Faculty By Department

SAFD Fight Master, Fight Director, and Certified Teacher -- Brian has taught at institutes, colleges and universities across the country. His work as a Fight Director includes New York, regional, and repertory theatres; opera and ballet companies; and "motion capture" animation companies in the U.S. and Sweden. Brian is an AEA actor, works regularly as a director, and has also written several plays that have been professionally produced.

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Since first training with the Old Globe in the mid-eighties, Mr. Chambers has worked as a classical actor and director with numerous regional theatres across the country. For nearly two decades as an Associate Artist with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Ray has worked as actor, director, writer, and instructor and served as Director of the Master of Fine Arts/Professional Actor Training Program at ASF from 2001-2009. Regional acting credits include title roles in Hamlet, The Count of Monte Cristo, Richard III, Coriolanus, King John, Henry V, Tartuffe; and leading roles in Julius Caesar, The Winter's Tale, The Rivals, Henry IV, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Great Expectations, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Saint Joan among many others. Credits at the Old Globe include Antony and Cleopatra, The Comedy of Errors, The School for Scandal, Coriolanus, Love’s Labours Lost, Hamlet and Macbeth. He has taught Acting and Classical Text in master classes and workshops for universities and theatres around the country and has served as a national board member of the University/Resident Theatre Association.

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Jan Gist has been the Resident Voice and Speech Coach at The Old Globe since Summer 2001. Prior to that, she was the Voice and Speech coach at Alabama Shakespeare Festival for 140 productions.

Other credits include Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespearean Festival, The Shakespeare Theatre, Arena Stage, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, PlayMakers’ Repertory. Film credits include The Rosa Parks Story. Other teaching credits include California State University, Long Beach, Cal. Rep. Co., PlayMakers’ Rep., Voice And Speech Trainers Association Conference, Shakespeare's Shapely Language, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Carnegie Mellon University.

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An award-winning actor and director, Richard Seer has directed and/or performed on Broadway, off-Broadway, on film and television, and in over seventy productions at regional theatres in this country and Great Britain, including: The Goodman Theatre, The Kennedy Center, The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, Washington’s Playwrights’ Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Studio Arena Theatre, The Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, and The Sybil Thorndike Repertory Theatre in England, to name a few. 

He originated the role of Young Charlie in the 1978 Tony award-winning production of Hugh Leonard’s Da.  He received the Theatre World Award for his performance.  As The Old Globe’s resident director, he has directed productions of The Price, Romeo & Juliet, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Trying, Fiction, Blue/Orange (Critics Circle Award), All My Sons, Da, and Old Wicked Songs (Patte Award). Other recent directing assignments include Third for the Huntington Theatre Company and Sonia Flew for the San Jose Repertory Theatre. 

He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in directing from Boston University, where he was awarded the prestigious Kahn Directing Award in 1985.  In 1990 he was invited to return to Boston University’s School for the Arts as an Associate Professor of acting and directing.  Professor Seer has been Director of The Old Globe/University of San Diego Graduate Theatre program since 1993.

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Alana Cordy-Collins, PhD, joined the USD faculty in 1980.  She is a professor of Anthropology and director of the David W. May American Indian Collection and Gallery. In the Department of Anthropology, Cordy-Collins offers undergraduate courses in archaeology, shamanism, research, writing, and museology.  Her research focus is the prehistoric cultures of Peru, especially the Lambayeque, Moche, and Chavín-Cupisnique. She is currently most involved in comparative studies of shamanism, especially among Circum-Polar peoples, prehistoric and contemporary. Dr. Cordy-Collins has been awarded two USD University Professorships, one research-based and the other recognition-based.  She designed and organized the university’s American Indian Celebration (2002-2004).

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Before coming to USD, Jerome Hall, PhD, was the underwater archaeologist for Puerto Rico and president of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology.  His current research projects include the excavation of a 17th-century northern European merchant shipwreck off the north coast of the Dominican Republic, as well as the documentation and publication of a 1st-century boat recovered from the Sea of Galilee.

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Angelo Orona, PhD, focuses his field research on Creole island fisherman of Venezuela. His main area of interest is the ethnology of South American cultures.

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Can Bilsel is an architect and scholar specialized in modern architecture, museum displays and archaeological reconstructions. Bilsel received his Ph.D. in the History and Theory of Architecture at Princeton University. He holds a Master of Science degree from MIT School of Architecture, and a professional Bachelor of Architecture from Middle East Technical University in Turkey. He joined the faculty of the University of San Diego in 2002 where he is currently the Chair of the Department of Art, Architecture + Art History. Dr. Bilsel is also the founding director of the University of San Diego’s Architecture Program.

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Derrick Cartwright has taught a variety of art history courses at USD, most of them between 1992 and 1998, when he was an Assistant Professor in the department. He has also led major art institutions in Giverny, France, in Hanover, New Hampshire, San Diego, and Seattle before returning to USD in the fall of 2012 to fill a newly created position as Director of University Galleries and Professor of Practice. He is eager to engage students in the practical dimensions of working with art objects and collections as well as in the theoretical stakes of art historical research.

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Andrew Cross attended the Maine College of Art in Portland where he received his B.F.A. in photography in 1999. He remained in Portland, Maine, continued to teach photography in adult education, and worked in the commercial photography business. New England is where he first started his body of work and continued to travel across country to explore his photographic vision. With a strong interest and influence of the western landscape he pursued a M.F.A .in photography at the San Francisco Art Institute. Cross then moved to Los Angeles to work as a freelance photographer and continue his personal focus on the urban and rural American landscape. His photographs are published and exhibited nationally.  He continues to work commercially when not teaching or working on his personal work.

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Victoria Fu, MFA, teaches New Media courses at USD about film, video and time-based art. She previously taught Media/New Practices in the Department of Art at American University and is a visual artist who works in moving images, photography and drawing. Her work has been exhibited at De Appel, Amsterdam; Zona Mexico Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City; Gallery Loop, Seoul, Korea; Museo de la Ciudad, Quito, Ecuador; Frederieke Taylor Gallery, New York; among others. She has worked on curatorial and editorial projects for Éditions Centre Pompidou, Jasper Johns Catalogue Raisonné, Afterall Journal of Art, Context and Enquiry, USC Fisher Gallery, Otis College of Art+Design and the Musée d’Orsay. She is co-founder of ARTOFFICE.org, an organization established in 2006 dedicated to artists' film and video. Recipient of a 2008 Art Matters Grant, she was a participant of the Whitney Independent Study Program and artist-in-residence at Skowhegan and the Atlantic Center for the Arts.

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John Halaka is professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of San Diego, where he has taught since 1991. He is an activist artist whose creative work serves as a vehicle for meditation on personal, cultural and political concerns. He creates images and produces documentary films that raise questions, for himself as well as for the viewer, about some of the pressing issues of our time. The primary focus of his work over the past two and a half decades can be summarized as an ongoing reflection on the frailty and resilience of the human condition and the persistent search for self-realization in the face of personal and cultural self-delusion.

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Bill Kelly is a painter, printmaker, and sculptor as well as co-director of Brighton Press, an internationally known fine press artists’ book publisher, which he founded in 1980. Brighton Press books are housed in more than one hundred museum and library collections. His personal work is housed in numerous public and private collections in the United States, including the Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts in San Francisco, the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis, the Toledo Art Museum in Ohio. Kelly was awarded a Pollack Krasner Foundation Grant in 2002 and continues making art and books in Vermont and California.

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Daniel López-Pérez is an Assistant Professor in Architecture whose practice moves across academic and professional research in search of ways to expand the discipline of architecture in unprecedented ways.

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Juliana Maxim, PhD, teaches the history and theory of art and architecture. Her work centers on 20th century art, architecture and urbanism in Eastern Europe and on the relation between representation and political regimes, as well as on the question of "other" modernisms. Her PhD dissertation, "The New, the Old, the Modern:  Architecture and its Representation in Socialist Romania, 1955-1965" (MIT, 2006) examines how the architectural culture of postwar Romania sustained the regime's attempt to transform inhabitation and the city into a new collectivist environment.

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Duncan E. McCosker is a professor of Art and has taught undergraduate courses in a variety of media, specializing in photography.  He has taught here and in France and Japan.  His creative work in photography is focused on contemporary leisure and recreational space in Southern California and Australia with a special interest in the American experience.

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Saba Oskoui established the Visual Communications and the Computer Art areas of emphasis at the University of San Diego. In addition to her teaching, Oskoui has served as the Visual Arts Program coordinator and the Design Internship coordinator. She is one of the Visual Arts senior thesis advisors, and the coordinator for the Visual Arts junior reviews. Oskoui oversees the Visual Communications area of emphasis at the Department of Art.

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Jessica Patterson, PhD, combines interests in Asian languages and comparative religion with training in the history and theory of art. Her research focuses on the art and architecture of East and Southeast Asia, emphasizing the cultural collisions and intersections that characterized the nineteenth century. 

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Allison Wiese, an assistant professor, teaches sculpture and related topics. She is an interdisciplinary artist who makes sculptures, installations, sound works and architectural interventions. Wiese’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States at such venues as Machine Project in Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego and Socrates Sculpture Park in New York. She is the recipient of a 2007 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, and has received grants from Art Matters, Creative Capital and the Cultural Arts Council of Houston.

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Sally Yard, PhD, joined the faculty in 1989, and served as chair of the department of Art from 1992 through 1997. Yard writes about art since the second world war.  Her research interests stretch from the emergence of abstract expressionism in the United States to the relationship of art and its publics—whether in the contentious terrain of San Diego / Tijuana or the reflective realm of a museum garden.

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Lisa Baird, PhD, joined the biology faculty in 1988. In addition to teaching in the preparatory courses for biology majors, she teaches classes in plant physiology, electron microscopy and the senior seminar. Baird is a developmental plant physiologist with particular interest in plant stress responses to pathogens and insect predation and how these responses can be modulated by plant growth regulators.

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Terry Bird, PhD, joined the USD faculty in 2005. His primary teaching responsibilities include undergraduate lecture and laboratory courses in genetics and microbiology. His research is focused on elucidating the signal transduction systems used to regulate development in bacteria.

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Hugh Ellis, PhD, came to the Biology Department in 1980 after teaching three years at Iowa State University.  He is a physiological ecologist and teaches several ecological courses as well as two of the preparatory courses for the Biology and Marine Science majors.  His research is in the energetics of birds, looking at such topics as energy budgets, migration, and diving.  He has been a visiting research scientist at the University of Hawaii, Sydney University (Australia), and the Archbold Biological Station (Florida).  Dr. Ellis is affiliated with the Marine Science graduate program and is involved with the Center of Comparative Physiology in the Biology Department.

