<h4>What do international studies majors do after Denison?</h4>
Students who majored in international studies have gone on to many different careers. The following is a sampling of what some recent graduates are doing:
Students who majored in international studies have gone on to many different careers. The following is a sampling of what some recent graduates are doing:
- Mary Ann (Miller) Bates spent the year after she graduated in Bern, Switzerland, on a Fulbright research fellowship, studying the historical context of Amish separatism. Her weekly newspaper column was recently published in book form, CH is for Chocolate: Individually Wrapped Tastes of Switzerland. She then taught English at the Amman Baccalaureate School in Amman, Jordan. She is now attending the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
- Miranda Bodfish manages a citizenship preparation program at a small non-profit for low-income immigrants and refugees in Seattle.
- Sara Cahill taught English in a small elementary school near Seville. She is now an Ensign in the Coast Guard stationed in Norfolk, VA, where her primary job is foreign vessel inspections.
- Lauren Campbell is supervisor in a department within the sales division of a distributor of industrial supplies in Cleveland.
- Sasha Chetyrkina is office manager for a Chicago based organization that supports eduction, health and development among poor communities in Peru.
- Kim Cochran teaches high school Spanish at a low-income school in Charlotte, NC, through Teach For America.
- Meghan Duffy is a Peace Corps volunteer in Chimoio, Mozambique.
- Sarah Grundahl worked for two years at the Save Darfur Coalition. She is currently in East Africa, volunteering with several NGOs in Uganda and Kenya.
- Jennifer Hart is a PhD Candidate in African History (with minors in Comparative Colonial History and African Studies) at Indiana University-Bloomington. She is presently in Accra, Ghana, on a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, conducting dissertation research on the social and cultural history of urban transportation in Accra.
- Jenny Lacey did graduate studies in International Affairs at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, where she also worked for a nuclear nonproliferation research consultancy. She now lives in Washington, DC, where she works under a contract in support of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration.
- Marisa Lopes works through Americorps with a non-profit organization called Friends of the Children—Boston.
- Christy Rhodes Machak did an M.A. in Security Policy from George Washington University in Washington, DC, after which she joined the State Department, where she is a Foreign Service Officer. After a tour in Berlin she is now serving in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
- Sia Moua is in Mauritania with the Peace Corps.
- Jessamyn Schmidt teaches ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) at the University of Southern Maine as well as at Portland Adult Education. She teaches "business English" to immigrants and refugees, to help prepare them to enter the job force. She also continues to perform and teach dance.
- Lindsey Wood recently finished a MS in Natural Resource Management at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point with a focus on environmental education and sustainability. Her thesis is titled: "Sustainble Community Development: Case Studies from India and Kenya."
<h4>Who are our professors?</h4>
The International Studies Program comprises faculty from across departments at Denison University. Most of our faculty have active international research agendas and offer numerous courses with an international orientation. The International Studies Committee has the major responsibility for overseeing the program and for advising international studies majors.
Director of International Studies and Professor of Religion John E. Cort joined the faculty at Denison in 1992. He earned a B.A. and an M.A. at the University of Wisconsin and an M.A. and a Ph.D. at Harvard University. His research interests include Asian, Indian and comparative religions, Indian history and culture and the history of religion.
Professor of Modern Languages Gary Baker joined the faculty at Denison in 1989 and teaches German. He earned his B.A. from Juniata College, his M.A. from Pennsylvania State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. His research interests include German culture and literature and Netherlandic topics.
Professor of English Kirk Combe earned his B.A from Davidson College; M.A. from Middlebury College; D. Phil. in literature at Oxford University. He teaches literature, critical theory, and writing at Denison University. His specialty area is Restoration and 18th-Century British literature, with an emphasis on satire and stage comedy. He teaches upper-level courses in the poetry, prose, drama, and culture of the early modern period.
