This fall, nine Swarthmore faculty members begin tenure-track appointments, three of whom previously served as visiting assistant professors, and one faculty member embarks on a distinguished faculty appointment. In January 2025, the College will welcome another faculty member to begin their tenure-track appointment.

Faculty members receiving tenure-track appointments:

Assistant Professor of Biology Marisa Egan

Biologist Marisa Egan specializes in microbiology, and her research focuses on microbial interactions, bacterial gene regulation, and their implications for human health and disease. This fall, Egan is teaching Cellular and Molecular Biology.

Egan has been recognized with a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, and an American Society of Microbiology Award. Previously, she served as a Penn-Postdoctoral Opportunities in Research and Teaching Fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, where she worked in the Zackular Lab.

She received a Ph.D. in cellular and microbiology from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, and a B.S. in biology from St. Joseph's University, where she was a John P. McNulty Scholar.

"I look forward to being part of the Biology Department, mentoring and teaching students in both the classroom and the laboratory environments. I am also eager to work together with the collaborative team of teachers, thinkers, and scientists here at Swarthmore to support the exceptional student-centered education and liberal arts curriculum."

Assistant Professor of Psychology Youssef Ezzyat

Youssef Ezzyat is a psychologist specializing in the mechanisms of memory and learning, focusing on neural dynamics in the human brain. His interdisciplinary background combines insights from engineering and neuroscience and informs his research on cognitive processes. This fall, he is teaching a seminar in Cognitive Neuroscience.

Ezzyat was previously an assistant professor of psychology in Wesleyan University's Neuroscience and Behavior Department. He served as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Swarthmore College from 2018 to 2020 and as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Ezzyat’s research has been published in publications such as the Journal of Neuroscience, Cerebral Cortex, and Brain Stimulation.

He earned his Ph.D. in psychology from New York University and his B.S.E. in electrical engineering from Princeton University.

“I am so excited to be back at Swarthmore. I look forward to teaching and research with our wonderful students and to building connections with colleagues across the community."

Assistant Professor of History Elise A. Mitchell

Elise A. Mitchell is a historian who focuses on the early modern Black Atlantic, examining the social and political histories of embodiment, healing, disease, race, and gender in the Caribbean region. This semester, she is teaching Healing in the Black Atlantic, and in the spring, she will be teaching Black Atlantic History 1: Slavery and Revolutions and the first-year seminar History, Slavery, and the Digital Turn.

Mitchell previously served as a visiting scholar at The McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in the History Department at Princeton University, an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow, and a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, among other prestigious fellowships, grants, and awards. She has written numerous articles, book chapters, online publications, and essays, and has two books currently in the works; Morbid Geographies: Enslavement, Epidemics, and Embodiment in the Early Modern Atlantic World as well as Remedies and Relations: Medicine, Slavery, and Freedom in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica.

Mitchell earned her Ph.D. and MPhil in history from New York University and a B.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania.

"I am delighted and honored to join the Swarthmore College community. I look forward to teaching Swarthmore’s brilliant and passionate students more about the vibrant history of Black life in the Americas and the digital humanities."

Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Shaoyang Ning

Shaoyang Ning is a statistician whose research focuses on the development of statistical methods for integrative data analysis. This semester, he is teaching Statistical Methods II.

Ning’s research involves applying statistical methods to real-world problems with big data. Examples of the applications of his work include tracking flu activities and predicting cancer-targeting drugs. His work has been published in several journals including the Journal of the American Statistical Association and Annals of Applied Statistics.

Previously, Ning was an assistant professor of statistics at Williams College; a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley; a College Fellow in statistics at Harvard University; and a research assistant at Harvard. Ning received a Ph.D. in statistics from Harvard, and his B.S. at Peking University in his home city of Beijing, China.

“I’m thrilled to join the Swarthmore community! I look forward to engaging with students in statistics classes and working with them on projects that integrate big data from various sources and resolutions to address real-life problems."

Assistant Professor of Physics Carolyn Raithel

Carolyn Raithel is a theoretical and computational astrophysicist. Her research interests include neutron stars, dense matter physics, multi-messenger astronomy, gravitational waves, and compact object mergers. She is teaching Introductory Mechanics this fall.

Raithel held a joint postdoctoral fellowship at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science and the Princeton Gravity Initiative, as well as a John N. Bahcall Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study. She completed her Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Arizona and her B.A. in physics at Carleton College. Her research has been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Physical Review Letters, and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, among other journals.

"I look forward to teaching and interacting with a wide range of students here, and to building a vibrant computational astrophysics research program together."

Faculty members who previously held visiting assistant professor roles receiving tenure-track appointments:

Assistant Professor of Japanese John Bundschuh

John Bundschuh is a scholar of Japanese language, linguistics, and classical literature, focusing on the relationship between language and culture. His research explores narrative structure and grammatical expression in early Japanese translations of Chinese Buddhist sutras. This semester, he is teaching Writing Systems of East Asia.

He earned his B.A. in linguistics and Asian studies and his M.A. in linguistics from Tulane University, followed by a Ph.D. in Japanese Linguistics from The Ohio State University.

Bundschuh recently had a chapter published in the Routledge Handbook of East Asian Translation called "Japanese Vernacular Glossing of Sinitic Buddhist Texts: 9th-Century Narrative Techniques and a Vivid Translation of a Parable of Self-Sacrifice.” He is currently working on a book project on the connection between grammatical tense and narrative structure in classical Japanese translations of Chinese Buddhist texts, as well as working with Swarthmore research assistants on an ongoing project comparing those structures in Sanskrit, Chinese, and both modern and classical Japanese renditions of these texts.

