Ellen Adams

Dangerous Ideas

Office Address: HON 126
Phone: (616) 331-8134
Email: adamsell@gvsu.edu

Ellen Adams is Associate Professor of Art History in the Frederik Meijer Honors College. Originally from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Professor Adams received her B.A. in Art History from the University of Delaware, her M.A. from Hunter College (City University of New York), and her Ph.D. in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She teaches several courses in the program, including the first-year interdisciplinary sequence Dangerous Ideas, The Bloodiest, Darkest Hour, and I Love the 80s. Her publications and presentations concentrate primarily on modern and contemporary artists. Prof. Adams’ current research project focuses on American women artists active during the New Deal.

Majd Al-Mallah

Middle East Beyond the Headlines

Office Address: MAK B2218
Phone: (616) 331-3634
Email: almallam@gvsu.edu

To learn more about Majd Al-Mallah please visit here. 

Krista Benson

Embodied

Office Address: LOH 318
Phone: (616) 331-8230
Email: bensokri@gvsu.edu

Krista Benson (they/them) is an Associate Professor in the School or Interdisciplinary Studies. They serve SIS broadly, teaching regularly in the Digital Studies; Intercultural Communication; Integrative Studies; LGBT Studies; and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies programs within the college, as well as teaching Embodied alongside Dr. Fitzpatrick in the Honors College. Dr. Benson has a BA from Gonzaga University in Sociology with a interdisciplinary focus in Women's Studies; a MA from the University of Manchester in Women's Studies and Feminist Research; MS coursework from Eastern Washington University in Communication Studies with a focus in instructional technological communication and cultural communication; and a PhD from Ohio State University in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Their work broadly focuses on the ways that structures of marginalization and power particularly target children and young people and ask why we, as a country that claims to care so much about children, spend so little time listening to them. Their most recent publication is Reproductive Justice, Adoption, and Foster Care (Routledge, 2024, co-authored with Dr. Tanya Saroj Bahkru) and their ongoing research project is the Feminisms Online Oral History Project (https://feminismsonline.omeka.net/).

Meghan Cai

East Asia and the World

Office Address: MAK B2214
Phone: (616) 331-2870
Email: caim@gvsu.edu

To learn more about Meghan Cai visit here. 

Anne Caillaud

Food for Thought

Office Address: MAK B3243
Phone: (616) 331-3371
Email: caillaua@gvsu.edu

To learn more about Anne Caillaud please visit here. 

Jeremiah Cataldo

Borders, Bodies & Rights

Office Address: HON 121
Phone: (616) 331-3470
Email: cataldoj@gvsu.edu

Jeremiah Cataldo is Professor of History in the Frederik Meijer Honors College. He earned his Ph.D. in Religion and Culture of Ancient Israel / Hebrew Bible from Drew University, a Master in Philosophy from Drew University, a Master in Ministry from Bethel College, and a B.A. in Religious Studies from Bethel College. He is the author of numerous books and journal articles, including Disembodying Narrative, Imagined Worlds and Constructed Differences in the Hebrew Bible, Biblical Terror, A Social-Political History of Monotheism, Breaking Monotheism, and A Theocratic Yehud. A strong supporter of cultivating well-roundedness in mind and body, he enjoys backpacking, woodworking, and training in different martial arts, such as jiu-jitsu and muay thai. He teaches several courses in the Honors College, including the first-year sequence Borders, Bodies, and Rights (with Max Counter).

Maria Cimitile

The Making of Meaning

Office Address: HON 132
Phone: (616) 331-2838
Email: cimitilm@gvsu.edu

Maria Cimitile is Professor of Philosophy in the Frederik Meijer Honors College. Professor Cimitile earned her A.B from the College of the Holy Cross, her M.A from Villanova University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Memphis. Trained in European philosophy, her scholarly and teaching interests are in feminist philosophy, political theory and logical thinking. Professor Cimitile is a GVSU award-winning faculty member for teaching excellence and has held a number of leadership positions at the university, including Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic and Students Affairs. Professor Cimitile teaches the first year interdisciplinary sequences The Making of Meaning, the Honors 350 course Justice Served, as well as Sex Matters, and Ancient Philosophy in the Philosophy Department, and The Ethics of Digital Culture in the Digital Studies minor.

David Coffey

Sport and Society

Office Address: MAK C2410
Phone: (616) 331-3747
Email: coffeyd@gvsu.edu

Dave is a professor in the Mathematics Department at Grand Valley State University and the former director of GVSU’s Design Thinking Academy. He works with future and current teachers around teaching and learning math via creative, collaborative problem-solving. This work resulted in the book, Designing Math Adventures, which Dave wrote with his wife, Dr. Kathryn Coffey. Previously, Dave taught middle school math and computer science and coached football, basketball, and volleyball.

Grace Coolidge

Spain in Europe

Office Address: MAK D1128
Phone: (616) 331-2158
Email: coolidgg@gvsu.edu

Professor Coolidge studies women, gender, and the family in early modern Spain.  She teaches classes on the Renaissance and Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the History of the Witch Hunts and works in both the History Department and the Honors College.  Her most recent book is Sex, Gender, and Illegitimacy in the Castilian Noble Family, 1400-1600 (University of Nebraska Press, 2022).  https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496218803/sex-gender-and-illegitimacy-in-the-castilian-noble-family-14001600/

Dan Cope

Dissent & Advocacy

Office Address: LOH 234
Phone: (616) 331-3408
Email: copedan@gvsu.edu

Hi, I am Dan Cope, Affiliate Faculty here in GVSU's School of Interdisciplinary Studies (SIS). Here's a little information about me: With degrees in American Literature from Miami University (B.A.) and Grand Valley State University (M.A.), my contribution to IRIS curricula is through working-class literature and art. My master’s thesis explored the influence of Fordism on class identity in Detroit and how its decline manifests in contemporary literature about the city. My research into industrial automotive culture necessarily includes the spatialization of race and the ways in which civic policies codify racism. I am very involved with election work and have served on several receiving boards in addition to administering the 2020 elections as a Deputy Clerk in Grand Rapids. I am currently a coalition member of GVSU Votes! Ask me your questions about voting!

Pronouns: she/her

Max Counter

Border, Bodies & Rights

Office Address: LOH 246
Phone: (616) 331-8194
Email: countema@gvsu.edu

Max Counter is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Colorado, Boulder and holds a B.A. in Spanish and Religion from Colgate University. With a regional focus on Latin America, his research draws on critical disability studies, legal geography, and genocide studies to focus on reparation programs for human rights violations. His most recent work appears in the Journal of Genocide Research. To keep his soul intact, he enjoys studying and making psychedelic art.  

David Crane

The Worlds of Greece and Rome

Office Address: LHH 211g
Phone: (616) 331-3683
Email: craneda@gvsu.edu

To learn more about David Crane please visit here. 

Jason Crouthamel

War, Trauma & Technology

Office Address: MAK D1228
Phone: (616) 331-2931
Email: crouthaj@gvsu.edu

To learn more about Jason Crouthamel please visit here. 

Sigrid Danielson

Food for Thought

Office Address: CAC 1118
Phone: (616) 331-2574
Email: danielsi@gvsu.edu

Sigrid Danielson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Visual and Media Arts and the director for GVSU’s art history major and minor. She earned a BA from Macalester College and a MA and PhD in art history from Indiana University. Sigrid is especially interested in how images and objects shape relationships between individuals, ideas of the sacred, and communities. In the classroom, she emphasizes global, digital, curatorial, and public approaches to visual culture as tools for exploring context and shaping meaning. Her most recent publications examine the intersections of art historical writing, concepts of race, popular culture, and the reception of medieval and Early Modern art during the first half of the twentieth century.

Dori Danko

Show Me the Money

Office Address: HON 127 & SCB 3140
Phone: (616) 331-7397
Email: dankod@gvsu.edu

To learn more about Dori Danko please visit here. 

David Eicke

Dangerous Ideas

Office Address: MAK B2255
Phone: (616) 331-3497
Email: eickd@gvsu.edu

To learn more about David Eicke please visit here. 

Coeli Fitzpatrick

Middle East Beyond the Headlines and Embodied

Office Address: HON 125
Phone: (616) 331-3748
Email: fitzpaco@gvsu.edu

Coeli Fitzpatrick is Professor of Philosophy in the Frederik Meijer Honors College and Chair of the Honors Faculty. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, Professor Fitzpatrick received her B.A. in Philosophy from Regis University in Denver, Colorado and her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Binghamton. She teaches several courses in the program, including two first-year sequences, The Middle East Beyond the Headlines and The Making of Meaning, and an integrative seminar on Islamophobia. Her publications include the award winning edited volume Muhammad in History, Thought and Culture as well as writings on Edward Said and Orientalism. Professor Fitzpatrick's current research focuses on the transmission of Arab intellectual history in the West, Muslim Spain and Orientalism.

Rachel Fox

Seeing and Being Seen

Office Address: HON 136
Phone: (616) 331-8049
Email: foxr1@gvsu.edu

Rachel Fox is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Grand Valley State University. She received her PhD in Communication with a concentration in Science Studies and a specialization in Critical Gender Studies from UC San Diego, where she was a Kroner Family Fellow, Judith and Neil Morgan Fellow, and UC President's Dissertation Year. She holds a BA in Biology from Wesleyan University, an MS in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University, and an MA in Communication from UC San Diego. Her research has been published in the Fat Studies Journal, Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, and the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. In 2021, she joined the Centre for Fat Liberation and Scholarship as an Inaugural Junior Fellow. Her research critically examines how anti-obesity efforts drive anti-fatness in the US and how the field of weight stigma research perpetuates anti-fatness through its refusal to divest from an anti-obesity agenda.

Elizabeth Gansen

Spain in Europe and Food for Thought

Office Address: HON 124 & MAK B 2216
Phone: (616) 331-8769
Email: gansenel@gvsu.edu

Elizabeth Gansen is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Frederik Meijer Honors College and Assistant Professor of Spanish. She received her B.A. in Spanish and Comparative Literature and M.S. in Library in Information Sciences from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and her Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from Yale University. Professor Gansen teaches several courses in the honors sequence, including two first-year sequences, Food for Thought: Facts, Fictions, and Factions, and Spain in Europe. Her first book, Natural Designs: Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and the Invention of New World Nature, was published in 2023 (U of Pennsylvania Press). Her current book project, provisionally titled Moorish Songs and African Djembes: The Caribbean Areíto in a Trans-Atlantic Context, positions the song-and-dance areíto with regards to similar contemporaneous cultural traditions to better understand how Europeans first perceived it and how the form developed over time.

Gabriele Gottlieb

Show Me the Money

Office Address: MAK D 1218
Phone: (616) 331-3613
Email: gottlieg@gvsu.edu

To learn more about Gabriele Gottlieb please visit here. 

Charles Ham

The Worlds of Greece and Rome

Office Address: LHH 211f
Phone: (616) 331-5057
Email: hamch@gvsu.edu

To learn more about Charles Ham please visit here. 

Tara Hefferan

Sport and Society

Office Address: LMH 224
Phone: (616) 331-8924
Email: hefferta@gvsu.edu

Tara Hefferan is a Senior Affiliate Faculty member in the Anthropology Department within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.  She earned a PhD in anthropology with a focus on international development from Michigan State University, an MA in cultural anthropology from University of Denver, and BA degrees in anthropology and French from Grand Valley State University.  For the Honors College, Dr. Hefferan teaches an interdisciplinary sequence called Sport and Society as well as the upper division course Soccer & Society: Culture, History, & Power in the Beautiful Game.  She also co-leads a summer study abroad program UK: Soccer & Society, exploring footballing culture in London.  Her current research focuses on Grand Rapids soccer culture and the new Amway Stadium. 

Jason Herlands

East Asia and the World

Office Address: MAK D2104
Phone: (616) 331-2970
Email: herlandj@gvsu.edu

To learn more about Jason Herlands please visit here. 

Ryan Lafferty

Design Thinking for Social Product Innovation

Email: laffertr@gvsu.edu

Creative problem solver, strategic communicator, and innovation leader with over 20 years of experience in Service Design, Strategic Communications, and Brand Strategy. Known for turning complexity into clarity, helping organizations rethink how they engage users, design services, and tell their stories.

Ryan has led high-impact service design initiatives, developed brand strategies for the United States Government, Fortune 500 companies, and helped teams drive transformation through design thinking, UX strategy, and storytelling. Whether I’m facilitating a design sprint, crafting a messaging framework, or helping teams untangle a messy service experience, Ryan brings a unique mix of creativity, strategy, and execution.

https://www.fusioninnovationgroup.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-lafferty-6baa391b/

Paul Lane

Design Thinking for Social Product Innovation

Office Address: SCB 3086
Phone: (616) 331-3140
Email: lanepa@gvsu.edu

To learn more about Paul Lane please visit here. 

Yan Liang

East Asia and the World

Office Address: MAK D2144
Phone: (616) 331-2405
Email: liangya@gvsu.edu

To learn more about Yan Liang please visit here. 

Leifa Mayers

Seeing and Being Seen

Office Address: HON 134
Phone: (616) 331-8219
Email: mayersl@gvsu.edu

Leifa Mayers is Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Frederik Meijer Honors College. Professor Mayers has a Ph.D. in Social Psychology and Feminist Studies (University of California, Santa Cruz) and a J.D. (Loyola University Chicago). Her research and teaching focus on law and public policy, gender and racial justice, and LGBTQ rights. Professor Mayers teaches the first-year interdisciplinary sequence Seeing and Being Seen: Surveillance, Technology, and Self and the integrative seminar Debating Social Issues: Media, Public Opinion, and Public Policy.

Steven Nathaniel

War, Trauma & Technology

Office Address: LOH 109
Phone: (616) 331-8020
Email: nathanis@gvsu.edu

Steve Nathaniel is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies. He teaches courses at the intersections of technology, sound, and race, with special attention to literature and film. His current research project, Muting Modernism, examines the evolving role of silence as listeners encountered the telephone, the radio, and film during the early-twentieth century. Steve’s past work as a mechanical engineer often comes to bear on his scholarship, in which he also addresses topics such as social efficiency, acoustic science, and technological surveillance.

Charles Pazdernik

The Worlds of Greece and Rome

Office Address: LHH 211e
Phone: (616) 331-3165
Email: pazdernc@gvsu.edu

To learn more about Charles Pazdernik please visit here. 

Thomas Pentecost

The Making of Meaning

Office Address: PAD 315
Phone: (616) 331-2238
Email: pentecot@gvsu.edu

To learn more about Thomas Pentecost please visit here. 

Gabriela Pozzi

Spain in Europe

Office Address: MAK B 2261
Phone: (616) 331-2478
Email: pozzig@gvsu.edu

To learn more about Gabriela Pozzi please visit here. 

Jeremy Robinson

East Asia and the World

Office Address: MAK D2136
Phone: (616) 331-8907
Email: robinjer@gvsu.edu

To learn more about Jeremy Robinson please visit here. 

Dawn Rutecki

Power and Freedom

Office Address: LOH 235
Phone: (616) 331-3624
Email: ruteckda@gvsu.edu

Dawn Rutecki is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies. Professor Rutecki has a Ph.D. in Anthropology, concentration Archaeology and Social Context (Indiana University, Bloomington). Her research and teaching focuses on the intersections of food, religion, and social organization, with particular attention to ethics, power relationships, sovereignty, and resistance movements. As part of the Honors College, Professor Rutecki teaches the first-year interdisciplinary sequence Power and Freedom: Decolonization in Theory and Practice.

Christine Stephen Krieger

Dissent & Advocacy

Email: xinemarina@gmail.com

Christine Stephens-Krieger is the 8th and current poet laureate of Grand Rapids (2024-2027) with a long history in the poetry community of Grand Rapids. She has many poems published in magazines and journals, has won poetry competitions and prizes, and has a book coming out in 2025. She coordinated the prestigious Dyer-Ives Poetry Competition in Grand Rapids for 14 years and in 2025 will act as the National Judge. In 2024 she created a project called An Oral History of Poetry in Grand Rapids that she raised funds for and produced, ultimately delivering it to the archives at the Grand Rapids Public Library, and she's in the process of creating a documentary from the material. She's the founder and president of the Grand River Poetry Collective, a group just getting started and dedicated to publishing Grand Rapids poets and sharing skills and opportunities. Christine has a long-time connection with GVSU, having won her first poetry contest with the Oldenberg Writing Contest when she was a student here. She graduated with a BA in English, then after gaining an MFA in Poetry from WMU, she returned to GVSU for several stints of teaching in the Writing Department between 1992 and 2020 and looks forward to teaching in the Honors College.

Pronouns: she/her

Ramya Swayamprakash

Power and Freedom

Office Address: LOH 107
Phone: (616) 331-8129
Email: swayampr@gvsu.edu

Ramya Swayamprakash is an Assistant Professor at Grand Valley State University in Allendale MI. She is an environmental historian of North America and South Asia. She is currently finishing her first book, Islands in the Straits,  an environmental history of the Detroit River, and getting started on her second major project: a comparative history engineering pedagogy between India, the U.S., the U.K., and Canada.