This fall, 16 new researchers and instructors join 6 social science departments in Arts & Sciences. Read about our new faculty members in the humanities and natural sciences.
Welcome to our incoming faculty!
Anthropology
Aaron Neiman joins the Department of Anthropology as a lecturer in the Medicine & Society program. His research concerns the use of electronic mental health programs — such as self-guided apps and websites — to deliver automated “therapy” to more people at low cost. His dissertation examined the use of these programs in Australia, where they are publicly funded as part of a broader mental health campaign. His broad interests include the anthropology of science and medicine, psychiatry and psychoanalysis, and pop culture and film. He earned his bachelor's degree at Hampshire College and his doctorate at Stanford University.
Maddalena Canna joins the Department of Anthropology as an assistant professor. Canna specializes in global mental health, medical anthropology, and transcultural psychiatry. Her research explores the interplay between embodiment and consciousness. She has conducted research in Nicaragua, Canada, and the United States on intercultural health, functional disorders, and medically unexplained symptoms. Prior to joining WashU, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University. She received her bachelor’s degree at Avogadro University and her doctorate at the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) of Paris.
Scott Ross joins the Department of Anthropology as a lecturer. He studies how media and technology shape interventions, specifically radio infrastructures and humanitarianism in the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo. His research has been published or is forthcoming in African Studies Review, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, and Anthropological Quarterly. He is a contributing editor at Society for Cultural Anthropology. Prior to joining WashU, Ross earned his doctorate from George Washington University.
Economics
M. Bumin Yenmez joins the Department of Economics as a professor. He studies economic design, recently focusing on affirmative action and diversity policies. Policies he helped design have been adopted in various settings, such as assigning students to schools in New York and Chile, and state-level vaccine allocation. He taught at Boston College and Carnegie Mellon University and worked as a researcher at Microsoft Research New England. He currently serves as an editor at Journal of Economic Theory. He received his bachelor's degree at the California Institute of Technology and his doctorate at Stanford University.
Ismael Mourifié joins the Department of Economics as a professor. His research interests lie in microeconometrics, including partial identification, treatment effects, policy evaluations, and empirical matching models. He has taught at the University of Toronto and is a research associate at the NBER. He also serves as an associate editor at the Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, and Annals of Economics and Statistics. Mourifié earned a bachelor’s degree from Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Morocco, a master’s degree from the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics, and a doctorate from the University of Montréal.
Education
Bronwyn Nichols Lodato joins the Department of Education and the Department of African and African American Studies as an assistant professor. Her research — which utilizes a strengths-based theoretical perspective — examines how shock events like the Great Recession and COVID-19, with their acute impacts on African American communities, impact identity development and education outcomes among adolescents and young adults. Nichols Lodato’s interest in human development and person-context dynamics is enhanced by her work with community groups advocating for equitable public park policies and environmental justice. Her peer-reviewed publications have appeared in The Cambridge Handbook of the Development of Coping, Development and Psychopathology, Readings on Equal Education, and Advances in Child Development Behavior. Nichols Lodato received two master’s degrees and a doctorate from the University of Chicago.
Kerri Fair joins the Department of Education as a lecturer. Fair's recent research focused on burnout from the perspective of middle-aged/mid-career K-12 women teachers. She is interested in qualitative methods of educational research, specifically phenomenography and the use of photo elicitation. She earned a bachelor's degree from William Jewell College, a master's degree from the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and a doctorate from Webster University. Before joining WashU she was an adjunct professor, principal, reading specialist, and elementary classroom teacher.
Nadirah Farah Foley joins the Department of Education as an assistant professor. Their current research uses schools as a site to explore cultural processes and racial and socioeconomic inequalities. Prior to coming to WashU, they completed a postdoctoral fellowship at New York University. They have also served as coordinator of the Contemporary Studies of Race and Ethnicity workshop at Harvard University and on the editorial board of the Harvard Educational Review. Foley received a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a doctorate from Harvard University.
Political Science
Amy Pond joins the Department of Political Science as an associate professor. She conducts research in international and comparative political economy. Her current research looks at how market concentration and international ownership affect domestic policies, including the provision of public goods like property rights and democratic representation. Pond has also worked on trade and financial liberalization and the broader logic of institutional change using game theory and statistical analysis in her research. She earned her doctorate from the University of Michigan. She previously taught at the Technical University of Munich and at Texas A&M University.
Stephanie N. Shady joins the Department of Political Science as a lecturer. Her research and teaching interests include the intersections of migration, national identity, religion, and political behavior, with a geographic focus on Europe and the United States. She earned bachelor’s degrees at Texas Christian University and a doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining WashU, she was a visiting assistant professor at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
Timm Betz joins the Department of Political Science as an associate professor. His work focuses on the politics of global markets. His research interests include political institutions and trade, the ownership structure of firms and government debt, and quantitative methods. Before joining WashU, he was a faculty member at the Technical University of Munich and Texas A&M University. Betz served as an associate editor at Political Science Research and Methods. He earned his master’s degree at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and his doctorate at the University of Michigan.
Xiaoyan (Christy) Qiu joins the Department of Political Science as an assistant professor. Before coming to WashU, she was an assistant professor in the School of Global and Public Affairs at IE University. Her research uses formal theory to understand the causes, processes, and consequences of conflict. Her current focus is on rebel strategies, state support for insurgent groups, and state formation. She earned her doctorate from the University of Rochester.
Zoe Ang joins the Department of Political Science as a lecturer. Her research interests include American federal bureaucracy, public opinion, and survey design and analysis. She received her bachelor’s degree at Stephen F. Austin University and her doctorate at Washington University.
Psychological & Brain Science
Brian Bergstrom joins the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences as a senior lecturer. He is interested in evolutionary approaches to understanding human cognition and evidence-based pedagogy to support student learning. He received his bachelor’s degree at Luther College and his doctorate at Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to joining WashU, he was an associate professor of psychology at Maryville University.
Sociology
Kenneth “Andy” Andrews joins the Department of Sociology as the Tileston Professor in Arts & Sciences. He studies the organizational and strategic dimensions of social movements and the impact of movements on political and social change. Most of his research focuses on civil rights struggles in the American South, and the contemporary environmental movement. Prior to joining WashU, he was the Carl W. Ernst Distinguished Professor at the University of North at Carolina Chapel Hill and an associate professor at Harvard University. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Millsaps College, and master’s and doctorate at Stony Brook University.
Lydia Hou joins the Department of Sociology as a lecturer. Her research considers how international students are included in institutional diversity within higher education. Prior to joining WashU, she was a research assistant to the vice provost for diversity equity and engagement at the University of Illinois Chicago. She received her bachelor's degree in sociology and her master's degree in international studies from Lindenwood University, and is an advanced sociology doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois Chicago.
