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.

Julian Schuster
College of Humanities and Social Sciences

“The reorganization and the formation of the new academic unit will allow for better coordination among various disciplines and traditional majors at Webster University.”

Julian Schuster
Julian Z. Schuster

President, Webster University



The Dean's Office

Danielle MacCartney

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.

Browning Hall, ISB 203
Phone: 314-246-7517
Email: dmaccartney@webster.edu

Shane Kennedy

Shane Kennedy

Director of Operations, College of Humanities and Social Sciences

 

 

Rivaldi Hartanto

Rivaldi Y. Hartanto

Graduate Assistant

Rivaldi Hartanto earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an Emphasis in Marketing from Hannibal-Lagrange University in 2023. He is currently pursuing a double master degree in Business Administration and Information Technology Management at Webster University. Hartanto joined Webster in 2023 as a graduate assistant to Webster's College of Humanities and Social Sciences, as well as the College of Health and Sciences. He is also currently playing for Webster's mens basketball team.

Hartanto, Rivaldi, et al. A Letter to Father. Growing Publishing, 2018.

Hartanto, Rivaldi, et al. Young Outstanding Rich. Growing Publishing, 2018.

Hartanto, Rivaldi, et al. Ayahku Pahlawanku. Growing Publishing, 2017.

Office Browning Hall, ISB 206
Phone: 314-246-7005
Email: rivaldihartanto@webster.edu

Lavanya Govindarajan

Lavanya Govindarajan

Graduate Assistant

 

 

Office Browning Hall, ISB 206
Phone: 314-968-7160
Email: lgovindarajan@webster.edu

Maribeth Wagganer

Maribeth Wagganer

Student Assistant

Maribeth Wagganer joined the College of Science and Health and College of Humanities and Social Sciences staff team as a student assistant in the beginning of the Spring 2024 semester. Wagganer graduated from Webster University with a degree in Psychology and is currently pursuing a master's degree in Psychology. Aside from being a student assistant, Wagganer is also a resident assistant for Webster Housing.

 

Office Browning Hall, ISB 
Phone: 314-246-7005 (Front Desk)
Email: maribethwagganer@webster.edu

Taraneh Shalchi

Taraneh Shalchi

Student Assistant

Taraneh Shalchi joined the College of Science and Health and College of Humanities and Social Sciences staff team as a student assistant towards the end of the Fall 2023 semester. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in Business Analytics.

 

Office Browning Hall, ISB 
Phone: 314-246-7005 (Front Desk)
Email: taranehshalchi@webster.edu



English

Faculty Name

Karla Armbruster

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.

 

Faculty Name

Karen Miller

Department Coordinator, English

 

 

Murray Farish

Murray Farish

Associate Professor, English

Murray Farish's stories have been published in such journals as Epoch, The Missouri Review, Black Warrior Review, Phoebe, Low Rent, The Roanoke Review. Farish is the faculty advisor to The Green Fuse, Webster's student literary magazine. He was the winner of the Donald Barthelme Fellowship at the University of Houston. His first book, a collection of stories called "Inappropriate Behavior," will be published by Milkweed Editions in 2014.

 

Elizabeth Hoover

Elizabeth Hoover

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

 

Sheila Hwang

Sheila Hwang

Professor, English

Sheila Hwang is currently working on a project entitled "The Watering Place in Jane Austen's Novels: Space, Language, Consumerism." In the past, Hwang has published on the impact of identity on choices in pedagogy as well as on the links between advertising and literature during the consumer revolution. In addition to sharing her scholarly work at academics conferences, she has welcomed opportunities to give presentations to the general public in conjunction with organizations such as the Dickens Universe, the Jane Austen Society of North America, and The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.

 

Anne McIlhaney

Anne McIlhaney

Professor, English

Anne Mcilhaney’s most recent publications are on mothers and mothering in Shakespeare’s plays: "'My All the World': Constance, Motherhood, and Petrarchism in Shakespeare's King John” (2023); "'Those That Were Enwombed Mine': Adoptive Mothering and Genre in All's Well That Ends Well and Shakespeare's Romances” (2021); and "'Christen it with thy dagger's point': Maternal Mistreatment in Shakespeare's Roman Plays" (2016).  She has also published articles on women anglers in 17th-century British poetry and on Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler, and has presented her scholarly work at various regional and national academic conferences. She has also presented public lectures on gender in Shakespeare's plays for such organizations as the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival and the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. 

