Join President Kathleen E. Harring, Ph.D., and distinguished faculty to learn about academic excellence across the Muhlenberg curriculum. Each tour will highlight academic disciplines across one of four areas of study: humanities; natural sciences and mathematics; social sciences; and the arts. Participate in Q&A sessions and explore recent developments, new initiatives and highlights of faculty work. Each area of study will be presented at two different times to accommodate schedules and time zones.
Meet Muhlenberg Arts Faculty
Holly Cate is an associate professor of theatre, with a specialty in acting, both on stage and for the camera. An award-winning actor, Cate has appeared on Broadway, in regional theatre and on the screen, most recently in the web series The Other F Word.
In addition to her character work, Cate has performed extensively for television and radio commercials and has narrated audiobooks. She also creates and directs her own theatrical pieces, including HENRY, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry VI.
Kassandra Hartford is an assistant professor of music at Muhlenberg. Her main area of study is musicology, the analysis and research of music.
Hartford's research interests center around 20th century-American, French and Brazilian music. She examines the influence of transnational exchanges of musical works and their influence on understandings of racial and national identity in the era between World War I and II.
Margo Hobbs is a professor of art, with a specialty in art history. She has an extensive background in graffiti, public sculpture, feminist art of the 1970s and 1980s and how identity is represented in photography.
As an art historian, Hobbs challenges students to analyze art within the context of its creator and time of creation, including politics, economics and social environment. She has published books and articles on graffiti in America and queer and sexual identity in art.
Christopher Jackson is an assistant professor of music and director of choral and vocal studies at Muhlenberg. His role as a conductor spans music festivals, master classes and national and international tours.
In addition to his teaching and conducting work, Jackson is an accomplished choral singer and soloist. He has performed with the Grammy Award-winning ensemble Roomful of Teeth and is a member of Skylark Vocal Ensemble.
Rebecca Lustig is an assistant professor of theatre, with a specialty in costume design. As a designer, her work has been featured nationally and internationally in both theatrical productions and in exhibits.
Lustig's work has appeared in festivals and performances across the nation, and she has served as costume designer on Broadway and for national theatre tours. Her work as a designer has taken her to New York, London and more.
Meet Muhlenberg Humanities Faculty
Jacqueline Antonovich is an assistant professor of history at Muhlenberg, with a focus on health and medicine in the U.S. Her research explores how race, gender, politics and other factors shape the field of medicine and affect access to health care.
Antonovich is currently writing on women physicians in the 19th century American West. She is the co-founder and executive editor of Nursing Clio, a peer-reviewed blog project that merges historical scholarship and present-day issues related to gender, health and medicine.
William "Chip" Gruen is a professor of religion studies and director of the Muhlenberg College Institute for Religious and Cultural Understanding. His current research focuses on how ancient Christianities are misremembered in source texts through the lens of today's Christian faith.
At Muhlenberg, Gruen has taught the academic study of Christianity and how different faith communities evolved from ancient roots over the last 2,000 years. He also explores how human culture and religion have evolved over time and how faith practices have functioned in societies.
Daniel Leisawitz is an assistant professor of Italian at Muhlenberg. He researches Italian cinema, Italian Renaissance and 20th-century literature, Jewish-Italian culture and the intersection of technology and the arts.
Leisawitz is the co-author of several free, online Italian textbooks published under the open educational resources model. He is currently engaged in a digital humanities research project that uses mapping and textual analysis to examine the Ludovico Ariosto 16th-century romance The Orlando Furioso.
Linda Miller is an associate professor of English at Muhlenberg. Her research includes narrative prose and explores what it means to live in our complicated world.
At Muhlenberg, Miller teaches fiction and nonfiction prose creative writing. She teaches on the process of writing and of writing communities. She also works with Muhlenberg students to practice creative writing and share life experiences with incarcerated individuals at the Lehigh County Corrections Center.
Meet Muhlenberg Natural Sciences Faculty
Marten Edwards is a professor of biology at Muhlenberg. His research is focused on insects that transmit diseases to humans - specifically, ticks and mosquitos.
Edwards has led student researchers in projects that track ticks infected with the bacteria that transmit Lyme disease. He has also collaborated with national partners to map the geographic distribution of the 17-year cicada.
Brett Fadem is a professor of physics at Muhlenberg. His current area of study involves high-energy collisions between nuclei of atoms.
Fadem frequently mentors students who conduct off-campus research at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The collider is able to simulate conditions that existed millionths of a second after the Big Bang.
Gretchen Gotthard is an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience. Her research involves learning and memory - specifically how memories are disrupted and potentially lost.
Gotthard's lab at Muhlenberg allows students to participate in research that is presented at national and international conferences. In their experiments, Gotthard and her students measure conscious and nonconscious memory to explore potential treatments for memory-based depression and anxiety diagnoses.
Rich Niesenbaum is a professor of biology, director of sustainability studies and director of the RJ Fellows honors program. His research centers around plant ecology and sustainability.
Niesenbaum has more than two decades of international sustainability research. His work in Costa Rica, where he brings students on an almost annual basis, involves eco-tourism development, public health and environmental studies of the effects of local gold mining and the development of alternative fuels.
Lanethea Mathews-Schultz is a professor of political science at Muhlenberg. Her research interests include gender and American political development, political behavior, institutions and the scholarship of teaching and learning in political science.
Mathews-Schultz looks to understand relationships between citizens and governments change over time. Currently, she is working on a project that explores the international interests of the United States following World War II.
Ranajoy Ray-Chaudhuri is an assistant professor of economics and director of the Muhlenberg Scholars honors program.
Ray-Chaudhuri's research interests include the evolution of financial regulations, correlations between finance and growth, central banking systems and monetary policy and how financial institutions evolve over time to impact short-term growth and long-term development.
Mark Sciutto is a professor of psychology and director of the Muhlenberg Center for Teaching & Learning. His research is focused on how misconceptions and stigma may impact those who seek help for their psychological, emotional or behavioral problems.
Sciutto has studied misconceptions around ADHD and how inaccurate information about a disorder can influence those seeking help or treatment. He is also researching stigma around Asperger's syndrome and Autism.
Registration is required. All times are EST. Click the session date/time for more details and to register.
Meet Muhlenberg Social Sciences Faculty