Macalester College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution in St. Paul, Minnesota, has awarded tenure to eight faculty members. Seven of these tenure awards went to women.
Maria Fedorova is a Russian/Soviet historian whose research interests include the global history of food security, the history of science and technology, and agricultural history. She joined the faculty at the college in 2019. She is the author of Seeds of Exchange: Soviets, Americans, and Cooperation in Agriculture, 1921-1935 (Northern Illinois University Press, 2025). A native of Moscow, Dr. Fedorova earned a master’s degree in history from Washington State University and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Taryn Flock is a mathematician who studies fundamental inequalities in harmonic analysis. In her research, she characterizes the conditions under which functions satisfy well-known inequalities and describes the extreme situations under which these equations become equalities. Born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining the Macalester College faculty, Dr. Flock conducted post-doctoral studies at the University of Birmingham in England and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Tia-Simone Gardner teaches in the department of media and cultural studies. Her interests include art, history, place studies, Black feminisms, and power. Dr. Gardner received her bachelor’s degree in art and art history from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and holds a master of fine arts degree in interdisciplinary practices and time-based media from the University of Pennsylvania. She earned a Ph.D. in feminist studies from the University of Minnesota.
Kelsey Grinde is a statistician specializing in data science, biostatistics, and statistical genetics. She joined the college’s faculty in 2020. Most recently, her work has focused on developing statistical methods for genetic studies in populations with mixed, diverse ancestry. Dr. Grinde is a graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she majored in mathematics. She earned a Ph.D. in biostatistics from the University of Washington.
Ariel James is a cognitive psychologist whose research interests include measuring and predicting individual differences in language processing, replication, and meta-analysis. She joined the faculty at the college in 2019. A native of Chicago, Dr. James holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Stanford University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana‑Champaign.
Jean-Marie Maddux is a behavioral neuroscientist in the psychology department whose research focuses on the neural and psychological mechanisms behind learning and motivation, especially with the goal of understanding addiction to alcohol and nicotine. She joined the faculty in 2023 after teaching for seven years at Lake Forest College in Illinois. Dr. Maddux is a graduate of Binghamton University in New York, where she majored in integrative neuroscience. She earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Anna Williams is an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy. She joined the college’s faculty in 2018. Her primary research focuses on observational detections of magnetic fields in distant galaxies using radio telescopes. Dr Williams is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where she majored in astronomy and played varsity volleyball. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also conducted post-doctoral research.