Carleton announces Spring 2026 faculty promotions

One member of the Carleton faculty has been awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor, and four more faculty members were promoted to full professor. The promotions were approved by the Board of Trustees at its spring meeting and take effect September 1, 2026.

Meet the newly promoted faculty members:

AWARDED TENURE AND PROMOTION TO ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Candace Moore, assistant professor of gender, women’s & sexuality studies and cinema and media studies

Professor Moore holds a BA in literature from the University of California–Santa Cruz, where they were elected to Phi Beta Kappa. They received an MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University and a PhD in cinema and media studies from UCLA. Prior to arriving at Carleton, Moore taught courses in media studies and LGBT studies at a range of institutions, including the University of Michigan, Emerson College, and UCLA.

After a year at Carleton as a Mellon Faculty Fellow, Moore began a tenure track position in 2019. Their teaching reflects the breadth of their joint appointment and includes courses in American Television History, Queer and Trans Memoir, Cult TV and Fan Cultures, and Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Popular Culture. 

With scholarship spanning two interdisciplinary fields, Moore has published articles and book chapters on topics ranging from the affective experience of watching television to queer television historiography to sketch comedy. Their ongoing book-length project is titled, Heteroflexibility: Empathetic Queerness in Television, and their publications have appeared in prestigious journals in feminist and queer theory and media studies. 

Moore’s Carleton service extends to two home programs and includes valuable contributions to American studies, digital arts and humanities, and the Gender and Sexuality Center. They were centrally involved in the collaborative work of re-envisioning the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, which became Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies in 2020. Their wide-ranging college committee service includes the Community Board on Sexual Misconduct, the Arts and Exhibition Committee, and the Advisory Committee on Student Life.

PROMOTED FROM ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR TO FULL PROFESSOR

Kristin Bloomer, associate professor of religion

Professor Bloomer earned a BA in English from Wesleyan University and a second BA in religion from the University of Cambridge in 1991. After earning an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Montana–Missoula, she moved to Vermont in 1993 for a daily reporting job at the Pulitzer Prize-winning Rutland Herald. She returned to academia after five years, earning an MA (2000) and PhD (2008) in divinity at the University of Chicago. 

Bloomer joined Carleton in 2010 as assistant professor of religion after teaching two years at the University of Hawaii–Mānoa. She teaches an array of courses in the religion department as well as in Asian studies; gender, women’s, and sexuality studies; cross-cultural studies; and political science. Her courses — past examples of which include Spirit Possession, Mysticism and Gender, the department’s senior seminar, and a first-year A&I seminar — are comparative in nature, historically based, and organized around broad themes in the study of religion.

Bloomer’s research focuses on Christianity and Hinduism in South India and Sri Lanka. Her 2018 book, Possessed by the Virgin: Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, and Marian Possession in South India, is based on more than 10 years of fieldwork and was named a finalist for Best Book in Hindu-Christian Studies. Her second book project will also explore spirit possession but with a focus on the worship of family tutelary deities, or kula tēvankaļ (Tamil for “family gods”), in Hindu, Tribal, and Dravidian cultures.

Chair of the religion department from 2022 to 2025, Bloomer has served in various capacities in elected and non-elected positions at the College, including the Faculty Affairs Committee, Student Fellowship Committee, and chair of the Commencement and Honorary Degrees Committee.

Shaohua Guo, associate professor of Chinese

Professor Guo received her PhD from the University of Texas–Austin and her MA and BA from Beijing Normal University. She joined the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures at Carleton in 2014 after spending two years as a visiting professor at Colgate University.

Guo connects scholarly inquiry with everyday experience across academic and experiential contexts, inviting students into a collaborative intellectual community that approaches Chinese studies as a heterogeneous field. Her courses include Digital China, Chinese Cinema in Translation, and Chinese Popular Culture, along with Chinese language instruction at all levels. Through her teaching, she cultivates linguistic proficiency, cultural literacy, and critical engagement with contemporary society.

Guo’s research explores the intersections of media, culture, and society in contemporary China. She is the author of The Evolution of the Chinese Internet: Creative Visibility in the Digital Public (2021) and co-editor of The SAGE Handbook of Chinese Digital Media and Communication (2026), the first comprehensive reference work to chart the profound transformations that digital technologies have brought to China’s politics, culture, and economy since the country’s official connection to the internet in 1994. Her research has been published in numerous journals and supported by major national and international funding bodies.

Since 2015, Guo has co-directed the International Film Forum at Carleton. She has also served as chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures, directed the College’s Chinese program, and served on the Student Fellowships Committee and the Faculty Judiciary Committee.

Jessica Keating, associate professor of art history

Professor Keating earned her PhD in art history from Northwestern University in 2010 and BA in art history and history from the Ohio State University in 2002. She joined Carleton in 2014 after holding postdoctoral fellowships from the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Southern California.

Keating offers a range of courses on the history of art from antiquity through the early modern period, with most of her teaching examining how works of art were used and understood. She therefore spends as much time addressing the logic of works as she does the historical agents and their beliefs within political, religious, and intellectual contexts. Particular subjects include History of Renaissance Art, History of Baroque Art, History of the Nude, Art History Methods, and a global survey of the history of art.

As a scholar, Keating’s work has focused on the relationship between the history of art and the history of technology, the history of collecting, and the representation of nature and sovereignty. Her publications include over 20 articles and reviews, two edited volumes, and two books, with her first book being awarded the Andrew W. Mellon Art History Publication Prize.

Chair of the art and art history department at Carleton since 2024, Keating was also associate chair of the department during the 2022–23 academic year and has served on the Faculty Affairs Committee, the Humanities Center Board, and the Faculty Grants Committee, in addition to several other appointments.

Elizabeth Raleigh, associate professor of sociology

Professor Raleigh earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania and her BA in American studies from Brown University. She joined Carleton’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology in 2012 after honing her teaching skills at Hunter College.

Raleigh offers a range of courses focused on the relationships between individuals, institutions, and society, prioritizing the development of verbal and written communication skills at every level. She has taught Introduction to Sociology; intermediate electives focused on race, ethnicity, and immigration, including a course on Asian American studies; and a 300-level seminar on the sociology of assisted reproductive technology and adoption.

As a researcher, Raleigh’s early work was predominantly in race and child adoption, with the goal to reframe discourse on transracial adoption beyond altruism to a sociologically informed discussion of kinship and the racial color line. Having authored a book and multiple peer-reviewed articles, she built a national reputation and has prioritized sharing her work with the adoption community. Recently, Raleigh pivoted to a new project on the sociology of personal finance, examining how early- and mid-career adults learn about and implement personal finance decisions.

In addition to her work as a two-time department chair, Raleigh is a member of the Faculty Personnel Committee, co-chaired the Advancing the Liberal Arts task force as part of Carleton’s current strategic direction, and co-chaired the Education Curriculum Committee during the pandemic. Raleigh is also a dedicated liberal arts adviser and mentor for the Houston Posse Class of 2027.