Advising
My office hours are usually 3:30-4:45pm, Monday through Thursday (in blocks I am teaching).
My advising philosophy is to let students set their own goals and then support and advise them through the process towards a successful graduation. Students can always count on me to be honest with them, to treat them with respect, to help them navigate the paperwork and processes of the University, and to send them off into the world better for the experience.
I advise students in the Interdisciplinary Studies major, the Constitutional Studies minor, the Popular Culture Studies minor, and the Systems of Thought minor.
If you would like to schedule an appointment, it is best to contact me over email.
Biography
I was born and raised in Missoula, Mont. Coming from a family of educators and elected officials, it seemed only natural that I would grow up and contribute to the “family business” by teaching politics. I have been shaped primarily by my grounding in the Humanities and the Liberal Arts, the foundation of knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for a person to live a free life as an engaged citizen. Traditionally, the liberal arts are taught through exposure to a wide range of subjects and experiences. I always try to bring that liberal arts approach to my teaching at Montana Western, where I offer courses in philosophy, law, politics, literature, media studies, geography, and history. If a student graduates with only an increased body of knowledge, then we have failed them. A higher education should transform you into a different person in mind, heart, and body; one capable of living in freedom and ready to tackle the problems of the 21st century.
Jessica J. Fowler is Associate Professor of Latin America and the Atlantic World. She teaches courses such as Colonial Latin America, Modern Latin America, Witches and their Bewitched in the Atlantic World, Race in Latin America, History of Science, Introduction to the Atlantic World, and American History II. She is also currently developing various new courses to make History as engaging as possible for the broadest number of students.
Before coming to UMW, Dr. Fowler earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis and spent seven years in Spain working as both a researcher and university instructor. Her research investigates how the Spanish Inquisition, through its own personnel, procedures, and paperwork, was able to create, as well as spread, a particular form of heresy, alumbradismo, across the entire Spanish Empire. She is also a member of the international research group “História das Inquisições” and continues to collaborate with Spanish colleagues on research projects funded by the Spanish government. During the 2023-2024 academic year she is a Research Fellow and Visiting Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Catholicism at Harvard Divinity School.
Educational background:
Master of Philosophy in Psychology – University of St. Andrews (Scotland)
Ph.D. in Psychology (Personality Research) – University of Minnesota
Advising:
If you are new to psychology, or just interested in psychology, please reach out by email to introduce yourself!
Because all psychology majors are required to complete a minor, if you have thoughts about other content areas that are interesting to you, please let me know. That said, if you aren’t sure what minor you are interested in, just let me know what kinds of classes and content you tend to love, and we will start exploring and I bet we can find a good option for you. In fact, many psychology majors elect to complete multiple minors, double majors, or even a double-major and a minor and still graduate on time. That can work as long as we start your advising early, so if you have thoughts, please let me know.
Bio:
I love psychology — but I also love students who are undecided about what to study or who are changing their minds. I was an Elementary Education major until half-way through my junior year, and then I changed my mind. At that point, I shifted my focus to secondary education (in math and psychology) and earned my teaching license, but that didn’t stick either. I finally found my academic “home” in psychology, and I have never looked back.
Here at Western, the psychology program is flexible enough that many wonderful students find their academic homes with us. Some students head straight into the workforce — often in jobs related to special education or applied behavior analysis, community resource centers, substance abuse prevention services, and student support service areas on college campuses — but many others decide to go on to graduate school, which is important for anyone who wants to “do” psychology as a career. Although many of the students who go on to purse graduate student choose to go into areas like counseling, art therapy, or social work, we also have a good many students who take other paths, and head to law school, occupational therapy programs, MBA programs, or research-based programs in psychology or related areas (e.g., health psychology, school psychology, special education — or, in one case, to London to earn a Master’s degree in “Music, Brain, and Behavior”!). Psychology is a broad field that provides a foundation for a variety of paths after graduation.
My love of history and the world began thanks to my parents, immigrants from Poland who came to the United States after World War II. My first language was Polish, yet I attended an English speaking American school. I grew-up in an urban, working-class, and multi-ethnic neighborhood, however most childhood summers were spent in rural Poland. I learned about the American Revolution in school, while at home I heard first-hand accounts about the Holocaust and Nazi occupation from my parents. Shopping in well-stocked supermarkets and air-conditioned shopping malls was normal to me, but I also experienced and understood what life was like in grey and dreary communist Poland. To wit, I had incredible and diverse experiences as a child that allowed me to appreciate how rich and varied the world’s many identities, and memories of the past are. An appreciation of the many different experiences, realities, memories, and identities that shape history is what I try to convey to my students. I strive to do this each day in the classroom.
For general advising, I am usually available in my office M-R, from 11:30-12:30. If I am on my professional development block, you’ll need to email me to make an appointment. These are times where we can talk about your future plans, discuss how your courses are going, talk about history books you are reading, and so on.
For advising appointments where we’ll be talking about your course schedule for an upcoming semester, look at the schedule of offered courses, in advance of your appointment. Come up with what looks to you like a good list of class options, in light of your progress in your declared program[s]. Then, when we get together, we’ll evaluate your selections, and see if we need to make any changes. For this kind of advising, you are welcome to utilize my regular office hour (see above), or to email me to set up a specific appointment.
