Our Awesome Faculty

Dr. Katharine Antolini offers courses in American History and Gender Studies at West Virginia Wesleyan College. She is a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College and holds an M.A. in Sociology from Rutgers University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in History from West Virginia University. She specializes in the field of women’s history and has published articles on the role of Confederate women in the American Civil War and the history of American holidays. She was one of the featured speakers of the WV Humanities Council’s 2014 Sesquicentennial Speakers Bureau commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Her talk, “Mothers of Martyrs: Woman and Civil War Commemoration,” highlighted the role that women played in the creation and celebration of Memorial Day, Emancipation Day and Mother’s Day in the wake of the war. Her book, Memorializing Motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the Struggle for Control of Mother’s Day, was published by the West Virginia University Press in Fall 2014.  Dr. Antolini teaches History at all levels for the Wesleyan Summer Gifted Program.

Dr. Kim Bjorgo grew up in Florida, and came to West Virginia in 1999 to pursue a Ph.D. in fisheries ecology. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of Florida. She has worked as a research diver with the Florida Regional Reef Project and also worked for the Florida Marine Research Institute. She earned an M.S. degree from Clemson in fisheries, with a minor in statistics. In 2006, Dr. Bjorgo completed her Ph.D. dissertation on the spatial ecology of fish in the Kanawha River, and began teaching at West Virginia Wesleyan College in 2006 in the department of Biology and Environmental Science. Dr. Bjorgo's childhood experiences with Florida's diverse plant and animal life were the biggest factors in her pursuing a career in environmental science, especially water-related, issues.  Her passion is teaching, with a focus on the remarkable resilience and innate fragility of this small island we live on: planet Earth.  Dr. Bjorgo teaches Environmental Science at all levels for the Wesleyan Summer Gifted Program.

Mr. Robert Howsare is an Assistant Professor and Department chair for the Art & Design Department at West Virginia Wesleyan College.  Informed by a background in psychology and commercial printing, Robert Howsare’s interdisciplinary work explores failure and the glitches occurring within systems.  He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Ohio University.

His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally; select venues include the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the Austrian Cultural Forum of New York, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art and the International Print Center of New York.  Howsare’s work has been recognized by WIRED Magazine, Abitare International Design Magazine, HOW, and other publications. Most recently his work has appeared in The Art of Tinkering, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design and on Adult Swim.  Awarded artist residencies include the Charlotte Street Foundation Studio Residency, Vermont Studio Center, and Prairieside Cottage.

Dr. Jesse Oldroyd is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at West Virginia Wesleyan College and will be teaching math and computer science for us this summer.  Dr. Oldroyd earned his BS degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage and he earned his MS and PhD degrees from the University of Idaho.  His research interests are in applied harmonic analysis with focus on frame theory, Approximation theory, and Random matrices.