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.

Phoenix Ellison

Position: Graduate Research Assistant

Phoenix Ellison is a second-year Master’s student in Literary and Textual Studies. His research explores deconstruction, Marxist theory, ethics, power, and resistance, with a particular interest in how literature shapes consciousness and fosters a critical empathy essential for confronting injustice. In ICS, Phoenix looks forward to exploring script-writing as both a mode of critical inquiry and a vehicle for creative expression.

Halima Lul Ali

Position: Graduate Research Assistant

Halima is a Ph.D. student in the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University, with a focus on social media (misinformation/disinformation and influencers), crisis communication, and artificial intelligence. Her goal is to contribute to the advancement of media studies while inspiring positive change in Africa and around the world. At the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society (ICS), Halima works in event planning and management, website management, mentoring, and social media management. With over eight years of experience in corporate communications and media, she previously served as a senior communications practitioner, where she refined her strategic and creative skills. Her work has included leading campaigns and projects that raise awareness of critical social issues and support the empowerment of marginalized communities.

John Sobayo Abiola

Position: Graduate Research Assistant

Abiola John Sobayo is a PhD student in Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University, where he also holds a master’s degree in Media and Communication in 2025. He serves as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Institute for the Study of Culture & Society. His research interests include health communication, social media, and political communication. He enjoys listening to music and watching movies in his leisure time.

Emme Cloutier

Position: Social Media Intern

Emme Cloutier is a fourth year undergraduate student studying Public Relations and Marketing in the College of Arts and Sciences at BGSU. Emme views Social Media as a way to spread important information to others in new and engaging ways. Her research interests include analytics and how to increase engagement on social media. She is looking forward to creating exciting and engaging content throughout the semester.

ICS 2025-2026 EXECUTIVE BOARD

Zachary Huber | Community Representative | Spring 2026 - Fall 2029
Phil Peek | Professor, World Languages and Cultures | Fall 2025 - Spring 2028
Jacqueline Hudson | Instructor, BGSU Firelands | Fall 2025 - Spring 2028
Laura Sanchez | Professor, Sociology | Fall 2024 - Spring 2027
Tim Messer-Kruse | Professor, American Culture Studies | Fall 2024 - Spring 2027
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.

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

Nilufer Isler	MA, Media and Communication	Fall 2025
S M Russel Rabbi	MA, Media and Communication	Spring 2025
Joseph Macdonald	MA, Popular Culture	Spring 2025
Sarah Urbank	MA, Literary and Textual Studies	AY 2024 - 2025
Man Luo	PhD, Media and Communication	AY 2024 - 2025
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

Jabari Twitty	Graphic Design	Fall 2025
Marissa Montgomery	English	Fall 2025
Rudrashias Mandal	Computer Science	Spring 2025
Elyse Adrian	Political Science	Fall 2024
Joshua Hayden-Martin	Advertising	Fall 2024
Mary DeLisle	Journalism	Fall 2024
Dylana Harris	MA, Spanish	Fall 2023
Autumn Dunaway	BA, Psychology	Fall 2023

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
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

jolie-2026 — (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.

Vivian Patraka (ICS Director 1996 – 2011)

Dr. Patraka is Professor Emeritus from Bowling Green State University, and first Director of ICS. She is a performance scholar whose work has appeared in Theater Journal, Women and Performance, Discourse, The Drama Review, The Kenyon Review, and Art and Cinema. She is the author of Spectacular Suffering: Theatre, Fascism and the Holocaust and editor of a collection of Joan Schenkar’s plays, Signs of Life: Comedies of Menace. In 2010, Dr. Patraka received the BGSU Faculty Distinguished Service Award for inspiring leadership and elevating intellectual community. Her contributions and support of the activities at ICS include interdisciplinary research and writing groups, lecture series, and awards of fellowship to untenured faculty

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

Updated: 01/28/2026 12:16PM