WORCESTER, Mass. – Eight faculty members at the College of the Holy Cross have been promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure.
Rosa Elena Carrasquillo, of the department of history, earned her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Connecticut and her B.A. from the University of Puerto Rico. A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 2006, Carrasquillo has also taught at Assumption College, the University of Connecticut, and Trinity College. While at Holy Cross, she has taught in the Community-Based Learning program and participated in the Humanity Scholar Collaborative. Her research and teaching interests include Latin America, Afro-Caribbean history, gender history, and the history of Latinos/as in the U.S. In 2006, Carrasquillo published a book titled Our Landless Patria: Marginal Citizenship and Race in Caguas, Puerto Rico, 1880-1910. She has also published several articles in academic journals, and is currently writing a forthcoming book titled Ismael Rivera, The People’s Poet: Life and Myth of an Afro-Caribbean Icon. Carrasquillo resides in Boylston.
Leon P. Claessens, of the biology department, earned his Ph.D. and A.M. from Harvard University and his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Before joining the Holy Cross faculty in 2005, Claessens taught at Utrecht and Harvard, where he received two Certificates of Distinction in Teaching. He worked at the Museon Science Museum, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology and the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. His interests include biology, paleontology, and earth science. Claessens has also been a cultural affiliate for the Peabody Museum at Yale University since 2006. He is an academic editor for PLoS ONE, a journal of peer-reviewed scientific and medical research, and has published works in Nature, the Journal of Experimental Zoology and the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, among others. Claessens resides in Shrewsbury.
Caroline E. Johnson Hodge, of the religious studies department, received her Ph.D. from Brown University, her M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and her B.A. from Pomona College. A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 2003, Hodge has also taught at Wesleyan University, Boston University, Brandeis University, and Harvard Divinity School. In 2009, Hodge received the Robert L. Ardizzone Prize for Junior Faculty Research from the College. Her research and teaching interests include the New Testament, women in early Christianity, kinship and ethnicity, and domestic religious practices. In 2007, Hodge published a book titled If Sons, Then Heirs: A Study of Kinship and Ethnicity in the Letters of Paul. She resides in Wellesley.
Daniel P. Klinghard, of the political science department, earned his Ph.D. from Brandeis University and his B.A. from Rhodes College. Prior to joining the Holy Cross faculty in 2004, he taught at the College of Charleston, Brandeis University, and Clark University. While at Holy Cross, Klinghard received the National Endowment for the Humanities “We the People Grant” in 2005 and the 2010 Newsmaker Award from the College’s public affairs office. His research and teaching interests include political parties and interest groups, racial and ethnic politics, and American political development. In 2010, Klinghard published a book with Cambridge University Press titled The Nationalization of American Political Parties, 1880-1896.
Gwenn A. Miller, of the history department, received her Ph.D. and M.A. from Duke University and her B.A. from Bowdoin College. A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 2004, Miller’s interests include comparative colonial and early American history, as well as Native American history and the history of the American West. She has also taught at The Putney School and Duke University. While at Holy Cross, Miller received the 2009 Ardizzone Prize for Junior Faculty Research and the Batchelor-Ford Faculty Fellowship in 2007, as well as two National Endowment for the Humanities research fellowships, in 2005 and 2008. In 2010, she published a book titled Kodiak Kreol: Communities of Empire in the Early Russian America. Miller resides in Jamaica Plain.
Karen A. Ober, of the biology department, earned her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona and her B.S. at the University of Michigan. She has served as chair of the biology department curriculum committee. Her teaching and research interests include evolution, entomology, systematics, and molecular and morphological diversity in insects. Since joining the Holy Cross faculty in 2004, Ober has received the Ardizzone Prize for Junior Faculty Research and represented the biology department on the Academic Affairs Council and Integrated Science Complex Construction Group. She has performed laboratory research at the University of Connecticut, the University of Arizona, and the University of Michigan. Ober has published articles in several academic journals, including the Journal of Insect Science, Journal of Heredity, and the Zoologica Scripta. She resides in Tolland, Conn.
Paul Oxley, of the physics department, began his Ph.D. at New College, Oxford in the United Kingdom, and finished it at Harvard University after receiving the Harlech Traveling Scholarship in 1997. He earned his B.A at Pembroke College, Oxford. A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 2005, Oxley has also taught at the University of Minnesota and Oxford University. At Holy Cross, he has been involved in the Health Professions Advisory Committee, the physics department Committee on Assessment, the Society of Physics Students, and the national Council for Undergraduate Research. Interested in experimental atomic physics, Oxley has been published in The American Journal of Physics, Physical Review A, and the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. He resides in Shrewsbury.
Ann M. Sheehy, of the biology department, earned her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and her B.A. at Kalamazoo College. She joined the Holy Cross faculty in 2005. Interested in immunology and virology, Sheehy was a senior research associate at King’s College London and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research on AIDS and HIV focuses on the interaction between Vif, an HIV-1 protein, and the A3G human protein, and has implications for new direct therapies as well as potential containment or elimination of the virus. From 2007-10, she received The Smith Family Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research. Sheehy has been published in journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, and The Journal of Biological Chemistry. She resides in Worcester.
