On Track for Tenure
From Kenyon News - September 19, 2016
Eight professors have received tenure-track appointments for the 2016-17 academic year.
“These colleagues bring a wealth of specialties and experiences to their Kenyon classrooms. I am sure students will find them inspiring and very approachable — the kind of teachers who will be great mentors, too,” Provost Joseph Klesner said.
Qussay al-Attabi, assistant professor of Arabic
B.A. and M.A. al-Mustansiriyyah University Iraq, M.A. and Ph.D. Brown University
Qussay al-Attabi received his doctorate in comparative literature from Brown University. He studies the dialectic between aesthetics and politics in 20th-century Arabic literature. A native of Iraq, al-Attabi also has taught at Fordham University.
Katie Jo Black, assistant professor of economics
B.S. Penn State University, M.A. Youngstown State University and University of Pittsburgh, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh
Katie Jo Black’s fields include urban and regional economics and natural resource economics. She studies the value of permanent open space, particularly space neighboring homes.
Shaun Golding, assistant professor of sociology
B.A. Bowdoin College, Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison
Shaun Golding comes to Kenyon after teaching for four years in a visiting role at his alma mater, Bowdoin College, where he was awarded a research grant to study the Quebec-New England renewable energy landscape. His research interests include the gentrification of rural areas.
Craig Hill, assistant professor of art
B.A. Atlanta College of Art, M.F.A. Rhode Island School of Design
Craig Hill has taught at Kenyon for six years in three different stints. He teaches drawing, painting and printmaking, and his own work appropriates imagery and techniques from pop culture and modernist works of art to create paintings that revolve around issues of masculinity and male rites of passage.
Tatjana Longerot, assistant professor of drama
B.A. Indiana University South Bend, M.F.A. The Ohio State University
Tatjana Longerot, formerly a visiting assistant professor of drama, teaches costume and scenic design. After receiving her master of fine arts in costume design from The Ohio State University, Longerot worked as a freelance costume designer for stage and film and as a wardrobe master in the local crew for tours of "42nd Street," "Jesus Christ Superstar," the Rolling Stones and Elton John.
Claire Novotny, assistant professor of anthropology
B.A. Whitman College, M.A. University of South Florida, Ph.D. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Claire Novotny is an archaeologist whose work focuses on social, political and economic strategies of identity among rural Mayan households in southern Belize during A.D. 570-850.
Sarah Petersen, Ashby Denoon Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
B.S. University of Tennessee, Ph.D. Vanderbilt University
Sarah Petersen works on understanding how genes drive the development of the nervous system. She uses zebrafish to understand the relationship between neurons and glia and their environments during neurodevelopment. She will teach in both the Departments of Neuroscience and Biology.
Austin Porter, assistant professor of art history and American studies
B.A. Kansas State University, M.A. University of Kansas, Ph.D. Boston University
Austin Porter was a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for the Study of American Democracy until June. His research interests include American art and visual culture during the 1930s and 1940s and the expanding international art scene in the postwar period. Prior to his teaching career, Porter worked in advertising and as a designer in an art museum.