New-Student Guide

Thomas Ashman

So just what is “Finance” anyway, and how did it become such a bad word? Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller won the Nobel Prize in Economics in part for proving that Finance is irrelevant. Other renowned economists like Robert Shiller routinely assert that financial market participants are irrational. Despite the turmoil of the past two decades, the financial services industry is burgeoning globally, and it has never been more important for people to understand basic principles of Finance. Students will be introduced to simple accounting statements, valuation models and the relation between risk and return. Each student will apply the concepts learned by analyzing a Dow 30 Company.

Thomas Ashman, Professor of Management, has a B.A. in English Literature and Psychology from Williams College, an MBA from Loyola College in Maryland, and a Ph.D. in Finance from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He survived working for the Federal government, and enjoys reading, traveling, and hiking. His research interests include sports economics (ice hockey, horse racing, basketball, baseball, and football), corporate governance, and money and banking.

Tony Brunello

Imagine yourself in “the room where it happens.”  This was precisely the desire that Alexander Hamilton expressed in Act Two of the musical Hamilton.  This course is about imagining yourself  in the places and spaces where politics “happens.”  We will confront some of the most serious issues that challenge people in our world.  Through a variety of activities, including reading course texts, viewing films, and participating in debate and discussions, we will do what Aristotle believed was the most essential element of human social relationships– think politically.  The Philosopher Aristotle believed that human beings have the chance to think beyond their personal, private, and basic needs, and are capable of thinking selflessly about the public good.  That possibility is critical to democratic and communal life.  Democratic citizens can choose to act selflessly—and this is a natural part of human nature.  Human beings do more than worry about survival.  Politics also empower us as a species to create our world.  Even so, the political realm is fraught with peril, violence and possibilities in the expression of two of its key elements.  The first element is full of magic and danger and is manifested in the need to create and use power.  Power is pivotal in the evolution of political relationships.  Finally, the other element is empathy, and here is where we must depend on our imaginations and our search for justice.

Tony Brunello earned his B.A. from the University of California at Davis and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Oregon.  His research and teaching are in the areas of Comparative Politics, Political Theory, Global Politics, Environmental Politics, Dictatorships; Ideologies; and Propaganda. Recently published research includes studies on politics and religion, propaganda, populist movements, and American Democracy. He has received the Grover Wrenn Award for Leadership and Service to General Education, the John M. Bevan Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award and the John Satterfield Outstanding Mentor Award at Eckerd College. Dr. Brunello was born in Placerville, California. His alma mater is the University of Oregon, and he loves the Oregon Ducks.  He also loves the city of San Francisco, and the San Francisco Giants. He is also a passionate fan and supporter of the Eckerd College Tritons.  With his wife Monica, they raised three children in south St. Petersburg.

Kristy Cardellio

The Italian peninsula, historically made up of myriad civilizations with diverse cultures and languages, became unified as a nation in 1861. In this course we will view and critically analyze Italian films that address the question of national identity, particularly after the fall of Fascism. The films included in the course are by distinguished Italian directors who express their ideas of what it means to be Italian through their films. We will explore and reflect on their vision for the future of Italy. As a final project, students will have the opportunity to make their own short films.

Kristy Cardellio, Instructor of Italian, earned her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the University of South Florida and her M.A. in Italian at New York University. Areas of interest and research include Italian film, applied linguistics and study abroad. In addition to teaching Italian, she works with the Office of Global Education and enjoys leading language immersion programs to Italy.

Andrew Chittick

Have you ever wanted to conquer an empire? Enter into the world of Sunzi’s Art of War, where the rival kings of classical China battle for supremacy. In this course we analyze the Art of War and other texts from the Warring States period (5th-3rd centuries BCE) to understand the development of warfare, the art of rhetoric, and the ethical codes and practical strategies of politics. And we’ll play a simple multi-player game that will test your ability to practice classical Chinese strategy and the persuasive arts. Can you conquer all of China? Your throne awaits.

Andrew Chittick, the E. Leslie Peter Professor of East Asian Humanities and History, teaches a wide range of courses on East Asian and comparative world history and culture, including courses on pirates, shipwrecks, and study abroad. His primary research is on early south China and Southeast Asia, with particular interest in maritime trade. He has also worked on local history, maps and spatial history, and the development of dragon boat racing. He is the author of two books and many articles, and has held fellowships at New York University, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, and the Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore.

Louise Daoust

Imagine you are looking at a bowl of strawberries. You have a visual experience of seeing red objects at a distance. But how does that experience relate to what is in fact in front of you? This course explores recent and interdisciplinary efforts to answer one of the oldest philosophical questions: What do we see? Are our ordinary visual experiences anything like what’s “really there”? Should we understand our perceptual experiences as illusory, or at least as heavily constructed? In attempting to answer these questions, we’ll also ask: What can we learn from thinking about non-human animal visual systems? And what about the kinds of visual experiences made possible by new technologies? For example, are the experiences we have in virtual reality best thought of as accurate experiences of a real, if virtual, world? Or does a world have to be physical for it to be real? What is synesthesia (e.g. when letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored), and how does it relate to what we count as ordinary visual awareness? In striving to understand our perceptual relation with the world around us, we’ll work together to prepare you for a successful four years at Eckerd.

Louise Daoust earned her PhD in Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania in 2017.  She studies issues in philosophy of psychology and biology, with a focus on visual perception. She also has research interests in the history of philosophy and science, especially in women writers from the early modern period. She teaches a broad range of courses, including Introduction to Philosophy, Environmental Ethics, and Animals and Experience. And she always loves teaching in Autumn Term and Human Experience.

Paige Dickinson

We often talk about the transition between adolescence and young adulthood as a period of identity exploration and development. For all of you this time period also includes transitioning to college life. During autumn term we will be exploring emerging-adult identity development and the transition from high school to college through creative arts techniques. We will cover topics that include: adult autonomy and agency, health and wellness, balancing work and play, relationships, learning styles and defining your personal values and goals. We will use the arts not only to explore these topics, but you will also learn how to use these same techniques to cope with and manage the stress of college life. This is an experiential based course and students should be willing to engage in all art forms (art, music, dance, drama, and narrative), although you do not need to be proficient in any specific form. 

Paige Dickinson, Associate Professor of Human Development at Eckerd College, received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a Specialization in Health Psychology from California School of Professional Psychology, San Diego. She also holds an MA in Drama Therapy from New York University. She is a Registered and Board-Certified Drama Therapist. Her clinical work and research focus primarily on Arts in Medicine program design and implementation and professional development and ethical decision making. Additional areas of interest include inclusivity and multimodal learning in the classroom, caregiving across roles, grief and loss, as well as trauma informed teaching practices.  She has a 14-year-old son (the four-legged variety that meows) named Tucker. When Paige is not teaching she spends her free time going to arts and cultural events, hockey, and spending time in the great outdoors.

Philip Gravinese

Mucus! This slimy substance is ubiquitous within the marine environment and is used for protection, foraging, feeding, locomotion, and reproduction. Many of the creatures that use mucus are not very charismatic, they look alien, and are they viewed as revolting by the public. But what if I told you these slimy critters have important value to humans! In “That’s Disgusting: Why Do Slimy Ocean Creatures Matter?” we will examine the interconnectedness between these odd creatures and humans. We will study not only the ecological value of these species but also their worth to humankind which include being a food source, a source for the development of new drugs, and even inspiration for biotechnological advances. In our discussions you will gain a passion for the value of these ignored species, understand how they are being threatened, identify why they are worthy of conservation, and discover how they are related to our economy and health. I dare you to venture into this slimy and often overlooked realm where we will explore the oceans gross and weird and provide insight into why all life matters!

Philip Gravinese is an Assistant Professor of Marine Science. He teaches courses in Comparative Animal Physiology, Invertebrate Zoology, Navigation of Marine Organisms, Biological Oceanography, and Science Communication. Dr. Gravinese earned his Ph.D. in Biology from Florida Institute of Technology and completed his postdoctoral studies at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium. His research focuses on determining how both singular and simultaneous environmental stressors like ocean acidification, elevated temperature, hypoxia, and toxic algae (red tide) impact the life history stages of marine invertebrates with a focus on understanding how these environmental stressors may affect the physiology and behavior of Florida’s commercially and ecologically important crustaceans including stone crabs, spiny lobsters, and more recently the Caribbean King crab. Dr. Gravinese’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals that include Biology Letters, Scientific Reports, Frontiers in Marine Science, and Marine Biology. In his spare time, he runs a volunteer-based non-profit called Youth Making Ripples which challenges K-12 and college students to create short marine science films that promote marine conservation. He also enjoys playing boardgames with his wife and spending time with his one- and four-year-old daughters. 

