Meet the Tutors

Christina Rose Dubb - Faculty Affiliate

Christina Rose Dubb will work primarily with senior thesis writers and juniors starting to engage with the challenging work in their major. Christina holds an Ed.D. in Reading/Writing/Literacy from University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education and specializes in college writing. She has a B.A. in English Literature from Swarthmore College. Christina also runs a non-profit writing center for children in North Philadelphia and works part-time in Admissions at Bryn Mawr College. As the former Fellowships Advisor at Swarthmore College, she has extensive experience working with students on personal statements and project proposals for a number of fellowships and scholarships, so feel free to bring in your drafts!

Christina is available in the Writing Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays from Noon to 4pm. She will also be leading writing groups for seniors. If you would like to work with Christina, make an appointment online or contact Christina or Kristin Lindgren, Director of the Writing Center.

Barbara Hall - Faculty Affiliate

Barbara Hall is completing a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, from which she also holds an MS.Ed. in Education, Culture, and Society. Her areas of specialization include kinship, adoption, education, ethnography, and contemporary multicultural societies. Barbara has worked extensively with international students and immigrants to the United States as an English as a Second Language teacher in both Japan and the United States. She has also taught academic writing and research skills to students of all levels at Penn, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford. Barbara currently teaches a Writing Seminar called "Perspectives on Immigration and Education in the United States".

Barbara is available in the Writing Center on Wednesdays from 1--3 and Fridays from 11-4. If you would like to work with her, make an appointment online or contact Barbara or Kristin Lindgren, Director of the Writing Center.

Liza Alpert '13

Liza is a senior psychology major and Spanish minor from Needham, Massachusetts. Although she will always be a Boston girl deep down, she also loves eating cheesesteaks and wandering around Philly, and she left a small part of her heart in Mendoza, Argentina, where she studied abroad last fall. She enjoys listening to music, taking photos, sitting around outside, traveling, and drinking smoothies. Her secret talents include making intricate six-sided paper snowflakes and raising one eyebrow at a time.

Emily Bailinson '13

Emily is a junior majoring in Political Science and History (with a minor in Philosophy). Born and raised in San Francisco, Emily's deep attachment to her hometown has grown with distance. Between finding new favorite nooks in Magill and novel ways to procrastinate, she enjoys watching baseball, catching the insomnia plague, reminding herself why she loves French and British history, pretending she's on a first name basis with her favorite philosophers, and planning a theory based civic education program. Her favorite book is Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Emily will be studying at Cambridge in the spring.

Jemma Benson '13

Jemma is a junior from the suburbs of Boston. She is majoring in anthropology and has a gender and sexuality studies concentration, although she is also a proud survivor of orgo and bio (read: huge science nerd). She is pre-med and has taken the required science courses. On campus, she is on FAB and Speakers’ Committee and she often contemplates moving into the science library, but they generally kick her out when she tries. She loves Indian food, The New York Times crossword puzzle, and her Harry Potter Lego set. She will be spending the fall studying at University College London!

Charlie Birkel '14

Charlie is a sophomore English major from Washington, DC. He is partial to comic books, brass bands, hockey, short fiction, spaghetti westerns, Walter Pater, and the idea of space travel. On a typical day, his favorite author is Graham Greene, though this superlative is subject to irrationally frequent change. Charlie is a member of Lighted Fools and spends much of his free time pursuing a career in folk heroism.

Simone Crew '13

Simone is a current sophomore from San Francisco. She is an Anthropology major with a concentration in Africana Studies, and a potential creative writing minor. Aside from her passion for seemingly mundane documentaries (e.g. The Parking Lot Movie) she enjoys spoken word poetry, theater, and long novels. Simone also works at the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and is one of the proud founders of the Crafts Collective, the premiere crafting club on campus.

Lydia Emery '12

Lydia is senior double-major in Psychology and English who currently resides in Princeton, NJ, although she is a New Englander at heart. She particularly enjoys authors who prefigure social psychology, especially Shakespeare, Woolf, Beckett, and George Eliot (she has a complicated relationship with Henry James). She often quotes obscure Monty Python sketches; while "the Semaphore Version of 'Wuthering Heights'" has enhanced her knowledge of literature, she finds "How Not to Be Seen" the most useful in everyday life. Her favorite word is "charlatan."

Gavi Fried '14

Gavi is a junior, an English major, and a Taurus. Since her birthday actually falls on the slight cusp between Taurus and Gemini, Gavi is fated to be determined, whimsical, approachable, mysterious, responsible, flighty, and bewildered. She enjoys taking online personality tests, doodling in class, reading tag sale novels, and talking with her mouth full. She also enjoys sloppy parallelism. Gavi is spending the year at Oxford; she’ll return to Haverford when the planets align, in fall 2013.

Sonia Geibel '14

Sonia is a junior English major and Education minor from Seattle, WA. She loves her hometown – from the Sounders to the mountains to Pike Place Market – but feels equally at home at Haverford. On campus, she is a member of FAB, an AMA for the class of 2016, and works as a tour guide and host in the Admissions office. Other than that, you can find her watching as much live, televised, local, club, or international soccer as possible, in the kitchen making something including onions, or walking the nature trail with friends. She has a phobia of any and all olives. Come Spring 2013, Sonia will be in Europe, specifically Germany or Sweden, and looks forward to frolicking in foreign lands. Feel free to bring her essays written in English or basic German.

