Dear Colleagues,
I look forward to seeing many of you at this afternoon’s Tunk, at which we’ll kick off the new academic year with food and drink, the good company of friends and colleagues — and whatever family members might be interested in a casual late summer gathering on the lawn of Merrill.
At the Tunk or around the campus, please take a moment to say hi to our new faculty members. You can find brief biographies of our new tenure-stream, library, athletics, and visiting faculty, as well as of our language interns at the Welcome to Colgate page we created for new academic hires.
Please also, when you see them, congratulate our recently tenured and recently promoted colleagues and our newest endowed chair holder. At their May meeting, the Board of Trustees formally and enthusiastically approved the following tenure and promotion decisions, effective July 1, 2023.
I am including in this announcement the professional biographies of each faculty member, crafted by their division directors for the board’s consideration. They offer a rich picture of our esteemed colleagues’ many and varied accomplishments. Following those biographies, you will find information about the newest endowed chair holder.
Promotions to Associate Professor, With Tenure
Megan Brankley Abbas, Religion
(BA Williams College; MA, PhD Princeton University)
Megan Brankley Abbas arrived at Colgate in 2018 from the State University of New York at Geneseo, where she served as an assistant professor in Islamic world history. At Colgate, she teaches at all levels, from a gateway course, Religion in the Contemporary World, to the upper level Theory and Method in the Study of Religion, to courses she has created since her arrival, including Islam in Our Post-9/11 World. She regularly contributes to the core by teaching Core Indonesia.
Megan’s ambitious explorations in pedagogy have resulted in new and highly successful modes of teaching. Her research interests include modern Islamic thought and Islam in Indonesia. Her 2021 book, Whose Islam? The Western University and Modern Islamic Thought in Indonesia, is noted as, “striking out in new directions” and, “a groundbreaking contribution to the global intellectual history of the field…” Her scholarly work also includes articles and book chapters published in highly esteemed journals that will be relevant to readers across academic disciplines. Megan's translation of the work of Mohammad Natsir has recently been published as well, and serves as a valuable resource for her own teaching and for other faculty and scholars. Her service includes serving on the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Advisory Committee, the Asian Studies Program Steering Committee, and the COVE Advisory Committee, in addition to her significant contributions to the Department of Religion.
Scott Mehl, East Asian Languages and Literatures
(BS University of Wyoming; MA University of Wisconsin-Madison; PhD University of Chicago)
Scott Mehl joined the Colgate faculty in 2017 from High Point University where he served as visiting assistant professor of Japanese. He teaches all levels of Japanese, as well as Japanese through Literature and Film, Readings in Japanese I&II, Japanese Pop Culture and Media as well as Core Japan.
His research interests include Japanese and comparative literature, with a focus on Japanese poetry. His proficiency in seven languages situates him as a scholar admired for writing that explores critically important texts and literary figures, and has allowed him to add significantly to the field of Japanese studies by examining how developments in translation inflected literary taste and styles. His 2021 monograph, The Ends of Meter, “strides boldly into multilingual territory, showing us how French, Belgian, German, and English poetry intersected with Japanese to give rise to new forms.” Scott is also noted for his deep understanding of Japanese and his interest in complex linguistic and cultural flows; these have yielded several highly nuanced and important translations. Scott has served on the Asian Studies Steering Committee and the Assessment Committee, in addition to his valued contributions to the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures.
Promotions to Full Professor
Ahmet Ay, Biology and Mathematics
(BSc Bilkent University; PhD Michigan State University)
Ahmet Ay came to Colgate in 2010 and was promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure in 2016. His expertise in mathematical modeling, statistical learning, computer programming, and biological systems is applied to a wide range of biological research projects. Ahmet’s research interests fall into three categories: (1) mathematical modeling of biological systems, (2) applications of statistical learning to human diseases such as mood disorders, and (3) creation of bioinformatics methods and software.
