About

Affiliated Faculty

Africana Studies

David Ponton III., Ph.D.                                                                                                                            His work utilizes traditional historical methodologies as well as geographic information systems (GIS). Both in teaching and research, his interests include African American history, gender and society, and the sociology of race.

Rodriguez, Cheryl, Ph.D.
Urban Anthropology –Community Research; Gender, Race, Class and Policy; Black Women, Activism and Politics; Youth and Community.

Simeon-Jones, Kersuze., Ph.D.
Francophone Studies: Africa and the Caribbean, Comparative Literature of the Black Diaspora, Black Internationalism: Literary and Socio-Political Movements, Women History within the Diaspora. 

Anthropology

Baer, Roberta D., Ph.D.
Nutritional and medical anthropology, ethno-pharmacology, international development (Latin America, contemporary U.S.)

Castañeda, Heide, Ph.D.
Social inequality and medicine, transnational labor migration, immigrant and refugee health, health policy, citizenship, border politics (Mexico & U.S.)

Davis-Salazar, Karla L., Ph.D.
Anthropological archaeology, complex societies, human-environment interaction, water management, gender, mortuary ritual, ceramics, the Maya (Mesoamerica, and Central America).

Himmelgreen, David, Ph.D.
Nutritional anthropology, dietary acculturation and obesity among women and children in Hartford, Connecticut and in Tampa and on the impact that ecotourism is having on food choices and nutritional status of households in Costa Rica. Madrigal, Lorena
Genetics, Sickle-Cell Anemia, Human Fertility, Natural Selection, and Living Populations (Costa Rica)

Jayaram, Kiran, PhD.
Anthropology of political economy,mobility, and education, and the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba.

Romero-Daza, Nancy, Ph.D.
HIV/AIDS, women's health, health problems in the inner city, infant mortality, drug abuse, commercial sex. Focus on Hispanic community.

Wienker, Curtis.
Forensic and biomedical anthropology, cultural influences on human population biology, biology of Cubans and African Americans.

Tykot, Robert H., Ph.D.
Archaeological science, ancient diets and spread of maize in Latin America, and marble in Mesoamerica.

Wallman, Diane Ph.D.
Caribbean History and Prehistory; Atlantic Slave Trade; Historical Archaeology; Colonial Subsistence; Human-environment dynamics.

Wells, Christian E., Ph.D.
Archaeology of Mesoamerica and the American Southwest, complex societies, political and ritual economy, ceramic and soil analysis, quantitative methods.

White, Nancy,Ph.D.
Prehistory of the Americas, American archaeology, origins of complex societies, cultural and human ecology, archaeological theory, cultural contact and interaction, gender in anthropological perspective, cultural resource management, public archaeology, and sea level rise along the Gulf Coast from Florida through Mexico.

Yelvington, Kevin A., Ph.D.
Social anthropology, ethnicity, class and gender, work and class, development studies, historical approaches (Latin America, Caribbean, U.S.)

Zarger, Rebecca K., Ph.D.
Sociocultural anthropology, environmental anthropology, ethnoecology, ethnographies of childhood, public engagement in environmental policy, conservation, migration and environmental change, environmental education (Central America and the Caribbean).

Child and Family Studies

Callejas, Linda, Ph.D.
Conducts research and evaluation in the areas of collaborative community development initiatives, behavioral health disparities among minority populations, and racial and ethnic identity formation, especially among U.S. Latino populations.

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Trotz, Maya, Ph.D.
Sustainability, water quality, ecotourism and small scale mining impacts on sustainable livelihoods, climate change, environmental/environmental engineering education in formal and informal settings in the US and in developing countries.

College of Education

Braunstein, Lauren, Ph.D                                                                                                                        Dr. Braunstein's research interests include investigating the role of language ideologies within multilingual educational settings, specifically within Dual Language (Two-Way Immersion) bilingual schools. She also researches the recruitment, preparation, and retainment of pre-service teachers of color. 

Cruz, Bárbara C., Ph.D. 
Global and multi -cultural perspectives in education, with an emphasis on ethnic minority students.

Hamm-Rodríguez, Ph.D. 
Assistant Professor of Social Foundations of Education. Her work focuses on the global study of educational inequality for Afro-Latinx and Caribbean youth (primarily Dominican and Haitian) through a transnational lens. Her research explores the relationships between language, race, labor, and schooling in global school-to-work and college and career readiness programs as well as multilingual language and literacy development in school and community contexts. She recently received a fellowship from the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute to do research with the Dominican communities in Central Florida.

Hernández, Victor, Ph.D
The interface that integrates the design, implementation, and evaluation of educational strategies designed to connect curriculum, teaching and learning in work contexts as a means to maximize career-oriented learning for all students (Mexico).

Smith, Phil, Ph.D.
English Language Teaching Management, Second Language Acquisition and Instructional Technology. ( Brazil). 

Zalaquett, Carlos., Ph.D.
Psycho-therapy and counseling techniques, multi-cultural counseling, characteristic of successful Latina/o students, mental health and education in the Americas (North, Central, South, and the Caribbean).

College of Marine Science

Muller-Karger, Frank, Ph.D.
Marine primary production, monitoring of large-scale phenomena, understanding climate control and climate change, interpretation of numerical models of the ocean, and assessing the importance of continental margins(Venezuela).

College of Public Health

Callegari, Carlos, Ph.D.
Pediatric Endocrinology, Health Education Administration and Leadership

Calvo, Arlene, Ph.D. 
Specializes on Health Education

Hoare, Ismael, Ph.D., M.P.H. 
Specializes on Injury Prevention, Caribbean and Central American Health Systems amd Community Health Assessment

Martinez Tyson, Dinorah "Dina" , PhD, MPH, MA
Applied Medical Anthropology and Epidemiology. Specialization in Community engaged research, Latino and immigrant health, Cancer survivorship and chronic disease management, Cross-cultural concepts of disease and illness, Qualitative methods and ethnography.

Mason, Thomas, Ph.D.
Specializes on Assessment of Environmental and Occupational and Exposure-Related Health Effects.

Salinas-Miranda, Abraham, MD, MPH, PhD
Family Violence, Maternal and Child Health. Specialization: Family Violence, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology, Structural Equation Modeling, Mixed-Methods Research Designs, Community-Based Participatory Research, Child Health & Development.

Electrical Engineering

Moreno, Wilfrido, Ph.D.
System integration for industrial applications in the areas of Industrial Controls & Instrumentation, Robotics, Digital Signal Processing, Reconfigurable Architectures, Analog-Digital Mixed Signal Design & Synthesis, Communications and Biomedical Engineering.

English

Mooney, Susan, Ph.D.
Comparative literature; nineteenth and twentieth-century Hispanic and American literatures; theory.

Maldonado, José Ángel
Assistant Professor of English, specializing in Rhetorical Theory, Critical and Cultural Studies, Film and Television Criticism, Contemporary Mexican Culture, Gender Studies, Border Studies, Globalization, Neoliberalism, and Indigeneity.

Scenters-Zapico, Natalie
Author of Lima :: Limón (Copper Canyon Press 2019) and The Verging Cities (Colorado State University 2015). She won Yale University’s Windham Campbell Prize (2021), a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation (2018), a Lannan Literary Fellowship (2017), and a CantoMundo Fellowship (2015). 

Graphic Studio

Smith, Noel, M.A.
Institute for Research in Art, Visual and Performing Arts

Political Science

Augsburger, Aaron, Ph.D.
Latin America; social change and state transformation; globalization and development; cultural studies; political ethnography

Mantilla, Luis Felipe, Ph.D.
Religious Parties and Secular Politics in Mexico and Turkey

Mendez Carvajal, Laura
Scholar of the political economy of development with a focus on Latin America. She investigates how the rhetoric of development (such as self-help) shapes systems of beliefs and behavior in recipient communities.
 

Perez, Vanessa
Assistant Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies (SIGS) specializing in American politics. She holds a Ph.D., M.A., and B.A., in Political Science from Columbia University. She also previously worked in electoral politics in the Washington, D.C. nonprofit sector. Before coming to USF, she was Assistant Professor of Political Science in the City University of New York. Dr. Perez teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in American and Latino politics.

History

Novoa, Adriana, Ph.D.
Cultural conflict and identity formation in post-independence Latin America.

