Meet the Faculty

MEET THEFaculty

Dr. Charles Adams

PhD English Language and Literature, University of Virginia BA English and Philosophy, Tulane University

Dr. Adams came to USF in 2014 from the University of Arkansas, where he was successively Chair of the English Department, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Senior Director of International Education. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he has published three books and numerous essays and reviews in his academic field of Early American Literature, and has taught many different courses in American and British Literature, World Literature in English, World Humanities, Native American Literature, and African American Literature. He is especially interested to promote international opportunities for USF students, having directed study abroad programs in several different countries over the course of his career, and taught Honors courses for the “USF Summer in London” program for five consecutive years.

Dr. Alan Bush

PhD Community and Regional Planning, University of Texas at Austin

MS Sustainable Systems, University of Michigan BA Global Politics and Economics, Pomona College

As an educator, researcher, and facilitator, Dr. Bush is committed to helping students, organizations, and cities develop the capacity to make sense of complex conditions and thrive amid uncertainty. His focus is immersive, projectbased courses that allow students to stretch their ambiguity tolerance within a safe-yet-edgy environment. These courses include The Resilience Practicum, Cities Heterotopias and Science Fiction, and Cities of Compassion. Prior to USF, Dr. Bush’s work spanned four continents on projects fostering community resilience.

Dr. Michael Cross

PhD Applied Physics, USF

MS Entrepreneurship, USF

BS Computer Science, University of Texas at San Antonio

Dr. Cross teaches courses on creativity, research, and innovation focused on developing students as participatory citizens in a globalized society by working closely with local community partners on current, real-world problems. He has more than ten years of experience in Fortune 500 companies and has lectured internationally on entrepreneurship in higher education. Dr. Cross also contributes to high-level strategic efforts at USF, currently serving on the 2020 USF President’s Strategic Renewal Advisory Taskforce as well as having served on the 2018 USF Tampa Strategic Plan Team, the 2019 USF Student Success Strategic Refresh Team, the 2019 USF President’s Principles of Community Advisory Taskforce, and led the 2020 USF Taneja College of Pharmacy’s Strategic Plan.

Dr. Lindy Davidson

PhD Communication, USF

MDiv Divinity, Reformed Theological Seminary BA Communication Arts, Belmont University

Dr. Davidson seeks to open up new conversations about health, wellness, and illness experiences from a variety of perspectives. Narrative Medicine, Ethics at the End of Life, and Global Health Initiatives are a few of the courses in which she challenges students to creatively explore important features of healthcare, such as culture, politics, spirituality, and personal agency. Dr. Davidson’s journey through 2020 included leading 15 students to the University of Exeter for the spring semester and furthering the college’s relationship with the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health. Since 2016, Dr. Davidson has led 164 students on seven international trips and considers global opportunity a hallmark of the Judy Genshaft Honors College experience.

Dr. Holly Donahue Singh

PhD and MA, Anthropology, University of Virginia BA Religious Studies, Kenyon College

Dr. Donahue Singh leads courses such as Fertility and the Future, and Histories of Healing in South Asia. Her long-term research in northern India grounds her scholarly work in the broad areas of culture and health. Dr. Donahue Singh regularly draws on global and applied perspectives from social science, literature, and music to help students explore the variety of contemporary and historical human experience.

Professor Atsuko Sakai

MArch Architecture, University of New Mexico

BA Environmental Design, Kyoto City University of Arts

Professor Sakai teaches design thinking, spatial thinking, and visual communication through Arts and Humanities courses related to architecture and design such as Home: Designing Where We Live and Mandala: Art and Science of Composition. She has also developed Medical Humanities classes for the Honors Acquisition of Knowledge foundational course, the Geographical Perspectives class, and the Honors Capstone, including, Experience Japan: from Hospitals to Hospitality (Omotenashi) and Spatial Effects: Places for Healing and Wellbeing. Professor Sakai also leads an education abroad program to Japan and directs Honors Thesis I and II courses.

Dr. Ulluminair Salim

PhD Sociology, University of California San Francisco

MPH Public Health, Johns Hopkins BA Social Welfare, University of California Berkeley

Dr. Salim examines representational politics as a window into the social imaginary. By inviting students to question and challenge oppressive ideologies, she aspires to create more inclusive, compassionate, and emancipatory social institutions. Her signature courses, Social Autopsy and Narrative Cartography, leverage the study and practice of art to cultivate selfawareness and social responsibility. Her emerging courses, Survival and Imagination and Compassionate Cities, instill an ethic of care and blur the boundaries between self and society.

Dr. Catherine Wilkins

PhD Interdisciplinary History, Tulane University MA Art History, Tulane University MA Library Science, USF

BA Humanities, USF

Dr. Wilkins teaches Arts and Humanities and community-engaged Capstone courses in the Judy Genshaft Honors College. She is also the director of the Medical Humanities curriculum for the USF Morsani College of Medicine. In all her classes, Dr. Wilkins demonstrates how the arts reflected and shaped the evolution of societies in the past, as well as how creativity, innovation, and service are ways that students can make an impact on our culture today.

Dr. Thomas W. Smith

PhD Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia MA Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia BA Anthropology, College of William & Mary

Dr. Smith is Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean of the Judy Genshaft Honors College at the University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus. Prior to joinging USF in 2000, he was assistant professor of International Relations at Koç University in Istanbul and served as a visiting scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. Dr. Smith has published widely in the fields of human rights, international humanitarian law, and Turkish politics, and his current research focuses on the destruction of Kurdish cities in Southeastern Turkey. Dr. Smith is co-founder of the St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs, and serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Florida Holocaust Museum.

Dr. Benjamin Young

PhD Philosophy, USF BA Psychology and Philosophy, Eckerd College

Dr. Young aims to encourage student research that explores those aspects of our lives that are closest to us—emotions, desires, memories, anticipations and imaginings, perceptions, habits, cognition, etc.—and how all these can be shaped through understanding, especially when such inquiry is guided by questions concerning the good, the beautiful, and the true. Ultimately, both his research and teaching are guided by a concern for cultivating “the good life” for both individuals and communities.