Paula Marie Seniors was named the Gloria D. Smith Memorial Professor in Africana Studies at Virginia Tech. Dr. Seniors is an ethnic studies scholar and an associate professor in the university’s department of history. She is the author of Mae Mallory, the Monroe Defense Committee, and World Revolutions: African American Women Radical Activists (University of Georgia Press, 2024), which won the Afro American Historical and Genealogical International Book Award for Social Justice.
Dr. Seniors is a graduate of City College of New York, where she majored in dance. She holds a master’s degree in musical theater from New York University and both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in ethnic studies from the University of California, San Diego.
Elly R. Truitt is the Janice and Julian Bers Professor of History and Sociology of Science in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. In her research, Dr. Truitt studies the circulation of scientific objects and natural knowledge throughout Central and Western Eurasia and North Africa, from antiquity into the early modern period, and the strange and subtle resonances between the non-modern and the contemporary. Her most recent book is Necessary Inventions: Roger Bacon, the Middle Ages, and the Making of Modern Science (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2026).
Dr. Truitt is a graduate of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she double-majored in English and medieval and Renaissance studies. She holds a master’s degree in medieval history from the University of Cambridge in England and both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in the history of science from Harvard University.
Nava Caluori was named the Psychology of Peace and Violence Endowed Professor in the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Working at the intersection of culture, religion, and intergroup dynamics, Dr. Caluori examines how socio-ecological contexts shape individual-level psychology, from the beliefs people hold to their attitudes toward other groups. She joined the UMass Amherst faculty in 2026.
Dr. Caluori is a graduate of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, where she double-majored in psychology and religious studies. She holds a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Virginia.