Promotions of Lecturers and Faculty with Modified Titles on the Charles River Campus
From Dr. Jean Morrison, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer
President Brown and I are delighted to announce the promotion of 12 faculty members on the Charles River Campus to the rank of Master Lecturer; 15 to the rank of Senior Lecturer; and one each to the rank of Clinical Professor, Research Professor, and Research Associate Professor.
Each year, as you know, we have the pleasure of recognizing the promotions of talented faculty on the Charles River Campus to the ranks of Associate and Full Professor. Their promotions are all processed centrally according to a schedule set forth in the Faculty Handbook.
Other faculty colleagues, equally central to our teaching and research mission, have their promotions processed on a rolling basis throughout the academic year. These accomplished educators are among our most devoted teachers, scholars, mentors, and contributors to their schools’ and students’ success. This past year, they – like all faculty – were critical to our ability to successfully adapt and innovate in the face of monumental challenge. And, as we return this fall to in-person, residential instruction, they are continuing to make important pedagogical advances across a range of diverse fields, from the arts and humanities to the sciences, linguistics, business, and education.
We are delighted to announce the following promotions from the 2020-21 academic year:
Allison Blyler, CAS, Writing Program, focuses her writing and teaching on concepts of place, urban nature, eco-pedagogy, and multi-species justice. A champion of experiential learning, she uses her courses to creatively explore city spaces around Boston, as well as natural habitats including Walden Pond and the Spokane Reservation. She is co-director of the CAS Writing Program’s Boston Now experiential-learning curricular initiative and a writing associate in the College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College. She has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Laura Brusetti McGinn, CAS, Romance Studies, is a scholar and teacher of Italian language, culture, media, and popular culture, and serves as coordinator of BU’s Italian Language Program. She has devised new Italian courses for the BU Hub and helped others within her department to do the same. She has also embraced the most up-to-date, technologically-advanced pedagogical practices, including the Boomalang program, which offers students the opportunity to practice their Italian with native speakers abroad. She has been promoted to Master Lecturer.
Mario Cabodi, Biomedical Engineering, ENG, is an expert in the design of field-deployable medical devices for diagnostics in low-resource settings. Much of his teaching focuses on design topics. He oversees his department’s Master of Engineering program, which prepares students for leadership positions in the medical device industry, and has published dozens of research papers in leading journals including Nature Materials, Physical Review Letters, Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, and Lab on a Chip. He has been promoted to Master Lecturer.
Alison Carberry, CAS, Romance Studies, is a scholar and teacher of Spanish language and literature and of medieval and early modern Iberian studies. Her research touches significantly on feminist themes, focusing on the roles of women in popular and learned texts and incorporating relevant issues of race, class, and religion. She previously headed the Spanish program and currently serves as coordinator of second semester Spanish. Throughout the pandemic, she served as a Learn from Anywhere faculty coach for CAS and received her college’s Spirit and Creativity Award. She has been promoted to Master Lecturer.
Elena Carrión Guerrero, CAS, Romance Studies, is a scholar of Spanish who specializes in language acquisition, using a wide variety of authentic materials (including art, music, film, and literary texts) in her teaching to promote familiarity with the Hispanic world. A frequent conference presenter, she also focuses on bilingual education, Spanish for heritage speakers, and the integration of audiovisual technology for translation. She is a co-organizer of BU’s Second-Language Learning and Disabilities Conference. She has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Christopher Coffman, CGS, Humanities, specializes in contemporary American fiction and poetry, including the works of William T. Vollmann and Thomas Pynchon. He also publishes creative texts and scholarship in the areas of cinema studies, rhetoric, and popular music. He is the author of Rewriting Early America: The Prenational Past in Postmodern Literature (2019) and editor of three volumes, including William T. Vollmann: A Critical Companion (2015) and After Postmodernism: The New American Fiction (2021). He has been promoted to Master Lecturer.
Anne Danehy, COM, Mass Communication, Advertising & Public Relations, has conducted communication research with national and international audiences for more than three decades. Her research seeks to help organizations understand the thinking of target audiences, learning about attitudes, perceptions, pain points, and motivations, with the ultimate goal of developing effective marketing, public relations, and advertising campaigns. She has won several national awards for her campaigns, and in addition to her teaching, serves as her college’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. She has been promoted to Master Lecturer.
Ishita Dey, CAS, Economics, is an expert in policy and economics around education. In addition to teaching in the macroeconomics and econometrics sequences, she introduced a course on the economics of education and publishes research on post-secondary education, examining such areas as the relationship between student attendance and outcomes. She is currently working on a new advanced course in empirical methods. She has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Bahar Erbas, CAS, Economics, is an expert in environmental, resource, energy, and public economics, focusing her research primarily on environmental regulation and climate change. She is a regular presenter at international conferences and has published three book chapters and numerous articles in top economics journals. Her current work examines the relationship between climate change and energy taxes and between CO2 emission intensities and passenger car sales. She has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
John Fox, Questrom, Finance, is a specialist across multiple areas of finance, with more than two decades of industry experience in financial and management reporting, capital and risk management, forecasting, and mergers and acquisitions. He has taught several different finance undergraduate courses, and is the coordinator of undergraduate Core Finance where he has thoroughly revised the curriculum. He is also a popular career advisor within Questrom, particularly among first-generation college students. He has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Patricia Hambrick, Questrom, Marketing, is an expert in marketing strategy and branding whose business experience and teaching have focused on helping organizations think and act differently to better connect with consumers, build lasting brand reputations, and generate business growth. In addition to speaking frequently at national conferences, she has been named to Ad Age’s “Most Influential People in Marketing” and won numerous teaching awards at Questrom. She also serves as a faculty mentor at Questrom, advising MBA students pursuing marketing pathways. She has been promoted to Master Lecturer.
Kyna Hamill, CAS, Core Curriculum, is a theatre historian who specializes in Baroque theatricality, theatre and visual culture, and theatre and war. She is director of the Core Curriculum and has published extensively on props, print culture, telescopes, and the monstrous in the 17th century, as well as on staged violence. She has also garnered international attention for her research on the origins of the song “Jingle Bells.” Her current book project explores the legacy of Baroque artist Jacques Callot in art, literature, and theatre. She has been promoted to Master Lecturer.
Nancy Harayama, Wheelock, Special Education, focuses on the assessment and instruction of students with severe cognitive disabilities, including autism. A frequent presenter at national conferences, she has published numerous textbook chapters and papers on collaborative teaming and students with special health care needs. She is a past director of Wheelock’s special education program, coordinates the partnership between Wheelock and the Landmark School, and currently serves as the Director of the Undergraduate Program. She has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Stephen Hodin, CAS, Writing Program, explores American culture and literature, labor and technology studies, and race theory, as well as historical figures, including Thomas Jefferson, Herman Melville, Harriet Jacobs, and William Wells Brown. He has published articles in the Journal of the Early Republic and ESQ and is currently working on a project that examines Walt Whitman and humanitarian reform during the Civil War. He additionally serves as a studio coordinator in Kilachand Honors College and helped lead the redesign of the first-year writing course for the BU Hub. He has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Elizabeth Hoover, Sargent, Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences, is an expert in socially-oriented intervention approaches for people with aphasia with a specialty in conversational treatment. She directs the Sargent College Aphasia Resource Center, and her research is funded by major grants from the National Institutes of Health. A frequent speaker at national and international conferences, she has published extensively in premier field journals and is a member of several international aphasia rehabilitation research groups. She has been promoted to Clinical Professor.
Christiane Kaden, CAS, World Languages & Literatures, teaches all levels of German language and culture courses, including an advanced language course on culture and science for STEM students. She has served as the coordinator of first and second semester German, and is currently the coordinator of the overall German program. She is a specialist in German dialects and all aspects of language acquisition and has presented and published a paper on phonology. She has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Joseph LiPuma, Questrom, Strategy & Innovation, is an expert on global business and entrepreneurship, whose research interests include new venture internationalization, international entrepreneurship, venture capital, and technology. He has published numerous articles on these topics, and is the co-author of Unlocking the Ivory Tower: How Management Research Can Transform Your Business (2012). He is a past recipient of the James E. Freeman Leadership Development Award, and has served as director of his college’s Master in Management Studies program. He has been promoted to Master Lecturer.
Peter Marton, Questrom, Strategy & Innovation, brings practical experience as a software company executive and business founder to the BU classroom. He teaches courses on entrepreneurship and executive leadership, and is among the highest rated instructors in the Questrom School. He also coordinates the campus Faculty Innovation Network, is a mentor through the Innovation Pathway Program, and regularly offers mini-courses on entrepreneurship on the Medical Campus, for BU Spark!, and elsewhere. He has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Ian Mashiter, Questrom, Strategy & Innovation, has extensive experience in venture capital and technology start-ups, and has played an important role in fostering entrepreneurship on and around the BU campus. He teaches courses in entrepreneurship, strategy, and business management to MBA and undergraduate students and was the founding Managing Director of the BUild Lab. He is currently Curriculum Director for Innovate@BU, where he manages the Innovate and Entrepreneurship minor. He is a past recipient of the Broderick Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. He has been promoted to Master Lecturer.
Molly Monet-Viera, CAS, Romance Studies, teaches all levels of Spanish language and culture courses, including Latin American film, focusing much of her recent efforts around teacher training, hybrid and differentiated learning, and intercultural competence. She has served as course coordinator for second, third, and fourth semester Spanish and worked to redesign her program’s curricula through the incorporation of authentic cultural materials and new technology, including the use of online grammar tools. She has been promoted to Master Lecturer.
