Welcome to our new faculty members

Nine new faculty members have been hired to join the Humanities, including three scholars in Pacific and Asian Studies (PAAS).

New chair Richard Fox says he hopes to continue developing the department’s existing strengths in Japanese and Chinese language and culture, while working to re-establish an equally robust program for the study of Southeast Asia.

“Historically PAAS has been strong on Southeast Asia and Indonesia in particular,” Fox says. “One of the priorities looking ahead will be restoring that strength and bringing together people from across the university working in this fascinating and increasingly important region.”

Sujin Lee and Angie Chau join Pacific and Asian Studies as assistant professors. Lee will teach about historical issues in the Asia-Pacific region, including nuclear history, race and gender relations, and discourses of bodies in wartime, colonial and post-colonial periods.

Chau focuses on contemporary Chinese literature in the context of world literature, popular culture and translation. She is researching the experiences of and creative works of Chinese writers and artists in Paris during the first half of the twentieth-century.

Megan Lukaniec joins the Department of Linguistics as an assistant professor. Lukaniec completed her PhD at University of California, Santa Barbara, (UCSB) on the interweaving of linguistics and language reclamation, drawing on her experience as a member of the Huron-Wendat Nation in Wendake, Québec.

Corinne Bancroft, who specializes in contemporary American women’s writing, has joined the Department of English. Bancroft earned her PhD in English from UCSB with an emphasis in writing studies. Her research focuses on narrative strategies that contemporary women authors use to help readers face issues of racial and sexual violence. 

Clifford Roberts, whose research focuses on ancient philosophy, aesthetics, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century European philosophy, joins the Department of Philosophy as an assistant professor. Associate professor Thomas Land, who specializes in German idealism and Kant, joins the department from Ryerson University in Toronto.

Lisa Kahaleole Hall will join Indigenous Studies as program director in January. And award-winning filmmaker Chase Joynt (not pictured) will join Gender Studies in July.