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Dr. Frances Bernat is an associate professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at ASU, and brings to the Social Justice and Human Rights program a solid foundation in the study of law and society. Her research interests include the study of the law as it impacts women, youth and minority populations. This work has focused on changes in law and social policy for offenders and victims of crime. Dr. Bernat received her juris doctorate and Master of Arts from the State University of New York at Buffalo, before obtaining her Ph.D. in political science from Washington State University. Dr. Bernat has been a member of the ASU faculty for 15 years.
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Dr. Monica Casper, a sociologist, joined the New College faculty in 2008 to direct the Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies Division. Her work is deeply interdisciplinary, focusing in areas such as gender studies, biopolitics, trauma studies, disability studies, embodiment, and cultural studies. Many of her research projects address human health, specifically women’s and children’s health. She has studied cervical cancer, fetal interventions, maternal health, abortion politics, new women’s health technologies, breast cancer, and health policy, and is currently researching the politics of infant mortality in the United States. She is author of The Making of the Unborn Patient: A Social Anatomy of Fetal Surgery and co-author of Missing Bodies: The Politics of Visibility. She edited a volume on environmental politics called Synthetic Planet, and she is currently editing a book on embodiment and interdisciplinarity. Dr. Casper has been active in the reproductive rights movement for over 20 years, and has also served in various capacities in the children’s environmental health and breast cancer movements. In 2003, she was Executive Director of the Intersex Society of North American. She received her B.A. from the University of Chicago, and her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Francisco.
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Working individually, and in collaboration with other artists and scholars, Patricia Clark presents social justice and human rights issues through multiple windows evolving global, national, ethnic and cultural identity in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean. For the past 11 years, Clark has focused intently on Cuba, travelling there often and documenting that country’s history, culture and people. Her hope is that viewers of her video via art installations will gain a better understanding of Cuba and its people. Clark has been an assistant professor of Media Arts for the Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance Department at ASU since 2003. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Intermedia with a focus on video art and interactive installation from ASU’s School of Art in 1992.
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Associate Professor of Philosophy Shari Collins-Chobanian is interested in human rights most especially from an environmental perspective. She has published on environmental rights and environmental labels, the latter of which would inform consumers of the real costs of products. She has researched the effects of global warming and how it results in increasing numbers of environmental refugees, as well as transgenic crops, which are harmful to not only the people that consume them but also the environment. Her current area of research focuses on Sperm Ethics, and is aimed at challenging existing notions about what is a human right to one’s heritage. In her latest work, Collins-Chobanian argues against the ability of the biological mother and sperm “donor” (they do not donate, they sell their sperm) to sever the male’s ties to the child. She is also the editor of Ethical Challenges to Business as Usual, the first business ethics anthology to have an environmental and human rights focus throughout.
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Associate Professor Elenes has been a member of the ASU Faculty for 16 years and now teaches in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. Her primary focus is on Women’s Studies and Ethnic Studies. Elenes’ courses emphasize issues of gender, race and class, Chicana studies; Gender Issues in Education; and Gender and Knowledge. Her research interests revolve around the relationship between culture, education, and Chicana pedagogy. She is particularly interested in teaching and learning that occurs in everyday life. She is completing a book manuscript on Chicana education and popular culture tentatively titled Transforming Borders.
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Assistant Professor Patricia Friedrich is a member of the executive committee in the Social Justice & Human Rights Master’s program at ASU and lectures mainly on language, cross-cultural communication and international linguistic rights, especially in Brazil. An assistant professor in the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies, Dr. Friedrich teaches Linguistics and Writing courses. She also teaches Critical Applied Linguistics as a faculty member in the new Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Applied Linguistics. Her academic background includes a Ph.D. from Purdue University. In addition to numerous articles and book chapters on topics relating to language, peace, cross-cultural communication and world Englishes, Dr. Friedrich has published two books: Language and Peace: the use of English in conflict resolution, and Teaching Academic Writing.
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Associate Dean Thomas Keil is a sociologist by training and has been deeply devoted to issues of social justice for many years. Responsibilities of current administrative roles of significance, preparation for a new publication on the coal mining regions of Northeastern Pennsylvania, and upcoming research on the citizenship rights of the Roma People in the European Union presently constitute the bulk of his academic efforts. The three topics Dean Keil is most passionate about are the Roma People, particularly as they are often targeted as a “special minority,” racial inequalities surrounding the enforcement of capital punishment, and domestic and international labor issues. Professor Keil received his Master’s Degree and doctorate from Temple University in Philadelphia. His latest publication, “Lynchings and the Death Penalty in Kentucky, 1866-1934: Substitution or Supplement,” co-authored with G.F. Vito, is scheduled for publication in 2009 in the Journal of Ethnicity and Criminal Justice. He will teach a statistics course in the second year of the Social Justice & Human Rights program.
