Women's Studies Department Faculty
Full-Time Faculty: Charusheela | Comella | Helmbold | Revilla | Roth-Johnson
Part-Time Faculty: Bowles | Duncan | Gage | Hall-Patton | Hernquist | Hughes | Jackson | Juneau | Kim | Piren | Sandler | Sanford | Shegog | Smedley | Wax | Zisch
If your instructor is not here, please see listings at Faculty Affiliates
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S. Charusheela, PhD, Associate Professor, Graduate Advisor 702-895-0467 s.charusheela@unlv.edu |
| Dr. S. "Charu" Charusheela earned her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, May 1997, her M.A. in Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, May 1992, and her B.A. (Hons.) in Economics, Delhi University, 1985. Her research interests are in feminist political economy, economic methodology (ontology), postcolonial thought and economics, and development discourse. |
| Lynn Comella, PhD, Assistant Professor, Undergraduate Advisor 702-895-5451 lynn.comella@unlv.edu |
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| Dr. Lynn Comella earned her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, her M.A. in Gender Studies and Feminist Theory from the New School for Social Research, and her B.A. (Highest Distinction) in Psychology, with minors in Anthropology and Women’s Studies, from Penn State University. Her research and teaching interests include media and popular culture, gender and consumer culture, sexuality studies, and ethnographic research. She is the author of “It’s Sexy. It’s Big Business. And It’s Not Just for Men,” “Looking Backward: Barnard and its Legacies,” “(Safe) Sex and the City: On Vibrators, Masturbation, and the Myth of ‘Real’ Sex,” and “Re-inventing Times Square: Cultural Value and Images of ‘Citizen Disney.’” An invited chapter contribution, “Remaking the Sex Industry: The Adult Expo as a Microcosm,” is forthcoming in Sex for Sale: Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Industry 2nd edition. She is presently completing a book on the history and retail culture of feminist sex toy stores and the growth of the women’s sex toy market in the United States. Dr. Comella has received research support from the College of Liberal Arts at UNLV, the Social Science Research Council’s Sexuality Research Fellowship Program, the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center, and the Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. |
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Lois Helmbold, PhD, Professor and Chair 895-0837 e-mail for UNLV people: lois.helmbold@unlv.edu; e-mail for the rest of the world: helmbold@unlv.nevada.edu Thanks! |
| Professor Lois Rita Helmbold (Ph.D. American History, Stanford University, 1982) is a member of the founding generation of women’s studies. She invented the first women’s studies course at San Jose State University in 1970, where she worked with students and faculty to establish a women’s studies program. Her primary research interests include the simultaneity of gender, race, and class in women’s lives; women’s work; working class women; and the Great Depression. Making Choices, Making Do: Survival Strategies of Black and White Working Class Women during the Great Depression is forthcoming. She has published widely in historical and women’s studies interdisciplinary journals, including Labor History, Feminist Studies, Frontiers, Reviews in American History, Women’s Review of Books, and in the award-winning Black Women in America: a Historical Encyclopedia. Among her honors are Phi Beta Kappa, Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Teaching Intern, Rockefeller Humanist in Residence, and Fulbright Senior Lecturer in Japan. In her spare time she is an activist, a martial artist, and a quilter. |
| Anita Tijerina Revilla, PhD Assistant Professor 895-1525 anita.revilla@unlv.edu |
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| Anita Tijerina Revilla is an assistant professor in Women’s Studies at UNLV. She received her Ph.D. at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies within the division of Social Sciences and Comparative Education. Her areas of expertise include Latina/o Critical Theory, Critical Race Theory, Education, and 301).Chicana/Latina Feminist and Queer Studies. Her independent research focuses on the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality in the experiences of Chicanas/Latinas and other women of color, especially as it relates to feminist and Queer activism, social movements, and social justice education. Some of her most recent publications include: "Muxerista Pedagogy: Raza Womyn Teaching Social Justice Through Activism," published in The High School Journal, 87 (4), 2004, (80-94) and "Inmensa Fe en le Victoria [Immense Faith in Victory]: Social Justice Through Education." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 24 (2&3), 2003, (282-301). |
| Danielle Roth-Johnson, PhD 895-1024 Danielle.Roth-Johnson@unlv.edu | |
A Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Women’s Studies,
Danielle Roth-Johnson received her Ph.D. from Stanford University and
has taught at Penn State and the University of Texas-Arlington. Her
early research centered on sociolinguistic analyses of the French
language, with a particular focus on the works of Maryse Condé, Violette Leduc and Alexandra David-Néel. At present, her
research and teaching interests are primarily centered upon analyses of the
impact of public and environmental policies on women’s health, the written
narratives of girls and women with disabilities, and the activism of women in
environmental justice movements around the world.Roth-Johnson's most recent publications include “The Administrative Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Nevada School Districts, 1996-2004,” (Journal of Nevada Public Health Association, 2008), “Autism and Special Education in Mexico” (Global Health Governance, 2, no. 1 (2008): http://www.ghgj.org/Volume II Issue 1.htm)), "The Effects of Education on Fertility in Colombia and Peru," (Global Health Governance 1, no. 2 (2007): http://www.ghgj.org/Volume I, Issue 2.htm)) and a post-publication peer review (e-letter) of Paul T. Shattuck’s article “The Contribution of Diagnostic Substitution to the Growing Administrative Prevalence of Autism in U. S. Special Education (Pediatrics 2006: 1028-1037, http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/eletters/117/4/1028#1943). Recent conference papers include “’That Sex Which is Not One’: Autism, Neurodiversity and Issues of Gender Identity,” presented at the annual conference of the National Women’s Studies Association (June 2007). An aspiring novelist and writer, Roth-Johnson is also currently working on her second novel, a work that focuses on the intersection of gender and environmental justice issues in Nevada. Visit her website at http://faculty.unlv.edu/droth-johnson/. |
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Part-Time Faculty
| Erika Bowles, MA, Discussion Leader erika.bowles@unlv.edu |
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| Erika Bowles is a part time instructor in the Women's Studies Department at UNLV. She earned her B.A. in Sociology from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. Erika received her Masters Degree in Counselor Education, Student Personnel in Higher Education from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. Erika works as a Residential Life Coordinator in Campus Housing at UNLV and works with the Diversity Living Learning Community which partners with the Women's Studies Department and the Student Diversity Programs and Services. |
| Janis Duncan, LCSW Part-Time Instructor duncanj4@unlv.nevada.edu |
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| Janis Duncan was honored in 2007 with the ‘Outstanding Teaching by Part-Time Faculty’ award. She holds a masters degree, MSW in Social Work with a Clinical/Psychiatric concentration, from Tulane University and has done postgraduate course work at Harvard University. She is a professional Psychotherapist with 35 years of experience and maintains a private practice. Prior to moving to Las Vegas, she taught at Rutgers University, Stockton College in New Jersey, and was an Internship Supervisor for the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Social Work. One of Janis's specialty areas is adoption reform. She has been an active keynote speaker, consultant and seminar facilitator for professional adoption organizations/conferences across the U.S. She is currently working on a book and documentary film titled "Hiding Places," which researches historical to current perspectives whereby women have been forced into concealment. Her professional paper titled "The Secrecy of American Unwed Mothers and Maternity Homes" was presented in Belgium in 1995 at the Tri-Country (Belgium, Germany, and The Netherlands) annual Adoption Conference. Janis currently teaches WMST 113 classes and has served as a faculty advisor for the former all-women's dormitory floor known as W.I.L.L. "Women Involved in Leadership and Learning" at UNLV. Having a passion for acting, Janis was the Campaign Organizer, Director/Producer/Actor for the UNLV 2008 student production of ‘The Vagina Monologues’ and has performed in the Play since 2004. She represented UNLV WMST when attending the 2008 V-Day Tenth Anniversary in New Orleans as a Katrina Warrior. |
| Kendra Gage, Part-Time Instructor | |
| Colleen Hall-Patton, PhD, Part-Time Instructor hallpatt@unlv.nevada.edu |
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| Colleen Hall-Patton teaches WMST 113 for Women’s Studies and several classes in Sociology for UNLV and the University of Phoenix. Her B.A. and M.A. are in Anthropology from UCLA and her PhD is in Sociology from UNLV (2004). Her area of study is using quilting to understand the changes in women’s lives after World War II. Her most recent publication is about Jean Ray Laury, an influential designer and quilter active since the early 1960s (Uncoverings 2005, Journal of the American Quilt Study Group). She is a member of Celebrity City Chorus, which just placed 8th at Sweet Adeline’s International competition. |
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Angela Hernquist, PhD, Part-Time Instructor angela.hernquist@unlv.edu |
| Dr. Angela Hernquist teaches Gender, Race, and Class for the Women’s Studies Department at UNLV and graduate courses in Leadership Development, Strategic Decision Making, and Organizational Leadership of Multicultural Change for the Higher Ed Leadership Department. She has previously taught undergraduate courses in Business and Management. Hernquist researches and publishes on various topics with an emphasis on leadership, and most notably, women in leadership. She is a Certified Practitioner for the Connective Leadership Institute and provides consulting services and training on diversity and dynamic leadership for the 21st century. Hernquist received a B.S. in Business with an emphasis in Organization Design and Development from the University of Colorado Boulder and an M.B.A. from the University of Denver, Daniels School of Business prior to completing a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. She has also attended the University of Bordeaux, France and the London School of Economics. |
