Two New College Faculty Members Receive Tenure and Four are Promoted to Professor

(March 15, 2010)  At its February 20 meeting, the New College Board of Trustees approved tenure for two New College professors:  Carrie Beneš, assistant professor of history; and Wendy Sutherland, assistant professor of German language and literature.  At the same meeting, Provost Charlene Callahan reported that four veteran faculty members were recommended for promotion from associate to full professor:  Richard Coe to professor of economics; Elzie McCord, Jr. to professor of biology; José Alberto Portugal to professor of Spanish language and literature; and Miriam Wallace to professor of English.

“Tenure is not merely a signpost or a function of time served by a faculty member in a position,” stated Callahan.  “Rather, it is the culmination of a difficult and demanding five-year progression of demonstrated productivity, peer review and evaluation.  By conferring tenure, the College acknowledges not only the high quality of work that a candidate has completed during the past five years, but confirms a belief that she or he will have a productive career long into the future.  We are fortunate to have talented teachers and scholars who have worked so hard to become tenured members of our faculty.”

Carrie Beneš is a cultural historian specializing in late medieval Italy.  Her main research interests involve intellectual networks and the construction of history as a means to identify how people throughout history have used and manipulated the past to suit their ends.  She arrived at New College in 2004 and spent the 2008-09 academic year conducting research in Rome as the recipient of a coveted Rome Prize. She holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a B.A. from Harvard University.

Wendy Sutherland’s teaching reflects her interests in German drama, gender studies and issues of race.  A New College professor since 2004, she teaches German language and literature as well as German culture courses for students with advanced proficiency in the language. Sutherland encourages students to study abroad and takes regular research trips to Berlin to study representations of black women in eighteenth-century German plays. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. from Middlebury College and a B.A. from Smith College.

In announcing the four promotions, Callahan noted, “Promotion to full professor is not merely a matter of time spent in rank; it signifies recognition of accomplishments and contributions to the College in the areas of teaching, scholarship and service.  Today, we are indeed fortunate to honor Professors Coe, McCord, Portugal and Wallace.”

Richard Coe teaches introduction to economic analysis, as well as upper-level courses in law and economics, poverty and redistributive policy, and government expenditures and taxation. A professor at New College since 1991, he has published several articles on poverty and welfare programs and is currently researching topics regarding the interrelationship between the legal and economic systems, particularly with respect to the dividing line between public and private interests. He holds M.A., J.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from Kenyon College.

Elzie McCord came to New College as a visiting professor in 2000 and joined the faculty in 2001.  He worked at DuPont Agricultural Products for 23 years in a variety of positions, including both senior research biologist and senior research chemist. His research interests include insecticide resistance mechanisms in insects, environmental toxicology, plant allelopathy, and the effects of plant allelochemicals on non-target hosts. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida in entomology, studying the toxicology of insecticide resistance in insects. He also holds an M.S. from UF and a B.S. from Savannah State College.

José Alberto Portugal holds the PepsiCo Professorship at New College.  On the faculty since 1997, his teaching and research interests include Spanish American narratives and essays from the 19th & 20th Centuries, modern Spanish & Spanish American poetry, and literature of the Spanish Golden Age. He has written articles on contemporary Peruvian narrative and has published a book on novelist-anthropologist José María Arguedas, Las novelas de José María Arguedas: Una incursión en lo inarticulado. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas and a Bachiller en Humanidades con Mención en Lengua y Literaturas Hispánicas from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

Miriam Wallace came to New College in 1995 and teaches the British novel and literary theory, with a particular interest in feminist and gender theories. She has written on topics ranging from aesthetics and politics in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves to figurative aspects of British law in the 1794 London treason trial of the novelist Thomas Holcroft, revolutionary subjects in the English ‘Jacobin’ novel, and British fiction of the Romantic Period.  In the summer of 2009, she was one of only two dozen faculty members from around the country selected to attend a British institute on “The Rule of Law: Legal Studies and the Liberal Arts,” sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. She holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a B.A. with distinction from Swarthmore College.

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