New
Appointments
&
Promotions
Emory College of Arts and Sciences welcomes an extraordinary group of 50 new faculty members to campus this year. They reflect ambitious recruitment and hiring over the last year.
Our newest faculty continues to enhance the diversity of the Emory community. Their contributions will push the boundaries of research and discovery, scholarly impact, and pedagogy in the liberal arts and sciences.
The College also celebrates several faculty who have been promoted to associate and full professors with tenure, and teaching professors.
Meet Our New Faculty
Arash Abazari
Assistant Professor,
Philosophy
Arash Abazari completed his PhD in Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University (2017). Dr. Abazari’s research focuses on 19th century German philosophy (especially Hegel) and social and political philosophy. He is the author of Hegel’s Ontology of Power: The Structure of Social Domination in Capitalism, Cambridge University Press (2020). He was also the recipient of a Humboldt Fellowship (2022-24) and a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship (2015-16).
Hector Alvarez
Assistant Teaching Professor,
Theater Studies Program
in the Department of Theater and Dance
Héctor Alvarez completed his MFA in Directing at the California Institute of the Arts (2023). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Professor Alvarez held positions at Lehigh University and North Park University. Professor Alvarez's research and practice focuses on avant-garde and experimental theater, contemporary opera, rehearsal methodologies, and the use of theatrical strategies in preserving historical memory. His productions have been seen in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Mexico City. He is also the recipient of a Princess Grace Award in Theater and a FutureNow Directing Fellowship.
Lina Andonovska
Assistant Professor,
Music
Lina Andonovska completed her Master’s Degree in Contemporary Performance at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main (2020). She is the flutist of the four-time Grammy Award-winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird. Prior to joining the faculty at Emory, Andonovska undertook teaching residencies at the Australian National Academy of Music and the University of Western Australia as well as appearing as the Guest Teaching Artist with Eighth Blackbird at the University of Oregon, University of Michigan, University of Texas, and Emory University. Her artistic research focuses on expanding the sonic capabilities of her instrument. She is critically acclaimed for her interpretation of new music; described as “redefining the act of going solo” by The Age (Australia), she has premiered over 100 new works on the international concert platform with some of today’s most innovative performing ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Recherche and Australian Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Andonovska released her debut album on the Diatribe Records label in 2020. She is a Powell Flutes artist.
Josephine Bou Dagher
Assistant Teaching Professor,
Biology
Josephine Bou Dagher completed her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Georgia (2021). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in August 2024, Dr. Bou Dagher held positions at the University of Georgia and Columbus State Community College. Dr. Bou Dagher’s research focuses on the prenatal programming effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals and the metabolic consequences in adulthood. Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Chemosphere and The AAPS journal. She was also the recipient of the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award (2019), Excellence in Teaching Award Nominee (2020), and the Obesity Initiative First Annual Research Symposium First Place Award (2020) at the University of Georgia.
Daniela Buccella
Acting Professor/Professor,
Chemistry
Daniela Buccella completed her PhD in Chemistry at Columbia University (2008). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Buccella was a Professor and Associate Chair of Chemistry at New York University. Dr. Buccella’s research focuses on the development of chemical tools and novel imaging technologies aimed at elucidating the role of metal ions in physiological and pathological processes. Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Nature Communications and the Journal of the American Chemical Society. She has been recognized with an NSF CAREER award and has been the recipient of other grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
Tankut Can
Assistant Professor,
Physics
Tankut Can completed his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Chicago (2014). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Can held positions at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, The Graduate Center CUNY, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Dr. Can’s research focuses on theoretical questions at the intersection of neuroscience, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Nature, Physical Review Letters, and Physical Review X.
Daniel Castro Pantoja
Assistant Professor,
Music
Daniel Castro Pantoja completed his PhD in Musicology at the University of California Riverside (2018). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Castro Pantoja held positions at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and the University of Houston. Dr. Castro Pantoja's research focuses on the intersection of music, populism, and state politics in twentieth-and twenty-first-century Colombia. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals including the Journal of the American Musicological Society, the Journal of Musicology, and Latin American Research Review. He was also the first Latino recipient of the Society for American Music's Wiley Housewright Dissertation Award for best dissertation in the field of American Music Studies in 2020.
Andre Chiang
Assistant Professor,
Music
Andre Chiang completed his Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance with a Minor in Arts Administration and Vocal Pedagogy at Louisiana State University (2020). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Chiang held positions at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Oklahoma State University. Dr. Chiang's research focuses on advocating and commissioning new art songs, practical applications of Vocology, and inclusivity in the voice studio. His presentations have been seen nationally and internationally at the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Pan American Vocology Association, National Opera Association, and College Music Society conferences, and his articles have been published in Classical Singer Magazine. He has also performed at leading opera houses in the United States such as Opera Philadelphia, the Glimmerglass Festival, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. He was the winner of the 2018 NATS Artist Awards Competition and was part of the first cohort of Recognized Vocologists with the Pan American Vocology Association in 2022.
Hun Chung
Acting Associate Professor/Associate Professor,
Quantitative Theory and Methods
Hun Chung completed his first PhD in Philosophy at Cornell University (2012) and his second PhD in Political Science at the University of Rochester (2017). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Chung held the position of Full Professor in the faculty of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Chung's research focuses on the application of formal models to political philosophy -- in short, PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.) His articles have been published in a number of leading journals including American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics. He was also the recipient of the 40th Sakurada-kai Political Science Research Grant (no. 16) and the 2020 Waseda University Research Award (for High-Impact Publications).
Jasmine Clark
Assistant Teaching Professor,
Biology
Jasmine Clark completed her PhD in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from the Laney Graduate School of Emory University (2013). Prior to joining the faculty in the Department of Biology at Emory in 2024, Dr. Clark served as a Sr. Clinical Instructor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University for 10 years. At the School of Nursing, she was responsible for teaching the pre-nursing prerequisite course in Microbiology and Anatomy and Physiology, as well as graduate-level courses in Pathophysiology, and Health and Social Policy. She has also published papers for her Microbiology work in a number of leading journals including Virology, PLOSOne, and Experimental Gerontology. She also has contributed to the book Transforming Social Determinants to Promote Global Health: Achieving Equity through Lived Experiences, to be published in 2024 by Springer. Additionally, she has been awarded several teaching fellowships, including a 2020-2021 Governor’s Teaching Fellow and the 2023 Woodruff Health Education Academy Teaching Fellow.
Shanya Cordis
Assistant Professor,
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Shanya Cordis completed her PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin (2017). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Cordis held positions at Columbia University, Spelman College, and The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Cordis’ research focuses on race and indigeneity, critical feminist geography, settler colonialism, nationalism, and gendered dispossession. Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals, including American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Small Axe 60, and Anthropology Journal. She was also the recipient of the Hettleman Junior Faculty Summer Research Grant and The Carnegie and Rockefeller Faculty International Research Grant.
Raymond De Luca
Assistant Professor,
Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures
Raymond De Luca completed his Ph.D. in Slavic Languages & Literatures at Harvard University (2022). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. De Luca held a position at the University of Kentucky. Dr. De Luca’s research focuses on the political, ethical, and aesthetic significance of animal life in cinema, particularly in the Russian and Soviet context. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals, including Slavic and East European Journal, Canadian Journal of Film Studies, and Film Criticism. De Luca was also the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and an Interdisciplinary Dissertation Completion Fellowship from Harvard University’s Mahinda Humanities Center.
Zainab Delawalla
Associate Teaching Professor,
Psychology
Zainab Delawalla received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Washington University in 2010 and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Polytrauma Neuropsychology at the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Prior to joining the faculty at Emory full-time in 2024, Dr. Delawalla held positions at the Emory University School of Medicine and the Georgia Institute of Technology Counseling Center. Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals, including Biological Psychiatry, Schizophrenia Bulletin, and The Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
Jacopo Di lorio
Assistant Teaching Professor,
Quantitative Theory and Methods
Jacopo Di lorio completed his PhD at Politecnico di Milano in Mathematical Models and Methods in Engineering (2020). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Di lorio held positions at Penn State University, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, and Politecnico di Milano. Dr. Di lorio’s research focuses on the intersection of Functional Data Analysis, unsupervised learning, and statistical computing. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education, Scientific Reports, and Bioinformatics.
