Introducing New Full-Time Faculty and Faculty Fellow
September 27, 2011
Kirk Buckman, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science
Education: B.A., Government and French, Clark University; M.A., Economics and International Relations, Johns Hopkins University; Ph.D., Political Science, Brandeis University.
Buckman joins the Political Science Department for a one-year term. He comes to Stonehill from the University of New Hampshire, where he spent the 2010-2011 academic year as a lecturer in political science.
From 2007 to 2010, Buckman was an assistant professor in Franklin Pierce University's Doctor of Arts Program in Leadership Program.
From 2002 to 2007, Buckman was an assistant professor of politics at The Catholic University of America, where he taught both undergraduate and graduate level courses. From 2003 to 2009, he served as an adjunct professor at the Paul N. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University.
In the summer of 2008, Buckman was a visiting assistant professor in Hawaii Pacific University's International Studies Department as well as its Diplomacy and Military Studies graduate program.
His research focuses on comparative constitutional politics and political economy in Western Europe and Canada. He has published articles on politics in Europe, France, Germany, and Italy.
Deno Del Sesto, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Education: B.A., Chemistry, St. Anselm College; Ph.D., Physical Chemistry, Tufts University
Del Sesto joins the Chemistry Department for a one-year term after earning his doctorate this past spring from Tufts University. His dissertation focused on the reactivity of vibrationally excited methane on nickel and iridium single crystal surfaces.
Del Sesto's expertise includes the use of ultra-high vacuum techniques, which he has used for running molecular beam experiments.
His teaching experience includes one semester as a full-time instructor at St. Anselm as well as over five years as a teaching assistant at the Tufts. Additionally, he worked as a laboratory assistant in both the Chemistry and Physics Departments at St. Anselm as an undergraduate.
His awards include a Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Fellowship as well as the Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Achievement Award from Tufts University.
Nathaniel DesRosiers '95, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Education: B.A., History, Stonehill College; M.T.S., New Testament, Harvard Divinity School; Ph.D., Religious Studies-Early Christianity, Brown University.
DesRosiers returns to his alma mater as an assistant professor of religious studies. Since 2006, he served as an assistant professor of biblical studies and early Christianity at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
For seven years, from 1999-2006, DesRosiers was an instructor in foreign languages and religious studies at Stonehill. Additionally, from 1999 to 2002, he was a religious studies instructor at Brown University.
DesRosiers received the Provost's Outstanding Junior Faculty Teaching Award as well as a Summer Research Fellowship at the University of Missouri in 2010.
His teaching interests include classical, biblical and early Christian literature and history, women's religions in the Greco-Roman world, early Christian art and archaeology, and Hellenistic and Roman moral philosophy.
Rachel Hirst '98, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology
Education: B.S., Biology, B.A., Spanish, Stonehill College; Ph.D., Microbiology and Immunology, Pennsylvania State University.
Hirst joins the Biology Department as an assistant professor. Prior to returning to her alma mater, she was an assistant professor of biology at Massasoit Community College (MCC) last year and from 2007 to 2010, she was an instructor at MCC.
In the spring and fall of 2006, Hirst served as an adjunct instructor at Stonehill. She was also a guest lecturer at the Tufts University Sackler School of Biomedical Sciences from 2004 to 2005. While working on her doctorate at Pennsylvania State, she was a teaching assistant there for six years.
Since the summer of 2008, Hirst has collaborated with Stonehill Biology Department Chair Magdalena James-Pederson through the Massasoit STEP Summer Research Program, which allows Massasoit students to conduct research on Stonehill's campus.
Hirst also worked with Pederson and Stonehill professors Louis Liotta and Marilena Hall on a $600,000 grant awarded from the National Science Foundation, which provides four-year scholarships to incoming first-year students who are in financial need and, over the course of four years, two-year scholarships to transfer students who are accepted through the Massasoit Transfer Initiative.
Peter Mahoney '01
Instructor of Foreign Languages
Education: B.A., International Studies and Spanish, Stonehill College; M.A., Hispanic Languages and Literature, Boston University; Ph.D., Hispanic Languages and Literature, Boston University (expected December 2011).
Mahoney returns to his alma mater as an instructor in the Foreign Languages Department. He comes to Stonehill from Boston University, where he spent the spring 2011 semester working as a program assistant for its study abroad program in Burgos, Spain.
Prior to that, he served as a teaching fellow from 2006 to 2010 while working towards his doctorate. During the fall 2010 semester, Mahoney also was a part-time lecturer in Spanish at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
He is a two-time recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Boston University Department of Romance Studies and was also recognized for his dedication and service to the Boston community in May 2010 with a Gubernatorial Citation conferred by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.
Mahoney's research interests include literature of the Middle Ages, history of the Spanish language, colonial historiography, theater of the Siglo de Oro and Romantic literature.
Wanjiru Gakau Mbure, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Communication
Education: B.A., Communications, Daystar University (Kenya); M.A., International Affairs (Communication & Development), Ohio University; Ph.D., Communication Studies, University of Missouri.
