B.A., Universidad de Puerto Rico
M.A., Université de Paris, Sorbonne
Ph.D., University of Massachusetts

Dr. Canales specializes in Caribbean studies, particularly in the literature of French expression. She co-authored a book on Guatemalan oral tradition, and has given numerous presentations and workshops on literature, culture, and pedagogy. Her current research interests are Cuba and Hispanics in the United States.

B.A., M.A., University of Detroit
M.A., Wesleyan University
Ph.D., York University

Dr. Bakriges is both a pianist and ethnomusicologist. His fields of interest include the impact of African American music in Europe as well as global practices and processes of musical improvisation. He is active as a pianist, composer, and arranger, and regularly presents at conferences around the country as well as in Europe.

B.A., Wellesley College 
M.A.L.S., Dartmouth College 
Geri Brunell is a painter, printmaker, and professional exhibiting artist. She has exhibited in New England and New York, and has won several awards. She has done graduate work in painting at the Brooklyn Museum School and at Smith College. In addition, she has done post-graduate work in art education and painting at Boston University. Her goal is to encourage students to develop their skills and techniques in the studio, to explore new ideas and research compelling topics in art history, and to connect their studies with all aspects of their college life.

B.A., New York University
M.A., State University of New York
Ph.D., The Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Dr. Cerasulo teaches courses in American literature, cinema studies, and writing. He has published on film adaptations, on ethnicity, and on the cultural history of American authorship. Recent scholarly work appears in Arizona Quarterly, MELUS, Studies in American Culture, Twentieth Century Literature, American Writers, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Fiction, and Critical Companion to Eugene O'Neill. He is the author of the book Authors Out Here: Fitzgerald, West, Parker, and Schulberg in Hollywood(University of South Carolina Press, 2010). He is currently working on a manuscript on writers and the television industry. Cerasulo is also a published fiction writer, and in 2002 he received a Zoetrope All-Story award.

B.A., M.F.A., University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Dan Chelotti is a widely published poet and author. His work has appeared in journals such as FENCE, Boston Review, North American Review, Kenyon Review Online, Voices in Italian Americana, and many others. He also writes a regular column for the website, Flying Object. His poetry chapbook, "The Eights," was selected as a winner of the 2006 New American Poets Chapbook Series by Yusef Komunyakaa. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and has received grants and fellowships from the Slovenian Writer's Association, and from the Colraine Writers' Workshops. On campus, he is the faculty advisor to Bloom.

B.A., Central Connecticut State University
M.A.E., Rhode Island School of Design 
C.A.G.S., European Graduate School, Leuk, Switzerland 

Nanci Sarisley Costanzo has taught in public and private schools and colleges for the past 27 years. She received the Outstanding Arts Educator in Massachusetts Award by the Massachusetts Alliance for Arts Education. She was invited to present at the first People to People Art Education Delegation to the People's Republic of China and also participated and exhibited at the First Sino-American Conference on Women's Issues in Beijing, China. She is a painter and printmaker, and has exhibited extensively. She has received several awards for her paintings, and her work is in private and public collections in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Washington D.C., New York, and Rome.

B.A., Assumption College
M.A., Clark University  
Ph.D., University of Connecticut

Dr. Gallant specializes in medieval and modern literature, with a special interest in utopian studies, American studies, contemporary poetry, and theater. He has published several articles and has edited a book on the subject of medievalism.

B.A., Brandeis University
M.A., Ph.D., Boston University

Dr. Hall's fields of interest are Victorian and modern British fiction, literary criticism, and popular culture. She has published and presented papers in Dickens Studies Annual and Studies in Short Fiction, as well as in collections on Victorian literature and detective fiction.

B.S., University of Texas
M.Ed., Ed.D., University of Massachusetts

Dr. Hampton directs the English as a Second Language (E.S.L.) program, and is committed to seeing students improve their language proficiency in order to reach their goals. She also directs the exchange program with University of Kochi in Kochi, Japan. Dr. Hampton has traveled extensively throughout Asia, and she strives to introduce students to the value of diversity and multiculturalism.

