News

Eight faculty members were approved for tenure at the May, 2018, Board of Trustees meeting.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The Middlebury College Board of Trustees at its spring meeting approved tenure recommendations for eight faculty members. This spring’s newly tenured group includes Tara Affolter (education studies), Ata Anzali (religion), Luis Castaneda (Spanish-Portuguese), Kemi Fuentes-George (political science), Jamie McCallum (sociology-anthropology), Andrea Robbett (economics), Marcos Rohena-Madrazo (Spanish-Portuguese), and Max Ward (history).

The promotions from assistant professor to associate professor will take effect July 1, 2018.

Tara Affolter, of the Education Studies Department, is the author of Through the Fog: Toward Inclusive Anti-Racist Work, which has been praised as a groundbreaking work that focuses on anti-racist pedagogies. Describing Affolter’s accomplishments at the College, Vice President for Academic Affairs Andrea Lloyd said that Affolter had “distinguished herself as one of the finest teachers at our college, epitomizing the spirit of inclusion that she studies as a scholar.”

Tara Affolter
Ata Anzali
Luis Castaneda
Kemi Fuentes-George
Jamie McCallum
Andrea Robbett
Marcos Rohena-Madrazo
Max Ward

Prior to her arrival at Middlebury in 2009, Affolter taught high school English and theater for more than 15 years and has worked for racial and social justice within the public schools. She also taught part-time at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the Educational Policy Studies Department. She earned her BA in English from Eastern Illinois University and her MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in education policy studies. In her teaching at Middlebury, she seeks to provide her students with the tools to critique and dismantle inequities in the schools, while exploring new ways to build inclusive learning environments at all levels of education.

Ata Anzali is a religion scholar whose teaching and research focuses on the Islamic traditions, Sufish, and comparative mysticism. He is the author of ‘Mysticism’ in Iran: the Safavid Roots of a Modern Concept, which Lloyd describes as a “pathbreaking” work that demonstrates “a profound knowledge of a complex textual tradition and a sophisticated theoretical approach.” Anzali, who began his higher education with a BSc in electrical engineering from Tehran Polytechnic, earned his MA from the University of Tehran Divinity School and his PhD from Rice University in Houston. He began teaching at Middlebury in 2012. His research interests include theories and methods in the study of religion, the comparative study of mysticism and religion, the early history of Islam and the Qur’an, Persian culture and civilization, and modern religious reform movements in the Middle East.

Luis Castaneda, a member of the Spanish and Portuguese faculty, works at the forefront of Latin American avant-garde. A highly regarded teacher and scholar, Castaneda has taught introductory courses, first-year seminars, and upper-level elective courses since his arrival at Middlebury in the fall of 2012. Castaneda’s many research and teaching interests include 20th- and 21st-century Spanish American and Spanish narrative; avant-garde and neoavant-garde movements and alternative communities; fictional representations of authorship and writing; and Utopia, nostalgia, and the Latin American left. Lloyd said Castaneda embodies the liberal arts ideal of a teacher-scholar. “As a scholar, you are held in high regard by your colleagues and peers for your truly remarkable record of writing and publishing that ranges expansively from Spanish literature of the early 20th century to contemporary Spanish film.” Castaneda earned his BA from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and his MA and PhD from the University of Colorado–Boulder. He is the author of the monograph Communidades efimeras.

Kemi Fuentes-George, a political scientist, has devoted his professional career to exploring crucial questions of international governance. His highly regarded scholarship in the field of international environmental politics has pushed the discipline in new directions. Lloyd says Fuentes-George’s book, Between Preservation and Exploitation, “breaks new ground in articulating a nuanced and convincing argument for the importance of non-state actors in environmental governance and offering a lively and thoughtful engagement with scholarship on neoliberalism.” Admired by colleagues for his teaching, Fuentes-George has become known at Middlebury for his emphasis on diversity and representation in the curriculum. “You combine high expectations and challenging course work with accessibility and openness to students, and they find that the combination pushes them to work harder and dream bigger than they thought possible,” said Lloyd. Fuentes-George, who arrived at Middlebury in 2011, earned his BA from Ohio Wesleyan University and his PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Jamie McCallum, a member of the Sociology/Anthropology Department, is the author of Global Movements, Local Power, a book “held in high regard for the fresh and innovative look it provides into global labor movements and for the rigorous methodology it employs,” said Lloyd. Since the publication of his book, McCallum’s work has helped shape the debate about global labor movements. He has especially worked to share insights with broader, non-scholarly audiences through documentary films. As a teacher, McCallum has been praised for his infectious enthusiasm and creating a classroom environment that maximizes student participation in class discussions. He has become known as a teacher who encourages students not to take ideas at face value and to challenge ideas that are pervasive in society and those found in classroom texts. McCallum began teaching at Middlebury in 2011. He earned his BA from Syracuse University and his PhD in sociology from the City University of New York Graduate Center.

Andrea Robbett, an economist whose research interests include experimental economics, behavioral economics, and public choice, has earned a reputation for her “creative and meticulous research designs to address complex social questions.” As a teacher, she has developed a student-centered approach that has greatly benefitted students. “Students and colleagues alike praise your talent at making difficult and abstract concepts understandable,” said Lloyd, “and they applaud your commitment to integrating teaching and research.” The author of numerous journal articles, Robbett is currently working on a book (under contract with MIT Press) with Middlebury colleague Jeffrey Carpenter titled Game Theory and Behavior. Robbett, who began teaching at Middlebury in 2011, earned her BS from Haverford College and her PhD from California Institute of Technology.

Marcos Rohena-Madrazo is a sociolinguist in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese with research interests in, among other things, phonetics, language variation and change, language and identity, attitudes toward accented speech, and language and popular culture. His recent research, in collaboration with colleague Brandon Baird, has drawn praise for its insights into how perceptions of language may unknowingly perpetuate gender and racial stereotypes. As a teacher, Rohena-Madrazo is recognized as someone who meets students where they are and pushes them to achieve more than they thought possible. “You have contributed an energetic and energizing presence within the Linguistics Program, and colleagues in both Spanish-Portuguese and linguistics appreciate your crucial contribution to the study and teaching of linguistics at Middlebury,” said Lloyd. Rohena-Madrazo began teaching at Middlebury in 2011. He earned his BA in Russian language and literature from Columbia University; an MA in Spanish lexicography from Escuela de Lexicografía Hispánica, Real Academia Española in Madrid; and his MA and PhD in linguistics from New York University.

Max Ward teaches in the History Department and is the author of Ghost in the Machine: Imperial Ideology and Thought Reform in Interwar Japan, which Lloyd described as a “tour de force that provides a nuanced account of the history of the Peace Preservation Law in Japan.” Lloyd notes the book has been praised for “combining theoretical sophistication with superb research and nuanced textual exegesis—all in support of an argument that contributes to a more complex understanding of power, ideology, and social control in interwar Japan.” He has also been recognized for his superb teaching, especially in communicating complex topics clearly and establishing a classroom environment that balances rigorous expectations with a relaxed manner and easy rapport with students. Ward, who began teaching at Middlebury in 2011, earned his BA from the University of California–Berkeley and his PhD from New York University.

At their May meeting, the Board of Trustees also approved promotions to the rank of full professor to Bert Johnson (political science), Kareem Khalifa (philosophy), Marion Wells (English and American literature), and Wei Xu (Chinese).