American Studies Affiliated Faculty, SUNY Fredonia

American Studies
Affiliated Faculty

Ruth Antosh

Ruth Antosh is Professor of French in the Modern Language & Literature Department and teaches courses in Quebec Literature and Culture, Canadian Writers, and Canada Today. Her teaching interests are in Canadian literature and culture, including Quebec. Professor Antosh has published articles on Quebec literature, especially theater, and on myth and fairy tale in Quebec and Canadian literature.

    Office: 2117 Fenton Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3832
    E-mail: Ruth.Antosh@fredonia.edu

Raymond Angelo Belliotti

Raymond Belliotti is Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department, where he teaches a course in American Philosophy, among others. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Miami and his J.D. from the Harvard Law School. His current research interests are in the Philosophy of Law, Ethics, and in Social & Political Philosophy. Professor Belliotti's publications include Justifying Law (1992), Good Sex (1993), Seeking Identity (1995), Stalking Nietzsche (1999), and Meaning of Life (2001), and Happiness is Overrated (2003).

    Office: 2110 Fenton Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3495
    E-mail: Raymond.Belliotti@fredonia.edu

Linda C. Brigance

Linda Brigance is Associate Professor of Communication, where she teaches Persuasion, Rhetoric and Criticism, Gender and Communication, and Public Speaking. In order to extend her teaching outside of the classroom, she has been involved in bringing to campus several speakers and programs addressing persuasion and public discourse, such as Debate Watch 2000 and the Women's Peace Encampment symposium. Her teaching and research focus on the critical consumption of persuasive message encountered in everyday life, such as political rhetoric, product advertising, and entertainment media. Professor Brigance is particularly interested in how traditionally marginalized groups create a rhetorical space for their voices in the public sphere. Recently, she has been investigating these issues from a collective memory perspective in terms of how cultures reconstruct their pasts and use them to meet contemporary needs and expectations. For example, she has presented papers on the role of women in the Buffalo's 2001 Pan American Exposition centennial.

    Office: 322 McEwen Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3826
    E-mail: Linda.Brigance@fredonia.edu

Richard Filipink

Dr. Richard M. Filipink Jr. is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the History Department who specializes in courses on modern American political and diplomatic history. He earned his Ph.D. from SUNY Buffalo, and his research interests include the Cold War, Vietnam, and the American presidency. Dr. Filipink regularly teaches HIST 106 (US History Since 1877) for the American Experience Program.

    Office: W325 Thompson Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3503
    E-mail: Richard.Filipink@fredonia.edu

Natalie Gerber

Dr. Natalie Gerber is assistant professor of English at SUNY Fredonia. Her research and teaching focuses upon 20th-century literature, poetry and poetics, especially the expressive use of language. She also enjoys exploring how film, dance, and other arts equally use the resources of their mediums for expressivity. She holds a Ph.D. in English from UC Berkeley, an M.A. in American Studies from New York University, and a joint B.S. in Film Studies/B.A. in English from Boston University. Somewhere, there is a copy of the very silly super-8 mm film she made as an undergraduate about T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."

    Office: 258 Fenton Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3851
    E-mail: Natalie.Gerber@fredonia.edu

Christina Jarvis

Christina Jarvis is Director of the American Studies Program and Associate Professor of English. She teaches courses in 20th-century American literature and culture, such as American Identities, American Popular and Mass Cultures, American Modernisms, and Contemporary American Literature, as well as the Introduction to American Studies course. Professor Jarvis earned her Ph.D. in English with a minor in Women's Studies from Penn State University in 2000, and also holds a B.A. in history from Rutgers University. She is the author of The Male Body at War: American Masculinity during World War II (2004), and has published articles on gender and embodiment in journals such as Women's Studies, The Southern Quarterly, and War, Literature, and the Arts. Her next book project will explore representations of and cultural dialogues about fatherhood in 20th-century America

    Office: 235 Fenton Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3430
    E-mail: Christina.Jarvis@fredonia.edu

Ingrid Johnston-Robledo

Ingrid Johnston-Robledo is Assistant Professor of Psychology and teaches Psychology of Women, Introductory Psychology, Human Sexuality, and Research Methods. Her research interests are in women's reproductive health, specifically menstruation and childbirth, women's experiences with pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum adjustment, low-income women's health, and education regarding reproductive health issues. Professor Johnston-Robledo has published articles on low-income women’s health in the Women Quarterly, on postpartum disturbances in Women & Health, and on childbirth in the Journal of Gender, Culture, and Health, among others.

    Office: W Thompson Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3893
    E-mail: Ingrid.Johnston-Robledo@fredonia.edu

Stephen Kershnar

Stephen Kershnar is Associate Professor of Philosophy and enjoys teaching courses on American political philosophy, legal philosophy, ethics, and metaphysics. He frequently teaches Social and Political Philosophy, Current Moral Issues, and Life and Death. His research interests focus on punishment, affirmative action, immigration, and compensatory justice. Professor Kershnar is the author of Justice for the Past (2004) and Desert, Retribution, Torture (2001) as well as articles on compensatory justice and affirmative action in journals such as Public Affairs Quarterly, Philosophia, The International Journal of Applied Philosophy and Journal of Social Philosophy.

