Eleven new faculty members in the humanities will join the College of Arts and Sciences this fall, adding to the breadth and depth of course offerings and research opportunities available to students.

“The college is proud of our long tradition of greatness in the humanities,” said Gretchen Ritter, the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “We remain committed to education and research that deepens our understanding of humanity and the creative arts in all of its richness and diversity. These wonderful new hires make me optimistic about our future.”

The new faculty members are: Riley Snorton, Africana studies/feminist, gender and sexuality studies; Chiara Formichi and Suyoung Son, Asian studies; Athena Kirk, classics; Naminata Diabate, comparative literature; Gregory Londe, English; Russell Rickford, Victor Seow, Paul Friedland and Lawrence Glickman, history; and Julia Markovits, philosophy.

“We’re historians, but when thinking about new hires we always try to look into the future and ask where the profession will be in 10 or 20 years,” said Barry Strauss, the Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor in Humanistic Studies and chair of the Department of History. “Like many departments at Cornell, we’ve undergone a big wave of retirements and have been rebuilding now for more than a decade. The department’s continued high ranking is a sign of our success, but there’s always room to do even better.”

Strauss said the four new faculty members in history bring varied backgrounds and interests to Cornell.

“Rickford and Seow are young historians while Friedland and Glickman are established, senior scholars,” he said. “All four are exciting and welcome additions.”

Friedland, who studies French history, and Seow, who focuses on China, represent areas where the department has been traditionally strong, but their work reaches into new subfields, Strauss said. At the same time, Glickman, whose work is on U.S. cultural, consumer and labor history, and Rickford, who is interested in 20th century African-American history, each represent a new departure for the department, he said.

In Asian studies, Formichi will fill a long-standing but unaddressed aspect of the department’s strategic plan: Islam in Asia, according to Keith Weller Taylor, professor of Vietnamese studies and department chair.

“We anticipate that she will provide courses on important and timely topics that Cornell has not yet been able to provide: Islam in Asia, Ritual and Performance in Muslim Southeast Asia, and Shiite and Sunni Islam in Southeast Asia,” Taylor said. “She will also provide a new dimension to our curriculum and graduate program in Asian religions.”

Son will fill a gap created by a retirement in the area of late imperial China, Taylor said. “The late imperial period is especially important because it is when Chinese print culture develops, with literary works that are still integral to understanding modern Chinese culture,” he said.

Kathy Hovis is a writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.