History

Dr. Sonia Pérez Villanueva, a scholar from the Basque Country, holds a PhD in Spanish Studies from the University of Birmingham in England. Her research interests are Peninsular Studies (Spain and Portugal), Autobiographical Studies, and Gender Studies, particularly cultural, visual, and media representations of violence against women in Spain.

Her latest research project focuses on the persecution of Crypto-Jewish women in Spain by the Inquisition. She is the founding editor, with Leyla Rouhi and Irene Mizrahi, of ConSecuencias: A Journal of Spanish Criticism.

Sonia is the co-founder and co-chair, with Lisa Fiore and Meenakshi Chhabra, of the Violence against Women Initiative at Lesley University, a platform to give voice to victims and survivors of gender-based violence.

Professor Lowe is a historian with research and teaching expertise in both international and European history. At Lesley her courses cover the history of twentieth-century genocides, international law and human rights, and humanitarian social movements. Her courses incorporate innovative forms of history education, such as the award-winning historical role-playing games from Reacting to the Past.

Professor Lowe’s research focuses on the influence of transnational social movements on international law, foreign aid, and national sovereignty from the mid-nineteenth through twentieth centuries. She has conducted archival research in Switzerland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Norway, and the United States. She has held fellowships in both Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany and Geneva, Switzerland, and speaks both German and French.

Professor Lowe’s existing publications analyze the impact of interwar definitions of war victims’ rights on humanitarian aid provision after the First World War. Her first book manuscript examines how the League of Nations Member States used humanitarian aid as a tool to manage the crisis of European democracy from 1917 to 1939. Her second book project examines the effect of decolonization on the International Red Cross Movement from 1947 to 1977, decades during which this traditionally Eurocentric movement asserted its relevance to post-colonial regimes and anti-colonial liberation movements in a rapidly changing geo-political landscape.

Professor Lowe holds a PhD in History from Yale University, an MA and MPhil in History from Yale University, and a BA in History from Pepperdine University.

Dr. Lamothe is an African historian and documentary filmmaker, and the author of Slaves of Fortune: Sudanese Soldiers and the River War (James Currey Press, 2011). His areas of interest include Northeast African history, Sudanese history, military slavery, the Scramble for Africa, the British Empire, and Africa in film. His documentaries The Political Seuss and The Call of the Wild have been screened worldwide at film festivals and broadcast nationwide on PBS. He holds a BA from Tufts University, an MA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a PhD from Boston University.

Giuseppe Formato, PhD, currently serves as Senior Lecturer at Lesley University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, where he has developed and taught courses in world languages and cinema. During this time, he has also served as a fellow at the Camões Institute in the Consulate General of Portugal of Boston through its Fernão Mendes Pinto Program. He has been an invited speaker to high school classrooms, universities, and conferences in Europe and North America, in addition to being published in scholarly journals and serving on scientific committees worldwide. 

Dr. Formato is also an associated researcher at ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute, where he has served as a postdoctoral fellow and as a visiting researcher in its Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology. He is also currently a public high school World Language teacher in the Greater Boston area and a foreign correspondent on language education issues for O Baluarte de Santa Maria, an Azorean periodical. Some areas of research interest include critical language and eco-pedagogy, language acquisition, linguistic ideologies, the Portuguese-speaking diaspora of New England, and bilingual education.

Donna L. Halper is a former deejay, music director, and radio consultant, who spent more than three decades in broadcasting before reinventing herself as a professor. She came to Lesley in 2008 to develop and teach courses related to the study of communication and media, including Media Analysis, Introduction to Communication, Public Speaking, and Introduction to Journalism. In 2021, she was a winner of the Broussard Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication for her historical research on media representations of "the other." And in 2023, she was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and given the Pioneer Broadcaster Award.

A devotee of a school of thought called Media Ecology (which focuses on the media as environments), Donna’s teaching is informed by her knowledge of popular culture, media history, and media effects.  She is the author of six books and many articles, and she has been widely quoted by reporters seeking information about local and national media trends.  

Her research interests include the study of representations of women and minorities in media; early baseball history; and unsung heroes and heroines in the history of broadcasting.  Donna is often a guest on local radio talk shows, and she has also been heard on a number of podcasts: her 2017 appearance on the Sound Off podcast became that program’s most downloaded episode of the year.

In addition to teaching, Donna is the editor of the Lesley Public Post (Lesley’s student newspaper).  She is also a blogger, and a free-lance writer.  She has given many guest lectures at libraries, civic organizations, and other universities. And she is known for having discovered the classic rock band Rush, who dedicated two albums to her; she can be seen in the 2010 documentary “Beyond the Lighted Stage.”  Donna’s hobbies include reading, stamp collecting, and collecting rare memorabilia about media history.

Donna Halper holds a BA in English from Northeastern University, an M.Ed in Counseling and an MA in English from Northeastern University, and a PhD in Communication from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Mary Dockray-Miller (Dr. D) combines lectures, all-class discussions, and small group work in her classes to foster an academic environment that relies on student inquiry and engagement in the pursuit of academic excellence.

She teaches classes in the English major core, Medieval Studies, and the History of the English Language. Her research spans both the Old and Middle English periods. 

