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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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group of five faculty

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

Zhange Ni

Religion and Culture

  • Religion and literature
  • Critical theory and cultural criticism
  • Secularism and religion-making in East Asia
  • Transnational youth culture
  • Women and gender studies 

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

Affiliate Faculty

Name Department Research Area Available for Committee Service

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

No

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

Chris Brown

Computer Science

  • digital education
  • human-computer interaction
  • software engineering

Yes

Christopher Campo-Bowen

Performing Arts

  • Czech Music
  • Opera Studies
  • Music and Empire
  • Music and Race/Ethnicity
  • Music and Queerness

Yes

S. Moon Cassinelli

English

  • The Korean diaspora
  • Transnational adoption studies
  • Queer kinship

No

Gena E. Chandler

English

  • Black Studies
  • Black Feminist Theory
  • Literary Theory
  • African American Literature
  • American Literature
  • Postcolonial Literature and Theory

Yes

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

No

Nicholas Copeland

History

  • Political Imaginaries
  • Governance
  • Indigenous Politics
  • Guatemala and Latin America
  • Democracy
  • Social Theory

Yes

Mercedes Maria Corredor

Philosophy

 

No

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

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

No

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

No

Matthew R. Gabriele

Religion and Culture

  • Medieval Studies
  • Crusades
  • Apocalypse
  • Intellectual History
  • Christianity 

Yes

Carmen Gitre

History

  • Modern Egyptian History
  • Popular Culture
  • Theater and Performance

No

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

No

Liora O'Donnell Goldensher

Sociology

  • Reproduction
  • Expertise and Professions
  • Science, Technology, and Knowledge
  • Ethnography
  • Medicine and Health

Yes

Monamie Bhadra Haines

Science, Technology, and Society

  • Postcolonial Theory
  • Democratic Politics (broadly construed)
  • Science and Technology Policy
  • Critical International Development

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

No

Anthony K. Harrison

Sociology

  • Race
  • Popular Music Studies
  • Qualitative Research Methodologies
  • Racialized Social Spaces
  • Hip Hop Historiography
  • Higher Education Pedagogy

No

Jennifer Hart

History

  • Middle Eastern and African Theory
  • History and Philosophy of Engineering and Technology
  • Urban and Regional Planning

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

No

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

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 MFA in Applied Theatre 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

No

 

Natalia Mielczarek

Communication

  • Visual communication
  • Iconic images
  • Digital participatory culture & viral content
  • Internet memes
  • Editorial cartoons
  • Image appropriation

Yes

Rachel Midura

History

  • Digital History
  • History of Information/Communication
  • Early Modern Europe
  • Italy
  • Habsburg Empire

Yes

Michael Moehler

PPE

  • Ethics and Political Philosophy
  • Social Contract Theory
  • Public Reason Theory
  • Political Economy
  • Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

No

Marian Mollin

History

  • 20th-Century U.S. Social and Political History
  • Women and Gender in U.S. History
  • History of Social Movements
  • History of American Women Religious
  • Oral History

No

Wayne D. Moore

Political Science

  • Constitutional Law and Politics
  • Constitutional and Political Development
  • Political Theory
  • Judicial Politics
  • Comparative Constitutional Studies

No

Scott G. Nelson

Political Science

  • Global Governance
  • Political Economy
  • Contemporary Political Theory
  • International Relations Theory
  • International Law and Organizations

Yes

Su Fang Ng

English

 

No

Kim L. Niewolny

Community Education and Development

  • Action Research and Community-based Participatory Research
  • Participatory and Cultural Community Development
  • Critical Pedagogy for Social Justice
  • Ontological Politics
  • Praxis of Community Food Work
  • Appalachian Community Food Security
  • New Farmer Sustainability
  • Farmworkers, Technology, and Disability

Yes

Shaily Patel

Religion and Culture

  • Early Christianity
  • Ancient Mediterranean Religions
  • Ancient Magic
  • Graeco-Roman Religions
  • Christian Apocrypha

Yes

Lydia Patton

Philosophy

  • Philosophy of Science
  • History of Science
  • History of Philosophy of Science
  • Philosophy of Mathematics
  • Kant and Neo-Kantianism

Yes

Katrina M. Powell

English

 

No

Karl Precoda

Performing Arts

  • Cinema History
  • Critical Theory
  • The Culture Industry
  • Dramaturgy

Yes

Besnik Pula

Political Science

  • Global and Comparative Political Economy
  • Post-Communist Transformations
  • Social and Political Theory
  • Qualitative and multi-method research

