Jonathan P. Conant, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the History Department, also currently serves as the coordinator of the Classical Studies minor.  Conant offers undergraduate courses on the ancient world, the medieval world, Greek civilization, Roman civilization, the fall of the Roman empire, castles and crusades, and historians’ methods.  His research focus is on the Mediterranean world in late antiquity, with a special emphasis on questions of empire, identity, trade and communications, urban and rural life, literacy, and violence.

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Eren Branch, Ph.D., joined USD in 1985 after working as an information officer at the Fulbright Commission in Stockholm and, before that, teaching part-time at the University of Cincinnati.  For her first twelve years at USD, she served primarily as an administrator (as associate dean and then dean of the School of Graduate and Continuing Education) and joined the English Department full-time in 1997. A native San Diegan, Branch grew up in Italy.

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John W. Fendrick, Ph.D., has been a member of the faculty since 1992. He teaches undergraduate courses in classical Greek, Latin, Spanish, and German. He also serves as director of the Classical Languages Program on campus and is the on-site coordinator of University Ministry for the Guadalajara Study Abroad Program.

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Florence M. Gillman, Ph.D., 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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Before coming to USD, Jerome Hall, Ph.D., 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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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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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. Currently, Pascuzzi also serves as the director of the Center for Catholic Thought and Culture. In this role, she is primarily concerned with developing programs for the university community which promote engagement with the Church’s intellectual tradition and explore its contributions to the arts and sciences.

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Santiago Rubio-Fernaz has been a member of the faculty since 1998. He is a lecturer in Classics and also currently serves as Director of Placement for the Department of Languages and Literatures. In the Languages Department, Professor Rubio-Fernaz offers undergraduate courses on Latin and Greek and occasionally on Spanish. His research focus is Roman and Greek poetry, with special interests in Greek epic poetry of the Hellenistic Age and Roman lyric poetry of the Classical Period.

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Michael F. Wagner, Ph.D., 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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