New Arrivals From Inside and Outside TCU Ready To Carry On Tradition of Liberal Arts
Excellence
AddRan’s newest faculty members represent a diverse mix of life experiences and areas
of research.
In addition to newcomers from universities near and far, we welcome faculty of TCU’s
own Departments of Comparative Race & Ethnic Studies and Women & Gender Studies, which
will now be housed within AddRan.
Meet the newest group of new faculty, learn what makes them unique and find out what
they think about the power of a liberal arts education.
Joining the English department as chair and professor, Sharon Aronofsky Weltman, Ph.D.,
comes to TCU from Louisiana State University. Weltman is a graduate of Rutgers, the
State University of New Jersey. Her scholarship focuses on 20th- and 21st-century
adaptations and appropriations of 19th-century literature to stage and screen, with
a special interest in musical theater. Weltman said that “the breadth of a liberal
arts education makes it so important because it pushes us to make connections between
seemingly unlikely things.”
Bonnie A. Lucero, Ph.D.
Bonnie Lucero, Ph.D. – Neville G. Penrose Chair in Latin American Studies and History, History
Bonnie Lucero, Ph.D., takes over as the Neville G. Penrose Chair in Latin American
Studies and History from Susan Elizabeth Ramirez, Ph.D. A graduate of Cambridge University
and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Lucero is a specialist in race
and gender in Latin America and the Caribbean, with an emphasis on Cuba.
“Part of the reason I became an educator in the first place was that I believed that
encountering, engaging and truly understanding the perspectives and experiences of
other people was fundamental to forging a more equitable and just world for our young
people and future generations,” Lucero said. “And that is precisely what liberal arts
education is all about.”
Luis Romero, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor, Comparative Race & Ethnic Studies
A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Luis Romero, Ph.D., focuses his research
on crimmigration, racial inequality, immigration enforcement, and Latinas/os/xs and
detention. For Romero, “The skills and knowledge attained through a liberal arts education
can apply to any career trajectory and is important in training ethical people who
work toward equity at all levels.”
Having earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Minnesota, Edgar Campos,
Ph.D. joins the Sociology & Anthropology department as a scholar of culture and politics.
For his dissertation, Campos looked at the intersection of sports, culture and politics
at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City. "In an age of high specialization,
a liberal arts education provides the platform for students to excel in all subjects,
interests and interactions by building critical thinking, cultural interaction and
social empathy for oneself and others,” Campos said.
“The liberal arts remind us that creativity and experience undergird all of our professions
and help us make meaning of our existence in the world.” - Shari Mackinson, Ph.D.
Abel Gomez, Ph.D., had a short journey to Fort Worth, having recently completed a
postdoctoral fellowship in Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma.Gomez’s research examines intersections of Native American sacred sites, gender and
sexuality, cultural revitalization and (de)colonization. Gomez said that a liberal
arts education is “vital to developing critical thinking skills to understand, and
more importantly, transform our world.”
"Studying a broad range of disciplines allows individuals to become informed citizens
and competent voters who can foster a healthy democracy." - Rachael Houston, Ph.D.
Nino Testa, Ph.D.
Nino Testa, Ph.D. – Associate Professor of Professional Practice, Women & Gender Studies
Nino Testa, Ph.D., has served as the associate director of Women & Gender Studies
for the last five years and is excited to join AddRan College as an associate professor
of professional practice. He teaches interdisciplinary courses in queer studies and
feminist studies. Testa said that the liberal arts can “create transformational learning
spaces for students.”
Shan Siddiqui, Ph.D., is a teacher and scholar of race and ethnicity, immigration
and health disparities. He earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Texas
at Austin and previously worked as an occupational therapist before joining TCU. “A
liberal arts education exposes students to diverse perspectives from many academic
fields, which allows them to become well-rounded and take a holistic approach to address
some of society's most pressing issues,” he said.
"For society to be free, a good dose of liberal arts education is an essential part
of overall education." - Stephen Jantuah Boakye, Ph.D.
Shari Mackinson, Ph.D., is a scholar of religious ethics who specializes in Black
Christianity, Black feminism and theology and evangelical ethics. According to Mackinson,
“The liberal arts remind us that creativity and experience undergird all of our professions
and help us make meaning of our existence in the world.”
A native of the Ashanti Region of Ghana, Stephen Jantuah Boakye, Ph.D., joins the
English department as an instructor of rhetoric and composition. Boakye is interested
in digital literacy, as well as multimodal and new media literacies.
“I believe [liberal arts] is a form of education which not only defines our perceptions
and attitudes toward the world around us but also the means to surmount intellectual
challenges,” said Boakye. “For society to be free, a good dose of liberal arts education
is an essential part of overall education.”
Yingwen Yu, Ph.D., is a graduate of the University of Arizona and a scholar of Native
American and Taiwan Indigenous literature, film and food. “I strongly believe that
the skills such as critical thinking, creativity, communication and problem-solving,
which come out of a liberal arts education, help students to become better and more
responsible citizens and to know themselves better,” she said.
Rachel Houston, Ph.D., a scholar of judicial politics, is interested in how the public
learns about the Supreme Court and the role the media plays in informing the public
about the nation’s highest court.
“A democracy requires a certain degree of education to develop an informed citizenry
who can meaningfully contribute to society,” she said. “A liberal arts education allows
students to become experts in their major, but also to gain knowledge in multiple
areas of study. Studying a broad range of disciplines allows individuals to become
informed citizens and competent voters who can foster a healthy democracy,” Houston
said.
Las Vegas native Crystal Jackson, Ph.D., studies the intersection of gender, sexuality,
race, class, inequality and state power, specifically through the lens of sex workers
and their activism. Jackson described liberal arts education as being an experience
of “liberation.”
"Liberal arts education teaches students both the pleasure of discovering ideas, theories
and histories that have shaped our world and also the critical thinking skills to
tackle the complex problems we face today." - Randa Tawil, Ph.D.
A lawyer and an academic, Rashaan DeShay, J.D., Ph.D., is a scholar of criminal decision-making,
wrongful convictions and corrections. DeShay said a liberal arts education “exposes
students to important issues facing society and introduces them to new ideas and concepts
on a wide range of topics,” as well as providing “the ability and opportunity to use
critical thinking skills to analyze and discuss these issues.”
An assistant professor in Women & Gender Studies, Randa Tawil, Ph.D., is a scholar
of global migration of imperial expansion between the Middle East and the United States,
and a specialist in gender and sexuality. She is an alumna of Yale University. For
Tawil, “liberal arts education teaches students both the pleasure of discovering ideas,
theories and histories that have shaped our world and also the critical thinking skills to
tackle the complex problems we face today.”
AddRan Extends a Warm Welcome to the Following New Faculty Members:
