UALR’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences welcomes 13 new faculty members this semester, including Artist in Residence Taimur Cleary from the Columbia College of Art and Design.

Cleary will serve as an artist in residence for representational painting. He earned a master of fine arts degree with a concentration in painting from the Pratt Institute in New York.

Other new faculty in UALR’s largest college include:

English

• Frank Thurmond will serve as a one-year visiting professor in the English department. He holds a master of research methods degree in English from Oxford University in England and a certification in the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language. Before coming to UALR as an instructor, he taught at the Tarbut V’Torah School in Irvine, Calif.
• Dr. Jeremy Ecke, who holds a Ph.D. in English with an emphasis in linguistics from the University of California at Berkeley, joins UALR’s English department as an assistant professor. He previously held that rank at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.
• Dr. Nicole Seymour, formerly at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, also joins the English department at an assistant professor. She earned a Ph.D. in English with an emphasis in Women’s and Gender Studies from Vanderbilt University.

History

• Dr. Barclay Key, an assistant professor at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Ill., earned a Ph.D. in modern U.S. history from the University of Florida in Gainesville.
• Dr. Susanah Romney, who recently completed a visiting professorship at Whittier College in California, earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University where she specialized in Dutch and Early American History.

Philosophy

• Associate Professor Keith Robinson, who earned a Ph.D. at the University of Warwick, England, is the new chair of UALR’s philosophy department. Specializing in 19th and 20th century continental philosophy and 20th century French philosophy, he previously was an associate professor and coordinator of the philosophy program at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, S.D.
• Michael Norton, assistant professor of philosophy who specializes in philosophy of religion and contemporary continental philosophy, earned a Ph.D. from Villanova University, Villanova, Pa. Before arriving at UALR, he was an assistant professor at the University of Dallas.

Music

• Don Bernardini, assistant professor in the music department, holds a master of music degree in opera and stage direction from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Ind. He comes to UALR from Indiana University in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Political Science

• Mary McConnell, visiting assistant professor in political science, is a Ph.D candidate at the University of Mississippi where she taught before coming to UALR.

Rhetoric and Writing

• Sherry Rankins-Robertson, assistant professor of rhetoric and writing, earned a Ph.D. in English with concentrations in rhetoric, composition, and linguistics from Arizona State University in Phoenix. She previously was a lecturer at with Arizona State University Polytechnic Campus in the College of Letters and Sciences in Mesa, Ariz.

Theatre and Dance

• Laura Dowling, lighting designer, earned a master of fine arts degree in lighting design from Indiana University in Bloomington. She brings experience in theatre lighting from the Washington National Opera and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.