Middlebury Welcomes New Faculty for 2025-2026 Academic Year

Middlebury College welcomed a dynamic cohort of new faculty for the 2025–26 academic year, bringing expertise across a broad range of academic disciplines including neuroscience, economics, political science, psychology, and gender, sexuality, and feminist studies. The College also appointed six new visiting assistant professors and five new language teaching assistants in German, French, Russian, and Spanish.

“I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know our new faculty members, and I’m genuinely excited about what they bring to our community,” said Roberto Lint Sagarena, dean of the faculty and professor of American Studies. “They’re entering higher education at a moment of extremely rapid change. Their impressive expertise and passion for education will help us navigate these challenges while inspiring our students and strengthening our academic programs.” 

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

Margaret Hanson, assistant professor of political science, has a PhD in political science from The Ohio State University, an MA in Eurasian Studies from European University at St. Petersburg, and a BA in history from Grinnell College. Her research examines how law, politics, and economics interact to shape state-society relations in former Soviet states, particularly autocracies. This includes projects focused on migration, democracy and citizenship, corruption, and economic governance.

Caileigh Glenn, assistant professor of political science, has a PhD and MA in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and separate BS degrees in economics and political science from Oklahoma State University. Her research and teaching interests include economic statecraft, the political economy of security, and the domestic causes and consequences of international cooperation. Her current book project identifies the conditions that prompt hostile government responses to the imposition of targeted financial sanctions by the United States.

R. Keating Godfrey, assistant professor of neuroscience, has a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Arizona, an MS in biology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and a BS in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Vermont. She completed an NSF postdoctoral fellowship in study sensory receptor evolution at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera Biodiversity at the University of Florida. Her research centers on the evolution of cell types and circuits and differences in vulnerability to disease, focusing primarily on egg-laying, or oviposition, behavior in insects.

Kevin Kuruc, assistant professor of economics, has a PhD and MA in economics from the University of Texas-Austin and a BA in mathematical economics from Temple University. He is a research fellow at the Population Wellbeing Initiative at the University of Texas. His research interests are in macroeconomics—specifically growth and development—as well as agricultural and environmental economics. His recent projects explore the interaction of demographic change, technological progress, and sustainability. He is also interested in understanding how insights from economics can be used to improve the lives of animals.

Isabelle Langrock, assistant professor of sociology, has a PhD and MA in communication from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in history, philosophy, and social studies of science and medicine from the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on how people create, spread, and regulate information with an emphasis on the inter-disciplinary domains of digital governance and organization, information environments, and social activism. Her current projects focus on women’s participation in open source projects, book bans in schools, and the role of social class in shaping online behavior, particularly around the use of generative AI. 

Laura MacMullin, assistant professor of psychology, has a PhD and MA in psychology from the University of Toronto and a BA in psychology with a concentration in economics from Columbia University. Her research aims to improve the well-being of trans and gender-diverse youth, focusing on the experiences of risk and resilience for BIPOC trans youth. She has also studied how gender-affirming healthcare can be made more accessible and designed and tested an empathy-based intervention aimed to improve children’s attitudes toward gender diversity.

Linamarie Miller, assistant professor of chemistry, has a PhD in chemical biology from The Rockefeller University and a BA in chemistry with a concentration in biochemistry and molecular biology from Williams College. Her research focuses on the early stages of ribosome biogenesis using structural biology techniques. She received the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Bahia Munem, assistant professor of gender, sexuality, and feminist studies,has a PhD and MA in women’s and gender studies from Rutgers University, an MS in professional and technical communication from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and BA in political science and women’s and gender studies from Rutgers University. Her research explores intersections of race, gender, sexuality, class, and religion, with a particular focus on Latinx, Latin American, and Middle Eastern Studies. She previously served as director of undergraduate studies at the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University.

Alicia Nuñez, assistant professor of Luso-Hispanic Studies, has a PhD in Spanish and Portuguese from Northwestern University, a BA in Spanish literature and cultures, and a BS in psychology with an emphasis in biology and human cognition, both from California Lutheran University. Her research focuses on Central American migrant children and the survival strategies they develop within systems of detainment. She teaches courses such as “Latin American and Latinx Childhoods” and “Migration and Borders” to reflect her transnational commitment to migration, childhood, and resistance across the Americas.

Nnenna Onyima, assistant professor of French and Francophone studies, has a PhD and MA in French language and literature from the University of Virginia and a BA in French from Imo State University. Her research focuses on black feminist thought, African feminism, women, gender, and sexuality studies, as well as African queer studies. Through a gendered prism, she also studies the representation of spirits in African literature and film. Her work examines the lived experiences of embodied spirits in precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial sub-Saharan African narratives. 

Kun You, assistant professor of Chinese,has a PhD in Chinese from the University of Colorado, an MA in Chinese literature from the University of Macau, and a BA in Chinese language and literature, and also history, from Sun Yat-sen University. His research interests focus on Early China with a focus on early Chinese politico-philosophy, manuscript studies, and book history. He is also interested in intellectual history, literary theory, and critical theory and is currently working on a book titled “Types of Titles and Their Functionality in Early Chinese Textual Culture.”

Fulya Pinar, assistant professor of anthropology, has a PhD in anthropology from Rutgers University, an MA in comparative studies in history and society from Koc University, and a BA in management from Bogazici University. Her research focuses on displacement and solidarity movements in Turkey and the Middle East. She also works on unconventional spaces and methods of solidarity and social movement among migrants and citizens at the times of capitalist, authoritarian, and colonial destruction.

Spring Ulmer, assistant professor of English, has an MFA in poetry from the University of Arizona, an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Iowa, and BA in fine arts from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. She is a widely published author of poems, books, essays, articles, and anthologies including a forthcoming monograph titled “The Agency of the Missing: African Portraits of Green Resistance.” She is a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellow and a 2016 Willis Barnstone Translation Prize winner.

Visiting Assistant Professors

Robyn Barrow,  PhD, University of Pennsylvania, visiting assistant professor of history of art and architecture.

Evan Camrud, PhD, Iowa State University, visiting assistant professor of mathematics and statistics.

Eric Cheuk, PhD, George Washington University, visiting assistant professor of black studies.

Anna Melnikova, PhD, Stony Brook University, visiting assistant professor of Russian.

Jennifer Strtak, PhD, Yale University, visiting professor of history. 

Professors

Ian Baucom, PhD, Yale University, professor of English, president. 

Associate Professors

Carolyn Craven, PhD, Yale University, associate professor emerita of economics. 

Assistant Laboratory Professors

Rafael Díaz Hernández, PhD, University of Kansas, assistant laboratory professor in chemistry.

Lecturers

Luis Camacho, PhD, University of Texas, lecturer, sociology

Allison Cardon, PhD, University at Buffalo, lecturer, first-year seminar program

Sheila Cheston, JD, Columbia University, professor of the practice

Kate Gridley, MA, Williams College, lecturer in studio art

Margaret Jacobs, BA, Dartmouth College, lecturer in studio art

Jane Kent, BA, University of the Arts, lecturer in studio art

Daniel Miramontes, MFA, University of Maryland, artist-in-residence in dance

Tim Profeta, JD, Duke University, professor of the practice

Abner Zhang, PhD, University of Mississippi, lecturer in Chinese

Teaching Assistants/Assistants in Instruction

Franziska Berg, BA, Johannes Gutenberg University, teaching assistant in German

Manon Le Lay, MA, University of Paris Cité, teaching assistant in French and Francophone Studies

Zhaniya Murat, BA, Nazarbayev University, teaching assistant in Russian

Felipe Pereyra Rozas, PhD, National University of La Plata, teaching assistant in Spanish