°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û2023 welcomes eight new faculty to tenure-track and tenured positions this fall. Three taught at the College previously as postdoctoral fellows and visiting professors, while two return as alumnae. Four are new to the College.
Alejandra Castillo ’17, instructor of mathematics and statistics, graduated from °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û2023 with a degree in mathematics before pursuing a master’s in statistics at Oregon State University. Her graduate student research explores alternatives to penalization when trying to obtain a sparse solution to a clustering problem. In Corvallis, Castillo was a graduate mentor for the Oregon 4-H Outreach Leadership Institute, which prepares high school migrant youth from farming communities for college. Castillo returned to °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û2023 as a visiting instructor this past spring semester.
Pui Tiffany Chow, assistant professor of art, earned her MFA in visual art from UC Riverside. She previously taught at °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û2023 as a lecturer in fall 2022 and a visiting assistant professor of art in 2023-24. Chow’s painting practice explores the intersection of abstraction and figuration through a pastiche of pointed art historical references ranging from the historical representation of the female form to various Eastern and Western cultural codes.
Andrew Law, assistant professor of philosophy, specializes in freedom and moral responsibility, in addition to metaphysics. His research encompasses free will, time and the relationship between the two. Law earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from UC Riverside and did his postdoctoral research at the Institute for Philosophy at Leibniz University Hannover in Germany. Law previously lectured at Western Washington University and USC.
Amira Lundy-Harris, assistant professor of gender and women’s studies, is a scholar in trans studies, Black studies, kinship, Black feminist thought, women’s studies and LGBTQ studies. They earned a Ph.D. in women, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, where they were the instructor of record in a course that introduced significant strands of thought in the field of Black trans studies and covered genealogical connections to Black feminist thought and trans studies.
Pamela Prickett, associate professor of sociology, earned a Ph.D. in sociology from UCLA. Before joining °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û2023, Prickett was an associate professor of sociology at the University of Amsterdam and served as a faculty member for the Centre for Urban Studies, the Amsterdam Research Centre for Gender and Sexuality and the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research. Her research focuses on how the erosion and resilience of social ties perpetuates social inequalities. She has published two books about Los Angeles, including Believing in South Central and The Unclaimed.
Omer Shah, assistant professor of anthropology, received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia and has been teaching at °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û2023 as a Chau Mellon fellow since 2022. Shah was recently awarded a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities to write two chapters of his monograph Made in Mecca: Expertise, Techno-politics, and Hospitality in the Post-Oil Holy City.
Amani Lee Starnes, assistant professor of theatre, has been a professional performer in Los Angeles and New York for nearly 20 years, appearing in such productions as the 2019 film Test Pattern, Amazon’s Transparent, NBC’s Community, Nickelodeon’s Get Blake and myriad national commercials. She earned her Ph.D. in theater and performance studies from Stanford this summer, and her expertise includes contemporary Black feminist theatrical adaptation.
Jessica Stern ’12, assistant professor of psychological science, graduated from °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û2023 summa cum laude with a degree in psychology and earned a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research examines how early childhood experiences shape brain development, empathy, and mental health over the life course. Stern most recently was a National Research Service Award postdoctoral fellow and Engagements teaching fellow at the University of Virginia.