Academics
Gender Studies Faculty
Since Gender Studies is a multidisciplinary program, we have professors from several concentrations and interests that teach our courses.
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Carey Kaplan
Chair of Gender Studies program
Professor of English
B.A. Barnard College; M.A. University of Chicago; Ph.D. University of Massachusetts
Dr. Kaplan has published books on Doris Lessing and on canon formation (The Canon and the Common Reader). She is interested in collaborative composition, critical theory, feminist theory, queer studies and women’s writing. She is the driving force behind the establishment of the Gender Studies program and co-teaches a course in this program every spring. She also teaches Critical Theory, British Modernism, 18th Century Literature and Women’s Literature.
Campus Office
Saint Edmund's Hall 342
Phone: 802.654.2359
Box: 126
E-mail: ckaplan@smcvt.edu
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Kathleen M. Balutansky
Professor of English
B.A. Goshen College; M.A., Ph.D. University of Notre Dame
Dr. Balutansky specializes in Caribbean and post-colonial literature and theory, with a special focus on women writers. She is the author of The Novels of Alex La Guma: The Representation of a Political Conflict (1990). Her publications include scholarly articles on Caribbean writers, translations, interviews, a co-edited anthology of essays by Caribbean writers, Representing Caribbean Creolization: Reflections on the Cultural Dynamics of Language and Literature (1998), and Haiti: Writing under Siege (2004). She is currently Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the College.
Learn more about Dr. Balutansky in her faculty spotlight.
Campus Office
Klein Hall
Phone: 802.654.2640
Box 242
E-mail: kbalutansky@smcvt.edu
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George Dameron
Professor of History
Coordinator of Humanities Program
B.A. Duke University; M.A. Harvard University; Ph.D. Harvard University
View Dr. Dameron's Curriculum Vitae
Courses Taught: Europe in the Early Middle Ages, 600-1000; Europe in the High Middle Ages, 1000-1400; Topics in Medieval History: (topics vary and include "Women and Gender in the Middle Ages," "The Franciscans"); The Black Death; The Historian's Craft; Senior Seminar; Culture and Society in Medieval Italy; Ancient and Medieval Civilization; Renaissance and Reformation
Areas of Expertise: Medieval Florence (Italy) from antiquity to the Black Death; the Church in Medieval Florence (and Tuscany); the political economy of grain and food in the medieval Italian communes, 1000-1400; the political transformation of Italian cities in the second half of the thirteenth century
Recent Scholarly Achievements: Dr. Dameron's most recent published work is Florence and Its Church in the Age of Dante (Pennsylvania, 2005). Currently, he is writing the book, The Making of Medieval Florence. Once that project is complete, he intends to write a book on the political economy of grain in north Italian communes in the thirteenth century.
On Teaching and Research: Teaching both in the Department of History and Humanities Program, Dr. Dameron is an engaged scholar on medieval Italy. He brings to his classes and seminars a level of enthusiasm, a familiarity with other scholars, and a knowledge about the subject. His teaching has helped keep him aware of new developments in scholarship and has also helped him learn how to communicate new research effectively. He has also found himself learning from undergraduates, as they have often asked questions or made observations that have enriched his own understanding of history and his research area.
Outside of Saint Michael's: Dr. Dameron enjoys tennis, running, hiking, kayaking, keeping a 160-year-old Vermont Greek Revival house in good shape, and listening to music (all genres, from pop to opera).
Learn more about Dr. Dameron in his faculty spotlight.
Campus Office
Durick Library 306
Phone: 802.654.2318
Box 141
E-mail: gdameron@smcvt.edu
Personal Web site: http://academics.smcvt.edu/gdameron/
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Susan Kuntz
Professor of Psychology
-- On sabbatical for the Spring 2009 semester --
B.A. Albion College; M.A. University of Vermont; Ph.D. Syracuse University
View Dr. Kuntz's Curriculum Vitae
Courses Taught: Adolescent Development; Adult Development and Aging; Educational Psychology; History and Issues in Psychology
Areas of Expertise: Qualitative methodology, narrative research, educational research, and developmental aspects of aging. Dr. Kuntz's undergraduate degree is in Modern Languages-Spanish, and her master’s in education research. Her doctoral concentration was in teaching, curriculum and educational psychology.
