Assily, Rania
Assistant Professor
(216) 987-4266
Department: History
Office Location: Westshore Campus, SLT 227A
Education: M.A., History, Cleveland State University
B.A., Political Science, John Carroll University
About: Rania I. Assily has taught collegiate-level history since 2006, including at Lorain County Community College and Notre Dame College of Ohio, creating the latter’s Islam to Nationalism course for its Intelligence Studies program and a course in the history of India.
In 2016, she began teaching a host of courses full time at the Westshore Campus, including world civilizations, U.S. history, African American history and Islam to the Modern Middle East. She also coordinates the courses for history, political science, urban studies and geography at Westshore.
Assily has brought numerous speakers to Tri-C, including the director and producer of the first documentary on Arab Americans. She has found many ways to engage students in the history discipline, including taking field trips to museums, conducting oral history interviews with veterans and creating digital stories on historical topics.
Bernatowicz, David
Associate Professor
(216) 987-4524
Department: History, Urban Studies
Office Location: Metropolitan Campus, MLA 103
Education: B.A., Gannon University
M.A., Duquesne University
Kinsella, Christopher
Assistant Professor
christopher.kinsella@tri-c.edu
(216) 987-2143
Department: History
Office Location: Eastern Campus, EEC 212
Education: M.A., History, DePaul University
B.A., History, St. Xavier University
About: Christopher Kinsella has over two decades of teaching experience at various academic levels in Chicago and Cleveland. He was director of marketing and admissions for the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University. He has traveled to over 20 countries on four continents and travels extensively throughout the United States. The best part of his job is teaching and working with students either online or in ground-based classes.
Phillips, Matthew
Assistant Professor
(216) 987-2492
Department: History, Humanities
Office Location: Metropolitan Campus
Education: B.A., Thiel College
M.A., Kent State University
Ph.D., Kent State University
Redles, David
Professor
(216) 987-5248
Department: Social Sciences
Office Location: Western Campus, WLA B237
Education: Ph.D., History, Penn State University
M.A., History, Penn State University
B.A., History, Penn State University (graduated cum laude with Honors in history and a University Scholar, Penn State University)
About: David Redles has taught history at Cuyahoga Community College since 2000, specializing in World History and Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Previously he taught at Kent State-Stark, San Antonio College and the University of Texas-San Antonio. Redles is the coordinator of History, Political Science, Geography, Urban Studies and Women and Gender Studies. He is also a Safe Zone Ally. Redles has been an executive committee member of the European History Section (EHS) of the Southern Historical Association since 2013 and is currently the chair of the EHS (2023-2024). Previously he served as the vice chair of the EHS (2022-2023) and was managing editor of the EHS Newsletter (2013-2023).
Redles is the author of Hitler’s Millennial Reich: Apocalyptic Belief and the Search for Salvation (New York University Press, 2005) and co-author, along with Jackson Spielvogel, of Hitler and Nazi Germany 8th ed. (Routledge 2020). He recently published an extended afterword to Hermann Rauschning’s Colloqui con Hitler: Le confidenze esoteriche del Führer e I suoi piani per la conquista del mundo (Tre Editori, 2023).
He also contributed chapters to Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the Holocaust: A Prelude to Genocide (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022), The Paranoid Apocalypse: A Hundred-Year Retrospective on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (New York University Press, 2011), The Oxford Handbook on Millennialism (Oxford University Press, 2011), The Fundamentalist Mindset: Psychological Reflections on Religion, Violence, and History (Oxford University Press, 2010), End of Days: Essays on the Apocalypse from Antiquity to Modernity (McFarland, 2009) and War in Heaven, Heaven on Earth: Theories of the Apocalyptic (Routledge, 2005).
Redles also appears in the Blink Films documentary series, Hitler’s Secret Files, episode two, “Hitler’s Messiah Complex.” (available on Discovery+ and other media outlets).
Rokicky, Catherine
Professor
(216) 987-5481
Department: History, Geography
Office Location: Western Campus, A 114
Education: B.A., History and Spanish, Cleveland State University
M.A. History, Cleveland State University
Ph.D., History, Kent State University
About: Dr. Rokicky has over 30 years of teaching experience at Cuyahoga Community College in addition to teaching previously at the University of Akron, Cleveland State University, and Kent State University. She teaches a variety of history courses including the U.S. History Surveys, Ohio History, Latin American History, Native American History, and African American History. Additionally, she teaches World Regional Geography and the Geography of the U.S. and Canada.
Dr. Rokicky creates an engaging and supportive classroom environment and connects with students beyond the classroom with visits to museums, historical sites, lectures, and local events. Her greatest joy as an educator has been mentoring students, several of whom have gone on to earn graduate degrees in history and higher education.
She has published two books and several articles on Ohio History. She also has earned a Certificate in Effective College Instruction from the Association of College and University Educators and the American Council on Education.
When she is not engaged in educational endeavors, she enjoys spending time with family, hiking, traveling, and writing.
Soto-Schwartz, Melissa
Associate Professor
(216) 987-5215
Department: History, Women and Gender Studies
Office Location: Western Campus, WLA B241
Education: B.A., University of California-Irvine
M.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison