Welcome to our New Faculty
New Faculty for 2009-2010
Jane Ashby
Psychology
Jane Ashby received her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2006. She holds master's degrees in psychology (UMass) and education (Harvard). She has applied experience in assessment and intervention for children and adults with reading disorders. Before moving to Central Michigan, she completed three years of post-doctoral research and taught neurocognition of language courses at Hampshire College.
Her research investigates how adults and children identify words quickly and accurately during silent reading. Experiments conducted in her laboratory examine the cognitive processes situated at the intersection of reading, speech and vision by recording eye movements and brain electrical potentials. She remains interested in applying this basic research to improve reading instruction in the primary grades and continues to consult with educators and parents interested in preventing early reading failure.
Eddie Benton-Banai
Olga J. and G. Roland Denison Visiting Professorship of Native American Studies
The mission of this new endowment is to increase understanding of the historical experiences, cultural traditions and innovations, and political status of Indian people in the United States and Canada.
Mr. Eddie Benton-Banai will join CHSBS this fall as the first visiting scholar for the Olga J. and G. Roland Denison Visiting Professorship of Native American Studies. Mr. Benton-Banai holds a B.S. in Education from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Western California University. He currently teaches courses in Anishinabe Studies at SHINGWAUK KINOOMAAGE GAMIG, Algoma University.
Mr. Benton-Banai is a full blood member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, is a fifth degree Midewiwin Lodge member, and is Keeper of the Water Drum and Pipe Carrier. He has received a number of awards and recognitions and is the author of two books: The Mishomis Book and Generation to Generation.
Maxine Berman
The Robert and Marjorie Griffin Endowed Chair in American Government
The mission of the endowment is to stimulate the political conscience of students and scholars and to help prepare principled political leaders to serve Michigan in the future. The appointees to the Griffin Endowed Chair in American Government are selected for their exemplary records of public service and in-depth knowledge of Michigan government and politics.
Maxine Berman is the fourth Griffin Endowed Chair in American Government at CMU. She brings a wealth of experience to the position of endowed chair. She has been the Director of Special Projects for the Office of Governor Granholm since 2003. Her duties include spurring regional collaboration among municipalities, counties and educational institutions and working with an advisory group to create a realignment of Michigan government. She also is responsible for researching and promoting issues related to women, particularly women's health, and other statewide concerns such as affirmative action and stem cell research.
From 1983 to 1996 she served as a member of the Michigan House of Representatives. There, she held a number of prominent committee leadership positions ranging from appropriations to economic development and education. She also has served as a political consultant, taught government administration courses as an adjunct professor at Walsh College, and is a past executive director of the Michigan Women's Health Network. She holds a bachelor's degree and teacher certification from the University of Michigan.
Andrew Blom
Philosophy and Religion
Andrew Blom works in ethics and political philosophy, with further interests in the philosophy of law, feminist theory, and the history of philosophy. His recent work has focused on questions of international justice and conflict, giving special attention to how developments in political philosophy during the early modern period have influenced the way these questions are framed. He is currently developing a book based on his dissertation, Justice with Humanity: Hugo Grotius and the Ethics of International Conflict, which examines the role of humanitarian norms in constraining the decision to resort to force in international conflicts. Professor Blom received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2009, and he has been a recipient of the Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship.
Darrin Doyle
English Language and Literature
A native of Michigan, Darrin Doyle holds an MFA from Western Michigan University and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati. He is the author of Revenge of the Teacher's Pet: A Love Story (LSU Press, 2009), which the NY Times called "an original tale that earns its readers' trust, and breaks their hearts a little in the process." His second novel, The Girl Who Ate Kalamazoo, will be published by St. Martin's Press in 2010. His short stories have appeared in Puerto del Sol, The Long Story, Cottonwood, Alaska Quarterly Review, Night Train, and other journals. He has received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers' Conference and the NY State Summer Writers' Institute.
Captain Ryan Finley
Military Science and Leadership
Captain Ryan Finley entered the Army in August of 1991. He's served in Central America, the Middle East and Asia. He received a BSBA with majors in economics and finance from Western Carolina University in August of 1999 and received a master's degree in management from Webster University in May of 2007. CPT Finley has earned the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Ribbon, Combat Action Badge, Army Parachute Badge, Aviation Badge and Canadian Airborne wings. He and his wife, Laurie Brown Finley, have four sons: Nathan, Brandon, Ian and Logan.
Richard Forest
English Language and Literature
Richard Forest received a Ph.D. in applied linguistics from City University of Hong Kong in October of 2007 and an M.A. in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from Central Michigan University in May of 2002. His research interests include corpus-based linguistics, evaluation in text, and the study of academic and professional discourse. His current research focuses on the distribution and function of signalling nouns (abstract nouns requiring additional specification in text) in academic discourse. A chapter reporting initial results from this research will be published in Academic Writing: At the Interface of Corpus and Discourse (October, 2009). A book length treatment, Signalling Nouns in Discourse (to be published with John Benjamins), is currently in preparation.
SFC Christian Hamlett
Military Science and Leadership
SFC Christian Hamlett joins the MSL department as a National Guard Liaison for ROTC. He entered the Army in 1992. He has held positions of Infantryman for 3-12 in Baumholder, Germany; Squad Leader for B co 3-15 IN (1998-2000) at Ft. Stewart, Georgia; Section Leader for 1-125 IN Scout Platoon (2000-2002) in Flint; Military Instructor for 177 Regional Training Institute (2003-2005) in Battle Creek; Scout Platoon Sergeant for 1-126 CAV (2005-2006) in Grand Rapids; Infantry Platoon Sergeant for C Troop 1-126 CAV (2006-present) in Dowagiac; and National Guard Liaison for ROTC (2009-present).
