Brooklyn College Welcomes New Faculty

Zinga Fraser, Africana Studies

Zinga Fraser

Zinga Fraser is no stranger to Brooklyn College. She already serves as the director of the college’s Shirley Chisholm Project Before that, she was an endowed post-doctoral fellow in the Women’s and Gender Studies program. This year, she adds the title of assistant professor in the Africana Studies department, bringing her expertise in black politics, black women’s history, and feminism. She has a bachelor of arts in political science from Temple University, a master of arts from the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University, and a doctorate in African-American studies focusing on race, politics, and culture from Northwestern University. Her dissertation focused on Barbara Jordan and Shirley Chisholm and black women’s politics in the post civil rights era.

Alexandra Jeanne Juhasz, Film 

Alexandra Jeanne Juhasz

Alexandra Jeanne Juhasz joined the college this summer as a professor and the new chair of the film department, heading the school’s undergraduate program, as well as the new graduate program at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema. She has a diverse resume that includes filmmaking, media studies, and political activism. She produced the groundbreaking film, The Watermelon Woman, the first feature film about and directed by a lesbian woman, as well as The Owls. She has also produced more than a dozen educational documentaries on issues such as teenage sexuality, AIDS, and sex education. Her current research is about online feminist pedagogy, YouTube, and other uses of digital media. She received her Ph.D. in media studies from New York University, and her bachelor’s degree in American Studies and English from Amherst College. 

Reynaldo Ortiz-Minaya, Puerto Rican and Latino Studies

Reynaldo Ortiz-Minaya

Reynaldo Ortiz-Minaya is a new assistant professor in the department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies who is conducting research on the emerging global trend of mass incarceration, specifically looking at the uptick of prison populations in the Middle East and the Caribbean. He recently received a Fulbright exchange scholarship to visit Pakistan, where prisons are 200 percent over capacity. He has taught at a number of colleges and universities, including CUNY’s Borough of Manhattan Community College. His Ph.D. dissertation looked at slave labor, and his scholarship has explored the links between slavery and prison. He received his Ph.D. with highest distinction from the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he also earned a master’s degree in sociology. He has a bachelor’s degree in sociology and Latin American studies from Drew University.

For more on Ortiz-Minaya check him out on the Brooklyn College YouTube channel.

Kristie Rupp, Kinesiology

Kristie Rupp

Kristie Rupp joins the college as a new professor, having just completed her Ph.D. in physiology at the University of Pittsburgh. She is an assistant professor of exercise science whose research focuses on physical activity, energy balance, and weight management, among other related topics. She has been a group exercise instructor as well as a personal trainer. Her doctoral dissertation focused on household support for physical activity in adolescent females in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods. She has both a master and bachelor of science degree in exercise physiology from the University of Miami.

For more on Rupp, check her out on the Brooklyn College YouTube channel.

Jean Eddy Saint Paul, Haitian Studies Institute at Brooklyn College

Jean Eddy Saint Paul

Jean Eddy Saint Paul is a professor and the founding director of the Haitian Studies Institute at Brooklyn College. He comes from the Universidad de Guanajuato in Mexico. He is a distinguished scholar on Haiti and Mexico, having conducted research on civil society and the political process in Haiti, comparative and political sociology of the Haitian state and ruling class, and the intersection of politics and religion in Haiti and Mexico. Saint Paul has a Ph.D. in social science with a specialization in sociology from El Colegio de México, a master’s degree in Latin American studies from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Columbia, and a bachelor’s degree in social work from the State University of Haiti. 

For more on Saint Paul, check him out on the Brooklyn College YouTube channel.

Jonathan Zalben, Conservatory of Music

Jonathan Zalben

Jonathan Zalben joins the Brooklyn College’s music composition program having already compiled an impressive resume working on scores for film, television, concerts, and interactive media installations. He has written music for films by HBO, Lionsgate, Discovery, and Sony Pictures Classics, including the Oscar-nominated Redemption. Zalben runs a music licensing company, First Frame Music. He has taught at Yale University, The New School, Bloomfield College, and CUNY’s York College. He has a master of arts in multimedia and music composition from New York University, a bachelor of arts in music from Yale University and studied violin and composition in the pre-college division at The Julliard School.