This fall, five Swarthmore faculty members begin tenure-track appointments, and one faculty member embarks on a distinguished faculty appointment.

Faculty members receiving tenure-track appointments:

Assistant Professor of English Literature Morgan Parker

Poet, essayist, and novelist Morgan Parker is well published with a diverse body of work across genres. This semester, she is teaching two poetry workshops: Introduction to Poetic Forms and Techniques and Contemporary Poetry and Its Concerns.

Parker is the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the California Book Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, as well as three Cave Canem Foundation Fellowships. Previously, she taught as an associate adjunct professor at the University of California (UC) Irvine, and as a visiting faculty member at New York University (NYU) and Columbia University.

Her publications include You Get What You Pay For (Penguin Random House, 2024), Who Put This Song On? (Delacorte Press, 2019), and Magical Negro (Tin House, 2019). Her writing appears in outlets such as The New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, and The New York Times Magazine; she has published numerous essays and articles in The Cut, ESPN, Variety, and The Poetry Foundation. She is currently completing a new poetry collection to be published by Tin House Books.

Parker received a B.A. in creative writing and anthropology from Columbia University and an MFA in creative writing from NYU.

"I'm thrilled to be joining such a creative and curious community at Swarthmore, where I hope to inspire student expression and help foster genuine passion for poetry,” Morgan says. “In a society that often values rhetoric over reflection, the power of language is undeniable; and impactful poetry can be a pathway to social change and critical introspection. I can't wait to mentor a new generation of writers, celebrate students' voices, and collaborate across artistic disciplines on campus."

Assistant Professor of Economics Emma Rackstraw

Economist Emma Rackstraw specializes in labor and public economics, the economics of crime, experimental and behavioral economics, and the economics of discrimination. 

This fall, Rackstraw is teaching Economics of Crime & Justice.

She was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and was a SSRC Criminal Justice Innovation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Quattrone Center at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. 

Rackstraw has held leadership roles in policy and research, serving as a sector lead for Crime and Political Economy & Governance at J-PAL North America at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Associate Fellow at the Office of Evaluation Sciences, and Research Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. 

She received a B.A. in economics with a minor in music from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University.

“I'm so excited to be part of this incredible intellectual community,” Rackstraw says. “I look forward to connecting with students and to meeting my colleagues from around campus. I also hope to get students involved in my research on the criminal legal system next summer!"

Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Federica Zoe Ricci

Statistician Federica Zoe Ricci specializes in Bayesian statistical methods, statistics, and data science education. This semester, she is teaching Statistical Methods I.

Ricci’s methodological research focuses on developing scalable statistical models for the analysis of large networks, such as those found in sociology and biology applications. Her work has been published in Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, The Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education, and Technology Innovations in Statistics Education. 

Ricci earned a B.Sc. in economics and management for arts, culture, and communication from Bocconi University and an M.Sc. in economic and social sciences from Bocconi University. She recently completed her Ph.D. in statistics at the University of California-Irvine, where she also worked as a program assistant at the Bayes BATS program for the Advancement of Bayesian Thinking in STEM. At UC Irvine, Ricci was a fellow of the Hasso Plattner Institute for Machine Learning and Data Science and of the Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation.

"I am very excited to join Swarthmore’s vibrant learning community!” Ricci says. “I look forward to helping students engage with statistics in ways that connect to their lives and interests, building mentoring relationships, and collaborating with colleagues across disciplines."

Assistant Professor of Computer Science Ranysha Ware

Computer scientist Ranysha Ware focuses on networking, distributed systems, and applied machine learning. This fall, she is teaching Computer Networks.

She has conducted research at Carnegie Mellon University, Microsoft Research, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and State University of New York (SUNY) New Paltz. She is a recipient of the Internet Research Task Force Applied Networking Research Prize, the Facebook Emerging Scholars Award, the SUNY New Paltz 40 Under Forty Alumni Award, and a National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM) Ph.D. Fellowship. Ware previously taught at Carnegie Mellon.

Ware earned a B.S. in computer science from SUNY New Paltz, an M.S. in computer science from UMass Amherst, and a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon.

"As a product of liberal arts education myself, I am especially thrilled to join Swarthmore,” Ware says. “I look forward to connecting with my new colleagues amongst faculty and staff. I am also excited to engage with students through teaching computer systems courses and conducting computer networking research."

Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Iris Yoon ’13

Mathematician Iris Yoon ’13 works in applied mathematics, specifically in applied topology. She uses techniques from topology to infer structural information from data, particularly data arising from biology and neuroscience experiments. This semester, she is teaching Multivariable Calculus.

Yoon’s work has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, Journal of Applied and Computational Topology, Journal of Mathematical Biology, Computational and Mathematical Biophysics, and College Mathematics Journal. 

She previously taught as an assistant professor at Wesleyan University and held postdoctoral positions at the University of Oxford Mathematical Institute, University of Pennsylvania, and Georgia Institute of Technology.

After receiving a B.A. in mathematics from Swarthmore, Yoon received a Ph.D. in applied mathematics and computational science from UPenn.

"I am beyond excited to be returning to Swarthmore, where I first cultivated a love for mathematics,” Yoon says. “I look forward to engaging with students both in the classroom and through research!"

Faculty member receiving a distinguished faculty position:

Julien and Virginia Cornell Visiting Professor of English Literature Bashir Abu-Manneh

Bashir Abu-Manneh served as head of the School of Classics, English, and History at the University of Kent. He specializes in postcolonial English and literatures of the Middle East, literary realism and modernism, and literary and cultural theory, particularly Marxist and postcolonial approaches. This semester, Abu-Manneh is teaching Global Realism, and in the spring, he will teach Global Marx and Marxism.

Abu-Manneh is the author of The Palestinian Novel: From 1948 to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and Fiction of the New Statesman (University of Delaware Press, 2007). His work has also appeared in Catalyst: Journal of Theory & Strategy, Modernism/Modernity-Print, Minnesota Review, and Modern Language Quarterly. He is writing a book provisionally entitled Disposable Palestinians: Israel's Wars and October 7.

He is founder and co-director of the Centre for the Global Study of Empire and contributing editor of Jacobin Magazine, and he serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Palestine Studies and Catalyst. Abu-Manneh previously taught at Barnard College and Brown University, held a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia’s Center for Comparative Literature and Society, and was a postdoctoral Fulbright visiting fellow at Columbia.

He earned a B.A. in English literature from the University of Haifa, an M.A. in English and comparative literature from the University of Warwick, and a D.Phil. in English literature from the University of Oxford.

"Swarthmore already feels like a haven,” Abu-Manneh says. “I look forward to engaging with students and colleagues this year and participating in Swarthmore's unique community".