Current Committee Members

Chair

Committee Members

Christopher DeRosa, Ph.D.

Christopher DeRosa teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the military and political history of the United States, the Civil War and Reconstruction the Cold War, and World War II. His research interests include the history of American soldiers as political actors and the dynamics of military occupation. He is currently writing a book about the U.S. Army and the Reconstruction, with a particular focus how the soldiers viewed and performed their mission to uphold the rights of freed people in the post-emancipation south.

Kiameesha R. Evans, Dr.PH

Prior to her arrival to Monmouth University, Kiameesha Evans, Dr.PH, worked in the non-profit sector, developing partnerships and educational programs in maternal/child health, HIV/AIDS, chronic disease, and environmental and social justice. She has held the Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) credential since 1998 and obtained the Master Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES) in 2011. Kiameesha is a co-Investigator Fruved, a campus-based initiative to help campuses eat well, move more, and live better. Funded by the USDA, Fruved has been expanded to more than 90 high school and college campuses across the country. She is also the faculty advisor for the Monmouth University chapter of Eta Sigma Gamma (a national health education honorary) and a member of the Executive Team for MU’s Program in Gender and Intersectionality Studies.

Brooke Nappi, M.A. 

Brooke Nappi, M.A., is a cultural anthropologist who is particularly interested in topics related to Gender & Sexuality, Race/Diversity & Inclusion, and the Supernatural. Nappi teaches many undergraduate courses including: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology; Magic, Witchcraft and Religion; American Cultural Diversity; the Anthropology of Sex and Gender; and a new course on Death and Dying. She is currently working on a project on female roller derby. 

Katherine Parkin, Ph.D.

Katherine Parkin, Ph.D. is professor of History and the Jules Plangere Jr endowed chair in American social history at Monmouth University. She is the author of Food is Love: Food Advertising and Gender Roles in Modern America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005) and Women at the Wheel: A Century of Buying, Driving, and Fixing Cars (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), each of which won the Emily Toth Award for best book in women’s studies and popular culture. She is also the author of a dozen articles. Her teaching and research interests include the history of women and gender, sexuality, advertising, and consumerism. Her newest book, Buying and Selling Abortion Before Roe, is forthcoming from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Zaneta Rago-Craft, Ed.D.

Zaneta Rago-Craft is the inaugural director of the Intercultural Center and began her tenure at Monmouth in the summer of 2019. Previously, Rago-Craft served as the director for the Center for Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. She holds an Ed.D. in education, culture, and society from Rutgers University. Rago-Craft has worked in intercultural campus support for the last 10 years, including previous roles with the New York University LGBTQ Student Center, the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs at NYU, and Ramapo College’s Educational Opportunity Fund program and Women’s Center. She has a passion for infusing social justice education into her student affairs work with a particular interest in facilitating conversations around the intersectionality of multiple identities and oppression, art as activism, feminism, anti-racism, mentoring, LGBTQIA+ representations in the media, and multiracial experiences in a “check one box” world.

Maryanne Rhett, Ph.D.

Maryanne A. Rhett, professor of Middle Eastern and World History, works on topics related to modern Middle Eastern and Islamic history at the intersections of popular culture, nationalism, and world history. Some of her classes include Islamic history, Modern Middle Eastern history, Popular Culture and the Middle East, and the history of Militant Nationalism. Additionally, she teaches the Perspectives class: A Graphic World: World History and Sequential Art. As the department’s Director of the Graduate Program in History, she oversees a number of theses and comprehensive exams each year.

Melissa Ziobro, M.A.

Melissa Ziobro is the specialist professor of Public History at Monmouth University. Her service to the University includes administration of the Monmouth Memories Oral History Program. Melissa currently serves as the president of Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region and as the editor for New Jersey Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, a joint venture of the NJ Historical Commission, Rutgers University Libraries, and Monmouth University. She is currently a trustee of the NJ Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation, InfoAge Science and History Learning Center, and Ocean County Historical Society. She is newly appointed to the Board of Directors of Preservation NJ, and works regularly with other public history organizations.