 



Global English Language Teaching Institute

DJ Kaiser

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.

Soheil Mansouri

Soheil Mansouri, PhD

GELT Institute; Visiting Assistant Professor, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Soheil Mansouri joined Webster University in 2018 having taught previously at Florida State University. He earned his master's degree in Foreign and Second Language Teaching with the focus on TESOL, and his doctoral degree in Curriculum and Instruction specializing in Foreign and Second Language Education from Florida State University. His research interests include heritage language learning, motivational factors in maintaining heritage language, and second language pragmatics with the focus on speech acts. He has also served as the proposal writer, principal investigator, and director of the Webster STARTALK Grant funded by NSA, and the co-director of Webster’s NPD grant funded by U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Mansouri has more than 20 years of teaching experience between the United States and Iran, including EFL instruction in elementary schools, ESL adult instruction at the university level, and TESL courses for both pre-service and in-service teachers seeking TESOL certification.

Mansouri, S., & Kaiser, D. (in progress). Pragmatic Objectives in High School Teachers’ Lesson Plans. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching.

Kaiser, D., Mansouri, S., & Kennedy, S. (in progress). The Teacher-Student Success Network: A Framework for Supporting English Learners’ by Leveraging Partnerships. TESOL Quarterly.

Papi, M., Bondarenko, A., Mansouri, S., Feng, L., & Jiang, C. (2019). Rethinking L2 Motivation Research: The 2×2 Model of L2 Self-Guides. Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

Oybek Imomov

Oybek Imomov

Coordinator, TESOL Program, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

 

 



Global Languages, Cultures and Societies

Faculty Name

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/

Office Browning Hall, ISB 321
Phone: 314-246-8082
Email: elsafan19@webster.edu

Sarah Navarrete

Hannah McFarland

Department Representative

 

 

Office Browning Hall, ISB 407
Phone: 314-968-7047
Email: hmcfarland03@webster.edu

Salim Ayoub

Salim Ayoub, PhD

Assistant Professor, Director of Centre Francophone, Jane and Bruce Robert Endowed Professor of French and FrancoPhone: Studies

Salim Ayoub is an assistant professor of French and FrancoPhone: Studies at Webster University. He is the director of the FrancoPhone: Center in St. Louis. Ayoub graduated with a PhD in Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies from the University of Miami in May 2020. He is a former visiting assistant professor of French at Colby College, teacher of English, journalist, and social worker who graduated from the university of Rabat in Morocco with a degree in English. He received his professional bachelor's from the University of Meknes with a concentration in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), and his MA in American Studies from the University of Casablanca. Ayoub's research and teaching interests are: French and FrancoPhone: languages, literatures and film, applied and sociolinguistics, film studies, de-/post-colonial studies, and women and gender studies. In Spring 2016, he received the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, and in the summer of the same year, he obtained the Summer Research Award that enabled him to conduct research in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. In Spring 2019, Ayoub was the recipient of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dissertation Award. During the same period, he served as the on-site coordinator for the University of Miami in Paris Study Abroad Program (UParis).

Ayoub, S. (2020). Abdellah Taïa's Decolonial Trajectory Toward Unbelonging. In Poetics and Politics of Engaged Desire Around Abdellah Taïa. Paris, France: Editions Passage(s).

Office Browning Hall, ISB 401
Phone: 314-246-8619
Email: salimayoub@webster.edu

Jong Bum (JB) Kwon

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.

Office Browning Hall, ISB 327
Phone: 314-246-7018
Email: jongkwon00@webster.edu

Silvia Navia Mendez-Bonito

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.

