Summer 2011 Deans, Faculty, Staff

Charles Britton (Economics)

Dr. Charles Britton is currently a University Professor at the University of Arkansas. He was a member of the faculty on the Semester at Sea Fall 2001 and Fall 2007 voyages and is looking forward to Summer 2011. He has taught The China Experience (International Studies Program for the University of Arkansas) in Partnership with Beijing Jiaotong University (Beijing) and Fudan University (Shanghai). In 2000, he participated in the Council on International Educational Exchange: Cuba at the Millennium in Havana, Cuba. Professor Britton has won many teaching awards during his career at the University of Arkansas including the most prestigious one which is given by the Alumni Association. His research interests are in the areas of water resource economics and arid lands. He also has publications on wine economics. His professional memberships include the Missouri Valley Economics Association, Association for Arid Lands Studies and Western Social Sciences Association. He earned a Ph.D. in Economic Development from University of Iowa and a MA and BA in Economics from University of Missouri.
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Joseph Chapman (English)

Joseph Chapman studied English and Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned his B.A. He received his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from University of Virginia in 2008. From 2007 to 2008, he served as the Poetry Editor for Meridian magazine and was awarded the Academy of American Poets prize in 2005 and 2007. In the fall of 2008, he taught Creative Writing and Literature for Semester at Sea. For the past year he has been working on a book of poetry that fuses pop culture, linguistics, and the critical language of film studies within the form of the short lyric. These recent poems attempt to alternate between the sincerity of the Romantic tradition and postmodern irony. He currently teaches in the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies Program at U.Va.. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Gulf Coast, Cincinnati Review and BOMBLog.
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Helen Cho (Anthropology)

Helen Cho is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Davidson College in NC. She received her B.A. in anthropology and B.S. in chemistry from the University of Illinois-Urbana and M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. As a biocultural anthropologist, she specializes in human skeletal biology of contemporary and archaeological populations, and her dissertation was on bone loss in Imperial Romans from the Isola Sacra necropolis near Rome. Cho has conducted osteological research in Mexico and Korea; taught bone histology workshops at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington D.C., Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán in Mexico, and American Academy of Forensic Sciences conferences; and participated in archaeological expeditions in Syria, Cyprus, and U.S. At Davidson she teaches a wide variety of courses, including human evolution, medical anthropology, race, primatology, human ecology, forensic anthropology, and osteology. Cho also teaches a comparative skeletal anatomy course through the Maderas Rainforest Conservancy in Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. In addition, she serves as a forensic anthropology consultant for the Medical Examiner Office in Charlotte, NC and has worked on forensic cases from Korea. Her publications include book chapters and journal articles on bone biology of diverse populations with clinical and forensic applications.
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Siân Davies-Vollum (Geology)

Siân Davies-Vollum is an Associate Professor of Geoscience in the Environmental Science program at the University of Washington-Tacoma (UWT). Born and educated in the UK, she has a BA and Ph.D. in Geology from Oxford University, and an M.Sc. in Environmental Technology from Imperial College, London. Her research focuses on sedimentology of river environments and the plant-based material that they preserve. She has conducted field research in North America and Europe, and has participated in geological field trips in South America, South Africa and Asia. Recently, she has been researching interdisciplinary environmental issues in Washington’s Puget Sound. Professor Davies-Vollum has been very involved in curriculum development at UWT. She developed the Geoscience component of the Environmental Science program, and was a founding faculty member of the freshman general education curriculum. She has taught a variety of courses in environmental science and geology, including field courses in the US and UK, and has published a number of pedagogical research papers. She taught on the SAS summer 2003 and fall 2009 voyages and is pleased to be sailing again with her husband and daughter.
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Matthew Davis (English)

Matthew Davis is director of the Core Knowledge Foundation Language Arts Program. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the eighteenth-century English man of letters Samuel Johnson. He has taught at UVA and the College of William & Mary and recently held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of St. Andrews. He has published scholarly articles on Shakespeare, Milton, Samuel Johnson, and Robert Frost. He is also an authority on early reading instruction and a veteran editor of text and trade books for children. His editing credits include What Your Fourth Grader Needs to Know, What Your Fifth Grade Needs to Know, What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know, the Pearson Core Knowledge History and Geography series (grades K-6), and more than a hundred titles in the Core Knowledge Reading Program (grades K-2). He has studied abroad in the former Soviet Union and traveled extensively in Europe and North America. He will be traveling with his wife Susan and their two daughters.
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Susan Davis (Politics)

Susan M. Davis is an Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs at the University of Virginia, where she has held various legal and policy roles since 1999. She was engaged in the private practice of law for five years before joining the University of Virginia as an Associate General Counsel and Special Assistant Attorney General. From 1999 to 2004, she defended the University in numerous federal and state court actions involving student claims of discrimination and deprivation of constitutional rights. Since 2004, Davis has advised the Division of Student Affairs on various topics including freedom of speech, student disciplinary matters, hazing, sexual assault, and education and health records privacy. She has authored numerous university policies in these areas and has contributed to several pieces of state legislation impacting Virginia institutions of higher education. She has served as a guest lecturer in university law and higher education courses and is the primary advisor to the University’s student-run Judiciary Committee. She holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from Temple University. As a student, she participated in three semesters abroad in Spain and excavated Roman ruins on an archaeological dig in Mallorca. More recently, she has enjoyed exploring Mayan ruins on family trips to the Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, and Guatemala. She will be sailing with her husband Matthew and their two intrepid daughters.
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Tracy Ehlers (Anthropology)

Tracy Ehlers is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Denver where she has taught since 1987. She is the author of Silent Looms: Women and Production in a Guatemalan Town, based on her research in a developing Mayan community. Her second book, Sugar’s Life in the Hood, tells the life story of an entrepreneurial African American woman trying to get off welfare. She collaborated with England’s Granada Television to produce a documentary film based on her work in Guatemala for their award-winning series, Disappearing World. In 1995, Ehlers was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Costa Rica where she studied microenterprise and taught at the National University. It was there that she began to be interested in the anthropology of tourism. In 2001, Dr. Ehlers won the University Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award at DU. She is founder and director of Women Work Together, a non-profit organization that partners with community leaders to empower rural women and girls in highland Guatemala.
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Gustavo Fares (Spanish Literature/Studio Art)

Fares is a Professor at Lawrence University, where he specializes in Latin American and cultural studies. A native of Argentina, he received a J.D. Law Degree, from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, in Argentina, a Master in Foreign Languages and Literature from West Virginia University, and a Ph. D. in Latin American Literature with emphasis in cultural studies from the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of four books, among them Imagining Comala. The Space in Juan Rulfo’s Works (Peter Lang, 1991), and Contemporary Argentinean Women Writers: A Critical Anthology (U. P. of Florida, 1998, with E. Hermann). Fares has published numerous articles and has presented more than ninety papers on topics such as literature, visual arts, Latin American cultures, women studies, and border studies. In 2004 he was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, in Mendoza, Argentina, where he taught a graduate seminar on culture and identity. In 2006 he traveled throughout Asia with a Freeman Grant from Lawrence University. He taught in the SAS Fall 2008 Voyage. In addition to teaching, Fares is also an accomplished visual artist. He holds a Professor of Painting and Drawing degree from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes “Prilidiano Pueyrredón” from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a Master in Painting and Lithography from West Virginia University. He has had numerous solo and group exhibits, both in the United States and abroad, and has taught several university courses on visual arts.
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David Fernandez Díaz (Spanish)

Originally from Barcelona, Spain, David holds a licenciatura (Bachelor and Masters degree) in Philology, a Master's in Cognitive Science and Language (University of Barcelona), a Master's in Spanish Literature (SUNY Binghamton) and currently, he has completed his 2nd year PhD in Spanish Literature at the University of Virginia. He is going to do his dissertation on 18th and 19th Century Spanish literature with particular emphasis on Spanish / Catalan Romanticism under the supervision of David T. Gies. At present, he is working on two articles on Clarin's La Regenta and Roja's La Celestina. He has taught from introductory to intermediate and advance levels of Spanish at different universities and has traveled to Spain, England, Switzerland, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States. When he is not dreaming being on the ship or learning more about UNIX-like operating systems, David reads literature, history and philosophy.
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M. Müge Finkel (Politics)

