CISS Affiliates Promotioned to Associate Professor
On June 23, 2025 President Melissa Gilliam and Provost Gloria Waters announced the promotion of 17 faculty members on the Charles River Campus to the rank of associate professor with tenure; five to the rank of associate professor, non-tenure track; and three to the rank of tenured full professor. As Waters noted, “Each in their unique way demonstrates daily the caliber of education and accomplishment possible through innovation, creativity, leadership, and commitment to student success. We see great things ahead for them and are pleased they have chosen BU as the institution at which to advance their careers.”
Congratulations to all, especially those whose work embraces the themes and methods of social science including:
Celeste Curington, (CAS/Sociology & CISS Affiliate), researches the African Diaspora in the United States and Europe and other communities of color. Her work bridges the fields of ethnography, critical race theory, and feminist methodology to examine how oppression and inequality around race, gender, class, and citizenship are perpetuated, experienced, and often resisted in various settings. She has published two books, Laboring in the Shadow of Empire: Race, Gender, and Care Work in Portugal (2024) and The Dating Divide: Race and Desire in the Era of Online Romance (2021). Her research has also appeared in academic journals, including the Du Bois Review, the Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, and the American Sociological Review alongside major media outlets. A trained doula, she is at work on a third ethnographic book project, Witnessing Birth, which explores the labor and community-based practices of BIPOC doulas in Massachusetts and Georgia. She has been promoted to associate professor with tenure.
Martin Fiszbein, (CAS/Economics & CISS Affiliate), studies the historical roots of cultural traits and political attitudes – such as individualism, gender norms, racial animus, and civic norms – and their impact on development. He also examines structural change, technological progress, and skill formation as drivers of growth, focusing on how these processes are shaped by geo-climatic and historical factors. His research has been published in leading economics journals, including Econometrica, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The Review of Economic Studies, and The Journal of Economic History, and he is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has been promoted to associate professor with tenure.
Jonathan J.B. Mijs, (CAS/Sociology & CISS Affiliate), is a scholar of social inequality whose research centers on how people form their beliefs about inequality and what leads them to change their views. Supported by over $2 million in external funding from national and international organizations such as the Volkswagen Foundation, European Commission, and the Dutch Research Council, he has published 35 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals such as Social Forces, Social Problems, and the Annual Review of Sociology. He is a past recipient of the International Society for Justice Research Morton Deutsch Award, the International Sociological Association’s Alan C. Kerckhoff Award, and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Early Career Award, and his work has been featured in media outlets in half a dozen countries. He has served as a subject matter expert for Amnesty International, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the governments of Canada and The Netherlands and was a technical consultant on the Hulu series Paradise. He has been promoted to associate professor with tenure.
Ana Villarreal, (CAS/Sociology & CISS Affiliate), is an urban sociologist who draws on ethnography and social theory to advance sociological understandings of violence, emotions, and urban dynamics in Latin America. She has authored eight peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and her first book, The Two Faces of Fear: Violence and Inequality in the Mexican Metropolis (2024) won the Outstanding Book Award from the Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA). A second book on violence and Colombian social urbanism is in development. She holds elected positions in the ASA’s urban and culture sections, serves on the editorial board of City & Community, and this past year received CAS’s Gitner Award for Distinguished Teaching. She has been promoted to associate professor with tenure.
Please join us in congratulating these exceptionally talented scholars, teachers, and researchers, on their recent promotions.