Holy Cross Announces New Tenure-Track Faculty Hires for 2009-10 Academic Year

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Office of the Dean at the College of the Holy Cross announces the hiring of 13 new faculty members in tenure-track positions for the 2009-10 academic year and one new teaching fellow through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

They are:

Jarrett H. Brown (instructor, English), received his B.A. from the University of the West Indies, Mona, in Kingston, Jamaica, his M.A. from Clark University and will complete his Ph.D. at the College of William and Mary in August 2009.  He previously taught at Bowdoin College, Clark University, Mercerburg Academy in Penn., and Pomfret School in Conn. He was recently awarded the Bowdoin Faculty Summer Research Award and was part of a working group on faculty diversity at Bowdoin College.

Catherine Cangany (Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow, history), earned her B.A. from Indiana University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Her teaching interests include colonial/revolutionary America; Atlantic World, 1500 – 1850; and economic, cultural, and urban history.  Her accomplishments at the University of Michigan include an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship, Rackham International Research Award, and Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Nominee.  She previously taught at the University of Michigan and has served in numerous capacities on the Greater West Bloomfield Historical Society.

Joshua M. Congdon-Hohman (instructor, economics), earned his B.A. from Wesleyan University, his M.A. from the University of Michigan, and is expected to complete his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in August 2009.  His research interests include labor economics, public economics and health economics.  He previously taught macro- and microeconomics at the University of Michigan.  His accomplishments at the University of Michigan include a grant from the Michigan Retirement Research Center; a Departmental Letter of Commendation for Excellence in Teaching, Top Ten GSI; and a Rackham Regents Fellowship.

Jeffrey C. Dixon (assistant professor, sociology and anthropology), received his B.S. at Wright State University in Ohio, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington. Before coming to Holy Cross he was an assistant professor at Koç University in Istanbul.  His research and teaching interests include political sociology, race and ethnicity, and social stratification. He is the recipient of the Eastern Sociological Society Candace Rogers Graduate Student Paper Award (first place), as well as the Indiana University Lieber Associate Instructor Award, which is awarded to the most outstanding graduate student teacher university-wide.

Matthew T. Eggemeier (instructor, religious studies), earned his B.A. at the University of Dayton, his M.T.S. at Harvard Divinity School, and will complete his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame in 2009.  He specializes in modern and contemporary Christian theologies, political and liberation theologies, and postmodern theology.  At Notre Dame he was recently awarded a Research/Travel grant in order to interview Catholic theologist Johann Baptist Metz at the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and a summer research stipend from the department of theology. A member of the American Academy of Religion, he is proficient in French, German and Latin.

Ara A. Francis, (assistant professor, sociology and anthropology), earned her B.A. at the University of Colorado, Boulder and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California-Davis. A social psychologist and sociologist of deviance, she studies how people experience and cope with personal troubles such as divorce, unemployment, and illness. Her current research explores how children’s problems disrupt parents’ lives.  At the University of California-Davis, Francis taught courses on the self and society, the sociology of family, social relationships, and deviance. She has lectured on these topics throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Bridget V. Franco, (assistant professor, modern languages and literatures), received her B.A. and her M.A from the University of Notre Dame and her Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese from the University of California, Irvine.  Her research interests include 20th-century Latin American literature; philosophy, politics, and ethics in literature; literary theory and criticism.  She was recently awarded the UCI Regent’s Dissertation Year Fellowship and the Best Graduate Student Essay Award.  At Notre Dame she was assistant director of the International Study Programs and director of Patron Services for the Department of Special Collections. She has lectured in the U.S. and abroad, including Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Kendy M. Hess (Brake-Smith Instructor in Social Philosophy and Ethics, philosophy), earned her B.A. in English from the University of Missouri-Columbia, her J.D. from Harvard University, her M.A. in liberal studies from Northwestern University and is a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Her research and teaching interests include ethics, applied ethics (business, professional, and environmental), environmental philosophy, philosophy of the mind, and Nietzsche. She was recently awarded The Best Graduate Student Paper at the North American Society for Social Philosophy; a Graduate Teaching Excellence Award and the Thomas Edwin Devaney Fellowship, the latter two from the University of Colorado. From 1993 – 2003, Hess was a partner at Altheimer & Gray in Chicago, Ill., where she worked as an environmental attorney. She was also of counsel at Richmond Breslin LLP (2004-08), and Greenberg Taurig LLP (2003-04), both in Chicago, Ill.

Jennifer F. Lieb (instructor, political science), received her B.A. from the College of William and Mary, her M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and her M.A. from Princeton University, where she is also a Ph.D. Candidate.  While at Princeton, Lieb received funding for her research from the German Academic Exchange Service and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, and was appointed as a Quin Morton Graduate Teaching Fellow in the Princeton Writing Program. Her research and teaching interests pertain to comparative politics, developed democracies, immigration, and social welfare policy.

John P. Manoussakis (assistant professor and Edward Bennett Williams Fellow, philosophy), earned his B.A. from Hellenic College/Holy Cross in Brookline, Mass., an M.A. in classics, and an M.A. in philosophy, and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston College. Manoussakis, who has been a visiting assistant professor at Holy Cross since 2007, previously taught at Boston College and the American College of Greece. He is the author of two books: God After Metaphysics: A Theological Aesthetic (Indiana University Press, 2007) and Theo Philosophoumenos: Six Readings of Modern Philosophy on the Question of God (Athens: Ellinika Grammata, 2004) (In Greek). The editor and translator of numerous books, he has published articles in numerous journals including American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, the Harvard Theological Review, and Philosophy Today. Fluent in Greek, Latin, German and French, Manoussakis has lectured all over the U.S. and abroad including the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Greece.

Alexander F. Newell (assistant professor, sociology and anthropology), received his B.A. from Reed College in social anthropology and his M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Cornell University. Before coming to Holy Cross, Newell previously taught at Cornell, CUNY City College, New York University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Virginia.  The recipient of a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Illinois, his research interests include urban space and social networks; crime and illicit economies; media and popular culture; and migration and national identity.  He is the author of a forthcoming book titled The Modernity Bluff: Crimes of Consumption and Urban Youth in Cote d’ivoire (University of Chicago Press).

Giovanni Spani (assistant professor, modern languages and literatures), earned his Laurea in political science from the University of Padua, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Italian literature from Indiana University. Before coming to Holy Cross, he taught at Indiana University, Trinity College, Middlebury College and Bowdoin College.  He is co-author of the Streetwise Italian Dictionary/Thesaurus: The User-Friendly Guide to Italian Slang and Idioms (McGraw–Hill, 2005) and is working on numerous forthcoming publications including a book titled Re-thinking Movement and Finding Inaction: from Dante and Petrach to Contemporary Italian Cinema. A member of the American Association of Teachers of Italian he was awarded the Certificate of Excellence for Superior Teaching at Indiana University.

Justin Svec (instructor, economics), received his B.A. from Stanford University, and his M.A., and M.Phil. from Columbia University, where he is a Ph.D. candidate in economics. At Columbia, he was the recipient of the Wueller Teaching Award three years in a row; the Lewis A. Sanders Endowed Fellowship; and a finalist for the Columbia Presidential Teaching Award. His teaching and research interests include macroeconomics, public finance and international economics.

Sarah M. Webster (assistant professor, biology), received her B.S. in molecular and cellular biology at the University of Connecticut and her Ph.D. in neuroscience at Harvard Medical School. She previously taught at Harvard College and Medical School, and Davidson College; she also conducted research as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Children’s Hospital in Boston.   A member of the Society for Neuroscience, she has co-authored articles in numerous journals including Nature and Developmental Neuroscience.