B.A., College of the Holy Cross
M.A., University of Connecticut 
Ph.D., Boston University
Dr. King is a contributing editor in drama criticism for The North American Review. His more than 70 essays on rhetoric and theater have appeared in popular, literary, and scholarly publications from The New York Times to English Literary History.  He is the author of The Ethos of Drama:  Rhetorical Theory and Dramatic Worth (The Catholic University Press, 2010) in which traditional rhetorical theory is used to evaluate ethos, or the moral values, found in plays from Shakespeare's time to the present.

B.A., Hampshire College
M.A., Ph.D., Boston College 

I was born and raised in Western Connecticut and did my undergraduate work at Hampshire College. I went on to receive my PhD in history from Boston College in 2002. My dissertation, entitled "Land, Labor and Liberation: Michael Davitt and the Irish Question in the Age of British Democratic Reform," explores the life and legacy of the great Irish land reformer, labor activist and parliamentarian, Michael Davitt. I specialize in Modern Irish history, although I also have training in Modern British, British Imperial and European Diplomatic History. 
In recent years I have presented numerous papers on Davitt and nineteenth century Irish history at conferences in the United States and Ireland. In addition to reviewing books and reading manuscripts in my field, I am presently revising my dissertation for publication.
At the Elms I teach European and World History courses, time periods spanning from the dawn of civilization through the twentieth century. I have a particular interest in studying European land and labor reform and democratic movements. I like to focus upon how individuals of the past (like Davitt) have advanced the cause of social and democratic reform, bringing about changes that benefit the masses, not just the ruling elites. Such interests have led me into larger areas of study that involve modern nationalist, imperialist, and post-colonial movements. These inform my approach to the classes I offer in Early Modern and Modern European history, Early Modern and Modern Britain, and Modern Ireland.

B.S., Springfield College

Arthur Moses has taught at Elms for most of the last 40 years. He is an accomplished artist who specializes in creative sculpture, historical restoration, and the design and production of foundry products. Before teaching at Elms, he taught in secondary schools for more than 23 years. In addition to teaching and managing his own art business, he is very active in his local town government

B.A., Hendrix College
Ph.D., St. Louis University

Dr. Murphy joined the Elms College Philosophy Department in fall 2010. Previously he taught philosophy, ethics, and political theory at Saint Louis University, Saint Louis Community College, Webster University, and Goethe-Universitat in Frankfurt, Germany. He was a research fellow in computer ethics at SLU School for Professional Studies, and held doctoral and teaching fellowships there in the Department of Philosophy. His areas of specialization are social/political philosophy, contemporary German philosophy, and ethics. 

B.A., M.A., National University of Ireland at Maynooth
Ph.D., Boston College 

I was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland and came to the United States to pursue my Ph.D. in history at Boston College, where my principle areas of interest were Irish-American and Irish history. My dissertation, "Progressivism, ethnic nationalism, and the emergence of Catholic democratic liberalism in Boston, 1900-1924," examines the impact of the intersection of American and Irish political ideologies with Catholic social thought on Irish-American ethnicity in the early twentieth century.

I've written a book, Romanticism, Nationalism, and Irish Antiquarian Societies, 1840-80 (2000).  My most recent article, "Ethnic Assimilation and Diasporic Sensibilities: Irish-American Nationalism in Boston after World War I in Its Transnational Context" was published in Eire-Ireland (Winter, 2011).  My other areas of interest include U.S. immigration and ethnicity, the Progressive Era, and historical studies that adopt the transnational approach. What excites me about history is being able to place the history of local events or particular groups in the context of larger historical developments. My research has allowed me to understand how the history of U.S. immigrant and ethnic groups, and of America in general, is best understood by placing it in the context of larger global developments. In addition to offering courses on all periods of American history, I also love to teach interdisciplinary courses. Examples of the latter include the courses on civil disobedience and the Irish-American urban experience.