Assistant Professor Crossley-Frolick joined the faculty in the political science department at Denison University in 2007. Her research focuses on German unification, in particular, the efforts to address the legacy of the East German communist past in the context of East Germany’s transition to democracy. Her newest research project examines the role of the EU in designing policies intended to address human rights violations and to promote reconciliation and the rule of law in post-conflict settings. She is the faculty advisor Denison’s Model United Nations program. Students enrolled in her UN course participate in the annual American Model United Nations simulation in Chicago, a four-day simulation of UN diplomacy.
Associate Professor of Sociology/Anthropology Susan E. Diduk joined the faculty at Denison in 1984. She earned a B.A. at the College of William and Mary, an M.A. at University College London, U.K. and an M.A. and a Ph.D. at Indiana University. She teaches in the areas of comparative social institutions, sociology of art, contemporary sociocultural theory, gender and Africa. Her areas of specialization include classical and contemporary theory, art and society, gender, political economy and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Assistant Professor Quentin Duroy teaches in Economics and is a committee member of the International Studies and the Environmental Studies programs. He received a B.S. and M. S. in Economics and a master's degree in Banking and Finance from the Université de Rennes, France. He earned an M.A. in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University and a Ph.D. in Ecological Economics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research is concerned with the interface between the multiple dimensions of sustainability. Within that framework, his scholarly work explores relationships between environmental action and economic conditions, between democratic justice and biotechnological development and between social identity formation and capabilities. His research areas are primarily the EU and the US.
Assistant Professer Sangeet Kumar joined the Department of Communication Fall 2010. He earned a B.A. from Delhi University, India a M.A. from University of New Mexico, Albuquerque and Ph.D from The University of Iowa. His research interests lie in the field of cultural globalization. He believes teaching to be an academician's praxis and is driven by the pedagogical philosophy of creating better global citizens.
Associate Professor of Art History at Denison University Joanna Grabski holds the Ph.D. and the M.A. in History of Art/African Studies, both from Indiana University (Bloomington). She has been the recipient of the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad award from the U.S. Department of Education, and the Pre-Doctoral Fellowship from the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution. Joanna’s research specialization is art in Africa, especially Senegal and Congo, where she has conducted research on individual artists, art institutions, and expressive production in urban Africa. She has published in several academic journals including African Arts, NKA, Fashion Theory and Africa Today as well as edited volumes. She recently edited a special issue of Africa Today dedicated to Visual Experience in Urban Africa and is completing a book manuscript dealing with Dakar’s art world city.
Director of International and Off-Campus Study Andrew Law came to Denison in 2004. He earned a B.A. at Georgetown University and a Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota.
Associate Professor of Sociology/Anthropology Veerendra P. Lele joined the faculty at Denison in 2003. He earned an A.B. at Cornell University, an M.A. at Georgetown University, an M.A. at the University of Michigan and an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. at Columbia University. His research interests are in cultural identity, material culture and archeology, issues of racial and ethnic identity, kinship, and religious ritual. Much of his field work has been done in Ireland, exploring issues of identity through the work of certain philosophers.
Assistant Professor of Women's Studies and International Studies Isis Nusair joined the faculty at Denison in 2005. She earned a B.A. at Tel-Aviv University, an M.A. at the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. at Clark University. She has served as a researcher on women's human rights in the Middle East and North Africa for Human Rights Watch and worked as a researcher with the Euro-Med Human Rights Network.
Assistant Professor of International Studies Taku Suzuki joined the faculty in 2007. He earned a B.A. at Meiji Gakuin University in Japan and his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. His research interests include the Okinawan immigrant community in eastern Bolivia, Okinawan/Bolivian immigrant communities in Japan, and transnational Okinawan peace and environmental activism.
Assistant Professor of Communications Ping Yang earned her B.A. from Xi'an International Studies University, M.A. from Bowling Green University, and Ph.D Arizona State University. Her teaching and scholarship focus on the intersection of culture, communication, and technology. She is currently working on projects that examine ethnic minority identity, heritage language education, and identities construction in intercultural online communication.
For more information about the department and curriculum, go to:
International Studies Department
or contact:
John Cort, Director
Department of International Studies
Fellows Hall, Room 417
Denison University
Granville, Ohio 43023
Phone: (740) 587-6254
Fax: (740) 587-5764
E-mail: cort@denison.edu