Faculty Fellows in Residence

Michelle Dent is a Senior Language Lecturer in the Expository Writing Program where she has designed and taught classes in the College of Arts and Science, Tisch School of the Arts, Steinhardt, and Stern. From 2003 to 2010 she was the writing faculty director at Goddard Residential College, and during the 2010-2011school year she was an Affiliated Faculty member at NYU Abu Dhabi. She is currently teaching at NYU Poly. Her research interests are typically located at the intersections of the Arts & Humanities and the Social Sciences, and she is currently working on a book about women in Alaska during the early 1900s.

Prof. Michelle is an avid traveler and explorer of all kinds of landscapes. She grew up in the Rust Belt (Cleveland), went to college in the Pacific Northwest, and moved to NYC in the early 1990s to attend graduate school. Ask her about her year-long odyssey that spanned four continents and included stops in Alaska, Abu Dhabi, Istanbul, and Nepal! She enjoys reading The New Yorker, attending dance and theatre performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), collecting World’s Fair memorabilia, hanging out with friends and family, and cooking. She also enjoys swimming and yoga. She lives at Broome with her mom, Emmalee, and a charming Maine Coon Cat named Wolfgang.

Emmalee, is a former teacher who moved to NYC in 2005. She loves the adventure of walking in the city and discovering new details about riding the subways. She also enjoys church activities, doing crossword puzzles, knitting and crocheting, connecting with friends on Facebook, and baking scrumptious cookies, cakes, and brownies.

Wolfgang (Woflie) is a mature Maine Coon Cat who is grateful that Emmalee rescued him from a Seattle shelter over 10 years ago. He loves to wake up early, sleep all afternoon, and eat and play as much as possible. His favorite activities involve ping pong balls, string, and ribbons. He loves to be included in parties – especially those that involve knitting and yarn.
Michelle Dent is a Senior Language Lecturer in the Expository Writing Program where she has designed and taught classes in the College of Arts and Science, Tisch School of the Arts, Steinhardt, and Stern. From 2003 to 2010 she was the writing faculty director at Goddard Residential College, and during the 2010-2011school year she was an Affiliated Faculty member at NYU Abu Dhabi. She is currently teaching at NYU Poly. Her research interests are typically located at the intersections of the Arts & Humanities and the Social Sciences, and she is currently working on a book about women in Alaska during the early 1900s.

Michael Ralph has taught in NYU’s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis since 2007. His research is concerned with citizenship, sovereignty, and economic and political crisis in Senegal and the United States. Michael has published in Souls, Social Text, Public Culture, South Atlantic Quarterly, Journal of the History of Sport, and Transforming Anthropology. He is an Associate Editor of Transforming Anthropology, as well as a member of the Social Text Editorial Collective and the Editorial Boards of Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, Sport in Society and Disability Studies Quarterly. Michael enjoys discovering new neighborhoods in the NYC metropolitan area and beyond, playing pickup basketball, and hanging out with good friends and family. Despite a hectic schedule that involves research, teaching, publishing, and parenting, Michael watches an almost inconceivable amount of TV—from reality shows to expensive news.

Jerusalem is an aircraft mechanic, who spends most of her time repairing Embraer 145s and 170s, and the occasional Airbus 320. Jerusalem enjoys family exercise sessions, thrifting at actual thrift (as opposed to vintage) stores, discovering great coffee and amazing eats around town, and traveling to new and familiar destinations. She also loves partaking in ritual TV watching with her husband.

Semai enjoys playing chess. His favorite sports are soccer and basketball. He wants to be a pilot and a professor when he grows up.  Sofia enjoys painting, playing with puzzles and plotting world domination while donning a ballgown and tiara. Sofia says that she would like to pursue an acting career in the near future.

Kristin Horton and Eliot are excited to begin their firstyear as Faculty Fellow and Pet in Residence at Carlyle Court. They look forwardto creating exciting and fun opportunities for members of the Carlyle communityto know one another and explore this remarkable neighborhood and city together.

A theater director and Clinical Assistant Professor at theGallatin School of Individualized Study, Kristin teaches courses in directing,acting Shakespeare, devising theater as well as puppetry and performingobjects. In addition to teaching at Gallatin, she also serves as the ArtisticDirector of the school’s annual arts festival. As a director, she is primarilyinterested in developing new plays that engage cross-cultural dialogue. She isexcited to explore the rich theatrical and political history of Manhattan’sLower Eastside and participating in its diverse cultural life with theresidents of Carlyle.

Eliot is a 3-year-old rescue from New Jersey. He loveswalking tours, city parks, activism (particularly for animal adoption), andmeeting new people. Look out for him in an elevator or hallway near you!  

