Faculty

The faculty of the Department of Humanistic Studies is made up of multidisciplinary scholars who are dedicated to the unique mission of the major to prepare artists and designers to be public intellectuals who contribute to our cultural life as creators and thinkers--redefining our ideas of what it means to be human in relation to ourselves, others, and the world.

Humanistic Studies Faculty

Alan Orr, Chair

D. Alan Orr has a PhD from the University of Cambridge (UK), and a BA and MA from Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario.

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Carissa Aoki

Carissa Aoki is an applied ecologist working at the intersection of landscapes, disturbance and risk. She is particularly interested in bringing anti-racist principles to the teaching of science, including the use of interdisciplinary stories to bring non-traditional content into the curriculum.

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Alec Armstrong

Alec Armstrong received his PhD in Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Sciences from the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. He received a BS in Environmental Science from The Ohio State University.

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Timmy Aziz

Timmy Aziz studied Physics at Trinity College, Oxford University, and architecture at The Architectural Association, London, and the Cooper Union, New York City, where he received his professional degree.

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Mikita Brottman

Mikita Brottman is a widely-published nonfiction writer whose work investigates the intersection of crime and psychology. She is also a psychoanalyst and has a special interest in gothic and uncanny literature.

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Nina Brown

Nina Brown has a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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Mina Cheon

Mina Cheon (PhD, MFA) is a global Korean-American new media artist, scholar, and educator who divides her time between Baltimore, New York, and Seoul, Korea.

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Robin Corbet

Robin Corbet obtained a PhD in high-energy astrophysics from University College London at their Mullard Space Science Laboratory.

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Firmin DeBrabander

Firmin DeBrabander has taught Philosophy at the Maryland Institute College of Art since 2005.

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Amy Eisner

Amy Eisner received her AB in English from Harvard University and her MA in poetry from The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.

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Jeanette Gerrity Gómez

Jeanette Gerrity Gómez is an English Language Learning Specialist at MICA.

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Soheila Ghaussy

Soheila Ghaussy, earned her Magister der Literaturwissenschaften (the equivalent of an MA degree) from Hamburg University, where she majored in English and American Literature and minored in Middle Eastern Studies.

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Michèle K. Glenn

Michèle K. Glenn attained a BA in Art History from the University of California at Irvine; an MA in Public Communication from American University, Washington, DC; a Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (CTEFL) from the Teachers Development Institute, Boston; and an MS in Professional Writing from Towson University in Maryland.

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Forrest Hall

Dr. Forrest Hall, a physicist, currently teaches Climatology and Astronomy at MICA and at Johns Hopkins University’s Odyssey program.

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William Hilgartner

Dr. Hilgartner (Bill) has been teaching aspects of bird and plant ecology, paleoecology, geology, and evolution for over 30 years.

William Hilgartner

Fatma Ismail

Fatma Ismail received her Ph.D. from the Near Eastern Department of Johns Hopkins University.

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Paul Jaskunas

Paul Jaskunas is a professor of creative writing and literature. His novel Hidden received the Friends of American Writers Award, and his fiction, poetry, and journalism have appeared in numerous publications.

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Paul Long

Paul Long has taught a variety of courses in MICA's Humanistic Studies department over the past decade, including: Genre: Introduction to Creative Writing, Hypertext: 21st Century Electronic Writing and Theory, Experimental Narrative and Mixed Media, and Contemporary American Poetry.

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Christine Manganaro

Christine Manganaro is a historian of science and of the modern United States with interests in US imperialism, racial formation, scientific expertise, and the history of the social sciences, life sciences, and medicine.

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Michelle Mariano

Michelle Mariano teaches literature and creative writing. She also serves as the managing director of ArtWorks for Freedom, a DC-based arts activism nonprofit, and has 15 years of leadership experience in the nonprofit arts sector.

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Susan McCully

Susan McCully is a scholar of feminist theatre and a dramaturg, as well as a playwright and performance artist.

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Saul Myers

Saul Myers (Ph.D., Humanities Center, Johns Hopkins University) teaches courses in philosophy, literature, and intellectual history.

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John Peacock

With a Harvard undergraduate degree in anthropology and a Columbia Ph.D. in comparative literature, John Peacock has been an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, a Senior Fulbright Lecturer, and a grantee of the American Philosophical Society.

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Unique Robinson

Unique Mical Robinson is a poet, performer, and proud Baltimore City native. She received her MFA in English from Mills College, and a BA in Creative Writing/Black Studies from Hampshire College.

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Courtney Sender

Courtney Sender teaches creative and academic writing at MICA, and has taught creative writing at Yale and Johns Hopkins universities.

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Michael Sizer

Mike Sizer is a historian specializing in the culture, literature, and society of the pre-modern world, with a scholarly focus on medieval France, urban life, and social movements. Among the many classes he teaches are courses on Utopias, Mythology, Revolutions, the Black Death, Ancient Cultures, and Crowds.

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David Sterritt

David Sterritt is a scholar of international film history, theory, and criticism, including intersections of film, literature, and music.

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Ruth Toulson

Ruth E. Toulson joined the faculty at MICA in Fall 2015. She is a Cambridge trained socio-cultural anthropologist (PhD 2009) whose ethnographic research shifts between sites in Southeast Asia and Mainland China.

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Eglutė Trinkauskaitė

Eglutė Trinkauskaitė is full time faculty in the department of Humanistic Studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Eglute Trinkauskaite

Leah Ulansey

Leah Ulansey has a BA from Bryn Mawr College, and an MA from The Johns Hopkins University.

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Elizabeth Wagenheim

Elizabeth Holden Wagenheim joined the Humanistic Studies department in 2012, where she enjoys both teaching international students and coordinating the ELL program at MICA.

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