Oberlin Welcomes Tenure-Track Faculty Members for the 2025-2026 Academic Year

College of Arts and Sciences

The new faculty joining the College of Arts and Sciences include:

Liana Battsaligova

Assistant Professor, Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies

Liana’s teaching and research focus is on late- and post-Soviet literature and avant-gardes. She earned a PhD in Slavic languages and literatures at Yale and previously taught at Reed, Grinnell, Pomona, Middlebury, and Yale.

Aaron Beckner

Assistant Professor, Psychology

Aaron is a cognitive developmental psychologist who studies how infants and toddlers transform the landscape of their perceptual experience into learning opportunities. Through his work, he aims to understand how basic cognitive processes, like attention, learning, memory, and spatial reasoning, develop in real-world contexts. Aaron earned a PhD in psychology at the University of California, Davis, and has conducted postdoctoral research at Cornell University and the University of South Carolina.

Jaime Edwards

Assistant Professor, Philosophy

Jaime specializes in social and political philosophy and 19th- and 20th-century European thought, with a focus on personal and political freedom. His research examines external inhibitors like coercive institutions and internal ideological pressures that entrench the status quo, while promoting cosmopolitan solidarity and what this would look like. Jaime earned a PhD in philosophy from the University of Chicago, and before coming to Oberlin was a law lecturer and political philosophy fellow at the University of Chicago Law School.

Juliana Frey-Méndez

Assistant Professor, Theater

Inspired by María Irene Fornés, the Iowa-born Cuban-American director, devisor, and choreographer Juliana Frey-Méndez works with Latiné playwrights to expand the theatrical canon. As a freelance artist, she directs and devises work in theaters nationwide, including FringeNYC (winner of Best Musical), La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival, Cuban Cultural Center of New York, and the Riverside Theatre. Juliana studied theatre for social change at Cornell University, earned her MFA in theatre directing at UC San Diego, and was the inaugural Artist in Residence at Duke University’s Theatre Studies, exploring hybrid performance.

Marya Sea Kaminski

Associate Professor, Theater

Marya Sea Kaminski is an award-winning theater artist, educator, and leader whose work merges creative vision with civic engagement. She has directed new plays, large-scale musicals, and adaptations, like an all-femme Tempest and a theatrical, life-sized D&D adaptation of The Hobbit. Marya was the co-founder of Washington Ensemble Theatre, where she directed premieres by emerging playwrights, founded Public Works Seattle and was later artistic director of Pittsburgh Public Theater. She earned an MFA at the University of Washington and previously taught at Hollins University and Cornish College.

Hamed Yousefi Koupai

Assistant Professor, Art History

Hamed’s research explores the intersection of modern and Islamic art and challenges the foundational assumption in art history that modern art is secular. His work brings Islamic philosophy and aesthetics to the center of art historical inquiries about historical and modern art. Apart from teaching and scholarship, Hamed has made numerous documentary films about the history of art as well as Islamic intellectual history, and his art-critical writings have appeared in e-flux and publications by the Walker Art Center. Hamed has been a pre-doctoral fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and a Klarman Fellow at Cornell University and is earning a PhD in art history at Northwestern.

Sarah Jane Kerwin ’15

Assistant Professor of English

Sarah Jane Kerwin ’15 is a literary scholar focused on ecocriticism and 20th-century American literature, especially the U.S. West, settler colonialism, and the environment. Her teaching emphasizes syllabus diversification and encourages students to rethink literary canons through Indigenous, queer ecological, and anti-racist perspectives. Her current book project explores how transience in Western literature shapes environmental thought. Sarah Jane earned her PhD in English language and literature at the University of Michigan.

Alexander Kinney

Assistant Professor, Sociology

Alexander’s research examines how power, control, and culture shape economic and political arenas where rules are unsettled and state and non-state actors interact in complex ways. His published work has explored organizational behavior in the regulated cannabis industry, motivations for terrorism, and rationales for cryptocurrency use. Currently, Alexander is studying the privatization of punishment by investigating how telecom companies contracting with prisons commodify the carceral experience. He earned a PhD in sociology at the University of Arizona.

