The College of Liberal Arts was extremely busy the first half of the year with a number of faculty search committees taking place to line up new hires for the start of the semester. With 26 new faculty members in 10 departments joining the College, the new semester is sure to have great success.

In the gender, race, and identity program, Jamie Palmer will be joining the College as a lecturer in women and gender studies. Palmer's research also focuses on Latino/a/x sociology and immigration/migration. The music department has five new assistant professors starting in the fall including a new director of bands and faculty members with a focus in clarinet, voice, James Albrecht, whose focus is on trombone performance and Aaron Hill, whose focus is on oboe performance. Erica Westhoff joins the department of world languages and literatures as an Italian lecturer to kick off the revitalized Italian minor program.

Take a look through the full list of new hires below and be sure to welcome all the new colleagues to campus.

Regular Lecturers and Tenure-Line Faculty

• Art, Assistant Professor, Digital Media
  • Hire: Tyler Brownlow-Calkin
  • Degree: 2011 M.F.A. Art Integrated Media, California Institute of the Arts
  • Focus: Digital Media (VR game design, performance, toy development)
• Communication Studies/GRI, Assistant Professor, Latino/a Communication
  • Hire: Lydia Huerta
  • Degree: 2012 Ph.D. Iberian and Latin American Languages and Cultures, University of Texas at Austin
  • Focus: U.S.-Mexico border, examining literary cinematic and cultural text and their capacity to redefine some of our deeply preconceived notions of the intersection of gendered and drug-related violence
• Communication Studies, Professor, Chair
  • Hire: Jimmie Manning (start date: January 1, 2019)
  • Degree: 2006 Ph.D. Communication Studies, University of Kansas
  • Focus: Communication technologies, sexual health and well-being, interpersonal and family communication
• Communication Studies, Assistant Professor
  • Hire: Tennley Vik
• English, Lecturer, 20th-century Ethnic American
  • Hire: Yen-Li Lo
  • Degree: 2017 Ph.D. English, University of Florida
  • Focus: 20th-21st Century Asian American literature with emphasis on theory of literary haunting and immigration history
• English/GRI, Assistant Professor, Latinx/Borderlands Literature/Culture
  • Hire: Guadalupe Escobar
  • Degree: 2014 Ph.D. English, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Focus: 19th-21st Century American literature, U.S. Latina/o literature, Latin American literature, life writing, cultural studies, popular culture and media studies, Hemispheric American studies, Comparative Ethnic studies, postcolonial studies, feminist, gender, and sexuality studies, and human rights
• English, Assistant Professor, 20th-21st century Anglophone
  • Hire: Nasia Anam
  • Degree: 2016 Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Focus: Global Anglophone literature, world literature, colonial and postcolonial studies, Francophone literature, South Asian studies, migration studies, North African studies, Indian Ocean studies, urban studies, critical race studies, law and literature, novel studies and Islamic studies
• English, Lecturer
  • Hire: Jared Stanley
  • Degree: 2004 MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry), University of Iowa
  • Focus: Creative Writing (Poetry), Contemporary Poetics, Interdisciplinary Practice
• GRI, Lecturer
  • Hire: Patrick Jackson
  • Degree: ABD Ph.D., Anthropology, University of New Mexico
  • Focus: Race, immigration, masculinity, family and community identity in rural Oregon, ethnography and archaeology of Burning Man
• GRI, Lecturer
  • Hire: Jamie Palmer
  • Degree: 2018 Ph.D. Sociology, University of Georgia
  • Focus: Women & Gender studies: Intersectionality - race, nation, and gender, Global/Transnational inequalities, social movements; feminist research methods; Latino/a/x sociology: Immigration, migration and collective memory
• GRI, Lecturer, Native/Indigenous Studies, Research and Outreach
  • Hire: Debra Harry
  • Degree: 2009 Ph.D. Faculty of Education, University of Auckland
  • Focus: Impact of colonization and globalization on oppressed peoples in society, native/indigenous studies
• History, Lecturer
  • Hire: Chris Von Nagy
• Music, Assistant Professor, Director of Bands
  • Hire: Corey Pompey
  • Degree: 2016 D.M.A. in Wind Conducting, University of Texas at Austin
  • Focus: Conducting & Music Education
• Music, Assistant Professor, Clarinet
  • Hire: Joshua Anderson
  • Degree: 2018 D.M.A. Clarinet, University of Michigan
  • Focus: Clarinet Performance
• Music, Assistant Professor, Trombone
  • Hire: Jim Albrecht
  • Degree: 2012 D.M.A. Trombone Performance, University of Memphis
  • Focus: Trombone performance
• Music, Assistant Professor, Oboe
  • Hire: Aaron Hill
  • Degree: 2015 D.M.A. Performance, Pedagogy, & Literature, James Madison University
  • Focus: Oboe Performance
• Music, Assistant Professor, Voice
  • Hire: CJ Greer
  • Degree: 2016 M.F.A., Penn State
  • Focus: Music vocal performance and pedagogy, musical theatre
• Music, Lecturer
  • Hire: Kevin Miescke
• Political Science, Assistant Professor, Russian Politics
  • Hire: Allison Evans
  • Degree: 2014 Ph.D. Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
  • Focus: Comparative politics, with a focus on Russian and post-communist politics and international relations
• Political Science, Assistant Professor, Political Theory
  • Hire: Callum Ingram
  • Degree: 2015 Ph.D. Politics, University of Virginia
  • Focus: Examining how structural oppression shapes the tactics, ethics, and popular reception of dissent in liberal democracies
• Psychology, Assistant Professor, Lifespan Development
  • Hire: Sarah Haigh
  • Degree: 2012 Ph.D. Psychology, University of Essex
  • Focus: Neurological responses to basic sensory stimuli and what drives the system to over-respond or under-respond
• Psychology, Lecturer
  • Hire: Brittany Avila
  • Degree: 2017 Ph.D. Experimental Psychology, University of Mississippi 
  • Focus: Use of cumulative quizzes throughout semester to aid in performance on cumulative exams as long-term retention of course material
• Theatre and Dance, Lecturer, Jazz dance/choreographer
  • Hire: Nate Hodges
  • Degree: 2018 M.F.A. in Dance, California State University, Long Beach
  • Focus: Jazz history, musical theatre, emergence of commercial dance and the evolution of Contemporary dance
• Theatre and Dance, Professor, Chair
  • Hire: Ann Archbold
  • Degree: 1999 M.F.A. in Design and Technical Production, San Diego State University
  • Focus: Development of teaching methodology that combines traditional theatrical design practices with the integration of mixed reality technology (alternative and virtual reality and 3D)
• World Languages and Literatures (WLL)/Core Humanities, Lecturer
  • Hire: Erica Westhoff
  • Degree: 2010 Ph.D. Italian Literature, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Focus: Italian Drama and Theatre, Medieval and Renaissance literature and history
• WLL, Asst. Professor/Spanish, Transatlantic Studies in Colonial and Golden-Age Literature
  • Hire: Mariana Velázquez
  • Degree: 2018 Ph.D. Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University
  • Focus: Early modern European cultures, Spanish Medieval cultures and literatures, colonial Caribbean and Latin American studies, border studies, theories of empire, theories of piracy, cartography, digital humanities