New faces among faculty despite planned hiring freeze

Last year President Christ stated that there would be a "pause" in faculty hiring, a policy reflected in the addition of a single tenure-track professor to the faculty this year, the psychology department's Annaliese Beery.Aside from this, however, a considerable amount of new staff joins Smith this fall.


The new heads of two departments - Dean of International Study Rebecca Hovey and Environmental Sustainably Director Deirdre Manning - began working on campus over the summer. Both expressed excitement over their arrival at Smith.


Hovey looks forward to "working closely with the International Students and Scholars office so we really think about the international learning experience in both directions and ensure greater collaborations on campus."

In addition to these department heads, Smith has added some non-tenure-track professors.

Most of the new faculty are annually appointed visiting professors and lecturers, such as Anthony Giardina, the Elizabeth Drew professor in the English department; Wayne Meeks, the Neilson professor; Carole DeLaitre, the Ecole Normale Superieure lecturer in the French studies department; Peter Stallybrass, the Kennedy professor; Andrea Nicole King, the Mendenhall fellow in the study of women and gender; and Susanne Rohr, the Hamburg Exchange lecturer.

"Others are visitors we are simply hosting," said John Davis, assistant provost and dean for academic development. According to Davis, these visitors "will have no teaching duties."

"Still others are grant supported," Davis added.

This is the case for Antonella Sisto and Jeremy Fan Zhang.

Sisto, whom Smith will share with the University of Massachusetts, will teach courses in Italian language and film over the course of three years.


Fan Zhang will have responsibilities in the Smith Art Museum and art department teaching Chinese art history for a three-year period.

The remaining names on the list of new faculty were hired, according to Davis, "to teach one or two replacement sections or courses."

When asked about how new hiring would affect the Smith College budget Davis said, "Now that the budget plan is in place, we will be launching a number of faculty searches in 2010 and 2011, with the new appointments beginning a year from now, in the fall of 2011."

The following departments should expect new hires within the next year: art, biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, dance, education and child study, environmental science and policy, film studies, geology, mathematics and statistics, history, the study of women and gender and physics.

Three new faculty members also Smith alumna Kalina Dimova; Jennifer Pruitt and Cloelle Sausville-Giddings also join the faculty roster.


"I decided to work here because working for this institution, for this department [Picker Engineering], is nothing short of a dream job, which probably has to do a lot with my experience here," said Sausville-Giddings.

"Being surrounded by a motivated group of women for classmates, in a department that cares how learning happens and the student's experience, made me care about my learning and investing in my own future. It's infectious. I am delighted and honored to be a part of it," she added.