Erica Armstrong Dunbar
Acting Professor/Professor,
African American Studies
Erica Armstrong Dunbar completed her Ph.D. in History from Columbia University (2020). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in the Fall of 2024, Dr. Dunbar held positions at Rutgers University and the University of Delaware. Dr. Dunbar’s research focuses on Black women’s history in 18th and 19th century America. She has published four adult history/nonfiction books as well as two middle-grade books. She was the recipient of the Frederick Douglass Book Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction.
Logan Edwards
Associate Teaching Professor,
Acting Director of the Health 1, 2, 3, 4 Program,
Center for the Study for Human Health
Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Edwards held faculty positions at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. Dr. Edwards’ specialty is teaching and integrating mental health and well-being education into traditional health education curriculum and instruction. wellness education. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals, including Journal of Higher Education Athletics and Innovation and Great River Learning. He is the recipient of the Wisconsin Partnership Program Community Impact Grant and the Incorporating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Academic Affairs Grant.
Courtney Freer
Assistant Professor,
Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies
Courtney Freer completed her DPhil in Politics at the University of Oxford (2015). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Freer held positions at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center in Qatar. Dr. Freer’s research focuses on the role of Islam in contemporary Middle Eastern politics and on the domestic politics of oil-wealthy Gulf states. Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals including the International Journal of Middle East Studies and Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism. She also serves on the editorial board of Middle Eastern Studies.
Irving Goh
Acting Professor/Professor,
Comparative Literature
Irving Goh completed his PhD in Comparative Literature from Cornell University (2012). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Goh held positions at the National University of Singapore and the University of Singapore. Dr. Goh’s research focuses on theory and literature in the 20th and 21st centuries. He has published a number of books including, The Reject: Community, Politics, and Religion After the Subject, Fordham University Press (2014), The Deconstruction of Sex, Duke University Press (2021), and The Experience of the LimitL’Existence prépositionnelle, Paris: Galilée (2019).
Jillian Grennan
Assistant Professor,
Economics
Jillian Grennan completed her PhD in Applied Economics at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (2014). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Grennan held positions at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business. Dr. Grennan's research focuses on the intersection of law, innovation, and sustainability, exploring topics such as corporate culture, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and the economic implications of emerging technologies like AI and blockchain. Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals including the Journal of Financial Economics and the Review of Financial Studies. She was also the recipient of the Best Paper Award in Corporate Governance in 2016 and 2020 and has received grants from Ripple's University Blockchain Research Initiative.
Matthew Grennan
Acting Associate Professor/Associate Professor,
Economics
Matthew Grennan completed his PhD in Strategy/Economics at New York University (2010). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Grennan held positions at the University of California - Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Toronto. Dr. Grennan’s research focuses on empirical industrial organization, health care, innovation, and competitive strategy. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals including American Economic Review, Management Science, and Health Affairs.
Florian Gunsilius
Associate Professor,
Economic
Florian Gunsilius completed his PhD in Economics at Brown University (2019). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Gunsilius held a position at the University of Michigan. Dr. Gunsilius’ research focuses on nonparametric statistical methods, in particular statistical optimal transport theory, mean field estimation, and causal inference. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Biometrika, Econometrica, and the Journal of Econometrics.
Bettina Judd
Acting Associate Professor/Associate,
African American Studies
Bettina Judd completed her Ph.D. in Women’s Studies at The University of Maryland, College Park (2014). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Judd held positions at The University of Washington–Seattle, The College of William and Mary, and Mount Holyoke College. Dr. Judd’s research focuses on the ways that Black Feminist Thought is developed through Black women’s literature, music, and art. Her books include Feelin: Creative Practice, Pleasure, and Black Feminist Thought (Northwestern University Press, 2023) and the poetry collection Patient. (Black Lawrence Press, 2014), the latter of which won the 2013 Hudson Book Prize.
Joon-Seok Kim
Assistant Professor,
Computer Science
Joon-Seok Kim completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Pusan National University (2016). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Kim held positions at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Dr. Kim’s research focuses on Data Science and Geospatial Simulation. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals and conferences, including ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, ACM Transactions on Spatial Algorithms and Systems, and ACM SIGSPATIAL. He has also received multiple awards, including 1st place in the ACM SIGSPATIAL Cup 2019 and Best Data Paper Award at ACM SIGSPATIAL 2023.
