Connecticut College News

This fall, the College welcomes seven new tenure-track faculty members, including a biochemist who studies antibiotic resistance, a four-fields anthropologist who specializes in the archaeology of North America, and an award-winning botanist who has mentored undergraduate research projects at Harvard Forest.

Six visiting professors and lecturers and one coach are also new to campus this year.

"We are fortunate to have these talented individuals join our faculty; as a group they will inspire our students to creative and academic achievement," Dean of the Faculty Roger Brooks said. "They join well-established colleagues who are dedicated scholar-teachers."

The new tenure-track faculty members are:

- Monique Bedasse, assistant professor of history, who earned a bachelor´s degree in English at Florida International University, a master´s in Africana studies at Cornell University and a doctorate in history at the University of Miami. Her interests include modern African history, pre-colonial Africa, the African diaspora and modern Caribbean history.

- Shani Nwando Ikerioha Collins Achille, assistant professor of dance, who earned her bachelor of arts and master of fine arts in dance at Hollins University/American Dance Festival. Her interests include dance theory and composition, West African dance and folklore, Somatic practices and dance history. Collins joined the college last year as a visiting professor.

- Anthony Graesch, assistant professor of anthropology, who earned bachelor´s, master´s and doctorate degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles. His interests include historical archaeology, urban ethnoarchaeology, household archaeology, complex hunter-gatherers of North America and archaeological method and theory.

- Jennifer Rudolph, assistant professor of Hispanic studies, who earned a bachelor´s degree at St. Xavier University, a master´s degree at Loyola University and a doctorate in Hispanic studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Rudolph´s interests include Latino cultural studies, critical race theory and masculinity theory.

- Tanya Schneider, assistant professor of chemistry, who received her bachelor´s degree from Williams College and her master´s and doctorate from Yale University. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School. Her interests include biochemistry, antibiotic resistance, biosynthesis of natural products and enzymology.

 

- Rachel Spicer, assistant professor of botany, who earned a bachelor´s degree at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a master´s degree from Oregon State University and a doctorate from Harvard University. Her interests include woody plant physiology, aging in trees and forest ecosystem science.

- Jeff Strabone, assistant professor of English, who earned his bachelor´s degree from Dartmouth College, a master´s degree from Northwestern University, and two additional master´s degrees and a doctorate from New York University. Strabone´s interests include 18th-century British literature, romanticism, aesthetics and criticism and cultural agendas underlying the standardization of the English language.

 

For media inquiries, please contact:
Amy Martin, 860-439-2526, a.martin@conncoll.edu or Deborah MacDonnell (860) 439-2504, dmacdonn@conncoll.edu