Arts and Communications Faculty

Sister Angela Cresswell: Assistant Professor of Spanish

facultyEducation: BA, Holy Family University; M.Ed, Millersville University; PhD, University of South Florida

Areas of expertise: Teaching of Spanish, Second Language Acquisition/Instructional Technology

Areas of interest: English Language Learners, Hispanic Culture, Instructional Technology

Other Roles: SOE Scholarship Committee, American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (the other roles are ad-hoc and I don't suppose you want my out-of-school roles)

Favorite Quote: "I've learned that I still have a lot to learn." - Maya Angelou

 

Sister Doloretta Dawid: Professor of Modern Languages

facultyEsucation: BA, Holy Family College (University); MA, Rivier College; MA, Middlebury College; DA, Stoneybrook University

Areas of expertise:French and Italian

Areas of interest; Foreign languages in general and American Indian Culture

Recent Publications/Presentations: Published Dissertation : A Whole Language Approach for Foreign Language Writing Using Computers (2008)

Other Roles: Coordinator of Language Laboratory, Chairperson of Contract Committee

Favorite Quote: "Teaching is a work of heart!"

 

Leticia Diaz: Assistant Professor of Spanish

facultyEducation: BA Fordham University; MA Fordham University; PhD University of Illinois

Area of Expertise: Latin American Literature, Linguistics

Area of Interest: Latin American Culture, Caribbean Literature, Latino Literature and Culture, Contemporary Fiction (English and Spanish)

Other Roles: Institutional Scholarship Selection Committee
Faculty Sponsor of Class of 2015
START/CIRT Committee
SEPCHE Representative (Languages)
Diversity Team
Freshman Language Placement

 

Pamela Flynn: Professor of Fine Art

facultyEducation: BA, Monmouth University; MA, Kean University; MFA New Jersey City University

Areas of expertise: Mixed Media Artist

Areas of interest: Art in context

Recent Publications/Presentations: Considering Harm Exhibition at The Phoenix Gallery, NYC; Parallax Art Fair, NYC

Other Roles: Coordinator of Fine Arts

Favorite Quote: All memory is individual, unreproducible-it dies with each person. Susan Sontag

 

Daniel Mankowski: Professor of Speech and Theatre Arts

facultyEducation: AB, Saint Joseph's University: MA, Saint Joseph's University; MA, Villanova University; EdD, Saint Joseph's University

Interests: Acting, Speech, and Theatre

Dissertation Title: "Performing Shakespeare: Fun and Games Or Purposeful, Emancipating, and Empowering Pedagogy?


 

 

Amanda McClain: Assistant Professor of Communication

facultyEducation: BA, University of Pennsylvania; MA and PhD Temple University

Areas of expertise: Communication Theory, Television Studies, Social Media, Celebrity, Popular Culture, Discourse Analysis

Areas of interest:  Reality TV, Identity, Representations of Gender, Journalism, Narratives, Music and Television, American Ideology

Recent Publications/Presentations:
McClain, A. (2011). American Ideal: How American Idol Constructs Celebrity, Collective Identity, and American Discourses. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

McClain, A. (2012). Keeping Up with Contradictory Family Values: The Voice of the Kardashians. In K. M. Ryan and D A. Macey (Eds.), Family Ties, Facts of Life, and the Real World: Everything I Know About the Myself I Learned from Television (forthcoming). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Popular /American Culture Conference 2012, Boston, MA
               April 11-14, 2012
Presented paper: Reality and Idealizations: Kim Kardashian’s Fairytale Wedding

Other Roles:
Coordinator of Arts and Communications Academic Programs
Coordinator of Non-Public Cable Television Channel Programming
Moderator, Tigervision TV Club
Co-Moderator, Tri-Lite newspaper
Television Studies Area Chair, Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture
Association /American Culture Association
Television Studies Area Co-Chair, Television Studies Area, Popular
Culture Association /American Culture Association

“A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.” Marshall McLuhan

 