Matt Karlesky

At Eckerd College, our entire community is encouraged to “think outside.”  But what exactly does thinking outside mean?  Is it literal, in the sense that we should go outdoors and explore the natural environment?  Does it mean we should think outside the box, like creators and entrepreneurs?  Are we being invited to expand our minds through the liberal arts?  In this course, we will consider these questions, and more.  From adventure leadership to the psychology of creativity, we’ll dive into the outside world through literature, media, and experiential exercises.  Along the way we’ll explore – and challenge – the physical, social, and cognitive boundaries that often go unnoticed.

Matt Karlesky earned his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, and he specializes in management and entrepreneurship. Prior to joining Eckerd College, Professor Karlesky taught undergraduate and graduate courses at the University of South Florida’s Muma College of Business and at Suffolk University in Boston.  His teaching and research interests focus on organizational behavior, leadership, negotiations and conflict resolution, and entrepreneurship.

Erin N. Kidder

Ryan Lambe

How does your favorite musical artist create music videos? What do their music videos mean? Queerness from Queen to Chappell Roan. The feminisms of Madonna to Megan Thee Stallion. Racial politics from Michael Jackson to Kendric Lamar. These artists created music videos that are aesthetically significant and politically important. But mainstream artists are just part of the story. Independent musicians create music videos that further complicate mainstream musical politics with their sometimes illegible (and therefore radical) representations. In this course, we will consider how music videos from the mainstream to the margins not just express but influence changing racial, gender, and sexual identities across time. We will develop skills for analyzing music, lyrics, and images in music videos to search out the ways artists negotiate issues of aesthetics and power. Music videos satisfy us with the pleasure of listening and watching. How then do music videos leverage that pleasure to resist and reinforce social norms? To answer this question, this course traces trends in representations of identities in music videos.

Ryan Lambe is an Assistant Professor of Music at Eckerd College. He studies queer and transgender amateur performance spaces (like open mics and karaoke) in the US, attending to emotion, voice, race, gender, and sexuality. In his free time, he plays role playing games (digital, tabletop, and live action), and plays and listens to a wide range of music. 

Davina C. Lopez

Should we accept the world as it is? What if we feel uncertain about whether what we experience is always true, good, and/or possible? What do we do with our doubts? The role of doubt in human experience is often misunderstood, as if disagreement and viewpoint diversity are terrible things. This class will help us practice the courage, resilience, and imagination to express doubt. We will explore such topics as what “good doubt” entails, how doubt relates to patterns of conviction and self-identification, how doubt differs from denial and negation, how to think critically about how doubt shows up in our culture, and how to trust and act on our own doubts. We will look at examples of doubt and uncertainty as creative forces across time and cultures: from ancient Greek skepticism and Mesopotamian mythmaking, to Islamic science and European Enlightenment, to American freethought and the New Atheists. We will also learn how studying the humanities in college is an empowering way to engage with enduring questions and problems from multiple angles, as well as to identify and appraise our own assumptions about the things we take for granted.

Davina C. Lopez, Professor of Religious Studies, teaches courses wherein we ask questions about what religion is and why it matters, on a range of topics such as cults, food, sports, identity, film, technology, and secrecy. A biblical scholar and historian of religions, her research concerns doubters, freethinkers, innovators, heretics, and other problem-causers across time and cultures, from the ancient near east to the contemporary United States. She is the author of two books and numerous articles, is an editor of an encyclopedia and a Bible, and has held fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Louisville Institute for Religion and American Life, the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, and the Burke Library at Columbia University.

Sarah Lyle

The magic in Harry Potter may be fiction, but the psychology behind its characters and themes is very real. This course will use the Harry Potter series to introduce students to core psychological concepts, such as identity, social influence, moral development, learning and memory, attachment, resilience, and more. Students will develop essential academic skills, including critical thinking, research literacy, and effective communication, while learning to approach academic challenges with a growth mindset to succeed in college and beyond. Just as wizards master spells, students in this course will master the principles of psychology, uncovering the hidden forces that shape thoughts, emotions, and actions.

Sarah Lyle (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Psychology. She teaches courses in health psychology, developmental psychology, and research methods in psychology. Her research focuses on stress and resilience across the lifespan. Dr. Lyle earned her PhD. in Psychology from the University of Georgia, earning additional certificates in University Teaching and Quantitative Methodologies. When she is not teaching, Dr. Lyle can likely be found renovating the home she just bought with her girlfriend, watching reality TV while snuggling her two dogs, rock climbing, or searching for seashells at the beach. She is a proud member of the Hufflepuff house, and her Patronus is an Otter.

Charles McCrary

Katrin Pesch

In our era of global climate change, the privileged position of the human has come under scrutiny. Humans have become such a powerful force on the planet, scientists argue, that they leave a trace on the surface on the earth. To frame discussions about the environmental impact of human activities, such as species extinction and the ecosystem destruction, scholars have proposed the term Anthropocene to describe a new geological epoch. Researchers in the social sciences and humanities use this frame to investigate the entanglements of humans and nature, while many argue that ‘the Human’ as a universal category fails to grasp the inequalities of contemporary society. The course Welcome to the Anthropocene invites you to explore art works, films, and texts from different disciplines that challenge us to think about how to live together on a damaged planet in a technologically-mediated world. As we become increasingly aware of the effects of anthropogenic climate change, scholars and observers are asking the big question: Who and what should be considered part of the social collective? Guided by the concern for a sustainable future––environmentally as much as ethically––we will learn to notice and care for the more-than-human world around us.

Katrin Pesch received her PhD in Art History, Theory, and Criticism with a Concentration in Art Practice from the University of California San Diego. A scholar and filmmaker, she has exhibited internationally in film festivals, art spaces and galleries. Her research focuses on the multiple intersections of film and the environment and her writing has been published in the journals Studies in French Cinema, Anthropology and Humanism, NECSUS European Journal of Media Studies and several edited collections. Currently, she is writing a book on notions of nature in films by French director Claire Denis. Outside of research and teaching, you’ll likely find her cooking with friends and family, playing with her cat Little Moth, or working in the garden.  

Allison Quatrini 

What does a “good” society look like? When is it better to go our own way, and when is it better to conform to the desires of others? What would a fair society look like? Are we justified in using any means possible to get there? How do we imagine a better world? These questions are at the forefront of dystopian fiction. In this course, we will read dystopian fiction not only for the engaging plots, but also to think about how the societies described in these stories mirror those of countries around the world today as well as our own. In doing so, we will consider important historical and contemporary political issues such as propaganda, information control, brainwashing, and nefarious uses of technology. In addition, we will explore dystopian fiction as a tool to critique political systems and tactics while thinking about ways to improve our world.

Allison Quatrini teaches courses on Chinese government, Chinese environmental politics, environmental politics in the Global South, and the politics of East Asia more broadly. Since completing her Ph.D. at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., her research has examined the politics of spectacle and holidays in China, with a particular focus on the Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Mongolians. Her enjoyment of baking and cooking has earned her the distinction of “Political Science’s resident chef.”

Alexis E. Ramsey-Tobienne

Protest is a key engine of American political history. Indeed, our nation was founded on dissent, spurred by the Boston Tea Party and dissent and protest continue today. In looking at key moments of protest from the last half of the 20th century and from the beginning of the 21st century, we will examine why we protest, what resulted from those protests, and what we learned. Specifically, we will explore how language, symbolism, and persuasion fuel resistance and inspire change. From historical speeches and manifestos, to modern day social media activism, from wearing pink hats to carrying umbrellas, this course examines how individuals and groups crafts messages and build movements that challenge the status quo. 

Dr. Alexis E. Ramsey-Tobienne is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL. In addition to teaching courses in academic writing at Eckerd, Dr. Ramsey directs the senior capstone course Imagining Justice, chairs the Academic Honor Council, and is a co-director of the Inspired Network for Teaching, Learning, and Faculty Development. Her areas of specialty are archival research methods, academic integrity, and faculty development practices. 

