Appointment of New Tenure Track Assistant Professors

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Sept. 6, 2006 – Williams College has announced the appointment of the following assistant professors to tenure track positions:

Shannon L Bryant, assistant professor of physical education. Bryant received her B.A. in organizational behavior and management from Brown University in 1994 and her Master of Sports Science in sports coaching from the United States Sports Academy in 2005. She has coached ice hockey at Hamilton College and with the Seattle Junior Hockey Association.

Erica R. Edwards, assistant professor of African American studies. Edwards received her B.A. in English and Spanish from Spelman College in 1999 and her Ph.D. in literature in 2006. Her teaching interests include, among others, African American literature, contemporary Black popular culture, and critical theories of race and gender. Her doctoral dissertation is titled “Contesting Charisma: Political Leadership in Contemporary African American culture.”

Richard P. Eibach, assistant professor of psychology. Eibach received his B.A. in 1997 and his Ph.D. from Cornell in 2003. Before coming to Williams, he served as an assistant professor at Yale University, teaching courses on social psychology, political psychology, social judgment, and the history of social psychology. His research has been published in a number of professional journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Inquiry, and Behavioral Brain Research.

Lisa A. Gilbert, assistant professor of marine science and geosciences at Williams-Mystic. Gilbert received her A.B. in earth sciences from Dartmouth College in 1997 and her Ph.D. in oceanography from the University of Washington in 2004. Since 2002, she has been a marine scientist at Mystic Seaport.

Amie A. Hane, assistant professor of psychology. Hane received her B.A. from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in 1996 and her Ph.D. in applied developmental psychology from the University of Maryland Graduate School in 2002. Before coming to Williams, she served as a research assistant professor at the Institute for Child Study and assistant professor at the University of Maryland. Her research interests include mother-infant interaction, infant temperament, and stress activity. Her work has been featured in a number of journals, including Psychological Science, Developmental Psychology, and Infant Behavior and Development.

Brent A. Heeringa, assistant professor of computer science. Heeringa received his B.A. in computer science and mathematics from the University of Minnesota in 1999 and his Ph.D. in computer science from University of Massachusetts in 2004. He has taught previously at Williams and the University of Massachusetts. His research has appeared in a number of peer reviewed publications and published colloquium proceedings.

Robyn Marasco, assistant professor of political science. Marasco received her B.A. in government and philosophy from Smith College in 1999 and her Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley in 2006. She won the Berkeley Continuing Students Fellowship in 2005. Her doctoral dissertation is titled “Critique on the Heights of Despair: Politics, Philosophy, and the Persistence of Hope.”

Morgan McGuire, assistant professor of computer science. McGuire received his B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT in 2000 and his Ph.D. in computer science from Brown University in 2006. His doctoral dissertation was titled “Computational Videography with a Single-Axis, Multi-Parameter Lens Camera.”

Steven E. Nafziger, assistant professor of economics. Nafziger received his B.A. in economics and history from Northwestern University in 2000 and his M.Phil. in economics from Yale University in 2003. He received an advanced research fellowship from the U.S. Department of State in 2004. His dissertation was titled “Communal Institutions, Resource Allocation, and Economic Growth in Russia, 1861-1905.”

Stephane P.R. Robolin, assistant professor of African-American studies. Robolin received his B.A. in English and philosophy from Tulane University in 1998 and his Ph.D. in English from Duke University in 2005. He has taught at Rutgers and Wake Forest universities. In 2004, he was awarded a Ford Foundation Summer Seminar Fellowship. His doctoral dissertation was titled “You Are Now in Fairyland: Remapping Resistance in South African and African American Literatures.”

Omar Sangare, assistant professor of theatre. Sangare received his M.F.A. in acting from the Theatre Academy in Warsaw, Poland in 1993. Sangare has studied at the British-American Drama Academy and has won a variety of acting awards, including the Shakespeare’s Stars Award in 2002 and the Best in Acting Award in 1997. His most recent work is a Polish production of Othello which he directed and starred as Othello. In 2006, he received his Ph.D. from the Theatre Academy in Warsaw.

Tanseli Savaser, assistant professor of economics. Savaser received her B.A. in economics at Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey in 2000 and her Ph.D. at Brandeis University in 2006. At Brandeis, she won the 2005 Teaching Award as an Adjunct Instructor. Her doctoral dissertation is titled “Macro News and Large Exchange-Rate Movements: Through the Lens of Market Microstructure.”

Dorothy J. Wang, assistant professor of American studies. Wang received her B.A. in public policy from Duke University in 1985, her M.P.A. in international affairs from Princeton University in 1987, her M.A. in writing from John Hopkins University in 1993, and her Ph.D. in English literature from the University of California at Berkeley in 1998. Before coming to Williams, she taught in the English and Asian-American studies departments at Northwestern University. Her dissertation was on “Necessary Figures: Metaphor, Irony, and Parody in the Poetry of Li-Young Lee, Marilyn Chin, and John Yau.”

Amanda Wilcox, assistant professor of classics. Wilcox received her B.A. in classics from Reed College in 1996 and her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. Before coming to Williams, she was an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, teaching courses on Rome, Latin poetry, history, prose, and oratory. Her doctoral dissertation was titled “The Epistolary Habit: Representation, Participation, and Exchange among the Roman Elite.”

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Williams College is consistently ranked one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in this research. Students’ educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted. Founded in 1793, it is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college is located in Williamstown, Mass. To visit the college on the Internet: www.williams.edu

News: Megan Brankley

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Published September 6, 2006