Humanities Faculty
Mary Louise Hill, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor and Acting Chair, Humanities Department
Mary Louise Hill (mlhill@medaille.edu) joined the Humanities faculty in 2004. She holds a Ph.D. in performance studies from New York University, an M.A. in fiction writing from Syracuse University, and a B.A. in English from Cleveland State University. Her research interests include early twentieth century avant-garde drama, multi-cultural performance and drama, feminist performance and drama, semiotics and phenomenology. Her dissertation, When The Voice Must Be The Body: Feminism and Radio Drama earned her honors at N.Y.U.; chapters from it have appeared in TDR: The Drama Review and Women and Performance. She has presented papers on feminism, sound theory, radio and performance in the U.S.A., Turkey and South Africa. She has taught at Syracuse University, New York University, Onondaga Community College, LeMoyne College, Alcorn State University (Mississippi), and Baskent University (Ankara, Turkey). She has a deep passion for international education, having traveled widely, and taught English as a second language for over twenty years. The four-year experience in Turkey also helped her develop her awareness of comparative women’s studies, and comparative religions. She continues to write plays and fiction; in 2002, she received an honorable mention in the national Peacewriting Competition for a novel-in-progress. Dr. Hill is the campus Fulbright Representative, and the advisor for the campus chapter of Alpha Chi, a national honor society.
Alan Bigelow, Ph.D.
Professor
Dr. Alan Bigelow (abigelow@medaille.edu) has taught in the Humanities Department at Medaille since 1992, with experience in creative writing, composition, literature and web design. He has a Ph.D. and M.A. in English from SUNY at Buffalo, and an M.A. in English (Creative Writing Emphasis) from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
His current online projects include: iDiscourse.com, an online bulletin board for humanities courses; and HumanitiesDepartment.com, a site devoted to teaching and learning in the Humanities. He also writes interactive stories for the web which are created in Flash and use images, text, audio, video, and other components.
His online work, installations, and conversations concerning digital fiction have appeared in Turbulence.org, Rhizome.org, Media-N--Journal of the New Media Caucus, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, E-Poetry 2007, BlazeVox.org, New River Journal, FILE 2007, DreamingMethods.com, and elsewhere. Currently, in addition to teaching full-time at Medaille, he is a visiting online lecturer in Creative Writing and New Media at De Montfort University, UK.
You can see Alan Bigelow's work at http://www.webyarns.com.
Terri Borchers, Ph.D., J.D.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Terri Borchers (tborchers@medaille.edu) has taught in the Humanities Department since 2002. With graduate degrees from the Northwestern School of Law, Cleveland State University, Ohio State University, and the University of Utah, Dr. Borchers brings a depth of professional experience and publication to creative and professional writing courses. Her past and current research interests include the rhetoric and poetics of American writers and the problematics of the "we," as well as world literature issues and the importance of diversity in our increasingly complex and compelling global community. Her hobbies include Irish music and dance, running, walking, and travel.
Gerald J. Erion, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Gerald J. Erion (gerion@medaille.edu) joined Medaille's full-time faculty in 2002, having earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University at Buffalo with a dissertation investigating the ontology, epistemology, and moral philosophy of common sense. He teaches courses in philosophy and general education at the College, and his current research includes topics in ethics and moral philosophy, philosophy of mind, and the teaching of philosophy. He has also contributed chapters to recent books on philosophy and pop culture, including The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'Oh of Homer (Open Court) and The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real (Open Court). In addition, he currently serves as director of the College Scholars Program, Medaille's new undergraduate honors program. Dr. Erion maintains a personal Web site.
Courtney Grim, M.F.A.