Lorena Llosa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She has a BA in English, Spanish, and French from Santa Clara University, an MA in Teaching English as a Second Language from UCLA, and a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from UCLA. Her interests are in the areas of second and foreign language learning, teaching, and assessment. At Steinhardt, she prepares future bilingual, English as a Second Language, and foreign language teachers as well as doctoral students interested in issues of language education and assessment. Originally from Argentina, Lorena has been at NYU and enjoying living in New York for six years. Prior to coming to New York, she lived in Los Angeles, California. Ask her which city she prefers.

Lucia is a four year-old, six-pound Maltipoo (Maltese/Poodle mix) who loves playing fetch with her tiny tennis ball and is expert at coercing people into giving her lots of attention. Her favorite spots are Washington Square Park and the Carlyle Courtyard. Keep an eye out for her fast wagging tail.

 Lorena and Lucia are excited to join the Carlyle Court community! They look forward to sharing with Carlyle residents fun and exciting programs that explore issues of language, culture, and diversity through music, dance, performances, tours, conversations, and lots of food!

Bob Boland has been the FFiR in Coral Towers since 2007.  Bob is a lawyer by training.  He’s been a prosecutor, defense lawyer and even a judge.  He worked as a sports agent for a decade and he’s been a Clinical Associate Professor, teaching Sports Law and Sports Business courses in the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management in SCPS, since 2001. 

A former college athlete- football and wrestling- at Columbia, Bob has become a bit of a media celebrity in recent years.  You might see Bob talking about serious sports issues like lockouts and contracts but more likely you’ll see him on TV when a famous athlete has done something scandalous and Bob’s been on Good Morning America, The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight and CNN talking about everyone from Mike Vick to Tiger Woods.

Bob’s wife, Semone, is a senior executive with a major health insurance company and she oversees operations from California to Calcutta.  So Semone is often on the road or in the air, but when she and Bob are together in NYC, they love the city’s many zoos, its great museums and restaurants and regularly open up their apartment on Sunday mornings to share bagels, coffee and the Sunday papers with residents.   They are also the proud parents of a fierce orange kitty cat, Spencer.

Semone’s interests include: power walks; “House, M.D.” and Southern fiction.  Bob loves to play tennis, The Great Gatsby, watching “Morning Joe” and the show “Bones,” and the Mets and Jets.

Crystal Parikh is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Social and Cultural Analysis and English. She lives in Founders Hall with her husband Eric Sobie, an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Systems

Therapeutics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and their son Nikhil. Crystal loves to read, swim, snowboard, hike, and nap. Eric enjoys riding his bike, skiing, and spending long hours in the lab. Nikhil’s hobbies include swimming, reading and writing, eating ravioli, climbing anything that can be scaled, and riding roller coasters (the bigger, the better). Crystal, Eric, and Nikhil are very excited to share your first year at NYU and Founders Hall. They look forward to exploring lots of new areas with you!

Content to Come

Philip Kain is currently the curriculum chair for writing in the Global Liberal Studies. As a dancer and performance artist Philip’s work has been seen at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, City Center, The Joyce, and Dance Theater Workshop among others. His cultural reviews and freelance writing have appeared in regional and national publications. He has written screenplays and for television but is currently focused on writing books for tweens. His most recent series, “The Social Experiments of Dorie Dilts” was published by Simon & Schuster and a new series of books, “The Go-See Chronicles” is scheduled to be released by S&S in 2011.

William Crow holds an M.F.A in Painting and an M. S. Ed. in Leadership in Museum Education. He is currently completing his Ph. D. in Cognitive Studies while working as Associate Museum Educator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. William has lectured on art and museum education around the world. Most recently he was invited to speak at the Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid and the Centro Cultural Recoleta in Buenos Aires. As an artist William has exhibited his paintings at galleries in New York and has had solo and group shows around the country. 

Philip and William enjoy traveling to Spain and Latin America when they can and consider Buenos Aires to be their favorite destination. They frequently camp in the Catskills and Adirondacks but can often be found bicycling on the greenways that encircle Manhattan or gardening on their terrace.  

Olivia Birdsall has been teaching writing at NYU since 2002. A Language Lecturer in the Expository Writing Program, Olivia has taught creative and expository writing at NYU, NYU’s London Summer Study Abroad program, and as an artist-in-residence at NYC public schools.

In addition to teaching and writing, Olivia enjoys being outdoors, eating delicious food, talking about interesting things, looking at compelling art (of all kinds), listening to good stories and music, hanging out with brilliant people and reading mind-blowing writing. As the FFIR at Gramercy Green (the newest item on her list of things she enjoys), most of the events she’ll sponsor will likely involve one or more of those things.

