Vassar Salutes Retiring Faculty Members

Brawley, Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and American Studies, earned her PhD from the University of Chicago and has been teaching at Vassar since 2000. Her research lies in the fields of critical urban studies, feminist theory, and American studies. She is the author of a bilingual book on landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted titled D’après Nature: Frederick Law Olmsted et le Park Movement Américain (2014). In the spring of 2019, she collaborated with Sara Hendren, a writer, filmmaker, design researcher, and cultural producer and Associate Professor of Art and Design at Northeastern University, on a senior urban studies seminar, “Design, Disability, and the Demos: Critical Access Studies and the Right to the City.” Brawley taught courses on urban theory, gender and social space, visual urbanism, and critical and social design. She also served as an Associate Dean of the Faculty, Tatlock Chair of Multidisciplinary Studies, and Director of both the Urban Studies and American Studies programs. “One of the highlights of my research was presenting my work on spatial justice, neoliberal urbanization, and the 2008 crisis as part of a plenary panel, alongside Peter Marcuse and Edward Soja, at the Henri Lefebvre auditorium at the University of Paris X, in Nanterre. It’s hard to imagine a more classic urban studies configuration,” Brawley said.

Rock, Professor of Political Science, began teaching at Vassar in 1987. He received his AB in political science from Miami University, and an MA and a PhD in government from Cornell University. His research interests include the origins of great power reconciliation and the efficacy of interstate influence strategies, including deterrence and appeasement. He has taught courses on international politics, US foreign policy, defense policy and arms control, the causes of war, and just-war theory. Professor Rock also has scholarly interests also in the intersection of religion and politics. He is the author of Why Peace Breaks Out: Great Power Rapprochement in Historical Perspective (1989), Appeasement in International Politics (2000), and Faith and Foreign Policy: The Views and Influence of U.S. Christians and Christian Organizations (2011). Professor Rock has assumed significant leadership positions, including interim Dean of the Faculty and multiple terms as Chair of Political Science, and has served on many important College committees. Now that he has retired, he plans to more avidly pursue his hobbies of acquiring and restoring recumbent bicycles and working in his garden.

D’Ambra, Professor of Art on the Agnes Rindge Claflin Chair, joined the Vassar faculty in 1990. She received her BA from the University of Arizona; an MA from the University of California, Los Angeles; and a PhD from Yale University. Her research focuses on Roman sculpture and portraiture. In addition to numerous seminal essays and book chapters, she is the author of Private Lives, Imperial Virtues: The Frieze of the Forum Transitorium in Rome (1993), as well as Roman Art (1998) and Roman Women (2007). She is also the co-editor of The Art of Citizens, Soldiers, and Freedmen in the Roman World (2006). At Vassar, she taught courses on the history of art and architecture in Greece, Rome, and ancient Egypt, introducing many students over the years to the monuments of the ancient world in Art 105–Introduction to the History of Art and Architecture. Her courses also contributed to the Medieval and Renaissance Studies and Urban Studies programs. She is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. D’Ambra said she is looking forward to teaching courses at 92NY in New York City and consulting with the European Research Council in Brussels in the coming years.

Ellman, Associate Professor of Computer Science, has been teaching at Vassar since 1998. He received a BA in physics from Wesleyan University and an MS, MPhil, and PhD from Columbia University. A self-described “computational artist,” Ellman’s area of research lies in specification, design, and automated synthesis of interactive media systems and applications of these techniques in role-playing games, interactive documentaries, and digital art. He has published many refereed journal articles and conference papers in his field of expertise. At Vassar, he taught introductory computer science courses as well as courses on data structures, networks, databases, graphics, animation, game design, and media production. He is the recipient of substantial external funding from agencies including the National Science Foundation, the NASA Ames Research Center, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. He served as Director of the Media Studies program and Chair of Vassar’s Community Works Committee. Examples of his artwork can be viewed at tomellman.com.

Edwards, Professor of History on the Eloise Ellery Chair, has taught at Vassar since 1995 and is serving her second term as Poughkeepsie Town Supervisor. She received a BA in English from the College of William and Mary and an MA and a PhD from the University of Virginia. “I loved teaching my first-year writing seminar on the American West, which allowed me to get to know a group of first-year students extremely well,” she said. “Teaching ‘Sex and Reproduction in Nineteenth-Century America’ was also a highlight. And team-teaching was a great experience—most recently in Global Nineteenth-Century Studies with Lydia Murdoch, Susan Zlotnick, and others. Three times I embarked with conservation biologist Meg Ronsheim on the adventure of taking students to the Great Plains for our class, ‘Grasslands.’ Sharing with them the chance to tour the Land Institute and meet its visionary founder, Wes Jackson, and to encounter bison at Konza Prairie and hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes along the Platte River, is something I will never forget.”

Broude, Professor of Cognitive Science, began teaching at Vassar in 1976—initially as a member of the Psychological Science Department. She received an AB in anthropology from Hunter College and an MA and PhD in social anthropology from Harvard University. Her research interests include the application of evolutionary theory to the human mind and behavior. Broude is the author of Marriage, Family, and Relationships: A Cross-Cultural Encyclopedia and Growing Up: A Cross-Cultural Encyclopedia (both 1995), as well as more than 40 journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries. As one of the earliest faculty members of the Cognitive Science Department, she taught introductory cognitive science as well as courses on knowledge, perception, and consciousness. Though she said she’d be hard-pressed to pick a favorite, Broude singled out Cogs 221–Qualitative Methods and Cogs 312–Mind Reading: The Cognitive Science Book Club. “Both were small classes where we were able as a group to talk about all manner of things having to do with cognitive science,” she said, “and life.” Broude plans to continue teaching Cogs 221 as an adjunct and write fiction.

Godfrey, Professor of Geography, began teaching at Vassar in 1995. He earned a BA in history from Pomona College and his MA and PhD in geography from the University of California, Berkeley. His scholarly interests include urban and regional change, public space, race and ethnic geography, memory and heritage, and urban political ecology. Professor Godfrey taught on global geography and world cities, sustainable urban landscapes, and the urban crisis in Brazil. He has provided extensive service to the College, including multiple terms as Chair and Associate Chair of the Department of Earth Science and Geography, and multiple terms as Program Director of Urban Studies and Director of Latin American and Latinx Studies. Godfrey said some of his fondest memories of his Vassar experience were class trips he took with students to the Amazon in Brazil in 2005 and Cuba in 2015.

—Kimberly Schaye/Larry Hertz