This year, 29 faculty members within the College of Arts and Letters received promotions. Their achievements will be celebrated during the 2026-27 academic year at promotions ceremonies hosted by the Office of the Provost.
“These promotions recognize not only what our faculty have accomplished, but also the expertise, creativity, and leadership they continue to bring to the College of Arts and Letters,” said Thomas Stubblefield, Dean of the College of Arts and Letters. “Their work advances their fields, creates meaningful opportunities for our students, and strengthens the communities we serve. I congratulate each of them on this significant milestone and look forward to all they will accomplish in the years ahead.”
This year’s group marks another milestone for the college as the first to include faculty from the School of Residential Community-Engaged Arts and Humanities (RCAH), which integrated with the College of Arts and Letters on July 1, 2026.
The following is the list of College of Arts and Letters faculty who received promotions this year.
Full Professor Promotions
The following faculty members were promoted to Professor, effective July 1, 2026.
John Aerni-Flessner
John Aerni-Flessner was promoted to Professor in the School of Residential Community-Engaged Arts and Humanities. A historian of Africa and core faculty member of MSU’s African Studies Center, his research focuses on the history of borders, development, and independence, and on relations between South Africa and Lesotho. He also does collaborative research with MSU students on redlining and urban renewal in the Lansing, Michigan, area.
Aerni-Flessner is the author of White Gold and Thirsty Communities: The Cold War, Apartheid, and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, published in January 2026, and Dreams for Lesotho: Independence, Foreign Assistance, and Development (2018). He was lead editor of the Historical Dictionary of Lesotho, 3rd Edition and has published articles in the Journal of African History, International Journal of African Historical Studies, Michigan Historical Review, and the Journal of Southern African Studies, among others. He has a Ph.D. in African and World History from Washington University in St. Louis.
Christopher Corneal
Christopher Corneal was promoted to Professor of Graphic Design in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design where he also serves as Faculty Advisor for the Design Center and Director of Graphic Design Internships. Throughout his career, he has continued to work as a freelance designer while volunteering his services for several nonprofits. His design work has been published in award annuals including Graphis, LogoLounge, and the HOW International Design Annual, and exhibited in juried shows nationally and internationally.
Corneal has presented refereed papers at conferences hosted by the College Art Association, University of the Arts London, University and College Designers Association, and University of Minnesota. He received his MFA in Graphic Design from the University of Memphis and his BFA in Graphic Design from Western Kentucky University.
Ann Folino White
Ann Folino White was promoted to Professor in the Department of Theatre where she is Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies and teaches courses on stage directing, drama, and U.S. theatre and performance history. She has received several awards for teaching and mentorship, including the 2024 Betty Jean Jones Award from the American Theatre and Drama Society and 2017 Distinguished Professors of the Year Award by the Michigan Association of State Universities.
Folino White has a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Theatre and Drama and a Gender Studies Certificate from Northwestern University. She also is a Michigan State University Honors College alum with a B.A. in Theatre. Her first book, Plowed Under: Food Policy Protests and Performance in New Deal America (2015), was honored with the CLR James Book Award from the Working-Class Studies Association. Her latest book, Broadway Battles: A Century of Equity-Producer Disputes that Defined the Actor’s Job, is forthcoming in 2027 from Vanderbilt University Press.
Debra M. Hardison
Debra M. Hardison was promoted to Professor in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures. Her research examines multimodal integration in spoken language processing and production, perception and production training for second language learners including applications of technology, co-speech gesture, and the relationship between learners’ socio-affective profiles and the development of their oral proficiency.
Hardison’s book, The Multimodal Context of Phonological Learning, was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2025. A 2022 article she co-authored on assistive design for English phonetic tools received the Dorothy Chun Award for Best Journal Article in Language Learning and Technology. Her work also has appeared in Applied Psycholinguistics, Canadian Modern Language Review, Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, Language Learning,Language Teaching Research, RELC Journal, TESOL Quarterly, and various edited volumes and handbooks. She has a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Indiana University.
Tamura Lomax
Tamura Lomax was promoted to Professor in the Department of Religious Studies. This past summer, she served as the Theologian-In-Residence for The Children’s Defense Fund. She has published three monographs with Duke University Press: Loving Black Boys: A Black Feminist Bible on Racism and Revolutionary Mothering (2026), Freeing Black Girls: A Black Feminist Bible on Racism and Revolutionary Mothering (2025), and Jezebel Unhinged: Loosing the Black Female Body in Religion and Culture (2018).
A public scholar, in 2011 Lomax co-founded The Feminist Wire, an online publication committed to feminist, anti-racist, and anti-imperialist socio-political critique, which has since published close to 3,000 essays and was acquired by Harvard University in 2023. She has a Ph.D. in Religion from Vanderbilt University, specializing in Black Religion and Black Diaspora Studies, with additional expertise in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and in Black British and U.S. Black Cultural Studies.
Terese Guinsatao Monberg
Terese Guinsatao Monberg was promoted to Professor in the School of Residential Community-Engaged Arts and Humanities where she is a founding faculty member and has taught since 2007. A community-engaged teacher and scholar in rhetoric, composition, and literacy studies, her work examines the ways communities write, revise, and sustain their rhetorical legacies and collective memory, with a particular focus on the memory work of Asian Pacific Islander Desi American communities.
Monberg is co-editor of the Filipino American National Historical Society Journal and co-editor of Building a Community, Having a Home (2017) and of a special issue of Enculturation on transnational Asian American rhetoric (2018). Her research has been published in Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric, Enculturation, and the Community Literacy Journal. She has a Ph.D. in Communication and Rhetoric from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Deogratias Ngonyani
Deogratias Ngonyani was promoted to Professor in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures where he teaches Linguistics and the Swahili Language. His research interests include language documentation and description, morphosyntax, comparative Bantu, Swahili studies, and Swahili literature.
Ngonyani contributed the chapter on Bantu applicative constructions to The Oxford Guide to the Bantu Languages (2025). His articles have appeared in the Nordic Journal of African Studies, Southern African Journal of Linguistics, Journal of African Cultural Studies, The Linguistic Review, and Lingua. He earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and previously taught at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Pwani University in Kenya, UCLA, and Indiana University.
Camelia Suleiman
Camelia Suleiman was promoted to Professor in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures. She led MSU’s Arabic Program from 2012 to 2020. She has written extensively on the sociolinguistics of Arabic and its contact with Hebrew, and her broader interests include language, race, and gender and language and the media. She is currently working on a comparative study of Orientalism.
Suleiman is the author of three books: Arabic Between State and Nation: Israel, the Levant and Diaspora (2022), The Politics of Arabic in Israel: A Sociolinguistic Analysis (2017), and Language and Identity in the Israel-Palestine Conflict: The Politics of Self-Perception in the Middle East (2011). Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Pragmatics, Middle East Critique, and The Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, among others. She earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics from Georgetown University.
Divya Victor
Divya Victor was promoted to Professor in the Department of English where she serves as Director of the Creative Writing Program. She is the author of Curb (2021), which won the PEN America Open Book Award and Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Her other books include Kith, Natural Subjects, Unsub, and Things to Do with Your Mouth. Her essay collection, Kin, expected to be published in 2027, received a 2025 Creative Capital Award.
Victor’s work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Polish, and Czech and performed or installed at the Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and National Gallery in Singapore. She received the 2025 College of Arts and Letters Faculty Leadership Award and MSU’s Teacher-Scholar Award in 2023. She also was MSU’s sole nominee for the Michigan Association of State Universities Distinguished Professor of the Year Award in both 2024 and 2025. She has a Ph.D. in English from the University at Buffalo (SUNY) and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Temple University.
Associate Professor with Tenure Promotions
The following faculty members were promoted to Associate Professor with tenure, effective July 1, 2026.
Laura MacDonald
Laura MacDonald was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in the School of Residential Community-Engaged Arts and Humanities where she teaches courses in theatre history, dramaturgy, and American Studies. Her research focuses on Broadway musical theatre history, theatre producing and marketing, audience and fan studies, and the transnational circulation of musicals in Europe and East Asia. In 2025-2026, she was a CAL Arts & Humanities Outreach Fellow, and in 2024-2025, she was an Adams Academy Fellow. She received a New York Public Library Short-Term Fellowship in 2024.
MacDonald co-edited The Routledge Companion to Musical Theatre (2023) and The Palgrave Handbook of Musical Theatre Producers (2017). In 2023, she received a $10,000 grant from the Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies for her second book project. She has a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of East Anglia, a master’s in Drama from the University of Toronto, and a master’s in International and European Politics from the University of Edinburgh.
