Committees

College of Arts & Sciences Committees

Tenure and Promotion Committee

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Fadhili Mshana

Fadhili Mshana, PhD

Professor of Art History
309 Ennis Hall, CBX 094
478-445-2430
Education
  • Ph.D. Art History (African Art): Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY
  • M.A. Art History (The Arts of Africa, Oceania & the Americas): University of East Anglia, (UEA) Norwich, England
  • B.A. Hons., Fine Art, Theatre, & Education: University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Tanzania
  • Certificate in Fine Art & Education, Butimba Teachers’ College, Tanzania
  • Teachers’ Certificate, Korogwe Teachers’ College, Tanzania
Biography

Fadhili Mshana received his Ph.D. in African art from Binghamton University in 2000 and began teaching at Georgia College in 2002. Previously he had taught at Primary School and Teachers’ Training College levels, and at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. His research interests lie in the arts of the African world: traditional and contemporary African art, and arts of the African Diaspora; art and identity, patronage and market forces on art, politics of art, and colonial and post-colonial processes on culture. Current research examines art patronage African artists received from European Christian missions in twentieth-century Africa and the significance of that patronage in mapping and defining twentieth-century African art.

Fadhili Mshana’s work has received numerous fellowships and awards including a Fulbright Scholarship for his dissertation research among the coastal peoples of Tanzania. Publications include journal articles and book chapters on the arts in Tanzania. He is also a practicing artist and his work has featured in group shows in Tanzania, Cuba, Denmark, and the United States.

Courses taught include African Art and Islam, African Art History, Art Criticism: From Plato and Kant to Post-Modernism, The Ancient & Medieval Worlds, Art of the African Diaspora, Contemporary African Art, Fine and Applied Arts in Civilizations, and Teaching Multiculturalism thru Art: K-12. He has also taught on faculty-led summer study abroad program in Paris. 

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Kalina Manoylov

Kalina Manoylov

Georgia Power Endowed Professor of Environmental Sciences
322 Integrated Science Complex
(478) 445-2439
Education

Ph.D., Zoology/Ecology, Evol. Biology/Behavior, Michigan State University

Research

Aquatic Ecology, algal ecology, diatom taxonomy

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Ralph France III

Ralph France III

Professor of Physics
107 Beeson Hall
(478) 445-3513
Education

Ph.D., Nuclear Astrophysics, Yale University

Research

Nuclear Astrophysics
Stellar Helium Burning
Solar Neutrino Production

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Mary Magoulick

Mary Magoulick

Professor
3-21 Arts & Sciences Building
478-445-3177
Education

Ph.D, Folklore, Indiana University

Biography

Dr. Mary Magoulick teaches folklore, Native American literature, myth, popular culture and women's and gender studies, all with multicultural focus. She writes on the interrelationships between literature/texts and culture and has published in The Journal of American Folklore, The Journal of Folklore Research, The Journal of Popular Culture, and more. Her book, The Goddess Myth in Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture: A Feminist Critique was published by the University Press of Mississippi in 2022. She enjoys traveling (over 30 countries so far) and contemplating cross-cultural connections and culturally-based approaches to studying human artistic expressions. She has done fieldwork with Nishnaabe people, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal, studied in France, taught in Sweden, Italy, England, Ireland, for Semester at Sea (going around the world), and in Croatia, the last on a Fulbright.

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Hank Edmondson

Hank Edmondson, Ph.D.

