International Studies Faculty & Staff

A native of Vienna, Austria, Sarah Painitz has taught at Wabash College and Butler University since completing her Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Virginia. Her primary teaching and research interests are twentieth-century Austrian literature and culture, modernism, translation, exile, gender, and the Holocaust. She has published essays on Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Veza Canetti, Mela Hartwig, Marta Karlweis, Robert Neumann, Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachmann, and Ruth Klüger. As the recipient of a fellowship from the Austrian Exchange Service in 2017/18, she conducted archival research at the Austrian National Library and the University of Vienna. Her most recent projects examine the continuous engagement with trauma through the writing, translating, and rewriting of texts.

At Butler, Sarah runs the German program, advises the German Klub, and teaches in all areas of German-language literature and culture, including film, children’s literature, fairy tales, and contemporary culture, media, and politics. 

Biography
Professor Bauman grew up in eastern Pennsylvania before going to Goshen College, in Northern Indiana, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree. After college, Professor Bauman went to Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS) and earned both an M.Div. and Ph.D. degree, while teaching courses on Buddhism and Islam at PTS, Princeton University, and The College of New Jersey.

Contributions
Professor Bauman’s earliest research focused on the interaction of low-caste Christians and Hindus in colonial Chhattisgarh. His book on the topic, Christian Identity and Dalit Religion in Hindu India, 1868-1947 (Eerdmans Publishers, 2008) won the prize for Best Book in Hindu-Christian Studies, 2006-2008, from the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. During this time period, Professor Bauman also conducted research on Sathya Sai Baba, a popular, miracle-working Indian guru with an international following that extends even to the city of Indianapolis. 

From 2008 to 2019, Professor Bauman conducted research on Hindu-Christian conflict. His most recent book, published by Cornell University Press, is Anti-Christian Violence in India, and earlier he published a book on the same topic with specific reference to Pentecostals and the public controversies surrounding conversion (called Pentecostals, Proselytization, and anti-Christian Violence in Contemporary India). Both this book and a volume he co-edited with Richard Fox Young (Constructing Indian Christianities) were named as prize finalists for the Best Book in Hindu-Christian Studies (History/Ethnography), 2013-17, by the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. 

In 2020, he co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Hindu-Christian Relations with Michelle Voss Roberts, and in 2024, he co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Megachurches with Afe Adogame, Damaris Parsitau, and Jeaney Yip.

His future projects will likely focus on religion and the law in Asia, and on the experiences and treatment of Hindu minorities in predominantly Christian countries.

Butler Teaching Assignment 

Professor Bauman teaches introductory surveys of the world’s religions as well as upper-level courses on Hinduism and Buddhism. He has recently taught topical courses such as “Religion, ‘Cults,’ and (In)Tolerance in America,” “Religion, Politics and Conflict in South Asia,” “Religion, Gender, and the Goddess in Asia,” “Race and Religion in America,” and “Theory and Method in the Study of Religion.” 

Dr. Terri Carney

Professor of Spanish
Modern Languages, Literatures & Cultures
Butler University, JH391A (940-8438)

tcarney@butler.edu

https://works.bepress.com/terri_carney/about/

I am Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Butler University. Before coming to Butler, I earned a dual-title Ph.D. from Purdue University in sociology and gerontology. I then spent at year at the University of Missouri as a postdoctoral scholar in the Research Center for Human Animal Interactions. 

My research interests include the roles of women and mothers, health and body weight issues, and social psychology. I teach a variety of courses including;  families, international crime, gender, race, and crime, health and society, aging and the life course, and gender and society.

My research is currently funded by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). This research examines mothers’ perspectives of the benefits of interscholastic activities of their high school students. This is a 10 year longitudinal study that begin in the fall of 2019. I also host the podcast, MOMent with Mom, with members of the NFHS. 

I teach modern European history, including "The Enlightenment and Romanticism," "Modern Germany," "Back in the USSR,"and "20th-Century Europe  I also offer courses  in Butler’s core program Global and Historical Studies, including Africa, the Caribbean, and Modern Middle East.  Recent specialty topics include "History and Fiction," "The History of Children and Youth," and "Walls."

My research interests include the history and culture of Japan, the anthropology of sport, the anthropology of science, gender studies, feminist theory, historical anthropology, mass/popular culture, theories of embodiment, urban anthropology, and visual culture. Most of my fieldwork has focused on cultures of sport in Japan and while I study and teach about all kinds of sport, football (soccer) is my ultimate passion. I continue to work on my primary project about soccer, corporate sport, the recession of the 1990s, and national identity in Japan, but have also written recently about the new professional women’s soccer league in Japan and the history of women’s professional soccer/football globally; I’m also interested in issues related to trans* athletes in Japan and the U.S.

Melissa Etzler received her Ph.D. in German with a Designated Emphasis in Film from the University of California, Berkeley in 2014 and her M.A. in German from California State University, Long Beach. Her dissertation, Writing from the Periphery: W. G. Sebald and Outsider Art, explores intersections of pathology, marginalization, creative production and politics. While her areas of specialization include contemporary German Film and visual culture as well as crime and psychology in 18th – 21st century literature; Melissa is equally passionate about foreign language pedagogy. In addition to her courses in German language and culture, Melissa also teaches in the Core Curriculum (FYS) on Breaking Bad, focusing on crime, madness and surveillance in German and American texts and Stranger Things, which analyzes the Weird Fiction genre and 1980s culture.

Awards:

2018-2019 Outstanding Professor of the Year Award for Teaching

2018 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Outstanding Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching

2018 AATG Indiana Post-Secondary Teacher of the Year

Publications:

Edited Volume

With Gabriele Maier. Outreach Strategies and Innovative Teaching Approaches for German Programs, Routledge, 2021.

