New Arts and Sciences Faculty: Fall 2021

ChaeWon Baek is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics. She recently completed her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley with a dissertation titled “Essays in Macroeconomics: Business Cycles, Monetary Policy, and Labor Market.” As a graduate student instructor, she received an award for outstanding teaching. Her research interests include macroeconomics, macro-labor economics, international macroeconomics, and macro-econometrics. Baek's timely research quantifying the economic effects of stay-at-home policies during the pandemic is forthcoming in The Review of Economics and Statistics.

Aggeliki Barberopoulou is a Lecturer in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning. She comes to Tufts from Salem State University where she was a Visiting Assistant Professor. She also previously worked at AIR Worldwide, GNS Science, and the Tsunami Research Center at the University of Southern California. Her areas of expertise include earthquake and tsunami risk modeling and hazard assessment and mitigation. Barberopoulou earned her PhD at the University of Washington.  

Yonatan Brafman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion. Brafman comes to Tufts from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where he was an Assistant Professor of Jewish Thought and Ethics. Prior to that, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor and Associate Research Scholar in the Department of Religion and Program in Judaic Studies at Princeton University. His areas of specialization include modern Jewish thought, Jewish law and ethics, philosophy of religion, and moral and legal theory. He was a co-editor of the volume Jewish Legal Theories (Brandeis University Press, 2018) and has a forthcoming book titled Critique of Halakhic Reason: Divine Norms and Social Normativity. He has also published numerous articles and book chapters. Brafman earned his PhD at Columbia University. 

Cristóbal Cea is a Professor of the Practice at SMFA. His work focuses on the relation between digital media, history and memory and has been exhibited internationally in venues including Charlottenburg Kunsthal, Microscope Gallery, Ars Electronica, National Museum of Fine Arts (Chile), Lund Konsthal, Sala Alcalá, and the Museum of Fine Arts of Chile. He has also been a resident artist at MacDowell, Yaddo, and the Kohler Arts/Industry Program, and received recognitions such as the Fulbright Fellowship, Goethe Institut 18O Grant, MAVI Emerging Art Award, UC Artistic Research Grant, and RISD Bridge Academic Research Grant. He has teaching experience at institutions in both Chile and the United States. Most recently, Cea comes to Tufts from the School of Art Pontifical Catholic University of Chile where he was an Assistant Professor. He earned his MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design. 

Kate Conlon is a Professor of the Practice at SMFA with expertise in print media. She earned her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; she also taught courses there, as well as at Columbia College Chicago. Conlon’s sculpture, print, and book works have been  exhibited at venues including 68 Projects Berlin; OC OSAKA; Julius Caesar, Chicago; Goldfinch, Chicago; MANA Contemporary Chicago; Museu do Douro, Portugal; and The Grand Rapids Art Museum. She has received grants and residencies from Kala Art Institute, ACRE, and Chicago Artists Coalition and was named The Chicago Public Libraries’ Artist in Residence for the 2020-2021 year.

Christopher Coscia is a Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics. Since completing his PhD at Dartmouth College in 2020, he has been a Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Hamilton College. His interests include combinatorics, graph theory, and probability, especially Markov chain mixing and the probabilistic method, with applications to random permutations and political redistricting. He has published his research work in the journals Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science and The Electric Journal of Combinatorics.  

Christine Cousineau has been a part-time Lecturer in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning for more than 30 years and is now being promoted to full-time Lecturer. Cousineau is an architect and planner with experience in community development. Most recently, she was a senior campus planner at Harvard University, and for several years an associate at the architectural and planning firm Goody, Clancy Associates. She was also previously an assistant director at the City of Boston’s Public Facilities Department and worked for the Massachusetts’ Division of Capital Planning. She holds a Master’s in Architecture and a Master’s in City Planning from MIT. 

Kathryn Davies is a Lecturer in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning. She completed her PhD in New Zealand at the University of Auckland, and comes to Tufts from the University of Utah where she was a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography. Her research interests include climate change, coastal and marine governance and management, cumulative effects, ecosystem services, ecosystem-based management, participatory modelling, social and cultural values, social-ecological systems, social and environmental justice, stakeholder engagement, transdisciplinary research, and urban planning. She has published her research in journals such as Marine Policy and People and Nature. 

