American Studies Faculty

A
Dohra Ahmad (Ph.D., Columbia University), is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature. Her specialties include Postcolonial Literature, American and Ethnic American Literature, and Utopian Fiction.


B
Joseph A. Bongiorno (Ph.D., University of Connecticut), is an Associate Professor of History and Assistant Chair, specializing in Italian history and Diplomatic History.

Roderick D. Bush (Ph.D., SUNY Binghamton), is an Assistant Professor of Sociology. He specializes in Race and Ethnicity, Social Movements, World-Systems Studies, Globalization, Social Inequality, Social Change, Urban Sociology, Community Organizing, Political Sociology.

Barrett P. Brenton (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts-Amherst) is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and is a specialist on global health and dietary change who has conducted research in Peru, Kenya, South Africa, Great Britain, and Native American communities.

Natalie Byfield (Ph.D., Fordham), is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology.  Her research focuses on the role of language and media in society, cultural studies, social theory, and the co-determined nature of race, gender, and class formations.
 

C

Elaine Carey (Ph.D., University of New Mexico), is an Associate Professor of History and Department Chair, specializing in Latin American History and Women’s History.


D
William DiFazio (Ph.D., City University of New York) is Professor of Sociology. He teaches and does research in Work and Technology, Urban Sociology, and Social Theory.

Irene J. Dabrowski (Ph.D., Washington University), is an Associate Professor of Sociology and specializes in the sociology of medicine, urban sociology, women's studies, and the sociology of education.


E
Dawn Esposito (Ph.D., City University of New York), is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Department Chair, specializing in gender, social theory, feminist theory, and cultural studies.


F

Robert Fanuzzi (Ph.D., Northwestern University), is Assistant Chair and Associate Professor in the English Department. His specialties inclue 18th and 19th Century American Literature, trans-Atlantic and hemispheric American culture; and African-American literature.


G
William Gangi (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame), is a Professor of Government and Politics.  He specializes in American Constitutional law; he has secondary interests in American Government, American Theory, Comparative Law, and Public Administration.

Granville Ganter (Ph.D., City University of New York), is an Associate Professor of English, specializing in 18th and 19th Century U.S. Literature, Northeast Native American Studies, and African American literature.


H
David W. Haddorff (Ph.D., Marquette University), is an Associate Professor of Theology. His specialties include Christian Ethics and Moral Theology, Social Ethics, American Religion.

Diane J. Heith (Ph.D., Brown University), is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Government and Politics Department. Her specialties include the Presidency, Media, Public Opinion, and American Politics generally.

Elizabeth Herbin (Ph.D., Columbia University), is an Assistant Professor of History, specializing in agrarianism in the American South, African-American migration within the U.S. and emigration to Liberia, the Harlem Renaissance, and segregationist ideas in the U.S. and South Africa. 


K
Kevin Kennedy (Ph.D., The Catholic University of America), is an Associate Professor of Philosophy.  He specializes in Metaphysics, American philosophy, Pragmatism and Marxism.

Barbara Koziak (Ph.D., Yale University), is an Associate Professor of Government and Politics and director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Minor. She specializes in ancient political philosophy particularly Aristotle and contemporary political theory, especially feminist political theory


L
John Lowney (Ph.D., Brown University), is Professor of English, specializing in English and American Literature, Modern and Post-modern American literature, American poetry, and American ethnic literatures.

Anthony LoBalbo (Ph.D., New York University), is an Associate Professor of Music.


M
Timothy Milford (Ph.D., Harvard University), is an Associate Professor of History. He specializes in colonial and early national North America.

Stephen Miller (Ph.D., NYU) 1991 is Professor in the Department of English, specializing in Contemporary American literature, Cultural Studies and Poetry.


N
William Nieter (M.S., Columbia University), is the Director of the Environmental Studies Program and the Assistant Dean of St. John’s College. He teaching and research specialties include Natural Resources and World Development, World Regional and North American Regional Geography, Environmental Geology, Coastal Environment and Development Issues and Environmental and Earth Sciences.

William Nester (Ph.D., University of California at Santa Barbara), is a Professor of Government and Politics at St. John’s University.
Susie Pak (Ph.D., Cornell University), is an Assistant Professor of History. She specializes in the study of race, ethnicity, and identity politics in the United States during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.


R
Susan Rosenberg (Ph.D., New York University), is Associate Professor of Fine Arts.


S
Susan Schmidt Horning (Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University), is an Assistant Professor of History.  Her specialties include World, 20th century U.S. Cultural and Social, Technology and Science, and Sound Studies.


T
S. Joshua Thomas (Ph.D., Fordham University), is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy, specializing in American Pragmatism/Neopragmatism, Philosophy of Medicine, Biomedical Ethics and Ethics.

Jennifer Travis (Ph.D., Brandeis University), is an Associate Professor of English. Her specialties include American literature to 1900, Gender Studies and Cultural Studies.

Mitchell Trichon (Ph.D., University of Louisiana), is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.  He specializes in stuttering, Fluency Disorders, and Self-Help in Stuttering Management.

Uma Tripathi
(Ph.D., Notre Dame University), is an Associate Professor of Government and Politics.

Elda Tsou (Ph.D., Columbia University), is an Assistant Professor of English, specializing in English and Comparative Literature.


V
Laura Vapnek (Ph.D., Columbia University), is an Associate Professor of History. Her specialties examine the intersections between motherhood, social class, and state formation, arguing that debates about infant feeding set the parameters of state responsibility for public health and redefined human rights.

Roberta Villalón (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is an Assistant Professor of Sociology. She specializes in Social Theory, Political Sociology, Social Inequality, Social Movements, Immigration, Qualitative Methodology, Latin America, and Latino/as in the U.S.


W

Patrick R. Walden (Ph.D., Florida Atlantic University), is an Assistant Professor in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department, specializing in Leadership and administration in the professions, Scholarship of teaching and learning, Language assessment and intervention across the lifespan.