Humanities Faculty Spotlight:

The College Welcomes New Professors and Administrators

Each fall, we are pleased to welcome a number of new faculty members to the College of Humanities. As we did last year, one of the ways we will introduce these new colleagues to our various constituencies is by featuring them in the fall issues of the Humanities Express. We begin this month with profiles of Jill Bystydzienski and Judson Jeffries, who have also been hired to fulfill administrative positions in the College.

Jill Bystydzienski joins our Department of Women’s Studies as a full professor and the Department’s new chair. She has a B.A. and M.A. in sociology from McGill University and a Ph.D. from SUNY Albany. From 1980-1998 she taught sociology and women’s studies at Franklin College. She also chaired the Sociology Department and directed the Women’s Studies Program there. Between 1998 and 2006 she was director of the Women’s Studies Program at Iowa State University. Her research interests include women, gender, and politics in international and global perspective, with politics broadly defined to encompass established political institutions and women’s movements, organizations, and actions. Her current research in this area focuses on women’s movements and feminisms in post-Soviet countries.

Professor Bystydzienski also does research on women and gender in cross-cultural perspective, particularly the phenomenon of crossing cultures and cultural barriers, and building coalitions across difference; and has recently embarked on research on women and gender in the sciences, examining the barriers to women in science fields. She is the author of many articles and book chapters as well as books. Recent publications include: Removing Barriers: Women in Academic Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, co-edited with Sharon R. Bird (Indiana University Press, 2006), "Negotiating the New Market: Women, Families, Women’s Organizations and the Economic Transition in Poland," Journal of Family & Economic Issues (Summer 2005); and "Women in Scandinavian Parliaments," in Sharing Power: Women in Consolidated and Developing Democracies, eds. Yvonne Galligan and Manon Tremblay (Ashgate Publishers, 2004). She is currently finishing a book on intercultural domestic partnerships.

Judson L. Jeffries joins our Department of African American and African Studies as a full professor and as director of the Department’s Community Extension Center. Professor Jeffries earned his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Southern California in 1997; his most recent position was associate professor of political science, American studies and homeland security at Purdue University. Professor Jeffries is the author or editor of five books, including Urban America and its Police (University Press of Colorado, 2003), co-authored with Harlan Hahn, and Black Power in the Belly of the Beast (forthcoming from University of Illinois Press, 2006). A fifth book, Comrades: A Local History of the Black Panther Party, is in press with Indiana University Press.

Professor Jeffries has written numerous journal articles, book chapters, and newspaper op-eds, often investigating urban life in America, political radicalism, and police (mis)treatment of African American men. The recipient of two teaching awards, he has recently taught courses on "The 1960s," "Media and Politics," "American Government," and "African American Politics."

As Director of the African American and African Studies Community Extension Center, Professor Jeffries will continue the mission of that unit to provide community outreach and education programs designed to enhance the educational opportunities of students and improve the quality of life for people who live and work in Columbus’s urban areas.

Look for additional profiles of 30 new faculty members in upcoming issues of the Humanities Express.