Webster University's College of Humanities and Social Sciences will increase the focus on the humanities and social sciences and further strengthen the University's academic foundation. This will enable each unit to strengthen its own identity while meeting student needs.
“We honor knowledge for its transformative power to enact positive change locally, nationally and globally. By fostering a deep understanding of diverse human experiences and perspectives, we empower our students to navigate complex challenges and become ethical leaders in their communities.”
Interim Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Departmental Faculty Listings
- Dean's Office
- English Department
- Global English Language Teaching (GELT) Institute
- Global Languages, Cultures and Societies Department
- History, Political Science and International Relations Department
- Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies
- Law, Crime and Social Justice Department
- Philosophy Department
Danielle MacCartney, PhD
Interim Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Parsons, K., & MacCartney, D. (2023). How to Care: Teaching from the Ethics of Care for More Equitable Learning Environments. College Teaching, 1-9.
MacCartney, D., & Parsons, K. (2023). Emotions, Vulnerability, and Dependency in Student Research Abroad: An Ethics of Care Toolkit. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 35(1), 1-29.
Goedereis, E. A., & MacCartney, D. (2019). Creating Common Ground: A Process to Facilitate Interdisciplinary Conversation among University Faculty. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education, 8(2), 173-183. (author names in alphabetical order)
MacCartney, D. (2017). Monitoring the world society: LGBT human rights in Russia and Sweden. In V. Demos & M. T. Segal (Eds.), "Gender panic, gender policy" (Advances in Gender Research, Volume 24): Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Stotzer, R. & MacCartney, D. (2015). The role of institutional factors on on-campus reported rape prevalence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 1-21.
Kingston. L., MacCartney, D., & Miller, A. (2014). Facilitating student engagement: Social responsibility and freshmen learning communities. Teaching and Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal, 2(1), 63-80. (author names in alphabetical order)
MacCartney, D. (2013). The state of same-sex marriage in the United States. In L.P. Itaborahy & J. Zhu (Eds.). "State sponsored homophobia: A world survey of laws, criminalisation, protection and recognition of same-sex love" (pp. 98-101). Brussels, Belgium: International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.
Shane Kennedy
Director of Operations, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Maribeth Wagganer
Graduate Assistant
Karla Armbruster, PhD
Department Chair, Professor, English; Coordinator, Professional Writing Program; Chair, Sustainability Studies Committee
Karla Armbruster is the co-editor of two collections of criticism: "The Bioregional Imagination: Literature, Ecology, and Place" and "Beyond Nature Writing: Expanding the Boundaries of Ecocriticism." She is also executive secretary of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, having held several other leadership positions within that organization in the past.
Most recently, she has become very interested in animal studies and is working on a book on literary and popular representations of dogs. This project combines personal narrative, literary and cultural analysis, and scientific information on canine behavior and genetics in order to examine the ways we position dogs on the border between culture and nature. In the process, it explores how our representations of dogs inform not only our relationships with real dogs but also our engagement with the wildness of the natural world. For a taste of this project, read a talk Armbruster gave on "Dogs, Dirt, and Public Space" at a gathering sponsored by the Animals and Society Institute at Duke University in 2009.
Armbruster's interests are also reflected in her courses; for example, her Perspectives course on Werewolves, Seal Wives, Grizzly Men and Other Metamorphoses (now offered as Human-Animal Transformations) won the 2011 Distinguished New Course Award from the Humane Society of the United States and the Animals and Society Institute.
Challenges and Rewards of Human–Canine Relationships (2016), Society & Animals 24 (2), 205-207.
Walking with Thoreau in Mind and Dogs on Leash (2014), Forum for World Literature Studies 6 (1), 68-78.
What Do We Want from Talking Animals? Reflections on Literary Representations of Animal Voices and Minds (2012), Speaking for Animals, 27-44.
‘What There Was Before Language’: Animals and the Challenges of Being Human in the Novels of Toni Morrison (2005), Comparative Critical Studies 2 (3), 365-380.
Murray Farish, PhD
Associate Professor, English
“Inappropriate Behavior,” Milkweed Editions, 2014.
The Passage, The Missouri Review, June 1, 2004.
Email: murrayfarish12@webster.edu
Elizabeth Hoover, PhD
Assistant Professor, English
Elizabeth Hoover is the author of The Archive Is All in Present Tense, winner of the 2021 Barrow Street Book Prize. In addition, her creative nonfiction has appeared in the North American Review, the Kenyon Review, and StoryQuarterly. She received her PhD in English Studies with a creative writing concentration from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Personal site: www.ehooverink.com
“Our Waste and Our Potential, Southeast Review, Spring 2024
of what is not written the archive only dreams, Pittsburgh Quarterly, September 2023.
At Temporal Enfolding: The New Futurity of Queer Nostalgia Conference, Harpur Palate, Fall/Winter, 2022
Advice to My Younger Self, Had, November 2022
“the archive is all in present tense,” Barrow Street Press, 2022.
QB468.W 48X W5, The Baffler, 2021
TJ1015.H66, The Baffler, 2021
News, Tupelo Quarterly, July 14, 2019.
His Next Girl, Prairie Schooner, Spring 2019.
Let Go, Prairie Schooner, Spring 2019.
Email: elizabethhoover@webster.edu
Sheila Hwang, PhD
Professor, English
“Becoming Bath: How Storytelling Shaped the Spa.” JASNA-NC Member Meeting, June 2021.
“What the Stranger’s Eye Will Seek”: Visiting and Revisiting the Watering Places in Persuasion. Persuasions No. 40 (2018), pp. 118-132.
Anne McIlhaney, PhD
Professor, English
McIlhaney, Anne (2023) "“My All the World”: Constance, Motherhood, and Petrarchanism in Shakespeare’s King John," Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference: Vol. 13, Article 5.
