Staff
I currently serve as the Director of Innovative Teaching and Experiential Learning
Initiatives for the College of Arts and Sciences. As part of this appointment, I
facilitate the Incubator for Teaching Innovation, which offers programming to support
innovative teaching practices and a vibrant, interdisciplinary culture surrounding
teaching across the college. Please visit the Incubator blog to learn more about our current activities. My current areas of interest include
higher education pedagogy, faculty development, integrative and experiential learning,
innovation theory, and the science of learning.
Nina Moreno, Director of the Incubator for Innovative Teaching, is an associate professor
of Spanish and Second Language Acquisition in the Department of Languages, Literatures,
and Cultures and core faculty of the Linguistics Program. Her research interests include
the impact of different types of feedback in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL),
attention and awareness, depth of processing of second language input, and pre-service
teacher training. Nina was the recipient of the Garnet Apple Teaching Award in 2017,
the Sigma Delta Pi Hispanic Honor Society Excellence in Teaching Award in 2012 and
2013, and the Mortar Board Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2010.
Ronda Sanders, Assistant Director of the Incubator for Teaching Innovation, received a Provost’s
Distributed Learning grant in 2015 and created a hybrid version of the university’s
Basic College Mathematics (MATH 111) course. She was a member of the TWIST (Transformation
with Innovative Strategies for Teaching) committee for the College of Arts and Sciences
in 2016-2017. She was a presenter for BIOS (Biology Intensive Orientation for Students)
2014-2016 and ChemIOS (Chemistry Intensive Orientation for Students) 2015-2016. She
is a faculty advisor for Pi Mu Epsilon and the Gamecock Math Club and Maple Lab Coordinator
for Calculus II. Ronda Sanders has served as an AP Calculus Reader every year since
2006. She was promoted to Table Leader in 2013 and has served as a Question Team Member
in 2014, 2017, and 2018 (invited). She is a four-time winner of a “Two Thumbs Up” (2007, 2008, 2010, 2011) award from the USC Office of Student Disabilities
Services.
Rachel is a doctoral candidate in the Curriculum & Instruction: Educational Technology
program. She also holds a Master of Science degree in Educational Psychology from
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and a Bachelor of Music from West Chester
University of Pennsylvania. Her experience as an educator includes visual and performing
arts and special education, and she now teaches vocal and instrumental music at MOT
Charter High School in Middletown, Delaware. Her current research is focused on developing
technology-based educator mentoring programs to improve new teacher effectiveness
and retention.
CAS Innovative Teaching Associates
Professor Andersen is an associate professor in the Department of Criminology and
Criminal Justice. Her research involves examining how gender, race, and structural
inequalities influence justice system involvement. She teaches undergraduate and graduate
courses related to juvenile delinquency and justice and developed the USC Adolescent
Mentoring Program. Taught as a class for university students, this intensive school-based
mentoring program matches trained university students to youth attending a local disciplinary
alternative school.
The Adolescent Mentoring Program course fosters an intensive helping relationship between university students and youth. For university students, the course provides a working knowledge of theory and research on mentoring and delinquency prevention and valuable ‘real world’ experience working one-on-one with at-risk youth, including developing and instituting plans and changes, goal setting, and case management. The course was featured in both The Yield, a publication of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, and Breakthrough research magazine, a publication of the Office of Research.
Additionally, Professor Andersen was a recipient of the 2018-2020 Provost Internal Grant for Pedagogy.
Dr. Ballard received his undergraduate degree from Caltech and his Ph.D in mathematics
from the University of Washington. Before joining the University of South Carolina,
he held positions at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Wisconsin,
and the University of Vienna. He has been a member for the Institute for Advanced
Study at Princeton and received a USC Breakthrough prize in 2017.
All of these experiences afforded him facetime with a multitude of students—from those who want to pursue math as a career to those who just want to get past this one last math course. Too often success with math is attributed to innate skill rather than hard work and persistence. In his experience, Dr. Ballard has found the opposite—those students committed to and truly supported in learning become the ones good at math regardless of where they start from. He strives to impart this growth mindset to each student he sees.
Professor Burgess holds a joint appointment between the McKissick Museum and the School
of Visual Art and Design, teaching art history and museum studies. A proponent for
giving students the professional skills they need to succeed, she has employed active-learning
pedagogical models since coming to USC in 2008. Believing strongly in interdisciplinary
collaboration, she co-authored “Sharing Credit: Public Historians and Scientists Reflecting
on Collaboration,” with Soumitra Ghoshroy, Allison Marsh, and Sarah Scripps in The
Public Historian, 35No. 2, May 2013. She was a fellow in the inaugural class of Association
of Academic Museums and Galleries’ sponsored Kellogg School of Management's Center
for Nonprofit Management in 2012. She was a recipient of 2014-2015 Teaching Excellence
Grant in Integrative Learning from USC’s Center for Teaching Excellence and the 2016
SCOER! Faculty Award from Thomas Cooper Library. She is a field reviewer for the Institute
of Museum and Library Services and sits on the board of the Committee on Museum Professional
Training, a professional network of American Alliance of Museums. She also serves
on the Board of Directors for the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries.
Aria Dal Molin is an Assistant Professor of Renaissance Literary and Cultural Studies
at the University of South Carolina. She holds a Ph.D. in French and Italian, from
the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an M.A. from the University of Oregon,
in Romance Languages and Literatures. Her scholarly interests lie in the areas of
sex and gender in the sixteenth-century literary academies, anticlassicism in the
comedies of the late Renaissance, and transnational mobility in the early modern theater
of Italy and France. She has published scholarly journal articles and chapters on
Machiavelli, Ariosto, and sixteenth-century literary academies in Siena. Her first
book, Early Modern Italian Bromance: Love, Friendship, and Marriage in Sixteenth-Century
Italian Academies resituates the contemporary term, bromance, and its surrounding
cultural discourse in the theater of sixteenth-century early modern Italian academies
to demonstrate how young accademicians sought both to institutionalize and prolong
male bonding as a means of escapism from their contemporary social and political concerns.
I write and teach about literature, intellectual history, and digital humanities.
Broadly speaking, I'm interested in the ways that technology affects communication.
My current research investigates how new forms of digital writing and computational
analysis make possible new ways of thinking about language and history.
I usually am juggling several ongoing digital humanities research projects. Any students (undergraduate or graduate) who would like to work on DH research for course credit as an independent study should apply by emailing me directly at the address above.
Professor Floyd’s current research focuses on the continent of Africa, examining stereotypes
and misconceptions. She is interested in curriculum taught by art educators and am
currently meeting with and surveying focus groups across the state. In addition, she
is conducting research on ethnographic methods and photography to document African-American
camp meeting traditions in both North and South Carolina. She has received funding
from the National Endowment for the Arts, South Carolina Arts Commission and the South
Carolina Humanities Council, and the University of South Carolina’s Associate Professor
Development Grant and Research and Productive Scholarship. Her photographs of African-American
camp meetings have been displayed at the Charlotte Museum of History (NC), the Methodist
Center, St Simons Island, Georgia, and the McKissick Museum at USC. Professor Floyd
has also mentored a group of students at Hand Middle School as they learned how to
use photography to document important events in their lives, their photographs were
ultimately displayed at the Wachovia Gallery located in the Richland County Public
Library. She is developing curricular materials to help teachers incorporate contemporary
African art and artists, camp meeting traditions and self-taught artists.
Professor Hiscox’s research focus is in microclimatology and micrometeorology, with
a specific emphasis on dispersion turbulence, and vegetative canopy interactions.
This work aims to understand the atmosphere at small scales in time and space and
apply that information to relevant societal problems. She is currently the lead PI
of SAVANT: Stable Atmospheric Variability And Transport, an NSF/NCAR field campaign
to examine the stable boundary layer in shallow topography. Her teaching tries to
incorporate hands on learning through experimentation and student-led measurements.
Professor Hiscox is from an interdisciplinary background and believes strongly in teaching from a holistic perspective. She was a participant in the inaugural year of UofSC Innovations Corps, and is former chair of the American Meteorological Society STAC on Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. Recently she has established a collaboration with a local elementary school to help fifth graders launch and recover high-altitude balloons.
Professor Kalb currently directs the Russian Program at USC. Her research focuses
on the connections between Russian culture and the Greco-Roman classical tradition.