She is the co-editor of the collection Working in the Archives: Practical Research Methods for Rhetoric and Composition, the co-author of  “”In, Through, and About the Archive: What Digitization (Dis)Allows” from the collection Rhetoric and the Digital Humanities and author of “Archives 2.0: Digital Archives and the Formation of New Research Methods” in Peitho 15.1 and “Academic Integrity and Accessibility” for the International Center for Academic Integrity Blog among other publications. When not teaching, Dr. Ramsey enjoys walking her dog, reading a good book, planting new native plants in her garden, and exploring different parks and sites with her family.

Kathleen Robinson

Yarns, shanties, and scuttlebutt are terms that reference the constructing of story and self under sail. The relationship between the sharing of stories and journeying on water appears throughout many cultural landscapes in narrative form.  But why is the link between taking to the sea and telling the story of journeying by water so strongly related?  This course encourages students to explore various narrative structures, stories, and experiences related to this link as the focus of our examination.  Examples will range from ancient stories of the earliest seafarers to the reflective narratives of the early Americas to various fictions (and facts) of contemporary sailors.  Throughout our experiences in this course, we will work together to engage in academic inquiry, as well as to craft familiarity with class preparation and expectations at Eckerd College.  

Kathleen “Kat” Robinson received her Ph.D. in Literature from the University of South Florida. She came to Eckerd College in 2008, after teaching at the University of South Florida.  She is currently the Asst. Dean of Faculty, in charge of Fellowships and Scholarship for Eckerd College. Her research interests include the study of trauma and narrative in modern American and British Literature.  She is involved with the local sailing community.   She enjoys crossing oceans, dismantling patriarchal structures, and hanging out with her child and partner.

Jason Sears

This course considers the varied ways that nature is socially constructed in the history of ideas and in contemporary film. By subverting the notion that the natural world is only represented in books and movies that seek to spread environmental awareness or activism, we consider how four prevalent models of nature are represented in various genres of literature and film. These four models include seeing nature as Frontier (wild and needs cultivating), Sublime (spiritual), Mechanistic (a machine to be manipulated), and Feminist (akin to aspects of the feminine and consequently oppressed).  We explore how it is that these models deeply influence what we believe to be our role in nature and our responsibilities to it.     

Jason Sears, Philosophy Instructor and Ethics Bowl Director at Eckerd College specializes in Ancient Greek philosophy, Ethical Theory, and Environmental Ethics. His research focuses on Plato and Aristotle’s competing conceptions of justice. He teaches in the Philosophy, Animal Studies, and Environmental Studies disciplines. Some of his courses include Animal Ethics, Environmental Ethics, Philosophy of Love and Death, Plato, and Aristotle. He misses Greece, where he spent a year doing research at the American School of Classical Studies, and enjoys martial arts, playing guitar, and training canines in his limited free time.

Dawn Shedden

We talk all the time about people “on a mission” to change the world but what does that really mean? Are missions supposed to be so hard that we can focus on nothing else? Are they possible or impossible? Do they alter who we are and how we behave? Why do most organizations feel the need to create mission statements? Do they really follow them? Join us on a journey as we explore these questions and seek to understand missions in our wider world while developing our own sense of what our individual missions might be. Our main sources will be the diaries of early German missionaries to Pennsylvania, Anna Botsford Comstock’s guide to the study of nature and Katy Payne’s work with whales and elephants, and the story of women in the CIA. We will also look at popular films like The Martian and Operation Mincemeat and visit local community organizations in search of that illusive sense of purpose and meaning within ourselves and others.  

Dawn Shedden, Visiting Assistant Professor of Foundations/History, has lived in St. Petersburg for over 25 years and has worked at Eckerd College in various capacities for much of that time.  She has a Ph.D. in European history from the University of Florida, a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College.  Professor Shedden’s dissertation research examines how individuals living in border regions organized their worlds in the turmoil of the French Revolution. More recently, she has been working on understanding identity within the diverse communities of the St. Petersburg area. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, reading, singing, and taking nature walks with her husband and three boys.

