We are a diverse, inclusive, interdisciplinary, and innovative community committed to and actively engaged in advancing new knowledge and understanding. Our faculty are leaders in their respective fields, our students are exceptional scholars and engaged community members, our staff are deeply committed, and our alumni are agile, creative, thoughtful leaders and citizens.
Our Students
In Fall 2022, we welcomed 1,813 new undergraduates, 485 new MA, MS, and MFA students, and 210 new PhD students from around the country and the world. They are a diverse community of anthropologists, astronomers, biologists, chemists, classicists, computer scientists, economists, historians, humanists, linguists, mathematicians, philosophers, physics, poets, political scientists, sociologists, statisticians, writers, and so much more, and bring a wealth of backgrounds, experiences, passions, and new ideas to our diverse Arts & Sciences community.
Learn about our newest community members, the entering Class of 2026, as well as our graduating students.
Read about the Class of 2026 in BU Today
Learn what students in the Class of 2023 will miss most
Meet members of the CAS Class of 2023
Meet some of our students
Anthropology Major Maggie Farr (CAS’23)
Maggie Farr (CAS’23) has spent the last four years pursuing her interest in medical anthropology through coursework, research, and extracurricular opportunities that brought her major to life.
Farr is one of the first students to graduate from the anthropology department with a specialization in “Anthropology, Health & Medicine,” a new focus that was launched in the 2021-2022 academic year.
Originally undecided, Farr realized her passion for medical anthropology after taking a class with Assistant Professor of Anthropology Merav Shohet, a cultural anthropologist who does ethnographic research on morality and health. As she contemplated medical school, Farr wanted to better understand factors that influence health and well being, illness, the prevention and treatment of sickness and healing processes.
“I took a random intro class and immediately fell in love with it,” said Farr. “Right after, I connected with Professor Sholet and started doing research with her in the anthropology department.”
Along with serving as a research assistant, funded through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, Farr also became an EMT, a leader of the campus group Changing Health, Attitudes, + Actions to Recreate Girls (CHAARG), an orientation leader, a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.
PhD student in Romance Studies Karina Sembe (GRS’25)
When Karina Sembe (GRS’25) arrived at BU, she already had a master’s degree and a PhD. Now a candidate for her second PhD, in romance studies, she’s researching power, freedom, and sovereignty through the lens of colonization and mobility of the African diaspora in the Americas.
Sembe had another interest as well. Born in Ukraine to a Cameroonian father and Ukrainian mother, she wanted to be part of one of the college’s newest initiatives, the Diversity and Inclusion Action Team.
“I think that there’s still a lot of formality when it comes to understanding concepts such as inclusivity and diversity,” says Sembe, who is helping to guide the team. “There’s not a lot of nuance and room for courageous conversations and not a lot of recognition of one’s own implicit biases.” As one of two graduate students on the team, she has spent the past two years trying to create more room for those conversations.
Computer Science Major Shateva Long (CAS’23)

Born and raised in New York City, Shateva Long (CAS ‘23) has been inseparable from her computer since she can remember. After participating in a Girls Who Code program in high school, which revolved around video game design, she discovered her passion for coding, and decided to come to Boston University as a Computer Science major.
Upon arriving at BU, Shateva discovered that studying Computer Science was not, in fact, video game design. Rather than the coding experience she had initially expected, the curriculum had a more theoretical and math-based approach. Nonetheless, as someone who had always loved math, she enjoyed the problem-solving challenges.
“I always wanted to build something,” says Shateva. “but in my courses I couldn’t find a lot of project-based learning.” As a very hands-on person, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing from her college experience.
That’s where BU Spark! came in, a BU initiative to support student-driven projects related to computer science and engineering. During her sophomore year, Shateva joined their Innovation Fellowship Program, and took the role of team lead, which gave her the opportunity to start her own project.
Economics and Mathematics Major Isabel Mullens (CAS’23)
Going into her junior year, Isabel Mullens (CAS’23, KHC’23) was tasked with designing her keystone research project, which is required of every student in the Kilachand Honors College. She wanted to dedicate her project to two important aspects in her life: her upbringing and her education.
Mullens spent the formative years of her life in Switzerland attending Zurich International School, where she developed a knack for mathematics that turned into a love for economics. When it came time to choose where she would continue her education, she always had the feeling that she would leave Switzerland to study in the United States, where her parents had originally emigrated from.
She first set foot in the U.S. when she arrived at Boston University to study economics and mathematics, eventually taking on the dual degree BA/MA program at the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
“It felt like I didn’t have to choose between those two things, and I could do both of them and it felt so perfect,” Mullens said. “I’ve had a lot of chances to engage in research while I’ve been here, which has definitely been beneficial.”
Political Science major Matthew Pruitt (CAS’23)
A native of Granger, Indiana, outside South Bend, Matthew Pruitt was drawn to BU for its fast-paced lifestyle, thriving arts community, as well as the diversity and global interconnectedness of the big city. But he initially struggled with the transition — from navigating public transportation to understanding the resources available at the University.
Matthew Pruitt (CAS’23) found support through the First-Year Student Outreach Project (FYSOP), a week-long program that welcomes first-year students to Boston University and encourages them to be more active citizens within the Greater Boston area. The program “opened up a lot of doors,” for him, he said, helping find a sense of belonging and “connect to his queer identity.” It also inspired him to become more involved with Boston’s communities and politics — and to become a leader on campus and within the city of Boston.
“Boston University empowered me to embrace my uniqueness and find my voice,” says Matthew. “Here, I was pushed to see myself as a leader. Getting involved all over the place helped me find my way.”
Matthew’s passion for politics was further fueled by the 2021 Boston mayoral elections. “I was very energized with Michelle Wu getting elected for City Hall,” says Matthew, “and was also excited by the progressive momentum at the local level”
Matthew’s interest in a more local approach to politics was solidified by Professor Cathie Jo Martin’s American Public Policy class, which he took during his junior year. This, combined with his aspirations of becoming a community leader, ultimately led him to switch his major from International Relations to Political Science, a field of study that focused on domestic affairs, which aligned more with his goals.
