RELEASED: April 17, 2003

DANVILLE, KY—During the spring meeting of the Centre College board of trustees, several faculty members were granted tenure and/or promotions.

Steve Beaudoin, assistant professor of history, and Jennifer McMahon, assistant professor of philosophy, received tenure.

Mykol Hamilton was promoted to professor of psychology from associate professor.

Promoted to the rank of associate professor from assistant professor were Rick Axtell (religion), Steve Asmus (biology), Beaudoin, Mary Daniels (Spanish), Mark de Araujo (dramatic arts) and Donna Plummer (Education).

Beaudoin joined the Centre College faculty in 1997 as a visiting assistant professor of history. As an undergraduate, Beaudoin earned a double major in history and French, and his scholarly interests bring those fields together. He has taught courses on various topics in early modern and 19th-century European history, as well as world and Chinese civilization. Besides essays in the Journal of Social History, the Encyclopedia of European Social History, and Organization of American Historians' Magazine of History for Teachers of History, Beaudoin recently published The Industrial Revolution, a reader in Houghton Mifflin's Problems in European Civilization series. He will soon complete Poverty in World History, to be published by Routledge Press. Beaudoin holds a bachelor's degree from Bates College, master's degrees from University of Maine and Carnegie Mellon University, and a doctoral degree from Carnegie Mellon University.

McMahon has taught at Centre since 1997. She has expertise in existentialism, 19th- and 20th-century Continental philosophy, philosophy and literature, Asian philosophy, aesthetics and biomedical ethics. She's published essays on philosophy and popular culture in Seinfeld and Philosophy, The Matrix and Philosophy and The Simpsons and Philosophy. She's also given conference presentations and published journal articles on existentialism and aesthetics. McMahon earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Skidmore College. She holds master's and doctoral degrees in philosophy from the State University of New York at Buffalo. During her tenure at SUNY-Buffalo, McMahon was honored with a teaching excellence award.

Hamilton began her career at Centre in 1988. Hamilton's scholarly interests focus on sex bias and language, gender and education, gender differences, and gender issues relevant to children. Hamilton has frequently delivered papers at scholarly conferences, including a recent invited address in Germany summarizing her 15 years of research on sex bias in language. She was also invited to the Oxford Round Table in Oxford, England, this spring to deliver a paper. Hamilton had done research and written for the leading women's psychology textbook, Women and Gender: A Feminist View. She wrote an article titled The Animal=Male Hypothesis: Children's and Adults' Beliefs about the Sex of Non-Sex-Specific Stuffed Animals that was co-authored by Centre students. It will appear in the journal Sex Roles this June. Hamilton holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Stanford University and a master's degree in women's studies from San Jose State University. She earned master's and doctoral degrees in social psychology at the University of California-Los Angeles.

College chaplain and a professor of religion, Axtell initially taught at Centre during 1992-93 and returned to the college in 1995. Concerned about issues of hunger and homelessness, he's served as director of Louisville United Against Hunger and also was a case manager working with homeless men through the St. Vincent DePaul Society. Axtell has traveled and studied hunger, sustainable development and/or liberation theology across the globe. Axtell holds a bachelor of arts degree from Mississippi College. He earned a master of divinity degree and a doctorate from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and he has completed other advanced studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Asmus has taught in the biology and biochemistry/molecular biology programs at Centre since 1996. Asmus has special expertise in the field of developmental neurobiology, which focuses on how the brain develops. Asmus has authored or co-authored professional papers in journals including Developmental Biology (1997 and 2001) and the Journal of Neuroscience (2000). Asmus earned a bachelor of science degree from Cleveland State University, a doctorate from the University of Michigan, and conducted a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at Case Western Reserve University before coming to Centre..

Daniels has taught Spanish at Centre since 1996. She earned a bachelor's degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, completed a master's degree at the University of Wisconsin, and in 1998 received a doctorate from the University of Kentucky. During the 1998 fall term, Daniels served as the first resident teacher for Centre's international program in Latin America. She has pursued advanced research and made scholarly presentations delving into the role of women in the theater in 17th-century Spain.

De Araujo teaches dramatic arts and is the technical director of Centre's Norton Centre for the Arts. He instructs and supervises students as they develop the sound, lighting and scenery for drama productions. He introduces students to emerging techniques for utilizing computers and other technology as tools in the dramatic arts. In his role as technical director, de Araujo is responsible for the technical needs of the college's Norton Center for the Arts. A member of the Centre faculty since 1979, de Araujo holds a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the University of Florida and a master of arts degree from Indiana University.

Plummer joined the Centre faculty in 1996. She teaches classes in educational psychology, curriculum, and science and math for the elementary school. She also supervises the elementary-level student teachers. She serves as faculty sponsor for the LIFT program ("Learning Is Fun Together"), in which Centre's education majors prepare and facilitate an evening enrichment program for designated fourth- and fifth-grade students. Her article, The Tree of Life, on the integration of science with children's literature was published in Science and Children. Plummer holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Texas Wesleyan University, a master's in biology and a life teaching certificate for biology, physical science, and life/earth science from the University of Texas at Arlington, and a doctorate in science education from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

- end -

Back to News and Events Home Page