Teaching-Track Promoted Faculty 2022-2023: Weinberg College

Teaching-Track Promoted Faculty 2022-2023

Promoted to Associate Professor of Instruction 2022-23

Raquel Amorese

Associate Professor of Instruction

MA Institution: Baylor University
Home Department: Spanish and Portuguese
Profile

Raquel Amorese received her M.A. with honors in Spanish Literature and Linguistics from Baylor University. She also holds an M.A. in Portuguese Language and Literature from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná and pursues doctoral studies in Spanish and Portuguese at Vanderbilt University. Her research interests lie in Second Language Acquisition, Foreign Languages Pedagogy, Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, Twentieth-Century Hispanic and Lusophone Literatures.

Raquel Amorese has presented her work in the United States and internationally, and her latest book translation H20: Aguacero (2017) was published by ArtePoética Press, NY. At Northwestern – along teaching Portuguese and Spanish in Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences and the School of Professional Studies – Amorese coordinated the Portuguese Language program (2012-2017) and she currently teaches elementary and intermediate Spanish courses. Amorese received many grants to enhance undergraduate curricular innovation and development at Northwestern.

A passionate educator, Raquel Amorese is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Weinberg Arts & Sciences Alumni Teaching Award (2017). She serves actively on committees at the department, college and university levels. She is a member of the Council on Language Instruction and a Fellow at the Public Affairs Residential College.

Veronica Berns

Associate Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Home Department: Chemistry
Profile

Veronica Berns (she/her) earned her BA in Chemistry at Northwestern University in 2009 before her PhD in Inorganic Chemistry at University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2014. Her doctoral thesis focused on the way atoms pack together in solids, specifically in compounds with multiple metallic elements present. As she did her graduate research, she discovered a passion for communicating the complexities of science in a variety of ways, and making scientific ideas accessible to people of all backgrounds. In this spirit, Veronica translated the scientific content of her doctoral thesis into a comic book format, aimed at a non-scientific audience.

At Northwestern, Veronica teaches many large, introductory STEM courses including General Chemistry laboratories and lecture-based classes. She enjoys using comics and drawings to support learning and encourage creativity, connection, and abstraction in her classroom. She advises both chemistry majors and first-quarter students and enjoys helping students achieve their definition of success in college.

Stephanie Knezz

Associate Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Home Department: Chemistry
Profile

Stephanie Knezz (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Chemistry Department at Northwestern University. She received her BS in Chemistry from Butler University in 2011 and her PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016, where she studied physical organic chemistry in the McMahon research group. She works primarily in the instruction of large, introductory STEM courses, currently Organic Chemistry. In 2022, Knezz received the Weinberg Arts and Sciences Alumni Teaching Award. She is a first-generation college student, queer woman, and seeks new ways to adapt STEM curricula to be culturally relevant and large STEM classes to be inclusive, identity-oriented, and empowering for all students. She enjoys writing and has published Op-Eds in various outlets, including Scientific American.

Arend Kuyper

Associate Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: Northwestern University
Home Department: Statistics and Data Science
Profile

Arend Kuyper serves as its Director of Undergraduate Studies in Data Science. His primary interests are developing and implementing methods, techniques, and strategies for teaching statistics, especially for introductory statistics and data science related courses. Much of his focus over the last five years has been lead the development of a Data Science curriculum and launching the Data Science major and minor. He is committed to Open Educational Resources to increase accessibility to learning materials. This commitment is highlighted by his co-authorship of 2 OER books funded through Northwestern’s Affordable Instructional Resources (AIR) initiative. He is also interested in the use and development of statistical and data science methods in education research: among them data visualization, experimental design, and measurement. He has taught and developed several undergraduate courses, and through his teaching aims to help students both practical data skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to deploy them. As Director of Undergraduate Studies in Data Science, hs is the main advisor for Data Science majors and minors, and is responsible for the continued implementation and development of the new Data Science programs.

Laura Pigozzi

Associate Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: University of Minnesota
Home Unit: Cook Family Writing Program
Profile

Dr. Laura Pigozzi teaches English 282 (Writing and Speaking in Business), ENG 305 (Science, Medical, and Health Writing), DSGN 106 (Design Thinking and Communication) and Business Communication in various professional masters programs. She holds a PhD in Rhetoric and Scientific & Technical Communication with a doctoral minor in Bioethics from the University of Minnesota. She is trained as a mechanical engineer, with a BS in Mechanical Engineering with a Bioengineering Option from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Additionally, Dr. Pigozzi holds Affiliate Faculty status with the Center for Community Health Equity, DePaul University/Rush University. Prior to joining Northwestern Cook Family Writing Program, Dr. Pigozzi was the Director of Graduate Studies for the MS and Graduate Certificate in Technical Communication at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Pigozzi’s research stands at the intersection of the rhetoric of health and medicine, technical and professional communication, intercultural communication, and immigrant health. The focus of this work is the well-being of those in the immigrant Latino community, especially the unauthorized, with the goal of improving health and lives. Her work incorporates rhetorical and qualitative analyses to build explanatory, interdisciplinary theories to contribute to this understudied area. Additionally, this work informs a broader understanding of how intercultural and technical communication function and how these fields can work toward social justice.

Recent publication highlights include:
Pigozzi, L. M. (2022). Nuestra vida en el medio oeste, USA (Our life in the Midwest, USA): Listening to Mexican Immigrants. In N. Small & B. Longo (Eds.), Transnational research in technical communication: Realities and reflections. Albany, NY: Suny Press
Pigozzi, L. M. (2020) Caring for and understanding Latinx patients in health care settings. London, England: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Ltd.
Pigozzi, L. M. (2018) Negotiating informed consent project: Bueno aconsejar, major remediar (It is good to give advice, but it is better to solve the problem). L. Meloncon & B. Scott (Eds.), Methodologies for the Rhetoric of Health & Medicine (pp 195-213).

Rana Raddawi

Associate Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: Sorbonne University, Paris, France
Home Unit: Middle East and North African (MENA) Languages
Profile

Dr. Raddawi holds a PhD in Translation Studies Arabic/English/French from Sorbonne University in Paris, France. She is fluent in five languages English, Arabic, French, Portuguese and Turkish with a fair knowledge of Spanish and Italian. Dr. Raddawi has more than 15 years of teaching experience in the Middle East and the West at the graduate and undergraduate levels. She is the editor of the book Intercultural Communication with Arabs (Publisher: Springer). She is a certified interpreter and has several published translations into Arabic such as the books Happiness is a Serious Problem and Natural Medicine for Flu and Cold. Her research interests relate to Gender Equity in the Language Curriculum and Critical Pedagogy, Curriculum Design and Cross-Cultural studies. She was awarded the Catalyst Grant (2022-2024) by the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern to co-lead the Project Language Curricula and Gender Equity. She won The Office of the Vice President for International Relations and The Buffett Institute Classroom Partnering Award for Fall 2022.

Dr. Raddawi won the ASG Faculty Honor Roll (2019-2020) and (2021-2022). She is a “Searle Fellow” for the academic year 2023-2024 and a member of the Salzburg Global Seminar group for Education.

Deborah Rosenberg

Associate Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: University of Chicago
Home Units: OUSA and Spanish & Portuguese
Profile

Deborah Skolnik Rosenberg is a Weinberg College Adviser and faculty member in the Department and Spanish and Portuguese. She received her BA from Wesleyan University with majors in English and Spanish. Deborah earned her PhD in 2004 from the University of Chicago, where she wrote a dissertation on the role of the picaresque novel in Spanish national identity formation. Her current research interests encompass curricular design, articulation of language instruction between secondary and post-secondary institutions, and the role of race and ethnicity in defining Spanish identity.

Deborah has taught many courses in the department, including language courses at various levels and first-year seminars on Spanish and Latin American literature. She served for seven years as coordinator of Advanced Elementary Spanish. The former co-chair of the Council on Language Instruction (2013-16), Deborah has been teaching at Northwestern since 2005 and an adviser in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences since 2016.

Tasha Seago-Ramaly

Associate Professor of Instruction

ABD Institution: Northwestern University
MA Instutution: University of Delaware
Home Department: Spanish and Portuguese
Profile

Tasha Seago-Ramaly (ABD Northwestern) has been promoted to Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She is currently Technical Coordinator of the Intermediate Spanish in the Spanish Language Program and has developed a special topics course in this sequence investigating the voices of marginalized communities in Guatemala. She has recently presented on the benefits of content-based learning and assessment for the intermediate level language learner with more conference presentations to follow. Tasha is also involved with local organizations serving new arrivals in the Latine community. Serving as a fellow and Assistant Chair in the Residential College system for a number of years, she is currently Interim Chair of the Residential College of Cultural and Community Studies.

Oya Topçuoğlu

Associate Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: University of Chicago
Home Unit: Middle East and North African (MENA) Languages
Profile

Oya Topçuoğlu is an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Middle East and North African Languages Program at Northwestern University. Dr. Topçuoğlu teaches on a range of subjects, including modern Turkish language and culture, and the history and archaeology of the Middle East. Her first-year seminar, We Are What We Eat: Turkish Food Culture and Cuisine, explores Turkish identity, politics, and history through the lens of food from the Middle Ages to today. Taking advantage of the unique resources of the university and of the city of Chicago, the seminar introduces students to global issues such as identity, immigration, international relations, and religion. Dr. Topçuoğlu also teaches an upper-level undergraduate seminar on the relationship of archaeology and politics in the modern Middle East, touching upon issues of nation-building, nationalism, identity-formation, colonialism, and education.

In 2018-19, Dr. Topçuoğlu was selected to the Associated Student Government Faculty & Administrator Honor Roll for her Freshmen Seminar. In 2020, Dr. Topçuoğlu was the recipient of the prestigious Alumnae of Northwestern Grant Award. Dr. Topçuoğlu also serves as Chair of the Council on Language Instruction; as a Faculty Fellow at the International Studies Residential College (ISRC); and as a Faculty Board Member of the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program at the Buffett Institute.

Dr. Topçuoğlu holds a PhD in the Art and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, and a BA in Ottoman History from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. Dr. Topçuoğlu is an archaeologist by training, who specializes in the art, archaeology, and history of ancient Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Her research addresses issues of social identity and cultural exchange, and the effects of political change and ideology on the material record of the ancient Middle East. In addition to her work on iconography and symbolism, Dr. Topçuoğlu studies the looting and illegal trafficking of antiquities from Iraq and Syria, the political uses of the ancient past, and its role in the formation of national identities in the modern Middle East. She is particularly interested in the history of archaeology and museums, and cultural heritage preservation in her native Turkey.

Hanna Tzuker Seltzer

Associate Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: University of California, Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union
Home Units: Middle East and North African (MENA) Languages and Crown Family Center
Profile

Hanna Tzuker-Seltzer is an Associate Professor of Instruction affiliated both with the Jewish Studies Program and the MENA Languages Program in Weinberg College. Prof. Tzuker-Seltzer originates from Jerusalem, Israel, where she studied Film and Television and created a movie that was aired on the prominent Israeli network Arutz Shtayim (“Channel 2”) and was awarded the channel’s Snunit Prize for emerging Israeli filmmakers. Prior to her PhD studies at the University of California Berkeley, she graduated summa cum laude from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, earning her BA in Hebrew Literature with Designated Emphasis in Creative Writing. Dr. Tzuker-Seltzer also holds a certificate in teaching Hebrew as a Second Language from the Rothberg International School at the Hebrew University, where she taught in the Summer Ulpan. She has also taught at the Milah Ulpan in Jerusalem. During her doctoral studies at UC Berkeley (Ph.D., 2017, Jewish Studies), she taught courses in modern Hebrew language and Jewish Studies, earning UC Berkeley’s Outstanding Graduate Instructor Award. In addition to her focus on Hebrew Literature, Dr. Tzuker-Seltzer also studied Yiddish and examined the complicated relationship between Hebrew and Yiddish in the texts of various Yiddish writers. Her dissertation, “Retrospectivity as an Ethical Stance: Revisiting the Zionist Dream in Israeli Fiction and Film,” examines Israeli novels and films whose plots flashback to the period between the pre-state Yishuv in Palestine and the first years of Israeli statehood. Dr. Tzuker-Seltzer explores how this retrospective gaze suggests a nuanced ethical critique that both depicts the experience of daily life in those heady ideological days and offers a historical reassessment of the values of that era.

As the head of the Hebrew program at Northwestern, Dr. Tzuker-Seltzer created the curricula for the first and second years of Hebrew, as well as the courses for advanced Hebrew students (Parents and Children in Israeli Society, Between Two Writers: Etgar Keret and Sayed Kashua, The Four-Dimensional Jerusalem, Fun Stuff, and more). She has presented in numerous conferences, both on her work as a scholar of literature and film, and on her pedagogical work as a Hebrew Professor. In Spring 2023 Dr. Tzuker-Seltzer has created and taught a film class, “Otherness and Othering in Israeli Film”, that was open to all students in Weinberg College and other schools at Northwestern, and she will be teaching this class again in Spring 2024. This Fall (2023) Dr. Tzuker-Seltzer will be teaching “Biblical Stories and Poems”, a new course she has created for 4th year Hebrew students and heritage speakers. In this course, Dr. Tzuker-Seltzer will read with her students biblical texts in their original language as well as poems in modern Hebrew that were inspired by these texts. The students and Dr. Tzuker-Seltzer will then analyze the texts and the poems from a literary aspect and a linguistic one.

Marcelo Vinces

Associate Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: Tufts University
Home Units: OUSA and Molecular Biosciences
Profile

Marcelo Vinces is a Weinberg College Academic Adviser and an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Molecular Biosciences. He earned his bachelor's degree in biology from Cornell University and his doctorate in molecular microbiology from Tufts University. He completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard University and KU Leuven in Belgium, followed by a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship at the National Science Foundation. Previous to Northwestern, Marcelo worked at Oberlin College as the inaugural director of their Center for Learning, Education and Research in the Sciences. He currently serves in the leadership team for Northwestern’s HHMI-funded Inclusive Teaching project and is a faculty adviser for NU-SACNAS and GoSTEM.

Promoted to Professor of Instruction 2022-23

Justin Brown

Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: Stanford University
Home Department: Neurobiology
Profile

Justin Brown is a Professor of Instruction in the Department of Neurobiology. He earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford University, then began his career in higher education. As an instructor and academic advisor, Justin is interested in developing students’ ability to think critically about scientific information. He has taught at all levels of the undergraduate curriculum including courses that help first-year students develop college success skills, and several courses for the Neuroscience Major, including introductory neuroscience, neuroanatomy, and the neurobiology of homeostasis. Justin’s interest in curricular design and technologies has led to several talks and to service on the Curricular Policies Committee and the Learning & Technology Advisory Committee. As an academic advisor for students in the Neuroscience Major, and as a faculty mentor for students in the Posse scholarship program, Justin is committed to helping students succeed in college.

Margaret Dempster

Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: Indiana University
Home Department: French and Italian
Profile

Margaret Dempster (French, Ph.D. Indiana University), Professor of Instruction at Northwestern University, serves as the Director of the French Language Program. She teaches elementary and intermediate language courses, third-year content courses as well as a fourth-year French for the Professions – Business course. Margaret earned her B.S. in French and Psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, her M.A. in French literature from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and her Ph.D. from Indiana University. Her doctoral dissertation entitled: "Writing, Punishment, and the Self: A Study of Five Twentieth-century French Novels,” focuses on narration, self-punishment, and identity. Her primary interests include gender in French; French for the Professions, particularly, business, and gastronomy; eighteenth- and twentieth-century French literature; twentieth-century women writers, and autobiography. Margaret has taught French at the University of Illinois, Iowa State University, and Indiana University, as well as at a Montessori school in Indiana. While an undergraduate, she participated on the Council in Educational Exchange Critical Studies Program and took courses at the University of Paris-III. She has also studied at Paris-VII and has participated on numerous programs for teachers of French in France; in Tours, France, at the Alliance Française, and at the Chambre de Commerce et Industrie in Paris. For two years, Margaret served as the Advertising Manager for the AATF’s French Review. She has had several opportunities to work in France; as an interpreter and culinary aide at the Ecole de Gastronomie Française in Paris; as an instructor of English at the Lycée Charlemagne in Paris; and as a Professor of English conversation courses at the Université de Pau in Pau, France. In her hometown of Chicago, her passion for Paris fuels her participation in the Groupe Professionnel Francophone and her service on the committee of Chicago Sister Cities International-a Division of World Business International and their partnership with Paris.

Aaron Greicius

Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: University of California, Berkeley
Home Unit: Mathematics
Profile

Aaron Greicius teaches in the Department of Mathematics where he is currently the Director of Calculus and the co-director of the Northwestern Emerging Scholars Program. Before arriving at Northwestern he held a three-year postdoctoral position at Humboldt University in Berlin, and was a Lecturer at Loyola University Chicago. His mathematical research investigates Galois represen-tations arising from arithmetic varieties and modular forms. In his teaching he strives to provide highly interactive, deep, and challenging treatment of mathematics, and seeks to disabuse students of the pervasive misconception that mathematics is “not for them”. Greicius is an active proponent of affordable, open source course materials. He is the author of the open source textbook Linear algebra: the theory of vector spaces and linear transformations: a project that was generously supported by the Affordable Instructional Resources (AIR) initiative. In 2022 he was awarded the WCAS Alumni Teaching Award.

Valerie Kilman

Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: Brandeis University
Home Department: Neurobiology
Profile

Molecular Genetics of Sleep

We all sleep and we spend a lot of time doing it. Humans spend 1/3 of their lives in this unconscious state, unable to eat, mate, or protect young. In fact, without sleep a human being will die within weeks. Yet, it is not at all clear why we sleep. Is it to help form memories? Restore daily damage? Clean away accumulated toxins? Perhaps all of these or maybe none are the real underlying function of sleep. And it’s not just us. Every animal examined to date sleeps, including the fruit fly Drosophila. That’s lucky, because Drosophila have proven to be one of the best, fastest, most versatile systems in which to discover the genetic roots of conserved biological processes, including those important to human health and disease.

I am interested in asking why it is that we sleep, at a fundamental level. We are using the molecular-genetic tools and behavioral assays available in flies to ask what genes, what networks of neurons, are involved in sleep regulation. What happens to learning and memory in flies when their sleep is altered? What happens to repair and restoration (like in neurodegeneration below)? What is the relationship between metabolism and sleep? My ultimate goal is to understand how sleep affects human health and provide insight into ways to lead a healthy life and mitigate disease.

Neurodegeneration and the Circadian Clock

Disruption of daily rhythms has wide-ranging health consequences. We have begun to explore the links between the circadian clock and neurodegeneration. Human neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, and Huntington’s disease frequently involves symptoms of circadian disruption. Remarkably, normalization of circadian rhythms and sleep cycles can stave off the progression of disease. We are using fruit fly models of human neurodegenerative disease to test the hypothesis that normal circadian function can protect against neurodegenerative decline, and to discover the genetic bases of these links in hopes of providing novel pharmaceutical targets and protective strategies.

Elena Lanza

Professor of Instruction

MA Institution: University of Illinois, Chicago
Home Department: Spanish and Portuguese
Profile

Elena Lanza (B.A. University of Salamanca, Spain, 1998; M.A. University of Illinois at Chicago, 2001) is Professor of Instruction and Co-Director of the Weinberg Language Resource Center. She teaches Spanish language courses at all levels of proficiency at Weinberg College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as well as at the School of Professional Studies, and she is an AAPPL rater for Spanish.

Her research and professional interests include open educational resources for language teaching and learning, curriculum development and assessment, program review, teacher professional development and content-based instruction within the flipped classroom approach.

Elena has collaborated with the College Board and the Advanced Placement Spanish Language and Culture program in different capacities; she has served on the Committee on Contingent Labor in the Profession for the Modern Language Association (2012-2015); she has been an external reviewer for Spanish language programs at the college-level and she serves as a peer reviewer for the Foreign Language Annals.

In 2023 Elena received the Weinberg College Community Builder Award and in 2022 she was the recipient of the Council on Language Instruction Award for Excellence in Foreign Language Teaching. She has been named to the Faculty Honor Roll by the Associated Student Government five times (most recently in 2021-2022). In 2010 she received the Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Studies at the School of Professional Studies.

Patricia Scarampi

Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Home Department: French and Italian
Profile

Patricia Scarampi received her Ph.D. in French and Applied Linguistics from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) in 2008. During her time at Northwestern, she has been teaching a variety of language and culture courses across all levels of the curriculum. Two of her courses are cross listed with the department of Linguistics: French Phonetics and Foreign Language Learning: Theory and Practice. Since 2011 she has been responsible for the pedagogical training and mentoring of graduate students. From 2013 to 2021, she also directed the French Writing Center.