Alejandra Márquez Guajardo
Alejandra Márquez Guajardo was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of Romance and Classical Studies. Her research spans contemporary Latin American literature, queer and cuir studies in Latin America, the contemporary Mexican chronicle, gendered narratives of northern Mexico, depictions of state-sponsored violence, and Latinx literature and culture.
Her book Lenchitudes: Sapphic Representation in Contemporary Mexican Narrative, published earlier this year,examines literary representations of sapphic desire and how narratives can challenge or perpetuate normative perceptions of gender and sexuality. She also has written chapters for the Routledge Handbook of Queer Rhetoric (2022) and Fronteras de violencia entre México y Estados Unidos (2021). She earned her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her M.A. in Spanish from Texas A&M International University.
Casey McArdle
Casey McArdle was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures where he also serves as Director of Experience Architecture. His research interests include experience architecture, learning experience design, generative artificial intelligence, online writing instruction, web development, user experience research and design, and rhetorical theory.
McArdle co-authored and co-edited the PARS series published by the WAC Clearinghouse, which included Personal, Accessible, Responsive, Strategic (2019); PARS in Practice (2021); and PARS in Charge (2023). His recent scholarship on the implications of generative AI for technical and professional communication has appeared in the Journal of Business and Technical Communication and in the proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Design of Communication. He has a Ph.D. in English from Ball State University and an M.A. in English from Indiana University.
Betsy Sneller
Betsy Sneller was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures. She is co-director of the MSU Sociolinguistics Lab and principal investigator of the MI Diaries project, a multi-year study that collects audio recordings and personal reflections from participants across the state, documenting changes in the lives and language of Michigan residents while creating a living archive of language, culture, identity, and everyday life.
In 2024, Sneller received a $646,385 grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to expand educational opportunities for students through MI Diaries. In 2022, she received a $99,908 Digital Humanities Advancement Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop open-source code for a self-recording mobile app, and in 2021, she received $265,830 from the U.S. National Science Foundation to develop the MI Diaries project. She has a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Koen Van Gorp
Koen Van Gorp was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures. He is Co-Principal Investigator and Head of Research of the National Less Commonly Taught Languages Resource Center, a national language resource center funded through Title VI of the U.S. Department of Education.
Van Gorp’s research interests include task-based language teaching and assessment, critical multilingual language awareness, teacher training, and language-in-education policy. He is founding co-editor of TASK: Journal on Task-Based Language Teaching and Learning, and he currently chairs the TOEFL Committee of Examiners at Educational Testing Service. He earned his Ph.D. from KU Leuven in Belgium and worked at the University’s Centre for Language and Education for nearly 25 years before joining MSU in 2016.
Associate Professor Fixed Term Promotions
The following faculty members were promoted to Associate Professor, fixed term, effective Aug. 16, 2026.
Pırıl Hatice Atabay
Pırıl Hatice Atabay was promoted to Associate Professor, fixed term, in the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities. Her interdisciplinary teaching draws on her expertise in U.S. history and comparative urban studies, weaving together global perspectives in courses exploring the United States, the U.S. and the Middle East, and cities in a global world. She has a Ph.D. in U.S. History from MSU and an M.A. in History from Bilkent University.
Passionate about creating inclusive and engaging learning environments, Atabay focuses on student belonging, creativity, and collaboration. She has been recognized with numerous teaching, curriculum, and professional development awards and fellowships including the Lilly Seminar Fellowship. She is a dedicated mentor, workshop facilitator, and contributor to initiatives advancing inclusive practices, trauma-informed teaching, universal design for learning, and student wellbeing and flourishing beyond her classroom.
Catalina Bartlett
Catalina Bartlett waspromoted to Associate Professor, fixed term, in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures. She teaches First-Year Writing as well as courses in the Center for Gender in Global Context (GenCen) and Integrative Arts and Humanities (IAH). Her research concentrations are creative writing, Chicane/Latine literatures, and intersectional feminisms.
Bartlett is a 2026 awardee in fiction from the Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. Her fiction recently has been published in Boston Review and riverSedge: A Journal of Art and Literature, among others,and twice has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is the recipient of a New Mexico Writers Grant and a Ledig House Fellowship. She has a Ph.D. in English from Texas A&M University, an MFA from Indiana University, and an M.A. from the University of California at Berkeley.
Yuanfang Dai
Yuanfang Dai waspromoted to Associate Professor, fixed term, in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures. Her research concentrations include feminist philosophy, cultural rhetorics, and feminist bioethics. She is the author of Transcultural Feminist Philosophy: Rethinking Difference and Solidarity Through Chinese-American Encounters (2020).
