Six Women Scholars Granted Tenure at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota

Macalester College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution in St. Paul, Minnesota, has announced that six faculty members have been granted tenure. All six are women.

Erika Busse-Cárdenas is an associate professor of sociology. A native of Lima, Peru, her research focuses on international migration, family, motherhood, gender, and race relations. Dr. Busse-Cardenas earned a bachelor’s degree from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Sussex in England and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

Leah Witus teaches chemistry at the college. She is an expert in chemical biology, organic chemistry, and biochemistry. Much of her latest research focuses on very short proteins – called peptides – that catalyze chemical reactions. Dr. Witus earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Rice University in Houston and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

Jessica Pearson is a member of the history department faculty. She is a historian of modern and contemporary France with a broader focus on internationalism and global decolonization in the 20th century. Prior to her arrival at Macalester College in 2016, Dr. Pearson was an assistant professor of European studies at the University of Oklahoma. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history and French from Kalamazoo College in Michigan and Ph.D. in history and French studies from New York University.

Clockwise from the top left: Erika Busse-Cardenas, Leah Witus, Jessica Pearson, Amy Elkins, Katrina Phillips, and Megan Vossler.

Megan Vossler teaches art and art history at Macalester College. She is a practicing artist with expertise in drawing and illustration. Her work focuses primarily on large-scale drawings and has been exhibited nationwide. She joined the faculty at the college in 2009. Professor Vossler earned a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a master of fine arts degree at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Katrina Phillips is an associate professor of history. Her research focuses on Native American history and the history of the American West. Her recent publications include a book about tourist attractions that exploit local tribal histories called Staging Indigeneity: Salvage Tourism and the Performance of Native American History (University of North Carolina Press, 2021). Dr. Phillips holds a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Minnesota.

Amy Elkins is a member of the faculty in the English department. She is an expert on 20th- and 21st-century literature, with a focus on gender and sexuality and visual and material culture. Dr. Elkins joined the faculty at the college in 2016. Her first book, Crafting Feminism from Literary Modernism to the Multimedia Present, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and studio art from Hendrix College in Arkansas. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in English from Emory University in Atlanta.