Faculty

Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought Faculty

Click on the tabs below for a list of Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought faculty members alphabetically and by discipline.

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Core Faculty

Affiliate Faculty

Emeritus

Core Faculty

Name	Department	Research Area	Available for Committee Service
Danna Agmon	History	French Empire in India and the Indian Ocean 17th-20th centuries	Yes
Mauro Caraccioli	Political Science	Political Theory International Relations Latin American Studies/Politics Postcolonial Theory Critical Ecology	No
François Debrix	Political Science	Contemporary Political Theory Biopolitics/Necropolitics Critical International Relations Theory Critical Geopolitics Critical Approaches to Neoliberalism Critical World Order Studies	No
Bikrum Gill	Political Science	Global Political Economy Political Ecology Decolonial Theory Critical Race Theory Colonialism/Imperialism
Bettina Koch	Political Science	Political Theory History of Political Thought (Cross-Cultural) Comparative Political Theory Islamic Political Thought	Yes
Desirée Poets	Political Science	Postcolonial, Decolonial, and Settler Colonial Theories Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender (De-)Militarization, Carcerality and Abolitionism Arts and Community Change (especially Social/New Museology) Collaborative and Critical Methods	Yes
Audrey Reeves	Political Science	World politics Affect, emotion, embodiment Difficult heritage at museums and memorials Gender, feminism and security governance Conflict, peace and knowledge	Yes
Rachel M. Scott	Religion and Culture	Islamic Law and Personal Status Law Religion, Law, and Constitutions Modern Islamic Political Thought: Citizenship, Religious Minorities, Religious Authority, and Religion and State Islamism (Particularly the Muslim Brotherhood) in Egypt Religion and Secularism	Yes
Brett L. Shadle	History	Kenya Ethiopia Race Refugees Colonialism	Yes