Her book Russia’s Rome: Imperial Visions, Messianic Dreams, 1890-1930, examines the image of ancient Rome in the writings of Russian modernists, and her
current book project focuses on the role the poet Homer, fabled author of the Odyssey and the Iliad, has played in Russian culture. Kalb’s articles have appeared in journals in the
Slavic field and in works dedicated to classical reception studies, such as the recent
Wiley Blackwell volume Handbook to Classical Reception in Eastern and Central Europe, for which she edited the Russia section. The recipient of a Michael J. Mungo Award
for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, an Ada B. Thomas Outstanding Faculty Advisor
Award, and, most recently, a Garnet Apple Award for Teaching Innovation, Kalb is particularly
excited at present about the possibilities of using online courses to promote interdisciplinary
work in the humanities. She is looking forward to the explorations the Incubator will
make possible.
Professor Richardson is currently involved in revising the Marine Science undergraduate
degree curriculum, which includes creating new laboratory exercises for an upper level
majors course (MSCI 311; Biology of Marine Organisms). A big believer in “teaching
through research”, she has hosted more than 60 undergraduate students in her laboratory
in a variety of capacities, including six Magellan Scholars and four SC Honors College
Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows. Dr. Richardson also obtained funding for a
site grant from the National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates
(REU) program in 2012, and subsequently brought 30 undergraduate students from across
the country to USC to do research in marine science in the summers of 2013 to 2015
(10 per year). Dr. Richardson is a former winner of a Breakthrough Rising Star of
Research Award (2011), a Michael J. Mungo Undergraduate Teaching Award (2015), and
a two-time winner of a “Thumbs Up” award (2010, 2015) from the USC Office of Student
Disability Services.
Professor Rodney is an assistant professor in Physics and Astronomy. He earned his
PhD in Astronomy at the University of Hawaii (between surf breaks), and was a Hubble
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. His research is aimed at
measuring vast distances across the universe using stellar explosions, or supernovae.
He is working now on supernovae that are being amplified by gravitational lensing,
a warping of spacetime that allows galaxies to act as cosmic magnifying glasses. In
recent years at UofSC, Steve has led a course transformation project for introductory
astronomy, organized a campus-wide outreach program for the 2017 total solar eclipse,
and developed a partnership to train graduate students in inquiry-based teaching.
In 2018 he received the Garnet Apple Award for teaching excellence and was awarded
a McCausland Faculty Fellowship in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Smith is presently involved in research examining self-injurious behaviors that occur
within correctional settings, and other areas where the public health and criminal
justice system intersect. He teaches courses on Corrections, Criminological Theory,
Research Methods, Victimization, Social Justice & Ethics, & Sex Crimes.
Professor November teaches courses on the history of science and medicine, history
of technology, modern American history, and on the ways history is presented in games.
He is particularly interested in how developments in information technology and the
life sciences have shaped one another. His recent book, Biomedical Computing: Digitizing Life in the United States (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012), explores the intellectual and institutional
dimensions of the computerization of biology and medicine; the book was awarded the
top book prize in the field of history of computing, the Computer History Museum Prize.
He is presently preparing manuscripts for two books – a biography of medical computing
pioneer Robert Ledley and a history of distributed/volunteer computing in scientific
research, tentatively titled Revolutions@home. In 2013, November was selected as an inaugural McCausland Fellow by the College
of Arts and Sciences for his dedication to pursuing meaningful research while offering
high-quality teaching. He has received funding from the National Institutes of Health,
the National Science Foundation, and the Association for Computing Machinery. He
has served on numerous departmental, university, and professional committees. His
current teaching interests include incorporating video games into course curricula.
Professor White is a professor in the School of the Earth, Ocean, & Environment who
studies the geology and tectonics of the oceans and coasts to understand the Earth
processes that form and shape the seafloor. After more than two decades in marine
geological research, Scott remains convinced that understanding the marine realm and
its geology is key to a thriving future for humanity. Scott has worked on projects
ranging from seafloor rifts in the Pacific to tidal creeks on the South Carolina coast,
and participated in nearly 20 oceanographic cruises. Scott teaches at UofSC in both
Geology and Marine Science and advised 10 graduate students. Inspired by his studies
into the dark and hidden realm of the deep seafloor, Scott is developing geovisualization
lessons for Geology and Marine Science classes for the CAS Incubator of Teaching Innovation. When
he is not busy researching and teaching geology, he enjoys photography and cooking.
Scott holds a PhD in Geological Sciences from University of California at Santa Barbara.
He joined the faculty at USC in 2003.