    Office: Fenton 2101
    Phone: 716/673-3839
    E-mail: Stephen.Kershnar@fredonia.edu

Saundra Liggins

Saundra Liggins is Assistant Professor of English and Director of the African American Studies and Multiethnic Studies Programs. She teaches a wide variety of courses on African American literature and culture, including the Harlem Renaissance, Black Women Writers, African American Autobiography, African American Literature, and Major American Writers (Hurston and Larsen, Hopkins and Morrison), as well as Contemporary Multicultural American Literature. Her research interests include African-American literature, both 19th and 20th century, women's literature, gothic literature, and multi-ethnic literatures.

    Office: 264 Fenton Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3858
    E-mail: Saundra.Liggins@fredonia.edu

Ellen Litwicki

Ellen Litwicki is Associate Professor of History and Chair of the History Department. She teaches courses on Holidays and American Culture, 19th and 20th Century American Culture, American Consumer Culture, United States History, and U.S. Industrial America 1890-1920. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on American ritual and cultural practices in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and more recently, on the practices of gift giving. Professor Litwicki has published a book, entitled America's Public Holidays, 1865-1920 (2000), and several articles in the Journal of American Ethnic History, The Columbian Quadricentennial and American Culture, and The Maryland Historian, among others.

    Office: E304 Thompson Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3274
    E-mail: Ellen.Litwicki@fredonia.edu

Adrienne McCormick

Adrienne McCormick received her Ph.D. in literature from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she also completed a graduate certificate in Women's Studies. As Associate Professor of English and Director of the Women's Studies Program, Dr. McCormick teaches Contemporary Multicultural American Literature, Black Women Writers, Major Women Novelists, Introduction to Women's Studies, Feminist Theory, Poetry and Theory, Women and Film, and Drama and Film. Her research interests are in contemporary American multi-ethnic poetries, the politics of poetry anthologies, and in women's documentary filmmaking. Representative publications include articles on Marilyn Chin in Critical Mass: A Journal of Asian American Cultural Criticism, on the poetry of Cathy Song and David Mura in The Diasporic Imagination: Asian American Writing (Ed. Somdatta Mandal, 2000), on Asian American poetry anthologies in MELUS, and on the films of Trinh T. Minh-ha, Barbara Hammer, and Lourdes Portillo.

    Office: 277 Fenton Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3125
    E-mail: Adrienne.McCormick@fredonia.edu

Shannon McRae

Professor McRae is an assistant professor in the Department of English who specializes in twentieth-century literature and culture. She is particularly interested in the intersections between art, mythology, commerce and culture, and is currently writing a book on Jazz Age American tourist attractions, in order to justify her obsession with road trips, American back roads and motorcycling.

    Office: 257 Fenton Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3848
    E-mail: Shannon.McRae@fredonia.edu

Dustin Parsons

Dustin Parsons received his MA in Literature and Creative Writing from Kansas State University and his MFA in Fiction from Bowling Green State University. His fiction has been published in The Blue Earth Review and the South Dakota Review, and his book reviews in American Book Reviews, and Mid-American Review, where he served as the Nonfiction Editor for five years. Parsons teaches writing and literature at Fredonia as well as classes in the American Studies Program such as "American Popular and Mass Cultures."

    Office: 251 Fenton Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3863
    E-mail: Dustin.Parsons@fredonia.edu

David Rankin

David Rankin is Assistant Professor of Political Science and teaches courses on American Politics, Media and Politics, Elections in America, Public Opinion and Political Participation, and American Public Policy. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research interests include political psychology, political communication, the symbolic politics of trade, immigration and national identity, and mediated influences on political learning and civic engagement. He has published articles in journals such as Political Behavior and Comparative Politics and contributed to several books including Debating the Presidency. He co-edited and contributed chapters to the book Transformed by Crisis: The Presidency of George W. Bush and American Politics (2004).

    Office: E372 Thompson Hall
    Phone: 716/673-4715
    E-mail: David.Rankin@fredonia.edu

Ray Rushboldt

Professor Ray Rushboldt has been a member of the Political Science Department since 1994. He teaches courses in American Government, Law and Society, New York Government, Presidency and Congress, and Social Welfare Policy. He is also an advisor to various student groups, and takes pride in being an active member of the local community. Ray is a graduate of SUNY Fredonia and a regularly teaches POL 120 (American Politics) for the American Experience Program.

    Office: E396 Thompson Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3206
    E-mail: Raymond.Rushboldt@fredonia.edu

Ted Schwalbe

Ted Schwalbe is Professor of Communication and teaches a variety of courses, including Introduction to Mass Media, Media Management, International Media, Media Law and Ethics, Communication Technology, and Radio News. His primary research interests revolve around the development of private radio and TV internationally. In addition to being a Fulbright Scholar at the American University in Bulgaria, he has run international media training projects in Albania, Bulgaria, and several countries in southern Africa.

    Office: 316 McEwen Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3825
    E-mail: Ted.Schwalbe@fredonia.edu | Website

Bruce Simon

Bruce Simon is Associate Professor of English and teaches courses in American, African American, and world literature. He is the former a co-editor of Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor and has published essays in Postcolonial Theory and the United States: Race, Ethnicity, and Literature (eds. Amritjit Singh and Peter Schmidt), Race Consciousness: African-American Studies for the New Century (eds. Judith Jackson Fossett and Jeffrey Tucker), and The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States (eds. Joan Ferrante and Prince Brown, Jr.). For more on his teaching and research, including on-line syllabi and essays, please see his website.

    Office: 265 Fenton Hall
    Phone: 716/673-3856
    E-mail: Bruce.Simon@fredonia.edu