Dai currently is working on a monograph, tentatively titled Chinese Feminist Philosophy in Transcultural Contexts, which provides a philosophical reflection on Chinese feminist scholarship from the mid-1990s to the present. She received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Michigan State University and she also has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Peking University, China.
Kathryn McEwen
Kathryn McEwen waspromoted to Associate Professor of German, fixed term, in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures where she also was recently appointed the Director of Recruitment. She teaches courses in first- and second-year German, as well as in the Integrative Studies in Arts and Humanities (IAH) program, and currently leads the German Basic Language Program. She also is a core faculty member in the Center for Gender in Global Context.
McEwen’s work focuses on inclusive approaches to teaching and learning. She recently co-edited the Inclusive Pedagogy Fellows Toolkit with colleagues from across the College of Arts and Letters. She has a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University.
Garth Sabo
Garth Sabo was promoted to Associate Professor, fixed term, in the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities where he also serves as the Director of Integrative Arts and Humanities (IAH). He teaches courses throughout MSU’s IAH curriculum on topics including climate fiction, graffiti, extinction, and the art and literature of the American Midwest. His most recent course is titled “Apex: Humans as Prey in History and Culture.”
His research focuses on literary and cultural depictions of waste, trash, and the human microbiome. He has been published in a variety of academic journals and presents regularly at conferences on topics associated with general education pedagogy and administration, as well as the environmental humanities.
Paul Schauert
Paul Schauert was promoted to Associate Professor, fixed term, in the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities. He is an interdisciplinary scholar, educator, musician, and composer who holds a Ph.D. in Folklore and Ethnomusicology from Indiana University.
Schauert’s major areas of expertise are world music, nationalism, urban studies, African studies, and African diasporic culture. In addition to his numerous articles and reviews, he published a book Staging Ghana (2015), which explores issues of nationalism and artistry within state dance ensembles. He also continues to release original music.
Wenying Zhou
Wenying Zhou was promoted to Associate Professor of Chinese, fixed term, in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures where she teaches Chinese from beginning through advanced levels. She also provides professional development workshops for K-12 Chinese-language teachers. Zhou has a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology from Michigan State University and an M.A. in Gifted Education from the University of Connecticut.
Her research focuses on Chinese immersion and dual-language education, Chinese language teacher training, Chinese literacy development, and technology-supported language learning. She is the author of two open textbooks, Elementary Chinese I and II, and accompanying interactive workbooks. She was a 2022-23 Adams Academy Fellow, received a 2024 Action Research Award from the Chinese Language Teacher Association, and was selected as a 2024-25 Lilly Teaching Fellow.
Senior Academic Specialist Promotions
The following faculty members were promoted to Senior Academic Specialist, effective July 1, 2026.
Pete Johnston
Pete Johnston was promoted to Senior Academic Specialist in the Department of English. An educator and filmmaker, he teaches digital media and film production classes and serves as the Film Lab Director, managing the Film Studies production space and equipment.
Johnston’s recent short fiction and documentary works have screened at film festivals across the country and accumulated numerous awards. He currently is working on two feature-length documentaries, one on gun violence prevention and the other on an annual magician convention in rural Michigan. Johnson has a BFA in Photography from Alma College and a master’s degree in Digital Media Art and Technology from Michigan State University.
Marissa King
Marissa King was promoted to Senior Academic Specialist and also received Continuing Status. She is the Director of Advising in the College of Arts and Letters where she guides students through their academic schedules, personal goals, and undergraduate success. She has served in that position for the past year.
Prior to joining the College of Arts and Letters, King served as the Director of Student Success and Advising in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (now the School of Residential Community-Engaged Arts and Humanities) for three years. She has an M.A. in Student Affairs Administration and a graduate certificate in Teaching and Learning in Postsecondary Education, both from Michigan State University.
Michael Lockett
Michael Lockett, Associate Director at the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities, was promoted to Senior Academic Specialist. He teaches courses on creative writing, close reading, aesthetic experience, poetics, curriculum theory, and electronic music. Prior to joining the College of Arts and Letters, he directed faculty development programs and curriculum projects, including The Name Game, a digital memory tool embedded in D2L that helps faculty learn their students’ names.