Jiang-Xiazi Lin
Assistant Professor,
Physics
Jiang-Xiazi Lin completed her PhD in physics at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2018). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Lin held positions at Brown University. Dr. Lin's research focuses on experimentally studying the emergent electronic phases in low-dimensional quantum materials. Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Science and Nature Physics.
Alonso Llosa
Assistant Professor,
Film and Media
Alonso Llosa completed his MFA at Columbia University (2016). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Professor Llosa held positions at California State University, Los Angeles, California State University, Northridge, and Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas. Professor Llosa’s directing filmography includes The Restoration (2016-2022), Foam/La Espuma (2021), and Living Legend (2014-2016).
Luis Martinez
Acting Associate Professor/Associate,
Political Science
Luis Martinez completed his PhD in economics at the London School of Economics (2016). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Martinez held a position at the University of Chicago. Dr. Martinez’s research focuses on political institutions and economic development, with a regional focus on Latin America. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals including the Journal of Political Economy, American Journal of Political Science, and Review of Economics and Statistics. In 2022, he was awarded the Juan Luis Londoño medal for contributions to economics and public policy in Colombia.
Ronald Mendoza-de Jesús
Acting Associate Professor/Associate,
Comparative Literature
Ronald Mendoza-de Jesús completed his PhD in Comparative Literature at Emory University (2015). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Mendoza-de Jesús was Associate Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. Dr. Mendoza-de Jesús’s research interests are theories of time, history, and historiography in contemporary European, Latin American, and Caribbean philosophy and literature. He’s the author of Catastrophic Historicism: Reading Julia de Burgos Dangerously (Fordham UP, 2023) and of numerous articles published in leading journals such as Oxford Literary Review, diacritics, and Qui Parle.
Charlie Michael
Assistant Professor,
Film and Media
Charlie Michael completed his PhD in Film at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2010). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Michael held positions at Georgia Gwinnett College, Georgia State University, and the University of Georgia. His research focuses on popular culture and media industries in a global context, with his most recent book – Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Youth, Race, and the Hypertext – appearing in the ‘Cinema and Youth Cultures’ series from Routledge in 2024. Michael is the author of French Blockbusters: Cultural Politics of a Transnational Cinema (Edinburgh UP, 2019) and the co-editor (with Tim Palmer) of the Directory of World Cinema: France (2013). His work has also appeared in various journals and anthologies, including Transnational Screens, The Velvet Light Trap, Quebec Studies, Action Cinema Since 2000, and A Companion to Contemporary French Cinema. He is currently working on an expanded, book-length study of the entire Spider-Verse trilogy (while eagerly awaiting the third film with his kids).
Noe Montez
Acting Associate Professor/Associate Professor,
Theater
Noe Montez completed his PhD in Theater History at Indiana University (2009). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Montez held positions at Tufts University and Cleveland State University. Dr. Montez’s research focuses on politics, performance, and identity across the Americas. He is the author of Memory, Transitional Justice, and Theatre in Argentina’s Post-Dictatorship, Southern Illinois Press, 2017. He is also editor of the Routledge Companion to Latine Theatre and Performance, 2024, and a collection of plays by Argentine playwright Santiago Loza titled Nothing to Do with Love and Other Plays, 2022. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Theatre History Studies, Theatre Topics, and Texas Theatre Journal.
Johanna Montlouis-Gabriel
Assistant Professor,
French and Italian
Johanna Montlouis-Gabriel completed her PhD in French at The University of Georgia (2018). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Montlouis-Gabriel held positions at North Carolina State University and The Ohio State University. Dr. Montlouis-Gabriel's research focuses on Afro-feminism in contemporary French artistic, cultural and digital productions. Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals including The French Review, Contemporary French Civilization, and Etudes Littéraires Africaines. She was also the recipient of the prestigious Camargo Foundation Fellowship in 2022.
Megan Mucioki
Assistant Professor,
Environmental Sciences
Megan Mucioki completed her Ph.D. in Plant Science and Ethnoecology at McGill University (2015). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Mucioki held positions at Penn State University and the University of California Berkeley. Dr. Mucioki’s research focuses on food sovereignty, Indigenous environmental stewardship, traditional foods, and wellbeing, climate change and Indigenous biocultural systems, and allyship and community-based approaches. Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Plants, People, Planet, Food Security, and Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. She has worked collaboratively with Tribes in the Pacific West and Alaska with major awards from the USDA and NSF including her current NSF-funded project in Anchorage, Alaska focused on Indigenous food security and traditional foods in urban spaces.
