Swarthmore College, the highly selective liberal arts educational institution in suburban Philadelphia, has promoted seven scholars to the rank of associate professor. They were also granted tenure. Six of the seven promotions went to women.
Carolyn Bauer was promoted to associate professor of biology. Her research is focused on studying the degu, a small rodent native to central Chile, in order to understand how early-life conditions shape health and physiology. Dr. Bauer joined the Swarthmore faculty in 2020. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in biology from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
Cacey Bester was named an associate professor of physics. She studies experimental soft condensed matter, granular flow, and sediment transport to understand how disordered systems deform, flow, and fail. Dr. Bester joined the faculty in 2019 after conducting postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago.
Paloma Checa-Gismero is a new associate professor of art history. Her scholarship addresses past and present relations of coloniality that support contemporary distinctions of culture as art. She is the author of Biennial Boom: Making Contemporary Art Global (Duke University Press, 2024). Dr. Checa-Gismero holds a master of fine arts degree in arts, production, and research from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain. She earned a Ph.D. in art history, theory, and criticism from the University of California, San Diego.
Catherine Hsu was promoted to associate professor of mathematics. She studies algebraic number theory with a particular interest in congruences between modular forms as well as Euclidean ideals and systems. Dr. Hsu has taught at Swarthmore since 2020. She is a graduate of Rice University in Houston. Dr. Hsu earned a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Oregon.
Roseann Liu was elevated to associate professor of educational studies and Asian American studies. She is a scholar of race, education inequality, and social justice. Dr. Liu is the author of Designed to Fail: Why Racial Equity in School Funding Is So Hard to Achieve (University of Chicago Press, 2024). A graduate of New York University with a bachelor’s degree in early childhood and elementary education, Dr. Liu earned a master’s degree at Teachers College of Columbia University and a Ph.D. in anthropology and education from the University of Pennsylvania.
Allison Miller is an associate professor of mathematics and statistics. She studies knots in 3-manifolds, surfaces in 4-manifolds, and the interactions between them in order to better understand 4-dimensional topology. Dr. Miller joined the faculty at Swarthmore in 2021 after teaching at Rice University in Houston. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Pomona College in California and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin.