Smith Welcomes New Faculty

Twelve new tenure-track and tenured professors will be teaching at Smith this year in disciplines ranging from art to neuroscience to physics—among other subjects.

In a ceremony welcoming new faculty in early September, President Sarah Willie-LeBreton noted that “Smithies—as our students and alums call themselves—come to you eager to learn, to discover their passions, and to make a difference both on campus and out in the world.”

“So, assume their curiosity and their capability,” she added, “and use everything at your disposal from the Sherred Center to the Jacobson Center to help you reach, teach and inspire them.”

Here are brief biographies of the new faculty members.

Ethel Barja, assistant professor of Spanish, received a doctorate in Hispanic studies from Brown University and a master’s degree in Hispanic literary and cultural studies from the University of Illinois Chicago. Her research and teaching areas include transnational and cross-disciplinary approaches to 20th- and 21st-century Latin American and Caribbean literature, poetry, and poetics, intertwining critical Indigenous studies, Afro-poetics, feminist theory, gender studies, decolonial studies, and posthuman studies. She is a former research fellow at Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (Germany). She joined Smith after holding a tenure-track appointment at Salisbury University (2022–25) and following a stint as a visiting assistant professor at Brown (2021–22). Her monograph, Poesía e insurrección: la Revolución cubana en el imaginario latinoamericano (Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2023), examines the impact of the Cuban Revolution on the “long global sixties Latin American poetry” (1960s and 1970s), exploring the transnational relationship between the Caribbean and the Andes. She is also an award-winning author (International Latino Book Awards 2023, 2024; Oversound Chapbook Prize 2021, Cartografía Poética 2019). Her recent books include Insomnio vocal (2016), Hope Is Tanning on a Nudist Beach (2022), and La muda (2023).

Gillian Beltz-Mohrmann, assistant professor of physics and statistical and data sciences, earned a doctorate in astrophysics from Vanderbilt University and received a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics from Wellesley College. She recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Cosmological Physics and Advanced Computing group at Argonne National Laboratory. Her research lies at the intersection of galaxy formation and cosmology. In her work, Beltz-Mohrmann runs simulations of galaxy formation on large supercomputers and compares these simulations to observations of galaxies in the real Universe. By making rigorous statistical comparisons between simulations and observations, Beltz-Mohrmann hopes to uncover the nature of dark matter and dark energy, as well as improve our understanding of galaxy formation. She is thrilled to be returning to the Seven Sisters and is looking forward to engaging with both physics and statistical and data sciences students at Smith.

Jocelyn Breton, assistant professor of neuroscience, earned a doctorate in neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Columbia University and Northeastern University. Breton is interested in understanding how experiencing stress during key developmental periods affects the brain and ultimately alters motivated behavior. Her research utilizes laboratory rats to examine how early experiences alter behavior and neural circuits. She is especially interested in individual differences and aims to determine factors that promote resilience. Breton is excited to teach and mentor students at Smith and to continue her mission to help all students thrive in science.

Cagney Coomer, assistant professor of neuroscience, earned a doctorate in molecular biology at the University of Kentucky and completed postdoctoral training at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College and at the University of Michigan. Coomer is a neuroscientist interested in understanding brain regeneration following spinal cord injury. Her lab will use transgenic zebrafish that she developed to allow transsynaptic tracing of neural circuits. Coomer brings her Howard Hughes Medical Institute Hanna H. Gray Fellowship to Smith College, the first such award hosted at a liberal arts college. She started the NERD SQUAD, a nonprofit group that encourages girls of color to learn about science.

Joseph Francesco Cozza, assistant professor of government, earned a master’s degree in comparative politics from The London School of Economics and Political Science and a doctorate in political science from the University of Texas at Austin. Cozza’s research agenda crosses traditional subfield lines to examine how citizens can be empowered to affect political and constitutional change, with a particular focus on questions of democratic legitimacy. In doing so, he takes a mixed-methods approach to assessing citizen engagement with constitutions, judiciaries, and political parties, assessing the dialogical relationship between institutional design, citizen behavior, and political culture. Cozza’s teaching interests include U.S. Constitutional law, judicial politics, comparative constitutionalism, and American and comparative party politics.

