Six Women Faculty Gain Promotions at Pomona College

(L to R) Gilda L. Ochoa, Patricia Smiley, Eileen Cheng, Pardis Mahdavi, Erin Runions, and Kyla D. Tompkins

Pomona College, the highly regarded liberal arts institution in Claremont, California, recently promoted five faculty members to full professor. Two of these promotions went to women.

Gilda L. Ochoa was promoted to full professor of sociology. She also is chair of the Latino/a studies department at Pomona. She has been on the faculty at the college since 1997.

Dr. Ochoa is a graduate of the University of California at Irvine. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles. Her most recent book is Learning From Latino Teachers (Jossey-Bass, 2007).

Patricia Smiley was named professor of psychology. She has been a member of the faculty since 1989. Her research focuses on language development among children before the age of 3.

Dr. Smiley is a graduate of the University of Rochester. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Pomona College also promoted 13 scholars to associate professor with tenure. Of these 13 promotions, four went to women.

Eileen Cheng was granted tenure and promoted to associate professor of Chinese. She is currently completing work on a book, Literary Remains: Death, Trauma, and Lu Xun’s Refusal to Mourn.

Dr. Cheng holds bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Pardis Mahdavi was promoted to associate professor of anthropology with tenure. Her research focuses on gender issues in the Muslim world. She is the author of Gridlock: Labor, Migration, and Human Trafficking in Dubai and Passionate Uprisings: Iran’s Sexual Revolution.

Dr. Mahdavi is a graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Erin Runions was named associate professor of religious studies and granted tenure. She has published two books: How Hysterical: Identification and Resistance in the Bible and Film and Changing Subjects: Gender, Nation, and Future in Micah.

Professor Runions is a graduate of the University of British Columbia. She holds a Ph.D. from McGill University in Montreal.

Kyla D. Tompkins was granted tenure and promoted to associate professor of English and gender and women’s studies. She is completing work on a book entitled Racial Indigestion: Eating Bodies in the Nineteenth Century.

Dr. Tompkins is a graduate of York University. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Toronto and a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.