Introducing New Arts and Humanities Faculty

Twenty-two scholars in 17 departments are joining the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during the 2022-23 academic year. Here, new faculty members in the arts and humanities describe some of their interests in academia and beyond—from Afro-Latin American studies, Francophone literature, and intellectual history to fantasy baseball and Afrobeats.

Jorge Mauricio Herrera Acuña
Mellon Faculty Fellow in Spanish and Portuguese

Scholarly Interests
I specialize in the contemporary literature and cultures of Afro-Latin America, particularly Brazil and Cuba. I research the poetics, performances, and aesthetics of Afro-diasporic artists and intellectuals, race relations, capoeira, and digital humanities. My current book project explores how previously understudied Afro-Latin American artists and writers shaped aesthetic creations, anti-racist politics, and the rise of a Black internationalism between 1950 and 1970. My forthcoming article unveils connections between francophone Négritude, Brazil, and Portugal through the poetry of former Senegalese president Léopold Senghor. 

For Fun 
Cooking and playing pandeiro (tambourine)

Ingrid Brioso Rieumont
Mellon Faculty Fellow in Spanish and Portuguese

Scholarly Interests
I am a scholar of modern and contemporary Afro-Latin America, working on literature, photography and philosophy of the Hispanic Caribbean and Brazil. My first book project focuses on the intersection between slavery, capitalism, and death, and pays attention to the dead bodies of enslaved people depicted in literary texts and photographs. I co-curated the exhibition "Liquid La Habana: Ice Cream, Rum, Waves, Sweat and Spouts" with Princeton University School of Architecture, and was the Spanish translator of Paletó e eu. Memórias de meu pai indígena, winner of the 2020 Casa de las Américas Literary Prize.

For Fun
Learning new languages and building a house (still on my to-do list)

Tatiana Filimonova
Assistant Professor of Russian

Scholarly Interests
I write about contemporary Russian literature, much of which has been shaped by Russia's colonial history. The identity of Russia's people and their aspirations are the subject of many novels and have inspired powerful intellectual trends, including imperialist movements like neo-Eurasianism, and even the current war in Ukraine. I examine how these trends play out in literature, and how a geopolitical frame of mind affects Russia's collective identity. I am also interested in regional identities, migration narratives, and the history and writing of Siberia's Indigenous peoples.

For Fun
I enjoy foraging, nature, Vermont Public Classical, and volleyball. 

Marie Larose
Mellon Faculty Fellow in French and Italian

Scholarly Interests
My research focuses on 20th- and 21st-century Francophone literature from France, the Caribbean, and Mauritius. I apply theories from gender, postcolonial, Black, disability, psychoanalytic, popular culture, and literary critical studies to explore the intricate links between violence and genealogy in the works of female writers, including Marie NDiaye, Kettly Mars, Marie Vieux-Chauvet, Ken Bugul, Marie-CélieAgnant, and Ananda Devi. My current book project questions the conventions of being and belonging in familial and communal spaces.

For Fun
I travel for food and love to listen to Soca, Zouk, and Afrobeats.

Allie Martin
Assistant Professor of Music; Digital Humanities and Social Engagement Cluster

Scholarly Interests
My work explores what gentrification sounds like in Washington, D.C. Gentrification is often considered from a visual perspective, where we see drastic changes in developing neighborhoods. My work asks what these changes sound like, from music scenes to noise legislation to the streets themselves. 

Last Non-academic Book I Loved
Moon Witch, Spider King, a 2022 fantasy novel by Jamaican writer Marlon James 

 

 

Michael McGillen
Assistant Professor of German

Scholarly Interests
I am a scholar of 20th-century German literature, philosophy, and intellectual history.  My forthcoming book explores the construction of history in modernism, showing how a combination of mathematics and religious thought resulted in the imagination of new timescapes. My research agenda focuses on German-Jewish thought, modernism, postwar German literature and thought, visual studies, and the history of science, religion, and philosophy. I am currently at work on a book on the temporality of memory and the narration of trauma in German literature and thought in the post-Holocaust era. 

 

For Fun 
In my free time I enjoy gardening, growing vegetables, and cultivating bonsai trees.

Matthew Olzmann
Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing

Scholarly and Creative Interests
I'm a poet, and I teach creative writing. My research interests include contemporary American poetry, humor, the epistolary poem, defamiliarization, and the poetic turn.

Fun Fact 
I'm in a fantasy basketball league with writers from around the country. (I take this a little too seriously.)

 

 

 

Roopika Risam
Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies and of Comparative Literature; Digital Humanities and Social Engagement Cluster

Scholarly Interests
The common thread that runs throughout my research agenda is my commitment to creating and sustaining humanities knowledge infrastructures that foreground Black, brown, and Indigenous voices. As the humanities and higher education face an uncertain future, I draw on my background in African diaspora studies, ethnic studies, postcolonial studies, intersectional feminism, and critical university studies to explore multifaceted approaches to building digital exhibits, archives, data sets, and data visualizations that allow us to imagine new futures grounded in reciprocal and redistributive relationships between scholars, our universities, and our communities.
 

Fun Fact
I'm the human version of the Shazam app—I have an excellent track record identifying whether one song is sampling (or plagiarizing!) another.

Adedoyin Teriba
Assistant Professor of Art History

Scholarly Interests
My research has three strands: the architecture of African diasporic settlers in modern West Africa and how it impacted other forms of material culture in the region; architecture and ontology; and the ways in which music, oral literature, and dance generate architectural design.

Fun Fact
I've acted in two student films. The first one was last year, when a student asked me to audition for her senior film project. Getting the role and acting in the film were exhilarating and humbling at the same time. I relish the opportunity to do more films when the time is right.