McIlhaney, Anne (2021) "Those That Were Enwombed Mine": Adoptive Mothering and Genre in All's Well that Ends Well and Shakespeare's Romances. Journal of the Wooden O. Vol 21, 85-93.
McIlhaney, Anne (2016) ""Christen it with thy Dagger's Point": Maternal Mistreatment in Shakespeare's Roman Plays," Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference: Vol. 9, Article 7.
DJ Kaiser, PhD, MATESL
Director, GELT Institute; Professor, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
DJ Kaiser received his PhD from Washington University in St. Louis and his MATESL from the University of Illinois. He has been a visiting faculty member at the University of Barcelona and received a Fulbright Scholars grant to conduct research in Uruguay. He has received other research grants to go to Italy, Brazil, Uruguay, and Catalonia. He has written, directed, and worked on multiple grant projects focused on teacher preparation, including projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation.
With more than two decades in the field of English Language Teaching, Kaiser has delivered presentations, workshops and seminars on language instruction, teaching pronunciation, language planning and policy, technology for education and program development throughout the United States and in Mexico, Canada, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Spain, Greece, Holland, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Ecuador.
Kaiser, D. (forthcoming, 2023). English in Uruguay. In Bolton, K. et al. (Eds.) The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of World Englishes. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Kaiser, D. (2020). Setting up shop in Uzbekistan: TESL programs in new markets. The Journal of AsiaTEFL, 17(4), 1524–1531.
Kaiser, D. (2018). Observations of Ceibal en Inglés: A SWOT Analysis and the Strategies of Stronger Uruguayan Teachers in English Classrooms. In 1.er Encuentro de Ceibal en Inglés. “Encuentros Cercanos con lo Remoto en la Creación de una Comunidad Educativa” (pp. 61–77). Montevideo: Plan Ceibal.
Kaiser, D., & Saisanan Na Ayudhya, Y. (2018). Promoting inclusion through English for organic farming and ecotourism in ASEAN countries: A Thai example. In The VietTESOL International Conference 2017: English Language Education in Diverse Contexts (pp. 105–117). Hanoi: Vietnam National University Press. (Peer-reviewed article).
Kaiser, D. (2018). Mobile-Assisted Pronunciation Training: The iPhone: Pronunciation App Project. Speak Out! Journal of the IATEFL Pronunciation Special Interest Group, 58, 38-51. (Invited article).
Kaiser, D. (2017). English language teaching in Uruguay. World Englishes, 36(4), 744–759.
Oybek Imomov
MA TESOL Program Leader in Uzbekistan
Elsa L. Fan, PhD
Department Chair, Associate Professor, Anthropology
Elsa Fan is a medical anthropologist whose research looks at how global health practices travel across different social and cultural contexts. Her book, "Commodities of Care: The Business of HIV Testing in China" (University of Minnesota Press, 2021), examines how scaling up HIV testing unfolded in unexpected ways across communities of men who have sex with men in China. She has published papers in Critical Public Health, Global Public Health, and Medicine Anthropology Theory about metrics, the portability of standardized global health interventions, and how categories transform subjectivity and sociality. Fan's research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Wenner-Gren Foundation, and UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation among others. Her areas of research expertise include medical anthropology, critical global health, humanitarianism, development studies, and gender and sexuality studies.
She previously worked and consulted in international development and philanthropy with organizations like UNDP, Global Fund for Children and Give2Asia, and lived in Asia for years as part of her development career.
Fan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Psychology from University of California at Berkeley, a Master of Science in Anthropology and Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a PhD in Anthropology from University of California at Irvine.
Fan, Elsa (2021). Commodities of Care: The Business of HIV Testing in China. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Fan, Elsa L., Matthew Thomann, and Robert Lorway (2019). "Making up MSM: Circulations, Becomings and Doings in Global Health," special section edited by Elsa L. Fan, Matthew Thomann, and Robert Lorway. Medicine Anthropology Theory 6(4): 179-86. https://www.medanthrotheory.org/article/view/4969/6999
Fan, Elsa L. And Elanah Uretsky. (2017). "In Search of Results: Anthropological Interrogations of Evidence-Based Global Health," special section edited by Elsa L. Fan and Elanah Uretsky. Critical Public Health 27(2): 157-62. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09581596.2016.1264573
Fan, Elsa L. (2017). "Counting Results: Performance-Based Financing and HIV Testing in China." In "Anthropological Interrogations of Evidence-Based Global Health," ed. Elsa L. Fan and Elanah Uretsky, special section Critical Public Health 27(2): 217-227. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09581596.2016.1259458?journalCode=ccph20
Fan, Elsa L. (2014). "HIV Testing as Prevention among MSM in China: The Business of Scaling-Up." In "HIV Scale-Up and the Politics of Global Health," ed. Richard Parker and Nora Kenworthy, special issue Global Public Health 9 (1-2): 85-97. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24498955/
Hannah McFarland
Department Coordinator
Salim Ayoub, PhD
Assistant Professor, Director of Centre Francophone, Jane and Bruce Robert Endowed Professor of French and FrancoPhone: Studies
Jong Bum (JB) Kwon, PhD
Associate Professor, Anthropology
JB Kwon, PhD, is an associate professor of cultural anthropology in the Department of Global, Languages, Cultures and Societies.
He teaches Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Urban Studies, Globalization, Race and Ethnicity, Ethnographic Method, and a range of topical courses including Modern Korea and Film, Anthropology of Capitalism, and Asians in America.
He received his doctorate from New York University and is a former Fulbright Scholar and University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. His work appears in such prominent journals as Positions: Asia Critique and American Ethnologist. He has published on neoliberalism and policing in South Korea; multi-racial immigrant labor organizing in Koreatown Los Angeles, CA; masculinity and the cultural politics of memory in Korean social and labor movements; global unemployment; and most recently on the Ferguson Uprising: "@Ferguson: Still Here in the Afterlives of Black Death, Defiance, and Joy."
