Honors Faculty
The professors who teach honors courses at Salem State University are among the most experienced and enthusiastic faculty on campus. They look forward to working with motivated students in class and on senior honors projects. This page is representative of our core honors faculty. Please feel free to contact them with any questions about the honors courses they teach.
Aviva Chomsky, History, BA, MA, and PhD, University of California-Berkeley
Professor Chomsky is a published author and is currently working on an analytical college-level text on the Cuban Revolution, as well as a larger research project that intertwines the global history of coal with a micro-history of northern Colombia.
Courses: Honors History I and II
Email: aviva.chomsky@salemstate.edu
Office: Sullivan Building 102F
Phone: 978.542.6389
Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello, Interdisciplinary Studies, BA, Connecticut College; PhD Boston University
Professor Duclos-Orsello has been teaching and working in universities and museums for more than a decade. Her research and scholarly work focuses on issues of community in American culture; ethnic and immigrant literatures; gender studies; and the connections between place and memory. She has developed and directed grant projects linking K-12 school districts, universities, and museums, and currently writes for "The Public Humanist," a blog that focuses on the relationship between the humanities and public policy issues.
Courses: Junior and Senior Honors Seminars
Email: educlosorsello@salemstate.edu
Office: Admissions Building 2
Phone: 978.542.7210
Richard Elia, English, BA, Providence College; MA, Northeastern University; PhD, University of Massachusetts
Professor Elia is an expert in English Literature from 1800 to 1925, literary criticism, and the classics. He also publishes an international wine magazine and runs our Honors Etiquette Dinner.
Courses: Honors Literature I and II
Email: richard.elia@salemstate.edu
Office: Sullivan Building 200A
Phone: 978.542.6474
Perry Glasser, English, BA, Brooklyn College of City University of New York; MFA, University of Arizona
Professor Glasser has published more than 50 stories and memoirs in dozens of literary journals, as well as two collections of short fiction, Suspicious Origins and Singing on the Titanic. A three-time winner of the PEN Syndicated Fiction Prize and two-time winner of the Boston Fiction Festival Competition, his work has been read on National Public Radio. He received the Sarah Russo Prize for Exile Literature in 2005; and has been a fellow at Ucross, Yaddo and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Perry coordinates the professional writing program at the university.
Course: Honors English
Email: perry.glasser@salemstate.edu
Office: Meier Hall 228
Phone: 978.542.7032
Joanna Gonsalves, Psychology, BA, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; MA and PhD, Clark University
Professor Gonsalves is the honors program coordinator and a member of the psychology department faculty. Her research is focused on experiential learning and adult cognitive development. Her teaching and research is enriched by her experience as a municipal politician and advocate for community groups.
Courses: Junior and Senior Honors Seminars
Email: jgonsalves@salemstate.edu
Office: 452 Enterprise Center
Phone: 978.542.6247
David Gow, Psychology, BA, Tufts University; MA, Brandeis University; PhD, Harvard University
Professor Gow has completed post-doctoral studies in neuropsychology and acoustic phonetics at the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on the question of how listeners recognize spoken words in the context of fluent, connected speech.
Course: Honors Foundations of Psychology
Email: david.gow@salemstate.edu
Office: Meier Hall 224
Phone: 978.542.6831
Thomas Healy, Theater and Speech Communication, AB, College of the Holy Cross; MA, Fairfield University; PhD, University of Southern Mississippi
Professor Healy has experience as an oral historian, an evaluator of bilingual educational programs, a corporate trainer, and as a leader in the establishment of educational standards for teachers of speech in Massachusetts. Current research interests focus on the influence of public communication in popular culture.
Course: Honors Speech
Email: thomas.healey@salemstate.edu
Office: ADM 3
Phone: 978.542.7232
Michael Jaros, English, BA, Trinity University, MA, The University of Texas at Austin, MPhil, Trinity College, Dublin PhD University of California-San Diego
Michael Jaros joined the English faculty at Salem State after received his PhD in Drama from the University of California-San Diego in June of 2008, where he also worked as a dramaturg in the professional theatre training program as well as at the San Diego Repertory Theatre. His research focuses on 20th century Irish culture in performance, and he is the author of several articles on the subject. He teaches dramatic literature, Irish literature, composition, and has worked as a dramaturg with the SSU theatre program.
Course: Freshmen Honors English
Email: mjaros@salemstate.edu
Rod Kessler, English, BA, Harvard University; MS, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; MFA, University of Arizona
Professor Kessler has taught in the department of English at Salem State University since fall 1983. During this time, he has also served as editor of Sextant, the faculty journal, and as coordinator of the university's honors program. At various times he has been advisor to the English Society, to Soundings East, the university's literary magazine, and to the Honors Program Advisory Council. He is also a published author.
Course: Freshman Honors English
Email: rod.kessler@salemstate.edu
Office: Sullivan Building 208A
Phone: 978.542.6247
Maureen McRae, School of Nursing, BSN and MS, Boston College; DNSc, Boston University
Maureen McRae is the coordinator of the direct entry MSN program. She is also the faculty advisor for the Student Nursing Association.
Courses: Nursing Research I and II: Honors
Email: maureen.mccrae@salemstate.edu
Office: Harrington Building 123
Phone: 978.542.6652
Daniel Mulcare, Political Science, BS University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth; MS, PhD New School for Social Research
Course: Honors Political Science Seminar
Email: daniel.mulcare@salemstate.edu
Office: Meier Hall 333B
Phone: 978.542.6470
Scott Nowka, English, BA, MA, University of Illinois at Chicago; PhD, University of Iowa
Professor Nowka is a specialist in eighteenth-century British literature. His research primarily concerns the influence of scientific innovations on the development of the novel in English. He has published articles on the 1790s Jacobin feminist Mary Hays, the authors Charles Gildon and Laurence Sterne, and “object narratives”—novels in which mundane objects come to life and narrate their adventures.
Courses: Eng 106H, Eng 284H, and Eng 285H.
Email: snowka@salemstate.edu
Jeanette Sablock, Geological Sciences, BS, Salem State University; MS and PhD, University of Idaho
Jeanette Sablock has field experiences in earth science and in the geologic hazards of North America. She is the coordinator of the Master of Arts program for science teachers and also partakes in the annual trip to Montana with the geology department.
Courses: Honors Physical Geology and Honors Historical Geology
Email: jeanette.sablock@salemstate.edu
Office: Meier Hall 245
Phone: 978.542.7077
Donna Seger, History, BA, Goucher College; MA, PhD, Brandeis University
Courses: Honors History I and II
Email: donna.vinson@salemstate.edu
Office: Sullivan Building 110D
Phone: 978.542.7147
Geertje Wiersma, Sociology, PhD, University of Wageningen, Netherlands
Having been raised and education in the Netherlands, and having lived in the United States since 1969, Geertje Wiersma's research and studies have focused on cross-cultural comparisons between the Netherlands and the United States. Currently, she is writing about the Dutch cultural search for compromise in comparison to the "U.S. Argument Society".
Course: Honors Sociology
Email: geertje.wiersma@salemstate.edu
Office: Meier Hall 335E
Phone: 978.542.6363
Alan Young, Biology, BA, Clark University; MS, PhD,University of South Carolina-Columbia
A biology professor, Alan Young is also the director of Salem State's marine biology program and coordinator of marine biology internships. He serves as a liaison to the Marine Studies Consortium, is president of Salem Sound CoastWatch, and is historian of New England Estuarine Research Society.
Course: Honors Biology
Email: alan.young@salemstate.edu
Office: Meier Hall 538D
Phone: 978.542.6710