Our Faculty
Each year, CAS recruits several leading researchers and scholars to join our faculty, bringing new voices to the classroom and advancing our contributions to the greater world. For the 2022/23 academic year, we welcomed 57 new researchers, lecturers, instructors, and visiting professors in a range of departments and programs, all dedicated to supporting our students and their academic and professional interests and pursuits. We also celebrated faculty promotions, including 14 to full professor, 15 to associate professor, and 19 to the rank of master lecturer, senior lecturer, research professor, or research associate professor, as well as the publications of numerous books and articles.
New Faculty
Humanities
Yun Bai, World Languages & Literatures
Timothy Clark, Classical Studies
Nathan Alan Davis, English
Maia Gil’ Adí, English
Micah Goodrich, English
Laurie Glenn Hutcheson, Classical Studies
Amy Hutchinson, Linguistics
Najoung Kim, Linguistics
Jinmyung Lee, World Languages & Literatures
Philip Noonan, Romance Studies
Azlin Perdomo, Romance Studies
Darien Pollock, Philosophy
Roshaya Rodness, Cinema & Media Studies
Stephanie Sheintul, Philosophy
Yumiko Tashiro, World Languages & Literatures
Edgardo Tormos Bigles, Romance Studies
Carmen Torre-Pérez, Romance Studies
Mathematical and Computational Sciences
Amnon Besser, Mathematics & Statistics
Onur Burak Celik, Economics
Krishna Dasaratha, Economics
Iddo Drori, Computer Science
Masao Fukui, Economics
Peter Golbus, Computer Science
Tiago Januario, Computer Science
Ioannis Liagouris, Computer Science
Brian Williams, Mathematics & Statistics
Natural Sciences
Sofia Casasa, Biology
Eric Cueny, Chemistry
Chuanfei Dong, Astronomy
Mikel Garcia-Marcos, Biology
Stephen McDermott, Psychological & Brain Sciences
Diane Mello-Goldner, Diane Mello-Goldner
Rick Reibstein, Earth & Environment
Xiaozhou Ruan, Earth & Environment
Amelia Stanton, Psychological & Brain Sciences
Pardee
Zachary Mondesire, International Relations
Dean Scott Taylor, International Relations
Social Sciences
Celeste Curington, Sociology
David Glovsky, History
Rui Hua, History
Loretta Lees, Sociology and Initiative on Cities
Amanda Leiss, Anthropology
Jonathan Masin-Peters, Political Science
Aki Nakai, Political Science
Camille Petersen, Sociology
Shauna Shames, Political Science
Christine Slaughter, Political Science
Society of Fellows Postdoctoral Scholars
Alize Arıcan, Anthropology
Jacob Bongers, Archaeology
Najwa Mayer, Religion
Tori Lee, Classical Studies
Alisa Prince, History of Art & Architecture
Writing Program
Courtney Pina Miller, Writing Program
Swati Rani, Writing Program
Noel Reyes, Writing Program
Asha Tall, Writing Program
Abir Ward, Writing Program
Faculty Members Promoted to Associate Professor
Paula Austin, History, specializes in African American history, urban history, and the history of racism, gender, childhood, and the social sciences. She has authored an acclaimed book, 2019’s Coming of Age in Jim Crow DC: Navigating the Politics of Everyday Life, and numerous articles in top journals, including The Black Scholar, examining the inner lives, intellectual insights, and political impulses of poor and working class young black people in Depression-era, racially segregated Washington, DC. She is a recent recipient of the history department’s Gitner Prize in Undergraduate Teaching, and this past year was a junior faculty fellow with the BU Center for the Humanities. She has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.
Andrew Bell, Earth & Environment, uses surveys and field experiments – drawing on geography, economics, and complex systems theory – to better understand decision-making around natural resource management, agricultural development, migration, and rural livelihoods. He is a lead or co-PI on several major grants from the NSF and the US Agency for International Development examining environmental governance and the drivers of change in land and water systems in Malawi, among other places. He is on the editorial boards of several field publications, including Ecology and Society, and has published two book chapters and over 60 articles in leading environmental journals, including Nature and Environmental Research Letters. He has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.
Anushya Chandran, Physics, is a condensed matter theorist whose research focuses on many-body theory, non-equilibrium systems, critical dynamics, and strongly correlated phases of matter. An NSF CAREER Award winner, she is recognized as a rising leader in the field of quantum science and engineering, with recent, federally funded work exploring the description of thermalization and localization in interacting quantum systems as well as the dynamics of periodically driven systems. She is regularly invited to present at conferences and has authored or co-authored 46 articles in leading physics publications. She has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.
Jerry Chen, Biology, is a neuroscientist whose research combines large-scale in vivo imaging with molecular and genetic toolsets in awake-behaving animals to better understand the central nervous system and the neural mechanisms underlying perception and abstraction. He is a past Stuart and Elizabeth Pratt Career Development Professor at BU and his research – which includes using the sensory input from the whiskers in mice – is supported by several major NIH grants. He has published a book chapter and over 20 articles in high impact scientific journals, including Nature, Science, and Nature Neuroscience. He has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.
Juan Fuxman Bass, Biology, is a molecular systems biologist who studies gene regulatory networks and how these networks are altered in human disease and by infection with pathogens. His NIH-funded research uses cutting-edge approaches, including metabolic modeling and massively-parallel reporter assays, to improve understanding of viral infection and human cancer. He is a recent recipient of the Keystone Symposia Early Career Investigator Award and the Milstein Young Investigator Award from the International Cytokine & Interferon Society and has published over 30 papers in premier scientific journals, including Cell, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Genome Research. He has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.