With Priscilla Layne. Rebellion and Revolution: Defiance in German Language, History and Art, Cambridge Scholars, 2010.

Refereed Article

“Pernicious Plants: Imitation and Uncanny Ecocritical Thought in Gustav Meyrink’s ‘Die Pflanzen des Dr. Cinderella.’” German Quarterly, vol. 90, no. 4, Fall 2017, pp. 459-475.

Book Chapters

“Zombies in the Age of Digital Reproduction – Marvin Kren’s Rammbock: Berlin Undead,” edited by Carrie Collenberg-Gonzalez and Martin Sheehan, Berghahn Books (forthcoming)

“‘Mothered by the Arid Sand’: Hanns Heinz Ewers’ Alraune with an Ecofeminist Twist.” Ecofeminist Science Fiction:International Perspectives on Gender, Ecology, and Literature, edited by D.A. Vakoch, Routledge, 2021.

With Michelle Stigter-Hayden. “Branching Out with STEM inthe German Classroom.” Outreach Strategies and Innovative Teaching Approaches for German Programs, ed. by Melissa Etzler and Gabriele Maier, Routledge, 2021, pp. 172-88. 

“Peripheral Writing: Psychosis and Prose from Ernst Herbeck to W. G. Sebald.” Literature and Psychology: Writing, Trauma and the Self, edited by Önder Çakırtaş, Cambridge Scholars, 2019, pp. 18-48.

“So ein langes Leben. Rebellious Writing and Philosophical Meanderings in Sebald’s Juvenilia.” Über W. G. Sebald. Beiträge zu einem anderen Bild des Autors [On W. G. Sebald: The Author from a Different Point of View], edited by Uwe Schütte, de Gruyter, 2016, pp. 29-50.

Margaretha Geertsema-Sligh is a Professor of Journalism and Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Communication.  Her textbook, “Journalism and Gender: Global Perspectives ,” with Routledge is set to be published on July 28, 2025. 

She held the Richard M. Fairbanks endowed chair from 2018 to 2024 and served as Interim Dean from April 2021 to December 2022. Before her appointment as Interim Dean, Dr. Geertsema-Sligh served as Director of the Eugene S. Pulliam School of Journalism and Creative Media for five years. She joined Butler University in 2005 and has taught classes in news writing, gender and news, and global media. 

Dr. Geertsema-Sligh holds a doctorate in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, a master’s degree in Communication from Washington State University, and a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from North-West University in South Africa. She is a past chair of the International Communication Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and a past co-chair of the Gender and Communication section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research. Her research has been published in several leading academic journals. See www.margarethageertsemasligh.com  for more information. 

Dr. Marleen McCormick Pritchard is an Associate Professor of International Business and Strategy in the Lacy School of Business. She holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration (International Business) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. McCormick Pritchard’s primary teaching areas are International Business, Strategy Capstone, and International Strategy. Her main areas of research are on international entrepreneurship, international strategy in emerging markets, and international business education. Her research has been published in Global Strategy Journal, Small Business Economics, European Business Review, Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, and Journal of International Business Education. 

Dr. McCormick Pritchard is the Outreach Editor of the ie-scholars.net online academic community.

Siobhán McEvoy-Levy is Professor of Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies and Director of The Desmond Tutu Peace Lab at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Her current research focuses on ‘everyday’ sites of international relations, youth and peacebuilding, and critical studies of political violence and peace (formation). She the author of Peace and Resistance in Youth Cultures: Reading the Politics of Peacebuilding from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (Palgrave, 2018), American Exceptionalism and US Foreign Policy (Palgrave, 2001); the editor of Troublemakers or Peacemakers? Youth and Post-Accord Peacebuilding (University of Notre Dame, 2006); and a co-author of Peacebuilding after Peace Accords (University of Notre Dame, 2007). She has also published articles on youth and conflict, and on pop culture, reconciliation and peacebuilding. McEvoy-Levy holds a B.A. Hons degree (Politics and English) from Queen’s University, Belfast, and M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in International Relations from the University of Cambridge.

At Butler she has taught:

• Introductionto Peace Studies (PO 102)
• Introduction to Politics (PO 101)
• Activism (PO 230)
• International Relations (PO 320)
• International Conflict and Peacebuilding (PO 322)
• Gender and Generation in War and Peace (SW 240 PO 01)
• Change and Tradition (ID 202)
• Politics of Youth and Conflict (PO 357)
• Art and Politics (PO 380)
• Understandingthe Israel-Palestine Conflict (PO 380)
• Northern Ireland Between War and Peace (PO 380)
• U.S.Foreign Policy (PO 355)
• Ethics of Peacebuilding (PO 380)
• The Politics of Harry Potter and the Hunger Games (PO 490)
• Belfast and (London) Derry Field Seminar on Gender and Generation in ‘Post-Conflict’Northern Ireland, Global Adventures in the Liberal Arts (GALA).
• She supervises undergraduate honors theses, independent studies, student apprenticeship and peace lab internships.

 I am Gabriela Muniz, an Associate Professor at Butler University specializing in Latin American Culture and Literature. My academic journey began in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I immersed myself in art and literature at a young age, starting at the National Art School. There, I discovered the power of creativity and communication as tools for personal growth. I earned my master’s degree at Texas A&M and a Ph.D. in Latin American literature from the University of California, Davis. My diverse research interests include Literature, Art, Media Studies, Visual Studies, Documentary Films, and Ecocriticism. Some of my recent works include “Renovar el lenguaje artístico para narrar la polarización en Argentina” (2024) and “Resiliencia y desecho: dos siglos de la basura como artefacto estético en Argentina y Brasil” (2022). As an immigrant in the United States, I was fortunate to overcome numerous linguistic and cultural challenges, which strengthened my teaching practice. 