Jared Stark

When Art Spiegelman’s Maus was first published, it provoked skepticism: “What, a comic book about the Holocaust?” Now it is considered a masterpiece, and an inspiration for a generation of cartoonists and graphic novelists. Marjane Satrapi, for instance, blends autobiography and history in her book on the Islamic Revolution in Iran, while Keiji Nakazawa turns to comics to recount the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath. Even our textbook, Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, is itself a comic book. This Autumn Term course has two main components. First, we’ll study major examples of serious cartooning, learning to analyze the complex and powerful relationship between words and images. Second, we’ll let these books inspire us to try out new ways of recording of our own personal and collective pasts, by creating comics using your own drawings or found images (no drawing experience expected or required!).

Jared Stark is Professor of Comparative Literature. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University and, before joining the Eckerd faculty in 2004, taught at Cornell University and New York University. His recent research and teaching have focused on the ways literature can illuminate issues in bioethics, film and visual arts, food ethics, animal studies, and human rights. He has published two books: A Death of One’s Own: Literature, Law, and the Right to Die and No Common Place: The Holocaust Testimony of Alina Bacall-Zwirn, and numerous articles. Among his loves are travel (at Eckerd, he has immensely enjoyed traveling with students to London, Berlin, and Poland and is planning a study trip to Peru), cooking, and the occasional tennis match.

How addicted is the U.S. to oil?  How much oil does the world have left?  What are the costs and benefits to society of fracking?  Is it possible to reduce our consumption of oil and other fossil fuels to avert the dangers of climate change?  How much has oil driven our foreign policy?  Should the U.S. strive to be “energy independent”?     This course examines such questions and invites students to critically assess existing U.S. oil policy and make informed recommendations for the future.  Issues to be explored are the supply and demand for this nonrenewable resource, its historical importance to the U.S. economy, and its national security and environmental consequences.  We will analyze various policy options, including supply-based measures such as increased oil drilling and use of unconventional sources, as well as demand-based measures such as fuel economy standards, higher gasoline taxes, and incentives for alternatives like electric vehicles and biofuels.  Throughout this course, we will work together to develop our research, writing, and presentation skills, and become familiar with class preparation and participation expectations at Eckerd.

Jill Collins received her Ph.D. in Economics from The University of Tennessee at Knoxville, having already completed an M.S. at Arizona State University and a B.A. at Wellesley College.  Her research interests include how to value environmental amenities such as clean air and clean water, how to best manage natural resources such as oil and water over time, and the role of cost benefit analysis in public policy.   She enjoys yoga, playing the piano, working crosswords, and going to the beach with her husband Bill and daughters Chloe and Summer.

From seafarers to scientists, surfers to sirens, humankind’s close relationships to the sea span time and culture. This transdisciplinary course explores ways in which representations of this relationship, from “The Pearl Diver” of ancient Noh Theatre to Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic, have reflected (and sometimes transformed) various cultural contexts. Students will take a deep-dive into stories of human relationships to the ocean that have sparked replication, representation, and repetition across performance media. They will examine the cultural retellings inspired by these stories, and ways in which those tellings have in turn reflected and shaped their societal contexts. Students will also read key theoretical works, both ancient and contemporary, to gain an understanding of critical conceptual application to representations of human-ocean relationships. These theoretical concepts will serve as tools for students’ written analysis of the narratives and media we examine. Finally, students will apply their knowledge by creating their own representations of a human-ocean relationship through original creative digital media projects.

Antonia S. Krueger has a PhD in Theatre from The Ohio State University, where she was the first person in theatre ever to receive a Presidential Fellowship. She has two Masters degrees: an MA in Communication (Theatre) from Indiana State University, and an MA in English as a Second Language (graduate minor in Psychology) from the University of Minnesota. Her scholarship focuses on life narratives across multiple disciplines and incorporates elements of psychology, history, comparative literature, performance studies, critical theory, sociolinguistics, and internatural communication studies. Tonia has been teaching at Eckerd since 2012. She has also worked in the performing arts in many capacities: as a dramaturg, playwright, critic, voice and text coach, actor, director, costumer, and arts administrator.  She has been a 2020/2021 and 2022 Performance and Ecology Working Group Co-Convener for the American Society for Theatre Research. She enjoys butterfly gardening with Florida native wildflowers and trying to teach the neighborhood mockingbirds new songs.