B.A., M.A., St. Michael's College 
Ph.D., Andover Newton Theological School 

Dr. Pion is versed in the fields of ethics, scripture, lay ministry, ecumenism, Jewish-Christian dialogue, and sacramental theology. He teaches, presents workshops and lectures, and serves on ethics committees and boards of medical organizations. He is also active with the Hatikvah Holocaust Education Center in Springfield, Massachusetts.

B.A., Regis College
Th.M., Weston School of Theology
Ph.D., Graduate Theological Union

Sister Ann is a member of the Connecticut Province of the Sisters of Notre Dame. Prior to undertaking doctoral studies in ascetical theology in Berkeley, California, she served as campus minister at Yale University and as spiritual director at Saint Stephen's Priory in Dover, Massachusetts.

Certificate of African Studies, University of Legon, Ghana, West Africa
B.A., Assumption College, Worcester
M.A., S.T.B., Gregorian University, Rome

Father Savage, a priest of the Diocese of Springfield, is a professor in the Diocesan permanent diaconate formation and lay ministry program, and president of Project Reach Out in Westfield, a community-based diversity training and race relations program. He is a mission appeals preacher for Hands Together, Inc. of Springfield, preaching on behalf of the Catholic missions in Haiti, and a consultant to the York County (Pennsylvania) Community Against Racism. Currently Father Savage is a participant in the northeast seminar of the pastor-theologian program sponsored by the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey. He is a member of the board of directors of the National Conference for Community and Justice (Western Massachusetts/Connecticut Region), a member of the National Catholic AIDS Network, and a member and the past vice president of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus.

B.A., M.A., M.Div., St. John's Seminary 
Licentiate and doctoral degrees, The Catholic University of America

Father Mark Stelzer is a native of the Diocese of Springfield and was ordained to the priesthood in 1983. He joined the Elms adjunct faculty in 1986 and has concurrently served in several pastoral and leadership positions on the diocesan level. From 1999 to 2003 he served as director of the Springfield Catholic Healthcare Chaplaincy. In November 2003, Father Stelzer was appointed acting president of Elms College, a position he held until June 2005. He now serves as college chaplain and associate professor of humanities. In addition to his responsibilities at the college, Father Stelzer is a chaplain and consultant at the Western Massachusetts Regional Women's Correctional Center in Chicopee.

B.A., Southeastern Louisiana University
M.A., Louisiana State University 
Ph.D. ABD, University of Massachusetts 

Javier Venturi joined the Elms College Spanish Department in fall 2010. He has been a teaching associate at the University of Massachusetts since 2003, teaching Spanish and Italian; and has taught Spanish at Amherst College and Louisiana State University. He served in Americorps at Southeastern Louisiana University from 1999 to 2000, volunteered for humanitarian relief as an interpreter/translator for the U.S. Army after Hurricane Mitch in Honduras in 1999, and served in the linguist battalion in the Louisiana Army National Guard. His areas of academic interest are Spanish Peninsular literature, Spanish and Latin American cinema, Italian literature and cinema, and film studies.

B.A., M.P.A., University of Puerto Rico
C.A.G.S. in Education, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Iris Yolanda Van Derdys-Ortiz has taught Spanish at Holyoke Community College, public schools in Springfield and Bloomfield, Connecticut, and at MacDuffie School in Springfield, where she is also international students activity coordinator. She had previously taught business in Puerto Rico at the Instituto de Educación Universal and at American College in Bayamón. She is a member of the Foreign Language Teachers of Western Massachusetts Collaborative. Since 2000, she has been publisher, writer, and director of Élite, a bi-monthly Spanish magazine she created which circulates through western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut, and since 2002 has been editor for Despertar Latino, a Spanish newspaper from the Diocese of Springfield. She also serves on the board of the Spanish American Union-La Casa Hispana.