The College of Arts and Humanities at Clemson University in South Carolina is centered on exploring and understanding the human condition. The college recently announced the promotion of three women to senior faculty positions.
Stephanie Hassell was promoted to associate professor of history with tenure. She previously taught at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and held a postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Her research explores the intersection of slavery, religion, and empire in the Indian Ocean world. Dr. Hassell is the author of Slavery and Religious Conversion in Portugal’s Indian Empire, 1500-1700 (Ohio University Press, 2025). A graduate of the University of Virginia, Dr. Hassell holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in history from Stanford University.
Kerrie Seymour was promoted to professor of theatre. She teaches acting and theatre appreciation in the department of performing arts. Before joining the Clemson University faculty, she taught at the University of South Carolina-Upstate in Spartanburg. Professor Seymour is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University in New York, where she majored in journalism and mass communication. She holds a master of fine arts degree in acting from the Trinity Rep Conservatory at Rhode Island College. While in Rhode Island, Professor Seymour founded her own theatre company, Three Strange Angels.
Rebecca Shimoni Stoil was promoted to associate professor of history with tenure. She is a historian of the twentieth-century United States, focusing on rural politics, grassroots sentiment, and the U.S. in the world. Before coming to Clemson in 2019, Dr. Stoil was a lecturer at Loyola University of Maryland and served as the Washington Bureau Chief for the Times of Israel. She is the author of Tied to Their Country: The Farm Crisis, Agriarian Activism and the Rise of Rural Anti-Federalism (University of Nebraska Press, 2026). Dr. Stoil is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where she majored in history and Near Eastern languages. She earned a Ph.D. in history at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.