Faculty

Full-Time Faculty

Ron Levy has been a Peabody faculty member since 1993. Prior to Peabody, Ron taught in the history department of Colorado College. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, pursuing research interests in European intellectual history and the history of science. His professional life began with musical endeavors as a violinist with the Colorado Springs Symphony (1976 - 1982), pursuing interests in historical performance practice as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow (1984 - 85) and as a member of Chicago's period instrument ensemble,The City Musick (1986 - 90).

Since 1994 Ron has worked with colleagues at other conservatories and arts schools nationally through the Consortium for the Liberal Education of Artists (CLEA), co-chairing the organization since 2000. He is currently organizing "Liberation & Deliberation: Conversations on the Liberal Education of Arts Students," a CLEA conference to be hosted by Berklee College of Music in October 2011.

*** Courses taught: Humanities Seminar (Fall 2011), Ethical Dilemmas (Fall 2011).

Hollis Robbins, Chair of Humanities, holds a Ph.D in English Literature from Princeton University (2003) and a Master's in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (1990). She received her B.A. from the Johns Hopkins University in The Writing Seminars in 1983. In addition to teaching Humanities at Peabody, Robbins teaches African American Poetry and Poetics at the Center for Africana Studies at the Homewood campus of the Johns Hopkins University.

Courses taught at Peabody include:  Humanities Core I, Humanities Core II,  Nineteenth Century Novel to Film, Introduction to Interpretation, Modern Drama, Literary Trials: Justice in Black and White, World Film, Film History: Sound and Scores, Literature of Imprisonment, Bible as Literature, 20th Century Aesthetics and Politics, U.S. History: Civil Rights

Courses Taught at Krieger School of Arts and Sciences include:  Great Books at Homewood, African American Poetry and Poetics, Civil Rights and the Black Experience

*** Courses taught Spring 2013: Humanities Core II, Bible as Literature, U.S. History: Civil Rights 

Sebastian Vogt received his degrees from Universität zu Köln; Universität Mannheim; Staatliches Studienseminar Speyer (all in Germany). Foreign language instructor at various public and private schools in Germany and Britain; former faculty, Queen Mary College, University of London (England), University of Maryland (European Division). Published translator of literary and musicological texts

*** Courses taught: German I (Fall 2011), German II (Fall 2011), Poetry in German (Fall 2011).

Patricia Palmer received both her BA and MA in English from the University of Maryland, where she also completed all course work toward a PhD in 20th century American literature and rhetoric. She has taught ESL since 2003 at Johns Hopkins and in Zhengzhou, China, where she spent a semester teaching nurses and physicians at Zhengzhou Medical College and Hospital. Palmer has taught English composition, literature, and professional writing at colleges in California and Maryland, including the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. She has been coordinator of ESL at Peabody since 2007.

*** Courses taught: Introduction to Liberal Arts (Fall 2011)

(For more information on ESL, Click here.)

Visiting, Part-Time, and Adjunct Faculty

Elizabeth P. Archibald holds a Ph.D. in History from Yale University (2010), with research focusing on the history of education and literacy in medieval Europe. She has presented and published on topics including the reception of classical school texts in the medieval curriculum, women’s book ownership in early modern Europe, the use of dialogues in early pedagogy, and the modern popular reputation of the middle ages. She is currently involved in editing a collection of papers on the study of Latin and Greek as second languages from antiquity to the renaissance, and is preparing a book on methods of elementary instruction in the Carolingian era.

*** Courses taught: Humanities Seminar (Fall 2011), Classical Civilization (Fall 2011), Humanities Seminar 2 (Spring 2012).

Floyd W. Hayes, III is senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, where he is also coordinator of programs and undergraduate studies in the Center for Africana Studies. He holds a PhD in government and politics from the University of Maryland and a MA in African Area Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. His teaching and research interests include black politics and political philosophy, urban politics and public policy, educational policymaking and politics, leadership studies, and the politics of jazz. He is the author of numerous articles and the editor of A Turbulent Voyage: Readings in African American Studies. He is currently working on a book examining the social and political thought of Richard Wright, Domination and Ressentiment: The Desperate Vision of Richard Wright.

*** Courses taught: Bebop, Modernism, and Change (Spring, 2012)

John D. Rockefeller V lectures for The Writing Seminars at The Johns Hopkins University. He earned a Ph.D. in English and American Literature at Johns Hopkins University (2008) and a M.A. in The Writing Seminars. After receiving a B.A. in Literature from Yale University in 1992, he was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany. He is the recipient of grants from National Endowment for the Humanities, the Center for Africana Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and Germany’s Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst.

*** Courses taught: U.S. History: The Progressive Era, W.W. I, and Prohibition, 1873-1933 (Spring 2012).

Sarah Snyder received her B.A. from Vassar College and her M.A.T. from Harvard University. Associate director, Maryland Writing Project. Freelance writer/editor of textbooks, teaching guides, and other course materials for major educational publishers. Author of A Teacher's Guide to World Resources.

*** Courses taught: Writing Workshop (Fall 2011)

Oliver Thorndike received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University [2009]. A native of Germany, he previously had earned a M.A. in Philosophy and a M.A. in Economics from Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. He specializes in Immanuel Kant’s epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics. He has published articles on the influence of the early modern philosopher Baumgarten on Kant’s ethical thought [2008, 2010]. He is the editor of “Rethinking Kant” [2011]. His paper “Kant’s conception of time in the transcendental aesthetic” is forthcoming [2013]. His article “Kant’s conception of music” is in preparation. Since 2007 he has been a member of the Committee of the North American Kant Society (NAKS) in its Eastern Division.

*** Courses taught: 260.115 Humanities I; 260.216 Humanities II: Seminar in Philosophy of the Arts: Immanuel Kant's Theory of Beauty, Art and Genius. He will be teaching an introduction to the Philosophy of Art in Spring 2013.