�ֲ���ý has announced four faculty promotions, including tenure awards, effective Aug. 1 for the 2019–20 academic year.

Travis Gould, physics, and Michael Rocque, sociology, were promoted from assistant to associate professor and were granted tenure. Krista Aronson, psychology, was promoted from associate to full professor. Anita Charles, education, was promoted from lecturer to senior lecturer.

The promotions were recommended by the faculty’s Committee on Personnel and approved by the �ֲ���ý College Board of Trustees.

“Their extraordinary talents are emblematic of the across-the-board excellence of the �ֲ���ý faculty.”

“The faculty whose promotions we are celebrating this year, in physics, sociology, education, and psychology, are not only leading scholars, but also, through their teaching, guides who lead our students and our community to engage with important ideas,” said Malcolm Hill, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty.

“Their extraordinary talents are emblematic of the across-the-board excellence of the �ֲ���ý faculty.”

Meet the four newly promoted faculty members, learn their research fields, and discover why they teach.

Associate Professor of Physics Travis Gould

Assistant Professor of Physics Travis Gould (center) works students during his Short Term course “Microcontroller Laboratory” in 2015. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

Appointment year: 2013

Doctoral institution: University of Maine, Orono

Fields of research: Adaptive optics, development and application of fluorescence microscopy techniques, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, fluorescence nanoscopy, image processing, light-sheet microscopy, STED microscopy, super-resolution microscopy

Why I teach: Having been primarily a researcher before coming to �ֲ���ý, I’ve been pleasantly surprised that teaching has been such a rewarding experience. It has also been an opportunity for me to learn — as I’m trying to work concepts out for myself, I’m sharing the thought process with the students, making connections between technologies and the physics behind them. The students and I have been able to go through the process of figuring it out together.

Our students really get into the material and many of them want to apply it in a research setting. It’s been really nice to see that excitement, and to have students come from classes into my lab to do summer research, senior thesis, or independent study.

Associate Professor of Sociology Michael Rocque

Associate Professor of Sociology Michael Rocque is also the faculty liaison to the Bobcat football team. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Appointment year: 2014

Doctoral institution: Northeastern University

Fields of research: Biosocial crime prevention, corrections, criminology theory, desistance from crime, life-course criminology, race and crime, race and school discipline, risk assessment in corrections, survey research

Why I teach: I feel like I am among the luckiest people in the world to be able to call �ֲ���ý College my professional home. It is an institution that truly values educating the whole person and allows us as professors to do that in innovative and creative ways.

As professors, we get to witness and play a small part in the development of young people as they make their way from their teens into adulthood, becoming the people they will be for the rest of their lives. It is an honor to be able to do this for a living.

Professor of Psychology Krista Aronson

Professor of Psychology Krista Aronson reviews picture books during a Short Term course trip to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass., in 2017. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Appointment year: 2003

Doctoral institution: University of Michigan

Fields of research: Digital humanities, multicultural children’s literature, intercultural competence, racial and ethnic identity development, acculturation, immigration, psychometric assessment

Why I teach: I love my job because I get to engage amazing students in meaningful work designed to affect contemporary social problems — every day.

Whether it’s in the classroom, in the library, at school, or online through the Diverse BookFinder, I love working with �ֲ���ý students to bring theory and research into practice. This is my passion.

Senior Lecturer in Education and Director of Secondary Teacher Education Anita Charles

Senior Lecturer in Education Anita Charles teaches a course on topics in special education in 2018. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Appointment year: 2004

Doctoral institution: University of New Hampshire

Fields of research: Early and adolescent literacy, public education reform, special education, teacher education

Why I teach: I come from a long line of educators — my passion for teaching is literally in my blood! After years of teaching in K–12 venues, I now teach future educators at �ֲ���ý who aim to make the world a better place for all children and youth. I hope to cultivate in my students a love of learning and teaching in relationship with young people in the community and beyond.

I believe that the work I do encourages transformative reflection and engagement, rigorous ideological exploration tied to practical civic action, and a commitment to social justice within educational institutions.

Education is the linchpin of democracy; the courses I teach in literacy, special education, and teacher education aim to disrupt hegemonies and assumptions around systemic power structures and around concepts of ability and possibility. My hope is that students leave my courses with at least as many questions as answers.

Promoted to full professor in May 2011, Kirk Read is professor of French and chair of the Division of Humanities. A specialist in early modern French literature, he concentrates on pre-Revolutionary France and Francophone North Africa. Released in April by Ashgate Publishing, his Birthing Bodies in Early Modern France: Stories of Gender and Reproduction investigates gender, sex and sexuality in medical discourse and across various literary genres building on an acute knowledge of early modern gender and culture as well as contemporary gender theory.

In collaboration with colleagues and students at �ֲ���ý, Read has developed a multimedia course in oral French that follows the adventures of a fictional North African heroine, Marie Malika d’Alger — an endeavor that combines his interests in language, culture and theater. Read has served as chair of French in 2011 and also chairs the �ֲ���ý Arts Collaborative, a campus-wide initiative promoting and advancing the arts at the college.

Read received his doctorate and master’s in French literature at Princeton, and a bachelor’s degree in French at Dartmouth. Prior to arriving at �ֲ���ý in 1990, he taught at Princeton and Dartmouth. He is also an
exhibiting photographer, and has written and recorded
nearly 20 audio commentaries for Maine Public Radio.

Promoted to senior lecturer in theater in May 2011, Katalin Vecsey teaches courses in voice and speech, and voice and gender. With Dana Professor of Theater Martin Andrucki, Vecsey co-leads the Short Term course “Central European Theater and Film,” which brings �ֲ���ý students to Budapest and Prague.

Now in her 16th year at �ֲ���ý, Vecsey has adapted numerous plays, poems, short stories and other texts for stage performance by her voice and speech students. She serves as vocal director for mainstage and student-directed theater productions, has directed 10 other productions, and advises student performance groups. She is also an independent voice consultant with a specialty in working with male-to-female transsexuals.

Vecsey is a native of Hungary. In addition to writing many conference papers and journal articles, she wrote, directed and presented the instructional piece Voice Workout Video for Professional Voice Users (In Hungarian) in 2000. She received her doctorate in developmental and educational psychology at Eötvös Lóránd University, Budapest, and the equivalent of master’s and bachelor’s degrees in speech and language pathology and special education at Bárczi Gusztáv College, also in Budapest. She is frequently invited back to Bárczi Gusztáv College to teach master classes.