Virginia Wesleyan College welcomes nine new assistant professors into your classroom and into our community this fall.
By Megan Z. Shearin '06
MURRELL L. BROOKS – Political Science
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
FAST FACT: Teaching interests include: politics and economics of developing nations, and politics of agricultural policy.
BACKGROUND: Brooks earned an M.A. in African Studies from Howard University, and a B.A. in Communications from Sonoma State University. He instructed several courses at UCLA including International Relations; World Politics; Intro to Political Theory; Intro to American Politics; and Intro to Comparative Politics. He has also taught classes at Howard University and Sonoma State University.
PUBLICATIONS: He is currently in the process of completing "Aspects of the Third Scramble for Africa: World Powers, Insecurity and Influence in the Early Twenty-first Century, the Case of East Africa," and "The State and Transnational Societies: the Cases of Tanzania and Nicaragua."
PAUL L. EWELL – Management/Business/Economics
D.B.A., Nova Southeastern University
FAST FACT: A true Marlin at heart, he graduated from Virginia Wesleyan in 1989.
BACKGROUND: Ewell received an M.B.A. from Salisbury State University. Before coming to Virginia Wesleyan, he taught at Bridgewater College. His courses included: Survey of Business, Management Principles, Issues in Organization Management, Management Science and Principles of Information Systems. In 2006, he was the recipient of a Mednick Fellowship to research and benchmark best practices in management education.
CONFERENCES: He has presented papers at numerous international conferences in Las Vegas, N.V. His topics include: "The World of Management Is Constantly Changing: Are You Ready?" and "The Passion Model: An 8-Step Approach to Results Oriented Business Management Education."
BENJAMIN S. HALLER – Classics
Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
FAST FACT: As a grad student, he traveled to Athens, Greece, studying at the American School of Classical Studies.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY: "The skills students learn in language and history classes yield great dividends which continue to pay off later in life and in one’s career: the study of ancient languages teaches critical thinking and analyses, the study of ancient history makes students better citizens for being less easily misled by attempts by members of all political persuasions to appropriate the history and political vocabulary of the ancient world for partisan purposes, and virtually any class in classics enables students better to understand and contextualize the art, literature, and history of the western tradition."
BACKGROUND: Haller earned an M.A. in Classics from the University of Pittsburgh, and a B.A. in Classics from The College of William & Mary. He instructed several courses at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., instructing Mythology, Latin Historians, and Greek Poetry, as well as Introductory and Intermediate Latin.
CONFERENCES: In 2008, he gave conference presentations on "Homeric Parody, the Isle of the Blessed, and the Nature of Paideia in Lucian's Verae Historiae," at the International Conference of the Ancient Novel, hosted in Lisbon, Portugal; and "Duplicitous Dolios? Conditioning Audience Response to Deceit through Two Kinds of Deception in the Back Story of the Odyssey," at the annual Classical Association of the Middle West and South.
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: The American Philological Association, Classics Association of the Atlantic States, and the Classics Association of the Midwest and South.
BORIS HELLMANN – Communications
Ph.D., SUNY, Buffalo
FAST FACT: A Croatian native who studied in Vienna, he is fluent in German, Croatian, Spanish, Italian and English.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY: "Education is freedom. I maintain that only education has the power to change hearts, minds and lives. With it, we retain our potential for mastery of our individual and combined fates. Without it, we are reduced to accident and coincidence."
BACKGROUND: Hellmann received an M.Phil from the University of Vienna, and an M.A. in Communications from West Virginia University. He has taught at SUNY, Buffalo, and at Loredo Community College as a speech instructor, and at Texas A&M International University. His courses include: Intercultural Communication; Media in the Information Age; Communication and Media Ethics; and Fundamentals of Speech Communication.
FILM: Hellmann
composed and performed the original music (piano) for Ultramarine, and was in the original cast.
REBECCA E. HOOKER – English
Ph.D., University of New Mexico
FAST FACT: A scholar of African-American and Native American literature, she has published articles on the rapper Tupac Shakur and Mark Twain.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY: "My goal in every class is to make connections between writers and events throughout history and current issues we face today. I want students to explore their world and be a part of it, while also understanding how their lives have been affected by what has happened in the past."
BACKGROUND: Hooker received an M.A. in English from George Mason University and a B.A. in English from Carleton College. She has taught an array of courses including: From Garden to Globe: Women of the African Diaspora; The 1960s; Popular Culture and Identity and Survey of Early American Literature. Hooker's research interests include: nineteenth century American literature, literature of the African Disapora, Native-American Literature, African-American and Native American speculative fiction critical whiteness studies, film as literature, and racial uplift literature.
PUBLICATIONS: She has written "The Two Faces of Tupac: Deconstructing 2PAC: The Lyrical Poetry of Tupac A. Shakur," and "The Cross-Cultural Medium: The Native Worldview in Psychic Experiences of an Indian Princess."
MAURY E. HOWARD – Chemistry
Ph.D., University of Texas
FAST FACT: She has developed a laboratory curriculum to improve the hands-on experience for students.
TEACHING PHILSOPHY: "My father used to say (he was an
English professor for over 35 years): 'All is fair in teaching - beg, borrow, or steal whatever it takes to get [students] interested.' I
personally believe that teaching is part of learning and look forward to what my students have to teach me."
BACKGROUND: Howard received a B.A. in Chemistry from Dominican University and has taught at Loyola University in New Orleans, Tulane University, and Southeastern Louisiana University. Howard’s commitment to science stretches beyond her role as a professor, as shown by her participation in community activities such as Science Olympiad, in which she prepared and administered qualitative and general chemistry lab events for a "rigorous academic interscholastic competition" consisting of individual and team events for K-12 students. She has also participated in 4-H Adventures in Science, developing experiments and demonstrations to interest and actively involve kids in science.
SUSAN E. LARKIN – English
Ph.D., Illinois State University
FAST FACT: She has made conference presentations on the Harry Potter novels and the author Laura Ingalls Wilder.
TEACHING PHILSOPHY: "One of my goals for the classroom is for it to be a comfortable place that allows for the exploration of the uncomfortable idea or unfamiliar perspective."
BACKGROUND: Larkin also earned an M.A. in English from Illinois State University. She instructed several courses at Central Michigan University in Children's Literature; Cultural Pluralism in Children's and Young Adult Literature; Young Adult Literature; and the Heroic Tradition in Children’s Literature.
PRESENTATIONS: Her most recent presentation was "Stepping Outside Myself: Considering Multiculturalism," at the International Conference of the Children's Literature Association.
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: The Modern Language Association, Children's Literature Association, National Council of Teachers of English and Midwest-Modern Language Association.
DANTE V. MANNA – Mathematics
Ph.D., Tulane University
FAST FACT: He is proficient in spoken Chinese (Mandarin) and has taught in Canada.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY: "Teaching is one of those skills like singing, playing chess, or running fast, where you can always push yourself to get better, work harder. In order to do this, you must periodically raise expectations for your own performance, but first you must set some kind of a gauge."
BACKGROUND: Manna received an M.A. in Mathematics from Tulane University and a B.A. in Mathematics from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. He has instructed at Dalhousie University where he taught Theory of Numbers, Discrete Structures and Mathematics for Liberal Arts. While there, he also served as coordinator of Dalhousie Analysis and Number Theory Seminar. He has also taught two years at Tulane University. Manna was recently granted the Atlantic Association for Research in the Mathematical Sciences Director’s Postdoctoral Fellowship.
PUBLICATIONS: "Rational Landen Transformations on R, printed in Mathematics of Computation," and "A Simple Example of a New Class of Landen Transformations," published by the American Mathematical Monthly.
HILARY E. STEBBINS – Psychology
Ph.D., Brown University
FAST FACT: She has experience working with students on undergraduate research, specifically related to visual memory.
TEACHING PHILSOPHY: "I realize that my students will only be in my classes for a limited amount of time so my goals as a professor are to help students develop lifelong learning and critical thinking skills so that they can pursue their interests on their own long after I have the opportunity to interact with them."
BACKGROUND: Stebbins received a B.S. in Psychology from Mary Washington College. She has taught at Elmira College in New York, where she served as an Assistant Professor in experimental psychology, with a specialty in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. She has also taught courses at the University of Mary Washington and Brown University. Stebbin's post-graduate research includes a continuation of her dissertation, in which she investigates the acquisition of categorical knowledge and the underlying neural systems that mediate learning in college-aged and elderly populations.
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: The American Psychological Association, Phi Beta Kappa Society and Psi Chi.
08.13.08