Macalester College, the highly selective liberal arts educational institution in St. Paul, Minnesota, has announced that five faculty members have been appointed to endowed chairs. Four of these appointments went to women.
Sarah Boyer was named the O.T. Walter Professor of Biology. She studies the evolution of mite harvesters (tiny arachnids) in New Zealand, supported by a National Science Foundation grant. She and her students also study the reproductive biology of local daddy long-legs found on campus. Dr. Boyer holds a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where she majored in biology and English. She holds a master’s degree in integrative biology from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard University.
Darcy Burgund is the inaugural Weingarden Professor of Neuroscience. Her research focuses on visual cognition and memory, especially how people recognize objects, using methods such as divided-visual-field tasks and functional magnetic resonance imaging to study brain activity. Professor Burgund has a bachelor’s degree from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.
Julie Dolan was appointed the Mitau Professor of Political Science. She has written or co-written several books, including Representative Bureaucracy: Classic Readings and Continuing Controversies (Routledge, 2003) and four editions of Women and Politics: Paths to Power and Political Influence (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025). Professor Dolan earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Olaf College in Minnesota and a Ph.D. in political science and government from American University in Washington, D.C.
Duchess Harris was named the DeWitt Wallace Professor of American Studies. In 2026, she published two books: Black Feminist Politics: From the Voting Rights Act to the Kamala Harris Vice Presidency (1965–2025) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026) and Meghan Markle: Essays on Monarchy, Race, and Colonialism (University of Arizona Press, 2026). Professor Harris holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, and a juris doctorate from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Minnesota.