St. Mike’s is delighted to welcome two new faculty members whose established expertise, experience, and enthusiasm make them wonderful new members of our community.
Kit MacNeil (Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream) (they/them) holds an MFA in Studio Art from SUNY University at Buffalo and since 2021 has been serving as the College Printer at Massey College. A genderqueer artist, printer, and curator, they implement printmaking through an interdisciplinary lens, employing a methodology that incorporates both traditional and new media practices. Their practice and teaching consider the process-heavy medium of print in connection with performance art as a means of speaking to the embodied effects of trauma, mental health, and disability. MacNeil’s current scholarship explores text and books as sites for performance, especially in consideration of artist books and experimental creative writing.
Professor MacNeil’s art has exhibited in China, France, and numerous institutions across North America including the Print Center New York, Print Houston’s the Contemporary Print, and at the Western New York Book Arts Center. Their research has been funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the South Carolina Arts Commission, and the Mark Diamond Research Fund, and they were a Finalist for the annual international competition at the Print Center in Philadelphia in 2020. MacNeil has completed residencies at Tsinghua University, the Western New York Book Arts Center, Open Studio, and the Vermont Studio Center. At Massey College, they oversaw the printing collection and graduate apprenticeship program. This year, they will be teaching a year-long first-year course, “The Printed Book,” which combines hands-on experience in the Print Studio with academic study, an upper-level course on “The Histories of Letterpress Printing,” and a new course currently in development – stay tuned! They will also be working to reinstate and develop our very own Printing Apprenticeship Program.
Francesco Arcalas Morriello (Assistant Professor, Research Stream) holds a PhD in History from the University of Cambridge, a specialized MTS in Religion from Harvard University, and a BA in English Literature from York University with a focus on Early Modern Literature. In 2024, he was awarded a Fellowship by the Royal Historical Society in London in recognition of his original contribution to historical scholarship with the publication of his first book, Messengers of Empire: Print and Revolution in the Atlantic World (Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment: 2023). In 2024, his chapter on the history of newspapers in the Lesser Antilles was published in James Raven’s edited compendium, Global Exchanges of Knowledge in the Long Eighteenth Century (Boydell & Brewer Press). Previously, he held a fellowship at the John Carter Brown Library, and his research has received awards and funding from numerous organizations, including the Barry Bloomfield Award from the Bibliographical Society, the American Historical Association, and the Joint Center for History and Economics from Cambridge and Harvard Universities.
This year, Professor Morriello will be teaching four new courses in the Book and Media Studies program. “Fortune Telling and Media” will explore the long relationship of fortune telling with evolving media forms, from antiquity to the present day. “Mass Media and the Atlantic Revolutions” will explore the integral role of communication media in revolutionary crises throughout history. “Fake News” will trace the origins of “fake news” across centuries, cultures, and media forms to underscore the complex relationships between governments, corporations, and special interest groups. “The Newspaper: A World History” will explore how newspapers developed across the globe, from the age of print to digital media.
Information about the Book & Media Studies program is available on the website.