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Home | Information for Faculty | New Faculty (AY 2009-2010)
New Faculty (AY 2009-2010)
Eileen E. S. Bjornstrom
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Ohio State University, 2009. Dr. Bjornstrom’s research interests lie at the intersection of urban and medical sociology, and include aspects of social control. Her dissertation examined the relationship between neighborhood income inequality, social resources, and health, and how these associations may be differentially important across individual socioeconomic status, relative position, and race-ethnicity. She plans to continue to focus on the ways in which the economic and social context of place impacts individual well-being, and how individual characteristics shape these relationships. In the near future, Bjornstrom plans to extend her research on community context to include an examination of how aspects of the local built environment are associated with individual health. Bjornstrom’s teaching interests complement her research interests. In the past she has taught quantitative methods to undergraduates as well as urban and introductory sociology. She will teach social statistics during the 2009-2010 academic year at MU and will offer additional classes in her field of expertise in the future.
Clintin Davis-Stober
Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences
Dr. Davis-Stober received his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focus is formal models of behavioral decision making, examining how decision makers perceive risks, and payoffs in a variety of contexts.
Edward Drott
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Edward Drott received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. His research examines the role of the body in East Asian religion and religion's role in structuring the experience of the body. He is particularly interested in the nexus of religious and medical knowledge in pre-modern China and Japan. In 2002 he was awarded a fellowship by the Japanese Ministry of Education allowing him to conduct research at Kyoto University for eighteen months. In 2004 and 2005, he was an instructor for the Antioch Buddhist Studies program in Kyoto. He spent the 2006-2007 academic year as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University's Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. From 2007 to 2009 he was a visiting member of the Department of Religion at Dartmouth College. He is currently working on a manuscript based on his dissertation, which explores how religious ideologies and practices helped shape the experience of aging in medieval Japan.
Justin Dyer
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Justin Dyer graduated summa cum laude from the University of Oklahoma before commencing graduate studies in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. His dissertation, which explores the development of American antislavery constitutionalism in the nineteenth-century, was written under the supervision of Gary Jacobsohn. Two recent articles have emerged out of this research: “Lincolnian Natural Right, Dred Scott, and the Jurisprudence of John McLean” (Polity, January 2009) and “After the Revolution: Somerset and the Antislavery Tradition in Anglo-American Constitutional Development” (forthcoming Journal of Politics, October 2009). Dyer primarily will teach courses on American government, constitutional law/development, and judicial politics.
Colin Hesse
Assistant Professor of Communication
Dr. Colin Hesse explores research related to the communication of affection, emotions, and the relationship between the way we communicate and build relationships and our mental and physical health. One of his primary research foci is the psychological trait of alexithymia, where individuals are relatively unable to understand and communicate emotions. Previous studies have examined the psychological, physiological, and relational consequences of alexithymia. Hesse has also conducted multiple studies on the psychological and physiological health benefits of affectionate communication. His research has been published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Western Journal of Communication, Communication Studies, Southern Journal of Communication, Communication Quarterly, and Human Communication Research. He has also presented his work at multiple academic conferences (including two top-paper awards), and coauthored several book chapters and one textbook, The Biology of Human Communication (2nd Ed.) In addition to his research endeavors, Hesse has also served as a reviewer for Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Journal of Family Communication, and Communication Education. He served as the editorial assistant for Journal of Family Communication for two years. While attending Arizona State University, he was awarded the Jeannie Herberger Graduate Fellowship, recognizing the top doctoral program applicant.
Dennis Kelley
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Dennis Kelley received his Ph.D. in 2007 from the University of California at Santa Barbara. His primary research focus is in the religious traditions of indigenous peoples, especially Native North Americans, and his expertise includes religion and culture; religion and ethnicity; myth, ritual, and symbol theory; and religious identity. Some recent publications include a co-edited three-volume encyclopedia of American Indian religions, a chapter in Religion and Healing in Native America: Pathways for Renewal titled “Alcohol Abuse Recovery and Prevention as Spiritual Practice,” and a chapter in Death And Religion in a Changing World titled “The Politics of Death and Burial in Native California.” Current work in progress includes an article in review with The Journal of the American Academy of Religion titled “Ancient Traditions, Modern Constructions: Innovation, Continuity, and Spirituality on the Powwow Trail,” as well as a piece titled “Revitalization, Renewal, or Reprise: On The Modern Recapitulation of American Indian Religious Culture” in review with Wicazo Sa Review.