She also asks that you make her aware of any wonders or pastimes that should be added to her list.

Content to Come

Michael Dinwiddie is a playwright and associate professor at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study.  His teaching interests include cultural studies, African American theatre history, dramatic writing, filmmaking, and ragtime music.  A Gallatin graduate, Michael earned his M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.  His course offerings include Migration and American Culture; Dramatizing History I & II; Poets in Protest: Footsteps to Hip Hop; James Reese Europe and American Music; Sissle, Blake, and the Minstrel Tradition; and Buenos Aires: Art, Culture & Politics.  Michael received NYU’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004.  “We will be visiting lots of museums, taking walking tours of New York’s ethnic neighborhoods, and integrating the city into the life of the dorm.”   

A professor in the Department of French, John teaches courses in language, literature, linguistics, and history.  He also oversees the department’s language program.  Kennith is an Assistant Director in the Division of Arts and Humanities at the School of Continuing and Professional Studies as well as a published poet.  John and Kennith love living in Hayden Hall and try every year to devise a schedule of intellectually stimulating and fun-filled events and activities, including creative writing workshops, museum visits, explorations of different neighborhoods, guest speakers, book clubs, Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, and much, much more.  Zola is the unofficial canine mascot of Hayden Hall.

Meet Matt, Sarah, and Eli Mayhew, the Faculty Family in Residence for Lafayette Hall. Matt (matt.mayhew@nyu.edu) is an assistant professor of higher education the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. He holds a BA in Psychology from Wheaton College, a MA in Social and Developmental Psychology from Brandies University and a PhD in Higher Education Administration from the University of Michigan, the institution with the unequivocally best football program in the history of the
nation. On the contrary, Sarah (mayhew.sarah@hotmail.com), his wife, received her BA in Psychology from Michigan State University, the institution with one of the worst football programs in the country. (Can you guess who wrote the
bios?) After surviving her Spartan experience, she moved to Virginia where she received her MSW from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is currently a licensed clinical social worker providing treatment to clients struggling with alcohol and drug addiction.

The uniting force in this divided household is our twelve month old (as of August 8th), Eli, who enjoys eating, playing, playing drums on/with his high chair, and being the center of attention wherever he goes. A future Wolverine fan, Eli is sensitive to his mother’s ailing alma mater and consoles her with kisses and cuddles whenever he can. 

Fred is a Clinical Professor in the Robert Preston Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in applied research, human resource management, customer relationship management and professional development. Before NYU, he ran his own consulting, training, and life coaching business.

Maurice is National Program Leader for Public Policy, Interim National Program Leader for Higher Education Programs, and Special Emphasis Program Manager for GLBT at the United States Department of Agriculture Headquarters, Washington DC. Being new to Lafayette, we look forward to learning more about the city and this neighborhood. We also have a house in DC and a house in upstate New York. We like good food, good books, trips, theater, concerts, movies, good music, and good people. And we like to spend time with our newest granddaughter, almost a year old. Come join us for dinners, programs, museum trips, and other activities during the year.

Richard Hendler, Clinical Associate Professor of Law in Business at Stern, will be joining Palladium for his first year as a Faculty Fellow in Residence. He is a member of the NYU family through and through, having graduated from Stern (then named BPA) in 1985 and having received his J.D. from NYU Law in 1988. He has been teaching at Stern and advising at Gallatin since 1991.

A practicing attorney, Professor Hendler is well-versed in business law, but his favored field is startup law. It is his goal to excite students about not just learning the law in the business world and fostering the entrepreneurial spirit, but also about life and career -- to encourage students to think, analyze, and act, to enjoy life within the University, and to take hold of the extraordinary opportunities at NYU and in NYC. In brief, he is a teacher with one great ambition in mind: making a difference in the lives of the students.

Professor Renée Blake holds a BSc in Biology, and MA & PhD in Linguistics from Stanford University. Her research focuses on issues of language contact, race, ethnicity and class in several U.S. communities and the Caribbean. She has published on the role of language in social interactions & relations, and has lectured across the country on African American English, Language & Communication, Language & Politics, Race, Class & Language Ideology and Diasporic Migration. 

Heidi White (heidi.white@nyu.edu) teaches philosophy in the Global Liberal Studies Program. This spring she will be teaching a seminar titled “Global Justice and the Global Citizen.”  Heidi, an avid traveler, has studied French in Bordeaux, German in Dresden and Spanish in Tapachula, Mexico.  As a Peace Corps volunteer, she served in Zielona Gora, Poland, and she has also taught English as a volunteer in rural Thailand and rural Mexico.  She has been twice recipient of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst for graduate studies at the University of Leipzig and at the Karls-Eberhard University in Tubingen.  She holds a Ph.D. and a M.A. in Philosophy (New School for Social Research), a M.A. in Humanities (University of Texas at Dallas) and a B.A. in Philosophy (Texas A & M University).  She is currently working on a book on William James.

