Contributors
Sarette Albin is a student in the Master of Liberal Studies program at Southern Methodist University. As a high school English teacher at an all-girls school in Dallas, she spends her days discussing literature and workshopping essays with her students (and hearing about the latest Taylor Swift gossip, of course). When not teaching or writing, Sarette can be found spoiling her dog rotten, going to the movies with her husband, or finding new places to explore.
Ken Armentrout III is a current Ph.D. student in the Humanities: History of Ideas program at the University of Texas at Dallas and a M.L.A. student at Johns Hopkins University. A recent graduate of both Southern Methodist and Fordham Universities, Ken is a seasoned teacher and frequent seminar speaker in the Dallas area. Currently, he is co-authoring a book on the topic of wisdom.
Karen Nugent Borek is currently a Master of Philosophy in Liberal Arts student at the University of Pennsylvania after receiving her M.L.A. degree from there in May 2014. A resident of Atlantic County, New Jersey, Karen graduated from Stockton University with a B.A. in Literature in 1992, after earning a B.S. from St. Joseph College in 1971. From her African studies, Karen has developed an interest in Hugh Masekela’s music, which expresses the celebrations and the struggles of his country. By exposing the injustices of his homeland, Masekela has shown the power of music to bring about political and social change.
Candyce Carter is an alumna of Stanford’s Master of Liberal Arts program (she also received her B.A. in English and Psychology at Stanford). She is a 6th generation teacher and retired after forty years of teaching (mostly high school English). She lives with her husband in a fruit-packing plant converted into condos in beautiful downtown San José, CA. With her husband, she enjoys traveling, play- and movie-going, and Cardinal football.
Mary Guthrie is a student in the Master of Liberal Studies program at Southern Methodist University. Since 2011, she has worked as a public relations writer and editor for SMU Meadows School of the Arts, where her writing appears in Meadows magazines, brochures, promotional materials, and the school’s website. She is ecstatic to be part of the SMU MLS program, where she gets to frolic among short stories, poetry, songwriting, and other forms of creative expression.
Christopher Pastore is the Associate Director of Humanities and Social Sciences Programs at LPS and a Lecturer in the History of Art department. He is the Director of the Master of Liberal Arts program and leads seminars in Visual Studies in topics ranging from Digital Art History to Gardens and Landscape Architecture. He served as the inaugural Barnes Foundation Program Director for Understanding World Art where he taught courses on Renoir and El Greco. He received his Ph.D. in the History of Art from Penn with a dissertation that explored villa ideology in the early modern Veneto. His publications include studies of allegories and gender identity, garden aesthetics and Renaissance theory, and the influence of the Islamic world on Venetian gardens. He is slowly revising a manuscript on Sixteenth Century Italian villa culture tentatively titled Cultivating Antiquity.
Mark Pettibone attends Reed College’s Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program in Portland, Oregon. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and English from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. Hoping to spend his life learning and remaining curious about the world, Mark plans on applying to PhD programs when he graduates. He looks forward to one day translating his theoretical interests in community and empathy into concrete praxis.
Richard Rejino is a pianist, teacher, writer and professional photographer. Having recently graduated from SMU with a Master of Liberal Studies in Creative writing, his most recent creative works have appeared in American Music Teacher, The Piano Teacher and Ten Spurs. Most recently, Richard won third place in the Reported Narrative Category at the Mayborn Nonfiction Literary Conference in July 2017. As a photographer, his work has been featured at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California, and he is the 2015 winner of the LHSA Annual Photo contest.
Julia Shiller is a first-generation American from Ukraine. She earned a BBA and an MBA in Finance at Kyiv National University of Economics and has worked in the financial services industry. She led efforts to establish a market economy in post-communist Ukraine and developed stock trading rules modeled after the U.S. system. After immigrating to the United States, Julia started a small consultancy focused on project management, business development, and marketing. In 2008, Ms. Shiller also completed a post-graduate program in project management at Georgetown. In 2015, inspired by its liberal arts curriculum and striving to improve her English language skills, she entered St. John’s College (Annapolis) Graduate Institute, where she pursues her second Master’s degree, this time in the Liberal Arts. Ms. Shiller has previously published poetry in Energeia, the St. John’s College literary magazine, and she has had a painting exhibited at the 2017 Winter Art Winter Exhibition by the Mitchell Gallery at St. John’s College.
Susan L. Stewart’s undergraduate coursework in Science and Technology Studies allowed her to appreciate the profound influence of history, culture, and philosophy in the creation of meaning and, therefore, value and ownership systems. Currently, feminist scholarship from different disciplines is now helping her look at the evolution of United States patent and trademark policy from perspectives that might offer insight as to how and why disparities exist between patent holders of different genders and races.
Stan Szczesny currently studies literature in the Institute for Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas. His pursuit of the liberal arts began with an eight-year personal goal to read Britannica’s Great Books of the Western World, which was followed by graduate studies at St. John’s College. His academic interests are broad, but they currently include studying Whitehead’s Process and Reality, Nietzsche, and Milton’s Samson Agonistes. Stan lives in Cedar City, Utah with his wife Lindsay and their five children, where he teaches literature, math, and music for Williamsburg Academy and researches Milton for his dissertation.
Anna Taft is Founding Director of The Tandana Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has been collaborating with communities in Ecuador and Mali for a decade. She is pursuing her Master of Arts in Liberal Studies at Skidmore College, focusing on “Morality in a Pluralistic World.” When not in Ecuador or Mali, she splits her time between southwest Colorado, the island of Oahu, Quebec Province, and Dayton, Ohio.
Kathryn Wade is studying in the Doctor of Liberal Studies degree program at Georgetown University. Kathryn works full time at Georgetown as a program administrator. She is also a part time Dharma Yoga teacher and professional baker. Kathryn holds an MA in Cultural Anthropology with a concentration in linguistic anthropology from George Washington University and a BA in Spanish Language from Georgetown University.