Marc Gasser-Wingate, Philosophy, is a scholar of classical philosophy, specializing in the theoretical and practical philosophy of Aristotle. His work focuses extensively on the role Aristotle awards perception, both in the scientific understanding of knowledge and in virtue. He is a past recipient of CAS’s Gitner Award for Distinguished Teaching, his department’s director of undergraduate studies, and has authored a monograph, 2021’s Aristotle’s Empiricism, alongside several articles in top philosophical publications, including Journal of the History of Philosophy. He has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.
Christopher Grant, Physics, is a particle physicist whose experimental research seeks to develop greater understanding of neutrinos – chargeless particles produced by radioactivity (including from nuclear reactors, cosmic rays, and fusion reactions in stars) that are considerably smaller than electrons and believed to carry secrets behind the existence of matter in the early universe. His research is supported by multiple grants from the NSF and the US Department of Energy (DOE), and he has published over 50 papers in leading physics journals, including Physics Review Letters and Journal of High Energy Physics. He has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.

Saida Grundy, Sociology, specializes in the sociologies of race and gender, focusing on formations and ideologies of gender and racialization within the black middle class – specifically men. Her work examines masculinity and social justice capitalism, racialized rape culture, and bridging hegemonic masculinity theories to improve public understanding of campus sexual assault. She is a past recipient of CAS’s Neu Family Award for Excellence in Teaching and has recently authored a book, Respectable: Politics and Paradox in Making the Morehouse Man (2022), along with a book chapter and numerous articles and essays in top field publications and magazines, including Social Problems and The Atlantic. She has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.
Noora Lori, International Relations, focuses on issues of citizenship, migration, and statelessness in the Middle East, East Africa, and the Indian subcontinent, specifically examining migration enforcement, citizenship regimes and naturalization policies, temporary migration schemes, and racial hierarchies. She has authored an acclaimed book, Offshore Citizens: Permanent “Temporary” Status in the Gulf (2019), which won best book prizes from the American Political Science Association and the International Studies Association, in addition to three book chapters and articles in top international relations journals. Her research is supported by the Mellon Foundation, and she is a past recipient of CAS’s Gitner Prize for Faculty Excellence and the Templeton Award for Excellence in Student Advising. She has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.
Joseph McGuire, Psychological & Brain Sciences, is a neuroscientist whose research examines the cognitive mechanisms that enable people to make well-calibrated decisions in complex environments, including situations of delay, uncertainty, and volatility. His NIH- and Simons Foundation-supported work employs behavioral experiments, eye tracking, and computational models, as well as functional MRI to study how decision processes are implemented in the human brain. He has published four book chapters and over 20 peer-reviewed papers and articles in high-impact psychology journals, including Journal of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience. He has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.
Pascual Restrepo, Economics, is a macroeconomist whose research explores the implications of new technologies – such as automation – for labor markets, wages, inequality, the distribution of income, and growth. Recent NSF-sponsored empirical work has investigated the impact of industrial robots on US labor markets and how aging and shortages of labor induce firms to automate their production process. He is a faculty research fellow with the National Bureau of Economic Research and has received several excellence-in-refereeing awards from top field publications, including American Economic Review. A frequent conference presenter, he has published 12 refereed journal articles in premier economics outlets, including Journal of Labor Economics and Review of Economic Studies. He has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.
Andrew Robichaud, History, is a scholar of US history, who specializes in studies of 19th century America, including urban, environmental, political, and animal history, as well as the history of Boston. He has authored an acclaimed book, Animal City: The Domestication of America (2019), with another forthcoming volume examining the history of ice and the ice trade in 19th century America. He is a past recipient of the Michael Katz Award for Best Dissertation in Urban History from the Urban History Association and has received a featured review in American Historical Review and been the subject of a dedicated forum on H-NET. He has additionally published two book chapters, four book reviews, and two articles in top journals, including Environmental History. He has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.
Merav Shohet, Anthropology, is a sociocultural anthropologist whose work focuses on medical, linguistic, and psychological topics among Vietnamese, North American, and Israeli populations. Recent work has examined end of life care in changing kibbutz communities as well as the COVID pandemic’s harmful effects on minority end-stage kidney disease patients in greater Boston. A regular conference presenter, she is the author of 2021’s Silence & Sacrifice: Family Stories of Care and the Limits of Love in Vietnam, along with three book chapters and seven articles in top-ranked anthropology publications, including American Ethnologist. Last year, she received the Carole H. Browner Undergraduate Student Mentorship Award from the Society of Medical Anthropology. She has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.
Zeba Wunderlich, Biology, is a biophysicist whose research focuses on the molecular mechanisms that govern gene expression control. Utilizing Drosophila fruit flies as model organisms, her NSF- and NIH-supported research seeks to better understand how a gene regulatory network’s tasks influence its architecture, robustness, and evolvability – from embryonic patterning to innate immune response. She is a frequent conference presenter and has published over 30 papers in high impact biology journals, including Nature Reviews Genetics, Molecular Cell, and Cell Reports. She has been promoted to associate professor, with tenure.
Faculty Members Promoted to Professor
Jennifer Balakrishnan, Mathematics & Statistics, is a computational number theorist researching algorithmic number theory and arithmetic geometry. Supported by numerous grants from the Simons Foundation and the National Science Foundation (NSF), including a CAREER award, she is recognized among the world’s leading authorities on the quadratic Chabauty method and the application of p-adic techniques to Diophantine geometry. She is a past Sloan Research Fellow and a recent recipient of the American Mathematical Society’s Joan and Joseph Birman Fellowship for Women Scholars and the Association for Women in Mathematics’ Microsoft Research Prize in Algebra and Number Theory. She has published one book, one book chapter, and 17 articles in top-tier mathematics journals, including La Matematica.
