9 Whitman Faculty Promoted in 2022
By Mónica Hernández Williams
Whitman recognizes the outstanding work of each member of the faculty–dedicated teacher–scholars who are experts in their fields. This academic year, a handful of Whitman faculty members received promotions that reflect their contributions to their departments and the Whitman College community.
“It is always exciting to celebrate the accomplishments of our faculty,” said President Sarah Bolton. “Whitman professors are committed educators, thinkers, authors, researchers and mentors and I extend my sincere congratulations to everyone who was recently promoted."
Promotion to Full Professor
M Acuff
Professor of Art
Acuff’s work is multimedia in nature and blends ersatz images and industrially produced commercial objects with organic and hand-made sculptural elements. Courses they teach include Foundations: The Transformed Object, beginning to advanced Sculpture, and Art and the Anthropocene.
Acuff holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art from Augustana College and a Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture and Intermedia from the University of Iowa.
Christopher Leise
Professor of English
Leise focuses on modern and contemporary American literature, American Christianity, and African American literature, among other specialties. Courses include Native American Literature and American Literature of the Modern and Contemporary Environment. He works with the Environmental Humanities program and his classes also contribute to the Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies program.
Leise has a Bachelor of Arts from Hofstra University and a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from SUNY Buffalo.
Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
Matthew W. Bost
Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Writing, & Public Discourse
Bost is a rhetorical theorist who studies the relationship between rhetoric, philosophy and social change. His courses include Fundamentals of Argumentation; Rhetorical Theory; The Senses in Civic Life; Rhetoric, Gender and Sexuality; and Rhetoric and Capitalism.
Bost holds a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric and Media Studies from Willamette University, a Master of Arts, and a Ph.D. in Communications Studies, Rhetoric from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Tarik A. Elseewi
Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies
Elseewi’s interests include media globalization, television studies and film and media in the Arabic-speaking world. He is particularly focused on questions of identity, representation, race, and the intersection of media and politics.
His Bachelor of Arts is in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz and his Master in Arts and Ph.D. are from the University of Texas at Austin in the department of Radio, Television and Film.
Maria C. Lux
Associate Professor of Art
Lux works with a variety of materials to make art installations about animals and their relationship to human knowledge and worldviews and uses existing research from across disciplines in her projects. Courses at Whitman include beginning to advanced Drawing and Animals and Art.
Lux earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Iowa State University in Graphic Design and Studio Art and her Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Sculpture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Marian Manic
Associate Professor of Economics
Manic teaches a range of courses including Principles of Macroeconomics, Financial Accounting, Corporate Finance, and Investment Theory & Analysis.
Manic holds a Bachelor of Arts from the Academy of Economic Studies, Moldova and a Master in Business Administration and Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina.
John A. Stratton
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Stratton researches software performance optimization, with a particular emphasis on designing efficient applications for scientific workloads. His courses include Computer Systems Programming, Data Structures and Computer Systems Fundamentals.
Stratton earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he also earned his Master of Science and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Promotion to Senior Rank
Chetna Chopra
Senior Adjunct Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, Writing and Public Discourse and General Studies
Chopra has been teaching at Whitman College since 2010. Her current courses include Exploring Complex Questions and Language and Writing.
A finalist for the Artist Trust Gar LaSalle Storyteller Award in 2015, she earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Delhi, Master of Science in print journalism (with distinction) from Boston University, and Master of Fine Arts in fiction from The Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
Stan Thayne
Senior Lecturer of Environmental Studies
Thayne's teaching and research focus primarily on Indigenous Studies in the fields of Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Politics, and Religion. Current research and writing projects focus on human entanglements in the lives of Núsux (aka salmon); First Foods; race and gender in outdoor recreation; religion and the sacred in Indigenous and settler colonial contexts; and patriarchal violence in communities marked as "religious."
Classes Thayne teaches include Politics of Salmon, Intro to Environmental Studies, Indigenous Politics, First Foods, and Religion and Native America.
Thayne holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.