Mbure comes to the College from the University of Missouri - Columbia where she was an instructor of record in the Department of Communication. She also served as a teaching assistant there while working towards her doctorate from 2007 to 2011.
As a recipient of the John D. Bies International Dissertation Research Fellowship Mbure conducted field research in Nairobi and London in summer 2010. Her dissertation focused on analyzing portrayals of skin color and skin tone in cosmetic advertising in Kenyan and British women's magazines from 1955 to 1975 and 2000 to 2010. Mbure's other research interests include resistance and new media technologies, media influence on body image among immigrant and diaspora communities, and transnational/post-colonial media criticism particularly related to issues of gender, race, and globalization.
She has also studied media influence on body image and the effects of music videos on sexual attitudes among college students.
Edward McGushin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Education: B.A., Political Science, University of North Carolina; M.A., Philosophy, Boston College; Ph.D., Philosophy, Boston College.
McGushin joins the Philosophy Department as an associate professor. He comes to Stonehill from St. Anselm College where he served a similar role since 2004. Prior to that, he was an adjunct professor at Boston College and a senior lecturer at Cambridge College during the 2003-2004 academic year. McGushin also was an international fellow at the École Normale Supérieure, one of France's most prestigious academic institutions.
A specialist in 20th century continental philosophy, existentialism and Foucault, he received the 2007 New Hampshire Campus Compact President's Good Steward Award, which recognizes individuals who have contributed their professional expertise in service to the wider community and who have significantly advanced public service on their campus.
In 2007, he published his book titled Foucault's Askesis: An Introduction to the Philosophical Life (published by Northeastern University Press in its Topics in Historical Philosophy series). He is currently working on a documentary film project called The Passion of Thought, which follows Father William J. Richardson, a Boston College philosophy professor.
Irvin Pan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology
Education: B.A., Biology and History, Amherst College; M.A., Science Writing, Johns Hopkins University; Ph.D., Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University.
Pan joins the Biology Department from Tufts University, where he was a TEACRS Postdoctoral Fellow. His past teaching experience includes a semester at UMass-Boston, where he was an adjunct professor of biology for the spring 2010 semester.
Additionally, he was a teaching assistant at Yale University, taught a short course in the writing seminars at Johns Hopkins University, and was a laboratory teaching assistant at Amherst College.
His research interests are in developmental biology and evolutionary biology in plants, focusing on domesticated crops.
Margaret Pierce, Ed.D.
Assistant Professor of Education
Education: B.A., Psychology and Education, Swarthmore College; Ed.M., Learning and Teaching, Harvard University; Ed.D., Human Development and Psychology, Harvard University.
Pierce joins the Education Department after spending the last five years as an assistant professor in the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Special Education Program. In March of 2010, she returned to her role as a written language specialist at Children's Hospital Boston, where she worked in 2005 to 2006.
Pierce also spent time as an instructor at Harvard University's School of Education from 2004 to 2006. Additionally, she was the clinic director at Tuft University's Center for Reading and Language Research.
The recipient of the 2010 University of Massachusetts-Amherst School of Education Outstanding Teaching Award, Pierce began her career as an elementary school teacher.
Her areas of specialty are language-based learning disabilities, reading disabilities, and language and literacy assessment and instruction.
David Simon, Ph.D.
Fellow in Physics
Education: B.S., Physics and Mathematics, Ohio State University; M.A., Physics, John Hopkins University; Ph.D., Theoretical Physics, Johns Hopkins University; M.S., Electrical Engineering, Boston University; Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Boston University.
Simon joins the Physics Department as a fellow this academic year from Boston University, where he worked as a post-doctoral research associate since earning his second doctorate degree this past January. He also served as a research assistant there while working towards his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from 2007 to 2010.
Prior to that, Simon spent 14 years at Nova Southeastern University. He began as an assistant professor in its Mathematics, Science and Technology Division in 1993 before being promoted to associate professor in 1998. He also served as the science coordinator from 2006 to 2007.
Simon's research interests include classical and quantum optics/photonics, mathematical physics, quantum field theory and quantum mechanics.
Heiko Todt, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Education: B.A., Mathematics and Physics, Christian-Albrecht-Universitat (Kiel, Germany); M.A., Mathematics, Pennsylvania State University; Ph.D., Mathematics, Pennsylvania State University.
Todt joins the Mathematics Department from Pennsylvania State University, where he served as a math instructor since 2009. While working towards his master's and Ph.D. from 2003 to 2009, he was also a teaching assistant there. Additionally, Todt served as a mentor for graduate teaching assistants in Mathematics from 2006 to 2009.
In 2008, Todt received the Hoover Memorial Award for undergraduate teaching at Penn State and in 2006, he earned the Teaching Award from its Mathematics Department.
Born in Kiel Germany, Todt first came to the U.S. as an exchange student in 2002.
Contact
For more information, contact Communications and Media Relations at 508-565-1321.