Associate Professor
Courtney Grim (cgrim@medaille.edu) has been at Medaille College since 1996. She holds a master's of fine arts degree from Rochester Institute of Technology in imaging arts, a bachelor of fine arts degree from Ohio University in Photography with minors in ceramics and art history. Grim has been an artist-in-residence at the Experimental Television Center and Squeaky Wheel. She has installed, exhibited and screened work throughout western New York including at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Hallwalls, CEPA, SoundLab, Center of Fine Arts, and Squeaky Wheel. Grim combines a variety of mediums including photography and digital imaging to site-specific installation, public art projects, multi-channel video work, and hand processed 8 mm film. Grim has exhibited nationally from Colorado to Maine and is currently working on her international exhibition record. Grim has travel widely most recently on a grant to South America where she gathered research material for future exhibitions, curriculum and instruction as well as further grant opportunities.
Erika Hamann, M.A.
Visiting Instructor
Erika Hamann (ehamann@medaille.edu) joined the full-time faculty in 2006 and currently teaches in the Interdisciplinary Studies and Humanities departments. She began teaching at Medaille as an adjunct instructor in 2004. Erika holds a master of arts degree in English from Buffalo State College, where her academic focus was on Mark Twain, evolution and religion in Gilded Age/Victorian society. She also received her bachelor of arts degree in English from Buffalo State College.
Cynthia Hermanson, M.S.Ed.
Assistant Professor
Cynthia Hermanson (chermanson@medaille.edu) joined the full-time faculty at Medaille in 2003. Her teaching and research interests include college writing, American literature, and the arts, and she has given several presentations at the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Cindy is completing her doctorate in English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where the focus of her dissertation is teaching practices in Writing Across the Curriculum. Cynthia holds a master’s of science in english education from Buffalo State College, and a bachelor of science in music education from The King’s College. Cindy enjoys writing poetry, and four poems have been published in Medaille’s literary arts journal, Prelude.
Brad Hollingshead, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Dr. Brad Hollingshead (bhollingshead@medaille.edu) joined the Medaille faculty in 2000, and has taught college English since 1989. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Duquesne University, with specializations in nineteenth-century British literature and critical theory. His B.A. in English is from Ohio Dominican University. Dr. Hollingshead teaches undergraduate courses in British literature, theory, and composition. He also teaches graduate courses in narrative inquiry theory and the essay tradition. His research interests include British Romanticism; Victorian Prose; Marxist, feminist, postcolonial, and poststructuralist theory; film; and Hip Hop culture. His scholarship has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, and he has been invited to speak at national and international conferences on a wide range of topics, including literature, film, and rap. His most recent scholarship focuses on the relationship between British Romantic literature and Marxist theory. His manuscript, ‘The Political House that Jack Built’: Romanticism and Marxist Kritik, was solicited by Routledge Press for publication in its series Studies in Literary Theory and Cultural Criticism.
Dr. Hollingshead has also served as the coordinator of outcomes assessment since 2003. As coordinator, Dr. Hollingshead has led efforts to create and implement the college’s Student Learning Assessment Plan. He was the chief author of the plan, which was commended by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
Dr. Hollingshead has been recognized for educational excellence throughout his career, most recently receiving the Dr. Brian R. Shero Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award in 2005.
Douglas Howard, Ph.D.
Professor
Dr. Doug Howard (dhoward@medaille.edu) joined Medaille in 2005 as Vice President for Academic Affairs, at which time he was also appointed professor of humanities. A graduate of Miami University (Ohio), he received his Ph.D. degree in English from the University of Rochester, after which he joined the faculty at St. John Fisher College, where he served for over 25 years as a faculty member and administrator before coming to Medaille.
Dr. Howard’s research and teaching interests have centered on Shakespeare and English drama, and his publications include The Plays of Samuel Foote (Garland Publishing, 1983) and Philip Massinger: A Critical Reassessment (Cambridge University Press, 1985). More recently, Dr. Howard has taught and written about twentieth-century American culture, including a range of subjects from the early black independent film to printmaking in the Great Depression. An avid art collector, he has also curated more than twenty art exhibitions, mostly focused on upstate New York modernists working from the 1930s to the 1970s. His catalog essay, “At the Margins of Modernism: Rufus J. Dryer and Kathleen McEnery” appeared in The Art of Kathleen McEnery (Harnett Gallery, 2003).