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Rick Gonzalez, PhD, joined the faculty in1992.  He teaches an upper-division “W” course in vertebrate physiology, senior seminar and introductory courses in the major.  He is a comparative animal physiologist focusing on the respiratory, acid-base, and ion regulation physiology of aquatic animals.

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Valerie Hohman, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1999 and teaches immunology, introduction to cell processes, and senior seminar.  Hohman is a comparative immunologist who is interested in the evolution of the immune system.  Her research focuses on identifying and characterizing molecules associated with secretory or mucosal immunity in the lower vertebrates.

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Curtis Loer, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1997, as the Fletcher Jones Chair in Biology. His teaching and research interests are in cell-molecular biology, particularly in the development and function of the nervous system. He is also especially interested in promoting undergraduate research, having long served in the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program and on the organizing committee of USD's annual student reasearch conference "Creative Collaborations."

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Mary Sue Lowery, PhD, joined the biology faculty in 1990.  She teaches preparatory courses for biology majors, as well as biological oceanography and interdisciplinary team-taught honors courses.  Lowery is a comparative biologist with particular interest in the effect of endurance swimming on the development of muscle in juvenile marine fishes.

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Michael Mayer, PhD, came to USD in 1994 and teaches general biological topics and more specialized courses in botany and evolutionary biology. He conducts research in plant systematics, which is essentially the study of plant diversity. It involves deciphering the evolutionary relationships among plants, and then using these patterns to infer the processes by which plants evolve, speciate, and produce new lineages. Mayer has conducted several projects involving plants of the southern California landscape, and maintains collaborations with colleagues at San Diego State University and the San Diego Natural History Museum.

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Geoffrey Morse, PhD, came to USD in 2008 and teaches general biological topics and more specialized courses in entomology and evolutionary biology.  He conducts research in insect evolution and ecology, the goal of which is to understand how ecological interactions, environmental conditions, and geographic distributions have structured their impressive diversification.  This research involves reconstructing evolutionary relationships among insect species, examining patterns and mechanisms of speciation, understanding processes that link or separate populations, and understanding the adaptations that cause ecological specialization of insect species.  Morse works on these interactions at levels that span from local California landscapes to global patterns of diversification.

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Marjorie L. Patrick joined the faculty in Fall 2003.  In the Biology Department, Dr. Patrick teaches two of the lower division biology courses that provide students a foundation in genetics, evolution, ecology and cellular processes.  Additionally she offers upper division lecture and laboratory courses exploring invertebrate physiology.  Her research field is comparative animal physiology, with an interest in osmoregulatory strategies of aquatic insect and fish species residing in chemically diverse environments.

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Greg Pregill, PhD, joined the faculty in 1993 after a nearly life-long passion for natural history led him on research expeditions to tropical and subtropical islands around the world. Following graduate school, he received a two-year appointment as a Fellow in residence at the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution. He next served as curator and chair of the Department of Herpetology at the San Diego Natural History, and for a time was deputy director for Science.  Pregill continues his research on insular ecosystems and teaches related courses on biodiversity and vertebrate evolution.

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Adam Siepielski, PhD, joined the faculty in 2011. He teaches an introductory level course in organismal diversity, and upper level courses in ecology, evolution and statistics. Siepielski is an ecologist and evolutionary biologist. His research focuses on understanding the ecological and evolutionary determinants of community structure. He primarily works with damselflies, which are found throughout aquatic systems worldwide.

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Marie Simovich, PhD, has been at USD since 1986 and is the director of the Branchiopod Research Group. Her research is on the ecology and evolution of ephemeral pool organisms with a focus on endangered crustaceans.  She has a number of students in her lab working on grants.  She is a frequent consultant to the US Fish and Wildlife Service as a member of the Vernal Pool Multi-Species Recovery Team and is a member of the IUCN World Conservation Union Inland Water Crustacea Specialist Group.  She is also an adjunct professor at San Diego State University.

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Curt W. Spanis, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1965, serving as professor and department of Biology chair  at the College for Men and president of the Faculty Association prior to unification in 1972.  Following unification of the colleges Spanis served as department chair for two years. Spanis has taught biochemistry, cell physiology, genetics, microbiology, neurobiology, introductory biology, human biology, and exercise physiology.  He established the Pre-Med/ Health Sciences program and directed it for more than two decades. Also, he served as band director, tennis coach (both mens and womens teams) and established the USD Tennis Camp. Spanis has taught a graduate course in cell and molecular biology.

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Lauren Benz, PhD, joined the University of San Diego in 2009 as the recipient of a Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professorship. Her teaching interests are in the areas of general, inorganic, and physical chemistry. She strives to motivate students by incorporating fun and interactive demonstrations in class, and by connecting the course material to the real world. Lauren’s research merges the general areas of surface science and materials chemistry, and focuses on the development of an atomic-level understanding of structure-reactivity relationships.

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James Bolender, PhD, came to University of San Diego in 1996 after a post-doctoral experience in the department of Chemistry at Pennsylvania State University. He currently serves as the director of USD’s Honors Program. Bolender has received more than $700,000 in grants to assist in the purchase of equipment and to support undergraduate research. Bolender was awarded the Davies Award for Teaching Excellence in 2007.

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Mary K. Boyd, PhD, was appointed dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 2008. Prior to USD she was professor and chair of Chemistry at Georgia Southern University from 2005-2008 and a faculty member in the department of Chemistry at Loyola University Chicago from 1990-2005.  Boyd was a Faculty Fellow in the Center for Ethics and Social Justice at Loyola in 2004. She received the Sujack Award for Teaching Excellence in the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola.

Boyd is a chemistry councilor for the Council of Undergraduate Research, and serves on the American Chemical Society Committee on Minority Affairs and the executive committee of the Division of Organic Chemistry. She has served as secretary and advisory board member of the Inter-American Photochemical Society.

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Timothy B. Clark joined the faculty at USD in 2011. His teaching and research are focused on the areas of organic and organometallic chemistry. His passion lies in leading undergraduate students to an appreciation for the richness of chemical concepts and inquiry. Undergraduate students are incorporated into every aspect of his research and are given the opportunity to engage in part-time research during the academic year and full-time research experiences during the summer, which has been funded by grants from the Research Corporation for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical Society–Petroleum Research Fund, and the National Institutes of Health.

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Christopher J. A. Daley, PhD,  joined the faculty in 2007.  He teaches general and inorganic chemistry undergraduate courses.  His current research focus is in the areas of bioinorganic and inorganic chemistry with an emphasis on enzyme modeling and catalyst design.

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David O. De Haan, PhD, came to USD in 2001 from Lyon College. He teaches technology-rich courses in analytical and environmental chemistry. His undergraduate research group is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the chemical changes occurring in clouds and aerosol. As part of this project, USD students are identifying and quantifying new, previously unknown sources of urban haze. He has worked with USD’s Energy Policy Initiatives Center (EPIC) to create a greenhouse gas inventory for San Diego County and to outline ways to meet state targets for greenhouse gas reductions by 2020.

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Robert N. Dutnall, PhD, is a biochemist and structural biologist. He teaches lecture and laboratory courses in biochemistry, biophysical chemistry, general chemistry and also genetics. His research focuses on understanding how proteins can manipulate packaging of genetic material in a eukaryotic cell to control gene expression that, in turn, drives cellular functions involved in the development and well being of complex multicellular organisms.

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Tammy J. Dwyer, PhD,  joined the faculty at the University of San Diego in 1994. She served as chair of the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry from 2001-2009. Dwyer is passionate about chemistry and enjoys teaching how theory and experiment blend to enhance our understanding of the physical world and of chemical phenomena. She strives to create a positive and relaxed classroom atmosphere to facilitate learning while setting high standards for her students and providing them with the tools to meet the course goals. She maintains an active research program involving undergraduates focused on using NMR spectroscopy and computational methods to study structure and dynamics in both small and large molecules.

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Dr. Herrinton joined the department in 1987. He is an inorganic chemist whose research background is in the kinetics and mechanisms of transition metal complexes. Currently he teaches General Chemistry lecture, and he is interested in the optimal conceptual approaches to teaching specific topics such as acid/base theory and Le Chatelier’s Principle in that class. Dr. Herrinton has been on administrative assignment since 2001.

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Peter M. Iovine, PhD, became a member of the faculty in 2002,  His teaching interests lie in the areas of organic chemistry, organometallic chemistry and polymer chemistry.   In addition to formal classroom teaching,  Iovine is interested in how community service learning can be implemented into the chemistry curriculum.  Iovine’s research bridges organic and polymer chemistry, placing an emphasis on the organic chemistry of boron and the conversion of biomass into functional materials.

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Jeremy Kua, PhD, teaches courses in physical chemistry, general chemistry and computational chemistry. His current research interest is investigating the dynamics of self-assembly in a variety of chemical systems.

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Mitch Malachowski, PhD, has been on the faculty since 1984.  He believes strongly in finding ways to enhance student learning and student outcomes and makes this a priority in his teaching, research and service.  He teaches courses in various aspects of organic chemistry and organic chemistry laboratories. His research interests range from the synthesis of novel organic molecules to the history and philosophy of science to the proper role of research at undergraduate institutions.   He has served as the president of the Council on Undergraduate Research and takes on many roles in that organization. Malachowski has received two University Professorships from USD (1996-1997 and 2002-2003) and the Charles B. Willard award for distinguished career achievement from Rhode Island College.

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Stephen A. Mills has been a member of the faculty since 2006. He is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, where he teaches organic and biochemistry. His research focuses on the role of metals in proteins. Currently, he is focusing on two protein families: the Ferric Uptake Regulator family and the Copper Amine Oxidase family.

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Debbie Tahmassebi, PhD, joined the faculty in 1999.  She is an organic chemist with interests in the synthesis and structural studies of molecules, primarily studying novel nucleosides and amino-acid derivatives.  She enjoys teaching the excellent undergraduate students at USD and working with them on collaborative research projects in the laboratory.

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Bradley J. Bond, PhD, joined the department of Communication Studies in 2012 after an appointment as a post-doctoral research fellow with the Children’s Digital Media Center in the Department of Psychology at Georgetown University. Bond offers courses on media effects and communication research methods. Bond’s research focuses on the relationship between media exposure, health, and identity. His current work examines the influence of media on the sexual identity and sexual health of gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents.

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Jonathan M. Bowman, PhD, associate professor of Communication Studies, teaches courses in human communication processes and the methods through which we obtain that knowledge about communication. He joined USD in 2007 after three years on the faculty at Boston College. Bowman’s research currently focuses on communication processes associated with intimacy and close relationships, with recent publications addressing male friendships and small group communication. He was a 2012 recipient of the Keck Faculty Fellowship for his focus on undergraduate research, and also received both the 2012-2013 Innovations in Experiential Education Award for his commitment to high-impact practices and USD's 2012-2013 Outstanding Preceptor Award for excellence in teaching and advising. He serves as a mentor to undergraduates in multiple capacities, particularly those students involved in student government, greek life, academic honors, and/or campus faith-based organizations.

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Leeva C. Chung, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1998. She is a professor of Communication Studies, an affiliate faculty member in Ethnic Studies, and faculty onsite coordinator for the Winter Intersession in Hong Kong. Chung has developed a unique and innovative style of teaching which has been recognized with numerous awards on campus, most recently the prestigious Davies Award for Teaching Excellence. Both her undergraduate courses and research focus on identity development, intercultural communication, and team development. She has published a co-authored textbook (with Dr. Stella-Ting-Toomey), book chapters, and research articles. Chung is actively involved in the community, specifically with the San Diego Asian Film Festival, which premiered at USD in 2000. Since then, it has gained an international reputation as one of North America's leading Asian American film festivals.

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Esteban del Río is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of San Diego and currently serves as the Associate Provost for Inclusion and Diversity and Director of the Center of Inclusion and Diversity. He earned a PhD in the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, working in the area of media and cultural studies. del Río teaches Introduction to Media Studies, Media & Conflict, and International Media.

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Greg Ghio directs the internship program in the department of Communication Studies and teaches lower and upper division courses as well. His lower division classes include Introduction to Human Communication and Public Speaking, his upper division offerings are Interpersonal Communication and Organizational Communication. In his spare time he can be found in the ocean or on a beach near one.

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Carole Huston, PhD, joined USD’s faculty in 1989. She is a professor of Communication Studies and Gender Studies, and currently serves as associate dean for the College of Arts and Sciences. She has taught lower and upper division courses in communication theory, research methods, interpersonal communication, intercultural communication, and the gender studies senior seminar. Her research interests include family business communication as the juncture between interpersonal and organizational communication. She has also served at the director of the Center for Educational Excellence, focusing on faculty development programs for the university community.

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Gina Lew was recognized as a Professor of Practice in Fall 2011, the first person to receive this title in the Department of Communication Studies.  She teaches Media Writing, and has also taught Introduction to Media Studies and Advanced Journalism.  Lew is a former award-winning broadcast journalist.  During her career she worked for CBS, NBC, and FOX news in Los Angeles and San Diego.  Her extensive background in reporting allows her to offer a “real world” understanding of the media.   Her courses offer a practical look at how the media think, react and respond to current events.  Through current events students are taught how and why the different disciplines of marketing, public relations, and journalism are related to one another.

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Dr. Mercado joined Communication Studies in 2012 as an assistant professor. Currently she is teaching a class on Media and Conflict, and an introductory class on Media Studies.

Dr. Mercado studies the communication and citizenship practices of Mexican indigenous immigrants in the United States, and how those practices extend to the transnational public sphere, contributing to forms of world citizenship or “grassroots cosmopolitanism.”

She is a member of BINACOM, a Binational Communication Organization that brings together schools of communication in both, the US and Mexico.

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Kristin C. Moran, PhD, joined the Communication Studies department in 1999 as a visiting assistant professor and became a permanent faculty member in 2001. Moran offers courses focused on media studies. Her current research focuses on the reception of Latino-themed and Spanish-language media in the United States. She serves as the university’s representative to the Binational Association of Schools of Communication (BINACOM), an organization devoted to cross border interaction and demystifying stereotypes through ethical communication and she works closely with USD’s Trans-Border Institute. She currently serves as Chair of the department.

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Roger C. Pace, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1987.  He is a professor of Communication Studies and also currently serves as the director of the basic speech courses.   He teaches courses in communication theory and organizational communication.  Pace’s research interests are group and organizational decision making and the effects of emerging technologies on communication patterns and outcomes.  He is the former associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and chair of the Faculty Senate.

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Eric Pierson, PhD, joined the faculty in 1999. Prior to joining the faculty he spent five years teaching at the University of Illinois st Urbana-Champaign while pursuing his PhD He served as chair of the department between Fall 2006 and Spring 2011.

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Susannah Stern PhD, joined the department of Communication Studies in 2004, after teaching at Boston College for four years. Stern offers courses that investigate the role of media in contemporary life, particularly as they involve children, adolescents, and women, as well as courses on research methods.  Stern's research focuses on electronic media and youth culture, and she has conducted extensive research on the Internet as a site for cultural consumption and self-expression.

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David Sullivan, PhD, joined the department of Communication Studies in 1992. Sullivan teaches courses in communication theory, media theory and criticism, journalism, political communication, and mediated sports. He has authored journal articles on the topics of mediated sports and mediated politics that have appeared in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Journal of Communication, and Women's Studies in Communication. A former newspaper reporter and editor, he has served as faculty advisor to USD's undergraduate newspaper since he arrived at USD.

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Larry Williamson, PhD, began building the Communication Studies department at USD in 1982, and chaired the department from 1985 to 1993. He is a rhetorical critic, and has applied this perspective to the examination of various types of popular texts over the last 26 years. His teaching interests are eclectic and range across subjects like semantics, rhetorical theory, media criticism, and legal communication.

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Jericho is on an official Leave of Absence for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Jericho Brown worked as the speechwriter for the Mayor of New Orleans before receiving his PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. He also holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans and a BA from Dillard University. The recipient of a Bunting Fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University and two travel fellowships to the Krakow Poetry Seminar in Poland, he has served as poetry editor at Gulf Coast and assistant poetry editor at Callaloo. His poems have appeared in The Iowa Review, jubilat, New England Review, Oxford American, and several other journals and anthologies. Brown teaches creative writing as an Assistant Professor of English at the University of San Diego. New Issues Poetry & Prose published his first book PLEASE.

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Cynthia L. Caywood, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1984.  She is currently serves as co-director of the London Summer Program.  In the English department, Caywood offers undergraduate courses on restoration and eighteenth century British literature, world drama, and women's literature and graduate courses in seventeenth and eighteenth century drama.  Her research interests include Aphra Behn, Jane Austen, and August Wilson, with special interests in British and American theatre history, stage production, and feminist theory.

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Dennis M. Clausen, PhD, has been a member of the University of San Diego faculty since 1972. Clausen has taught undergraduate American literature courses with a special emphasis on authors who write about American small towns.

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Halina Duraj joined USD after receiving her PhD in English and creative writing from the University of Utah in 2010. She also holds a B.S. in biological sciences and an M.A. in creative writing from the University of California, Davis. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in literary journals including Witness, Third Coast, and Confrontation. Her novel, Fatherland, was a finalist for the 2010 UC Davis Maurice Prize in Fiction, and other work has been recommended for the 2009 PEN/O’Henry Award and the Pushcart Prize. Her teaching interests focus on fiction writing, the literature of war and trauma, and the intersection of literature, science, and nature. She is currently working on a collection of short stories.

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Dr. Floyd specializes in African-American literature, mixed race and ethnic studies, identity and community, and representations of children and childhood. He has recently written for and edited a special volume on August Wilson in College Literature. Dr. Floyd has been teaching at USD since 2000.

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Maura Giles-Watson teaches early English literature and drama and specializes in the Renaissance. She has taught at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Massachusetts-Boston; she also taught at the secondary level and holds teaching credentials in English and Latin. Maura plays the cello and previously served as Deputy Commissioner of the Office of Arts and Humanities in Boston.

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Sister Mary Hotz, a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart, came to USD in 1996. She received her PhD from The University of Chicago in 1997, with a concentration in Victorian literature. Her central interests include nineteenth-century British literature and culture, Native American literature, and the development of the novel. Her most recent project, Literary Remains: Representations of Death and Burial in Victorian England, explores the unexpectedly central role of death and burial in Victorian England by locating corpses at the center of a surprisingly extensive range of Victorian concerns: money and law, medicine and urban architecture, social planning and folklore, religion and national identity.

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Areas of interest: late classical and medieval; history of the English language; textual criticism and historical linguistics.  Recent publications include A History of the English Language (Oxford: Blackwell, 2010) and Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts Housed in Switzerland (Tempe, AZ: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 2009), and articles in Notes & Queries, Journal of English & Germanic Philology, Mediaevistik, Studia Neophilologica, and The Chaucer Review.

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Gail Perez, PhD, came to the university in 1992 to teach American ethnic literature.  Since that time, she has co-founded the Ethnic Studies major and now has a joint appointment with Ethnic Studies.  She teaches courses in U.S. women of color,  multicultural California, introduction to ethnic studies, and creative writing.  She has advised MEChA, has given the Chicano Graduation Keynote, and has been nominated as a USD Woman of Impact three times.  Her research interests include pedagogy, social space and race, and literature by women of color.

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Atreyee Phukan, PhD, teaches courses in world literature and post-colonial literature. Her research interests focus on contemporary literature and theory, in particular those of the Caribbean and South Asian diaspora.

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Fred Miller Robinson, PhD, served as chair of the English Department from 1991 until 2005.  From 2005-06 he was interim director of the Theatre Arts program, and from 2009 he has served as the chair of the Music Department.  He has taught a variety of undergraduate courses in modern literature, including Modern Poetry, Modern Drama, Narrative Theory and Writing Autobiography, and a text course in modern drama to the USD/Old Globe MFA students.  His research focus has shifted from comic theory to cultural studies: a social history of The Man in the Bowler Hat and, currently, the interculture of Ireland and the U.S. Robinson also taught for a year (each) at the Universite de Haute Bretagne in Rennes, France, and the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK.

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Abraham Stoll, PhD, specializes in Renaissance and early modern literature, particularly the literature of seventeenth-century England. His recent book, Milton and Monotheism, is on the poetry and theology of John Milton. He also edited the five-volume edition of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. Currently, he is working on a study of conscience in the early modern period. Stoll has taught at the University of San Diego since 2000, and was visiting professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 2006-07.

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Barton Thurber received his BA degree from Stanford and his AM and PhD degrees from Harvard. He teaches classes in poetry, Romanticism and 19th century British literature; his research interests include those areas as well as the impacts of digital technologies on narrative and on the humanities generally.

