Our History and Mission

CELTSS was established in October 2007. It provides support for faculty members during all phases of their careers at Framingham State University. CELTSS is a faculty-run organization with a steering committee of representatives from across the disciplines assisting the directors. The first CELTSS Co-Directors were Bridgett Perry-Galvin, Professor of Psychology, and Elaine Beilin, Professor of English. Patricia Luoto, Professor of Consumer Sciences, subsequently served as a Co-Director. Subsequent directors and assistant directors include:

  • 2012-2015:
    • Karen Druffel, Professor of Business, Director
    • Claudia Springer, Professor of English, Assistant Director
  • 2015-2018:
    • Elaine Beilin, Professor of English, Director
    • Jon Huibregtse, Professor of History, Assistant Director
  • 2018-2021:
    • Jon Huibregste, Professor of History, Director
    • Lina Rincón, Associate Professor of Sociology, Assistant Director
  • Spring 2020:
    • Lina Rincón, Associate Professor of Sociology, Interim Director
    • May Hara, Associate Professor of Education, Interim Assistant Director
  • 2021-2024:
    • May Hara, Associate Professor of Education, Director
    • Maria (Lissa) Bollettino, Professor of History, Assistant Director

Mission Statement

CELTSS will support faculty and librarians' professional development by organizing programs and activities to encourage innovative and effective pedagogy, advising, service, scholarship, and creative work. 

Objectives:

  • Support faculty and librarian well-being as a foundation for professional flourishing
  • To provide faculty and librarian funding for travel, research, creative work, innovation in teaching and advising, and other small grants
  • To provide mentoring to faculty and librarians at all phases of their careers
  • To provide support relating to leadership development for faculty and librarians
  • To facilitate connection, interdisciplinary collaboration, and publicizing of faculty and librarian accomplishments, in all aspects of professional work
  • To champion diversity, equity, and antiracism as central elements of teaching and learning and key commitments of CELTSS and the Framingham State University community

The following is a small sampling of the scholarly endeavors by our faculty in 2023-2024 that were funded through CELTSS:

Xavier Guadalupe-Diaz, Patricia Sánchez-Connally, and Beth Whalley (Sociology & Criminology)

Received funding to participate in the Border Awareness Experience 

Kaan Agartan (Sociology & Criminology)

Received funding to present “Urban Insurgency as Spatial Democracy: Rethinking Gezi Uprisings 10 years Later” at the American Sociological Association’s 118th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia (PA).

Megan Mayer (Nutrition & Health Studies)

Received funding to participate in a one-week, virtual training hosted by the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. 

Rachel Trousdale (English)

Received funding which allowed her to pursue a series of sabbatical projects during the 23-24 school year, including presenting a paper called “Old Possum and the Creative Arts” at the annual meeting of the T.S. Eliot Society; did research at the British Library allowing her to write “Teaching Critical Race Theory With Orlando and The Dreadnaught Hoax,” which she presented at this year’s Modern Language Association and has since published; did more research at the British Library and the National Poetry Library in London in support of her class on 20th and 21st century British poetry; and traveled to Glasgow, UK to present a paper, “Bird Islands: Elizabeth Bishop’s Questioning Seabirds” at the Elizabeth Bishop in Glasgow conference. 

Zahra Tohidinia (Marketing)

Received funding to present her project titled “Consumer Definitions of Fast Fashion: Production vs. Consumption Ontologies Reflected in an Online Forum” in Academy of Marketing 2023 conference. The findings of our project indicate that, while some consumers focus on the fashion industry itself as the main driver of their definition of fast fashion, others define it by emphasizing their consumption patterns."