Brandy Russell teaches in the Chemistry Department at Gustavus.
Gustavus Adolphus College recognized seven newly tenured faculty members during its 10 a.m. daily worship service in Christ Chapel on Monday, May 21.
The faculty members who were recognized are Joel Carlin (Biology and Environmental Studies), Maria Kalbermatten (Spanish and LALACS), Martin Lang ’95 (Communication Studies), Mary McHugh (Classics), David Obermiller (History), So Young Park (English), and Brandy Russell (Chemistry).
Carlin has taught at Gustavus since 2006 and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, a master’s degree from Louisiana State University, and a Ph.D. from Florida University. His research interests involve phylogeography and conservation genetics, particularly in benthic fishes. He is currently investigating the genetic impacts of offshore petroleum drilling and mapping reproduction and migration in commercially valuable marine fish.
Kalbermatten has taught at Gustavus since 2006 and holds a bachelor’s degree from Catholic University of Santa Fe, Argentina and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include applied linguistics, cognitive linguistics, and conversational analysis and pragmatics. She is also focused on developing strategies to help students improve their writing skills in Spanish.
Martin Lang teaches in the Communication Studies Department at Gustavus.
Lang has taught at Gustavus since 2005 and holds a bachelor’s degree from Gustavus and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Lang’s academic work focuses on the ways that mass media shape our individual and collective senses of identity, especially in relation to gender, race, socioeconomic class, and sexuality. He also works closely with the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies program and will serve as director of the Social Justice, Peace and Development semester abroad program in India for Fall 2013.
McHugh taught as a visiting assistant professor at Gustavus in 2004-05 and returned to Gustavus as a tenure track professor in 2007. McHugh holds a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College, a master’s degree from Tufts University, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. Her areas of expertise include ancient Greek philosophy, Roman history and historiography, especially the Roman historian Tacitus, and Greek and Roman art history and archaeology. Her current research interests include the relationships of women with the soldiers of the Roman army, street food in antiquity, and the work of the first-century C.E. inventor, Hero of Alexandria. She teaches a wide range of courses in the Classics department, including a J-term course on Roman history and culture from the perspective of food and foodways.
Obermiller has taught at Gustavus since 2008 and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. His special interests include U.S.-East Asian relations, East Asian film, gender and war, war and revolution in Asia, and political economy of East Asia.
Park has taught at Gustavus since 2008 and holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Columbia University. She teaches courses in 19th-century British literature and culture, especially Victorian fiction. Her teaching interests include Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, narrative theory, gender studies, and film adaptation. Her current research focuses on women artists of the 1890s.
Russell has taught at Gustavus since 2005 and holds a bachelor’s degree from Alfred University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. She teaches courses in introductory chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and the chemistry of cooking. She is highly engaged in student research and conducts most of her research in collaboration with Gustavus students. Her areas of research expertise include bioinorganic chemistry, NMR spectroscopy or paramagnetic compounds, and protein folding.
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Media Contact: Director of Media Relations and Internal Communication Luc Hatlestad
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