People and Research

The faculty of Georgetown College and its diverse departments includes many who pursue research and teach on the nations and peoples of the Americas. They are listed here by department, with links to their web resumes.

Anthropology

Denise Brennan Global sex trade, human trafficking, migration, women’s labor and Latin America and the Caribbean
 
Joanne Rappaport Ethnicity, historical anthropology, new social movements, literacy, race, Andean ethnography and ethnohistory
 
Susan Terrio Social class and educational systems, craft and commoditization, food and foodways, national identities and ideologies, history/historiography, urban culture and conflict, juvenile delinquency, Anthropology Chair, France-US comparative studies

Art, Music, and Theater

Anna Celenza Music, 19th and 20th centuries
 
Elizabeth Prelinger Modern art and architecture
 
Derek Goldman Theater and performance studies
 
Soyica Colbert African American Studies, theater, 19th and 21st centuries

English

Randall Bass New technologies, pedagogy, educational change
 
Caitlin Benson-Alcott: US film history, film and new media theory, gender and technology studies, and the horror genre

Gay Cima 18th and 19th century black and white American women critics 
 
Bryan Hochman 19th and 20th centuries American literature, race and ethnicity, film ,visual studies
 
Mark McMorris 20th century poetry & poetry writing, Caribbean poetry 
 
Lori Merish 19th-century American and Anglophone Caribbean literature and cultue
 
Angelyn Mitchell American, African American and Caribbean literatures, critical theory
 
Patricia O’Connor Grammar of agency and the functions of story in everyday lives,  prison narratives, Appalachian literature
 
Ricardo Ortiz Latino literature, comparative literature
 
Christine So Contemporary Asian American literature, race and popular culture, theories of consumption

French

Sylvie Durmelat Immigration in France, francophone Caribbean literatures and cultures 
 
Miléna Santoro Literature and culture of Québec

Government

Matthew Carnes, SJ  labor and social welfare policy, Latin America
 
Jonathan Ladd Political behavior, American political system 

Mark Rom American politics and public policy, social welfare policy
 
R. Kent Weaver American and comparative social policy, politics of expertise 

Michael Bailey American politics and political economy: trade, Congress, election law, the Supreme Court
 
Andrew Bennett American foreign policy process, international relations theory, qualitative research methods
 
Eusebio Mujal-Leon European and Latin American politics
 
Douglas Reed American constitutional law, judicial politics, American politics 
 
Michele Swers Congress, women and politics, issues of representation 
 
Arturo Valenzuela Origins and consolidation of democracy, Latin American politics, electoral systems, civil-military relations, political parties, regime transitions, U.S.-Latin American relations 
 
W. Clyde Wilcox Public opinion and electoral behavior, religion and politics, gender politics, politics of social issues

History

Katherine Benton-Cohen 19th, 20th century US, migration, gender, American West
 
Marcia Chatelain African-American, women and girls, African-American migration
 
Alison Games Colonial America, Atlantic, migration 
 
Maurice Jackson Atlantic, African-American, radicalism, history of antislavery 
 
Michael Kazin U.S. social movements and politics, Reconstruction to present 
 
Erick Langer Latin America, Andes, social, economic, frontiers
 
Chandra Manning U.S. civil war 
 
Bryan McCann Latin America, modern Brazil, popular culture 
 
Joseph McCartin 20th-century U.S. labor, social, political 
 
J.R. McNeill Environmental, Mediterranean, Atlantic 
 
Adam Rothman Early national U.S., slavery, Atlantic 
 
John Tutino Latin America, Mexico, social/cultural/political

Psychology


Fathali Moghaddam cross-cultural psychology, conflict resolution

Deborah Phillips Early child development, environmental influences on development, child poverty 
 
Rebecca Ryan Developmental psychology, non-marital childbirth
 
Jennifer Woolard Adolescent development in the family and legal contexts

Sociology

Brian McCabe Civic engagement, political participation in US; community life

William McDonald Crime and the administration of criminal justice 

Spanish and Portuguese

Molly Borowitz Spiritual and political subjecthood and institutional culture in early modern Spain and Spanish America

Michael Ferreira Portuguese language
 
Tania Gentic Contemporary transatlantic studies
 
Gwen Kirkpatrick Latin American literatures, gender 
 
Adam Lifshey 20th, 21st century Latin American literatures

Bárbara Mujica Early modern Spanish literature and contemporary Latin American culture
 
Verónica Salles-Reese Latin American literature
 
Vivaldo Santos Brazilian literature, Brazilian popular music, Brazilian cinema

Theology

Frederick Ruf Literature and religion
 
Chester Gillis U.S. Catholic Church, the history of Catholicism and the papacy, including Pope Bendedict XVI, interfaith dialogue and religious pluralism.