College Faculty

Christine Schmidt holds a B.A. in History from the University of Michigan-Dearborn and a certificate in Museum Studies with special focus on exhibition development from The George Washington University. She earned her Ph.D. in History from Clark University (2003) in the first-ever doctoral program in Holocaust and genocide studies. Her research has focused on the history of Jewish daily life in hiding in south-central France. Schmidt's areas of special focus include Vichy France, twentieth-century European history, and comparative genocide. Her most recent research has focused on a comparative study of rescue and resistance under collaborationist regimes, namely Vichy France and Hungary during the Second World War. Schmidt has held two post-doctoral fellowships in Budapest, one from the Hungarian Ministry of Education and the other from the U.S. Fulbright Scholar exchange. She has worked as an applied researcher at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and as the Director of Education at the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, for which she continues to consult on the development of pedagogical materials. At the USHMM, she conducted extensive research for and contributed dozens of entries to the recently published first volume of The Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, which won the 2009 National Jewish Book Award. Schmidt is currently an adjunct Assistant Professor of History at the University of Maryland University College, and she serves as a consultant on various applied research projects and museum exhibitions.

Eiren Shuman, born in New York City and raised in Philadelphia, received his BFA in dance at Temple University in 2008. Holding dual citizenship with the UK, he went on to train at the conservatory Trinity Laban, returning to Philadelphia in 2011. Having the distinct honor to perform, study, and teach dance internationally -not only in Europe but also in West Africa and East Asia- Eiren has received some of the best technique training the world has to offer, as well as extensive and rich choreographic training from multiple perspectives and cultural backgrounds. Dedicating his life to performance as well as movement education, Eiren has a long history of teaching movement and creative thinking to all ages and levels, and completed his MFA at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2016. Since relocating to New York, Eiren has presented several new live performances, as well as begun exploring mixed media through installation and photography. Outside of the dance community Eiren has also enjoyed working as a figure model for many years, creating a personal practice that celebrates collaboration and combines stillness as well as movement.

Rosalie St. Clair is an adjunct instructor in the Early Education Program teaching Play as the Foundation of Learning. She was originally from the Pittsburgh area and graduated from Indiana University of PA with a Bachelor of Science in El Ed, certified in PS through grade 8. Her graduate work was completed at Penn State.
Rosalie’s first teaching position was in Latrobe, PA—home of Mr. Rogers. Later she moved to Bedford, PA where she owned and taught in a private Kindergarten. She also taught ESEA reading and grade one in the district, and a career development course for Mt. Aloysius Junior College.
From there she moved back to western PA where she taught the grades 4-6 gifted program in Grove City Intermediate School.
Most recently, she worked at Kutztown University for ten years, teaching a variety of courses in both the early education and the grades 4-8 tract and also supervised professional field experiences and student teachers.