Kwon's current research examines the dilemma of whiteness in St. Louis, Missouri, in the wake of the Ferguson Uprising, and he's begun a study of Black youth's aspirations and social mobility in the time of BLM and white nativism.
In addition to his academic work, Kwon has been involved with racial justice and equity projects in the St. Louis region, including with Forward through Ferguson; Focus St. Louis; and Before Ferguson, Beyond Ferguson, and has given public lectures and workshops on racism and racial equity.
Kwon, J. B., & Rubio, E. H. (2021). On 'Asian America' and Multiracial Solidarity: A Conversation between Jong Bum Kwon and Elizabeth Hanna Rubio. Home/Field: Journal of Anthropology of North America https://www.homefieldanthro.org/index.php/2021/08/14/on-asian-america-and-multiracial-solidarity/.
Parikh, S., & Kwon, J. B. (2020). Introduction: Still Here in the Afterlives. Forum, American Ethnologist, 47, 110-120.
Parikh, S., & Kwon, J. B. (2020). Crime Seen: Racial Terror and the Technologies of Black Life and Death. Forum, American Ethnologist, 47, 128-138.
Parikh, S., & Kwon, J. B. (2020). @Ferguson: Still Here in the Afterlives of Black Death, Defiance, and Joy. Forum, American Ethnologist, 47.
Kwon, J. B. (2020). Troubling Whiteness: An Interview with Dr. Mary Ferguson (Witnessing Whiteness) and Tiffany Robertson (Touch Topics Tuesday). Forum, American Ethnologist, 47, 176-181.
Kwon, J. B. (2020). Paradoxes of White Moral Experience: Opaque Selves, Racial Suspicion, and the Ethics of Whiteness. American Ethnologist, 47, 184-191.
Kwon, J. B. (2020). Forging Workers of Iron: The Politics of Memory and the Performance of Revolutionary Promise. Korea Journal, 60, 188-217.
Kwon, J. B. (2016). Occupation. In J. B. Kwon & C. M. Lane (Eds.), "Anthropologies of Unemployment: New Perspectives on Work and Its Absence" (pp. 53-70). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Kwon, J. B., & Lane, C. M. (2016). Introduction. In J. B. Kwon & C. M. Lane (Eds.), "Anthropologies of Unemployment: New Perspectives on Work and Its Absence" (pp. 1-17). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Kwon, J. B., & Lane, C. M. (Eds.). (2016). "Anthropologies of Unemployment: New Perspectives on Employment and Its Absence." Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Kwon, J.B. (2015) Severed in Neoliberal South Korea: Cho˘ngdŭnilt'o˘ and the Dis/assembly of Industrial Bodies. Critique of Anthropology, 35(4): 407-429.
Kwon, J. B. (2014). Forging a Modern Democratic Imaginary: Police Sovereignty, Neoliberalism, and the Boundaries of Neo-Korea. Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, 22, 71-101.
Kwon, J. B. (2011). Exorcizing the Ghosts of Kwangju: Policing Protest in the Post-Authoritarian Era. In G.-W. Shin & P. Y. Chang (Eds.), "South Korean Social Movements: From Democracy to Civil Society" (pp. 59-73). New York: Routledge.
Kwon, J. B. (2010). The Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance: Spatializing Justice in an Ethnic 'Enclave.' In R. Milkman, J. Bloom, & V. Narro (Eds.), "Working for Justice: The L.A. Model of Organizing and Advocacy" (pp. 23-48). Ithaca: ILR Press/Cornell University Press.
Kwon, J. B. (2009). The Frailty of Men: The Redemption of Masculinity in the Korean Labour Movement. In R. Barraclough & E. Faison (Eds.), "Gender and Labour in Korea and Japan: Sexing Class" (pp. 103-127). New York: Routledge.
Silvia Navia Mendez-Bonito, PhD
Professor, Spanish
Originally from Navia, a small town on the Northwestern coast of Spain, Silvia Navia Mendez-Bonito completed her Licenciatura in English at the Universidad de Oviedo (Spain). She earned her PhD on Hispanic Literatures at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a specialization in the literature of the Spanish American Colonial period. In addition, Mendez-Bonito is an invited lecturer and author on the history of the Kingdom of Quito (modern day Ecuador), with an emphasis in patriotic feelings surfacing in historical discourse. At Webster University, Mendez-Bonito is chair of the Department of International Languages and Cultures where she oversees the operational and educational goals of the department.
Teaching is Mendez-Bonito's passion, inspiration, and vocation. She leads Spanish language courses, Spain and Spanish America cultural courses, and advanced seminars on different topics. For her, teaching provides a window of opportunity to share her students adventure into learning, discovering, and experiencing others worlds, people, and cultures. She also is the faculty advisor for Latin American Student Organization.
Emily E. Thompson, PhD
Interim Director of Gleich Honors College and Professor, French
"Storytelling in Sixteenth-Century France: Negotiating Shifting Forms," ed. Emily Thompson. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press & Rutgers University Press, January 2022.
Déstructurer et Reformer un Genre: Les Histoires des Amans Fortunez, in "Pierre Boaistuau ou le génie des formes," eds. Nathalie Grande and Bruno Méniel. Paris: Classiques Garnier, April 2021.
Shifting Rules and Shifty Wives: A Historical Reading of Three Tales in the "Heptaméron in Women in the World and Works of Marguerite de Navarre," guest editor, Judy Kem, L'Esprit créateur 57:3 (2017) 67-78.
"Lettres from the Queen of Navarre, with an Ample declaration." Translation with Colette H. Winn and Kathleen Llewellyn. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe series (U of Toronto Press), 2016.
Playing with Fire: Narrating Angry Women and Men in the Heptaméron in "Les Passions et leurs enjeux au seizième siècle, Renaissance et Réforme" 38:3 (2015) 161-176.
Carolyn Trachtova, MA
English as a Second Language Program Director
Dongling Zhang, PhD
Associate Professor, Criminology and Sociology
Zhang, C. Y., & Zhang, D*. (Under contract with Routledge)**. The Un/Doing of Justice: Toward Feminist Understanding of Legality and Illegality in Contemporary China. *Co-authors with equal contributions. **An advanced contract was issued in December 2022, and the book manuscript will be completed by August 2023.
Zhang, D., & Peterson, D. S. (Eds.). (2023). International Responses to Interpersonal Violence: Gender-Specific and Socio-Cultural Approaches. London and New York: Routledge.
Zhang, D. (2022). Learning to see, learning to say, and learning to eradicate domestic violence in China. The Journal of Gender-Based Violence (accepted on June 20, 2022; published online ahead of print 2022). Retrieved Aug 11, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1332/239868021X16557434018638.
Kristen Anderson Morton, PhD
Department Chair, Associate Professor of History
“Immigration in American History. Seminar Studies Series." New York: Routledge, 2021.
“Abolitionizing Missouri: German Immigrants and Racial Ideology in 19th Century America." Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2016.
Evolving Toward Abolition: German Attitudes Towards the Fugitive Slave and Kansas-Nebraska Acts, in “Fighting for a Free Missouri: German Immigrants, African Americans, and the Issue of Slavery,” edited by Sydney J. Norton. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2023.
'Wir auch im Süden halten Wacht': Ethnic Germans and Civil War Commemoration in Nineteenth-Century Charleston. The South Carolina Historical Magazine 117, No. 4 (Oct. 2016): 294-313.
"'Broadhead's Blunder': James O. Broadhead and the 1882 Reunion of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee," Gateway 34 (2014): 42-51.
Lessons in Whiteness: German Immigrants and Racial Ideology in 19th Century America, in "Cross-Cultural History and the Domestication of Otherness," edited by Michal Jan Rozbicki and George O. Ndege (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
"German Americans, African Americans, and the Republican Party in St. Louis, 1865-1872," Journal of American Ethnic History 28, no. 1 (Fall 2008): 34-51.
Robbie O'Toole
Department Representative, HPIR
Dani Belo, PhD
Assistant Professor, Security and International Relations
Dani Belo, PhD, is a teacher and scholar of international relations, specializing in conflict management and security. He is currently an Assistant Professor of International Relations and leads the Global Policy Horizons Research Lab at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Belo is also a Fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI) and the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs in Ottawa, Canada. His research focuses on gray-zone and hybrid conflicts, transatlantic security, grand strategy, NATO-Russia relations, ethnic conflicts and the post-Soviet region. He also worked as a policy analyst for the Government of Canada.
Belo's research on unconventional conflicts was featured at the U.S Army Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, the Royal Military College of Canada, University of Pennsylvania Law School Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law, Columbia University’s Harriman Institute and the European Commission. He led international research projects in Poland and Estonia, focusing on inter-ethnic relations and security. Several of his publications and presentations were used to inform international policy development at the U.S. State Department and Global Affairs Canada in relation to the conflict in Ukraine.
Upcoming Books
“Russia’s Warfare in the 21st Century from Georgia to Ukraine. Routledge Studies in Security and Conflict Management.” Routledge: London. May 2025.
“International Organizations: Perspectives on Global Governance.” Routledge: London. 2025.
Peer-Reviewed Papers
“Gray Zone Warfare and Ethnic Conflict.” Desafíos Vol. 35 (2024): 1-18. ISSN-0124-4035
“Enemies by Kinship: Securitizing Language and the Russian Diaspora in Escalated Gray Zone Conflict.” Canadian Foreign Policy Journal 30, no. 1 (2024): 30–43.
"The Conflict in Ukraine and its Global Implications." Canadian Foreign Policy Journal 29, no. 3 (2023): 235-248.
“The Merits and Limitation of Incentive Theory in Application to Gray Zone Conflicts.” Peace and Conflict No. 27 (1). (2021): 96–99.
“Unilateralism and Competitive Multilateralism in Gray-zone Conflict: A Comparison of Russia and the United States” [Air University] Wild Blue Yonder Journal (2020): 1-25. (with David Carment).
“Gray Zone Conflict Management: Theory, Evidence and Challenges.” [U.S Air Force] Journal of European, Middle Eastern & African Affairs, No.2 (2). (2020): 21-41. (with David Carment).
"Conflict in the Absence of War: A Comparative Analysis of China and Russia Engagement in Gray Zone Conflicts." Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, No. 26 (1). (Jan 2020): 73-91.
Book Chapters
Ethnic Conflict and Modern Warfare. In “The Routledge Handbook of the Future of Warfare.” Eds. Artur Gruszczak and Sebastian Kaempf. September 2023.
Conflict in the Absence of War: A Comparative Analysis of China and Russia Engagement in Gray Zone Conflicts. In “Trade and Conflict: Trends in Economic Nationalism, Unilateralism and Protectionism.” Routledge. Eds. Samuel MacIssac and Buck Duclos. August 2023. ISBN 978-1-032-19464-6.
Middle Power Foreign Policy in an Era of Gray Zone Conflict: Addressing the Challenges for Canada. In “Canada and Great Power Competition. Canada and International Affairs.” Carment, D., Macdonald, L., Paltiel, J. (eds). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04368-0_13
Diaspora Networks, Cooperation and Fragile States in a Comparative Context. In the “Routledge Handbook of Diaspora Diplomacy.” Ed. Liam Kennedy. Routledge. 2022.