His deployments include Macedonia for the United Nations, Camp Able Sentry (1995), Kuwait Operation Intrinsic Action (1998) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (2008). He has received several awards including the Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal (2), Army Achievement Medal (5), Good Conduct Medal (2), Expeditionary Medal (2), Iraq Campaign Medal (2), Expert Infantry Badge and Wheel Driver Badge.
Rebecca Hayes-Smith
Sociology
Rebecca Hayes-Smith joins the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work as an Assistant Professor. She recently received her Ph.D. in sociology, criminology, and law from the University of Florida. Her expertise is in social and criminal justice, and her research interests include sexual assault prevention on college campuses and the influences of television crime dramas on juries. Dr. Hayes-Smith has numerous entries in disciplinary encyclopedias including the Encyclopedia of Women and Crime, the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime. She also has a forthcoming article in Critical Criminology titled, “A Website Content Analysis of Women’s Resources and Sexual Assault Literature on College Campuses. “
Jessica Marcon
Psychology
Jessica Marcon received her Ph.D. in general psychology with a focus in legal psychology from the University of Texas at El Paso in 2009. Her research has focused on the cognitive and social psychological processes involved in the identification of faces and fingerprints. She has conducted research examining the underlying dual-process memory systems that distinguish performance on own- and other-race faces, whether perceptual processes are involved in the cross-race effect, and how such cross-racial identification can be mitigated.
Most recently, her research has focused on extending her work in face identification to the world of fingerprint identification. She examines how humans perceive the distinctiveness of fingerprints, whether distinctiveness effects found in face perception research are evident in fingerprint identification, and whether there are conditions under which the distinctiveness effect can be eliminated.
Gary Miller
Social Work
Gary Miller has spent the past 20 years as an administrator for Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. He also has been teaching part-time in Indiana for about 20 years. He received his doctorate and MSW from the University of Michigan and majored in psychology. He will be teaching Introduction to Social Work, policy and other courses as needed. In addition to teaching, he also plans to begin research on the causes related to young adults without health insurance.
Rafael Ponce-Cordero
Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Rafael Ponce-Cordero enters the tenure track after one year as a temporary faculty member at CMU. He joins the FLLC department as Assistant Professor of Spanish. He is a doctoral candidate set to graduate this fall at the University of Pittsburgh. Before coming to the United States, he received a B.A. in communication and an M.A. in Latin American history from the University of Seville in Spain. His interests include 20th century Latin American narrative (especially Boom and post-Boom), Latin American cultural studies (including soap operas and popular music), and a variety of Latin American literary and theoretical debates (particularly postcolonial and subaltern studies). Ponce-Cordero will teach all levels of Spanish language as well as Latin American and Peninsular history and civilization, cultural studies and film.
Nate Smith
English Language and Literature
Nate Smith grew up in southwestern Michigan and earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan. He received a Ph.D. in English Literature from Indiana University at Bloomington in 2008. His dissertation, "Dreams of Influence: Embodied Reading in Late Medieval and Renaissance English Literature," traces the literary depiction of dreams from Geoffrey Chaucer to Edmund Spenser, and argues that dreams offered poets a quasi-medical language with which to describe the physiological effects of reading poems. His articles have appeared in the John Donne Journal and Medievalia et Humanistica, and other research interests include gender studies, early reading practices, and women writers. He looks forward to teaching Shakespeare, medieval and early modern literature, and a course on dreams, selves, and society. In his spare time, Nate enjoys traveling, watching movies and television, and being bullied by his cat.
Nicole Sparling
English Language and Literature
Nicole L. Sparling earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Women's Studies in August of 2009 and her M.A. in Comparative Literature in May of 2004 at Penn State University. She specializes in comparative studies of North and South American cultural production and, more specifically, in the literature of the 20th century written in English, Spanish, and Portuguese from these regions. Much of her research focuses on issues of knowledge production as it relates to disciplinary formation and the construction of identity. Her most recent work places into conversation the various scientific, national, and literary discourses that shape the way we think about sexual difference and reproduction. She has taught a variety of courses, including literature of the Americas, themes of identity in world literature, survey of Western literature II, international cultures through literature and film, rhetoric and composition, women's studies, and intermediate Spanish.
Jonathan Truitt
History
Jonathan Truitt comes to CMU from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in 2008-2009. He received his Ph.D. from Tulane University in colonial Latin American history, his M.A. from Minnesota State University, Mankato, and his B.A. from Gustavus Adolphus College. His dissertation is entitled "Nahuas and Catholicism in Mexico Tenochtitlan: Religious Faith and Practice and La Papilla de San Josef de los Naturales, 1523-1700." He is currently revising it for publication.
Benjamin Weinstein
History
Benjamin Weinstein comes to CMU from the University of Sunderland in the UK. He previously served a Teaching Fellowship at the University of Warwick. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, along with an M.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His first book, based on his dissertation, is forthcoming as Shopkeepers and Gentlemen: Localism and Liberalism in Early-Victorian London (Boydell & Brewer, Royal Historical Society). He has also authored four articles on topics in the urban history of Victorian England.
Catherine Willermet
Anthropology
Catherine Willermet joins the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work as an Assistant Professor. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology from Arizona State University, where she also obtained an M.A. in anthropology and a certificate in museum studies. Dr. Willermet comes to us from the University of Louisiana where she served as an adjunct faculty member. She also was a research associate at the Maxwell Center for Anthropological Research. Her expertise is in physical anthropology, and her research focuses on race and ethnicity, dental anthropology, and most recently on the biological and cultural origins of Hispanics. She co-edited the book Conceptual Issues in Modern Human Origins, has coauthored numerous articles in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology Supplement, and has authored numerous entries in the Encyclopedia of Anthropology.
