Bruno Badia continues his work in the Department of Economics in his new tenure track position as assistant professor. He received a PhD in economics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2015. His fields of concentration include industrial organization, applied microeconomic theory and economics of innovation. His dissertation is titled Essays on Patent Licensing.
Amy Benson joins the Department of English as assistant professor. She received an MFA in creative writing and poetry from the University of Alabama in 1996. Benson teaches creative writing—particularly literary nonfiction and fiction—and has an interest in experimental, genre-fluid prose and work from under-represented voices. She taught most recently at Fordham University where she was a visiting writer in prose and in the graduate and undergraduate creative writing programs at Columbia University. At Columbia she directed the undergraduate creative writing major for several years and co-created and taught Columbia’s first creative writing abroad program: Paris, Then and Now.
Marco Cabrera-Geserick joins the Department of History as assistant professor. Dr. Cabrera-Geserick received a PhD in history from Arizona State University in 2013. His dissertation is titled The Legacy of the Filibuster War: Collective Memory, National Identity, and Cultural Anti-Imperialism. He comes to Rhodes from Augustana College in Illinois, where he taught courses in colonial and modern Latin America, history of Mexico and the Caribbean and world history since 1500. He also taught first-year seminars for the Liberal Studies First Year program.
I-In Chiang joins the Department of Modern Language and Literatures in Chinese as a visiting assistant professor. Dr. Chiang received a PhD in East Asian languages and cultures from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While there, she taught courses in masterpieces of East Asian literature and Chinese language. Her dissertation is titled Imagined Nation and Imagined Womanhood in Shaw Brothers’ Musicals. Her research and teaching interests include Chinese language cinema, modern Chinese literature, sSinophone studies, and women and gender studies.
Keith Corson continues his work in the Department of English as assistant professor. Dr. Corson received a PhD in cinema studies from New York University in 2012. His research interests include film history, media industries, African American art and culture, popular music, and sports. His first book, Trying to Get Over: African American Directors after Blaxploitation, 1977-1986, was released by the University of Texas Press in March. He has published articles and chapters on topics including Malcolm X, Tyler Perry, Ice-T, Bollywood films, and professional wrestling. He was also a contributor to Slate’s “Black Film Canon” earlier this year.
Kathy Evans joins the Educational Studies Program as the director of teacher licensure and field placements. Dr. Evans received a PhD in Education and Human Development from Vanderbilt University in 1996. She comes to Rhodes from The University of Tennessee at Martin where she was a professor of early childhood education in the Department of Educational Studies.
Joy Brooke Fairfield joins the Department of Theatre as assistant professor. Dr. Fairfield received her PhD in the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at Stanford University, where she won the Charles M. Lyons award for outstanding dissertation for her manuscript Fugitive Intimacies: The Unsettling Vows of Queer Wedlock Performance. She received an MA from New York University and a BA from Harvard University, and her teaching interests include performance studies, queer and trans theory, feminist theories and methods, history of theatre and performance, political and protest performance, playwriting/screenwriting, acting, and directing.
Michael Flexsenhar joins the department of Religious Studies as assistant professor. Dr. Flexsenhar received a PhD in religious studies at the University of Texas in May of 2016 and a BA from Rhodes in 2006. His dissertation is titled Slaves of Christ: Caesar’s Household and the Early Christians. At the University of Texas at Austin he taught courses in The Bible and its interpreters and the rise of Christianity.
Darren Floyd joins the Department of Art & Art History as assistant professor. He received an MFA in Film and media arts from Temple University in Philadelphia in 2001. Floyd is a motion picture artist working in 16mm film and digital video, compositing, visual effects and animation. His work explores issues of gender, intimacy, privacy and sexuality through self-portraiture, video letters, journal and diary films, and the travelogue.
Elaine Frawley joins the Department of Biology as assistant professor. Dr. Frawley received a PhD in biology and biomedical sciences from Washington University in St. Louis in 2010. At the University of Washington in Seattle she was a senior research fellow in the Department of Laboratory Medicine. She also taught courses in general biology and general biology laboratory.
Julia Haas joins the Department of Philosophy as assistant professor. Dr. Haas received a PhD in philosophy from Emory University in 2014. She comes to Rhodes from Washington University in St. Louis where she was a McDonnell Postdoctoral Fellow. Her dissertation is titled Weakness of Will: A Case Study for Moral Psychology and the Cognitive Neurosciences. Her research specialties include philosophy of mind, philosophy of cognitive science, and philosophy of neuroscience, and early modern philosophy.
Erin Honsa joins the Department of Biology as assistant professor. She received a PhD in molecular virology & microbiology from Baylor College of Medicine in 2012. Dr. Honsa comes to Rhodes from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Infectious Diseases.
Peter Hossler continues his work with the Urban Studies Program as assistant professor. Dr. Hossler received a PhD in in geography form the University of Georgia in 2011. His dissertation is titled Urban Health Care Safety Nets: Catching People and Profits in Milwaukee’s Health Care Delivery System. He came to Rhodes in 2013 from the University of Glasglow, where he was a research associate in urban political economy. His research interests include: urban health, urban political economy, health geography, political economy of health and social theory.
Jaqueline Oliveira joins the Department of Economics as assistant professor. Dr. Oliveira received a PhD in economics from Yale University in 2013. Her dissertation is titled Intergenerational Transfers, Fertility, and Human Capital. She comes to Rhodes from Clemson University, where she was an assistant professor. Her fields of interest include development economics, labor economics, family economics, and urban economics.
David Pike joins the Department of Biology as assistant professor. Dr. Pike received a PhD from the University of Sydney in 2010. His dissertation is titled Ecology and Conservation of Rock-Dwelling Reptiles in Southeastern Australia. Dr. Pike comes to Rhodes from the University of South Florida, where he was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Integrative Biology. He has taught courses in wildlife ecology and management, diversity of animal life, and biodiversity of tropical Australia.
Charlie Snyder joins Rhodes as the director of Health Professions Advising. Dr. Snyder received a PhD in Anthropology from Washington State University in 2016. While there, he was a health professions specialist and an instructor in the Department of Anthropology. He has taught classes covering general anthropology and peoples of the world, and he specializes in medical anthropology.
Gregory Vieira joins the Department of Physics as assistant professor. He received a PhD in physics from the Ohio State University in 2012, where he studied thin film magnetism and its application to biomedical technologies. He comes to Rhodes from Baptist College of Health Sciences here in Memphis, where he was an assistant professor of physics. While there, he taught courses that included mechanics, electricity and magnetism, elements of calculus, and radiation physics. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University Medical Center.
Nikolaos Zahariadis joins the Department of International Studies as the new Mertie Buckman Distinguished Professor of International Studies Chair. He comes to Rhodes from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. While at UAB, he was the director of Political Science from 2000-2006 and 2012-2014, and the director of International Studies from 2003-2010. He has received several awards for his work on European public policy including a Fulbright fellowship, a Policy Studies Organization fellowship, and an Economic and Social Research Council fellowship. Dr. Zahariadis received a PhD in political science from the University of Georgia.