CASL Promotion and Tenure

Dear Colleagues,

One of my greatest privileges is to be able to advocate on behalf of CASL's outstanding faculty and to support their promotion and tenure cases.  Every year I am both humbled and inspired by the work of my faculty colleagues.  This year is no exception. Please join me in congratulating our 14 peers on their successful promotion and tenure cases (5 full professors, 9 associate professors)!  Well done!

Martin J. Hershock, Dean

(Click on each name to read a summary of the promotion recommendation.)

John Abramyan, assistant professor of biology, promoted to associate professor of biology, with tenure.

Dr. Abramyan’s comparative work on the evolutionary embryology of the craniofacial region, particularly the upper jaw, nose, and teeth, in vertebrates is highly regarded. Most recently, he has turned his attention to an interesting line of work involving bioinformatics and the genomes of toads. More specifically, he is exploring the question of why toads (which possess the genome to develop teeth) evolved along the path where this gene is not expressed. This work has broad implications for many lines of inquiry.

Both clarity and the high level of classroom engagement characterize Professor Abramyan’s teaching. He does this while teaching some of the most challenging content (embryology and histology) in the biology discipline. He exemplifies our campus model of teacher/scholar, and has worked with 16 students on mentored research projects resulting in four co-authored publications with his students.  Professor Abramyan has committed himself to assisting in the building of our Behavioral and Biological Sciences program. His professional service contributions are also noteworthy. John has reviewed more than 60 manuscripts for scientific journals and serves on the Editorial board for the Journal of Experimental Zoology, Part B.  He is also serving as guest editor for a special edition of the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology.

Maya Barak, assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice, promoted to associate professor of criminology and criminal justice, with tenure.

Among our most public facing scholars, Dr. Barak’s work focuses on structural inequality in the United States in the areas of criminal justice and immigration. Her work, which is very interdisciplinary in nature, examines the intersections of fairness, identity, law, and power as it relates to such diverse topics as capital punishment, the legal profession, gangs, immigration, and policing with a goal of addressing questions of race and ethnicity, class, and gender in the broader context of crime and crime control. One of Professor Barak’s articles was a unanimous selection for the American Society of Criminology (ASC) Division of White-Collar and Corporate Crime’s 2021 Outstanding Article or Book Chapter Award.

Professor Barak is widely recognized as one of the most effective and highly subscribed classroom instructors in the college. Always an innovator, her courses are consistently being tweaked, revised, and altered to maximize student learning. The recipient of our campus’ Distinguished Digital Education Award in 2021, Professor Barak is noted for meeting students where they are. To better engage with her students, she integrated “Slack” and podcasts into her courses. Maya is also a wonderful teaching mentor who actively shares her knowledge and experiences with her peers. She has offered multiple teaching workshops to the CASL faculty, all of which have been robustly attended.  Dr. Barak is one of the most service-focused members of our faculty and volunteers her time to such groups as the Chicago Help Initiative and Justice for Our Neighbors.

Michael Dabkowski, assistant professor of mathematics, promoted to associate professor of mathematics, with tenure.

Dr. Dabkowski’s work explores the analysis of partial differential equations and complex geometry, particularly as it relates to investigating the properties of solutions to nonlinear and nonlocal partial differential equations that arise in physics. This type of work serves as the basis for all weather forecasting, for example.  He also examines the structure of complex geometrics. Here his work “seeks to give a rigorous mathematical context to well-known problems from particle, fluid dynamics, or geometry.”

Since his arrival at the university, Professor Dabkowski has taught a wide variety of courses, including a new course on Math Interest Theory to serve the department’s Mathematics for Finance program. He is well known as a deeply engaged instructor who is adaptable and eager to help his students. This is very much in evidence in the media library (which contains hundreds of videos) that he has created to assist his students' learning. Professor Dabkowski also teaches in our new Actuarial Mathematics program where he works closely with our students to assist them in preparing for the field’s required unit tests. Michael engages in a number of community outreach activities, including the Maize and Blue Math Circle, Math Corps, and Math Matches, which provide mathematical enrichment to underserved middle school and high school students.

Keith Dye, assistant professor of African and African American studies and history, promoted to associate professor of African and African American studies and history, with tenure.

