Jay Bonner joined NCSSM in fall 2025 as an Instructor of Humanities and teaches American Studies on our Durham campus. Most recently, he has held a number of positions at Asheville School (teaching, coaching, residential, administrative), including working to begin a four-year, integrated, team-taught approach to the Humanities—a curricular model that spanned 20 years. Prior to his work at Asheville School, he taught composition at UNC-Asheville and fiction writing courses at Brown University. He writes regularly for Asheville Poetry Review and ARGO. Fiction has appeared in The Greensboro Review and The Quarterly, among other publications. His reviews and essays have also appeared in Artforum, Kirkus Reviews, March Xness, and The North Carolina Literary Review.
AB, Comparative Literature, Duke University
AM, Writing, Brown University
Humanities
Nadiyah Aamer
Instructor of Spanish
Layla Aldousany
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Carrie Alter
Instructor of Studio Art
Marcelo Aranda
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities; Faculty Senate Chair
Kate Axelrod
Program Associate
Erudiel Bernal
Instructor of World Languages
Sarah Booker
Instructor of World Languages
Michelle Brenner
Instructor of Humanities
David Cantrell
Instructor of Humanities
Jane Cantwell
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Kristin Connor
Instructor of Spanish
Chad Cygan
Instructor of Choral Music
Christy Davenport
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Katy Doll
Instructor of American Studies
David Dry
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Mark Dubois
Instructor of Humanities
Alexa Garvoille
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Fiona Gillespie
Instructor of Spanish
Neal Keesee
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Chad Keister
Instructor of Economics and Social Science
Jim Kirkpatrick
Instructor of Music
Fayez Kurdi
Instructor of World Languages
Scott Laird
Instructor of Music and Chair of Fine Arts (Durham/Morganton)
Hong Li
Instructor of Chinese
Courtney Long
Instructor of Visual Arts
Blake Madden
Instructor of Photography
Margaret McDowell
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Tatiana McInnis
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Lindsay Metivier
Instructor of Photography
Ormand Moore
Instructor of Humanities
Amanda Moulder
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Katie Moulder
Instructor of Humanities
Meredith Murphy ’02
Instructor and Chair of Humanities (Durham)
William Nessly
Instructor of American Studies and Asian-American Studies
Tess Nielsen
Instructor of Choral Music and Drama
Robert Noffsinger
Instructor of Spanish and Humanities
Javier Pabón
Dean of Humanities
Liz Peeples
Instructor of Humanities
Carolina Perez
Instructor of Music
Martha Regalis
Instructor of Humanities
Meltem Safak
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Adam Sampieri
Instructor of Drama
Tonya Smith ’89
Instructor of Spanish and Humanities
Marc Sprintz
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Keegan Storrs
Instructor of Spanish and Chair of Humanities (Durham)
Natsuko Suwa
Instructor of Japanese
Cecile Tougas
Instructor of Latin
Ying-Hua Tsai
Instructor of Chinese
Qian Wang
Instructor of Chinese
John Woodmansee
Instructor of Humanities
John Zimmerman
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities and Chair of Humanities (Morganton)