Women's Studies Faculty Associates
Sherry Shapiro, Ed. D.
Director of Women's Studies, Professor of Dance and Coordinator of Dance Education
Sherry Shapiro has been a faculty member since 1989. She teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses focusing upon issues of cultural awareness, critical and creative thinking, and learning through experience. Her work has developed out of a concern with issues of imagination, the value of human difference and social responsibility. Committed to a vision of education as one that has the possibilities for developing a sense of community, democratic participation and compassionate awareness, she integrates critical theory and feminist and cultural studies. Shapiro advises the majors and minors in the program. She is the author of four books: Dance Power and Difference: Critical and Feminist Perspectives in Dance Education, Pedagogy and the Politics of the Body: A Critical Praxis, Body Movements: Pedagogy, Politics and Social Change, and Dance in a World of Change; Reflections of Globalization and Cultural Difference. She serves on boards of national and international professional organizations and is serving on the governing board of the National Women's Studies Association as a co-chair of the Program Administration and Development component of NWSA.
Degrees Held: B.A., M.A., Appalachian State University; Ed.D. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Courses Taught: Reading Women's Lives Introduction to Women's Studies, Crossing Borders: Women Making Change in a Global Society, Women's Studies Service Project, Research in Women's Studies, Our Bodies-Our Lives: Shaping Female Identity
Contact: 760-2857, ShapiroS@meredith.edu, 15 Weatherspoon Building
Dr. Lori Brown, Ph. D.
Associate Professor of Sociology
Lori Brown joined the Meredith College community in 1992, eager to participate in a program with a strong emphasis on teaching. Brown's interests in the field of sociology are reflected in the courses she regularly teaches. She is a member of the Context of Culture teaching circle.
Degrees Held: B.S., University of Louisville; M.A., Temple University; Ph.D., Indiana University
Courses taught: Population Dynamics, Human Sexuality, Sociology of Education, Race and Ethic Relations, and CORE 100.
Contact: 760-8590, Brownlo@meredith.edu, 310 Ledford Hall
Francie Cuffney, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biology and Health Sciences
Francie Cuffney's research interests focus on freshwater ecology, and she is working with students studying the effects of pharmaceuticals and personal care products on aquatic invertebrates. Cuffney teaches introductory biology, ecology, and evolution as well as the course Women in Science. She serves on the Advisory Board for the Meredith College Center for Women in Science and Math.
Degrees Held: B.A, Oberlin College; M.S., University of Louisville; Ph.D., University of Georgia
Courses Taught: Women in Science
Contact: 760-2879, CuffneyF@meredith.edu, 149 Science/Mathematics Building
Susan Gilbert, Ph.D.
Professor of English
Degrees Held: A.B. Duke University; A.M. University of Virginia; Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Courses Taught: Seminar in American Women Writers, 20th century literature, southern literature, women's literature and world literature.
Contact: 760-8554, gilberts@meredith.edu, 114B Joyner Hall
Shannon Grimes
Assistant Professor of Religion & Philosophy
Dr. Grimes joined the Department of Religion & Philosophy in Fall 2006. She teaches courses in biblical studies, early Christianity and environmental ethics. Her teaching and research interests include religious views of nature and the cosmos; magic, science and religion; and women and religion. Her current research is on the integration of science and religion in antiquity, particularly in the fields of alchemy and astronomy.
Degrees Held: B.A., University of Puget Sound; M.A., California Institute of Integral Studies; M.Phil. and Ph.D., Syracuse University
Contact:760-8749, GrimesSh@meredith.edu, Joyner 206
Aimee Hess
Instructor of Sociology
Ms. Hess has spent much of her adult life working with young women in a variety of capacities within the field of teen pregnancy prevention, and her academic concentrations grow directly out of these experiences. With teaching interests in gender, theory, media, social problems, family and adolescence, Ms. Hess' dissertation examines the implementation of abstinence-only sex education. She spent two years working in abstinence programs in New York City tracing the explicit and implicit messages that these programs send to young people about gender and sexuality. Amie completed her graduate studies at New York University, and will defend her dissertation in the fall.
Degrees held:
B.A. in Sociology and Communication Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
M.A. in Sociology, New York University
Courses Taught:
Gender and Society; Media, Self and Society; Social Theory, Social Interaction and Social Problems
Contact Information:
760-8016, hessamie@meredith.edu, 309 Ledford Hall
Alisa Johnson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English
Dr. Johnson joined the Meredith faculty in 1998. Her essays and entries on African American writers have been published in Modern Fiction, The Reference Guides to Modern and Short American Fiction and The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing.
Degrees Held: A.B., Guilford College; A.M. and Ph.D. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Courses Taught: American and African-American literature and Contemporary Feminist Theories.
Contact Information:
760-2288, johnsona@meredith.edu, 106 Joyner Hall
Rosemary Hornak, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Dr. Hornak joined the Meredith faculty in 1977. Dr. Hornak has presented at numerous conferences including the Teaching Institute of the American Psychological Society, the Sandhills Regional Psychology Conference and the Association for Psychological Science Convention. Her research interests include memory and thinking processes. She received the Laura Harrill Presidential Award and Pauline Davis Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Hornak holds professional membership in the Association of Psychological Science, American Psychological Association, Society for the Teaching of Psychology, Psychonomic Society and Society for Computers in Psychology.
Degrees Held: B.A., Wheeling Jesuit University; M.A. and Ph.D., The Ohio State University.
