Each year, along with a new class of students, a new crop of professors joins the Dartmouth community. There are 49 new professors and instructors joining the College's faculty this year, including 26 visiting professors and 23 permanent faculty.
The Dartmouth spoke this week with four of the new permanent faculty members. The four newcomers to Hanover discussed their backgrounds and reflected on joining the College community.
Julia L. Driver - Philosophy
Both Julia Driver and her husband, Roy Sorensen, are new professors in the philosophy department this year.
Driver, who has a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, said she was attracted to Dartmouth because she saw it as a school with a world-class philosophy department in a beautiful place to live.
Driver's academic specialty is ethical theory, especially medical ethics. She said she has had an excellent experience at Dartmouth so far.
"I'm very impressed with the quality of the students," she said.
Driver's hobby is collecting 19th-century antique photographs by women photographers.
This fall she is teaching Philosophy 1, and this winter she will teach a courses in Aesthetics and Moral Philosophy. In the spring she will teach her specialty, Ethical Theory.
Steven R. Swayne - Music
Steve Swayne, an accomplished classical pianist, comes to Dartmouth directly from the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned his Ph.D.
Swayne wrote his doctoral thesis on the work of Steven Sondheim and said he brings to Dartmouth a background that encompasses both the academic and performance sides of music.
In his spare time he enjoys skiing and renovating the house that he and his wife bought recently in Woodstock, Vt.
"I'm kind of a house warrior," he said.
This fall he is not teaching, but this winter he will teach courses in American Musical Theater and Russian Music.
Nancy E. Crowe " Government
This fall, Nancy Crowe is teaching courses in the Supreme Court and Constitutional development and gender and western political thought.
She was attracted to the College's mountain setting and the easy access to the outdoors. She enjoys hiking, biking, running and reading fiction.
She raved about the quality of her students so far.
"The students seem very engaged," she said.
Crowe, who teaches in Silsby Hall, said her only complaint was that she wished the construction near Silsby would stop.
Hany Farid - Computer Science
Hany Farid, who specializes in computer vision and image processing, said he is ready for the "nice blend between the teaching and the research" that Dartmouth represents.
After getting his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, Farid spent two years researching as a post-doctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
His job is to understand how the human brain works, sometimes collaborating with cognitive scientists, and then to build systems to mimic it, he said.
In his spare time Farid, likes to ski, play pool, travel and ride his motorcycle. This fall he is teaching a course in Data Structures.
