The College of Charleston is proud to welcome its newest faculty members. With a diversity of expertise in a variety associated with disciplines, they come excited and ready to teach, mentor and inspire students across campus. And the College couldn’t be more proud to welcome them to the community.
Over the fall semester, The school Today has been introducing these Cougars to campus a few at a time – in no particular order – giving the CofC community the particular opportunity in order to get to know them all a little better. Please give a warm welcome to the teachers members in the third of this introductory series, and check out the Faculty & Staff News page to learn about other new faculty members!
Caroline Baker, Theatre and Dance
Caroline Baker ’00
Adjunct Faculty, Department of Theater and Dancing
Background: I am a local designer, teacher and 2000 CofC alum. I grew up within the woods plus waters of Lady’s Island in Beaufort, South Carolina, and – after graduating from CofC with the B. S. in Business and minor in global logistics – moved to NYC to study millinery, fashion design, (a little furniture restoration) plus apparel construction at the Fashion Institute associated with Technology. I graduated FIT summa cum laude inside fashion design with a tailoring specialization and certification in millinery techniques. We debuted MAUDE COUTURE as an emerging designer in 2009 Charleston Style Week and added the sister line of handmade goods called DOT + MAUDE during the particular pandemic. Prior to teaching at CofC, I was the costume and style design teachers for the Charleston County School of the Arts for five years. I join CofC as an adjunct professor in costume history and technology in the theatre and dance department.
Expertise: I specialize in vintage textiles, lace, tailoring, draping, patternmaking, wedding gowns, coats, millinery, upcycling, and eco and sustainable fashion.
Outside Interests: I am an intensely curious person and I love learning. My interests include art, fashion history, sewing, draping, reading, boating, hiking, walking, traveling and discovering new things.
Looking Forward: We have really missed teaching, but We are probably most excited to have a room full of people who share my enthusiasm for costume and style history. I love what I actually do and I enjoy sharing my passion in order to hopefully cultivate that curiosity in students.
Lauren Berowski, English
Lauren Berowski
Adjunct Faculty, Department of English
Background: I have a B. A. in English plus an M. A. T. in English Education from SUNY Binghamton. (Go Bearcats! ) My partner and i started the career as a librarian in addition to English language arts teacher in New York, and then taught middle and high school college students here in Charleston. Although My spouse and i do love teaching 7th grade, CofC is our favorite place yet!
Expertise: I am passionate about creative writing. It is so important for students to know how to be able to express themselves inside their own ways. I have also studied a lot of English folklore and even pedagogy, which are strong interests of mine.
Outside Interests: When I is not chasing my 18-month-old daughter around, I love to read a good mystery novel found in front associated with my fireplace, complete jigsaw puzzles together with snuggle with my dog. My husband and I also love live music!
Anticipating: I am thus excited to be teaching ENG 110, the first stop for many freshmen at CofC, because I think it is so important for learners to know that writing does not have for you to be scary or daunting, and in fact can be incredibly fun and therapeutic!
Amber Davidson, Mathematics
Amber Davidson
Instructor regarding Mathematics, Department of Math
Background: I’ve spent nine years training math in the high school level, one year at the particular 8th grade level and additionally two years from the University of Oklahoma. I have my undergraduate and master’s degree within mathematics education.
Expertise: My research is inside of methods not to mention best educating practices inside mathematics classrooms.
Outside Interests: I like to sew, do art projects and crafts with my personal daughter, and also go to help the beach!
Looking Forward: I am capable to get to know my new students, teach a variety of brand new classes as well as work with some of typically the grad pupils in Math 110S!
Meredith Frazier, Biochemistry
Meredith Frazier
Assistant Professor involving Biochemistry, Division of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Background: We are originally from Charlotte, North Carolina. I received my B. S. at Biochemistry through Elon College, then went to Vanderbilt for my own Ph. D. I was with the Research Triangle Park in the National Institute connected with Environmental Health Sciences doing postdoctoral work prior to joining the faculty at CofC.
Experience: We are a structural biologist and biochemist fascinated by understanding how protein complexes function. My lab will function on a family of ribonucleases – enzymes that cut RNA – that coronaviruses and their relatives use to evade the immune system, making these enzymes possible antiviral targets. My laboratory will tackle questions about the molecular mechanisms of this EndoU family and their own similarities and differences across viruses.
Outside Interests: I feel an avid reader – this favorite science-related book I have read recently is the great breakdown of this discovery with CRISPR gene editing: The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson. I just also take pleasure in hiking plus being outside. I picked up curling during my postdoc present in RTP (yes, the sport where you sweep), and I’m excited to continue playing with the Charleston Curling Club! I’m furthermore interested throughout science outreach and supporting women around STEM.
Anticipating: I am very excited to discuss my love of biochemistry, especially proteins structure in addition to function, along with CofC individuals. I always appreciate watching scholars connect basic chemistry principles and molecular mechanisms to the bigger picture of human health and even disease.
Sharonah Frederick, Hispanic Studies
Sharonah Frederick
Instructor for Spanish with regard to the Professions, Department about Hispanic Research
Background: I was brought up between Argentina, Israel together with the United States, and possess worked internationally for the past 30 years. Presently, I feel section editor on the Colonial Americas, North and South, for Routledge’s digital Encyclopedia from the World Renaissance , and a consultant in Spanish, Portuguese, British and Hebrew for Berlitz Global Leadership Training. When i have taught at Hebrew University here in Jerusalem, worked with Procter and additionally Gamble Health and Cross Cultural trainings using Costa Rica, and trained Spanish not to mention Latin American literature and also Spanish cinema and television at SUNY Buffalo, as well because collaborating together with UNESCO groups from Latin America, often the Caribbean as well as the Middle East.
Expertise: The research is within the background of medicine in indigenous and colonial Latin America; Judeo-Spanish and Hispano-Arabic tradition in literature and science; piracy in the Colonial Americas and Southerly Asia, plus women’s role in it; Mayan in addition to Andean archaeology and pre-Conquest science; Irish history appearing in the New World, and involvement with Latina American independence movements; and even Native American resistance movements and your Spanish renegades who joined them.
Outside Likes and dislikes: I’m interested in books; the interrelationship between technology and magic; folk music; baroque together with renaissance classic rock songs in British and The spanish language; Brazilian jazz and world music; historical past, archaeology, yoga, meditation, trekking and everything connected in order to the sea and travel.
Looking Forward: I’m excited about the ability to work with a range in students coming from beginning to advanced Spanish and additionally the challenges that presents in terms of involving and inspiring the trainees.
Dileep Karanth, Physics
Dileep Karanth
Visiting Assistant Professor from Physics, Section of Physics and Astronomy
Background: Our doctorate is in computational solid state physics from the exact University of Arkansas. I have been teaching regarding the last 15 years. I possess educated in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and, lastly, Illinois, before coming to the College associated with Charleston.
Expertise: My personal doctoral research was as part of solid state physics. However, over the years, We have moved to statistical mechanics. I was also fascinated in the history of research, mathematics, astronomy and audio.
Outdoors Interests: I used to be a new keen birdwatcher, but I actually have not really been performing that for a long time. Now that I am on the Charleston area, I use heard there are opportunities to be able to visit a number of parks, and perhaps it is time to renew my old interest. My partner and i have likewise worked like a freelance translator a long time, and I is interested in translating fiction, poetry and historically important works in scientific research and mathematics (books or papers). I actually is now learning Which include, and my very own colleagues within the Classics department have already been most helpful!
Looking Forward: My own students on CofC possess given me a pleasant surprise by being friendly, trusting and committed. Some of them need help using math, but on the particular whole, they are willing for you to learn. This has not necessarily been very own experience in the past, and My partner and i is right now capable to teach my students – to help justify their particular trust, not to mention generally to do right by them.
Kerstin Kuhn, German and Russian Studies
Kerstin Kuhn
Visiting Assistant Professor of German born Studies, Office of German and Russian Studies
History: As an international scholar from Berlin, Germany, My spouse and i earned this is my Master regarding Education during German Linguistics and Literature from Humboldt University. In my dissertation study during Georgetown University or college, I’ve researched how learners of German born construe evaluative meanings in the digital storytelling medium in order to position themselves and express emotions. Throughout my career, I have got instructed A language like german both for the collegiate and K-12 level, and am is thrilled in order to teach In german language and also culture located at CofC this particular academic year!
Knowledge: My research interests consist of L2 digital writing, systemic functional linguistics, storytelling, foreign language pedagogy as well as curriculum design.
Exterior Interests: I enjoy exploring typically the coastal area with my family and canine, Peanut. Whenever I get the chance, I enjoy be engaged with resin art, quilting, playing this flute and creative composing for my best daughter. We are fascinated by (and always happy to learn) proverbs, dialects, as well as linguistic variations for literature, film and online discourse.
