American Studies

Faculty

Joshua Azriel, Assistant Professor of Communication
B.S. Kalamazoo College
M.A. University of Florida
Ph.D University of Florida
First Amendment law specifically, hate speech,threats, freedom of the press, social media technology.
Webpage:
Email: jazriel@kennesaw.edu


Jane Barnette, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies
B.S. Northwestern University
M.A. University of Texas--Austin
Ph.D. University of Texas--Austin
Train culture; Chicago history; theatre history; 1870-1920; dramaturgy; feminist and performance theory.
Webpage:
Email: jbarne48@kennesaw.edu


Jesse Benjamin, Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice
B.A. Friends World College, Long Island University
M.A. S.U.N.Y. Binghamton
Ph.D. S.U.N.Y. Binghamton
Critical race theory, post-colonial theory, whiteness studies, pan-Africanism, world systems theory and epistemology.
Webpage:
Email: jbenjam2@kennesaw.edu


Ed Chan, Associate Professor of English
B.A. University of California, Riverside
M.A. California State University, Fullerton
Ph.D. University of Rochester
20th / 21st C. American literary, film, and cultural studies; critical race studies; utopian and science fiction.
Extended Biography
Webpage:
Email: echan@kennesaw.edu


Jim Elledge, Professor of English
B.A. Eastern Illinois University
M.S.L.S. Eastern Illinois University
Ph.D. University of Illinois at Chicago
Creative writing, queer studies (U.S., 1880-1945), outsider artist Henry Darger, contemporary U.S. poetry, prosody, small press and literary publishing.
Extended Biography
Webpage:
Email: jelledg1@kennesaw.edu

image
Emron Esplin, Assistant Professor of English and American Studies
B.A. Brigham Young University
M.A. Brigham Young University
Ph.D. Michigan State University
Inter-American Literary Studies/Literatures of the Americas, 19th-20th Century U.S. Literature, 20th Century Spanish American Literature, The Mexican Revolution.
Extended Biography
Webpage:
Email: eesplin@kennesaw.edu


Donald Fay, Associate Professor of English
B.A. Shimer College
M.A. Emory University
20/21st C. American literature and cultural Studies; jazz and blues; African American literature; Jalaluddin Rumi; middle eastern literature.
Webpage:
Email: dfay@kennesaw.edu

image
Elizabeth Giddens, Associate Professor of English
B.A. University of Tennessee, Knoxville
M.A. University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Ph.D. University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Professional writing, the rhetoric of public policy, environmental writing and rhetoric, the literature and culture of Appalachia.
Extended Biography
Email: egiddens@kennesaw.edu


Dorothy Graham, Professor of English
B.A. Mercer University
M.A. University of Georgia
Ph.D. Georgia State University
19th-Century American Literature-intellectual history and Jungian perspectives; film Studies--genre, film adaptation, and women in film.
Extended Biography
Webpage:
Email: dgraham@kennesaw.edu


Hannah B. Harvey, Assistant Professor of Performance Studies and Artistic Director of The KSU Tellers
B.A. Furman University
M.A. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Ph.D. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Performance ethnography; storytelling; the body in performance; cultural performance; adaptation of literature; oral and labor history; the politics of performance.
Webpage:
Email: hharvey3@kennesaw.edu


Timothy Hedeen, Associate Professor of Conflict Management
B.A.  Syracuse University
M.A.  Syracuse University
Ph.D.  Syracuse University
Community dispute resolution; social movements; American justice; program evaluation; democratic pedagogy; collaborative decision-making.
Webpage: http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~tkhedeen/
Email: tkhedeen@kennesaw.edu

image
Alan LeBaron, Professor Latin American History
B.A.  Boise State University
M.A.  University of Maryland
Ph.D.  University of Florida
The history of Latin America, especially Central America, Global Studies, Asian Studies, Maya Studies, American 20th Century immigration, U.S. foreign relations, Native American Identity, Nationalism and the creation of culture.
Extended Biography
Webpage:
Email: alebaron@kennesaw.edu

image
LeeAnn Lands, Interim Director, MAST Program & Associate Professor of History and American Studies
B.S.E. University of Florida
M.A. Florida Atlantic University
Ph.D. Georgia Institute of Technology
Urban studies; housing inequality; housing cultures; geographies of race and class.
Extended Biography
Webpage: http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~llands/
Email: llands@kennesaw.edu


Catherine M. Lewis, Associate Professor of History
B.A. Emory University
M.A. University of Iowa
Ph.D. University of Iowa
Museums and public history; women’s history; sports history; immigrant Literature, 1840-1940; the Holocaust.
Extended Biography
Webpage: http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~clewis1/
Email: clewis1@kennesaw.edu

image
Kenneth F. Maffitt, Assistant Professor of History
B.A. Washington University in St. Louis
M.A. Stanford University
Ph.D. University of California, San Diego
Modern Mexico, 20th / 21st C. Latin American and U.S. history; working-class studies, immigration, cities and suburbs, consumption and leisure, citizenship and rights.
Webpage:
Email: kmaffitt@kennesaw.edu


Nina Yermakov Morgan, Associate Professor of English and Asst. Director of the Center for the Development of Asian Studies
B.A. University of California, Riverside
M.A. University of California, Riverside
Ph.D. University of California, Riverside
Critical theory; Asian American literature; 20th C. American literature; globalization and labor; women’s studies.
Webpage:
Email: nmorgan@kennesaw.edu


