Humanities, Social Science, Social Work & Education

Associate Professor of Psychology

Academic Degrees Achieved: Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Northwestern University; Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; B.A., University of Michigan

Awards  -  Diversifying Faculty in Illinois (DFI) Fellowship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006-2009 -  Evelyn Hobson Fellowship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Fall 2008 -  Graduate College Fellowship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2002-2005  

Research Interests -  My main research seeks to explore children’s representations, how children understand or conceptualize some of the biological phenomena surrounding them.  Most of my work has focused on exploring the input of different contexts (e.g., family, media, school, culture, religion) on children’s conceptualizations of life and death, including how cultural and/or religious beliefs play a significant role in the way they understand and cope with death situations.  I have also looked at how children’s representations guide their actions and thoughts.  More specifically, why young children commit scale errors, behaviors where young children attempt to perform actions on objects that are too small to accommodate the behavior at hand.

Relevant Publications -  Rosengren, K. S., Gutiérrez, I. T., & Jiang, M. J. (under review). Using mixed methods in developmental psychology: From scale errors to death.    Gutiérrez, I. T., Rosengren, K. S., & Miller, P. J. (in press).  In B. Rogoff, R. Mejía-Arauz, & M. Correa-Chávez (Eds.), Children learn by observing and contributing to family and community endeavors: A cultural paradigm.   Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 49.  Gutiérrez, I. T., Miller, P. J., Rosengren, K. S., & Schein, S. S. (2014).  Affective dimensions of death:  Children’s books, questions, and understandings.  In K. S. Rosengren, P. J. Miller, I. T. Gutiérrez, P. I. Chow, S. S. Schein, & K. N. Anderson, Children’s understanding of death: Toward a contextualized and integrated account. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 79(1, Serial no. 312), 43-61.  Gutiérrez, I. T., Rosengren, K. S., & Miller, P. J. (2014).  Mexican American immigrants in the Centerville region:  Teachers, children and parents.  In K. S. Rosengren, P. J. Miller, I. T. Gutiérrez, P. I. Chow, S. S. Schein, & K. N. Anderson, Children’s understanding of death: Toward a contextualized and integrated account. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 79(1, Serial no. 312), 97-112.  Rosengren, K. S., Gutiérrez, I. T., & Schein, S. S. (2014).  Cognitive dimensions of death in context.  In K. S. Rosengren, P. J. Miller, I. T. Gutiérrez, P. I. Chow, S. S. Schein, & K. N. Anderson, Children’s understanding of death: Toward a contextualized and integrated account. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 79(1, Serial no. 312), 62-82.  Rosengren, K. S., & Gutiérrez, I. T. (2011).  Searching for coherence in a complex world:  Introduction to the special issue on explanatory coexistence.  Human Development, 54(3), 123-125.  doi:10.1159/000329126   Rosengren, K. S., Schein, S. S., & Gutiérrez, I. T. (2010).  Individual differences in children’s production of scale errors.  Infant Behavior and Development, 33, 309-313.  doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2010.03.011 Gutiérrez, I. T. (2009).  Understanding death in cultural context:  A study of Mexican children and their families (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Illinois, Champaign.  Rosengren, K. S., Carmichael, C., Schein, S. S., Anderson, K. N., & Gutiérrez, I. T. (2009).  A method for eliciting scale errors in preschool classrooms.  Infant Behavior and Development, 32, 286-290.  doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2009.03.001 Rosengren, K. S., Gutiérrez, I. T., Anderson, K. N. & Schein, S. S. (2009). Parental reports of children’s scale errors in everyday life.  Child Development, 80, 1586-1591.  doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01355.x  Gutiérrez, I. T. (2005).  Young children’s storybooks as a source of information about death.  Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Illinois, Champaign.  

Grants -  NSF Funds for Young Scholars’ participation in ISSBD 2010 (Award No. BCS-1026915), July 2010, $2,500. -  Life beyond death:  Young Mexican children’s conceptions of the afterlife, University of Oxford/John Templeton Foundation Small Grant, Northwestern University, 2010, $25,985. -  NSF - Psychology Research Grant Fund, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Spring 2008, $2,000.         -  NSF - SBE Travel Grant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, April - July 2007, $2,063.  

Editorial Experience -  Guest Editor, Human Development (2010-2011). Special issue on explanatory co-existence. -  Consulting Reviewer, Developmental Science, Infant and Child Development.

Program Coordinator
Professor - Human Services/Pre-Social Work

Academic Degrees Achieved: Ph.D., M.S.W., Rutgers University; B.A.S.W., Elizabethtown College

Measuring Quality of Life among Adults with Mental Retardation & other Developmental Disabilities (2005)  New Jersey's Self-determination Initiative: An exploratory evaluation   Voices of poverty: A content analysis 2011-2012 (2013)  "Preparing paraprofessionals empowering youth," a 3 year grant funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services. (2014-present)   

Associate Professor of History

Academic Degrees Achieved: Ph.D., M.Phil., City University of New York; M.A., Northern Illinois University; B.A., University of Iowa

I teach courses in U.S., African American, and Modern Latin American history and am completing a book entitled “Haitian Refugees and the Rebirth of Immigrant Detention in the United States, 1973 to 2000.”

Associate Professor of Education

Academic Degrees Achieved: M.Ed., Gratz College; B.S., University of Maryland, College Park; A.A., Centenary College

Doctorate of Educational Leadership, ABD, Fischler School of Education, Nova Southeastern University; Qualitative research study examining early readers and the implementation of intervention programs; Qualitative research study measuring student's perceptions of themselves as readers in the beginning and mid-year of first grade with regard to the early intervention program delivered; TEAGLE Grant; 3M Grant

Associate Professor

Academic Degrees Achieved: Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University
 

Temporary Full Time Instructor

Academic degrees achieved: M.S., Cognitive Psychology - Florida State University, 2010; M.A., Public Policy, Monmouth University, 2018

Awards, research & grants:
Seton Hall University College of Arts and Sciences Adjunct Professor of the Year, 2015

Professor

Academic Degrees Achieved: B.A., M.A., Temple University; Ph.D., University of Chicago

Associate Professor

Academic Degrees Achieved: Ph.D., Southern California University; A.B.D., Graduate Center of the City of New York; M.A., B.A., University of Wisconsin; Other Education:  Regents College (Nursing)  and University of Southern California (Gerontology)               

Selected Participant, Workshop in Nagasaki and Hiroshima on Atomic Bombings in 1945; Mid-Career Fellowship, Princeton University (twice);  Participant, NEH Landmarks Program, “History and Commemoration:  Legacies of the Pacific War;”  Recipient, Freeman Foundation Fellowship, “Teaching About Japan,” Tokai University; NISOD Excellence Award recipient; Participant, Summer Institute, "Infusing Southeast Asian Studies into the Undergraduate Curriculum" at East-West Center; Selected Participant for NEH-sponsored program "Cultures of Authority in Asian Practice;" Selected Participant, "Infusing Asian Studies into the Undergraduate Curriculum," East-West Center; Fellowship, Internationalizing the Curriculum Project, New Jersey Department of Higher Education; Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute, "Columbus and the Age of Discovery;" Selected Participant, New Jersey Department of Higher Education Summer Institute on Multicultural Education; Invited Participant, New Jersey Department of Higher Education and Rutgers University, "Summer Institute on the Middle East;" Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for College Teachers, "American Journalism in a Historical Perspective;" Summer Fellowship, U. S. Department of Education Group Projects Abroad, "Jamaica:  Education, Culture and Economic Development Project"        

Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Academic degrees achieved:
Ph.D.,  Anthropology, Columbia University
M.A., Anthropology, Columbia University
M.A.A., Anthropology, University of Maryland
B.A., Anthropology and Geography, Indiana University

Instructor

Academic Degrees Achieved: B.A., Fairleigh Dickinson University; M.S., Ph.D., Ohio University.

Awards, Research & Grants:
Certificate for Online Teaching, Ohio University 2017
Scholarly Tool for Qnaititative Reasoning, Ohio University 2017

Research interests:
My research program focuses on Intergroup Threat Theory (ITT). According to ITT, prejudice is a function of two types of threat: realistic and symbolic threat. Realistic threat refers to concerns about the in-group’s power, resources, and well-being, whereas symbolic threat refers concerns about the in-group’s values, identity, and way of life. Broadly, my research suggests that majority group members (i.e., White Americans) respond to reminders of increasing diversity with higher perceived threat - symbolic and realistic. Although these two types of threat both predict increases in prejudice, research also finds threat-specific effects. For example, reminders of immigrants entering the U.S. workforce increases realistic threat for majority group members. In contrast, majority group members feel greater symbolic threat from Muslim Americans because of stereotypes about this group as not “assimilating” to mainstream culture (e.g., threats to American values). Students involved in my program of research have had opportunities to learn and participate in very important and timely research with respect to stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.

Relevant Publications:
Howell, J. L., Sosa, N., & Osborn, H. (2019). The Need-Satisfaction Framework of Self Esteem: Self-esteem as a Monitor of Fundamental Need Satisfaction. Social and Personality Compass, 2019;e12492
Sosa, N. & Rios, K. (2019). The Utilitarian Scientist: The Humanization of Scientists in Moral Dilemmas. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 84, 103818
Rios, K., Sosa, N., & Osborn, J. (2018). An experimental approach to Intergroup Threat Theory: Manipulations, moderators, and consequences of realistic vs. symbolic threat. European Review of Social Psychology, 29(1), 212-255.
Osborn, H., Sosa, N., & Rios, K. (2017) Assimilation. In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Behavior. (pp. 34-37). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Sosa, N. & Howell, J. L. (2017). Ego-depletion. In Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. (pp. 1-3). Springer International Publishing.
Osborn, H., Sosa, N., & Rios, K. (revise & resubmit). Perceiving Demographic Diversity as a Threat: Effects of Interethnic Ideologies. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations.
Lindberg, M., Sosa, N., & Markman, K. D., (under review). They Lost So That They Could Live: The Meaning Making Function of Counterfactual Thinking. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Thomas, S., Markman, K. D., Sosa, N. (under review). You are what you read: Experience-taking in story narratives predicts subsequent performance. Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology.

Professor - Education

Academic Degrees Achieved: Ed.D., Organizational Leadership, Stockton University; M.Ed., The College of New Jersey; B.S., Rider University; Elementary Classroom Teacher Certificate (N-8); NJ DoE Supervisor of Instruction Certificate; NJ DoE Certificate of Recognition; National Staff Development Council Academy XVI

Excellence in Teacher Preparation, Exemplary Faculty nominee, Showcase of Exemplary Practices, Office of Secretary of Higher Education and NJ Association of Colleges for Teacher Education; Elevating and Celebrating Effective Teaching and Teachers, First Higher Ed faculty nominee and attendee, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Teagle Foundation Grant for Civic Engagement, RVCC Faculty Lead; EDUC students earned Board's Service Learning Leadership Award twice for Teach2Matter at RVCC;  EDUC students invited to keynote MLK, Jr. Community Partners' Breakfast

Instructor of Philosophy

Academic Degrees Achieved: Ph.D., The New School; M.A., Stony Brook University; B.A., Philosophy, Temple University; B.A., Physics, Temple University.