As the 2012 fall quarter commences, OMA&D is pleased to recognize several UW faculty of color who are newly tenured to the position of associate professor or new to the University.
New Faculty:
Dr. James Carothers (pictured above) joins the faculty in the Department of Chemical Engineering as an assistant professor. He came to Seattle after completing a Jane Coffin Childs Research Fellowship in synthetic biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology from Harvard (2005) and a bachelor’s of science degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale (1998). Dr. Carothers’ research interests include fundamental and applied synthetic biology, RNA engineering and genetic control system design. In 2008, he co-founded the Introduction to College Level Experience in Microbiology (iCLEM) program at Berkeley and the Joint BioEnergy Institute, a paid summer internship in bioenergy-related research for low-income high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. Carothers’ honors include a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, the Harvard University Graduate Prize Fellowship and the America Honda Scholarship for first place at the National Science Olympiad.
Newly Tenured Faculty:
Dr. Amelia Gavin, associate professor in the School of Social Work, joined the UW faculty in 2004. She received her doctorate in social work and political science, and master’s degrees in social work and public policy from the University of Michigan. Dr. Gavin’s primary research examines the etiological pathways to preterm birth and low birth weight from a life-course perspective. She also studies the social, structural and cultural contexts associated with different health outcomes among racial and ethnic groups. Dr. Gavin was awarded the University of Washington Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Career Development Award (Roadmap KL2) in recognition of the importance of Dr. Gavin’s research and its implications for public health. She currently acts as the principal investigator on the Depression and Anxiety in Pregnancy Study and the Life-Course Multiple Determinant Model for Health Disparities in Pregnancy Outcomes Project.
Dr. Habiba Ibrahim is an associate professor of African American literary studies in the Department of English. She joined the UW faculty in 2006 after receiving her Ph.D. in English from the University of Albany-SUNY (2005). Dr. Ibrahim’s research focuses on the cultural politics of contemporary multiracialism, interracial intimacy and the conjoinment of black and mixed-racial identity formation. Her book is entitled “Troubling the Family: The Promise of Personhood and the Rise of Multiracialism” (2012). She also authored the book “Toward Black and Multiracial Kinship after 1997, or How a Race Man Became Cablinasian” in 2009. Dr. Ibrahim served as the keynote speaker for OMA&D’s annual Pacific Northwest McNair/Early Identification Program Research Conference in 2010.
Dr. Ralina Joseph, associate professor in the Department of Communication, and adjunct associate professor in the departments of American Ethnic Studies and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, joined the UW faculty in 2005. She received her Ph.D. and master’s degree in ethnic studies from the University of California, San Diego and her bachelor’s degree in American civilization from Brown University. Dr. Joseph’s research focuses on contemporary representations of race, gender and sexuality in the media. Her first book, which comes out in November, is called “Transcending Blackness: From the New Millennium Mulatta to the Exceptional Multiracial” (Duke University Press, 2012). “Transcending Blackness” critiques anti-Black racism in mixed-race African American representations in the decade leading up to Obama’s 2008 election. She is currently working on her second book, “Speaking Back to Screens: How Black Women on Television Resist Post-Identity Culture.” Dr. Joseph co-founded the UW group WIRED (Women Investigating Race, Ethnicity and Difference). In 2011, she was a featured lecturer in the Diversity Research Institute’s Brown Bag Lecture Series. Dr. Joseph served as the faculty lead for the Department of Communication and OMA&D-affiliated study abroad program to Barbados in 2011 and 2012.
Dr. Wadiya Udell is an associate professor of community psychology in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at UW Bothell. She received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wheaton College. Dr. Udell completed a postdoctoral fellowship in HIV prevention research at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University. Her research focuses on the role of culture and context in promoting sexual health, and in preventing sexual risk behaviors among adolescents of color. Dr. Udell is also engaged in University and community collaborations adapting interventions for socially at-risk adolescents living in impoverished communities.
Dr. Sasha Su-Ling Welland is associate professor with a joint appointment in Anthropology and Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology, with a designated emphasis on feminist studies, from the University of California, Santa Cruz (2006). Dr. Welland’s research and teaching interests include: feminist ethnography, oral history and art history; transnational feminist formations; visual and expressive culture; visual anthropology; digital humanities; and China, East Asia, and Asian America. She is the author of “A Thousand Miles of Dreams: The Journeys of Two Chinese Sisters,” and her forthcoming blended print-digital ethnography focuses on the gendered and global-local encounters that shape Chinese contemporary art worlds. Dr. Welland has curated feminist art exhibits in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. She is the co-organizer of New Feminist Geographies of Feminist Art: China, Asia + the Wold, an international conference to be held at UW in November 2012.
Dr. Elizabeth West is an associate professor of special education in the College of Education. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington (2003). Over the past six years, she has played a vital role in the college as a researcher specializing in severe disabilities with a focus on cultural and linguistic diversity, technology and teacher preparation; and as an instructor in the elementary and special education teacher education program, as well as the college’s doctoral program. Her research is notable in that she has explored and contributed significantly across multiple areas of inquiry and has contributed both nationally and internationally to the field of special education. Being a culturally responsive teacher and researcher is a hallmark of her work. Across all of her research she seeks to understand the context that children come from and live within. She currently holds leadership positions at the national and international level. Dr. West is the appointed chair of the diversity committee for the Council for Exceptional Children-Division on Autism & Developmental Disabilities. In addition, she has served as a founding member of the “International Inclusive Teacher Education Research Forum” providing and establishing an international perspective on inclusive education. Dr. West continues to generate external funding to support these initiatives.