Honors Program Faculty
Aaron Althouse, Assistant Professor of History,
(Ph.D., Stanford University) teaches UHON 216 - Traditions of Latin America. Dr. Althouse's current research focuses on race,
ethnic relations, and cultural literacy in colonial Mexico. Email: aaron-althouse@utc.edu
Clifton R. Cleaveland, Clinical Professor of Medicine in the UT College of Medicine-Chattanooga Unit, (M.D., The John Hopkins University School of Medicine) teaches UHON 120 - The Development of Scientific Thought. Dr. Cleaveland, a Rhodes Scholar, is past president of the American College of Physicians and author of Sacred Space: Stories from a Life in Medicine and Healers and Heroes: Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times. He has been named University Outstanding Adjunct Professor, and currently serves as President of the Chattanooga Arts and Education Council, President of the Chattanooga Internal Medicine Education Foundation, and on the Chattanooga Community Foundation Board of Directors. Dr. Cleaveland also writes a weekly column for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, and is currently at work on a history of patient histories in clinical practice.
Email: clif-cleaveland@utc.edu
Lisa Cothran, Assistant Professor of Psychology (Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis), teaches UHON 317 - Issues in Contemporary Social Science. Her research interests include implicit and explict prejudice, and the personality and individual difference correlates of emotive information processing. She is currently constructing an experimental laboratory that will focus on studies in these respective areas and on studies that intersect the two.
Email: lisa-cothran@utc.edu
John Friedl, Professor of Political Science (M.P.H., University of Michigan School of Public Health; J.D., University of Michigan Law School; Ph.D., University of California - Berkeley), teaches UHON 317 - Issues in Contemporary Social Science. Dr. Friedl is a specialist in constitutional law, First Amendment law, and education law. He has published widely on issues in higher education and academic freedom.
Email: john-friedl@utc.edu
Zibin Guo, UC Foundation Associate Professor and Head of Sociology, Anthropology and Geography (Ph.D., University of Connecticut) teaches UHON 217 - Chinese and Japanese Traditions. He is an applied medical anthropologist specializing in the relationship between culture and health. His research areas include community health, health beliefs, culture and mental health, alternative medicine, and cross-cultural aging and health. He also holds a concurrent professorship from Nanjing University in China.
Email: zibin-guo@utc.edu
William Harman, Professor of Religious Studies (Ph.D., University of Chicago), teaches UHON 218 - Traditions of India. He is a specialist in the Hindu traditions of southern India, and is currently doing research on goddesses of disease and healing. Additional interests include comparative issues that focus on healing, violence, and ritual, particularly ritual humor.
Email: william-harman@utc.edu
Ralph W. Hood, Jr., Professor of Psychology (Ph.D., University of Nevada), teaches UHON 315 - Origins of the Social Sciences. His major interests are in philosophical psychology and the psychology of religion. He currently is editor of The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Dr. Hood has won numerous teaching awards, including the Student Government Association's Outstanding Professor award.
Email: ralph-hood@utc.edu
Richard Jackson, UT National Alumni Association Distinguished Service Professor of English (Ph.D., Yale University) teaches UHON 101 and 102, the honors freshman humanities sequence, as well as creative writing and classical and twentieth-century poetry. The author of nine volumes of original poetry and criticism, Dr. Jackson has won both national and international recognitions in the form of Fulbright, Guggenheim, and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, as well as dozens of literary prizes. He is editor of Poetry Miscellany, director of the Meacham Writers Workshop, and the recipient of several awards for outstanding teaching.
Email: richard-jackson@utc.edu
Immaculate Kizza, UC Foundation Professor of English (Ph.D., University of Toledo), teaches UHON 219 - Africa Through Its Literature. Her research focuses on African-American literature, the slave narrative tradition, British modernism, and the role of language in multi-cultural studies. Dr. Kizza has also been named Outstanding Teacher by the Univeristy of Tennessee National Alumni Association.
Email: immaculate-kizza@utc.edu
Gregory O'Dea, UC Foundation Professor of English (Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), is Director of the University Honors Program. He teaches courses on the English-language novel, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British literature, and postcolonial literature. Dr. O'Dea is also co-director and scholar-in-residence for medical humanities programs sponsored by the American College of Physicians. He has won the Student Government Association's Outstanding Professor Award, the University's Outstanding Advisor Award, and has been named Outstanding Teacher by The University of Tennessee National Alumni Association. His current research concerns ea of the police in Charles Dickens's novels.
Email: gregory-o'dea@utc.edu
John Frederick Phillips, Distinguished Teaching Professor of Classics and Head of Philosophy and Religion (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison), teaches UHON 214 - Classical and Medieval Historical and Political Thought. His current research focuses on theories of evil in antiquity.
Email: john-phillips@utc.edu
Mac Smotherman, UC Foundation Associate Professor of Theatre and Speech (M.F.A., Trinity University), teaches UHON 105 - Introduction to Theatre. He specializes in acting, frequently directs productions by the UTC Theatre department, and is also certified in stage combat.
Email: mac-smotherman@utc.edu
Joanie Sompayrac, UC Foundation Associate Professor of Accounting and Finance (C.P.A.; M.Acc., University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; J.D., The University of Cincinnati) is Assistant Director of the honors program, and teaches UHON 317 - Issues in Contemporary Social Science. An alumna of the UHON Program, she also teaches courses in accounting, law, and ethics for UTC's College of Business. She was selected by both The Chattanooga Times Free Press Magazine and CityScope Magazine as one of 40 outstanding citizens under 40 years old making a difference in Chattanooga.
Email: joanie-sompayrac@utc.edu
Victoria Steinberg, Assistant Professor of French (Ph.D., The Ohio State University), teaches UHON 106 - Introduction to Film Studies. The winner of several University and College of Arts and Sciences teaching and advisement awards, Dr. Steinberg currently researches film, literary theory and the Franco-African cinema.
Email: victoria-steinberg@utc.edu
Christopher Stuart, Katharine Pryor Associate Professor of English (Ph.D., University of Connecticut), teaches UHON 101 and 102, the freshman humanities sequence, and American literature. Dr. Stuart has been named Outstanding Teacher by The University of Tenessee National Alumni Association. His current research focuses on the period of American Realism, and especially on the role of death anxiety in the works of Henry James.
Email: chris-stuart@utc.edu
Gavin Townsend, Professor of Art History (Ph.D., University of California-Santa Barbara), teaches UHON 104 - Introduction to Art. A recipient of the Student Government Association's Outstanding Professor Award, Dr. Townsend is a specialist in American architectural history.
Email: gavin-townsend@utc.edu
Paul Watson, UC Foundation Professor and Head of Psychology (Ph.D., University of Texas at Arlington), teaches UHON 315 - Origins of the Social Sciences. He has been named Outstanding Professor by the Student Government Association, and Outstanding Teacher by the University of Tennessee National Alumni Association. His current research interests center on the mental health consequences of religious commitment and on the nature of narcissism.
Email: paul-watson@utc.edu
