Meet the Faculty

Laura Williamson Ambrose, Assistant Professor 
(lambrose@saintmarys.edu)
Professor Ambrose teaches several of the Colloquium courses in the Humanistic Studies Department, but her area of specialization is in early modern English literature. She has also enjoyed teaching the Department's introductory course, "Lives and Times", in which students examine the relationship between place and identity in memoirs, short stories, novels, and plays. Her published works include "Travel in Time: Local Travel and Seventeenth-Century English Almanacs" (Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2013), "The Blended Advising Model: Transforming Advising with ePortfolios" (International Journal of ePortfolio, 2013), and a forthcoming article on travel in Shakespeare's England (Cambridge World Shakespeare Encyclopedia).  Professor Williamson Ambrose also organizes the Department's notable Christian Culture Lecture. You can find out more on her ePortfolio.

Philip Hicks, Professor
(phicks@saintmarys.edu)
Professor Hicks teaches several of the Department's Cultural History Courses as well as the introductory classes, "High Society" and "Lives and Times." His interests in eighteenth-century history and culture have led him to publish several articles on gender and political identity and a book length study, Neoclassical History and English Culture: From Clarendon to Hume (1996). Professor Hicks is Chair of the department.

John Shinners, Professor (shinners@saintmarys.edu)
While he is trained as a medieval historian, Professor Shinners teaches a range of Humanistic Studies courses including the popular "Greek and Roman Culture" as well as several Cultural History and Colloquium courses. His published works include Medieval Popular Religion: 1000-1500 (2000) and Pastors and the Care of Souls in Medieval England (1998). Professor Shinners was named Bruno P. Schlesinger Chair in 2010.

Gail Mandell, Professor (gmandell@saintmarys.edu)
Professor Mandell has taught and developed all of the Department's Colloquium courses as well as a popular tandem class between Humanistic Studies and Psychology. She has also enjoyed teaching the introductory course, "Asian Influence on Western Culture." Dr. Mandell has published several books including Phoenix Paradox: A Study of Renewal through Change in the Collected Poems and Last Poems of D.H. Lawrence (1984) and a biography on Sister Madeleva, Madeleva: A Biography (1997). Professor Mandell retired in 2010.