Adjunct professors,
appointments of faculty and academic affairs staff, promotion and tenure also
announced
CONWAY, Ark. (August 19, 2024) — Hendrix College welcomes four new
full-time faculty members for the 2024-2025 academic year:
- Aleksandr
Polyakov, Assistant Professor of Music
- Sarah Root, Assistant
Professor of Psychology
- Samyak Shertok,
Assistant Professor of English Creative Writing
- Marianne
Tettlebaum, Assistant Professor of English
Dr.
Aleksandr Polyakov is a Ukrainian-American educator, concert pianist, and
orchestral conductor. The prize winner of more than 20 international
competitions, he has performed in major venues around the globe, including
Carnegie Hall (NY), Hill Auditorium (MI), and Bass Performance Hall (TX). He is
a dedicated chamber music partner and a sought-after pedagogue who is
passionate about curriculum development and often incorporates modern
technologies in his teaching. In addition, as a conductor, he has collaborated
with more than 20 symphony orchestras, frequently leading opera productions and
working with vocalists.
Dr.
Sarah Root
earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at the University of Central
Arkansas. After completion of her pre-doctoral internship at Centerstone in
Bradenton, Florida, she returned to Conway as a Visiting Assistant Professor at
UCA. Her work shifted to providing mental health therapy and evaluations
full-time in June of 2020, after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Root is
excited to return to the world of academia and looks forward to bringing
expertise gained from her clinical experience into the classroom at Hendrix.
Dr. Samyak
Shertok’s
poems appear in Cincinnati Review, Gettysburg Review, Iowa
Review, Kenyon Review, Poetry, Best New Poets, and elsewhere.
A finalist for the National Poetry Series, the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry
Prize, Alice James Award, and the Jake Adam York Prize, he has received
fellowships from Aspen Words, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Fine
Arts Work Center in Provincetown. His work has been awarded the Robert and
Adele Schiff Award for Poetry, the Gulf Coast Prize in Poetry, and the
Auburn Witness Poetry Prize. Originally from Nepal, he holds two MFAs, one from
Arizona State University the other from the University of Mississippi, and a Ph.D. from the University of Utah.
Dr.
Marianne Tettlebaum has an interdisciplinary teaching background and
academic interests in aesthetics and art theory, the Frankfurt School, German
literature and philosophy, and psychoanalysis. She has worked as an executive
in the nonprofit sector and is currently also a Clinical Trainee in
psychodynamic psychotherapy. She earned her Ph.D. from Cornell University in
2004 and her MSW from Washington University in St. Louis in 2022. She is
excited about the opportunity to return to the classroom to teach, and, in
turn, to learn from her students.
New Adjunct
Professors for 2024-2025
- Ruthann Browne,
Theatre Arts
- Daniel De
Togni, Music
In addition to the faculty named above, the Hendrix
College Office of Academic Affairs announced a number of
faculty and staff changes for the coming academic year.
Faculty
with Changed Status in 2024-2025
- Todd Berryman: appointed
Associate Provost for Advising and Academic Success
- Daniel Edquist-Whelan: appointed Charles Prentiss Hough Odyssey
Professor of Politics
- J.D. Gantz: awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor of
Biology
- Laura MacDonald:
appointed
Charles S. and Lucile Esmon Shivley Odyssey Professor of Biology
- Maureen McClung:
promoted
to Professor of Biology and appointed Judy and Randy Wilbourn Odyssey Professor
of Biology
- Maxine Payne: appointed Willis H. Holmes Distinguished Professor of Art
- Stan Rauh: promoted to Professor of Classics
- Delphia Shanks: awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor of
Politics
Academic
Affairs Staff Changes for 2024-2025
- Clarisse Durand: appointed as French House Coordinator
- Tabitha Hasson: appointed
Registrar and Coordinator of Institutional Research
About Hendrix College
Founded in
1876, Hendrix College is featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools
That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges and celebrated among the
country’s leading liberal arts colleges for academic quality, engaged learning
opportunities and career preparation, vibrant campus life, and value. The
Hendrix College Warriors compete in 21 NCAA Division III sports. Hendrix has
been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. Learn more at www.hendrix.edu.
“… Through
engagement that links the classroom with the world, and a commitment to
diversity, inclusion, justice, and sustainable living, the Hendrix community
inspires students to lead lives of accomplishment, integrity, service, and
joy.”
—Hendrix College Statement of Purpose