He has published prolifically in leading journals such as Nature, Scientific Reports, iScience, PloS Neglected Tropical Diseases, BMC Systems Biology, IEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, and Cell Reports. Many of the papers include Colgate student coauthors, and he published collaborative projects with other Colgate faculty. He has mentored more than 80 Colgate research students. Ahmet teaches a number of courses in the biology and math departments including Biostatistics, Systems Biology, Bioinformatics, and Numerical Analysis, as well as a Core Scientific Perspectives course on networks: Friends, Terrorists, and Epidemics. He has directed the Bethesda Biomedical Research Study Group and the Wales Study Group. He is presently the Chair of the Research Council, and he has also served on the Academic Affairs Board, Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute Committee, High-Performance Computing Committee, and Committee on Athletics.
Dan Bouk, History
(BS Michigan State University; MA, PhD Princeton University)
Dan Bouk arrived at Colgate in 2010 as an assistant professor of history. His undergraduate studies in computational mathematics underscored his interest in numbers, statistics, and their use in society. His first book, How Our Days Became Numbered: Risk and the Rise of the Statistical Individual (Chicago University Press, 2015) focused on the rise of the life insurance industry and its methods for quantifying people, justifying discrimination by race, and affecting the way we think of statistics. His most recent book, Democracy’s Data: The Hidden Stories in the US Census and How to Read Them (New York: MCD Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2022) was selected as one of the New York Times’ 100 notable books for 2022. Author of numerous articles, he also was a Faculty Fellow at the Data and Society Research Institute, 2019–21, and with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. Currently serving as chair of the Department of History, he teaches The History Workshop, The History of Technology, The History of Money, and the History of Numbers in America.
Jennifer Brice, English
(BA Smith College; MFA University of Alaska)
Jennifer Brice is a writer of creative nonfiction. She sees this field as including story (memoirs), mind (essays), and world (journalism). She has authored The Last Settlers (1998), which was selected for the prestigious Emerging Writers in Creative Nonfiction series by Duquesne University Press and Unlearning to Fly (University of Nebraska, 2007; Bison Books, 2010), which was favorably reviewed in a variety of venues including the Los Angeles Times. When True North, a collection of personal essays, appears later this year, she will have published a book in each category, as well as numerous essays and articles.
Scholars in her field have noted her work ‘is beautifully written, smart, complex, introspective, honest and creative’ and "in the pursuit of the intimate truths of self, family, place, relationships, reading, and writing that are the stuff of the personal essay form." Professor Brice teaches creative writing at all levels and is central to the current success of that program, adopting an approach that is one of "rigor tempered by kindness."
She has directed the Colgate Writers Conference since 2019, and the Living Writers Program since 2016. Each fall she teaches Living Writers, introducing (in person and via podcasts and streaming) the campus and larger community to distinguished authors who meet with students, give a public reading, and discuss their work. She has served on the Presidential Task Force on Remote Learning, the Provost and Dean of the Faculty Search Committee, Faculty Affairs Committee, Admissions and Financial Aid, Sustainability Council, and the Equity Grievance Panel among other committees, and contributed to numerous departmental activities.
Engda Hagos, Biology
(BS University of Illinois; MS Northeastern Illinois University; PhD University of Georgia)
Engda Hagos came to Colgate in 2010 and was promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure in 2016. His training and expertise range from classical developmental biology to cellular and molecular analysis of chronic diseases such as cancer. Engda’s research group investigates the central hypothesis that Krüppel-like factor 4 (Klf4), a transcription factor, plays an important role to maintain cellular and genomic integrity.
He has published in leading journals including Cells, European Journal of Cell Biology, and Cell Communication and Adhesion with Colgate student coauthors. He has mentored more than 100 Colgate research students. Engda teaches a number of courses in the biology department including Cancer Biology, Cell Biology, Topics in Human Health, and Developmental Biology, as well as a Core Scientific Perspectives course on Critical Analysis of Health Issues: Cancer.
His outstanding teaching has been recognized with the Jerome Balmouth Award for Teaching and Phi Eta Sigma Professor of the Year Award. He has directed the Bethesda Biomedical Research Study Group and regularly teaches a course for the Office of Undergraduate Studies Program Summer Institute. Engda presently serves on the Faculty Affairs Committee and the Faculty Diversity Council Executive Committee. He has also recently served on the Faculty Affirmative Action Oversight Committee, Nomination Committee, Committee on ALANA Affairs, and PDOF Appointment Advisory Committee.