Dr. Dye pursued a very unusual path toward promotion and tenure. Rather than immediately revise his dissertation work on Black Nationalism and the Reparations Movement for publication (though this work has started to manifest in some of Professor Dye’s shorter published works), he instead embarked on an entirely new research book-length project on African American anticolonialism and the influence of African Americans on U.S. foreign policy as it relates to Africa during the Cold War. Dye’s work examines the efforts of the American Negro Leadership Conference on Africa to mediate the bloody civil war between Nigeria and its break away Biafran province in 1967. He has created a wonderfully synthetic and nuanced work that places him in the forefront of this emerging field of study.

Versatility and a willingness to pitch in where needed has rendered Professor Dye an indispensable classroom instructor in both African and African American studies and history. His real strength in the classroom is the way that he makes his students feel both connected and heard. Professor Dye spends an incredible amount of time working with students on our campus from underrepresented populations who seek out his counsel and advice. Keith’s service is very student and community oriented, serving on the Student Retention and Success Committee and the SOAR Advisory Board, and most recently appointed to serve on the City of Detroit’s Historic Designation Advisory Board.

Caitlin Finlayson, associate professor of English, with tenure, promoted to professor of English, with tenure.

Dr. Finlayson’s research focuses on Renaissance pageantry and entertainments, civic identity and ceremony in Renaissance London, digital humanities, and adaptations of Shakespeare (her new work looks at representations of Shakespeare in graphic novels). While much of Caitlin’s research is grounded in the original sources, her work also analyzes the contemporary formats in which the texts are retold and reshaped for modern audiences. Many of her students have gone on to present research that they have conducted under her guidance.

Professor Finlayson’s classroom is a model of engaged learning, and she deftly employs diverse media (traditional monographs, printed texts, theater visits, and graphic novels) to facilitate student learning. She was also one of the college’s pioneer faculty in online teaching, moving her courses into a remote delivery modality well before the COVID pandemic. This made Caitlin a particularly precious asset when the pandemic hit, as she worked tirelessly to assist her colleagues. Dr. Finlayson has also taken the lead in working to create an entirely online major option for English students. This month, Professor Finlayson was awarded the Jackie Lawson Memorial Faculty Governance Award. The award recognizes "Exceptional distinction reflected in faculty governance service to the entire University that reaches beyond the local campus confines of Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint."

Tim Kiska, associate professor of communications, with tenure, promoted to professor of communications, with tenure.

A public intellectual who is deeply engaged in his community, Tim Kiska’s scholarship is wide ranging. In the period since his promotion to associate professor, he has shared history via articles in refereed journals, book chapters, a major feature piece in the Detroit Free Press, a local history podcast (The Detroit History Podcast that was recognized in 2020 with an award from the Historical Society of Michigan in the category of “Best Media”), and a television documentary. His work has also been supported by granting agencies and foundations.

A seasoned journalist who spent many years with the Detroit Free Press, Professor Kiska brings a wealth of real-world experience into his courses. His classroom is a functional laboratory where theory and practice meet and where students apply what they’ve learned to real world problems. His new course on podcasting is highly anticipated. A willing volunteer, Professor Kiska is an active participant in the life of his discipline, his department, his college, the university, and the broader Detroit metropolitan community. Tim continues his longtime position as faculty advisor to the university’s weekly student newspaper, The Michigan Journal and organized a film series comprising several critically acclaimed documentaries that later aired on National Public Television.

Krim Lacey, assistant professor of African and African American studies and sociology, promoted to associate professor of African and African American studies and sociology, with tenure.

Dr. Lacey’s work to date has focused on intimate partner violence (IPV), particularly among African diasporic communities. The work is notable for both its clarity, its originality, and for its breadth (he explores such things as neighborhood-level determinants of IPV, issues of stress and mental health related to IPV, and ethnic and cultural dimensions of IPV). Most recently, he has embarked upon a new line of inquiry focusing on racial and ethnic health disparities.

Professor Lacey teaches difficult material and yet his students praise him for his clarity and rigor. He has been asked on multiple occasions to step into either the Quantitative Methods or the Medical Sociology courses at the last minute to cover a well enrolled but unassigned course. Krim has made significant contributions to the external professional world, reviewing manuscripts and participating in organizations. Campus work includes serving on the Executive Committee and as the faculty secretary for CASL, as well as participating with faculty searches.

