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
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