Gregg Lee Carter, Professor and Chair

Welcome to the Web site of the Department of History & Social Sciences at Bryant University. We are the largest Department on campus, and growing. Our 18 full-time and 12 part-time faculty members are dedicated teachers who serve the greater University community in many ways, including serving on major committees and having a high profile at many campus events. Most of our full-time faculty have distinguished themselves in research and publication, and in a typical year they publish, in total, several books and more than 3 dozen scholarly articles and book chapters; they also average more than 3 dozen conference presentations and usually organize a half dozen or more sessions for their various professional association meetings.

If I may be of any assistance, please do not hesitate to send me e-mail at gcarter@bryant.edu. If you have any questions about our Web site, or have any suggestions that might make it more useful, please contact our web editor, Professor Michael Fraleigh, at fraleigh@bryant.edu.

About the Department

The Department of History & Social Sciences is home to five separate academic disciplines (see the navigation bar at the top of this page). The department offers courses leading to the Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and to the Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts with concentrations in History, and in Global Studies. Minor areas of concentration are offered in the areas of Africana/Black Studies, History, Latin American and Latina/Latino Studies, Legal Studies, Political Science, Sociology, Sociology and Service Learning, and Women’s Studies.

Employment Opportunities

The Department of History and Social Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at Bryant University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Political Science to begin in the fall 2009. The department seeks a teacher/scholar to teach introductory courses on Global Politics, Comparative Politics, and Social Science Research Methods, as well as advanced courses in their area of expertise, either the politics of Asia or of Europe. 

Please see http://employment.bryant.edu for more information or to submit materials.

History senior seminar presentations.

• Tim Cole, “Insurance & Entrepreneurship in 19th C. rural Maine”
• Rory Whipple, “Iran-Contra Affair”
• Alex Bartholomew, “Political Cartoons of the Irish Potato Famine/Irish Immigration”
• Peter Connors, “Media Perceptions of State-Owned Oil in Venezuela”

Students in Professor Judy Barrett Litoff’s course, U.S. Women and World War II, have partnered with North Bay Manor in Smithfield, RI to film and conduct oral histories of women of the World War II generation. Their final research projects will consist of presentations based on these oral histories.

April 8 at 7:30 pm in Papitto in the Bryant Center
     Sergei N. Khrushchev, scholar on Russia, discusses “Russian Economic and Cultural Reform.”

April 10
     Conference on the impact of incarceration on the children of inmates featuring state leaders and national experts.

April 14 at 4 pm in MRC 4
      Honors Colloquium: Kristin Lynch advised by Judy Litoff, “Active Service Women during WWII: Helping to Create a New American Culture”

April 15 at 3 pm in the MRC Dining Room
     Reception for Legal Studies Professor Julia Gladstone

April 15 at 4 pm in MRC 3
     Honors Colloquium: Lisa DiNapoli advised by Judy Litoff, “The Girl Scouts of Rhode Island: ‘Shaping Girls into Extraordinary Women’”

April 17 at 3 pm in Papitto in the Bryant Center
     Presentation on the proposed Center for Community Engagement at Bryant University.

April 18 at noon in Papitto in the Bryant Center
     A conversation with RI Attorney General Patrick Lynch

April 18 at 1 in the Career Education presentation room
     Spotlight on the Liberal Arts presentations for admitted students

April 22 at 12:30 in the Heritage Room in the Bryant Center
      Brenda Connors, Professor, US Naval War College will present “Human Communication: The Nature of Embodiment.” Connors is a movement analyst who explores patterns of movement and their connection to decision-making and leadership style of figures such as Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro and Vladimir Putin.

April 22 at 3:30 pm in M44
    Ian Klaus, author or “Elvis is Titanic: Classroom Tales from the Other Iraq” will be speaking about his book and his experiences teaching English and American history to Kurdish university students in Iraq in the spring of 2005.  Klaus will be talking to a Middle East politics class, but the talk is open to the public.

April 23 at 4 pm in Nick’s Place in the Bryant Center
     Micheline Slattery invited by Amnesty International will present “21st Century Slavery: Living Proof,” on human trafficking, Haiti, and her personal experiences.

April 24 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm in Room 279.
      Ray Maietta of RESEARCHTALK will present a seminar on the philosophy of qualitative data analysis (QDA), how QDA can be enhanced by the use of the appropriate software, and demonstrate three of the more popular packages: ATLAS.ti, HyperRESEARCH and MAXQDA.

April 24 at 7:30 pm in the Chace Wellness Center
      David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, will speak in the Trustee Speaker Series on “The Presidency.

April 28 at 6 pm in the Bello Grand Hall
      RI Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis invited by Bryant’s Legal Studies Society will speak about election law and the role of the Secretary of State.

April 30 at 2 pm
     Sociology recognizes graduating majors and kicks off honor society.

