Nine new tenure-track professors will be joining the Macalester faculty in the coming months: Samantha Blatt, anthropology; Ruth Isenberg, biology; Abby Loe, mathematics, statistics, and computer science; Rory Solomon, media and cultural studies; Inga Chinilina, music; Amanda Evans, philosophy; Melina Singh, psychology; Lucia Hulsether, religious studies; and Daniel Coral-Reyes, Spanish and Portuguese.
Professor Blatt is a biological anthropologist who specializes in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology. Her current research employs biocultural methods and theories for identification of gender diverse individuals, cold case resolution strategies, stress and growth of historic and archaeological peoples of the Americas, ethics in human remains collections work, and inclusive teaching practices. Dr. Blatt will teach introductory and upper division courses in biological anthropology, bioarcheology, osteology, and forensics. She grew up along the shores of New Jersey and holds a PhD and MA in anthropology from The Ohio State University and a BS in evolutionary anthropology from Rutgers University.
Professor Isenberg is a bacterial geneticist whose expertise is in bacterial interactions with their eukaryotic hosts and with other bacteria. Her current research explores the genetic factors that mediate bacterial competition and persistence within the oral cavity. Dr. Isenberg will teach Genetics and Microbiology and will develop an upper-level molecular biology course. She grew up in the Pacific Northwest near Tacoma, Washington, and holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as a BS in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Puget Sound.
Professor Loe is a biostatistician whose theoretical research sits at the intersection of survival analysis, repeated measures, and statistical machine learning. She has several applied projects in pulmonary medicine and microbiology, researching treatments and the disease mechanisms for pulmonary fibrosis. Dr. Loe will teach Intro to Statistical Modeling and Statistical Theory this year. In future years, she hopes to teach upper level survival analysis and develop a course in the history of statistics. She grew up in Apple Valley, Minnesota, and completed a PhD and MS in biostatistics at the University of Michigan, and a BA in mathematics from Carleton College.
Professor Solomon is a media studies scholar, specializing in digital media, software, and networks. He is currently writing a book about community-oriented infrastructure focusing on a technology known as mesh networks. Dr. Solomon will teach introductory media studies courses and hybrid theory/practice classes such as Radical Software, integrating hands-on coding education into a liberal arts seminar format. Solomon is also a software engineer and artist, and he comes to St. Paul from New York City where he has lived for the last twenty-four years. He holds a PhD in media, culture, and communication from New York University, an MA in media studies from The New School, and a BA in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Professor Chinilina is a multimedia composer who writes concert music alongside creating works for dance, film, and installations. She sees music as an act of translation, a concept she explores in both her academic and creative work. Dr. Chinilina will teach music composition, musicianship, and music appreciation. She holds a PhD in music and multimedia composition from Brown University, an MFA in music composition and theory from Brandeis University, and a BM in composition and jazz piano performance from Berklee College of Music.
Professor Evans is a philosopher of mind and psychiatry. Her research is dedicated to the philosophical study of mental disorders and the insights it can give us into human agency and the self. Dr. Evans will teach a range of courses on these topics, including Philosophy of Psychiatry, Philosophy of Mind, and a future course on the philosophy of addiction. She grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. Before joining Macalester, she held two postdoctoral fellowships at the Centre for Philosophical Psychology at the University of Antwerp and at Washington University in St. Louis, and was a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh.
Professor Singh is a social psychologist with expertise in the regulation and criminalization of pregnancy and motherhood within healthcare and social safety net programs. Her interdisciplinary scholarship utilizes qualitative methods to examine how racism, sexism, and classism are reflected in laws, policies, and institutional practices that disproportionately impact low-income women and mothers. Professor Singh is excited to teach intermediate courses in social psychology and the psychology of women and gender, as well as upper-level seminars in qualitative methods and reproductive justice. She is a first-generation student who grew up in San Jose, California and holds a PhD in psychology with an emphasis in feminist studies from UC Santa Cruz and a BA in criminology, law and society from UC Irvine.
Professor Hulsether is a scholar of interdisciplinary religious studies with expertise in feminist and queer studies; labor and capitalism; critical pedagogy; and religion, culture, and politics in the Americas. Her first book, Capitalist Humanitarianism (Duke University Press), received the 2024 Best First Book Prize from the Cultural Studies Association. This fall, she will offer two courses: an introductory class on the global Christian right and an upper-level seminar on the genealogies of fascist metaphysics. Professor Hulsether’s arrival at Macalester is also a return. After more than a decade in the US northeast, where she completed her graduate work and held her first academic appointment, she is grateful for a chance to reconnect with her family roots in the Twin Cities.
Professor Coral-Reyes is a scholar of Latin American culture whose work sits at the intersection of film, photography, and literature. His research investigates the dialogue between contemporary cinema and late 19th-century photography and writing about the Amazon and Tierra del Fuego, examining how Latin American filmmakers engage with and challenge colonial imagery. In his teaching, Dr. Coral Reyes encourages students to think critically about cultural memory and the self-representation of Indigenous identities in the region. Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, he completed his undergraduate degree in literary studies at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana before moving to the United States for graduate school. He holds a PhD in Spanish and Portuguese from the University of California, Davis.