2017

Muhlenberg College welcomes new faculty for the 2017-18 academic year

Diverse group of 14 new faculty members represents a variety of backgrounds and areas of expertise.

By: Alessandra Halperin '18 and Nikki Gum '08  Thursday, September 14, 2017 02:55 PM

From top left: Andrew Ardizzoia, Mary Brown, Gilles Colin, Giancarlo Cuadra, Matthieu de Wit, Tineke D’Haeseleer, Katie Fitzpatrick, Donna Genay, Christopher Jackson, Casey James Miller, Purvi Parikh, Leticia Robles-Moreno, Lufei Teng, Vincent Trovato

Muhlenberg College has welcomed 14 new faculty hires for the 2017-18 school year. The individuals that joined the faculty come from a wide variety of backgrounds and areas of expertise, ranging from the anthropology of gender and Chinese history, to international economics and finance.

“This distinguished group of faculty brings energy and new perspectives to our community through their teaching and scholarship. They enrich our community in multiple ways that support our mission and the practice of the liberal arts,” said Provost Kathleen Harring.

Find out more about the new hires below:

Andrew Ardizzoia, assistant professor of music and director of composition and instrumental studies
Andrew Ardizzoia previously served as assistant professor of music at Naugatuck Valley Community College. He earned a D.M.A in composition with a cognate in music theory from the Hartt School at the University of Harford, and holds a M.M. in composition from Arizona State University and a B.M. in composition from the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific. Ardizzoia’s music has been performed on four continents and has received numerous awards and commissions including a Zoni nomination, as well as the Hartt School’s Diemente Award in composition

Mary Brown, visiting assistant professor of art
Mary Brown is a specialist in Pre-Columbian art and architecture. This fall, she is teaching the Art History Survey: Prehistoric to Gothic Art, the History of Photography and French Art. Brown earned her Ph.D. from City University of New York.

Gilles Colin, visiting lecturer in French
Gilles Colin has taught French as a part-time lecturer at Muhlenberg since 2015, and most recently taught Spanish at Muhlenberg’s Wescoe School of Continuing Education. This year, he is teaching Spanish full-time, and continuing to teach one course in French. Colin holds a B.A. and M.A. in philosophy and epistemology of economics from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. He previously taught at high schools in Paris and at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. His research interests include the teaching of languages, French philosophy and epistemology and ethics.

Giancarlo Cuadra, assistant professor of biology
Coming from Lincoln Memorial University, Giancarlo Cuadra served as assistant professor of microbiology, teaching general biology and microbiology courses. He also conducted research projects including coaggregations parameters of multiple oral bacteria. Cuadra holds a B.A. as well as a Ph.D. in Biology from Binghamton University. He served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Florida College of Dentistry.

Matthieu de Wit, assistant professor of neuroscience
Matthiew de Wit served as postdoctoral research fellow at Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute. De Wit received his M.S. at the University of Amsterdam, as well as his Ph.D. in experimental psychology at the University of Hong Kong. Previously, de Wit taught at Franklin and Marshall College and Temple University. De Wit has published multiple works including: “Distinct task-independent visual thresholds for egocentric and allocentric information pick up,” “Visual illusions and direct perception: Elaborating on Gibson’s insights” and “Gibsonian neuroscience.”

Tineke D'Haeseleer, assistant professor of history
Tineke D'Haeseleer specializes in the history of China. Previously at Depauw University, she was an assistant professor in East Asian history. Prior to her experience at Depauw, D'Haeseleer served as the Mellon-Cotsen East Asian Postdoctoral Fellow at the Princeton University Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, where she also taught East Asian humanities and Tang intellectual history. D'Haeseleer received her M.A. at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium and her Ph.D. in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Cambridge University.

Katie Fitzpatrick, visiting assistant professor of English
Katie Fitzpatrick received her B.A. from The University of British Columbia, her M.A. from Brown University and recently earned her Ph.D. from Brown University, where she defended her dissertation, “Between Law and Justice: Legal Authority, Liberal Democracy, and Postwar Fiction”. Her teaching interests include twentieth- and twenty-first century American literature and the global contemporary novel.

Donna Genay, visiting lecturer in accounting
Donna Genay received her MBA in business administration from Lehigh University and is licensed as a CPA. She is an accomplished multi-industry business leader with expertise in several functional areas of business administration. She advised executive teams, non-business technical managers and staff in large global firms, both as an internal consultant and as a peer process owner.

Christopher Jackson, lecturer in choral conducting and voice
Christopher Jackson holds a B.A. in voice performance from Oklahoma State University, and a DMA in choral conducting from the University of North Texas. In his previous position at Lycoming College, Jackson led national and international tours. He also co-founded the Lycoming Baroque Choir and Orchestra, which was selected as a guest performer for the PaACDA 2016 fall conference. His areas of research include the choral music of Benjamin Britten, links between modern educational practices, learning theory and music education and programming Renaissance and Baroque Music for choirs. Jackson is also an active professional singer and soloist, most recently performing as a member of the Grammy Award-Winning ensemble, Roomful of Teeth.

Casey James Miller, assistant professor of anthropology
Coming to Muhlenberg after serving as Postodoctoral Research Fellow in Population Studies at Brown University, Casey James Miller completed his B.A at Oxford University, his A.M. at Harvard University and earned his Ph.D. from Brandeis University. Miller’s research interests include anthropology of gender and sexuality, medical anthropology, LGBT/Queer anthropology and urban anthropology.

Purvi Parikh, assistant professor of religion studies
Purvi Parikh recently completed a two-year Andrew Mellon postdoctoral fellowship at Muhlenberg. She earned her B.A. from Rutgers University in math and philosophy and her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in South Asia studies. Parikh’s current research focuses on the nexus of contemporary Hindu movements and everyday practices of ethical being in India. She serves as faculty advisor of the Asian Students Association and Top Naach (Muhlenberg’s first South Asian dance team).

Leticia Robles-Moreno, visiting assistant professor of theatre
Leticia Robles-Moreno teaches courses on performance, race, gender, memory and politics in the Americas. In addition to her academic background, she studied theatre arts in the Club de Teatro de Lima, as well as improvisational theatre and theatre of the oppressed techniques. Her doctoral research focuses on theatre groups of “collective creation” in Latin America.

Lufei Teng, assistant professor of economics
Lufei Teng joins Muhlenberg from Whittier College in California, where she taught macroeconomics, money and banking, poverty and inequality, public finance and international finance. Her teaching focuses on topics relating to macroeconomics and finance. Teng received her M.A. in finance and her Ph.D. in economics from Texas Tech University. Her research is inspired by her interest in international economics and motivated by concerns about poverty and inequality reduction.

Vincent Trovato, staff accompanist and instructor in music
Vincent Trovato received a bachelor of music degree from Boston University, studying piano with Anthony DiBonaventura. He first came to Muhlenberg in 1995, serving as conductor for the Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre, and since then has conducted over 25 productions for the summer theatre and Muhlenberg Theatre Association.