Dr. Angelle Khachadoorian

Chief, Culture and Region Division / Associate Professor of Anthropology

Dr. Angelle Khachadoorian is Associate Professor of Anthropology and the Department Chair for Culture/Region in the Air Force Culture and Language Center (AFCLC) at Air University. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico. Dr. Khachadoorian has taught a range of college and graduate level courses for more than eighteen years.  She has been at Air University for seven years.  Previously, she taught for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as well as teaching in several Air Force post-secondary educational settings.  Dr. Khachadoorian's research interests include indigenous and tribal cultures, group and individual identity, community memory, culture change and cultural continuity and traditional leadership processes, especially in the ways that tribal groups intersect with nation-states.

Scott Edmondson Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies (Africa)

Dr. Scott M. Edmondson is Assistant Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies (Africa) at the US Air Force Culture and Language Center, Air War College.  He holds a Ph.D. in Culture and Performance from the University of California, Los Angeles, with over eight years of teaching experience in both university (UCLA, Univ. of Michigan) and military settings (USAJFKSWCS, Air University).  A former Peace Corps Volunteer in Cote d’Ivoire and Fulbright-Hays Fellow in Ghana, Dr. Edmondson has conducted ethnographic field research in West Africa on popular media production and religious movements, and has worked as a sociocultural intelligence analyst for the 4MISG/US Army Special Operations Command and USAFRICOM.  His teaching and research interests include: African religious, media, and security studies; globalization and postcolonial theory; historiography and ethnography; semiotics and narrative analysis; military cross-cultural competence; youth cultures, social media, and radicalization; and cultural property protection/heritage, identity, and conflict.

Dr. Patricia Fogarty

Assistant Professor of Cross-Cultural Relations

Dr. Fogarty has worked at AFCLC since 2009, and finished her PhD in Anthropology in 2012.  Her dissertation research revolved around the work of an internationally funded development agency in the Republic of Moldova (a former Soviet state).  Through the topic of development, she explored Moldovans’ experiences of citizenship, national identity, and corruption.  Research conducted since joining AFCLC has included documenting the intercultural experiences of Airmen of all ranks and AFSCs.  Teaching and research interests include:  general cross-cultural awareness and competence; ethnic and national identity; the effects of corruption on military operations; incorporating cultural property protection into professional military education, exercises, and wargames; civil-military organizational relationships in humanitarian and stability operations; and the use of museums and heritage sites for political ends.

Dr. Kristin Hissong

Assistant Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies (Middle East North Africa)

Dr. Kristin Hissong is Assistant Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies, Middle East North Africa (MENA). She holds a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the Institute for Middle East Studies at King's College London with teaching experience at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level in the fields of political science, international studies, theology and religious studies, and ethnicity and nationalism studies. Dr. Hissong's current research interests and teaching repertoire include religious and national identities of MENA region communities with attention to inter-faith relations, cultures, nationalisms, gender, belonging, and memory and peacekeeping.

Dr. Jessica Jordan

Assistant Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies (Asia)

Dr. Jessica Jordan is Assistant Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies (Asia). She received her Ph.D. in History (Modern Japan) from the University of California, San Diego and has taught courses on the history of Japan, Micronesia, Southeast Asia, WWII in Asia and the Pacific, and the world since 1500. Her dissertation research involved interviewing several dozen Northern Mariana Islanders about their memories of life under Japanese colonial rule (1914-1945), and she is currently revising chapters for publication as peer-reviewed articles. Her teaching and research interests include: historiography, modern colonialism, nationalism and ethnicity/race, and the politics of memory.

Dr. Elizabeth Peifer

Assistant Professor, Regional and Cultural Studies

Dr. Elizabeth L.B. Peifer is Assistant Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies (Europe).  She holds a Ph.D. in European History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has twenty years of university teaching experience in World History and European Studies.  Prior to joining the AFCLC, Dr. Peifer served as Director of Faculty Programs for the Associated Colleges of the South.  Dr. Peifer specializes in contemporary German society and culture, and her teaching and research interests include: radicalism and extremism; cultural heritage protection in conflict; public memory and national narratives; civil rights; and genocide studies. 

Dr. Susan Steen

Assistant Professor of Cross-Cultural Communication

Susan Steen, Ph.D., is the Assistant Professor of Cross-Cultural Communication at the Air Force Culture & Language Center (AFCLC). She earned her Ph.D. in Communication, focused on intercultural communication, from The University of Southern Mississippi in 2007, and has held a variety of positions in the fields of international and intercultural education. Prior to joining AFCLC in the fall of 2015, she served as Assistant Provost and Director of International Engagement at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. She has traveled widely throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and has presented in the U.S. and abroad on numerous topics related to cultural competence.

Dr. Steen’s scholarship involves intercultural, interpersonal, and organizational and leadership communication.  Her previous research focused on cross-cultural and re-entry adaptation, political rhetoric, organizational culture, and cultural influences (especially race/ethnicity and gender) on emotional expression.  Her current work centers on cosmopolitan communication, derived from Coordinated Management of Meaning theory, as a means of enacting coherence and coordination among members of diverse cultural communities, and she is the lead author on a related book chapter in the Handbook of Communication Training (Routledge, 2018).   Her course “Effective Communication for Leaders in the Global Context” garnered the 2017 Air War College award for Excellence in Electives.