Linda Grant Niemann, Associate Professor of English
B.A. University of California at Santa Cruz
Ph.D. University of California at Berkeley
Regional literature; border studies; travel literature; memoir; non-fiction; literature of the Americas.
Webpage:
Email: lniemann@kennesaw.edu

image
Elsa A. Nystrom, Professor of History
B.A. Judson College
M.A. Loyola University of Chicago
Ph.D.  Loyola University of Chicago
19th and 20th century social and cultural history, colonial america, popular culture, comic strips and sports, history of auto racing, NASCAR, EU-US cultural relationships.
Webpage: http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~enystrom/
Email: enystrom@kennesaw.edu

image
Daniel S. Papp, President, Kennesaw State University
Political Science and American Studies
B.S. Dartmouth College
Ph.D. University of Miami
International security policy, U.S. and Russian foreign and defense policies, international system change, and the impact of information and communication technologies on national security and the international system.
Extended Biography
Webpage: http://www.kennesaw.edu/president/index.html
Email: dpapp@kennesaw.edu


Daniel J. Paracka, Jr., Assistant Professor of University Studies, Director of International Services and Programs
B.A.  St. Andrews Presbyterian College
M.S.  West Chester State University
Ph.D. Georgia State University
America in the world; media studies.
Extended Biography
Webpage:
Email: dparacka@kennesaw.edu

image
David B. Parker, Professor of History
B.A. Duke University
M.A. University of North Carolina
Ph.D. University of North Carolina
American and southern social/cultural history; American religion.
Webpage:
Email: dparker@kennesaw.edu

image
Randall L. Patton, Professor of History
B.A.  University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
M.A. University of Georgia
Ph.D. University of Georgia
Southern studies, business and labor history.
Webpage:
Email: rpatton@kennesaw.edu

image
Jim Piecuch, Assistant Professor of History
B.A. University of New Hampshire – Manchester
M.A. University of New Hampshire,
Ph.D. The College of William & Mary
Colonial and Revolutionary America, US foreign relations, Native American history, and Early Republic (1787-1850).
Webpage:
Email: jpiecuch@kennesaw.edu


Kay A. Reeve, Professor of History
B.S.Ed.  Texas Tech University
M.A.  Texas Tech University
Ph.D.  Texas A&M University
History of the American West, with social, cultural and environmental emphases; the American West in image and imagination; historiography of the west; the gilded age and progressive movement, social and cultural emphasis.
Webpage:
Email: kreeve@kennesaw.edu


Sarah Robbins, Professor of English and English Education
B.A. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
M.A. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Ph.D. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Writing in American culture; American literary history; community studies; gender, race and class in American culture; educational issues in American culture; popular culture; civic engagement; interdisciplinary methods.
Extended Biography
Webpage:
Email: srobbins@kennesaw.edu


M. Susan Rouse, Professor of Philosophy
B.A.  Florida State University
Ph.D.  Florida State University
American Philosophy, American pragmatism, history of western philosophy.
Webpage:
Email: srouse@kennesaw.edu


Thomas A. Scott, Professor of History
B.S. University of Tennessee, Knoxville
M.A. University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Ph.D. University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Suburban history, southern history, local history.
Webpage: http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~tscott/
Email: tscott@kennesaw.edu


Ernesto Pierre Silva, Assistant Professor of Spanish
B.A. University of California, Irvine
M.A. University of California, Irvine
Ph.D. University of California, Irvine
Contemporary Spanish/Latin American film, literature, and theater; cultural studies; immigration issues.
Webpage:
Email: esilva@kennesaw.edu

image
Linda Stewart, Assistant Professor of English
B.A. University of New Hampshire, Durham
M.A.T. University of New Hampshire, Durham
M.A. University of New Hampshire, Durham
Cultural landscape studies; visual culture; Chicago history; Suburbia; Community-based interdisciplinary studies; War critic Virginia Woolf.
Extended Biography
Website:
E-mail: lstewar2@kennesaw.edu

image
Joe A. Thomas, Professor of Art History, Chair of the Department of Visual Arts
B.F.A. University of North Texas
M.A. Southern Methodist University
Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin
Modern and contemporary art; Pop Art; the U.S. in the 1960s; history of sexuality and pornography; sex, gender and representation.
Webpage: http://www.kennesaw.edu/visual_arts/Personnel/Thomas/
E-mail: jthom205@kennesaw.edu


Eva M. Thompson, Associate Professor of English and American Studies
B.A. Winston-Salem State University
M.A. The Ohio State University, Columbus
Ph.D. The Ohio State University, Columbus
Literature of slavery in the Americas; 19th century autobiography of the African diaspora; cultural/social/literary movements of the 1950s and 1960s, e.g., the modern civil rights movement, black power movement and black arts movement; historical fiction.
Webpage:
Email: ethompso@kennesaw.edu


Ugena Whitlock, Assistant Professor of Gender Studies and Adolescent Education
B.S. Ed. Athens State University, Athens, Alabama
M.Ed. Coppin State College, Baltimore, Maryland
Ph.D. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
Curriculum studies; southern Studies; women’s and gender studies; queer studies; race, class, gender in social, political, and educational contexts; pop culture; teacher education.
Webpage: http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~rwhitlo3/
Email: rwhitlo3@kennesaw.edu


Dede Yow, Professor of English and American Studies
B.A. Agnes Scott College
M.A. University of Georgia
Ph.D. University of Georgia
Southern mythmaking in literature and history; rural and blue collar Southern writers; civil rights movement in the South; status of women in the Old South and the New South.
Extended Biography
Webpage:
Email: dyow@kennesaw.edu