I joined Butler University in 2006, which has since become my home. My pedagogical focus on technology and communication is driven by a desire to guide and inspire students. Alongside Megan Grady, I co-authored “Expanding Intercultural Education through the Documentary Gaze: A Powerful Tool for Technology and Learning” (2023), reflecting my commitment to education. Education: – Ph.D. in Spanish Literature, University of California, Davis – M.A. in Spanish, Texas A&M University, Kingsville – Profesor en Letras, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Neuquén, Argentina – Profesor Nacional de Pintura, Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Courses I Teach at Butler University: – SP 203-204 Intermediate Spanish – SP 305 Oral communication – SP 330 Latin American Icons (Visual Culture and Identity) – SP 330 Avant-gardes and Experimentation (Art and Poetry) – SP 355 Spanish American Culture: South America – SP 365 Hispanic Short Stories – SP 370 Introduction to Transatlantic Studies – SP 450 Detective Film and Literature in Latin America – SP 460 Crime and Mystery in Latin America Literature – SP 490 Latin American Cities -SP 490 Latin American Documentary Film.

Courses Abroad: – SP 490 Artistic Connections Between Spain and Latin America – SP 490 Travel Writing – PCA 264 Nature, Art, and Craft in Peru – 

Dr. Nebiolo is a historian of the early Atlantic world. She studies the history of health and medicine, spatial history, and early modern urban history. In 2023, she received her PhD in world history from Northeastern University. Her work also encompasses the digital humanities, with a focus on maps, modeling, and pedagogy. Here at Butler, Dr. N teaches courses on the early colonial period, the history of medicine, and digital humanities.

Her current project, Constructing Health: Concepts of Well-Being in an Urbanizing Atlantic World, has been supported by the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, the American Philosophical Society, the South Caroliniana Library, Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections, the Huntington Library and Corpus Christi College at Oxford, the John Carter Brown Library, the American Historical Association, and the Francis Wood Institute at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

In August 2024, Dr. N published a chapter on visualizing cities in the Age of Revolutions found in the volume, American Revolutions in the Digital Age (Cornell University Press). 

—

Dr. N is always excited to be on conference panels, participate in writing opportunities, and network with other scholars. Please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Dr. Katherine (Kate) Novak is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology where she teaches courses in criminology, mental illness, social psychology, research methods and statistics. She holds a B.A  in sociology and in psychology, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology, with a concentration in criminology, and a Ph.D. minor in Criminal Justice from Indiana University-Bloomington. 

Much of Dr. Novak’s current research focuses on adolescent and college student substance use and delinquency and has been published in academic journals such as Crime & Delinquency, Addictive Behaviors, Journal of Criminal Justice, Sociological Inquiry, Journal of Social Psychology, The Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse, The Journal of Family Issues, The Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education, and The Journal of Primary Prevention. She is the co-author of two textbooks- Individual and Society:  Sociological Social Psychology (with Lizabeth A. Crawford) and Applied Communication Research (with Judith M. Buddenbaum).  Additionally, Dr. Novak has collaborated with other faculty on research projects focusing on homelessness in Indianapolis, perceptions of crime and safety in the local community, immigrants’ perceptions of prejudice and discrimination, faculty work-load satisfaction, and student learning in a topically-focused introductory sociology course. She has published several class assignments and activities in TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology and serves on the advisory board for the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Dr. Novak regularly mentors students, supervising internships and directed research projects, and serving as the faculty advisor for department and university honors theses. Her students have presented their research at college and sociology conferences and to organizational leaders and administrators and have published papers in peer-reviewed research journals. 

Dr. Novak has received many internal grants for both research and teaching, and she has won a number of university awards.  She received the Liberal Arts and Sciences Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence in 2016 and the Liberal Arts and Sciences Outstanding Faculty Award in 2010 and 2003.

Recent Publications:

Crawford, Lizabeth A. and Novak, Katherine B.  2013.  Individual and Society: Sociological Social Psychology. Routledge/Taylor& Francis. [2nd edition released March 2018]  https://www.routledge.com/Individual-and-Society-Sociological-Social-Psychology-2nd-Edition/Crawford-Novak/p/book/9781138284692

Crawford, Lizabeth A. and Novak, Katherine B. 2023. “Beliefs About Alcohol and the College Experience as Determinants of Academic and Social Outcomes Among Undergraduate Students.”  College Student Journal 56(4):371-381.

Kowalski, Jennifer R., Lineweaver, Tara L., and Novak, Katherine B.  2021.  “DevelopingIntegrative Thinking in Undergraduate Students through an Interdisciplinary General Education Course on Mental Illness.”  College Teaching.  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/87567555.2021.1982856\

Crawford, Lizabeth A. and Novak, Katherine, B.  2020.  “College Student Activities, Social Capital, and Drinking Behavior.”  Journal of Alcohol and Drug Eductation 64(1):9-32.

Crawford, Lizabeth A, Novak, Katherine B, and Rasitha R.Jayasekare.  2019. “Volunteerism, Alcohol Beliefs, and First-Year College Students’ Drinking Behaviors: Implications for Prevention.”  The Journal of Primary Prevention. Advanced On-line Publication.  https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s10935-019-00558-z?author_access_token=VsSE7FJJx4odI99TFRd2z_e4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY5U0p0vLjEfjXTWGPJg3fnUs7hDFpqWDQBu-3S9HNrZBdSXHQeiJNHtTScfiJScXxZnrFgi8YqhWDnMn4l9SXYNcCZl9aE9GpZQl-UpIAGxcA%3D%3D

Crawford, Lizabeth A. and Novak, Katherine B.  2018. “Being with Friends and the Potential for Binge Drinking During the First College Semester.”  Journal of the First-Year Experience & Students in Transition 30(2):79-96.