Recent Scholarly Achievements: In 2008, Dr. Kuntz earned the Saint Michael's top teaching honor, the Joanne Rathgeb Teaching Award. Her recently published book The Story of Alpha: 25 years of Reculturing (University of North Carolina Press) describes what students want in a good teacher. Dr. Kuntz, together with colleague Dr. Carey Kaplan, professor of English, published the article "You can't be old before you're young" in Feminist Teacher (January 2008).
On Teaching and Research: Dr. Kuntz values the teacher-student interactions at Saint Michael's, and the chance to work with students in a research setting on a topic of interest. She also likes to work with community partners in designing educational and research opportunities for students in local settings.
Outside Saint Michael's: Dr. Kuntz enjoys yoga, meditation, swimming, and biking.
Learn more about Dr. Kuntz in her faculty spotlight.
Campus Office
Saint Edmund’s Hall 210
Phone: 802.654.2269
Box 244
E-mail: skuntz@smcvt.edu
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David Landers
Visiting Associate Professor of Psychology
B.A. Alma College; M.A. Michigan State University; Ph.D. Wayne State University
Courses Taught: Practicum; Sports Psychology; Theories of Counseling; Men & Masculinities
Areas of Expertise: Academic achievement and gender academic achievement of athletes; mentoring; advising men's issues
Recent Scholarly Achievements: Dr. Landers was featured on Vermont Public Radio discussing male education (April 2008). He presented a workshop on teens and mental health as part of the Ninth Annual Vermont School and Admissions Counselors Workshop organized by the Consortium of Vermont Colleges Professional Development Committee (January 2007).
On Teaching and Research: Dr. Landers says that research continually reinforces what he teaches- whether that is his research or the research of colleagues in the field. Prior to teaching in the psychology department at Saint Michael's, Dr. Landers served for 23 years as the director of the Student Resource Center and one of the personal counselors at the college. He currently is the advisor to both the Psychology Club and Psi Chi – the National Honor Society in Psychology.
Outside Saint Michael's: Dr. Landers enjoys kayaking, biking, skiing, snowshoeing, photography and growing roses.
Learn more about Dr. Landers in his faculty spotlight.
Campus Office
Saint Edmund’s Hall 217D
Phone: 802.654.2817
Box 157
E-Mail: dlanders@smcvt.edu
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Lorrie Smith
Professor of English and American Studies
B.A. University of Massachusetts-Boston; M.A., Ph.D. Brown University
View Dr. Smith's Curriculum Vitae
Courses Taught: American Literature I and II; African American Literature; The Middle Passage (Transatlantic Slave Trade in History, Memory, and Imagination); Genres: Poetry; Senior Seminar on various topics (latest: Literature and the Blues); First-Year Seminar on Race and Culture
Areas of Expertise: African American literature, especially poetry
Recent Scholarly Achievements: Dr. Smith is currently working on a book entitled Reports from Vernacular Valleys: Post-Sixties Black Poetry and the Public Sphere. She published a book chapter, "Hungry Ghosts and Restless Spirits: Lyric Voices of the Middle Passage" in Africa and Its Diaporas: History, Memory, and Literary Manifestations (Eritrea: African World Press, 2008).
On Teaching and Research: Dr. Smith's classes offer the opportunity to engage students in discussions of race, racism, African American literature and history. She has worked hard to develop strategies for safely approaching what can often be loaded material that challenges students' comfort zones. She often incorporates experiences that combine classroom study with activities in the community. This includes overnight field trips to Charlestown, Massachusetts with her First-Year Seminar course and a three-week service-learning program in Ghana with students from her Middle Passage class. Through these cross-cultural encounters, students have a chance to examine and enlarge their own perspectives. Dr. Smith is also a faculty member in Saint Michael's American Studies program.
Outside Saint Michael's: Dr. Smith enjoys yoga, meditation, dance, gardening and cross-country skiing. She participates in anti-racism efforts and anti-war activism.
Learn more about Dr. Smith in her faculty spotlight.