Professor of Political Science
2-06 Arts & Sciences Building
(478) 445-0943
Research
  • Politics and Literature
  • Education Philosophy, Education Reform
  • Politics of Spain
  • Leadership
CV
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Doug R. Oetter

Doug Oetter

Professor of Geography
Beeson Hall 253
(478) 445-7379
Areas of Study

Resource Geography, Remote Sensing, Geographic Information Systems, Sustainability, Environmental History

 

Biography

Doug R. Oetter is a Professor of Geography at Georgia College & State University in the Department of History & Geography.  He teaches physical geography, resource geography, geographic techniques, interdisciplinary studies, and environmental science.  He is the coordinator of the Geographic Information Science (GISc) and the Sustainability Certificate programs.  His research is concentrated on the application of remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems to resource development issues, especially land cover change, riparian management, and sustainability. Dr. Oetter is the coordinator of the GC Sustainability Faculty Friends.  He is the Faculty Advisor for the Women's Club Ultimate and Men's Ultimate Club, and serves as Course Manager for the Bobcat Frisbee Club.  He is President of the Board of Directors for the Central Georgia Rail-to-Trail Association, and Secretary of the Oconee River Greenway Foundation.  In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, mountain biking, disc golf, and working on his family farm in Wilkinson County.

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Brandon Samples

Brandon Samples

Associate Professor
PhD, Mathematics
478-445-2434
Education

PhD, Mathematics, University of Georgia

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Dana Gorzelany-Mostak

Dr. Dana Gorzelany-Mostak

Associate Professor of Music
478-445-7320
Biography

Dana Gorzelany-Mostak is an Associate Professor of Music at Georgia College. A musicologist by profession, she teaches various music history courses, including Music History I & II, American Music, Studies in World Music, and American Music and Politics, as well as conducts Women’s Ensemble and Music Theatre Scenes. Her research on music and American presidential campaigns appears in Music & Politics, the Journal of the Society for American Music, and the Journal of Popular Music Studies. Her work on America’s Got Talent star Jackie Evancho appears in the edited volume Voicing Girlhood in Popular Music: Performance, Authority, Authenticity (Routledge) and in the journal American Music. In 2018 Gorzelany-Mostak won an Award of Excellence from the Broadcast Education Association for “Songs in the Key of President C: Music on the Campaign Trail,” a digital lecture funded by a grant from the Society for American Music. Gorzelany-Mostak is the founder of Trax on the Trail, a website and research project that tracks and catalogues the soundscapes of US presidential elections. At present, Gorzelany-Mostak is working with Jennifer Flory (Professor of Music, Georgia College) to create a recording of 19th-century campaign songs as part of the project "Songs of Political Persuasion: Hearing Music on the US Presidential Campaign Trail, 1840–1918." In addition to writing essays for several public musicology websites, Gorzelany-Mostak has provided her expert opinion for news outlets such as the BBC, The GuardianVariety, Pacific Standard, Inverse, and The Boston Herald. Her forthcoming book, Tracks on the Trail: Popular Music, Race, and the US Presidency, analyzes the official and unofficial musical activity surrounding 21st-century presidential campaigns, shedding light on how the racialization of sound intersects with other markers of difference and ultimately shapes the public discourse surrounding candidates, popular music, and the meanings attached to race in the 21st century (University of Michigan Press, 2023).

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James Winchester

Dr. James Winchester

Coordinator, Program of Philosophy, Professor of Philosophy
Beeson 358
(478) 445-5513
Courses

Love, Pleasure, Friendship and the Good Life; Philosophy, Art and the Art of Living; Philosophy of Law; Ethics; and Social and Political Philosophy

Biography

Dr. Winchester has published books on Nietzsche, Cross cultural understanding of art and his most recent work, Ethics in an Age of Savage Inequalities (Lexington Press).  He is currently working on a book on the good life.

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Kristina Dandy, PhD

Kristina Dandy, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychology
Education & Bio

B.A., Christopher Newport University

M.S., Ph.D., Texas Christian University

Research

Learning

Teaching

PSYC 2060 -- Drugs and the Brain

PSYC 2700 -- Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences

PSYC 3100 -- Learning

 

 

 

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Beate Czogalla

Beate Czogalla

Lighting Design and Stage Management Faculty, Production Manager
Campus Theatre #203
478-445-1632
Education

MFA, Theatre Design, Virginia Tech

Biography

Beate M. Czogalla is delighted to be a part of the Department of Theatre at Georgia College as the Assistant Professor in Theatre Design since the Fall of 2000. She has a BA and MA degree in Theatre from Giessen University (Germany) and an MFA degree in Scenography and Lighting Design from Virginia Tech. Her credits at GC include A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Glass Menagerie, The Wild Duck, Quilters, The Beggar's Opera, On The Verge, Our Town, Julius Caesar, The Dining Room, You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, The Taming Of The Shrew, An Evening of Pinter, Pippin and The Illusion. 

Ms. Czogalla has designed internationally with credits at theatres in Giessen, Frankfurt, Bad Hersfeld and Stuttgart, Germany; Wroclaw and Warsaw, Poland; Lige, Belgium; Chepstow, Wales, Great Britain; Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, and in the United States, and she is a founding member of the monumental Canadian outdoor theatre production, And Wolf Shall Inherit The Moon, mounted in Haliburton, Ontario every August. Since the Fall of 2000 she has worked as a Scenographer and Lighting Designer at The Warehouse Theatre in Greenville, South Carolina, and at 7 Stages in Atlanta, and since the summer of 2002 she has designed three shows per year for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival in Allentown/ Center Valley, Pennsylvania. 

She was the Resident Lighting Designer for the New Harmony Theatre from 1990 until 1997. Prior to that she worked at Actors Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky, The Road Company in Johnson City, Tennessee, and Playhouse 460 and the Studio Theatre in Blacksburg, Virginia. She has done concert and architectural lighting design and consulting for a variety of clients and has served as the Lighting Supervisor for the Lincoln Amphitheatre at Lincoln State Park, Indiana, from 1995 until 2000. As an active member of NASA's Teacher in Space/ Space Education Program she serves as a community volunteer conducting workshops for children and adults of all ages, and in late 2000 she was appointed as a Solar System Ambassador by JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory/ NASA), a position she plans to hold for many more years. She is also a certified Advanced Open Water Diver and a passionate hiker and kite builder. 

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Hedy Fraunhofer

Hedwig (Hedy) Fraunhofer, Ph.D.

Professor of French and German
Campus Box 046
478-445-5015
Education

Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of Oregon 

M.A. Comparative Literature, University of Oregon 

Staatsexamen für das Lehramt an Gymnasien (graduate degree), French Language, Literature and Linguistics; English Language, Literature and Linguistics, Universität Regensburg, Germany 

Areas of Expertise

Research and teaching interests: New Materialist/Posthumanist Philosophy, the Climate Crisis/Ecocriticism, Theatre and Performance, Theories and History of Fascism and Sovereignty 

Languages Spoken: English, French, German. Reading proficiency: Spanish, Italian 

Regional Areas of Expertise: global/cosmic  

Academic Website 

Favorite Part of WLC

"My favorite course is currently a virtual exchange course (MGLG 4950) on the Climate Crisis that is co-taught (in English) with students and faculty from the University of Jena, Germany and is open not only to WLC majors and minors, but to GC students from all fields. Make new friends and travel to Germany this coming summer from the safety of your laptop!"

Diversity Leadership Team

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Sandra Trujillo

Sandra Trujillo

Professor of Art, Ceramics
303 Ennis Hall, CBX 094
478-445-7024
Education
  • M.F.A. in Ceramics, University of Colorado at Boulder
  • Certificate: Ceramics, Escola de Ceramica y Artesianias de La Bisbal, Catalonia, Spain
  • Certificate: Ceramics, Escola de Ceramica y Artesianias de La Bisbal, Catalonia, Spain
  • B.A. in Religious Studies, University of California at Berkeley
Website
Biography

I was born in Vallejo, California. I received my BA in religious studies from the University of California at Berkeley and received my MFA in ceramics from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

