Thomas Critchfield of the Department of Psychology and Issam Nassar of the Department of History have been named Outstanding University Researchers. They will be honored at Illinois State University’s Founders Day celebration on February 15.
Thomas Critchfield
Critchfield received his Ph.D. in psychology from West Virginia University and a postdoctoral fellowship sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at Johns Hopkins University Medical School. Following a short stint as assistant professor at Illinois State, he earned tenure and promotion at Auburn University in 1995. He returned to Illinois State in 1998. Since his return, he has published 90 peer-reviewed works and additional scholarly publications leaving him with well over 100 works in print. On top of his many scholarly honors, including fellowships with the American Psychological Association and Association for Behavior Analysis International, he has been editor, associate editor, and guest editor for nine of the top journals in the field.
Issam Nassar
Nassar joined Illinois State University in 2006 after earning his Doctor of Arts degree in history at Illinois State in 1997, and after brief appointments at Al-Quds University, the Institute of Jerusalem Studies, and the University of California at Berkeley. Nassar’s scholarship has focused on Palestine and Greater Syria in the Ottoman and colonial periods. Since his arrival at Illinois State he has authored a book, edited seven volumes, authored eight journal articles, 10 chapters in scholarly books, four essays, and numerous convention papers and reviews. He has an additional two forthcoming textbooks. He has served as editor of the Jerusalem Quarterly and as an advisor for a PBS documentary about the peaceful period in Palestine before World War I.
