Faculty Tenure Decisions Announced at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – This spring, seven members of the Holy Cross faculty have been promoted to the rank of associate professor, with tenure.

Cristina Ballantine, of the mathematics and computer science department, earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Toronto, Canada. A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 2002, she was awarded a Fulbright Junior Research Award to Germany from 2004 to 2005 at Universität Münster, where she pursued her research interests which include number theory, automorphic forms and representation theory, and combinatorics. She has published many papers including “Ramanujan Type Buildings.” She serves on the Committee on Faculty Affairs and the Committee on Graduate Studies and Fellowships. She lives in Holden with her husband, Dan, and their daughters, Hanna and Emma.

Jeffrey A. Bernstein, of the philosophy department, earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Vanderbilt University. He has served as the director of the Philosophy Colloquium series at Holy Cross, where he has been an assistant professor since 2001. A member of the American Philosophical Association as well as the North American Spinoza Society, Bernstein has published articles on topics such as German idealism and Spinoza. Additionally, he has given presentations at California State University, Villanova University and Emerson College, and referees for the academic journals Epoché and Idealistic Studies. He lives in Worcester with his wife, Ingrid Rasmussen, and son, Zachary.

Mary Ebbott, of the classics department, earned her Ph.D. in classical philology from Harvard University. She has been a member of the Holy Cross faculty since 2001 and has served on multiple college committees, including the Academic Affairs Council and the Academic Standing Committee. Her research interests are Homeric epic and Greek tragedy. She is the executive editor at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C., where she has also co-taught a graduate seminar on Homeric poetry and is one of the editors of the Homer Multitext project. Her publications include Imagining Illegitimacy in Classical Greek Literature and, most recently, “Butler’s Authoress of the Odyssey: gendered readings of Homer, then and now.” She lives in Worcester with her husband, Mark Tomasko.

Ann Marie Leshkowich, of the department of sociology and anthropology, earned her Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University in 2000 and joined the Holy Cross faculty that same year. She is an economic anthropologist who does fieldwork on gender, entrepreneurship, globalization, late socialism, middle classes, and fashion in Vietnam. Her primary research focuses on female cloth and clothing traders in Ho Chi Minh City’s central marketplace. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, Fulbright-Hays, and the American Philosophical Society. She co-edited the book Re-Orienting Fashion: The Globalization of Asian Dress (Berg, 2003) and has published articles in the Journal of Vietnamese Studies and Fashion Theory. Currently participating in the First-Year Program, she also has taught a broad range of courses, including fashion and consumption, globalization in Asia, and anthropological theory and methods. She serves on the Premedical/Predental Committee and is a member of the Asian Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies programs. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, Noah, and their daughter, Allegra.

Kenneth V. Mills, of the chemistry department, earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in chemistry and chemical biology. A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 2001, he directs undergraduate researchers in the study of the mechanism of hedgehog autoprocessing and protein splicing. In 2005, he was awarded the National Science Foundation’s CAREER grant for “CAREER: Alternative Mechanisms of HINT domain autoprocessing: An integrated undergraduate research and education program,” which he will work on through 2010. He has published a number of journal articles such as, “Protein Purification via Temperature-Dependent, Intein-Mediated Cleavage from an Immobilized Metal Affinity Resin.” At Holy Cross, his is co-chair of the biochemistry concentration and has served as member of the Academic Affairs Council and the Curricular Review Steering Committee. He lives in Charlton with his wife, Elisa, and son, Dean.

Tomohiko Narita, of the physics department, earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Wisconsin. A member of the faculty since 2001, he has served on the College Curriculum Committee, Academic Affairs Council and the Community Standards Board. Since 2003, he has been the Holy Cross radiation safety officer. Narita has published a number of articles on observations of neutron stars and black holes, and X-ray satellite instrumentation. He lives in Princeton with his wife, Kate, and their sons, Anders and Corbin.

Leila Philip, of the English department, earned an M.F.A. in fiction from Columbia University School of the Arts, where she was a writing fellow from 1989-2001. A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 2003, she has taught courses in creative writing, fiction, nonfiction, and Asian American literature. From 2004-2005, she was acting director of the Creative Writing Program. She is the author of three books of nonfiction, including The Road Through Miyama (Random House, 1989, Vintage, 1991) for which she received the Martha Albrand Special Citation for Nonfiction in 1990; and the award-winning memoir A Family Place: A Hudson Valley Farm, Three Centuries, Five Wars, One Family (Viking 2001, Vintage 2002). She has received numerous awards for her writing, including fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Humanities, The American Association of University Women and the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe. She lives in Woodstock, Conn., with her husband, Garth Evans, and son, Rhys Evans.