This fall, 17 new researchers and instructors join 11 humanities departments and programs in Arts & Sciences. You can also read about our new faculty in the natural sciences and social sciences.
Welcome to our incoming faculty!
Department of Art History and Archaeology
Esther Gabel, who has been at WashU since 2015, will begin a new full-time position in the Department of Art History and Archaeology as a lecturer. She teaches a range of courses, from Renaissance architecture to 19th-century material culture. She is a specialist in the art and architecture of Venice, with particular emphasis on the 18th century. Her current book project, “Venice in the Age of Tiepolo,” addresses marriage, merchants, and material culture in early modern Venice. Gabel earned her doctorate from the University of Cambridge.
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
Kunihiko Homma joins the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures as a lecturer. His research in Japanese sociolinguistics focuses on the ideology of Japanese society and how individuals actually use language. Beginning his educational career as a high school teacher in Japan, Homma has since taught at institutions such as the University of Hawaii at Mānoa and the University of California, San Diego. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Keio University in Japan and his master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Motoki Long-Nozawa joins the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures as a lecturer in Japanese language. Long-Nozawa earned his master’s degree in language education from the University of British Columbia, where he taught Japanese courses. His research interests include gender and sexual identity construction, inclusive language pedagogy and policy analysis, and queer theory.
Department of English
Hester Blum joins WashU as the Lynne Cooper Harvey Distinguished Professor of English. She teaches 19th-century U.S. literature and the environmental humanities. Her research centers on polar and oceanic studies, book history, and Herman Melville. Blum is a former Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities fellow and the author of several books. She previously worked at Pennsylvania State University, where she founded the international organization C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists and directed various academic centers. Blum earned her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.
Jonathan Eburne joins the Department of English as the J.H. Hexter Professor in the Humanities. His work explores experimental artistic groups and movements in 20th- and 21st-century literature, transnational intellectual networks, and literary and cultural theory. He is a founding co-editor and former editor-in-chief of the award-winning ASAP/Journal. Previously, he was a professor of comparative literature, English, and French and Francophone studies at Pennsylvania State University. Eburne earned bachelor’s degrees in English and French from Dartmouth College and his doctoral degree in comparative literature and literary theory at the University of Pennsylvania.
Christopher Schaberg joins the Department of English as a professor of practice. He will continue as director of the Office of Public Scholarship, mentoring students and faculty on translating academic research into work that engages broad public audiences. The author of 10 books, Schaberg is a scholar of contemporary literature, environmental thought, and the culture of air travel. Schaberg is also a founding co-editor of “Object Lessons,” a project dedicated to exploring the hidden lives of everyday things. Before coming to WashU, he was the Dorothy Harrell Brown Distinguished Professor of English and director of the Center for Editing & Publishing at Loyola University New Orleans. Schaberg earned his bachelor’s degree from Hillsdale College, his master’s from Montana State University-Bozeman, and his doctoral degree from the University of California, Davis.
Program in Film & Media Studies
Oscar Moralde joins the Program in Film & Media Studies as a visiting lecturer. He studies embodied aesthetics and ideology in video games and other media. His writing has appeared in Well Played Journal, Latin American Perspectives, Media Fields Journal, and the Criterion Collection. Moralde earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California, his master’s degree from the California Institute of the Arts, and his doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Department of History
Nataliia Laas joins the Department of History as an assistant professor. She specializes in environmental history, the history of energy, political economies of socialism and capitalism, consumer society and discard studies, and the history of the social sciences in Eurasia, with a particular focus on the Soviet Union. Laas is currently working on a book that explores overproduction and waste in the late Soviet economy – challenging the conventional view that this period was defined by shortages of goods. Prior to joining WashU, she served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, at New York University, as well as at the Jackson School of Global Affairs, Yale University. Laas earned her doctorate from Brandeis University.
Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies
Judah Isseroff joins the Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies as a visiting lecturer. Previously a postdoctoral research associate at WashU’s Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, Isseroff is a scholar of modern Jewish thought and politics. His courses will include "Zionism and its Critics" and "Jewish Theology After the Holocaust." He earned his bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and his doctorate from Princeton University.
Program in Latin American Studies
Martin Mejia joins the Program in Latin American Studies as a lecturer. Mejia was previously a lecturer at the University of Montevideo in Uruguay and the University of Palermo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His studies encompass the intersections of political representation, democracy, and religion in Latin America with an emphasis on the region's contemporary thought and legacies of intellectual history. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Palermo, his master’s degree from the University of Essex in the U.K., and his doctorate from Tulane University.
Department of Music
Vicente Atria joins the Department of Music as an assistant professor. A Chilean composer and drummer, his eclectic music has earned rave reviews from The New York Times and The Guardian. Atria’s work has been commissioned or performed by the Sun Ra Arkestra, Ensemble Musikfabrik, JACK Quartet, and Wet Ink Ensemble. He is a recipient of the 2025 Fondation des Treilles Musical Composition Prize and a 2023 Deutscher Jazzpreis, among other honors. He earned his doctoral degree from Columbia University.
Department of Philosophy
Alisabeth Ayars joins the Department of Philosophy as an assistant professor. Her research focuses on moral psychology – how we evaluate morality and the norms surrounding it – as well as ethics and metaethics. Her current work includes a project that examines the idea of people who treat moral deeds as a personal interest or hobby rather than as genuinely binding norms, as well as a project exploring how different kinds of desire contribute to the good life. Prior to joining WashU, Ayars served as an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia. She earned her bachelor’s degree from New College of Florida, her master’s degree from the University of Arizona, and her doctorate from Princeton University.
John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics
Ryan Burge joins the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics and the Department of Political Science as a professor of practice. His research explores how religion shapes American life, especially politics. A prolific author and public scholar, Burge has written five books and publishes a popular twice-weekly newsletter, “Graphs about Religion,” with millions of annual reads. Before coming to WashU, he was an associate professor at Eastern Illinois University, a postdoctoral fellow at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, and served as an American Baptist pastor for more than 20 years. Burge earned his bachelor’s degree at Greenville University and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Mark Oppenheimer joins the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics as a professor of practice. He came to WashU in 2024 as executive editor of the center’s online journal, “Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera.” His interests include the history of American religion, the practice of journalism and other nonfiction forms, and Anglophone fiction. Before coming to WashU, Oppenheimer taught at Stanford, Wesleyan, Wellesley, NYU, Boston College, and Yale, where he founded the Yale Journalism Initiative. He has contributed to The New Yorker, The Nation, GQ, Slate, and The Wall Street Journal and previously wrote the “Beliefs” column on religion for The New York Times. He created “Unorthodox,” a podcast on Jewish life and culture with more than 7 million downloads, as well as "Gatecrashers," a series exploring the history of Jews and antisemitism at Ivy League schools. Oppenheimer earned his doctorate in religious studies from Yale University.
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Yafrainy Familia joins the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures as an assistant professor. Her work draws on visual, literary, and spatial analysis, integrating traditional research methods with community-engaged, curatorial, and digital humanities practices. Her research interests include the arts and culture of Caribbean, Afro-diasporic, and Latinx communities. She earned her master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Virginia.
Jannia M. Gómez-González joins the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures as a visiting lecturer. Their prior research has explored the multifaceted history of Chambacú, a Colombian neighborhood that served as a hub of Black life, culture, and daily resistance. Gómez-González earned a master’s degree from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) and an additional master’s and doctorate from Princeton University.
Maria Gloria Robalino joins the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures as an assistant professor. She is an architect and scholar who works at the intersections of environmental literature, visual culture, and gender studies. Before joining WashU, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University’s Pembroke Center. Robalino earned her bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College, her master’s degree from Harvard University, and her doctorate from Stanford University.
