Seven New Women on the Faculty at Yale University

(L to R) Ardis Butterfield, Kim Dang, Leslie Harkema, Noreen Khawaja, Youn-mi Kim, Kelly Rader, and Vesla Weaver

Yale University has announced the addition of 35 scholars to its faculty of arts and sciences. Of the 35 new faculty members, only seven are women.

Ardis Butterfield is a new professor of English. She was a professor of English at University College London. Her research is focused on the literature and music of England and France from the 13th to the 15th centuries. She is the author of The Familiar Enemy; Chaucer, Language, and Nation in the Hundred Years War (Oxford University Press, 2010). Professor Butterfield holds a master’s degree from the University of Bristol and a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.

Kim Dang is the Gibbs Professor of Applied Mathematics. Her research focuses on random matrix theory and random regular graphs. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

Leslie Harkema is a new assistant professor of Spanish. She was conducting research in Spain under the a Fulbright grant on a group of writers known as the Generation of 1927. Dr. Harkema is a graduate of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and holds a master’s degree in comparative literature from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in Hispanic languages and literatures from Boston University.

Noreen Khawaja was appointed an assistant professor of religious studies. She is currently working on a book exploring the relation between religious and philosophical aspects of existentialism. Dr. Khawaja is a 2005 graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts, where she majored in Chinese. She earned her Ph.D. in religious studies earlier this year from Stanford University.

Youn-mi Kim was named an assistant professor of art history. She was an assistant professor in Asian art history at Ohio State University. She is a specialist in Chinese Buddhist art. Dr. Kim is a summa cum laude graduate of Seoul National University in Korea where she majored in archaeology and art history. She holds a Ph.D. in the history of art and architecture from Harvard University.

Kelly Rader is an assistant professor of political science. She is also a resident fellow of the Institution for Social Policy Studies and Center for the Study of American Politics. Dr. Rader previously worked at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of Rice University in Houston, Texas, where she majored in mathematical economic analysis and holds a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.

Vesla Weaver was hired as an assistant professor of political science and African American studies. She previously served as an assistant professor of political science at the University of Virginia. She is one of the authors of Creating a New Racial Order: How Immigration, Multiracialism, Genomics, and the Young Can Remake Race in America (Princeton University Press, 2012). Dr. Weaver is a graduate of the University of Virginia and holds a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University.