The department of law, jurisprudence and social thought named Nasser Hussain as an assistant professor.
Hussain is currently the Henry Luce visiting professor at the College and teaches classes in the history and LJST departments. As a result of his new position, Hussain work full-time, teaching four classes instead of two.
"We hired him because he was the strongest candidate in the pool. He was our absolute first choice," said Lawrence Douglas, chair of the LJST department. "We are absolutely delighted to have him on tenure track. Now he can teach more courses," said Douglas.
Hussain will teach a new course, Global Legality, that will explore law and globalization. "We feel that we need to offer more courses on law from a global perspective," said Douglas.
Hussain is happy to remain at the College. "I think the LJST department is a very interesting and innovative department and I'm happy to be here," he said.
Monica Ringer will join the College as a joint professor in the departments of Asian languages and civilizations and history.
Ringer is currently a visiting assistant professor of history and a Mellon Fellow in modern Middle Eastern history at Williams College. She will join the College as an assistant professor. Most of the courses that she teaches will be listed in the course catalogue under both departments, according to History Department Chair Sean Redding.
"We are delighted to have another member of the department who also teaches in the history department and who will cover West Asia in our curriculum," said Jerry Dennerline, who is the chair of the Asian languages and civilizations department.
According to Dennerline, Ringer is an intellectual historian who specializes in studies of modern Iran.
"The history of Iran has not been studied much in the West since 1979 and we thought she would teach courses that would complement the others in our department," said Redding.
Ringer will teach survey courses in Middle Eastern history. According to Dennerline, she is also interested in teaching courses on the history of women in the Middle East, the comparative history of Iran and Turkey, the history of Islam and interdisciplinary courses on Middle East culture.
Redding noted that the department was impressed with Ringer's publishing record, which includes a recent book entitled "Education, Religion and the Discourse of Cultural Reform in Qujar Iran." Redding said that Ringer is currently working on another book.
"She's an extremely likeable person and I think she will fit in very well with both the students and the other members of the departments," said Redding.
The Asian languages and civilizations department also announced that Paola Zamperini will join the department.
Zamperini, originally from Italy, has taught and studied in the U.S., China, Taiwan and Europe, according to Dennerline.
"My main research interests are mainly Ming and Qing popular literature, with a focus on the novel-meaning the period that goes from the 15th to the early 20th century-modern and contemporary Chinese literature, European literature, gender and women's studies, the body, fashion and clothing and cultural studies," said Zamperini.
Zamperini looks forward to beginning her duties at the College.
"I was very honored to accept the offer to work at Amherst College, as it is a school that has an excellent reputation for the excellence of both its students and its faculty," she said. "I am also very excited at the possibility of developing and expanding the study of Chinese literature both modern and pre-modern at Amherst, and I look forward to working together to realize this goal with my new colleagues."
"We are delighted that she has accepted the job and are eagerly anticipating her contributions to the life of the College," said Dennerline.
Lance Duerfahrd will join the English department as an assistant professor. Duerfahrd recently finished his Ph.D. in comparative literature at Yale University, writing a dissertation entitled "Work of Poverty: The Minimum in Samuel Beckett and Alain Resnais."
"One of the things that is lovely for us is that Professor Duerfahrd is coming to do film studies, and he's thinking about film relative to novelistic and theatrical writing," said Professor of English Karen Sanchez-Eppler, the chair of the department. "He is a humorous, quirky and interesting thinker and he has a really wide range of film interests," she added.
Duerfahrd will teach a courses in film, including Film and Writing, Fascination, Seduction and Belief in the Cinema and Film Noir: Context and Legacy. He will also teach a course in how photography manifests itself in writing and how it changes descriptions in writing.
As previously reported in The Amherst Student, the chemistry department will welcome Karena McKinney to its staff next fall. "I am looking forward to joining the Amherst faculty because to me this position represents an ideal balance between my two career goals: teaching and pursuing new and independent research in the field of atmospheric chemistry," said McKinney, who is currently a professor at the California Institute of Technology.
McKinney will teach courses in atmospheric and environmental chemistry. "These courses will aim to provide students with the scientific basis they need to understand global change, make informed decisions about environmental policy, and address the pressing environmental issues facing society today," she said.