Associate Dean of the Faculty; Director of the Crown Center for Teaching; Associate Professor and Chair, Music

Phone: (719) 389-6558 
Email: rbanagale@coloradocollege.edu

Ryan Raul Bañagale is Associate Professor and Chair of Music at Colorado College. He received his Ph.D. at Harvard University and his research explores the realm of Arrangement Studies, having applied such approaches to a variety of American music subjects and genres. He is on the editorial board of the Gershwin Critical Edition, "Open Access Musicology," and serves as Digital and Multimedia Editor for the "Journal of the American Musicological Society." Ryan is the former Director of Performing Arts at Colorado College. In this faculty administrator role he amplified the role of the arts in the academic mission of the college, supporting the collaborative and creative impulses of the campus and community. Between the endeavors of the academic arts departments, the innovative co-curricular student groups, and the expansive programming of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, he facilitated the cross-disciplinary connections that remain an essential component of the liberal arts experience.

 Student Engagement Fellow (College Transitions Programs); Assistant Professor, German  

Phone: (719) 389-6153
Email: clisiecki@coloradocollege.edu 

Chet Lisiecki received his PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Oregon in 2014. His research focuses broadly on intersections of politics and literature, with a primary focus on comparative modernisms and fascism studies. His secondary interests include queer studies (specifically queer German literature and film), affect theory, and German colonialism. He has published on the Nietzschean influence on Imagist aesthetics, the liberatory and anti-totalitarian potential of Hannah Arendt’s council system, and the politics of “inner emigration” poetry in the context of the so-called “conservative revolution” and Nazi fascism. He is currently preparing two articles for publication. The first article considers the fascist dynamics and racializing dimensions of cultural pessimism in Peter Sloterdijk’s Rules for the Human Zoo (1999) and Michel Houellebecq’s Submission (2015), focusing specifically on the debates and critical commentary surrounding these texts. The second article performs a close reading of Raoul Peck’s experimental docuseries from 2021, Exterminate All the Brutes, arguing that the films create “affective knowledges” of colonialism and fascism that challenge persistent narratives and provide the groundwork for new pedagogical approaches to these topics. 

 Teaching Excellence Fellow (College Transitions Programs); Assistant Professor, English 

Phone: (719) 389-6502
Email: alo@coloradocollege.edu 

The first time that I felt "seen" while reading literature was in college when I first encountered African American literature, specifically the work of W.E.B. DuBois. In many ways, everything that I do is about sustaining that moment of recognition and empowering others to have such experiences themselves. My work, broadly, is on immigration and contemporary North American literature and driven by questions about citizenship, belonging, displacement, and colonialism. Hence, I work on and teach authors like Edwidge Danticat, Louise Erdrich, Gwendolyn Brooks, Thi Bui, Mai Der Vang, and Luis Valdez. I'm especially interested in Southeast Asian American literature and Critical Refugee Studies and, so, I teach the courses on Asian American literature with an eye towards careful examinations of race, gender, class, and war and trauma. I'm currently working on a book that finds beauty and strength in what has often been deemed as "problematic" about Southeast Asian Americans. The next project that I'm already dreaming about is a full study of Hmong American literature. 

 Bridge Scholars Fellow (College Transitions Programs); Assistant Professor, History 

Phone: (719) 389-6529
Email: dsanchez@coloradocollege.edu 

Danielle Porter Sanchez joined the History Department at Colorado College in the fall of 2019. Danielle’s research focuses on popular culture, urban life, and health in 20th century Africa. She is currently working on her first book, The Second World War and Africa (under contract with Michigan State University Press). Her second project focuses on food, famine, and memory in Cabo Verde. Danielle is also interested in Digital Liberal Arts, especially GIS, digital archives, and data visualization. When she is not teaching, researching, or writing, Danielle is an avid knitter and loves all things nerdy: the MCU, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and African comic books. Danielle is a first-generation college graduate. She attended the University of Texas for her B.A. and received a Master’s in Africana Studies at Cornell University. Danielle earned her PhD from the University of Texas in 2015. Before joining the History Department at CC, Danielle was an assistant professor at Muhlenberg College, where she taught a range of African history courses. 

Faculty Fellow for Instructional Coaching; Associate Professor and Chair, Education; Ray O. Professor of Exemplary Teaching in the Liberal Arts

Phone: (719) 389-7146
Email: kvaltierra@coloradocollege.edu

Tina Valtierra is an Associate Professor and Chair of Education at Colorado College and the Crown Center for Teaching's inaugural master teacher. Dr. Valtierra spent over 15 years as a K-12 classroom teacher, instructional coach, and educational consultant. Her expertise is in literacy, curriculum, and instruction, emphasizing anti-racist, diversity, equity, and inclusive (ADEI) studies. Her research examines urban teacher preparation, focusing on promoting teacher reflection, identity, and thrival. She is the author of  Teach and Thrive: Wisdom from an Urban Teachers Career Narrative, co-author of Schooling Multicultural Teachers: A Guide to Program Assessment and Professional Development, and a two-time recipient of the American Association for Teaching and Curriculum (AATC) distinguished article award for her scholarship on teacher identity formation. Her upcoming book, Tools to Thrive: Priming Early Career Teachers to Flourish in an Era of Attrition, will be published in 2024 by Teachers College Press. Her courses, such as Youth Organizing for Social Change, Critical Multicultural Education, Culturally Sustaining Teaching, and Inclusive Pedagogies in Literacy, Curriculum & Instruction, inform her research and course syllabuses.