Jeanette Barbieri, Assistant Professor, Political Science

Jeanette Barbieri received her B.A. from Hampshire College, her M.A. from King’s College, University of London, and her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. Her research interests include political theories of culture and communication, identity politics, visual culture and contemporary China. She has spent half or so of her time since college abroad in the UK, India, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China, where she now spends her summers. Whenever possible, she enjoys peering at contemporary art and hiking her way through wildlife reserves or cultural heritage sites.

Rebecca Beach, Associate Professor, Biology

Rebecca Beach grew up in Tucson, Arizona, where she spent much of her time exploring the mysteries of the desert and its magnificent array of critters. She attended the University of Arizona as an undergraduate, where she received her B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Following graduation, she worked for a short time in a microbiology research laboratory and became intrigued with genetics and the world of cells. She earned her M.S. in Genetics and Cell Biology from the University of Connecticut and her Ph.D. in Molecular and Developmental Biology from the University of Texas at Austin. Her current research interests include investigating the effects of environmental toxins on development and reproduction in fish and amphibians and examining sources of microbial contamination in food and drink. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, cooking, hiking, and spending quality time with her two Australian shepherds.

Professor Bratic came to Hollins in the fall of 2006 after receiving his Ph.D. in Mass Communication from Ohio University. Prior to coming to the United States, Dr. Bratic lived in the Czech Republic where he graduated from the Faculty of Pedagogy and Philosophy at the Palacky University. He is originally from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he began his research on the role of the media in conflict and peace. He has published journal articles and teaches about how media can help promote peaceful transformation of violent conflict across the world.

Jeffrey Bullock joined the Hollins faculty in 2004.  He began his performing career with the North Carolina Dance Theater following his graduation from the North Carolina School of the Arts. He continued with the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. He toured the U.S. and Europe with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. He earned his M.F.A. in Choreography from the University of Iowa and taught at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Iowa before coming to Hollins. He has also been on the faculty of the American Dance Festival since 1998. 

Peter Coogan, Associate Professor, History

Peter Coogan escaped from the snows of New York to get his B.A. at Duke University and his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has taught at Hollins University since 1988, where his specialties include explaining why nations periodically try to slaughter each other and why modern America does the things it does. He is currently completing a book on Franklin Roosevelt’s worldview. Professor Coogan became a historian because he was too small and untalented to become the starting free safety for the New York Giants. In his “free time” he watches football and dreams of what might have been and listens very closely and carefully to the music we will be playing in class.

Caren Diefenderfer, Professor, Mathematics

Caren Diefenderfer received her A.B. from Dartmouth College and her Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She encourages students to travel to “mathland” to be creative, solve problems and experience the joys of n-dimensions. As Chief Reader for AP Calculus, she has been the leader of 850 adult math geeks who spend one week at “summer camp” grading AP Calculus exams. She holds six swim records at Castle Rock pool, but her sons will readily explain that she is the only swimmer in her age group. She loves to play bass drums with the Bahama Mamas, a female steel drum band, and performs a rockin’ “Brown Eyed Girl.”

Amy Gerber-Stroh, Assistant Professor, Film

Amy Gerber-Stroh received her B.A. in Film at Pennsylvania State University and her M.F.A. in Film/Video from the California Institute of the Arts. Amy has a passion for all aspects of filmmaking but especially loves directing and producing her own documentaries. Amy’s films have won honors at numerous film festivals and professional venues, including Edinburgh International Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, Film Forum, Los Angeles, and Women In the Director's Chair, Chicago. Amy also directed films for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 1993 to 1996. She has gained significant professional film experience in Hollywood while working on 12 major motion pictures including The Mask of Zorro (Columbia Pictures), Goldeneye (MGM), Afterglow (Sony Pictures Classics), Tank Girl (United Artists) and Angels In The Outfield (Disney). When she is not teaching and filming, Amy squeezes in family time, badminton, fly fishing, motorcycling, playing viola, and listening to Radio Lab on WNYC.

Patricia Hammer, Associate Professor, Mathematics

Trish Hammer is a self-professed cool math geek, believing that math is the neatest subject on Earth.  Her love of math began in high school when every time she tried to read a required English text, she fell asleep!  Trish earned her Bachelor's of Science, Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in applied mathematics from Virginia Tech before joining the Hollins faculty in 1990.  Her teaching and research interests focus on the presence of math in the everyday world around us with recent work involving generation of fractal movies and fractal music.  Away from work, Trish is an improving runner, swimmer and cyclist who enjoys time just hanging out with her husband, three kids, and two dogs.

Nancy Healy is a graduate of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. She taught public school for 12 years (grades 1, 2, 4, 6 and English and Math) before returning to receive her M.A.L.S. degree from Hollins College. She has been teaching at Hollins since 1983 and loves her job. In addition to her fascination with technology, she enjoys knitting, gardening, music, cooking, and chocolate. She shares life with her husband, Bo, and with their two fur children, Tucker and Grace.

Lawrence Wayne Markert completed his B.Phil. and D. Phil. at the University of Oxford. He also holds an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars. He has published several chapbooks of poetry, including Riddle and Incest and The Widow Poems, along with articles and books dealing with the literature and culture of Britain and the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Arthur Symons: Critic of the Seven Arts, and The Bloomsbury Group: A Resource Guide. He is currently working on a study of the poetry of W. H. Auden and the literature of the 1930s in Britain.  Wayne enjoys playing the guitar, 6-string and 12-string acoustic, and growing tomatoes. He enjoys eating the latter, too.

Thorpe Moeckel, Assistant Professor, English

Thorpe Moeckel received his B.A. in English and Environmental Studies from Bowdoin College. He worked for many years as a guide on rivers and trails throughout the mountain states of the U.S. before earning his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia. He is obsessed with water and the ways it shapes and is shaped, and he writes because it is the closest thing to being in a small boat in a remote canyon, and he teaches because it is the closest thing to being in a small boat in a remote canyon with other people in small boats or even the same boat. His favorite name for a rapid is El Horrendo. His favorite rapid doesn’t have a name.

Kathleen Nolan, Professor, Art

Kathleen Nolan fell in love with art history in her first year at Vanderbilt University, where she also imprinted on the liberal arts. She went on to get a M.A. and Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University. She enjoys going to art museums and traveling to Paris to study medieval queens (she has a book coming out in July 2009 on medieval French queens and their seals and tombs). At Hollins, she teaches courses in medieval and Renaissance art history, as well as gender studies. When not teaching or doing research, she likes to spend time cooking French food, reading medieval murder mysteries, and watching “Mamma Mia” with her teenage daughter. She is excited about teaching a FYS seminar, especially since her son will be a first-year student at another college (since he’s a boy) in the fall.

Alison Ridley, Associate Professor, Spanish

Alison Ridley grew up in England, Norway, France, and Venezuela, but she completed her university studies in the United States.  She received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Spanish from Michigan State University, where she specialized in the literature of the Golden Age. Her current research interests include Spanish drama and contemporary Latin American literature. Since arriving at Hollins in 1991, she has taught language, culture, and literature courses, as well as Business Spanish and a Short Term service-learning course on Appalachia. She has led two Short Term trips to Mexico and Costa Rica and is passionate about introducing students to different cultures, languages, and ways of life. When not at work, she enjoys reading, gardening, hiking, working out, eating chocolate, and spending time with her husband, Mark, and her dog, Oliver.

Bob Sulkin, Professor, Art

Bob Sulkin grew up in North Carolina and received a B.A. in History at the University of North Carolina and an M.A. and M.F.A. in Art at the University of Iowa. He has exhibited his own photography widely and loves sharing his passion for things visual with others. Since he arrived at Hollins in 1980, he has taught an array of courses in photography, all within the fine art context, and all within the context of empowering others to interpret their world through their unique voice. His passions are playing with his two sons, art, jazz, and if pressed, he’ll confess to a weakness for Carolina basketball.

Melody Zobel, Lecturer, Theatre

Melody Zobel received her B.A. from Pepperdine, her M.F.A.  from U.C.L.A., and her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  She was a member of the theater department at Virginia Tech before joining the faculty at Hollins in 2006.

When I learned I could actually make a living in a field where the most important word is "play," I said "sign me up." Tell me a good story, sing me a song, fill up my eyes with exciting images, and I'm one happy guy. Give me a chance to share it with others, and I'm ecstatic!