Merle Bachman, Ph.D.Associate Professor, English Dr. Merle Bachman believes strongly in the vitality of liberal studies as a way to engage the creative, as well as critical, intellect, and prepare students for life-long learning, as well as a world of fascinating work. Her teaching interests encompass creative writing, poetry as literature, cultural and gender studies, and film. As Director of the Spalding BFA in Creative Writing, Dr. Bachman oversees a studio program that encompasses the study of varied writing genres and involves Writers in Residence who have significant publications and national reputations. She is, however, particularly passionate about poetry and believes in its power to transform the way people think and see the world. A working poet, she regularly gives poetry readings and has had more than 40 poems published in over 20 literary journals as well as two books of poetry (the most recent being “Diorama with Fleeing Figures,” Shearsman Books, 2009). Her book of research into American Yiddish literature and translations from Yiddish poetry, entitled “Recovering ‘Yiddishland’: Threshold Moments in American Literature,” was published by Syracuse University Press in 2008. |
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Patricia Dillon, Ph.D.Chair, Assistant Professor, History Dr. Pattie Dillon completed her B.S. in Sociology at the University of Florida, her M.A. in history at the University of Central Florida, and her Ph.D. in History at Mississippi State University (Starkville). Her research interest focuses on the connections between race, gender, and religion during the Civil War and Reconstruction era. Dr. Dillon teaches courses on Civil War and Reconstruction, African-American History, Gender History, World History, and U.S. History Since 1945. Within these courses, students use primary sources to explore the dramatic events, exciting personalities, and complex underlying forces that create historical narratives. Students are also encouraged to become their own historians by collecting and presenting oral interviews. Outside of the classroom, Dr. Dillon’s life revolves around her four dogs, three cats, two kids, one husband, and Gator football. |
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Lynnell Edwards, Ph.D.Dr. Lynnell Edwards teaches writing courses at Spalding and enjoys working with students just beginning their academic careers in order to help them be successful in their college writing projects. She completed her doctoral studies at the University of Louisville in Rhetoric and Composition and took a position with Concordia University in Portland, Oregon for ten years where she taught writing, literature and directed the Writing Center before returning to Louisville. She is also the author of two collections of poetry, The Famer’s Daughter (2003) and The Highwayman’s Wife(2007) both from Red Hen Press of Los Angeles. Her short fiction and book reviews have been published in literary journals such as New Madrid, Connecticut Review, Cincinnati Review, Pleiades, and others. She writes a monthly books column for Louisville Magazineand helps host and produce the InKY literary reading series in Louisville. |
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Youn-Kyung Kim, Ph.D.Associate Professor, English Dr. Youn-Kyung Kim has been developing new courses in Linguistics for Spalding students, researching in the discipline, making peer-reviewed presentations at international conferences, and developing curriculums (TESL Endorsement and TESL Certificate). From a perspective of frame analysis (a method of discourse analysis), her research focuses on how students’ and writing tutors’ questions and turn-taking patterns can contextually cue their conflicting individual expectations of the intended interaction writing tutorial talk. Based on the research, she presented two papers at international conferences (peer-reviewed presentations): the paper, titledWriting Center Tutor as Hybrid Authority: An Analysis of Questions, was presented at the 14th World Congress of Applied Linguistics (Le 14e Congres Mondial de Linguistique Applique), an international conference held by AILA (L’Association Internationale de Linguistique Applique), in 2005, and another paper, titled Collaborative Frame University Writing Center Tutorials and NNS Students’ Amount of Talk, was presented at International Writing Center Association (IWCA) conference, Savannah, Georgia, in 2002. Her research goal is to expand the research to analyze NS (native speaker of English)-NNS (nonnative speaker of English) interactions in other speech situations and also to focus on pragmatics in these interactions. The concepts of cultural expectations and intercultural pragmatics would be the major areas to be researched. |
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Christopher Kolb, Ph.D.Assistant Professor of Anthropology An urban anthropologist, Christopher Kolb conducts fieldwork with long-time users of crack-cocaine, the homeless, and the formerly incarcerated, primarily in a highly-segregated African American neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Prof. Kolb argues that the residents of such neighborhoods are systematically exposed to a “cultural violence” that often causes people to perceive their status as “living” or “alive” as radically in question rather than a self-evident certainty. Central to this cultural violence is institutional racism, which Prof. Kolb seeks to understand as a form of “primitivist” mythology that possesses the continuing ability to affect policy, structure perception, and create meaning in people’s lives, though frequently without their knowledge or desire. Because Prof. Kolb attempts to convey the experience of cultural violence that results from these forces, his ethnographic writing often seeks the limits of conventional scholarly discourse in a desire to fulfill the liberating potential of anthropology in which, in his own way, he fervently believes. In addition to W. E. B. Du Bois, the most important influences for Prof. Kolb include German Idealist philosophy, Judeo-Christian theology, psychoanalytic theory, and many literary figures, including Flannery O’Connor, Thomas Merton, Russell Banks, Mark Twain, and, of late, Roberto Bolaño. Prof. Kolb is also working to create opportunities for members of the Spalding community, especially students, to engage in projects that promote peace and social justice by combining community service, first-hand research, and rigorous intellectual inquiry in Louisville and, one day, in Latin America. |