Mehtap Ozdemir
Assistant Professor,
Comparative Literature
Mehtap Ozdemir completed her PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (2022). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Ozdemir held positions as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bologna and Emory University. Dr. Ozdemir’s research focuses on translation, ethics, and secularization in Middle Eastern comparative modernities. She has published and has forthcoming articles in Philological Encounters, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and Comparative Literature Studies. She is also the recipient of numerous grants, including a doctoral research grant at UMass-Amherst, a Mellon Sawyer WSIP doctoral fellowship, and an ERC postdoctoral research fellowship.
Andre Patrao
Assistant Professor,
Art History
André Patrão completed his PhD in History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)(2020). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in Spring of 2025, Dr. Patrão held positions at ETH Zürich, Yale University, and EPFL. Dr. Patrão’s research focuses on moments of exchange between architects and philosophers from the early 20th century to today, while his most recent work tackles contemporary issues of the built environment within a framework that combines ethics, aesthetics, and political philosophy. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Architecture Philosophy, Architecture and Culture, and Khōrein. He was also the recipient of the Postdoc Mobility grant awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
Jennifer Porst
Acting Associate Professor/Associate Professor,
Film and Media
Jennifer Porst completed her PhD in Cinema and Media Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (2014). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Porst held positions at Emerson College and the University of North Texas. Dr. Porst’s research focuses on the American media industries, the laws and regulations that govern their behaviors, and the films and television content they produce. She is the author of Broadcasting Hollywood: The Struggle Over Feature Films on Early TV and the co-editor of the collection Very Special Episodes: Televising Industrial and Social Change (both Rutgers University Press, 2021). Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Television & New Media and Film History.
Geovani Ramirez
Assistant Professor,
English
Geovani Ramírez completed his PhD in English and Comparative Literature with a concentration in Chicanx/Latinx Cultural Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2020). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Ramírez held positions at Virginia Tech University and UNC-Chapel Hill. Dr. Ramírez’s research revolves around the intersections of Chicanx/Latinx Studies, environmental humanities, and medical humanities. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Ethnic Studies Review, Literature and Medicine, and Latinx Talk.
Stacy-Ann Robinson
Acting Associate Professor/Associate Professor, Environmental Sciences
Stacy-Ann Robinson completed her PhD in Global Environmental Change at The Australian National University (2017). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Robinson held positions at Yale University, Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, and Colby College. Dr. Robinson’s research focuses on climate change adaptation in small island developing states, a unique grouping of particularly vulnerable countries in the Global South. Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Nature, Nature Climate Change, and Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs): Climate Change. She was the recipient of the Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences Early Career Award in 2022, and the Association of European Schools of Planning Best Published Paper in 2024.
Sarah Mellors Rodriguez
Acting Associate Professor/Associate Professor,
Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures
Sarah Mellors Rodriguez completed her PhD in Modern Chinese History at the University of California, Irvine (2018). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Rodriguez held the position of Associate Professor of History at Missouri State University. Dr. Rodriguez’s research focuses on gender, sexuality, aging, and medicine in modern China. Her book, Reproductive Realities in Modern China: Birth Control and Abortion, 1911-2021 (Cambridge University Press, 2023), uses interviews and archival research to analyze how ordinary women and men navigated China’s shifting fertility policies both before and during the One Child Policy era. Reproductive Realities was awarded Honorable Mention in the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize Competition. Dr. Rodriguez’s articles have also been published in Social History of Medicine, East Asian Science, Technology and Society, and Nan Nü: Men, Women and Gender in China.
Michael Schwarz
Assistant Professor,
Philosophy
Michael Schwarz completed his PhD in Philosophy at Northwestern University (2022) and his PhD in Law at Humboldt-University Berlin (2014). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Schwarz held positions at Rice University, Universidad de los Andes, and Humboldt-University Berlin. Dr. Schwarz research interests are social and political philosophy, philosophy of law and critical theory. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals including European Law Journal, Beyond the Binary – Securing Peace and Promoting Justice after Conflict, and Europarecht. His published books include Grundlinien der Anerkennung im Raum der Freiheit, der Sicherheit und des Rechts (Verlag Mohr Siebeck: Tübingen, 2016) and A Democratic Solution to the Crisis – Reform Steps Towards a Democratically Based Economic and Financial Constitution for Europe (Nomos: Baden-Baden, 2012). He is also the recipient of the Konrad-Redeker-Award (2015).