Courses Taught: Stress Management; Research Methods in Psychology; and Memory, Language and Cognition
Contact: 760-8403, HornakR@meredith.edu,103 Ledford Hall
Veronique Machelidon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Veronique Machelidon joined the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department as visiting professor of French in 2001. She is a native of Belgium and speaks French as a native language. Machelidon is enthusiastic about teaching foreign language courses at every level and particularly enjoys teaching French and Francophone Women Writers.
Her academic interests range from psychoanalytic criticism, feminist theory, gender studies, to postcolonial literature and francophone studies. She has recently published in George Sand Studies an article examining gender subversion and narratology in Indiana, a novel by 19th century French woman writer George Sand. She has been particularly excited to work with students and faculty from the Music Department to celebrate George Sand's Bicentennial through a series of recitals, lectures, films, and exhibits held at Meredith College in 2004 and 2005. She is interested in developing interdisciplinary courses and research projects with students and faculty.
Degrees Held: A.B. Liege University (Belgium); A.M., University of Illinois at Urbana; Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Courses taught: French Women Writers, Elementary French Conversation, Intermediate French II, Advanced Grammar, Composition and Linguistics
Contact Information: 760-8420, machelidonv@meredith.edu, 106 Martin Hall
Professor Julie Mayberry
Julie Mayberry has taught communication courses at Meredith since 2002. She is also a full-time NCSU faculty member since 1998. Mayberry has also taught at UNC-Chapel Hill and Peace College.
Degrees Held: B.A. and M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Courses Taught: Interpersonal Communication, Small Group Communication, Gender Communication, Nonverbal Communication
Contact: 760-2393, Mayberry@meredith.edu, 215 Harris Hall
Professor Beth A. Mulvaney, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Art
Beth Mulvaney, although a specialist in Italian late Medieval and early Renaissance art (primarily the Trecento and Quattrocento), is fond of nearly all periods of art, including modern and contemporary. In her time at Meredith she has supervised student research that has been published, as well as presented at various regional, national and international conferences. In 2001 Meredith College awarded Mulvaney the Pauline Davis Perry Award for Research and Publications. In the summer of 2003 she was one of 15 college and university professors named by the National Endowment for the Humanities to participate in the "St. Francis in the Thirteenth Century," a seminar conducted on site in Siena, Rome, and Assisi.
Degrees Held: B.A., State University of New York at Buffalo, M.A. and Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Courses Taught: Women in the Visual Arts
Contact Information: 760-8497, MulvaneyB@meredith.edu, 143 Gaddy-Hamrick
Margarita Suarez, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy
Margarita Suarez joined the Meredith faculty in 2001. Her area of concentration is theology and culture, specializing in global liberation theologies. Her dissertation, "Hasta la Victoria Siempre": Birthing Cuban Feminist Theology," is an ethnographic view into the lives and religious thought of three Cuban women –pastor/theologians. Suarez is faculty advisor for Theta Alpha Kappa, the religious studies honor society.
The Rev. Dr. Suarez teaches courses in global liberation theologies, women in Christianity, and courses in religion and culture. She has recently published an article, "Across the Kitchen Table: Cuban Women Pastors and Theology" in Gender, Ethnicity, and Religion: Views from the Other Side, edited by Rosemary Radford Ruether. Her current research interests are the variety of religious expression in Cuba and the use of ethnographic research methodologies within religious scholarship.
Degrees Held: B.A., Fordham University; M.Div., Harvard Divinity School; Ph.D., Northwestern University
Courses Taught: Global Liberation Theology, Women in Christianity and courses in religion and culture
Contact: 760-8063, SuarezM@meredith.edu, 208 Joyner Hall
Deborah Tippett, Ph.D.
Professor and Head of the Department of Human Environmental Sciences
A Meredith faculty member since 1987, Tippett is the co-author of Teen Life: Living, Learning, and Caring, which has been released in the sixth edition. She has made presentations to groups in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, New Jersey, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia and North Carolina. She is a national officer with Kappa Omicron Nu Honor Society and has been a national officer with the Council of Administrators in Family and Consumer Sciences, the Family and Consumer Sciences Education Association and a past governing board member of NC-Association for the Education of Young Children.
Tippett has received awards such as Regional Teacher of the Year and the Meredith College President’s Award for Excellence. In the spring of 1998, she was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award at Meredith College, which is an award nominated by the students of the college.
Degrees Held: B.S., M.S. and Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Courses Taught: Marriage and Family Relationships, Global Questions: Needs of Families, and Methods of Teaching Family and Consumer Sciences
Contact: 760-8395/8325, tippettd@meredith.edu, Martin 205
Anne York, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Business
After graduating from Elon University, Anne York worked for the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and later for GE Capital. However, she did not find personal fulfillment and intellectual challenge in these jobs. She therefore decided to change careers and pursue graduate study in the subject that she loved the most while at Elon, which is economics. Her fields of concentration within economics are labor and health economics and she also has a graduate minor in statistics. Her research has examined labor supply decisions of married couples, international comparisons of labor force participation rates for women and for individuals approaching retirement age, immigrant versus native economic status of older workers in Germany, the effect of a mother's work status on her child's health care needs, and most recently, gender differences in the college and career aspirations of high school valedictorians. Due to her research work, she has received Meredith's Pauline Davis Perry faculty award for Excellence in Research in 2000.
Degrees Held: B.S., Elon University; M.S., University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Ph.D., North Carolina State University
Courses Taught: Principles of Microeconomics, Principles of Macroeconomics, Labor Economics, Health Economics, Money and Banking, Gender and the Economy
Contact: 760-8483, YorkA@meredith.edu, 121 Harris Hall