No

Khadijah Queen

English

 

No

Ashley Reichelmann

Sociology

  • Memorialization
  • Racial Threat
  • Social Psychology (Modern Identity and Intergroup Relations)
  • Race and Ethnic Relations
  • Conflict and Violence (Collective Violence and Hate Crimes)
  • White Racial Identity

No

Patrick Roberts

SPIA

  • Disaster and Security Governance
  • Technology and Public Managerial Thinking and Decision-making
  • Homeland Security

Yes

Fernanda Rosa

Science, Technology, and Society

  • Global Communication
  • Internet Governance & Policy
  • Indigenous Design
  • Design Justice
  • Infrastructure Studies
  • Global South

No

Emily M. Satterwhite

Religion and Culture

  • Appalachian studies
  • Reception/audience studies
  • Horror studies
  • Politics of culture
  • Public scholarship

Yes

Paula Seniors

Religion and Culture

  • U.S. History
  • Ethnic and African American Studies
  • African American and Multi-Racial Radical Movements
  • African American and Multiracial Theater, Film, and Dance
  • Gender Studies

Yes

Brett Shadle

History

  • Kenya
  • Ethiopia
  • Race
  • Refugees
  • Colonialism

Yes

Ashley Shew

Science, Technology, and Society

  • Philosophy of Technology
  • Technological Knowledge
  • Disability and Technology
  • Non-Human Animal Tool Use
  • Ethics and the Body

Yes

Max Stephenson

Urban Affairs and Planning

  • Nonprofit/nongovernmental organizations, governance, leadership, management, and civil society
  • Peacebuilding, international development and democratization
  • Community change processes
  • Higher education: policy and practice
  • Humanitarian and refugee relief and disaster risk mitigation
  • Public policy and policy theory
  • Environmental politics, policy and planning

Yes

Yannis Stivachtis

Political Science

  • European Union’s strategy, Common Foreign & Security Policy (CFSP) and Common Security & Defense Policy (CSDP)
  • EU-great powers relations and world order
  • EU Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy (ENP)
  • European and transatlantic organizations
  • European security
  • The evolution of international society
  • The study of regional international system/society in Europe, Eurasia, and the Middle East

Yes

Jessica Taylor

History

  • Oral History
  • Early American History
  • Historic Preservation
  • Native American History

Yes

Tyechia Thompson

English

  • Africana Studies
  • Digital Humanities
  • Experiential Learning
  • Manuscripts and Archives
  • Rhetoric and Composition

No

Sharone L. Tomer

Architecture

  • Urbanism
  • Housing
  • Social Justice
  • Race and Gender
  • Climate Change

Yes

Kelly Trogdon

Philosophy

  • Metaphysics
  • Philosophy of Mind

No

Vinodh Venkatesh

Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures

  • Latin American Literature and Cinema
  • Spanish Literature and Cinema
  • Masculinity Studies
  • Urban Studies
  • Queer Theory

Yes

Andrew Wadoski

English

  • Spenser
  • Milton
  • Premodern poetics
  • History of moral philosophy
  • History of capitalism

No

Janell Watson

Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures

  • Nineteenth-Century French Literature
  • Collecting
  • Gilles Deleuze
  • Félix Guattari
  • Michel Serres

No

Fabian Wendt

Political Science

  • Property rights
  • Compromise
  • Distributive justice
  • Political authority
  • Legitimacy

No

Trevor Wilson

Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures

  • Russo-Soviet philosophy
  • Russian diaspora studies
  • Marxism
  • Critical theory
  • Contemporary Russian cinema

No

Philip Yaure

Philosophy

  • Social and Political Philosophy
  • Philosophy of Race
  • Early Modern Philosophy
  • Feminist Philosophy
  • Ethics

No

Laura Zanotti

Political Science

  • Critical Political Theory
  • International Ethics
  • International Organizations
  • UN Peacekeeping
  • NGOs

Yes

Bonnie Zare

Sociology

  • Women Writers in India
  • Dalit Literature
  • Issues of Women in India
  • Girls’ Empowerment
  • Son Preference/Daughter Devaluation

Yes

Anna Zeide

History

  • Food Studies
  • Environmental History 
  • Consumer & Business History
  • 20th-century United States
  • History of Agriculture

No

 


 

Emeritus

Name Position Office Phone 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