 

Office Browning Hall, ISB 435
Phone: 314-246-7879
Email: navia@webster.edu

Emily Thompson

Emily E. Thompson, PhD

Interim Director of Gleich Honors College and Professor, French

Emily Thompson earned a BA in History and French from Duke University in 1991. She completed her doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania, receiving a PhD in French Literature in 1996. She teaches courses in French language, FrancoPhone: literatures and cultures, and global studies. She also teaches a global cornerstone seminar for the Gleich Honors College on place-based learning and civic engagement. She serves as a member of the Women, Gender and Sexuality Academic Committee and Executive Council. Professor Thompson's research interests focus on sixteenth-century French literature, specifically the evolution of the nouvelle and the history of the book. She won the William T. Kemper Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award in 2016.

"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.

Office Browning Hall, ISB 403
Phone: 314-968-7050
Email: thompsem@webster.edu

Carolyn Trachtova

Carolyn Trachtova, MA

English as a Second Language Program Director

Carolyn Trachtova has been teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) for over 20 years. As ESL Director for Webster University, Trachtova oversees the ESL program for Webster's St. Louis and other U.S. campuses, including developing the program's curriculum, facilitating testing and ESL placement, and advising ESL students throughout their studies at Webster. In the past she has worked in many different English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. She spent nearly six years in Prague, Czech Republic, primarily as an EFL instructor for Charles University's Natural Sciences Faculty, though she also taught at a STEM high school and lead courses in business English and proficiency test preparation. Upon returning to the U.S., Trachtova worked with refugees and immigrants as a Pre-employment ESL Program Coordinator. Prior to joining Webster, she taught EAP courses at community colleges in Georgia and Missouri. Trachtova received her master's degree from Georgia State University in Applied Linguistics and TESOL and holds a Certificate in ELT Leadership Management from TESOL Association. Trachtova has presented in a variety of professional settings, including at TESOL International Convention and English Language Expo, ITBE Annual Convention, MidTESOL Annual Conference, and most recently at the 2021 College Reading and Learning Association annual conference and the 2021 International Chinese Language Education Salon at BLCU, where she lectured on content-based language instruction. Current interests include content integrated approaches, international student/faculty interaction, international student/domestic student interaction, motivation, second language writing, ESL program coordination and teacher training.

 

Office Browning Hall, ISB 405
Phone: 314-246-7757
Email: ctrachtova77@webster.edu

Dongling Zhang

Dongling Zhang, PhD

Associate Professor, Criminology and Sociology

Dongling Zhang is an assistant professor of sociology and criminology in the Department of Global Languages, Cultures and Societies at Webster University in the United States. He obtained his PhD degree in Justice Studies from Arizona State University. His research primarily focuses on university entrepreneurship education, microenterprise development programs in urban China and women's massive entry into entrepreneurship in post-1978 China. He is currently working on a new research project on China's partnership with United Nations Development Program to promote women's entrepreneurship.

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.

Office Browning Hall, ISB 322
Phone: 314-968-3263
Email: donglingzhang17@webster.edu

Paula Hanssen

Paula Hanssen, PhD

Professor Emerita, German

Hanssen has taught in in the College of Arts and Sciences since she arrived at Webster in 1994. She taught introduction to German, as well as intermediate and advanced German courses. Her specialties include German drama, especially 20th century, and Bertolt Brecht and his collective approach to authorship. She has created high-impact courses, many on performance in German, and many faculty-led study-travel courses to Europe, including to Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, Munich, Prague, and a course comparing the cities of Paris and Vienna. Hanssen also served in the Faculty Senate and has served as head of the International Studies Committee for several years. She has also worked to create travel scholarships for her students.

She has written about high-impact travel courses and presented to conferences and to Webster faculty. She writes about 20th century women authors, especially those who worked with Brecht, and those who were forced into exile from Germany during WWII. She was co-teacher with a Truman State German professor on a course about Elisabeth Hauptmann, Brecht's major collaborator, for which students created a podcast in German (Webster) and a short documentary (Truman State), another high-impact course. She is a recipient of the Friedrich Hecker Award from the German American Heritage Society, named for a popular 1848 German revolutionary and presented to an outstanding individual who has works for closer ties between Germany and the United States.

Hanssen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a Master of Arts in German from Texas Tech University, and a PhD in German from University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana.

Book:
Elisabeth Hauptmann: Brecht's Silent Collaborator, New York University Ottendorfer Series, Neue Folge Band 46. Ed. Volkmar Sander. Bern: Peter Lang, 1995.

