Announcements, News

Middlebury welcomes 40 new faculty members this fall, six of whom join with tenure-track positions or tenure.

Photo of new faculty members posing for a group photo during faculty orientation.
New Middlebury faculty gathered for a photo during faculty orientation. Front row, from left: Eunyung Lim, Adi Livny, Summer Lee Jack, Misty Kaplan, Mairead Harris, Rose Morris-Wright. Second row: Siegfried Bleher, Shrutarshi Basu, Jessica Burl, Becky Tang, Emily Putnam, Kai Zhang. Back row: Monica Przyperhart, Philip Chodrow, Peter Tarjanyi, Cole Dove, Khuram Hussain (Credit: Todd Balfour )

The new group represents expertise in a broad range of academic disciplines, including computer science, theatre, religion, English, mathematics, psychology, philosophy, and education studies.

“Every year Middlebury College welcomes a new cohort of faculty, and every year the College is refreshed by an infusion of new energy, new experiences, and new expertise,” said Jim Ralph, interim vice president for Academic Affairs. “This year continues that tradition, and we are delighted to be joined by our new colleagues who will bring so much to our mission of educating our students.”

The following will join the Middlebury faculty in tenured or tenure-track positions:

Philip Chodrow, assistant professor of computer science, earned his PhD from the  Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his BA in mathematics and philosophy from Swarthmore College. His research focuses on network science, the study of connected systems in society and nature. He also works on data science projects to promote equity and sustainability, and is currently leading a project on the dynamics of female gender representation in the mathematics profession, which grew out of a recent workshop at the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics.

Khuram Hussain, vice president for equity and inclusion and associate professor of education studies, holds a PhD in cultural foundations of education from Syracuse University, where he was awarded the All University Dissertation Prize; a master’s in American history from Binghamton University; and a bachelor’s in American history and political science from Oswego University. His research interests include engaged scholarship and social action, as well as the historic Black Press and teaching interests include culturally responsive, community-oriented, democratic learning. 

Eunyung Lim, assistant professor of religion, holds a ThD and MDiv from Harvard Divinity School; an MA and BA in Christian studies and a BA in Korean language and literature from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea. Her book Entering God’s Kingdom (Not) Like A Little Child: Images of the Child in Matthew, 1 Corinthians, and Thomas was published by De Gruyter in 2021. With a commitment to pursuing an innovative and inclusive pedagogy, she is a recipient of Harvard’s Derek Bok Teaching Certificate and specializes in multimodal and intercultural communication.

Megan Mayhew-Bergman, assistant professor of English, earned her MFA in fiction writing from Bennington College, MA in interdisciplinary studies (focus on biology and creative writing), and BA in anthropology from Wake Forest University. Prior to her tenure-track appointment, she taught at Middlebury for three years, and directs the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference. Her book How Strange a Season was published by Scribner in the spring. She continues to write environmental journalism for The Guardian and will be exploring the portrayal of women in outdoor and adventure culture with her First Year Seminar in her class, “The Feminine Heroic.” 

Lana Povitz, assistant professor of history, holds a PhD in history from New York University and an MA and BA in history from McGill University. Her research and teaching focus on U.S. social movements and grassroots politics, women and gender, oral history, food politics, and contemporary North American Jewish history. Her first book, Stirrings: How Activist New Yorkers Ignited a Movement for Food Justice, was published in fall 2019 by the University of North Carolina Press (Justice, Power and Politics series). Along with Steven High, she is co-editor of a special issue of Histoire sociale /Social History on Activist Lives (October 2020).

Becky Tang, assistant professor of mathematics, holds a PhD and MS in statistical science from Duke University and BA degrees in mathematics and computer science from Swarthmore College. She was recently recognized by the American Statistical Association for her paper, “Modeling spatially biased citizen science effort through the eBird database” in Environmental and Ecological Statistics.

Middlebury is also pleased to welcome the following visiting faculty, professors of the practice, instructors, lecturers, and teaching assistants:

Visiting Associate Professor

Edward McMahon, EdD, University of Vermont, visiting associate professor of political science 

Visiting Assistant Professors

Laura Basili, PhD, Case Western Reserve, visiting assistant professor of psychology

Shrutarshi Basu, PhD, Cornell University, visiting assistant professor of computer science

Siegfried Bleher, PhD, University of Maryland, visiting assistant professor of physics

Jay Dunn, MFA, École Internationale de Théâtre, visiting assistant professor of theatre

Daniel Fram, PhD, Michigan State University, visiting assistant professor of political science

Stephen Hoffman, EdD, Harvard University, visiting assistant professor of education studies

Summer Lee Jack, MFA, Yale School of Drama, visiting assistant professor of theatre

Rose Morris-Wright, PhD, Brandeis University, visiting assistant professor of mathematics

Joshua Nelson, PhD, Fordham University, visiting assistant professor of psychology

Emily Putnam, PhD, Yale University, visiting assistant professor of biology

Kristina Shrestha, PhD, Ohio University, visiting assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry

Peter Tarjanyi, PhD, University of Illinois, visiting assistant professor of French and Francophone studies

Adam Wager, PhD, Rutgers University, visiting assistant professor of philosophy

Instructors

Misty Kaplan, BArch, Cornell University, visiting instructor in architecture

Lecturers

Mairead Harris, MEd, University of Vermont, lecturer in Chinese

Dan Liu, MA, Yunnan University, lecturer in Chinese

Emily Malcolm-White, MS, University of Victoria, lecturer in mathematics

Ronnie Romano, BA, Middlebury College, lecturer in music

Kai Zhang, MA, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, lecturer in Chinese

Laboratory Instructors

Lauren Ash, MRes, University College, London, visiting instructor in biology

Jessica Burl, MA, Southern New Hampshire University, lab instructor in chemistry and biochemistry

Monica Przyperhart, MA, University of Vermont, visiting lab instructor in environmental studies

Teaching Assistants, Fellowships

Valeria Bedoya Cerquera, BA, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, teaching assistant in Spanish

Rui Ferreira, BA, University of Lisbon, teaching assistant in Portuguese

Celia Jimenez Gordon, Lic., Universidad de Sevilla, teaching assistant in Spanish

Kilian Jorde, Cert, Bischöfliches Cusanus-Gym, teaching assistant in German

Elsa Lambert-Danel, University of Sorbonne, teaching assistant in French

Adi Livny, PhD, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Institute teaching fellow

Katherine Monroe, BA, Middlebury College, teaching assistant in Chinese

Sean Peters, PhD, Arizona State University, post-doctoral fellow, geology

Tokiko Saigo, MA, University of Tokyo, Japan, teaching assistant in Japanese

Raghad Sayyed, University of Jordan, teaching assistant in Arabic

Dinara Zhumagambetova, BA, Nazarbayev University, teaching assistant in Russian