AIFS Partnership Programs: Faculty-Led Study Abroad Programs

Faculty Bios

Santa Rosa Junior College: Panella

Very few people have two PhD’s. Panella holds a Ph.D. from Union as well as a being a Professor of Hot Dog (P.H.D.). His research sits at the intersections of trans/gender, museum, and communication studies. His dissertation focused on trans collective memory as represented in visual culture and the built environment centering the SF Trans Cultural District. He is a communication professor at Santa Rosa Junior College and started his career as an activist and organizer. He has worked on a variety of social justice projects including ones related to urban planning, trans identity, undocumented rights, the environment, and labor. When it comes to higher education he has worked in professional development, student services, and has a passion for connecting students to their larger community. In the area of museum and archive studies, he works the Union Institute & University Museum Studies Collective and is part of the Georgia State Trans Oral History Project.

When he isn’t square eyed from living on Zoom, he is teaching himself a ridiculous hobby, is a pet parent, and a truncle to two super adorable kids. He tries to travel internationally twice a year and has been to 28 countries, to date. He believes if life is a story, to make it a good one.

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Los Rios Community College District: Roxanne Morgan

When Roxanne was in high school, she had the opportunity to study abroad one summer, and that was the beginning of a lifetime of travel and exploration. She spent a college semester in Dijon, France (where she ate a lot of mustard) then moved to London, England after college to work. She returned to the US to complete her M.A. in World and Comparative Literature and settled into her passion for teaching. When not in the classroom, she has on her backpack and hiking boots leading people on the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. This 500-mile pilgrimage was founded in the 9th century by followers of St. James and ends at the stunning Santiago de Compostela cathedral, where his remains are entombed. Along the way she tilts at a few windmills (an ode to Cervantes’s “Don Quixote”) and Barcelona has become her favorite starting and ending point when traveling – relaxing in the Plaza Mayor with a café con leche and churro con chocolate. Literature is her passion and she has spent many summers as an intern at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre in London, learning the nuances of teaching the Bard’s language and plays. Literature is a living, breathing entity and all of its aspects should be brought together and explored – one must experience the food, immerse themself in the setting, and feel the buzz of the society where these epic stories take place. Roxanne is so excited to bring you all to Spain where you will take your first steps into a lifetime of travel and exploration.

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San Mateo Community College District: Jeremy Ball

Jeremy Ball received his PhD and MA in Philosophy from Claremont Graduate University and his BA in Philosophy from UC Irvine. He has taught Introduction to Philosophy, Introduction to Ethics, Symbolic Logic, Humanities, and Critical Thinking at College of San Mateo since 2001. He is the department lead and has held many leadership positions at the college. His current academic interests include the mind/body problem, logic, and stoicism. Trained in the analytic tradition in philosophy, he is none the less an unapologetic fan of Heidegger and Sartre.

In addition to his academic interests, J Ball (as his students call him) is an outdoor sports enthusiast spending lots of time mountain biking, open water swimming, skiing, and hiking. He currently lives in the Santa Cruz mountains where he and his wife are recent empty nesters who pay way too much attention to their two dogs.

His goals for the next few years are to wonder and wander, have a pint or two with good friends, and embrace the now.

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Contra Costa Community College District: Scott MacDougall

Scott MacDougall is a student and a teacher of Political Science with a life-long love of Study Abroad. He participated in his first Study Abroad while still a student at Diablo Valley College in 1975. That adventure in Heidelberg, Germany changed his life and led to an endless desire for the next opportunity to experience Politics in new forms and in new places. It has taken Scott, as student and teacher, to Montreal, Quebec; Berlin, Germany; London, England; Brussels, Belgium; Florence, Italy; and now to Barcelona, Spain.

Barcelona and Spain will offer another opportunity to explore in depth Scott’s favorite subject: Exploring the influence of history, geography and culture on the conduct of politics. He is excited to explore with students Barcelona’s rich past as a center of innovation in philosophy, architecture, art and politics and modern Spain’s pivotal role in confronting Europe’s immediate problems of economics and migration.

It is a privilege to be able to accompany a new generation of students as they begin their own journey of discovery. Scott is hopeful that with 40 years of travel experience, spread across four continents and 20 plus countries, he can help them start their own life-long adventure.