Nine Women Appointed to Endowed Faculty Positions at Cornell University

Twenty-three faculty members in the College of Arts & Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York,were recently honored with endowed professorships. With these new appointments, the number of faculty members in the College of Arts & Sciences appointed to endowed professorships since the fall of 2018 has reached 66.

“These endowed professorships within Arts & Sciences recognize outstanding faculty, who enhance the academic experience for our students and ‘do the greatest good’ for our society,” said Cornell Provost Michael Kotlikoff.

Nine of the 23 appointments to endowed faculty positions went to women.

(L to R) Rachel Bean, Mabel Berezin, Jill Frank, and Natasha Holmes

Rachel Bean was named the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor in the department of physics. She also serves as senior associate dean for math and science. Dr. Bean is a graduate of the University of Cambridge in England. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Imperial College London.

Mabel Berezin is the Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences in Sociology. Her work explores the intersection of political institutions and cultural meanings with an emphasis on challenges to democratic cohesion and solidarity in Europe and the United States. She is the author of Making the Fascist Self: The Political Culture of Interwar Italy (Cornell University Press, 1997). Dr. Bean holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Jill Frank is the President White Professor of History and Political Science in the department of government. Her research is focused on the historians, poets, and philosophers of ancient Greece. Professor Frank is the author of A Democracy of Distinction: Aristotle and the Work of Politics (University of Chicago Press, 2005).

Natasha Holmes is Anne S. Bowers Associate Professor in the department of physics. She is a graduate of the University of Guelph in Ontario. Dr. Holmes holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of British Columbia. She joined the faculty at Cornell in 2017.

(L to R) Sabrina Karim, Marilyn Migiel, Shirley Samuels, Peidong Sun, and Yunan Yang

Sabrina Karim was named the Hardis Family Assistant Professor for Teaching Excellence in the department of government. Her research focuses on conflict and peace processes, particularly state building in the aftermath of civil war. Dr. Karim is the co-author of Equal Opportunity Peacekeeping: Women, Peace, and Security in Post-Conflict Countries (Oxford University Press, 2017).

Marilyn Migiel was appointed the Kappa Alpha Professor in Literature in the department of romance studies. Her work centers on feminist readings of medieval and Renaissance Italian literature. Dr. Migiel received a bachelor’s degree in medieval studies from Cornell University. She holds a Ph.D. in Italian language and literature from Yale University.

Shirley Samuels is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor in American Studies. She is the author of several books including Race and Vision in the Nineteenth-Century United States (Lexington Books, 2019). Dr. Samuels holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a Ph.D., all from the University of California, Berkeley.

Peidong Sun is the Distinguished Associate Professor of Arts & Sciences in China and Asia-Pacific Studies. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French, a master’s degree in French literature, and a Ph.D. in law from Sun Yat-Sen University in China. She earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the Paris Institute of Political Studies.

Yunan Yang is the Goenka Family Assistant Professor in Mathematics. She has been serving as an Advanced Fellow at the Institute for Theoretical Studies in Zürich, Switzerland. Earlier, she taught at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. Dr. Yang holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Texas.