About Us

Christine Cusick, PhD, is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Honors Program at Seton Hill University. She is a Master Practitioner with the global nonprofit Narrative 4 and the liaison for the Seton Hill partnership with the organization. She teaches courses in first year writing, Honors seminar, literature courses such as “Empathy and Storytelling” and has been the recipient of the Seton Hill Liberal Arts Teaching Award.

Dr. Cusick's research focuses on the intersections of ecology, narrative, and cultural memory. She has published numerous ecocritical studies of contemporary Irish literature on topics such as deep time, bioregionalism, and narrative scholarship. She has been nationally recognized for creative nonfiction that highlights the confluence of memory and place, and has been an invited plenary speaker at national and international conferences.

She edited Out of the Earth: Ecocritical Readings of Irish Texts (Cork UP) and coedited, Unfolding Irish Landscapes: Tim Robinson, Culture and Environment (Manchester UP). She is presently researching the entanglement of environmental empathy and community in contemporary Irish texts.

John Spurlock, PhD, Professor of History Emeritus, has been involved in Holocaust education since the 1980s, when he was teaching high school in Riverside, California. At Seton Hill University he was a member of one of the first faculty groups to study the Holocaust at Yad Vashem, in Israel. He participated in the development of our Genocide and Holocaust Studies graduate certificate program. He coordinated the program for several years, and has taught courses on World War II, Comparative Genocide, and Theories of Genocide.

Dr. Spurlock served as chair of the Humanities Division for 10 years. In 2005 he was the Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer at the Filosofski Fakultet of the University of Montenegro. He also directed Seton Hill’s short term study away programs in Mexico and China.

Spurlock's scholarship has been published in a variety of journals including The Journal of Social History and History of Psychology. He has spoken and presented papers both nationally and internationally. He is the author of three books, the most recent of which is Youth and Sexuality in the 20th-Century United States (New York: Routledge, 2015).

Mehnaz Alfridi, PhD, is Professor of Religious studies and Director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College. She teaches courses on Islam, the Holocaust, Genocide, comparative religion, and Feminism.

Her recent book, Shoah through Muslim Eyes (Academic Studies Press, 2017), was nominated for the Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research and the Jacob Schnitzer Book Award.

She is currently working on a new monograph, The Wounded Muslim, (Lexington Books, forthcoming) and a co-edited book on International Approaches to the Holocaust, (Nebraska University Press, forthcoming).

In 2019, she was awarded the Costello Award for teaching excellence in the School of Liberal Arts at Manhattan College.

Dr. Afridi obtained her Ph.D. from University of South Africa, and her M.A. and B.A. from Syracuse University.

Timothy Petete is a member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. He is also a Professor of English at the University of Central Oklahoma. His areas of specialization include Indigenous literature and contemporary American literature.

He has facilitated teaching demonstrations and delivered academic lectures at international programs and symposiums in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and the United Kingdom.

He has also delivered scholarly presentations at several national conferences, including the Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Convention, the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference, the American Literature Association Annual Conference, the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention, and the College English Association Annual Conference.

Pati Beachley is a non-binary sculptor living in Pittsburgh, PA. She holds an MFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BA from University of Maryland-College Park. Originally from Baltimore, she serves as Chair of the Art & Design Department and Professor of Art at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA. She exhibits and performs casting workshops actively in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland, and Tennessee. She has had multiple solo shows, national shows, curated, and juried exhibitions.

She began casting over 25 years ago in a mostly male dominated field, adding a queer narrative by casting carpet and fibrous materials. Her work mixes masculine and feminine attributes, forcing a dialogue into gendered text and image. Her studio and foundry is in Pittsburgh, PA, where she casts all her own metalwork. She studied with Anne Truitt and John Ruppert at Maryland and Liz King, Myron Helfgott, Howard Risatti, Kendall Buster, and Lester Van Winkle in Richmond.

She contributes volunteer service to the larger arts community in Pittsburgh by serving on multiple boards of arts organizations. She is a member of the College Art Association, Pittsburgh Society of Sculptors, Allegheny Metals Group, Sculpture X, Society of North American Goldsmiths and the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh.