Articles in German:
"Elisabeth Hauptmann: Schriftstellerin, Dramaturgin, Muse"in "Was fur eine Frau!" Portraits aus Ostwestfalen­ Lippe. Ed. A.Brtinink, H. Grubitzsch. Bielefeld: Westfalen 1992, 245-56.
"Elisabeth Hauptmann" in "Bertihmte Frauen Kalender 1997." Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, 1997.
"Elisabeth Hauptmann" in "300 Portraits beruehmter Frauen," Surhkamp, 2000.

Articles in English:
"The Indispensable 'Mitarbeiterin' in Theater": Yale School of Drama 25, No. 2, 1994, 30-32.
"Elisabeth Hauptmann and Brecht's Chinese Poems" in The Brecht Yearbook 19(1994): 187-210.
"Prostitutes in Brecht's Dramas" in Prostitution in Modern German Literature. Camden House, 2000.
"Women in Exile: E. Hauptmann and M. Steffin in exile with Brecht" in a forthcoming anthology (2006).

Reviews in various journals of:
Astrid Horst, "Prima inter pares" in the "German Quarterly" 66, 3 (Summer 1993), 396-98.
"Vol. 1, Journale" in "Bertolt Brecht: GroBe, kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe, Vol. 26" in "GDR Bulletin" (Sp. 1996), 18ff.
Jan Knopf , "Gelegentlich: Poesie" in "Brecht Yearbook 22" (1997), 488f. Lyon, James. "Brecht Unbound " in "Monatshefte 89," (Winter 1997), 580.
Annedore Leber et al., "The Conscience in Revolt: Portraits of Resistance," in the "Journal of Women in Ger­ man" (1998).
Weeden, Chris. "Postwar Women's Writing in German"in "The German Studies Review Vol. 21, No. 3," Oct. 1998 (661).

Office Browning Hall, ISB 411
Phone: 314-968-7054
Email: hanssen@webster.edu




History, Politics and International Relations

Kristen Anderson Morton

Kristen Anderson Morton

Department Chair, Associate Professor of History

Kristen Anderson completed her PhD at the University of Iowa. She specializes in 19th century U.S. social history, in particular the history of immigration, slavery, and the Civil War. She is currently working on a new book project examining how German immigrants remembered and commemorated their Civil War participation. Anderson teaches a wide variety of classes on the 19th century United States, including courses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, U.S. women's history, St. Louis history, the history of the American West, the history of U.S. slavery, and the history of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

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.

Office H. Sam Priest Center 204
Phone: 314-246-7065
Email: kanderson80@webster.edu

Faculty Name

Robbie O'Toole

Department Representative, HPIR

 

 

Office H. Sam Priest Center 208
Phone: 314-968-7060
Fax 314-968-7403
Email: robbieotoole@webster.edu

Dr. Dani Belo

Dani Belo

Visiting Professor, HPIR

 

 

 

John Chappell

John Chappell

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.

 

Office H. Sam Priest Center 216
Photo 314-968-7496
Email: chappejo@webster.edu

Allan MacNeill

Allan MacNeill

Professor, Political Economy, Director of International Relations and National Security Studies, History, Politics and International Relations

Allan MacNeill, PhD, is a professor of political economy, with a joint appointment in the Departments of History, Politics and International Relations, and Business. He teaches a variety of courses in political economy and economic history, including International Political Economy, The Political Economy of Sex, Drugs, and Garbage, Gender and Globalization, Economic Development, and The History of Economic Crises. MacNeill received both the Kemper and Emerson awards for excellence in teaching in 2012. Since arriving at Webster in 1994, MacNeill has taught in the Netherlands, Thailand, China and Russia.

 

Office H. Sam Priest Center 201A
Phone: 314-968-7489
Email: macneiam@webster.edu

Kelly-Kate Pease

Kelly-Kate Pease

Professor, International Relations, History, Politics and 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.

Office H. Sam Priest Center 212
Phone: 314-968-7083
Email: peasekk@webster.edu

David Pennington

David Pennington

Associate Professor, History, Head of Recruitment for International Relations and National Security Studies, History, Politics and International Relations

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).

Office H. Sam Priest Center 206
Phone: 314-246-7562
Email: dpennington41@webster.edu

Warren Rosenblum

Warren Rosenblum

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.

Website

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)

Office H. Sam Priest Center 213
Phone: 314-968-7066
Email: wrosenbl@webster.edu

Gwyneth Williams

Gwyneth Williams

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.

Professor Williams's 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 US 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.

Office H. Sam Priest Center 209
Phone: 314-968-7069
Email: williagi@webster.edu



Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies

Lindsey Kingston

Lindsey Kingston

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.

Healing the Scars of Forced Migration: An Italian-American Story. RSAJournal-Rivista di Studi Americani, 30, 2019.

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.

Office H. Sam Priest Center 210
Phone: 314-246-8794
Email: lkingston54@webster.edu



Law, Crime and Social Justice

Faculty Name

Robin Jefferson Higgins, JD

Department Chair, Assistant Professor, Legal Studies

Robin Jefferson Higgins is an assistant professor, chair, director, and associate professor for the Legal Studies Department at Webster University. She earned her BA in Economics, BA in Spanish, and MA in Spanish from the University of Missouri-Columbia, as well as a Juris Doctor from St. Louis University School of Law. Prior to her position with Webster University, she was a federal law clerk for Charles A. Shaw, United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri. After her clerkship, she joined the law firm of Lashly & Bear, P.C. where she practiced school law, administrative law, worker's compensation, and employment law. She currently teaches a variety of courses for Webster University, such as Methods of Legal Research and Writing, Civil Litigation, Introduction to Legal Studies, American Constitutional Law, Anglo-American Legal History, School Law, and Legal Ethics.

 

Office Webster Hall 318
Phone: 314-246-8724
Email: robinjefferson85@webster.edu

Claire Greene

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.

 

Office Webster Hall 307
Phone: 314-246-2434
Email: clairegreene@webster.edu

Faculty Name

Gabrielle Halley

Department Coordinator, Law, Crime and Social Justice

 

 

Office Webster Hall 310
Phone: 314-246-7068
Email: ghalley54@webster.edu

Anne Geraghty-Rathert

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, 2019 The William T. Kemper Award for Teaching, 2019 Faculty Research Grant recipient, 2018 Faculty/Student Collaborative Research Grant recipient, 2018 Connections to Success Honoree for the WILLOW Project, 2017 Women of Webster Award, 2017 Golden Lane Award from the League of Women Voters, 2016

Website: WILLOW Project St. Louis

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.

Office Webster Hall 317
Phone: 314-246-7827
Email: arathert@webster.edu

Faculty Name

Allison Gorga, PhD

Assistant Professor

 

 

Office Webster Hall 305
Phone: 314-246-5950
Email: allisongorga@webster.edu

Faculty Name

Tracey McCarthy, JD

Professor

 

 

Office EAB 341
Phone: 314-968-5913
Email: mccartt@webster.edu

Danielle MacCartney

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.

Office Browning Hall, ISB 331
Phone: 314-246-7516
Email: dmaccartney@webster.edu

Grant Shostak

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

Faculty Name

Christine Hart, JD

Professor Emerita

 

 

Office Webster Hall 318
Email: hartch@webster.edu



Philosophy

Bruce Umbaugh

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

Faculty Name

Karen Miller

Department Coordinator, Philosophy

 

 

Don Morse

Don Morse, PhD

Professor, Philosophy

Don Morse’s main interests are 19th- and 20th-century continental philosophy, American pragmatism and aesthetics. Morse’s work consists in the criticism of dualisms — utilizing both Deweyan pragmatism and existential phenomenology to do so. In addition to teaching courses in these areas, Morse also teaches courses in the history of philosophy, the meaning of life and political philosophy. Morse is co-editor-in-chief of the journal, Pragmatism Today. He is a Fulbright Scholar (Slovak Republic, 2007) and the author of a book on John Dewey’s early Hegelian philosophy. Morse has also published over 15 articles in professional journals or as book chapters. He is currently writing a book on the history of post-Hegelian aesthetic theory, with a focus on the aesthetic theories of existentialism and pragmatism.

Faith in Life: John Dewey’s Early Philosophy (New York: Fordham University Press, 2011).

Kate Parsons

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

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/10.2307/2107617

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