Luluah Mustafa, CAS, World Languages & Literatures, teaches Arabic language and culture, including modern standard Arabic at all levels and Levantine colloquial Arabic. She is a past head of BU’s Arabic program, and has focused extensively on incorporating communicative materials – including emerging media, technology, and cultural content – into curricula to produce a more student-centered experience. A frequent presenter at conferences on issues of teacher training and technology, she is her college’s most recent recipient of the Wisneski Award for Excellence in Teaching. She has been promoted to Master Lecturer.
Amber Navarre, CAS, World Languages & Literatures, is an expert in Mandarin Chinese and specializes in technology-enhanced teaching, second language acquisition, and curriculum design. She is a frequent speaker at national teacher training workshops and has authored two textbooks in Chinese language pedagogy, including the forthcoming Teaching Chinese through Theater. In addition to national awards from Blackboard and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, she is a past recipient of BU’s Gitner Family Award for Innovation in Teaching with Technology. She has been promoted to Master Lecturer.
Pontus Olofsson, CAS, Earth & Environment, uses data collected from satellites orbiting the earth to measure changes in forest and agricultural land cover. He uses this data to model carbon budgets of land surfaces. His research is also used in a United Nations framework designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through land management. His work is supported by NASA, and he has co-authored dozens of articles in top-tier science publications. He has been promoted to Research Professor.
Michael O’Mara Shimek, CAS, Writing Program, is a linguist and ESL translator whose scholarly work examines how metaphor can be used to improve the ethical quality of financial and other news media reporting. Much of his research has explored the ideological use of metaphor by financial media in the stock market crash of 2008 to promote and frame crisis response policies. He has published in top media and business journals, including Discourse & Communication, Business Ethics: A European Review, and the Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies. He has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Brenda Phillips, CAS, Psychological & Brain Sciences, is a developmental psychologist who specializes in social cognition and resilience. She studies how contemplative practice and engagement in solitude experiences in nature facilitate mental health, while her clinical work focuses primarily on serving the needs of trauma survivors in marginalized communities. She is a recent recipient of excellence in teaching and social justice and sustainability awards from her college, and has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers. She has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Randi Rotjan, CAS, Biology, studies the impact of global change on marine ecosystems – research that touches on areas of symbiosis, behavioral ecology, and conservation biology. Her lab focuses heavily on marine protected areas in Kiribati and Belize and on behavioral ecology of tropical marine invertebrates, including corals and crustaceans. She is co-chief scientist at the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (Belize), is on the board of directors of the Nature Conservancy in the Caribbean, and has published over 25 papers in leading journals, co-authoring several with her students. She has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Marc Schepens, CFA, Painting, is a visual artist whose extensive exhibition work spans paintings, drawings, and prints. In addition to showing in Overflow, a group exhibition this summer at the Page Gallery in Camden, ME, he is a 2020 winner of a Blanche E. Colman Award and had recent solo exhibitions of paintings and drawings at Harvard Medical School and the Bromfield Gallery. He is Director of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Visual Arts and was deeply involved in the ‘See, Say, Share’ program for BU Medical students at the Museum of Fine Arts. He also helps direct the Visual Arts Summer Institute for high school students. He has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Andre Switala, CAS, Economics, specializes in macroeconomics and monetary policy. He has taught courses at all levels, including principles of macroeconomics, intermediate macroeconomics, intermediate empirical courses, undergraduate electives, and master’s theory and econometrics courses. He has garnered particular praise for his courses on the theory of money and banking and for his ability to connect economics lectures to real-world events. He has also worked as an academic adviser for upper-year students interested in pursuing economics further. He has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Kathleen Vandenberg, CGS, Rhetoric, is an expert in verbal, visual, and built rhetoric, as well as digital multimedia composition. In addition to numerous articles in top rhetorical and cultural reviews, she has published a book, Joan Didion: Substance and Style (2021), with a second book, Built Design and the Urban Imaginary, forthcoming. She has played a key role in both developing and teaching in the CGS Boston-London program and received the 2020 Peyton Richter Award for Interdisciplinary Team Teaching. She has been promoted to Master Lecturer.
Catherine West, CAS, Anthropology, uses the zooarchaeological record – or ancient animal bones – to better understand contemporary environmental questions. Her research focuses primarily on the Alaskan coastline, investigating the impacts of invasive species introductions and human harvesting, and how past ecosystem responses to climate change can help contextualize current and future changes. Supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Geographic Society, she has published widely on ancient human-animal interactions and been recognized by the NSF as a member of the New Generation of Polar Explorers. She has been promoted to Research Associate Professor.
Please join us in congratulating these very talented faculty members on their promotions. Through their commitment to their work, their students, and their respective fields of study, they – and you – continue to exemplify the very best Boston University has to offer as a laboratory for discovery and training ground for future leaders.
Promotions of Lecturers and Faculty with Modified Titles on the Charles River Campus – 9.2.21