Amherst College Awards Tenure to Two Women

Amherst College, the highly ranked liberal arts educational institution in Massachusetts, has appointed five scholars to the rank of associate professor, effective July 1. All five were awarded tenure. Two of the five faculty members who were appointed associate professor are women.

Sara J. Brenneis was promoted to associate professor of Spanish. She is the author of the forthcoming book, Genre Fusion: A New Approach to History, Fiction, and Memory in Contemporary Spain (Purdue University Press, 2014). Dr. Brenneis is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Hispanic languages and literatures from the University of California at Berkeley.

Leah Schmalzbauer was appointed associate professor of anthropology and sociology and will hold a joint appointment as associate professor of American studies. She currently serves as an associate professor of sociology at Montana State University and will begin teaching at Amherst in the fall 2014 semester. Dr. Schmalzbauer is the author of Striving and Surviving: A Daily Life Analysis of Honduran Transnational Families (Routledge, 2005). A second book, The Last Best Place? Gender, Family, and Migration in the New West will be published by Stanford University Press later this year. Dr. Schmalzbauer is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire. She holds a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Ph.D. in sociology from Boston College.