This article is featured in the 2024 Freshman special issue.
The start of the school year brings a host of new faces to campus each fall — not all of them students. In addition to graduate students, transfer students and members of the Class of 2028, 24 new professors will be joining 16 different Arts and Sciences departments this academic year, according to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’s website.
Newly hired professors have already expressed enthusiasm about working in the classroom. Professor Xin Qi, who is joining the chemistry department as an assistant professor, said she is “really passionate” about teaching and hopes to make an impact by “bringing more female students into the field.”
“I want to establish confidence in them in exploring a new direction,” she explained.
While some professors will be new to campus entirely, others are familiar faces. Computer science professor Sergey Bratus, who previously taught at Dartmouth from 2002 to 2018, will return to Dartmouth this fall. Following a stint as a program manager for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency from 2018 to 2024, Bratus said he hopes to build an “exciting” cybersecurity research program with two newly hired faculty members, professor Christopher Hauser and professor Kyungtae Kim. He also hopes to make computers “trustworthy,” he added.
“Building systems that are observable [and] understandable is really the only way to build systems that can be trusted,” Bratus said. “I hope that we’ll be able to take part in this with all the new faculty and all the students interested in cybersecurity.”
Beyond academia, several new professors said they are excited to embrace New England living.
Biology professor Emily Behrman, who is joining the biology department as an assistant professor this year, said she is “really excited” to come to Dartmouth because of Hanover’s atmosphere — which she said reminded her of her own time in college.
“I did my undergraduate [studies] nearby in New England at Williams College, so I’m really excited to be back in a small community,” Behrman said.
Behrman added that she is excited to “partake in all aspects of the Dartmouth community,” such as hiking and rowing.
Hanover’s small town quirks can prove useful to new hires, according to some in last year’s cohort. Business administration professor Tianna Barnes, who joined the Tuck School of Business last year, explained that the “intimate” feel of the College helped with socializing and professional onboarding. Barnes added that she loves “the fresh air” and the “stillness” in Hanover.
“It reminds me a bit of the Midwest, but with a sprinkle of the South,” she said. “It’s unique in all its own ways, but I’m liking it thus far.”
Barnes added that the College has “a communal feel,” and that the people have been “kind and welcoming.”
Beyond Hanover’s small town feel, several new professors hired last fall highlighted the students they have met in their time at Dartmouth so far. English professor Jodi Kim, who joined the department last fall, said she enjoyed her first year at the College and found teaching to be “extremely rewarding.”
“The students have not only met my already high expectations, but [they] all have exceeded my already high expectations,” Kim said.
Kim added that teaching at Dartmouth has shown her that teaching is not a “one-way transmission of knowledge.”
“It’s really multi-directional,” Kim said. “I have just as much or even more to learn from [students] than I have to teach on certain days.”
Religion professor Rachel Feldman, who joined the College from Franklin and Marshall College, said she was “deeply impressed” during her first year teaching Dartmouth students. She noted that her students were able to talk about difficult topics with “real open-heartedness and intellectual curiosity.”
“It’s been an incredibly difficult year holding a lot of pain and a lot of despair,” Feldman said. “But the conversations that have been possible in the classroom with students have definitely been a space of light and a spark of hope for me.”
While not freshmen embarking on their college careers, many newly hired professors are also just beginning their time at Dartmouth. Incoming computer science professor Nikhil Singh said he is excited to “explore the community and get to know folks.”
“I’m excited to teach and work with students at Dartmouth, who I’m sure will bring in so many different backgrounds and ideas into both research and classes,” Singh said. “I think it’s a really creative place and I’m interested in computing, so it feels like something that should be really generative and exciting for everyone.”
