A Highly Productive Recruiting Year Nets CLA a Multi-talented Class of New Faculty

July 1, 2014

The CLA had a very productive recruiting year in 2013-14. Thirteen new faculty members will join the College in fall 2014 as nine of our Departments/Programs conducted successful faculty searches, with four programs hiring two faculty each.  The Dean’s Office thanks all of the faculty search committees for their excellent work in creating a multi-talented, diverse new faculty cohort for AY 2014-15.  These new faculty will be formally introduced at Convocation in late August, but please extend a warm welcome if you see them before then. 

Here is the new faculty class of 2014-15:

Communication Studies welcomes Assistant Professor Christopher Duerringer who is coming from Arkansas Tech University.  Dr. Durerringer received his Ph.D. from Arizona State University.

Economics welcomes Assistant Professor Jinwon Kim who is coming from the Technical University of Denmark.  Professor Kim received his Ph.D. from UC Irvine.

English welcomes Full Professor with tenure John Scenters-Zapico who is coming from the  University of Texas, El Paso.  Professor Scenters-Zapico received his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona, and he will also assume responsibilities as the University’s first Writing Across the Curriculum Director.

Human Development welcomes two Assistant Professors: H. Isabella Lanza and Christine Nutter El Quardani.  Dr. Lanza is coming from UCLA.  She received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Temple University.  Dr. El Quardani is coming from the University of Chicago.  She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Human Development from the University of Chicago.

International Studies welcomes two Assistant Professors: Caitlin Fouratt and Yousef Kazem Baker.  Dr. Fouratt is coming from UC Irvine where she is ABD.  Dr. Fouratt expects to complete her Ph.D. in Anthropology by the end of June.  Dr. Baker is coming from UC Santa Barbara where he is ABD.  Dr. Baker expects to complete his Ph.D. in Sociology in July.

Political Science welcomes Assistant Professor Darin DeWitt who is coming from UCLA.  Dr. DeWitt also earned his Ph.D. from UCLA.

Psychology welcomes Assistant Professor Araceli Gonzalez who is coming from UCLA.  Dr. Gonzalez earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology through the joint doctoral program at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego.

Romance, German, Russian Languages and Literatures welcomes two Assistant Professors: Francisca González and Daniel Herrera-Cepero.  Dr. González comes from Stanford University where she earned her Ph.D. in Iberian and Latin American Cultures.  Dr. Herrera-Cepero is coming from UC Davis where he recently earned his Ph.D. in Spanish Literature.

Sociology welcomes two Assistant Professors: Emir Estrada and Michael Chavez.  Dr. Estrada is coming from the University of Southern California where she also earned her Ph.D.  Dr. Chavez has recently been teaching at Cal State Los Angeles and Cal Poly Pomona.  He earned his Ph.D. from UC Riverside. 

The College of Liberal Arts welcomes each of these new faculty members and looks forward to their arrival in the fall.