The College of Arts and Sciences ushers in the new academic year with two new department chairs and 27 new faculty members.​ Such development and growth are a reflection of the College's commitment to advancing student success, scholarship, and campus and community engagement.
The new faculty members are joining 14 departments and programs across the College, with mathematical sciences adding the most hires. Debra Hess Norris, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, takes pride in welcoming these new faculty members to UD's community.​
“I am inspired by the high caliber of our new hires and their commitment to student success, consequential research, and community engagement. I look forward to their contributions in the coming academic year and beyond," said Norris, who has been a member of the UD faculty since 1985.
Leadership appointments were announced in the newly formed department of theatre and dance as well as the department of history. Steven Tague will be the inaugural chair for theatre and dance, and the producing artistic director of the Resident Ensemble Players (REP), the professional theatre company in residence at UD.
Tague has acted at regional theatres including Seattle Repertory Theater, A Contemporary Theatre, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Baltimore Center Stage and Walnut Street Theater. His directing credits include many productions at UD, as well as the Texas Shakespeare Festival and the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. He received his B.F.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University and his M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
In history, Owen White is the new interim chair. White specializes in the history of modern France and the French colonial empire, with particular interests in West Africa and Algeria. The author of a book about the mixed-race population of French West Africa and articles on a variety of aspects of French colonialism, he has also published two edited volumes, one (with J. P. Daughton) on French missionaries, the other on social organization in modern empires. He received his B.A. from the University of Exeter and his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford.
The new faculty members and their departments are:
Department of Africana Studies
Brandon Stanford
Department of Biological Sciences
Vinayak Mathur
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Carsten Milsmann
Department of English
Amish Trivedi
Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Fernando Ruiz Garcia, Eric Van Luvanee, Yoel Villahermosa Serrano, Sheila Villaverde Salgueiro
Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science
Yoonji Kim
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Mihai Alboiu, Ke Chen, Deniz Kutluay, Jonathan Schneider, Morgan Schreffler and Rajinda S. Wickrama
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Ilia Gogoladze, Wenjin Zhao
Department of Political Science and International Relations
Mahtab Shafiei
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Adrian Gilmore, Manuel Schottdorf
Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice
Jorge Vazquez
Department of Women and Gender Studies
Micki Burdick
English Language Institute
Lindsei Pereira da Silva, Amy Vazquez
School of Music
Brianne Borden, Timothy Broscious, Brooke H. Johnson​
