Affiliated Faculty & Staff

Florentina Andreescu (International Studies) teaches courses in international studies; her work investigates through film issues of legitimization and social authority, gendered, national and ethnic identities, transitions, trauma and space.

Greta Bliss (World Languages & Cultures) teaches Introductory French II, Introduction to the Francophone World: "Cultural Manifestoes", Reading Strategies: "Reading Other Worlds" and Grammar and Composition I. Her research explores the intersections between literature and cinema, feminist theory, translation theory, and postcolonial studies.

Amanda Boomershine (World Languages & Cultures) teaches Spanish courses in the World Languages and Cultures Department. Her sociolinguistics classes at the undergraduate and graduate level focus on gender, sexuality, and language, and she has also taught classes that focus on migration and the role of women in rural Mexico.

Mark Boren (English) teaches courses on literary theory, gothic literature, masculinity in literature, and madness. His research areas of interest include Romantic literature, Gothic literature, psychoanalysis, madness, sexuality, metaphors of gender, and linguistic constructions of the feminine.

Tawny Burgess (Nursing) teaches courses in mental health and nursing; she has research interests in resilience, psychiatric and medical history, and medicine and literature. Her article “Jane Austen in the Nursing Classroom: A Tool to Expand Psychiatric Assessment Skills” will be published in Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal in December 2018.

Maia Butler (English) teaches courses in African American Literature, Black Women's Fiction, Postcolonial Women Writers, and Africana Literature; her research interests include Africana Women's literature, Black and Transnational Feminisms, Anglophone Postcolonial Literature, and Southern and Southern Women's literature.

Candice Bredbenner (History) teaches courses in U. S. history, including women's history and Constitutional history. Her current research involves a book project on the evolution of ideas about the obligations of citizens in twentieth-century America.

Kate Bruce (Psychology) teaches classes on Human Sexual Behavior and Evolutionary Psychology. Her research interests are in the areas of attitudes about human sexual behavior (especially risky sexual behavior) and also comparative cognition (similarities in learning across species).

María Camí-Vela (World Languages and Cultures) teaches literature and film courses focusing on gender, class, and sexuality. Her current research explores the representation of desire and sexuality in films directed by women.

Sabrina Cherry (Public Health Studies) has research and teaching interests in women's health, sexual health, HIV/AIDS, health disparities, and narrative research. She has recently presented papers and posters on analyses of African American women living with AIDS, home food environments of young adult women, and teen pregnancy prevention initiatives.

Addie L. Sayers China (English) teaches courses in linguistics, sociolinguistics, social justice, gender, and sexuality. Her article on the construction of gender in Amazon reviews appeared in Analyzing Digital Discourse (Palgrave 2019) and her current research projects including analyzing Beyoncé as a semiotic resource in Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest and building an interdisciplinary minority student research group at UNCW with colleagues from the schools of Social Work, Health and Human Services, and Nursing.

Kim Cook (Sociology and Criminology) teaches courses on criminology and social justice. Her current areas of research interest include the death penalty, restorative justice, and violence against women

Andrea Deagon (World Languages and Cultures) teaches classical studies. Her research interests include women's dance and women's experience of the sacred.

James DeVita (Educational Leadership) teaches courses in social justice topics in education and student development theory. His research interests include intersections of identity, multiple identities for college students, transgender student health, and LGBTQ+ topics.

George Felis (Philosophy and Religion) routinely includes feminist perspectives and women philosophers in his classes; he has also designed and taught a seminar on "Evolution, Culture, and Gender," which examines the use and abuse of evolutionary science to account for sex differences and gender roles. His research interests include feminist critiques of traditional ethical theories, the work of Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen, and the ethics of care.

Regina Felix (World Languages and Cultures) teaches courses in Portuguese, Women in Brazilian Narrative, and International Women's Issues. She is currently writing a book on Brazilian women directors; her first book addressed nineteenth-century Brazilian women writers.

Alyson Fleming (Biology and Marine Biology and Center for Marine Science) has research interests in ecology, environmental policy, marine policy, and environmental science. She has received multiple awards, including a Smithsonian Women's Committee Research Grant and a James Smithson Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Fleming has taught at New York University, American University, and the University of California San Diego and she is particularly interested in enriching STEM education for middle- and high-school-age girls.

Sarah Hallenbeck (English) teaches courses in feminist rhetorical theory, history of rhetoric, and professional and technical communication. Southern Illinois University Press published her first book, Claiming the Bicycle: Women, Rhetoric, and Technology in Nineteenth-Century America, in 2016.