John Chappell, PhD
Professor, History
John Chappell, PhD, is a professor of history with a specialization in 20th century U.S. history. He is a recipient of Webster University's William T. Kemper Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Professor Chappell published the book "Before the Bomb: How America Approached the End of the Pacific War" and is currently revising the book "The Methods and Skills of History: A Practical Guide" originally written by two former colleagues. He has presented numerous conference papers on popular music while researching and writing a manuscript titled "Tell Me Something Good: The Top 40 and American Culture in the 1970s." Chappell has written essays for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and published book reviews in the American Historical Review, Gulf South Historical Review, and the Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law.
Noteworthy presentations by Chappell include an Oxford University Roundtable for Social Justice, the live videoconference "Mr. Truman Meets Hiroshima on the Future of Nuclear Weapons" — a historic cooperation between the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum — and at the International Conference for a Nuclear-Free, Peaceful, Just, and Sustainable World held at Riverside Church in New York City.
Chappell worked with history teachers from the Parkway and Rockwood public school districts in a series of Teaching American History grants. He also participated with other scholars and students in a peace studies trip to Japan through American University and taught at Regent's University in London.
Chappell earned his BS in History from Illinois State University, his MA in History with an Emphasis in American History from Indiana University, and his PhD in History with an Emphasis 20th-century U.S. History from Indiana University.
Allan MacNeill, PhD
Director of International Relations and National Security Studies; Professor, Political Economy
Kelly-Kate Pease, PhD
Professor, International Relations
Kelly-Kate S. Pease, PhD, is professor of international relations and director of the International Relations online program at Webster University. She has published extensively in areas related to international relations, human rights, and humanitarian affairs. Her books include "International Organizations: Perspectives on Global Governance" (6th ed), "The United Nations and Changing World Politics" (co-author, 8th ed), and "Human Rights and Humanitarian Diplomacy." Pease also publishes articles and chapters on human rights, humanitarian intervention, humanitarian assistance, diplomacy, the United Nations and international criminal law.
Pease received her PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1994, her MA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1990, and her BA from Louisiana State University in 1987. Her areas of interest include international relations, international political economy, international organizations, international law, foreign policy and human rights.
"Human Rights and Humanitarian Diplomacy." Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. 2016.
The Role of the United Nations in International Law. Insights on Law and Society. 11 (July 2011) 3: 6-27.
Who Says What the Law Is? International Studies Review. Winter/December (2010) 12: 628-636.
David Pennington, PhD
Head of Recruitment for International Relations and National Security Studies; Associate Professor, History
David Pennington completed his PhD at Washington University in St. Louis and came to Webster University in 2011. He enjoys teaching a wide variety of courses on Britain, early modern Europe, women and gender history, and world history. He has served in a variety of roles for the Midwestern Conference for British Studies.
Pennington's research focuses on how British people responded to economic crises and commercialization in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He has published on parliamentary law-making, retail commerce in early modern towns and women's working roles. His first book rethinks women's contributions to the early modern commercial economy. His current project focuses on how Parliament and the Crown responded to the economic upheavals of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Pennington intends to place his work in comparative perspective to show the different ways representative institutions in early modern Europe grappled with the general crisis of the seventeenth century.
“Going to Market: Women, Trade and Social Relations in Early Modern English Towns, c. 1550-1650” (Ashgate 2015/Routledge, 2016)
'Three Women and a Goose Make a Market': Representations of Market Women in Seventeenth-Century Popular Literature, The Seventeenth Century, vol. 25, no. 1 (Spring 2010)
Taking it to the Streets: Hucksters and Huckstering in Early Modern Southampton, circa 1550-1652, Sixteenth Century Journal vol. 39, no. 3 (2008)
Beyond the Moral Economy: Economic Change, Ideology and the 1621 House of Commons, Parliamentary History vol. 25, no. 2 (2006).
Warren Rosenblum, PhD
Professor, History
Warren Rosenblum teaches and writes about modern world history and nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe. His book "Beyond the Prison Gates: Punishment and Welfare in Modern Germany" won the Baker-Burton Prize of the Southern Historical Association. Recent work includes essays on the history of disability and euthanasia, antisemitism in the German justice system, and the rise of fascism.
Rosenblum has been a fellow at Harvard University's Center for European Studies and the Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington. In Spring 2021, he was a Fulbright scholar in Brussels, Belgium.
In addition to his teaching, Rosenblum has organized a number of workshops and conferences, including a Youth Summit on the police for St. Louis-area high school students, an undergraduate research conference on "Hatebrakers in History" at the Missouri History Museum, and a workshop for Missouri teachers on the Holocaust, in conjunction with the St. Louis Holocaust Museum.
He is a proud resident of St. Louis City, where he lives with his wife, two daughters and two cruel and indifferent cats.
Rosenblum earned his PhD from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and his BA from Cornell University. He was previously a student at Deep Springs College.
The Dangers of Diversity: 'The Feeble-Minded' in Modern Germany, in "Disability in Modern Germany," eds., Tanja Nusser and Katherine Sorrels (Camden Press, 2022).
Dreyfus in Deutschland. Die französische Affäre als Modell und Gegenmodell für den C. V. in "Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens. Anwalt zwischen Deutschtum und Judentum" eds. Tilmann Gempp-Friedrich and Rebekka Denz, (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter 2021).
A Universal Madness: Disability and Immigration Policy in European History, in "Family, Separation and Migration: An Evolution-Involution of the Global Refugee Crisis," ed. Oreste Foppiani (Brill and Peter Lang, 2017)
Serene Justitia and the Passions of the Public Sphere, InterDisciplines. Journal of History and Sociology 6, no. 2 (2015).