Ramos, Frances
Colonial Latin America, especially Mexico

Humanities and Cultural Studies

Belgrad, Daniel, Ph.D.
19th and 20th century cultural and intellectual history, environmental history, regional cultures, Mexican culture, and cultural and literary theory (Mexico).

Rachel May
Human Rights, Revolutionary Movements/Ideology, Popular Social Movements, Leftist Politics.

Consentino, Olivia
Specialist in 20th- and 21st-century Mexican cinema and culture. She is also the recipient of the 2024 Early Career Award from the Latin American Studies Association

Library and Information Science

McCook, Kathleen de la Peña,Ph.D.
Distinguished University Professor, Latino Librarian of 2002

School of Social Work

Rahill, Guitele, Ph.D
Associate Professor of Social Work in the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences at USF

Carrion, Iraida Ph.D.
Associate Professor, School of Social Work

Sociology

Aranda, Elizabeth, Ph.D.
Latino and Latina Studies; Migration.

Márquez, Alejandro
His research focuses on the intersection of social movements, care, and emotions, particularly as it relates to the Immigrant Rights Movement and its efforts to help (im)migrants and asylum seekers on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Padilla, Beatriz, Ph.D.                                                                                                                              As a migration scholar from the Global South, her interests involve the Transatlantic region that includes Latin America, Europe (Iberoamerica) and the US. Her research focuses on different aspects of migration processes, public policies, health and diversity, gender, race, ethnicity and discrimination. She has published in international journals in different languages: International Migrations, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, and Policy & Politics.

Theatre & Dance

Arreola, Dora
Associate Professor of Theatre
Acting and Movement

Finelli, Patrick M., Ph.D.
Theatre History, Contemporary Performance Theory, Caribbean Theatre and Sound for the Stage.

Valbuena, Elsa
Choreography

World Languages

Arbesu, David, Ph.D.
David Arbesú is Assistant Professor of Spanish at USF, where he teaches courses on Medieval and Golden Age Spain, and Transatlantic Florida Studies.

Altuna, Margarita, Ph.D.                                                                                                                           Her research interests include nineteenth and twentieth-century Spanish American Literature, Ecuadorian Literature, Afro-Ecuadorian Literature, Latin American Civilization, Literature and Cinema, and Literature and Journalism. 

Brescia, Pablo, Ph.D.
Theory and history of Latin American short fiction; 20th Century Mexican and Southern Cone Narrative and Colonial Mexico ( Mexico and Southern Cone).

Cámara, Madeline, Ph.D.
Hispanic Languages and Literature, Women Studies.

Cano, Carlos, Ph.D.
Language Education

Davies, Celia
Portuguese Instruction, she is a native Brazilian with an MA in Applied Linguistics who has a thirty year career of teaching languages (Portuguese, English, and Spanish). Ms. Paula-Davies has contributed to USF’s Study Abroad programs by leading student trips to Brazil and Costa Rica, and is currently teaching Portuguese I and II fully online

De la Pava, Alejandro
Spanish Language Instruction

Jiménez, Roberto                                                                                                                                              His research interests include exploring the ethics of solidarity, interdependence, and nonviolence in global citizenship education. Prof. Jiménez teaches Spanish language courses, as well as courses of Latin American culture and film. He also serves as the advisor for the Latin American Student Association on his campus.

Lugaro-Izuibejeres, María Natalia
She is originally from Uruguay but lived in Brazil for about 20 years before coming to Tampa. She taught Spanish and English as a second language for Brazilian students of all ages. She graduated from a Master’s degree in Spanish Literature from the University of South Florida.

Ramírez-Wohlmuth, Sonia, Ph.D.
Proffessor Ramírez-Wohlmuth teaches undergraduate courses in Spanish at all levels including expository writing, introduction to Spanish linguistics, and introduction to Spanish translation.

Scharm, Heike, Ph.D.
Interdisciplinary and comparative approaches on modernity in contemporary Hispanic fiction (philosophy, literature, film, art in Spain, Latin America, and Europe).

Wagner, Martinez, Ph.D.                                                                                                                          Her research interests include Francophone women writers, foreign Resistors during World War II in France and French immigrant literature and film. In her book Les écrivaines francophones en liberté (2007),