More new faculty members at Luther College for the 2018-2019 year

Posted: Mon, Oct 1, 2018 8:59 AM

Kelly Sharp, Linda Silber and Mark Thorne have begun work at Luther College as new faculty members.

Kelly Sharp of Encinitas, California, has been hired as an assistant professor of Africana studies and history. Sharp has taught United States History 1609-1865 at the University of California, Davis. She spent the 2017-18 academic year as a graduate program dissertation fellow at UC-Davis. In 2017, she was the recipient of three grants: the Presidents' Graduate Student Travel Grant from the American Historical Association; the Chandler Travel Grant from the Business History Conference in Denver, Colorado; and the History Department Conference Grant from the University of California, Davis. Sharp received a Bachelor of Arts in history, graduating cum laude and with distinction, from Willamette University, Salem, Oregon, in 2011. She received a master's degree in history in 2015 and a Ph.D. in history in 2018, both from the University of California, Davis.

Linda Silber of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been named as a visiting assistant professor of sociology. Since 2016, Silber has been a full-time visiting professor of sociology and criminal justice at the New Mexico Highlands University in Rio Rancho and Santa Fe, New Mexico. She's also been an adjunct sociology instructor at Central New Mexico Community College since 2014. From 2007 to 2014, she taught sociology at Union College, Barbourville, Kentucky. Silber received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and English from The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington. She received her master's and Ph.D. in sociology, with a minor in feminist studies, from the University of Minnesota. She also has studied conversational Spanish and completed coursework on how to design and teach online and hybrid courses.

Mark Thorne of St. Louis, Missouri, has been named as a visiting assistant professor of classics. Since 2015, Thorne has been a visiting assistant professor of classics at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. From 2008 to 2015, he was an assistant professor of classical languages and the director of the Latin program at Wheaton College in Illinois. Prior to that he was a visiting lecturer in the classics department at Cornell College in Mount Vernon. Thorne earned a Bachelor of Arts in antiquities from Missouri State University in 2000. He received his master's in classics in 2002 and Ph.D. in classics in 2010, both from the University of Iowa. He attended Classical Summer School at the American Academy in Rome in 2003.

Kelly Sharp

Linda Silber

Mark Thorne