Faculty Biographies

Agle, Bradley R.

www.katz.pitt.edu/fac_pages/Agle.htm

Arner, Lynn P.

www.pitt.edu/~wstudies/facstaff/researchpubs.html

Bartholomae, David

David Bartholomae is chair of the Department of English. He has written widely on composition theory and instruction and has coauthored three books including Facts, Artifacts, and Counterfacts. Bartholomae is coeditor of the Pittsburgh Series on Composition, Literacy, and Culture and is a former chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

Brumble, H. David

David Brumble, professor of English, graduated from Portland State University (BA) and the University of Nebraska (PhD). He has twice served as academic dean for Semester at Sea, and has served as interim director of the University libraries. He specializes in Medieval and Renaissance literature, the Bible as literature, and American Indian literature.

Brumble comments that, “I am ever more convinced that one of the two most important reasons for teaching literature is that literature can lead students to see the world according to the dictates and assumptions which are not their own. This is particularly the case with an historical approach to literature, where one cannot assume that one’s personal response to a character or moral question is necessarily of much help in the search for meaning in the text.”

Budny, Daniel D.

www.engr.pitt.edu/civil/about/faculty/budny_daniel.html

Card, John P.

http://cnup.neurobio.pitt.edu/alphafac_details.cfm?id=9

Carr, Jean F.

Jean Ferguson Carr has taught writing for many years and was the director of composition in the English department from 1998–2001. She attended Wellesley College and then got her BA from Williams College, where she majored in English and history. She got her doctoral degree from the University of Michigan, writing a dissertation about autobiographical novels, diaries, and letters of Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope. She chose the topic before she realized that those two writers have written more and longer novels than anyone else.

Working with Dave Bartholomae, Carr coedits the Pittsburgh Series on Composition, Literacy, and Culture, which is celebrating its 10th year.

Carr is writing a book about 19th-century American schoolbooks, working with a wonderful collection of schoolbooks in the Pitt library's special collections. She is interested in how students—of the past and present—learn to read and write, how they negotiate school, and assumptions about "good writing." Many of the schoolbooks she studies have marks made by actual students from the 19th century—answers, assignments, calculations, and the timeless doodle. She particularly enjoys seeing signs of how such students responded to (and resisted) their schooling.

Carr has taught at Pitt since 1986, and is a tenured associate professor in English and women's studies. She is married to another professor at Pitt, Stephen Carr, who also teaches in the English department, and they have two great kids: Maggie, who is graduating from high school this year and leaving for college; and Julia, who is 9, has red hair, and loves dogs.

Corbesero, Susan

Susan Corbesero holds a PhD in history with a specialization in Soviet history. Her interests in visual culture and propaganda led her to design a historical re-enactment of a Soviet May Day parade in conjunction with the Russian Film Symposium at the University of Pittsburgh based on her original research. In addition to banners, placards and a parade, the event included a translation and production of an authentic agitational play for workers from the 1930s. Dr. Corbesero is also a designer, curator and primary researcher for Stalinka, a digital library of Staliniana intended for scholarly and educational purposes.

Before receiving her doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh (2005), Dr. Corbesero studied at Middlebury College for Russian language training and also at Pennsylvania State University (BA, international relations, 1985). Her research frequently takes her to Russia and Europe.

Dr. Corbesero has taught a variety of courses at the University of Pittsburgh, including historical surveys, upper-level seminars, and honors courses on Soviet and Russian history, Stalin and Stalinism, Russian Revolutionary Movements, Gender and Public Art, Scientific Exploration, Global Issues, and European Dictatorships.

Although a long time resident of Pittsburgh, Dr. Corbesero also spends considerable time in her native, and lovably quirky, Rhode Island. While she has always been a popular culture junkie, Dr. Corbesero now has another addiction: her bewitching young son, Spencer.

Denova, Rebecca

Rebecca Denova is an instructor in the Department of Religious Studies at Pitt, and most recently completed eight years of an associate professorship in religious studies at Bethany College in West Virginia.

As a doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh, she participated in a yearlong workshop sponsored by the American Academy of Religion for training in the application of various teaching methodologies in religion courses, and her classes at Bethany focused on theoretical approaches to the human religious experience and encompassed the major religious traditions of the world.

Denova is the author of The Things Accomplished Among Us: Prophetic Tradition in the Structural Pattern of Luke-Acts (Sheffield, 1997), articles on early Christianity, and various book reviews. Her areas of teaching interest include Second Temple Judaism, early Christianity, Jewish-Christian relations, and historical and literary criticism of ancient religious texts.

At the University of Pittsburgh, she is responsible for a two-part course on the emergence of Christianity within the world of Second Temple Judaism (The Origins of Christianity and the New Testament), and the evolution of Christianity as an independent religion within the Roman Empire (Varieties of Early Christianity).

Denova was a 1990 recipient of the Israel Heritage Room Scholarship for dissertation research in Jerusalem and also has received grants from Bethany College for research in Ostia, Italy, and the investigation of Etruscan tomb art in Tuscany, Italy. She has lectured frequently in the Pittsburgh area, particularly for synagogue communities and interfaith groups. Denova offers seminars for the Academy of Lifelong Learning (Elderhostel), the American-Jewish Committee, the Jewish Education Institute, and Mt. Lebanon Public Library. In the summer of 2001, she served on the teaching faculty for Semester at Sea.

Erbe, Arthur

Arthur Erbe graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (BA) and Carnegie Mellon University (MA and PhD). He was awarded a Carnegie Fellowship for graduate study in English. He also has studied in several foreign countries such as Ireland, England, France, and Italy. In addition Erbe has written several key study guides for courses in the English department, such as Introduction to Shakespeare (which received a national award for both its approach to teaching literature and the content), Short Story in Context, and Introduction to Critical Reading.

During the past 10 years he has taught several courses in the University Honors College and plans to continue to develop material for future courses. He is interested in the way texts from the past affect contemporary writers and connect to recent literature, especially how modern writers draw on and shape material from other writers and ages. He is especially interested in modern American literature, both poetry and fiction, and enjoys teaching courses that explore and evaluate texts written in the past 20 years of the 20th century. He is particularly interested in sharing ideas with students through class discussion.

Erlen, Jonathon

Jonathon Erlen, PhD, a graduate of the University of Kentucky, has academic appointments in the Departments of History and Sociology, the Graduate School of Public Health, and the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. He also runs the history of medicine program for the School of Medicine.

His most recent book, published in 2003, The Ladies Dispensatory, is a look at mid-17th-century health care. His next book, due in 2004, is Federal Drug Control: The Evolution of Policy and Practice, which is a volume examining the evolution of federal drug policy in the United States from the 1880s to 2001.

Erlen has taught and published in the areas of the history of medicine and biomedical ethics. He is a regular contributing editor to approximately 20 national and international journals and databases, and he maintains the international database of recently published doctoral dissertations in the medical humanities, AIDS, public and international health, and women's health issues.

Erlen’s particular fields of expertise are American public health and psychiatry and the law. He is an avid reader of science fiction and mystery novels, while seldom passing up sporting events. Occasionally he can be found on the golf course.

Franklin, Don

Don Franklin is a music historian and performer whose teaching and research focus on 18th-century music, in particular the music of J.S. Bach. In addition to carrying out research in the Bach archives in Leipzig and Berlin, Germany, he has been a guest professor at the Hochschule of Music in Berlin. A harpsichordist and conductor, Franklin directs the Bach and Baroque series that presents a concert each semester in Heinz Chapel.

Galpern, Allan N.

Neal Galpern is an associate professor of history and studied at Columbia College and the University of California at Berkeley. He has lived in France, Belgium, England, and Spain, and traveled in Portugal and the Netherlands. His next destination is Italy.

Giarratani, Frank

www.econ.pitt.edu/facpage.php?uid=20

Giazzoni, Michael J.

http://www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/advising/giazzoni.html

Grabowski, Joseph J.

Joseph J. Grabowski joined the Pitt faculty in September 1991 and is interested in state-of-the-art teaching and research methods. His research spans fundamental issues in physical-organic chemistry (especially as related to ion-chemistry, photochemistry, and electronic structure calculations) and analytical mass spectrometry (especially as related to neuroproteins and peptides, characterization of noncovalent interactions, and trace analysis of airborne entities).

Grobowski’s interests in teaching include the use of the Web, technology in the classroom, bio-organic chemistry for undergraduates, and graduate-level physical-organic chemistry. His service interests include mass spectrometry, libraries, the Web, and improving teaching.

Jacobson, Lewis A.

Lewis Jacobson is associate professor of biological sciences. His present research focuses on the genetics, physiology, and biochemistry of muscle atrophy and hypertrophy, using transgenic animals and immunochemical methods for the analysis of protein turnover in vivo.

Jacobson is a strong supporter of undergraduate research opportunities and has sponsored several students who received Chancellor's Undergraduate Research Fellowships and Goldwater Scholarships in recent years. He has taught genetics for the University Honors College since 1994.

Kafka, Janet

Janet Kafka is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh (BA and MA) who specializes in the teaching of writing. Her conviction that undergraduates develop profoundly as readers and writers when they see themselves as teachers, as well as learners, in their classrooms leads her to encourage extensive student responsibility for classroom priorities. It also has resulted in her serving as faculty sponsor for a number of undergraduate teaching fellowship projects in composition.

