GROWING OUR COLLEGE Arts and Letters celebrates significant hiring successes in recent years, welcoming dozens of new colleagues across the College. Many arrive as part of a cohort hire, a practice that clusters hiring opportunities to recruit candidates from different disciplinary backgrounds but who share common research and teaching interests. “Last year, the College of Arts and Letters was fortunate to hire seven new faculty members in our initial cohort hire, and they are already transforming the university for the better,” said Dean Robert D. Aguirre. “This year's cohort hire will build on this effort, advancing our teaching and research about Latinx culture, a critically important field of study in the humanities, social sciences, and communication arts.” Cohort hiring has allowed us to bring cutting-edge scholars into a readymade community and immediately into conversation with one another. The resulting network, in turn, helps transform our campus, not just in crossdisciplinary efforts, but in ways that revise and reinvigorate our curriculum, teaching, research and outreach – and, ultimately, that reimagine how we understand the role of a liberal arts and social sciences education. Our two successful cohort hires – welcoming thirteen new CAL faculty in two years – signal our commitment to elevating and engaging with the critical issues that inform our current moment and will shape the future.
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JMU COLLEGE OF ARTS AND LETTERS