Welfare and Justice: The Battle over Gerichtshilfe in the Weimar Republic, in "Crime and Criminal Justice in Modern Germany," ed. Richard Wetzell (Berghahn, 2014)
Jews, Justice, and the Power of 'Sensation' in the Weimar Republic, Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 58 (2013)
Gwyneth Williams, PhD
Professor, Political Science
Gwyneth Williams is a full-time member of the Department of History, Political Science and International Relations. Her general teaching field is U.S. politics, including courses in the presidency, political parties, campaigns and elections, religion and American politics, and politics and gender. In addition, Williams regularly teaches public law courses such as constitutional law, civil liberties and judicial politics. Also, she has taught interdisciplinary classes, including the history and politics of the American family and contemporary women's issues. Williams is a recipient of the William T. Kemper Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Williams' research interests are varied. In the field of U.S. politics, she has published/presented work on child custody law, prayer in schools, the use of religious rhetoric in the public realm, and student attitudes towards President Trump. For the past decade, Williams has engaged in interdisciplinary research on the politics and meaning of clothing and fashion.
Williams's service to the University includes supervising student internships. In recognition of her work in this area, she received a certificate from The Women Legislators of Missouri “in Honor of Her Outstanding Dedication to the Field of Education,” 11th Annual Deverne Lee Calloway Awards Ceremony. She also has been a regular commentator on U.S. politics on KWMU and other local media outlets. Within the University, Williams has served as Faculty Senate president and worked on a wide variety of committees and task forces.
Williams received her BA in Political Science from Knox College; her MA and PhD in Politics from Princeton University.
Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA, USA: June 24 – September 24, 2017), Fashion, Style, and Popular Culture, Vol. 7,(1), Jan. 2020.
Exhibition Review: Degas, Impressionism, and the Paris Millinery Trade, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA: February 12–May 7, 2017.
The Presidential Nominating System: Goals and Consequences. Glimpse, Summer 2016.
Communities of Faith as Leadership Grounds. Co-author: Elizabeth J. Stroble. Women in Higher Education, Vol. 25, No. 1, Jan. 2016.
Civil Rights versus Civil Liberties. "American Political Culture: An Encyclopedia" (3 vols.), Michael Shally-Jensen, ed. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2015.
Faculty Women and Clothing Choices: Negotiating Fashion, Gender, and Professionalism. Co-author: Monica M. Moore. The Almanack, Nov. 2014.
The Democrats Embrace God: An Unqualified Blessing? Forum on Public Policy Online, Summer 2007 edition.
Looking at Joint Custody Through the Language and Attitudes of Attorneys, Justice System Journal 26, no. 1 (2005): 1-34.
Essay on Fathers' Rights Movement, "Historical and Multicultural Encyclopedia of Female Reproductive Rights in the United States." Ed. Judith A. Baer, Greenwood, 2002.
Sample of Conference Papers
Undergraduate Attitudes Towards Donald Trump. Midwest Political Science Association Conference, Apr. 17, 2021 (virtual).
'Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination:' Reviewing the Reviewers. Presented at the National Popular Culture Association Conference, Washington, DC: Apr. 19, 2019.
Magna Carta and American Political Thought. Presented at Magna Carta Symposium, Regent's College, London, UK, Jan. 7, 2015; Plenary Address at Missouri Judicial Conference, St. Louis, MO, Oct. 7, 2015.
Policing the Body of the Male Academic. Co-author: Monica M. Moore. Presented at the Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Association Conference, Baltimore, MD, Nov. 6-8, 2014; American Men's Studies Association Conference, New York City, NY, Mar. 7, 2015.
Lindsey Kingston, PhD
Associate Professor, Director of Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies
Lindsey Kingston is an associate professor of international human rights in Webster University's Department of History, Politics and International Relations. She directs the University's Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies, which includes overseeing the undergraduate human rights program and the research journal, Righting Wrongs: A Journal of Human Rights. Kingston is a Fulbright Scholar (Università degli Studi di Milano) who edited "Human Rights in Higher Education: Institutional, Classroom, and Community Approaches to Teaching Social Justice" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and "Statelessness, Governance, and the Problem of Citizenship" (Manchester University Press, 2021). She also authored the monograph "Fully Human: Personhood, Citizenship, and Rights" (Oxford University Press, 2019), which won the International Studies Association's 2020 Human Rights Best Book Award.
Kingston is a topical expert on the issue of statelessness — when an individual does not have legal nationality to any country. Her research interests also include forced migration, Indigenous rights, transnational social movements, and human rights education (HRE). Her work has been published in International Journal of Refugee Law, The Journal of Human Rights, Human Rights Review, The Journal of Human Rights Practice, Forced Migration Review, BMC International Health and Human Rights, and several edited volumes.
Kingston earned her PhD in Social Science at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, where she also earned an MA in Political Science. She holds an MA in Ethics and International Affairs from American University in Washington, D.C., as well as a BS in Journalism from Boston University.
"Fully Human: Personhood, Citizenship, and Rights." Oxford University Press, 2019.
"Statelessness, Governance, and the Problem of Citizenship. Manchester University Press" (2021). Tendayi Bloom and Lindsey N. Kingston, Eds.
"Human Rights in Higher Education: Institutional, Classroom, and Community Approaches to Teaching Social Justice." Palgrave Macmillan, Palgrave Studies in Global Citizenship Education and Democracy series (2018). Lindsey N. Kingston, Ed.
Supporting Refugees and Asylum Seekers on their College Journeys. Forthcoming, International Journal of Human Rights Education. Lindsey N. Kingston and Esma Karakas.
Asylum seekers' experiences on the migration journey to Italy (and beyond): Risk factors and future planning within a shifting political landscape. International Migration, March 2021. Livia Elisa Ortensi and Lindsey N. Kingston.
Conceptualizing Statelessness as a Human Rights Challenge: Framing, Visual Representation, and (Partial) Issue Emergence. Journal of Human Rights Practice, May 2019.
Biometric identification, displacement, and protection gaps. In "Digital Lifeline? ICTs for Refugees and Displaced Persons," edited by Carleen Maitland. MIT Press, 2018.
Bringing Rwandan Refugees 'Home': The Cessation Clause, Statelessness, and Forced Repatriation. International Journal of Refugee Law, 29(3), November 2017.
Worthy of Rights: Statelessness as a Cause and Symptom of Marginalization. In "Understanding Statelessness," edited by Tendayi Bloom, Katherine Tonkiss, and Philip Cole: 17-34. Routledge, 2017.
Robin Jefferson Higgins, JD
Department Chair, Assistant Professor, Legal Studies
Gabrielle Halley
Department Coordinator, Law, Crime and Social Justice
Anne Geraghty-Rathert, JD
Professor, Legal Studies
Anne Geraghty-Rathert is a professor in the Department of Law, Crime and Social Justice at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. She teaches many courses in the Legal Studies program including Introduction to Law, Criminal Litigation, Evidence, Women and Law, Wrongful Convictions, among others. Anne also teaches in the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies program and serves on its executive committee. Her research interests include legal issues surrounding domestic violence, as well as issues related to criminal justice reform.
In addition to teaching full time, Anne is an attorney in private practice. She is the director of and attorney for The WILLOW Project, where she represents wrongfully convicted female clients, all of whom have lengthy sentences in prison.
Professor Geraghty-Rathert is a proud alum of St. Louis University School of Law.
Awards Won:
- The Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award, 2019The William T. Kemper Award for Teaching,
2019Faculty Research Grant recipient, 2018Faculty/Student Collaborative Research Grant
recipient, 2018Connections to Success Honoree for the WILLOW Project, 2017Women of
Webster Award, 2017Golden Lane Award from the League of Women Voters, 2016
Community-Based Social Justice Work: The WILLOW Project, chapter 12 of "Human Rights in Higher Education: Institutional, Classroom, and Community Approaches to Teaching Social Justice."
Wrote chapter on the WILLOW Project and internships; published in Lindsey Kingston's edited undergraduate "Human Rights" textbook.
Wrote chapter on topic of how to incorporate local human rights internships and field work into the academic discipline of a Human Rights curriculum. Published Fall 2018.
Allison Gorga, PhD
Assistant Professor
Claire Greene, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor, Law, Crime and Social Justice
Claire Greene holds a BA in Geography from the University of Vermont and a PhD in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Her dissertation examined community surveillance systems and practices in St. Louis.
Greene’s research interests include policing, punishment and technology-enabled surveillance. Her prior research has involved working with the Research Network on Misdemeanor Justice, examining lower-level enforcement trends (e.g., misdemeanor arrests, citations, stops) in St. Louis.
She is currently working on a project funded by the MacArthur Foundation, attempting to redefine the meaning of public safety in a way that centers on equity and the perspectives of those most impacted by the criminal legal system.
In her free time, she likes to cook, quilt, read science fiction and play with her cat, Moto.
Danielle MacCartney, PhD
Associate Professor, Sociology
MacCartney, D. (in press). Monitoring the world society: LGBT human rights in Russia and Sweden. In V. Demos & M. T. Segal (Eds.), "Gender panic, gender policy" (Advances in Gender Research, Volume 24): Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Stotzer, R. & MacCartney, D. (2015). The role of institutional factors on on-campus reported rape prevalence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 1-21.
MacCartney, D. (2015). International LGBT rights. In S. Thompson (Ed,), "The Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice." (Vol.1, pp. 476-483). Washington, DC: Rowman and Littlefield.
Kingston. L., MacCartney, D., & Miller, A. (2014). Facilitating student engagement: Social responsibility and freshmen learning communities. Teaching and Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal, 2(1), 63-80.
Woolf, L. M., & MacCartney, D. (2014). Sexual and gender minorities. In C. V. Johnson, H. Friedman, J. Diaz, B. Nastasi, & Z. Franco (Eds.), "Handbook of social justice and psychology" (pp. 155-176). Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
MacCartney, D. (2013). The state of same-sex marriage in the United States. In L.P. Itaborahy & J. Zhu (Eds.). "State sponsored homophobia: A world survey of laws, criminalisation, protection and recognition of same-sex love" (pp. 98-101). Brussels, Belgium: International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.
Grant Shostak, EdD, JD
Visiting Assistant Professor, Law, Crime and Social Justice
Grant Shostak is an experienced professor and trial attorney. He has successfully represented clients before the Missouri Supreme Court and the Missouri Court of Appeals, where he began his legal career as a law clerk to the late Hon. Paul J. Simon.
Shostak’s research interests are varied and reflect his interdisciplinary academic training. He has published articles relating to gang crime, hate crimes and trial practice. He received his JD from the University of Missouri–Columbia and his EdD from Lindenwood University. He also holds an MS from the University of Central Missouri and a BGS from the University of Missouri–Columbia.
Office Webster Hall 303
Phone: 314-246-2435
Email: grantshostak@webster.edu
Bruce Umbaugh, PhD
Department Chair, Professor, Philosophy
Bruce Umbaugh is professor and chair of the Philosophy Department. He became a philosopher to understand things deeply and in ways that allow action to make the world better. His research has addressed relativism and rationality; the ethical implications of technology design; and privacy, free expression, and identity in online environments. His book on the thought of George Berkeley defends idealism in light of all the latest scientific knowledge. Most recently, he has been exploring how ethics of care may be fundamental to all the best practices for helping students to learn.
Umbaugh has been a full-time faculty member at Webster since 1994. He has been recognized with the inaugural Learning Happens Everywhere award as well the William T. Kemper Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has taught Cornerstone and Keystone seminars, as well as introductory courses in philosophy and courses such as Theory of Knowledge, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy and Technology, and Global Information Ethics. He currently serves as Director of Webster's Global Citizenship Program and as Past President of the international Association for General and Liberal Studies.
