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reed magazine logoSpring 2008

Reed Tenures Four

Paul Hovda, associate professor of philosophy and humanities, has been teaching at Reed since 2002, specializing in metaphysics, logic, and the history of philosophy, with a particular interest in theories of the part-whole relation. Hovda, whose recent courses include History of Analytic Philosophy, Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic, and Advanced Topics in Metaphysics: The Material World, has articles forthcoming in the Journal of Philosophical Logic, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, and Minds and Machines. He earned a B.A., summa cum laude, with majors in philosophy and mathematics from the University of Colorado–Boulder and a Ph.D. in philosophy from UCLA. Before joining Reed, he was a visiting assistant professor at Yale University.


Matt Pearson ’92, associate professor of linguistics, has been at Reed since 2001, first as visiting assistant professor and then as assistant professor. Pearson teaches subjects related to formal linguistic theory and analysis, especially syntax, typology, phonology, semantics, and field methods. His research focuses on the clause structure and verbal morphology of Malagasy, an Austronesian language spoken on the island of Madagascar. Pearson was among the first students to receive a B.A. in linguistics from Reed. He earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in linguistics from UCLA. He has served as chair of Reed’s linguistics department since 2006 and is serving as chair of the division of philosophy, religion, psychology, and linguistics—which the linguistics department formally joined this year—for the 2007–08 academic year.


Irena Swanson ’87, professor of mathematics, has been a member of Reed’s mathematics department since 2005. Before coming to Reed, Swanson was a professor of mathematics at New Mexico State University. She received a B.A. from Reed and a Ph.D. in commutative algebra from Purdue University. Swanson, who is teaching courses in multivariable calculus and abstract algebra this semester, recently co-authored Integral Closure of Ideals, Rings, and Modules (2006), a graduate-level textbook and reference for researchers, with Craig Huneke. She is on the editorial board for Communications in Algebra and co-moderator of the Commutative Algebra electronic archives.



Crystal A. Williams, associate professor of creative writing, earned a B.A., cum laude, in creative writing from New York University and an M.F.A in poetry from Cornell University. Williams has been a member of the English department at Reed since 2000, taking leave in 2006 to teach at Columbia College Chicago. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Kin and Lunatic. Her work is widely anthologized and most recently appeared in The American Poetry Review, Luna, Spoon River Poetry Review, 5AM, Court Green, and Ms. Magazine. She has been an artist-in-residence at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the College of Wooster, in Ohio.

reed magazine logoSpring 2008