Honors Program Faculty Advisory Committee (HPFAC) - Honors Program

Dr. Diane Brewer, BA, PhD

(she/her/hers)

Theatre History and Criticism / Professor

Room 109A, Hyde Hall
812-488-2369
db57@evansville.edu

Dr. Diane Brewer, professor of theatre, teaches three Honors courses for theatre majors – Survey and Analysis of Dramatic Literature and Theatre History I and II. In describing the classes, she explains, In Survey and Analysis, we look at plays that fall within the Aristotelian tradition and those that intentionally deviate from those conventions.| As we do so, we engage in intensive discussions and writing assignments that help students learn to identify and understand their personal reactions to plays. In both semesters of Theatre History, we throw ourselves into the gap between past and present, holding ourselves to rigorous standards of research, writing, and critical thinking."

"I want my students to feel challenged and inspired to continue exploring the connection between their own values and the theatre they create," Dr. Brewer notes. "I enjoy teaching UE Honors students because they keep me on my toes. They often ask questions I've never considered and come up with solutions I've never imagined. In that way, they reaffirm why I teach – to keep learning."

Dr. Brewer holds a BA in drama from Tufts University and a PhD in theatre from UCLA. Her areas of expertise include theatre history and dramatic criticism, and she also dramaturgs and directs productions for the UE theatre department. Her articles have been published in The Dramaturgy Protocol, The Dramaturgy Sourcebook (vol. 4), Theatre Topics, PAJ: Performing Arts Journal, and HowlRound at the Center for Theater Commons. She has received such honors as the Dean's Teaching Award, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Evansville and a Certificate of Merit for Dramaturgy from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

Dr. Daniel Byrne

(he/him/his)

Professor/History

Room 344, Olmsted Hall
812-488-2798
db89@evansville.edu

Dr. Daniel Byrne received his Bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Notre Dame and his Doctorate from Georgetown University. His dissertation and subsequent research focused on the United States foreign policy surrounding the Algerian War of Independence and the decolonization of French Africa. Before joining the faculty at the University of Evansville in 2005, he taught at Georgetown, the United States Naval Academy, Francis Marion University, the University of Notre Dame, and Bradley University. Since arriving at the University of Evansville, Dr. Byrne has taught courses on the history of United States foreign policy, the American Civil War and Reconstruction, America between the Wars, Cold War America, the Decolonization of Africa, the rise of Modern China and Japan, and first year seminars on American Social Welfare policy.

Dr. Vincent Campese

Assistant Professor/Psychology and Director of Neuroscience Program

Hyde Hall, Room 217 D
812-488-2531
vc44@evansville.edu
Campese's Personal Website

Dr. Campese earned his PhD in 2011 from the City University of New York Graduate Center through the Cognition Brain and Behavior Psychology sub-program. His thesis project examined the neural substrates involved in context-specific memory. As a postdoctoral research scientist Dr Campese joined the LeDoux lab at New York University, where he pursued questions about how associative learning contributes to aversive motivation and memory. His work has focused on how maladaptive anxiety or fear-related defensive responding is eliminated by experience with avoidance learning. In 2018 Dr Campese became an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Evansville, in Evansville, Indiana. As a principal investigator, he continues to train students to conduct research with the long-term goal of identifying brain circuits that control defensive responding and promote active coping.

Dr. Alison Jones

(she/her/hers)

Co-Department Chair / Assistant Professor of Education

Room 322, Graves Hall
812-488-5106
aj157@evansville.edu

Dr. Alison Jones, assistant professor in the School of Education, earned a BA in History Education and endorsement in Special Education from Whitworth University, MEd in Technology in Education from Lesley University, and EdD in Educational Leadership from University of the Cumberlands.

Dr. Jones began her teaching career in Tacoma, Washington, teaching high school special education. Relocating to Orlando, Florida, Dr. Jones taught middle school social studies in the AVID program. After a move to Evansville, Dr. Jones taught high school social studies at a private online school. Dr. Jones has served in various teaching roles, including team leader, department chair, in-service trainer, and new teacher mentor. In Orlando, Dr. Jones was recognized as her school's Social Studies Teacher of the Year and Teacher of the Year. Dr. Jones was the recipient of the Dean’s Teaching Award in 2022.

Dr. Julie Merkle

(she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor/Biology
Co-Director of the Eykamp Center for Teaching Excellence

Room 219, Koch Center for Engineering and Science
812-488-5026
jm757@evansville.edu

Specializations:
Developmental Biology, Genetics, Stem Cell Biology, Reproductive Biology

Dr. Sara Petrosillo

(she/her/hers)

Associate Professor/English

Room 326, Olmsted Hall
812-488-2010
sp220@evansville.edu

Sara Petrosillo received her BA in English and Italian Literature from Colby College, and her PhD in English from the University of California, Davis. Her scholarship focuses on medieval literature and feminism and she has published articles on medieval poetry and drama in the Journal for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Exemplaria: Medieval, Early Modern, Theory, Medieval Feminist Forum, and in a 2018 essay collection, Animal Languages in the Middle Ages: Representations of Interspecies Communication (Palgrave-Macmillan). Her book about the cultural influence of falconry on medieval reading practices, Hawking Women: Falconry, Gender, and Control in Medieval Literary Culture, will be released in 2023. She teaches first year seminars, the first half of the British literature survey, world classics, renaissance and 17^th century writers, the Romantics, and medieval literature. She also chairs and teaches the introductory class to the Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies program. She received UE’s Exemplary Teacher Award in 2021.