Faculty Promotions and Tenure
From Dr. Jean Morrison, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer
President Brown and I are delighted to announce the promotion of 13 members of our Charles River Campus faculty to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure, one to the rank of Associate Professor, and two awards of tenure to Associate Professors.
These promotions and tenures mark an especially proud moment for the BU community, as we’ve had the pleasure of watching these talented women and men develop from junior faculty into scholars and teachers of national impact and recognition. In fields as diverse as the sciences, arts, humanities, mathematics and social work, these faculty members have fulfilled the promise we saw in them as they began their careers at Boston University. They are having a demonstrable impact in their disciplines and they are excelling as teachers in our classrooms. We see great things ahead for them and are pleased they have chosen BU as the place to launch their independent careers:
Deborah Burton, CFA, Music, specializes in music theory and analysis, with particular focus on Italian opera. Considered among the foremost authorities on operas by Puccini, she has helped pioneer the burgeoning field of opera analysis, authoring a book, Recondite Harmonies: Essays on Puccini’s Operas (2012), alongside numerous conference presentations and widely cited journal articles, offering uniquely innovative dissection and analysis of musical pieces. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Emine Fetvaci, CAS, History of Art & Architecture, specializes in Islamic art and architecture, with an emphasis on Ottoman painting. The first full-time professor of her field in BU history, she is a past recipient of a Peter Paul Career Development Professorship and has earned the highest honor awarded to young scholars by the Islamic Art Association. She has authored one book, an acclaimed monograph already translated into Turkish, and numerous book chapters and articles in top journals. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Dana Frankfort, CFA, Visual Arts, specializes in abstract painting, imbuing her canvases – which often include painted messages – with cultural and historical context, an awareness and inspiration she works to instill in her own students. A former Guggenheim Fellow widely regarded as one of her generation’s leading artists, she’s mounted eight solo shows in the last six years, been included in 35 group shows, and recently completed two commissioned works for universities in her native Texas. She has been promoted to Associate Professor.
Robinson (Wally) Fulweiler, CAS, Earth & Environment and Biology, specializes in ecology and biogeochemistry, exploring the impact humans have on marine systems. She’s among the first Sloan Fellows in Ocean Science, has won numerous prestigious grants for research on climate change and evolving ecosystems, and is a past recipient of CAS’s Neu Family Award for Excellence in Teaching. A frequent speaker, she’s penned dozens of widely cited articles, book chapters and presentations. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
James Galagan, ENG and MED, Biomedical Engineering and Microbiology, specializes in the use of computational and experimental methods to better understand and treat disease caused by bacteria and fungi. The Associate Director for Systems Biology at NEIDL and a well-known leader in the field of Computational Biology, he’s secured major grant funding to support his research, holds four patents, and has authored dozens of articles in leading journals, exploring approaches to microbial diseases. He has been awarded tenure as an Associate Professor.
Samuel Isaacson, CAS, Mathematics & Statistics, specializes in mathematical biology, numerical analysis and mathematical physics, developing computational and mathematical approaches to address problems in molecular biology. Regarded as one of the leading young scientists internationally in his field, he’s received an NSF CAREER Award among several prestigious grants to support his research and written articles in numerous top journals bolstering the practice of biophysical modeling. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Margaret Litvin, CAS, Modern Languages & Comparative Literature, specializes in modern Arabic literature and political culture, often through the rubric of Shakespeare and theatre studies. The author of an acclaimed book, Hamlet’s Arab Journey: Shakespeare’s Prince and Nasser’s Ghost (2011), she’s built an international reputation as a writer and speaker, authoring book chapters, reviews and articles in top journals, and been named a Peter Paul Career Development Professor. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Jordana Muroff, SSW, Clinical Practice, specializes in the study of mental health disorders among vulnerable populations and the influence of race and ethnicity on clinical decisions. She has secured substantial grant funding to support research into obsessive-compulsive spectrum conditions and substance abuse and won praise for her mentoring work with students. A frequent conference speaker, she’s authored eight book chapters and dozens of widely cited journal articles, with a book now in press. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Donna Pincus, CAS, Psychological & Brain Sciences, specializes in development of effective, evidence-based treatments for anxiety and related disorders in children and adolescents. A recognized leader in Parent Child Interaction Therapy, she’s secured considerable grant support to advance her clinical and home-based research – including pioneering work in Internet-based interventions – and authored five books, 15 book chapters, dozens of articles in top journals, and more than 100 conference presentations. She has been awarded tenure as an Associate Professor.
Japonica Brown-Saracino, CAS, Sociology, specializes in urban sociology and community studies, focusing extensively on gentrification and its implications for identity. Recognized for rigorous, creative research and a devotion to “engaged learning” for her students within the city of Boston, she’s authored numerous widely cited journal articles exploring the cultural meaning of space, while her book A Neighborhood That Never Changes (2009) won the Urban Affairs Association Best Book Award. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Scott Seider, SED, Education, specializes in the civic and character development of adolescents and early adults, focusing on the roles secondary schools and universities play in this process. He has emerged nationally as a leader in civic and character education, garnering major awards for his latest academic text, Character Compass (2012), winning a prestigious Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Academy of Education, and publishing dozens of articles in top journals advancing original research. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Michael Smith, ENG, Biomedical Engineering, specializes in the use of experimental and computational approaches to better understand the microenvironments that help define cells and tissues. He’s received numerous NSF grants, including a CAREER Award, to support his research, authored dozens of widely cited articles in high impact journals, and been recognized at BU with an Innovation Career Development Professorship and an Early Career Research Excellence Award from ENG. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Susanne Sreedhar, CAS, Philosophy, specializes in the study of Thomas Hobbes and other early modern philosophers and social contract theorists, with additional expertise in contemporary political philosophy and women’s studies. Widely regarded for her scholarship in Hobbes studies, she’s a frequently invited conference speaker and has published extensively on the topic, including numerous book chapters, reviews, articles and an acclaimed 2013 book, Hobbes on Resistance: Defying the Leviathan. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Evimaria Terzi, CAS, Computer Science, specializes in data mining, focusing on algorithms for extracting useful knowledge from massive datasets. A well-known authority on privacy in social networks (the subject of a book she co-authored), she has published dozens of widely cited conference papers and journal articles, received a prestigious Microsoft Faculty Fellowship and IBM Outstanding Award, and secured several grants from NSF, including a CAREER Award, to support her data collection research. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Gregory Williams, CAS, History of Art & Architecture, specializes in contemporary art and art criticism, concentrating extensively on German art of the late 20th century. He became the first non-German to win the Critic’s Award of the Association of German Art Societies, while his 2013 monograph, Permission to Laugh, alongside numerous essays and reviews have garnered international recognition. In 2012, he received CAS’s Frank and Lynne Wisneski Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Aaron Worth, CGS, Rhetoric, specializes in the relationship between media technology and colonialism in British literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The author of a well-reviewed book, Imperial Media (2014), he has contributed significantly to this growing interdisciplinary field, drawing new interest through presentations, articles in top journals of Victorian literature, and a forthcoming book, which draws on cognitive science to explore Victorian representations of mind. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Please join me in congratulating these exceptionally talented rising scholars, teachers and researchers on their recent promotions and in wishing them the best of luck in their new positions. The standard of academic excellence they – and you – continue to set each day heralds an incredibly bright future for Boston University as both a research leader and launching pad for some of the nation’s finest faculty.
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