Co-chairs
Katherine Parkin, Ph.D.
Katherine Parkin, Ph.D. is professor of History and the Jules Plangere Jr endowed chair in American social history at Monmouth University. She is the author of Food is Love: Food Advertising and Gender Roles in Modern America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005) and Women at the Wheel: A Century of Buying, Driving, and Fixing Cars (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), each of which won the Emily Toth Award for best book in women’s studies and popular culture. She is also the author of a dozen articles. Her teaching and research interests include the history of women and gender, sexuality, advertising, and consumerism. Her newest book, Buying and Selling Abortion Before Roe, is forthcoming from the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Hettie V. Williams, Ph.D.
Hettie V. Williams has taught survey courses in U.S. history, Western Civilization, and upper division courses on the history of African Americans at the university level for more than fifteen years. Her teaching and research interests include: African American intellectual history, gender in U.S. history, and race/ethnicity studies. Currently, she is an associate professor of African American history in the Department of History and Anthropology. She also is president of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS).
Committee Members
Julius Adekunle, Ph.D.
Professor Adekunle teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on globalization, politics, religions, and cultures of Africa. He is the author and co-author of many books including Converging Identities: Blackness in the Modern African Diaspora (African World, 2013), Color Struck: Essays on Race and Ethnicity in Global Perspective (University Press of America, 2012), Religion in Politics: Secularism and National Integration in Modern Nigeria (Africa World Press, Inc., 2009), and Culture and Customs of Rwanda (Greenwood Press, 2007).
Kenneth L. Campbell, Ph.D.
A specialist in the history of the British Isles and a past recipient of Monmouth’s Distinguished Teacher Award, Kenneth L. Campbell is the author of A History of the British Isles: Prehistory to the Present (2017), named by the American Library Association a Choice Outstanding Academic title. Campbell’s other books include Ireland’s History: Prehistory to the Present (2014), Windows into Men’s Souls: Religious Nonconformity in Tudor and Early Stuart England (2012), Western Civilization: A Global and Comparative Approach, Volume I: To 1715 and Volume II: Since 1600 (2012), and The Intellectual Struggle of the English Papists in the Seventeenth Century (1986). He has also published a two-volume anthology, Western Civilization in a Global Context (Volume I: Prehistory to the Enlightenment: Sources and Documents; Volume II: The Modern Age: Sources and Documents (2015) and an anthology on American Popular Culture and the Beatles. His most recent book, September 2021, is titled The Beatles and the 1960s: Reception, Revolution, and Social Change. [purchase on Amazon.com]
Hillary DelPrete, Ph.D.
Hillary DelPrete, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Biological Anthropology and the undergraduate program director in Anthropology at Monmouth University. DelPrete’s research interests focus on modern evolution and human variation. Her previous research has focused on changes in pelvic morphology over the last two hundred years to gain a better understanding of modern human variation and human evolution. She is particularly interested in how the modern skeleton continues to change with changes in the environment, nutrition, technology, etc.
Christopher DeRosa, Ph.D.
Christopher DeRosa teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the military and political history of the United States, the Civil War and Reconstruction the Cold War, and World War II. His research interests include the history of American soldiers as political actors and the dynamics of military occupation. He is currently writing a book about the U.S. Army and the Reconstruction, with a particular focus how the soldiers viewed and performed their mission to uphold the rights of freed people in the post-emancipation south.
Jason Fitzgerald, Ph.D.
Jason C. Fitzgerald, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at Monmouth University, where his work focuses on preparing future educators for a diverse and global world. Drawing on his experiences as a social studies teacher in Montgomery County, Maryland, Fitzgerald’s research links theory and practice related to social studies education, educational linguistics, and inquiry-based experiential instruction. He completed his Ph.D. in Instruction and Learning with focuses on history education, educational linguistics, and cognitive psychology at the University of Pittsburgh.
Zaneta Rago-Craft, Ed.D.
Zaneta Rago-Craft is the inaugural director of the Intercultural Center and began her tenure at Monmouth in the summer of 2019. Previously, Rago-Craft served as the director for the Center for Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. She holds an Ed.D. in education, culture, and society from Rutgers University. Rago-Craft has worked in intercultural campus support for the last 10 years, including previous roles with the New York University LGBTQ Student Center, the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs at NYU, and Ramapo College’s Educational Opportunity Fund program and Women’s Center. She has a passion for infusing social justice education into her student affairs work with a particular interest in facilitating conversations around the intersectionality of multiple identities and oppression, art as activism, feminism, anti-racism, mentoring, LGBTQIA+ representations in the media, and multiracial experiences in a “check one box” world.
Maryanne Rhett, Ph.D.
Maryanne A. Rhett, professor of Middle Eastern and World History, works on topics related to modern Middle Eastern and Islamic history at the intersections of popular culture, nationalism, and world history. Some of her classes include Islamic history, Modern Middle Eastern history, Popular Culture and the Middle East, and the history of Militant Nationalism. Additionally, she teaches the Perspectives class: A Graphic World: World History and Sequential Art. As the department’s Director of the Graduate Program in History, she oversees a number of theses and comprehensive exams each year.
Claude Taylor
Claude Taylor is the director for Academic Transition and Inclusion at the University’s Center for Student Success. Taylor leads the campus-wide initiative First to Fly: First Generation at Monmouth, which empowers first generation and historically underrepresented students to effectively navigate academic, personal, and cultural challenges they may encounter. This student success initiative connects Monmouth students who are first in their families to go to college with campus resources and encourages their active engagement with an inclusive, multicultural community of support. Through Taylor’s leadership, Monmouth has been designated as a First-gen Forward Institution, the nation’s first recognition program acknowledging higher education institutions for their commitment to first-generation student success. Taylor is also a lecturer in Communication Studies.
Melissa Ziobro, M.A.
Melissa Ziobro is the specialist professor of Public History at Monmouth University. Her service to the University includes administration of the Monmouth Memories Oral History Program. Melissa currently serves as the president of Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region and as the editor for New Jersey Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, a joint venture of the NJ Historical Commission, Rutgers University Libraries, and Monmouth University. She is currently a trustee of the NJ Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation, InfoAge Science and History Learning Center, and Ocean County Historical Society. She is newly appointed to the Board of Directors of Preservation NJ, and works regularly with other public history organizations.