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Dr. Vander Elst received his PhD from Princeton University in 2006. Following a Mellon post-doctoral fellowship at the Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies in Toronto, Dr. Vander Elst began teaching at USD in 2009. He specializes in Middle English literature, especially Chaucer and fourteenth-century English romance, literature, rhetoric, and propaganda of the later crusades, and literary representations of medieval politics.

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Irene Williams, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1982.  She offers undergraduate courses in nineteenth and twentieth-century U.S. literature, modern European literature, and literature of genocide and occupation.  Her research focus is nineteenth-century U.S./New England literature.

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May Fu grounds her vocational praxis in student-centered pedagogies and curricula that address the self-determination of our selves, families, and communities. Her classes explore the development, intersectionality, and utility of race while also identifying how aggrieved groups call new communities, cultures, and possibilities into being. Her research interests include comparative racialized histories, social movements, womyn of color feminisms, gender and labor, and the politics of historiography. She especially seeks to connect the different knowledges that exist in grassroots, activist, and academic communities. Drawing on oral histories, she is currently writing a book that explores Asian American radicalism and community organizing during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

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Michelle Jacob’s interdisciplinary scholarship and personal experiences are deeply intertwined.  As a member of the Yakama Nation, she understands how decolonization is an important priority for indigenous communities.  Thus, she seeks to teach and research in ways that empower communities by working towards social justice.  Her community-based research focuses on her home reservation community (in Washington State) as well as the San Diego-area, where she teaches during the academic year.  Her research areas of interest include: health, education, and decolonization.  In all efforts, she seeks to understand how indigenous peoples can be empowered to heal from wounds inflicted by colonialism.

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Jesse Mills, PhD, has been an active and dedicated member of the College of Arts and Sciences faculty since Fall 2006 . Developing an African American Studies curriculum, serving as a resource for campus-wide diversity efforts, and mentoring advanced undergraduate research in ethnic studies, Mills enjoys being a part of the USD learning community. Mills draws his inspiration from his esteemed colleagues in the Ethnic Studies core and affiliated faculty, and the College of Arts and Sciences as a whole.

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Alberto López Pulido is Professor and Chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of San Diego. He has held a leadership role as Chair of the President's Advisory Board on Inclusion and Diversity. He teaches both the introductory and advanced courses for the ethnic studies major in addition to specialized courses in Latina/o and Chicana/o Studies. His scholarly interests include the intersection of race and religion in relation to issues of social justice and as strategies for transforming communities. He has also written on the history of ethnic studies in higher education; issues of violence and deportation against immigrants; and is currently at work on a project that explores the power of music in relation to personal identity and biography.

Pulido has published a range of numerous essays in books and journals such as the Journal of Catholic Social Thought; Crosscurrents; Religion and Literature; Journal of Religion and Education; Studies in Twentieth Century Literature; CENTRO: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies; American Quarterly; Latino Studies Journal. He is the author of the book: Sacred World of the Penitentes and his most recent book is entitled: Moving Beyond Borders: Julian Samora and the Establishment of Latino Studies. Pulido was mentored by the first Mexican American sociologist in the nation, Julian Samora, PhD, who had a distinguished career at the University of Notre Dame.

Alberto is the son of Velia López Pulido and the late Alberto V. Pulido who he credits for instilling within him the value of educación. Such a foundation assisted him profoundly as a first-generation college graduate. He believes deeply that education is a tool that equips students with the wisdom (sabiduría) to transform their lives and the many lives they touch.

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Thomas W. Barton, PhD, joined the faculty in 2007. He offers a wide sweep of undergraduate courses, including The Medieval World, The Pacific World, Europe’s Discovery and Conquest of the World, Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Spain, Renaissance Europe, and Historians’ Methods. His research concerns the social history of Europe and contacts between Europeans and non-Europeans in the medieval and early modern periods, with a current focus on the case of eastern Iberia and the western Mediterranean.

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Iris H. W. Engstrand, PhD, is a native Californian. Engstrand’s academic honors include USD’s distinguished University Professorship; the Davies Award for Faculty Achievement; Awards of Merit from the San Diego, Southern California, and California Historical Societies, Western History Association, and Orange Coast College; fellowships from the Fulbright Commission, American Philosophical Society and Huntington Library; and the California Design Award in Historic Preservation. She is a trustee of the San Diego Natural History Museum and the San Diego Maritime Museum, past president of the American Historical Association Pacific Coast Branch and of the Western History Association. Engstrand has lived and traveled extensively in Spain and Mexico and lectures widely in both English and Spanish. She has degrees in history, with maors and minors in the fields of California, Mexico, Latin America and the Spanish Southwest history, biology and Spanish

Engstrand has recently been awarded the prestigious medal of the Order of Isabel la Católica (Isabel the Catholic -- ruler of Spain in 1492) by Juan Carlos, King of Spain, for outstanding contributions to the history of Spain in the Americas.

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Michael Gonzalez, PhD, began teaching at the University of San Diego in 1995.  He currently is director of the History Masters program.

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James O. Gump, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1981.  He currently serves as an associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. In the History Department, Gump offers undergraduate courses on war and peace in the modern world, history of Africa, rise and fall of apartheid, and modern Europe.  His research focus is comparative, South African, and Native American history, with special interests in ethnic conflict, state-sponsored violence, and transitional justice.

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Sarah Levin-Richardson, PhD, joined the department in 2012. She offers courses in ancient history, including surveys of ancient Mediterranean civilizations and upper-level courses in Greek and Roman history. Levin-Richardson’s research explores gender and sexuality in the Roman Empire through graffiti, literature, art, and architecture, with a particular focus on the city of Pompeii. She has excavated at Pompeii, in the Roman Forum, and on Crete, and currently serves on the steering committee of the Women’s Classical Caucus.

 

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Molly McClain, PhD, serves as director of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Program. Her work in seventeenth-century British history includes a biography of the duke and duchess of Beaufort as well as articles on Queen Mary II. She also publishes work on local history. A ninth-generation San Diegan, she co-edits The Journal of San Diego History.

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Clara M. Oberle, PhD, has been a member of the History department since 2008.  She offers courses on modern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Germany.  Further teaching interests include World War II, women in history, and urban history.  Her research focus is on Berlin, on post-catastrophe cities, and on German history, with special interests in migrations, comparative military occupations, urban planning and housing, as well as the interplay between law and memory.

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Kenneth P. Serbin, Ph.D., professor and chair in the Department of History, served as vice president, president, and immediate past president of the Brazilian Studies Association (2004-2010).  He also was the co-chair of the Brazil Section of the Latin American Studies Association from 2003-2006.

 

 

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Kathryn C. Statler, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1999.  She is the coordinator of the Peace and Justice Studies minor. Statler offers undergraduate courses on the Vietnam wars, U.S. foreign relations, history of France, peace and justice studies, and armed conflict and American society.  Her research focus is international and multidisciplinary, with an emphasis on alliance politics and cultural diplomacy.

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Yi Sun, PhD,  has been a member of the History Department at USD since fall 1997.  She teaches a number of undergraduate courses on East Asian history and U.S.-East Asia Relations.  Currently she also serves as the coordinator for the Asian Studies Minor program.  Her research interests include Chinese women and modernization, Sino-American relations, and globalization.  She has served on the executive board of several academic organizations, including the AsiaNetwork, Chinese Historians in the United States and the Association of Third World Studies, and presently is the associate editor of the Asian section for the Journal of Third World Studies.

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Loredana Di Martino joined the faculty in 2010. She teaches Italian language, culture and literature. Previously, she held positions at Georgetown University and at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research focuses on modern and contemporary Italian literature, in particular on modernism, postmodernism, and the relationship between contemporary forms of poetic and philosophical realism. She has also worked on language pedagogy and teaching with technology.

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Kim Eherenman, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1990. Her specializations include Latin American poetry, pre-Columbian literatures and cultures, colonial and nineteenth century Latin American literature, and Mexican literature. Her research focus is Latin American poetry and translation. Formerly, she served as coordinator of the Latino Studies Program, executive director of the Guadalajara Summer Program, coordinator of the Spanish Area, and chair of this department. In addition, she has served as an external program reviewer for world language and literature programs at the university level. She is also a bilingual poet whose works have appeared in literary journals nationally and abroad.

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Kevin Guerrieri, PhD, teaches courses on Latin American literature and culture and on the Spanish language, from beginning to advanced levels. His research is focused on Latin American literature, specializing in Colombian narrative, with interests in cultural discourses of modernity and national formation, displacement and testimonio, and urban literature and culture. Guerrieri is actively involved in Community-Service Learning, is a former co-chair of USD’s Social Issues Committee, and currently serves on the University Senate.

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Brigitte Heimers, PhD, teaches elementary and intermediate German as well as upper-division courses in composition, culture and civilization, and literature.

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Rebecca Ingram, PhD, joined the faculty in 2009. She teaches courses in modern Spanish cultural studies and literature, in addition to Spanish language at all levels. Her research focuses on food cultural studies in Spain, specifically on how cooking and other culinary discourses serve as modes for understanding Spain’s modernization, feminist theory, and consumer culture.

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Michèle C. Magnin, PhD, has been a member of the department of Languages and Literatures since 1990. She is the director of the French section. She offers courses in literature, culture and civilization, women writers, advanced writing, and phonetics. She was director of the Faculty and Curriculum Diversity Program on campus for three years.

A native Parisian, Magnin has established strong links with the French community in San Diego. She was president of the San Diego chapters of the American Association of Teachers of French, and the Alliance Française.

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Julia Medina, Ph. D., joined the USD faculty in 2010. She has taught various courses on Latin American, Latino/a and TransAmerican literatures, cultures and film. She also teaches Spanish language courses of all levels. Professor Medina specializes in 19^th and 20^th century Latin American Literature and Culture as well as in Critical Theory and Cultural Studies.  Her current research focuses on the intersection between visual culture, non-fiction, resistance and intellectual representations in Central America.

 

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Alejandro Meter, PhD, teaches courses on Latin American literature of the twentieth and twentieth-first centuries. His specializations include dictatorial and post-dictatorial fiction of the Southern Cone, migration and exile, and Latin American Jewish studies. His most recent research focuses on memory, trauma, and reconciliation. He currently directs the intersession Buenos Aires Program. He was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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Sylvie Ndome Ngilla, PhD, joined the faculty in 2012. She teaches courses on French and Francophone language, culture, and literatures. Her research is focused on twentieth and twenty-first century francophone African theater in particular on aesthetics and discourses on chaos, cultural identities, gender, African diasporas, and globalization.