Elizabeth Marlowe, Art and Art History
(BA Smith College; BA University of Cambridge, Clare College; PhD Columbia University)
Elizabeth Marlowe joined the Department of Art and Art History as an assistant professor in 2011 and is currently serving as chair. She teaches courses on ancient and Roman art history, at the introductory and upper levels. Recently, she has developed a series of courses to contribute to the museum studies program, which she has directed since its inception in 2020. She has also served as a Core University Professor and taught regularly in the core program. Her research and publications on classical art offer new readings of key monuments from late antique Rome.
Most recently her work has focused on the implications of long-standing and largely uncritical reliance upon a small canon of archaeologically undocumented antiquities to write the history of Roman art. Shaky Ground: Context, Connoisseurship and the History of Roman Art (2013) calls for greater epistemological and methodological consciousness in the writing of Roman art history by, in part, shifting focus from exclusive emphasis on much-admired works in museum collections about which little is actually known, to works with secure documentation as to archaeological origin. These objects, which she refers to as “grounded works,” will form the basis of her next book tentatively titled “Roman Art in Place.”
As a result of her research and the questions and challenges she poses to the ways in which museums collect, she is an important and much sought-after resource in regard to evolving museum practices, bridging the spheres of academia, policy, and public scholarship. She has held the Burke Endowed Chair in Regional Studies, and the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Chair in Liberal Arts Studies. She has contributed to the University in numerous capacities, including serving as interim co-director of University Museums, and as a member of the Faculty Affairs Committee, chair of the Curriculum Committee, the University Property Committee, and Middle Campus strategic planning group, among many others.
Rebecca Metzler, Physics and Astronomy
(BS Denison University; PhD University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Rebecca Metzler came to Colgate in 2010 and was promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure in 2017. She studies the relationship between structure, composition, and function of biominerals. Rebecca’s work largely focuses on calcium carbonate biominerals of relevance to oyster adhesives and barnacle exoskeletons with the aim of identifying how structure, composition, and function are related to the growth environment, with a particular focus on how climate change impacts calcifying marine organisms.
She has published in leading journals including Ecology and Evolution, Royal Society Open Science, Advanced Functional Materials, Frontiers in Marine Science, and the Journal of Biophotonics. Many of the papers include Colgate student coauthors, and she has mentored more than 40 Colgate research students. Her research is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Rebecca teaches a number of courses in the physics and biology departments including Fundamental Physics, Atoms and Waves, Biophysics, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics and Special Relativity, and Molecules, Cells, and Genes as well as a Core Scientific Perspectives course on Foodwise: The Science of Food. She has directed the spring semester Australia Study Group. She has served as the Core Scientific Perspectives University Professor, Alumni Memorial Scholars Faculty Director, and provided leadership to the DEI in STEM initiatives. Rebecca also serves on the Health Science Advisory Committee, Women’s Studies Advisor Board, and she is a faculty liaison to the Women’s Cross-Country and Track teams.
Susan Thomson, Peace and Conflict Studies
(BA St Mary’s University; LLB University College London; MA, PhD Dalhousie University)
Susan Thomson came to Colgate in 2012 as an assistant professor of peace and conflict studies. Trained in political science and law, she studies how individuals live through and rebuild their lives after mass violence. Since tenure she has published in Political Power and Social Theory; PS: Political Science & Politics; Perspectives on Politics; Nokoko: Elections and Electoral Politics in Africa: Movements Forward, Backwards or Nowhere?; the Oxford Bibliographies in African Studies; and numerous edited volumes. Yale University Press published her book, Rwanda: From Genocide to Precarious Peace, in 2018. She is a frequent op-ed contributor to newspapers in Africa and around the world, and she appears regularly on radio, television, and podcasts sharing her expertise. She has won grant support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Thomson has served Colgate as University Professor of Core Communities and Identities; Director of Women’s Studies; and on the Core Revision Committee throughout the latest revision process. Beyond Colgate, she screens student applicants for Fulbright grants; serves as Associate Editor of African Studies Review; and serves as an expert witness regarding Rwandan nationals before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Supreme Court of Canada, and immigration courts in the U.S. and Canada. Her courses include Representations of Africa; Everyday Violence; War in Lived Experience; and Protesting Injustice, Waging Non-Violence.