Taylor Boas, Political Science, specializes in comparative politics in Latin America, focusing predominantly on campaigns, corruption, electoral accountability, and mass media, applying quantitative and qualitative methods. He has earned a reputation as one of the leading scholars on the politics of Brazil, with recent work examining the electoral activities of Latin America’s growing evangelical community. He has written two books, including 2016’s Presidential Campaigns in Latin America: Electoral Strategies and Success Contagion with a third currently under review, along with 10 book chapters and numerous journal articles, book reviews, and working papers examining elections in Central and South America.
Tereasa Brainerd, Astronomy, has gained international recognition for work establishing weak lensing – the tiny change in the apparent shape of distant galaxies as their light passes close to another massive object – as a powerful probe for better understanding the structure and evolution of the universe as well as furthering the exploration of dark matter. Her current NSF-sponsored research studies the spatial and velocity distributions of satellite galaxies and uses computing and data methods, such as neural networks and machine learning, to simplify simulations. She has published two books, two book chapters, and dozens of refereed articles in top science journals, including The Astrophysical Journal.
Tarek Hassan, Economics, specializes in international macroeconomics and finance, as well as economic history and determinants of growth. He has gained recognition across his field for research into how portfolio-building strategies affect currency exchange markets. His more recent work applies natural language processing to earnings calls to evaluate firm-level exposure to risk, including political risk, Brexit, and COVID-19 – and how those risk factors determine outcomes such as investment and stock price volatility. He is a frequent presenter at international economics conferences and has published in numerous top-tier journals, including Annual Review of Economics and The American Economic Review.
John Marston, Anthropology, is an environmental archaeologist who studies the long-term sustainability of agriculture and land use, with a focus on ancient societies of the Mediterranean and western and central Asia. His research specifically examines how people make decisions about land use within changing economic, social, and environmental settings, and how those decisions affect the environment at local and regional scales. He has secured grant funding from National Geographic, the NSF, Fulbright, and the American Philosophical Society to support his field research and has published six book chapters and 18 journal articles. He is a past recipient of CAS’s Templeton and Gitner awards for excellence in teaching, advising, and mentoring and of the Archaeological Institute of America’s James R. Wiseman Book Award.
Lida Maxwell, Political Science, is a political theorist whose work touches on several related areas, including feminist theory, queer theory, contemporary democratic theory, environmental political theory, and law and politics. She has presented her work at the meetings of the Western, Midwest, and American Political Science associations, as well as at numerous American and European universities. A 2020 recipient of Contemporary Political Theory’s best article award, she has published four widely praised books, including 2019’s Insurgent Truth: Chelsea Manning and the Politics of Outsider Truth, along with three book chapters and articles in top peer-reviewed publications. A fifth book examining the contributions of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman is in development.
Rachell Powell, Philosophy, is an expert in multiple fields of philosophy, whose research explores conceptual and methodological problems in evolutionary theory, as well as ethical dimensions of the new biosciences. She has additionally made contributions in human evolution, the evolution of morality, theories of disease, animal and environmental philosophy, and the biomedical enhancement of human capacities. She has published two books, including 2020’s Contingency and Convergence: Toward a Cosmic Biology of Body and Mind, along with dozens of book chapters, papers, and articles in leading philosophical and bioethics journals. She is associate editor of Life Sciences, Philosophy & Technology, and her work has been supported through numerous federal and foundation grants.
Kate Saenko, Computer Science, specializes in machine learning, concentrating on the development of new systems to enhance vision and language understanding. The recipient of several active federal grants supporting her research into artificial intelligence, she has published extensively in leading computer science journals, and is director of BU’s Computer Vision Learning Group and a consulting professor at the MIT-IBM Watson Lab. She additionally co-directs BU’s Artificial Intelligence Research Initiative through the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering. Last year, she received an AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar Honorable Mention in Computer Vision, and in 2017, she received the Most Innovative Solution award, alongside her students, in the IEEE Large-Scale Activity Recognition Challenge.
Johannes Schmieder, Economics, is an empirical microeconomist whose research is at the intersection of labor and public economics. He is among the nation’s top scholars in unemployment insurance and has made significant contributions as well in the study of domestic outsourcing, job search and matching, and the source of wage differentials across firms. He is a past recipient of BU’s Neu Family Award for Teaching Excellence in Economics and the Peter Paul Career Development Professorship and has published over a dozen articles in top-tier economics reviews, including Journal of Public Economics and Quarterly Journal of Economics. He has additionally received two excellence in refereeing awards from American Economic Review.
Henrik Selin, International Relations, is a leading scholar of global environmental governance, researching international environmental cooperation and policy making in the context of advancing sustainable development. He has made important contributions around the governance of mercury pollution and other hazardous chemicals. He is associate dean for studies within Pardee and associate director of BU’s Institute on Sustainable Development and additionally serves as editor of Global Environmental Politics. His research has been sponsored by numerous agencies including the NSF and the International Renewable Energy Agency. He has published two books, including 2020’s Mercury Stories: Understanding Sustainability through a Volatile Element, along with 14 book chapters and articles in top journals.
Konstantinos Spiliopoulos, Mathematics & Statistics, researches probability, stochastic processes, and statistics, exploring the application of stochastic partial differential equations to challenges in the sciences, engineering, and finance. He has also worked to establish deep new mathematical theories and to solve important applied scientific problems in cellular biology, data science, machine learning, and neural networks, among several fields. Supported by numerous NSF grants, he is a member of BU’s Center for Information & Systems Engineering, a past Simons Fellow in Mathematics, and a frequently invited lecturer. He has published two book chapters and 35 articles in important mathematics and scientific journals.
Jared Weinstein, Mathematics & Statistics, specializes in number theory, with a focus on automorphic representation theory, which explores abstract algebraic structures. He is recognized internationally as a leading scholar in the field of p-adic geometry, particularly the local geometry of Shimura varieties. He is a past Simons Foundation Fellow and Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, has published extensively in his field’s top journals, and has been a PI on numerous NSF grants. He is recognized as one of the few people in the world who are conversant enough with the new “perfectoid” geometry – replacing the traditional rings of arithmetic geometry – to be able to apply it usefully and further advance the field.
