Faculty Achievements

Dr. Geoff Mitchell, assistant professor of biology, along with five student coauthors, published “Genome-Wide Analysis of Cell Cycle-Regulating Genes in the Symbiotic Dinoflagellate Breviolum minutum” in G3: GENES, GENOMES, GENETICS (Nov. 1, 2019 vol. 9 no. 11 3843-3853; https://doi.org/10.1534/g3.119.400363)

Dr. Anne Rodrick, professor of history, has been accepted into the inaugural Belcher Colloquium in Victorian Studies at St. Hugh's College, University of Oxford, in June 2020. Her presentation is titled "An Ecosystem of Talk: Exploring Mid-Victorian Knowledge-Based Culture." A volume of essays will follow the colloquium.

Dr. Laura Barbas Rhoden, professor of Spanish, published “The Representation of Slow Violence and the Spatiality of Injustice in Y tu mamá también and Temporada de patos.” Ecofictions, Ecorealities, and Slow Violence in Latin America and the Latinx World, edited by Ilka Kressner, Ana María Mutis, and Elizabeth M. Pettinaroli, Routledge,2019

Dr. Maria Hofmann’s paper “Austria’s Indirect Cinema. Avoiding representation in Kurz davor ist es passiert (2006)” has been published by Studies in Documentary Film. Hofmann is an assistant professor of German.

Dr. Mark Byrnes’ class on the Great Debate on US involvement in the Second World War was recently recorded by C-SPAN and aired on C-SPAN 3 on Dec. 7. Byrnes is professor and chair of the Department of History.

The Southern Conference recently named its All-Southern Conference Faculty and Staff Team, with two representatives each from all 10 member institutions being recognized by the league. The recipients share the common characteristics of demonstrated service to the institution and contributions to campus life and the local community. Faculty members selected have demonstrated strong contributions to teaching, research and/or service, while staff members are being recognized for bringing out the best in others and creating conditions for success. Selected for Wofford were Dr. Daniel B. Mathewson, associate professor of religion, and Curt McPhail, executive director of the Career Center professional and entrepreneurial development center.

Each member of the All-SoCon Faculty and Staff Team receives a plaque and will be honored at a home basketball game at his or her institution. McPhail is a 1996 Wofford graduate and was the college’s 2012 Young Alumnus of the Year. He also is a two-time winner of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award. Before coming to Wofford, he was with the Northside Development Corp., which focuses on the nearby Northside neighborhood. McPhail is the founder of globalbike, an international nonprofit that uses the transformative power of bicycles to connect women and resources. In recent years, he has led his team in special career services outreach to student-athletes at Wofford.

Mathewson’s teaching generally centers on new religious movements, American evangelicalism, religious extremism, religion and pop culture, and religion and law. He also currently serves as director of new faculty teaching initiatives in the Center for Innovative Learning. He is keenly interested in the intersection of religion, sports (in particular, professional wrestling) and Southern culture. He recently co-founded the Professional Wrestling Studies Association and was elected editor of the public scholarship e-magazine PWSA Ringside. He also helped launch the Professional Wrestling Studies Journal, the first peer-reviewed academic journal devoted to this topic.

Dr. Courtney M. Dorroll, assistant professor of religion, has been awarded a program development grant from the Council of Independent Colleges NetVUE initiative in the amount of $47,298. NetVUE is the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education. The purpose of the grant is to deepen the intellectual and theological exploration of vocation among undergraduate students.

Dr. Peter Brewitt, assistant professor of environmental studies, published “Little Dams, Big Problems: The Legal and Policy Issues of Non-Jurisdictional Dams” in WIREs Water, October 2019. Find it at online​library​.​wiley​.​com.

Dr. Laura Barbas Rhoden, professor of Spanish; Dr. Britt Newman, associate professor of Spanish; and Dr. Beate Brunow, former assistant professor in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, recently published “Environmental Literacy as a Global Literacy in Modern Languages: Lessons from a Liberal Arts College” in Foreign Language Teaching and the Environment: Theory, Curricula, Institutional Structures, edited by Charlotte Ann Melin, MLA, 2019, pp. 237-53.

Dr. Tom Wright's new paper, “A Conditional Density for Carmichael Numbers,” was accepted by the Bulletin of the Australian Mathematical Society. Wright is an associate professor of mathematics.

Dr. Patricia Nuriel, associate professor of Spanish, co-edited with Luca Barattoni (Clemson University) “Jewish Identities in Latin American Cinema,” special issue of Post Script: Essays in Film and the Humanities 38.2-3 (Winter/Spring and Summer 2019).

Dr. Katherine Janiec Jones, professor of religion and associate provost for curriculum and co-curriculum, was an invited keynote speaker at a recent conference, Vocation and the Multi-Faith Academy, at Pepperdine University. She also was asked to write a post in Vocation Matters, a blog sponsored by NetVUE (Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education). The post titled “Who Cares for the Caregivers?” centers on about vocation, burnout and suicide.

Dr. Anne B. Rodrick's book “Self-Help and Civic Culture: Citizenship in Victorian Birmingham” (Ashgate, 2004), is being reissued by Routledge Press under the Routledge Revivals imprint and will be available on the forthcoming digital platform “Routledge Historical Resources: 19th Century British Society.” Rodrick is a professor of history.

Dr. Stefanie Baker, professor of biology and vice chair of the department, co-published an article, “Prolonged exposure to simulated microgravity diminishes dendritic cell immunogenicity” in Scientific Reports (2019) 9:13825; it is available here: https://rdcu.be/bRRzZ.

Dr. Alysa M. Handelsman, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology, has been recognized as the Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Foundation in Spartanburg for her work in community engagement. The North Spartanburg Rotary Club made a $1,000 donation to Rotary International in her name, bestowing the honor of Paul Harris Fellow "in appreciation of tangible and significant assistance given for the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world." During the presentation, Handelsman’s community work advising students was highlighted, especially the C.H.E.F.S. Club at Cleveland Academy that the North Spartanburg Rotary Club partially funds.

Dr. Clayton J. Whisnant, Chapman Family Professor in the Humanities and professor of history, has a second book out, "Queer Identities and Politics in Germany." He was interviewed by Michael Sullivan with The New Books Network for a podcast about the new book. Whisnant also has an essay, "1950s Homophile Politics and Its Roots in the Weimar Homosexual Movement," in the edited collection "Gendering Post-1945 German History: Entanglements," edited by Friedericke Brühöfener, Karen Hagemann and Donna Harsch, 274–94. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2019.

Dr. Yongfang Zhang, associate professor of Chinese in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, has a new publication, "The Influences of Culture on Language and Teaching Culture in Chinese Language Instruction," in the Journal of International Chinese Teaching, 2019 (2), 56- 64.

Dr. Karen H. Goodchild, Chapman Family Professor in the Humanities and chair and professor in the Department of Art and Art History, co-edited, wrote the forward for and contributed an article to the new book "Green Worlds in Early Modern Italy: Art and the Verdant Earth." The publisher, Amsterdam University Press, says, "The essays gathered here explore the expanding technologies and varied cultural dimensions of verzure and verdancy in the Italian Renaissance, and thus the role of visual art in shaping the poetics and expression of greenery in the arts of the 16th-century and beyond."

Dr. Phillip C. Dorroll, assistant professor of religion, has published an article, "Praying to an Absent God: A Comparative Critique of Religious Nationalism," in The Wheel (A Journal of Orthodox Christian Thought), 17/18 (Spring/Summer 2019).

Dr. Rachel J. Vanderhill, associate professor of government and international studies, and her co-authors, Sandra F. Joireman and Roza Tulebayeva, was published in April 2019 in Europe-Asia Studies. The article is titled "Do Economic Linkages through FDI Lead to Institutional Change? Assessing Outcomes in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Kyrgyzstan."

Dr. Natalie S. Grinnell ’s article "An Eco-critical Analysis of Gower’s ‘De Lucis scrutine’" will appear in "Studies in the Age of Gower: A Festschrift in Honor of Robert F. Yeager," edited by Susannah Mary Chewning from Boydell and Brewer Press, this summer. The title of the Latin poem translates to "An Examination of Light." Grinnell is a Reeves Family Professor of Humanities and a professor of English.

Neuroscience Journal (Elsevier) has accepted for publication an article by Dr. David W. Pittman, professor of psychology; student co-author Tyler S. Nelson; Wofford post-doctoral student Sarah E. Holstein; and John-Paul Baird of Amherst College. The article is titled "Selective stimulation of central GABA-A α2,3,5 receptors increases intake and motivation to consume sucrose solution in rats."

Dr. Courtney Dorroll, assistant professor of religion, was the editor and co-author of the introduction of "Teaching Islamic Studies in the Age of ISIS, Islamophobia, and the Internet" from Indiana University Press. Dorroll co-authored chapter 1 with Dr. Kimberly Hall, assistant professor of English, and Doaa Baumi, titled "On Teaching Islam Across Cultures: Virtual Exchange Pedagogy." Dr. Phillip Dorroll, assistant professor of religion, solo-authored chapter 12, titled "The Five Questions about Islam Your Students Didn’t Know They Had: Teaching Islamic Studies to an American Audience." Emily Witsell, research librarian and instruction coordinator in the Sandor Teszler Library, served as a freelancer to copy edit and index the book.

Dr. Charles Kay, professor of philosophy, was honored with the Radest Award for outstanding service to the South Carolina Medical Association Bioethics Committee.

Two poems from Dr. Patrick Whitfill, assistant professor of English, “Run Night 87” and “Run Night 5” will appear in Shenandoah (Washington and Lee University). One poem, “Scapulomancy” will appear in Cherry Tree (Washington College).

Dr. Clayton Whisnant, Chapman Family Professor of Humanities and profssor of history, published three entries (“Friendship Societies in Europe,” “Bars and Cabarets in Europe,” and “Eldorado”) in The Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History, edited by Howard Chiang, et. al. (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2019).

Wofford's STARTALK Chinese program, directed by Dr. Yongfang Zhang, associate professor of Chinese, has been selected by National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC) as part of the STARTALK 2019 program. The amount of the award will be $77,582. The program has been invited by STARTALK Central to present its work with the director at national conferences. Zhang was invited to join the site visiting team in 2018 and become a team leader in 2019. Learn more about STARTALK.

In the fall 2018 semester, Dr. Joseph Spivey, associate professor and chair of mathematics, and Dr. Matt Cathey, associate professor of mathematics, won the “Professor for Affordable Learning” (PAL) Award from PASCAL, our statewide library consortium, for their e- textbook Calculus: An Integrated Approach, available to anyone in the world to use through Wofford’s Digital Commons. The PAL award recognizes faculty who have integrated affordable learning into their classrooms.

Dr. Carolyn Martsberger, assistant professor of physics, and Dr. Kimberly Hall, assistant professor of English, have received the following grant: Phase III Pilot Implementation of EvaluateUR: Dissemination of a Novel Undergraduate Research Evaluation Model.

George Singleton, John C. Cobb Professor of Humanities and professor of English, published three stories: “Unfriending Vickie,” The James Dickey Review, vol. 34, January 2019; “Everything’s Wild,” South Carolina Review, vol 51:1; “Cock Rescue,” Subtropics, Issue 26, Fall/Winter 2018.

Dr. Christine Sorrell Dinkins, William R. Kenam Jr. Professor of Philosophy, published “Socrates Café for Older Adults: Intergenerational Connectedness Through Facilitated Conversation” in Journal of Psychosocial Nursing, January 2019. This article includes discussion of Wofford student projects made possible by Dr. Kara Bopp, associate professor and chair of psychology.

Dr. Phillip Dorroll, assistant professor of religion, has two publications: “The Turkish Understanding of Religion: Rediscovering Maturidi in Modern Turkey” in International Symposium of Maturidism: Past, Present, and Future, published for Ahmet Yesevi University (Ankara, 2018) and “The Doctrine of the Nature of the Qur’an in the Maturidi Tradition,” in Maturidi Thought and the Literature of Maturidism [Matüridi Düşünce ve Matüridilik Literatürü], published in Istanbul for Selçuk University, 2018.

Dr. John C. Lefebvre, professor of psychology, has had a manuscript accepted for publication in the European Journal of Pain. The study is titled "The Relationships between Worry, Happiness, and Pain Catastrophizing in the Experience of Acute Pain."