Professor Yee has a joint position in the mathematics department in the College of
Arts and Sciences and in the instruction and teacher education department in the College
of Education. He teaches undergraduate mathematics course, graduate mathematics courses
on pedagogy, and doctoral classes in teacher education. Professor Yee’s scholarship
synergizes the teaching and learning of undergraduate mathematics. His primary focus
is providing seminars and courses on teaching for mathematics graduate students who
are teaching assistants or full instructors of record for undergraduate mathematics
courses. Professor Yee’s research has resulted in multiple National Science Foundation
grants revolving around peer-mentorship models for graduate student instructors. With
these grants, Professor Yee has created and implemented professional development for
experienced graduate students to mentor novice graduate students in teaching, thus
generating a community of practice around teaching. Prior to coming to USC, Professor
Yee taught secondary mathematics for six years in Ohio and was an assistant professor
of mathematics education at California State University, Fullerton. His scholarship
has also included book chapters and journal publications focusing on mathematical
proof education, educational discourse theory, conceptual metaphor theory as a means
to improve teacher listening, secondary methods courses, and mathematical problem
solving.
Graduate Student Leadership Council
Trenton Agrelius, Department of Biological Sciences
Trenton Agrelius is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Biological
Sciences pursing a degree in Evolutionary Genetics, having previously received his
MS from the Marine Science Program at the University of South Carolina (UofSC). His
work focuses on exploring molecular mechanisms that influence gene expression in offspring
via maternal and transgenerational effects using the crustacean Daphnia as a model
system. He was a 2019 recipient of the SPARC grant from the Office of the Vice President
for Research, UofSC.
He currently serves as Chair of the Student Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement subcommittee on the CAS Diversity committee. Outside of his passion for science, he is an avid reader of European history and a devoted dog dad to the insanely endearing chocolate lab, Sadie.
Georgina Anderson, Department of Biological Sciences
Georgina Anderson is a graduate research and teaching assistant in the Department
of Biological Sciences. She conducts research on hematopoiesis in the Kathrein Lab,
using mice and zebra fish to model the differentiation of blood cells from stem cells.
Georgina has taught the Principles of Biology lab and Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy at UofSC, and is part of UofSC’s Institute for Science and Engineer Educators team. Georgina is also active in the Graduate Associates of Biological Science, Women’s Mentor Network, Foster Care 2 Success and Buddies Without Borders programs.
Samuel Hackworth, Linguistics Program

Sam Hackworth is a second-year PhD student, studying linguistics at UofSC. Currently, he is an ESL instructor at the International Accelerator Program. Sam has experience teaching English in both American and foreign classrooms, having served as a teacher trainer and EFL instructor with the United States Peace Corps.
As an instructor, he has focused on the teaching of writing and use of literature for communicative and activity-based language lessons.
Kristin Harrell, Department of English
Kristin Harrell is presently entering her fifth year of work toward a PhD in medieval English literature. While her dissertation work has been literary in nature, she has also done Masters work in pop culture studies, art education, the history of medicine, manuscript studies, and she has a Bachelors of Fine Arts in ceramic sculpture. Kristin is also active in visual studies, the digital humanities, and interested in creative ways to approach both research and pedagogy. She has taught for the English department as well as through the SAEL program. In the Fall she will be teaching a Capstone English course on sex and power in Pre-Modern literature through the lenses of popular television shows, video games, and cultural phenomenon.
Mackenzie Hart, Department of Psychology
Mackenzie Hart is a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Psychology at
the University of South Carolina. She is originally from Pennsylvania and graduated
from Boston College in 2017, holding a B.S. in psychology. Throughout her undergraduate
tenure, she amassed research experience at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
and Harvard University’s Lab for Youth Mental Health.
Her current research interests center on intervention and implementation practices to bolster outcomes for at-risk youth and adolescents, with a particular focus on program accessibility and usability in low-resource environments, as well as mentoring. She is also involved in the Presidential Fellows program on campus.
Outside of research, Mackenzie has gained clinical experience in a number of settings in the local community. Her main hobby is exploring the outdoors and craft breweries throughout Columbia and the greater Southeast with her pup.
Julia Lujan, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

Julia Luján is a Comparative Literature PhD candidate in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Her current research focuses on issues of identity and gender roles in U.S. Afro-Latino cultural productions, part of a larger project that aims at expanding/complicating the notions of blackness and Latinidad in the Americas. Other research interests include African Diaspora studies, Hispanic Transatlantic studies, MELUS (Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States), and Global Contemporary Literatures, while exploring topics such as identity construction, nation building, and boundary crossings.
