Dr. Julie Naviaux is Associate Professor of English in African American Literature and American Studies. She teaches courses in African American literature, American literature, Latinx literature, literary and cultural theory, professional writing, and science fiction.
Her research publications include articles “When Unruly Women Authors Make Students Uncomfortable” and “A Distinctly American Performance in James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.” She has published introductions and edited works on Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man in Children’s Literature Review and James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain< in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. She is a contributor to the edited book Code Meshing as World English and co-authored African American Review's e-project on film director Marlon Riggs.
Contact Information:
julie.naviaux@sru.edu
316G Spotts World Culture Building
724.738.4297
Melissa Swauger is a Professor in the Department of Nonprofit Management, Empowerment, and Diversity Studies at Slippery Rock University. She teaches introductory nonprofit management and community and civic engagement courses. She publishes, presents, and trains on ethical qualitative research practices with “hard to reach” populations as well as basic interviewing and data collection techniques for any population. Dr. Swauger also serves on boards of directors and consults for community-based, youth serving, and other nonprofit organizations providing strategic planning, program evaluation, and diversity, equity, and inclusion support.
Dr. Swauger holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and an M.A. Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, an M.A. in Social and Public Policy from Duquesne University, and a B.A. in Sociology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Emeritus Faculty
Dr. Cindy LaCom, retired faculty and former Director of the program, earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Oregon in 1993 and has taught at Slippery Rock University for 25 years. She integrates gender and feminist issues into her teaching and scholarship, and an interest in Disability Studies also informs her work. She is fascinated by questions about how different bodies are invested with varied meanings as cultural texts (in terms of access to or denial of power, stigma and the "management" of that stigma, how we might change prejudice and bias). The minor and program were established 29 years ago by the former director, Jace Condravy, and have done important work on and off campus ever since.
