Oakland, CA - Mills College announces the appointment of six new faculty members in academic year 2005-06.  Joining the ranks of Mills’ nationally renowned faculty are:

Chetkovich is an expert policy analyst and former nonprofit clinic manager who comes to Mills from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.  She has conducted research for state and federal agencies in social service areas including childcare, family planning, and disability services.  The author of Real Heat: Gender and Race in the Urban Fire Service, her research interests include public participation in policy-making, social identity and public policy, organizational culture and change, and nonprofit management.  She has an MPP and a PhD from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Public Policy.

An award-winning author, Li received the Paris Review 2004 Plimpton Prize for New Writers and a Pushcart Prize in 2005. The Los Angeles Times recently named her “a person to watch” in 2005.  She is the author of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (forthcoming this fall, and a finalist for the Frank O’Connor Award), a collection of short stories to be published by Random House in the U.S. and Europe.  Her fiction and memoir writing have been published in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and The Paris Review, among other magazines.  Li has an MS from the University of Iowa where she is also completing her MFA this year, and she earned a BA from Peking University.

A feminist scholar, director, and choreographer, Mezur researches gender studies, corporeality and media, and Asia Pacific transnational performance.  She is the author of Beautiful Boys/Outlaw Bodies: Devising Female-likeness on the Kabuki Stage.  Her current work includes “Skin,” a video performance installation, and the manuscript Cute Mutant Girls: Remapping the Female Body in Contemporary Japanese Performance Art.  She has taught at CAL Arts, McGill University, Georgetown University, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Davis. Her work has been supported by a Mellon fellowship, a Fulbright research grant, and a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. She earned her PhD from the University of Hawaii, an MA from Mills College, and a BA from Hampshire College.

Jacques Servin, assistant professor, Intermedia Arts

Servin’s multi-dimensional activist work includes performing, teaching, and writing.  His work has been featured in numerous videos and films, in addition to being covered in magazines such as Art Forum, Harper’s, and Mother Jones.  He has written experimental fiction, and received numerous grants and awards recognizing his talent. He earned an MFA from Louisiana State University, as well as BA and BS degrees from the University of Arizona.

A teacher-in-training at the Salk Institute, Young has taught genetics for middle school since 2000.  His publications include: “The Nitrate Transporter AtNRT 1.1 (CHL1) Functions in Stomatal Opening and Contributes to Drought Susceptibility in Arabidopsis” (Plant Cell, 2003) and “Convergence of Calcium Signaling Pathways of Pathogenic Elicitors and Absicisic Acid in Arabidopsis Cuard Cells” (Plant Physiology 2002).  He is completing his PhD from UC San Diego, and has a BA from UC Berkeley.

The Mills College faculty-to-student ratio is one to ten.  Sixty percent of all full-time faculty members are women, 22 percent are faculty of color, and 90 percent have their terminal degrees. Mills College is a nationally renowned, independent liberal arts college offering innovative degree programs for undergraduate women, and graduate degree and certificate programs for women and men. Consistently ranked among the top 75 liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Mills is also recognized as one of the country’s 20 most diverse colleges. Nestled in the foothills of Oakland, California on 135 lush acres, Mills provides a dynamic liberal arts education fostering women’s leadership, social responsibility, and creativity.

PRESS CONTACT:
Deborah Dallinger
Communications Consultant
925.788.9131