Staff
Ann Waltner, Director
Telephone: (612) 626-5149
E-mail: waltn001@umn.edu
Ann Waltner is a member of the both the Department of History and the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures. Her research interests lie in the social history of sixteenth and seventeenth century China, comparative women’s history, and world history. She is a former editor of the Journal of Asian Studies. Current projects include: a book length manuscript on religion and society in sixteenth century China, as well an article on spatial impropriety and other transgressions in Shen Fu’s Six Records of a Floating Life and another on family scandal and political crisis in the domestic life of the sixteenth-century literatus Wang Shizhen, as shown in eulogies and letters.
Susannah L. Smith, Managing Director
Telephone: (612) 624-2921
E-mail: slsmith@umn.edu
Susannah L. Smith is a historian of Russia and modern Europe. Her research focuses on the intersection of national identity, official arts policy, and Russian folk music in the Soviet Union, 1917-1945. She studies and performs traditional Javanese music with the Sumunar Gamelan Ensemble. Before coming to the IAS, she was the managing editor of the Journal of Asian Studies, developed the Population Studies minor program and coordinated administration on the IPUMS-International projects at the Minnesota Population Center, and was assistant director of the Making of the Modern World/Writing Program at Eleanor Roosevelt College, University of California, San Diego.Susannah teaches an honors seminar based on the Thursdays at Four series every year; in 2011-12 the course will be offered in Spring semester.
Phyllis E. Messenger, Grants Consultant
Telephone: 612-625-8606
Email: pmessenger@umn.edu
Phyllis Mauch Messenger is an anthropologist whose scholarship has focused on archaeological ethics and the management and preservation of cultural heritage. She was the founding director of the Center for Anthropology and Cultural Heritage Education (CACHE) at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN and carried out archaeological research in Mexico, Honduras, and Minnesota. She has led study abroad programs for the University of Minnesota and Hamline University, taking students to Mexico, Peru, Thailand, and Cambodia. Publications include a biography of early Maya archaeologists and edited volumes on the ethics of collecting cultural property, cultural heritage management worldwide, and heritage values in contemporary society. Before returning to the U of M in 2008, she directed the Wesley Center at Hamline University, funded by a $2M grant from Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment.
Karen Kinoshita, Executive Office and Administrative Specialist
Telephone: (612) 626-5028
E-mail: karenk@umn.edu
Karen has been in the medical school and the deans' office of the college of liberal arts before taking up the challenge at the institute. Karen shares her time between the institute and home and and uses her networking skills to knit students, faculty, and community
together. Her interests are in arts, science, technology and
diversity above special interests.
Angie Hoffmann-Walter, Executive Office and Administrative Specialist
Telephone: (612) 626-5054
E-mail: hoffm011@umn.edu
Jeff Hartman, Graduate Assistant, Website and Publicity
Telephone: (612) 624-7032
E-mail: hartm152@umn.edu
Jeff is a Ph.D. candidate in the of the Department of History where he studies and teaches about medieval Europe. His dissertation will examine social and economic changes in fourteenth and fifteenth century Iceland and connect them with broader networks of interaction throughout the North Atlantic.
Amir Hussain, Graduate Assistant, Publicity and Outreach
E-Mail: huss0200@umn.edu
Amir is an MFA candidate in Creative Writing in the Department of English. He is working on a collection of poems about the environment and visiting natural places, including many of Minnesota's impressive lakes, state parks and forests, for his primary material.