At UofSC, Julia has taught extensively for the Spanish and Comparative Literature programs. She has also developed and led a Spanish Summer Intensive Program and has coordinated the Advanced Spanish courses. She has received the LLC Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award in 2014 and 2018. Julia was elected as the founding President of the first DLLC Graduate Student Association, an organization that focuses on the professional and academic development of the Department’s graduate students.
After a two-year tenure as President, today she serves in its Executive Board as Consultant/Advisor.
Graduate Student Leadership Team Alumni
Trenton Agrelius is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Biological Sciences pursing a degree in Evolutionary Genetics, having previously received his MS from the Marine Science Program at the University of South Carolina (UofSC). His work focuses on exploring molecular mechanisms that influence gene expression in offspring via maternal and transgenerational effects using the crustacean Daphnia as a model system. He was a 2019 recipient of the SPARC grant from the Office of the Vice President for Research, UofSC.
He currently serves as Chair of the Student Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement subcommittee on the CAS Diversity committee. Outside of his passion for science, he is an avid reader of European history and a devoted dog dad to the insanely endearing chocolate lab, Sadie.
Georgina Anderson is a graduate research and teaching assistant in the Department of Biological Sciences. She conducts research on hematopoiesis in the Kathrein Lab, using mice and zebra fish to model the differentiation of blood cells from stem cells.
Georgina has taught the Principles of Biology lab and Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy at UofSC, and is part of UofSC’s Institute for Science and Engineer Educators team. Georgina is also active in the Graduate Associates of Biological Science, Women’s Mentor Network, Foster Care 2 Success and Buddies Without Borders programs.
Sam Hackworth is a second-year PhD student, studying linguistics at UofSC. Currently,
he is an ESL instructor at the International Accelerator Program. Sam has experience
teaching English in both American and foreign classrooms, having served as a teacher
trainer and EFL instructor with the United States Peace Corps.
As an instructor, he has focused on the teaching of writing and use of literature for communicative and activity-based language lessons.
Kristin Harrell is presently entering her fifth year of work toward a PhD in medieval
English literature. While her dissertation work has been literary in nature, she has
also done Masters work in pop culture studies, art education, the history of medicine,
manuscript studies, and she has a Bachelors of Fine Arts in ceramic sculpture. Kristin
is also active in visual studies, the digital humanities, and interested in creative
ways to approach both research and pedagogy. She has taught for the English department
as well as through the SAEL program. In the Fall she will be teaching a Capstone English
course on sex and power in Pre-Modern literature through the lenses of popular television
shows, video games, and cultural phenomenon.
Mackenzie Hart is a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Psychology at
the University of South Carolina. She is originally from Pennsylvania and graduated
from Boston College in 2017, holding a B.S. in psychology. Throughout her undergraduate
tenure, she amassed research experience at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
and Harvard University’s Lab for Youth Mental Health.
Her current research interests center on intervention and implementation practices to bolster outcomes for at-risk youth and adolescents, with a particular focus on program accessibility and usability in low-resource environments, as well as mentoring. She is also involved in the Presidential Fellows program on campus.
Outside of research, Mackenzie has gained clinical experience in a number of settings in the local community. Her main hobby is exploring the outdoors and craft breweries throughout Columbia and the greater Southeast with her pup.
Julia Luján is a Comparative Literature PhD candidate in the Department of Languages, Literatures
and Cultures. Her current research focuses on issues of identity and gender roles
in U.S. Afro-Latino cultural productions, part of a larger project that aims at expanding/complicating
the notions of blackness and Latinidad in the Americas. Other research interests include
African Diaspora studies, Hispanic Transatlantic studies, MELUS (Multi-Ethnic Literatures
of the United States), and Global Contemporary Literatures, while exploring topics
such as identity construction, nation building, and boundary crossings.
At UofSC, Julia has taught extensively for the Spanish and Comparative Literature programs. She has also developed and led a Spanish Summer Intensive Program and has coordinated the Advanced Spanish courses. She has received the LLC Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award in 2014 and 2018. Julia was elected as the founding President of the first DLLC Graduate Student Association, an organization that focuses on the professional and academic development of the Department’s graduate students.
After a two-year tenure as President, today she serves in its Executive Board as Consultant/Advisor.