Faculty Tenure and Promotions 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 19 members of our faculty on the Charles River Campus to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure, 1 to the rank of Full Professor, and 1 promotion to the rank of Associate Professor for a non-tenure track faculty member.
These promotions and awards of tenure each year mark an especially proud moment for the BU community, as we’ve had the pleasure of watching these talented women and men develop from promising junior faculty into scholars and teachers of national impact and recognition. In fields as diverse as the social sciences, engineering, humanities, mathematics, business, and communication, 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 and laboratories. We see great things ahead for them and are pleased they have chosen BU as the place to launch their independent careers:
Betty Anderson, CAS, History, specializes in Middle Eastern history, politics, economics, education, and culture, focusing on societal transformation throughout the region from the rise of the Ottoman Empire to the Arab Spring. She is the author of four books, including most recently, A History of the Modern Middle East: Rulers, Rebels, and Rogues (2016), eight book chapters, and numerous refereed journal articles, and is Director of BU’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies & Civilizations. She has been promoted to Full Professor.
Ross Barrett, CAS, History of Art & Architecture, specializes in American art from the colonial period to the early 20th century, exploring how the nation’s cultural, political, and economic transformations impacted visual culture. He has authored a critically acclaimed book, Rendering Violence: Riots, Strikes, and Upheaval in Nineteenth-Century American Art (2014), co-edited another, and published several articles in premier journals, one of which earned a top writing prize from the College Art Association. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Taylor Boas, CAS, Political Science, specializes in comparative politics in Latin America, focusing predominantly on campaigns, corruption, religion, and mass media applying both quantitative and qualitative methods. Widely considered an emerging leader in his discipline, he has written two books, including most recently, Presidential Campaigns in Latin America: Electoral Strategies and Success Contagion (2016), along with numerous journal articles, book reviews, and working papers examining elections in Central and South America. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Scott Bunch, ENG, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering,specializes in 2D atomically thin materials – such as graphene – at the nanoscale, creating novel devices that test these materials’ physical properties and have potential for important societal challenges, including water quality. A past NSF CAREER Award recipient, he has authored more than two dozen widely-cited articles for major journals, including Science, and is a regularly invited presenter at national conferences and seminars. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Catherine Connell, CAS, Sociology, specializes in dynamics of social inequality, focusing on the intersection of gender, sexuality, and work/organizations. She is Director of CAS’s Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies program and the author of a widely-praised book, School’s Out: Gays and Lesbians in the Classroom (2015), along with two book chapters and numerous journal articles and reviews exploring homophobia and occupational environments. A past winner of CAS’s Wisneski Award for Excellence in Teaching, she was recently elected chair of the American Sociological Association’s Section on Sexualities. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Kathleen Corriveau, SED, Human Development, specializes in early childhood learning, focusing on children’s cognitive and social development and how they discern trustworthy sources of information. A past Peter Paul Career Development Professor, she has been named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science, among numerous national honors, is co-PI on a major NSF grant, and has authored eight book chapters and dozens of articles for prestigious journals. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Keith Ericson, Questrom, Markets, Public Policy & Law, specializes in behavioral and health economics, examining the financial underpinnings of the American healthcare system and the integration of psychology and economic decision making. Among the nation’s leading authorities on the operation of health insurance exchanges and a frequent presenter at national conferences, he has written several widely-cited articles for top tier journals and is a past recipient of Questrom’s Broderick Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Simone Gill, SAR, Occupational Therapy, specializes in motor adaptation, examining how individual characteristics such as obesity and environmental demands influence walking and motor functioning. The Director of BU’s Motor Development Laboratory, she is a PI on two major grants from NIH and the American Diabetes Association and has authored 30 peer-reviewed publications, one book chapter, and dozens of conference presentations. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Courtney Goto, STH, Religious Education, specializes in religious education and practical theology, incorporating the importance of the arts and aesthetics into religious learning and examining the intersections of power, privilege, and culture in practical theology. A past recipient of STH’s Teaching Excellence Award, she is the author of a recent book, The Grace of Playing: Pedagogies for Leaning into God’s New Creation(2016), as well as two book chapters, and numerous journal articles, book reviews, and essays. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Jacob Groshek, COM, Mass Communication, Advertising & Public Relations and Emerging Media Studies, specializes in online and mobile media technologies, investigating how their structure, content, and uses can influence sociopolitical change. The founding editor of Journal of Communication and Technology, he has published 14 book chapters and encyclopedia entries and dozens of journal articles, is a Junior Faculty Fellow at BU’s Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering, and this past year received the Division of Media Studies Teacher of the Year Award. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Xue Han, ENG, Biomedical Engineering, specializes in neurotechnology, developing a variety of genetic, molecular, pharmacological, optical, and electrical tools to correct neural circuits and help treat brain disorders. The author of dozens of widely-cited journal articles, she is a past Peter Paul Career Development Professor, the winner of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the recipient of BU’s GWISE Mentor of the Year Award, and a PI or co-PI on numerous major ongoing grants from NIH, NSF, and the National Academy of Engineering. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Melissa Holt, SED, Counseling Psychology, specializes in studies of youth victims of violence, examining how experiences across multiple contexts – particularly bullying – affect functioning, development, and life chances. A recipient of two national awards for her writing from the American Educational Research Association, she has co-edited a recent book, The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook on the Psychology of Violence (2016), and authored nine book chapters and dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles. She received her school’s Excellence in Graduate Advising Award this past year. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Alisdair McKay, CAS, Economics, specializes in macroeconomics, focusing on the role of household heterogeneity and its impact on business cycle dynamics. He is a Faculty Research Fellow with the National Bureau of Economics Research and Associate Editor for the Journal of Monetary Economics. He has published papers in leading economics journals on optimal fiscal and monetary policy and Social Security privatization and recently saw his work on the effects of automatic stabilizers in the economy cited by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen in a major policy address. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Daniel Miller, SSW, Human Behavior in the Social Environment, specializes in child and family health and well-being, focusing on childhood obesity, food insecurity, and the impact of father involvement on children in low-income households. A recipient of the Society for Social Work and Research’s Excellence in Research Award, he has authored a book chapter and more than 20 widely-cited papers in leading interdisciplinary journals. He is PI or co-PI on two current grants from the William T. Grant Foundation and Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Manjari Chatterjee Miller, Pardee, International Relations, specializes in foreign policy and security studies, with a regional focus on South Asia and China. She has authored a critically-acclaimed book, Wronged by Empire: Post-Imperial Ideology and Foreign Policy Studies in India and China (2013), along with two book chapters and numerous journal articles exploring the two nations’ “rising power” status. Her work has been supported by numerous grant awards, while an article on Indian foreign policy was awarded Foreign Affairs‘ Best Article of 2014. She has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Joseph Rezek, CAS, English, specializes in transatlantic studies and the history of the book, exploring the impact that print publication of late-18th and early-19th century English-language literature had on the post-Revolutionary Anglophone world. He has authored a book, London and the Making of Provincial Literature: Aesthetics and the Transatlantic Book Trade, 1800-1850 (2015), and several articles and reviews for top journals. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and his scholarship awarded a top prize from the Modern Language Association. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Johannes Schmieder, CAS, Economics, specializes in environmental and labor economics, focusing his research on unemployment insurance, outsourcing, and job search and matching. Recognized among the nation’s leading scholars in unemployment insurance, he is a past Peter Paul Career Development Professor and has authored several widely-cited papers for premier economics journals. He is additionally a co-PI on two significant grants from the NSF and the Sloan Foundation, exploring reference-dependent job search. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Remi Trudel, Questrom, Marketing, specializes in studies of consumer decision-making, focusing his research on the power of pro-social motivators – sustainability, health and diet, and personal finance – by marketers and policymakers to influence choices. He has published two book chapters and numerous articles for top journals, including the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. His scholarship and contributions to Questrom’s doctoral community and program, meanwhile, have been recognized with two Broderick Prizes. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Christopher Walsh, CAS, English, specializes in American Studies, with an emphasis on American literature, history, and culture. He is Associate Director of the CAS Writing Program. In addition to two book chapters and dozens of reviews and articles for premier scholarly journals, he has written a critically-acclaimed book, Cowardice: A Brief History(2014), which earned a Bronze Medal in World History from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. He has been promoted to Associate Professor.
Jared Weinstein, CAS, Mathematics & Statistics, specializes in number theory, with a focus on automorphic representation theory, which explores abstract algebraic structures. A current Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, he has published 10 widely-cited articles in his field’s top journals, including the Journal of the American Mathematical Society, and has been a PI on numerous NSF grants. His research about rational points on elliptic curves in Galois theory, meanwhile, is recognized as having deep implications for error-correcting codes in engineering. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Paul Withers, CAS, 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 has published two book chapters and dozens of widely-cited articles for premier scientific journals. He has been promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure.
Please join us in congratulating these exceptionally talented rising scholars, teachers, and researchers on their recent promotions and in wishing them well 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 an intellectual home for some of the nation’s finest faculty.
Faculty Tenure and Promotions on the Charles River Campus – 5.18.17