Butler Center announces two faculty scholars
January 23, 2013
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Nadia Brown, assistant professor of political science and African American studies. (Photo provided) |
Nadia Brown and Shannon McMullen have been named 2014 faculty scholars for the Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence.
The appointments will provide research support to Brown and McMullen, who form the center's second class of faculty scholars. The professors received the honor because their scholarship exemplifies the mission of the center, which focuses on research about women and leadership, says Katie Pope, the Butler Center's managing director.
Brown is assistant professor of political science and African American studies. Her book-length research project, "The Politics of Appearance for Black Women Candidates," will focus on electoral politics and will include an examination of African American women candidates’ identities and understanding of the political environment.
Brown's research interests lie in identity politics, legislative studies and black women's studies. Her ongoing research projects address the politics of appearance for black women candidates for public office. Brown enjoys teaching courses in the fields of African American studies, women's and gender studies, and political science, she says.
Brown received her PhD in political science in 2010 from Rutgers University with major fields in women and politics and American politics. She also holds a graduate certificate in women's and gender studies. She received her BA, also in political science, from Howard University in 2004.
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Shannon McMullen, assistant professor of electronic and time-based media and American studies. (Photo provided) |
Shannon McMullen is assistant professor of electronic and time-based art and American studies. Her research project, "Gender and Campus Visual Culture: Viewing Narratives and Voicing Alternatives," will apply social inquiry and artistic forms to provoke critical public dialogue around the gender narratives of campus visual culture.
McMullen's ongoing research interests and artistic endeavors investigate changing relations between nature and technology, the creation of installations to produce temporary socio-democratic spaces and public visual cultures. Collaboration and combining disciplines are significant components of her research and practice.
McMullen received her PhD in sociology from the University of California, San Diego, in 2007. Her dissertation, titled "Post-Industrial Nature and Culture in the Ruhr District, Germany, 1989-1999," considers an extreme example of how political and cultural elites in a rust-belt region jointly constructed a new visual culture based on the material and "natural" legacy of more than a century of coal mining and steel production in an effort to revitalize a devastated landscape.
Brown will serve as faculty scholar during spring 2014 and McMullen will serve as faculty scholar during fall 2014. Updates about their research projects will appear periodically on the Butler Center's website at www.purdue.edu/butler/index.shtml.