April 30 at 2 pm
     History senior seminar presentations. 
         Tim Cole, “Insurance & Entrepreneurship in 19th C. rural Maine”
       Rory Whipple, “Iran-Contra Affair”
       Alex Bartholomew, “Political Cartoons of the Irish Potato Famine/Irish Immigration”
      Peter Connors, “Media Perceptions of State-Owned Oil in Venezuela”

May 1 at 11 am in M44
      Greg Gause, professor of Political Science at the University of Vermont, speaking on “The Consequences of the Iraq War:  What Now for American Policy?”  Gause will be talking to a Middle East politics class, but the talk is open to the public.

May 12 at 9:30 am- 1:30 pm
       Meeting of community partners, faculty and staff to discuss partnerships and evaluating our current work.

May 17
      George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States, will present Bryant University’s undergraduate Commencement address.

The Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Law delves into the legal and political aspects of modern society.  The degree requires ten courses of in-depth study that allows students to move from being spectators to active citizens with the capacity to shape decisions and contribute to a successful democratic society.

The Politics and Law degree unites the complementary disciplines of Political Science and Legal Studies. Students majoring in Politics and Law develop an understanding of both domestic and foreign political and judicial systems. They learn about other countries’ politics and societies, examine global interactions, and explore ethical and intellectual debates that shape personal and societal choices.

For more information, visit click here.

All students in Associate Professor of History and Social Sciences Sandra Enos’ sociology classes have the opportunity to take part in service learning projects. They apply their classroom knowledge to research an issue affecting the community and devise ways to create real systematic change.

Last spring two students, Micaela Maynard ’08 (North Yarmouth, ME) and Eric Goncalo ’08 (North Dartmouth, MA), in Enos’ Contemporary Social Problems class, collaborated with the Rhode Island Department of Corrections (RIDOC) to develop a guide for families and friends of inmates at the Intake Service Center of the Adult Correctional Institute in Cranston.

After discussing issues that affect the prison systems, the pair determined that there was a lack of information available to those who keep in contact with inmates.

“We realized the importance of family and healthy relationships for inmates while they are incarcerated,” says Maynard, a sociology and service learning major. Though as Goncalo, points out, “We also learned about the complexity of the issues that family members face while their loved ones are in prison.”

Facilitating contact between inmates and their families is critical because research shows that inmates who receive regular visits from family members and friends have lower recidivism rates once they are released. One landmark 1972 study on the California prison system determined that prisoners with no visitors were six times more likely to reenter prison during the first year of parole compared to those with three or more regular visitors.    

After poring over RIDOC policy manuals, the pair created a guide that answers frequently asked questions about mail procedures, visiting information, medical treatment, inmate accounts, and telephone use and important phone numbers.

The RIDOC printed the brochures in English and Spanish and began giving them to family and friends last month.

Maynard describes a service learning project “as a hands-on approach to learning course material. It is beneficial in that once we learn about an idea or concept in the classroom, we are then able to apply it to a prevalent issue in society.”

Goncalo says the project was a “unique opportunity to learn about a particular issue outside of the classroom that gives you hands-on experience and a chance to work towards a solution.”

Through these projects, students are able to explore a social problem and take steps to make change. “Most importantly I learned the value and importance placed upon family and visitors by the inmates and how crucial they are for the inmates’ rehabilitation,” says Maynard.

Enos says that in addition to gaining awareness about issues affecting the community, the students learn more about themselves. At the end of the semester, her students reflect on their work as part of an assignment titled “Where I Stand.”

“The students have a better idea of social problems and their power to make change,” says Enos. “Problems could seem overwhelming but there is always something that can be done.”

Says Maynard, one of the first students to change her major to Sociology when it was unveiled in 2006, “There is a sense of pride and accomplishment knowing that you are actually impacting real-life situations.”

Students electing the social research and data analysis curriculum will take courses that foster a deep understanding of sociology’s distinctive perspective on human behavior, and they will develop powerful problem-identifying, problem solving skills useful across a broad range of employment sectors or as preparation for graduate study. Students are introduced to the latest technology for collecting and analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data, and they learn to interpret their findings to communicate solutions to complex problems. This course of study leads to a liberal arts minor in Sociology, or a B. A. in Sociology with an emphasis in Sociology and Social Research.

Students who choose the service learning and leadership curriculum will combine service with learning in a variety of courses that continually challenge them to apply sociological theory and methods to unscripted, real world problems. By combining service to the community with rigorous classroom study, students develop an intuitive, practical understanding of sociology’s perspective. Working in close partnership with leaders of service organizations and philanthropic foundations, students gain important skills enabling them to identify problems, communicate vision, and negotiate solutions in diverse settings. This course of study leads to a liberal arts minor in Sociology and Service Learning, or a B. A. in Sociology with an emphasis in Sociology and Service Learning.

As students engage in their foundational sociology courses, they have an opportunity to explore each of these two approaches to sociology, discovering the best fit for them. In either case, the B. A. in sociology program will foster a deep understanding of the sociological perspective and its methods. Coupled with an array of business courses and a solid grounding in the liberal arts, the study of sociology at Bryant will contribute substantially to the skills and habits of mind necessary for a fulfilling life and a rewarding career.