New Full-time Faculty | Fall 2015

The new 2015 full-time faculty

 

Left-to-right: Surinder Singh, Emily Clark, Elisabeth Motley, Kira Jumet, Melissa Kollwitz

Emily Clark, M.Ed., Visiting Instructor of Theatre Arts

Professor Clark is a Ph.D. Candidate in Theatre at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, where her dissertation is entitled, “Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Celebrity and the Twenty-First Century Broadway Musical.”  She has six years of college teaching experience at Hunter College, LaGuardia Community College, and MMC, where she has taught courses including Musical Theatre History, Theatre Program Daily Dance: Tap, Jazz, Ballet, Introduction to Theatre, and a variety of writing and composition courses. She served as Director, Creator and Choreographer for the “Wall to Wall Wildhorn” Showcase, and has choreographed for regional theatre and in New York City. Her research explores race, racism and Orientalism in the Disney musical. She is an MMC alumna.

Kira Jumet, Ph.D., Visiting Assistant Professor of International Studies

Dr. Jumet received her Ph.D. in Political Science at Rutgers University. Her dissertation, for which she was awarded a Boren Fellowship, examines protest mobilization leading up to and during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution and June 30^th 2013 coup in Cairo, Egypt.  Her research interests include Palestinian economic development, Saudi Arabian political transition, the rise of Islamist extremist group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis in the Egyptian Sinai, prospects for democratization in Egypt, and ISIS mobilization through social media.  She has worked as an academic advisor at the school of Visual Arts and has taught courses including Culture and Revolution in the Middle East and Comparative Government for four years at Rutgers University and The College of Staten Island.

Melissa Kollwitz, M.A., Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts

Professor Kollwitz received her Master of Arts in Voice Studies at The Central School of Speech and Drama in London, England, where she focused on text exploration through Fitzmaurice Voicework. She is an associate teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework, and her research interests include dialects and diversity, physical approaches to phonetics, and Laban Movement Analysis with voice. She has taught voice and speech at a number of colleges, including MMC, New York Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, New York Film Academy, and the New World School of the Arts. She has served as a director, choreographer, and dialect coach for a number of productions in the US and the UK. She is an MMC alumna.

Elisabeth Motley, M.F.A., Assistant Professor of Dance

Professor Motley earned a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. She is a choreographer and teacher with an active dance company in New York City who has worked professionally both nationally and internationally since 2003. She has taught at Manhattanville College, Peridance Center, and The Julliard School. She has been awarded grants from The Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, Andrew Mellon Foundation, and the Hector Zaraspe Choreography Award. She has a private practice teaching Pilates and exercise, and has worked primarily with a neurological or aging population.

Surinder Singh, M.B.A., Visiting Assistant Professor of Business

Professor Singh holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Columbia Business School. He has taught courses including Business Finance, Corporate Finance I and II, Derivatives Markets, Investment Analysis, and Business Management and Accounting for ten years at MMC and Saint Peter’s University. He is the Founder and Director of Operations for Jugglebox Inc., which rents reusable plastic boxes for residential and commercial moves and which won the Perfect Pitch competition run by Columbia Business School and Crain’s Business. He was Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Northstar Financial Advisors LLC and Veritas Capital LLC, and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Word Nerd Inc., which offered low-cost international editions of college textbooks.

In addition, Matthew Bissell returns as Visiting Instructor of Academic Writing; Bethany Elkin returns as Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts; and Antonio Suarez returns as Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts.

Published: August 31, 2015