Middlebury College Appoints Six Women to Tenure-Track Faculty Posts

Middlebury College has hired 12 new tenure-track faculty in 10 different academic departments. Six of the 12 new hires are women.

Dima Ayoub was hired as an assistant professor of Arabic. Since 2012, she was a visiting assistant professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Ayoub is a graduate of the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. She earned a master’s degree in English and a Ph.D. in Islamic studies from McGill University in Montreal.

Jessyka Finley is an assistant professor of American studies. She has spent the past two academic years as a postdoctoral fellow at Middlebury as part of the Creating Connections Consortium. Dr. Finley is a graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in African diaspora studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Jessica L’Roe was appointed assistant professor of geography at Middlebury. L’Roe is currently completing work on a Ph.D. in geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds master’s degrees in agriculture and applied economics and conservation biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental biological sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jennifer Ortegren is a new assistant professor of religion. She was an assistant professor of religion at High Point University in North Carolina. Dr. Ortegren is a graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, where she majored in religion. She holds a master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph.D. in religion from Emory University in Atlanta.

Carly Thomsen was named assistant professor of gender, sexuality, and feminist studies. For the past two years, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Dr. Thomsen is a graduate of St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. She earned a master’s degree in women’s studies at the University of Arizona and a Ph.D. in feminist studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Kristina Walowski was hired as an assistant professor of geology. She will begin teaching at Middlebury during the Spring 2017 semester. She recently completed a postdoctoral research assistantship at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Dr. Walowski is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, where she majored in geology. She holds a Ph.D. in geological sciences from the University of Oregon.