.
Courses taught include Introductory Physics I and II, Modern Physics I and II, Optics, Classical Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, Statistical Physics, Quantum Physics, Experimental Physics, The Physics of Music and Sound, and Electronic Circuits.
My dream, passion and near-obsession is to cultivate further the long-standing and rich commitment to the teaching of writing here at Wheaton. As we develop our writing program, my interest is to enhance our notion of “composition” as a disciplinary field, produced by the intellect as well as the spirit, reproduced through scholarship as well as classroom practice, and thoroughly charged by the politics of the everyday.
Main Interests
My main areas of specialization are twentieth-century Latin American narrative, Latin American women’s writing, literature and culture under dictatorship, and verbal and visual collaborations.
I am a planetary scientist, using the tools of geology, geophysics, and remote sensing to explore other worlds in our solar system. The amazing diversity of places to explore gives us great perspective on how our own planet works, and in what ways the Earth is unique. I am specifically interested in how geology works on the ice-covered ocean worlds of the outer solar system, and what geology can tell us about the possibly habitable environments within those alien oceans.
When I am not in front of a computer working with data from distant spacecraft, I love to be working outdoors with students. Whether it is leading geology field trips, taking data in the Wheaton Woods, working with the outdoors club, or leading student field research classes in Death Valley or Iceland, I have seen so many students have their “eureka!” moments when they are completely immersed in the Earth’s environment.