Edward Witherspoon, Philosophy
(BS Vanderbilt University; MA, PhD University of Pittsburgh)
Edward Witherspoon has taught a wide range of courses in the Department of Philosophy at all levels, including the Introduction to Philosophical Problems and Logic I and seminars titled Philosophical Perspectives on Relativism and Skepticism as Farce and as Tragedy. He has contributed to the core program by teaching both Legacies of the Ancient World and Challenges of Modernity. His research interests include the history of Analytic Philosophy and the relations between that crucial Anglo-American tradition and Continental Philosophy. His work shows the fundamental affinities of many of the main issues in those two traditions, despite their obvious differences and mutual intellectual suspicions. Ludwig Wittgenstein is particularly important in Ed’s work because of how developments in Wittgenstein’s thought and debates about how to interpret Wittgenstein help articulate how the two traditions have been pursuing some of the same main aims. These especially concern the limits of meaningful discourse and the limits of logic and language.
He has recently published Logic and Attunement: Reading Heidegger through Priest and Wittgenstein and Wittgenstein and Zombies: An Investigation of our Mental Concepts among other works. His monograph, Heidegger on Logic, and several articles will be published later this year. Ed’s service to Colgate is extensive; it includes significant contributions to the core revision process, and serving on the Core Implementation Committee, Committee on Faculty Affairs, Fellowships Committee, Advisory and Planning Committee, and the Mind, Brain and Behavior Institute Advisory Committee, among many others. He has been a valued member of the philosophy department, including serving as chair and chairing numerous search committees.
New Endowed Chair Appointment: Charles A. Dana Professor
Endowed professorships recognize Colgate’s top faculty for academic achievement, distinguished teaching, and the promise of future accomplishments. They enable the University to honor faculty with a prestigious title, provide additional resources to advance their work, and publicly acknowledge their value to the Colgate community.
The Dean’s Advisory Council voted in the spring to appoint Michelle Bigenho, professor of anthropology, Africana and Latin American studies, and Native American studies, to a Charles A. Dana endowed professorship. These professorships were established in 1966 when the Charles A. Dana foundation invited Colgate to participate in its Charles A. Dana Professorship Fund Program. The fund associated with the named chairs provides research support for distinguished members of the Colgate teaching faculty; chair holders may be scholars in any subject matter.
Michelle Bigenho is a socio-cultural anthropologist whose specializations include indigeneity, law, music, and performance studies in the Andean region. She earned her BA from the University of California, Los Angeles; a "Magister," from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú; and her MA and PhD from Cornell University. Michelle’s work engages indigeneity at its intersections with alternative and participatory methodologies, cultural and intellectual property, heritage politics, racialization, performance politics, and nationalism. Her research — currently published in two monographs and multiple articles and chapters — has involved ethnography in Bolivia since 1993, with each project engaging local communities in distinct ways.
Music performance on the violin with a Bolivian music ensemble called Música de Maestros has formed an integral part of Michelle’s ethnographic approach. Since 1993, she has participated in performances, tours, and compact disc recordings with this orchestra, giving concerts throughout Bolivia and also in Colombia, France, and Japan. Musicians from this group have co-taught her Performing Bolivian Music course at Colgate. Michelle teaches a course called Who Owns Culture?, which goes to the heart of debates that motivate her most current research on cultural heritage. Other courses she offers include: Culture, Diversity, Inequality; Investigating Contemporary Cultures; Indigenous Politics of Latin America; Andean Lives; Bolivia; and UNST/ALST’s Interdisciplinary Methods Seminar. Michelle is currently serving as the director of the Native American studies program.
Please join me in congratulating all of these highly accomplished colleagues who, together, have made significant contributions to our academic curriculum and intellectual community, as well as to their respective scholarly communities. Their promotions are well-deserved.
With best regards,
Lesleigh