New Faculty
Mirla Criste Agnir, visiting assistant professor of theatre and dance, has taught theater at Slippery Rock University, Oberlin College and the University of California, Irvine, where she earned a master of fine arts in drama. She has played lead and featured roles in many dramas, musicals and films and made her Broadway debut in the original cast of Miss Saigon. While at the University of California, Mirla served as assistant to casting director Clair Sinnett. She has written, directed, choreographed, produced and performed in scores of professional films, television, concert dances and dramatic works for the musical stage. At Slippery Rock she directed In the Garden of Live Flowers, the 2002 Kennedy Center/ATHE David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award winner.
Verena Blechinger-Talcott, assistant professor of government, earned her Ph.D. in political science from Munich University. A native of Germany, she lived in Japan for seven years, five of them as a research fellow at the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo. She has served as a lecturer at Munich, Muenster and Tokyo universities. Verena's most recent position was a postdoctoral fellowship in the Program on US-Japan Relations at Harvard University. Her research interests include Japanese and East Asian politics and political corruption. In her spare time she enjoys movies, hunting for antiques, hiking and skiing. She and her husband, Paul, are hoping to include a dog in their family soon.
Kara Hrubi Bopp joins the faculty as visiting instructor of psychology. A 1996 Hamilton graduate, she earned a master's at New York University and completed her Ph.D. in experimental psychology at Syracuse University. Her research has been published in The Gerontologist, Experimental Aging Research and Psychology and Aging and was a collaborative author on the book Using Writing to Teach. Her research interests include memory and aging. She is married to Paul Bopp, a 1997 Hamilton graduate, who is a personal financial adviser for American Express.
Joanna Bulkley, visiting assistant professor of psychology, comes to Hamilton from the University of California, Riverside, where she was a postgraduate researcher in the department of psychology. She has also taught at Reed College and the University of Oregon. Joanna's research interests are the study of the effects of culture on parenting and child social-emotional development. She earned her Ph.D. and master's degree in psychology from the University of Oregon and bachelor's degree from Portland State University. She has been married for nine years to Jack Pollock, a freelance illustrator, and has a wonderful dog, Fido. Her other interests are hiking, biking and knitting.
Christopher Chekuri, visiting instructor of history, comes to Hamilton from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he completed work on his doctorate in history. His research interests include empires of the Indo-Islamic world; family and colonial modernity in 19th-century India; alternative modernities; and cultures of globalization. Chris is co-author of "Diasporas Before and After the Nation: Displacing the Modern," in Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies (Jan./Feb. 2003).
Min Chen, visiting instructor in East Asian languages, has most recently been teaching in the Associated Colleges in China program in Beijing, where she was also assistant to the field director. She earned a master of arts degree and bachelor of arts in economic law from Capital University of Economic and Business in Beijing.
Shuwen Chuang, teaching fellow in Chinese, most recently taught at National Taiwan Normal University and National Chengchi University in Taiwan. Previously she was a visiting scholar teaching Chinese at the University of Missouri. She received a master of arts from National Taiwan Normal University.
Didar Erdinc, visiting assistant professor of economics, comes to Hamilton from the American University in Bulgaria, where she was an assistant professor of economics. She earned her Ph.D. and master's degree from the University of Southern California. Her areas of research include open economy macroeconomics, econometrics and European economic integration. Didar has published several articles about the Bulgarian economy and has presented papers at numerous conferences. She enjoys jazz music, swimming and reading.
Rob Foels, visiting instructor of psychology, completed work on his doctorate in social psychology at Syracuse University. He has taught at Colgate University, the State University of New York at Cortland, LeMoyneCollege and Syracuse University. His research interests are how stereotypes influence social identity, social cognition and stereotyping, and gender and racial socialization. His interests include social issues/social justice, woodworking, gardening, camping and hiking. Rob's wife, Wendy, is completing a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering.
Cristina Gonzalez-Gomez, visiting instructor in Spanish, has been teaching Spanish for the Hamilton program in Spain and the College for International Studies. She earned a master's in teaching Spanish as a foreign language from Antonio de Nebrija University and has taken courses toward her doctorate at Complutense University in Madrid.
Aram Goudsouzian, visiting assistant professor of history, most recently taught history at Suffolk University and the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He earned a Ph.D. from Purdue University and a master's in history from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Aram has published book chapters and journal articles in Boston Sports, Hollywood's America: United States History Through its Films, Film and History CD-Rom Annual 2001 and Pittsburgh Sports: Stories from the Steel City. He has also contributed encyclopedia articles to The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives: Thematic Series - Sports Figures and The Encyclopedia of Sport and American Culture. Aramhas also written a biography of actor Sidney Poitier, to be published next year, and loves soccer.
Elizabeth Amelia Hadley comes to Hamilton as the Irwin Chair in Women's Studies. She is associate professor and chair of African American studies at Simmons College, and has also taught at Northeastern University. She earned her Ph.D. at Indiana University and master's from the University of Pittsburgh. Widely recognized as an expert on images of woman of color, Elizabeth is the author of Bessie Coleman: The Brownskin Lady Bird, the first full-length study of the early 20th-century African-American aviatrix. She has authored chapters in the books Africana: An Introduction and Study, Struggles for Representation: African American Documentary Film and Video, The Readers Companion to U.S. Women's History and Multiple Voices in Film Criticism. She has also written biographic essays for Notable Black American Women. Book II, African American Women: A Biographical Dictionary and Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia.Elizabeth is active in theatre and film and served as advisor, music consultant and narrator for the documentary As I Remember It: A Portrait of Dorothy West.
Lisa Heller, lecturer in rhetoric and communication, has taught courses in argumentation and public discourse at Bates College and the University of Richmond. Most recently she was director of the Providence Urban Debate League at BrownUniversity. She was awarded a fellowship in environmental rhetoric and public discourse at the Universityof Pittsburgh and earned a master's degree in speech communication from SyracuseUniversity. Lisa is the founder of Dump & Run, a nationally recognized nonprofit environmental firm dedicated to serving the university and college communities in waste prevention techniques. Using the help of student groups and other volunteers, Dump & Run rescues would-be discards from the landfill during student move-out time each spring. Rescued items are sold to students and community members with funds going to benefit local charitable causes.
Jenny Irons, assistant professor of sociology, completed work for her master's degree and Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Arizona. She is the author of an article about women in the Mississippi civil rights movement that appeared in Gender & Society. Her research interests include race, gender, sexuality, politics and culture. Jenny is coming to Hamilton with her dog, Lucy. In her free time she enjoys running, hiking and yoga.
Kristine Lewis, visiting instructor of Africana Studies, comes to Hamilton as a fellow from the Consortium for a Stronger Minority Presence. She earned a bachelor's degree from Knox College in Galesburg, Ill,. and a master's degree in the social foundations of education from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Kristine is finishing her Ph.D. in urban education at Temple University. Her dissertation is titled "Centering the Margin: African American students and the Black Community at a small, predominantly white college."
Eleanor Nevins, visiting instructor in anthropology, completed work for her Ph.D. and master's degree in anthropology at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. She has taught at the University of Virginia. She is the author of "He Became an Eagle: a Contemporary Western Apache Oral Narrative," in Voices from the Four Directions: Contemporary Translations of the Native Literatures of North America (forthcoming, 2003). Eleanor's research interests are the ethnography of communications, language ideologies, and language shift and endangerment.
Pamela Price, visiting instructor of geology, earned her bachelor's degree at William Smith College and master's in geology from Bowling Green State University. She took a break from school and joined the Navy, where she became an oceanographer. After five-and-a-half years of active duty service, she joined the Reserves and is currently finishing her Ph.D. at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Pam enjoys camping, canoeing and sailing.
Anthony Richardson, visiting instructor of psychology, earned a bachelor's in psychology from the University of California at San Diego, a master's in geography and Ph.D. in psychology from the Universityof California at Santa Barbara. Anthony, and his wife, Valerie, have two sons. His interests include collecting jazz and reading science fiction.
David Rideout, visiting assistant professor of physics, studied aerospace engineering as an undergraduate at Georgia Tech. He earned a master's and Ph.D. in physics at Syracuse University. For the past two years he has worked at the Albert Einstein Institute in Potsdam, Germany, doing high performance computing for gravitational wave astrophysics. He has taught at the State University of New York, Cortland, and Le Moyne College, and served as visiting fellow at the Cornell University Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. David is married, has a 5 year-old daughter and another due in August. He enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, boating and camping.
