Cluster Hires

Learn about the College of Liberal Arts Cluster Hires.

History of CLA's Cluster Hires

The College of Liberal Arts conducted its first cluster search focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in 2017 and this search was designed to attract a diverse group of academics invested in inclusive teaching and dedicated to scholarly contributions in this area. We successfully hired seven assistant professors across several departments. All have been involved in diversity and inclusion efforts in their departments, our college, the university, and in the community.

To promote equity-minded and inclusive teaching strategies across the university and increase curricular coverage of areas related to DEI, a university-wide cluster of tenure-track faculty search was launched in 2019. From this search, five new assistant professors were hired in the College of Liberal Arts. During the 2021-2022 school year, a third search was launched that resulted in successfully hiring 10 assistant professors representing eight different departments, all of whom are experts in DEI areas and/or in inclusive teaching and work with underserved students. In 2024-2025 we welcomed six new faculty from five departments who specialize in migration and immigration in Latinx/e populations as part of CLA's fourth DEI focused-cluster hire search.

Meet the Cluster-Hire Faculty

2024 Cohort

Sergio Fernando Juárez

he/him/his

Communication Studies Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Communication Studies, University of Denver

Research Interests:
Critical pedagogies in university settings; Intercultural communication; Pathways to higher education; Immigration media and politics

G. Aron Ramirez

he/him/his

History Department

Degree: Ph.D. in History, Yale University

Research Interests:
Latine history, the twentieth-century US, urban history, the history of the political economy, and housing policy

Melissa Manzanares

she/her/hers

Interdisciplinary Studies in the Liberal Arts Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Research Interests:
International migration across the Americas; Labor experiences, labor violations, and human trafficking among Latin American migrants; Unpaid family labor, work-family conflict, gender

Jared P. Van Ramshorst

he/him/his

Political Science Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Geography, Syracuse University

Research Interests:
Immigration, Border and Immigration Enforcement, Race and Ethnicity, Urban Studies

Ivan Hernandez

he/him/his

Psychology and Child Development Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Social Psychology, Northwestern University; B.A. from CSU San Marcos

Research Interests:
Social psychology, social identity, motivation, emotion, higher education, STEM equity and inclusion

Daniel Rodriguez Ramirez

he/him/his

Psychology and Child Development Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Social Psychology, UC Santa Cruz

Research Interests:
Psychology of Social Change, focus on transformative change in abolitionist organizing and care work; Immigrant psychological well-being and the psychology of immigration; Participatory action research and community-engaged research

2022 Cohort

Alexia Arani

she/her/hers

Women’s, Gender, & Queer Studies Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Anthropology with a specialization in Critical Gender Studies from UC San Diego

Research Interests:
Disability Justice, queer/trans of color critique, social movements, state violence, prison abolition and care work

Darrian Carroll

she/her/hers

Communication Studies Department

Degree: Communication Studies from the University of Maryland

Research Interests:
Race, Rhetoric, World-Making

Alison Cheung

she/her/hers

Communication Studies Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Utah

Research Interests:
Rhetorical criticism, rhetorics of race, critical media studies and Asian American cultural production

Ashley Clemons

she/her/hers

English Department

Degree: Ph.D. from the University of Florida; B.A. from Wayne State University

Research Interests:
African American Literature; Contemporary American Literature; Detroit’s Black Cultural & Literary Studies; and Afrofuturism

Nikhil Deb

he/him/his

Social Sciences Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Tennessee; M.A. in Sociology from Ohio University; M.S.S in Sociology from Shahjalal University in Bangladesh

Research Interests:
Political Economy, Development and Environment, Global South.

Maya Hislop

she/her/hers

English Department

Degree: Ph.D. in English from University of Virginia; B.A. in English from Williams College

Research Interests:
African American Literature, 20th & 21st century; Gender studies, sexual violence/misogynoir; Carceral studies, prison abolition; Media studies, race, gender, and class

Susana A. López

she/her/hers

Psychology and Child Development Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Counseling, Clinical and School Psychology from the University of California Santa Barbara; M.S. in Psychology from Cal Poly; B.S. in Psychology from Cal Poly

Research Interests:
Racial Trauma and Healing, Stress and Resilience, Immigration, Acculturation and Mental Health Disparities in underserved communities.

Jorge E. Moraga

he/him/his

Ethnic Studies Department

Degree: American Studies from Washington State University

Research Interests:
Latinx Studies; Sociology of Sport; Race, Class, Gender in Popular Culture & Media

John Paul Paniagua

he/him/his

History Department

Degree: Ph.D. from Princeton University; B.A. from Whittier College

Research Interests:
Indigenous Americas, Colonial Atlantic World

Gabriel Soldatenko

he/him/his

Ethnic Studies Department

Degree: Ph.D. in Philosophy from SUNY Binghamton; M.A. in Philosophy from SUNY Binghamton; B.A. in History from Arizona State University; B.A. in Philosophy from Arizona State University

Research Interests:
Latinx Studies, Urbanism and Critical Social Theory

2019 Cohort

Yun Lucy Bencharit

she/her/hers

Psychology and Child Development Department - Diversity and Organizational Behavior

Degree: Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University

Research Interests:
Cultural variation in emotional expressions in work settings, teamwork, and group dynamics across cultures; diverse, equity and trust in organizations.

Deborah Donig

she/her/hers

English Department - Global Anglophone Literatures

Degree: Ph.D. in English from University of California, Los Angeles

Research Interests:
Global Anglophone Literature, Human Rights, Comparative Genocide, and Humanistic Technology

Thanayi Jackson

she/her/hers

History Department - African American History

Degree: Ph.D. in United States History from University of Maryland

Research Interests:
Politics and Race in the U.S. from 1865, Civil War and Reconstruction, African American Activism, Partisanship and Political Culture.

Shanae Martinez

English Department - Indigenous Studies

Degree: Ph.D. in English Literature and Clutural Theory from University of Wisconsin

Research Interests:
Indigenous American Literatures, Indigenizing knowledge production, Decolonial Praxis, Transnationalism, Trans-Indigenous Resistance, Feminist Alliance and Tourism.

Kylie Parrotta

she/her/hers

Social Sciences Department - Criminology and Gender

Degree: Ph.D. in Sociology from North Carolina State University

Research Interests:
Social Psychology of Organizational Change, Race and Gender Disparities, Identity Work and Stigma Management, 21st Century Policing, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and Race & STEM.