Wesleyan Welcomes 19 New Faculty Members

Wesleyan welcomes 19 newly-hired tenured faculty, tenure-track faculty and adjunct faculty for the 2009-10 academic year.

Robyn Autry joined the Sociology Department as assistant professor. She studies the sociology of race and ethnicity, political sociology, comparative historical sociology, institutions, sociology of science and technology and cultural sociology. Autry has a Ph.D. and Master of Arts from the University of Wisconsin, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Javier Castro-Ibaseta joins the History Department and the College of Letters as assistant professor. Castro-Ibaseta studies early modern Spanish history, early modern political culture and cultural/poetic analysis of political events. He has a Ph.D, a Spanish Diploma de Estudios Avanzados and a Bachelor of Arts from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.

Sonali Chakravarti joins the Government Department as assistant professor. Chakravarti studies the history of political philosophy, global justice, war and justice in political theory and truth commissions. She has a Ph.D. from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts from Swarthmore College.

Stephen Collins, formerly visiting assistant professor, is now assistant professor in the Film Studies Department. Collins is an expert on film production, screenwriting and directing. He has a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Texas, Austin and a Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University.

Erika Fowler joins the Government Department as assistant professor. She is an expert on American politics, electoral politics and television news coverage of politics. Fowler has a Ph.D. and Master of Arts from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a Bachelor of Arts from St. Olaf College.

Courtney Fullilove joins the History Department as instructor. Fullilove is an expert on U.S. history: 19th century agricultural and industrial development, intellectual property and scientific knowledge. She has a Master of Philosophy, Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University.

Gillian Goslinga joins the Department of Anthropology as assistant professor. Her area of study and specialization is on the social-cultural anthropology of South India, specifically women, reproductive medicine and healing, and religion. “I work in South India on knowledge and epistemology at the intersections of the reproductive technologies, religion, gender, and anthropology,” she says. Goslinga has a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz; a Master of Arts from the University of Southern California; and a Bachelor of Arts from Smith College.

Amy MacQueen joins the Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department as assistant professor. MacQueen is an expert on developmental biology and cell biology. “My research utilizes genetic, cytological, and proteomic approaches to investigate a classic cell biological mystery – the mechanism underlying how homologous chromosomes pair with one another during meiosis,” she explains. MacQueen has a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University.

Ruth Nisse joins the English Department as associate professor. Nisse specializes in Middle English literature with particular interests in drama and the intertextual study of English, Anglo-Norman, Hebrew and Latin writing. Nisse has a Ph.D from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University.

Brian Northrop joins the Department of Chemistry as assistant professor. His area of expertise is on physical organic and materials chemistry. Northrop has a Ph.D. from UCLA; and a Bachelor of Arts from Middlebury College.

Rich Olson joins the Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department as assistant professor. Olson studies structural biology and membrane proteins. He has a Ph.D. from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University.

Anne Peters joins the Government Department as assistant professor. Peters studies comparative politics, comparative political economy and the Middle East. She has a Ph.D. and Master of Arts from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Arts from Gustavus Augustus College.

Charles Sanislow was hired by the Psychology Department as assistant professor. He’s an expert on clinical psychology and personality disorders. Sanislow has a Ph.D. from Duke University, a Master of Arts from Ball State University and a Bachelor of Science from Northern Michigan University.

Laura Stark joined the Science in Society Program and Sociology Department as assistant professor. Stark’s area of expertise is on science and the state and institutional review boards. “My overarching interest is in how the authority of scientists and of scientific evidence is used – and challenged – in moral decision making, especially in modern state administration,” she explains. Stark has a Ph.D and Master of Arts from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.

Amy Tang joins the English and American Studies Departments as assistant professor. Tang’s research focuses on Asian American literature. She takes a comparative focus that situates this literary tradition within the broader literary, historical and intellectual contexts of 20th century American mainstream and minority writing. Tang has a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University.

Patrick Tynan was hired by the Department of Physical Education as adjunct assistant professor/head coach of women’s crew. Tynan has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Deb Unferth joins the English Department as assistant professor. She specializes in creative writing, especially fiction–the novel and short stories. Unferth has a Masters of Fine Arts in creative writing from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado.

Eirene Visvardi joined the Classical Studies Department as assistant professor. She studies Greek literature, Greek tragedy, archaic poetry and theories of performance and emotions. Visvardi has a Ph.D. from Stanford University; a Master of Philosophy from Cambridge University; and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Crete.

Leah Wright joins the History Department and the African American Studies Program as assistant professor. Wright focuses her research on African American history, African American politics, Black conservatism and the history of the civil rights movement. She has a Ph.D. and Master of Arts from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College.