Williams College Awards Tenure to Eight

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

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Feb. 3, 2004 – Williams College has announced award of tenure to eight assistant professors. They are Monique Deveaux, political science; William Dudley, philosophy; Roger Kittleson, history; Marc Lynch, political science; Karen Merrill, history; Peter Pedroni, economics; Lara Shore-Sheppard, economics; and Thomas Smith, chemistry.

Monique Deveaux Deveaux is author of the recent book, “Cultural Pluralism and Dilemmas of Justice.” Her research addresses the challenges and difficulties that cultural group rights may pose for individual rights and liberal norms in democratic states. She received her B.A. in political theory in 1989 and her M.A. in political theory in 1991 from McGill University. She went on to complete her M.Phil. in 1993 and her Ph.D. in 1997 at Cambridge University.

Will DudleyDudley specializes in 19th- and 20th- century continental philosophy and Kant. His book, “Hegel, Nietzsche, and Philosophy: Thinking Freedom,” is a comparison of the theme of freedom in these two philosophers, demonstrating a significant convergence in their thought. Dudley received his B.A. from Williams in 1989 and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1998.

Roger KittlesonKittleson’s research focuses on the politics of culture in modern Brazil. He is completing his first book, titled “A New Regime of Ideas: Transformations of Political Culture in Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1845-1895,” and starting a second project on race, region, and masculinity in Brazilian soccer. Kittleson received his B.A. from Northwestern University in 1985, an A.M. from Stanford University in 1989, and his Ph.D. in 1997 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Marc Lynch Lynch studies the role of deliberation and public spheres in international relations, with a primary empirical focus on the Middle East. His most recent article titled “Taking Arabs Seriously” was published in Foreign Affairs, one of the most influential foreign policy journals in the world. Lynch is the author of the book “State Interests and Public Spheres: The International Politics of Jordan’s Identity.” Another book, “Iraq and the New Arab Public Sphere,” is forthcoming. Lynch received his B.A. in political science from Duke University in 1990 and his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1997. He did his postdoctoral work at the University of California at Berkeley.

Karen MerrillMerrill researches 20th-century American politics and political economy, the American West, and environmental history. Merrill is the author of “Public Lands and Political Meaning: Ranchers, the Government, and the Property Between Them” and edited “The Modern Worlds of Business and Industry: Cultures, Technology, Labor.” Another book, “The Oil Crisis” will be published by Bedford/St. Martin’s Press. She received her B.A. from Oberlin College in 1986, her M.A. in creative writing and English from the University of Denver in 1988, and her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1994. She also taught at Princeton University and the University of California at Irvine.

Peter PedroniPedroni specializes in macroeconomics, international finance, time series econometrics, and empirical explanations for the divergent growth processes experienced among countries. He has written a number of articles for economic journals, including Advances in Econometrics, the Journal of Business Economics and Statistics, and Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics. He received his B.A. from Miami University in Ohio in 1986 and his Ph.D. from Columbia University, specializing in empirical macro, time series, and international finance. He also has taught at Indiana University.

Lara Shore-SheppardShore-Sheppard is interested in health economics, labor economics, poverty and welfare policy, and wage distribution. Her recent work, “Medicaid and Crowding Out of Private Insurance: A Re-examination Using Firm-Level Data,” delves into the relationship between expanded Medicaid eligibility and falling private health insurance coverage, combining individual and firm-level data to investigate possible responses to the Medicaid expansions by both firms and workers. Shore-Sheppard received her B.A. from Amherst College in 1991 and her Ph.D. in 1996 from Princeton University. She taught at the University of Pittsburg from 1996 to 2000.

Tom SmithSmith works within the broad category of organic synthesis. His current focus is the development of new methods of increased efficiency in organic synthesis and their application to molecules of biological importance. His work is supported by the National Science Foundation. His work has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the Journal of Organic Chemistry, Organic Letters, and Heterocycles. Smith received his B.A. in chemistry from Williams in 1988 and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Stanford University in 1996. He was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University from 1996 to 1998.

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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 undergraduate teaching. The achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in research. 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

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Published February 3, 2004