Professor Finkel is Assistant Professor of International Development at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) at University of Pittsburgh. She completed her PhD in Political Science at the University of Virginia, specializing in Comparative Social Policy and Japanese Politics. She completed her MA in International Relations from International University of Japan in Japan, and her BA in Political Science from Bogazici University in Turkey. Prior to joining GSPIA, she worked as a Social Development Specialist at the World Bank for the Middle East and North Africa Region, and consulted for the International Food Policy Research Institute. She has worked on various development projects in Yemen, Egypt and Morocco. Her areas of expertise are Community-Driven Development, especially related to youth and women’s issues; Social and Environmental Impact Assessment; Country Social Analysis; Participatory Program Development; and Gender and Development. Among her publications are What Makes a Camp Safe: the Protection of Children from Abduction in Internally Displaced Persons and Refugee Camps, Co-authored with Simon Reich (2008); “Voices of the Youth: Background Papers and Country Case Studies from Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Yemen” , and “Securing a Future for All, Middle East-North Africa Regional Social Development Strategy” both co-authored with the MNA Social Development Team for the World Bank.
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Julia Hansen (English)

Julia Hansen holds a B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia. In the fall of 2010, she will begin a PhD program in English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan, where her intended focus is Nineteenth-Century American women’s poetry and poetics. Her own poems have appeared in Shenandoah, Prairie Schooner, and Southeast Review; she received the Academy of American Poets Prize in 2008, and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. While her scholarly research is focused on women poets living in the United States during the nineteenth century, she is also intrigued by the transatlantic exchange of literature, and by the permeable boundaries between “national” literatures and genres. She is pleased to return to the MV Explorer, having sailed on the fall 2008 voyage.
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Andrew Kahn (Drama)

Drew Kahn is Chairman and Full Professor of the Theater Department at Buffalo State College where he teaches acting, voice, movement (President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching/SUNY) and directs main stage productions (Kennedy Center Award). He is the Founding Director of The Anne Frank Project, an annual tolerance conference at Buffalo State College that utilizes the wisdom of Anne Frank as a springboard for the intense examination of genocide, hatred and intolerance through the interdisciplinary lens of the liberal arts. He presents nationally and internationally on the universal language of theater and the intersection of the arts and genocide as a means towards meaningful social change—most recently in Rwanda, Russia and Mexico. Drew has extensive acting experience in regional theatre and off-Broadway (part of Andre’ DeShields’ original cast of Saint Tous), feature film (Paramount Pictures’ Necessary Roughness) as well as several television and commercial credits. In Buffalo, New York, Drew was the host of WKBW-TV’s (ABC) AM Buffalo for six years, hosted the WNED (PBS) documentary Saving a Landmark: The Darwin Martin House (Telly Award) and has numerous local stage credits including Lobby Hero, A Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and Baltimore Waltz (ArtVoice Artie Award). He received an MFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University and a BA in Drama from San Diego State University. His favorite roles are husband to his wife Maria and dad to his children Sam and Nate.
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Charles Morris (Psychology)

Charles J. Morris is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Provost from Denison University, a liberal arts college in Ohio, where he taught for 30 years. He was recognized for outstanding teaching on a number of occasions throughout his career and received a Teaching Excellence Award from his alma mater upon his retirement. He earned a B.S. degree in Psychology from Denison University and his M.A. and Ph.D from the University of Missouri. His primary teaching interests are human learning & memory and genetics & behavior. Current research activities focus on aging and memory and the use of standardized test scores to evaluate Florida's schools. He has also published research on the application of learning principles to classroom instruction. Professor Morris taught during the Fall 2009 voyage of the MV Explorer. He and his wife Carol have also traveled extensively during the past 10 years, including month-long visits to Scandanavia, France, Italy, Greece, Spain/Portugal, Russia, British Isles, and the Galapagos Islands.
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Martina Musteen (Business/Commerce)

