Faculty: Department of First-Year Studies

First-Year Studies faculty serve a critical role at the College, advising new students as they transition to college life.

Faculty

  • Ann M. Roberts
    James D. Vail III Professor of Art

    Areas of Study:  ancient, medieval, and early modern art history

  • Richard Pettengill

    Associate Professor of Theater, Chair of Theater

    Areas of Study: dramaturgy, performance studies, renaissance drama, theater history

  • Dawn Abt-Perkins
    Director of Writing Programs and Professor of Education

    Areas of Study: secondary and multicultural education

  • Robert B. Glassman
    Professor of Psychology

    Areas of Study: neuroscience, learning and memory, evolutionary theory, general psychology, philosophy of science and religion

  • Robert Holliday

    Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science

    Areas of Study:  computer science, combinatorics

  • Steven Rosswurm
    Professor of History

    Areas of Study:  American history, Mexican history 

  • Desmond Odugu
    Assistant Professor of Education

    Areas of Study: International and Comparative Education

  • Jason A. Cody
    Associate Professor     of Chemistry

    Areas of Study: inorganic chemistry, solid state chemistry

  • David Boden
    Associate Professor of Sociology and Chair of Sociology and Anthropology

    Areas of Study:  cultural sociology, law and social policy, research methods, community and identity

  • Holly Swyers
    Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of Urban Studies

    Areas of Study: U.S. culture, 20th-21st century education, sports, community development and maintenance

  • Benjamin Goluboff
    Associate Professor of English

    Areas of Study: American literature, nineteenth-century literature, literature and the environment

  • Matthew R. Kelley
    Associate Professor of Psychology

    Areas of Study: cognitive psychology, learning and memory, research methods and statistics

  • Siobhan Moroney
    Associate Professor of Politics

    Areas of Study:  political theory, American politics

  • Rui Zhu
    Associate Professor of Philosophy

    Areas of Study:  Asian and comparative philosophy, Plato, philosophy of mind

  • Evan Oxman

    Assistant Professor of Politics

    Areas of Study: political philosophy, democratic theory, American politics

  • Tracy Marie Taylor
    Assistant Professor of Art

    Areas of Study: design, computer imaging, digital photography

  • Pliny A. Smith
    Assistant Professor of Biology

    Areas of Study: organismal, molecular, and developmental biology

  • Lynn C. Westley
    Assistant Professor of Biology

    Areas of Study: physiological ecology of plants

  • Kent Grote
    Assistant Professor of Economics and Business

    Areas of Study:  finance, investment analysis, industrial organization

  • Susan M. Long
    Assistant Professor of Psychology

    Areas of Study: community psychology, violence against women, women in poverty, and community interventions

  • Robert Chad McCracken
     Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Chair of Social Justice

    Areas of Study: philosophy of law, political philosophy, analytic philosophy, history of philosophy

  • Emilie Sweet Amrein
    Assistant Professor of Music

    Areas of Study: choral music, conducting, music history, music theory, musicianship

  • Dustin Mengelkoch
    Assistant Professor of English

    Areas of Study: Ancient and Early Modern Literature, Neo-Latin, History of the Book, Literary Criticism

  • Elizabeth Benacka

    Lecturer in Communication

    Areas of Study:  rhetoric of humor, rhetorical theory and criticism, feminist rhetoric

  • Randall Iden

    Lecturer in Communication

    Areas of Study:  rhetoric of economics, argumentation theory, classical rhetoric