Middlebury College welcomed a diverse cohort of new faculty this fall with expertise in a broad range of academic disciplines
“It has been a great pleasure to meet and talk with our many new faculty members,” said Jeremy Ward
“They bring an enormous diversity of experience
and viewpoints to our community and students
I encourage all members of our community to welcome them in the coming weeks and months.”
The following will join the Middlebury faculty in tenured or tenure-track positions:
assistant professor of French and Francophone studies
earned her PhD in Romance languages and literature from Harvard University and her BA in English and French from Cornell University
Her research focuses on representations of religious violence in medieval and early modern French literature
particularly around the Crusades and the French Wars of Religion
She is also interested in questions of early modern race and nation formation. 
holds a PhD and MS in computer science and engineering from the University of Michigan and a BA in computer science from Carleton College
Her research interests are at the intersection of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and computational social science
Her thesis focused on modeling change in language over time for individuals with depression
She won an outstanding GSI award from Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan and a Graduate Student Service Award for Excellence in Climate
and Inclusion from the computer science and engineering department
has a PhD in physics and astronomy from Dartmouth College and a BS in physics from Hamilton College
She served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the California Institute of Technology and subsequently at the University of Michigan
Her research interests lie in X-ray astrophysics studies of neutron stars
with particular interest in learning how gas interacts with the strong magnetic and gravitational fields around these sources.  
earned his PhD and SM in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University
His research focuses on developing meshing tools to support fast and accurate computational fluid dynamics simulations. 
She studies ​​macroeconomics and labor economics
Her current research focuses on the effect of technologies like software on wage inequality.   
holds a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in economics and BS in mathematics from the University of Rochester
She specializes in microeconomic theory with an interest in political economy
assistant professor of history of art and architecture
earned a PhD and MA in art history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BA in art history from Columbia University
Having trained as a theater actor in New York City and England
her research combines these two interests in the visual and performing arts
It focuses on object/body relations and how the senses inform the creation of figurative imagery in traditional healing contexts (medicine dances
etc.) in Bantu communities in northeastern Tanzania
especially those living in the West Usambara Mountains
earned a PhD in American studies and an MA in visual arts administration and arts history from New York University
and a BA in art history from New School University
She previously served as associate professor in American Studies at Dickinson College
specializing in interdisciplinary American cultural history
and visual arts of the Caribbean and the African diaspora with an emphasis on the Francophone Caribbean
and co-organized the Myrlande Constant: The Work of Radiance
an exhibition on the contemporary textile works of Haitian artist Myrlande Constant at the Fowler Museum
She is the recipient of a 2020 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for her book manuscript The Socially Dead and Improbable Citizen: Visualizing Haitian Humanity and Visual Aesthetics
She is also writing a monograph on Haitian modernist artist
has a PhD in musicology from the University of California-Berkeley
an MA in humanities and humanistic studies from the University of Chicago
and a BA in music and literature from the University of the Puget Sound
She studies the intersection of musical performance and emerging media technologies in Italy during and after the fascist period
explores how music broadcast on the radio generated and mediated political relationships within Italy and abroad during the first three decades of Italian radio broadcasting
She is also a fellow of the American Academy in Rome and the Dartmouth Society of Fellows
earned a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Southern California and an MA in English from National Taiwan Normal University
Her research focuses on Chinese-language film and literature
She is also interested in Sinophone film and literature
and is working on a book about the representation of history in Sinophone cinema
Visiting Instructor in ArabicLaura MacMullin
Instructor in EconomicsLecturers/Other 
Professor of the Practice, Music 
Teaching Assistants/Assistants in Instruction
Teaching Assistant in Portuguese 
In part two of this series devoted to the history of the French in the round-the-world crewed race
IMOCA and The Ocean Race revisit the technological evolution that has coloured a race
which witnessed the first French victory in 1985-86 and the burgeoning career of a certain Franck Cammas.When Mexican Ramon Carlin snatched glory in 1974 on the Swan 65 Sayula II
others were keen to emulate his performance
Cornelis ‘Conny’ Van Rietschoten
began construction of a 20-metre Sparkman & Stephens ketch
with a longer waterline and carrying more sail area
the ketch secured victory in the second Whitbread Round the World Race (1977-78) in 119 days
By then the race had grabbed the attention of young naval architects
like New Zealanders Ron Holland and Bruce Farr
The Whitbread was not just a fantastic technological laboratory
but also a wonderful showcase for the major yards responsible for production cruising yachts like Nautor Swan
Some of the more notable innovations tested in the rigours of the Whitbread race included fractional rigs
honeycomb core bulkheads and twin steering wheels
Rietschoten decided to defend his title with a new boat
the sloop was an example of the latest trend
fitting out a Maxi IOR (International Offshore Rule) to secure a win on both elapsed and corrected time
His crew included Frenchman Daniel Wlochovski in charge of navigation
