Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

Brett Fajen conducts research on perception and action. His main interests are the visual control of locomotion and perceptual-motor learning and adaptation. His research on these topics contributes to the development of the ecological and dynamical systems approaches to perception and action. “If you have ever been awed by the performance of a professional athlete, then you can appreciate some of the challenges that are faced when executing a skilled action,” said Fajen. “Such tasks require rapid decision-making, anticipation, and coordination.

I am an anthropologically-oriented STS scholar working at the intersection of community engagement, design research and pedagogy, and environmental justice. My scholarly work on the contexts that enable effective collaboration, communication, and engagement is rooted in interdisciplinary research that centers both STS and non-academic perspectives.

Branda Miller is an internationally recognized media artist, and Professor of Media Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  Her media art works have been screened at festivals, museums and exhibitions, broadcast nationally and internationally, and used in community organizing and education. She is an Emmy award-winning editor who has worked in the media industry of L.A.

Dr. van Heuveln is a passionate educator who continually tries to improve the effectiveness of the many different undergraduate courses he teaches in the areas of cognitive science, logic, artificial intelligence, critical thinking, and the philosophy of mind. Dr. van Heuveln’s research is in the area of visual logic: using visual representations to perform and enhance logical reasoning. Dr.

I am an experimental economist. My research is mainly focused on identity economics, social preferences, and discrimination. I am also interested in understanding human interaction with technology and technology’s impacts on economic outcomes. At RPI, I teach Behavioral Financial Economics and Experimental Economics. In my Behavioral Financial Economics course, we discuss emotional and cognitive biases and how they impact our financial and economic decisions.

Dr. Weissman's research focuses on meaning in conversation from a cognitive and linguistic perspective. With a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Weissman has conducted research at the intersections of pragmatics, psycholinguistics, and experimental linguistics. His dissertation investigated the effects of context and different types of linguistic meaning on lie judgments; current research expands on this topic. In addition, Dr.

Ben Chang is an electronic artist and director of the Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences program at Rensselaer.

Alicia Walf is a neuroscientist and educator at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute whose research interests are fueled by the broad question: Why are there individual differences in stress? This question led to studying hormones' actions for growth and plasticity in the brain and body. She has since refined her pursuit to include consideration of body, brain, and mind relationships as they relate to memory, perception, social cognition and emotions. Dr. Walf has taken a cross-species and cross-discipline approach in her work. Dr.

Abby Kinchy is a sociologist, working in the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies (STS). Her research and teaching focus on the politics of environmental pollution and the relationship between science and democratic engagement. She became the head of the STS Department at Rensselaer in January 2023. 

Michael Blostein is an active and in-demand low brass performer throughout the Capital Region, performing with groups such as the Dominant 5 Brass Quintet and Old Time Dance Band (tuba), Brass-O-Mania (bass trombone) and numerous other ensembles on tenor trombone, bass trombone and tuba. He is an active clinician and guest conductor, working closely with local organizations such as the Empire State Youth Orchestra and the Delmar Community Orchestra.