Her most recent book is Public Medievalists, Racism, and Suffrage in the American Women's College (Palgrave, 2017). This short monograph, part of growing interest in the study of nineteenth-century medievalism and Anglo-Saxonism, closely examines the intersections of race, class, and gender in the teaching of Anglo-Saxon in the American women’s colleges before World War I.

Her current research explores the intersections of feminist and critical race theory around the Old English poem, Exodus.

And what fictional character does Dr. D think most exemplifies her? Professor Minerva McGonagall, of course!

She holds a BA from Vassar College, an MAT from Boston University, and a PhD from Loyola University.

Liv Cummins is Professor of Drama and Creative Writing in the Humanities Department. She holds a BS in Theater and English from Skidmore College and an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Liv brings expertise as a musical theater lyricist/book writer, comedy writer, director, screenwriter, singer/songwriter, theatrical producer, and performer. At Lesley, Liv teaches creative writing, literature, drama, and English Composition courses, and her specialties include playwriting, screenwriting, drama, and comedy. She developed and teaches the new creative writing/drama course, Art & Craft of Musical Theater Writing – featuring a Cabaret Night performance of students’ original songs – and the Art & Craft of Comedy Writing.

As a musical theater dramatist, Liv is inspired by the passions and perseverance of historical women characters, as shown in her musicals Vanishing Point and The Bridge. The adventurous lives of aviator Amelia Earhart, author Agatha Christie, evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson (in Vanishing Point), and engineer Emily Warren Roebling, ‘silent builder’ of the Brooklyn Bridge (The Bridge), animate Liv’s musicals. Her shows have been produced at theaters across the country and the world, including Seattle Public Theater, NYC’s 54 Below, Baltimore’s Stillpointe Theatre, and el Teatro Lara in Madrid, Spain, in a Spanish-language translation of Vanishing Point.

Her current musical project, Ladies, How Dare You!, tells the tale of two American suffragists in 1913 who travel by carriage to Washington, D.C. for the largest Women’s March of its time, and find themselves on a life-changing journey. The piece utilizes old-fashioned comedy hijinks and Shakespearean mistaken identities, and features an Americana-flavored score. Exploring themes of gender roles and urban and rural clashes, the show asks what it means to be an American.

Liv is also a director, singer/songwriter, and sketch comedy writer and performer. Liv hosts, directs, and performs in the live comedy/variety show, The Berserkshires! – formerly Saturday Night LIV (hosted by Liv Cummins) – a cross between the Carol Burnett show, the classic Ed Sullivan show, and Saturday Night Live. The show, which has been performed in NYC, Boston, the Berkshires, and the Albany, NY region, features original comedy sketches interspersed with music acts and oddball performers, such as jugglers, knife-throwers, impressionists, and others.

At heart, Liv is a storyteller. In her comedy, screenplays, songs, and musicals, her work weaves humor and authenticity with emotional songs to engage audiences in funny, unexpected, thought-provoking ways.

In her teaching, Liv is committed to providing an academically challenging, collaborative environment in which her students develop their critical thinking, writing, and feedback literacy skills, and form a trusted community of writers and thinkers. She aims to inspire them to question and challenge socially- and culturally-accepted constructs, develop their passions, and become lifelong learners.

Anne holds a doctorate in English Literature and an MA in Humanities from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she studied poetry with Robert Creeley, Irving Feldman, and John Logan. 

She's an alum of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA, has studied at the Linklater Studio, and developed the Drama Minor and Drama track in Lesley's English major. A former member of the Small Press Alliance of Boston and editor of Oak Square Magazine, she also started Commonthought Magazine at Lesley.

Anne currently teaches courses in English Composition, Creative Writing, Literature, and Play Production: Shakespeare. In the past, she's worked with master's students and directed two doctoral dissertations. Her classrooms strive to be safe places of mutual respect and diligence.

Aaron holds an MFA in Poetry from the University of Pittsburgh. As an associate professor at Lesley, his areas of expertise include creative writing, poetry, popular culture, and gender. As a teacher and a writer, he hones both crafts every day, and is committed to helping his writing and literature students enter into the public experience of what is often perceived as a solitary undertaking.

As a literature teacher, Robert is committed to the view that engaged reading makes us better critical thinkers and transforms our understanding of ourselves and the world in which we live. He believes that the primary value of literary study is not so much learning about literature, but learning through literature.

Robert has over 30 years of teaching experience at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the College of Art and Design, where he served as Chair of the Liberal Arts Department for fifteen years. In addition to first year composition and literature courses, he teaches a variety of electives, including Short Fiction and Novella, the Family in Literature, Romanticism in the Arts: Literature, Painting, Music.

Outside of Lesley, he's served as Scholar in Residence in Boston University's Teachers Academy in South Carolina. He's written articles and given conference presentations at local and national conferences on topics in the humanities and education; his current research interests focus on the role and efficacy of liberal arts study in the undergraduate curriculum.

As a teacher of composition and literature, Robert is committed to the belief that engaged reading makes us better critical thinkers and transforms our understanding of ourselves and the world in which we live—that the primary value of literary study is not so much learning about literature, but learning through literature.

As a senior lecturer, David brings expertise in music, piano, collaborative piano, art song, and opera to Lesley's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He holds a Bachelor of Music from Western Michigan University, a Master of Music from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from New England Conservatory.