Hall Center Staff
Director - Victor Bailey
vbailey@ku.edu
The Director provides leadership in the humanities at the University of Kansas. The Director develops
and supports broadly conceived interdisciplinary activities that benefit humanists both inside and
outside the university, maintains contact with state and national humanities programs and foundations,
actively promotes external funding from both public and private sources, and furthers the exchange of
ideas in the humanities in a variety of settings. The Director fosters quality public programs that
engage the citizens of Kansas and the region in the national conversation about
the humanities. The Director mentors junior faculty and resident scholars and represents the Hall Center
and humanities research at the Provost's Council and other entities on campus. The Director
serves as chief executive officer of the Hall Center and is the liaison between the humanities faculty
and the KU Center for Research, Inc.
Victor Bailey has been Hall Center Director since 2000. He is the Charles W. Battey Distinguished Professor of Modern British
History at the University of Kansas. His research interests include the history of criminal
law and criminal justice. His most recent book is "This Rash Act": Suicide Across the Life Cycle in the
Victorian City (Stanford University Press, 1998). He is currently finishing a book on the history of
punishment in England, supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the American Philosophical
Society and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1998, he won the Walter D. Love Prize of the
North American Conference on British Studies for best article in British history by a North American
scholar. In 1999, he received a W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence. In the same year, he was
Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London.
Bailey has degrees from Oxford and Cambridge Universities and the Centre for the Study of Social History, Warwick
University, and has held teaching appointments at the Universities of Oxford and Hull in England and the
University of Rochester and Hamilton College in the U.S.
Associate Director - Sally Utech
sutech@ku.edu
The Associate Director will share responsibility for program development, fundraising, and the daily operations of the Hall Center.
Dr. Sally Utech accepted the position of Associate Director in May 2012. She formerly was the Grant Development and Management Specialist for the Hall Center's Humanities Grant Development Office, where she assisted in the development of the Center's successful application to the NEH for a challenge grant to support programs in collaborative, interdisciplinary research. She received a PhD in History from KU in 2010 and has been at the Hall Center since 2008.
Grant Development Officer - Kathy Porsch
kporsch@ku.edu
The Grant Development Officer directs the activities of the Grant Development office. She facilitates and
enhances the grant and fellowship activities of KU faculty and graduate students in the humanities,
alerts them to external funding opportunities, encourages them to apply to external sources for funding
of their research, curriculum, and institutional development initiatives, assists them through the
application process and tracks the results of their efforts.
Kathy Porsch has held this position since
April 1998, when the University of Kansas renewed its commitment to the humanities with the appointment
of a full-time grant development officer to expand and direct the activities of the Humanities Grant
Development Office in the Hall Center. She has more than 20 years of grant development experience in the
humanities, arts, sciences, and engineering. She holds a BA in English from Fort Hays State University
and an MS in Journalism and Mass Communications (honors) from KU. Her professional background also includes
teaching, journalism, public relations, magazine layout and design and business management.
Grant Development and Management Specialist - John Schneiderwind
jschneiderwind@ku.edu
The Grant Development and Management Specialist assists KU humanities and humanistic social science-oriented faculty and graduate students with external grant and fellowship activities specifically related to collaborative and interdisciplinary projects, with emphasis on the digital humanities. The GDMS follows through on grant-funded projects from the grant development phase to the final report phase. The GDMS assists the Director, Associate Director, and Grant Development Officer with the development of major institutional funding applications to forward the mission of the Hall Center. The GDMS also works closely with Hall Center Seminar and Colloquium directors to develop external funding for projects developed out of these programs.
John Schneiderwind accepted the position of Grant Development and Management Specialist in July of 2012. John holds a PhD in history, focused on modern East Asian and, specifically, modern Japanese history. He has experience developing both individual and institutional funding proposals as well as working with faculty collaborating across disciplinary boundaries to achieve common research and programmatic goals.
Program Administrator - Jeanie Wulfkuhle
jeaniew@ku.edu
The Program Administrator manages events both on and off campus, maintains the Hall Center website, creates and
maintains internal databases, supervises the Center's undergraduate and graduate student interns, serves as
overall office manager, and is responsible for computer hardware and software trouble-shooting and maintenance.
Accounting Specialist - Stephanie Johnson
hchaccounting@ku.edu
The Accountant is responsible for tracking, updating and maintaining all of the fiscal and accounting records
and activities of the Hall Center, including developing and maintaining electronic means of tracking the
Center's accounts and providing regular financial reports showing the status of all accounts, interfacing with
Human Resources regarding payroll issues, interfacing with the KU Endowment Association regarding the Center's
KUEA accounts and interfacing with the KU Center for Research regarding grant-related financial administration.
Administrative Associate Sr. - Nick Spase
hallcenter@ku.edu
The Administrative Associate assists visitors, faculty and guests to the Hall Center by welcoming them and providing information about the historical background of the building and schedules of upcoming events at the Hall Center. This position helps to maintain the up-to-date calendar for the administration and student interns. The Administrative Associate works closely with the Program Administrator to facilitate Hall Center events and to facilitate correspondence and mailings.
Nick Spase joined our staff on May 30, 2012. Nick received his BGS in Psychology from KU in 2011 and was previously the center specialist and key production officer at FedEx.
Communications Coordinator - Samantha Bishop Simmons
hchcom@ku.edu
The Communications Coordinator works on all aspects of Center communications and event-specific publicity and advertising, as well as providing event and administrative support for the Center.
Samantha Bishop Simmons joined our permanent staff on July 1, 2011. Samantha has an MA in English from KU and was previously the coordinator for AboutSF through KU's Center for the Study of Science Fiction. She initially joined the Hall Center in January 2011 as a temporary Communications Assistant.
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