| Sharon Hughes, MBA, Part-Time Instructor sharon.hughes@unlv.edu |
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| Sharon Hughes has degrees in Behavioral Science and Business Administration (MBA) from California State University, Dominguez Hills and is completing her doctorate in Educational Administration (ABD) at Pepperdine University. She has more than 25 years of educational administrative and senior level nonprofit management experience and has spent the majority of her life working with marginalized populations. She has certificates in Community College instruction and Adult Learning. She has numerous commendations for her community work from City, State and National organizations. She is President of Access One Grant Writing, a grant writing and research organization (www.accessonegrants.biz). She is also a Federal Grant Reviewer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and has been an adjunct professor for the University of Phoenix for 14 years. |
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Crystal Jackson, PhD Candidate, Discussion Leader and Research Assistant cajackso@unlv.nevada.edu |
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Crystal Jackson earned her M.A. in Sociology (2007) and Women's Studies Graduate Certificate (2009) from UNLV. She is currently working on a Ph.D. in sociology, specializing in how inequalities around gender and sexuality are both reproduced and challenged within law, politics, and economy. She does so by studying sexual commerce across a variety of legal and illegal industries, including an annual professional conference for pornographers, strip club laws, and rural legal brothels in Nevada. Jackson’s academic life and activist life are closely linked, and she advocates for sex workers' rights, LGBTQI rights, im/migrant rights, and women's rights. She believes scholarship is a path toward social change. |
| Gayle Juneau, PhD, Part-Time Instructor gayle.juneau@unlv.edu |
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| Gayle Juneau is the executive director of academic advising at UNLV. She grew up in Louisiana and lived in Florida for 10 years prior to moving to Las Vegas in fall 2006. Her doctoral degree is in the diversity studies and her interests in this realm include authoring social responsibility, desegregation of public schools in the state of Florida, and writing anti-hegemonic standpoints. Gayle is involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Nevada, St. Jude’s Ranch for Children, and is a diversity educator for the environmental education certification program sponsored by the Public Lands Institute. |
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Peter H. Kim, PhD, Part-Time Instructor 895-5563 peter.kim@unlv.edu |
| Peter Kim is a part-time instructor in the Women’s Studies Department at UNLV. He received his Ph.D. at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies within the division of Urban Schooling (2004). He also received a BA in Political Science/History from UCLA (1997). His areas of expertise include Racial Identity Formation, the Model Minority Thesis, Structural Inequalities in American Education; and Higher Educational Access. His research focuses on perceptions of academic ability based on racial hierarchies, forms of capital in American education, the dynamics of power in socially constructed meritocracies, and the Asian American experience. |
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Jennifer F. Piren, MA, Discussion Leader jennifer.piren@unlv.edu |
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Jennifer Piren earned her Master's in Humanistic & Multicultural Education at State University of New York at New Paltz. She is a full time staff member here at the university. She primarily serves UNLV as the Assistant Director for Residential Facilities, and has been at the university for the past three years. Jennifer belongs to the Student Affairs diversity training committee and facilitates diversity awareness workshops for Student Affairs staff members. She received both the "Commitment to Diversity" and "Commitment to Customer Service" awards at the 2009 Rebel Achievement Awards. In addition to diversity training, she has a strong commitment to developing her staff in leadership skills, customer service, and expanding their skill set in the facilities arena. Jennifer grew up in the extremely diverse neighborhood of Sunset Park in Brooklyn, New York. She attended SUNY New Paltz as both an undergraduate in Art History & a graduate student in Humanistic & Multicultural Education. Her training background is diverse and eclectic. She has training background in art therapy, psychodrama, green cleaning, improving staff moral in the workplace, outdoor recreation & team building, conflict resolution, Zen meditation & has most recently developed a program on Taoist leadership & mindfulness meditation which she will be presenting at the Student Affairs Leadership Conference in November 2009. |