Paul Withers, Astronomy, specializes in the study of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere of planets, using radio science instruments and developing theoretical models to discover how multiple factors – from solar flux to magnetic fields – interact under the unique conditions of each planet. Credited with reinvigorating the field of radio occultation experiments, he has earned several major NASA achievement awards and is a PI on numerous active NASA and NSF grants exploring conditions on Earth, Saturn, Mars, and Venus. He is associate chair of his department and associate director of the BU Center for Space Physics. He has published two book chapters and 84 articles in premier scientific journals.
Min Ye, International Relations, is a scholar of East Asian politics, with specific focus on Chinese domestic and international political economy and security, as well as regional relations with India and other developing nations. Respected as a leading intellectual voice on the Belt and Road Initiative and US-China relations, she has published three books, including 2020’s The Belt, Road and Beyond: State-Mobilized Globalization in China, 1998-2018, along with two book chapters and a dozen articles in important field journals, including the Journal of East Asian Studies. She is a recent Rosenberg Institute Scholar at Suffolk University, a past director of BU’s East Asian Studies program, and has received grant funding from the Smith Richardson Foundation to support her research.
Faculty Members Promoted to Master Lecturers
Kevin Barents, Writing Program
Kevin Barents teaches writing seminars on a range of topics at the intersection of creativity, innovation, and collaboration, including “Bob Dylan’s Lyrics,” “Boston Poetry Now,” and “Improvisation Now.” He has been an active leader of curricular innovation in the Writing Program and is a recognized expert on Bob Dylan, having written chapters on Dylan in the books Dylan: Disc by Disc (2015) and Professing Dylan (2016) and been interviewed by numerous national outlets, including National Public Radio, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post.
Seth Blumenthal, CAS Writing Program
Seth Blumenthal teaches writing seminars inspired by his own scholarship, with topics like “The Educated Electorate,” “Marijuana in American History,” and “High Stakes: Creating Social Equity in the Massachusetts Cannabis Industry,” which he co-taught in the Cross College Challenge. He has published numerous op-eds in The Washington Post and elsewhere, and his book Children of the Silent Majority: Youth Politics and the Rise of the Republican Party, 1968-1980 (University Press of Kansas, 2018) won the James P. Hanlan Book Award. In 2020, Seth was recognized with Boston University’s Metcalf Award for Teaching Excellence.
Lucia Pastorino, Neuroscience
Lucia Pastorino received her PhD in Pharmacology/Pharmacognosy in 1999 from the University of Milan and held fellowship and instructor positions at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Harvard Medical School prior to joining BU’s faculty in 2013. She is an accomplished neurobiologist whose research explored the cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases. She teaches introductory and advanced courses on these topics and recently designed NE/BI 561, the Neuroscience major’s first upper-level, lab-only course, which provides students with authentic research experiences in a classroom setting.
Jaemin Roh, World Languages & Literatures
Jaemin Roh is an outstanding Korean language educator. She teaches with passion and is a highly skilled, committed, dependable, and hard-working teacher. Throughout the years of teaching at BU, she has consistently demonstrated a willingness to learn and develop as a teacher, adapting her teaching style to match the changing needs of the students. As a leader in the Korean language program, Dr. Roh served as the program’s coordinator. In terms of making an impact on the field of Korean language learning, Dr. Roh greatest accomplishment is in being the co-author of two new textbooks: Anytime Korean 1 (2020), Anytime Korean 2 (2021). Together with the web app publication, these textbooks are distributed internationally and are used by our Korean program. Dr. Roh plans to curate a collection of audio-visual media material for all levels of Korean, and also plans to develop a course tentatively titled as Korean Language Through TV Variety Shows. This, too, she intends to turn into a book project. On the national level, Dr. Roh serves as the Vice-Chair for the ACTFL Korean Special Interest Group, which positions her to play an important role to help shape national policies and guidelines in Korean language teaching and learning.
Melanie Smith, CAS Writing Program
Melanie Smith brings professional experience and academic expertise in public health to writing courses addressing research ethics and environmental issues (“Ethical Missteps in Public Health,” “The World’s Waters”). She has also published numerous personal essays and teaches classes on this genre (“Every Life, AStory”). Ms. Smith has researched the effect of fear of failure on student writing and is interested in how cultural diversity can enrich the writing classroom.
Robin Stevens, Core Curriculum
Robin Stevens has served as Assistant Director of the Core Curriculum since 2019. She oversees the labs and much of the planning for Core Natural Science classes and lectures on many subjects in CC111 and CC212. She is Advisor to the Core Peer Tutors program and the Core House and Floor. She was accepted into the inaugural Inclusive Pedagogy Institute (June 2022) and is working on initiatives with faculty from BI and NE on inclusive pedagogies for non-science majors. Dr. Stevens also teaches NE 101 in the Neuroscience program each spring.
Jason Tandon, CAS Writing Program
Jason Tandon has taught in the Writing Program since 2008 on topics such as modern and contemporary American poetry and existential literature, philosophy, and film, with titles like “Nature Poetry” and “Personal and Political: the Art of Lyric Poetry.” He is the author of five books of poetry, including his most recent publication, This Far North. Jason brings his expertise in language, genre, and craft to students through creative and academic assignments, as well as to writing program faculty as a resource on creative nonfiction.
Brian Walsh, Core Curriculum/CAS Writing Program
Brian Walsh is the Interim Director of the Core Curriculum in S23, and has a joint appointment with Core and the Writing Program. He has served as the Coordinator for CC102: Antiquity to the Medieval World since S20, and will be Assistant Director of the program in AY24. He teaches multiple humanities courses, as well as CC320: Multimedia Approaches to Core Texts, using a deep dive into Hamlet for students to find creative ways to adapt narrative and explore genre. Dr. Walsh also teaches in the English Department and is co-convener of “Black Classicism: Moving Forward,”, national lecture series organized by Core, the Classics Department, and African American Studies.