I have had exhibitions in venues such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Atlanta, the Grimmerhus Museum, Denmark, the Ann Linneman Gallery in Copenhagen, and the Palacio de Dom Manuel in Evora, Portugal – a UNESCO Heritage site.  I am a Fulbright-Hays fellow.  I have been a resident artist at national and international art centers such as the Archie Bray Foundation for the ceramic arts in Montana, where I was the recipient of the Lillian Fellowship; the OBRAS center in Holland, the OBRAS center in Portugal, the International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark, Quarry Tile Factory in Washington, The Mendocino Art Center in California, and the Ceramic Center-Berlin in Berlin, Germany. My art and academic contributions are included in journals such as Ceramic Arts and Perception, Drawing, ArtWeek, and Gastronomica – UC Press.  My two letterpress books FUNERAL FOOD (2019) and Trouble (2021) are collected in over 75 university special collections nationwide. I have lectured at public and private institutions and organizations such as the University of South Bohemia České Budějovice, the University of Anadolu, and universities. I am a Professor within the Department of Art at Georgia College and specialize in ceramics.

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Gretchen Ionta

Gretchen Ionta

Associate Professor
323 Integrated Science Complex
(478) 445-1332
Education

Ph.D., Botany, University of Florida

Research

Plant systematics, floristics, pollination biology

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Donovan Domingue

Donovan Domingue

Professor of Physics
232 Beeson Hall
(478) 445-3512
Education

Ph.D., Physics, University of Alabama

Research

Galaxy Interactions
Dust in Galaxies
Star Formation

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Jamie Downing

Jamie Downing, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Advisor to Lambda Pi Eta
204 Terrell Hall
478-445-5561
Education

Ph.D., Communication Studies, University of Nebraska

Biography

Dr. Jamie Downing teaches the fundamentals of public speaking and small group communication.

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Stefanie Sevcik

Stefanie Sevcik

Lecturer
3-02 Arts & Sciences Building
478-445-8692
Education

Ph.D, Comparative Literature, Brown University

Biography

 

Dr. Stefanie Sevcik earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at Brown University. She teaches African literature, composition, and world literature.

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Charles Ubah

Charles Ubah, Ph.D.

Professor of Criminal Justice
2-23 Arts & Sciences Building
(478) 445-7392
Research
  • Policy Studies with focus on Criminal Justice Policy and Program
  • Penology and Corrections
  • Organized Crime
  • Transnational Crime
  • International Criminal Court (ICC)

 

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Brandy Kennedy

Brandy Kennedy, Ph.D.

Carl Vinson Endowed Chair of Political Science & Public Administration, Masters of Public Administration Coordinator
2-20 Arts & Sciences Building
(478) 445-7384
Research
  • Bureaucratic Role Perception and Representation
  • Political Behavior and Public Opinion
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Ashleigh Dean

Ashleigh Ikemoto

Assistant Professor of History
(478) 445-2179
Areas of Study

Asian History

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Rachel Epstein

Rachel Epstein

Associate Professor
3-09 Arts & Sciences
478-445-5000
Education

PhD, Mathematics, University of Chicago

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Laurie Peebles

Dr. Laurie Peebles

Assistant Professor of Music Therapy and Graduate Coordinator
Biography

Laurie Peebles is currently the Assistant Professor of Music Therapy and Graduate Coordinator at Georgia College. Laurie received a Bachelor’s of Music in Music Therapy and a Master’s of Music in Music Education at Converse College. She completed her music therapy internship with the Fulton County School System and she joined the music therapy team at The George Center for Music Therapy, in Atlanta, GA. From 2012 to 2014, Laurie served on the executive board as secretary of the Music Therapy Association of Georgia. In 2014, she began working as the music therapist on the Oncology units at Greenville Memorial Hospital, in Greenville, SC, a program funded by a LiveSTRONG grant. Beginning in 2016, she began providing music therapy services at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, FL providing music therapy services on the cardiology, neurology, and intensive care units. During this time, she also worked at the private music therapy practice Wholesome Harmonies Music Therapy, LLC in Miami, FL. In 2019, she was the recipient of the AMTA Music Therapy Perspectives Graduate Research Award for her research study Trends in Music Therapy Preprofessional Supervision: A Systematic Review. Laurie is completing her doctoral degree in music therapy at the University of Miami with her research interests focusing on personality in music therapy supervision.

