New Faculty

Introducing New Members of the Faculty

To help introduce to the Cornell community the new members of the university's faculty, the Cornell Chronicle will be publishing brief, new-faculty profiles through December.

Berezin

Correll

Kalas

McComas

Winter

Mabel Berezin

Associate professor, sociology
College: Arts and Sciences
Academic focus: How shared cultural meanings and practices shape political institutions, such as the state; social processes around political movements and ideologies; and agents through the construction of political identities. Her work focuses on the social and cultural effects of European integration as an identity project; a comparative study of the appeal of populist and right parties in contemporary Europe; and theoretical essays on the role of emotions in macrosociological systems.
Previous position: Visiting professor, Cornell, 2002-03; associate professor, University of California-Los Angeles, 1996-2000.
Academic background: Ph.D., sociology, Harvard University, 1987.
Last book read: Crabwalk by Günter Grass

Shelley Correll

Assistant professor, sociology
College: Arts and Sciences
Academic focus: Gender inequality, social psychology, group processes and sociology of education. She is interested in the role that cultural beliefs about gender, such as gender stereotypes, play in reproducing gender inequality in society. A recent project examined how gender beliefs associated with mathematics influence the extent to which individuals persist on a path towards careers in science, math and engineering.
Previous position: Assistant professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2001-03.
Academic background: B.S., chemistry, Texas A&M, 1990; Ph.D., sociology, Stanford University, 2001.
Last book read: Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity by Ann Ferguson

Rayna Kalas

Assistant professor, English
College: Arts and Sciences
Academic focus: Renaissance literature
Previous position: Assistant professor of renaissance literature and literary theory, Portland State University, 2000-03.
Academic background: B.A., English, University of Chicago, 1990; Ph.D., English, University of Pennsylvania, 2000.
Last book read: Frame Structures by Susan Howe.

Katherine A. McComas

Assistant professor, communication
College: Agriculture and Life Science
Academic focus: Science, environmental and risk communication. She examines public participation and community involvement in decision-making about health or environmental risks, with a focus on using public meetings as a form of participation. Through public meetings she studies how environmental or health-risk decision-making affects perceptions, source-credibility judgments, outcome satisfaction, and a willingness to engage in future community activities.
Previous position: Assistant professor, communication, University of Maryland-College Park, 2000-03.
Academic background: B.A., French, and B.J., journalism, both in 1990 from the University of Missouri; M.A., international relations and communication, Boston University, 1994; Ph.D., communication, Cornell, 2000.
Last book read: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling.

Nicholas Winter

Assistant professor, government
College: Arts and Sciences
Academic focus: American public opinion and political behavior, with particular attention to the ways that ideas about race and gender affect public opinion; political psychology; research design and statistical analysis of political phenomena.
Previous position: Research associate, Policy Studies Associates, Washington, D.C.
Academic background: B.A., political science, University of Chicago, 1990; Ph.D., political science, University of Michigan, 2001.
Last book read: The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould.

October 2, 2003