Meet the Newest Trinity College of Arts & Sciences Faculty

Why the “evil eye” symbol has endured across time and space. How talking about food helps improve writing. The Renaissance women erased from history. Better ways to trap ions for quantum computers. How to measure invisible problems.

There are more than 30 scholars joining the faculty of the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences this fall, and their expertise spans a breathtaking number of issues. The people are just as diverse, too.

There’s a dancer on the myth of “Broadway bodies,” a Canadian-Indian on land use in Ghana, an Icelander on the ontology of gender, a linguistic anthropologist teaching a class on rapper Megan Thee Stallion.

Meet our newest professors.

“How stories get told and who has the power to tell them are fundamental questions we ask in my classroom.”

Italian scholar Kate Driscoll explains how the stage makes and unmakes history. Read more

When you study slavery and emancipation with Justin Leroy, you learn history isn’t a straight line. Read more

Physicist Norbert Linke is improving quantum systems one ion trap at a time. Read more

“My job here is to empower students with the sense of possibility that they can do anything.”

Ryan Donovan is making the theater a more inclusive space. Read more

How is Hedwig Lee addressing inequality? By figuring out how to measure the invisible. Read more

Tracie Canada is using ethnography to uncover how athletes are treated on and off the field. Read more

Talk with Lyla Halsted and you’ll see the wide influence of Islamic art, too. Read more

Standing in front of building, Emily Cuddy, Ellen Meade, Nelson Sa, Michael Pollmann, Anna Bykhovskaya, Jeffrey DeSimone, Laura Pilossoph and Gregor Jarosch

From monetary policy to telecommunications, unemployment discrimination to the impact of social distancing, research methodologies to the drug market for adolescent mental health treatments, Duke Economics prides itself on being a place where economics goes far beyond finances.

With eight new faculty members this year — Anna Bykhovskaya, Emily Cuddy, Jeffrey DeSimone, Gregor Jarosch, Ellen Meade, Laura Pilossoph, Michael Pollmann and Nelson Sá — the possibilities are only growing. Read more

By studying Native American economies, anthropologist Courtney Lewis is moving communities toward abundance. Read more

For Chauntee’ Schuler Irving, the challenge of acting is also the point. And it’s for everyone.

History is more complicated than you think, and Sarah Balakrishnan can prove it through Ghanaian land use. Read more

“I do feel like I have two sides of me, the history professor and the fiction writer.”

Could physics problems that seem intractable today be solvable tomorrow with the help of quantum computers? Natalie Klco aims to find out. Read more

Computer scientist Jian Pei is making data science more fair and transparent. Read more

“It is important for data scientists to connect people with data in ways that they can understand and that contribute to society and do social good.”

Johann R. Montozzi-Wood wants to create a brave space to experiment with performance.

Charlotte Asmuth, Rhiannon Scharnhorst, David Landes and Hannah Davis

Each in their own way, David Landes, Hannah Davis, Rhiannon Scharnhorst and Charlotte Asmuth are using writing to connect with students. And by writing, they mean anything written: recipes, policy documents, the words therapists use to help patients, even all those text messages. Read more

Ásta, Reuben Stern and Wenjin Liu don’t seem to have that much in common, despite all being philosophers. One studies how gender is constructed, one how to make sense of causation and one ancient Greek ethics. But combined, they show how philosophy can help us ask the right questions. Read more

Professors Reuben Stern, Wenjin Liu and Asta

“Once you plug them into the department, the different areas of the department are more tightly connected,” says Philosophy Chair Katherine Brading. “We wanted to build on the great junior hires we already made recently. It strengthens us in multiple ways.”

“If you want to find a solution for climate change, it will have to be implemented by literally everyone in the world, from all countries, all backgrounds, all mindsets.”

To solve a global problem, chemist Ivan Moreno-Hernandez is looking at nanoscale. Read more

When Nikki Lane hears Megan Thee Stallion or Salt N’ Pepa, she hears the redefinition of gender. Read more

“My goal is to find interesting ways to get gender studies into places where we think it's not supposed to be. Because I think it belongs everywhere.”

Who is a physicist, a neuroscience researcher and a rhythmic gymnast? Svetlana Monroe. Read more

Inspired by her experience as a young woman in Iran, Pardis Emami-Naeini focuses on the societal impact of technologies.

In overlooked dioramas, Dore Bowen finds nothing less than the commodification of experience. Read more

Editorial direction by Matt Hartman and Kathryn Kennedy
Additional editing by Marie Claire Chelini and Elizabeth Thompson
Website build by Mike Truell
Articles by Cara August, Marie Claire Chelini, Matt Hartman, Kathryn Kennedy, Margo Lakin, Glenn McDonald, Elizabeth Richardson, Mary-Russell Roberson, Robin A. Smith, Elizabeth Thompson and Haley Warren
Videography by Shaun King
Photography by John West

Special thanks to all of the new Trinity faculty and to those who contributed additional photos.