While thousands of students at Indiana University Bloomington started fall classes recently, so did more than 300 new faculty.
Among the 320 new faculty:
32% are tenured or tenure-track faculty and librarians.
31% are researchers.
23% are visiting faculty and librarians.
14% are lecturers, clinical faculty and professors of practice.
The cohort represents 36 countries. There is a nearly even split between genders (51% women, 49% men), and 38% of the new faculty are people of color.
“We are thrilled to welcome the new cohort of faculty to the IU Bloomington campus,” said Eliza Pavalko, vice provost for faculty and academic affairs. “The expertise they possess, and the broad diversity of the cohort, provides students the opportunity to learn from top faculty from across the country and around the world.”
IU Bloomington Today caught up with three new faculty members to learn more about them, their areas of expertise, their teaching, and their initial impressions of the campus and community.
Angela Jackson-Brown. Photo courtesy of Angela Jackson-Brown. Angela Jackson-Brown
Associate professor of English, Department of English, College of Arts and Sciences
Angela Jackson-Brown is an author, poet and playwright. Her novels consider American race relations from historical perspectives grounded in archival scholarship, and her fiction-in-progress takes that history back to its African origins.
Her novels include “Drinking from a Bitter Cup,” “When Stars Rain Down” — a finalist for the David J. Langum Sr. Prize for American Historical Fiction and shortlisted for the Indiana Authors Award in Fiction — and “The Light Always Breaks.” She is also the author of “House Repairs,” a book of poems that won the Alabama Library Association Prize in Poetry, and she has written more than a half-dozen plays.
This fall she’ll teach two classes: Writing Fiction and Topics in Current Literature.
Q: Why did you want to come to Indiana University to teach?
A: The draw to IU was numerous. First and foremost, the Master of Fine Arts program is second to none in the country, and so many of the faculty are people whose work I have read and admired. I have lived in Indiana for over 14 years, and I consider it my home.
As a transplanted southerner, there is something comforting about being surrounded by the familiar landscape of farmland and rural towns, and of course, Bloomington is a college town, very reminiscent of my alma mater, Auburn University. I like that the community and the university are one, and neither is in opposition with the other. When I visited Bloomington for the first time, I immediately felt at home. It is both city and small town … a perfect combination.
Q: How did you get interested in your area of expertise, and how do you plan to further it at IU?
A: I have been “writing stories” since the first moment I could hold a crayon or pencil. Storytelling is in my blood; my grandmother and several of my relatives write and, even though I was not raised around them, the DNA was clearly strong.
I have always found a way to write, no matter what my job was, but here, at IU, I know that my writing is both encouraged and supported. I am surrounded by the best of the best when it comes to creative writing faculty and students. The environment here is perfect for someone who strives to be a prolific writer.
Q: What are your initial thoughts about the Bloomington campus and community?
A: It is very hilly! IU is probably one of the most beautiful campuses I have taught on. I love how well the campus blends in with the city. They are not in conflict with each other aesthetically and, for that, I am happy to be in a position to learn more about the history of this community. As a creative writer, I can sense there are many stories waiting to be told about Bloomington, and I am looking forward to discovering those stories with my students.
Corey Kalbaugh. Photo by Kimberly Gaulin PhotographyCorey Kalbaugh
Associate professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health
Corey Kalbaugh earned a doctorate in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He recently was an assistant professor in the departments of Public Health Sciences and Bioengineering at Clemson University.
His research includes health disparities, cardiovascular disease, implicit bias, health equity, clinical epidemiology, vascular surgery and health care delivery. This fall, in lieu of teaching, he’ll be using grants from the National Institutes of Health and American Heart Association for a research study: “Understanding and Addressing Racial Disparities in Guideline-Indicated Management of Symptomatic Peripheral Artery Disease.” Initial findings indicate some disparities may be reduced if all people received the correct care. The current focus is understanding the role of unconscious bias among vascular surgeons in the treatment of people with peripheral artery disease.
Q: Why did you want to come to Indiana University to teach?
A: I was drawn to IU because of the tremendous people at the School of Public Health. Dean David Allison and his team have built a community of scholars that work across disciplinary boundaries on problems that really matter. I am inspired by what they have already achieved!
Q: How did you get interested in your area of expertise, and how do you plan to further it at IU?
