The College of the Arts at Georgia State University brings on board a stellar cohort of new faculty whose work stands out among their peers. Collectively, their knowledge, expertise and bodies of work expand the breadth of scholarship available to our student artists and entrepreneurs as they join a well-established company of faculty members dedicated to opening the art world for students on campus and helping them connect to the arts community in Atlanta and beyond.
In the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design, we welcome:
Dr. Hoa Vo – Assistant Professor
Dr. Hoa Vo completed a Ph.D. in Interior Design program at the College of Design, University of Minnesota in 2021. Her research focuses on creativity and feedback practices in design educational and professional settings, as well as human behaviors in the built environment. She is a current member of the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC), the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Read more...
Xinran Hu – Associate Professor
Xinran Hu joins the faculty following her position as associate professor of graphic design at the University of Southern Indiana in the Art and Design Department. She received her M.F.A. in Graphic Design from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Her recent research paper, "Exploratory Discoveries from Eye-Tracking Tests of Wertheimer's Gestalt Patterns," was published in November 2020 by Leonardo, a leading journal on using contemporary science and technology in the arts and music from MIT Press. Read more...
Taylor Hobson – Visiting Lecturer
Taylor Hobson joins the faculty as a visiting lecturer after completing a Ph.D. in history of art at Bryn Mawr College. His dissertation, “Radiant Sites: Projection and the Mobile Spectator in Contemporary Moving - Image Installations,” explores light projection as a phenomenon that connects moving-image spectatorship with the expanded technologies of video art. Dr. Hobson previously earned an M.A. in art history from the University of Georgia and a B.A. in art history from Georgetown University. Read more...
Jamaal Barber – Visiting Lecturer
A 2021 M.F.A. alumnus from our own Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design, Jamaal Barber joins the faculty as a visiting lecturer in Drawing, Painting & Printmaking. His work explores themes of Black life and identity across urban and rural communities in America and is heavily influenced by African abstraction and patterning. Barber also holds a B.A. in communication arts from East Carolina University. Read more...
Jennifer Dudley – Visiting Lecturer
Jennifer Dudley returns to the faculty as a visiting lecturer in drawing, painting & printmaking. She completed an M.F.A. at Yale University School of Art following her B.F.A. from the University of Georgia. Most recently, she exhibited her work, “Petite Dramas”, at The END Project Space in Atlanta. Read more...
Frankie Ware – Visiting Lecturer
Frankie Ware returns to the faculty as a visiting lecturer, teaching Introduction to Interior Design. She has taught part-time at Georgia State since 2013, covering a variety of classes including architectural drafting, lighting design, commercial studio, CAD, and professional practice. She graduated from Auburn University College of Architecture with a bachelor’s degree in interior design and from Savannah College of Art and Design Atlanta with an M.F.A. in interior design. Read more...
In the School of Film, Media & Theatre, we welcome:
Heath Franklin – Professor of Practice
Mr. Franklin has a distinguished career as a filmmaker for more than 20 years, serving as producer, director of photography, director, screenwriter, gaffer and camera operator. He has worked on narrative features, television series, music videos and commercials. He holds an M.F.A. in creative writing with a screenwriting concentration from Full Sail University, an M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and a B.A. in communication studies, film studies minor from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Read more...
Dr. Kelly Chung – Assistant Professor
Dr. Chung is a former visiting Assistant Professor at Williams College, in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. Prior to this, she spent one year at Dartmouth College as a Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Asian American Studies with an appointment in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. She earned her Ph.D. in performance studies from Northwestern University. Her work emphasizes relational approaches to the study of race, gender, sexuality, and labor in Asian American, Latinx, and Black feminist visual and performance art works. Read more...
Anastasia Wilson – Limited Term Instructor
Anastasia Wilson is an educator, actor and devising artist with an advanced foundation in Physical Theatre. She has industry experience in both theatre and film spanning over 15 years. She received her M.F.A. in physical theatre from Accademia Dell’ Arte, and her B.A. in theatre from the University of Maryland. She thrives in the creative space, whether supporting burgeoning artists or developing educational processes or performances with professional colleagues. Read more...
Dr. Matthew Boyd Smith – Limited Term Instructor
Matt Boyd Smith is a media historian in Atlanta, GA and lecturer at Georgia State University. He received his Ph.D. from Georgia State University in 2018 and his M.A. from Emory University in 2013. His research is focused on transmedia genre history, genre theory and surveillance studies. He works with the Dragon Con Independent Film Festival and has previously worked with the TCM Classic Film Festival and the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. Read more...
Dr. Tanya Zuk – Limited Term Instructor
Tanya D. Zuk completed her Ph.D. at Georgia State University in moving image studies, where her research has focused on canonical collaborative authorship in alternative queer media audiences. Her work has been published in Transformative Works and Cultures, the Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, and In Media Res, where she was managing editor in 2019. Her latest work, “Our Blessed Rebel Queen: Essays on Carrie Fisher and Princess Leia,” is the first full-length exploration of Carrie Fisher’s career as actress, writer, and advocate. It will be available October 2021 by Wayne State University Press. Read more...
Ray Lenard Brown – Limited Term Instructor
Ray Lenard Brown is a graduate of Full Sail University, where he received both his bachelor's degree in entertainment business and his master’s in creative writing. He has published three novels, “The Quest, Book One: Dunumos”, “Condemned” “Kidtropolis”, and a comic book series based on “The Quest”. His horror novel, “Condemned”, was optioned as a motion picture. In 2022, he will publish the second book in The Quest series entitled “The Chronicles of War”. In 2018, Ray produced an award-winning short film titled “83 Days,” which tells the true story of the wrongful arrest and execution of 14-year-old George Stinney. Read more...
Dr. Steven Pustay – Lecturer
Steven Pustay joins the faculty as a lecturer in the Film, Media & Theatre department, where he completed his Ph.D. in 2015. He teaches courses on film and media history, aesthetics, and theory. His research interests fall at the intersections of digital technology, philosophy, and culture, and his recently published book The Digital Logic of Death: Confronting Mortality in Contemporary Media (Bloomsbury, 2021) explores how the technologies of the digital age have profoundly altered our ability to represent and contemplate death through moving images. Read more...
In the School of Music, we welcome:
Dr. JJ Hudson – Professor of Practice
Dr. JJ Hudson joins this year’s opera faculty as a professor of practice. Dr. Hudson holds a D.M.A. in voice and opera performance and an M.A. in stage direction from the Eastman School of Music, an M.A. in vocal performance from the University of Iowa and a B.M. in music composition and vocal performance from Stetson University. Most recently, Dr. Hudson directed “Rita” and “Il Segreto di Susanna” for Sarasota Opera, “La Bohème” for Mississippi Opera and the Natchez Music Festival, “Le Nozze di Figaro” for the Miami Music Festival, “La Belle Hélène” for the Lakes Area Music Festival, and “Tosca” for Tri-Cities Opera.
Alejandra Sandoval – Limited Term Lecturer
Soprano Alejandra Sandoval joins this year's voice faculty as a limited-term lecturer. She completed her Licenciatura of Music at the School of Music of the University of Guanajuato and made her debut in 2016 at the Opera de Bellas Artes in Mexico City as Madama Cortese in Giacchino Rossini’s “Il Viaggio a Reims.” In 2018 she sang Elvira in W.A. Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” with the same company in Merida, Yucatan. Other recent roles for Sandoval include Norina in “Don Pasquale”, Violetta and Flora in “La Traviata” and Mimi in “La Boheme.” Read more...