Anticipating: Being an expat from Bremen, Germany, I am most enthusiastic about the full immersion in German vocabulary and culture that these students will experience by different terminology levels.
Samantha Payne, History
Samantha Payne
Associate Professor, Team of History
Background: I grew up inside Virginia, where I became fascinated having American record in general plus the Civil War in particular. I obtained my W. A. from the College involving William & Mary in history and British in 2014 and my Ph. D. from Harvard in Us history found in 2022. Before starting my Ph. D., I just worked for several years in museums, including often the U. S. National Archives, the Nantucket Historical Association and Colonial Williamsburg. This favorite work experience was actually in England, where When i worked at a tiny labor history museum called your Museum connected with Bath found at Work.
Expertise: We are a transnational historian of the U. H. Civil War, with particular interests in slavery, race and abolition. My function also intersects with the exact themes with capitalism, democracy and Black internationalism. My very own book project, The Last Atlantic Revolution , explores the Atlantic story of Reconstruction in Cuba, Brazil and the United States, the last societies to abolish slavery through the Ocean World. One cool thing about the research will be that it draws on archival sources inside of English, Spanish language and Portuguese – which is fun for some sort of U. T. historian!
Outside Passions: In my free time, I really like biking, yogan and binge-watching Netflix ( Fleabag is our favorite). I also enjoy spending a lazy afternoon curled up by using a great novel and my personal cat, Moxie.
Looking Forward: I am really looking forward to getting to be able to know my own students. I went for you to a liberal arts college for undergrad and I loved it : mostly due to the fact of the particular close relationships I built with teachers. I’m excited to get to help build those kinds of connections now, since a professor!
Sarah Platt, Anthropology
Sarah Platt
Assistant Teacher of Anthropology, Department for Sociology in addition to Anthropology
History: I are originally by Maryland, and even I graduated from St . Mary’s College of Maryland on typically the shores about the St Mary’s River near this Chesapeake Bay in 2013. I acquired my Ph level. D. at Anthropology through a focus in historical archaeology via Syracuse College or university in 2022. Prior to visiting CofC, I worked as an archaeological analyst intended for the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS), based out of the archaeology labs at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. We completed this dissertation fieldwork as a good researcher present in residence in the The Charleston Museum, just a short walk away from campus, under often the support in a National Science Foundation Graduate Study Fellowship (NSF GRFP).
Expertise: We are a historical archaeologist, meaning I study the archaeology of your more recent past – when the globe starts in order to look more like our own. My research is on the exact archaeology from downtown Charleston, with a particular focus on the system of urban slavery in the particular 18th century. My current project focuses on typically the Heyward-Washington House on Church Street; however , I’m looking at the earlier gunsmithing workshop that predates the current standing house together with outbuildings.
Outside Needs: I love to kayak within the marsh and creeks, and now that My spouse and i is back in the Lowcountry, I actually look forward to learning to sail. Also i like running, cooking, going to CrossFit classes and spending time with my two gregarious cats, Nemo and additionally Luna.
Looking Forward: With my very own research based in Charleston, I was delighted that will I’ll become able to be able to use the city as a laboratory. Charleston ~ from your grounds to the wider Lowcountry – is an out-of-this-world place to learn about archaeology, museums as well as the heritage sector, and My partner and i look forward to taking students out into the town to understand about anthropology utilizing “boots on the ground. ”
Jean Rugamba, Mathematics
Jean Rugamba
Going to Assistant Mentor, Department associated with Mathematics
Background: My spouse and i come from Rwanda, a small country in East Africa, not to mention I came to the U. S. in pursuit of a good education. For undergraduate schooling (2009–13), I just went for you to Birmingham Southern College, exactly where I majored in math and chemistry; then, to get graduate education and learning (2015–21), When i went to this University regarding Alabama towards Birmingham pertaining to both very own master’s degree and Ph. D. in applied math concepts. Lastly, meant for the prior academic 12 months I have been serving as a visiting professor involving mathematics available at Spartanburg Methodist College.
Expertise: Broadly speaking, I am interested within applications connected with differential and also partial differential equations to help physical as well as life sciences.
Outside the house Interests: In my free time, I delight in spending some time with the help of family and friends, playing guitar (or learning how to), and I recently became thinking about meditation practices.
Looking Forward: This fall I will certainly be instructing precalculus plus introductory calculus. What’s exciting about these types of courses is that they provide your great foundation not only designed for students pursuing mathematics, yet also just for those going after other subjects, especially engineering and physics.
Vish Sakthivel, International Studies
Vish Sakthivel
Associate Professor with International Reports, Department for International in addition to Intercultural Studies
Background: I was some foreign policy analyst just before becoming an academic. I received a fabulous Ph. Deb. at Oxford, after which I had been an important postdoctoral college student at Yale’s Council upon Middle Eastern Studies and even concurrently a lecturer inside Yale’s political science division.
Competence: My interests are in ethnicity and competition (esp. Islamophobia and racialization of Islam), interdisciplinary Middle East together with area studies, political Islam and religion in public life, qualitative study methods/discourse analysis, and social movements/small group behavior.
Outside Interests: I like keeping up with my spoken Arabic throughout my spare time with dialect partners, spending time outdoors along with my family members, cooking and additionally reading/maintaining this is my Elena Ferrante book collection. I also very much get pleasure from consuming, analyzing and discussing American pop culture phenomena with friends and colleagues.
Anticipating: The courses I’m teaching are interdisciplinary! They integrate history, critical IR, geography and anthropology to understand our world.
Peter Spearman, Theatre not to mention Dance
Peter Spearman ’15
Visiting Helper Professor, Unit of Theatre and Dance
Background: I just is out of Charleston and is the theatre and also performance studies Ph. Deb. candidate to Tufts School. I hold a W. A. here in English as well as theatre performance from often the College about Charleston and an M. A. around Theatre plus Performance Studies from Tufts University. Very own dissertation task, Weird Video Games: Playing With Expectation, Affect, and Memory , explores encounters together with games that are not what they appear to be, and how the weird can end up being an effective rhetorical tool to push back on your violence in the “normal. ” His article, “The Man Within: Blackness in addition to Simulation on ‘Injustice: Gods Among Us, ‘” appears in the theater and overall performance studies journal, Etudes Online, and my best work on the exact Doki Books Club will appear in a new forthcoming issue of PARTake . I have personally served as an instructor across courses in acting, theater heritage and media studies. And I have presented papers through ASTR, ATHE and the International Conference on Romanticism.
Skills: My areas of research are video games and efficiency, adaptation, functionality studies, and even British Romanticism.
Outdoor Interests: Most of my time is spent with just a few sons, Win (3) together with Angus (2 months). The majority of my period is spent playing using trucks and additionally legos, not to mention watching The particular Nightmare Before Christmas . When Im not investing time having my amazing family (I met my wife when we were both at CofC! ), We can be found cooking, playing video games, managing these fantasy football or basketball teams, or even playing cards and also drinking wine with my amazing partner, Addi.
Looking Forward: I actually anticipate getting to use so numerous early profession majors as well as non-majors!
Erica Veal, Avery Research Center
Erica Veal ’13
Research Archivist and Interpretation Coordinator, Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture
Background: We are a certified interpretive trainer and certified interpretive guide through the NAI (National Organization for Interpretation) and have some sort of master’s level of all time right from the University of Charleston. I i am also a community organizer and co-founder from the Lowcountry Action Committee.
Know-how: My focus is about civil rights, Black power and Pan-Africanism.
External Interests: I enjoy gardening, hiking, spending time in nature.
Searching Forward: My partner and i look ahead to learning how to do library-led instruction on the Avery Research Center, wherever I am responsible for the purpose of processing collections, creating finding aids, providing archival plus library instruction, providing research/reference services, supervising student employees and interns, developing interpretation plans with respect to exhibitions, training students in NAI meaning techniques in addition to developing an outreach program to bring our resources in order to the broader community.
Daisy White, Professional Experiments
Daisy Nelson White
Adjunct Faculty, Bachelor of Professional Studies, College of Business
Backdrop: I are originally with Baltimore: too cold when it comes to too long. I have already been coaching leaders of all stripes. (I believe everyone is usually a leader and even that we can all be better. )
Expertise: My spouse and i work together with organizations, teams together with individuals. This is my favorite is facilitating workshops where individuals can interact and discover each other and additionally themselves not to mention have enjoyable.
Outdoors Interests: Important to me are integrity, congruence of thought and action, self-awareness and also having enjoyment! Listening is definitely my best attribute. Love best: walking, reading, taking part in AT golf!
Seeking Forward: The people I have met as well as will meet! Learning continuously what When i is coaching and as a result of those I just teach. Always be learning.