About UHL

Jennifer Reich, PhD, is Director of the University Honors and Leadership Program, a Professor of Sociology, and currently has several lines of research. Over the last decade she has examined how parents come to reject vaccines for their children, in dialog with physicians, complementary healthcare providers, activists, and researchers. Reich has a newly published book, Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines (NYU Press). She is Co-PI on a research study that explores how low income adults with Medicaid make decisions about their medical care and perceive the value of healthcare. This mixed methods study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will explicate why individuals seek primary care in the emergency department rather than in primary care settings and what personal and structural factors shape their strategies for their own care. Reich is also part of a multi-center research team conducting a mixed method study to understand the experiences and challenges facing heart transplant recipients. This study aims to understand how heart transplant recipients experience challenges with post-operative care, including medication adherence and treatment requirements, as well as larger challenges, including costs, limitations in employment, and care-giving relationships. The following are some of Reich's recent publications:

"Of natural bodies and antibodies: Parents' vaccine refusal and the dichotomies of natural and artificial"

"Neoliberal Parenting, Future Sexual Citizens, and Vaccines Against Sexual Risk"​​

"Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines"

Selected Publications

In press Reich, Jennifer. Calling the Shots: Parents, Public Health, and the Politics of Vaccine Choice. New York University Press (May 2016)

2015 "Old methods and new technologies: Social media and shifts in power in qualitative research." Ethnography vol. 16, no 4: 394–415 (online October 2014)

2014. Joffe, Carole and Jennifer Reich (editors) Reproduction and Society: Interdisciplinary Readings NY: Routledge

2014 "Neoliberal Mothering and Vaccine Refusal: Imagined Gated Communities and the Privilege of Choice" Gender & Society vol. 28 no. 5, October 679–704

2010 "Children’s Challenges to Efforts to Save Them: An Ethnographic Examination of Children’s Interactions with Child Protective Social Workers." Symbolic Interaction vol.33, no. 3:412-434.

2008 "Not Ready to Fill His Father’s Shoes: A Masculinist Discourse of Abortion" Men and Masculinities. vol.11, no 1: 3-21.

2005 Fixing Families: Parents, Power, and the Child Welfare System NY: Routledge.

Associate Professor, Visual Arts (CAM)

Maria Elena Buszek, Ph.D. is a scholar, critic, curator, and Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Colorado Denver, where she teaches courses on Modern and contemporary art and design.

Her recent publications include the books "Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture" and "Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art"; contributions to the anthologies "Punkademics: The Basement Show in the Ivory Tower" and "Design History Beyond the Canon"; catalogue essays for numerous international exhibitions; and articles and criticism in such journals as Art in America, Art Journal, Flash Art, and TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies. With Hilary Robinson, she edited the 2019 anthology of new writing, "A Companion to Feminist Art." She has also been a regular contributor to the popular feminist magazine BUST since 1999. Her current book project, "Art of Noise", explores the ties between contemporary feminist art and popular music.

Dr. Buszek is also a prolific independent curator, who has previously worked at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her most recent exhibitions include "Inner Ear Vision: Sound as Medium" (with Raven Chacon and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, 2019) and "Danger Came Smiling: Feminist Artists and Popular Music" (2016).

Professor, Communication

Dr. Sarah K. Fields (JD Washington University; PhD University of Iowa) is the Faculty Coordinator for the Honors Scholars Program and a professor in Communication. She has previously taught at Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Georgia, and Ohio State University. Her research and teaching focuses largely on the intersection of sport and American culture, specifically examining issues of gender, injury, and law. She is the author of Game Faces: Sport Celebrity and the Laws of Reputation (University of Illinois Press, 2016) and Female Gladiators: Gender, Law, and Contact Sport in America (University of Illinois Press, 2005). Dr. Fields is a recreational athlete who also enjoys outdoor activities with her dog and wife as well as watching television with her cats.

Associate Professor, Sociology

Dr. Guzik's areas of concentration include criminology, law & society, science & technology studies, sociological theory, and qualitative methods. His research examines technology’s role in legal institutions and processes and its impact on people’s legal experiences. His recent work has covered the use of information and surveillance technologies to combat insecurity, especially in the context of Mexico’s War on Crime, the adoption of body-worn cameras by policing agencies in the United States, the relationship between procedural justice and court legitimacy in Poland, and the influence of ethnographic methods on politics and policy. He has also written on intimate partner abuse in the past and the effects of arrest and prosecution on changing abusers’ conduct.

2005 - Ph.D., Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1997 - M.A., Latin American Studies, University of Connecticut
1995 - B.A., History, University of Massachusetts

Sarah Hagelin is Associate Professor of English and affiliate faculty in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of Colorado Denver. She is also the interim chair of the Ethnic Studies Department. She teaches courses in film, television, and American popular culture.  Her latest book (co-written with Gillian Silverman) is The New Female Antihero: The Disruptive Women of Twenty-First-Century US Television  (University of Chicago Press). 

Traci L. Jones holds a B.A. in psychology from Pomona College in Claremont, Ca. An M.A. in advertising from the University of Denver, and has taken several courses in Creative Writing at the University of Denver. 

Before launching a young adult novelist career, Traci L. Jones wrote articles for the local business magazines, In The Black and Emerging Markets. 

Discovered in the slush pile by Beverly Reingold at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (FSG), Traci L. Jones’ first YA novel, Standing Against the Wind, was published in 2006 and won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award.  Her second novel, Finding My Place also published by FSG in 2010. Her third novel, Silhouetted by the Blue (FSG), was released in July 2011 and received a starred review from Booklist. Her fourth YA novel, Ransoming the Captive, will be published July 2022 by Black Rose Writing. She currently has two manuscripts represented by Metamorphosis Literary Agency and her agent, Amy Brewer.

In 2016, she began working as a creative writing instructor for the MFA program at Regis University.  She joined the instructor staff at Lighthouse Writing Workshop in March of 2020. In 2022 she will teach a course on Young adult literature for the Honors College at the University of Colorado at Denver.

Traci L. Jones is the proud mother of four. She lives with her husband in Denver, Colorado

Sean McGowan, PhD, is a guitarist from Maine who combines many diverse influences with unconventional techniques to create a broad palette of textures within his compositions and arrangements for solo guitar. Sean graduated with a DMA in Guitar Performance from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Music Performance at the University of Colorado Denver. He has served as an artist/clinician for the Maine Arts Commission since 2000 and also as guitar faculty for the University of Maine and Bowdoin College.

His first recording, River Coffee, won the Best Independent Release of the Year award (2002) from Acoustic Guitar magazine. Music from the CD has been featured on BBC’s Great Guitars radio program, and has been published in Japan’s Acoustic Guitar magazine and Mel Bay’s Master Anthology of Fingerstyle Guitar, Vol. 3. Sean has collaborated with several dance and improvisation companies including the Portland Ballet, and has performed as an accompanist for several dance festivals including the American College Dance Festival.

Robert Metcalf, PhD, joined the faculty at University of Colorado Denver in 2000, after completing his PhD at the Pennsylvania State University. He teaches courses in Ancient Greek Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy and Literature, and team-teaches a UHL course titled, "Love and Death in the Greek Classics."

He is a translator (with Mark Tanzer) of Martin Heidegger's BASIC CONCEPTS OF ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY (Indiana University Press, 2009), and has published numerous articles on ancient philosophy and rhetoric, on the philosophy of religion, and on the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger.

Instructor, English

Andrea Modica has an MA in the Teaching of Writing from UCD. She has been teaching for UCD's English department since 2004 and teaching for the UHL department since 2013. Her Core Composition course explores the sins and virtues present in current events and uses the news to illustrate best practices in rhetoric.

Associate Professor, English

Gillian Silverman is Associate Professor of English and affiliate faculty in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of Colorado Denver.  She is also a President’s Teaching Scholar.  She teaches courses in American literature and culture, critical theory, and gender studies.  She is currently at work on two book projects—one, a study of reading practices and their relation to the human sensorium; and the second, a book (co-written with Sarah Hagelin) about female antiheros in contemporary US television. 

Dale Stahl is an environmental historian specializing in the history of the modern Middle East. His research and teaching interests center on state formation and governance, environmental resource management, international relations, and economic development. He teaches courses on global environmental history, the political and social history of the Middle East, the history of technology and science, and Islamic history. 

Professor Stahl is currently working on a manuscript based on his dissertation, "The Two Rivers: Water, Development and Politics in the Tigris-Euphrates Basin, 1920-1975," which explores the political and environmental history of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Specifically, the book traces the connections between governance, resource extraction, and state formation in Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

Professor Stahl's research has been supported by the New York University Abu Dhabi Institute, the Institute of Turkish Studies, the Whiting Foundation, and the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2014.

Instructor, Psychology

Elisabeth joined the UHL program in 2015 and has been a part of the Auraria campus since 1991. She received her undergraduate degree in organizational communication and anthropology from Metropolitan State University of Denver and her master's degree in business management and organization from CU Denver. She recruits and advises students within UHL and works to ensure UHL students have the resources necessary for success.

Elisabeth’s favorite thing about UHL is the feeling of community and atmosphere of support within the program. Elisabeth is an adoptive mother, wife, and parent to five rescue pets. When she's not at UHL or chasing her extremely active pets and daughter, you can find her gardening, scuba diving, floral arranging, learning a new craft, or traveling.

Jane joined the UHL and HSP programs in 2024. She received her undergraduate degree in integrated marketing communication from Wichita State University. She recruits, advises and creates promotional materials for the Honors programs and serves as a resource for UHL and HSP students. Jane has a passion for helping students achieve their goals while accessing their full, authentic potential. Her main objective in this role is to offer a safe space for students to feel heard, seen, valued and understood.

Jane's favorite part of the Honors Programs is the energy and light students bring to campus. I believe the students make CU Denver a lively, energetic and inclusive place to be. Jane is a Wichita, Kansas native and moved to Denver to 2023 to dive deeper into her interests, hobbies and passions. Jane loves doing yoga, crafts, cooking, billiards, pickleball and any outdoor activity. She also loves Taylor Swift, cats and self-help books! 

Ana Fuentes Romero is a transfer to the University Honors and Leadership Program and is studying Economics. She was born and raised in Colorado and enjoys spending time with other UHL students and her family.

Affe Nilsson is a sophomore at the University of Colorado Denver, majoring in Music Performance. He was born and raised in Eskilstuna, Sweden. Between 2016 and 2020, Affe went on a world tour working as a band leader and stage technician, performing shows, staying with host families, and doing volunteer work. Before moving to the United States, Affe studied music and entrepreneurship in Sweden, Jazz guitar in the Netherlands. During his free time, he loves hanging out with friends and working on music with his band.

Angel Ruiz Gomez is a junior at the University of Colorado Denver, majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. He loves learning about his Mexican culture and is very passionate about it. During his free time, he enjoys playing video games, listening to music, and spending quality time with his friends and family.