American Studies Affiliated Faculty

African and African American Studies Department
Mark L. Chapman The black prison experience and black liberation theology.
Laurie Lambert Black Feminism, Black Radicalism, Caribbean and African Diasporic Literature and History.
Mark D. Naison African American politics, labor history, popular culture and education policy.

Art History and Music Department
Alexandra M. Thomas African and African diasporic visual culture; global modern and contemporary art; Black studies; gender studies; Black feminist thought; queer of color critique.
Nushelle de Silva Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century Architecture in the Global South; Colonial Rule and Globalization; Architecture and International Development; Histories of Art Museums; Exhibition Exchange.
Angelina Tallaj-García Dominican folk and popular music and their role in the construction of ethnic, racial, gender, and religious identities.

Communication and Media Studies Department
Amy Aronson Media history with a focus on women and gender in journalism; women's magazines, activism, and sustainability communication.
Jennifer S. Clark Media studies; television production cultures, television history, gender studies, female stardom and celebrity, and representations of masculinity and emotion.
Matthew Hockenberry Transitional moments of mediation found in histories of paperwork, telecommunication, and computation, and research interests of media history, media industries, logistics, infrastructure, and mobile media.
Lewis Freeman Social justice and identity formation with an emphasis on social change, community engagement, and facilitating individual advancement.
Cerianne Robertson Urban development projects like stadiums and sports mega-events like the Olympics, as well as everyday struggles for survival and dignity in stadium borderlands.
Zoey Rosen Quantitative and Qualitative Methodologies, Visual Communication, Risk Communication, Science Communication, Environmental Science, Public Health.

English Department
Edward Cahill Early American literature, culture, and intellectual history; transatlantic eighteenth-century literature; aesthetic theory; material culture; queer studies.
Lenny Cassuto American literature and culture; nineteenth-century African American literature; disability studies; creative writing.
Daniel Contreras Latino and American literature, postmodern theory, film studies.
Maria Farland Early American; modern American; literary & cultural theory.
Elisabeth Frost Modern American; literary & cultural Theory; contemporary; creative writing.
James Kim Asian American literature and culture; eighteenth-century British literature and culture.
Julie Kim Eighteenth-century British studies; early American studies; the Atlantic world; colonialism, empire, and science; food studies.
Rebecca Sanchez Transatlantic modernism, disability studies, and poetics.
Dennis Tyler African American literature; Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century American literature; disability studies; critical race theory; cultural studies.

History Department
Christopher Dietrich 18th to 20th Century U.S. Foreign Relations, International History, Intellectual History, Political History.
S. Elizabeth Penry Latin American and Latinx Studies; colonialism, political communities, and the history of indigenous Andeans in the 16th to 18th centuries.
Daniel Soyer Eastern European Jewish immigrant migration; 19th and 20th centuries; transnational Jewish politics, and on New York politics in the mid to late 20th century.
Kirsten N. Swinth U.S. since 1945; U.S. gender history and history of sexuality., U.S. cultural and social history; American Studies; history of visual culture.
Cooper Wingert American Civil War, slavery and emancipation, and the 19th century United States, with a particular interest in how Americans negotiated the functioning of power and authority on the ground.

Languages and Cultures Department
Arnaldo Cruz-Malave Hispanic Caribbean Literature, New York in Latino Literature, Gender and Sexuality in Latin American and U.S. Latin Literatures, Latin American Neobaroque.

Philosophy Department
Judith Green American Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Feminism.
Judith Jones American Philosophy, Process Philosophy, metaphysics, history of philosophy, and questions of individualism and identity.
Lauren Kopajtic Early Modern Philosophy, the History of Ethics, Feminist History of Philosophy, and Philosophy and Literature.

Political Science Department
Tom DeLuca American politics, democratic theory and practice, and civil and political rights.
Christina Greer American politics, black ethnic politics, urban politics, quantitative methods, and public opinion.
Jacob Smith The presidency, race and politics, research methods, and academic writing, with a focus on quantitative writing pedagogy.

Sociology and Anthropology Department
Ayala Fader Religion, Anthropology of Judaism, Language and Culture, Gender, Childhood, Media
Jeanne Flavin Criminal justice; reproductive justice; feminist criminology.
Heather Gautney Social movements, political sociology and public policy, social and political inequality, globalization, political and social theory, labor and workforce development.
Micki McGee Sociological theory, sociology of culture; academic labor in the digital age; disability studies.
Chris Rhomberg Urban and political sociology, race and ethnicity, labor and labor movements, and historical methods.
Clara Rodriguez Race/ethnicity, media, Latinos/as sociology.
Emily Rosenbaum Urban demography, inequality, immigration, housing policy, family/household demography.
Aseel Sawalha Urban anthropology, arts, gender, critical social theory, war and violence, globalization.

Theology Department
Kathryn Reklis Modern Protestant theology (18th century to the present); Modernity/postmodernity and religion; Aesthetics; Cultural criticism; Religion/theology in the digital age; Theology, religious practice, and popular culture.
John Seitz History of modern Christianity, American religions, Catholic Studies, and method and theory in the study of religion.
Cristina Traina Sexuality, ethics of relationship, methodological questions, and moral agency, in particular children’s moral agency.
Christiana Zenner Fresh waters, religious ethics, and ecological theories.