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Amanda L. Petersen has been a member of the faculty since 2008. She teaches Spanish language and Latin American literatures and cultures courses. Her areas of expertise include 20th and 21st century Latin American women authors and Latin American literature, with an emphasis on Mexican narrative. Her research interests focus on the literary representations of gender and violence in contemporary Mexican short stories by female authors.

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Maria Cecilia Ruiz, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1990.

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Leonora Simonovis, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 2007. She teaches courses on Latin American and Caribbean literature and culture, as well as all levels of Spanish language. Her teaching and research interests deal with issues of race and gender, the role of popular music in the construction of cultural identities, social mobility, and marginality in the Pan-Caribbean region.

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Richard Stroik, PhD, came to the University of San Diego in 1991. He currently serves as Chair of the Department of Languages and Literatures. He has previously served as coordinator of the Intensive Language (Dartmouth) Model for first-year language instruction and as a member of the executive committee of the Academic Assembly. He has been active in study abroad during his entire career, serving as chair of the Study Abroad committee and creating a summer program in France. His research interests are in 20th century French poetry and Camus. Stroik is a product of Catholic elementary and secondary education.

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Kay Etheridge is professionally a classical pianist, music educator, piano teacher and adjudicator who has lived in San Diego since 1982. She maintains an active performing career and each year can be heard as both soloist and chamber musician on various concert series within the southern California region. In addition to directing the Liberal Studies program at USD, she is a member of the music faculty and teaches music history, jazz history, music education, applied piano and class piano.

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Michel A. Boudrias, PhD,has been on the faculty since 1996 and is currently chair of the department and Chair of the university's Sustainability Task Force.  Boudrias teaches classes that cover a wide range of topics from introductory marine biology to interdisciplinary coastal environmental science to classical invertebrate zoology.  He has taught Honors courses that combine traditional classroom concepts with intense field experiences. His research projects include long-term interdisciplinary projects combining marine ecology and marine chemistry in Baja California Sur and an integrated project studying the social, cultural and environmental impacts of tourism in Jamaica. 

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Sarah Gray, PhD, teaches courses in geological oceanography, paleoclimatology, climate change, environmental geology, and earth science.  These courses include hands-on field and lab-based research experiences.  Gray conducts research in paleoclimatology, marine sedimentation, the geology of coral reefs and environmental proxies recorded in the geochemistry of coral skeletons.  Current research includes a study of the impact of watershed development on sedimentation on fringing coral reefs in the U.S. Virgin Islands and a synthesis of multi-century climate cycles preserved in the geologic record. Her PhD dissertation was entitled “Late Quaternary History of Reef Growth, Sea Level, and Diagenesis from three Cook Islands Atolls”.

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Ron Kaufmann, PhD, joined the USD faculty in 1997 and currently serves as director of the Marine Science Graduate Program.  His areas of specialization are ecology and environmental biology, and his teaching includes courses in biology, environmental studies and marine science, as well as interdisciplinary courses that are team-taught with colleagues in the humanities. Kaufmann’s scholarship focuses on biological communities and their dynamics as well as their responses to changing environmental conditions. He has studied marine communities in extreme environments such as the Antarctic and the deep ocean.

 

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Bethany O'Shea, PhD, teaches courses in environmental geology, earth science, and geochemistry of ocean and continental waters. All of these courses use the environment as a natural laboratory and include interactive problem solving and thought provoking learning techniques. Dr. O'Shea is interested in the cycling of metals, nutrients, and contaminants in the environment; specifically controls on the movement and distribution of trace elements in groundwater, lakes, and sediments. She welcomes the opportunity to teach and mentor students interested in the earth, marine, and environmental sciences.

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Nathalie Reyns, PhD, teaches core and upper division courses in oceanography, marine ecology and how humans impact the oceans. Reyns’ research interests focus on identifying the factors that influence the dispersal of marine organisms, to better understand the population dynamics of these organisms and the implications for fisheries management and marine conservation. Reyns is also very interested in advancing marine science education and improving ocean literacy, and regularly provides research opportunities for undergraduate students.

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Drew Talley, PhD, teaches a variety of courses including Introduction to Physical Oceanography, Biological Oceanography, Graduate Statistics and Experimental Design, and Life in the Sea. His overall research focuses on understanding connectivity across habitat boundaries, and assessing how that interdependence between systems changes with anthropogenic influence both locally (e.g., through habitat loss) and globally (e.g., through climate change).

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Zhi-Yong Yin, PhD, came to USD in 2003 after teaching at Georgia State University in Atlanta for 12 years. He offers classes in earth science, geographic information systems (GIS), and remote sensing. His research focus is hydroclimatology, with special interests in recent and past climate variations and the impact on hydrological systems and water resources.

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Dwight Bean, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1973 and played a role in introducing the Computer Science major at USD.  Most recently he has taught Investigations in Modern Mathematics, Linear Algebra, Calculus and Topology.  His current research is in voting theory. 

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Jane Friedman, PhD, is also the coordinator for the approved subject matter program in mathematic which prepares future high-school mathematics teachers. She has current research projects in voting theory and in statistics.

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John Glick, PhD has been a member of the faculty at USD since 1993.  He also currently serves as chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.  Glick teaches both computer science and mathematics courses.  He does research in the areas of optimization and parallel algorithms.

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Professor Jennifer Gorsky teaches a variety of courses, including courses on partial differential equations, the history of mathematics, linear algebra, and calculus.  Her main research focus is on the well-posedness and analyticity of the Cauchy problem for nonlinear evolution equations. 

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Diane Hoffoss, PhD, has been a member of the faculty  since 2001, where she teaches all levels of mathematics.  Her research interests are in the areas of 3-manifold topology, foliations, and hyperbolic geometry.  In addition to her teaching and research activity, she is responsible for authoring and maintaining the Mathematics Placement Exam software system.  Also, each year Hoffoss advises teams of students who participate in COMAP’s International Mathematical Contest in Modeling.

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Professor Jiang has been a member of the faculty since 1998. He teaches a variety of courses including object-oriented design and programming, data structures and algorithms, numerical analysis, data mining and neural networks. His research focus has been on information retrieval, data mining, scientific computation, Web link analysis and mining.

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Simon Koo, PhD, has been with USD since 2006, where he is currently an assistant professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, and an affiliate assistant professor of Engineering. He is a member of IEEE and ACM, and he is listed in Who's Who of Emerging Leaders, America’s Registry of Outstanding Professionals, and Who's Who in America. Koo has an Erdös number of 3.

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Stacy Langton graduated from Caltech and got his PhD at Harvard, working under David Mumford in the subject of Algebraic Geometry. After a period at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, he came to USD in 1978.

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Luby Liao, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1983.  He offers undergraduate courses on database management systems, Web application development, object-oriented programming, and computer Llteracy.  His research focus is Enterprise Web Development and Content Management System.

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Lynn McGrath, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 2002.  Most recently she taught Logic for Mathematics and Computer Science and Mathematical Concepts for Elementary Teachers.

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Perla Myers has been a member of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department since 1999.  She enjoys teaching classes at all undergraduate levels: core mathematics classes, mathematics classes for the Mathematics major, and mathematics classes for future and in-service elementary and secondary school teachers.  Professor Myers’ most recent work involves the improvement of the mathematical education of teachers.

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Cameron Parker, PhD, has been at USD since 2003.  In addition to his teaching and research, Parker is the Math Area Coordinator and has served in the Arts and Sciences Faculty Academic Assembly.  He co-organizes the Math Modeling Club and serves as an advisor for the Math Modeling Team.

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Jack W. Pope, Ph. D., has been a member of the faculty since 1972.  He served as director of Academic Computing Services at the university from 1982 until 2006.  Pope concentrates on lower division undergraduate courses – specifically College Algebra and Introduction to Computer Programming.  His research interests include measuring the impact of technology in teaching and how that varies by discipline.

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Lukasz Pruski joined the mathematics department at USD in January 1983. Since then he has taught 31 different courses in five fields: in addition to mathematics and computer science he has taught engineering courses and co-taught courses in psychology and philosophy. His research focuses on mathematical modeling and computer simulation. He served as the department chair in the mid-Nineties and the math program coordinator in the recent years. He also served on almost all College of Arts and Sciences committees, including recently chairing the Rank and Tenure Committee.

Lukasz Pruski’s most favorite activities, second only to teaching, are reading books, running races from 5k to half-marathon, and listening to the music of Bach, Coltrane, and Sonic Youth.

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Professor Ani P. Velo has been a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of San Diego (USD) since fall 2002.  Prior to coming to USD, Professor Velo was the recipient of the Davies Fellowship award from the National Research Council, Washington D.C. and held a joined post-doctoral position at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY and U.S. Army Research Laboratory, MD. Professor Velo has taught a variety of undergraduate courses in mathematics and applied mathematics. Her research interests, mainly in applied mathematics, include wave propagation, structural optimization and composite materials.

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Jeff Wright has been a member of the University of San Diego faculty since 2000.  In the Math / CS Department, Jeff teaches the spectrum of lower division courses including algebra and calculus, as well as courses in applied mathematics at the upper division level, including linear algebra, ordinary and partial differential equations, numerical analysis, complex analysis and mathematical modeling.  His current research focus is on the mathematical and numerical modeling of various aspects thermodynamic systems, as well as in the development of online resources focused on alternative mechanics of learning.

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Christopher Adler, PhD, is a composer, performer and improviser. His music draws upon over a decade of research into the traditional musics of Thailand and Laos and a background in mathematics. He is a foremost performer of new and traditional music for the khaen, a free-reed mouth organ from Laos and Northeast Thailand. As pianist and composer-in-residence with NOISE and co-founder of the soundON Festival of Modern Music he is active in commissioning and performing new works, and he performs and records as an improviser on piano in many ensembles.

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Edwin L. Basilio, Ed.D., serves as the chief administrator and artistic director of the elite Choral Scholars and the USD Concert Choir.

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Kay Etheridge is professionally a classical pianist, music educator, piano teacher and adjudicator who has lived in San Diego since 1982.  She maintains an active performing career and each year can be heard as both soloist and chamber musician on various concert series within the southern California region.  In addition to directing the Liberal Studies program at USD, she is a member of the music faculty and teaches music history, jazz history, music education, applied piano and class piano.