Affiliate Faculty

Name	Department	Research Area	Available for Committee Service
Danna Agmon	History	French Empire in India and the Indian Ocean 17th-20th centuries	Yes
Onwubiko Agozino	Sociology	Law and Society Sociology Africana Studies Decolonization of Social Sciences	Yes
Aaron Ansell	Religion and Culture	Sociocultural anthropology Northeast Brazil Alternative democracy Political discourse anti-poverty policy	Yes
Amaryah Shaye Armstrong	Religion and Culture	Black Studies Political Theology Black Feminist Theory Religion and Culture Continental Philosophy of Religion	No
Sweta Baniya	English	Professional and Technical Writing Non-Western Rhetorics Cultural and Digital Rhetoric Transnational Disaster Rhetorics and Risk/Crisis Communication Community and Civic Engagement	Yes
Shannon Elizabeth Bell	Sociology	Environmental Justice and Environmental Sociology Energy and Climate Change Gender Social Movements Photovoice and Participatory Action Research
Daniel Breslau	Science, Technology, and Society	Economic sociology Sociology of the social sciences Politics of energy markets STS studies of economics	Yes
Brian Britt	Religion and Culture	Religion and Literature Theory of Religion and Culture Hebrew Bible Modern Jewish Thought	Yes
Christopher Campo-Bowen	Performing Arts	Czech Music Opera Studies Music and Empire Music and Race/Ethnicity Music and Queerness	Yes
Chris Brown	Computer Science	digital education human-computer interaction software engineering
Mauro Caraccioli	Political Science	Political Theory International Relations Latin American Studies/Politics Postcolonial Theory Critical Ecology	No
S. Moon Cassinelli	English	The Korean diaspora Transnational adoption studies Queer kinship	No
Danille Christensen	Religion and Culture	Gendered/domestic labor Material culture (foodways, craft) Performance studies/Ethnography of communication Cultural and environmental sustainability Local knowledge	Yes
Carolyn D. Commer	English	Classical and Modern Rhetorical Theory Rhetoric and Public Policy Critical Theory Argumentation Theory Critical University Studies Professional and Technical Writing	Yes
Samuel R. Cook	History	Indigenous Natural Resource Management among Virginia Indian Nations Understanding Anthropology within the Context of Indigenous Agency Creating Linkages Between African Slave Descendant Communities and Cultural Sites in Southwest Virginia
Nicholas Copeland	History	Political Imaginaries Governance Indigenous Politics Guatemala and Latin America Democracy Social Theory	Yes
Mercedes Maria Corredor
Cara Daggett	Political Science	Energy Studies Political Ecology Environmental Politics Feminist Political Thought Global Studies/ International Relations	No
Giselle Datz	GIA	Sovereign debt restructuring Pension funds Financial crises and regulation Financial technology and banking Latin American politics	Yes
François Debrix	Political Science	Contemporary Political Theory Biopolitics/Necropolitics Critical International Relations Theory Critical Geopolitics Critical Approaches to Neoliberalism Critical World Order Studies	No
Priya Dixit	Political Science	U.S. Foreign Policy Terrorism and Counterterrorism Global Security and Critical Security Studies	Yes
Tom Ewing	History and Office of the Dean	History of Information, Knowledge, and Data History of Medicine (Influenza Epidemics) Russian/Soviet History World History Digital History
Brandy S. Faulkner	Political Science	Constitutional and Administrative Law Race and Public Policy Critical Organization Theory	Yes
Jessica Folkart	Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures	Contemporary Spanish Fiction Identity Gender Immigration The Body	Yes
Matthew R. Gabriele	Religion and Culture	Medieval Studies Crusades Apocalypse Intellectual History Christianity	Yes
Bikrum Gill	Political Science	Global Political Economy Political Ecology Decolonial Theory Critical Race Theory Colonialism/Imperialism
Carmen Gitre	History	Modern Egyptian History Popular Culture Theater and Performance
Edward J. K. Gitre	History	Transatlantic Modern U.S. Cultural and Intellectual History History of the Interdisciplinary Social and Behavioral Sciences War and Society World War II	No
Nicholas Goedert	Political Science	American Politics Legislative Elections Election Law Congress Gerrymandering
Liora O'Donnell Goldensher	Sociology	Reproduction Expertise and Professions Science, Technology, and Knowledge Ethnography Medicine and Health	Yes
Saul Halfon	Science, Technology, and Society	Political sociology of technoscience Technical practices of policy institutions Food studies Reproductive health Public engagement with science and technology
Anthony K. Harrison	Sociology	Race Popular Music Studies Qualitative Research Methodologies Racialized Social Spaces Hip Hop Historiography Higher Education Pedagogy	No
Matthew Heaton	History	African Studies - Global Perspective Transnational Health and Migration	Yes
Rebecca Hester	Science, Technology, and Society	Global Health Latin American Migration Socio-cultural Studies of Health and Medicine Critical Security Studies Critical race and gender studies	Yes
Javiera Jaque Hidalgo	Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures	Colonial Latin American literature and culture Border Studies Religious Studies Performance Studies Indigenous Migrations	No
Karen Hult	Political Science	Organization and institutional theories U.S. presidency U.S. national executive branch departments and agencies, policy U.S. state politics, policy, and governance Social science methodologies	Yes
James Ivory	English	Social Dimensions of Digital Games Media Portrayals of Character Demographics Research Methods and Meta-Science	Yes
Sharon P. Johnson	Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures	19th-century Literature and Painting Paris in the 19th-Century Flaubert, Maupassant, Zola Rape in 19th-century Penny Presses, French Jurisprudence and Medical Reports
Sylvester Johnson
Melanie Kiechle	History	19th Century United States Environmental History Urban History Smells and Smelling	Yes
Bryan Klausmeyer	Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures	German Literature and Thought (18th-19th century) History of Science and Technology Media History and Theory Literary Theory and Cultural Studies	Yes
Bettina Koch	Political Science	Political Theory History of Political Thought (Cross-Cultural) Comparative Political Theory Islamic Political Thought	Yes
Christine Labuski	Science, Technology, and Society	Feminist energy systems Ecofeminisms and queer ecologies Gender and labor in extractive zones Genital pain and medicalized sexualities Feminist and queer science studies	Yes
Robert (Bob) Leonard	Performing Arts	Directing and Performance Production/ Research Area: Directing, Community Arts Making Teaching Areas: Acting, Shakespeare, Improvisation, Directing Head of the M.F.A. Directing and Public Dialogue program	Yes
Douglas Lind	Philosophy	Philosophy of Law Pragmatism Later Philosophy of Wittgenstein Indigenous Law Environmental Ethics & Law	No
Timothy W. Luke	Political Science	History of political thought Contemporary political theory Comparative and international politics
Natalia Mielczarek
Rachel Midura
Michael Moehler
Marian Mollin
Wayne D. Moore
Scott G. Nelson
Su Fang Ng
Zhange Ni
Kim L. Niewolny
Shaily Patel
Lydia Patton
Desiree Poets
Katrina M. Powell
Karl Precoda
Besnik Pula
Khadijah Queen
Audrey Reeves
Ashley Reichelmann
Patrick Roberts
Fernanda Rosa
Emily M. Satterwhite
Rachel M. Scott
Paula Seniors
Brett L. Shadle
Ashley Shew
Max Stephenson
Yannis Stivachtis
Jessica Taylor
Tyechia Thompson
Sharone L. Tomer
Kelly Trogdon
Vinodh Venkatesh
Andrew Wadoski
Janell Watson
Edward Weisband
Fabian Wendt
Trevor Wilson
Philip Yaure
Laura Zanotti
Bonnie Zare
Anna Zeide

Emeritus

Name	Position	Email
Elizabeth Fine	Professor	bfine@vt.edu
Thomas Gardner	Professor	tom.gardner@vt.edu
James Garrison	Professor	wesley@vt.edu
Ann Laberge	Associate Professor	alaberge@vt.edu
Amy Nelson	Associate Professor	anelson@vt.edu
Joseph C. Pitt	Professor	jcpitt@vt.edu
Anita Puckett	Associate Professor	apuckett@vt.edu
Richard Rich	Professor	rrich@vt.edu
Michael Saffle	Professor	msaffle@vt.edu
Bob Siegle	Professor	bob.siegle@vt.edu
Richard Shingles	Associate Professor	shingles@vt.edu
Barbara E. Smith	Professor	smithbe@vt.edu