Crawford, Lizabeth A., Novak, Katherine B., and Foston, Amia K. 2016 (online)/ 2018 (print).“Routine Activities and Delinquency: The Significance of Bonds to Society and Peer Context.”  Crime & Delinquency 64(4):472-509.

Howard, Jay R., Novak, Katherine B., Scott, Marvin B. and Cline, Krista M.C.  2014. “Another Nibble at the Core: Student Learning in a Topically-Focused Introductory Sociology Course.”  Teaching Sociology 42(3):177-186.

Crawford, Lizabeth A. and Novak, Katherine B.  2013. “The Effects of Public Self-Consciousness and Embarrassability on College Student Drinking: Evidence in Support of a Protective Self-Presentational Model.”  The Journal of Social Psychology 153(1):109-122.

Crawford, Lizabeth A. and Novak, Katherine B.  2011.  “Beliefs about Alcohol and the College Experience, Locus of Self, and College Undergraduates’ Drinking Patterns.”  Sociological Inquiry 81(4):477-494.

Crawford, Lizabeth A., and Novak, Katherine B.  2010. “Beliefs about Alcohol and the College Experience as Moderators of the Effects of Perceived Campus Drinking Norms on Levels of Alcohol Use among College Undergraduates. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education. 54(3):69-96.

Novak, Katherine B.and Crawford, L. A.  2010.  “Routine Activities as Determinants of Gender Differences in Delinquency. Journal of Criminal Justice 38(5):913-920.

Menendez-Alarcon, Antonio V. and Novak, Katherine B.  2010. “Latin American Immigrants in Indianapolis: Perceptions of Prejudice and Discrimination.”  Latino Studies. 8:93-120.

Director of Academic Affairs for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Faculty Director of Butler in Asia Program, Center for Global Education 

Su-Mei Ooi joined the Department of Political Science and Peace & Conflict Studies program in 2010  as  Assistant  Professor, shortly before earning a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto with a joint specialty in international relations and comparative politics. 

Prior to settling down in Indianapolis, Ooi studied and worked in many different parts of Asia, Europe, and North America. Her lived experiences have shaped Ooi into a dedicated educator who believes strongly in the importance of critical global citizenship education in the United States. At Butler, she teaches courses in international relations and Asian politics with the express purpose of helping students to understand that there are many different ways of being in this world. She particularly encourages students to seek better solutions to global problems by re-imagining new possibilities for a better world. Ooi grew up in Singapore and Malaysia. Since 2017, Ooi has also led students to Malaysia and Singapore on the Butler in Asia program, which offers students the unique opportunity to live and work in Asia for 7 weeks in the summer.

As an affiliate faculty of the Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program, Ooi also believes in a diverse, inclusive, and equitable learning and working environment for all. At Butler, she works closely with senior administration in her role as the Director of Academic Affairs for DEI. In terms of curricular affairs, she is also responsible for Asian and Pacific American representation in the Core Curriculum, as she led a team of excellent colleagues in the development of GHS 212: Asian Americas. She works closely with students as well and is the faculty advisor of the student group Asian and Pacific Islander Alliance (APIA).

Although Ooi’s research expertise is in democratic development and human rights in East Asia, she has expanded the scope of her research in response to issues and problems beyond her core interest. More recently, her scholarship addresses peace building on the Korean Peninsula, US-China relations, global education, the well-being of faculty in teaching-focused institutions  and  the  leadership  experiences  of  minoritized  faculty. She also believes in integrating teaching and scholarship and has mentored students in the research and publication process at Butler.

In her personal time, Ooi enjoys the company of her husband, daughter and a pet hamster named Coco. She is also an active member of the Asian and Pacific American community in Indianapolis. She is on the Board of the Indianapolis Chinese Community Center, Inc.,  the Council of the Indiana Association of Chinese Americans, and is also a member  of  Hoosier  Asian  American  Power.

Teaching Expertise:

International Relations, US-China Relations, East and Southeast Asian Politics, Chinese Politics, Human Rights and Humanitarianism, International Political Economy

Research Specialization:

Comparative Democratization, Transnational Activism, Human Rights, East Asian Politics and International Relations, Global Citizenship Education

Education:

PhD Political Science

University of Toronto (Canada)

MA (Southeast Asian Studies)

National University of Singapore (Singapore)

LLB (Bachelor of Laws, with Honors)

University College London (United Kingdom)

Publications:

http://works.bepress.com/sumei_ooi/

Awards/Fellowships

Korea Foundation Fellowship

Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Fellowship

Taiwan Foundation for Democracy Fellowship

Dr. David Chu Scholarship

Political Science Award, University of Toronto 

Volkswagen Foundation Fellowship 

Professor Rieber currently teaches courses in international economics, intermediate macroeconomics, and principles of economics. Among other courses, he previously offered sections in managerial economics, international business, and Revolutionary Europe & Colonial Nigeria. He taught a course in International Economics to Butler University students at the American College of Thessaloniki in Greece in Summer, 2011. His current research interests are international economics and history of economic thought. Before coming to Butler University in 1989, he was a visiting fellow at the National University of Singapore. He has served in various administrative capacities at Butler University, including department chair and graduate program director.

(2002) B.A. in English Philology at Universidad de Valladolid, in Spain.

