Division of Humanities and Fine Arts

Academic Credentials

Biography

Catherine Agar has been at Keuka College since 2012, when she worked as a writing specialist in the Adult and Online Education program. She has a BA in English with a minor in religious studies from St. John Fisher College and a MA in English from the University of Rochester, where her master’s thesis was about auditory reception in English poet John Milton’s Paradise Lost. She was a nontraditional, first generation student who earned her BA and MA as an adult with three children, so she has a special place in her heart for students who come to college and find themselves confused by the expectations and/or overwhelmed by the responsibilities. Catherine’s passion is to help students over the bumps in their road to success.

Academic Credentials

Biography

Having spent time in every state except Hawaii, Dr. Joiner’s approach to literature is naturally grounded in understandings of place and geography. In order to illustrate the rich tapestry of American literature and culture, her courses are often structured around topographical and regional locations allowing an examination of how writers define themselves and their literature in response to specific geography as well as the larger American literary tradition.  Introductory courses such as Literature in the Wider World, focusing on the power of storytelling, and Literature, Nature, Place, which focuses on the literary traditions of New York State, highlight the ways in which the human experience is grounded in understandings of specific locations.     

In keeping with this focus, Dr. Joiner is a Senior Collaborating Editor of the Digital Yoknapatawpha project, a National Endowment of the Humanities-funded collaborative project of Faulkner scholars and the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH), the Digital Media Lab at the University of Virginia. This project translates the characters, locations, and events of William Faulkner’s short stories and novels into interactive online maps that help bring Faulkner’s literary settings alive to modern readers. 

Dr. Joiner’s publications include articles on William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Toni Morrison in the Mississippi Quarterly, Flannery O’Connor Review, Faulkner Journal, and in the forthcoming publication From Yoknapatawpha to the Virtual World: The Shape of Faulkner’s Digital County from the University of Virginia Press (scheduled publication date of 2021).  

When not out and about exploring in the Finger Lakes, Dr. Joiner is planning her trip to Hawaii, hopefully in the midst of a New York winter!
 

Academic Credentials

Biography

Dr. Kapica has been a teacher of composition and humanities courses at the college level for more than twenty years. After completing his doctorate in rhetoric and composition, he served as Director of Writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Metropolitan Campus before joining the Humanities and Fine Arts faculty at Keuka College in 2018.

His research focuses on the relationships between composition, rhetoric, and popular culture. He is particularly interested in the rhetorical interrogation of cultural performance, how spaces and places are defined and negotiated. He has published on sexual iconography and third-wave feminism, law and science fiction television, and rhetoric and stand-up comedy. His work has appeared in Jump Cut, Law, Culture, and the Humanities, Studies in American Humor, and the Griffith Law Review. He is currently working on an academic monograph about stand-up comedy legend George Carlin.

Academic Credentials

Biography

Carrie brings 15+ years of professional design experience to the Visual Communications Design program at Keuka College.  Through her career in marketing, landscape architecture and urban design, she has utilized her graphic sensibilities and strong visual story-telling skills on numerous projects throughout the Finger Lakes region, US and abroad. Her creative visioning and attention to detail can be seen at all scales and mediums, from logo, presentation and website design to way-finding, exhibit design and architectural visualizations. 

Kehoe has participated internationally in award-winning projects that focus on strengthening the connection between people and place. Her research visually explores environmental and social injustices occurring globally, including an American Planning Association Student Award for her equity planning work in post-Katrina New Orleans.

As a design educator, Kehoe has served as design critic at leading universities including Cornell, Penn State and Florida International University.  Carrie is a native of upstate New York and holds a Bachelor's from SUNY Geneseo and a Master's from Cornell University where she was the recipient of the American Society of Landscape Architects Student Honor Award. 
 

Academic Credentials

Biography

Sharon Kocher is currently an Associate professor for the ASL and ASL-English Interpreting Programs at Keuka College; where she teaches language development, Deaf Studies courses, and DeafBlind Translation.

