Imagine a specialist in marine ecophysiology conversing with someone who teaches and studies Latin American and Caribbean history. At the College of Charleston, that scenario isn’t uncommon. In fact, those individuals are just two examples of the 39 new faculty members who have arrived to teach at the College this year.

Each year, the College hires new professors to ensure that its students are taught and mentored by the best teacher-scholars in the business.

“At the College,” explains Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Brian McGee, “we recruit a superbly educated faculty who combine a love of teaching with a passion for discovery. Wherever and however these faculty came to the College of Charleston, they are now Cougars and a part of the great tradition of this place.”

The newest crop of faculty members made their respective ways to the College from a variety of locations, including Louisiana, Nebraska and Boston among other places. At a recent reception held in their honor, McGee congratulated them all and told them that they now reside in a special place – at a special institution in a special city.

This new cadre of scholars represents a broad array of research and teaching specialties that range from Shakespearean drama to real estate finance to observational astrophysics.

Let’s meet a few of these new professors.

  • Joining the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management from Ryerson University in Toronto, Daniel Guttentag is a specialist in peer-to-peer hospitality. He has conducted several key studies and published research regarding AirBnB in particular. His other research specialties include the use of virtual reality in this field as well as volunteer tourism and casino gambling behavior.
  • Kameelah Martin will be heading up the African American Studies Program at the College. A cultural studies scholar, Martin specializes in African American literary and vernacular traditions with an emphasis on 20th– and 21st-century prose. She is the author of Envisioning Black Feminist Voodoo Aesthetics: African Spirituality in American Cinema. She is also the book review editor of the College Language Association Journal and has published in Studies in the Literary Imagination, Black Women, Gender & Families as well as the African American National Biography.
  • Biology professor Heather Fullerton comes to the College by way of Pacific Lutheran University. Her research examines microbial communities that are responsible for iron and carbon cycling at hydrothermal vents. She specializes in computational approaches to understanding metagenomics community data and microbial enrichment culturing to isolate key organisms in nutrient cycling.
  • The newest addition to the Department of French, Francophone and Italian Studies is Gilles Glacet, whose focus is 19th– and 20th-century French literature, contemporary French literature and culture and Francophone literature of the Caribbean. Glacet was born in France and taught most recently at Emory University.
  • And the Department of Health and Human Performance will have several new faces, including one alumna of the College – Elizabeth Kelley ’15. Kelley, who graduated from the College with a degree in exercise science went on to earn a masters in  in clinical exercise physiology at Ball State University. She has a broad array of research and professional interests, including chronic disease development, prevention and rehabilitation; exercise prescription; exercise training in young, old, healthy and diseased participants; and physical activity epidemiology. Kelley will be teaching courses in the exercise science curriculum, instructing fitness classes and serving as a clinical research assistant for the department.

Below is a full list of the new faculty teaching at the College this year:

Kristin Alexander, Department of Theatre and Dance

Allan Borst, Department of English

Devin Byker, Department of English

Alexis Carrico, Department of Management and Marketing

Ariel Carter, Department of Biology

Jeffrey Deal, Department of Health and Human Performance

Kris De Welde, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Patricia Dillon, Department of Art and Architectural History

Allison Foley, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Heather Fullerton, Department of Biology

Gilles Glacet, Department of French, Francophone and Italian Studies

Daniel Guttentag, Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management

Aaisha Haykal, Avery Research Center

Darren Hick, Department of Philosophy

Morgan Hughey, Department of Health and Human Performance

Allison Jones, Addlestone Library

Linda Kasarjian, Department of Teacher Education

Elizabeth Kelley, Department of Health and Human Performance

Stephen Korey, International Studies Program

Lenny Lowe, Department of Religious Studies

Kameelah Martin, African American Studies Program

Marta Martinez, Department of Hispanic Studies

Julia McReynolds-Perez, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Judy Millesen, Department of Political Science

Ivana Milosevic, Department of Management and Marketing

Saif Mir, Department of Supply Chain and Information Management

Tom Noland, Department of Accounting and Legal Studies

Ashley Pagnotta, Department of Physics and Astronomy

Thomas Parry, Department of Health and Human Performance

Jonathan Payne, Department of Health and Human Performance

Jesse Portillo, Department of Theatre and Dance

Onja Razazafindratsima, Department of Biology

Matthew Rhodes, Department of Biology

Elena Rodriguez, Addlestone Library

Blake Scott, International Studies Program

Kenneth Soyeh, Department of Finance

Tanya Staubes, Department of Accounting and Legal Studies

Rafael Teixeira, Department of Supply Chain and Information Management

Christopher Whelpley, Department of Management and Marketing