The English and Humanities Department

Bachelor of Arts Degree in Humanities:
 

The Humanities Program at York College is a multidisciplinary program that exposes students to areas such as art, foreign languages, literature, literature in translation, music, philosophy,  religion, theatre, history, and the social sciences.  Students deciding to major in the humanities accept an invitation to intellectual adventure and  self-exploration. Along the way, students will master the essentials of reasoning and argument, be exposed to the history of ideas, and learn to apply critical  thinking skills to current events and ethical conflicts.  A humanities major, in addition to personal enrichment, will serve to deepen an appreciation of ideas, develop skill at reasoning and argument, and expose one to diverse perspectives and world views.  A major in the humanities is a valuable preparation for any career path.  Humanities majors learn to read critically, write cogently, and approach issues broadly and from a variety of different perspectives.  Law and medical schools have long recognized the need for students trained in the humanities and for the last decade the corporate world has actively sought humanities majors because of the breadth of their education and their communication and analytical skills.

Through their choices in courses, humanities majors can construct a program that best suits their needs and interests.  The foundation courses include courses in western civilization, languages, philosophy, music, art, theatre, religion, and literature.  These foundation courses prepare the humanities major for more focused, in-depth coursework in their junior and senior years.  Humanities majors gain more focus in their studies by selecting a major concentration.  Majors may concentrate in philosophy and religion, arts and letters, or with permission of their advisor can create a student-initiated concentration.  Majors are encouraged to develop their own interests by pursuing two interdisciplinary independent studies.  The Humanities Seminar provides an additional opportunity for majors to further their intellectual development.  Humanities majors also have opportunities to participate in lectures, reading groups, and other activities as part of the student organized Humanities Society.

English and Humanities Faculty:
 

Professor Dennis M. Weiss, Chair, B.A., Emory University; Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin.
 

Dr. Weiss's major research and publications are in the areas of metaphysics, the philosophy of human nature, and the digital culture. He is currently interested in the impact of digital technologies on our conceptions of human nature. Among the courses he regularly teaches are Epistemology, the study of knowledge and truth, and Metaphysics, which examines the intersection of philosophy and science fiction. In addition to authoring essays in leading journals, he is editor of a volume entitled Interpreting Man (Davies Publishing Group, 2002).

Professor Gabriel Abudu, B.A., University of Ghana; Ph.D., Temple University.
 

Professor Abudu is an authority on twentieth-century Cuban poetry. He frequently publishes on Nancy Morejon, a major Cuban poet with whom he has worked closely. He is currently at work on an anthology of Ms. Morejon's poetry, which he has translated and commented on.

Professor Amberg is a frequent presenter at national conferences on women's issues in eighteenth-century British and Colonial American Literature. She has been researching early American women writers and has been instrumental in developing the Women's and Gender Studies minor at York College.

Professor Dominic Delli Carpini, B.A., The University of Pennsylvania; Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University

Professor Delli Carpini is Director of Composition and a frequent presenter at national conferences on writing program administration and pedagogy as well as on the English Renaissance poet, Edmund
Spenser.

An authority on Michelstadt, Germany and the author of a new study in German and English of
Kristallnaccht, Professor Hosch is currently working on a dual German-English account of Kristallnaccht and a text on German unification.

Professor James McGhee, A.B., Montclair State College, Ph.D., Bowling Green State University

Head of the theatre program in the department, Professor McGhee recently published a critical study of the American playwright, Sam Shepard.

Professor Jones is a widely-published writer on literature/film. He is currently working on a text
examining the films of the British Director Mike Leigh.

The Coordinator for Foreign Languages and author of the McGraw-Hill text, NUEVOS DESTINOS (New Destinations), Professor Medina has published a variety of textbooks in Spanish and is currently writing a script for a new series of videos being produced in conjunction with the Destinos book.

Professor Miller is a nationally-known poet and award-winning author of multicultural
children's books.  His titles include Night Golf, The Piano, and Richard Wright and the Library Card.

Professor Puccio is a Victorian specialist who has also published on composition theory and pedagogy and Stephen Sondheim.  His research interests include Victorian and twentieth-century British literature and culture; narratives of school and college life (British and American); Oxbridge and the British public schools; the literature and culture of the British country house; composition pedagogy, especially contemplative classroom practice; British and American theatre, including musical theatre; and literature
& film.

Dr. Rashkover specializes in Jewish-Christian relations and postmodern Jewish thought.  She regularly teaches courses in biblical religions, women and religion, and philosophical theology.  Dr. Rashkover is editor of the journal Crosscurrent and is working on book manuscript tentatively entitled The Theology of Election.

Professor Siegel is a former Fulbright lecturer in Macedonia and more recently in Belgium. Professor Siegel is an authority on Middle-European tales of terror, the subject of one of his frequent publications.

Professor Victor E. Taylor, B.A., Le Moyne College; Ph.D., Syracuse University.

Dr. Taylor is the department's comparative studies and critical theory specialist, teaching courses in literature, philosophy, and religion.  He is editor of The Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, and co-editor of Postmodernism: Critical Concepts (Routledge 1998) and The Routledge Encyclopedia of Postmodernism (Routledge 2001). He is also author of (Para) Inquiry: Postmodern Religion and Culture (Routledge 2000)  and The Religious Prayed, The Profane Swear (Pen Mark Press 2002).  Currently, he is working on a two book manuscripts, Critical Concepts in Cultural Rhetoric--with Professor Keith Gilyard, PSU-- (Davies Group Publishers) and Desire and Mourning: Religion and the Postmodern Literary Imagination.

Professor Vause has published on the medieval monster and writer Stephen King. Her areas of interest include the utopian fiction of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Arthurian legends.

Professor Zerbe is a specialist in rhetoric and composition and has a research interest in the application of rhetorical theory to medical and scientific writing.