New Faculty Bolsters Columbian College Ranks

August 8, 2020
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Columbian College will welcome 18 new faculty members this fall, bringing the total number of full-time academics to 534, and adding new skills and expertise to disciplines across the sciences, social sciences and humanities.

“These new scientists and scholars greatly strengthen GW’s teaching and research mission,” said John Philbeck, CCAS vice dean for faculty affairs. “Many of them are coming to us with impressive awards, books and grant funding already in hand. We are truly fortunate that they are joining us and we look forward to them being part of our learning and research community.”

Nicole Bartels, Department of Political Science, holds an MA in teaching from Stony Brook University and an MA in political science from Ohio State University. She has been a visiting professor at GW since 2018, and was an adjunct instructor at the United States Naval Academy. She has served as a Congressional legislative assistant, working on military affairs, health care, the United States Postal Service and education legislation. She also worked as a legislative liaison with the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

Jay Daigle, Department of Mathematics, received a PhD in mathematics from California Institute of Technology and a Master of Advanced Studies in Mathematics from Cambridge University. Prior to joining GW, he was an assistant professor at Occidental College. His primary research interests focus on number theory and arithmetic geometry. His work has appeared in scholarly mathematical journals including Algebra and Number Theory and Communications in Algebra

Mackenzie Fama, Department of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences, holds a PhD in neuroscience from Georgetown University. She comes to GW from Towson University, where she was an assistant professor of speech-language pathology. As a licensed speech-language pathologist, she has worked in Washington, D.C., area clinical settings including the Stroke Comeback Center and the MedStar National Rehabilitation Network. Her work has been published in, among other journals, the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, Cerebral Cortex and Consciousness and Cognition. She serves as a mentor for the American Speech-Language Hearing Association’s “Student to Empowered Professional” (STEP) Program.

Michael Hankinson, Department of Political Science, earned his PhD in government and social policy from Harvard University. Previously, he was an assistant professor of political science at Baruch College and a Postdoctoral Fellow of Quantitative Policy Analysis at Oberlin College. Some of his current projects focus on the effects of residential stability on civic attitudes via housing lottery and the politics and political outcomes of the opioid epidemic. His research interests include political behavior, public opinion, local political economy, public policy and inequality.

Jesse Holland, School of Media and Public Affairs, holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Goucher College. He is a Distinguished Scholar in Residence for the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, and has held academic appointments at New York University, Goucher College, Georgetown University and the University of Arkansas. He serves as weekend host of C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, and has received numerous awards and honors, including the U.S. History Silver Medal Award from the Independent Publishers Association for his book The Invisibles: Slavery Inside the Presidential Mansions. He was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award for his novel Black Panther: Who Is The Black Panther?

Daniel Jaqua, Department of Economics, received a PhD in economics from the University of Michigan. Before coming to GW, he was an assistant professor at Albion College and a marketing and data analysis consultant for Keystone Strategy. His research specialties include public finance, applied microeconomics, taxation, nonlinear pricing and multidimensional screening. He has lectured and given presentations to major academic and professional societies on topics such as “Voting on Taxation and the Down’s Paradox” and “Using Substitution and Income Effects to Define Deterrence and Incapacitation.”

Fang Jin, Department of Statistics, holds a PhD in computer science from Virginia Tech and an MS in information processing from the Chinese Academy of Science. She was an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Texas Tech University prior to joining GW. Her research focuses on machine learning and data mining, and has implications for such varied fields as addiction science, x-ray technology and natural disaster forecasting. She is a guest editor for the journal Frontiers in Big Data and co-author of Computing Handbook: Information Systems and Information Technology.

Lien-Yung Kao, Department of Mathematics, earned a PhD in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame. He previously served as the L.E. Dickson Instructor and National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago. His research interests include dynamical systems, thermodynamic formalism, differential geometry and Teichmüller Theory. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Nonlinearity, Geometriae Dedicata and the Journal of Geometry and Physics.

Aman Luthra, Department of Geography, received his PhD in geography and environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Before coming to GW, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Kalamazoo College. He was the interim deputy director and a research and policy consultant for the Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group in New Delhi, India, where he led World Bank-funded waste management projects in the country’s poorest cities. His research on environmental planning and international development has been published in major peer-reviewed journals and presented to academic, nonprofit and government stakeholders throughout the United States and India.

Joseph Meisel, Department of Chemistry, holds a PhD and an MS in organic chemistry from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He was previously the National Institutes of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow in chemical biology and supramolecular chemistry at New York University. His areas of expertise include organic chemistry, chemical biology, protein interactions and supramolecular chemistry. His interdisciplinary research has implications in fields such as chemical synthesis and drug discovery.

Brendan Morley, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, received his PhD in Japanese from the University of California, Berkeley, and his MA in Asian studies from the University of Oregon. Since 2019, he has been a visiting assistant professor of Japanese at GW. He was previously a visiting lecturer in Japanese at Stanford University. His work on poetry and diplomacy in ancient Japan has appeared in scholarly publications including the Journal of the American Oriental Society.

Efrat Nechushtai, School of Media and Public Affairs, holds a PhD and MPhil in communications from Columbia University. She has held appointments as a Knight News Innovation Fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and an Andrew Wellington Cordier Teaching Fellow at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. She is a former editor and writer for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Her research focuses on the impact of platformization and political polarization on journalism, both domestically and internationally. She has been cited in major media outlets including The Christian Science Monitor, Wired and Nieman Lab.

Jeffrey Proulx, Department of Organizational Sciences & Communication, earned a PhD in communication from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was previously a graduate research assistant in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a member of the International Communication Association and International Network for Social Networks Analysis. His research interests include organizational communication, network methods, evolutionary theory and mental health.

Timothy Shenk, Department of History, received his PhD, MPhil and MA in history from Columbia University. He was previously a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Cambridge, U.K., and the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of three books and has been published in, among other media outlets, The Nation, The New Republic, The Guardian and Dissent magazine, where he served as the book editor. He has written and given presentations on topics including the American economy, the origins of “Trumpism” and the transformative influence of Barack Obama’s presidency.

Ashwini Tambe, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, holds a PhD in international studies from American University. She previously served as an associate professor in the Department of Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland-College Park. She is the editorial director of the journal Feminist Studies and the author of two books, Defining Girlhood in India: A Transnational History of Sexual Maturity and Codes of Misconduct: Regulating Prostitution in Late Colonial Bombay. Her interests include transnational feminist theory, modern South Asia, sexuality studies and global political economy.

Andrew Thompson, Department of Political Science, earned a PhD and MA in political science from Northwestern University. Before joining GW, he was a predoctoral fellow in the Department of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Moreau Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He has also served as an instructor in American politics and government for inmates at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois. His research focus includes political behavior, public opinion and political psychology. He is a member of the American Political Science Association and the American Association for Public Opinion Research.

Julian Wamble, Department of Political Science, received his PhD in political science from the University of Maryland College Park. He was previously an assistant professor at Stony Brook University and a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Political Science. His research interests include American politics, race and politics, political psychology, political behavior, voting behavior and experimental and survey methods. His upcoming book on how Black voters choose candidates is titled Show Us that You Care: Investigating Candidate Preferability within the Black Electorate.

Robert Won, Department of Mathematics, holds a PhD in mathematics from the University of California, San Diego. Prior to coming to GW, he was a postdoctoral fellow and acting assistant professor at the University of Washington. His research involves problems in ring theory and algebraic geometry. His work has appeared in major scholarly journals published including Involve, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society and the Journal of Algebra.