In addition, Kafka has been an editorial assistant for several books on composition and project editor for several young-adult novels, has assisted in conducting four National Endowment for the Humanities summer seminars in writing taught at the University, and has been involved in teacher training for graduate students new to the teaching of composition. Her muse, mentor, and mage is Bob Dylan.

Karapinka, Orysia

Orysia Karapinka, associate professor of history, specializes in modern Europe and early-modern and modern Russia. She received her BA degree from Smith College and her MA and PhD degrees from the University of California at Berkeley.

In commenting about the role of higher education in civilization, Karapinka has said: "This is a tall order. But if higher education has any 'role' at all, it is to create literate, critically thinking graduates trained to learn, to analyze, and to judge—individuals who are capable of forming opinions and judgments about the world they live in. Above all, perhaps, it teaches students to discriminate. ... If, for example, a graduate thinks that both Sydney Sheldon and Leo Tolstoy are 'fun,' 'good,' and 'enjoyable,' then we have definitely failed."

Moss, Jessica Dawn

www.pitt.edu/~philosop/people/moss.html

Novosel, Anthony Stephen

Tony Novosel is a former steelworker who came to the University of Pittsburgh as a freshman at the age of 32. He has a BA in history and political science (1989) and an MA (1991) in Soviet and Russian history, and is working on his PhD in Soviet history. He also serves as a full-time School of Arts and Sciences academic advisor.

Novosel has traveled extensively throughout Europe and has visited the battlefields of The Great War in Belgium and France the past three summers. For the past six years, he has worked with a peace and reconciliation program in Northern Ireland and with the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition. Presently his main academic work and energy are focused on studying the origins of the Great War, the war itself, and how that war helped create the modern world.

Oestreicher, Richard J.

www.pitt.edu/~pitthist/faculty/oestreicher.html

Owens, Eric W.

Eric Owens has been a full-time staff member in the UHC since Fall, 2000, both as Housemaster of Forbes-Craig and now as the Coordinator of Community Development and Honors Housing. Prior to coming to the University Honors College (UHC), Owens was a resident director at the University. He earned his BA degree in communications and political science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1994. He received his MA in higher education counseling and administration from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He has resumed his studies, pursuing a PhD in counseling education and supervision from Duquesne University. Owens has been an instructor for freshman studies as well as serving as a facilitator in the Emerging Leaders Program. When he isn’t in Forbes-Craig or UHC, Owens is likely enjoying a Pittsburgh Penguins game or hitting the ice himself playing recreational hockey.

Rawson, Christopher H.

www.english.pitt.edu/people/faculty/rawson.html

Ricketts, Thomas

www.pitt.edu/~philosop/people/ricketts.html

Ruck, Rob

Rob Ruck is a senior lecturer of the history department and on the faculty of the Center for Latin American Studies. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University ('72) and his PhD in history from Pitt ('83). He is coauthor of Steve Nelson, American Radical, and the author of Sandlot Seasons: Sport in Black Pittsburgh and The Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic. His documentary, Kings on the Hill: Baseball's Forgotten Men, received an Emmy in 1993. He is writing a history of Pittsburgh with Ted Muller and is working on a documentary about baseball in the Dominican Republic.

Schwartz, Jeffrey

Jeffrey Schwartz is a professor of physical anthropology whose main areas of interest are phylogeny and systematics of fossil and living primates, evolutionary theory, and osteoarchaeology. Schwartz is a graduate of Columbia University, where he received his MPhil and PhD in anthropology. Schwartz is also a research associate in the American Museum of Natural History. His hobbies are the banjo, country music, and gardening.

Siegel, Michael I.

Michael Siegel is a professor of anthropology. He is a graduate of Queens College and the City University of New York, where he received his PhD in physical anthropology. His areas of specialization are anatomy and experimental morphology. His hobby is fly-fishing. Siegel has taught regularly in the University Honors College (UHC) since its inception and says he "enjoys the enthusiasm of the UHC students."

Siska, Peter E.

Peter Siska did his undergraduate work at DePaul University, his graduate work at Harvard University, and postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago. He is professor of chemistry, specializing in physical chemistry with emphasis on gas-phase molecular collisions.

Besides regularly teaching in the University Honors College, Siska has taught extensively in the nonhonors general chemistry, physical chemistry, and graduate programs, and in the freshman studies program. Undergraduates, often veterans of his honors courses, may usually be found working in his research laboratory.

About honors chemistry, he says, "Coming out of high school, many students have an impression of chemistry as a hodgepodge of elements, compounds, and reactions, and some are not too fond of it. In this course it is my devout intention to alter both perceptions. Chemistry is not only a unified science, with a few overarching principles, but it is one with the other natural sciences, and it is fun!"

