New CLA Faculty Starting in Fall 2024

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Surabhi Balachander - School of Writing, Literature and Film

Assistant Professor

Surabhi Balachander grew up in Indiana, was a longtime staff member at Stanford University's Bill Lane Center for the American West, and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Balachander's research and teaching interests bridge comparative ethnic studies and the environmental humanities in 20th and 21st century American literature. Her current book project seeks to define rural identity in American literature from 1920-2020, the U.S.'s first century as a majority-urban nation, and shows that rural America, in contrast to popular stereotypes, is best understood as multiethnic and cosmopolitan. Her work appears in ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment and Western American Literature.

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Matthew Boyle - School of Visual, Performing and Design Arts

Assistant Professor of Teaching in Music Theory

Matthew Boyle is a music theorist whose research examines the expressive uses of musical conventions in Italian-language opera. His current projects include articles on issues of pleasure in the operas of Gioachino Rossini, the analysis of recitative, and musical form in early two-tempo arias. He is published or forthcoming in the Journal of Music Theory, Music Theory Spectrum, Music Theory Online, Indiana Theory Review, and an edited collection published by Peeters. His article “Galant Recitative Schemas,” co-authored with Paul Sherrill, received the David Kraehenbuehl Prize and the Society for Music Theory’s Emerging Scholar Award.

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Matteo Bugatti - School of Psychological Science

Assistant Professor

Dr. Matteo Bugatti studies the use of technology for the personalization and optimization of psychotherapy. His recent work has focused on the enhancement of measurement-based care, as well as on computerized therapist training supported by artificial intelligence.

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Mohamed Elkaramany - School of Public Policy

Visiting Assistant Professor

As a policy scholar and practitioner with over two decades of experience, Mohamed Elkaramany bridges the gap between theory and practice in public policy and administration. Elkaramany's expertise spans public affairs, international development, and nonprofit management. Elkaramany strives to equip students with practical knowledge and skills to apply their classroom learning to real-world challenges. Elkaramany's research interests and agenda focus on social policy, welfare politics, food assistance, and social protection programs, using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as a key lens to explore the complex interplay between political dynamics and policy outcomes.

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John Gibson - School of Visual, Performing and Design Arts

Instructor and Technical Director in Theatre

John Gibson is the technical director and scenic designer for Oregon State University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in theatre and later his M.F.A. in technical direction from the University of Oregon. He has served as the technical director for "God Said This," as well as sound designer for "Hay Fever." In 2023, he served as technical director for "She Kills Monsters," as well as technical director for the University of Oregon music school’s opera performance of "L’italiana in Algeri" and University Theatre’s performance of "Twelfth Night." Over the summer of 2023 and 2024, he served as scenic designer and technical director for Oregon State University’s BARD in the Quad. His favorite show he worked on, he was the scenic designer for "Let the Right One In."

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Anna Guasco - Marine Studies

Visiting Assistant Professor

Anna Guasco is an interdisciplinary environmental studies scholar working across geography, environmental history, political ecology, and critical ocean studies. She earned her PhD in Geography at the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She teaches courses for the Marine Studies Program. Her research focuses on environment-society issues, with particular interests in wildlife, conservation, environmental justice, and oceans/coasts. She is working on her first book project, which examines narratives, histories, and justice issues circulating around the migration and conservation of gray whales along the North American Pacific Coast. She is an American Society for Environmental History-Gale Fellow and a member of the inaugural editorial team for the H-Oceans network.

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G. Blake Harrison-Lane - School of Visual, Performing and Design Arts

Assistant Professor of Teaching in Music, Technology and Production

G. Blake Harrison-Lane is a composer, audio engineer, and enactor working at the junction between music technology and traditional forms of musical expression. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine, in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology (ICIT), a Master of Music in composition from the University of South Florida, and a Bachelor of Music in music recording technology and a Bachelor of Arts in music composition from Lebanon Valley College. His current research is focused on further developing Cross-Domain Notation—a meta-notation representing conceptual domains used in music performance—and sensor-based music composition.

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Kristy Kelly - School of Writing, Literature and Film

Professor of Teaching and Director of Writing

Kristy Kelly has been teaching writing courses since 2010 and directing OSU's Writing Program since 2021. She received her PhD from an institution that shall not be named (University of Oregon) in 2016, and her research interests include digital rhetorics, antiracist pedagogies, and writing program administration. As a writing teacher, Kristy loves it when students take big risks, ask tough questions, and critically examine their own assumptions.

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Rachel Roberson - School of Language, Culture, and Society

Assistant Professor of Teaching

Rachel Roberson joins the School of Language, Culture, and Society as an assistant professor of teaching. Rachel has a Ph.D. in education policy & organizations from the University of California, Berkeley. Their scholarship compliments a fourteen-year career working with education-related non-profits, schools, and colleges in various spaces and places from California to Texas, Colorado and Minnesota. Rachel has dedicated their academic and administrative career towards transforming the landscape of educational equity and inclusion. In the classroom, they leverage Black feminist and community-based pedagogy and praxis to co-construct a thriving learning environment, which uniquely positions them to fill an urgent need in the social sciences. As a first-generation scholar and educator, Rachel is excited to join OSU’s justice-oriented scholarly community.

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Morgan Ross - School of Communication

Assistant Professor

Morgan Ross' research program examines how people use digital technology to weave communication into their lives. Ross draws on theoretical perspectives tied to two aspects of digital technology: mobility and identity. Ross' work explicates how mobility affords opportunities to connect with (but also disconnect from) others anyplace-anytime as well as how mobile technology can become integral to core aspects of the self. To do so, Ross leverages a variety of traditional, naturalistic, and computational methods, with a focus on spatial analysis. Ultimately, Ross investigates how people balance connection and disconnection in daily life.

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Jackie Salway - School of Visual, Performing and Design Arts

Instructor in Graphic Design

A lifelong learner who is passionate about creativity and design, Jackie Salway has spent her 20+ year career as a designer, art director, creative director, entrepreneur, and executive level brand leader. Educated at Syracuse University, RISD, and Yale School of Management, her career has taken her from New York to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Portland. She has built and led in-house creative teams at Target, Levi's, and Old Navy, as well as founded her own creative agency in Portland in 2012. Her passion for mentoring creatives and fostering collaboration has led her on a path to explore design education. She is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in creative leadership with Minneapolis College of Art & Design.