Kai Shu
Assistant Professor,
Computer Science
Kai Shu completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Arizona State University (2020). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in Fall 2024, Dr. Shu held positions at Illinois Institute of Technology. Dr. Shu’s research focuses on responsible and trustworthy AI algorithms for real-world decision-making in social computing, healthcare, national security, etc. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals and conferences including ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD), AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP). He was also the recipient of NSF CAREER Award, and grants from DARPA, IARPA, DHS and DOE.
Julia Smith
Assistant Teaching Professor,
Chemistry
Julia Smith completed her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin - Madison (2024). Dr. Smith's research focuses on the fundamental behavior, properties, and nanoscale morphology of polymers tethered to surfaces. Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Langmuir and the Journal of Polymer Science. She was also the recipient of the ACS Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research Award (2024).
Ren Tan
Assistant Teaching Professor,
Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures
Ren Tan completed her PhD in Japanese Intellectual History at the City University of Hong Kong (2016). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory full-time in 2024, Dr. Tan held positions at Emory as an Adjunct Assistant Professor and Instructor in Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures. She has also held positions at Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Arkansas, Vanderbilt University, and Hong Kong Baptist University. Dr. Tan’s research interest is incorporating culture as an essential component of second language learning and teaching. Her journal has been published in Historical Inquiry of National Taiwan University.
Shengpu Tang
Assistant Professor,
Computer Science
Shengpu Tang completed his PhD in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan (2024). Dr. Tang's research focuses on improving and augmenting healthcare decision-making using artificial intelligence, specifically through reinforcement learning methods. His work has been published in top-tier artificial intelligence venues including Neural Information Processing Systems and the International Conference on Machine Learning, as well as world-leading medical journals such as The BMJ.
Marco Tezzele
Assistant Professor,
Mathematics
Marco Tezzele completed his PhD in Mathematical Analysis, Modelling, and Applications at SISSA - International School for Advanced Studies (2021). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Tezzele held a position at the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Tezzele's research focuses on digital twins, reduced order modeling, scientific machine learning, and structural optimization. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, and Journal of Scientific Computing. He was also the recipient of the Anile-ECMI Prize for Mathematics in Industry (2023), and the ECCOMAS Best PhD Thesis Award in the field of Computational Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineering (2021).
Alexis Toda
Acting Professor/Professor,
Economics
Alexis Akira Toda completed his Ph.D. in Economics at Yale University (2013). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Toda held positions at the University of California San Diego. Dr. Toda's research focuses on a wide variety of topics including general equilibrium, macro-finance, consumption and savings, income and wealth distributions, asset price bubbles, power laws, dynamic programming, econometrics, and numerical methods. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Econometrica, Journal of Political Economy, and Physical Review E. He was also the recipient of Junko Maru Prize and GPIF Finance Award from Japan.
Alexander Williams Tolbert
Instructor/Assistant Professor,
Quantitative Theory and Methods
Alexander Williams Tolbert completed his PhD in Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania (2024). Prior to joining Emory full-time in 2024, Dr. Tolbert held a position as a Visiting Graduate Scholar at The City University of New York and a Postdoctoral Researcher at Emory University. Dr. Tolbert’s research focuses on the intersection of race, technology, and AI ethics, with contributions to social and political philosophy. Some of his talks and presentations include “Algorithms in Criminal Justice” at the Penn Law Symposium on Innovation and Criminal Justice (2022), “Against Predictive Invariance” at the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association (2021), and the Bias and Discrimination in Big Data and Algorithmic Processing Conference (2021)
Laura Torres-Rodriguez
Acting Associate Professor/Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
Laura Juliana Torres-Rodríguez completed her PhD in Romance Languages at the University of Pennsylvania (2012). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Torres-Rodríguez held an Associate Professor position at New York University. Dr. Torres-Rodríguez’s research focuses on Mexican literary, film, and cultural studies; Asian-Latin American studies; transpacific ecologies and poetics; archipelagic and decolonial thinking; and feminist aesthetics. Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals including the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, the Revista Hispánica Moderna, and the Latin American Literary Review. She was also the recipient of a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship and the Latin American Studies Association Prize for the Best Book in the Humanities in the Mexico Section.
