New Faculty join Centre College for 2023-24

Centre College is proud to welcome 13 new full-time faculty members representing all three academic divisions.

“I am pleased to welcome such a talented group of new colleagues to Centre College,” said Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College Ellen Goldey. “This group will contribute expertise and diverse perspectives to a Centre community engaged in important conversations and strategic planning — a community devoted to always learning, growing and improving together.” 

“We are pleased to have several visiting professors this year who help to fill in for faculty members who are on sabbatical leave or other temporary absences, such as parental leave,” Goldey said. “Sabbaticals help ensure that Centre professors remain active contributors to their fields of expertise by allowing them the time to focus their energies on one or more scholarly or artistic projects. The pay-off is tremendous, both personally and professionally.”

 

Division I: Humanities

 

Lucía Aja López, Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish

Lucía Aja López is a visiting assistant professor of Spanish. Lopez received a Ph.D. in Iberian studies at The Ohio State University, two B.A.s in English and Spanish philology from the Universidad de Salamanca, and two M.A.s in Spanish and medieval and renaissance studies from the University of Louisville and the Universidad de Salamanca respectively. Lopez’ research on manuscripts from the Iberian Peninsula in the medieval period looks at what the evidence of their use can teach us about medieval culture.

 

Maïté Marciano, Visiting Assistant Professor of French

Maïté Marciano is visiting assistant professor of French. Marciano graduated from         Northwestern University with a Ph.D. in comparative literary studies; earned an M.A. in aesthetics and art theory at Kingston University; and a B.A. in art history and archaeology at Free University. Marciano specializes in twentieth- and twenty-first-century French and Francophone literature, with an emphasis on affect theory, critical theory, cultural studies, intellectual history and diasporic studies.

 

Lisa Tateishi, ALLEX Foundation Fellow

Centre is one of 230 colleges to partner with the ALLEX Foundation, which provides professionally trained Chinese, Japanese or Korean native-language instructors, who teach in exchange for the opportunity to take classes while they are on campus. Tateishi received a degree in Japanese Language and Literature from Showa Women's University in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan and has taught in Japan and Los Angeles. She now joins Centre as the ALLEX Foundation Fellow to teach Japanese.

 

Jakob Turner, Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish
Jakob Turner is visiting assistant professor of Spanish. He earned a B.A. in Spanish education at Campbellsville University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Hispanic studies at the University of Kentucky. Turner's areas of research include contemporary Latin American literature and film, film and media studies, and (post)-colonial studies.

 

 

Division II: Social Studies

 

Bosco Bae, Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion
Bosco Bae is visiting assistant professor of religion. He received a doctorate in the interdisciplinary study of religion from Durham University and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship with the Human Economy Program at the University of Pretoria. In addition to his duties at Centre, he is a research associate for the Centre for Mediation in Africa at the University of Pretoria; an executive director for a non-profit organization in Chicago; and continues to work toward developing an artistic praxis through wheel-thrown pottery.

 

Ahmed Eddhir, Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics
Ahmed Eddhir is visiting assistant professor of economics. Eddhir earned a Ph.D. and an M.A. in economics at Clemson University, and a B.S. in computer engineering at the University of Tripoli. His teaching experience includes principles of macroeconomics, business and economics statistics, and business and economics mathematics.

 

Amoz Hor, Assistant Professor of Politics
Amoz Hor is assistant professor of politics. Hor’s research interests focus on race, emotions and international politics – jointly and separately. He is currently working on a book manuscript on how race and liberalism are intertwined in the post-war international order.

He received a B.S. in political science and economics from National University of Singapore, and a Ph.D. in political science from The George Washington University (expected).

 

Weiss Mehrabi, Assistant Professor of Politics
Weiss Mehrabi is assistant professor of politics. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in political science at the University of Kentucky specializing in international relations and policy, an M.A. in international and comparative politics at Wright State University, and a bachelor’s degree at Berea College. Mehrabi's research interests include international security and conflict, comparative institutions, international diplomatic recognition, and the impact of international migration and cross-border ties on political behavior and attitudes.

 

Siavash Samei, Assistant Professor of Anthropology/Sociology
Siavash Samei is assistant professor of anthropology/sociology. He earned his B.A. at the University of Georgia, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Connecticut. Samei is an Iranian environmental archaeologist studying the long-term interplay between climate, environmental, and the migratory lifeways and subsistence economies of herding and foraging societies in mountainous landscapes of West and South Asia from the Paleolithic period to present day. His research also bears several theoretical approaches and interdisciplinary methods on issues concerning the archaeological visibility of migratory landscapes.

 

 

Division III: Science and Mathematics

 

Jennifer Cain, Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology
Jennifer Cain is assistant professor of biology. Cain completed her Ph.D. at the Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center at the University of Kentucky in 2022, where she primarily studied the equine roundworm, Parascaris. She also holds an M.S. in biology from the University of Nebraska - Kearney and a B.S. from Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. Cain's research focuses on three main areas: parasite microbiomes, methods for sustaining viable parasites in the laboratory, and parasitological surveys of wildlife and animals in zoological parks.

 

McAllister Stephens, Visiting Instructor of Psychology

McAllister Stephens joined Centre’s faculty in 2023 as visiting instructor of psychology. Stephens completed a B.S. in psychology and biology at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, and an M.A. in experimental psychology at the University of Kentucky. She will graduate with her Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky with a dissertation focusing on a rodent model of decision-making and substance abuse.

 

Daryl Swartzentruber, Assistant Professor of Data Science
Daryl Swartzentruber is assistant professor of data science. He graduated summa cum laude from Transylvania University with a B.A. in mathematics. He earned an M.S. in mathematics at Eastern Kentucky University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Statistics and a Certificate in College and University Teaching at The Ohio State University. His research lies in the area of causal inference, a series of methods and designs that allow causal claims to be made from observational data. He has developed novel approaches to estimate the effect of educational policies using regression discontinuity designs. He has also applied causal inference methods to the area of sports analytics.

 

Ashley Wheeler, Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Ashley Wheeler is visiting assistant professor of mathematics. Wheeler earned a B.S. and M.S. in mathematics at Kansas State University, and a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Michigan. Wheeler’s area of expertise is in commutative algebra, or the study of polynomial systems of equations.