Vassar Welcomes New Tenure-Track Faculty Members at the Start of the Academic Year

“The new tenure-track faculty represent an impressive group of early-career scholars, who have already distinguished themselves with their innovative scholarship and impactful teaching,” said Dean of the Faculty Demetrius Eudell. “We look forward to their contributions to the academic and wider Vassar community.”

Meet these new members of the faculty:

Claire Augusta Bergey 
Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science

Education: BA, Williams College; MA and PhD, University of Chicago

Areas of research: I study how people understand implied meaning in conversation, and how children learn to do this as they grow. In other words, how do we learn not just language form—sounds, words, or grammar—but how to do things with language? I observe adults’ and children’s conversations, run experiments, and use computational models to characterize how people learn to converse and to learn about the world through conversation.
Hobbies, interests: Dinner parties around big pots of beans, struggling to learn Turkish, sewing and knitting clothes, occasionally working with wood, and, when possible, designing for theater

Jesse Delia
Assistant Professor of Biology

Education: BA, Prescott College; MSc, East Carolina University; PhD, Boston University

Areas of research: Tissue transparency in frogs: hiding the blood cells in the liver to become almost invisible to hide from predators. Implications for blood clot treatment and imaging technology.

Whitney Fields
Assistant Professor of History

Education: BA, College of William and Mary; PhD, Rutgers University–New Brunswick

Areas of research: Current research project is “Captive in a Promised Land,” the first historical study to focus on the incarceration of Black people in the nation’s first prisons and penitentiaries. This story begins in 1790 Philadelphia, with the opening of the Walnut Street Jail and Penitentiary, located across the street from where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Hobbies, interests: An avid musician and outdoors enthusiast, enjoys walking, running, cycling, and hiking on the beautiful trails and state parks in the region

Akhila Kovvuri 
Assistant Professor of Economics

Education: BA, Dartmouth College; PhD, Stanford University

Areas of research: How urban structure and information networks shape gender gaps in the labor market, with a focus on India, where stigma and social norms around women working are a central constraint.

Hobbies, interests: Traveling, cycling, board games

John Garrard Stehlin
Assistant Professor of Geography

Education: BA, Vassar College; PhD, University of California, Berkeley

Areas of research: Urban geography looking at the political economy of transportation in the context of climate change. Current research examines urban highway removal planning in the United States and Spain.

Hobbies, interests: Running, cycling, whitewater kayaking, and finding a good swimming hole

Mark Taylor
Assistant Professor of English

Education: BA, University of Auckland; MA and PhD, Stanford University

Areas of research: Research and teaching both focus on global Anglophone literature and culture in the 19th century, with particular interest in the history and theory of the novel and the cultural legacies of settler colonialism.

Hobbies, interests: Cooking, hiking

Maya Marie Van Nuys
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Education: BA, University of Kansas; MA and PhD, University of Chicago

Areas of research: International relations and comparative politics with an emphasis on international security, global governance, and policing. My research explores the global governance of policing, especially how states and international organizations influence policing policy and practice across national borders.

Hobbies, interests: Playing violin, drawing, painting, reading romance novels