Social Sciences Faculty Bios
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Dr. Carina Bandhauer, Chair and Professor of Sociology
bandhauerc@wcsu.edu, 203-837-8650
Dr. Carina Bandhauer, Professor of Sociology, earned a Ph.D. at Binghamton University in 2001. She specializes in the sociology of racism, immigration, Latino/a/x studies, and globalization with a regional specialization in Latin America. Her research focus is on the study of racism, the anti-immigrant movement, international migration and globalization. Bandhauer is committed to teaching, researching and working to achieve social justice through awareness. Dr. Bandhauer founded Undocumented Student Services at WCSU in 2017 in conjunction with Connecticut Students for a Dream, and coordinates the UndocuAlly Task Force. In 2020 she co-founded and now co-chairs the Racial Justice Coalition. Dr. Bandhauer has ongoing partnerships with humanitarian groups in El Salvador where she has worked with rural communities since 1993. Dr. Bandhauer served as creative consultant for the production of the film, “El Pueblo Unido,” which documented her work in El Salvador and premiered at the Montreal Film Festival in 2004. Dr. Bandhauer hosts a variety of alternating speakers series on campus including a Latinx Speakers Series; an Undocumented Speakers Series; a Racial Justice Speakers series; a Transnational Families Speakers Series; and a geographically rotating International Social Sciences Symposium. Please feel free to email to find out what’s on the horizon!
Dr. Christine Hegel-Cantarella, Associate Chair and Associate Professor of Anthropology
hegelcantarellac@wcsu.edu, 203-837-3914
Dr. Christine Hegel holds an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She teaches courses on economic and legal anthropology, public anthropology, qualitative research methods, and the Middle East, among others. In 2017, Hegel received the CSCU Board of Regents Award for Teaching Excellence. Her current research project examines and contributes to the fight for livelihood rights for waste pickers (also called canners/informal recyclers/micro-haulers), for which she conducts field research in Brooklyn, New York and collaborates with local and global organizations. Prior collaborations have taken her to Finland to study hockey workers as part of research on Arctic economies, and she has undertaken a number of projects since 2012 focused on the intersections between design and anthropology. Her recent co-authored book, Ethnography by Design: Scenographic Experiments in Fieldwork, (2019, Routledge) with George E. Marcus and Luke Cantarella, offers a model for using design thinking and methods for ethnographic research. She has been awarded research grants from the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Fulbright Commission to conduct ethnographic research in Cairo and Port Said, Egypt, on on the use of legal fictions to reconfigure debt relations. Hegel has authored essays for the edited volumes Collaborative Anthropology Today: A Collection of Exceptions (2021, Cornell University Press) Anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa Into the New Millennium (2013, Indiana University Press) and Family Law in the Muslim World (2016, I.B. Tauris) and articles, essays, and reviews in The Anthropology of Work; Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference; American Anthropologist; Cultural Anthropology; Anthropological Quarterly; and Law, Culture, and Humanities Journal. Her website is http://christinehegel.com/wp/
Dr. Manoj Misra, Associate Professor of Sociology
misram@wcsu.edu, 203-837-8453
Dr. Manoj Misra earned a PhD in Sociology from the University of Alberta, Canada. Before joining this university, he was an Assistant Professor of Sustainable Development at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Republic of Korea. After the completion of his PhD, Dr. Misra was invited as a visiting research fellow at the Agrarian Alternatives cluster at Heidelberg University, Germany. His writings have won best graduate paper awards at the American Anthropological Association and the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development. He has published research articles in top-tier academic journals including in the Journal of Agrarian Change, Agriculture and Human Values, and Climate and Development. He also regularly writes in newspapers and magazines. His research interests are agrarian change and food sovereignty, energy issues and climate justice, and development dispossession in South Asia.
Dr. Jessica Anderson Schofield, Assistant Professor of Political Science
schofieldj@wcsu.edu, 203-837-8454
Dr. Jessica Anderson Schofield earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Missouri in 2017 and a B.A. in Global Studies and Political Science from South Dakota State University. She specializes in the study of international relations and comparative politics. Her research focuses primarily on issues relating to international human rights and enforcement of human rights law through international courts, and she is currently working on a project examining allegations of African bias in the International Criminal Court. Dr. Schofield also conducts research on topics relating to women’s rights, political violence, and African politics. She has presented her research at numerous national and international conferences, and her work on human rights theory has been published in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Empirical International Relations Theory.