Gavin King
Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy
Gavin King’s research interests involve performing precision single molecule biophysics experiments which lie at the intersection of nanotechnology, molecular biology, and photonics. Prior to his arrival in Columbia, he was a postdoctoral researcher at JILA – an interdisciplinary research institute run jointly by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado, Boulder. He received his doctorate in physics from Harvard University in 2004; previously, he received Masters and Bachelor degrees in physics from Dartmouth College and Bates College, respectively. King is the recipient of several awards and honors, including a Career Award at the Scientific Interface from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
Soon Keong Ong
Assistant Professor of History
Soon Keong Ong received his BA in Chinese Studies from the National University of Singapore. He earned an MA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and yet another from Cornell University. He completed his doctoral degree in modern Chinese history under the supervision of Sherman Cochran at Cornell University in 2008 and is currently revising his dissertation "Coming Home to a Foreign Country: Xiamen, Overseas Chinese, and the Politics of Identity, 1843-1938." His research focuses on the Chinese who migrated out of China to Taiwan and Southeast Asia and then returned to participate in the socio-economic and urban development of the homeland. Prior to joining the department, Ong was assistant professor at the University of North Florida. He will teach courses in East Asian and Southeast Asian history.
Brian A. Silvey
Assistant Professor of Music
Brian A. Silvey (Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin; M.M.E., Wichita State University; B.M.E., Morehead State University) is an Assistant Professor of Music Education and the Assistant Director of Bands at the University of Missouri. Prior to his appointment at MU, he served on the faculty of Wichita State University where he taught undergraduate and graduate-level music education courses including instrumental materials and methods, marching band techniques, foundations of music education, and psychology of music, and directed the concert band. Silvey has presented music education research and teacher preparation clinics at state, national, and international venues. He is published in Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, The Journal of Band Research, The Instrumentalist, and School Band Orchestra. His research interests include conducting effectiveness and expressivity, instrumental music pedagogy, and preservice teacher training. His professional memberships include the Music Educators National Conference, College Band Directors National Association, and the College Music Society. He is an experienced events adjudicator, guest conductor, and guest clinician, having worked with bands across the Midwest.
Robert Walker
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
(Ph.D. with distinction, New Mexico 2004) Professor Walker’s research interests are human life history evolution, evolutionary ecology, hunter-gatherers, South America, cultural evolution, phylogenetic trees, growth and development, agent-based modeling and metabolic scaling.
Arthur White
Assistant Professor of Music
Director, Jazz Performance Studies
Dr. Arthur White directs the Concert and Studio Jazz Bands; teaches jazz improvisation, arranging and pedagogy; oversees the jazz combo program; and coordinates the MU/Phi Mu Alpha Jazz Festival. Hereceived a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Emporia State University (KS), a Master of Music in Jazz Pedagogy from West Virginia University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts in Saxophone Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His primary teachers include Dr. Steven Stusek, Paul Scea, Curtis Johnson, and Branford Marsalis. His dissertation is an examination of the harmonic improvisation style of jazz saxophonist Joe Henderson. Prior to his appointment at MU, White was the director of jazz studies at Northeastern State University (OK).
Emerging nationally as a saxophonist, composer, arranger and educator, White has recorded with Fred Wesley, Chris Murrell, Scott Wendholt, Bobby Watson, Henry Johnson, Robin Eubanks, Russell Malone, and jazz legend Dewey Redman. White has arranged music for nearly two dozen jazz luminaries. He is published by Second Floor Music, through Hal Leonard, Inc. He has performed with hundreds of nationally acclaimed jazz, pop, and country artists, and his arrangements and original compositions have been performed by high school and college jazz ensembles throughout the country. White is a member of the Jazz Education Network, International Society for Improvised Music, North American Saxophone Alliance, Music Educators National Conference, College Music Society, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Kappa Kappa Psi.
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