Four Women Scholars Appointed to Endowed Chairs at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania

Swarthmore College, a highly rated liberal arts educational institution in suburban Philadelphia, has appointed seven faculty members to endowed chairs. Four of these appointments went to women.

Betsy Bolton was appointed to the Alexander Griswold Cummins Chair of English. Dr. Bolton is the author of Women, Nationalism, and the Romantic Stage: Theatre and Politics in Britain, 1780-1800 (Cambridge University Press, 2001). She has worked to increase the presence of the humanities in the Environmental Studies Program at the college. Dr. Bolton is a graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont, where she majored in English. She holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Yale University.

Tia Newhall, a professor of computer science, was named to the Centennial Chair. Her general research area is parallel and distributed systems. One main project implements fast backing storage systems for cluster computers. She is the co-author of the textbook Dive Into Systems: A Gentle Introduction to Computer Systems (No Starch Press, 2022). Professor Newhall holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in computer science, all from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

K. Ann Renninger was named the Dorwin P. Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action in the department of educational studies. Dr. Renninger’s research focuses on motivation and interest in learning. She is the co-author or co-editor of four books. Professor Renniger is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.

Patricia White was appointed to the Centennial Chair in film and media studies. Dr. White is the author of five books on cinema and women’s studies including Women’s Cinema/World Cinema: Projecting Contemporarty Feminisims (Duke University Press, 2015). Professor White is a graduate of Yale University, where she majored in film studies. She received a Ph.D. in the history of consciousness from the University of California, Santa Cruz.