Meet Our Team

ICS Staff

Valeria Grinberg Pla | Director

Dr. Valeria Grinberg Pla wearing a red scarf

Dr. Valeria Grinberg Pla is a literary, cultural and film critic from Buenos Aires, Argentina, who like many other Latinxs has moved to the United States. Since 2006 she is a Professor of Spanish at BGSU. She teaches classes that reflect her research interests on violence representation in Latin America, literature and film, on the appropriation and transformation of crime fiction and noir aesthetics in Latin America and the Caribbean, on literary and film strategies to think about war and dictatorship trauma in Central America, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, and on the Panafrican, transnational literary movements of the Afro-Caribbean populations of Central America. She has also developed a service-learning class to learn not just about, but rather from and with the Latino/a/x community in the area.

Headshot of Man wearing a black business suit

Man Luo

  • Position: Graduate Research Assistant

Man is a third-year PhD student in the School of Media and Communication. Her research direction is social media influencers and interpersonal communication. In her free time, she likes to visit museums, art galleries, amusement parks, and listen to music.

Sarah wearing a striped button-up. She is standing in the woods next to some leaves.

Sarah Urbank

  • Position: Graduate Research Assistant

Sarah is pursuing an MA in the Literary and Textual Studies program at BGSU. In the past, she has worked with experiential learning programs and taught first-year writing. Sarah's research interests include graphic novels, science fiction, popular culture, and queer studies. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking with her dog. 

Halima wearing a white hijab and blue coat

Halima Ali

  • Position: Graduate Research Assistant

Halima Ali (M.A. United States International University-Africa) is a second-year PhD student in Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University. She has a focus in media and women, social media, and crisis communication. She aims to contribute to the advancement of media studies and inspire positive change in Africa and the whole world. In her spare time, she enjoys watching the sunset. 

Russel wearing a blue coat with a maroon sweater

S. M. Russel Rabbi

  • Position: Graduate Research Assistant

Russel is pursuing his M.A. in Media and Communication at BGSU. He is from Bangladesh. His research interests include social media, the impact of mediated communication, and misinformation in digital space. In his free time, he likes to watch movies and listen to music.

Joseph wearing a black coat with a grey scarf

Joseph Macdonald

  • Position: Graduate Research Assistant

Joseph is a second year Popular Culture MA student. He has also taught Introduction to Popular Culture in the past. Joe's research interests include Disability Theory in Television and Class Struggle and Hegemony in Popular Media. He spends most of his spare time writing and playing with his cats.

Rudrashias wearing a grey coat with a white shirt

Rudrashias Mandal

  • Position: Intern

Rudrashis is a first-year undergraduate student pursuing a Computer Science degree and minoring in Entrepreneurship, Rudrashis is a director of sustainability in Undergraduate Student Government, and during his free time he likes to build things from scratch or watch documentaries.

ICS 2024-2025 EXECUTIVE BOARD  

  • Laura Sanchez |Professor, Sociology | Fall 2024 - Spring 2027
  • Tim Messer-Kruse|Professor, American Culture Studies | Fall 2024 - Spring 2027
  • Nick Pavlik | Manuscripts & Digital Initiatives Archivist | Fall 2022 - Spring 2025
  • Jason Kucsma | Toledo-Lucas County Public Library | Fall 2021 - Spring 2025
  • Remy Attig | Assistant Professor in World Languages and Culture | Fall 2022 - Spring 2025
  • Bruce Collet | Professor, School of Educational Foundations, Leadership, & Policy | Fall 2023 - Spring 2026
  • Luis Moreno | Associate Teaching Professor, Department of Ethnic Studies | Fall 2023 - Spring 2026
  • Phil Dickinson | Associate Dean, College of Arts & Sciences (ex officio)

Role of the Board: 

The primary role of the ICS Executive Board is to act in an advisory and decision-making capacity reporting to the Director on matters involving the activities and responsibilities of ICS. 

Terms of Service: 

  • Three-year term, on a staggered rotation (so that no more than 1/3 of seats are open in any year) 

  • A Board members whose cycle has ended may re-apply for another term at any time 

Makeup of the Board: 

  • A minimum of six (6) and a maximum of ten (10) members 

  • Faculty of any rank may apply to be on the Executive Board, but at least three (3) members must be tenured or tenure-track faculty 

  • One (1) seat will be held by an ex-officio member designated by the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences (chair/director, associate dean, faculty member, etc.) 

  • At least one (1) seat must be held by someone in the humanities (English, Philosophy, etc.) 

  • At least one seat (1) must be held by someone in the fine or performing arts (Art, Theatre, Creative Writing, etc.) 