who designed the sails.Heart attack in the Southern OceanThe race was not without incident however
Rietschoten came close to tragedy after suffering a heart attack
The skipper forbade his crew from divulging this news and prevented the onboard doctor from contacting a colleague – who happened to be close by aboard rival boat Ceramco New Zealand
“The Kiwis were hot on our heels”
Rietschoten explained on his arrival dockside
“Had they known that I had a health problem
they’d have pushed all the harder.” Miraculously
Rietschoten recovered and Flyer II took the race win
just ahead of Frenchman Alain Gabbay on Charles Heidsieck III and Kriter IX helmed by André Viant
‘Conny’ is still the only skipper in history to have won two editions
Brittany’s youth step up to the plateThree Bretons
also had their hearts set on this legendary race
they built a ‘little’ prototype in a shed in Etel in Brittany’s Morbihan region
She measured under fifteen metres and was designed by the Joubert-Nivelt pairing
The trio signed up some renowned sailors: Eugène Riguidel
Halvard Mabire and Jean-François Le Mennec… Nearly ten metres shorter than Flyer II
Mor Bihan bagged the win on corrected time in the third strenuous leg between Auckland and Mar del Plata
skipper for this victorious leg via the Horn
said aloud what many others were thinking: “A race that pits such different boats against one another is doomed
An event with a fixed rating per category would be much better…” He was proven right less than fifteen years later with the arrival of the VOR 60s
Lionel Péan rather than Éric Tabarly“The media and authorities hold a tremendous grudge against Bull – a nationalised French company specialising in professional computer systems – for favouring me over Éric Tabarly on his third participation”
 Tabarly was after a Maxi – he had Côte d’Or built – and Bull thought
compared to their ‘team spirit’ slogan
‘L’Esprit d’Équipe’
the double OSTAR champion had an image with a heavy singlehanded bias
Péan continues: “I realised that the Whitbread wasn’t won by the quickest boats
rather it favoured those who make good headway in relation to their handicap
When we bought 33 Export designed by Philippe Briand
we clipped her wings.” The latter pair knew each other very well and liked one another
Lionel went to the same secondary school as Philippe in La Rochelle
“We had to increase the buoyancy between the measurement points
We kept the same sail area and increased the surface area of the keel
which meant we were highly versatile on every point of sail
It’s worth noting that we still had Dacron sails back then
We also had halyards that were a mixture of wire and rope.” This strong skipper sailed with a group of seven young sailors
“We sailed our outward and return leg of the Atlantic at an average of 7.8 knots
and the two legs from Cape Town-Auckland and Auckland-Punta del Este at 9.8 knots
on a boat measuring just 56 feet and dating back to 1981. Today
when you see the performances posted by IMOCAs
you get the sense that our boats were “Retromobiles”
Everyone carried heavy packs of mineral water and tinned food galore
and we were the only ones to set sail with just an industrial watermaker
It was enough to produce our water and prepare the freeze-dried food
the boats were measured empty so it was important to keep weight to a minimum.”Seventy days without seeing the horizon“It was the early days of SATNAV and
we had a position about every four hours… In the Deep South
so it was impossible to use the sextant.”Before leaving New Zealand
Péan put an extra five spinnakers aboard
After completing a circumnavigation of the globe outstandingly well
Lionel Péan and his crew became the first French sailors to win the Whitbread
completing the course in 111 days.Cammas discovers sailing through Tabarly’s book about the WhitbreadSince its creation in 1973
the Whitbread has inspired a whole generation
Such is the case for one young schoolboy born a year before the first edition
who loved hanging around in a bookshop in Aix-en-Provence after lessons
He came across a book entitled “Le tour du monde de Pen Duick VI” (Pen Duick VI’s circumnavigation of the globe) by Éric Tabarly
“I’d never gone sailing in my life and I didn’t understand much about it as there were a lot of technical terms
I re-read it three or four times over the summer whilst we spent our holidays in the Alps… with a dictionary to hand
I was so inspired by the book that I kept badgering my parents
to sign me up for a beginner’s course on an Optimist in Marseille.” Not yet ten
and onlookers were impressed by the speed with which he learned how to sail
I told myself that the most fantastic thing would be to compete in this race one day.” After his record-setting voyage in the Jules Verne Trophy and the Route du Rhum in 2010
the sailor from Aix-en-Provence was preparing to compete in the most prestigious of round-the-world races
he acquired the winning boat from the previous edition
He formed an entourage of specialists in the event
including a number of Anglo-Saxons to get a better understanding of the subtleties of this unique challenge
putting together a crew combining specialists from the round the world race
the Solitaire du Figaro and close-contact racing
Groupama 4 designed by his team and the Argentinian naval architect Juan Kouyoumdjian
who’d learned his craft with Philippe Briand
Those familiar with the crewed round the world race weren’t suspicious of this sailor
He may have already earned a lot of wins in solo format
but this time he was discovering a world he didn’t know
Groupama 4 evolved and the team upped their game before taking the lead and winning the eighth and penultimate leg between Lisbon and Lorient… 

During the French stopover
whilst the overseas crews headed off for a round of golf or to have some fun
Cammas and his team further optimised their boat
to the extent that they cut away the companionway steps to save a few extra grams before the final sprint to Galway
The French team sailed an absolute blinder and Franck Cammas took victory in the Volvo Ocean Race in 2012
something which his idol Éric Tabarly was not able to do
Aboard the boat was a certain Charles Caudrelier
who would go on to be promoted to the rank of skipper of Dongfeng Race Team
He too secured a win two editions later (2017-18) at the head of an accomplished international crew.