What butterfly wings can teach us about biodiversity. The impact of digital platforms on Japanese youth culture. Cameras that take pictures of the oldest light in the universe. What science and literature can tell us about what it means to be human.
The scholars joining Trinity College of Arts & Sciences this fall embody what it means to pursue curiosity, connection and humility.
Meet our new professors.
African & African American Studies
Assistant Professor Naiima Khahaifa’s research explores mass incarceration in the United States and the hidden kinship bonds between Black incarcerated men and Black correctional officers.
Psychology and Neuroscience
Assistant Professor Dorsa Amir blends anthropology and psychology to understand how culture shapes human behavior and development.
Political Science
Whether he focuses on the climate crisis, the urbanization of small-towns, or the digitalization of public infrastructure, Assistant Professor Shikhar Singh studies democracy in transformation.
History
To understand the multifaceted impacts of French slavery, Assistant Professor Mélanie Lamotte brings to light the daily life and experiences of enslaved people in the context of the 17th and 18th centuries’ legal framework.
History
Moving from the sometimes-stereotypical macro to the deeply personal micro, Research Professor Tamika Nunley broadens and enriches the scholarly conversation on the institution of slavery.
With their passion for interdisciplinary collaboration, Assistant Professors Michael Dinerstein, Alessandra González and Felix Tintelnot expand the department's research into educational social policy, gender & labor dynamics, and climate change.
"Duke is unique in that they don’t just support collaboration, they encourage it. That makes it an incredible place to work."
Combining a tool she loves and a topic she cares about, Assistant Professor Monica Agrawal uses computational methodologies to study the multiple scales of human health.
Assistant Professor of the Practice Eric Fouh looks at computer science education though a particularly human angle: emotional self-regulation and the role it plays on learning.
Mathematics
As a mathematician and a theorist, Assistant Professor Yu Tong works on quantum computing not with subatomic particles and lasers, but designing algorithms with pencil and paper.
"For so many of the problems we previously struggled with, there is a straightforward path to solving them with quantum computers."
Physics
Assistant Professor Eve Vavagakis works on cameras designed to take pictures of the oldest light in the Universe: The faint glow left over from the Big Bang that gave birth to the cosmos more than 13 billion years ago.
Physics
In high school, Assistant Professor Travis Nicholson thought that cooling atoms sounded fun. Today, his research on cooled neutral atoms is one of the most productive frontiers in quantum computing.
Biology
For Assistant Professor Anyi Mazo-Vargas, butterflies aren’t just a pretty sight: They are key to understanding how developmental mechanisms and evolution give rise to nature’s huge diversity of forms, colors and shapes.
Statistical Science
Filippo Ascolani’s award-winning nonparametric Bayesian models can tackle even the messiest datasets. The new assistant professor of Statistics is eager to put them to the test by teaming up with scientists across Duke.
Evolutionary Anthropology
From 3.5 mi years ago to the unknown future, Professor Charles Musiba wants to understand who humans are, how we got here, and where we will end up in this rapidly changing world.
"We care about this because we still don't understand who we are."
Art, Art History and Visual Studies
Assistant Professor Angelina Lucento studies the history and social context of the vibrant world of post-Soviet art.
Art, Art History and Visual Studies
Byzantine art converges with the natural world in Assistant Professor Andrew Griebeler’s research and teaching.
Art, Art History and Visual Studies
Assistant Professor Jenny Lion uses light, landscape and sustained observation to reflect on sites of historical resonance.
Asian & Middle Eastern Studies
Assistant Professor Kimberly Hassel uses the digital world as a lens into societal shifts and youth culture in Japan.
"Digital anthropology not only looks at digital phenomena and digital technologies but also acknowledges that digital spaces are no less real than physical, in-person spaces."
Program in Literature
By blending research from literature, gender and sexuality, African and African American studies, and art, Associate Professor Zakiyyah Jackson challenges notions of race, gender and what it means to be human.
Asian & Middle Eastern Studies
Cities are protagonists in Assistant Professor Preeti Singh’s research on the cultural histories of authoritarianism in the literature, comics, political cartoons and graphic novels of South Asia.
Slavic and Eurasian Studies
By digging through Russian literature, Assistant Professor of the Practice Jennifer Flaherty sees the disenfranchised through the eyes of the elite.
"When we dig into history, we can also find the paths not taken — the way things could have been"
Assistant Professors Angélica Serna Jeri, Eric Disbro and Katryn Evinson are global cultural innovators whose interdisciplinary work engages with some of today’s most pressing social questions.
"I wanted to be in a place where the non-traditional work that I do would be celebrated."
Editorial direction by Marie Claire Chelini
Articles by Cara August, Eric Ferreri, Karl Leif Bates, Marie Claire Chelini, Shaun King, Margo Lakin, Elizabeth Richardson, Mary-Russell Roberson, Robin A. Smith, Elizabeth Thompson and Haley Warren
Additional editing by Elizabeth Thompson
Photography by John West and Shaun King
Webpage design by Haley Warren
Special thanks to all the new Trinity faculty and to those who contributed additional photos.
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences