During the annual Faculty Meeting held in the Weitz Center on Tuesday, September 6, President Alison Byerly announced four new faculty appointments to endowed chairs. These endowed professorships provide recognition and support for outstanding educators who help maintain Carleton’s tradition of teaching excellence.
Charles “Jim” and Marjorie Kade Professor of Science
The Charles “Jim” and Marjorie Kade Professor of Science, which honors a faculty member whose teaching inspires in their students a lively enthusiasm for the subject, goes to Deborah Gross. Gross teaches courses in analytical chemistry, laboratory and research methods, and climate science and environmental chemistry. Her scholarship focuses on atmospheric particle chemistry, aiming to understand the chemical characteristics of pollutants in urban and rural environments. One of Gross’ most significant contributions to Carleton is her leadership of the FOCUS Program, a college initiative to support students from historically excluded STEM groups.
Maxine H. and Winston R. Wallin Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies
Silvia Lopez is Carleton’s new Maxine H. and Winston R. Wallin Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies. This professorship supports a distinguished teacher-researcher who is active in interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship. López teaches a series of courses in the Spanish department that explore critical problems in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin American cultures and literatures. She also teaches Spanish at all levels and has led Carleton’s off-campus study programs in Morelia and Puebla, Mexico. López plays a central role in the Latin American Studies program, where she teaches the advanced seminar on issues in Latin American Studies, required of all majors and minors. López’s scholarship focuses on critical theory and its intersection with particular expressions of cultural and literary modernity in Latin America.
Marjorie Crabb Garbisch Professor of Liberal Arts
Marjorie Crabb Garbisch Professor of Liberal Arts and Professor of English is Kofi OwusuMore. This professorship honors outstanding faculty members whose teaching, personal qualities, and service to Carleton help Carleton students and faculty recognize their responsibilities for the continued vitality and strength of the college. Owusu teaches a wide range of courses in African American literature and culture, African literature, African diaspora studies, British literature, postcolonial literature, and twenty-first century literature. His scholarly interests over the past decade have included the recovery of obscure texts that revisit national or regional literary history and contemporary writing that resists preexisting categories.
Class of 1952 Professor of Asian Languages
Noboru Tomonari is the 1952 Professor of Asian Languages. This chair supports the faculty in an active program of teaching Asian languages. Tomonari’s scholarship focuses on autobiography, minority studies, and popular culture studies. By studying texts as agents of social change, Tomonari explores how works serve to initiate social transitions and play a role in remaking social norms and conventions. This commitment to the arts and visual culture spans all of its classes, from elementary Japanese to advanced reading in modern Japanese manga. Tomonari teaches all levels of Japanese language courses, as well as Japanese literature, cinema, and popular culture.
