Spring Semester 2025 Instructors
Max Alvarez is a film historian who has been presenting multimedia cinema history courses for Sundays at JASA since the fall of 2013. He is the author of The Cinéphile’s Guide to the Great Age of Cinema (2020), The Crime Films of Anthony Mann (University Press of Mississippi 2013), and a major contributor to Thornton Wilder/New Perspectives (Northwestern University Press 2013).
Alexandra Bonfante-Warren is an educator and guide with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, working with visitors of all ages. Her question-based approach invites investigation and lively conversation. Alexandra has master’s degrees in English education and art history. Her publications include The Musée du Louvre, The Musée d’Orsay, The Uffizi Gallery, and The Pitti Palace Collections, and she has scripted audioguides for major US museums. She grew up between the United States and Italy. Now in New York, she makes the most of the city, enjoying museums, movies, theater, and concerts. More quietly, she enjoys walking, reading, and cooking for friends.
Kim Breden is the founder and executive muse of Be Mused Productions, specializing in educational entertainment. Be Mused Children’s Theatre Company has offered musical theater workshops for children, preschool through teen in Westchester and Dutchess Counties. In addition to directing and producing these workshops, Kim provides music programs celebrating Broadway’s greatest hits, for museums, libraries, and nearly 50 Senior Residences in the tri-state area. Kim is a volunteer teaching artist and facilitator with Rehabilitation through the Arts (RTA). For the past 16 years, she has directed full musical productions and workshops in maximum and medium security prisons in New York State.
Greg Canada is the assistant dean of admissions at Indiana University Maurer School of Law. Greg is a lecturer on the philosophy of law for Indian University’s Hutton Honors program. Mr. Canada earned a BA in history and philosophy from Virginia Wesleyan College, summa cum laude, an MA in philosophy from Boston College, and a graduate certificate in higher education administration from Harvard University.
Leora Harpaz is an emeritus professor of constitutional law at Western New England University School of Law as well as founder of the annual Supreme Court Conference where she has been a speaker for over 20 years. Since receiving emeritus status, she has been an instructor in several senior learner programs and taught undergraduate law courses in the political science department at Hunter College. She received her B.A. from Stony Brook University and has law degrees from both Boston University and New York University.
Bill Hughes is an investigative reporter who serves as program director at CUNY York College’s Journalism Program in Jamaica, Queens. Over a career that has spanned nearly 30 years, he has won numerous awards for exposing police and government corruption. His most notable case, which was featured in an episode of Dateline NBC, involved the exoneration of a man who served more than 25 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. He also serves as a volunteer investigator for The Jeffery Deskovic Foundation for Justice.
Natan Last published his first crossword puzzle in the New York Times when he was 16, then the youngest constructor to appear in the Times. Last wrote a book of crosswords, Titled Word. He has a B.A. with honors in Economics and Literary Arts from Brown University.
Jane Marsh was the first singer to win the Gold Medal in Moscow’s International Tchaikovsky Competition. Among Verdi, Strauss, and Bel Canto, her repertoire includes the signature Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov heroines. She has appeared as a performer and M.C. in international and U.S. radio and television venues and since 2007, has presented Metropolitan Opera Guild lectures and master classes on Bel Canto, Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, Mozart, Strauss, and the Russian repertoire. She was awarded the New York Handel Medaille for exceptional contribution to the world of music.
Jennifer Monness Inspired by the impact the practice had on her ability to navigate the stress of working in the fast-paced world of politics, Jennifer began leading workshops to make wellness practices more accessible. Her unique style breaks down the myths of meditation by sharing specific mindfulness skills and strategies that can be easily integrated into one’s busy life. Jennifer holds a BS in Marketing from the University of Pennsylvania, an MS in Special Education from Bank Street College, and is a 500+ hour certified yoga instructor and a certified meditation facilitator. She has been teaching, training, and leading workshops for over 25 years.
Alexander Pichugin Ph.D. is the Director of German languages and literature studies at Rutgers University. Alexander is an assistant teaching professor covering a wide range of topics. Courses include, “Cultural Diversity,” “German Music,” “The Wonderful World of Opera,” “Ecocriticism,” “Knowledge, Language and Cognition,” “Ecocinema,” and “Hitler in Film.” He is the recipient of a 2020 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education.
Lars Rosager danced on Broadway in the original casts of 42nd Street, directed and choreographed by Gower Champion, and the 1987 revival of Cabaret, directed by Harold Prince and choreographed by Ron Field. He has taught dance at Circle in the Square, Steps on Broadway, CAP 21, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and is currently on faculty at The American Music and Dramatic Academy (AMDA), where he teaches dance history. Most recently he has staged dances and taught master classes for Nikki Atkin’s The American Dance Machine for the 21st Century. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Mary’s College of California.
Leo Schaff is an actor, singer, and songwriter. A longtime Bardolator, he also teaches at the 92nd Street Y and was NY1 New Yorker of the Week for his popular Shakespeare classes for seniors throughout the city. He co-wrote “Give Us Hope,” a song performed by the San Francisco Children’s Choir at President Obama’s first Inauguration.
Jasmina Sinanovic is a Director of Development and Finance at CLAGS, the Center for LGBTQ Studies at the Graduate Center CUNY, teaches at the Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies Department at the City College by day and is a performing/theatre artist by night. They hold an M.F.A. in Dramaturgy from Stony Brook University and an M.A. in Theatre from CUNY Graduate Center via Brooklyn College. Originally from the Balkans, they call NYC home.
Julia Smeliansky is the Associate Director for Pedagogical Programs at the American Repertory Theater, Lecturer on Theater, Dance & Media at Harvard University, and the Director of Instruction at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Ms. Smeliansky produced numerous international cultural projects and exchanges, including the Centennial American Tour of the Moscow Art Theater at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the American Tour of the Boris Eifman Ballet, the Maya Plisetskaya Gala at The City Center in New York, and the Stars of Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet at Lincoln Center. Ms. Smeliansky co-translated with Mr. Ryan McKirttrick Forbidden Christmas by Rezo Gabriadze starring Mikhail Baryshnikov, as well as Lady With A Lapdog and The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. Her translations into Russian include The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh, Circle Mirror Transformations by Annie Baker, Fat Pig by Neil LaBute, Is He Dead by Mark Twain, Leading Ladies and Lend Me A Tenor by Ken Ludwig, and Cemetery Club by Ivan Menchel.
Amy Weiss holds the Maurice Greenberg Chair of Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford, where she is an Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies and History. She is currently writing a book, under contract with Oxford University Press, on American Jews, evangelicals, and Israel. This work has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Southern Jewish Historical Society, the Center for Jewish History-Fordham University Research Fellowship, a Vincent Coffin Grant, and a Greenberg Junior Faculty Research Grant. Most recently, she published “A Very Merry Hanukkah: Secular Tensions and Christian Hegemony in Hallmark's "Countdown to Christmas” in Critical Perspectives on the Hallmark Channel: Countdown to Romance (Routledge, 2024). Weiss serves as a judge for the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, an annual literary prize awarded to works of fiction that have significance to American Jewish history and culture.