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Dr. Brooke Rudow-Abouharb

Dr. Brooke Rudow

Lecturer of Philosophy
Beeson 357
(478) 445-8543
Courses/Topics

Survey of Philosophy, Introduction to Black Studies, Philosophy of Race, Critical Thinking: The Promise and Peril of Technology

Biography

Dr. Brooke Rudow is a Lecturer of Philosophy. She received her B.A. at the University of Hawai’i, her M.A. at the University of Liverpool, and her Ph.D. at the University of Georgia. She has Graduate Certificates in Philosophy as a Way of Life and Environmental Ethics. She specializes in Ethics, Epistemology, Political Philosophy, and Philosophy of Technology. Within and in addition to these areas, her publications engage a variety of issues from feminist philosophy, race theory,and Indian Aesthetics, to philosophy in pop culture. 

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Whitney L. Heppner, Ph.D.

Whitney Heppner, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Psychology
Education & Bio

B.A., Murray State University

M.S., Ph.D., University of Georgia

Postdoctoral Fellowship, MD Anderson Cancer Center

Research

Social Psychology and Wellness (SPaW) Lab, Undergraduate Research Lab

Mindfulness and meditation

Self-regulation and health behaviors

Positive Psychology

Teaching

PSYC 2700 -- Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences

PSYC 2800 -- Research Methods in Psychology

PSYC 3500 -- Social Psychology

PSYC 4920 -- Senior Seminar in Positive Psychology

 

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Eric Griffis

Eric Griffis

Costume Design Faculty, Interim Chair of Theatre and Dance
Campus Theatre #202
478-445-8273
Education

MFA, Costume Design & Technology, University of Southern Mississippi

Website
Biography

Eric received his BA in Theatre from Southern Arkansas University (Magnolia, AR) and his MFA in Costume Design & Technology from the University of Southern Mississippi (Hattiesburg, MS). 

At SAU, Eric designed costumes for a number of productions including Buried Child, How I Learned to Drive, and See How They Run. Following his undergraduate work, Eric was the Associate Youth Director for the Jefferson Davis Parrish Arts Council's (Jennings, LA) youth theatre program and designed costumes and other technical aspects for their productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and A Bad Year for Tomatoes. In his time at USM, Eric designed costumes for Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar & Grille,Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Much Ado About Nothing (women's costumes), Moon Over Buffalo, and Fefu & Her Friends. In 2006, Eric assisted Costume Designer Peggy Stamper and her Assistant/husband Fred Lloyd as an Extras Costumer on the ABC/ESPN film Ruffian. Following that, Eric worked in the Wardrobe Department at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for the 2007- 2008 season. For GC, Eric has designed costumes for Eurydice, Yours, Anne, The Rover, The Smiles, RENT, and The 1940's Radio Hour. Other recent designs include South Pacific at the New London Barn Playhouse and the Southeastern premiere of Good Boys and True at Actor's Express. 

Eric's areas of research include 20th century costumes, the symbolism of color, and digital costume rendering. 

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William Daniel Holcombe

Daniel Holcombe, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Spanish
Campus Box 046
478-445-0949
Education

Ph.D. Spanish Literature, Arizona State University  

M.A. Spanish, Arizona State University  

B.A. Spanish, University of North Carolina at Asheville 

Areas of Expertise

Research: Early Modern Spanish and Contemporary Latin American Literature, Cervantes, Book Illustration, Medical Interpretation and Translation   

Languages Spoken:  English, Spanish  

Regional Areas of Expertise: Transatlantic: Spain, Latin America, and U.S.

Favorite Part of WLC

"My favorite aspect of Georgia College is how the liberal arts focus helps students establish diverse career paths. I particularly enjoy working with students to develop cultural competence and communicative skills."