Colorado College is pleased to announce the tenure and promotion of the following seven assistant professors to the rank of associate professor. Six faculty and one senior staff member have also received emeriti status following approval of their retirement at the end of the 2023-2024 academic year.
The faculty promotions were presented by Dean of Faculty Emily Chan and approved by the Board of Trustees at their meeting in February and will take effect on July 1.
Each faculty member has met Colorado College’s high expectations in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and service.
Paul Adlerstein, Assistant Professor of History
Professor Adlerstein is admired for his holistic care for his students. He teaches classes in U.S. History and political movements, including courses on the Great Depression and the New Deal, Contemporary U.S. History and Presidential Elections, and Community Organizing and Activism. He is a leader in his field of research on international progressive and left organizations and movements (see his book No Globalization Without Representation: U.S. Activists and Global Inequality. His next book project will be on the history of U.S. progressive/left internationalism from the founding of the republic to the present. Adlerstein also serves on the board of advisers for the History and Political Economy Project.
Iddo Aharony, Assistant Professor of Music
Professor Aharony developed CC’s digital music program. He reflects on his teaching using the metaphor of a river: at times it is like navigating a narrow passageway where knowledge and experience flow rapidly, and at other times like a receding embankment that opens into a delta for change and exploration. His pedagogy encourages all to take creative risk in their work, regardless of their previous experience in music technology and composition. He is recognized nationally as a boundary-breaking interdisciplinary composer. Visit this webpage to view his acclaimed work breathwatersoundcannon (for bass-flue, live electronics, and video), and ...and later, without a sound, which was selected for exhibition at Spain’s Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.
Nene Diop, Assistant Professor of French
Students and colleagues characterize Professor Diop as a teacher extraordinaire in language instruction. She taught courses ranging from elementary to advanced French, French Cultural Contexts and Composition, and studies of Senegalese writers. She regularly leads study abroad programs in France and Senegal. This spring she is in Nice, Paris, and Normandie (including a day-visit to Monet’s Garden in Giverny) teaching Immigration, Race, and National Identity in France. Professor Diop is also an active scholar; her book Socio-Political Struggle and Self-Representation: Senegalese Women and their Quest for Equal Rights presented her groundbreaking work on the representation of Senegalese women by both men and women writers.
Jessica Kisunzu, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Professor Kisunzu regularly teaches organic chemistry courses from the introductory through advanced levels. In addition to being widely recognized as an effective, demanding, and supportive teacher, she is also sought after as a research mentor by students interested in research in organic chemistry. She has published on benzyne chemistry and molecular structure, and recently won a grant to continue her work on photochemical research. In addition to her achievements in teaching and scholarship, Professor Kisunzu contributes to the CC community through her talent in music (she composed and performed a piece for the CC community -- "What I've Found" – at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020.
Rushaan Kumar, Assistant Professor of Feminist and Gender Studies
Professor Kumar offers courses in queer, trans, sexuality, and transnational feminist studies. Students admire how he creates a classroom climate that enhances student motivation and breaks down complex theories in an accessible and engaging manner. He recently published an article Bodies that Matter: Partition Masculinity and the Transgender Archive in Qissa (Qissa is a Punjabi film about a Sikh Partition refugee; read Kumar's full analysis in this article). He has been recognized by the Collaborative for Community Engagement with the Community Engagement Award. He serves on the board for the Society for Queer Asian Studies.
Amanda Minervini, Assistant Professor of Italian
Professor Minervini teaches courses on Italian language and Italian studies, including a wide range of interdisciplinary topics such as Love and Anarchy, Dante, and The Rise of Fascism. She also teaches in the first-year writing seminar program and has recently developed a course on Voice and the Non-Human. Being a creative and student-centered teacher, she is known for including interaction with horses and ponies in her courses. Her co-edited book Re-Figuring Global Challenges: Literacy and Cinematic Explorations of War, Inequality, and Migration has recently been published by Brill.
Pallavi Sriram, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Dance
Colleagues value and respect Professor Sriram’s tremendous impact on transforming CC’s dance program by bringing a decolonial and interdisciplinary approach. Her pedagogy encourages students’ creative confidence and risk-taking, creating transformative learning for students with varied background experiences in dance. In her recent chapter “Marfa masti: Performing shifting Indian Ocean geographies,” she explored multiple music and dance movements from 17th century Deccan to contemporary Marfa to examine contemporary Indian Ocean worlds. Sriram’s choreography was featured in March production of Raise/Raze.
Colorado College congratulates the following faculty and staff members who’ve been awarded Emeriti status and were approved for retirement at the end of academic year 2023-24. We thank you for your years of service educating our students. Their photos can be seen above in the photo gallery.
Shane Burns (2000), Professor Emeritus of Physics
Phillip Cervantes (2000), Associate Professor Emeritus of Physics
Alberto Hernandez-Lemus (1999), Associate Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
Jane Hilberry (1988), Professor Emerita of Creativity and Innovation
Mark Smith (1988), Professor Emeritus of Economics
Mark Wilson (1998), Associate Professor Emeritus of Organismal Biology and Ecology
Mark Hatch (2001), Vice-President for Enrollment Emeritus