Eight New Assistant Professors at Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, has 11 new tenure-track faculty on campus this fall. Eight of the 11 new tenure-track faculty members are women.

Olga Sendra Ferrer was appointed assistant professor of romance languages and literatures. Dr. Ferrer is a graduate of the University of Barcelona in Spain. She holds a master’s degree from North Carolina State University and a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Princeton University.

Megan Glick is an assistant professor of American studies. Dr, Glick is a graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Yale University. Her research looks at cultural and intellectual history, medical and science history, bioethics and biopolitics, and animal-human studies.

Psyche Loui is an assistant professor of psychology. Dr. Loui was an instructor in neurology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research aims to understand the networks of brain structure and function that enable musical processes.

Rachel Ellis Neyra is an assistant professor of English. She is a graduate of Freed Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee, and holds a Ph.D. from Stony Brook University of the State University of New York system, where she won the Morton E. Kahn Prize for Outstanding Graduating Doctoral Student.

Marcela Orteiza is a new assistant professor of theater. She is a graduate of the University of Chile and holds a master of fine arts degree in theater design from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.

Lily L. Saint is an assistant professor of English. She was teaching in the English department at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Saint is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Ph.D. from the City University of New York where she was awarded the Irving Howe Prize for Best Dissertation Involving Politics and Literature in 2011.

Joslyn B. Trager was appointed an assistant professor of government. Dr. Trager is a graduate of Reed College in Portland, Oregon. She earned a master’s degree at Claremont Graduate University in California and a Ph.D. at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Laura Ann Twagira is an assistant professor of history who has served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali. A graduate of Wellesley College, she earned a master’s degree at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, and a Ph.D. at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Earlier this year, she won the Young Scholar Book Prize from the International Committee for the History of Technology.