This closing session will offer a time of reflection and discussion facilitated by a multidisciplinary faculty panel featuring Professors Spring Duvall, Rebecca Jordan, Ana León-Távora, and Paula Young.
Professor Spring Duvall
Spring Duvall, PhD, is Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Salem College, where she teaches a range of courses focused on media, culture, and gender. She is the editor of Celebrity & Youth: Mediated Audiences, Fame Aspirations, and Identity Formation (2018) and co-author of Snatched: Child Abductions in US News Media (2016). Her research is published in academic journals including Celebrity Studies; Communication, Culture, and Critique; Feminist Media Studies; and Journal of Communication Inquiry. As a stitcher and maker, she recently completed a Metalwork residency at Mixxer Community Makerspace and also teaches an experimental fiber arts course, contributes to craftivism projects, and studies DIY subcultures, consumerism, and sustainability.
Professor Rebecca Jordan
Rebecca Jordan, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education at Salem College. Her doctorate focused on Early Childhood, Special Education, and Literacy, and her career has been devoted to the intersection of these areas. She is a former elementary school teacher, reading specialist, and district leader. Her research interests center on how young children learn to read and write, and teachers' knowledge, skills, and beliefs around supporting emergent literacy. She has published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including The Reading Teacher, Literacy Research and Instruction, Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, and Teaching and Teacher Education.
Professor Ana León-Távora
Dr. Ana León-Távora is Professor of Spanish and Director of World Languages and Cultures and of Race and Ethnicity Studies. She is the co-author and co-editor, with Rosalía Cornejo-Parriego, of Colonialist Gazes and Counternarratives of Blackness: Afro-Spanishness in 20th- and 21st-Century Spain (Routledge, 2024) and Afroespañolidad: Colonialismos y disidencias en los siglos XX y XXI (Editorial Verbum, forthcoming). In addition, she has published numerous articles and book chapters on race and ethnicity studies, racial trauma and disability, linguistic discrimination, and humor and art as forms of political dissent. Dr. León-Távora currently serves as Chair (2025–2026) of the Executive Committee on Antiracism, Equity, and Belonging (CAEB) of the Modern Language Association.
Professor Paula Young
Paula Grafton Young, PhD, came to Salem College in 1993. Dr. Young came to Salem because it was exactly the kind of place she wanted to spend her career. She teaches courses such as statistical methods with R, finite mathematics, the Calculus sequence, probability and statistics theory, along with College Physics I and II and courses that support the minor in data science. When not teaching Dr. Young loves to write and talk about mathematics, including co-authoring Finite Mathematics, An Applied Approach, 3/e. She has also authored several supplements to accompany texts written by other authors; these supplements help to integrate graphing calculator and spreadsheet technology into lower-level mathematics courses, such as Finite Mathematics and algebra-based Calculus courses. Dr. Young is always interested in taking complicated mathematics and making it interesting and accessible to a wider audience.