American Studies Faculty

Leah Barlow is an Instructor of American Studies and Humanities, teaching American Studies and Black Studies. Leah is an Elon, North Carolina native and proud Hampton University alumna. She holds a master’s degree in English from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Leah credits her investment in the study of the African diaspora, black geographies, and the contemporary aestheticism of black artists to her time at Hampton. There, she cultivated a love for cultural criticism alongside a recognition of the necessity of intersections between mentorship and intellectual prowess—all rooted in southern sensibility. While in graduate school, Leah was the graduate assistant for Georgetown’s Women's Center, a founding member of the Black Cultural Studies Collective, and participated in a host of conferences. Leah’s scholarly interests are in the sociopolitical construction of urban centers, Afro-futurism as means for political power, and black aesthetic production. Outside of the classroom, she enjoys frequent trips to the beach and cooking unnecessarily extravagant meals. 

Patrick Burrows teaches courses in American studies, Southern studies, and the study of religion. His dissertation focused on the intersection of theology and place in the American South. His academic training focused on the history of Western philosophical and religious thought, as well as religion in America. His research interests include Christian theology and ethics, Southern studies, humanistic geography, continental philosophy, and critical theories of gender, sexuality, and race. A native of the Asheville area, Patrick fled from Boston to Durham in 2018 to write his dissertation, during which he joined the NCSSM faculty. He holds a bachelor's degree in linguistics and French from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master's degree in divinity from Yale University, and a doctorate in the study of religion from Harvard University. 

Alexa Garvoille joined the NCSSM Humanities Department in August 2021 to teach American Studies and Creative Writing. She has long been passionate about the intersections of history, the arts, and literature. Ms. Garvoille earned her bachelor’s degree in literature at Yale, where she studied the connection between literature and photography, then went on to study teaching at Duke. She served on the faculty of Durham School of the Arts, where she directed the Creative Writing program and helped nearly 100 young writers design and self-publish books and chapbooks. After 10 years in the high school classroom, Alexa went on to pursue an MFA degree in creative writing at Virginia Tech. While at Tech, she taught College Composition and Creative Writing, researched creative writing pedagogy, and hiked the Appalachian Mountains. In the past, she has worked as a facilitator for the John Hope Franklin Young Scholars program at Duke, where students created a one-act play on migration, wrote a YA book about the Wilmington massacre, and filmed a documentary about civil rights advancements during the Civil War. Alexa is excited to engage students in a cross-disciplinary, creative approach to American Studies that empowers learners to bring together contemporary issues with hidden histories.  

Tatiana McInnis joined NCSSM in August 2021 as an instructor of American Studies and Humanities. Originally from South Florida, she has lived and taught in Nashville, Tennessee, and Williamstown, Massachusetts, and is thrilled to be in the Raleigh-Durham area. She earned her doctorate in English from Vanderbilt University in 2017, teaching there as an instructor in English and Cultural Studies classes where she designed and led courses including “Rethinking the U.S. South,” “Caribbean Diasporas in the U.S.,” and “Behind Bars: The U.S. Prison-Industrial Complex.” She conducted research on representations and mechanisms of anti-Blackness in contemporary American literature, U.S.-Caribbean immigration politics, and, as she puts it, “how race takes place,” or the spatial manifestations of racial hierarchies in the 20th and 21st centuries. After finishing doctoral work, she joined Vanderbilt University’s American Studies program as a lecturer before serving as the Associate Director at the Davis Intercultural Center at Williams College, where she collaborated with students, faculty, and staff to integrate equitable practices across campus, consulted on curricula, and taught. Most recently, she served as a Visiting Professor in the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Department at Texas Christian University. She also holds a master’s degree in English, also from Vanderbilt, and a bachelor’s in English from Florida International University. When she’s not with her students, you'll find her snuggling her dog, Hurston (as in Zora Neale), “hiking” extremely moderate trails, reading, or tending to her mini garden. 

Amanda Moulder is an Instructor of American Studies and Humanities, teaching  American Studies and Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Prior to joining the NCSSM faculty, Amanda was Associate Professor and Writing Program Director at the University of San Diego, where she taught writing and Indigenous literature courses. She earned her doctorate in English from the University of Texas, where she taught in both the Department of Rhetoric and Writing and the Department of English. She has also taught at St. John’s University (Queens) and the University of Kentucky (Lexington). She began her teaching career over twenty years ago as an English instructor at Raleigh Charter High School. Her research interests include writing pedagogy, Indigenous studies, code-switching and English-language dialects, and feminist historiography. She also holds a bachelor's degree in English and American studies from the Goucher College and a master's degree in English from the University of Texas. When Amanda is not teaching, she enjoys taking yoga and barre classes, exploring Chapel Hill- and Durham-area restaurants with her family, walking in the woods near her house, and making Halloween costumes for her daughter. 

Meredith Murphy has been a member of the NCSSM Humanities Department since 2008, primarily teaching American Studies and Film Studies. She has served as Chair of the Humanities Department since 2020. A lifelong North Carolinian and an alumna of the school, Meredith feels privileged to have returned to campus to teach and learn among Unicorns. She is a National Board Certified Teacher, recipient of the NCSSM Outstanding Teacher Award, and currently serves as one of the Chairs of the Humanities Department. Among the myriad interests she has pursued via Mini-Term and January-Term courses and summer programs are biography and autobiography, popular media portrayals of the American presidency, Food Science and food culture, and zombies. Since 2013, Meredith has taught Film Studies which, like many of the interdisciplinary courses in the NCSSM Humanities Department, helps students to cultivate media literacy and to see the many layers of artistry and meaning in the moving image. In American Studies, she most enjoys nerding out about the intersection between 20th century politics and pop culture. 

John Woodmansee has a BA from Davidson College, an MA from UNC-Chapel Hill, and National Board Certification in Language Arts. Currently, he teaches American Studies, Western Civilizations, Fiction Writing, and Film Studies. John’s recent research in American Studies focuses on the ways popular American music has expressed, subverted, and shaped cultural norms. He has given conference presentations entitled “Before Bob Dylan: Poets and Agitators in Popular American Music” and “Imperfect Rhymes as a Measure of Phonological Similarity.” For many years, John has taken groups of students to Greece to study ancient history, theater, philosophy, myth, and culture. He also serves as an advisor for NCSSM’s Center for Advising and Academic Success (CAAS) and sponsors Blue Mirror, the literary and arts journal for students. In addition to teaching, John enjoys hiking, basketball, disc golf, and juggling.