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David Harnish, PhD, is an ethnomusicologist, musician, and Chair of the Music Department as of 2011. He comes to USD from Bowling Green State University, where he taught for 17 years and served as Interim Dean and Associate Dean. He has traveled the world widely and twice served as faculty member on the Semester at Sea program.

As a scholar, he has researched music in Asia, Africa, and the United States, and is particularly interested in religion, festival, hybridity, pedagogy, composition, popular culture, and politics in music. In support of research, he has received grants from Fulbright-Hayes, National Foundation, Freeman Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Ohio Arts Council, United States-Indonesia Society, MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music, and Partnerships for Community Action. As a musician, he has extensively performed Indonesian gamelan, Indian music, Japanese music, Tejano conjunto music, and jass, rock, blues, bluegrass, and country musics.

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Marianne Pfau, PhD, heads the music history and literature program at USD, offers international Early Music Festivals, and directs the concert series Angelus: Sacred Early Music in Founders Chapel.   Since 2006, she also teaches graduate seminars at the Musicological Institute of the University of Hamburg, Germany.

Pfau also has an active performance career as baroque oboist.  She performs and records with American Bach Soloists, Jubilate Baroque Orchestra and California Bach Society in San Francisco; Corona del Mar Baroque Festival in Los Angeles; Trinity Consort in Oregon, and Ensemble Rebel in New York. In Europe she appears with Musica Alta Ripa, L’Arco Baroque Orchestra Hannover, Corona Musica Kassel, Cythara Ensemble Hamburg, and Accademia dell’Arcadia Poznan.

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Ronald Shaheen serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the USD Music Department and has taught: Introduction to Music; Music in Society; History of Romantic Music; Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Music; Classical, Romantic, and Modern Music; History of Opera; Aural and Keyboard Skills; Fundamentals of Music; Class Voice; and individual voice lessons. He also serves as the department’s Concert Manager, and he coordinates the Applied Music Program.

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Angela Yeung, PhD, is the director of the University of San Diego Chamber Music Ensembles and the Annual Chamber Music Festival that is held in February (Winter Chamber Heat) and July (Summer Festival) on the USD campus. Director of the USD Symphony from 1996 to 2010, Dr. Yeung continues to conduct orchestras and choirs nationally and internationally.  She is Director of the Greater San Diego Community Orchestra and Chorus, principal guest conductor for The Chorale Singers in Jakarta, Indonesia, and frequent guest conductor for the Guadalajara Youth Orchestra as well as the Tijuana Youth Orchestra, both in Mexico.  Her commitment to community service has led her to host many clinics for visiting school bands, choirs and orchestras, to conduct outreach performances with orchestra and chamber music ensembles, and to direct after-school music programs for elementary school children.  In September 2010 the FanFaire Foundation invited Dr. Yeung to serve as its Ambassador for Community Outreach.

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Harriet Baber, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1982. She offers undergraduate courses on logic and contemporary analytic philosophy. Her research interests are in analytic metaphysics, philosophical theology, feminism and philosophy of economics. Baber’s interests include computers, Byzantine history, and knitting.

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Brian R. Clack, PhD, came to USD in September 2007, having previously taught in Oxford, England. Clack’s research interests lie in the study of Wittgenstein, psychoanalysis and the philosophy of religion.

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He is still interested in an Honors interdisciplinary course, “Myth and Rhetoric: The Construction of Culture,” team-taught four times with Prof. Larry Williamson, a rhetorical theorist, and is currently wondering about issues in the Symposium. He also enjoys thinking about color.  As Chair for many years now, he continues to rely on the wide-ranging abilities of his Executive Assistant and the wisdom of unnamed colleagues.  With his friend Dr. Greg Severn, he is looking forward to the coming year for the SFR reading group, which he enjoys much more than WASC-related activities.  He misses his mother; he is kind to animals and even the occasional administrator.  Oh, yes: he and his dog still enjoy playing Cheerios golf.

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John Donnelly has been a member of the faculty since 1976.  He has served as Chair of the Philosophy Department, and currently is a coordinator of the Catholic Studies minor.  He initiated the multiple offerings of interdisciplinary value courses at USD.  Professor Donnelly is a past President of the Soren Kierkegaard Society.  He has a broad range of philosophical interests, and has published in several areas of philosophy, including logic, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and ethics.  At USD, he has team-taught courses with colleagues in biology, theology, and nursing, as well as some cluster preceptorial classes.

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Michelle Grier, PhD, has been a member of the philosophy department since 1993. In addition to lower division introductory courses, she routinely teaches courses in the history of modern philosophy, German idealism (especially Kant), and post-Kantian (20th Century) continental philosophy.

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Lawrence M. Hinman, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1975.  He i currently serves as the co-director of the Center for Ethics in Science & Technology (http://ethicscenter.net). Hinman offers undergraduate courses on ethics, including ethical theory, applied ethics, and ethics and contemporary science.  His research focuses on ethical issues in emerging science and technology, including search engines, privacy and surveillance, stem cell research and therapy, neuroscience, and robotics. He has been very active in bring ethics-related resources to the Web, founding Ethics Updates in 1994 and Ethics Videos in 2000.  He has also done extensive work in academic integrity and ethics across the curriculum.

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Gary E. Jones, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1981.  He has taught a variety of courses over the years relating to ethics and health care.  His main area of research is health care policy, with an emphasis on the problem of the medically uninsured.

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Rodney G. Peffer, PhD, is a philosopher specializing in moral, social, and political philosophy as well as a published poet, an electronic percussionist (who plays with avant-garde jazz and “new music” musicians), and a life-long activist for progressive political causes. He has taught at USD since 1986.  He has lectured in most parts of North America and Europe as well as in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean – including Cuba.  He has prominently participated in the last four World Congresses of Philosophy, which occur only once every five years.

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Linda L. Peterson, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1985.  She routinely teaches classes in thehHistory of medieval philosophy and the philosophy of human nature.  Her research area of specialization is in the history of medieval philosophy with particular emphasis on the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Her research focus also includes philosophy of religion and metaphysics.

Peterson enjoys traveling and has traveled extensively including trips to Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, the Arctic Circle and Antarctica.  She particularly enjoys visiting cites of interest to the history of medieval philosophy.  She has traveled throughout Italy, visiting the birthplace of St. Thomas Aquinas and the monastery where he died. 

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Ann Pirruccello has been teaching at USD since 1992 and is professor of philosophy.  She offers courses in Introduction to Philosophy, Asian Philosophy, Critical Comparative Philosophy, and special topics courses in Asian and contemporary continental philosophy. Her research embraces philosophies of liberation in continental and Asian thought, metaphilosophical problems related to globalization, and comparative philosophy.

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Philosophy is about knowing yourself.  I’m still learning. History is indispensable; without it I cannot understand either myself or the world. In the meantime, I dream, I doubt, I wonder, therefore, despite all my faults, I am. I enjoy reading, writing, teaching and thinking—in short, living, not just existing.

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Michael F. Wagner, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1980.  His administrative appointments have included chair of the Philosophy Department (1988-1998) and director of the Interdisciplinary Humanities major (1987-1993, 2001-2007).  His research interests include several topic areas in Ancient and Hellenistic philosophy, in the classical Neoplatonic tradition, in the philosophy of time and science, and in Platonistic conceptions of eros and their cultural influences.

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Lori Watson, PhD, joined the USD faculty in 2007.  She is currently assistant professor of philosophy and director of the Gender Studies Program.

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Mark Wood, PhD, has been teaching at USD since 1997.  In addition to teaching undergraduate philosophy courses, he has been an affiliated faculty member of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies since the inception of the Master’s Program in Peace and Justice Studies in 2002.  He is also an affiliate of USD’s Ethnic Studies Program and co-chaired USD’s Gender Studies Program for four years.  Currently he is the secretary of the International Society for Environmental Ethics.  Originally from North Dakota, Professor Woods discovered philosophy while serving in the United States Marine Corps.

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Matt Zwolinski, PhD, specializes in Political Philosophy and Normative Ethics.  He is a co-director of USD’s Institute for Law and Philosophy, and serves on the editorial board of Business Ethics Quarterly.  He regularly teaches courses in ethics, business ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of law.  His areas of research expertise are political philosophy and normative ethics, with a special focus on the intersection of ethics, law, and economics.

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Dr. Anderson is the newest Assistant Professor of Physics at USD.  She begins her appointment in the fall of 2009. Her undergraduate work was done at Georgetown University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude in Physics in 2003, and she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She is held in high regard by students and faculty at UCSD for her teaching of UCSD’s Physics 1A introductory physics course, which she taught while doing post-doctoral studies at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. Her doctoral research at UCSD focused experimentally on the biophysics of DNA, using both microscopy and laser techniques.  Her post-doctoral studies were also devoted to single molecule biophysics, focusing on the molecule Rev, a regulatory protein of importance in HIV-1 studies.

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Sébastien Cormier has been a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Physics department since September of 2012. He teaches Introductory Mechanics and Electricity and Magnetism. His research interests are in the fields of Physics and Astronomy Education Research where he develops curriculum and STEM outreach programs

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After completing a thesis in experimental plasma physics in the area of fusion energy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Physics at USD in 1987, becoming a full professor in 1994. He currently serves as Chair of the Department of Physics. His teaching ranges from Physics and Society to Quantum Physics, and he created the first advanced upper division laboratory course, Experimental Modern Physics, in the physics curriculum. His research focuses on experimental basic plasma physics and the use of tunable lasers as a diagnostic for ion dynamics.

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Daniel Sheehan has been a member of the faculty at USD since 1989 and is Professor of Physics.  His research interests include the second law of thermodynamics, retrocausation, nanotechnology, plantary formation, and plasma physics.

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Delavan Dickson, JD., PhD, has taught at USD since 1987 in the department of Political Science and International Relations.  He teaches Introduction to Political Science and a variety of upper division law courses, including Constitutional Law, Judicial Behavior, Comparative Law, and International Law.  His research focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court, justice in common law countries, lay justice, and the relationship between law and democracy.

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Casey B. K. Dominguez, PhD, joined the USD Political Science faculty in 2005. Her research interests include congressional elections, political parties, campaign finance, and the presidency. She teaches upper and lower division classes on American Politics, as well as an upper division class on research methods.

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Emily Edmonds-Poli , PhD, joined the USD faculty in 2001.  Edmonds-Poli teaches classes on international relations and Latin American politics. Her research focuses on local and state level politics in Mexico, as well as decentralization and democratization in Latin America.