Steven Hooker (Educational Leadership) teaches courses in LGBTQ+ Issues in Education. He's published widely on social justice, diversity, LGBTQ+ issues in education and society, school culture, and school policy, and his articles have appeared in the International Journal of Educational REform, Journal of Teacher Action Research, and American School Board Journal, among other venues.

Jennifer Horan (Public & International Affair) teaches courses focusing on the status of women in the American political system. Her current research interests include environmental policy and policymaking in Latin America and the impact of environmental degradation on women in the developing world.

Michaela Howells (Anthropology) teaches courses in human biological variation and human growth and development. Her research interests include reproduction, maternal and child health, intergenerational growth and development, health education, and medical anthropology.

Jacquelyn Lee (Social Work) routinely teaches classes in crisis intervention and human behavior. Her current research focuses on pedagogical and curricular innovation, workforce wellness, and the effects of and responses to secondary traumatic stress, including mindfulness and caregiving.

Jennifer Le Zotte (History) teaches courses in Gender and Sexuality in the United States, U.S. Women and Gender History, Sex and Family in Postwar America, and Material Cultural. Her book From Goodwill to Grunge: A History of Secondhand Styles and Alternative Economies was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2017, and her current book project explores the relationship between cross-race, cross-class, and cross-gender dress and ideologies of success and definitions of criminality in industrializing America. While an assistant professor at Tarleton Stae University, Dr. LeZotte established and directed the minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Jennifer Lozano (English) teaches classes in Latino/a Voices in America, Mexican American Literature, Women of Color Feminism: Then and Now, and Women's Studies. Her research interests include contemporary Latina/o literature and culture, spirituality and neoliberalism, transnational Latinidad; feminisms, digital media, and material culture. Her article "The Politics of Participation: La Bloga, Digital Media, and the Limits of Liberal Participatory Culture" is forthcoming in Latin@ American Media Studies in the Age of Digital Humanities (U Press Florida, 2017).

Sally MacKain (Psychology) teaches classes in counseling, psychotherapy, ethical issues and mental health. Her research interests include treatment of co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery, stigmatized populations, mental health in diverse populations, and mental health treatment in correctional settings

Victor Malo-Juvera (English) typically teaches courses required for English majors in the Teacher Licensure Option. His current research interests include examining the effects of literary instruction on adolescent readers' attitudes, such as rape myth acceptance and homophobia, examining the effects of culturally relevant language arts pedagogy on student performance, and examining preservice teachers' attitudes toward using LGBTQ literature.

Lori Messinger (Social Work) teaches Social Work courses that focus on social welfare, issues in diversity, and social diversity and social work practice. Her research focuses on social work practice with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations, comprehensive community planning processes, cultural competence in social work education and practice, and organizational change processes, especially in institutions of higher education.

Katherine Montwieler (English) teaches courses related to gender and literature. Her current research interests are eighteenth- and nineteenth-century women writers and constructions of gender and sexuality.

Kate Nooner (Psychology) teaches courses in psychopathology, treating substance abuse, and statistics and behavior science. Her research interests include child maltreatment and neurodevelopment, particularly alcohol and substance use disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and trauma recovery, particularly longitudinal models, brain-behavior relationships, and emotion processing and regulation.

Diana Pasulka (Philosophy & Religion) teaches courses on women and religion. Her research focuses on gender representations in world religions as well as religion and popular culture.

Laurie Patterson (Computer Science) teaches introduction to computer science courses. Her research looks at the differences between the genders in areas such as how technology is used and why women leave the computer science major at higher rates than men do.

Katie Peel (English) teaches courses in young adult and children's literatures, as well as GLBTQ literature and studies. Her research interests include issues of gender and sexuality, young adult and Victorian literatures.

Jamie Pond (Sociology) teaches introduction to women's and gender studies, sexuality and gender, and masculinity and film. Her research interests include gender, education, religion, and pop culture. She is completing her dissertation on Female Atheists in the South.

Robin Post (Theatre) often teaches courses that address social change, diversity, and inclusion and she directs plays that highlight women's and sexuality studies. Her work with children on the autism spectrum and Shakespeare led to a UNCW Community Engagement grant and various articles, including the forward to Shakespeare's Heartbeat: Drama Games for Children with Autism.

Narcisa Pricope (Earth and Ocean Sciences) teaches courses in Geosciences, Environmental Analysis, Land Use Planning, and Environmental Geography. Her research areas include population vulnerability to climate and environmental change; risks and disasters in coastal regions; food deserts and disadvantaged populations, geospatial analysis and modeling. An award-winning teacher and researcher, Dr. Pricope has received more than $1 million in grants.

