The faculty welcomed 18 new
colleagues at their opening meeting on Tuesday.
They include (with the remainder
to be published next week):
Anthropology:
Derek Pardue, visiting assistant professor, earned his Ph.D. in
cultural anthropology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign with a
dissertation on “Blackness and Periphery: A Retelling of Marginality in Hip-Hop
Culture of São Paulo, Brazil.”
R. Kenji Tierney, visiting assistant professor, earned a Ph.D. in
socio-cultural anthropology from the University
of California-Berkeley, with a
dissertation on “Wrestling with Tradition: Sumo, National Identity and
Trans/National Popular Culture.”
Chemistry:
Laurie Tyler, assistant professor, holds a Ph.D. in inorganic
chemistry from the University of California,
Santa Cruz. Her research interests
include inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry with an emphasis on the synthesis
of complexes that contain biologically relevant metals.
Classics:
Hans-Friedrich Mueller, professor and chair of the department,
earned a Ph.D. in classical philology from the University
of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. He has interests in Greek and Latin literature, ancient
history, Roman law and religion and pedagogy. He has held recent positions at
the University of Florida
and Florida State
University.
Stacie Raucci, visiting instructor, was to receive her Ph.D. in
classics from the University of Chicago
with a dissertation titled “Gazing Games: Propertius and the Dynamics of
Vision.” Her fields include Latin literature of the Augustian Age; gender and
sexuality; and culture and society of the late Republic.
Computer Science:
Valerie Barr, professor and chair of the department, holds a Ph.D.
from Rutgers University.
Her dissertation was titled “Applications of Rule-Base Coverage Measures to
Expert System Evaluation.” Her areas of interest include software testing,
development of verification and validation of natural language processing; and
women and computer science.
English:
Channette Romero, assistant professor, earned a Ph.D. from Rutgers
University in May. Her dissertation was
titled “Spiritual Resistance: Religion, Race and Nation in Ethnic American
Women's Fiction.” Interests include African American literature, ethnic
American literature, twentieth century literature and gender and feminist
theory.
Christopher Pizzino, visiting assistant professor, holds a master's
degree in English from Rutgers University,
where he has taught a number of courses in literature. Teaching interests
include secular and religious studies, world and American cinema, genre studies
and modern and postmodern literature.
Bradley Beckman, visiting lecturer, holds a master's degree from New
York University
focusing on dramatic literature, dramaturgy and performance theory. He has taught classes at Union
in film and theater and directed a play and video project exploring diversity
issues at Union.