Promotions to Full Professor on the Charles River Campus
From Dr. Jean Morrison, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer
I am delighted to announce the promotion of 20 members of our Charles River Campus faculty to the rank of full professor at Boston University.
As BU moves forward from an historic last two years, it has been the commitment of our community and the contributions of our outstanding faculty that have enabled us to emerge an even stronger, nimbler, and more innovative institution than before. The faculty members we recognize today have been central to that success through extraordinary leadership and accomplishment in their classrooms, laboratories, and studios. They have helped us not only successfully weather the disruptions posed by a global pandemic, but also advanced the way we deliver education and the caliber of research and scholarship Boston University produces. All are pushing their respective fields forward, forging multidisciplinary collaborations to discover solutions to pressing societal challenges, authoring foundational texts that help advance our understanding of the world, and working to inspire a new generation of young scholars and professionals.
In doing so, they exemplify each day the excellence and impact of Boston University’s talented academic community. We are proud to count them as members of our faculty, thrilled to have them – and all of you – safely back on our campuses, and excited to see them reach this significant milestone here at BU:
Cynthia Becker, CAS, History of Art & Architecture, specializes in African art, focusing on the art forms and visual culture of North Africa. She has authored two acclaimed books, including the Choice book award-winning Amazigh Arts in Morocco: Women Shaping Berber Identity (2006) and, most recently, Blackness in Morocco: Gnawa Identity through Music and Visual Culture (2020). A frequently invited lecturer at museums and universities around the world, she has been supported by multiple grants from Fulbright and the Council of American Overseas Centers, among others, and is a past winner of the Innovative Teaching Award from the Arts Council of the African Studies Association.
Arianne Chernock, CAS, History, is a scholar of modern Britain (post-17th century) whose work examines aspects of feminist thought, gender history, and the monarchy. Recognized internationally among the leading historians in her field, she is a member of the Royal Historical Society and the author of two books: 2019’s The Right to Rule and the Rights of Women: Queen Victoria and the Women’s Movement and 2010’s Men and the Making of Modern British Feminism, which received the John Ben Snow Foundation Prize from the North American Conference on British Studies. She has additionally published three book chapters, and numerous journal articles and essays, including a forthcoming entry in The New Cambridge History of Britain.
Deborah Cornell, CFA, Printmaking, creates immersive environments in print, video, installation, and collaborative multimedia that combine nature, technology, color, and light. She is head of printmaking in the School of Visual Arts and has presented at over 200 international exhibitions, including the Museum of Fine Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Hangzhou Contemporary Art Museum, and the Krakow Print Triennial, where she received the 2015 Grand Prix d’Honneur. A regularly invited lecturer in North America and abroad, she has been supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Deya Majorca Archaeological Foundation, is a past Bunting Fellow at Harvard University, and has published articles in numerous top-tier arts publications, including Grapheion and Contemporary Impressions.
Douglas Densmore, ENG, Electrical & Computer Engineering, specializes in design automation, blending electronic design techniques with synthetic biology to build synthetic biological systems primarily expressed as software packages. He is an American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering Fellow, a past National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (NSF CAREER) Award winner, and past recipient of his department’s excellence in teaching award and BU’s Reidy Family Career Development Professorship. His computational research has generated two textbooks, two patents, three book chapters, and dozens of widely cited conference papers and articles in prestigious journals, including Science.
Aaron Garrett, CAS, Philosophy, is an expert in the history of early modern philosophy (1600-1800), focusing on ethics, political philosophy, method, metaphysics, and the philosophy of art and film. A scholar in the writings of Baruch Spinoza and David Hume, he is a frequently invited speaker at universities in America and throughout Europe, served as an editor of History of Philosophy Quarterly, and is the inaugural editor-in-chief of The Journal of Modern Philosophy. He is a past recipient of his college’s Neu Family Award for Excellence in Teaching and has authored three books; edited seven others, including the Routledge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Philosophy; and published dozens of journal articles, reviews and encyclopedia entries.
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. Supported by numerous major grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NSF, and the National Academy of Engineering, she is a past Peter Paul Career Development Professor and the winner of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Investigator Award, and BU’s Graduate Women in Science & Engineering Mentor of the Year award. Her work has produced two patents, six book chapters, and 57 widely cited articles in top journals, including Nature and Journal of Neuroscience.
Walter Hopp, CAS, Philosophy, is an expert in the philosophy of perception and knowledge, integrating phenomenological (experience and consciousness) approaches with the philosophy of mind and epistemology. He is co-editor of Husserl Studies, the leading research journal devoted to the writings of German phenomenologist Edmund Husserl, and has authored two well-received books, including 2020’s Phenomenology: A Contemporary Introduction, along with seven book chapters, 15 journal articles, and five book reviews and encyclopedia entries. He is associate chair of philosophy and a past recipient of the CAS Templeton Prize for Student Advising and Gitner Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Malika Jeffries-EL, CAS, Chemistry, focuses on the development of organic semiconductors and their use in optical and electronic devices – research that has resulted in numerous novel advances, including the design of new blue-light emitting material. An elected fellow of the American Chemical Society, she is associate editor for the Journal of Materials Chemistry C, has published over 40 widely cited articles in leading science journals, and has delivered over 100 lectures domestically and abroad. She is a past NSF CAREER Award winner, and her research has been consistently supported through grants from the NSF. In addition to her scholarly work, she is associate dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
Ajay Joshi, ENG, Electrical & Computer Engineering, specializes in computer architecture and digital VLSI circuit design, with additional focus on silicon photonics, network-on-chip design, machine learning, and hardware. He is regarded among the top authorities in silicon photonic network architecture, and his recent work using AI in microelectronics is garnering significant praise. Supported by major grants through the NSF and DARPA, he is a past recipient of the Google Faculty Research Award, an NSF CAREER Award, his college’s Dean’s Catalyst Award, and his department’s excellence in teaching award. He has published dozens of articles and papers in leading engineering journals and conference proceedings.
Sanjay Krishnan, CAS, English, is a scholar of English-language postcolonial literature from the Caribbean, Africa, and Southeast Asia, as well as globalization and the history and theories of the novel as a genre. He has published two widely praised books, including, most recently, V.S. Naipaul’s Journeys: From Periphery to Center (2020), along with three book chapters, 40 conference papers, and eight articles in top literary studies journals. A third book on the challenge of world literature is forthcoming. A past recipient of major fellowships from the National Humanities Center in North Carolina and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, he is a frequently invited lecturer and has delivered talks in South Africa, Trinidad, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Ashley Mears, CAS, Sociology, specializes in gender studies and economic sociology, focusing on the intersection of culture and markets and the commoditization of beauty and glamour. She has emerged as a nationally recognized scholar in sociological literature, authoring two acclaimed books, including 2020’s Very Important People (VIP): Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit. She has additionally published nine book chapters and more than a dozen articles in top peer-reviewed journals, including American Sociological Review (where she is an editorial board member) and Socio-Economic Review, exploring the impact of race, gender, and class inequalities on culture. She is a past recipient of the Best Publication Award from the American Sociological Association’s Body & Embodiment section.
Sean Mullen, CAS, Biology, is an evolutionary biologist who uses genomic tools to study the origin and maintenance of species diversity. He has garnered significant attention in his field for seminal research on speciation genomics and the adaptive evolution of butterfly wing color pattern and mimicry. Recent work has focused on the role ecological interactions play in shaping adaptive diversification among neotropical adelpha butterflies. His research has been supported by major NSF grants, and he has published over 40 articles in top-tier biology journals, including Evolution, Nature, and Molecular Biology and Evolution.
Stephanie Nelson, CAS, Classical Studies, is a scholar of Greek and Roman epic works (particularly those of Hesiod, Homer, Vergil, and Ovid), Greek comedy and tragedy, ancient philosophy, translation, and the works of James Joyce. Recognized internationally among the leading academic voices in the classics, she has authored two widely praised books, including, most recently, Aristophanes’ Tragic Muse: Tragedy, Comedy, and the Polis in Classical Athens (2016), with a third volume exploring Ulysses and The Odyssey in development. She has additionally published seven book chapters, delivered numerous invited lectures and conference papers in the US and abroad, and won her college’s Neu Family Award for Excellence in Teaching and Susan K. Jackson Award for creating community.