Terri Laws, assistant professor of African and African American studies, promoted to associate professor of African and African American studies, with tenure.

Dr. Laws’ work explores the intersections between race, religion, and health with a particular focus on the experience of the African American community. During the COVID pandemic, as public awareness of the disparate impact of the disease on white and minority communities grew, Laws’ work (especially her article, “Tuskegee as Sacred Rhetoric”) propelled her into the national spotlight and she became a regular source for those seeking a better understanding of this critical dimension of the pandemic. This line of research is the basis for her upcoming work entitled, (De)Gentrifying Death, Democratizing Life: African American Religion in the U.S. Culture of Health and Medicine.

Through active learning and by empowering her students to feel comfortable in sharing their experiences, Professor Laws facilitates deep, critical, conversations about difficult topics grounded in the real world such as systemic racism, gender inequality, and health disparities. She is a very active faculty member within several programs on our campus (African and African American studies, religious studies, health and human services, and women’s and gender studies). Terri was a critical member of both the college’s Practice-Based Learning Task Force and its Faculty Service Task Force. She is a regular speaker throughout the region and serves as co-chair of the Bioethics and Religion Unit of the American Academy of Religion.

Lisa Martin, associate professor of college-wide programs and health and human services, with tenure,  promoted to professor of college-wide programs and health and human services, with tenure.

Dr. Martin’s work, which focuses on the complexities of providing care in a stigmatized field, has had a significant impact on both academic and health provider communities. Her most notable work has been her Providers Share Workshop project which aims to de-stigmatize abortion and abortion provision, and to create a broad social understanding of abortion care as legitimate, humane, lifesaving and compassionate work. The immediate goal of the Workshop has been to help providers manage the experience and consequences of doing stigmatized work, through a facilitated group workshop.

Professor Martin is an innovative, exceptionally thoughtful, and highly effective teacher who offers a range of interdisciplinary courses on gender and health, serving student needs in majors across two colleges and, through her general education courses, across the entire campus. Dr. Martin’s classroom is recognized for its dynamic, yet comfortable, feel. She is uniformly praised for her ability to manage difficult discussions and to model the connectivity between scholarship and teaching. Lisa has provided significant and impactful leadership as Director of Women’s and Gender Studies, Interim Chair of Health and Human Services, and Director of the Women in Learning and Leadership program. Her outstanding service work and commitment to the university were recognized in 2020 when she was awarded the university’s Distinguished Service Award.

Kristin Poling, assistant professor of history, promoted to associate professor of history, with tenure.

Dr. Poling’s work in the realm of borders, both physical and metaphorical, while deeply theoretical, is presented in a very clear and engaging narrative. The work is especially important in its ability to shift perspective away from the urban environment looking outward to the outside looking in. She does this most effectively in her foray into environmental history and its melding with urban history. Her book, Germany’s Urban Frontiers: Nature and History on the Edge of the Nineteenth-Century City, explores how Germans, through the act of removing historical walls surrounding their cities, confronted and interpreted modernity, especially as it manifested in socio-political change.

Considered one of our university’s most talented classroom instructors, resulted in her being awarded the university’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2021. She consistently revises and modifies her courses to try to engage her students even more fully in charting their own learning and success. Known as a risk taker, Professor Poling uses a myriad of different teaching techniques over the course of any given semester. Kristin unilaterally worked with students to create a new student group (the Student Historical Association) to offer a more inclusive and meaningful focus for students than what existed in the past. Professor Poling also plays a key role in the assessment activities of the history discipline, and has served as an active member of the university’s Faculty Senate and of the Senate Council.

Rusi Sun, assistant professor of political science, promoted to associate professor of political science, with tenure.

Dr. Sun’s work focuses on two significant issues related to public administration: transformational change, and conflict management in the realm of city governance. In the former area, Sun’s investigation of the New York City public schools, analyzed the leadership qualities of school principals and identified elements of transformational leadership that matter most for student outcomes, including the effective use of performance indicators and communication with community stakeholders. In recognition of the high regard that her work is held, in 2015, she was recognized by her peers who awarded her the Joseph Wholey Distinguished Scholarship Award from the American Society for Public Administration.

