Top 23 Arts & Humanities Professors in Missouri

The “Arts” covers a wide range of disciplines, from performance arts such as drama and dance to liberal arts like English and history.
In Missouri, you can choose from an extensive selection of excellent arts programs. Colleges and universities here strive to attract the best talent for their faculties, and vice versa. Here we’ve identified 23 outstanding Missouri arts professors based on recent recognition in the classroom, on campus, and in the community.

Professor	School	Bio	Photo
Allison Hoffmann	Northwest Missouri State University	While officially a member of NWSU’s business school faculty, Hoffman’s proven excellence in academic advising placed her on our list. She won the 2012 Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs Teaching Excellence Award, as well as the 2012 National Academic Advising Association Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award.
Annamaria Pileggi	Washington University	Actor and director, Pileggi directs and teaches courses in Acting, Musical Theatre and Movement for the Actor. She is a four-time recipient of Washington University’s College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Award.
Berkley Hudson	University of Missouri School of Journalism	Associate professor of magazine journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism, Hudson combines 25 years of professional media experience with an academic focus on media history, narrative journalism, and visual studies. He previously served as staff writer for the Los Angeles Times.
Charlene Berquist	Missouri State University	Dr. Berquist will use her juvenile justice grant to fund the “Network for Girls” program to fight recidivism among young Missouri teens. Her special academic interests include family and interpersonal communication, gender communication and communication education.
Cindy Brantmeier	Washington University	Dr. Brantmeier is Co-Director of the Graduate Certificate in Language Instruction, Director of the Undergraduate Minor in Applied Linguistics, and Director of Teaching Assistant Training at Washington University. She serves as the principal investigator in the Language Research Laboratory.
Clyde Ruffin	University of Missouri	Ruffin serves as professor and chair of the Department of Theatre at MU, where he established the World Theatre Workshop. A minister at the Second Baptist Church of Columbia, Ruffin has been named “Man of the Year” by the MLK Dream Foundation and The Martin Luther King Community Service Award.
Debrah Raschke	Southeast Missouri State University	Dr. Raschke received the 2012 Outstanding Teaching Ward from Southeast Missouri State University for her research and classroom excellence in Twentieth-Century British Literature (Modern and Contemporary), Postcolonial Literature, Contemporary Critical Theory, Postcolonial Theory, and Gender Studies.
E. Terrence Jones	University of Missouri - St. Louis	Dr. Jones was recognized as a “faculty member who personifies the creativity, vision and leadership” in winning the Ratchform Fellowship Award. He’s also the recipient of Missouri’s Children Outstanding Service Award and the Amoco Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence.
E.J. Levy	University of Missouri	Assistant professor of English at Missouri, Levy captured the 2012 Flannery O’Connor Short Fiction Award for her short story collection, “My Life in Theory,” published by the University of Georgia Press. Her essays and fiction have been published in the notable Best American Essays and The Pushcart Prize Anthology.
Eric William Nelson	Missouri State University	Dr. Nelson, Dean’s Fellow for Transformation, has been cited as Provost Fellow for Teaching and Learning, Missouri State University. He teaches courses on world history and the Reformation, particularly within his interests in early modern France. He earned his PhD from the University of Oxford.
Etti Naveh-Benjamin	University of Missouri	Director of the Missouri Multicultural Certificate Program, Naveh-Benjamin has taught film, Israeli culture and and psychology. She received the prestigious William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in 2011.
Fritz Cropp	University of Missouri School of Journalism	An associate professor and director of International Programs at the Missouri School of Journalism, Dr. Cropp has administered U.S. Department of State grants to build journalism programs at universities around the globe. On the faculty, he serves as advertising professor.
Ines Segert	University of Missouri	Dr. Segert is a recipient of the Kemper Award, the University of Missouri’s most prestigious honor. In addition to her psychology courses, she serves as associate director of the MU Honors College. She specializes in the psychology of learning.
Jacqui Banaszynski	University of Missouri School of Journalism	Dr. Banaszynski currently holds the Knight Chair in Editing at the Missouri School of Journalism. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her series “AIDS in the Heartland”, and was nominated for another Pulitzer for her reporting on the Ethiopian famine.
James M. Miller	University of Missouri	Professor of Theatre at the University of Missouri, Miller has directed and/or designed over 100 university musicals and plays. His costume designs have received honors from The Speech and Theatre Association of Missouri and the American College Theatre Festival.
Jim Moyer	Missouri State University	Dr. Moyer specializes in the research and teaching of the Old Testament, Hebrew Bible, Psalms and Wisdom Literature. A department chair for more than 20 years, Dr. Moyer is recipient of the John Gammie Distinguished Scholar Award.
Joanna Hearne	University of Missouri	An Associate Professor of English and Film Studies, Dr. Hearne is a recognized film scholar with a professional focus on documentaries, Westerns, Indigenous media, and animation. In 2012, she received the Kemper Award for teaching, and published two books: “Smoke Signals”: Native Cinema Rising, and Native Recognition: Indigenous Cinema and the Western.
Josephine Stealey	University of Missouri	Dr. Stealey, professor of art, fibers, captured the Byler Distinguished Professor Award in recognition of “outstanding abilities, performance, and character”. She’s also been awarded the endowed Middlebush Chair for Arts & Humanities (2010 – 15) for creative research.
Judith Fowler	Missouri State University	Fowler is an award-winning scholar in the field of art education and studio research. She is also a nationally registered Art Therapist who specializes in therapy for the terminally ill and traumatized children. She is a 4x recipient of the University Summer Faculty Fellowship for Creative Research. Judith’s Art Therapy Website: www.artonwheels-missouri.net.
Judith Lynn Gibbons	St. Louis University	Professor in the Department of Psychology, Dr. Gibbons specializes in cross-cultural psychology, adolescent psychology, and the psychology of women. She has completed and published research on gender roles in Guatemala, adolescents’ views of the ideal man and woman, and intercountry adoption. She is the editor of International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation.
Matt Yount	Southeast Missouri State University	A full-time instructor of music at Southeast Missouri State University since 2003, Yount teaches Music Appreciation and Jazz Appreciation courses while acting as the department’s collaborative pianist. He is also recipient of the Success in Scholarship, Sports and Service Award for outstanding classroom teaching.
Nathanael May	Missouri Western State University	Dr. May has been recognized for excellence on the stage and in the classroom. In 2012 he was awarded the American Prize in piano performance, and the Scanlon Service-Leader award recognizing his work in creating professional opportunities for students at Missouri Western. He also serves as the director of the international soundSCAPE festival for new music.
Zhou Long	University of Missouri - Kansas City	Chinese-born Zhou serves as a distinguished research professor of music composition at UM. The composer is also a recipient of American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations.