Vassar College, the highly selective liberal arts educational institution in Poughkeepsie, New York, has added seven tenure-track faculty members for the current academic year. Four of the new hires are women.
Claire Augusta Bergey is an assistant professor of cognitive science. She studies how people understand implied meaning in conversation and how children learn to do this as they grow. Dr. Bergey is a graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Chicago. Dr. Bergey conducted postdoctoral research in psychology at the University of Wisconsin and in linguistics at Stanford University in California.
Whitney Fields is an assistant professor of history. Her current research project is “Captive in a Promised Land,” the first historical study to focus on the incarceration of Black people in the nation’s first prisons and penitentiaries. Dr. Fields is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. She holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University in New Jersey. Dr. Fields was the inaugural Postdoctoral Research Assistant of the Initiative on Race and Resilience at the University of Notre Dame.
Akhila Kovvuri is an assistant professor of economics. She studies how urban structure and information networks shape gender gaps in the labor market, with a focus on India. Dr. Kovvuri is a graduate of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where she majored in economics. She earned a Ph.D. in economics at Stanford University in California.
Maya Marie Van Nuys is an assistant professor of political science. Her research explores the global governance of policing, especially how states and international organizations influence policing policy and practice across national borders. Dr. Van Nuys is a graduate of the University of Kansas. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Dr. Van Nuys was a postdoctoral fellow in international security at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.