Robert de Bruijn is a Lecturer in the Department of Biology. He earned his PhD here at Tufts and is a well-traveled researcher, having worked in the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Canada, and California. Most recently he was a lecturer at California State University San Marcos. His interests include stress physiology, animal behavior, wildlife endocrinology, conservation physiology, active learning strategies, and evidence-based pedagogy and best practices. He has published his work in physiology and ecology journals including Journal of Experimental Zoology and Hormones and Behavior.

Meredith Edelstein is a Lecturer in the Department of Education. She is a Nationally Licensed School Psychologist and has worked for over 10 years serving special needs populations in public schools, therapeutic mentoring settings, and therapeutic after school programs. Meredith previously served as a part-time instructor in the Department of Education at Tufts providing writing supports and supervising alumni in our Licensed Educational Psychologists seminar. She holds an MA/EdS in School Psychology from Tufts and a PhD in Counseling and Psychology from Lesley University. 

John Fu is a Professor in the Department of Community Health. He comes to Tufts from Saint Louis University, where he was a Professor and Co-Director of the Data and Analytics Core of the Research and Equity in Action for Child Health (REACH) Center. With expertise in biostatistics, his research addresses how genetic, behavioral, environmental, and societal factors contribute to major depression and substance dependence. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and Alzheimer's Association. Fu holds a Doctor of Medicine from Southern Medical University in China, a Master of Arts and PhD from the University of Alabama. 

Lorgia García Peña is Mellon Associate Professor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora. She comes to Tufts from Harvard University where she was the Roy G. Clouse Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of History and Literature. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia. Lorgia’s 2016 book The Borders of Dominicanidad: Race, Nation, and Archives of Contradiction (Duke University Press, 2016), won the 2017 National Women’s Studies Association Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize, the 2016 Latino/a Studies Book Award, and the 2016 Isis Duarte Book Prize in Haiti and Dominican Studies. García Peña is also the recipient of the 2018-2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Research Fellowship from MIT. She earned her PhD at the University of Michigan. 

Simon Han is a Professor of the Practice in the Department of English. His novel Nights When Nothing Happened (Riverhead Books, 2020) was named a Best Book of the Year by TIME, The Washington Post, and Harper’s Bazaar. Han has published his short stories and essays in publications such as The Atlantic, Virginia Quarterly Review, Guernica, and more. He has received awards from MacDowell, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, and Vanderbilt University, where he received his MFA. He was previously a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Tulsa. 

Ashley Holmes is a Lecturer in the Department of Community Health. She has been at Tufts since Fall 2019 as a part-time lecturer in Community Health teaching courses in biostatistics and epidemiology. Holmes’ research interests include nutrition and cancer epidemiology, cancer prevention and control, nutritional immunology and inflammation, food and nutrition policy, food history, and biostatistics. She earned her PhD from Emory University and her MPH from George Washington University. She previously taught at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Cara Iacobucci has been promoted to full-time Lecturer in the Museum Studies program and the Department of Education at Tufts. She had previously been a part-time lecturer. Iacobucci holds an MA in the History of Art from Tufts and an EdM in Arts in Education from Harvard University. She has worked in the museum field for more than twenty years and has held positions at Historic New England, The Paul Revere House, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The New England Historic Genealogical Society, and Vose Galleries. She has also worked as an independent museum consultant.

Milo Koretsky is the inaugural McDonnell Family Endowed Bridge Professor, Department of Education and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Koretsky joined Tufts in April 2021 from nearly 30 years teaching in the Department of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering at Oregon State University (OSU). He is a Fellow of the Center for Lifelong STEM Education Research at OSU and a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Koretsky studies and develops technological innovations that promote knowledge integration and higher order cognition. He has a particular interest in helping faculty effectively use research-based instructional practices to enable more equitable learning. He is author of the popular textbook, Engineering and Chemical Thermodynamics. He received his PhD from UC Berkeley.

