Faculty

Economics:

*Chris Finaret  Regional focus: Central Africa, Colombia. Areas of interest: development economics; policy, strategy, and programming evaluation.

Steve Onyeiwu  Regional focus: Sub-Saharan Africa, with secondary interest in North Africa/the Middle East.  Areas of interest: structural adjustment, multinational corporations, globalization, economic/industrial development, and political economy. On sabbatic leave spring 2022.

History:

Kalé Haywood  Regional focus: Latin America. Areas of interest: colonialism and the era of independence, Mexican history, and ecclesiastical and institutional history.

*Brian JK Miller  Regional focus: Middle East, Germany.  Areas of interest: transnational migration, history of development, gender studies, nationalism, and press censorship.

Ken Pinnow  Regional focus: Russia, Eastern Europe.  Areas of interest: history of medicine, global health, and the technologies of modern governance (statistics, censuses, social science criminology, etc.).

Guo Wu  Regional focus: China.  Areas of interest: late Imperial China, 20th century Chinese intellectual history, print culture, nationalism, liberalism and anarchism, modern Chinese literature and film.

Modern and Classical Languages:

Wilfredo Hernández  Regional focus: Latin America.  Areas of interest: gender studies in modern and contemporary Latin America with a focus on Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela, same-sex issues in the Hispanic world. On sabbatic leave, 2021-22 academic year.

Teresa Herrera  Regional focus: Spain.  Areas of interest: nineteenth- and early-twentieth century Spanish theater, ideology studies, and Spanish television during the transition. 

*Reem Hilal  Regional focus: Middle East.  Areas of interest: contemporary Arabic Literature, Arab American literature, identity, diasporic Muslim and Arab communities.

Briana Lewis  Regional focus: France.  Areas of interest: nineteenth-century French literature, particularly the novel and the works of Victor Hugo; questions of individual, political, and social identity.

Julia Ludewig  Regional focus: German-speaking countries.  Areas of interest: GDR history; current cultural and political developments in German speaking countries; popular culture, especially visual culture

Laura Reeck  Regional focus: France, North Africa.  Areas of interest: contemporary culture and society, the banlieue cultural field, postcolonial immigration and diaspora, the North African community in France. On sabbatic leave, 2021-22 academic year.

Barbara Riess  Regional focus: Latin America.  Areas of interest: Translation Studies, Women’s Studies, feminism and feminist criticism, nationalisms and intellectual history, Latino identity and cultural production in the U.S.

Xiaoling Shi  Regional focus: China.  Areas of interest: Cross-cultural Studies, Chinese cinema, Chinese intellectual history. 

Political Science:

*Shanna Kirschner  Regional focus: Middle East.  Areas of interest: Middle Eastern politics, especially in the Levant, ethnic conflict, and civil war, international organizations, human rights, and democratization.

*Shannan Mattiace  Regional focus: Latin America.  Areas of interest: social movements in Mexico and Latin America, immigration to the U.S., U.S.-Mexican border issues, Latin American economic history.

Rebecca Oliver  Regional focus: Europe.  Areas of interest: European politics, comparative political economy, political institutions, inequality, social policy, and labor politics.

Sharon Wesoky  Regional focus: China.  Areas of interest: gender, globalization and state-society relations in China and East Asia, feminism, civil society, and intellectual criticism in contemporary China.

Religious Studies/Philosophy:

Matthew Mitchell Regional focus: East Asia. Areas of Interest: Buddhism, East Asian Religions, Islam, Women in religion, pilgrimage, fundraising, early modern history

* denotes member of Steering Committee