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New Professors Joining Mississippi College Faculty


James Rovira

Professors from North Carolina and Ohio are among the new additions to Mississippi College’s School of Humanities & Social Sciences.

Starting work on the Clinton campus this summer, Patrick Connelly will chair the university’s History and Political Science Department. He moves hundreds of miles south after chairing the Social Sciences Department at North Carolina’s Montreat College. Connelly also directed the school’s Honors Program.

With a background in 20th Century U.S. history and the history of religion, Dr. Connelly brings “an impressive record of teaching in a variety of contexts,” says Jonathan Randle, dean of MC’s School of Humanities & Social Sciences. He’s taught history since 2007 at Montreat College, a mission-driven institution similar to Baptist-affiliated Mississippi College.

Connelly earned his bachelor’s degree Phi Beta Kappa at the University of South Carolina in 1994. He received his doctorate at Emory University in Atlanta in 2011. He was awarded his master’s in divinity at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida in 1998. Hobbies include South Carolina Gamecocks football and Chicago Cubs baseball.

Hired to lead the MC English Department starting in August will be James Rovira, who brings extensive expertise in digital humanities and interdisciplinary instruction. “We can’t wait to see the new ideas and strategies the department might be able to generate under his leadership,” Randle said.

For the past three years, Randle juggled two time-consuming assignments: as chairman of the English Department and serving as a Mississippi College dean.

At Tiffin University in Ohio, Rovira taught innovative courses, including one that blended a study of 19th Century British Romanticism with American cultural dynamics of the 1960s. He earned his doctorate at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Rovira taught English at Tiffin beginning in August 2008.

A new addition to the MC School of Education’s full-time faculty is Stephanie L. Henderson. She earned her doctorate in educational leadership at MC in 2015. Henderson will work with MC’s educational specialist program starting soon in Brookhaven.

Since 2014, the Lincoln County resident served as deputy superintendent of the Brookhaven public schools. She worked from 2002 to 2006 as director of special education and as a teacher in the Yazoo City public schools. Henderson received a bachelor’s degree at Spelman College in Atlanta in 2000, an MBA at Millsaps College and educational specialist degree at MC.

 “Dr. Henderson comes with a plethora of varied teaching and leadership experiences,’’ said education professor Cindy Melton. Henderson also served as an adjunct professor at the Christian university.