A: My passion for peripheral artery disease (PAD) research began in 2001 through a Master of Science program in bioengineering at Clemson University, which held a partnership with a nearby academic hospital (Greenville Hospital System). For my thesis, I was placed at GHS to develop a clinical algorithm designed to standardize the treatment of symptomatic PAD.
I spent a year enrolling a cohort of about 250 patients with PAD, and then I followed this cohort for six months to examine the association between the algorithm score they received at enrollment and their outcomes. I got to know these patients and grew to care deeply about this particular disease and the people it affects.
At the same time, I watched my grandfather lose both of his legs, and his life, to PAD. I know first-hand that the outcomes in patients with PAD are as poor as late-stage cancers. Outcomes are particularly poor for patients from racial and ethnic minority groups and women, and I am currently working to better understand the causes of these disparities.
At Indiana University, I look forward to leveraging my 20 years of experience working with surgeons to establish new clinical partnerships. I am a product of an “embedded scholarship” training model and am actively looking to grow a similar program here at IU.
Q: How would you describe yourself as a professor, and what should people know about how you teach?
A: My teaching philosophy is grounded in a belief that the world needs more people doing what they love to help meet some of our most challenging collective issues. It’s such a gift to see a student come to life as they identify that place that Frederick Buechner describes as vocation, where an individual’s “deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.”
My teaching style is practical and experiential. I bring examples of my own research into my teaching as a way of making the research methods more practical and have found that students appreciate these personal examples. And I am convinced that providing experiential opportunities for students is critical to helping them discern their career path (undergraduates) or to developing the most important research questions (graduate students).
Kathryn Bonnen. Photo courtesy of Kathryn Bonnen. Kathryn Bonnen
Assistant professor, School of Optometry
Kathryn “Kate” Bonnen earned a doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining the IU School of Optometry, she was a Simons Society Postdoctoral Fellow in Neural Science at New York University.
Her research program focuses on visual perception, sensorimotor processing and neural computation. This research relies on behavioral measurements (psychophysics, eye tracking, body motion capture) and computational modeling (of behavior, neural processing and the world). She strives to understand the visual system and sensorimotor system in contexts relevant to daily life (e.g., walking, balance, object tracking). Sometimes she goes hiking for science.
Bonnen is teaching two classes in the fall: Integrative Optometry — Problem Based Learning, working with second-year optometry students, and Vision Science Seminar, working with master’s and doctoral students in the Vision Science program.
Q: How did you get interested in your area of expertise, and how do you plan to further it at IU?
A: My specific areas of expertise are sensorimotor processing and visual neuroscience. My interests in neuroscience grew fairly organically from my experiences with childhood epilepsy. I actually wrote a story that is at least partially about this for Stories in Science.
I’m excited to start my research lab at IU in the optometry school. My research will focus on how we use our vision to move through the world. I hope to improve our understanding of the visual system across the human lifespan, from infancy and early childhood through adulthood and into old age.
This is one of the reasons I was very excited to join the faculty here at IU. There is such a strong group of interdisciplinary researchers studying both child development and aging here at IU. And my position in the School of Optometry allows me to continue to learn from my more clinical colleagues and find ways to translate our basic research into clinical settings.
Q: How would you describe yourself as a professor, and what should people know about how you teach?
A: I value learning. I am eager to listen. I try to foster collaborative learning environments.
My first job was coaching tennis. I did that at least part-time for more than a decade. As a coach, you observe, give feedback and create contexts for your students to practice different skills. They are actively doing, and you’re there to support them in their practice. I think that I bring that set of experiences as a coach into the classroom with me. I want to support students on their journey, both in terms of their professional goals and their personal intellectual growth.
Q: What are your initial thoughts about the Bloomington campus and community?
A: I have found IU and the great Bloomington community to be incredibly welcoming. On campus I’ve been enjoying the interdisciplinary communities around vision science, cognitive science and neuroscience. But I also love what IU’s strength in the arts and humanities brings to our campus and our larger Bloomington community.
And I have been blown away with how colorful the flowers are through the spring and summer. In Texas, where I grew up, the wildflowers only really last for a couple weeks in late March. Here they come in waves for months.
Kirk Johannesen is a communications consultant in the Office of the Vice President for Communications and Marketing.