Sharon received her BA in Communication Arts from Gallaudet University and an MS in Secondary Education with a specialization in ASL from National Technical Institute of the Deaf (NTID) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) where her master’s project thesis was entitled “A Professional Development Curriculum for Educators of Deaf Students: Comparative Linguistics”.

As a lifetime educator, Sharon has taught ASL and Deaf Cultural Studies to various kinds of audiences such as: adults, college Deaf and hearing students and Deaf and hearing school children (PreK-12) in community/school programs throughout western New York. She also has been actively involved with professional organizations in the local and national levels. Additionally, for more than 25 years, Sharon has been working as a DeafBlind interpreter.

Sharon’s passions are reading and crafts such as quilting, variety of stitching, woodworking, and painting. She loves being with and spending quality time with her three adult children.

Academic Credentials

Biography

A native of Baltimore, Dr. Leahy is a nationally recognized expert on the U.S. presidency and eighteenth and nineteenth-century American politics.  He is the author of President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler (LSU Press, 2020), the first full-scale biography of America’s tenth president published in more than 80 years. The Wall Street Journal called the book “deeply researched, and gracefully written.” Dr. Leahy has appeared on numerous podcasts discussing his work, including the American POTUS, which is one of the most heavily subscribed podcasts in the nation.

Dr. Leahy is also the author of numerous journal articles and reviews in scholarly publications, in addition to work on First Lady Julia Gardiner Tyler that he has co-authored with his wife, Sharon Williams Leahy. These publications include: “The Ladies of Tippecanoe, and Tyler Too, in the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to First Ladies (2016) and “Reclamation of a First Lady: Julia Gardiner Tyler’s Pursuit of a Federal Government Pension,” in Katherine A.S. Sibley, ed., Southern First Ladies: Culture and Place in White House History (University Press of Kansas, 2021).  A biography of Julia Tyler, jointly authored by Dr. Leahy and his wife, is under contract with the University Press of Kansas, and is scheduled for release in the fall of 2022.

An award-winning instructor, Dr. Leahy strives to make his courses both challenging and fun.  He believes the study of history can prepare students for a variety of challenging careers, and he takes seriously the notion that part of his job is to train students to think critically, analyze source materials, write and speak effectively, and develop a knowledge and understanding of history that will allow them to participate fully in our society as informed and engaged citizens. 
 

Academic Credentials

Biography

Dr. Leon’s teaching and research interests encompass international relations, global political economy, peace and security, political philosophy, Asian politics, and modern East Asian and European history. He has published in an edited volume on the implications of emergence and systems thinking for analyzing world politics. His other research publications include articles in peer-reviewed journals that examine U.S.-China economic and security relations, as well as the impact of legal and regulatory structures on corporate governance and firm performance across multiple European countries. He has been collaborating with other scholars on extending this latter line of inquiry to other countries.

Dr. Leon graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Government and Politics and a minor in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining Keuka College, he taught at Minnesota and at the Johns Hopkins University. As an Asian American, he is fluent in English and Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin); he also has a basic understanding of German. In the classroom, he values diverse perspectives and encourages civil debates and discussions. He believes that the liberal arts can impart to students analytical, writing, and communicative skills that are valuable in and transferable to different careers and endeavors, and he seeks to assist students in developing those abilities.

Academic Credentials

Biography

After obtaining a B.A. in criminal justice, Dr. McKenzie’s educational path turned toward comparative religion and ethics, and after graduating from Westminster Theological Seminary he obtained an M.A. and Ph.D. in religious studies and social ethics from the University of Southern California.

