TOGETHER. 
SHAPING THE FUTURE.

The College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences is pleased to announce its newest faculty members, all of whom came to Georgia Southern this fall. We welcome their experiences, expertise, new outlooks, and creative minds as we continue to work to prepare  students to achieve academic excellence, develop their analytical skills, enhance their creativity, and embrace their responsibilities as citizens of their communities, their nations, and the world.






Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art

ROBERT FARBER

Robert joins the Department as its new chair. His work has been exhibited in regional and national exhibitions, including:

  • SRQ/XMN, two-person exhibition; Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
  • Robert Farber: Recent Work, solo exhibition; Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida
  • Place to Place, solo exhibition; John D. MacArthur Campus Library, Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter, Florida
  • Mixed-Messages, solo exhibition; The Logan Elm Press-Book Arts Laboratory, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
  • A Sense of Place, solo exhibition; Weyers-Sampson Art Gallery, Thiel College, Greenville, Pennsylvania
  • Ex-libris, Small But Well Read, invitational exhibition; Anchor Graphics, Columbia College, Chicago
  • Crossing the Digital Divide, invitational exhibition; Digital Labrador Gallery, Kansas City
  • New Drawings, solo exhibition; 110 Gallery, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota
  • Y 'Chromosomes,' invitational exhibition; Rutgers Center for Innovative Print & Paper, Rutgers University, Rutgers, New Jersey
  • Invitational Exhibition; the Elder Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina 
Robert's work is in public and private collections, including: 
  • The John D. MacArthur Library Permanent Collection at Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter, Florida
  • The James Michner Collection at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio
  • The Rare Book Collection at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio
  • The Alma College Permanent Collection in Alma, Michigan
  • The Ohio University Permanent Collection in Athens, Ohio
  • The Bruce Simon Collection and the Morris Collection in Chattanooga, Tennessee 
Robert was born in Canton, Ohio, and received a B.F.A. in painting and art history from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He received his M.F.A. in drawing and printmaking from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Before coming to Georgia Southern, Robert was the chair of the Department of Fine Arts at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. He now resides near Brooklet with his wife, son, and three cats. 

 

 

 

 


Department of Criminal Justice  
& Criminology
 
BRENDA BLACKWELL
Dr. Brenda Sims Blackwell joins CLASS as the chair of the Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology. She earned her B.S. in criminal justice from Northern Arizona University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Oklahoma. She has served on the faculties of Pennsylvania State University and Georgia State University, leaving the latter after 15 years of service. Her research broadly focuses on women and crime, with an emphasis on gender differences in offending and differences in criminal justice responses to male and female offenders. She is interested in examining and elaborating traditional and new theoretical perspectives to determine their relevance to female offending. Her articles appear in publications such as Criminology, Deviant Behavior, and the Journal of Criminal Justice.

Brenda has collaborated on projects examining the commercial sexual exploitation of children, with a specific focus on examining responses to this issue in Georgia and reviewing literature to determine how other jurisdictions respond. These efforts were funded by the National Institute of Justice and through the Governor's Office for Children and Families. 

Brenda is dedicated to working with students. She currently chairs a student-awards committee for the American Society of Criminology and has several publications that explore the impact of academic advisement on career outcomes and job satisfaction among criminal justice students and graduates.

Department of Foreign Languages

NORIKO MORI-KOLBE

Noriko is a native of Osaka, Japan, and completed her undergraduate studies at Kyoto Women's University in Japan. She received both her master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Kansas and completed her teaching credential program at California State University at Long Beach. Before coming to the U.S., Noriko worked for 15 years in Japan's fashion industry. At Georgia Southern, she is teaching courses in Japanese languages and cultures.

 

Noriko has taught Japanese language courses at Beloit College, Northwestern University, SUNY at Binghamton, and Vanderbilt University. Her scholarly interest include Japanese pedagogy, second-language acquisition, and interdisciplinary studies. She has presented at several academic conferences, including for the American Association of Teachers of Japanese, Canadian Association for Japanese Language Education, and Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum.


ZUOTANG ZHANG

Zuotang Zhang is from northwestern China. His undergraduate major was English language and literature at Ningxia University in China, and he has a master's degree in religious studies from Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State). He has completed course work for an M.A. in TESL but did not get a degree because of an illness. He received his Ph.D. in language, literature, and culture at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2014. 

 

Zuotang has worked as a language teacher at various levels - elementary school, high school, community college, and university -both in China and the U.S. He also worked as a columnist for a Chinese newspaper in Washington, D.C. His research interests are broad in language, culture (Chinese folk practice), and education.