(2004) M.A. in Foreign Languages (TESOL) at West Virginia University.

(2009) Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics (Spanish SLA) at the University of Florida.

>>> Research Interests: Hispanic Linguistics, Spanish second language acquisition, motivation, study abroad contexts, morphosyntax, emotional intelligence, credibility effect.

>>> COURSES while at Butler University (2010-ongoing): 

• SP101/102 Beginning Spanish sequence
• SP203/204 Intermediate Spanish sequence
• SP300 Spanish Grammar in Context
• SP305 Spanish for Oral Communication
• SP310 Spanish for Written Communication
• SP325 Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics
• SP375 Spanish Pronunciation
• SP380 Structure of Spanish
• SP455 Spanish Second Language Acquisition
• SP465 Bilingualism in the Hispanic World
• SP475 Spanish Second Language Acquisition in a Study Abroad Context
• SP485 History of the Spanish Language
• SP495 Varieties of Spanish in Spain
  

BOOK:

• Quintanilla, A., and Rodríguez Prieto, J.P. (2022). Introducción a la Pronunciación del Español. San Diego, CA: Cognella Academic Publishing.

PEER-REVIEWED MANUSCRIPTS while at Butler University:

• With Quintanilla, A. (accepted-to appear 2025). De usted a tú: El tuteo como pronombre de cortesía en el español salvadoreño. Hispania, 108.
• (2019). The impact of college students’ motivational orientations and the social dimension of emotional intelligence in their willingness to study abroad. TEANGA, the Journal of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics, 26, 79-106.
• (2019). El impacto a largo plazo de un viaje de estudios al extranjero en la adquisición del vocabulario regional de manera incidental. Revista Nebrija de Lingüística Aplicada a la Enseñanza de Lenguas, 13(27), 166-181.
• With Quintanilla, J. (2019). Actitudes de los guatemaltecos hacia el sistema tripartito de tú, vos y usted en la publicidad escrita. Hispanic Journal, 40(2), 85-100. 
• (2014). The use of clickers to assess knowledge in foreign language classes and their failure to increase reading compliance. Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas, 9, 88-96. 
• With Quintanilla, J. (2014). El voseo en la publicidad de Costa Rica: Un análisis de las actitudes de los hablantes. Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 23, 109-119.
• (2014). Ejemplos de jejeo salvadoreño en Cuentos de Barro de Salarrué. Onomázein, 29, 78-89. 
• (2013). The use of email attachments to increase reading compliance in foreign language classes. Estudios de Lingüística Aplicada, 58, 101-118.
• (2010). Emotional intelligence, motivational orientations, and motivational learning effort and achievement in Spanish as a foreign language. In Selected Proceedings of the 12th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, ed. Claudia Borgonovo, Manuel Español-Echevarría, and Philippe Prévost, 284-297. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.

Selected CREATIVE WORK:

• Print on-demand card game to practice Spanish: (2022). I Know More ESPAÑOL Than You! Beginner Level. Madison, WI: The Game Crafter.
• With Alsop, T. (2022). Microcuentos de España. Auburn Hills, MI: Te acher’s Discovery, Inc.
• With Alsop, T. (2018). Panorama Cultural de los 22 Países Hispanos. Troy, MI: Teacher’s Discovery. 

Zachary Scarlett is an assistant professor of modern Chinese history. He works on Maoist politics and culture. His current manuscript project focuses on the Chinese Communist Party’s understanding of radical political movements in the 1960s. He is specifically interested in how the Communist Party and the Red Guards incorporated events like the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam war protests, and other revolutionary activism into everyday political discourse. He conducted research for the project in Beijing from 2010 to 2011, which was supported by a Fulbright grant. Professor Scarlett is also broadly interested in the Global Sixties. He is the co-editor of The Third World in the Global 1960s, which examines radical social movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Outside of his research, Professor Scarlett teaches classes on modern China, East Asia, the Cold War, and environmental history. He received his Ph.D. from Northeastern University in 2013. 

Sholeh Shahrokhi is a professor of anthropology and of race gender sexuality studies, whose research and teaching focuses on an intersectional critique of power and explores cultural values that empower empathetic approach to diversity of human relations against systemic racism, sexism, and other technologies of exclusion. She received her PhD in Anthropology from University of California, Berkeley in 2008. In the same year, she began serving as a faculty in anthropology at Butler University in the Deaprtment of History, Anthropology & Classics, and across multiple interdisciplinary programs including, Race Gende Sexuality Studies, Global and Historical Studies, and International Studies. 

Her scholarship takes an intersectional critique of power in everyday life practices, brining to focus intentional enactment of ethics of care in the face of  human diversity and structural inequity. Her published work on anthropology of inclusions and visual culture include, a book chapter Iranian War Cinema: The Art of Remembering Pain (2012) that offers a gendered read of women in war cinema in the 1980’s and 1990’s, graphic novels and political change in Middle East and North Africa (2011), and a feminist reading of Farhadi’s cinematic repertoire (2012). 

Additionally, she has published a number of articles on politics of the body as represented on screen in a global context (2009, 2015), and bodies in political protests in Iran (2010, 2016, 2024), art as protest (2012). Her research on the intersection of art-activism and asylum communities in Europe and in the US has led to publication of bookchapters and journal articles focused on border crossing art activism (2018, 2023), and photo albums as evocative articulation of memory and place-making among refugees and migrants (2024).

Selected published works:

I. Book Chapters

Between Lights and Shadows: Border Crossing and the Art of  ‘Seeing’ and Being Seen (2024), in Entangled Histories of Art and Migration. Edited by Cathrine Bublatzky, Burcu  Dogramaci, Kerstin Pinther and Mona Schieren. Intellect. Bristol, UK. 

