Sixteen New Faculty Members Join Smith Community

The college welcomes 16 new faculty members in the humanities, sciences, social sciences and art. Below is a list by their respective departments. Several additional appointments are pending and will be announced on The Gate after they become available.

Biological Sciences
Nathan Derr, assistant professor, earned his Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University in May. He completed the post-baccalaureate premedical program at Tufts University and worked as a senior research technician at the university’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine before enrolling at Harvard.

Chemistry
Maren Buck, assistant professor, earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After completing her postdoctoral study at the California Institute of Technology, she taught for a year at Mills College.

Joseph Yeager, laboratory instructor, expects to be awarded his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in July. He has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Western Kentucky University and the University of Bremen.

Classical Languages and Literatures
Carrie Mowbray, visiting assistant professor, earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2012. She earned her bachelor of arts degree from Smith in 2002.

East Asian Studies and Art
Aurelia Campbell, lecturer, earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011. She has taught at Lake Forest College as an ACM-Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Asian art history.

Economics
Simon Halliday, assistant professor, earned his Ph.D. in experimental economics from the University of Siena. He has taught at the University of Cape Town and most recently the University of London.

Vis Taraz, assistant professor, earned her Ph.D. in economics from Yale University. Her scholarship focuses on econometrics and development economics, particularly adaptation to climate change in India.

English Language and Literature
Emily Barton, Elizabeth Drew Professor of English Language and Literature (2013-2015), earned her M.F.A. in creative writing/fiction from the University of Iowa in 1995. Recently she has taught at New York, Columbia and Yale universities.

Ruth Ozeki, Elizabeth Drew Professor of English Language and Literature (2015-2017), received her B.A. in English literature and Asian studies from Smith College in 1980 and received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Smith in 2006. Ozeki has given writing master classes at the Taos Writers’ Conference, Hedgebrook Women’s Writing Retreat, and Hollyhock.

Exercise and Sport Studies
Karen Riska, lecturer, earned her Ph.D. in kinesiology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in May. She has taught recently at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Holyoke Community College.

German Studies
Pauline Ebert, lecturer, earned her Ph.D. in classical and modern languages, literatures and cultures from Wayne State University in 2010. Recently she has taught at Occidental College.

Government
Kim Yi Dionne, assistant professor in African politics, in a joint position between Smith and Five Colleges, Inc. She earned her B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of California Los Angeles in 2010 and has been teaching since then at Texas A&M University.

Jewish Studies
Joanna Caravita, lecturer, earned her Ph.D. in Hebrew studies from the University of Texas at Austin in May. She has taught at the University of Texas at Austin and Vanderbilt University.

Mathematics and Statistics
Rajan Mehta, assistant professor, earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California Berkeley in 2006 and has held postdoctoral positions at National Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics in Rio de Janeiro, Washington University in Saint Louis, and Pennsylvania State University.

Music
Kate Soper, assistant professor, earned her doctorate in music composition from Columbia University in 2011. She recently received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship. Soper will being teaching courses in composition and electronic music in fall 2013.

Physics
Will Williams, assistant professor, earned his Ph.D. in atomic physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2009. He has held postdoctoral positions at Argonne National Laboratory and Old Dominion University.

Study of Women and Gender
Anna Ward, lecturer, earned her Ph.D. in women’s studies from the University of California Los Angeles in 2010. Recently she has taught at Swarthmore College.