 

Zuotang has published essays, poems, and short stories in Chinese, and his academic work has been published in journals and anthologies and as book chapters in China. 

 

 

 

 

 

{all foreign languages faculty} 

 

 


Department of History

MAO LIN
Dr. Mao Lin joins the faculty of Georgia Southern University after teaching at Georgia College & State University and the University of Southern Mississippi for several years. Mao's research interests focus on U.S. foreign relations, U.S.-China relations, Cold War studies, and modern China. He has published several articles and book chapters in the U.S. and China and is currently working on a book manuscript examining U.S.-China relations between 1966 and 1979 from the perspective of the two countries' modernization discourse.

Mao teaches courses in world history, U.S. history, environmental history, and other topics related to his research fields.  

Department of Music

STEVEN HARPER
Dr. Seven Harper joins CLASS as the chair of the Department of Music. He comes to Georgia Southern after 11 years at Georgia State University, where he served as graduate director for six years before becoming the interim director of the School of Music in 2013. Before his time at Georgia State, Steven was a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin and Angelo State University in San Antonio. He holds degrees from the University of Louisville, Northwestern University, and the University of Texas at Austin.

A music theorist by training, Steven is interested in 20th Century modernist music, particularly that of the Nordic countries. He has published work on the music of Anton Webern, Jean Sibelius, and the the Swedish composer �ke Hermanson. He is currently working on a book about Hermanson's chamber music.

Steven is not entirely new to Georgia Southern: His wife, Dr. Tamara Watson Harper, was a faculty member at the University from 2002 to 2006. They are happy to be back in Statesboro and to reconnect with the Department. 

DAVID LANGLEY
David W. Langley is an assistant professor of music. His duties include supervising student teachers and directing the University Singers. Before coming to Georgia Southern, David was the director of choral activities at Collins Hill High School in Suwanee. During his 11 years of teaching high school, David guided a choral program of more than 300 students, with individual student constantly selected for the Georgia All State Chorus and the Governors High Program in voice and piano. David has also taught at Georgia Perimeter College and Crabapple Crossing Elementary School in Milton.

David is a native of Smyrna and hold a bachelor's and a master's degree from the University of Georgia and recently completed his Ph.D. in the teaching and learning of music education under Dr. Patrick K. Freer. David has been published by journals such as American Music Teacher, and he was recently selected to serve on the advisory committee of Music Educators Journal. His research interests include incorporating creativity in the choral classroom and music teacher mentoring effectiveness.




Department of Political Science

SROBANA BHATTACHARYA

Dr. Srobana Bhattacharya joins the political science faculty from Southern Illinois University. She holds a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University, a Master's of Philosophy and a Master's of Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University in India, and a bachelor's degree in political science from Jadavpur University in India. Srobana's research appears in publications such as Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, The Statesman, and Small Wars and Insurgencies. She is a member of the American Political Science Association, the Midwest Political Science Association, and the International Studies Association. 


JOSHUA KENNEDY

Joshua joins the faculty of Georgia Southern University as an assistant professor of political science. Originally from eastern Tennessee, Joshua received his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Tennessee - Knoxville and his masters and doctoral degrees in political science from the University of Colorado - Boulder. He has presented research at several conferences and his work has appeared in outlets such as American Politics Research, Research and Politics, and Presidential Studies Quarterly.


 

Joshua's principle research interests are in the realm of presidential power and the federal bureaucracy, specifically in the difficulties presidents have in controlling government agencies with divergent policy preferences. His dissertation examines the implementation of executive orders throughout administrative organizations based on various president- and agency-specific characteristics. He has recently published studies on the issue of unilateral executive power, specifically concerning the signing of statements and executive orders.


 

Joshua has experience teaching courses in the American presidency and state politics and policy.




 

Department of Writing & Linguistics
JESSICA NASTAL-DEMA
Jessica joins the faculty of Georgia Southern University as an assistant professor of writing and linguistics. She received her Ph.D. in rhetoric and composition from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and her dissertation examined first-year writing placement through a dialogic framework. Jessica's research - which she regularly presents at national conferences, including the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the Council of Writing Program Administration Conference, and the Thomas R. Watson Conference - and teaching focus on composition pedagogy and writing assessment. She serves as the associate editor for the Journal of Writing Assessment

Jessica is originally from Chicago and received her bachelor's degree from Loyola University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She holds master's degrees in English studies from St. Louis University and the Universidad Aut�noma de Madrid.



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