Emi Yamanaka, World Languages & Literatures
Emi Yamanaka is the recipient of the Neu Family Award for Excellence in Teaching in the College of Arts & Sciences for 2023 and is an outstanding teacher. She has been unstinting in her service, having served as the coordinator of the Japanese program for many terms and continues to provide exemplary counsel and assistance to the current coordinator. Over the past 5 years, Ms. Yamanaka helped devise and implement to many innovative developments in the Japanese language program. One of her most impressive and long-lasting contributions was overseeing the program’s efforts to attach Hub units to all Japanese language courses. Seeking to create a bridge between language and literature courses, she initiated integrating the literature with the language classes. In 2018, To enhance the visibility and standing of the Japanese program, she helped organize the “Japan Day” event, where Japanese language students in the Boston area, including from Harvard, MIT and Tufts, convened for one day at BU. This helped establish BU as a leading institution in Japanese language learning. Although she has already brought a great deal of useful expertise into WLL, we expect her to continue to lead the program and enhance our curriculum development by integrating literature and language learning.
Faculty Members Promoted to Senior Lecturers
Derek Anderson, Philosophy
Derek Anderson teaches a wide range of courses in philosophy, including Introduction to Philosophy, Introduction to Ethics, Reason and Argumentation, Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality, Puzzles & Paradoxes, and Metaphysics & Epistemology. Anderson is a much-admired instructor, deeply committed to incorporating issues of social justice and diversity into his curriculum. He is also a productive scholar. He regularly publishes papers in the areas of social epistemology and the philosophy of psychology, and his monograph, Metasemantics and Intersectionality in the Misinformation Age, appeared in 2021. The Philosophy Department congratulates Professor Anderson on his well-earned promotion to Senior Lecturer.
Brett DiBenedictis, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Brett DiBenedictis makes a vital contribution to the Undergraduate Psychology Curriculum in his teaching of courses that cover the foundational links between brain and behavior. He teaches multiple sections of PS231 Physiological Psychology and PS333 Drugs and Behavior. His expertise regarding the role of drugs and hormones in modulating both brain and behavior is especially valued. He also supervises undergraduate directed study students and students undertaking Honors Projects. In addition, he remains active in research over the summer, providing mentored research opportunities for our students.
Shutan Dong, World Languages & Literatures
Shutan Dong is an exemplary teacher and devoted coordinator for the Chinese program. Under her leadership, the program has revised all existing courses and designed some new ones to meet the needs of our student. Throughout the pandemic, when the regular way of delivering language instruction was thoroughly disrupted, she successfully led the Chinese program through the transition to online, then to hybrid, and finally to a phased return to the classroom. She has mentored part-time colleagues, as well as helped in selecting and mentoring FLTAs. She helped revised and administered the language placement exam, with a special emphasis on improving placement for heritage speakers. She regularly organizes co-curricular activities such as poetry events, and runs—and judges—the annual Chinese translation competition. She has represented the program at the Language and Career Expo, Global House Information Sessions, Virtual Global Café, and various Open Houses. She has performed excellent service as coordinator of the Chinese program, serving in the Department with exemplary dedication and professionalism. Ms. Dong has significant future potential in several areas. She is an actively participant in professional development opportunities both inside and outside BU. In her own words, she wants to grow as “a teacher-scholar” and to continue to contribute to the growth of the Chinese program.
Stacey Gelsheimer, Economics
Stacey Gelsheimer specializes in teaching undergraduate empirical courses, often with students writing original econometric research papers. She has won the department teaching award, served as an LfA coach, helped develop new empirical courses, and led the department in several capacities on issues of teaching and writing. She also developed and continues to teach the online introductory macroeconomics course offered through the summer program. She is currently on professional developmental leave crafting new programming to promote student research opportunities. She is known to students for her caring and passion for their achievement.
Aleksandra Kasztalska, CAS Writing Program
Aleksandra Kasztalska brings expertise in applied linguistics and innovative teaching techniques to the Writing Program’s courses for English language learners (ELL). Her research interests span second language acquisition, teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), and general pedagogy, including collaborations with the Center for Teaching and Learning. In 2022 she won the CAS Award for Distinction in First Year Undergraduate Education.
Heeju Lee, World Languages & Literatures
Heeju Lee is an excellent teacher and much loved by her students. During the difficult time of the pandemic, she has been a leading figure in the Korean program and has provided crucial service over the past few years. Dr. Lee has made several important contributions to curricular development in Korean, both in revising some existing courses and designing new courses., including our new third- and fourth-year courses She is actively involved in the advising of students who minor in Korean, as well as in administering language placement and proficiency exams. She has mentored full- and part-time colleagues in her capacity as Coordinator. She has worked well with the convener as the program expanded and is an exemplary departmental and university citizen, and many colleagues has remarked on her collegiality and professionalism. At the department level, Dr. Lee has served on many search committees. Dr. Lee has impressive achievements in her professional life beyond teaching. She provides peer reviews for prestigious journals and is a regular presenter at national and international annual professional conferences including the American Association of Teachers of Korean (AATK) and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).
Yair Lior, Religion
Trained as a specialist in Chinese and Jewish mysticism and proficient in many languages, Dr. Yair Lior, recently promoted to Senior Lecturer, can now be said to be a scholar of religion as an evolutionary product, having recently coedited the Routledge Handbook for Evolutionary Approaches to Religion . Lior teaches courses in the Introduction of Religion, Religion and Science, the Religions of Asia, and the Kabbalah, each of which offers a range of Hub areas and brings in large groups of students. Lior is also on the Core program staff, where his freshman discussions are especially popular. He is particularly renowned for the warmth and attentiveness with which he interacts with students.
Michele Martinez, CAS Writing Program
Michele Martinez teaches writing seminars on topics ranging from dystopian literature and film to family photographs and stories. She is an active leader in the Writing Program’s ongoing DEI efforts and part of the inaugural cohort in BU’s Inclusive Pedagogy Institute. Her publications and current research focus on the multimedial aspirations and effects of Victorian poetry, painting, and photography. Her 2018 article “Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s ‘Salutation of Beatrice’: Pictures as Victorian Comics” won a best essay prize from the Northeast Modern Language Studies Association.
Lionel Mathieu, Romance Studies
Lionel Mathieu earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Cloud State University in English, French, and the Teaching of English as a Second Language. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Arizona in Linguistics, with a concentration in Phonology and Second Language Acquisition and Teaching. His research interests include phonetics and phonology (with a focus on the orthography interface), second language acquisition and teaching (with a focus on the pedagogy of multiliteracies), psycholinguistics (with a focus on bilingual visual word recognition), contact linguistics (with a focus on loanword phonology), and French linguistics (with a focus on phonology and historical linguistics). He is also a certified DELF A1-B2 examiner.
Sarah Miller, Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies
Sarah Miller is a sociologist whose research focuses on gender, sexuality, education, and new media. Her current book project, The Tolerance Generation: Growing Up Online in an Anti-Bullying Era, explores how intersectional inequalities and digital cultures shape young people’s experiences with bullying. Her work has been published in Gender & Society, Sexualities, and the Journal of Youth and Adolescence and funded by the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, National Science Foundation, and the American Sociological Association. At BU, Miller is the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the WGS Program, where she teaches courses on gender, sexualities, and feminist methodologies.
New Chairs and Directors
Professor Pamela Templer, Biology
Associate Professor Amy Appleford, English
Professor James Johnson, History
Associate Professor Catherine Espaillat, Institute for Astrophysical Research
Assistant Professor Rodrigo Lopes de Barros, Cinema & Media Studies
Professor David Decosimo, Institute for Philosophy and Religion
Professor Nancy Harrowitz, Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies
Professor Sunil Sharmam, Medieval Studies
Professor Susanne Sreedhar, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Professor Mark Storella, Center for African Studies
Professor Robert Hefner, BU Center for the Study of Asia
Retiring Faculty
Paul Blanchard, Professor of Mathematics
John T. Clarke, Professor of Astronomy
Dan Dill, Professor of Chemistry
Ricardo J. Elia, Associate Professor of Archaeology
Louis Ferleger, Professor of History
Eric Goldstein, Professor of International Relations and History, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies
David Green, Senior Lecturer, Core Curriculum and CAS Writing Program
Charles L. Griswold, Borden Parker Browne Professor of Philosophy
Margaret Hagen, Professor, Psychological & Brain Sciences
Glen Richard Hall, Professor, Mathematics & Statistics
W. Jeffrey Hughes, Professor of Astronomy
James Iffland, Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies
Michael Lyons, Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences
James McCann, Professor of History
Carol Neidle, Professor of French and Linguistics
Stephen Prothero, C. Allyn and Elizabeth V. Russell Professor of Religion
Jon Roberts, Tomorrow Foundation Professor of American Intellectual History
Charles Rzepka, Department of English
Jim Schmidt, Professor of History, Philosophy, and Political Science
Judith A. Swanson, Associate Professor of Political Science
Diana Wylie, Professor of History
Lawrence D. Ziegler, Professor of Chemistry
Our Staff
In 2022-2023, we welcomed 75 new staff members to Arts & Sciences, including lab managers and research technicians, administrative coordinators, program and department administrators, academic advisors, a new Director of Graduate Affairs, a new Director of Masters’ Marketing and Enrollment, a new Assistant Dean for Communications, amongst others.
New College Staff
Charlotte Gaynore joined Psychological & Brain Sciences as a research tech on July 5
Madeline Scott joined Religion as an administrative coordinator on July 5
Nicole Bray joined the Graduate School as Enrollment Marketing and Communication Associate on July 11.
Barbara Condon joined Economics as an administrative coordinator on July 11.
Amy Dave joined Psychological & Brain Sciences as a research tech on July 11.
Sonja Fizek joined Biology as a financial administrator on July 11.
Jiana Capone joined Mathematics & Statistics as an administrative coordinator on July 18
Eli Elster joined Psychological & Brain Sciences as a project coordinator on July 18
Patrick Guziewicz joined Computer Science as an undergraduate advisor on July 18
Artur Shore joined CAS IT as Desktop Services Specialist II on August 15
Charlotte Gaynor joined Psychological & Brain Sciences as a research tech on August 22
Michael Sekor joined Biology as a Teaching Professional on August 22
Yizhou Ding joined as a Psychological & Brain Sciences Research Technician on August 22
Alma Greenberg joined as a Psychological & Brain Sciences Research Technician on August 29
Madison Fertig joined as a Psychological & Brain Sciences Research Technician on August 29
Michele Hiserodt joined Psychological & Brain Sciences as a Lab Coordinator on August 29
Leah Gilchrist joined Arts & Sciences Communications as the Digital Marketing and Communications Specialist on September 6
Abigael Baldwin started as the Special Project Administrator in the Dean’s Office on September 6
Natalie Martinez started as Mathematics & Statistics Graduate Program Administrator on September 6
Emily Coombs joined as a Psychological & Brain Sciences Research Technician on September 6
Jaedyn Birchmier joined as a Psychological & Brain Sciences Research Technician on September 6
Daniel Collins joined as a Psychological & Brain Sciences Research Technician on September 6
Alison Currier started as the Arts & Sciences Academic Program Coordinator on September 12
Arthur Peterson joined Faculty Actions as Assistant Director on September 12
Gina Halabi joined Faculty Actions as Tenure and Promotion Coordinator on September 26
Marine Kaufmann started as a Psychological & Brain Sciences Research Technician on September 26.