M. Alexandra Kredlow is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. She has a background in clinical psychology, and her program of research examines methods to harness memory processes with the goal of developing novel interventions for emotional disorders (e.g., anxiety, trauma and stressor-related, and mood disorders). She has published her work in journals such as Research & Therapy, International Journal of Psychophysiology, and American Psychologist. She earned her PhD at Boston University, and comes to Tufts from Harvard University, where she was a Postdoctoral Fellow. Kredlow will be joining Tufts in January 2022.

Amy Lischko is a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Community Health. She has been here at Tufts since 2007 as faculty at the School of Medicine. Her research interests include health policy and health care delivery. She has policy expertise from serving in senior roles in Massachusetts government for over 14 years, including being the Director of Health Care Policy under Governor Mitt Romney. In her roles with the Commonwealth, Lischko provided leadership during the rapid restructuring of the Massachusetts health care system. She has spoken widely at many national policy conferences and has provided consulting services to AcademyHealth, Mathematica Policy Research, the National Governor’s Association, and individual states. Lischko holds an MSPH from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a DSc from Boston University.  

Guadalupe Maravilla is a Professor of the Practice at SMFA. He has received numerous awards and fellowships including most recently the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, a Map Fund Grant, and a Soros Art Fellowship all in 2019. Maravilla has performed and presented his work in the United States and internationally including at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Queens Museum. Maravilla comes to Tufts from Virginia Commonwealth University where he was an Assistant Professor. He received his MFA from Hunter College.

Claudia Mattos Avolese is a Senior Lecturer in Visual and Material Studies at SMFA at Tufts. Before coming to Tufts, she was a Professor for History of Art at Unicamp in São Paulo, Brazil. Mattos Avolese was previously a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and was also President of the Brazilian Art History Committee. She teaches courses in a variety of subjects in 19th and 21st century Brazilian and European art, as well as art theory. She has published several books and several co-edited volumes, most recently Arte não-Europeia: conexões historiográficas a partir do Brasil (Estação Liberdade, 2020). She earned her PhD from the Kunsthistorisches Institute der Freie Universität, Berlin. 

H. Muoki Mbunga is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and a Neubauer Faculty Fellow. He recently completed his PhD in Modern African History at West Virginia University. His research explores the intersecting histories of ritual, religion, and resistance in modern East Africa. His ongoing book project examines the ethical and religious history of Kenya’s war of independence. The manuscript is tentatively titled, Mau Mau’s Moral War: The Sacralization of Kenya’s Anticolonial Struggle, 1952–1956. At Tufts, he will teach courses on African history and Pan-Africanism.

Triton Mobley is a Professor of the Practice at SMFA. Mobley comes to Tufts from the University of Georgia where he was an Assistant Professor of Studio Art Core. He is a new media artist, researcher and educator whose work has been exhibited at CURRENTS Virtual Festival, Geidai Games Online at Tokyo University of the Arts, and Art Basel Miami. He received his PhD from the University of Southern California and his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.  

Rick Moody is a Professor of the Practice in the Department of English and at SMFA. He comes to Tufts from Brown University where he was the Bonderman Professor of the Practice of the Literary Arts. He is an award-winning author of six novels: Garden State, The Ice Storm, Purple America, The Diviners, The Four Fingers of Death, and Hotels of North America. He has also published three collections of short stories, a memoir, and a collection of essays. His short fiction and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Harper’s, The Atlantic, among other publications. Moody’s many awards include the Aga Khan Award from The Paris Review, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and most recently an Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has also previously taught at Princeton University, New York University, Bennington College, and SUNY Purchase. Moody received his MFA from Columbia University.

Kelli Morgan is a Professor of the Practice and Director of Curatorial Studies in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture. Specializing in critical-race curatorial analyses, she has held curatorial positions at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She has taught at Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University, Wayne State University, and the University of Michigan. She also has experience with anti-racism facilitation for art institutions. She earned her PhD at University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

Ng’endo Mukii is a Professor of the Practice at SMFA. Mukii is an award-winning film director most well-known for Yellow Fever, her documentary-animation exploring Western influences on African women’s ideals of beauty. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and holds a Master of Arts in Animation from the Royal College of Art. Mukii is an alum of Berlinale Talents, Uruou Media REALNESS Screenwriter’s Residency, and the Goethy Institute Bahia Vila Sul artists residency. She is a writer on Netflix’s Mama K’s Team 4 series and is one of 10 directors selected for the upcoming Disney+ and Triggerfish animated anthology Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire. 