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Kathleen Nesbitt, Ph.D.Professor, English Kathleen Nesbitt earned her Ph.D. in literary theory and late 19th/early 20th century English literature from Michigan Sate University. She teaches courses in modern world literature and composition. Her travels to Central America, Europe, the Middle East and particularly East Asia have led to the development of courses in magic realism, Irish drama, Palestinian and Israeli fiction, and Chinese film. She finds students are eager to learn about cultures through literary studies, an interdisciplinary discipline, and encourages participation in study abroad opportunities. Her current research interest is in Chinese language and literature. Dr. Nesbitt also teaches expository writing courses. Small, process-centered classes make it possible for each student to make significant progress over the course of a term. Individualized instruction, supported by tutorials through the University Writer Center, creates a dynamic learning environment in composition courses. |
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Joyce Ogden, MFAProfessor, Art Joyce Ogden earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in fibers and sculpture at Indiana University (Bloomington) in 1990. She has been teaching studio art at Spalding since 1993. Her teaching bridges interests in studio production and community-based art making. In the traditional studio classes (three-dimensional design, sculpture, hand built ceramics) students practice the formal principles of form and design, explore the individual creative process and nurture the development of ideas. Students are also encouraged to make connections between art making, their daily lives, and other academic disciplines. Community and collaboration as well as real-life experience in art making are the core of the public art class in which students engage in projects in and with the community. Past projects include a sculptural playground for the visually impaired, the revitalization of an inner-city park, a clay mural for a day care facility for adults with disabilities and mosaics in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. Professor Ogden is a practicing sculptor who works in her own studio generating large-scale sculptures that explore time and process. She exhibits her work in Louisville and throughout the region and is a founding member of ENID: Generations of Women Sculptors, a local organization of professional sculptors. She is the recipient of grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the Kentucky Arts Council. Professor Ogden also directs Spalding’s Huff Gallery, which hosts eight exhibitions per year that bring a diverse range of contemporary art work to Spalding’s campus and the Louisville community. |
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Dorina ParmenterAssistant Professor, Religious Studies Whether studying religion or making art, Dorina Miller Parmenter is interested in the ways that humans creatively respond to a complex world. Her concentration is on homo faber and the role that manufactured material objects play in establishing and maintaining worldviews. Through this investigation, she has realized and hopes to pass along the responsibility that humans have to reflect upon and reform the world in which they find themselves. Dori studied art and religion at a small, Midwestern, liberal arts college and went on to earn a M.A. in Studio Arts from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Her thesis project in bookbinding and metalsmithing that involved research into Medieval Christian art and history led her back to a study of religion. In graduate studies in religion at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, her interdisciplinary interests coalesced around early Christian history in general, and religious uses of books in particular. Her dissertation is on “The Iconic Book: The Image of the Christian Bible in Myth and Ritual,” and emphasizes the Christian Bible as a material object rather than a text to be read. Since joining the School of Liberal Studies faculty at Spalding University in 2008, Dori has taught classes in The Old Testament, The Synoptic Gospels, and The Christian Tradition. She will soon be teaching Religions and Storytelling and has designed a new Introduction to Religion course and other courses for Spalding students who will travel to Ireland in the spring of 2010. While most of Dori’s research and teaching lies within Christian history, she is also involved in the Iconic Books Project, a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaboration with scholars of many different religious traditions who focus on the ritual uses of religious scripture. |
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John Wilcox, Ph. D.Professor, Philosophy John Wilcox has been teaching philosophy at Spalding since 1987. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1986 from the University of Notre Dame. Since 1993, he has taught philosophy during the summers at the Centre College campus of the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program. In the spring of 1997 he returned to Notre Dame for a semester as a Fellow in the Center for the Philosophy of Religion. His philosophical interests are in the History of Western Philosophy and the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. From an interdisciplinary perspective, he is especially interested in the connection between theology and philosophy, and the relation between faith and reason. He also enjoys watching classic movies and studying ancient languages, including Hebrew, Greek and Latin. He presently serves as Chair of the School of Liberal Studies. For the past two seasons, he has helped to keep the statistics at all Spalding home basketball games. His primary teaching interests are in ethics, logic, and the philosophy of the person. In ethics he tries to help students to search for the foundation of right and wrong by asking such questions as: How do we know that our moral judgments are not just unfounded prejudices? and How can people with different moral beliefs grow together in their understanding and respect for one another? In logic he helps students to develop their abilities to think clearly and consistently. And in philosophy of the person, he asks what does it mean to be a person, or what is the ultimate meaning of human life? He also enjoys teaching advanced philosophy courses that develop the students’ abilities to read, understand, discuss, critique, and write about difficult philosophical texts. |
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| STAFF |
Helen NelsonAdministrative Assistant Helen B. Nelson, Administrative Assistant, in the School of Liberal Studies, completed her BA in Liberal Studies from Spalding in 2002. While a student, she traveled with Spalding to Ireland, and to New York for a theater class. Helen has worked for Spalding since October 1996. Before that, she worked at Jefferson Community College in Academic Affairs and as a sales associate for Bacon’s. Helen retired from Bell South as an Assistant Manager in the Network Department. Both of Helen’s daughters are graduates of Spalding. Besides her daughters, she has a granddaughter and a grandson. Helen enjoys walking for exercise, traveling, watching UK basketball and other sports, and spending time with family and friends. |