New appointments to endowed chairs announced at Faculty Retreat

During the annual Faculty Retreat held at the Weitz Center on Tuesday, Sept. 6, President Alison Byerly announced four new faculty appointments to endowed chairs. These endowed professorships provide recognition and support for superb educators who help sustain Carleton’s tradition of teaching excellence.

Charles “Jim” and Marjorie Kade Professor of the Sciences

The Charles “Jim” and Marjorie Kade professor of the sciences, which honors a faculty member whose teaching stimulates 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 the chemistry of atmospheric particulate matter, aiming to understand the chemical characteristics of pollutants in urban and rural environments. One of Gross’ most significant contributions at Carleton is her leadership of the FOCUS Program, a college initiative to support students from groups historically excluded from STEM.

Maxine H. and Winston R. Wallin Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies

Silvia López is Carleton’s new Maxine H. and Winston R. Wallin professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies.  This professorship supports a distinguished teacher-scholar who is active in interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship. López teaches a variety of courses in the Spanish department that explore critical problems in the cultures and literatures of nineteenth and twentieth century Latin America. She also teaches Spanish language classes at all levels and has led Carleton off-campus studies programs to Morelia and Puebla in 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 for 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 the Liberal Arts

The Marjorie Crabb Garbisch professor of the liberal arts and professor of English is Kofi Owusu. This professorship honors outstanding faculty members whose teaching, personal qualities and service to Carleton help Carleton students and faculty recognize their own responsibilities for the ongoing vitality and strength of the college. Owusu teaches a broad range of courses in African American literature and culture, African literature, African Diaspora studies, British literature, postcolonial literature and literature of the twenty-first century. His scholarly interests over the past decade have included the recovery of obscure texts that revise 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 faculty in an active program of teaching Asian languages. Tomonari’s scholarship focuses on autobiographies, minority studies and popular culture studies. Studying texts as agents of social change, Tomonari explores how works serve to initiate societal transitions and play a role in remaking social norms and conventions. This engagement of visual arts and culture infuses all of his classes, from Elementary Japanese through Advanced Reading in Modern Japanese Manga. Tomonari teaches all levels of Japanese language courses, as well as Japanese literature, cinema and popular culture.