Laurel Nakadate is a Professor of the Practice at SMFA. She earned her MFA at Yale University. Her first feature film, Stay the Same Never Change, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to be featured in New Directors/New Films at The Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center. Her second feature film, The Wolf Knife, premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and was nominated for a Gotham Independent Film Award, and an Independent Spirit Award. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Princeton University Art Museum, Smith College Museum of Art, LACMA, the Guggenheim Museum, the Saatchi Collection and other private collections in the US and abroad.

Courtney Sato is Mellon Assistant Professor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora. She comes to Tufts from Harvard University where she was a Global American Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. Her research and teaching fields include Asian American history; U.S. intellectual & cultural history (late 19th-20th Century); women, gender, and sexuality studies; U.S. empire; transpacific studies; and digital and public humanities. Her article, “‘A Picture of Peace’: Friendship in Interwar Pacific Women’s Internationalism,” was published in Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences. Sato earned her PhD at Yale University.  

Miriam Said is an Assistant Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture. Said comes to Tufts from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC where she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts. Her research interests include art of the first millennium, ritual and religion, and the representation and function of hybrid beings in art. She completed her PhD at the University of California, Berkley, with a dissertation titled “Materializing Apotropaia: The Entangled Body in Neo-Assyrian Magical Arts, 9th–7th c. BCE.” She also has previous experience at other museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.  

Fernando Salinas-Quiroz is an Assistant Professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. He comes to Tufts from Universidad Pedagógica Nacional in Mexico, and has additional experience in private practice and school psychology settings. He is interested in child development and LGBTQ families. Salinas-Quiroz is the author of the book Ciudadanía, democracia y sexualidad (Citizenship, Democracy and Sexuality) (Fundación Arcoíris por el Respeto a la Diversidad Sexual, A.C, 2020). He earned his PhD at Mexico’s National Autonomous University. 

Michael Smoot is a Professor of the Practice at SMFA. He completed Tamarind Institute’s Professional Printer Training Program in 2007 and has worked at several professional fine art print studios including Atelier Towson, The Experimental Print Institute, Tamarind Institute, Landfall Press, and Janus Press. He has given lectures and demonstrations on printmaking at Towson University, Goucher College, East Carolina University, Southeast Missouri State University, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Georgia State University, Valdosta State University, UMass Amherst, Bennington College, Keene State College, and Smith College. In addition, he has worked with a number of art related community organizations including, School 33, Art with Heart, Two Rivers Printmaking Studio, Governor's Institute of Vermont, Empty Bowls, Seedlings Program, and Baltimore Talent Development High School.

Alice Sullivan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture. She comes to Tufts from the University of Michigan. She was also previously a Lecturer at Oakland University and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Lawrence University. She specializes in the artistic production of East-Central Europe and the Byzantine-Slavic cultural spheres between ca. 1300 and ca. 1700. She has published her work in peer-reviewed publications such as The Art Bulletin, Speculum, and Gesta and she co-edited the volume Byzantium in Eastern European Visual Culture in the Late Middle Ages (Brill, 2020). Sullivan earned her PhD at the University of Michigan.   

Abiy Tasissa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics.Since 2019, he has been a Norbert Wiener Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Tufts. Tasissa's research is in applied mathematics with a focus on algorithms for the distance geometry problem; fast convex algorithms for graph matching; and a recent interest in theoretical analysis of deep learning in certain applications. He has published his work in Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematics, Physical and Engineering Sciences and IEEE Transactions of Information Theory. He received his PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 

Lawrence Uricchio is the Youniss Family Assistant Professor of Innovation in the Department of Biology. Uricchio comes to Tufts from the University of California, Berkeley where he was a postdoctoral fellow. His research combines theoretical population genetic models, genomic data, and observational ecological data to try to predict when species will or will not be able to adapt sufficiently rapidly to persist. Previously, he was an NIH Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Awards postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. He earned his PhD at the University of California, San Francisco and instructed ecology courses at San Jose State University.