Daniel Casebeer, PhD, is Associate Professor of Education at Seton Hill University. He is a recipient of the Joseph B. Whitehead Educator of Distinction Award, presented by the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, and a contributor to Edutopia.

Debra Faszer-McMahon, PhD, is Dean of the School of Humanities and Professor of Spanish at Seton Hill University. She began her career teaching High School English in Kansas and rural South Dakota, but she has been teaching Spanish at Seton Hill University since 2007.

She has published three books related to migration, global refugees, and interdisciplinary literary studies, including Cultural Encounters in Contemporary Spain (Bucknell University Press 2010), African Immigrants in Contemporary Spanish Texts (Routledge / Ashgate Press 2015), and most recently, A Laboratory of Her Own: Women and Science in Spanish Culture (Vanderbilt University Press 2021).

Her current research involves a monograph on Saharaui refugee communities in Spain, tentatively titled Solidarity in the Digital Age: Transnational Poetics and North African Literature in Spanish. She has published several articles related to the project, including studies based on personal interviews conducted with Saharaui refugee poets. The monograph employs new media literary studies as well as postcolonial, transcultural, and trauma theories to analyze how Saharaui authors are employing traditional and digital poetic forms to address competing political and historical discourses in support of the refugee cause. She hopes that her focus on transnational cultural dialogue in the context of global migration will offer valuable insights for NEH Seminar participants.

Roni Kay O’Dell, PhD, is Associate Professor of Political Science and Global Studies with more than a decade of successful teaching experience, multiple research and writing publications, and work with human rights organizations. Roni Kay specializes in research on international organizations, the United Nations (UN), human development and human rights, the Sustainable Development Goals, democratic negotiation, and participatory development/community engagement. Her published works include Global Politics: A Toolkit for Learners, a co-authored book written with a learner-centered pedagogical approach to individual and classroom learning.

She is actively involved in human rights organizations, supporting scholarship in global politics, and in organizations that support the United Nations. She received her Ph.D. in international studies from the University of Denver, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, and her M.A. in international policy studies, human rights focus, from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (now the Middlebury Institute).

James G. Paharik, Ph.D, is Professor of Sociology and Director of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education at Seton Hill University. He is a founder of the University's academic program in Genocide and Holocaust Studies, and regularly offers courses in the program. He also teaches sociology courses on racism, inequality, and extremist violence.

Dr. Paharik is the author of a range of articles on the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights. His book, The Long Journey: In Search of Justice and Peace in Jerusalem (Liturgical Press, 2009) is an ethnographic study of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A 19 year veteran Social Studies educator, Jennifer Goss now serves as a Curriculum & Instruction specialist for Echoes & Reflections as well as the Willesden Reads Fellow for the USC-Shoah Foundation. She holds MAs in Holocaust and Genocide Studies and American History from West Chester University and Pace University, respectively. Jennifer also holds a certificate in Genocide and Holocaust Studies from Seton Hill University. She has worked as a consultant and volunteer with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and other instititions throughout the U.S. A United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Teacher Fellow (‘10), Jennfer also produced the Emmy-nominated film, Misa’s Fugue, about Holocaust survivor Frank Grunwald and has co-authored several articles and works, including the memoir of Itka Zygmuntowicz, Remember My Child.

Jessica Lohr is the Administrative Assistant for the School of Humanities at Seton Hill University. She is the one who keeps us all sane and brings a bit of joy to the office! :-)

She is also well known for the following:

• Fabulousness

• Crochet Craziness

• Social Media Savvy

• Incredible work ethic

• Giant water bottles

• Scaring easily

• Hating that we keep adding to this list of her amazingness

Maria Giunta is a History Education major from Pittsburgh, PA. She is currently in her junior year at Seton Hill and is also a member of the Honors Council and the Education Club. In direct connection to Grappling with Genocide, a few of her research interests include the genocide of Indigeonous Americans and genocides that are ongoing in modern times, as well as how to approach these issues in the classroom. Maria looks forward to her time as a teacher in order to help young people develop a better understanding of the complex and diverse issues and events that have shaped the modern world.