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Virginia Lewis, PhD, has been a faculty member at USD since 1980. She has been deeply involved in university governance, and has made student learning her mission. From directing the Oxford program for ten years and serving as faculty advisor to student groups, to teaching courses in her research areas,  Lewis sees the university as a student-centric community. She has been chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, chair of the College of Arts and Sciences Academic Assembly, and a member of the University Senate.

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Vidya Nadkarni, PhD,  joined USD’s faculty in 1990. Nadkarni teaches courses in the area of international relations and foreign policy.  Her research interests center on the foreign policies of resurgent (Russia) and aspiring (China, India) global powers. 

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Noelle Norton, PhD, joined the USD faculty in 1994. She is currently serving as an Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences while maintaining her faculty role in the department.  She most recently served as chair of the department and formerly served as the USD Honors Program director from 2001-2008. She teaches classes on American politics, legislative politics, urban politics, and gender politics. Norton’s most recent publications have been on welfare policy, the White House Office of the President, and the institutional position of women legislators. She is very excited to extend her work into international issues with her current research project about congressional handling of international women’s rights legislation between 1990 and 2010.

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Lee Ann Otto, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1984. She is a professor in the department of Political Science and International Relations and has served as the associate dean of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies since its inauguration in 2007. Otto is also the director of USD’s Masters Program in Peace and Justice Studies. She teaches courses on Chinese politics, Japanese politics, revolutionary change, and the law of the sea at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her research focuses on Chinese policies relating to the war on terror and their impact on Uyghurs and other minority groups within China. She is a former recipient of USD’s University Professorship award.

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Michael R. Pfau, PhD, has been at USD since 1989. He teaches Research Methods in Political Science and International Relations and occasionally seminars on Politics in (his native) Germany. His research focuses on cross-national public opinion formation, specifically, on how US (foreign) policy is perceived by publics abroad. On that issue, he consults with a variety of political and corporate interests. He has chaired the department and has won the American Political Science Association’s teaching award.

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David A. Shirk, PhD,  joined the University of San Diego in July 2003. Shirk’s teaching covers a wide range of subject areas, mainly concentrated in comparative politics, international political economy, Latin American studies, and U.S.-Latin American relations, with a concentration in Mexico and border politics. He conducts research on Mexican politics, U.S.-Mexican relations, and law enforcement and security along the U.S.-Mexican border. Shirk also directs the Trans-Border Institute, which works to promote greater analysis and understanding of Mexico, U.S.-Mexico relations, and the U.S.-Mexico border region.

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Avi Spiegel specializes in Middle Eastern and North African politics. He is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of San Diego, and a Fellow at the Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned a doctorate from Oxford University, a master’s degree from Harvard University, and a law degree from NYU. He has been a Fellow at the Brookings Institution, the Ali Pachachi Scholar of the Modern Middle East at Oxford, a Frederick Sheldon Fellow at Harvard, and a Fulbright Scholar and Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. He contributes regularly to Foreign Policy and Huffington Post and has also appeared, on television, as a Middle East Analyst for Al Jazeera English. His writing has also been published in, among others, the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, and The American Interest. His current book project offers a rare, close-up look at young Islamist activists -- at who they are and how battles brewing between them will shape the future of the Arab world. More information is available at www.avispiegel.com

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J. Michael Williams, J.D., PhD, is an alumnus of the University of San Diego (1992) and has been a member of the faculty since 1999.  He currently serves as the chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations. Williams offers undergraduate courses on introduction to political science, comparative politics, politics in sub-Saharan Africa, and politics in South Africa. His research focuses on African politics, with special interests in democratization, indigenous political structures, local governance, rule of law, the courts and constitutionalism.  He has published numerous articles and one book on the chieftaincy in South Africa - Chieftaincy, the State, and Democracy: Political Legitimacy in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Indiana University Press, 2010).

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Randy Willoughby, Ph.D, has been on the USD faculty since 1988 and teaches course on comparative politics and international security. His undergraduate education began at the University of California at Irvine and concluded at UCLA. His graduate education was at the University of California at Berkeley, preceded by a year of study in Paris, and including a year working in the Executive Office of the President in Washington DC, a year teaching at the University of Santa Clara, and two years participating on a research project at the University of California at San Diego.

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Rachel Blaser, PhD, has academic interests in how humans and other animals learn. She has additional interests in photography, linguistics, and impressively color-coded data files.

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Veronica Galván, PhD, teaches a variety of courses that primarily focus on the brain and cognition. Her current research interests are human memory and some of the factors that may enhance or impair it, such as attention and stress. Galván actively works with undergraduates to conduct her research. She is also the faculty advisor for the Psychology Department’s Journal Club.

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Nadav Goldschmied, PhD, teaches a variety of courses that revolve around social psychology, such as introduction to Social Psychology, Social Psychology Research Methods Lab, the Psychology of Sports, and Psychology of the Law. He has an active research program, working with students on various research projects exploring how inequality and disadvantage shape social perceptions of competitors and groups in contention, as well as projects relating to sport psychology. He is also the faculty advisor for the Psychology Department’s Club.

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Michael Ichiyama, PhD, has been a member of the USD faculty since 1995.  He offers undergraduate courses in the area of clinical psychology.  His primary research interests focus on college alcohol abuse prevention, the study of parental influences on college student alcohol use, and social influences on the self-concept.  Ichiyama is a licensed psychologist in California and active member of the National Register of Health Service Providers.

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Anne Koenig, PhD, teaches courses such as Social Psychology, the Social Psychology Research Methods Lab, the Psychology of Gender, and Introductory Psychology. She also has an active research program, working with students on various research projects in the areas of gender issues, stereotyping, and prejudice. Koenig’s current research is focuses on issues relating to stereotype content, role congruity theory of prejudice, and the ideologies of sex differences.

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Patricia Kowalski, PhD, has been at USD since 1989. She teaches courses in Introductory Psychology and Developmental Psychology. She is an advisor to Psi Chi, the National Honor Society in psychology. Her research interests are in the area of educational psychology including student motivation to learn, student attitudes toward learning, and factors influencing student misconceptions in psychology and education. Research students regularly accompany Kowalski to the Western Psychological Association convention or the American Educational Research Association conference.

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Dr. McCabe received a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Spanish from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in Child Clinical Psychology from Wayne State University. Her scholarly work has been funded by the NIMH since 1998, and has focused on improving treatment access, engagement, and outcomes for ethnic minority youth, particularly young Mexican Americans with behavior problems. Her teaching interests focus on topics related to general clinical and child clinical psychology, and she regularly teaches Behavior Disorders of Childhood, Psychological Assessment, and Laboratory in Clinical Psychology.

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Dr. Adriana Molitor has been a member of the faculty since 2001.  Her teaching interests include general psychology and research methods courses as well as specialty courses addressing childhood, adolescence, aging, and social-emotional aspects of development.  The topics of her research include the dynamics of mother-child interactions, the impact of these interactions on emotional and social development, the problems encountered by at-risk groups, and the factors that optimize mother-child exchanges and emerging social skills.

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Dr. Dan Moriarty is Professor of Psychology and has been a member of USD’s Department of Psychology since 1973. His interests are in the area of comparative biological psychology, and he teaches courses in animal behavior and learning, research methods, statistics, evolutionary psychology, and behavioral genetics. As a director and animal behaviorist at the California Wolf Center, Dr. Moriarty is involved in research with, and management and breeding of, captive wolves, including the highly endangered Mexican Gray Wolf. His research has included studies of predator defense behavior, irrelevant drive effects, partial reinforcement and reward contrast effects, and conditioned taste aversion.

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Sandra Sgoutas-Emch is a professor of psychology and director of the Center for Educational Excellence at the University of San Diego. She has been a professor at the university since 1992. During her tenure at USD, she has also been the director of the gender studies program. She teaches courses in health psychology and biopsychology. Dr. Sgoutas-Emch has research interests in the efficacy of alternative medicine, the impact of stress, and women’s health issues.

Dr. Sgoutas-Emch is also a CO_PI on the AFFIRM grant, a four year award funded through the NSF ADVANCE program has three primary goals. It will foster an environment that understands, embraces, and supports a diverse faculty, recruit women faculty (with a particular emphasis on women of color), and support the retention and advancement of female faculty.

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Professor Taylor has been a member of the USD faculty since 1990. She teaches courses in introductory psychology, research methods and cognitive psychology. Her research interests currently focus on teaching-related issues, including student engagement and conceptual change of misconceptions. She received her PhD in general experimental psychology in 1987 from the University of Southern California. Her specialty area was information processing cognitive psychology. She later completed a three-year postdoctoral training program at the Andrus Gerontology Center in Los Angeles, where she studied cognitive aging, specifically focusing on attention and memory.

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James Weyant is a Professor of Psychology.  His area of specialization is social psychology, focusing primarily on the application of social psychology to benevolent endeavors, such as charitable fund raising, and to helping reduce societal problems, such as prejudice and discrimination.

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Jennifer Zwolinski has been a member of the faculty since 2001. She is an Associate Professor of Psychology. In the Psychological Sciences Department, Professor Zwolinski offers undergraduate courses in a variety of areas including Introduction to Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Theories of Personality, and Advanced Research Methods in Clinical Psychology. Her research focus examines biopsychosocial factors associated with social/relational aggression and victimization, with an emphasis on ostracism.

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Adina Batnitzky joined the sociology faculty in the 2011 Spring Semester.  Adina was previously a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Geography and the Environment.  She has also been a Postdoctoral Fellow at Oxford University in the School of Geography, where she collaborated on research funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) Gender Equality Network.

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Michelle Madsen Camacho is Chair and Full Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of San Diego.  She formerly held two postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, San Diego, at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies and in the Department of Ethnic Studies. Fluent in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, her research uses theories from interdisciplinary sources including cultural studies, critical race, gender and feminist theories. Central to her work are questions of culture, power and inequality. She is affiliated faculty with the Department of Ethnic Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Latin American Studies.

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Julia Miller Cantzler joined the Department of Sociology at the University of San Diego in the 2011 Fall Semester. She teaches primarily in the Crime, Justice, Law & Society concentration.  Professor Cantzler’s research examines the intersections of culture and politics, with a primary focus on international human rights, law, social movements, environmental justice and the rights of Indigenous peoples.

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An Associate Professor of Sociology: Crime, Justice, Law & Society Concentration (CJLS), Erik has been a full-time faculty member at USD in various capacities since 2005.  Broadly construed, Erik’s areas of expertise include Criminology, Law & Society, the politics of law and crime management, social theory and research methods. Substantive and research foci include: the war on drugs, underground drug markets, nontraditional street gangs, white-collar crime, social movements, eco-terrorism, the death penalty, social justice and the contentious process of attempting to balance social control and individual freedoms.  Additionally, Erik serves as the faculty advisor to the USD Surf Team.

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Judith Liu has been a member of the sociology faculty since 1982. She is a Professor of Sociology, Affiliated faculty in the Ethnic Studies Program, and the Faculty Liaison for the Center for Community Service Learning.  Professor Liu has taught classical and contemporary theory, culture courses, contemporary social issues, and community organizing.  Her research focus is multicultural education, education in the People’s Republic of China, women and HIV/AIDS, political and civic responsibility, and community service-learning.

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Lisa Michele Nunn joined the Department of Sociology at the University of San Diego as an Assistant Professor in 2009.  Professor Nunn teaches largely in the Department’s Community, Urbanization, and Culture concentration.  Her research areas include: Sociology of Education; Organizations; Cultural Sociology; Gender and Sexuality; Identity; Visual Sociology; and Social Psychology.

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Dr. Reifer serves on the Gender Studies Advisory Committee and is an Associate Fellow at the Transnational Institute, a worldwide fellowship of committed scholar-activists; formerly worked at Focus on the Global South in Asia and was Associate Director of the Institute for Research on World-Systems (IROWS) and the Program on Global Studies at UC Riverside. He is also currently a Research Associate at the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems & Civilizations at Binghamton University - where he received his MA & PhD - and IROWS. His specialty is the study of large-scale, long-term social change and world-systems analysis.

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John Joe Schlichtman, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Community, Urbanization, and Culture Concentration within the Department of Sociology at the University of San Diego. His research areas include urban political economy, globalization, urban change, small cities, and homelessness. Professor Schlichtman has received commendations from the Black Student Union, the Order of Omega, and the College of Arts and Sciences for his teaching and service.

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Lisa Baird, PhD, joined the biology faculty in 1988. In addition to teaching in the preparatory courses for biology majors, she teaches classes in plant physiology, electron microscopy and the senior seminar. Baird is a developmental plant physiologist with particular interest in plant stress responses to pathogens and insect predation and how these responses can be modulated by plant growth regulators.

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Evelyn Diaz Cruz is an Associate Professor of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies with experience in writing, directing, and acting. Originally from the Bronx, New York, Professor Cruz's study and practice of theatre is focused on empowering communities by addressing issues of social justice through art. Her non-traditional approach to theatre garnered her the KPBS 2008 Hispanic Heritage Month Local Hero Award for her contributions to the San Diego community. She is the recipient of USD's 2009 Innovations in Experiential Education Award. She is a member of the Los Angeles Association of Playwrights and the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture.

 

 

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Monica Stufft is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies where she teaches courses in Theatre and Performance Studies and is involved in production work, both as a director and dramaturg. Her specializations include popular culture, theatre historiography as well as cultural, gender and performance theory. Her research focus is on late nineteenth and early twentieth century US theatre and performance, as well as the intersection of performance and pedagogy in the classroom. Interests: Vaudeville, burlesque, Broadway revues, music halls and cabarets; feminist theatre; collaborative theatre-making.

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Maria Pilar Aquino, S.T.D., joined the USD Theology and Religious Studies faculty in 1993. Her primary areas of teaching and research are liberation theologies, social ethics, and feminist theologies, with special interests in intercultural approaches, conflict transformation, and religious peacebuilding studies. Currently, she serves both on national and international editorial boards of prominent theological journals.  Aquino has served as the first woman president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States, of which she is also a co-founder. She is internationally renowned for her pioneering work in Latin American and U.S. Latina feminist theologies of liberation.

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Bahar Davary, PhD, has been a member of the faculty at USD since 2005. She is an associate professor of Religious Studies and an affiliate member of the Ethnic Studies program. Davary offers undergraduate courses on world religions, Islamic faith and practice, diversity courses and Honors courses, as well as preceptorials. She has team-taught a study abroad course Negotiating Religious Diversity in India. At the graduate level she has taught Comparative Religious Ethics at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. She will be team-teaching an Honors course, Women in Confucianism and Islam.

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Mary Doak, PhD, teaches courses in Christian theology.  Her specializations include liberation and political theologies, theologies of democracy and religious freedom, the goal of human life and history from a Christian perspective, and theologies of the church.  Her research focus has been on the political and practical implications of Christian faith, especially in the contemporary context of the United States.  Her current research project explores the challenges to discipleship faced by the church in the 21st century.

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Orlando Espín, Th.D., has been a member of the USD faculty since 1991. He is professor of systematic theology in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. Espín has twice served as president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (of which he was one of the founders), and has also served on the boards of directors of the Catholic Theological Society of America and of the Hispanic Summer Program in Religion and Theology. Espín has received an honorary doctorate and an honorary professorship. He founded and was first chief editor of the Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology. He serves on the editorial boards of several U.S., European and Latin American Journals. He is active in the San Diego Latino/a community, as well as nationally in Latino/a theological research and educational projects.

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Russell Fuller, PhD, joined the faculty of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies in 1992.  He is a professor of biblical studies with a specialty in the area of Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the religion of ancient Israel.

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Florence M. Gillman, PhD, has been a member of USD’s faculty since 1986. She  previously also served as chair of the department of Theology and Religious Studies and as Coordinator of the Ppogram in Interdisciplinary Humanities. Gillman teaches the courses entitled Introduction to Biblical Studies, Pauline Theology, The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and the World of the Bible. Her research interests include the New Testament world, women in the Pauline churches and the history of earliest Christianity.

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Aaron Gross is a historian of religions who focuses on modern and contemporary Jewish traditions. He has a sub-specialty in South Asian religious traditions and has done extensive fieldwork in Northern India and Nepal. Gross views the study of religion as inherently interdisciplinary and draws especially on anthropology, critical theory, philosophy, sociology, and theology. He co-chairs the American Academy of Religion’s Animals and Religion Consultation, serves on the national board of the Society for Jewish Ethics, and has recently become the Associate Editor of the Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies. Gross joined the faculty in 2009.

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Evelyn Kirkley, PhD, has been teaching at USD since 1995.  She is an advisor to PRIDE, USD’s organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, queer, and questioning undergraduate students and allies.  She has also served as co-director of the Gender Studies Program and director of the Faculty and Curriculum Development Program.  She teaches about the history of Christianity and other religious movements, especially in the United States.  Her research focuses on alternative religious movements (often called "cults" or "sects") in the United States and intersections between religion and gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation. 

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Louis Komjathy, PhD, is a teacher-scholar of Daoism, Chinese religions, and comparative religious studies with an emphasis on contemplative practice and mystical experience. He also holds the position of research associate in the Institute of Religion, Science and Social Studies of Shandong University (PRC), wherein he conducts research on the history of Daoism in Shandong. In addition to his departmental and university commitments, he is  founding co-director of the Center for Daoist Studies, founding co-chair of the Daoist Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion, and founding co-chair of the Contemplative Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion. 

 

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Dennis W. Krouse, S.T.D., has been a member of the faculty since 1974. He  specializes in the areas of liturgical studies and sacramental theology.

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Gerard Mannion is Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and Director of the Frances G. Harpst Center for Catholic Thought and Culture (CCTC). A professor of systematic theology and ethics, his academic career has taken in posts in Oxford, Leeds, Liverpool (UK), and Leuven (Belgium). He has held visiting research fellowships at Union Theological Seminary/Columbia University, New York City, the Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento (Italy) and was selected to participate in the programme on ‘Teaching the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of the Human Genome Project’, at the Ethics Institute, Dartmouth College (August 2003). Gerard has held visiting professorships at the University of Tübingen (Germany) and the University of Chichester (UK). He is an Irish citizen, passionate about social justice, rugby union, travel and music.

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Lance E. Nelson, PhD, is professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies.  He teaches courses in world religions and religious traditions of Asia.  Nelson’s research specialization is in Hindu religious history, focusing on classical systems of Hindu theology and the relation between Hindu religious practice and environmental concern.

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Ron Pachence, PhD, joined the faculty in 1981. He has served as department chair, founding director of the Institute for Christian Ministries, and director of graduate programs in the department. He is active in shared governance, having served on numerous committees and as chair of the University Senate. His teaching expertise is in the areas of Catholic theology and world religions. Pachence is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Turkey) and a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia.

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Maria Pascuzzi, S.T.D., has been a member of the faculty since 2000.  She teaches undergraduate courses on the critical study of the Bible, especially in the area of New Testament.

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Susie Paulik Babka, PhD, is excited to be a part of the community at USD that seeks to intertwine Beauty with Justice.  Beauty is that which draws us out of ourselves toward something deeper; Justice is the practical work of transforming this world into the world intended by God: a world that celebrates the dignity of every human being, our inherent interdependence, and the worth of all creation.

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Patricia A. Plovanich has been a member of the faculty since 1990. She is Assistant Professor of Systematic theology. In the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, she offers undergraduate courses in theological topics such as Jesus in Christian Tradition, the Problem of God, and Catholicism in the United States. Her research interests are theology of Cardinal Walter Kasper and the European theologians who pioneered many of the themes of the Second Vatican Council.

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Emily Reimer-Barry, Ph.D, has been a member of the Theology and Religious Studies faculty since 2008. She teaches undergraduate courses in Catholic theology, Christian ethics, sexual ethics, and ethical responses to HIV/AIDS. Her research interests include women’s experiences of HIV/AIDS, cross-cultural analysis of gender roles and marriage traditions, ethnography and ethical methodology, and the intersection of public health and Catholic social teachings.

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Karen Teel, PhD, has been a member of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies since 2007. Her courses in Christian and Catholic theology invite students to consider biblical, historical, and contemporary - especially liberationist - perspectives on the essential beliefs of Christianity.  Teel’s research interests focus on Christian anthropology, Christology and theological engagements with the problem of racism, emphasizing current liberation movements such as black and womanist theologies.

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Karma Lekshe Tsomo, a specialist in Buddhist studies, has taught at USD since 2000. She offers classes in Buddhist Thought and Culture, World Religions, Comparative Religious Ethics, Religious and Political Identities in the Global Community, and Negotiating Religious Diversity in India. Her research interests include women in Buddhism, death and dying, Buddhist feminist ethics, Buddhism and bioethics, religion and politics, and Buddhist transnationalism. She integrates scholarship and social activism through the Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women and Jamyang Foundation, an innovative education project for women in developing countries, with 15 schools in the Indian Himalayas, Bangladesh, and Laos.

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