His research interests include literary analysis, poetics, and metaphor, and he recently co-edited a special issue on close reading practices for Changing English. He completed his Ph.D. at Queen’s University and has held teaching posts at Simon Fraser University, the University of Calgary, and the Royal University of Bhutan.
Dan Meier
Dan Meier was promoted to Senior Academic Specialist and serves as the Director of the College of Arts and Letters Excel Network. As director, he oversees the strategic initiatives and engagement with internal and external stakeholders, supervises staff, and oversees the budget and operations.
With more than 15 years experience in the fields of international education and higher education administration, he oversees the initiatives focused on career development and experiential learning opportunities, including education abroad, study away, and internships, for undergraduate students in the College of Arts and Letters. He has a M.A. in International Studies from the University of Denver and a B.A. from Michigan State University.
Ellen Moll
Ellen Moll was promoted to Senior Academic Specialist and is the Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Studies for the College of Arts and Letters. In this role, she is part of the Dean’s leadership team and works collaboratively to advance excellence in undergraduate education and to further undergraduate student success within the College of Arts and Letters and Michigan State University.
Moll’s administrative interests include student affairs, curriculum and pedagogy, educator development, interdisciplinary program administration, and access and belonging in higher education. Additional research areas include Science and Technology Studies, higher education leadership and liberal arts expertise, and experiential learning. She is currently co-editing a volume on hope and pedagogy in higher ed. She has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of Maryland and a B.A. in English and a B.S. in Mathematics from Michigan State University.
Dionne O’Dell
Dionne O’Dell was promoted to Senior Academic Specialist in the Department of Theatre where she specializes in teaching children’s theatre and writing and directing plays for youth and community. She also teaches in the Arts, Cultural Management, and Museum Studies program and is the Artistic Director of the Sense-Ability Ensemble, which creates innovative, multi-sensory, interactive theatrical productions for neurodiverse audiences.
O’Dell has written numerous plays and screenplays and has published articles on classical theatre in the English Journal. Her book, The Sense-Ability Ensemble’s Guide to Creating Theatre for Audiences that are Neurodiverse, was published in 2025 by Routledge. In 2025, she received the Beacon College Difference Maker Award for her work advancing inclusion and empowerment for neurodiverse individuals. She has an M.A. in Theatre Education from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in Theatre and English from Central Michigan University.
Continuing Status Promotions
The following faculty members received continuing status, effective July 1, 2026.
Nicole Broughton-Adams
Nicole Broughton-Adams received Continuing Status as an Academic Specialist. She is a core faculty member in MSU’s Arts, Cultural Management, and Museum Studies program and the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities. She also is the Director of Production for Nicely Theatre Group in Detroit.
Prior to coming to MSU in 2024, Broughton-Adams taught for 17 years at the University of Michigan-Flint, primarily teaching classes in Stage Management, Production Management, and Arts Administration, and she was the Chair of Fine and Performing Arts and Director of the Master’s in Arts Administration Program at U of M-Flint’s Horace Rackham Graduate School. She also previously served as the Production Manager and Technical Director for the Boarshead Theatre in Lansing. Other companies she has worked with include the Flint Youth Theatre, Shop Floor Theatre Company, Unicorn Theatre, and Michigan Shakespeare Festival. She has an MFA in Production Technology Management from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama.
Marissa King
Marissa King received Continuing Status and was promoted to Senior Academic Specialist. She is the Director of Advising in the College of Arts and Letters where she guides students through their academic schedules, personal goals, and undergraduate success. She has served in that position for the past year.
Prior to joining the College of Arts and Letters, King served as the Director of Student Success and Advising in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (now the School of Residential Community-Engaged Arts and Humanities) for three years. She has an M.A. in Student Affairs Administration and a graduate certificate in Teaching and Learning in Postsecondary Education, both from Michigan State University.
Caitlin Kirby
Caitlin Kirby received Continuing Status as an Academic Specialist. She served as the Director of the Evidence Driven Learning Innovation team, which is now the Center for Educational Research and Analytics and housed in Academic Development and Innovation. She conducts research about educational innovations in partnership with MSU instructors.
This past year, she received a Fulbright Scholar Award to travel to the Tübingen Center for Digital Education in Germany where she researched the impacts of adaptivity in problem-solving on students’ self-regulated learning skills. This was her second Fulbright Award. In 2020, she went to Germany as a Fulbright research student to explore the social impacts of urban agriculture. She has a Ph.D. in Science Education and Environmental Science from Michigan State University.
By Austin Curtis and Kim Popiolek