Faculty

A photo portrait of Provost Courtney Coile
Fall 2024
Courtney Coile has worn many hats since arriving at Wellesley. She came to the College as an assistant professor of economics in 2000 and rose to the rank of full professor in 2014. As of July 1, Coile can add provost and Lia Gelin Poorvu ’56 Dean of the College to her résumé of Wellesley responsibilities.More
An illustration depcits the number 50 surrounded by figures of women conducting research, providing child care, and working in Washinhgton, D.C.
Fall 2024
For 50 years, researchers at what is now the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) have conducted groundbreaking interdisciplinary studies on social issues such as the effects of placing children in child care, gender equity in education, and the role of social media in adolescents’ lives. From the beginning, its mission has been to deploy rigorous academic research to address real-world problems.More
A photo portrait of Banu Subramaniam, Luella LaMer Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies
Summer 2024
Do plants “belong” in a particular place? Why are some considered “native” and others “invasive”? Why do they have Latin names? Are they really “male” and “female”? These are some of the wide-ranging questions at the heart of the new book Botany of Empire: Plant Worlds and the Scientific Legacies of Colonialism by Banu Subramaniam, the Luella LaMer Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies.More
A photo portrait of Andrew Shennan, provost and Lia Gelin Poorvu ’56 Dean of the College, who recently retired
Summer 2024
In June, Andrew Shennan moved out of an office he had been occupying since 1999. During send-off events in the spring, colleagues remarked on Shennan’s brilliance, kindness, optimism, ability to see arguments from many angles, level-headedness, devotion to the College, and his continuing commitment to neckties in a business-casual era.More
Understanding the Clean Energy Transition
Spring 2024
At the end of 2023, a new electric power system quietly came online in Hawai‘i. Unlike its predecessors, this system doesn’t run on coal, natural gas, or fossil fuels of any kind. The Kapolei Energy…More
A photo portrait of Samara Pearlstein in the Jewett Art Gallery
Spring 2024
Samara Pearlstein touches a “little bit of almost every part” of the Wellesley College Art Department. She is the program coordinator for the department, the building manager for the Jewett Arts Center and Pendleton West, and a drawing instructor for the studio program in the summer. She is also the gallery director for Jewett Art Gallery.More
A photo of Prof. Joy Renjilian-Burgy
Spring 2024
A beloved member of the Wellesley community, Joy Renjilian-Burgy, associate professor emerita of Spanish, died on Jan. 14 at the age of 81.More
A photo portrait of poet and professor David Ferry in front of a crowded bookcase
Winter 2024
David Ferry, Sophie Chantal Hart Professor Emeritus of English, died on Nov. 5, 2023, at 99. He taught at Wellesley from 1952 to 1989. David was an exemplary scholar and teacher, a giant of our faculty, a translator and poet of the highest order, and a major figure in American literature.More
Kristin Butcher ’86, Marshall I. Goldman Professor of Economics in the classroom
Fall 2023
“Women who enroll at Wellesley are about 7 percentage points more likely to major in economics, and that’s [almost] double the chances of majoring in economics at other institutions where non-enrollees went,” says Patrick McEwan, Professor of Economics and Luella LaMer Slaner professor in Latin American Studies. The question is why.More
A Big Idea
Fall 2023
We asked faculty and researchers at the College how they’d solve a problem related to their field, if time and money weren’t constraints.More