52 accomplished scholars join Brown faculty as 2021-22 academic year begins

As the 2021-22 academic year begins, Brown welcomes a diverse and dynamic group of talented new faculty members and scholars to campus.

With the start of a new academic year, Brown University welcomes a cohort of 52 new faculty members with research and teaching interests spanning topics from Near Eastern art to computer vision to racial inequality.

“The work of our extraordinary faculty matters today as never before,” said Brown Provost Richard M. Locke. “Over the past 18 months, we’ve seen the magnitude of the challenges that we face, from structural racism to climate change to global pandemics and other health threats, and we’ve watched our faculty pave the way to a better world. We see this in their groundbreaking research and teaching and in the innovative collaborations that have long distinguished Brown.

“I’m thrilled to welcome this year’s new faculty members, all of whom I know will further enrich our community even as they continue to push forward the frontiers of knowledge.”

The new professors, lecturers, researchers and teaching faculty will serve in nearly 30 different academic departments, research centers and institutes across the Brown campus. Hiring this year reflects areas of strategic growth at Brown, including faculty working with the Data Science Initiative, the expansions of the Department of Economics and Department of Computer Science, as well as a new chair in Africana studies — Professor Noliwe Rooks, who served as this year’s keynote speaker for Opening Convocation.

A large proportion of people in this year’s cohort are from groups that are historically underrepresented in higher education, reflecting a commitment to diversity and inclusion laid out in Brown’s campus-wide Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan launched in 2016.

The new faculty join 3,038 new undergraduate, graduate and medical students who also join the Brown community this semester.

“At Brown, we pride ourselves on our vibrant and dynamic scholarly community and the constant exchange of ideas across our campus,” Locke said. “Each year our new faculty — some of the world’s brightest minds representing a wealth of diverse backgrounds — bring new energy to the Brown community and reinvigorate our scholarly discourse. I know that our students will benefit from the knowledge and perspective that this accomplished group of scholars brings to Brown.”

The following is a full list of new faculty members.

Humanities and Social Sciences

Elsa Belmont Flores

Lecturer in Language Studies

Prudence Carter

Sarah and Joseph, Jr. Dowling Professor of Sociology

Mahasan Chaney

Assistant Professor of Education

Denise Davis

Senior Lecturer in Gender and Sexuality Studies

Ryan Doody

Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Stéphanie Gaillard

Lecturer in French and Francophone Studies

Katharina Galor

Hirschfeld Senior Lecturer in Judaic Studies

Amy Handlan

Yang Family Assistant Professor of Economics

Peter Hull

Groos Family Assistant Professor of Economics

Ieva Jusionyte

Watson Family University Associate Professor of International Security and Anthropology

Toru Kitagawa

Associate Professor of Economics

Soonwoo Kwon

Assistant Professor of Economics

Lorenzo Lagos

Assistant Professor of Economics

Jeremy Lehnen

Lecturer in Language Studies

Naemi McPherson

Lecturer in East Asian Studies

Helina Metaferia

Assistant Professor of Visual Art

Iris Montero

Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies

Jeffrey Niedermaier

Mulberry Essence Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and East Asian Studies

Heather Nowicki

Lecturer in Language Studies

Lindsay Page

Annenberg Associate Professor of Education Policy

Ivan Ramos

Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies

Noliwe Rooks

Professor of Africana Studies

Jonathan Roth

Assistant Professor of Economics

Amy Russell

Associate Professor of Classics

Lauren Yapp

Lecturer in Urban Studies

 

 

Life and Physical Sciences

Christine Breiner

Associate Professor of Mathematics

Linda Clark

Lecturer in Data Science

Daniel Ibarra

Assistant Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences and Environment and Society

Jordan Kostiuk

Lecturer in Mathematics

Eric Larson

Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Robert Lewis

Lecturer in Computer Science

Benjamin McDonald

Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Tim Nelson

Lecturer in Computer Science

Oanh Nguyen

Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics

Chen Sun

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Isabel Vogt

Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Milda Zizyte

Lecturer in Computer Science

Biology and Medicine

Aisling Dugan

Lecturer in Medical Science, Biology Education; Lecturer in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology

Sheldon Holder

Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

 

Engineering

Mauro Rodriguez

Assistant Professor of Engineering

Monica Martinez Wilhelmus

Assistant Professor of Engineering

 

Public Health

Madina Agénor

Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences

Alyssa Bilinski

Peterson Family Assistant Professor of Health Policy, Assistant Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice and Biostatistics

Kaley Hayes

Assistant Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice

Aditya Khanna

Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences

Cyrus Kosar

Assistant Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice

Youjin Lee

Manning Assistant Professor of Biostatistics

Arman Oganisian

Assistant Professor of Biostatistics

Robert Rosales

Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences

Shufang Sun

Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences

Erica Walker

Assistant Professor of Epidemiology

Jesse Yedinak

Assistant Professor of the Practice of Epidemiology