Sarah Harrison '13

Sarah is a junior majoring in Chemistry with a concentration in Biochemistry and minoring in Classical Studies. Even though she was born and raised in sunny Fort Pierce, Florida, she feels that she has been called to study environmental chemistry in Sweden for the spring of 2012. Besides working for the Writing Center, Sarah spends her time working for Sound Crew, brushing up on her Latin grammar, giggling hysterically at 30 Rock, and channeling her inner Julia Child in the kitchen. If she could go back in time, Sarah would go back to 64 CE to give the Roman Emperor of the day, Nero, a PowerPoint presentation about why it is bad to play the fiddle while watching Rome burn to the ground. Failing that, she would happily go back even further in time to meet her namesake, the Triceratops.

Juliaty Hermanto '12

Juliaty hails from the concrete jungle known as Los Angeles where the weather is always perfect. She is a Sociology major and a French minor (mostly because she spent a semester in Paris). Her interests range from studying prison structures to learning the geographical location and names of all the countries in the world. She also works in Magill Library where you will often see her happily shelving books or spinning on the chairs behind the front desk. She also has a great fondness of cozy little corners, superheroes, science fiction, ,Settlers of Catan and similar board games, and a whole slew of other random little tidbits that tickle her brain.

Candace Jordan '13

Candace Jordan is a senior religion major and philosophy minor from Durham, NC. When she's not in the Writing Center, she can be found UCA-ing or working in the Dean's Office. Failing that, she may be found outdoors recovering the from the gray weather she endured while abroad in the UK. Her other interests include watching good movies and bad tv, and baking.

April Lin '13

April Lin is a junior anthropology major from Ambler, Pennsylvania. She is looking forward to studying abroad in the spring. She loves the woods and long car trips through the more scenic parts of PA. In her free time, she enjoys making music, writing short stories, studying Internet memes, and psychoanalyzing characters in movies. A major cinephile, she would love to do something in film or screenwriting in the future. You can usually find her doodling in class or hanging out in the campus center. She is happy to work with essays written in Chinese or basic German.

Josh Mussa '13

You are guaranteed to find Josh watching a film any day of the week; Netflix is his best friend. His favorite motion pictures include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Shining, and Little Miss Sunshine. At Haverford, Josh is a junior pursuing a major in Religion with concentrations in Africana Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies. When not in his dorm room, the classroom, or the dining center, Josh spends his time in the Admissions Office as a student worker. He absolutely loves Haverford and hopes to plant roots in Philadelphia after graduation even though his parents would much prefer that he return home to Federal Way, Washington. Do you have great films that you think Josh would enjoy? Do not hesitate to contact him with recommendations!

Mary Clare O'Donnell '14

Mary Clare is a sophomore currently torn between her love of the Humanities and Social Sciences, who might be found schmoozing with professors as Officer of Academics for Students Council or rambling about Judith Butler and normativity as co-head of Sexuality and Gender Alliance. Aside from that she enjoys a full night's sleep, messy cooking experiments, Almodóvar movies, her mother's Irish accent, and The New Yorker. She's looking forward to reading papers about anything and everything, in English or Spanish.

Anna Pedersen '15

Anna Pedersen is a sophomore from Portland, Oregon. Her current plans include a possible double major in Comparative Literature and Spanish, though this plan seems to change on a daily basis. She also plans on studying abroad, most likely in Spain, in the hope of fine-tuning her Spanish while gorging herself on tapas. While not in the Writing Center, Anna might be found CP-ing, volunteering, ponathon-ing, crossword-ing, or frolicking in the rain, which reminds her of her hometown. She looks forward to working on papers in both Spanish and English!

Annie Reading '13

Annie is a junior from Salisbury, Maryland. She plans to major in English with a concentration in Africana Studies, and will probably be abroad in Cape Town, South Africa in the spring. Though her love of nature, horses, and her home, Maryland's Eastern Shore, has earned her the nickname "country bumpkin" among some Haverfordians, Annie also greatly enjoys spending time in Philly, trying new foods, and traveling. In her free time, you'll probably find her reading, wandering around campus, or attempting to play the ukulele.

Zachary Reisch '14

Zach is a junior history major from Needham, Massachusetts. He desperately wants to become fluent in Spanish, and is therefore considering studying abroad in Seville in the spring of 2013. In his spare time he enjoys reading, thinking up jokes which are, upon further reflection, probably only funny to him, and writing fictional stories. Zach particularly enjoys the science fiction and fantasy genres, and is the proud author of a fantasy novel. He considers the novel a success because he can now tell people that he has written a book. Zach is a member of the Mainliners a capella group, the Bi-College Chorale, and the Lighted Fools comedy troupe.

Sam Rodriques '13

Sam is a junior from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is proud to be the only Physics major on the Writing Center staff. He is deeply interested in the world, and is fascinated by a variety of topics, including abiogenesis (the study of how life arises from nothing), quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and such every-day mysteries as why air bubbles in a slowly freezing water bottle arrange themselves in rows, and why it is easier to hear echoes on campus early in the morning. In his spare time, he directs theater, plays Dungeons and Dragons, writes, programs for FIG, plays the ancient Chinese board game Go, cares for his plants, and thinks. Sam is studying in Cambridge, England in 2012-13.

Kate Ross '12

Kate, a senior French major and psychology minor, has a complicated relationship with her New Jersey roots but is excited for her final year at Haverford. As a junior, she studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, developing a passion for Racine and Molière, live jazz, current European affairs, walks, and baguettes bought at 5:30 PM (just after they’re taken out of the oven). She is also interested in feminist theory and the way current psychological findings are reflected in literature. If she’s not in Magill, she can be found working with children, petting cats, and cooking. Feel free to bring her papers written in French!

Susanna Sacks '13

Susanna is a junior, an English and Sociology double major, and a fly-by-night superhero. In spite of a deep and abiding love for her New England home, she is obsessed by the South and its literature and may dissolve into a passionate monologue on the subject at a moment’s notice. Given her druthers, she may most often be found reading, saying the word "druthers", and/or swinging in the rain. She is also a research assistant in the English department and departmental assistant for the sociology department, as well as a coxswain on the crew team and co-head of Haverford's Student Political Network. She will be studying abroad in Cape Town in the Spring, studying the role of narrative in communal identity in the townships, but until then, loves to help with papers written in French and/or English!

Neilay Shah '14

Neilay Shah, class of 2014, is from the suburbs of Cleveland, OH. He is a history major, with particular interest in economic and financial history. For the 2012-2013 academic year, Neilay will be studying abroad at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His interests include music, film, and cricket. Neilay's intellectual bias could be described as a post-constructionist, pre-post-modernist attempt to re-imagine trans-Cenozoic mindscapes within extra-mesospheric contexts. Neilay also likes to dance and to eat tasty treats.

Hannah Silverblank '12

Born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Hannah is a double major in Comparative Literature and Classical Languages whose obsessions range from ancient languages to the phenomenon of "diva-hood," and in particular, that of Mariah Carey. Metamorphoses and Mimi aside, she is interested in all things literary, artistic or philosophical, and will read most any Haverford essay with delight. Deeply steeped in her family tradition of library worship, she spends most of her time behind the Circulation Desk at Magill, in James House, or in the Coop working on the Haverford Journal. Outside of Haverford, Hannah enjoys contemplating nail art, great dogs of literature, and country music.

Cecelia Sizoo-Roberson '12

Cece is a senior from Charlotte, North Carolina- although she never misses an opportunity to clarify that she is originally from Portland, Oregon. She is a Religion major with minors in Geology and Education, and will be studying in Northern Ireland during the fall semester. As evidenced by the broad spectrum of her academic interests, Cece has no idea where she will be or what she will be doing in the future. In her free time, Cece enjoys being outside, taking care of small children, acquiring festive articles of clothing/ accessories, (ask her about her lion backpack), and finger painting walls. While Cece is an appreciator of all good music, if she were to be serenaded, her obvious song of choice would be Simon & Garfunkel’s “Cecilia.”

Amelia Stillwell '12

Amelia Stillwell is a senior Psychology major, and a UCA for the class of 2015. Hailing from California, she enjoys anything done in the sun, particularly reading and picnicking. When not bringing up random psychology facts in everyday conversation, she works as a techie for the Bryn Mawr Theater Department. Amelia spent the previous semester studying abroad in London, England, but by far had the most fun salsa dancing her way through Spain during spring break. She is excited to return to the many new faces of Haverford in the fall.

Robert Thorstad '12

Robert is a senior philosophy major from Cary, NC. He is an avid Red Sox fan, fancies himself a juggler, and is on a long-standing mission to become a competent bridge player. Robert also enjoys cooking, engaging in marathon sessions of speed-chess games, and partaking of late-night discussions about truth, the universe, and everything. He is always on the look-out for a good book, and will probably ask you for recommendations.

Sally Weathers '13

Sally is a junior philosophy major concentrating in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights. She lives on a farm in the small town of Peterborough, NH, but when she was little she wanted to replace her house with a log cabin just like Laura Ingalls Wilder’s home in Little House in the Big Woods. She is headed to Buenos Aires in the spring where she hopes to complete her Spanish minor, and to explore the big city!

Jen Zelnick '12

Jen is a senior (scary!) Anthropology major with a Spanish minor and a Gender and Sexuality concentration. Hailing from beautiful South Orange, New Jersey, she enjoys challenging popular imaginations of her state as an ugly, dirty, "Industrial Carnival." Jen's other interests include spending time with her bird and roommate Pete, vocalizing rather strong opinions about books and movies, and participating in far too many on-campus organizations including (but not limited to) SOAR, the Quaker Bouncers, the Tunes, and the HCO program. Thanks to a generous CPGC grant, Jen spent the summer in Jogjakarta and Denpasar, Bali doing thesis research and trying her hand at Bahasa Indonesia. Feel free to bring her papers written in English or Spanish.