Bryce McNamee started as Computer Science Grants Administrator on September 26 October
Deirdre James started as Mathematics & Statistics Financial Administrator on October 3
Veronica Lopez-Doherty started as Biology Staff Coordinator on October 3
Lincoln MacVeagh started as Romance Studies Senior Staff Coordinator on October 3
Stephen Ring started as Academic Advising Program Coordinator on October 3.
Heather Ho started as Biology Program Manager on October 3.
Erin Mullins started as Biology Undergraduate Academic Advisor on October 3.
Mira Guth started as Center for Philosophy & History Administrative Assistant on October 3.
Brennan Lee started as a Psychological & Brain Sciences Research Technician on October 3.
Nancy Geourntas started as Classical Studies Department Administrator on October 11.
Nicolas Quesada started as Society of Fellows Program Associate on October 11.
Alysa Williams started as an Undergraduate Academic Advisor on October 11.
Adam Znideric joined Creative Writing as the Academic Program Administrator on October 31.
Joana Gispert started as Psychological & Brain Sciences Project Coordinator on October 24.
Victor Pachas started as a Pre-Health Academic Advisor on November 1.
Rachel Edwards started as the African American and Black Diaspora Studies Program Administrator on November 14.
Anne Hildebrand started as a Biology Undergraduate Program Specialist on November 14.
Kristen O’Connor started as the Assistant Director of Graduate Affairs & Student Support on November 14.
Joe Knapik started as the Classical Studies Senior Program Coordinator on November 21.
Benjamin Roy started as the Philosophy Senior Program Coordinator on December 5.
Erin Salius started as the Director of the Arts & Sciences Connector on December 1.
Healey Suto started as Executive Assistant to the Dean on December 12.
Avani Sudhakar started as the Political Science Department Administrator on January 9.
Kyle Donahue started as the Writing Program Senior Staff Assistant on January 17.
Emily Griffin started as the Graduate School Senior Staff Coordinator on January 23.
Marcus Shaw started as the Sociology Undergraduate Academic Advisor on January 23.
Olufunmilayo Ojo started as the Student Services Program Coordinator on January 23.
Alice Rugoletti started a new role as the Computer Science Academic Program Manager on January 23.
Patrick Kavanagh started as the Computer Science Administrative Coordinator on January 30.
Julia Rolnick started as the Math & Stats Director of Outreach on January 30.
Samantha Kelly started as the anthropology lab coordinator on February 6.
Mavis Manaloto started as the economics program coordinator on February 6.
Kristen Cefalu started as the psychological & brain sciences research technician on February 6.
Christina Crabtree started a new position as the physics graduate program administrator on February 6.
Meredith Rippert started as the religion administrative coordinator on February 6.
Dakota Perez started as the CAS student DEI engagement coordinator on February 13.
Charlie Want joined Arts & Sciences as the Master’s Degree Admission and Financial Aid Associate on February 13.
Robert Perry started as the Center Administrator for the Center for Space Physics on February 13.
Maria del Carmen Piqueras joined Arts & Sciences as the Chemistry Instrumentation Specialist on February 21.
Erica Moore started as the Psychological & Brain Sciences Senior Program Coordinator on February 21.
Christina Sliney started as the Pre-Law Academic Advisor on February 27.
Brianna Blaskey started as a Graduation Advisor on Monday, March 20.
Jessie Guinn Jr. started as the LerNET Director of STEM Outreach and Diversity on Monday, March 20.
Shannon Landis started as the Center for Innovation in Social Science Center Administrator on Monday, March 20.
Emma Roth started as the Earth & Environment Senior Program Coordinator on Monday, March 20.
Lea Joy started as the Associate Director of Faculty Payroll on April 1.
Sam Greives started as the Physics Program Coordinator on Monday, April 10.
Victoria Moscato started as the Biology Lab Manager on Monday, April 10.
Giovanna Karlovic started as the Computer Science Undergraduate Academic Advisor on May 1.
Michelle Buzharsky, Siria Coello, and Sanna Ahmed started as Psychological & Brain Sciences Research Technicians on May 22.
CAS Professional Development Committee
Our staff is supported by the CAS Professional Development (ProDev) committee. In 2022-2023, ProDev hosted the following programs:
- Eight “Lunch & Learns” with guest speakers from Arts & Sciences
- A Graduate/Professional Program Panel
- A Professional Headshot Day
- A holiday social
CAS Staff Appreciation
In May 2023, we gathered for an in-person Staff Appreciation event to celebrate the outstanding contributions of our committed and dedicated faculty and staff; to recognize those who have served on important committees or as chairs or directors; and to honor our retiring colleagues. We are grateful for the vital roles that our staff members play in the Arts & Sciences community.
Our Alumni and Parents
Alumni and Parents play a vital role in our extended Arts & Sciences community. In 2022, our alumni returned to the Charles River Campus for Alumni Weekend (September 29- October 2), and Family and Friends Weekend (October 21-23)
The 2022 Alumni Weekend included various events across all programs, both in-person and online. In addition to the celebrations, the 74th Best of BU Alumni Awards recognized the outstanding achievements of our alumni, including Malcolm Coles (CAS‘66), Gina Ortiz Jones (GRS‘03, Pardee’03), and Drew Weissman (GRS’87, CAMED’87).
2022-2023 Arts & Sciences Lectures
The 2022 Gitner Family Lecture with Donna Pincus, CAS Feld Family Professor of Teaching Excellence; Director, Child and Adolescent Fear and Anxiety Treatment Program, Boston University Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences: “Building Bravery at BU and Beyond: Evidence-Based Strategies for Overcoming Anxiety.”
The 2022 Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture with Professor Mae Ngai, Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and Professor of History, and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, Columbia University: “The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes, Chinese Migration, and Global Politics.”
The 2023 Silas Peirce Lecture Lecture with Kira Thurman, Associate professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures and History, University of Michigan: “On Beethoven, Blackness, and Belonging: Debating German Music Across the Black Atlantic”