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New
Faculty Members Arrive at Pomona College
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Pomona College, one of the nation’s premier liberal arts
colleges, has hired 17 new faculty for the 2005-06 academic
year. They bring a wide range of experience and passions to
the campus.
Rita Bashaw is assistant professor of German and
Russian and director of Oldenborg Center for Modern
Languages and International Relations. Oldenborg is at once
a foreign-language residence hall, an international exchange
venue, and an international affairs center. Bashaw earned
her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Jose Cartagena-Calderon, assistant professor of
Romance languages and literatures, focuses his research on
the literary and cultural production of Spain and the
Americas from the late 15th through the 17th centuries, with
special emphasis on the construction of self perception and
early modern masculinities and non-normative sexualities.
Cartagena-Calderon earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Philip Choi, assistant professor of physics and
astronomy, will teach “Introductory Astronomy,” “Life in the
Universe,” “Observational Astronomy Lab” and “Stellar
Structure and Evolution.” Choi’s primary research interests
are observational studies of galaxy evolution. His current
focus includes both detailed studies of nearby galaxies as
well as large infrared and optical surveys of distant galaxy
samples. Choi earned his Ph.D. from University of
California, Santa Cruz.
Stephan Garcia, assistant professor of mathematics,
teaches “Calculus II,” Linear Algebra” and “Principles of
Real Analysis I.” His research is primarily in operator
theory, which can best be described as a cross between
linear algebra and infinite dimensional analysis. Garcia
earned his Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley.
Dru Gladney, president of the Pacific Basin Institute
at Pomona College and professor of anthropology, has
expertise in U.S. and China relations, Islam in Asia and
transnationalism on the Sino-European frontier. The Pacific
Basin Institute is dedicated to expanding and enhancing
comity and shared knowledge among the nations and cultures
that face the Pacific. Gladney earned his Ph.D. from the
University of Washington.
Malkiat Johal, associate professor of chemistry,
researches using layer-by-layer ionic adsorption processes
to fabricate nanomaterials for optical and biochemical
applications. His current courses are general chemistry,
physical chemistry, advanced analytical chemistry and
laboratory, and soft nanomaterials. Johal earned his Ph.D.
from the University of Cambridge.
Gizem Karaali, assistant professor of mathematics
primarily researches representation theory, which is
representing abstract algebraic objects with geometric
objects that are easy to recognize and understand. She is
also working with the symmetry of physical objects and
physical theories. Karaali earned her Ph.D. from University
of California, Berkeley.
Pardis Mahdavi, assistant professor of anthropology,
teaches courses in social and medical anthropology. Her
areas of research include gender, sexuality, and health and
human rights, particularly in the Muslim world.
Specifically, she focuses on the intersection of sexuality
and politics in post-revolutionary Iran and how sexuality is
being used as a political statement, particularly with
Iranian youth. Mahdavi earned her Ph.D. from Columbia
University.
Alma Martinez, assistant professor of theatre and
dance, received a Fulbright grant for examining the work of
a theatre collective in Latin American Nuevo Teatro Popular.
Martinez teaches intermediate acting and her research looks
at the interconnectivity of Chicano Theatre and the Nuevo
Teatro Popular Movement in Latin America from 1964-1975.
Martinez earned her M.F.A. from the University of Southern
California and is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University.
April J. Mayes, assistant professor of history,
teaches classes on the Caribbean and U.S. and Latin American
relations, such as “The Caribbean; Crucible of Modernity”
and “Afro-Latin America.” Currently she is writing a book
that examines the transformation of Dominican identity from
brown to white in the period between 1870 and 1930. She also
examines the transnational movement of ideas among
African-descended political leaders in the United States,
Haiti, and the Dominican Republic during the nineteenth
century. Mayes earned her Ph.D. from the University of
Michigan.
Susan McWilliams, an instructor in politics, teaches
classical political theory and “The Politics of Literature.”
Her research is primarily on American political and popular
culture. She examines the connections between travel
narratives and political knowledge in the Western tradition
and also studies the American legal and political tradition
of Roe v. Wade. McWilliams earned her M.A. and is also a
Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University.
Sandeep Mukherjee, assistant professor of art and art
history, teaches painting classes and topics in 20th Century
painting. His expertise areas also include drawing and
contemporary issues in art. From earlier self-portraits to
the more recent abstractions his interest remains in making
the hybrid object—part painting, part drawing, part
sculpture and part environment. Mukherjee earned his M.F.A.
from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Mary Paster, assistant professor of linguistics and
cognitive science, researches African languages, phonology
(the study of speech sounds), and morphology (how words are
built from stems and prefixes/suffixes). She focuses on
describing poorly documented languages and demonstrating the
theoretical importance of the linguistic phenomena found in
these languages, particularly in their sound patterns. Her
courses include “Introduction to Linguistics,” “Phonology,”
and “Language in the Field.” Paster earned her Ph.D. from
the University of California, Berkeley.
Claudia Rankine, Henry G. Lee professor of English,
is an award-winning poet whose work is primarily in
documentary poetics, which is writing that is grounded in
the real world and current events. She is currently working
on documentary multimedia pieces with photographer John
Lucas. Rankine is teaching “Poetry Movements Since the
1950s” and “Advanced Creative Writing: Poetry.” Rankine
earned her M.F.A. from Columbia University.
Friederike von Scherwin-High, assistant professor of
German and Russian. Her work centers on 18th century German
literature and German intellectual thought. She is currently
working on an online literary encyclopedia, plays and
aesthetic essays by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. von Scherwin-High
earned her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst.
JoAnne Ferguson is assistant professor of physical
education and women’s softball coach and earned her M.Ed.
from University of Virginia.
Joshua White is assistant professor of physical
education and men and women’s swim and dive coach. White
earned his Ph.D. from Indiana University.
Pomona College, one of the nation’s premier liberal arts
colleges, provides its
students with a challenging curriculum in the humanities,
natural sciences, social
sciences, and fine arts, and an unsurpassed environment for
intellectual inquiry and growth. Its hallmarks include small
classes, close relationships between students and faculty,
and a range of opportunities for student research. For more
information on Pomona College, visit www.pomona.edu.
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