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Dr. Barbara Klimek joined the faculty at ASU in 2003 with 25 years’ experience working with social service agencies. She has taught classes in the field of economics, demographics and social and economic policy, and conducted research in Poland and the U.S. related to economics and econometrics. For the last 15 years, Dr. Klimek has been a designated field instructor for bachelor and master level students from the School of Social Work from ASU, both the Tempe and West campuses. Her courses include Research & Advocacy and Human Behavior and Social Environment. Professor Klimek is a member of Arizona Refugee Advancement Coalition (AZRAC), and has extensive knowledge of communities and ethnic diversity of the southwest, as well as community based organizations and social services delivery systems in Arizona. She received her doctorate in economics from Warsaw University in Warsaw, Poland and her Master of Social Work from Arizona State University.
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Associate Professor Koptiuch received her doctorate in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin, and has been teaching at ASU since 1992. Her research and teaching interests include interdisciplinary cultural/social studies, urbanism, migration, racial/ethnic relations, transnational culture & political economy. Koptiuch’s teaching infuses social justice and human rights themes throughout her courses. Her first book, A Poetics of Political Economy in Egypt, accounts her research on Egyptian artisans in Cairo. She has also written about the "cultural defense" legal strategy used in criminal cases of gender/sexual violence involving US diaspora Asians, and has explored the effects of US "third-worlding." Her current work in urban change and migration complements the many pressing social justice issues that confront local and global communities. Koptiuch directs the Costa Rica/Central American Studies summer study abroad program. Her service includes membership on the boards of COAR (Community Outreach and Advocacy for Refugees) and Ubiquity (ASU faculty and staff supporting LGBTQ issues), the advisory board for Ethnic Studies, and she has been a key contributor to several Border Justice events at ASU. She is a bit of a technophile (http://www.west.asu.edu/koptiuch/), and also tries to practice anthropology as much performance art as social science.
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January 2009 marked Dr. Mueller's 21st year here at the New College, a college she herself helped to build from the ground up. For Mueller, her work is not a career, but a passion. She believes that "everything is so interconnected that even the smallest act can make a difference."
After an early career of activism in the fifties and sixties, Professor Mueller focused her academic career on the study of social movements. She has served in multiple offices in the American Sociological Association's 600-member section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements, including Chair of the section. Her publications have covered the riots of the 1960's, the fall of communism in East Germany, the campaign for the ERA and other research on the contemporary women's movement. Currently, she is working with a team of students on studies of trans-national attempts to help stop the femicide in Ciudad Juarez. With Bill Simmons and others, she helped develop the Master’s of Arts in Social Justice and Human Rights and was co-chair of the first border forum, "Gender, Justice and the Border" in the spring of 2003. This spring she is working with colleagues to host a symposium, "Violence and the Human Rights Crises on the Border" which will bring together scholars, human rights activists, and public officials from Mexico and the United States at West Campus. The symposium is co-sponsored by New College and the Mexican Consul in Phoenix.
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Associate Professor Julie A. Murphy-Erfani received her doctorate in political science from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Murphy-Erfani is interested and has conducted research in commercial and corporate crime, global economic inequalities, and fair trade. She has done field research in four large cities in Latin America: Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, and Santiago de Chile and has also conducted field research in the following border cities: Sonora, Nogales, Agua Prieta, and Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point). In Fall 2008, Dr. Murphy-Erfani took an SJHR class to research issues of fair trade and corporate crime in Oaxaca, Mexico.
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Majia Holmer Nadesan is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies. Her research addresses biopolitics, neoliberalism, and political economy. She has published 3 books including Constructing Autism; Governmentality, Biopower, and Everyday Life; and Governing Childhood: Biopolitical Strategies of Childhood Education and Management
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Assistant Professor Omayra Ortega's focus is math epidemiology; her training is in applied and pure mathematics, which she then applies to infectious diseases. Her most recent research has been evaluating the possibility and viability of rotavirus vaccination in Cairo, Egypt. In addition to her current research of rotavirus, globally, she is also writing about the dynamics of rotavirus with climate change, more specifically humidity levels and how they relate to rotavirus prevalence. Professor Ortega received a dual Masters in Applied Mathematics and Public Health in 2005 and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics in 2008, all from the University of Iowa at Iowa City. Her latest work is in pre-publication stages and is entitled “Cost Benefit Analysis of a Rotavirus Immunization Program in Cairo, Egypt.” The article is co-authored with Mark Riddle and J. Sanders and has been submitted for publication in the Journal for Infectious Diseases.