Ricardo Samuel, visiting assistant professor of sociology, most recently taught at Gettysburg College. He held previous academic positions as postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Potsdam and lecturer at George Washington University. He completed his Ph.D. and master's degrees in sociology at the University of California at Berkeley and a master's in history at Free University of Berlin, Germany. Ricardo's research interests are comparative historical sociology, sociology of culture, and international affairs and global cultures.
Jodi Schorb, visiting instructor of English, comes to Hamilton from Mills College, where she has taught since 2001. She completed work on her Ph.D. in English at the University of California, Davis, where she will defend her dissertation in December. Schorb earned a master's degree from San Francisco State University and bachelor's degree from Northwestern University. She specializes in colonial and 19th-century American literature and her research interests include premodern sexualities, 18th-century cultural studies and prison writing. Jodi notes that she is originally from Grand Island, N.Y., and is suited up for a return to New York after 15 years in California.
Kamila Shamsie, visiting assistant professor of English, returns to Hamilton, where the seeds of her first novel were sown in a short story she wrote for a class. After graduating Hamilton in 1994, she went on to a graduate program in creative writing at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her first novel, In the City by the Sea, was described as "riveting" in several reviews, and won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. This first novel won the Prime Minister's Award for literature in Pakistanin 1999. Her second novel, Salt and Saffron, has been published in the U.S., the U.K., Pakistan and Italy.
Cathy Silber, visiting assistant professor of East Asian languages, has been assistant professor of Chinese at Williams College, where she also served as coordinator of the Chinese program. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, and her master's degree from the University of Iowa. Cathy served as translator of The Lost Daughter of Happiness; co-editor and translator of Maidenhome and Selected Works of Wang Meng. She is the author of "Privacy in Dream of the Red Chamber," "Literature: Chinese" in The Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues and Knowledge; and "Women's Writing From Hunan" in Chinafor Women: Travel and Culture.
Richard Skinner, visiting instructor of government, graduated from Hamilton in 1992. He earned a master's degree from the University of Virginia and his Ph.D. is pending. From 2000 to 2002 he served as a research analyst at the Campaign Finance Institute in Washington, D.C. Richard most recently taught political science at SUNY Geneseo.
Eric Thomas, visiting instructor of religious studies, completed his Ph.D. at Princeton University. He earned master's degrees from the University of Florida and Yale University. Thomas most recently was the Jacob Jimeson Teaching Fellow in Religious Studies at Hartwick College. His research interest involves how science and religion interact.
Ambassador Edward "Ned" Walker Jr., a 1962 Hamilton graduate, is president and chief executive officer of The Middle East Institute, a highly-regarded Washington-based think tank on Middle East policy. Before assuming his current position in 2001 Walker worked with Colin Powell for five months in the new Bush administration as assistant secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, a position he had previously held under Madeleine Albright during the second Clinton administration. Walker's diplomatic career includes successive years (1989-1999) as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, the United Nations, the Arab Republic of Egypt, and Israel. Walker writes a bimonthly column in Al Hayat - one of the most widely read Arabic newspapers in the Middle East. He has testified before Congress and worked with the administration on efforts to improve U.S.diplomacy in the Middle East. Walker earned a master's degree at Boston University. In 1962 he enlisted in the United States Army, serving three years in Heidelberg, Germany. He attended the Royal College of Defense Studies in London in 1988.
Stephen Waratuke, visiting assistant professor of chemistry, earned a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at Purdue University and a bachelor's degree at the University of Pittsburgh. He most recently taught at Susquehanna University. Stephen has published papers in Journal of American Chemical Society and Chemistry Communicator.
Zhiqun Zhu joins the department of government as a visiting assistant professor. He earned his Ph.D. in political science from the University of South Carolina and master's degree from Indiana State University. Before coming to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies, he worked as the senior assistant to the Consul for Press and Cultural Affairs at the American Consulate General in Shanghai. Zhiqun is married with a 2 year-old daughter. He likes to cook and play ping pong.
