Quran Karriem was appointed as an assistant professor in the department of communication and rhetorical studies at Syracuse University in New York. He is a media theorist, electronic musician, and installation artist concerned with the intertwined histories and futures of automation, race, and cultural production.
Dr. Karriem is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where he majored in music. He holds a master of fine arts degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design and a Ph.D. from Duke University in North Carolina.
Taija Mars McDougall was named an assistant professor of African American studies at the University of California, Irvine. She recently completed a President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on Black critical theory, slavery and financialization, psychoanalysis, and continental philosophy.
Dr. McDougall earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature with a minor in philosophy from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada and a master’s degree in British, American and postcolonial studies from Universität Münster in Germany. She holds a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in culture and theory from the University of California, Irvine.
Tiffany Baffour is the new director of the School of Social Work at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. She comes to her new role from the University of Utah, where she was an associate professor, associate dean in the Graduate School, and director of the master of social work degree program. Earlier in her career, she held faculty appointments with Winston-Salem State University and North Carolina A&T State University.
Dr. Baffour holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from New Jersey City University, a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Delaware, a master of social service degree from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in social work from Howard University.
Cagney Coomer is a new assistant professor of neuroscience at Smith College in Northampton, Massachuetts. Dr. Coomer is a neuroscientist interested in understanding brain regeneration following spinal cord injury.
Dr. Coomer is a graduate of Virginia State University, where she majored in biology. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology at the University of Kentucky and completed postdoctoral training at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College and at the University of Michigan.
Jonaya Kemper has joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz as an assistant professor of arts and design, games and playable media. An interdisciplinary artist, activist, educator, designer, writer, and games scholar, Kemper examines play as a means of liberation for people of marginalized identities. Her work covers all aspects of games, including video, table top, board games, and live action games.
Kemper is a graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts and the Gallatin Graduate School at New York University.