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Assistant Professor Amit Ron is new to the ASU faculty. He studies democratic theory and political thought and is currently teaching Political Ideologies and Political Theory. He is originally from Israel where he received his undergraduate degree in Political Science and Psychology from Tel Aviv University. He completed his doctoral work at the University of Minnesota and recently held a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Political Science and the Centre for Ethics at the University of Toronto. Dr. Ron’s latest publication, "Peace Negotiations and Peace Talks: the Peace Process in the Public Sphere," is forthcoming and will be published in the International Journal of Peace Studies.
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Dr. William Paul Simmons is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the MA program in Social Justice and Human Rights at Arizona State University. He has published two law review articles and a book chapter on violence against women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. His work has appeared in such journals as Philosophy and Social Criticism, Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal, The Journal of International Human Rights, and Social Sciences Quarterly. His second book examines the potential for reinvigorating human rights law from the perspectives of marginalized peoples. He has served as a consultant on human rights and social justice issues in The Gambia (West Africa), China, and the United States. He has been the lead coordinator of ASU’s annual Border Justice event as well as the organizer of numerous other social justice symposia on campus.
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Assistant Professor Michael Stancliff's research in 19th century American cultural history led him to an interest in the slavery of the time and ultimately to contemporary antislavery efforts. His recent research and teaching has him exploring issues of modern day slavery. He is also a member of the Border Justice planning committee. Professor Stancliff received his doctorate from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2001, and his book, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: African American Reform Rhetoric and the Rise of a Modern Nation State, will be published by Routledge in May, 2009. He is currently at work on another book examining the pedagogical politics of teaching the history and literature of antislavery movements. Professor Stancliff approaches his Spring 2009 course JRH 511, "Contemporary Slavery and Trafficking" with excitement.
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Assistant Professor Michelle Tellez is an assistant professor of Women’s Studies in the division of Humanities, Arts & Cultural Studies. She was on leave for the 2007-2008 academic year while on a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. During this time she wrote an article called "Community of Struggle: Gender Violence and Resistance on the US Mexico Border." Professor Tellez received her Bachelor of Arts in sociology, as well as a minor in Chicana/o studies at UCLA. She attended graduate school at Claremont Graduate University and received a dissertation fellowship in the Chicana/o Studies department at U.C. Santa Barbara. She is currently working on several research projects, all which pertain to her major areas of interest: globalization, social movements, transnational feminism and U.S./Mexico border studies.
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Associate Professor Stephen Toth has conducted extensive research in the historical and contemporary modes of Crime and Punishment and believes this work is extremely necessary as we look to advocate for social justice and human rights across the globe. A history professor in the Division of Humanities, Arts, & Cultural Studies at ASU West, his primary teaching interests include modern Europe; genocide and Holocaust studies. Professor Toth focuses primarily on French penal colonies, and is now at work on a new book entitled Rural Redemption: A History of the Mettray Agricultural Colony for Boys. This work explores how this institution for juvenile delinquents--located in France’s Loire Valley--became a model of correctional design in Britain, Germany, and the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is also at work on an edited volume entitled Crimes in Context: Europe, 1789-Present which examines the various methodologies, historiographies, and chronologies associated with the study of law, crime, policing and deviance in nineteenth and twentieth-century Western Europe. Dr. Toth received a Master’s in History from Arizona State University and completed his doctoral work in history at Indiana University.
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Assistant Professor Perla Vargas’s research and training efforts in the field of health psychology have aided many communities in implementing positive changes in healthcare, promoting awareness and innovative programs of practice for both the medical community and the public. Currently an assistant professor in the Social Behavioral Science Division, much of Professor Vargas’s analysis surrounds issues of injustice in the healthcare system, examining asthma, cancer and nutrition, many times with child patients as her focus. She recently conducted a study on the effects of asthma on low-income, inner city children in Arkansas, and her class in the Social Justice & Human Rights program will examine various inequalities in our healthcare systems, more specifically involving issues of race and class divisions in medical research and treatment focus. Professor Vargas received her doctorate from the University of Arizona and completed her postdoctoral work at Johns Hopkins University. She joined the faculty at Arizona State University in 2007.
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