Program Coordinator:  Stephanie A. Tingley, PhD, Professor of English. 

Affiliated Faculty:

L. Diane Barnes, PhD, Assistant Professor of History.  Dr. Barnes studies issues of class and race in the 19th century.  She is the editor of Ohio History, associate editor of the Frederick Douglass Papers, and teaches courses in the editing of historical documents.  Dr. Barnes has two book projects underway.  The first, a collection of documents titled Frederick Douglass in Bondage and Freedom, A Documentary Reader, will be published next year by the University of Virginia Press.  This will be followed by Frederick Douglass, Reformer and Statesman, which will appear in the American Biography series by Routledge.

Steven Brown, PhD, Professor of English.  Dr. Brown is interested in the intersections between and among language, culture, and society.  He has published on language acquisition and pedagogy and is working on a book about American languages, cultures, and literatures.

Donna M. DeBlasio, PhD, Professor of History and Director of the Center for Applied History.  Dr. DeBlasio's research areas include worker housing and working-class leisure.  She is the co-author of Catching Stories: A Practical Guide to Oral History as well as several Arcadia histories:  Youngstown State University: From YoCo to YSU  (with Martha I. Pallante) and Youngstown: Postcards From the Steel City.  Her most recent article is "Youngstown's Idora Park: Building a Fantasyland in an Industrial Landscape" (Ohio History, Spring, 2010).

Gordon Frissora, PhD, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice.  Dr. Frissora's research interests are social structure, stratification, administration of justice, research methods and statistics, police administration, personnel management and American studies.

Mehera Gerardo, PhD, Assistant Professor of History.  Dr. Gerardo's research interests include Latin America.

Thomas E. Leary, PhD, Assistant Professor of History.  Dr. Leary's interest are in the public History of work, workplaces and work processes, particularly in applications involving historic preservation and museum interpretation of industrial built environment.  Current projects of Dr. Leary's include a centennial history of the RG Steel Plant in Warren, OH (formerly Republic Steel); a Little Steel Strike 75th anniversary exhibit and related public programming.

Martha I. Pallante, PhD, Professor and Chair of History.  Dr. Pallante's research interests include colonial and revolutionary America and material culture.

John Russo, EdD, Professor of Labor Studies.  Dr. Russo is also a founder and the co-director of the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University. He has written widely on  labor and social issues and is recognized as a national expert on labor unions and working-class issues.  He is one of the two professors at YSU to have ever received Distinguished Professorship Awards in each of four areas: research and scholarship, teaching, university and public service.

James J. Schramer, PhD, Professor of English.  Dr. Schramer's research interests include American literature and professional writing and editing.

Delores Sisco, Assistant Professor of English.  Dr. Sisco's research interests include African-American literature.

Linda J. Strom, PhD, Associate Professor of English.  Dr. Strom's research interests include women's literature and film studies.

Louis A. Zona, DA, Professor of Art.  Dr. Zona is also the director of the Butler Institute of American Art.  His research interests include museum studies and twentieth century art.