Dr. Robert D. Whittemore, Professor of Anthropology
whittemorer@wcsu.edu, 203-837-8461
Dr. Robert D. Whittemore earned his Ph.D. at the University of California in Los Angeles. After serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer and teacher and educational director for a child development center in Massachusetts, he did ethnographic fieldwork among the Mandinka people of the Casamance region of the Republic of Senegal. He also worked in urban Los Angeles with the developmentally disabled. As an associate of the Institute for Writing & Thinking at Bard College, Whittemore, in his classes at Western, explores the relationship between writing and thought, underscoring the importance of developing the kind of ethnographic sensibility essential to global citizenship. His wife, Elizabeth, who has collaborated with him on some of his research and writing, is a poet, playwright and novelist. Their eldest daughter, Miranda, is a novelist and their youngest, Vanessa Kai, is a filmmaker.
Dr. Howell Williams, Associate Professor of Political Science
williamsh@wcsu.edu, 203-837-9335
Dr. Howell Williams holds a PhD in Politics from the New School for Social Research. His doctoral dissertation, “Re-Focus on the Family: The Development of a Liberal Family Politics,” was awarded the 2017 Hannah Arendt Dissertation Award in Politics. Williams researches the relationship between families and the state in America politics from the mid-twentieth century to the present. This research combines Williams’s interest in welfare policy, political discourse, and the rights of women and LGBT people. Williams incorporates these research interests into his political science classes on a range of topics, including American government, political institutions, political theory, and gender and sexuality politics. He has fellowships from the British Library and the U.K. Higher Education Academy. His writing has appeared in PS: Politics & Political Science, American Immigration (2nd Ed.), and The Guardian, and he contributes political commentary for the BBC. His current research project is a book on family values rhetoric in the contemporary Democratic Party.
Social Sciences Department Emeritus Faculty
Dr. R. Averell Manes, Professor Emeritix of Political Science, Conflict Resolution, and Peace Studies
manesa@wcsu.edu, 315-869-0869
Dr. R. Averell Manes earned a Ph.D. from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She taught comparative politics, research methodology and conflict resolution courses at WCSU for 28 years. As the founder and Director of the Conflict Resolution Project, she offered information, training and services to members of the WCSU from 1995 to 2020. Since its inception in 2008 until 2019, Dr. Manes co-founded, co-chaired and coordinated the Hancock Student Leadership Program with the Office of Academic Affairs. She served as the faculty editor of the Social Sciences Journal from 2001 to 2016. A conflict analysis and resolution specialist, she continues to work as a consultant, trainer, and intervener with non-profit organizations, government agencies, public and private schools, businesses, and private individuals. In 2021, the R. Averell Manes Gender Equity Award was created in recognition of her career of service in the fields of gender justice and conflict resolution. Currently, she is a Faculty Affiliate at the Program on the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC) at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.
Dr. Laurie Weinstein, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology 
weinsteinl@wcsu.edu, 203-241-8131
Dr. Laurie Weinstein is Professor Emeritus at WCSU Anthropology. Although she is retired, she still teaches for the Department and handles the Permaculture Garden logistics or everything from grant-writing to managing the student interns and networking with the food pantries in the Danbury region. The Permaculture Garden was her initiative when she was Chair of the JGC. When she is not working at WCSU, she is writing her books about Native England (Between Two Rivers and Two Wars: Western New England in the 18th century with Dr. Lucianne Lavin, for U of Arizona Press) and managing a major series for the U of Arizona Press. Weinstein also started the Archaeology Program and CRM minor at WCSU and she still consults with state officers, local museums, and historical societies about regional culture history. In particular, she is active with the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington, CT. Dr. Weinstein has a lot of pets and helps to rehab small animals up in Massachusetts where she lives.
Social Sciences Department Adjunct Faculty
Debra DeLong, delongd@wcsu.edu
Professor DeLong has worked for over 20 years in Congressional and public affairs. She has worked on and off Capitol Hill as a Congressional Staffer, lobbyist for the largest business organization in the nation, and as political director on Congressional campaigns. She brings real-world understanding of the American Government system to the classroom.
