AUM Faculty & Staff
Directory


Evan Moore
Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Evan Moore is Professor of Economics at Auburn University at Montgomery. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. He has published articles in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economics and Finance, and the International Review of Economics Education. He previously served as Head of the Economics Department, Associate Dean of Graduate Programs, and editor of the Southern Business and Economic Journal. Dr. Moore has presented research at national and international conferences. Finally, he has received funding support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Swedish Competition Authority.


MSG Steven Morse
Military Science Instructor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences


Theresa Pelfrey
Associate Professor and Director of Legal Studies | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Theresa Pelfrey, Director of Legal Studies, Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology, joined Auburn University at Montgomery in 2009. She earned her Juris Doctor, Master of Social Work, and Bachelor of Science in Education degrees from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Licensed to practice law in Alabama, she engaged in the private practice of law prior to joining AUM. She worked previously as a social worker. She has taught a variety of Legal Studies courses from Introduction to the American Legal System to Alternative Dispute Resolution. Her research interests focus on children’s rights, parental rights, family law, juvenile law, and estate law.


Robert K. Perkins
Department Chair and Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Robert K. Perkins specializes in and trains on diversity, equity, and inclusion in work organizations. Dr. Perkins’s extensive career in law enforcement, community organizing, and higher education spans 30 years, both within and outside the academy. He has also been published in national and international scholarly journals, uncovering the objective truths in various social phenomena, including social inequality, criminal justice, immigration, environmental racism, implicit biases, and emotional intelligence.


Hillary Porter
Advising and Recruiting Coordinator | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Advising for the following:
- All students with more than 57 earned credit hours in the following majors:
- Art
- Fine Art
- Communication (non-Theatre concentrations)
- Criminal Justice (legal studies)
- Economics
- English
- History
- Political Science
- Sociology
- Social Work


Kimberly Pyszka
Department Chair; Associate Professor of Anthropology | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Kimberly Pyszka is a historical archaeologist that specializes in studies of landscapes and architecture of the US Southeast. She has conducted archaeological research throughout the Southeast, including South Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Alabama, including on the AUM campus. Dr. Pyszka has published several peer-reviewed journal articles and in 2023 published, The Archaeology of Protestant Landscapes: Revealing the Formation of Community Identity in the US South. Some of her favorite classes to teach include Death and Dying, Themes in Food, Culture, and History, and Historical Archaeology. Dr. Pyszka also serves on the Alabama National Register of Historic Places Review Board.


Kent Quaney
Assistant Professor, Coordinator of Creative Writing | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Kent Quaney is the coordinator of AUM’s Creative Writing Program, the managing editor of Thirteen Bridges Review, AUM’s professional literary journal, and the faculty advisor for AUM’s Creative Writing Club. Dr. Quaney holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi, a Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the University of Sydney, and a BA in English from Weber State University. He teaches beginning and advanced fiction workshops as well as Introduction to Creative Writing and Creative Writing Appreciation. His novel, One Breath from Drowning (University of Wisconsin Press), won the Brodie Award for fiction in 2022. His short stories and essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review, BULL, The McNeese Review, Literally Stories, RiversEdge, and other journals.


Seth Reno
Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Seth T. Reno is Professor of English and Distinguished Teaching Professor, specializing in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British literature, ecocriticism, affect theory, climate fiction, and the environmental humanities. He regularly teaches classes in these areas, as well as literature surveys and writing courses. Dr. Reno hails from Ohio, where he received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. Before joining AUM in 2013, he taught at Wittenberg University, Ohio State, and Columbus State Community College. He is author of Early Anthropocene Literature in Britain, 1750–1884 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and Amorous Aesthetics: Intellectual Love in Romantic Poetry and Poetics, 1788–1853 (Liverpool University Press, 2019); editor of The Anthropocene: Approaches and Contexts for Literature and the Humanities (Routledge, 2021) and Romanticism and Affect Studies (Romantic Circles Praxis Series, 2018); co-editor (with Allison Hamilton) of William Delisle Hay’s The Doom of the Great City (COVE, 2022); and co-editor (with Lisa Ottum) of Wordsworth and the Green Romantics: Affect and Ecology in the Nineteenth Century (University of New Hampshire Press, 2016). He has also published dozens journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and book reviews.
Dr. Reno is currently working on two book projects. The first is an anthology of lesser-known industrial writ, titled Popular British Industrial Writings: A Critical Anthology. It contains hundreds of relatively unknown (and often unpublished) poems, essays, and other forms of writing that chronicle the British Industrial Revolution.
The second project is a monograph, titled Alabama Banjo: A New History of America’s Instrument. As the title suggests, this book highlights the importance of the banjo and banjo music to the history and culture of Alabama—and, by extension, to the history and culture of America itself. Dr. Reno does this by tracing the history of the banjo—its songs, depictions in art and media, and notable musicians—from the nineteenth century to the present. From minstrel songs about “Alabama Joe” to Civil War-era banjo tunes traded between soldiers to poems about banjos to contemporary banjo players continuing the old-time music tradition, Alabama Banjo offers a new history of the banjo specific to the state of Alabama.
In addition to literature, Dr. Reno has a passion for music, food, and travel. He plays banjo, guitar, trumpet, and percussion; he has self-released two albums of original music; and he has a banjo YouTube channel. He also loves cooking and has taught courses on food and culture. Dr. Reno has also undertaken many domestic and international research trips, as well as study abroad courses, and he once came in fourth place at a burger-eating competition (he has since given up his professional food-eating aspirations).


Faith Roberts
Administrative Associate Theatre Operations | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Kashera Guy Robinson
Assistant Clinical Professor/Social Work Field Director

Kashera Guy Robinson
Assistant Clinical Professor/Social Work Field Director | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Kashera Guy Robinson, DSW, is a Licensed Clinical Social Work educator with more than 25 years of experience in the areas of juvenile justice, child welfare, mental health, and school social work.
Dr. Guy Robinson is an expert on the topic of urban school social work and has written a number of articles on this specialized area of practice. She has collaborated on a number of webinars and at professional conferences on school social work topics. Dr. Guy Robinson is actively involved in several professional social work organizations and has served in a number of leadership roles in these organizations including District President, District Vice President, District Parliamentarian, Chairperson of Membership, and Specialty Practice Section Committee Member.
Dr. Guy Robinson’s research interests include exploring the issue of chronic absenteeism among minority school-aged youth residing in urban communities, examining how the historical traumas of transgenerational poverty and racism continue to impact this demographic, and exploring ways that trauma-informed interventions can help these youth. Her teaching interests include introductory social work courses and school social work-related topics.


Agnitra Roy Choudhury
Associate Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Agnitra Roy Choudhury is an Associate Professor in the Economics department. Dr. Roy Choudhury received his PhD and MA in Economics from Binghamton University. His training is in applied microeconomics and applied econometrics. His research interests include studying the impact of regulations on health care, labor markets, and entrepreneurship. Currently Dr. Roy Choudhury’s research includes analyzing scope of practice regulations, Certificate of Need laws, and determinants of promoting entrepreneurship. His research papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals like Vaccine, Economic Letters, Applied Economics Letters, Health Policy, and Journal of Risk & Financial Management.


Mariano Runco
Associate Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Runco has been at AUM since 2009, after finishing his Ph.D. in economics at Arizona State University. He specializes in Microeconomic Theory and Empirical Economics and he teaches the econometrics sequence in the Master’s in Applied Economics program. He has also worked in the area of the Economics of Regulation. He is also actively involved in the business community as the president and owner of a real estate company in Montgomery, Alabama.