Umbaugh earned an AB in Philosophy degree from the Honors Tutorial College of Ohio University, and an MA and PhD in philosophy from the University of Maryland.
"On Berkeley." Wadsworth Publishing, 2000. Translated into Chinese, 2015.
Foreword to Karim Dharamsi and David Ohreen, eds., "Between Truth and Falsity: Liberal Education and the Arts of Discernment," Vernon Press, 2020.
Extended Mind and the Music of Trans, in Douglas Berger, ed., "Neil Young and Philosophy," Lexington Books, 2019.
Tailoring the Web for Profit, Computer Underground Digest, June 21, 1998, File 1.
Canada's Anti-hate Laws: Two Views, Synthesis: Law and Policy in Higher Education, vol. 2 (1990), pp. 100-101, 110.
Pearson House lower level
Phone: 314-968-7172
Email: bumbaugh@webster.edu
Don Morse, PhD
Professor, Philosophy
Kate Parsons, PhD
Professor, Philosophy and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Kate Parsons is full-time professor of Philosophy and Director of the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies program.
Parsons has taught at Webster since 1997. Her interdisciplinary teaching is grounded in a commitment to social and environmental justice and connected to a range of programs, including sustainability studies and international human rights. She regularly teaches Contemporary Moral Problems, Environmental Ethics, Bioethics, Global Ethics, Feminist Philosophy, Inequality and the Environment, and Philosophy of Sex and Love.
Parsons' research grapples with ethical questions related to climate change, international travel, anti-racist and anti-sexist work, and motherhood. She is recipient of the William T. Kemper Award for Excellence in Teaching, the William and Roswell Messing, Jr. Faculty Award, the Provost's Faculty Fellowship Award, and the Leif J. Sverdrup Global Teaching Fellowship. She has taught and conducted research in Japan, England, Turkey, Brazil, Thailand, Switzerland, and Costa Rica and regularly leads study abroad trips with her students.
Professor Parsons holds a PhD in Philosophy from Washington University, an MA in Philosophy and graduate certificate in Women's Studies from Washington University, and a BA in Philosophy and Spanish from the University of Nevada, Reno.
“How to Care: Teaching from the Ethics of Care for More Equitable Learning Environments” with Danielle MacCartney. College Teaching. August, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2023.2245099
“Teaching Through the Tensions: Philosophy, Activism, and the Academy” American Association of Philosophy Teachers Studies in Pedagogy. May 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/aaptstudies20235159
"Emotions, Vulnerability, and Dependency in Study Abroad: An Ethics of Care Toolkit" with Danielle MacCartney. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad. Vol 35 No. 1 (2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v35i1.570
Sustainable Ambivalence in Tanya Cassidy, Susan Hogan, and Sarah LaChance Adams, eds. "Maternal Tug." Demeter Press, 2020.
Social Justice Programs and Just Administrative Practices in Lindsey Kingston, ed. "Human Rights in Higher Education: Institutional, Classroom, and Community Approaches to Teaching Social Justice." Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
Wild Child: Reflections and the Intersections of Nature, Gender, Race, and Parenthood in Lynn Comerford, Heather Jackson and Kandee Kosior, eds. "Feminist Parenting." Demeter Press 2016.
Academic Pressures and Feminist Solutions: Teaching Ethics Against the Grain. The American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy. Vol. 14 No. 1, Fall 2014.
Feminist Reflections on Miscarriage, in Light of Abortion. International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics. Vol. 3 No. 1, Spring 2010.
Subverting the Fellowship of the Wedding Ring. Journal of Social Philosophy, Vol. 39 No. 3, Fall 2008, 393–410
Anorexia Nervosa and Our Unreasonable Perceptions, in Hilde Nelson and Robin Fiore, eds., "Recognition, Responsibility and Rights: Feminist Ethics and Social Theory." Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.
"Rights and Reason: Essays in Honor of Carl Wellman." Co-edited with Marilyn Friedman, Larry May, and Jennifer Stiff. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000.
David Carl Wilson, PhD
Professor, Philosophy; Dean Emeritus, College of Arts and Sciences
Wilson received his PhD in Philosophy from UCLA, where he then taught and served as an administrator for fifteen years. In 2002 he left his position as associate provost at UCLA to become dean of Webster's College of Arts and Sciences, a position in which he served for almost fourteen years. He now hold the title of Dean Emeritus.
His academic focus is social and political philosophy, with a special interest in the philosophy of leadership and management. He has taught several courses on related topics in the Walker School, has several recent publications in this area, and serves on the executive editorial board of the international journal Philosophy of Management. He has developed a Webster introductory course in the philosophy of leadership and management. He also teaches ethics and political philosophy courses, having developed the online version of Webster's introductory course in political philosophy.
His book A Guide to Good Reasoning: Cultivating Intellectual Virtues has recently been released in its second edition by the University of Minnesota; it is now available free and online. He is currently completing a introductory textbook on ethics, entitled The Human Factor.
He is an enthusiast of the arts, currently serving as a trustee on several arts boards and as the staff philosopher for Tennessee Williams St. Louis.
A Guide to Good Reasoning: Cultivating Intellectual Virtues. 2nd ed. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing, 2020.
"Defining Leadership." Philosophy of Management, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-022-00210-7
"Management, Political Philosophy, and Social Justice." with Eabrasu, M. Philosophy of Management vol. 21, 281-287, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-022-00204-5
"The Leading Edge of Leadership Studies." Philosophy of Management vol. 17, 373-378, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-018-0089-y
"Leadership, Management, and the History of Ideas." Philosophy of Management, vol. 16, 183-189, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-017-0056-z
"Functionalism and Moral Personhood." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 44, no. 4, 521-529, 1984. https://doi.org/10.2307/2107617Connect With Us
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