Gallatin is pleased to announce three new appointments to its full-time faculty: Millery Polyné, assistant professor of American studies; Alejandro Velasco, assistant professor of Latin American studies; and Kristin Horton, instructor of theatre directing.
Millery Polyné, a historian by training who earned both his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, enjoys teaching and research interests in the history of African American and Afro-Caribbean/Afro-Latino cultural, political, and economic initiatives in the 19th and 20th centuries; U.S. empire building in the Americas; cultural studies; dance; jazz; film; and poetry. He is currently completing his first book, Black Pan-Americanism: African Americans and Haiti within Inter-American Affairs, 1862-1964 (University Press of Florida) and directing the documentary series blacks cropped*crop blacks. A 2003 recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, he is also the author of the poetry book Release: Race Love Jazz (Gwo Nèg Press, 2004). Polyné is currently teaching a Gallatin course entitled Black Intellectual Thought in the Atlantic World.
Alejandro Velasco is a historian of modern Latin America whose research and teaching interests are in the areas of social movements, urban culture, and democratization. Before joining the Gallatin faculty, Professor Velasco taught at Hampshire College, where he was a Five College Fellow, and at Duke University, where he received both his M.A. and Ph.D. Professor Velasco’s research has won major funding support from the Social Science Research Council, the American Historical Association, and the Ford and Mellon Foundations, among others, and he has presented widely at both national and international conferences and symposia. He teaches two Gallatin courses this fall: (Re)Imagining Latin America, and a first-year seminar entitled Incivility in the Age of Civil Society.
Kristin Horton joins the School for a one-year appointment in the arts faculty. Horton received her M.F.A. from The University of Iowa and has taught and directed at Fordham University, The University of Iowa, Cornell College, the Arena Stage, the Riverside Theatre, and the Kennedy Center, among others. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant for directors, has been a resident director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and has received a directing fellowship at the Sundance Theatre Lab. This fall, Horton teaches two Gallatin arts workshops: Stage Direction for the 21st Century, and His Advice to the Players: Shakespeare in Performance.