Gender and Sexuality: An Anthropological Approach (2017), in Ethnology, Ethnography and Cultural Anthropology, [Eds. Paolo Barbaro], in Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), Developed under the Auspices of the UNESCO, Eolss Publishers, Oxford, UK, [http://www.eolss.net] 

Iranian War Cinema: The Art of RememberingPain, in the Iranian War Cinema: National Identity, Ethnic Diversity, and Gender Issues, (2012). Edited book by P. Khosronejad. S. K. Publishing, Oxford:UK.

Beyond “tragedy”: A Cultural Critique of SexTrafficking of Young Iranian Women, in Sex Trafficking, Human Rights, andSocial Justice, (2010). Edited volume by T. Zheng. Routledge, NY.

II. Articles: 

Life jackets on shore: Anthropology, refugees, and the politics of belonging in Europe, in Anthropology of the Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia 4(2):11-33. (2018). Sean KingstonPublishing. Oxford: UK.

Body Aesthetics and Protest Art In Contemporary Iran (2014)

Adolescents’ perspective on addiction. Co-author
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1442-2018.2005.00237.x/full

III. Selected Conference Papers: 

“Family Albums in Flux: Portraits of life and memory across borders.” Photo Albums Twisted Meaning: Between nostalgia and trauma. Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences and DOX – Center for Contemporary Art. Prague, Cz. (November 2021).

“Life in Fragments: Anthropology and Art Across the Border”. Hostile Terrain 94. Butler University. (October 2021). 

“Crossing the Border: Anthropology, identity politics, and the role of Art.” A workshop organized by Zanan: Iranian Women in Northern California (April 2021).  

“Art-Activism – an exercise in love: Stories from Iranian refugees living in Europe.” Didar VaGoftar Seminar: A critical inquiry special group of Iranians in Indiana. Zionsville, Indiana. (2019)

“Between Lights andShadows: The art of ‘seeing’ refugees.” European Association of SocialAnthropologists (EASA). Staying, Moving, and Settling conference. StockholmUniversity. Stockholm, Sweden. (2018).

“Living as Trans*: The experiences from fieldwork in Tehran, Iran.” Transgender Lives in GlobalPerspective: Trans Lives in Iran. Religion Seminar by the Center for Faith andVocation at Butler University and the Desmond Tutu Center at the ChristianTheological Seminary. (2016)

Engendering the Protester: Body politics and sexual representation of the Iranian protests (2012)
https://gws.as.uky.edu/engendering-protester-body-politics-and-sexual-representation-iranian-political-protest-dr-sholeh

Body Beautiful: Making the Figure of Women in Film, Contemplation on the Iranian New Wave Cinema of the Past Decade (2009)
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/92f6p1p8

Courses (Butler):

I. Core Courses in the Social World
            SW 215 Being Human: An Introduction to Anthropology; Designated Social Justice Diversity (SJD)
            SW 233 Political Islam in Paris

II. Core Courses in Global and Historical Studies
            GHS207 Global Women: Rights and Resistance
                          Cross-listed: Race, Gender, Sexuality Studies(RGSS), (SJD)
            GHS211 Modern Middle East and North Africa (RGSS & SJD) 

II. Core Courses in Perspectives in the Creative Arts
            PCA 215 Art Across Borders: Refugees in Political North

IV. Courses in Anthropology (Majors/Minors)
            AN 311 Trespass: Anthropology of Power & Difference
                         Cross-listed: RGSS, International Studies (IS)
            AN 315 Gender and Colonialism (RGSS)
            AN 320 Gender and Sexuality Through Globalization (RGSS)
            AN 326 Youth and Global Cinema (IS)
            AN 328 Popular Culture: Michael Jackson (RGSS)
            AN 340 Non-western Art: Ethnographic Art (RGSS, IS)
            AN 345 Conflict Resolution Through Art (IS)
            AN 352 Anthropological Method: Ethnography
            AN 368 Coming of Age in the Middle East (IS)
            AN 390 Anthropological Thought: Theory

I am a professor of Latin American History in the department of History and Anthropology, and affiliate faculty in Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (RGSS) and International Studies (IS). I am also currently the Director of Global and Historical Studies at Butler University.

I teach courses on a variety of subjects, but all deal in some way with the interplay of power, culture, identity formations and historical shifts. 

My scholarship generally lands at the intersections of gender, space, and the history of the Americas. You can find my articles in The Americas, the Journal of Urban History, and the Journal of Transnational American Studies (among others). My first book titled Deco Body/Deco City: Spectacle and Modernity in Mexico City (University of Nebraska Press, 2016) looks at how new ideas about femininity and female bodies influenced urban reform in Mexico’s capital city in the 1920s and 1930s. My new project, Warrior Power: Dreaming, Drugs, Death and the Search for Alternate Spirituality in Mexico during the Sixties and Seventies (tentative title), focuses on the interplay between the books and appeal of Carlos Castaneda, the history of anthropology, New Age sensibilities, popular imaginings of Mexico, and indigenismo.

Ania Spyra grew up in a German and Polish speaking home in Upper Silesia in Southern Poland. She received her MA in Literature and Linguistics from the University of Silesia, and her PhD in English from the University of Iowa. Dr. Spyra’s research looks at the influence of migration on the language of literature. She has published articles on feminist contestations of cosmopolitanism, multilingualism and transnationalism, most recently in Studies in the Novel, Contemporary Literature and Comparative Literature. Dr. Spyra teaches a wide range of courses in Transnational and Postcolonial Literature, Translation and Creative Writing. In her commitment to Global Education, she twice directed Butler University’s Global Adventures in Liberal Arts (GALA) as well as taught short term study abroad courses in Cuba, Ireland, Scotland and Australia. 

Robin L. Turner is an Associate Professor of Political Science, Chair of the Department of Political Science, Director of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program, and Coordinator of the African and Black Studies Minor at Butler University in the US A and an honorary research associate of the Society, Work, and Politics Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. Co-founder of Black Women Writing African Politics and Women of Color in Comparative Politics, Dr. Turner also served as the founding director of the  Social Justice and Diversity Butler University Core Curriculum requirement from 2017 to 2019.  She earned a master’s degree and doctorate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley and a masters degree in social science (African politics) from the University of Cape Town (South Africa). Her research, writing, and teaching span multiple fields, including political science, gender studies, African studies, development studies, tourism studies, political ecology, and geography.

Dr. Turner’s research focuses principally on how public policies shape rural political economies, influence identities, and affect people’s behavior in southern Africa. She uses interviews, ethnography, and archival research to examine the interplay between state policies and local practices over time and to look closely at how past and present ways of structuring property and authority shape local political economies and influence constructions of identity. She has published on topics ranging from the politics of tradition; dispossession, property, and nature tourism; and field research to decolonial pedagogy in journals including Africa Spectrum, Development and Change, Journal of Modern African Studies, Peacebuilding, and Qualitative and Multi-Method Research.  

Dr. Turner teaches courses that help students better understand the perspectives, experiences, and political strategies of historically marginalized people in Africa, the United States, and elsewhere in the world. Her courses contribute to the political science major and minor, to the core curriculum, and to several interdisciplinary programs She led the the development of a new Global and Historical Studies course centered on the question, “What is Freedom,” with grant support from the National Endowment for the Humanities,  

Her recent course offerings include:

GHS 206-SJD Resistance and Reaction: Resistance and Reaction: Colonialism and Post-Colonialism in Africa 

GHS 210-SJD Freedom and Movement in the Transatlantic World 

PO 151 Introduction to Comparative Politics

PO 350 African Politics

PO 351-SJD Politics of Gender & Sexuality in Africa 

PO 352 Comparative Political Economy 

PO 354-SJD Environmental Justice 

PO 490 Senior Seminar on Women and Politics across the World 

SW 245-PO Politics from the Margins

Linda M. Willem is the Betty Blades Lofton Professor of Spanish and teaches in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures & Cultures.  She holds a PH.D. from UCLA in Spanish Language and Literature. Her primary area of specialization is 19th-century Spanish literature. with a secondary research focus on Spanish film.  Among her six book-length publications are a monograph on the novels of Benito Pérez Galdós with the University of North Carolina Press and a collection of Carlos Saura’s interviews, which she compiled, translated, and edited for the University of Mississippi Press’s Conversations with Filmmakers Series.  Her latest book (Adapting Spanish Classics for the New Millennium: The Nineteenth-Century Novel Remediated) from Palgrave-Macmillan examines radical 21st-century adaptations (in film, television, theater, opera and the graphic novel) of 19th-century Spanish novels. She has published over 40 articles on Spanish literature, film, television, and adaptation in peer-reviewed journals and in book collections published by university presses.  She also has presented her work at numerous national and international conferences, and is the recipient of four NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) awards. 

She has served on the Executive Board of the Asociación Internacional de Galdosistas (International Association of Galdós Scholars) as its President (2018-2020), Secretary-Treasurer (2007-2016), vocal (2002-2005) and ex-oficio advisor (2021-2023).  She also is on the Editorial Board of Anales Galdosianos and has been named a Galdosiana de Honor by the Casa-Museo Pérez Galdós and the Cabildo de Gran Canaria.  She recently was elected as an Académica correspondiente of ANLE (Academia Norteamernicana de la Lengua Española/North-American Academy of the Spanish Language) and has received Butler University’s Distinguished Professor Award.  She also has been given the Distinguished Wold Languages Researcher Award for 2024 from the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association and is being inducted into the Orden de Don Quijote by the Sigma Delta Pi National Spanish Honor Sociey in 2025.

A native from Bilbao (Basque Country), I moved to the US in 2000 to pursue graduate studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. While I was growing up, I lived in France and Belgium which introduced me to different cultures and languages. From this exposure, I decided to study Latin American and Caribbean cultures while familiarizing myself with feminisms, queer studies, postcolonial and transatlantic studies.

Over my twelve years at Butler, I have developed numerous original courses including “Women on the Road: Representations on Women’s Migrations in Hispanic Cultures”, “Slavery in the New World”, “Revisiting History through Film”, or “The Role of Sports in the Construction of Gender, Sexuality, Race and National Identity”, “Women Going Green: Tales of Toxic Environment and Corporate Waste” among many others. These courses inform my students’ intellectual curiosity and expose them to a multiplicity of perspectives on identity, critical thinking, and sociocultural awareness. I am fortunate to work at a University where I can expand my desire to always learn new material through teaching courses that I am passionate about, and connecting them with research. Similarly, I have been able to intersect teaching interests with my research agenda on alternative family and nation formations in the Caribbean; what led to the publication of my first book.

Likewise, my area of research has been extended due to the flexibility offered by Butler to study new regions and topics of inquiry through Study Abroad programs, and instructional and research grants. My second books explores affect theory, ecofeminisms, intersectional struggles, and social activisms in Honduras, Central America. The tragic death of Berta Cáceres led me to develop an intellectual and critical mindset regarding extractivism in Latin America, which is one of the most violent forms of neocolonialism exercised upon indigenous communities whose land and human rights have been completely erased. Furthermore, the urgency to conceptualize and validate alternative ecological cosmologies based on affective relations with nature and with others presents potential for democratic encounters, radical transformation, and social justice.

