Four Women Scholars Appointed to Endowed Professorships at Georgia State University

Georgia State University in Atlanta recently appointed five faculty members to endowed chairs. Four of the fve appointments went to women.

Gina Caison was appointed the Kenneth England Professor of Southern American Literature. Her research in American literature focuses on cultures and literatures of the U.S. South, with an emphasis on Native American literatures. Dr. Caison is the president of the  Society for the Study of Southern Literature. She is the author of Red States: Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, and Southern Studies (University of Georgia Press, 2018).  Professor Caison earned a Ph.D. at the University of Clfornia Davis.

Emanuela Guano was named the Ackerman Professor in Anthropology. Dr. Guano’s ethnographic research focuses on the processes that are currently transforming postindustrial cities around the world, with a particular attention to aesthetic and cultural consumption and the revitalization of urban space. She is the author of Creative Urbanity: An Italian Middle Class in the Shade of Urban Revitalization (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017). Dr. Guano earned a Ph.D. at the University of Texas.

Yi Jiang was selected as the inaugural holder of the Frady Whipple Professorship of Mathematics. Dr. Jiang’s research focuses on developing mathematical models and analysis tools with applications in biology and biomedicine. Her published papers range in topics from cancer progression and treatment, eye diseases, bacterial dynamics, and, more recently Covid-19 epidemiology. Professor Jiang is a graduate of the University of Science and Technology of China. She earned a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Elizabeth West was appointed to the John B. and Elena Diaz-Verson Amos Distinguished Chair in English Letters. Professor West’s research focuses on interdisciplinary studies of early African diaspora literatures of the Americas with particular emphasis on connections of spirituality and gender from early to contemporary works. She is the author of the forthcoming book Finding Francis: One Family’s Journey from Slavery to Freedom (University of South Carolina Press, 2022). Dr. West holds a Ph.D. in English with a certificate in women’s studies from Emory University in Atlanta.