Lisa Claypool, assistant professor of art history and humanities, comes to Reed after teaching for five years at Lewis & Clark College. She received a B.A. in history from Kalamazoo College, an M.A. in Asian art history from the University of Oregon, an M.A. in history from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in the history of Chinese art from Stanford University. She has also studied at the Nanjing-Hopkins Center for Chinese and American Studies. Her book in progress, Figuring the Social Body: Painting Manuals in Late Imperial China, examines the ways in which figure painting provided a means for members of an educated elite to negotiate their own subjectivity in the rapidly changing social context of nineteenth-century China. This year, Claypool’s courses include Art in Contemporary China and Body Language. Over the course of her career, Claypool has developed a substantial visual archive of the arts in contemporary China.

Marat Grinberg, assistant professor of Russian and humanities, received a a B.A. in modern Jewish studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, a B.A. in comparative literature from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Chicago. His areas of academic interest include Russian Jewish literature and culture, Russian and European modernist poetry, Soviet literature and cinema studies, and Jewish intellectual history. This year he is teaching Hum 110, as well as courses on Russian Jewish literature and the Russian short story.

Tamara Metz, assistant professor of political science, studies the history of Western political thought; liberal, feminist and postmodern theory; and challenges of freedom and equality in diverse postmodern polities. Metz received a B.A. in politics from Brandeis University; she received her Ph.D. in political theory from Harvard University. Metz’s upcoming book, Uneasy Union: Marriage and the Liberal State, under contract with Princeton University Press, explores the history and future of liberalism’s treatment of the relationship between marriage and the state. This year, Metz is teaching Hum 110, as well as the course Liberalism and Its Critics.

Alexander H. Montgomery, assistant professor of political science, studies nuclear counterproliferation strategies and the effects of social networks of states on international conflict. He received a B.A. in physics from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in energy and resources from UC Berkeley, and an M.A. in sociology and a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University. Montgomery was a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. His current research project evaluates the efficacy of post-Cold War U.S. counterproliferation strategies towards North Korea, Iran, and proliferation networks. His 2006–07 courses include Introduction to International Politics; Strategy, War, and Politics; and Global Ecological Politics.

Susan C. P. Renn, assistant professor of biology, received a B.S. in zoology from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Washington University. Previously, Renn had post-doctoral research fellowships at Harvard University, the University of Sydney; and the Washington University School of Medicine. Renn teaches classes in animal behavior, which, like her research, investigate the relationship of gene expression to behavior, and the interaction of genetics and environment. Renn will begin by teaching an upper-level course on animal behavior.

Sonia Sabnis, assistant professor of classics and humanities, studies the Latin and Greek novel, slavery and literature, Latin palaeography, and Indo-European linguistics. She received a B.A. in classics from Columbia University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in classics from UC Berkeley. She also received a Mellon Fellowship and a post-doctoral fellowship from Vassar College. In 2006–07, Sabnis is teaching Hum 110 and Latin 210.