Knox Promotes Ten to Associate Professor

Knox College announces the promotion of ten faculty members to associate professor with tenure.

Promoted to associate professor are Katherine Adelsberger, environmental studies; Claudia Fernandez, modern languages-Spanish; Matthew Jones-Rhoades, biology; Nikki Malley, music; Antonio Prado, modern languages-Spanish; Emre Sencer, history; Chad Simpson, English; Jaime Spacco, computer science; James Thrall, religious studies; and Daniel Wack, philosophy.

Katherine Adelsberger, associate professor of environmental studies
Katherine Adelsberger, who also holds the Douglas and Maria Bayer Faculty Chair in Earth Sciences, earned her Ph.D. and A.M. in earth and planetary sciences from Washington University in St. Louis and her B.S. in anthropology and geology at Beloit College. At Knox, she has taught courses in environmental geology, hydrology and soils. In 2014, Adelsberger served as one of the faculty members for the Green Oaks Term off-campus program. Her research is focused in the Middle East and Africa, particularly in Egypt and Jordan. She has received an ACOR-CAORC Senior Fellowship from the American Center for Oriental Research to study Small-Scale Hydrologic Interactions on the Dhiban Plateau, and she currently serves as co-director of the Dhiban Excavation and Development Project, Jordan. She came to Knox in 2008.

Claudia Fernández, associate professor of modern languages - Spanish
Claudia Fernández received her Ph.D. in second language acquisition from the University of Illinois-Chicago; her M.A. in foreign languages and literatures from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and her B.S. in biology from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City, Mexico. In addition to language courses, she has developed special courses such as Spanish phonetics and phonology and Spanish for heritage learners. She also has served as director for the Knox's off-campus study program in Barcelona, Spain. Her scholarship focuses on second language grammar acquisition and teaching, bilingualism, and best teaching practices. She has taught at Knox since 2010.

Matthew Jones-Rhoades, associate professor of biology
Matthew Jones-Rhoades earned his Ph.D. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his B.A. in chemistry from Grinnell College. He teaches courses in molecular biology, genetics, and microbiology, and mentors research students during the summer and academic year. His research focus is on microRNAs in plants, and he recently was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation for a collaborative project with Pennsylvania State University, "Reference Annotations for Small RNA-producing Genes in Plants." He also has served on the advisory board for the Vovis Center for Research and Advanced Study at Knox. He joined the Knox faculty in 2008.

Nikki Malley, associte professor of music
Nikki Malley received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in Musicology and B.A. in Music from Knox College. Her areas of teaching expertise include Jazz History and Performance, and Music of the African Diaspora, and her scholarly work is focused on the musicology of auctioneering. Malley serves as the Director of the Knox Jazz Ensemble and Artistic Director of the Knox Rootabaga Jazz Festival; she has directed the Knox Jazz Ensemble and Knox Cherry Street Combo, plays in the Knox-Galesburg Symphony and Galesburg Community Chorus, and has been a featured soloist in many performances. In 2013, Malley secured a grant from the Jerome Mirza Foundation to establish a jazz residency on campus.

Antonio Prado, associate professor of modern languages - Spanish
Antonio Prado received his Ph.D. in Hispanic literatures, his M.A. in Hispanic studies, and his B.A. in Spanish from the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign. He teaches courses in the Spanish language, modern Hispanic literatures, the culture of Spain, and Latin American colonial literature. In 2014-15, he will accompany students to Spain as part of his course on the Spanish Civil War. His publications include a monograph, Escritoras anarco-feministas en La Revista Blanca (1898-1936): Matrimonio, familia, y Estado, and articles on the experimental anarchist cinema and documentaries. At Knox since 2000, he has served as director of the off-campus study program in Barcelona and organized an on-campus festival of Spanish-language films.

Emre Sencer, associate professor of history
Emre Sencer earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in history from The Ohio State University, and his B.A. in English from City College of New York. He teaches courses on modern Europe, Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries, the First World War, the Second World War, and modern Middle East. During the 2013-2014 academic year, he co-taught Modern European Identities, which included a travel component to Berlin and Istanbul. His main area of research is German and Central European History, 1900-1950. His scholarship focuses on German and Turkish military culture in the interwar era. He is currently on the international editorial team for the multi-volume project Russia's Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922. At Knox, he has served on faculty committees for Campus Diversity and Student Life. Sencer came to Knox in 2008.

Chad Simpson, associate professor of English - creative writing
Chad Simpson earned his M.F.A. in creative writing from Southern Illinois University and his B.A. in English from Monmouth College. He teaches both writing and literature, including courses in fiction writing, short fiction, creative non-fiction, and graphic novels. His short story collection, Tell Everyone I Said Hi, won the 2012 John Simmons Short Fiction Award and was published by the University of Iowa Press. The collection was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and The Story Prize. At Knox since 2005, he was awarded the 2010 Philip Green Wright-Lombard College Prize for Distinguished Teaching.

Jaime Spacco, associate professor of computer science
Jaime Spacco earned his B.A. in English at Haverford College and his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Maryland. He teaches software design, data analysis and information management and has adopted several innovative teaching techniques in computer science. His research has received a SIGCSE Special Projects Grant in 2012 to fund development of CloudCoder, an online exercise system. His publications include "An open platform for managing short programming exercises," in the Proceedings of the Ninth Annual International ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research; "Towards improving programming habits to create better computer science course outcomes," in the Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education;and "How we teach impacts student learning: Peer instruction vs. lecture in cs0," in the Proceedings of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. He has taught at Knox since 2010 and has also served as chair of the Instructional Support Committee.

James Thrall, associate professor of religious studies
James Thrall, who also holds the Knight Distinguished Chair for the Study of Religion and Culture, earned his Ph.D. in religion and culture from Duke University, his M.A.R. in theology from Yale University Divinity School, and his B.A. in English from Colby College. He currently serves as chair of Knox's Religious Studies program and teaches courses in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; Global Christianity; Freud, Jung, and Religion; Death and Afterlife. His scholarship focuses on the intersection of religion and culture, particularly as seen in film and science fiction. He joined the Knox faculty in 2010.

Daniel Wack, associate professor of philosophy
Daniel Wack earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago, and his B.A. from Amherst College. His courses include philosophy and art, with a focus on film, with a focus on death and life--these also are the areas of his scholarly focus. Dan also served as co-organizer of Kinosophilia: A Conference on Philosophy and Film, hosted by the Université du Québec à Montréal. Dan is also a member of the Honor Board. He has taught at Knox since 2005.

Other faculty promotions:

• Three faculty members were promoted to the rank of full professor: Thomas Clayton, chemistry; Jennifer Templeton, biology; and Judith Thorn, biology.
• Two faculty members were named to endowed chairs: Steve Cohn to the Charles W. and Arvilla S. Timme Chair in Economics, and Jessie L. Dixon to the Burkhardt Distinguished Chair in Modern Languages.
• Promoted to professor emeritus are Roy Andersen, Charles W. and Arvilla S. Timme Professor of Economics; and Bruce Davis, Burkhardt Distinguished Associate Professor of Modern Languages-French.