| Amy Sandler, PhD, Part-Time Instructor amy.sandler@unlv.edu |
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| Amy earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership with a graduate certificate in Women's Studies from UNLV in 2008. She earned her M.Ed. in College Student Personnel and B.A. in Journalism, both from the University of Maryland, College Park. Amy's primary scholarly interests include gender, sexuality and religion in collegiate sport. Amy’s dissertation, for which she was awarded a $5,000 NCAA Research Grant, was titled, Perceptions of “Others”: The Role of Heterosexism in the Decline of College Women Coaches. In addition to her Women’s Studies teaching responsibilities, Amy also has experience facilitating inter-group dialogues. She recently finished an upcoming publication: Sandler, A. (2008, in press). Just not on my turf: Student-athletes’ perceptions of homosexuality, Journal of Contemporary Athletics, 3(3). Amy will be presenting her most recent work in March 2009 at the Sport, Sexuality, and Culture Conference (Ithaca, NY) and in April at the National Convention for the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (Tampa, FL). |
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Kimberly Sanford, Discussion Leader sanfor25@unlv.nevada.edu |
| Kimberly Sanford is a part-time instructor in the Women's Studies Department and is currently working on her Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies. She earned her B.A. in History from Grand Valley State University in Michigan. |
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Marya Shegog, Discussion Leader marya.shegog@unlv.edu |
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Dr. Marya Shegog is new to the Women’s Studies Department at UNLV. She recently relocated to Las Vegas from Washington, DC by way of Columbia, South Carolina. She has earned Bachelors in Biology with a molecular emphasis from Hampton University, a Masters and a Doctorate in Public Health and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of South Carolina. Currently, Dr. Shegog is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Health Disparities Research at UNLV where she is working on creating a statewide prevention plan for sexual assault/violence within the state of Nevada. Her areas of interest include the lives of African American women and health outcomes, minority health challenges and gender inequities. Dr. Shegog has appeared as the invited speaker for the Illinois HIV/STD conference, on the Dr. Wendy Westbrook’s radio show and at numerous community and professional events within the US and England. In her free time Dr. Shegog enjoys re-finishing wood, reading, great music and spending time with her family and friends. |
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Anna C. Smedley, MSW, LSW , Discussion Leader annacsmedley@yahoo.com |
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Anna is currently a doctoral student in Sociology and a graduate student in the Women's Studies graduate certificate program. She has an undergraduate and graduate degree in Social Work. Prior to returning for her doctoral studies, Anna worked in Diversity at UNLV for the Office of Student Diversity Programs and Services (now the Office of Civic Engagement and Diversity) and for the Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion. |
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Dustin Wax, PhD Candidate, Part-Time Instructor dustin.wax@unlv.edu |
| Dustin M. Wax is a PhD candidate in Cultural Anthropology at the New School for Social Research in New York City, where he is completing a dissertation on action anthropology and the development of an engaged anthropological practice. He currently teaches anthropology at the Community College of Southern Nevada and Women’s Studies at UNLV. His research interests include the history of anthropology, Cold War history, Native American cultures, gender roles and sexual identity, and the representation of culture and identity in scientific literature, museums, and the mass media. He has also been active in attempts to use the Internet to improve and broaden research, education, and academics’ involvement with their society, and is a founding contributor to the anthropology site Savage Minds (www.savageminds.org). |
| Rebecca Zisch, MA, Part-Time Instructor zischwmst@aol.com |
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| Rebecca Zisch is a part-time faculty member in the Women’s Studies department of UNLV and a freelance writer. She is best known in the Las Vegas community as the regular popular culture commentator for Nevada Public Radio and as the author of the "Cheap Eats" column in City Life magazine. She holds a bachelors degree with honors from Willamette University and a masters degree in Popular Culture from Bowling Green State University. Her academic work has appeared in a variety of publications, including the Journal of Popular Film and Television. She also regularly presents original research at national conferences on such topics as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Mr. Rogers. Prior to her current professional incarnation, Ms. Zisch was a curator for a variety of museums, including the American Museum of the Moving Image in New York, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland and the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas. Rebecca is also known as a jazz singer and stage performer. |