Michael Prince, CAS, English, specializes in 18th-century British literature, particularly fiction and the novel, as well as rhetoric and composition. His scholarship examines how literary texts respond to debates of that period in Britain over moral virtue, the existence of God, the nature of human thought, and the possibility of human freedom. He has published three acclaimed books, including 2020’s The Shortest Way with Defoe, which won that year’s Walker Cowen Prize for the best book in 18th-century studies. A regularly invited speaker at national and international conferences, he has also authored a book chapter and numerous book reviews, editorials, and articles for leading literary journals.
Kim Sichel, CAS, History of Art & Architecture, is an art historian who explores European and American modern art, focusing specifically on the history of photography. A past chair of her department, she has written two well-reviewed books, including Making Strange: The Modernist Photobook in France (2020), in addition to an edited photobook, six book chapters, and numerous exhibition catalogs, examining everything from aerial photography to early works of African American photographers. Her work has been supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2020, the College Art Association named her one of the 20 most prolific PhD advisors in art history.
Timothy Simcoe, Questrom, Strategy & Innovation, is an expert in the policy levers that drive innovation within industries – particularly the impacts of intellectual property laws, innovation policy, and voluntary standard-setting organizations. He is a dean’s research scholar in his school and has written six book chapters and over two dozen articles in top-tier management publications, including Journal of Political Economy, examining standards development. In addition to his scholarly work at BU, he is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an editor at several journals, including Management Science.
C. Allen Speight, CAS, Philosophy, provides philosophical explorations of art, literature, and religion through the lenses of German romanticism and idealism. Recognized among the nation’s leading scholars of the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, he has written two books and co-authored or co-edited seven more, including 2020’s The Future of the Philosophy of Religion, in addition to over 50 journal articles and book chapters. He is a past Fulbright Professor at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg in Germany and Berlin Prize Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin. He has twice won the Undergraduate Philosophy Association’s Excellence in Teaching Award. He serves on numerous editorial advisory boards and as a manuscript referee for Cambridge University Press and the Journal of the History of Philosophy.
Susanne Sreedhar, CAS, Philosophy, examines early modern political thought – namely the relation of 17th-century British thinker Thomas Hobbes’ writings to foundational issues (including natural right, civil liberties, civil disobedience, and toleration) and their relevance to contemporary public policy; as well as other philosophers of that era’s treatments of gender, sexuality, and marriage. She has authored one acclaimed book, Hobbes on Resistance: Defying the Leviathan (2010), with another volume exploring Hobbes’ thinking on sexual morality in production. A frequent conference speaker, she has additionally published 24 articles and book chapters and is a past recipient of her college’s Neu Family Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Outstanding Mentor Award from BU’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.
Mark Stanley, CFA, Lighting Design, is among the nation’s leading designers of lighting for theatre and dance, having worked on over 225 world premiere productions over the last four decades with top choreographers, artists, and performers including Peter Martins, Paul McCartney, and Santiago Calatrava. He has been the resident lighting designer for the New York City Ballet for 35 years, served as resident designer for the New York City Opera, and has designed plays for the Kennedy Center and the Huntington Theatre Company, as well as productions for PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center and Great Performances. A founding director of the Gilbert Hemsley Lighting Programs, he has been recognized with a Primetime Emmy for his contribution to Balanchine 100 and is the author of The Color of Light Workbook.
James Uden, CAS, Classical Studies, researches and writes about Latin literature and the transformation of Greek and Roman ideas in later eras, particularly the 18th and 19th centuries. He has produced seminal scholarship on Roman satire and first-century CE Roman cultural history, authoring two books, including 2020’s Spectres of Antiquity: Classical Literature and the Gothic, 1740-1830, with a third book (funded by a New Directions grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) in development exploring medicine and literature in the Roman Empire. He has additionally published six book chapters and seven book reviews. He is a past Peter Paul Career Development Professor and winner of his college’s Gitner Award for Distinguished Teaching and sits on the editorial advisory board for Cambridge University Press.
Please join me in congratulating these wonderfully talented colleagues on their recent promotions and in wishing them success in their new ranks.
Promotions to Full Professor on the Charles River Campus – 3.3.22