Board of Trustees Awards Tenure to Four Faculty Members

The promotions had been recommended by the board’s Academic Affairs Committee. The following faculty members were promoted from assistant professor to associate professor with tenure, effective July 1, 2023.

Oyman Basaran, Sociology

Basaran’s scholarly interests include medicine, philosophy and sociology of science, and social theory. He teaches courses on sociology of medicine and mental health, science and technology, and the Middle East. His previous research examined the relationship between masculinity, homosexuality, and the Turkish military. His new book, Circumcision and Medicine in Modern Turkey (University of Texas Press, 2023) examines the medicalization of male circumcision in Muslim-majority Turkey. Combining medical sociology and political economy with psychoanalytical theory, the book challenges the prevailing wisdom that regards medicalization as a smooth and univocal development and enriches our sociological understanding of the subjectivity of medical professionals. Basaran’s next project will focus on the relationship between science, truth, and politics. By examining the scientific research at the margin of the mainstream scientific community, the project will seek to understand how institutional practices and hierarchies, epistemological settlements, and organizational exclusions converge to form the basis for the scientific orthodoxy today.

Meryem N. Belkaïd, Romance Languages and Literatures

Trained in both literature and political science, Belkaïd’s current research focuses on contemporary North African cinema and literature. Belkaïd endeavors to show her students how the tremendous political, social, and cultural changes that have been happening in that region since late 2010 are reflected in the works of North African writers, directors, and artists. Other research interests include twentieth- and twenty-first-century French literature and crime fiction. Belkaïd teaches courses in the French language and Francophone literatures, cultures, and film studies. Her seminar “Representations of the Algerian War of Independence” follows through novels and films the various phases behind the construction of the collective memory of the Algerian War of Independence in France and Algeria. She completed her first book, From Outlaw to Rebel: Oppositional Documentary in Contemporary Algeria with Palgrave MacMillan (2023). She is currently working on a second book project in French, Mensonges d’état et vérités narratives/State Lies and Narrative Truths, that shows how cinema and literature can oppose the Algerian and French states’ instrumentalization of the past and be a vector of nation-building through a more nuanced narrative.

Theo Greene, Sociology

Greene’s research, writing, and teaching interests lie at the intersections of gender, sexuality, urbanism, and culture. His research broadly uses sexual communities to understand how urban redevelopment shapes and reconfigures how individuals conceptualize, identify with, and participate in local communities. His current book project, Not in MY Gayborhood: Gay Neighborhoods and the Rise of the Vicarious Citizen (forthcoming with Columbia University Press), explores the persistence of iconic gay neighborhoods in Washington, DC, through ephemeral acts of placemaking by nonresidential community actors, or vicarious citizens. Greene has been honored for both his teaching and scholarship. In 2020, Greene was awarded the Sydney B. Karofsky Prize for Junior Faculty and the Karofsky Encore Lecture. That same year, his article "Aberrations of Home: Gay Neighborhoods and Experiences of Community among GBQ Men of Color," published in The Handbook of Research for Black Males (Michigan State University Press), received the Distinguished Article Award in Sexualities from the American Sociological Association's Section on Sexualities. 

Alison Riley Miller, Education

A learning scientist who conducts design-based research around learning environments in the context of STEM education from pre-K through high school, Miller focuses on students’ engagement with scientific and engineering practices, including modeling, data analysis, interpretation, and evidence-based argumentation, and on the teacher professional development and pedagogical strategies that support that engagement. Miller is particularly interested in teaching and learning around models and visualizations in the context of earth and environmental science. Miller’s experience of teaching for nine years at the secondary level informs her research interests in science teaching and learning, modeling and visualization, and teacher education. Millers latest collaborative projects, Developing a Modeling Orientation to Science (DMOS): Teaching and Learning Variability and Change in Ecosystems” and “Bridging Preschool and Kindergarten Science: Exploring Play-Based Engagement with Scientific and Engineering Practices,” are supported by two separate grants from the National Science Foundation. Her current courses examine contemporary reform efforts and innovations in science teaching and learning, and the legal, ethical, and pedagogical considerations for teachers when creating inclusive and culturally sustaining classroom learning environments.