Five Tenure-Track Professors Join Macalester

St. Paul, Minn. – Five new tenure-track faculty members have joined Macalester this fall. They are Eric D. Carter (Geography, holder of the Edens Professorship in Global Health), Lesley Lavery (Political Science), Mark Mandarano (Music, Director of Instrumental Activities), Michael McGaghie (Music) and Kari Shepherdson-Scott (Art and Art History).

Carter’s main area of research interest is how science and politics intersect in efforts to control vector-borne disease. His book, Enemy in the Blood: Malaria, Environment, and Development in Argentina (University of Alabama Press, 2012), examines the dramatic yet mostly forgotten history of malaria control in the remote and impoverished region of northwest Argentina. Carter traces the evolution of malaria science and policy in Argentina from the disease’s emergence as a social problem in the 1890s to its effective eradication by 1950. He received his PhD and MS from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and his BA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Lavery’s research focuses broadly on the relationship between policies and politics.  In future work she will test new additions to the policy feedback cycle in a variety of policy realms, explore how policy and politics interact at different stages of the policy process, and investigate how particular policies and contexts influence educational and political outcomes.  She received her PhD and MA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her BA from Willamette University.

Mandarano made his conducting debut with New York City Opera in 2009, conducting two works for the annual VOX Festival of new operas.  He recently concluded his tenure as principal guest conductor of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, leading a concert of works by J. S. Bach in the historic hall of the Moscow Conservatory. In 2007, he performed a gala concert with the orchestra at Carnegie Hall featuring soloists from the Bolshoi and Kirov opera houses. In 2008, he founded a new classical music ensemble, the Sinfonietta of Riverdale, which quickly earned the reputation as one of the finest ensembles in New York City.  He received his MM from Peabody Conservatory and his BA from Cornell University. 

McGaghie’s doctoral thesis, Macaronic Things: Thornton Wilder and the Late Choral Music of Dominick Argento, received the 2010 Julius Herford Prize from the American Choral Directors Association, awarded annually for the nation’s most outstanding dissertation in choral music. Recent conducting projects have included Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Beethoven’s Mass in C, and Bach’s St. John Passion, as well as world premieres of choral works by internationally renowned composers Dominick Argento and Tarik O’Regan.  He has conducted the Harvard Glee Club in multiple performances across the United States and abroad.  He received his DMA and MM from Boston University and his AB from Harvard. 

Shepherdson-Scott specializes in Japanese visual culture from the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on the visual expression of national identity and empire. She is particularly interested in exposing the dynamic cultural dialogues between Japan, the rest of Asia, Europe and America.  She received her PhD from Duke University, her MA from the University of British Columbia and her BFA from Boise State University.

Macalester College, founded in 1874, is a national liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 1,978 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its long-standing commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, multiculturalism and civic engagement. Learn more at macalester.edu