New faculty members add their perspective to the UT arts and humanities community.
New faculty members joining the college’s Division of Arts and Humanities this fall contribute fresh, interdisciplinary perspectives in literature, history, culture, languages, art, and more.
They build upon UT’s community of engaging scholars who help students ignite their personal aspirations and hone skills in creative and critical thinking, professional reasoning, and asking the right questions. They help prepare students for meaningful, high-quality careers in dynamic fields, such as the new publishing concentration in the Department of English, which explores the foundations, current state, and future of publishing in the US.
“These new faculty add to the tremendous breadth of creative and scholarly work in the arts and humanities taking place at UT,” said Divisional Dean for Arts and Humanities Beauvais Lyons. “Their work with fellow faculty and our enthusiastic student scholars help us reveal and interpret what our future world could be.”
New Tenure-Track Faculty
Megan Birk
Professor, Bernadotte Schmitt Chair of Excellence
Department of History
Birk’s research focuses on the influences of the Progressive Era in the rural United States and the effects of institutional care on family life. She has published two books and is currently working on a third about the history of home economics departments and the changing notions of both motherhood and home economics during the early 20th century.
Brandee Easter
Assistant Professor of Digital and New Media
Department of English
Easter’s research focus is on relationships between the body and technology. Working from rhetorical studies, she explores how arguments are made about, with, and in technology with the goal to better understand discourses in technological objectivity.
Kristen Martino
Assistant Professor of Scenic Design
Department of Theatre
Martino’s professional work spans regional stages and international exhibitions. She brings to UT a strong foundation in both creative practice and arts education. Her research and creative practice focus on scenic storytelling and her teaching emphasizes collaborative problem-solving.
Bucky Miller
Assistant Professor of Photography
School of Art
Miller’s photography unearths “stranger possibilities for joy.” His works examine the dueling forces of extreme presence and imaginative escape. He has presented solo exhibitions at spaces including the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and has shown at numerous galleries internationally.
Rachel Schneider
Assistant Professor of Religion in Public Life
Department of Religious Studies
Schneider’s research focuses on how religion can undergird systems of inequality, but also how religion and spirituality can shape ethical practices and social change. Her work has appeared in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Socius, Sociology of Religion, Sociological Inquiry, Journal of Religious Ethics, and more.
Daniel Bird Tobin
Assistant Professor of Applied Theatre
Department of Theatre
Tobin considers himself a “theatre archaeologist.” He builds theatrical stories to communicate science, using his collaborative experiences with scientists and their research to create performance pieces to share understanding and emotional connection with the research.
Zoe Weldon-Yochim
Assistant Professor of Art History/Museum Studies
School of Art
Weldon-Yochim is a scholar of contemporary art and art history whose research examines how visual and material culture engages the intertwined histories of nuclear colonialism, ecological violence, and US militarism.
Jessica Wilkerson
Associate Professor of Public History–Appalachia
Department of History
Wilkerson is a historian of the modern US whose research and teaching explores political economy and social change in the 20th-century South and Appalachia, from women in country music and sports to histories of labor organizing in the region.
New Teaching Faculty
Art
- Rachel Sevier Dallery, Teaching Assistant Professor
History
- Casey Price, Teaching Assistant Professor
- Kyle Vratarich, Teaching Assistant Professor
Philosophy
- Madison Cosby, Lecturer
English
- Grant Currier, Herbert Post-Doctoral Fellow, Teaching Assistant Professor
- Samuel Granoff, Herbert Post-Doctoral Fellow, Teaching Assistant Professor
- Emily Harrison, Teaching Assistant Professor
- Emily Moeck, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Teaching Assistant Professor
- Torre Puckett, Herbert Post-Doctoral Fellow, Teaching Assistant Professor
- Gabriel Reed, Teaching Assistant Professor
- James Shepard, Teaching Assistant Professor
- Hayley Wilson, Teaching Assistant Professor
- Kate Wright, Teaching Assistant Professor
- Sarah Yancey, Teaching Assistant Professor
Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
- Michael Lovell, Teaching Assistant Professor
By Randall Brown