News

St. Olaf College Provost and Dean of the College Marci Sortor has announced that three faculty members have been promoted to the rank of full professor, four have been granted tenure and promoted to the rank of associate professor, and two have been promoted to the rank of associate professor.

Promoted to Professor

• Kathryn Ananda-Owens (Music Department), a classical pianist who is a leader in musician health, earned degrees from Oberlin College, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, where she studied with Julian Martin.
• Brian Bjorklund (Theater Department) specializes in design and technical aspects of theater. He earned his baccalaureate and master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota.
• Rebecca Judge (Economics Department), whose research includes environmental economics and justice, earned her baccalaureate degree from Smith College, master’s degree from the University of Minnesota, and Ph.D. from Duke University.

Granted Tenure and Promoted to Associate Professor

• Ibtesam Al Atiyat (Sociology and Anthropology Department), who taught at the UN International Leadership Institute in Amman, Jordan, earned her baccalaureate and master’s degrees from the University of Jordan and Ph.D. from Freie Universitaet Berlin.
• Adam Berliner (Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Department), whose academic interests include combinatorial matrix theory, linear algebra, and graph theory, earned his baccalaureate degree from Carleton College and master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Abdulai Iddrisu (History Department), director of the Africa and the Americas program, specializes in African history. He earned his baccalaureate and master’s degrees from Ghana’s University of Cape Coast and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.
• Laura Listenberger (Biology and Chemistry Departments), whose research aims to understand cellular mechanisms of fat storage, earned her baccalaureate degree from Hope College and her Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis.

Promoted to Associate Professor

• Eric Fure-Slocum ’79 (History Department), who specializes in 20th-century U.S. urban and working class history, incorporates community-based work in many of his courses. He is a St. Olaf graduate who earned a master’s degree from both San Francisco State University and Duke University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa.
• Jamie Schillinger ’93 (Religion Department), whose research and teaching interests include the relationship between religion and politics and the philosophy of religion, is a St. Olaf graduate who earned a master’s degree from the University of St. Andrews and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He also studied at the Institut Français d’études Arabes in Damascus, Syria.