  • At least one (1) seat must be held by someone in the qualitative social sciences (Sociology, Political Science, etc.) 

  • At least one (1) seat must be held by faculty outside the College of Arts & Sciences 

  • One (1) seat must be held by a representative from a division other than Academic Affairs 

  • Up to one (1) seat may be held by an alumnus or community member 

Graduate Assistant/Research Assistant II
Allyson Spoering PhD, American Culture Studies AY 2023 - 2024
Ahmad Bilal MA, Literary and Textual Studies AY 2023 - 2024
Mays Kuhail MFA, Creative Writing  Spring 2024
Renee Ayala PhD, American Culture Studies    Spring 2023
Iswat Jinaid   MA, American Culture Studies 
 Spring 2023
Stanley Owusu                                        MA, in Public Administration  Spring 2023  
Joseph Elia                                             MA, Literary and Textual Studies AY 2022-2023
Johanna Simpson                                       PhD, American Culture Studies  AY 2021-2022
Kari Hanlin                                                       PhD, Rhetoric and Writing          AY 2020-2022
Stevie Scheurich                                            PhD, American Culture Studies AY 2019-2021
Courtney Keeney                                                  MA, in Public Administration AY 2019-2020
Elizabeth Brownlow                                   PhD, American Culture Studies AY 2017-2019
Lauren O’Connor                                         PhD, American Culture Studies AY 2017-2018
Shane Snyder                          PhD, American Culture Studies AY 2016-2017
Interns
Dylana Harris MA, Spanish   Fall 2023
Autumn Dunaway BA, Psychology Fall 2023
Joshua Hayden-Martin Advertising   Fall 2024
Mary DeLisle Journalism Fall 2024
Elyse Adrian Elyse Adrian Fall 2024
  • Lisa Hanasono | Associate Professor, School of Media & Communication | Fall 2021 - Spring 2024
  • Rebecca Kinney | Associate Professor, School of Cultural & Critical Studies | Fall 2021 - Spring 2024
  • Ana Brown | Deputy Chief for Diversity, Belonging, and Multicultural Affairs | Fall 2019 - Spring 2023
  • Elizabeth Balint | Great Lakes Consortium | Fall 2021 - Spring 2023
  • Thomas Edge | Lecturer of Ethnic Studies | Fall 2020 - Spring 2023
  • Leigh-Ann Pahapill | Associate Professor of Art | Fall 2020 - Spring 2023
  • Jerry Schnepp | Associate Professor, College of Technology Architecture and Applied Engineering | Fall 2020 - Spring 2023
  • Elizabeth Balint | Great Lakes Consortium | Fall 2021 - Spring 2023
  • Holly A. Kirkendall | Curator, Wood County Museum | Fall 2022 - Spring 2023
  • V Jane Rosser | Director of Civic Engagement in the C. Raymond Marvin Center for Student Leadership and Civic Engagement | Fall 2021 - Spring 2023
  • Abishek Bhati | Assistant Professor of Poltical Science | Fall 2022 - Spring 2023
  • Julie Carle | Retired BGSU Marketing and Communications Manager | Fall 2021 - Spring 2022
  • Geoffrey Howes | Professor Emeritus of German and Community Member | Fall 2019 - Spring 2022
  • Mary-Jon Ludy | Associate Professor of Food and Nutrition | Fall 2019 - Spring 2022
  • Thomas Castillo | Associate Professor of Theatre and Film | Fall 2019 - Spring 2022
Jolie A. Sheffer 2016-2023

Sheffer Jolie 3(she/her) Dr. Sheffer is a professor of English and American Culture Studies and an affiliated faculty member in the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies program at Bowling Green State University. She is the author of The Romance of Race: Incest, Miscegenation, and Multiculturalism in the United States, 1880-1930 and Understanding Karen Tei Yamashita. Her current research is on competing notions of community and identity in contemporary U.S. culture, from the 1960s to the present.

Clayton Rosati, Ph.D. 

Dr. Rosati's interested includes issues of social justice and the ways in which relations of cultural production, through technology and industry, often work against justice projects. He has served in leadership positions for several anti-racist organizations and am also a musician, having worked in many community arts projects in the Syracuse and Washington, DC areas.

  • Position: Associate Professor
  • Email: crosati@bgsu.edu
  • Address: 303 Kuhlin Center
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Institute for the Study of Culture & Society

Dr. Valeria Grinberg Pla, Director
211 Shatzel Hall
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43403
419-372-8058
vgrinb@bgsu.edu

Updated: 03/24/2025 11:56AM