Her research interests focus on Second Language Acquisition, Digital Learning, Sociolinguistics, Phonetics, and Translation. She is the co-author of Flipped French, a digital textbook for Intermediate French that launched in 2022. Using cutting edge technologies and innovative pedagogical methods, Flipped French offers an adaptive learning platform with formative feedback. This long-term project, built in collaboration with the Media and Design Studio, has been supported by the Department of French and Italian, the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, the Office of the Provost, the University Libraries, and the Alumnae of Northwestern through numerous grants.

As an active member of the Council on Language Instruction, she currently chairs the Excellence in Language Teaching Award Committee. She has received several awards such as the CLI Excellence in Foreign Language Teaching Award in 2019, the Faculty Honor Roll by the Associated Student Government (ASG) in 2015 and in 2020, and the Canvas Most Innovative Course Site in 2023.

Shauna Seliy

Professor of Instruction

MFA Institution: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Home Department: English
Profile

Shauna Seliy is the author of the novel When We Get There (Bloomsbury 2007), published in the UK as The Trials and Tribulations of Lucas Lessar. It was named a best book of the year by the Sunday Independent (South Africa), a best debut of the year by Metro UK, and was a Booklist Editor's Choice for 2007. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, Meridian, The New Orleans Review, The Alaska Quarterly Review, and other publications.

Shauna received the Northwestern Arts and Sciences Alumni Teaching Award (2012), was named to the Northwestern Associated Student Government Faculty Honor Roll (2011-2012), and won the Karl Rosengren Faculty Mentoring Award (Mentor of Best 2019 Summer URG project).

Shauna has a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has received fellowships from Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony and is a recipient of the Mary Roberts Rinehart National Award for emerging writers, and the Deborah Slossberg Memorial award from Umass, Amherst.

Noelle Sullivan

Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: University of Florida
Home Unit: Global Health Studies
Profile

Noelle Sullivan (she/her/hers) is a critical medical anthropologist specializing in health sector reform, development policy and governance, global health, and international volunteering in under-resourced health care settings. Sullivan has two book projects underway. The first, The Business of Good Intentions: Reframing the Global Health Volunteering Debate, is an ethnographic analysis of “voluntourism,” or foreigners’ short term volunteering activities in low- and middle-income countries. Drawing on online research and in-depth ethnographic fieldwork in Tanzania from 2008-2017, this manuscript leaves behind polarizing narratives depicting foreign volunteers as heroes or villains, instead focusing on the systemic drivers and wider implications of voluntourism in medical settings. The second book project, Stretch: A Sister’s Memoir in the Aftermath of Murder, is a manuscript about her experiences with her brother, Adam Colquhoun, who was a victim of homicide in July 2018 in Calgary, Alberta. The book explores the implications of murder when the victim is among those society often writes off as the so-called “undeserving poor,” folks thought to make no positive contributions to the economy or society. Stretch, a reference to Adam’s preferred nickname, highlights the challenges of growing up with and supporting a neurodivergent family member whose undiagnosed mental illness and neglected accommodation needs led to a life lived at the fringes of criminality. The book also explores how the life Stretch lived helped his family imagine a future for the man who took his life, and in so doing entices broader publics to rethink prominent societal issues such as violence, poverty, mental illness, addiction, justice, redemption, and the differential values our society assigns to human life. Sullivan has been faculty in the Program in Global Health Studies since 2012. She has been a Charles Deering McCormick Distinguished Lecturer, and named to the ASG Faculty Honor Roll. She was also a Faculty Fellow at the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, a Sexualities Project at Northwestern Fellow, and an Op-Ed Project Public Voices Fellow.

Erin Waxenbaum

Professor of Instruction

PhD Institution: University of Florida
Home Department: Anthropology
Profile

Erin B. Waxenbaum is a biological and forensic anthropologist whose research focuses on forensic applications of anthropology and human variation. Waxenbaum is a Professor of Instruction and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Anthropology Department. She is also the Faculty Chair of the International Studies Residential College. Waxenbaum is a Diplomate and member of the Board of Directors for the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. In addition, she serves as a Research Associate at the Field Museum of Natural History and is the Forensic Anthropologist for Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office as well as surrounding Coroner’s Offices in northern Illinois.

Waxenbaum received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 2007, and a combined M.A./B.A. from Brandeis University in 2002. She also served as a Visiting Scientist for the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s Anthropology Department. Waxenbaum’s teaching includes courses on Human Origins, Forensic Anthropology, Human Osteology, and Human Growth and Development.