The College of Arts and Sciences ushers in the new academic year with two new department chairs and 30 new faculty members. Such development and growth are a reflection of the College's commitment to advancing student success, scholarship, and campus and community engagement.

The new faculty members are joining 14 departments and programs across the College, with mathematical sciences adding the most hires. Debra Hess Norris, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, takes pride in welcoming these new faculty members to UD's community.

“I am inspired by the high caliber of our new hires and their commitment to student success, consequential research, and community engagement. I look forward to their contributions in the coming academic year and beyond," said Norris, who has been a member of the UD faculty since 1985.

Leadership appointments were announced in the newly formed department of theatre and dance as well as the department of history. Steven Tague will be the inaugural chair for theatre and dance, and the producing artistic director of the Resident Ensemble Players (REP), the professional theatre company in residence at UD.

Tague has acted at regional theatres including Seattle Repertory Theater, A Contemporary Theatre, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Baltimore Center Stage and Walnut Street Theater. His directing credits include many productions at UD, as well as the Texas Shakespeare Festival and the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. He received his B.F.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University and his M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

In history, Owen White is the new interim chair. White specializes in the history of modern France and the French colonial empire, with particular interests in West Africa and Algeria. The author of a book about the mixed-race population of French West Africa and articles on a variety of aspects of French colonialism, he has also published two edited volumes, one (with J. P. Daughton) on French missionaries, the other on social organization in modern empires. He received his B.A. from the University of Exeter and his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford.

The new faculty members and their departments are:

Department of Africana Studies

Brandon Stanford

Department of Biological Sciences

Vinayak Mathur

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Carsten Milsmann

Department of English

Amish Trivedi

Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Fernando Ruiz Garcia, Eric Van Luvanee, Yoel Villahermosa Serrano, Sheila Villaverde Salgueiro

Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science

Andrea Beltrama, Yoonji Kim

Department of Mathematical Sciences

Mihai Alboiu, Ke Chen, Deniz Kutluay, Jonathan Schneider, Morgan Schreffler and Rajinda S. Wickrama

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Ilia Gogoladze, Wenjin Zhao

Department of Political Science and International Relations

Mahtab Shafiei

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Adrian Gilmore, Manuel Schottdorf

Department of Theatre and Dance

Stephen Pelinski, Kathleen Pirkl Tague 

Department of Women and Gender Studies

Micki Burdick

English Language Institute

Lindsei Pereira da Silva, Amy Vazquez

School of Music

Brianne Borden, Timothy Broscious, Brooke H. Johnson​, Heidi Lucas