“As a Faculty-Fellow-in-Residence, I have the opportunity to live and learn with my students while exploring with them the intellectual and cultural life of New York City.  Last year, for example, we presented a black-tie performance and art festival (The Annual Rubin Performs), we learned to sail aboard a schooner at the South Street Seaport, and we provided after-school tutorials for children living in a nearby homeless shelter (Rubin Volunteers for Children).  We toured the Metropolitan Museum of Art, attended a variety of productions -- Chinese Opera, the Broadway musical, Hair, and Sartre’s play, No Exit (with a talkback with the director and actors).  We listened to the stories of an Indian charity founder speak about his work with Mother Theresa and we heard the stories of Nicolas Kristof, award-winning NY Times journalist and author of Half the Sky.  Not only has the city become our classroom, Rubin Hall has become my home and the students my neighbors.”       

Information To Come

Joe Salvatore is on the faculty of the Program in Educational Theatre at New York University where he teaches courses in acting, directing, Shakespeare, applied theatre, and theatre pedagogy.  He also directs the program’s Shakespeare Initiative, which includes the touring Shakespeare to Go company, the Shakespeare Youth Ensemble, and the Looking for Shakespeare summer youth program.  Joe holds an MFA in Theater (Dramaturgy/Directing) from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and an Honors BA in History from the University of Delaware. He is also a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. He lives as a Faulty Fellow in Residence in NYU’s Third Avenue North residence hall in the East Village with his cats, Buster and Dusty.  For more information about his work as a director and playwright, please visit www.joesalvatore.com. 

John and Margaret are both chemists and we both teach in the General Chemistry program here at NYU. Since Gen Chem is one of the largest programs at NYU, many of you already know us from taking the course. If so, let’s get reacquainted! If not, we would like very much to meet YOU! John came to NYU as an undergraduate and has never left. Margaret came for graduate school and is now back to teach. Our son Oliver is an NYU graduate, now off in graduate school. Our daughter, Ellen, enters NYU this year. NYU has been a family tradition for us. We’re looking forward to a new experience, and a much larger family, as we join the University Hall community!

This will be our first year as Faculty Fellows and we are very excited to have the opportunity to join the UHall community. We hope to help you to make the most of your experience, within UHall, everywhere at NYU, and throughout the city. The opportunities here are boundless and we can all have a wonderful time exploring!

A Music Assistant Professor in Steinhardt's department of Music and Performing Arts Professions, Brian teaches private voice lessons and courses in Vocal Pedagogy. Passionate about all aspects of voice, Brian is a vocologist and works in conjunction with faculty in Communicative Sciences and Disorders and Langone Medical Center helping habilitate/rehabilitate voices. Brian plans to bring his love for music and meditation to the students of U-hall. This will include meditation sessions, jam sessions, trips to Broadway shows/Opera/Concerts, and much more.

His wife, Kim, is an adjunct professor in the same department where she teaches private voice to classical and musical theater majors. A lover of cooking, Kim looks forward to sharing her passion with the students of U-hall. First on the schedule will be monthly breakfasts!

Kim and Brian have two children, Thomas (3) and Ian (1), who are thrilled to be surrounded by so many wonderful people in U-hall! They both love music, playing with trucks, riding anything with wheels, singing, eating (especially cookies...yes!), and contemplating the meaning of life as they breathe in...and out...

We all look forward to sharing some great times with everyone in U-hall!!

Jim Calder and Joan Harmon are happy to join the community at Alumni Hall for the first time this year.

Jim is Head of Movement at the Graduate Acting Program at Tisch School of the Arts. In the summers he teaches a Commedia del Arte class for undergraduate acting students at La Pietra, NYU, Florence. He is also the Artistic Director of the Summer Theater Festival there where he brings a group of professional actors, writers and musicians to collaborate and perform and directs an Essential Shakespeare Production.

Joan Harmon is an is an award winning sculptor and mixed media artist and an Adjunct Art Professor at CUNY. She received her BFA at the California College of Art and an MFA at Rutgers University. To see what she does, go to: www.joanharmon.com

Jim and Joan have two sons, Justin, 20 and Sean, 26. Justin is a third year student at NYU and resident of Alumni Hall and Sean graduated from the Dramatic Writing Program at NYU and is now a TV writer for NBC and is writing for the show, Grimm.

Check out the 7A Partnership Facebook Page for our scheduled programs & events.