As one of a small number of faculty dedicated to our graduate program in Public Administration and Public Policy (MPAP), Professor Sun’s teaching has focused on graduate level courses. In this capacity, she teaches the full range of the program’s curriculum from its introductory course, up through quantitative courses focused on decision making, and then through the capstone course for graduating students. In all of her courses, she is recognized for making the abstract tangible and for involving students deeply in their own learning. Her courses are models of what the college hopes to build across the curriculum in that they manifest practice-based learning at its finest. Rusi played a central role in the restructuring of our old stand-alone Master in Public Policy and Master in Public Affairs programs into a unified Master of Public Administration and Policy (MPAP) degree program.

Dale Thomson, associate professor of political science, with tenure, promoted to professor of political science, with tenure.

Dr. Thomson’s research is primarily focused on policy and politics of urban revitalization and the nature, impacts, and limitations of foundation activism in community development. These are research threads of great consequence and immediacy both for the region that our university serves but also, more broadly, for the nation; especially at this moment of intense urban growth combined with scarce resources. Though his research is grounded in theory and included deep quantitative analysis, Professor Thomson, because he is interested in his work producing tangible policy change, employs an accessible and engaging narrative style.

His classroom is a model of applied learning. Professor Thomson, for instance, routinely pairs his students with local governments or non-profit agencies to assist with research for policy-related projects. His concern for student learning is evident in his careful course planning and perpetual efforts to revise his courses to achieve greater effect. Exhibiting excellent leadership and collaborative skills, Dale served as director of the Master of Public Administration and Master of Public Policy programs (2013-2014) and chair of the Department of Social Sciences (2015-2020). And more broadly, his expertise was called upon when he served as a member of a group assembled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the White House Detroit Working Group to discuss policy options for improving access to homeownership within Detroit.

Rose Wellman, assistant professor of anthropology, promoted to associate professor of anthropology, with tenure.

Dr. Wellman’s deft ability to describe the interconnectedness between familial ties and those to the nation and the sophistication of her research design has established her as both an accessible and influential scholar. Her book, Feeding Iran: Shi’i Families and the Making of the Islamic Republic, explores the relationship between Islam, kinship, and nation making in post-revolutionary Iran, and has been very well received. Her new work focusing on the Iraqi refugee community in metropolitan Detroit promises to shed new light on this important immigrant group and its efforts to build community through the application of a similarly nuanced approach.

Professor Wellman’s courses serve as an anchor for several different programs across the college (anthropology, Arab American studies, Middle Eastern studies, women’s and gender studies, food studies, religious studies). She has been instrumental in broadening the college’s curriculum in ways that reflect its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and connecting to both our student body and the broader Dearborn community. Her pedagogical style and approachable demeanor also make her office a popular destination for our students who regularly seek out her counsel and advice. Rose serves on the Research Committee for the Healthy Dearborn Coalition. Professionally, she is a contributing editor to Anthropology News and was recently elected as a council member of the Association for Iranian Studies.

Yunus Zeytuncu, associate professor of mathematics, with tenure, promoted to professor of mathematics, with tenure.

A distinguished expert in several complex variables, operator theory, and complex geometry, Dr. Zeytuncu’s work is at the intersection of analysis, geometry, and differential equations. In particular, he works in several important areas including the study of the Bergman projection operator and the spectral theory of the Kohn-Laplacian. His primary objective, as he describes it, “is to understand the behavior of analytic objects (such as temperature distribution on metals) on non-smooth geometric objects (such as metals with corners and cracks)." Dr. Zeytuncu’s work has garnered more than $1,000,000 in funding with another $1.2 NSF grant proposal currently under consideration.

Professor Zeytuncu’s classroom is one of the most dynamic classroom environments on campus. He teaches a full range of courses from introductory level mathematics up through the department’s capstone experience for graduating students. Yunus was recognized in 2021 with the Michigan Association of State Colleges’ Distinguished Professor of the Year Award. Professor Zeytuncu’s “classroom,” however, extends well beyond the confines of our campus. He is the Director and Principal Investigator for a nationally recognized Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site funded by the National Science Foundation and National Security Agency. He is also extremely active in his professional community, organizing sessions at multiple national conferences including the Joint Mathematics Meetings and several American Mathematical Association Special Sessions.