Justine Reel (School of Health and Applied Human Sciences) teaches CHHS 492/592 Innovation in Health and Human Services and SWK 543 Assessing and Treating Eating Disorders, Exercise, and Food Addiction. Her books include Working Out: The Psychology of Sport and Exercise (ABC-CLIO 2015), Filling Up: The Psychology of Eating (ABC-CLIO 2017), and Eating Disorders: Questions Answered (ABC-CLIO, forthcoming). Awarded numerous grants, Dr. Reel currently serves as Associate Dean of Research and Innovation and professor in the College of Health and Human Services.

Colleen Reilly (English) teaches courses in professional writing and computers and writing, including a course in gender and technology. Her current research explores how gender and sexuality help to construct and are constructed by technologies.

Sue Richardson (Film Studies) teaches courses about women filmmakers, representations of the female form on screen, and issues that include the interconnections of gender, sexuality, race, and class.

Chadwick Roberts (Communication Studies) teaches courses in media literacy and popular culture. His research interests include gender and popular culture, sexuality and obscenity. He is currently completing his dissertation on the use of feminist rhetoric in Playgirl magazine.

Carolyn A. Jost Robinson (Anthropology) teaches courses in physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, and behavioral ecology. Her research draws on feminist perspectives in science, technology, and environmental studies and has focused on human-environment interactions, primatology, and cultural child-rearing practices.

Donyell Roseboro (Watson School of Education) is Associate Dean of Teacher Education and Outreach and Professor in the Watson College of Education, UNC Wilmington, NC. She teaches courses in foundations of education with particular emphasis on the ways that race, gender, and class shape educational processes. She published The Sexuality Curriculum & Youth Culture (2010), co-edited with Dennis Carlson as well as several other journal articles in 2012 in Teaching and Learning: The Journal of Natural Inquiry and Reflective Practice and Urban Education.

Karen Sandell (Social Work) teaches social work courses focusing on issues relating to women, children, and society. Her current research interests include teaching innovations in social work education, technology and social work education, and feminist practice.

Michelle Scatton-Tessier (World Languages and Culture) is the director of the Women's Studies & Resource Center. She teaches courses on French language, culture and French/Francophone film.

Julie-Ann Scott (Communications Studies) teaches courses in performance studies, storytelling, and qualitative methods. Her research focuses on the intersections of gender, disability, and the cultural performance of identity.

Michael Seidman (History) teaches courses on Western Civilization, the rise of Fascism, and the rise of Anti-Fascism. His books include Atlantic Antifascisms, 1936-1945 (Cambridge UP 2017), The Imaginary Revolution: Parisian Students and Workers in 1968 (Berghahn Books 2004), and Republic of Egos: A Social History of the Spanish Civil War (University of Wisconsin P 2002).

Shannon Silva (Film Studies) teaches courses in experimental and documentary film production. Her current research focuses on issues of gender, consumer culture, celebrity and fan studies.

Helena Spencer (Music) teaches courses in music. Her current research explores the conflation of landscape and gender in nineteenth-century Parisian music theater, and she has published on Scandinavian supernatural folklore in Bournonville's ballet La Sylphide and in Ibsen art song settings.

Jean-Anne Sutherland (Sociology) teaches sociology courses that examine gender, work and family, theory, and social psychology. Her research areas include sociology through film (women and feminism in film) and, the sociology of mothering.

Dana Stachowiak (Educational Leadership) coordinates the Watson College's program Curriculum Studies for Equity in Education and teaches courses in curriculum studies, curriculum theory, and curriculum and critical consciousness. She has recently published articles in Advocate, Journal of Gender Studies, Thought and Action, and Lessons from the Field: Culturally Affirming Literacy Practices for Urban Elementary Students (Rowan & Littlefield).

Meghan Sweeney (English) teaches classes in women's literature, children's and young adult literature, and popular culture at the undergraduate and graduate level. She's recently published articles on negotiating professionalism and personal well-being in Letting Go: Feminist and Social Justice Insights and Activism and on Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre: Critical Insights and delivered conference presentations on weird weddings in children's culture, and on girls, toys, and faux-rebellion.

Olga Trokhimenko (Foreign Language) teaches all levels of German language, literature, and culture, but particularly specializes in medieval culture and mythology, gender studies, and literary folklore. Her research includes medieval German Studies, gender and feminist studies, and literary folklore.

Cici Yang (Communication Studies) teaches classes in Health Communication, Interpersonal Communication, and Communication Theory. Recent articles focus on women, alcohol, and health communication, the portrayal of skin cancer in U.S. women's magazines, and portrayals of mental illnesses in U.S. magazines.