A Quartet of Women Scholars Who Have Been Named to Endowed Professorships

Tara Sethia has been named to the Shri Shantinath Endowed Chair in Ahimsa Studies in the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She is a professor of history and the founder of the Ahimsa Center at the university.

Dr. Sethia s a graduate of Rajasthan University in Jaipur, India, where she received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history. She holds a  Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Claudia Johnson has been named a Class of 1948 Herman B Wells Endowed Professor at Indiana University Bloomington. She is a professor in the department of earth and atmospheric sciences, affiliate faculty to the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and director of the Center for Biological Research Collections. Dr. Johnson, who came to Indiana University in 1995, is a paleo-ecologist who studies climate, extinction, and reef ecosystems.

Professor Johnson holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, all from the University of Colorado Boulder.

L.A. Paul, whose research examines metaphysics, cognitive science, and the philosophy of the mind, has been appointed the Millstone Family Professor of Philosophy and professor of cognitive science at Yale University. She began her career as an assistant professor of philosophy at Yale until 2001, when she joined the faculty at the University of Arizona. In 2008 she was recruited by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. In 2018, Dr. Paul returned to Yale as a professor of philosophy and cognitive science.

Professor Paul holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Antioch University. She earned a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in philosophy at Princeton University.

Daphne Pedersen was appointed Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor at the University of North Dakota. A professor of sociology, she joined the faculty at the university in 2004. Her research focuses on gender, the sociology of health, and how work and stress processes shape individual well-being – including among STEM students and faculty.

A first-generation college student from Salt Lake City, Dr. Pedersen earned her undergraduate degree in sociology at the University of Utah. She earned a master’s degree in sociology at Minnesota State University–Mankato and a Ph.D. in sociology from Utah State University.