People

Eric Gable, Professor of Anthropology
James Farmer Hall, Rm. 240 | egable@umw.edu | (540)654-1504 

Eric Gable received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Virginia. He has studied village-level politics and religion in Guinea-Bissau and Sulawesi, Indonesia, and the politics of heritage in the United States. He is the author of Anthropology and Egalitarianism (Indiana University Press) and (with Richard Handler) The New History in an Old Museum (Duke University Press). He is currently a managing editor for Museums and Society and book reviews editor for American Ethnologist. 

Jason James, Associate Professor of Anthropology
James Farmer Hall, Rm. 218 | jjames@umw.edu | (540)654-1169 

Jason James received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, San Diego. His research interests include nationalism, ethnicity, collective memory, socialism and post-socialism, and Germany. He teaches courses in collective memory, the anthropology of Europe, urban anthropology, and tourism. His book Preservation and National Belonging in Eastern Germany was published by Palgrave-Macmillan in 2012, and he is currently conducting research on the commemoration of slavery and the Civil War in Richmond as well as the process of integrating immigrants in Germany.

Laura Mentore, Associate Professor of Anthropology
James Farmer Hall, Rm. 235 | lmentore@umw.edu | (540)654-1499 

Laura Mentore received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge. Her primary areas of specialization include environmental anthropology, critical theories of development, indigenous cosmologies and social movements. Her research is based in Lowland South America (Amazonia) and the Caribbean. Other interests include economic anthropology and the anthropology of race and gender.

Julia DeLancey, Professor of Art History
James Farmer Hall, Rm. 217 | jdelance@umw.edu | (540)654-1959 

Julia DeLancey came to the University of Mary Washington in 2017. While previous scholarship has focused on sellers of artists’ materials and especially the Venetian vendecolori (color sellers) her new project examines the history of and visual culture related to disabilities in early modern Venice. At present, it looks at individuals with visual and mobility impairments and at mental diversity. She has presented her work both nationally and internationally. Her teaching responsibilities include art history surveys and first-year seminars (including one on art history and disability studies), as well as upper-level courses in a variety of areas including Medieval art;  she has also taught numerous courses on a variety of early modern (Renaissance) and Baroque topics, as well as on art and gender, Dada and World War I, Michelangelo, and the theory and historiography of art history.

Joseph Dreiss, Professor of Art History
Gari Melchers Hall, Rm. 104 | jdreiss@umw.edu | (540)654-2038 

Joseph Dreiss has taught at the University of Mary Washington since 1976. He specializes in contemporary art and art criticism, contemporary architecture and the relationship between art and neuroscience, especially with regard to the implications of neuroplasticity for our understanding of the transformative potential of aesthetic experience. Dreiss teaches Introduction to Western Art I and II, Neoclassicism to Impressionism, Post Impressionism to Abstract Expressionism, American Art, Pop Art to the Present, Seminar in Contemporary Architecture and Methods of Art History.

Suzie Kim, Associate Professor of Art History
James Farmer Hall, Rm. 219 | skim8@umw.edu | (540)654-1961 

Suzie Kim received her Ph.D. in Art History from University of Maryland, College Park and has held fellowships in the Japanese art curatorial department at the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Her research investigates how Abstract art, Constructivism, and the International Style became the primary source for a multifaceted cultural phenomenon in Japan and Korea from the 1920s onward. Her wider areas of expertise include contemporary Korean art, North Korean architecture, postcolonial theory, and cross-cultural interactions between European and East Asian avant-garde movements.

Angela Pitts, Professor of Classics
James Farmer Hall, Rm. 238 | pitts2@umw.edu | (540)654-1023 
(B.A., Ohio University; M.A., Ph.D., University of Wisconsin at Madison)
Lyric poetry, Greek and Latin languages and literatures, Mindfulness

Jason Hayob-Matzke, Professor of Philosophy
James Farmer Hall, Rm. 234 | jmatzke@umw.edu | (540)654-1113 
(B.S., Ball State University; MAIS, Oregon State University; M.A., Ph.D., Michigan State University)
Ethics, Applied Ethics (Environmental and Medical), Philosophy of Law, Social and Political Philosophy

Michael Reno, Senior Lecturer of Philosophy
James Farmer Hall, Rm. 237 | mreno@umw.edu | (540)654-1023 
(B.A., Illinois State University; M.A., Ph.D., Michigan State University)
Logic, Environmental Philosophy, 19th Century European Philosophy, and Critical Theory
Farmer 237, 540-654-1023, mreno@umw.ed

Jennifer Barry, Associate Professor of Religion
Morgan Combs Hall, Rm. 324 | jbarry@umw.edu | (540)654-1343 
(B.A., Colorado Christian University; M.T.S., Duke Divinity School; Ph.D. Drew University)
Early Christianity, Late Antiquity, Women’s and Gender Studies
Farmer 233, 540-654-1343, jbarry@umw.edu, Humanities Commons site: https://hcommons.org/members/jennisifire/

Kalpesh Bhatt, Assistant Professor of Religion
James Farmer Hall, Rm. 236 | kbhatt@umw.edu | (540)654-1023
(B.A., Harvard University; Ph.D. University of Toronto)
Farmer 236, 540-654-1023, kbhatt@umw.edu

Mary Beth Mathews, Professor of Religion
James Farmer Hall, Rm. 239 | mmathews@umw.edu | (540)654-1354 
(B.A., The College of William and Mary; M.A., Ph.D., University of Virginia)
American and European Religious History, Christian Fundamentalism,and African American Religions
marybethmathews.org

Caroline Leassear, Office Manager
Departments of Cultural & Philosophical Inquiry and of Communication & Digital Studies
James Farmer Hall, Rm. 242 | cleassea@umw.edu | (540)654-1023 

Joseph Romero, Professor of Classics
(B.A., Mary Washington College; Ph.D., Duke University)
Hellenistic Greek and Latin Literature, Literature’s Engagement with Philosophy, Semiotics; Higher Education
josephromero.org

David Ambuel, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
(B.A., Northwestern University; M.A., Ludwig Maximilians Universität München; Ph.D., Northwestern University)
Ancient Greek philosophy, Indian and Asian philosophy, metaphysics, Kant
dambuel@umw.edu

Mehdi Aminrazavi, Professor Emeritus of Religion & Philosophy; Inaugural Director of the Khatib Program in Religion and Dialogue
(B.A., M.A., University of Washington; Ph.D., Temple University)
Medieval philosophy, Islamic philosophy, philosophy of religion, Eastern religions, metaphysics
maminraz@umw.edu

Janet Wishner, Professor Emerita of Philosophy
(B.A., University of Leeds; M.A., Bedford College, University of London; Ph.D., University of Georgia)

James Goehring, Professor Emeritus of Religion
(B.A., University of California at Berkeley; M.A., University of California at Santa Barbara; Ph.D., Claremont Graduate School)
jgoehrin@umw.edu

Craig Vasey, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
(B.A., Towson State College; Doctorate, Université de Paris; Ph.D., Brown University)
Contemporary French and German philosophy, Marx, Nietzsche, feminism, race, phenomenology and existentialism
 cvasey@umw.edu

Nina Mikhalevsky, Professor Emerita of Philosophy
(B.A., Boston University; M.A., Ph.D., Georgetown University)
Aesthetics, Ethics, Political and Social Theory, American Philosophy, History of Philosophy
nmik@umw.edu