Kenyon’s Board of Trustees considered the recommendations of the Tenure and Promotion Committee at their April meeting.
These five members of the College’s faculty have earned appointment without limit and the title of associate professor, effective July 1, 2024.
Krista Dalton
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Krista Dalton is a cultural historian of religion, working primarily with the texts and traditions of ancient Judaism within the Mediterranean context. Her first book, “How Rabbis Became Experts” (Princeton University Press, forthcoming 2025), analyzes the process by which the rabbis of late ancient Roman Palestine became religious experts in Jewish communities, and her second book with Princeton offers a survey of the office of rabbis from antiquity to modernity. Dalton is an editor-in-chief of Ancient Jew Review and on the board of directors of the Association for Jewish Studies. She teaches courses on the history of Judaism, religious studies, gender and sexuality, magic and mysticism, cyborgs and sci-fi, and charity and philanthropy.
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Doctor of Philosophy in Religion from Columbia University (2019)
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Master of Arts in Religious Studies from Missouri State University (2012)
Diego del Río Arrillaga
Assistant Professor of Spanish
Diego del Río Arrillaga received his Ph.D. in Spanish (specialization in Modern Peninsular Literature) from Yale University in 2017. His research interests include transatlantic studies (Spain and Latin America), avant-garde movements, literary theory, film and sound studies, and digital humanities. His interest in transatlantic connections can be traced back to his education in Mexico and his own background as a descendant of Spanish Civil War exiles.
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Doctor of Philosophy in Spanish (Modern Peninsular Literature) from Yale University (2017)
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Master of Arts in Spanish (Modern Peninsular Literature) from Yale University (2014)
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Master of Philosophy in Spanish from Yale University (2014)
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Master of Arts in Spanish (Modern Peninsular Literature) from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (2012)
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Bachelor of Arts in Language and Hispanic Literatures from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (2009)
Francis Gourrier ’08
Assistant Professor of American Studies and History
Francis Gourrier first joined the history department in 2016 as a Marilyn Yarbrough Dissertation/ Teaching Fellow. He is a U.S. historian, broadly trained in African American history. His teaching and research focus on gendered questions of racial conflict, civil rights, student activism, Black identity and politics. Prior to his career in higher education, Gourrier taught middle school in Oakland, California. In 2021-2022, he was named a Career Enhancement Fellow by the Mellon Foundation & Institute for Citizens & Scholars. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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Doctor of Philosophy in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2020)
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Master of Arts in Afro-American Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2012)
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Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Kenyon College (2008)
Brad Hostetler
Assistant Professor of Art History
Brad Hostetler specializes in the art and material culture of Late Antiquity and Byzantium, with a particular emphasis on portable luxury objects from the 9th through the 12th centuries. He teaches courses on the art and architecture of the ancient and medieval Mediterranean, including ancient Greece, Rome, Byzantium and the Islamicate world. Hostetler’s research focuses on the relationships between texts and images, including ekphraseis about, and words inscribed on, works of art. He is currently writing a book that examines the nature and meaning of relics and reliquaries in Byzantium through the lens of inscriptions.
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Doctor of Philosophy in Art History from Florida State University (2016)
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Master of Arts in Art History from Florida State University (2009)
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Bachelor of Arts in Art from Wheaton College (2002)
Natalie Wright
Assistant Professor of Biology
Natalie Wright studies the evolution, ecology and anatomy of birds with a focus on flight. Wright aims to understand how flight affects bird evolution and how ecological factors drive the evolution of flight. Her lab uses a variety of methods, including detailed studies of bird anatomy using museum specimens, phylogenetic comparative analyses across large datasets and biomechanics experiments in both the lab and field. Current work focuses on why males and females differ in their flight anatomy in some species but not others, and if and how those anatomical differences affect how the birds fly.
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Doctor of Philosophy in Biology from the University of New Mexico (2015)
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Master of Science in Zoology from the University of Florida (2009)
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Bachelor of Science in Zoology from the University of Florida (2005)
Additionally, the following member of the faculty will be promoted to full professor effective July 1, 2024.
Rosemary O’Neill
Associate Professor of English
Rosemary O'Neill joined the Department of English at Kenyon in 2011 after teaching at Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania. Her research and teaching take up the literature of later medieval England, with a particular interest in how religious practices shaped the poetry of writers such as Chaucer, Langland and the Pearl-Poet. She teaches courses on medieval drama, medieval women writers and literature and religion in medieval England. O’Neill is affiliated with the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies, where she will serve as chair next year, and has served as resident director of the Kenyon-Exeter Program. She is the co-editor of “Beer and Brewing in Medieval Culture and Contemporary Medievalism” (2022).
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Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania (2009)
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Bachelor of Arts in Medieval Studies and English Literature from the University of Chicago (2000)