Siska's hobbies include music, numismatics, sports, general tinkering, and keeping up with his children.

Skrzycki, Cynthia Louise

www.english.pitt.edu/people/faculty/skrzyki.html

Stahl, Hans-Peter

Hans-Peter Stahl is the Andrew Mellon Professor of Classics at the University of Pittsburgh. A graduate of gymnasium Katharineum, Lubeck, and the University of Kiel, Germany, Stahl has been an associate professor in classics at Muenster University in Germany; a junior fellow at Harvard University's Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C.; an associate professor at Yale University; a Guggenheim fellow; and a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow. In addition, he has twice been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1974–75 and 1980–81).

Stahl has published on Greek drama (Euripides); historiography (Herodotus, Thucydides); philosophy (Plato); Roman satire (Horace); elegy (Propertius); and epic (Virgil). Recently, he convened two international conferences in Pittsburgh and in Oxford, England, on Augustan epic and political context.

Stahl says he sees the University Honors College as "a chance for high-quality instruction with community-wide benefits—specifically, the challenge for the not-yet-specialized student to critically face a researcher on his own ground; and vice versa, the challenge for the scholar to explain his research to a demanding nonspecialist audience." He also believes that "by critically informing students of the time-proven as well as developing experiences of human potential and failure, undergraduate studies can provide a passport to enlightened and responsible leadership in the community of mankind."

Stewart, G. Alec

http://www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/contact/dean.html

Tsoukas, Liann

www.pitt.edu/~pitthist/faculty/tsoukas.html

Wendell, Richard

Richard Wendell is a professor of business administration at the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business. He received his PhD in operations research at Northwestern University and previously has served on the faculties of the Ohio State University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

In addition, Wendell has held short-term appointments and research fellowships at the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (Belgium), the Center for Econometrics and Mathematical Economics (Belgium), the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management, and the Czech Management Center. He also served as a faculty member in the Semester at Sea program and has visited more than 35 countries.

Wendell’s research includes about 50 papers in the theory and applications of decision technologies (two of which are highlighted in current texts). His work in applications includes re-engineering of bank processes, facility location, project management, air pollution control, solid waste disposal, production planning, and design of manufacturing processes. He has received several grants from the National Science Foundation and has consulted for a number of companies.

Wendell has extensive experience in executive education at the Katz School and has taught in executive programs at a number of companies. Courses and seminars that he regularly teaches include decision technologies, financial services, and project management. Wendell says he enjoys teaching in the honors college for the stimulation in working with outstanding students and in introducing them to what he believes is one of the most exciting areas of business. Wendell also says he enjoys relating to the students from the perspective of his having once been an undergraduate student at the University of Pittsburgh.

His personal interests include beekeeping, wine making, traveling, and swing dancing.

Wion, Philip K.

Philip Wion is a graduate of Swarthmore College (BA) and Yale University (MA and PhD). An associate professor of English, his area of specialization is literature of the English Renaissance. He is active in the University Senate, is treasurer of the United Faculty, and plays viola in the Westmoreland Symphony and with the Pittsburgh Savoyards.

Wood, David C.

David Wood is an associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience. He graduated from Williams College where he earned a BA in political science. He received his MA in science education from Harvard University, and a PhD in psychology from the University of Michigan.

His research interest is in the electrophysiological and biochemical bases of simple learning processes. He believes that the principal value of education to students is to enable them to apply the concepts and principles they have learned in a course to new and different situations; therefore, this problem-solving approach is used extensively throughout this course.

Yates, Billy Joe

Bill Yates is an associate professor of otolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat surgery) in the School of Medicine, and studies the role of the vestibular system in regulating changes in blood distribution in the body and respiratory muscle activity that are required during movement and changes in posture. This research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, NASA, and industry. Yates also holds an appointment in the Department of Neuroscience and has taught courses through the University Honors College for seven years.

Yates received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Florida School of Medicine in 1986, and subsequently joined the faculty of Rockefeller University in New York City where he remained for eight years. Yates joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh in 1994.

Yurasits, Louis A.

Lou Yurasits is an academic advisor in the School of Arts and Sciences Advising Center and teaches in the freshman studies and health focus programs. He earned his PhD in biological sciences (ecology and evolution) from the University of Pittsburgh and has taught in the Department of Biological Sciences both at the Oakland campus and at the Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology.

Yurasits is also an adjunct biology faculty member at Carlow University and the Community College of Allegheny County. When not entertaining or otherwise serving his two young daughters, Kimberly and Natalie, Yurasits consumes nonfiction of all sorts, studies foreign languages, lifts weights, and occasionally escapes with his wife, Linda, to cross-country ski, mountain bike, or sail.