Liz Moore: Assistant Professor of Writing

facultyEducation: BA, Barnard College; MFA, Hunter College

Areas of expertise: Creative Writing (Fiction); Composition & Rhetoric

Areas of interest: Contemporary Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Modernism, First-Year College Writing

Recent Publications/Presentations: Heft (W.W. Norton, 2012); "A Family Fairy Tale, Twice Told," The New York Times, 22 March 2012; "Finding Inspiration as a Writer: How to Turn the Everyday into Creative Fuel," Perspectives on Creativity, Vol. 2 (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012); "Our Neighbors the Bells," Narrative Magazine, 2011; The Words of Every Song (Random House, 2007). 

Other Roles: Coordinator of Humanities, Faculty Moderator of Folio

Favorite Quote: "Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." --E.L. Doctorow

 

Fran Pelham: Professor of Communications/English

facultyEducation: BA, Holy Family University; M. English Ed., Trenton University; Ed. D., University of Pennsylvania

Areas of expertise: Academic Prose; Creative Writing; Writing for the Media; Communications Research; Writing for Children, and Journal Writing.

Areas of interest: Ethnographic Communications Research; Celtic Studies and Culture; Spirituality in the Modern World; Women’s Studies; and Telling Stories through Words and Photography.

Recent Publications/Presentations:
"Head, Heart and Hands:  Service Learning and Communications/Journalism Courses,” presented at the Vatican-MU Communication Conference Power to Transform the World:  Media & Communication Programs in Catholic Higher Education,” Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, 2010.  (Published in Monograph 2012).

Other Roles:  Board of Directors (past president and workshop leader) Philadelphia Writers’ Conference; Communications Writing and Editing Consultant; Contracts Committee; Eucharistic Minister and Lector. 

Favorite Quote: “I now understand what Nelle Morton meant when she said that one of the great tasks in our time is to ‘hear people to speech.’ Behind their fearful silence, our students want to find their voices, speak their voices, have their voices heard. A good teacher is one who can listen to those voices even before they are spoken—so that someday they can speak with truth and confidence.” ~ Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach

 

Janice Showler: Associate Professor of English

facultyEducation: B.S. English Education, Pennsylvania State University; M.ED. in English, The College of New Jersey; Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania--Specialization in Writing.

Area of Expertise: Writing Theory and Pedagogy

Areas of Interest: Metacognition, Writing Assessment, Caribbean Literature, Writings of Kathleen Norris.

Recent Publications/Presentations: "Metacognition: Implications for Teaching and Learning" presented 2011 Mid-Atlantic Writing Centers Association," West Chester University, PA; Metacognition: 21st Century Search for Superman in the Reflective Teacher and Empowered Writer, presented Southeastern Consortium of Higher Education Faculty Development Conference, May 2012, Chestnut Hill College, PA.

Other Roles: Writing Coordinator

Favorite Quote: ". . . because we love, God is present," Thomas Merton

Janice Xu: Assistant Professor of Communications

facultyEducation: B.A., Sichuan University; M. Law, Peking University; Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Areas of expertise: crisis communication, integrated marketing communication, Chinese media industry.

Areas of interest: social media in public relations, citizen journalism, environmental campaigns, media globalization.

Dissertation Title: Encountering Globalization: An Ethnographic Study of Women Television Audience in China

Recent Publications/Presentations:
Xu, J. H. (2012) Social Media in the Do-it-yourself Air Quality Testing Campaign in Chinese Cities International Review of Information Ethics. Vol. 18. (forthcoming)

Xu, J. H. (2012) Online news reports of air quality issues in Beijing. Telematics and Informatics vol. 29, issue 4, p. 409-417.

Xu, J. H. (2011, October) Crisis reporting and visualization in Chinese media: An examination of the milk scandal coverage. Paper presented at MARAAS annual conference, Princeton, NJ.

Other Roles: Manuscript reviewer-- Mass Communication & Society; Communication Theory; Asian Journal of Communication
Board member and newsletter editor, Association for Chinese Communication Studies, 2010-2011.