New Endowed Positions for Four Women Scholars

Irene Peeva has been named Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences in Mathematics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Her research centers around commutative algebra with a focus on free resolutions and their applications. She is the author of Graded Syzygies (Springer, 2010).

Dr. Peeva holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Rachel Eells has been named the inaugural Windgate Foundation Endowed Director of the School of Education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She served as the school’s interim director for the 2023-2024 academic year. Prior to joining the University of Arkansas at Little Rock faculty in 2022, she served as the vice president for academic affairs and professor of education at Concordia College in New York.

Dr. Eells is an alumna of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where she received her bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education and master’s degree in gifted and talented education. She holds a Ph.D. in educational psychology from Loyola University in Chicago.

Joya Misra has been named a Distinguished Professor of sociology and public policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. A member of the university’s faculty since 1999, she currently serves as a provost professor and the Roy J. Zuckerberg Endowed Leadership Chair. She has authored numerous scholarly publications, including her most recent book, Walking Mannequins: How Race and Gender Inequalities Shape Retail Clothing Work (University of California Press, 2022).

Dr. Misra is a graduate of Centenary College in Louisiana, where she majored in religion. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in sociology from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Joan Kee has been named the Judy and Michael Steinhardt Director of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. She comes to her new role from the University of Michigan, where she teaches as a professor of the history of art. Her research on art, law, diaspora studies, and communication has led to several books, including her most recent, The Geometries of Afro Asia: Art Beyond Solidarity (University of California Press, 2023).

Dr. Kee is a manga cum laude graduate of Yale University, where she majored in the history of art. She holds a juris doctorate from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University