Several faculty members were recently appointed to distinguished chairs, according to an announcement by Provost and Dean of the Faculty Lyle Roelofs.
They are:
• Fernando Canales, who was named Mark S. Randall Head Coach of Men’s and Women’s Swimming and director of aquatics and instructor in physical education.
Currently the head men’s and women’s swimming coach and director of aquatics and instructor in physical education, Canales began his appointment at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø in August, having come from the University of Michigan, where he served as development officer for athletics following an appointment as head assistant coach of men’s swimming and diving.
Canales, who has a bachelor’s degree from Michigan, has worked with four Olympic coaches and has represented Team USA at the FINA World Congress during the World Aquatic Championships and at the Pan American Games.
He was a member of the Michigan coaching staff that sent seven athletes to the Beijing Olympics, including medalists Peter Vanderkaay and Michael Phelps.
Canales was one of the fastest sprinters in the world and a member of three Olympic teams (Montreal ’76, Moscow ’80 and Los Angeles ’84). He won two silver medals and one bronze in the Pan American Games, a national championship and was a four-year All American at the University of Michigan.
• John Carter has been named Professor of the Study of the Great Religions of the World and Professor of Philosophy and Religion.
Currently the Robert Ho Professor of Asian Studies and Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Carter has been on the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø faculty since 1972, with degrees from Baylor University (BA); Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (BD); King’s College and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (MTh); Harvard University (PhD); and Kelaniya University (DLitt).
Carter’s teaching specialties include Buddhist, Hindu, and other Asian religious traditions, comparative study of religion, comparative religious philosophy, history of religion, theological issues of a religiously plural world, Sanskrit, Pali, Sinhala.
His research interests center on the history of humankind’s religiousness with special reference to Buddhist and Christian studies, with travels to India, Sri Lanka, Japan, England, and China.
Carter’s many publications include articles and reviews in journals such as The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Religious Studies, Journal of Japanese Religion, The Eastern Buddhist, The Journal of Church and State. He recently edited The Religious Heritage of Japan (Book East), and he has two books in the pipeline: In the Company of Friends and In the Footsteps of the Buddha in Sri Lanka.
Carter has led 51³Ô¹ÏÍø groups to Japan and Sri Lanka, and he has served as chair of the department and director of Asian Studies. He is now the director of both the Fund for the Study of the Great Religions of the World and Chapel House.
• Enrique Galvez was named Charles A. Dana Professor of Physics and Astronomy.
Currently a professor of physics and astronomy, Galvez has been on the physics and astronomy department faculty since 1988, following degrees from Catholic University of Peru (BS) and the University of Notre Dame (PhD).
His teaching specialties center on experimental physics, electronics, and optics; and his research interests include experimental atomic physics, quantum optics, Rydberg atoms, and applied modern optics.
His many coauthored articles have appeared in Physical Review A, Nuclear Instruments and Methods, Physical Review Letters, Journal of Physics B, and Journal of the Optical Society of America.
Galvez has served as department chair as well as on several committees including ALANA affairs, affirmative action oversight, judiciary board, interdisciplinary science building, faculty nominating, promotion and tenure, residential life, student affairs, and student rights and responsibilities.
He has received several grants from the National Science Foundation and the Research Corporation. He regularly involves students in summer research; a former student of his was selected as a finalist for the prestigious Apker Award of the American Physical Society. In addition, the American Physical Society awarded Galvez the 2010 Prize for a Faculty Member for Research in an Undergraduate Institution.
• John Naughton has been named Harrington and Shirley Drake Professor of the Humanities in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.
Currently a professor of Romance languages and literatures, Naughton has been on the faculty since 1983 following degrees from Stanford University (BA, MA) and the University of California, Santa Cruz (PhD). His teaching specialties and research interests include Dante, quest literature, the French novel, and modern French poetry.
His many publications include articles in L’Esprit Createur, New Literary History, Temenos, Studies in 20th Century Literature, Dalhousie French Studies; Critical Inquiry, Graham House Review, and Yale French Studies.
He is also the author or editor and translator of several books, including The Poetics of Yves Bonnefoy, The Act and the Place of Poetry, In the Shadow’s Light; and Yves Bonnefoy: New and Selected Poems, all published by the University of Chicago Press.
Naughton has led the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø study group to Dijon, and he has served as department chair, chair of Core 151, and as director of the Division of University Studies.
• David Robinson has been named Robert Hung-Nai Ho Professor in Asian Studies.
Currently a professor of history, Robinson came to 51³Ô¹ÏÍø in 1996, following degrees from Hobart College (BA) and Princeton University (PhD). He is fluent in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean and has become a leading scholar of the history of Ming China, the Mongol Empire, and East Asia generally. His most recent book is Empire’s Twilight: Northeast Asia under the Mongols. He also has an earlier monograph on Ming China, is editor of and contributor to an edited volume on the Ming Court, and has published six articles plus two translations and multiple book reviews.
Robinson teaches a wide variety of courses on East Asian history and has also led the Kyoto Study Group. He is active in both professional service and service on campus, including serving as director of Asian Studies and chair of history, as well as serving for many years on the Post-graduate Scholarship Committee.
• Nicole Simpson has been named the first Gretchen Hoadley Burke ’81 Endowed Chair in Regional Studies, as a rotating appointment.
Currently an associate professor of economics, Simpson came to 51³Ô¹ÏÍø in 2001, following degrees from the University of St. Thomas (BA) and the University of Iowa (MA and PhD). She teaches courses in macroeconomics, international economics, applied economic theory, and the causes and consequences of immigration. In fall 2007 she directed the London Economics Study Group.
Her publications in the area of fiscal policy have focused on the relationships between education expenditure and growth and between social insurance and bankruptcy.
More recently she has been working on issues of labor and capital mobility across borders, including work on Mexican migration into and within the United States.
Since 2002, in a project sponsored by the Upstate Institute, she has coordinated students in assisting local low-income households with the filing of their income taxes.
She has served on the University Strategic Planning and Steering Group, the Budget Committee, the Committee on Athletics, and the Economic Environment Working Group, and she currently serves on the Advisory and Planning Committee as well as the Off-Campus Study Committee and the Upstate Institute Board of Directors.
• Christopher Vecsey has been named Harry Emerson Fosdick Professor of the Humanities and Native American Studies.
Currently the Charles A. Dana Professor of the Humanities and Native American Studies, Vecsey has been on the religion department faculty since 1982, following degrees from Hunter College (BA) and Northwestern University (MA and PhD).
Vecsey’s teaching specialties include American religious history and American Indian religion, history, and culture.. His many articles have appeared in publications such as Commonweal, Christian Century, Journal of Religion in Africa, American Indian Quarterly, and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
He is also the author or editor of numerous books, most recently The Crossing of Two Roads: Being Catholic and Native in the United States (Orbis Books) and three volumes published by the University of Notre Dame Press: Where the Two Roads Meet, The Paths of Kateri’s Kin, and On the Padres’ Trail.
Vecsey has served as department chair and director of both the Native American Studies program and the Division of the Humanities.