Faculty

Core MLA Faculty

Margaret Downes, Director of MLA
Dr. Margaret (Peg) Downes, one of the founders of the MLA, has been active in this program since its inception. A professor in the Department of Literature & Language, she served as Director of UNCA’s Interdisciplinary Studies Program from 2007-09. Since beginning her career here in 1981, Peg has served as interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, twice chaired the Department of Literature & Language, and twice directed UNCA’s core Humanities Program—the second time, as UNCA’s first N.E.H. Distinguished Teaching Professor.

She also has served in other administrative capacities at the university, and has directed several local, state, national, and international conferences. In 2008 she co-directed a conference in Darmstadt, Germany, on integrating engineering and humanities in university curricula, and in 2007 helped coordinate a conference in India, “Empowering Women through Adult Education.”

From 1999-2003, Peg co-directed the national Asheville Institute on General Education. Recently, she presided over the national Association for General & Liberal Studies, and currently serves on the national advisory boards of three professional organizations, as well as on the editorial boards of two international scholarly journals. Peg frequently visits campuses in the U.S. and overseas to help with interdisciplinary liberal education. To date, she’s been privileged to work at 40+ U.S. campuses, as well as in Spain, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Thailand, India, the United Arab Emirates, and the Republic of Georgia.

Peg’s PhD from Florida State University is in interdisciplinary humanities with a dissertation on William Blake’s art and poetry. She also has completed all coursework and exams toward a PhD in medieval British literature and language. Her published scholarship focuses both on literature (especially non-Western) and on the curricula and pedagogies of interdisciplinary general and liberal education. Her passion is teaching (to date, she’s taught 39 courses at UNCA), including raising students’ awareness of the connections between their in-class learning and their activities in their communities--local, national, and global. She and her husband have 4 nearly grown children. [8/09]

Gerard Voos, Associate Director of MLA
Dr. Gerard Voos is the Associate Director of the MLA Program and Director of the Office of Sponsored Scholarship and Programs at UNC Asheville. He received his doctorate in soil ecology from the University of Rhode Island, a Master of Science degree in soil science from Colorado State University, and his BS in agronomy from the University of Kentucky. He also received a post-doctoral fellowship in biogeochemistry at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory in Aiken, South Carolina. At UNC Asheville, he has taught Climate and Culture, A Sustainable Culture, and Environmental Literature & Media in the MLA program; and Environmental Literature, and Energy and Society to undergraduates in the Environmental Studies Department. Dr. Voos is professionally and personally interested in sustainability issues. In addition to publishing and presenting research findings, he also has published general interest articles in web, trade and regional publications on subjects ranging from wine, fox hunting, golf, and the Vietnam War. [10/09]
 

Tommy Hays
Tommy Hays’ latest novel, The Pleasure Was Mine, was chosen for the 2008 One City, One Book community-read in Greensboro, NC and was also chosen for the Amazing Read – Greenville, SC’s first community-wide reading of a single book.  The Pleasure Was Mine was read on National Public Radio’s “Radio Reader” hosted by Dick Estell and South Carolina ETV-Radio’s “Southern Read”. It was also a Finalist for the SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) 2006 Fiction Award. Tommy has written two other novels -- Sam’s Crossing and In the Family Way, a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and winner of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award.  He is Executive Director of the Great Smokies Writing Program and a Lecturer in the Master of Liberal Arts Program at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.  A member of the National Book Critics Circle, he received his BA in English from Furman University and graduated from the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.  He lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife and two children. [8/09]

Holly Iglesias
Holly Iglesias earned a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Humanities from Florida State University and an MA in History from the University of Miami. She is the author of Souvenirs of a Shrunken World (Kore Press, fall, 2008), a poetry collection, and Boxing Inside the Box: Women’s Prose Poetry (Quale Press, 2004), a critical study. Angles of Approach, another poetry collection, will be published by White Pine Press in 2011. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Edward F. Albee Foundation. Her teaching interests include American studies, documentary studies, and a creative/scholarly approach to history through poetry and to poetry through archival photographs and ephemera. [10/09]

Fall 2009 Participating UNC Asheville Faculty

Cynthia Ho
Cynthia Ho holds a Ph. D. in Medieval Literature from the Univ. of Md.  While at UNC Asheville she has served as Chair of the Literature and Language Dept., the NEH Distinguished Teaching Prof. of Humanities, and Director of the Humanities Program.  Her main research interest is medieval narrative, both East and West.  She has authored numerous articles and has edited two essay collections, Crossing the Bridge: Comparative Essays on Heian Japanese and Medieval European Women Writers and Finding Francis in Medieval Literature and Art.  Dr. Ho is past president of the Southeastern Medieval Association and currently serves on the board of the Japan Studies Association. [8/09]

Pamela Nickless
Professor of Economics, Dr. Nickless is a first generation college graduate and a second generation Italian-American.  She received her B.S. from Indiana State University and her M.S. and Ph.D. from Purdue University.  She teaches labor economics, economic history, and principles of economics.  She also teaches in the Humanities, Women's Studies and Master of Liberal Arts program. In 2008 she was awarded the Jonathon Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economic History by the Economic History Association. Dr. Nickless' main research area is women in the 18th and 19th century labor markets.  Her work has been published in The Journal of Economic History, Communal Studies and various anthologies.  Her current research project concerns business women in the post-bellum south. Dr. Nickless has been active in Women's Studies for many years and was the first and third Director of Women’s Studies at UNC Asheville.  She was named Ruth and Leon Feldman Professor in 2002-2003 for her outstanding scholarship and service to the university.  An active member of the University community, Dr. Nickless has served as Interim Director of Enrollment Services, Chair of the Faculty Senate, Chair of Faculty Welfare and Development and Chair of the Women's Studies Task Force.  She has also served on various community boards including the Board of Adjustments, Asheville-Buncombe Commission on the Status of Women, Asheville-Buncombe Historic Preservation Society and the League of Women Voters.  [8/09]