Hanan Dalya Trotman
Associate Teaching Professor,
Psychology
Hanan Trotman completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Emory University (2010). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Trotman held positions at Mercer University, Oglethorpe University, and Emory University. Her research focuses on the neuroendocrine, cognitive, and neurobiological mechanisms that contribute to risk for mental illness. Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Schizophrenia Research, Development and Psychopathology, and Hormones & Behavior. She has also received a NARSAD Young Investigator Grant (2014), the Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (2012-2015), and the National Institute of Health LRP (2011-2013).
Yuki Wang
Assistant Teaching Professor,
Economics
Yuki (Xue) Wang completed her Ph.D. in Finance at University of Kansas and Jinan University (2018). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Wang held positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. She also worked as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Admission at Emory. Dr. Wang’s research focuses on Financial Markets and Macroeconomics. Her articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Journal of Financial Stability, Technological Forecasting and Social Change. She is currently serving as Associate Editor of Financial Economics Letters.
Sam Wunderly
Teaching Assistant Professor,
Economics
Sam Wunderly completed his PhD in Economics at Emory University (2022). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Wunderly held positions at Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Wunderly’s research focuses on health, labor, and game theory. He was the recipient of several awards including the Graduate Student Teaching Award of Excellence (Emory University, 2021) and the Robert W. Woodruff Scholarship (Emory University, August 2017 – May 2021).
Pinyan Zhu
Assistant Professor,
Art History
Pinyan Zhu completed her PhD degree in Art History at the University of Kansas (2022). Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2024, Dr. Zhu held a position at Kent State University. Dr. Zhu’s research focuses on the visual culture of Buddhism in China from the seventh to the eighth centuries, drawing on interdisciplinary studies of art history, ecocriticism, religion, landscape, and gender. Her articles have been published in Religions and Études chinoises. She was also the receipt of a Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.
Faculty Transitions
New Named Chair Appointments
- Jinyu Liu, Betty Gage Holland Professor of Roman History
Promotion to Full Professor
- Weihua An, Sociology & Quantitative Theory and Methods
- Kaiji Chen, Economics
- Susan Gagliardi, Art History
- Kyungmin (Teddy) Kim, Economics
- Elena Pesavento, Economics
- Monika Raj, Chemistry
- Beretta Smith-Shomade, Film and Media
- Michael Treadway, Psychology
- Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec, Environmental Sciences
Promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure
- Heather Christle, English & Creative Writing
- Rachel Hall-Clifford, Human Health & Sociology
- Krzysztof Karbownik, Economics
- Aubrey Kelly, Psychology
- Nelson Lind, Economics
- John Lindo, Anthropology
- Megan O’Neil, Art History
- Dan Sinykin, English
- Chris Suh, History
- Wei Wu, Religion
- Yuanzhe Xi, Mathematics
Promotion to Professor of Practice
- Paul Bhasin, Music
Promotion to Teaching Professor
- Antonio Brathwaite, Chemistry
- Patrick Cafferty, Biology
- Oussama Cherribi, Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies
- Bumyong Choi, Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures
- Jessica Wahman, Philosophy
Promotion to Associate Teaching Professor
- Alissa Bans, Physics
- Daniel Bosch, English and Writing Program
- Nosyaba El-Sayed, Computer Science
- Brent Glenn, Theater Studies
- Richard Himes, Chemistry
- Carolyn Keogh, Environmental Sciences
- Paloma López de mesa Moyano, Economics
- Miguel Reyes, Biology
- Melissa Yang, English & Writing Program
Appointment to Full Professor with Tenure
- Daniella Buccella, Chemistry
- Irving Goh, Comparative Literature
- Jo Guldi, Quantitative Theory and Methods
- Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola, Spanish and Portuguese
- Barbara Krauthamer, History
- Jinyu Liu, History
Appointment to Associate Professor with Tenure
- Idowu (Jola) Ajibade, Environmental Sciences
- Omar Jared Medina, Psychology
- Noe Montez, Theater and Dance
- Pedro Sant’Anna, Economics
- Gregory Zinman, Film and Media
- Hun Chung, Quantitative Theory and Methods
- Yolanda Rankin, Computer Science
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