Dr. Musteen is Associate Professor of management and entrepreneurship at the San Diego State University (SDSU). She earned her Ph.D. degree in management from the University of Kansas (KU), MBA from CIMBA, Italy, and bachelors at the European Division of the University of Maryland in Heidelberg, Germany, where she graduated summa cum laude. Dr. Musteen has won multiple awards for her teaching both in KU and SDSU. In 2008, she was awarded a prestigious national teaching award – the Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award and, in 2009, she won the Faculty Recognition Award in Teaching for the College of Business Administration. This year, Dr. Musteen was awarded the Outstanding Teacher recognition by the SDSU Senate. Dr. Musteen teaches courses in strategic management and international entrepreneurship in the undergraduate, graduate and executive programs. She has also taught seminars in Taiwan and Italy. An active researcher, Dr. Musteen presented her papers at numerous international academic conferences. Her work appeared or is forthcoming in the Journal of Management, Journal of World Business, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Management International Review, British Journal of Management and Journal of International Business Studies.
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Duane Osheim (History)

Duane Osheim (History) received his BA degree in History from Luther College, an MA from the University of Nebraska (History) and a PhD degree from the University of California at Davis (History). He has taught Medieval and Early Modern European History at the University of Virginia since 1974. A specialist in the social and cultural history of Italy, he has won the Dissertation Prize of the Society for Italian Historical Studies and a Rome Prize Fellowship of the American Academy in Rome. His work has especially concerned the social and cultural influences of religion and the impact of epidemic diseases on Renaissance culture. His publications include A Tuscan Monastery and it Social World, Beyond Florence: the Contours of Medieval and Early Modern Italy (co-editor and contributor) and Chronicling History: chroniclers and historians in Medieval and Renaissance Italy (co-editor and contributor). Although he and his wife have spent a number of years in Italy and travelled extensively there, they are excited at the prospect of comparing what they know of Italian life to the cultures of the other lands of the Mediterranean.
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Emilie Roman (French)

Emilie is from Aix-en-Provence, France. She holds a Master's in History of the Mediterranean, European and African worlds, a Master's in American Civilization and Literature and a Master's in French Language and Literature. Her main research interest focuses on Time and Memory in visual materials. Emilie spent a year at Washington College in Maryland, researching her thesis concerning the Bicentennial of American Independence. After her second Masters at the University of Provence, France, she became a French Teaching Assistant at the University of Virginia, and then a Grad student in the French department of this same University. She has taught from introductory to intermediate and advance levels of French. She has traveled to Morocco, Spain, England, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Germany, Canada, Mexico and the United States. When she is not traveling Emilie enjoys learning about anything and everything.
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Edmund Russell (History/Science, Technology, and Society)

Edmund Russell is an associate professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society and in the Department of History at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1994. He received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He has published three books and many articles related to environmental history and the history of technology. His research has focused on the environmental history of war and on the role of evolution (especially in populations of non-human species) in human history. Mr. Russell’s books include War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring (Cambridge University Press) and Evolutionary History: Uniting History and Biology to Understand Life on Earth (Cambridge University Press). Mr. Russell’s research has won five prizes, including the Leopold-Hidy and Rachel Carson Prizes from the American Society for Environmental History and the Edelstein Prize of the Society from the History of Technology. His teaching has been honored with three awards, including the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award. Mr. Russell worked for two and a half years in the Philippines as a volunteer and as a researcher, was a visiting fellow at Cambridge University, and is a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University.
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Michael Timko (Biology)

Michael P. Timko is currently a Professor of Biology at the University of Virginia and Director of the Distinguished Major Program in Human Biology. He received a BS from the Rutgers College of Agriculture and Environmental Science in 1975, studied genetics and plant breeding at Michigan State University, and earned his PhD from Rutgers University in 1980. He held postdoctoral positions at Brandeis University and Rockefeller University, where he was involved in some of the seminal studies of gene expression in plants and the construction of transgenic crops. He joined the faculty at the University of Virginia in 1986 where he teaches courses that integrate his interests in plant biology, food and nutrition, human health and health policy. He directs an internationally recognized research program that uses functional genomics for the molecular improvement of crops for Africa, develops novel nutriceuticals and therapeutics to treat human disease, and studies the effects of harm reduced tobacco products on human health. His work is supported by various national and international granting agencies and private foundations. He has authored or co-authored over 100 research papers, book chapters and review articles and holds multiple US and world-wide patents in agricultural and nutritional biotechnology. In 2009 he was recipient of the Hartwell Foundation Individual Biomedical Research Award for his work on probiotic-based therapeutics. He previously sailed on the Fall 2008 voyage.
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