Robert B. Bennett, Jr. is a Professor of Business Law in the Lacy School of Business at Butler University. He is a graduate of Davidson College and the University of Georgia Law School and is licensed to practice in Indiana and North Carolina. He is a Past President of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business and former Editor‑in‑Chief of the Journal of Legal Studies Education. As a professor at Butler, he has taught Legal Environment of Business, Business Law, Business Ethics, International Law, Sustainability in Institutions, Modernizing & Contemporary Europe, Change & Tradition, Leadership London, Religion and the Corporation, Public Policies Toward Business, and Business in the European Union. He has also taught as a visiting professor at Helsinki School of Economics, Zeppelin University, and SRH Hochschule in Heidelberg. Prior to coming to Butler, he spent 11 years in the private practice of law in the Charlotte, North Carolina, firm of Horack, Talley, Pharr & Lowndes, P.A.(now Offit/Kurman), where he earned an AV professional practice rating from Martindale Hubbell, and spent 4 years as Of Counsel to Sommer & Barnard(now Taft/Indianapolis).

He is the author or presenter of more than eighty books, articles, speeches, or presentations before academic and professional audiences, primarily on topics relating to real property, contracts, and jury decision-making, six of which have won awards. His publications include:  Robert B. Bennett, Jr., A Sustainability Manifesto, 27 Midwest Law Journal 1 (Summer, 2017); Robert B. Bennett, Jr., Three Stories and Their Morals, 11 ATLANTIC LAW JOURNAL1 (2009); Robert B. Bennett, Jr., Trade Usage and Consequential Damages: the Implications for Just in Time Purchasing, 46 AMERICAN BUSINESS LAW JOURNAL179 (2009); Jordan H. Leibman, Robert B. Bennett, Jr., & Richard E. Fetter, The Effect of Lifting the Blindfold From Civil Juries Charged with Apportioning Damages in Modified Comparative Fault Cases:  An Empirical Study of the Alternatives,35 AMERICAN BUSINESS LAW JOURNAL 349 (1998); DAVID REITZEL, ROBERT B. BENNETT,JR., & MICHAEL GARRISON, AMERICAN LAW OF REAL ESTATE, SOUTH-WESTERNPUBLISHING (2002); Robert B. Bennett, Jr., Just-In-Time Purchasing and the Problem of Consequential Damages, 26 UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE LAW JOURNAL332 (1994); and Jordan H. Leibman, Robert B. Bennett, Jr., & Richard E. Fetter, Blindfolding Comparative Fault Juries on the Percentage of Negligence:  Should Indiana Follow the Lead of Illinois?  41 RES GESTAE 24 (May,1998).

My interest in teaching centers on the historical cultural geography of the US, especially the Midwest. I also teach courses on the Civil War, US Urban History, the American Empire since 1945, the American Midwest, and World History. I also teach Cultural Geography: Regions of the World for the core curriculum. My publications focus on Indiana during the Civil War, especially politics, and also the Midwest as a culture region.

Professor Menéndez is a comparative sociologist whose research and scholarship have examined issues of ethnicity, cultural identity, media and power, and the process of European integration using multiple research methods. His published books include French and US Approaches to Foreign Policy, Palgrave 2014, The Cultural Realm of European Integration. Greenwood Press, Power and Television in Latin America, which received the Choice Magazine’s 1994 Outstanding Academic Book Award. Previous books published in Spanish include The Dominican Student (Santo Domingo: Intec, 1987), Spanish Migration to the Dominican Republic (Oviedo: Consejo de Comunidades Asturanas, 1993). Iin addition he edited Safeguarding German-American Relations in the New Century: Understanding and Accepting Mutual Differences, in collaboration with Hermann Kurthen and Stefan Immerfall. Lanham, MD: Lexington Publishers: 2006, and an Human Being and Society. (Santo Domingo: Intec, 1987) in collaboration with Jose Alcantara Almanzar.  He has published many articles in professional journals in English, French, and Spanish, such as Research in Political Sociology, International Journal of Cultural Studies, International Review of Sociology, International Journal of Contemporary Sociology, and International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society as well as in edited volumes. Professor Menéndez’s current research interests lie in (1) investigating the cultural influences on international relations; namely, analyzing how conceptions of cultural identity, sense of belonging, and perceived national interests determine decision making in the international arena; (2) exploring ideologies of nationalism and the connections between popular culture, everyday life, and broader social processes such as globalization and transnationalism, particularly as these issues relate to the process of immigrants’s integration in Europe and the United States.

Greg Osland, Professor Emeritus of Marketing, now enjoys the outdoor life in Fort Collins, Colorado.  He serves on the Board of Directors of Colorado Field Ornithologists and chairs the Communications Committee.

 Harry van der Linden was Professor of Philosophy at Butler University from 1990 to 2018 and is currently retired in San Diego County. He studied chemistry and philosophy in the Netherlands prior to receiving his PhD in philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis in 1985. He taught at Colgate University and the University of North Carolina (at Chapel Hill) before coming to Butler University.

Van der Linden served for six years as department chair and initiated the Ethics minor. He was the editor of the Radical Philosophy Review (2010-2021) and longtime treasurer of the Radical Philosophy Ass0ciation (until 2023).

He is the author of Kantian Ethics and Socialism, and co-edited (among other works) Rethinking the Just War Tradition. His most recent work is focused on climate change. Most of his publications can be found at http://works.bepress.com/harry_vanderlinden/.