Cluster Hires

Harpur College Cluster Hires

Harpur College has launched two cluster hires devoted to crucial thematic and programmatic areas that the college wishes to develop and support. In each case, the group of new hires will form a cohort that will lay the groundwork for a durable network of scholarly support, mutual mentorship and program development, while also connecting with existing interdisciplinary programs and transdisciplinary areas of excellence. By hiring in a thematic cluster, the college hopes to foster a strong sense of community among these new colleagues, while also ensuring high rates of retention and encouraging collaboration across departmental lines. While the cluster hire serves as a mechanism to attract, recruit and retain faculty who share intellectual interests and professional commitments, each position will have a different departmental berth, although joint appointments may be made if appropriate.

Harpur College provides many resources to ensure faculty success, including a Mutual Mentoring Initiative, Faculty Research Grants and Subvention Awards. All pre-tenure faculty members are also eligible for the Dean's Teaching Release Award, which is designed to promote their prospects for tenure and promotion. Faculty members may also be eligible for the Dr. Nuala McGann Drescher Affirmative Action/Diversity Leave Program (administered by United University Professions) and Presidential Diversity Research Grants (PDRG).

Read the article by Elizabeth Chilton (former dean of Harpur College), "The Certain Benefits of Cluster Hiring," in Inside Higher Ed, February 6, 2020.

  • Cluster Hire: Critical Studies in Race and Inequality
    Critical Studies in Race and Inequality

    Harpur College is spearheading a new, multi-year cluster hire initiative in the thematic area Critical Studies in Race and Inequality. Harpur seeks to build a network of scholars who are committed to conducting research on race, racism, ethnicity, social justice, power and structures of inequality in their diverse fields of specialization. The college is particularly interested in appointing faculty members who are deeply connected to and integrated into the communities that they study, as a means to build on the strong tradition of engaged scholarship at Binghamton University. 

    The following appointments have been made in the Critical Studies in Race and Inequality cluster hire:

    • Ramaesh Bhagirat-Rivera, Department of Asian and Asian American Studies (Fall 2022)
    • Warren Harding, Assistant Professor, Department of English (Fall 2023)
    • Gregory Evans, Assistant Professor of Jazz, Department of Music (Fall 2023)
    • Jennifer Wu, Assistant Professor of American Politics, Department of Political Science (Fall 2024)

    This cluster hire initiative contributes to the goals of the SUNY PRODiG program. Launched in 2019, this program aims to add a thousand historically underrepresented faculty members to the SUNY system within the next 10 years, thereby doubling the diversity of the current faculty. This is a multi-year initiative. 

  • Cluster Hire: Arts Practice, Performance and Research in the 21st Century
    Arts Practice, Performance and Research in the 21st Century

    Harpur College is introducing a new, multi-year cluster hire in the thematic area Arts Practice, Performance and Research in the 21st Century. This program aims to establish a network of artists and scholars who see their mission as foundational to an intellectually rigorous liberal arts education and who take an expansive approach to their creative activities, research programs, and pedagogy. The program seeks artists and scholars who represent the front edge of thinking and engagement in their own disciplines, while also connecting to other knowledge domains and areas of praxis within the arts and other fields. This program forms part of an initiative, currently underway, to establish a school of the arts in Harpur College, thereby consolidating its reputation as a local and national center for creative production and scholarly investigation in the visual and performing arts. This is a multi-year initiative. 

    The following appointments have been made in the Arts Practice, Performance and Research in the 21st Century cluster hire:

    • Emmy Thelander, Assistant Professor of Painting, Art & Design (Fall 2024)
    • Magdalena Bermudez, Assistant Professor of Cinema Production, Department of Cinema (Fall 2024)
    • Andrea Gyenge, Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies, Department of Cinema (Fall 2024)
    • Jingqi Zhu, Assistant Professor, Director of University Orchestra, Department of Music (Fall 2024)
    • Hippocrates Cheng, Assistant Professor of Music Theory, Department of Music (Fall 2024)
    • Michael Rathbun, Assistant Professor of Lighting Design, Theatre Department  (Fall 2024) 
    • Sarah Nance, Assistant Professor of Integrated Practice, Art & Design (Fall 2023)
    • Christopher Robbins, Founding Director of the School of the Arts, Associate Professor, Department of Art and Design (Fall 2023)
    • Alexandro Skouras, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, Art and Design (Fall 2023)
    • Neva Kenny, Assistant Professor, Department of Theatre (Fall 2023)
    • Lakshmi D. Bulathsinghala, Instructor, Department of Theatre (Fall 2023) 
    • Gregory Evans, Assistant Professor of Jazz, Department of Music (Fall 2023)
    • Sophia Theodore-Pierce, Assistant Professor of Cinema Production, Department of Cinema (Fall 2023)
    • Christopher Swift, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, Department of Art & Design (Fall 2022)
    • Katherine M. Reinhart, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History (Fall 2022)
    • Alexis Wang, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History (Fall 2022)
    • Brenda Igelsias, Assistant Professor of Voice, Department of Music (Fall 2022)
    • Brandon A. Wright, Assistant Professor of Acting and Directing, Department of Theatre (Fall 2022)