As an academic leader, Dr. Howard has focused on working with faculty to develop, assess, and sustain curricular innovation, and on fostering collaboration between academics and student life. In 2002, his work on first-year programs was recognized by the Policy Center on the First Year of College in their designation of “Institutions of Excellence in the First College Year.” Since 2003, Dr. Howard has served as one of twenty resource faculty selected nationally to facilitate the National Summer Institute on Learning Communities at the Evergreen State University (Washington).
Richard T. Jurasek, Ph.D.
Professor
Dr. Richard T. Jurasek began his tenure as Medaille College's sixth president on June 1, 2007. He was previously the executive vice president and interim president of Antioch College in Ohio. Before joining Antioch, Dr. Jurasek served as dean of faculty at Augustana College in Illinois, and Professor of German at Earlham College in Indiana.
A foreign language scholar, Jurasek earned both his Ph.D. and master's degrees in German from The Ohio State University and his bachelor's degree in German from Ohio University. Dr. Jurasek has co-authored three books on German that are used in colleges and universities across the country. He has published widely and has made numerous presentations about on-campus and off-campus curriculum design.
In addition to his work in academics, Dr. Jurasek is an elected member to both the Community Resources Board and the Community Roundtable in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He was a worksite volunteer for Habitat for Humanity (2001-2003) and served as a classroom volunteer (2001-2003) in Rock Island, Ill.
Mark Lavatelli, M.A., M.F.A
Professor
Mark Lavatelli (mlavatelli@medaille.edu) has taught at Medaille since 1988. He holds a bachelor's degree in art history from Cornell University, a master's in art history from the University of Illinois, and a master of fine arts in painting and drawing from the University of New Mexico. Lavatelli has been a resident artist at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, NM and at the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts in Ithaca, NY. Lavatelli uses hot-wax encaustic technique. His work is included in numerous collections, from Dallas to Denver to Tokyo. In 2006, his paintings were featured together with those of the well-known American modernist Charles Burchfield at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center in Buffalo. As a freelance art writer, Lavatelli has published more than two dozen art reviews in The Buffalo News and Artvoice since 1996.
Lavatelli maintains a personal Web site.
Norman Muir, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Dr. Norman Muir (nmuir@medaille.edu) joined Medaille College in June 2004 as the undergraduate academic dean. Since receiving his Ph.D. in literature from SUNY Stony Brook in 1984, he has served as a full-time faculty member or academic administrator at three other small, private, independent colleges. His scholarly interests remain in the areas of sixteenth and seventeenth century British literature, with an emphasis on Elizabethan and Jacobean comedy. He continues to research and write about the influence of the theological doctrine of Christian Patience on Renaissance and seventeenth century literature through John Milton.
Dr. Muir has taught a variety of college writing and literature courses, ranging from developmental English to technical writing and from introduction to literature classes to a senior seminar in the novels of William Faulkner. While at Centenary College in New Jersey, he received the Lindback Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence after being nominated by his students. He has also had the good fortune of traveling to China twice in recent years to teach for short periods of time at five Chinese universities.
As an academic administrator, his primary interests are in academic program development, experiential learning, strategic planning, improving teaching and learning, and the assessment of student learning and institutional effectiveness.
His family includes his wife of thirty years, Donna, and his adopted daughter, Alexa Grace Fuyan Ting Muir, born in Changting County of Fujian Province in southeastern China. Alexa is in the fourth grade and already smarter than her father! Also living in the family residence are his mother, Joyce, and a gracefully aging parakeet of 13 years, Oliver.
He is a lifelong New Yankee fan with a passion for baseball. When not watching a Yankee game on television or playing with Alexa, he can be found indulging his interest in Italian Renaissance art and literature.
Lee Nisbet, Ph.D.
Professor
Dr. Lee Nisbet (lnisbet@medaille.edu), professor of humanities, holds a M.A. in history and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is a past recipient of the prestigious John Dewey Senior Research Fellowship, the author of two anthologies dealing with gun violence and gun control issues and numerous articles in both scholarly and mass circulation publications. He was instrumental in the development of Medaille’s Theodore Roosevelt Honors Program and served as its director from 2001-2004. He has developed and taught, with great enthusiasm, a variety of philosophy courses at the college since 1977.
Dr. Nisbet’s scholarship is wide-ranging. His writing in both academic and mass-circulation publications covers a diversity of topics including logical theory, critical thinking, applied ethics, social and political philosophy, reverse discrimination, sex-differences, cognitive and motivational bias, mass-media bias, crime and violence, paranormal phenomena, philosophy of sport and pragmatic naturalism among others. He has edited two well reviewed volumes, The Gun Control Debate: You Decide (1990, 2001) that contain both the most important writings on gun control and gun violence issues in the United States and abroad over the last three decades and Nisbet’s in-depth analysis of these issues. His expertise in this area has led to dozens of national and local radio and television appearances dealing with gun control, gun violence issues. Also, he has lectured here and abroad on mass-media bias issues including a presentation to the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia, 2001. He is currently working on a volume dealing with the sex-gender difference debate in the United States.
He serves on the board of directors of the Center of Inquiry, Amherst, New York, is a founding member of the International Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and is a contributing editor to both the Skeptical Inquirer and Free Inquiry magazines.
In his other life he is an enthusiastic, world-traveling salt and fresh water fly-fisherman, big-game hunter, canoer, kayaker, hiker, U.S. Coast Guard licensed charter captain, and lover of remote places on this earth.
Ethan Paquin, M.F.A.
Assistant Professor
Ethan Paquin (epaquin@medaille.edu) is assistant professor of English at Medaille College. He earned a bachelor's degree from Plymouth State College (NH) and an M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His books of poetry are My Thieves (Salt, 2007); The Violence (Ahsahta Press, 2005), which was runner-up for the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award; Accumulus (Salt, 2003); and The Makeshift (UK: Stride, 2002). These books have been reviewed in publications including The London Times Literary Supplement, Poetry Review (London), PN Review (London), New Review of Literature, and Publishers Weekly.
Paquin's poems have appeared in many journals including The Colorado Review, Fence, The Boston Review, Boulevard, New American Writing, Quarterly West, Jacket (Australia), and Meanjin (Australia). His criticism has appeared injournals including The Boston Review, Verse, Canadian Review of Books, and Contemporary Poetry Review. His poetry has been anthologized in French Connections: A Gathering of Franco-American Poets (Louisiana Literature Press, 2007), Joyful Noise: An Anthology of American Spiritual Poetry (Autumn House Press, 2006), Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century (Sarabande Books, 2005), and Isn't It Romantic: 100 Love Poems by Younger American Poets (Wave Books, 2002).
In addition, he is author of a novella-in-progress, an excerpt from which appears in Esquire (“Napkin Project,” Feb. 2007). The founder and editor of the online literary journal Slope and the small poetry press, Slope Editions, Paquin's teaching interests and research areas include modern and postmodern American and international poetry, as well as film and popular culture studies.
Ted Pelton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Dr. Ted Pelton (tpelton@medaille.edu) has a Ph.D. in American literature from University at Buffalo and an M.A. in creative writing from University of Colorado. A fiction writer, he is the author of three books: Endorsed by Jack Chapeau, a short story collection now in an expanded second edition; Bhang, a novella; and, most recently, the novel Malcolm and Jack (and other Famous American Criminals), published in 2006 from Spuyten Duyvil Books.
In 1994, he received a $20,000 Individual Fellowship in Fiction from the National Endowment for the Arts, the largest federal grant available to creative artists in the United States. In 2000, he founded Starcherone Books, a non-profit fiction publishing house, and he currently acts as executive director. An associate professor of humanities at Medaille, Dr. Pelton was awarded tenure in 2004. In addition to numerous nationwide reviews of his work, he has been profiled in The Buffalo News, Buffalo ArtVoice, and Western New York Life magazine, and in 2006 he was named Best Fiction Writer in the annual Best of WNY selections made by Buffalo Spree magazine. His teaching specializations are American literature, The Novel, contemporary fiction, and fiction writing.
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