Not surprisingly, his academic interests and teaching areas include ethics, philosophy, and religion, including the many facets of religion and spirituality in the United States. Besides authoring more than thirty articles and book chapters, Dr. McKenzie’s third book was published by the University of Nebraska Press in January of 2022. A Country Strange and Far: The Methodist Church in the Pacific Northwest breaks new ground and explains how the harsh rigors of the Oregon Trail and a region’s unique geography combined to stymie the largest and most powerful religious denomination of the period. https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496218810/ 

Continuing this discussion of how specific places impact and influence religion, Professor McKenzie is writing another book that explains how the modern Northwest’s unique attitudes toward religion and spirituality are tied to nature and place. As part of this project, in May 2022 McKenzie was part of a team that used cadaver dogs to confirm human burials at an Oregon Trail site, and in a dramatic video you can see one such dog quickly confirm the presence of human remains in Northeastern Oregon: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6AQu_--m6E&t=21s

Although Dr. McKenzie was raised in the Pacific Northwest, he finds a lot of similarities between Yates County and where he grew up. “There were orchards and vineyards everywhere in the Yakima Valley,” he says, “and it’s nice to see so many of those around here.” Mike has taught at Keuka College since 1999.

Professional Interests

Ethics (theoretical and applied), comparative religions, North American religions, growth of modern religions.

Academic Credentials

Biography

Melissa Newcomb is a professor and leader of the Art and Design program at Keuka College, where she teaches painting, drawing, mixed media, photography, and design. Also at the college, she coordinates exhibits in the Lightner Art Gallery and leads an advisory board composed of local professionals and artists in support of the program, student growth, and experiential learning.

Melissa received her Master of Fine Arts Degree in painting from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2007; a Master of Arts Degree in photography and a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the State University of Oswego. Melissa also attended Finger Lakes Community College where she graduated with an Associate’s Degree in Fine Art. Melissa currently lives in Farmington, NY. She is highly involved with the arts and the community and was one of five artists that participated with a Mural on Coach Street (located on the side of Crown jewelers) in downtown Canandaigua. She also has worked displayed at the UR Medicine Breast Imaging and Birthing Center at F.F Thompson Hospital.

Melissa is very passionate about the arts and enjoys sharing her knowledge and experience with others. She also finds pleasure in traveling, baking, learning new things, spending time with family, shopping, coffee, and the change of seasons. Much of her inspiration comes from her students or when she is exploring new places with her camera or sketchbook.

Academic Credentials

Biography

I’m Cathy Reed, Writing Specialist and instructor for the HFA department at Keuka College. I enjoy teaching and learning from KCSI students, international students, and graduate students in addition to traditional students. I am proud to have been a part of this beautiful place on the lake since 2014. Please visit me in the Writing Center! 

Academic Credentials

Biography

Dr. Malia Spofford Xavier teaches Spanish language, Latin American literature, and intercultural communication courses at Keuka College. Born in New York and educated at Cornell University, Malia has since traveled to dozens of countries and six of seven continents. After living and teaching in Brazil for six years, she returned to the United States in 2015 to join the faculty of Keuka College. She enjoys working with students of all backgrounds to expand their understanding and experiences of our globalized world and its cultures and languages. 

Malia’s scholarship grew out of a deep interest in the colonial period of Spain in the Americas, exploring how concepts of human rights, capitalism, and sovereignty developed in tension with plural identities during that violent, unstable time. Her publications and presentations include articles on teacher education, social justice, and community-engaged pedagogy. Her classes encourage students to explore diversity and critical perspectives on culture and literature.

The Spanish program incorporates community-engaged and experiential learning through Field Periods, short-term travel abroad, local projects, and co-curricular activities. Recent trips abroad have included Nicaragua with the Four Walls Project, Spain, and Costa Rica. Malia is also a member of the Board of Directors of Literacy Volunteers of Ontario-Yates Counties, which has an English Language learner program. Many Keuka College students have worked with local Spanish-speaking community members who are seeking to apply for US citizenship or improve their English language skills.

Prior to her career in higher education, Malia was an officer in the US Navy during Operation Iraqi Freedom. She has two children, Nicholas and Olivia. In their free time, you can find them camping, swimming, hiking, and skiing.