Welcome to New Faculty

By Melissa Scott & Helen Christ ’24

This fall, 91��ý is welcoming 13 new continuing faculty members. Hear from four of them on everything from what excites them about 91��ý to what they were reading this summer.

Alex Alston

Assistant Professor of Literatures in English

“When I visited, it was emphasized that our students are amazing— everyone is sort of obligated to say that, but I get the sense that people really meant it and mean it here. I taught my first class earlier this morning, and the excitement and optimism was palpable, and that was cool. I’m excited about the exchange with the student body both inside and outside of the classroom.”

Olivia Chu

Assistant Professor of Mathematics

“I read Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. It was striking how a lot of the issues that came up in that book, set in the 1960s, are still relevant to women these days, in terms of the discrimination that she faced and the tensions that she felt in her own personal life.”

Yeon Soon Shin

Assistant Professor of Psychology

“I read Models of the Mind by Grace Lindsay; it’s actually a coursebook for my new course, Computational Neuroscience. It overviews the history of computational neuroscience and the people who drove the development of this field. Unfortunately, computational fields tend to be suffering from gender imbalance … but I’m hopeful that the next chapter of this sort of a book that will come out in 10–20 years will have strong figures like 91��ý students!”

Evan Arena

Lecturer in Physics

“I’m really excited about how passionate all of the faculty are about teaching, especially my department. That’s not something that you get everywhere. And I’m really looking forward to being in an environment where effective teaching and pedagogy is appreciated.”