Campus Office
Saint Edmund's Hall 337
Phone: 802.654.2392
Box 167
E-mail: lsmith@smcvt.edu
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Peter Harrigan
Professor of Fine Arts: Theatre
B.A. Saint Michael’s College; M.F.A. University of Pittsburgh
Campus Office
McCarthy Arts Center 131
Phone: 802.654.2268
Box 184
E-mail: pharrigan@smcvt.edu
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Nathaniel Lewis
Professor of English
B.A. Yale University; M.A. University of North Carolina; Ph.D. Harvard University
Dr. Lewis has written on western American literature, literary aesthetics, and nature writing. He is the co-editor of True West: Authenticity and the American West and the author of Unsettling the Literary West, which won the Western Literature Association’s 2004 Thomas J. Lyon award for Best Critical Book in the field. He serves on the editorial board of the Postwestern Horizons series for the University of Nebraska Press and is a past member of the Western Literature Association’s Executive Council. He is currently at work on a collaborative book, tentatively titled Morta Las Vegas: CSI and the Problem of the West. Dr. Lewis teaches courses on literary theory, environmental writing, and multiethnic literatures.
Campus Office
Saint Edmund's Hall 335
Phone: 802.654.2308
Box 245
E-mail: nlewis@smcvt.edu
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Linda Hollingdale
Co-Director, Student Resource Center/Personal Counseling
Campus Office
Klein Hall 120
Phone: 802.654.2546
Box 264
E-mail: lhollingdale@smcvt.edu
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Adrie Kusserow
Department Chair
Professor of Anthropology
B.A. Amherst College (Phi Beta Kappa); M.T.S. Harvard Divinity School; Ph.D. Harvard University
Courses Taught: Social Inequalities; Culture, Illness and Healing; Refugees; Introduction to Anthropology
Areas of Expertise: Sudanese refugees, anthropology of the child; spread of Western Buddhism; Bhutan and Gross National Happiness; poverty; child soldiers; ethnographic poetry and fiction; New Sudan Education Initiative
Recent Scholarly Achievements: In November 2008, Dr. Kusserow gave a paper on Western Education, Buddhism and Television at the 4th International Conference on Gross National Happiness in Paro, Bhutan. In May 2007, Dr. Kusserow and Robert Lair, a religious studies instructor at Saint Michael's, were awarded a $200,000 research grant from the World Bank's Development Marketplace. The grant funded their work in establishing The New Sudan School of Health Sciences in Sudan, Africa.
On Teaching and Research: Dr. Kusserow says that her research interests guide what she teaches since she likes to teach what is fresh and interesting for her at the moment. Teaching makes her digest the concepts she is exploring even further, and Dr. Kusserow finds that research and teaching work together in a nice dialectic. She also uses her own ethnographic poetry in her classes to deepen student understanding of certain anthropological concepts.
Outside of Saint Michael's: Dr. Kusserow enjoys working with refugees, teaching and writing/reading ethnographic poetry.
Learn more about Dr. Kusserow in her faculty spotlight.
Campus Office Saint Edmund's Hall 237
Phone: 802.654.2267
Box 358
E-mail: akusserow@smcvt.edu
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Susan Ouellette
Department Chair
Professor of History
B.A. SUNY Plattsburgh; M.A., Ph.D. University of Massachusetts, Amherst
View Dr. Ouellette's Curriculum Vitae
Courses Taught: United States History to 1865; Women in American Society; Native Peoples of North America; American Society and Culture to 1865; The Age of American Revolution, 1763-1815; History of the American Family; The Roots of American Society, 1607-1763; Topics in Women's History; History of Gender
Areas of Expertise: Early America, including the first settlement up to the American Revolution period; Native Americans; Immigration history, especially the experience of Francophones in the Northeast; Textiles history; Women’s history; diaries and memoirs.
