We asked this year’s three retiring professors what they plan to do. Their replies:

Peggy Berg
drama/dance

My retirement “plan” is to have no plan at all! I love the way life unfolds in unexpected ways and I have every hope that my life will continue to surprise and delight me as I enter this new phase.

Now that my greatest passion has evolved from dance toward yoga, I will continue to teach yoga whenever I can, and I will certainly take the time to practice yoga in long, unhurried, and steady sessions all by myself. Perhaps I’ll work at playing my accordion (yes, you heard that right!) and maybe I’ll finally clean out my closets and organize the garage. I hope to have lots more time to rebuild friendships that have been neglected for far too long. I look forward to never having to grade anyone for anything again! Mostly, I hope I can contribute to the world around me in some way that echoes the teaching life I’ve been so fortunate to have here.

Working at the college, with the wonderful staff, students, and faculty has been a rare and treasured gift. My love for the teaching life has not dimmed one iota, and I suspect I will find many ways to extend that love over time in new contexts that will both “stretch” and challenge me.

Bob Loevy
political science

By choice, I do not have any exotic travel plans or seek to find a retirement hideaway in the Rocky Mountains. As anyone who has taken my State and Local Government course knows, I love states and cities in general and Colorado and Colorado Springs in particular. I will continue to reside in my 109-year-old Victorian home in the Old North End neighborhood just north of the Colorado College campus and participate in state and local civic matters. In addition, Colorado College has generously provided me with an office in the faculty retirement center at 1014 N. Weber St. where I can pursue my research and writing about the history of Colorado College. I’ll also enjoy watching my six grandchildren, ages 1 to 14, grow up.

Editor’s note: Loevy’s retirement has gotten off to a roaring start. He recently published a book on the history and architecture of the Old North End of Colorado Springs. Additionally, the chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court appointed him to the 11-member Colorado State Reapportionment Commission, which designates the election districts, after hard-fought partisan negotiations, for the Colorado State Senate and House of Representatives.

Judith Genova
philosophy

I don’t know; I don’t know; I don’t know. After more than 40 years of teaching, 33 at Colorado College, eight at Yale University, with visits to Stony Brook, Wesleyan, Haverford, among others, I haven’t a clue what I shall do next. Nor, at this moment, do I want to know. Surely retirement must mean at least some unstructured time.

After that, we’ll see. I have many unfinished manuscripts and projects. Perhaps I shall write my memoirs. From the perspective of a second-generation American who is among the first in her family to go to college, my life has been full of unexpected adventures and accomplishments.

Never did this New Yorker dream that she would cross the Poconos to teach at a small college in Colorado. Never did she imagine that she would travel all over the world, meeting some of the most exciting philosophers and artists of our time. Who knew?

So, for now, I can only speak of the past and say thank you to the many wonderful students whom I have come to know and to all my colleagues and friends at the college who have helped me feel at home here.

Meet the incoming tenure-track faculty

Colorado College introduces its new tenure-track faculty. They are:

Helen Daly, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Daly received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Arizona in 2011, and holds a B.A. in philosophy and English from the University of Akron. She specializes in metaphysics and the philosophy of language.  In her dissertation, “Vagueness and Borderline Cases,” Daly clarifies the various explanations of people or things that are stuck in a state of “in-between.”  She has published in “The Oxford Handbook of Causation” and “A Companion to Metaphysics.”

Darrell Killian, Assistant Professor of Biology
Killian received his B.A. in molecular biology and biochemistry from Wesleyan University, and in 2004 earned his Ph.D. in biology and developmental genetics from New York University.  He was a visiting professor at Colorado College and recently held an assistant professor position at the College of New Jersey. Much of his graduate and postdoctoral research deals with the regulation of sex-specific programmed cell death in C. Elegans.  He has been recognized by numerous grants and awards, including a Society for Developmental Biology Teaching Faculty Travel Grant and the Gladys Mateyko Award for Excellence in Biology.

Scott Krzych, Assistant Professor of New Media
Krzych holds a B.A. in English from California State University-Northridge, an M.A. in English from the State University of New York-Buffalo, and recently earned his Ph.D. in screen studies and English from Oklahoma State University. Krzych will be the first tenure-track professor of new media at Colorado College. His various papers and publications address a range of subjects from digital cinema to video game studies to analysis of Glenn Beck’s television show. His dissertation examines evangelical representations of the apocalypse, including such films as “A Thief in the Night,” “Left Behind,” and “The Omega Code” and such prophecy-based cable programming as “The Hal Lindsey Report” and “Jack Van Impe Presents.”

Christina Leza, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Leza earned her M.A. in linguistic anthropology from the University of California, Davis and obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 2009, where she wrote a dissertation on indigenous activism in response to United States and Mexico border enforcement policies. She works with the Indigenous Alliance Without Borders and has won numerous grants and awards for her work. Her interests include legal and political anthropology, indigenous cultures, and social movements in the Americas, and grassroots political organizing.

Corina McKendry, Assistant Professor of Political Science
McKendry received her Ph.D. in Politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz in June 2011. Her dissertation, “Smokestacks to Green Roofs: City Environmentalism, Green Urban Entrepreneurialism, and the Regulation of the Postindustrial City,” examines the relationship between city environmentalism and the changing role of cities in the globalized economy. She is particularly interested in how city leaders are using environmentalism to promote economic growth and the implications that this has for social equity in the green city.

Jim Parco, Associate Professor of Economics
Parco received a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona, where he studied under Amnon Rapoport and Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith. After completing his doctorate, he returned to the faculty of the Air Force Academy, his undergraduate alma mater, and taught courses in management, leadership, decisionmaking, and investments. In addition to teaching at the Academy from 1996-1999 and 2003-2007, Parco served on the National Security Council at the White House during the Clinton Administration and in a diplomatic capacity overseas with the American Embassy in Tel Aviv. In 2007, he received the Thomas Jefferson National Award from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) for his forthright actions in advocating for cadets at the Air Force Academy. In 2009, he was awarded the Military Officers Association of America’s (MOAA) Outstanding Faculty Award for his work at Air Command and Staff College, and in 2010, was named educator of the year.

Andrea Righi, Assistant Professor of Italian
In 2004 Righi received his M.A. in North American literatures from the University of California, San Diego. Since then he received a degree in comparative literature at the University of Bologna and a Ph.D. in Italian studies from Cornell University.  His book, “Gramsci Fell Asleep: Life, Biopolitics and Social Change in Italy,” will be published by Palgrave Macmillan.  He also has published several articles in journals and books in both English and Italian. Righi has been the recipient of several awards and fellowships, including a Fulbright Scholarship in 2004.

Habiba Vaghoo, Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Vaghoo received a B.A. in chemistry from Concordia College, where she graduated magna cum laude. She went on to pursue a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Southern California. Her dissertation explores the synthesis of organofluorine compounds. She recently served as a visiting assistant professor at The College of Wooster in Ohio. She has earned several awards and scholarships, including the Stauffer Post Doctoral Fellowship and the Harold and Lillian Moulton Graduate Fellowship for excellence in research. 

Dana Wittmer, Assistant Professor of Political Science
Wittmer earned her Ph.D. in political science at The Ohio State University in 2011, where she also earned her master’s degree.  She studies American politics, with specific interests in public opinion, gender and politics, public policy, and Congress. Her dissertation, “A Theory of Institutional Representation: The Link Between Political Engagement and Gendered Institutions,” focuses on public opinion about Congress as a gendered institution, paying particular attention to how these perceptions affect political engagement. Her other research interests include human trafficking within the U.S., the impact of gendered leadership on public policy, and gender and legislative effectiveness within Congress.

Shawn Womack, Associate Professor of Drama and Dance
Shawn comes to Colorado College from Grinnell College’s Department of Theatre and Dance, where she was an associate professor. In addition to her experience as performer, choreographer, and teacher, she also was founder and executive director of Dance Projects, Inc., a non-profit organization that produced contemporary dance and interdisciplinary projects. Shawn holds a B.F.A. of Fine Arts, Ballet, from the University of Cincinnati College – Conservatory of Music, where she graduated magna cum laude, and an M.F.A. in Dance from the University of California, Riverside. Shawn will serve as chair of the Drama and Dance Department at Colorado College.

Naomi Wood, Assistant Professor of Spanish
Wood earned her M.A. from the University of Minnesota in Hispanic literature, where she specialized in Spanish-American literatures and cultures and Latin-American history. She completed her Ph.D. in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian literatures and cultures, with a minor in feminist studies in May 2011.  Her dissertation, “Ciphering Nations: Performing Identity in Brazil and the Caribbean,” explores concepts of both cultural repression and freedom through performance arts in Latin and South American Countries.  She has published her work in The Global South and Literatura e Autoritarismo.