New Faculty Appointments for Four Women Scholars

Caree Benton has been appointed chair of the department of history in the Fulbright College of Arts and Science at the University of Arkansas. She has been with the university since 2013, currently serving as an associate professor of history and director of the African and African American studies program. She is the author of More Auspicious Shores: Barbadian Migration, Blackness, and the Making of an African Republic (Cambridge University Press 2019).

Dr. Benton is graduate of Grambling State University where she received two bachelor’s degrees in public administration and history respectively. She received her master’s degree in development studies from the University of Ghana and her Ph.D. in history from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Sandra Butler has been named the 2024 Distinguished Maine Professor at the University of Maine. She holds many positions within the university including director of the School of Social Work, coordinator of the masters of social work program, and resident scholar at the Center for Aging.

Dr. Butler graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota where she majored in human ecology. She holds a masters of social work from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and a Ph.D. in social welfare from the University of Washington Seattle.

Karolina Mukhtar has been named chair of the department of biological sciences at Clemson University. She currently serves a professor and chair of the department of biology at the University of Alabama Birmingham where she has taught since 2010.

Dr. Mukhtar graduated from the University of Stettin in Poland with her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in biology and environmental science. She received her Ph.D. in plant genetics from the University of Cologne in Germany.

Vanessa Racehorse has been named a professor for the University of Colorado Law School. She currently seres as a professor for the University of New Mexico School of Law. Earlier in her career, she served as an adjunct professor of law for the University of San Diego School of Law.

Racehorse holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Denver, a master of laws degree from the University of Amsterdam, and a juris doctorate from the Columbia University Law School.