Valentin Dumitrascu, dumitrascuv@wcsu.edu
Lisa Worth Huber, Ph.D., huberl@wcsu.edu
Dr. Lisa Huber holds a Ph.D. in Peace Studies and Conflict Transformation from Lancaster University in the UK. She designed and implemented CT’s first accredited MA program in Conflict Transformation at The Graduate Institute in Bethany, CT, where she was the Academic Director. She serves on the Board of Directors for the National Peace Academy and the Advisory Board for the Connecticut Center for Nonviolence. Lisa is a specialist in community peacebuilding and conflict resolution and has worked in diverse settings as a consultant, facilitator, and peace and justice educator. Lisa is certified and trained in a variety of dialogue and peacebuilding practices from restorative justice to Kingian nonviolence. She is a participatory action researcher with a focus on empathy development, one of the essential skills for creating a compassionate global society. www.lisaworthhuber.com
Allison Knox, knoxa@wcsu.edu
Averell Manes, PhD manesa@wcsu.edu
Emily Metzner, metznere@wcsu.edu
Adam Morse, PhD morsea@wcsu.edu
Ali El Moustakim, elmoustakima@wcsu.edu
Arpita Mukherjee, mukherjeea@wcsu.edu
Craig Nelson, nelsonc@wcsu.edu
Michelle Santoro, JD santorom@wcsu.edu
Adjunct Professor of Political Science. Prof. Santoro earned a BA in Journalism from Temple University, where she minored in Political Science. She then went on to earn an MA in Political Science and Political Philosophy from Fordham University and completed all the coursework for a Ph.D. in American Government and Political Philosophy (ABD). Ms. Santoro earned her Juris Doctorate from St. John’s University School of Law. She holds licenses in Connecticut and New York and has practiced law for 20 years. In addition to teaching at WCSU, in her spare time she writes for a local newspaper covering local town politics and volunteers as a board member for a youth field hockey league.
Faline Schneiderman, schneidermanf@wcsu.edu
Adjunct Professor of Sociology and Anthropology. She completed her MA in Anthropology at the University of Connecticut and is vice president and principal investigator at a professional cultural resource management firm in Connecticut. Her focus on historical research and archaeology has led to excavations throughout the Northeast, with expertise on abandoned cemeteries, urban infrastructure systems, disenfranchised communities, rail corridors, and precontact sites. She is passionate about environmentalism and historic preservation and serves on the board of three preservation organizations as well as the Candlewood Valley Regional Land Trust.
Maureen Sperrazza, sperrazzam@wcsu.edu
Nicole Struth, struthn@wcsu.edu
Adjunct Professor of Political Science, graduated from WCSU in 2012 with a degree in Political Science and a minor in conflict resolution. She currently works as the Education and Special Projects Director at the World Affairs Council of Connecticut, where she works to manage and expand CTWAC’s education related programs such as the annual Model UN, reaching over 1100 Connecticut high school students each year. Nicole completed a dual graduate degree program, receiving an M.A. in International Relations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a Masters of Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Prior to her studies, Nicole served as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Washington State assisting with the management of a college preparedness program for underserved high school students. Nicole has extensive travel experience that includes living abroad in Germany and The Netherlands.
Julie TelRav, Ph.D., telravj@wcsu.edu
Martha Tepepa Covarrubias, PhD tepepacovarrubim@wcsu.edu
Bieu B. Tran, MBA, MPA, MLitt, CAMS, CFE, CGSS, tranb@wcsu.edu
Adjunct Professor of Political Science. Bieu Tran earned his MBA from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, MPA from CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice, MLitt in Political Philosophy from the University of St. Andrews (Scotland), and his BA from the University of Connecticut. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, RI. Together with his teaching at WCSU, Bieu has taught over 26 graduate and undergraduate courses at a variety of universities in Connecticut and New York, including three MPA programs. His career spans both the public and private sectors, as well as service in all levels of government. Bieu’s proudest professional accomplishment has been his service as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He is honored and humbled to have had the opportunity to serve alongside the nation’s finest Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen at home and abroad. Currently, Bieu is the Export Control Officer for the University of Connecticut and UConn Health, managing the entire export compliance portfolio for all areas within the university, including more than $375M in annual research enterprise.
Laurie Weinstein, PhD weinsteinl@wcsu.edu
Paul Wegner, wegnerp@wcsu.edu