Ling-lin Ku

Assistant Professor, Studio Art

Ling-lin Ku is a multimedia sculptor whose studio practice merges traditional techniques with emerging technologies, resulting in sculptural installations that are materially rich, playful, and conceptually layered. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, with solo exhibitions at CUE Art Foundation (NYC), 18th Street Arts Center (LA), La Heurta Gallery (Barcelona), and Atelier 11 (Paris). She is the recipient of the Seebach Prize in Fine Art from the American Austrian Foundation, the Houston Artadia Fellowship, and the International Sculpture Center’s Innovator Award. Ling-lin earned her MFA at the University of Texas at Austin and was previously an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

Yongha (Yon) Kwon

Assistant Professor, Business

Yon’s research focuses on organizational design as a managerial tool for enhancing organizational learning. His work emphasizes the evolution of formally designed interaction patterns through social dynamics among individuals and challenges conventional assumptions regarding organizational design in the processes of knowledge creation, recombination, and diffusion. In addition to his research, Yon is dedicated to fostering inclusive, engaging, and meaningful learning environments. He is earning his PhD in business strategy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Anna Levett

Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature

Anna specializes in Mediterranean studies and global modernism, with particular interest in 20th-century French, Francophone, and Arabic literature and film. Her current book project considers the political, ethical, and historical challenges arising from surrealism’s reception in the Arab world. At Oberlin, she teaches translation studies, critical theory, global modernism, postcolonial studies, and Middle East and Mediterranean studies. She earned a PhD in comparative literature at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Marina Mayorski

Assistant Professor, Jewish Studies

Marina is a scholar of modern Jewish literature who is particularly interested in how literary translation, adaptation, and circulation shaped modern notions of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and political belonging. She is also a translator of Ladino and Hebrew literature and is currently working on two anthologies of modern Ladino fiction from the Ottoman Empire and the Americas. Marina earned a PhD in comparative literature and Judaic studies at the University of Michigan and had a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.

Uche Okonkwo

Assistant Professor, Creative Writing

Uche Okonkwo’s debut book, A Kind of Madness, was published by Tin House in 2024. Her stories have appeared in A Public Space, One Story, the Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Zyzzyva, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, and Lagos Noir. She is a recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship at Phillips Exeter Academy, a Steinbeck Fellowship, a MacDowell Fellowship, and an Elizabeth George Foundation grant. Uche earned her PhD in creative writing at the University of Nebraska.

Minah Park

Assistant Professor, Business

Minah’s research aims to explore two critical areas: the formative experiences that influence entrepreneurial tendencies and the gender gap within entrepreneurship. Specifically, her research examines women who possess entrepreneurial potential or express intentions to engage in entrepreneurship, focusing on their experiences within the entrepreneurship pipeline. Minah is earning a PhD in management and human resources at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a specialty in entrepreneurship.

Romain Pasquer

Assistant Professor, French

Romain’s research and teaching center on Francophone Literature, particularly from the Caribbean. His work explores how literature engages with the history of slavery and colonialism, drawing on postcolonial and trauma studies, as well as concepts and questions from Black studies, queer and feminist theory, literary theory, and psychoanalysis. Beyond his scholarly engagement, Romain is an active member of the psychoanalytic and research society SPIIRAL (Society for Psychoanalytic and Interdisciplinary Interventions and Research After Lacan), while his work and writings have appeared in Chimères, Diacritics, Symposium and Francosphères. Romain earned his PhD in French and Francophone studies at Cornell University and previously taught at Union College in New York.

Maximiliano Paz

Assistant Professor, Geosciences

Maximiliano is a sedimentologist, ichnologist, and stratigrapher, teaching courses related to understanding sedimentary rocks and processes, paleoenvironments, paleoecology, and the evolution of life on Earth. His research focuses on the study of organic-rich mudstone (black shales) and other marine shallow and deep-water siliciclastic rocks in Argentina, China, Spain, and Canada, as well as the development of a trace-fossil database to recognize the timing of substrate colonization during Earth’s history. Maximiliano earned a PhD in geological sciences at the University of Saskatchewan.

Alexandra Pike

Assistant Professor, Biology

Alexandra is a molecular biologist who studies how proteins that bind DNA regulate the molecular machines that perform a variety of tasks in the cell. Currently, her research involves both biochemical and genetic approaches in yeast to study how single-stranded DNA binding proteins coordinate DNA replication, DNA repair, and telomere-length maintenance. Alexandra earned a PhD in cellular and molecular medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and conducted postdoctoral research at MIT before coming to Oberlin.

Briitta van Staalduinen

Assistant Professor, Politics

Briitta is a Finnish-American scholar of comparative politics in advanced democracies. Her research and teaching explore the ethnic-, racial-, and gender-based inequalities formed by changes in economies and welfare states as well as the consequences of these emerging inequalities for progressive politics in Europe and the U.S. Briitta earned a PhD in government from Harvard University and is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality” at the University of Konstanz.

Conservatory of Music

The tenure-track faculty joining the Conservatory faculty for the 2025-2026 academic year include:

Colin Briskey

Assistant Professor of Music Theater (Voice)

Colin is an innovative, evidence-based voice teacher and storyteller who collaborates with students to craft a singing technique that is flexible, authentic, and empowering. His research interests include tessitura in musical theatre, acoustically mapping belting strategies, and the intersection of gender and musical theatre voice. Outside of academia, he works with Theatre Major, collaborating with the team to present audition and vocal health master classes at The REACH at the Kennedy Center. Colin earned a bachelor’s degree in music theatre at Oklahoma City University and an MFA in musical theatre vocal pedagogy from Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Before joining the faculty at Oberlin Conservatory, Colin served on the voice faculty at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, working with their music theater program.

Victoria (Vicky) Bussert

Professor of Music Theater

Vicky has directed more than 400 shows on prominent stages across three continents, including 38 seasons at Cleveland’s Great Lakes Theater and 17 at Idaho Shakespeare Festival, acting as resident director for the sister companies. Her national work includes productions at the Manhattan Theatre Club, York Theatre, Goodspeed Opera, Playhouse Square, Portland Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Anchorage Opera. She has long balanced her award-winning directing career with her role as an educator, serving as director of music theater at Baldwin Wallace University for 27 years. Her many accolades include a 2019 Cleveland Arts Prize for theater and dance, where the jury praised her directing and teaching, and Music School Central naming her one of the 10 Legendary Music Professors Teaching Today.

Martha Guth ’98

Associate Professor of Voice

A Juno-nominated soprano for Summer Night, a disc of songs by Healy Willan, Martha regularly presents concerts and recitals at major venues, including Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, the National Cathedral, Ravinia, Oxford International Song Festival, and Leeds Lieder. As a young artist she won first prize at both the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition and the Concours Musical International de Montréal, launching a performance career specializing in concert and art song. Her deep interest in art song led her to co-found Sparks & Wiry Cries with pianist Erika Switzer, a non-profit spanning publication, live performance, and commission of new works which have been premiered at venues such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Prior to returning to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Martha was an assistant professor of voice at Ithaca College. She earned a master’s in music at Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and a doctor in musical arts from the University of Michigan.

Gregory Harrell

Associate Professor of Music Theater (Voice)

Gregory is an accomplished performer, teacher, vocal director, and arranger. His students have performed in over 40 productions on Broadway, as well as London’s West End, Off-Broadway, national and international tours, film/TV, and regional theaters. As a music theater artist, Gregory has performed Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theater, York Theater, Playwright Horizons, Beckett Theater, numerous NY cabaret venues, and major regional theaters across the U.S. As an operatic baritone, he has sung at New York City Opera (10 years), Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, and the Kennedy Center. Gregory’s recent teaching experience includes ten years as a faculty member in the voice department of Baldwin Wallace University and master classes throughout Southeast Asia. For the past seven years, he has studied and worked with top K-pop voice teachers and performers in South Korea.

 Lauren Marousek

Assistant Professor of Music Theater

An artist, choreographer, and teacher, Lauren Marousek has trained for over 20 years in various dance disciplines. Her professional choreographic credits include productions at Beck Center for the Arts, the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center, Baldwin Wallace University, Playhouse Square, and Cleveland Musical Theater. She is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and ran her own private dance and acting training business in Pennsylvania before becoming an adjunct faculty member at Baldwin Wallace’s Theater and Dance department. She earned a BFA in acting with a dance minor from Baldwin Wallace University and is currently enrolled in the University of Idaho’s MFA in Theatre Arts program.