Recent Scholarly Achievements: Dr. Ouellette's most recent published book is US Textile Production in Historical Perspective: A Case Study from Massachusetts (Rutledge Press, 2007). She is currently working on a biography of an early Vermont woman, Phebe Orvis, based on Orvis’ own journal; two journal articles on Orvis are already in press (Dublin Seminar Proceedings and Journal of Vermont History). She has also contributed a chapter on the political economy of textile work in early Massachusetts to an upcoming work by Barry Levy, Town Born (UPenn Press, forthcoming). In March 2007 she was a guest on Vermont Public Radio's Switchboard program, discussing her role in the Vermont Women's History Project.
On Teaching and Research: Dr. Ouellette's research enhances her teaching. She often uses materials she has collected in her research directly in the classroom. She also uses her writing projects to model the process of research and writing for students.
Outside of Saint Michael's: Dr. Ouellette serves as an expert panel member on the Vermont Women's History project. She has also been a board member of the Mount Independence Historic Site and the Lake Champlain Quadricentennial Committee. At home, she enjoys kayaking, country walks with her Jack Russell terrier, Chloe, and gardening.
Learn more about Dr. Ouellette in her faculty spotlight.
Campus Office Durick Library 304
Phone: 802.654.2249
Box 136
E-mail: souellette@smcvt.edu
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Kerry Shea
Associate Professor of English
B.A., M.A. Middlebury College; M.A., Ph.D. Cornell University
Dr. Shea has published on women and film as well as Middle High German and Old Norse literature and is working on a book, Engendering Romance: Women and European Medieval Romance. She teaches courses in film, early British Literature, mystery fiction, utopian fiction and women’s literature.
Campus Office
Saint Edmund's Hall 339
Phone: 802.654.2287
Box 392
E-mail: kshea@smcvt.edu
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Amy Werbel
Professor of Fine Arts: Art
B.A. Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges; Ph.D. Yale University
Campus Office
Sloane Art Center 214A
Phone: 802.654.2271
Box 391
E-mail: awerbel@smcvt.edu
Personal Web site: http://academics.smcvt.edu/awerbel/
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Patricia L. Delaney
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies
B.S. Georgetown University; M.A., Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles
View Dr. Delaney's Curriculum Vitae
Courses Taught: Introductory Anthropology; Anthropological Perspectives on Gender; People and Cultures of the Lusuphone World; Life Histories; Gender and International Development; Participatory Action Research
Areas of Expertise: Gender and international development; war, conflict, and the contestation of cultural identity; relief to development continuum; poverty and stratification in the global south; grassroots development and participatory approaches; East Timor; Lusophone Africa
Recent Scholarly Achievements: Dr. Delaney received a Fulbright Scholarship for teaching and research at the National University of East Timor (2006). She was also a research consultant for the Social Action Fund of Angola, for which she designed a participatory monitoring and evaluation system. Her consultancy work included applied anthropology research in Angola for two weeks; design and implementation of a training workshop with Angolan staff and local community partners; and completion of a final report for The World Bank (August 2006).
On Teaching and Research: As an applied anthropologist, Dr. Delaney always brings examples of her recent research into her classes. Recently, she has been able to talk about her applied work around gender-based violence in Darfur and a small project on gender and agriculture in El Salvador. The results of her research (and the accompanying slides) make for interesting case studies in class. Whenever she is in the field, she is always thinking about the ways in which her experiences can later be used in the classroom.
Outside of Saint Michael's: Dr. Delaney enjoys biking (including a 20-mile-plus commute to campus in the fall semester), cross-country skiing, and eating her husband's pastries (he's a chef).
Campus Office
Saint Edmund's Hall 246
Phone: 802.654.2961
Box 386
E-mail: pdelaney@smcvt.edu
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Paul Olsen
Instructor of Business Administration and Accounting
B.A. University of Vermont; M.S.A. Saint Michael's College; Ed.D. University of Vermont
Dr. Olsen joined the graduate program in administration in 1994 and is currently the associate director. He teaches Foundations of Business Administration, Experiential Portfolio, and Managerial Leadership in the undergraduate program, and Human Resource Management, Effective Written Communication and Thesis Seminar in the graduate program. Dr. Olsen was previously employed as Employee Benefits Manager and Assistant Director of Human Resources at the College.
Campus Office
Jeanmarie Hall 169C
Phone: 802.654.2661
Box 38
E-mail: polsen@smcvt.edu