Reed Tenures Five

The college trustees approved five new associate professors for tenure in early 2006, upon recommendation of President Colin Diver and the faculty’s Committee on Advancement
and Tenure.

peter rock imagePeter Rock has published four critically acclaimed novels—This Is the Place, Carnival Wolves, The Ambidextrist, and The Bewildered. His latest work is a novella/collection of short stories entitled The Unsettling. He holds a B.A. in English from Yale, and an A.A. from the exclusive, physically demanding Deep Springs College (students must work a minimum of 20 hours on the school’s ranch).

When he teaches creative writing at Reed, he says he’s forced to articulate what he understands instinctively. But when asked if writing can be taught, he responds simply, “I don’t know.”

Rock says he teaches classes in writing, but not necessarily for writers. Most students, he says, can benefit from a writing course because it’s about “learning to communicate.”

breen imageMichael Breen, associate professor of history and humanities, received his B.A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. from Brown.

Breen says that he finds in his Reed students a “singular academic focus.” And he brings that same focus to his own study of French history. “When I was an undergrad,” he says, “I had this very undergraduate belief that absolute monarchy left no room for political discourse. The early modern French state was actually much more complex, and allowed for a greater variety of political opinions, as well as greater room for political involvement, than most people are aware.”

Breen is currently working on two books about law in early modern Europe.

 

delhanty imageAssociate professor of French and humanities Ann Delehanty says Reed was initially attractive to her because of the comparative and interdisciplinary nature of the freshman curriculum. “Humanities 110 is part of the reason I came here,” she says. Delehanty holds a B.A. in philosophy from Carleton College, and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from UC Berkeley. She studies the epoch before the Enlightenment in Europe; her book-in-progress is Beyond Method: the Ineffable in the Age of Reason.

Delehanty has two small children and says “balancing and prioritizing” is a challenge. But she says teaching at Reed keeps her engaged. Delehanty formerly taught at Berkeley as a grad student and says she misses the California sunshine and beaches, but not much else. “Anybody who’s taught here and doesn’t appreciate it, shouldn’t be here,” she says.

millender imageAssociate professor of classics and humanities Ellen Millender holds B.A.s from both Brown University and Oxford, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Reed is a perfect fit for her because, she says, “it’s not uncool [for students] to be intellectually engaged.” Millender is the editor of Unveiling Spartan Women (Classical Press of Wales, 2006), and expects to be at the forefront of new excavation of Sparta in coming years. At Reed, she’s worked on a series of Murdock Technology Innovation Grants to create a database of digital images for use in Humanities 110.

On the night she was notified she’d gotten tenure, an academic meeting kept her out late. As she was rushing to finish dinner, the phone rang and one of her children picked up. Over the din in the kitchen, Millender heard her daughter scream into the phone: “Colin who?”

– Brian Radzinsky '09