Kara Kerwin, Assistant Director of Electronic Media, received a bachelor's degree in political science from LeMoyne College and is about to complete her masters in communication from the University of Buffalo. She has experience in marketing, computer training, web design, and teaching undergraduate classes in media and technology. In her free time, she plans to work on craft projects, learn pilates, and learn how to cook. Kara grew up outside of Syracuse and is quite pleased to be returning to the area (kkerwin, ext. 4676).
Arthur McCann '00 has returned to the Hill as Assistant Dean of Admission. While a student at Hamilton, Artie played varsity soccer and junior varsity basketball. He comes back to the Hill from Wyoming Seminary College Preparatory School in Kingston, Penn., where he has been living, teaching and coaching for the last two years. When he is not working, he likes relaxing at the beach (amccann, ext. 4425).
Lisa Nassimos joins the Business Office staff as an Accounting Clerk responsible for payables and assisting with payroll. Lisa earned her associate's degree from Mohawk Valley Community College and has more than 10 years of accounting and clerical experience. Lisa and her husband, Lance, have two children: Lucas, 6, and Lindsey, 3. They enjoy many outdoor activities including four-wheeling, snowmobiling, biking and camping (lnassimo, ext. 4306).
Laura Prenot '02, Art Intern, is originally from the Mid-Hudson River Valley and was a studio art major while studying at Hamilton. In her spare time, she likes to take care of her plants (lprenot, ext. 4269).
Julie Raynsford '00, returns to the Hill as Assistant Director, Annual Giving in the Communications and Development office. Since graduating, Julie has worked in marketing at McMaster-Carr Supply Company and as a high school coordinator/recruiter in the admissions office at Bryant & Stratton College. While attending Hamilton, she interned in the Career Center. Julie resides in East Syracuse and when she's not working, she enjoys golf, running and biking. (jraynsfo, ext. 4415)
Nicole Robertson, Assistant Dean of Admission/Coordinator of Multicultural Programs, graduated from Lehigh University last spring with a bachelor's degree in English and minors in health and human development and music. She enjoys Gospel music and exotic cuisine. Nicole founded a not-for-profit organization called "Gift of Life Fund" to raise money for patients in need of marrow transplants (nroberts, ext. 4393).
Robert Sawyer, Assistant Athletic Trainer, received a bachelor's degree in physical education (athletic training) from Houghton College and expects to complete his master's degree in applied physiology at the University of Buffalo by December, 2003. Rob is originally from Morrisville and enjoys water sports, scuba diving, running, playing guitar and woodworking (rsawyer, ext. 4767).
Maureen Scoones, Training Coordinator in Information Technology Services, received her bachelor's degree from Utica College and her master's degree from Syracuse University. Maureen returned to Utica College as an employee in 1988 holding various positions in institutional research and computer services. She enjoys baking, gardening, playing with her nieces and nephews and traveling. She and her sister are on a quest to visit all of the 50 United States and she has seven left to go. (mscoones, ext. 4178).
Carol-Denise Washington, Dispatcher/Communications Assistant in Campus Safety comes to Hamilton from Laidlaw Transit. During her 11-year career at Laidlaw, Carol-Denise was promoted from bus driver to dispatcher to terminal manager. Carol-Denise lives in Utica and has three children, two of whom reside in Utica and the third in North Carolina (cwashing, ext. 4141).
Sandra Whitney, Biology Research Technician, earned her bachelor's degree in biotechnology from Rochester Institute of Technology. She worked as a research assistant at the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory and held several positions with Prevalere Life Sciences (formerly Oneida Research Services). Sandra and her husband, David, live in New Hartford with their three children, Paige, 11, Bryce, 9, and Morgan, 6. Sandra enjoys family time, camping and watercolor painting (swhitney, ext. 4221).
Jasen Wright '03, has been hired as an Assistant Director, Annual Giving, after working as an intern for that area this summer. He majored in government, focusing on American politics and U.S. corporations. He is a sports enthusiast having played four years of Hamilton football. He enjoys weight training, hiking, and camping (jwright, ext. 4593).
New Responsibilities
Sue Donegan has returned to the Admission Office as Associate Dean of Admission and Director of the WAVE program. Most recently Sue was the Associate Director, Annual Giving.
Dana Hubbard is now a Help Desk Support Specialist in Information Technology Services. Dana was the Coordinator/Technologist in the Language Center for nearly four years.
