Meet our instructors
Ashley Colby, PhD
I’m a Sociologist who studied at Washington State University, the department that founded the subdiscipline. In my dissertation I explored subsistence food production as a potentially revolutionary act. I am interested in and passionate about the myriad creative ways in which people are forming new social worlds in resistance to the failures of late capitalism and resultant climate disasters. I am a qualitative researcher so I tend to focus on the informal spaces of innovation. I got my MA and PhD in sociology at WSU, and my BA in Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago. I’ve travelled to over 30 countries and used to drive an 18-wheeler.
I can teach courses from beginning sociology through upper-level classes on: globalization, food and agriculture, environment, sustainability, inequality, social movements, family and gender.
Patrick Fitzgerald, MA
I have been a Spanish teacher for over a decade at both the high school and college levels in the United States. I have my BA in Spanish Teaching from the University of Illinois and my MA in Foreign Languages and Cultures from Washington State University. Along with different kinds of language instruction (formal grammar and/or immersion training), I have also taught Spanish language literature and art, and currently teach AP Spanish Literature through Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth.