Cassie Okenka

Assistant Professor of Music Theater

Cassie is a dedicated vocal educator and has been a Broadway performer for over a decade. As a performer, she was an original Broadway company member of Bonnie and Clyde and School of Rock and performed as Glinda in the first national tour of Wicked. Her private studio has produced clients performing on Broadway and in national tours, including Suffs, Death Becomes Her, Shucked, Beetlejuice, and School of Rock. As a vocal educator, she has taught in the BFA musical theatre program at Marymount Manhattan College and the BA musical theatre concentration at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. She earned a bachelor’s of music in music theatre from Baldwin Wallace University-Conservatory of Music and a certification of distinction in vocal pedagogy from Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

Luis Perdomo

Associate Professor of Jazz Piano

Grammy-winning pianist Luis Perdomo has released nine critically acclaimed recordings as a leader, and has appeared on over 250 recordings as a sideman. He has performed and recorded with artists such as Ravi Coltrane, David Gilmore, Jerry Bergonzi, Don Byron, Tom Harrell, Brian Lynch, Ray Barretto, Henry Threadgill, Ralph Irizarry, and David Sanchez, among others. Luis is a founding member of the Miguel Zenón Quartet and his collaboration “El Arte del Bolero,” a duo recording with Zenón, was nominated for both a Grammy and a Latin Grammy in 2022. The group’s follow up album, El Arte del Bolero Vol 2, received the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Record. A native of Venezuela, Perdomo earned a bachelor's degree at the Manhattan School of Music and a master's degree at Queens College. He’s taught at Queens College, The New School, and MIT, and before coming to Oberlin spent four years as a professor of ensembles and piano at Berklee College of Music.

 Alex Sanchez

Assistant Professor of Music Theater

Alex Sanchez is an award-winning, New York City-based choreographer, director, and educator. As an active theater artist, Alex brings to Oberlin the unique perspective of working with the greats who shaped the industry, and a keen understanding of the skills required to succeed in today’s Broadway and regional theater. Alex has performed in ten Broadway shows and was in the original cast of Fosse, The Red Shoes, Carousel LTC revival, Big the Musical, Follies Roundabout Theater Revival, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life. As a musical stager on Broadway his credits include Paradise Square, which won a Tony Award and earned ten nominations. During the course of his career, he’s also collaborated with The MET Opera, Lincoln Center Theatre, The Public Theatre, Playwrights Horizon, and numerous regional theaters.

 Carlos Pérez Tabares

Assistant Professor of Music Theory

Carlos’s research interests include early-ottocento Italian opera, form, rhythm and meter, and jazz. Originally from Venezuela, he earned a bachelor’s in music in composition and a master’s of music in music theory from the Mannes School of Music. Carlos is earning his PhD in Music Theory at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

Matthew Webb

Assistant Professor of Music Theater

Matthew Webb is a resident designer at Great Lakes Theater, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. His has credits as a music director (Into the Woods; Little Shop of Horrors; Mamma Mia; The Music Man; Beehive; Forever Plaid; The Fantasticks; Sweeney Todd; Guys & Dolls; and Cabaret) and sound designer/composer (The Merry Wives of Windsor; As You Like It; Much Ado About Nothing; The Taming of the Shrew; Macbeth; Hamlet) He has also worked at several other theaters across the world, including The Irish Repertory Theatre, Tokyu Theatre Orb, New World Stages, Kansas City Starlight, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Ars Nova, Village Theatre, and American Folklore Theatre. Webb’s educational theater credits include the educational premieres of Kinky Boots and The Phantom of the Opera.

Laura Welsh

Assistant Professor of Music Theater

Laura Welsh has been working professionally across the country for 20 years. Notable roles include Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Rosie in Mamma Mia!, Viola in Twelfth Night, and Cassius in Julius Caesar. Her educational directing credits include Measure for Measure, Bare, Troilus and Cressida, Breach, Henry VI: Part 1, Henry VI: Part 2, and Richard III. After earning her undergraduate degree at Baldwin Wallace University and her master’s degree at the Theater School at DePaul, she became a company member with Great Lakes Theater and its sister companies, the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. She was the first woman in the company’s history to play the title role in Hamlet.