Rebecca Deitsch, assistant professor of classical languages and literatures, received a doctorate in classical philology from Harvard University. Her current book project examines how epic poetry interacts with and shapes Roman imperial ideology in the late first century C.E. She argues that goddesses (as represented in epic, coinage, and other media) serve as useful vehicles for social dialogue about gender norms, moral reform, and the nature of imperial power. Deitsch is also passionate about ancient language pedagogy and outreach, specifically via blogging and social media, and she runs a website for Latin learners. She previously held teaching positions at Kenyon College and Wellesley College, and is now excited to teach Latin, ancient Greek, and classics-in-translation courses at Smith.

Lauron J. Kehrer, associate professor of music, earned a doctorate in musicology and a master’s degree in ethnomusicology at the Eastman School of Music, as well as a graduate certificate in gender and women’s studies from the Susan B. Anthony Institute at the University of Rochester. Their research focuses on the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality in contemporary American popular music—especially hip-hop—particularly in the work of queer and trans artists. They are the author of Queer Voices in Hip Hop: Cultures, Communities, and Contemporary Performance (University of Michigan Press, 2022) and have published in journals such as American Music, Journal of Popular Music Studies, Popular Music and Society, and Journal of the Society for American Music. Before coming to Smith, Kehrer taught at Western Michigan University and at William & Mary.

Seok (Sean) Kim, assistant professor of economics, received a doctorate from the University of California, Davis. Kim is a trade/macro economist whose research focuses on the intersection of trade and industrial policy. His primary research investigates how domestic industries are unequally supported by current trade policies and demonstrates that this favoritism has become closely associated with political outcomes since 2016. His research broadly covers optimal industrial policy and the effects of trade agreements, leveraging both theory and data.

Sang Hoon Kong, assistant professor of economics, received a doctorate in economics from Columbia University. His research focuses on topics related to international trade, regional economics, and development economics. Currently, he is interested in how trade relations with higher-income markets affect local economic development and how trade policies affect prices and welfare in the economy. He will be teaching intermediate microeconomics, econometrics, and international trade at Smith.

Meredith Pecukonis, assistant professor of psychology, received a doctorate in developmental psychology from Boston University. Her research focuses on exploring how both neurobiology and sociocultural aspects of the environment impact language development in autism. Pecukonis is particularly interested in using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to better understand the neural bases of why some autistic people develop spoken language skills that are similar to their neurotypical peers, while others remain minimally verbal/nonspeaking into adulthood. Before coming to Smith, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. At Smith, Pecukonis will be teaching introduction to psychology, in addition to courses on autism, neuropsychological assessment, and social neuroscience.

Nikko Stevens, assistant professor of statistical and data sciences, earned a doctorate in science and technology studies from Arizona State University and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Dartmouth College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Stevens is a critical technology researcher, studying how data infrastructures reinforce systems of oppression like white supremacy and transphobia. Prior to becoming a professor, Stevens worked as technical architect and lead software developer where they led the architecture of products for billion-dollar corporations like Coca-Cola, Sony, and Instagram. They are currently completing their first monograph, Abolitionist Engineering, about the role of software in the contemporary movement for prison abolition. Their work has been supported by Google, Mozilla, The Linux Foundation, and Princeton University Press.

Isabel Strauss, assistant professor of art, received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a master’s degree in architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she was awarded the 2021 Clifford Wong Prize in Housing Design. Her current research commingles architectural history and African American cultural history, specifically on the South Side of Chicago. Before coming to Smith, Strauss was a curatorial contractor at the National Museum of African American History and Culture working in architecture and design. Prior to her time at the museum, Strauss worked in set design, exhibition design, and architectural design at studios and firms including XL Scenic; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Johnston Marklee, and MASS Design Group.