Faculty Scholars Directory

Center for Peacemaking faculty scholars are Marquette professors who have demonstrated excellence by advancing peacemaking through their teaching, scholarship and service.

Listed alphabetically by last name.

  • Dr. Noelle Brigden, Associate Professor of Political Science
    Research interests: Borders; political and criminal violence; human security; transnational migration; the politics of street gangs in Central America; immigrants' rights.
  • Dr. Risa Brooks, Professor of Political Science
    Research interests: Non-state militant groups and causes of militancy; relations between state militaries and local societies and political leaders (“civil-military” relations); American foreign policy and international affairs; and Middle East politics.
  • Dr. Cedric Burrows, Associate Professor of English
    Research interests: Rhetoric and Composition; African American Rhetoric; Cultural rhetorics; Rhetoric of social movements; Religious rhetoric, race and education.
  • Dr. Louise Cainkar, Professor of Social and Cultural Sciences
    Research interests: The sociological study of the Muslim American experience and the Arab American experience; international migration, immigrants and diasporas; and transnational youth.
  • Dr. Sharon Chubbuck, Associate Professor Emerita of Educational Policy
    Research interests: Urban African American students' response to forgiveness as a viable means of resisting violence in their context.
  • Dr. Alexandra Crampton, Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Sciences
    Research interests: Alternative Dispute Resolution through courts and community-based organizations; restorative justice; aging; family court; social intervention through government, nongovernmental organizations and social entrepreneurship; global aid and humanitarianism; and comparative research in Ghana and the United States.
  • Dr. Ed de St. Aubin, Associate Professor of Psychology
    Research interests: The meaning making process as it evolves over time and as it is manifested in specific contexts; psychobiography; integrating quantitative and qualitative research; family dynamics; the embeddedness of human lives.
  • Dr. Michael Duffey, Associate Professor Emeritus of Theology
    Research interests: Peace studies in the theology curriculum; educating Christian communities on nonviolent resistant as an alternative to war; the tension between the military vocation and Christian principles; and creating an interdisciplinary peace studies major.
  • Rev. Ryan Duns, S.J., Assistant Professor of Theology
    Research interests: Metaphysics and theology; phenomenology and theology; theological aesthetics; Charles Taylor, William Desmond, Karl Rahner, Sarah Coakley; mimetic theory.
  • Dr. Sergio Gonzalez, Assistant Professor of History
    Research interests: U.S. immigration and labor history; Latinx studies; sanctuary and movements for immigrant and refugee justice; Midwestern history; religious studies; working-class studies.
  • Dr. Kristin Haglund, RN, PNP, FNP, APRN, Professor of Nursing
    Research interests: How to facilitate optimal health and psychosocial outcomes for children and adolescents at risk due to poverty, discrimination and/ or chronic condition; promotion of healthy interpersonal relationships; prevention of interpersonal violence; sexual risk reduction; and religiosity and spirituality.
  • Dr. Steve Hartman Keiser, Associate Professor of English
    Research interests: Linguistic change in Amish communities; Indigenous languages of Wisconsin.
  • Dr. Heather Hlavka, Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Sciences
    Research interests: Sexual victimization and interpersonal violence; socio-legal studies, social control of women and children, gender and sexuality, trauma-informed care.
  • Rev. Thomas Hughson, S.J., Associate Professor Emeritus of Theology
    Research interests: Systematic theology (christology, pneumatology, ecclesiology); and Bernard Lonergan's interdisciplinary theological specialty of communication (studies on the public sphere, public theology, social Catholicism, social justice, ecumenism, dialogue with the social sciences, eco-theology, Ignatian spirituality).
  • Dr. Nora Johnson, RN, CPNP-PC, Professor of Nursing
    Research interests: Interventions to improve the health of caregivers of persons with developmental disabilities including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); family care-giving stress, family functioning and quality of life; exercise as medicine: swimming programs for children with autism and their caregivers; nursing interventions to improve readiness for hospital discharge.
  • Dr. Abiola Keller, M.P.H., PA-C, Assistant Professor of Nursing
    Research interests: Health disparities and health equity; chronic disease self-management; caregiver health; mental health outcomes.
  • Dr. Conor Kelly, Associate Professor of Theology
    Research interests: Ethical methodology; sexual ethics; health care ethics and public health; social ethics; the nature and operation of structural sin; the theological significance of work and leisure; ethical discernment in ordinary life.
  • Dr. Christine L. Krueger, Professor Emerita of English
    Research interests: Literature and law; history of justice advocacy; gender and sexuality; literature and religion; the historian Mary Anne Everett Green.
  • Dr. Jodi Melamed, Associate Professor of English
    Research interests: Critical race and ethnic studies; social movements; indigenous critical theory and indigenous activism; racial capitalism and neoliberalism; and gender, sexuality and intersectional analysis.
  • Dr. Susan Mountin, Senior Advisor in Mission & Ministry
    Research interests: Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement; racial justice; economic justice; and the theology of nonviolence.
  • Dr. Irfan Omar, Associate Professor of Theology
    Research interests: Islamic studies; inter-religious connections between Islam and other religions; religions of South Asia; theologies of nonviolence and peacemaking; and religion in the modern world.
  • Dr. Enaya Othman, Associate Professor of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
    Research interests: Immigration; Arab and Muslim American transnational communities; Arab and Muslim American women's experiences; cultural encounters in colonial and diaspora contexts.
  • Dr. Jessica Rich, Associate Professor of Political Science
    Research interests: Social policy; social movements and NGOs; bureaucracy and state capacity; Latin American politics.
  • Dr. Bryan Rindfleisch, Associate Professor of History
    Research interests: Early (Colonial) American, Native American, and Atlantic World history; the intersections of Creek and Cherokee peoples in the seventeenth and eighteenth-centuries.
  • Dr. Terrence Rynne, Instructor of Theology
    Research interests: Gandhi's influence on the Catholic Church's evolving teaching on war and peace; peacemaking as the new paradigm for thinking about war and peace — not pacifism or just war theory; and the impact of peace studies on student's career development.
  • Dr. Grant Silva, Associate Professor of Philosophy
    Research interests: Latin American philosophy; philosophy of race, the ethics of racism and racial justice; citizenship and immigration studies; national, international and even temporal conceptions of justice; social and political philosophy; decolonial philosophy and modernity; and Amerindian philosophical traditions.
  • Dr. Jeffrey Tiger, Associate Professor of Psychology
    Research interests: Developing and refining behavioral interventions that are efficient, result in robust behavioral change, generalize across environments, and are preferred by the clients who experience them and the caregivers who implement them.
  • Dr. Theresa Tobin, Associate Professor of Philosophy
    Research interests: Theoretical and practical ethics; social philosophy; religion, spirituality and violence; feminist ethics and political theory; feminist epistemologies; and gender and sexuality studies.
  • Dr. Gabriel Velez, Assistant Professor of Educational Policy and Leadership
    Research interests: Adolescent development; peace psychology; civic engagement; citizenship and peace education; restorative justice; transitional justice; human rights.
  • Dr. Kate Ward, Assistant Professor of Theology
    Research interests: Economic ethics; virtue ethics; ethical method; Catholic social thought.
  • Dr. Sandra Whitehead, Adjunct Instructor of Journalism and Media Studies
    Research interests: Peace journalism, international collaborative online learning, intercultural communication, the use of creative nonfiction in cross cultural/ cross national reporting, Arab and Muslim stereotypes, and media's role in war and peace.
  • Dr. Amber Wichowsky, Professor of Political Sciences
    Research interests: Electoral behavior; public policy; urban politics; public opinion; research methods.