"After teaching at Swarthmore for three years as a visiting professor, it is an honor to have the opportunity to continue working with such wonderful students and colleagues. I look forward to building more connections with the next generation of scholars of the languages, literatures, and cultures of Japan, and Asia more broadly."

Assistant Professor of Educational Studies and Asian American Studies Roseann Liu

Roseann Liu is a scholar and author whose research focuses on race, educational inequality, and social justice. This fall, Liu is teaching Urban Education as well as the Colleges’ first-ever Introduction to Asian American Studies course. The intro course, presented by the Tri-College Asian American Studies Program, builds on the organizing work of alumni who led a student-run course in Fall 2018, which Liu served as a faculty advisor for.

Liu says, “In the range of ways I work with students, I aim to orient them to course content by helping them make personal connections, disorient them by challenging their preconceived notions, and reorient them by helping them create new frameworks for understanding."

Liu was previously an assistant professor at Wesleyan University. She first joined Swarthmore as a visiting assistant professor of educational studies, and she says that she loves teaching at a place that cares about teaching. Liu is the recipient of fellowships and grants from the National Academy of Education, Spencer Foundation, American Educational Research Association, and Wenner-Gren Foundation. She received her B.S. in early childhood and elementary education from New York University, an M.Ed. in education leadership and policy from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a joint Ph.D. in anthropology and education from the University of Pennsylvania.

Prior to her career in academia, Liu was a policy and program evaluation researcher and a NYC public school teacher. Her 2024 book Designed to Fail: Why Racial Equity in School Funding Is So Hard to Achieve, exposes school funding inequities and is emblematic of her research in its commitments to equity and public engagement.

Assistant Professor of Theater Jude Sandy

Jude Sandy is a director, actor, movement artist, and educator from Trinidad and Tobago, with a background in Africana studies and theatre arts. His professional career in theater includes collaborations on and off Broadway, as well as in regional theaters across the United States. This semester Sandy will be teaching two sections of Acting One: Play, Performance & Context, also known as Acting Is For Everyone!.

Sandy joined Swarthmore for the 2023-24 academic year as a visiting assistant professor. Prior, he was a visiting assistant professor of theater and dance at Amherst College and acting company member and director at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I. He co-founded the Denizen Arts Project in 2016, focusing on African diaspora and LGBTQ+-informed performances.

He earned his A.B. in Africana studies with an emphasis in theatre arts from Brown University and completed his M.F.A. at the Brown/Trinity Rep Graduate Programs in acting and directing. His recent work includes Walk The (pink) Elephant, a dance-theater ritual addressing the legacies of HIV/AIDS in Black and queer communities.

“Everyday at Swarthmore, I find myself inspired, provoked, illuminated by my students and fellow educators in our shared and unending and, yes, sometimes contentious examination of what it means to cultivate courageous citizenship — whatever our field of endeavor — and what it means to be vigorous in our learning and creating, to engage and even embrace one another right at the heart of our differences of background or interest or conviction. That pursuit is simultaneously fervent and cooperative at Swarthmore in ways unlike anywhere else I’ve experienced, and it’s especially true of my colleagues and students in the Department of Theater. And that commitment we fulfill together here is not always comfortable, not always even polite, but I find it profoundly exciting and enriching. Swarthmore feels like home.”

Faculty member receiving a distinguished faculty position:

Julien and Virginia Cornell Visiting Professor of History Brendan McGeever

Brendan McGeever is a historical sociologist whose research interests include the study of racialization and antisemitism, the sociology of class, the study of the former Soviet Union, Marxism and Marxist theory. His home institution is Birkbeck, University of London where he is a senior lecturer in Sociology. This fall, he is teaching The Nationality Question in Russia, 1917 to the Present, with Isaac H. Clothier Professor of History and International Relations Robert Weinberg.

McGeever’s work examines the articulation between race and class across time and space. His first book, Antisemitism and the Russian Revolution (CUP 2019), explored how the Bolsheviks grappled with antisemitism within the workers’ movement during the 1917 revolution and Civil War. His most recent book is Britain in Fragments: Why Things Are Falling Apart, co-authored with Satnam Virdee (2023 MUP). McGeever’s work has been published in several journals, such as Ethnic and Racial Studies, Patterns of Prejudice, The Political Quarterly, and Quest: Issues in Contemporary Jewish History.

From the University of Glasgow, McGeever received his MA in sociology and politics, a MSc in sociology, a post-graduate diploma in Russian language, and a PhD.

Faculty member receiving tenure-track appointment in January 2025:

Assistant Professor of Engineering Sintana Vergara

Sintana Vergara is an environmental engineer specializing in waste management, specifically the climate implications of managing our waste in alternative ways. Her research focuses on developing methods for composting, carbon sequestration in soils, and life cycle assessments to promote sustainable resource management.

Vergara has served as an associate professor of environmental resources and engineering at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt; worked with the World Bank’s Urban Development Unit to improve solid waste management practices in cities worldwide, and was a Fulbright Fellow.

Vergara's work has been published in journals including Environmental Research Letters, Journal of Industrial Ecology, and Environmental Science and Technology.

From the University of California, Berkeley, she received a Ph.D. in energy and resources, an MS in civil and environmental engineering, and MS in energy and resources, in addition to a BS in biological and environmental engineering from Cornell University.