Ferguson, Espinosa, Rentz named to new 7C leadership program for faculty

Three Claremont McKenna College faculty members have been selected to serve as fellows in the inaugural Claremont Faculty Leadership Program (CFLP). Heather Ferguson, Associate Professor of Ottoman and Middle Eastern History, Gastón Espinosa, Arthur V. Stoughton Professor of Religious Studies, and Ellen K. Rentz, Associate Professor of Literature, will collaborate with colleagues from the seven Claremont Colleges on initiatives related to institutional health, campus crisis management, and the promotion of equity, diversity, and inclusion among all students.

The yearlong program is open to up to three faculty members from each of The Claremont Colleges. It is sponsored by the 7C Academic Deans Committee, supported by the Office of Consortial Academic Collaboration, and organized by a group of faculty leaders at each of the seven schools.

About the fellows

Heather FergusonHeather Ferguson, Associate Professor of Ottoman and Middle Eastern History

Ferguson received an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas-Austin and a Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley. She also completed a two-year postdoctoral position at Stanford University with the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies and History departments. Ferguson is an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow (2014-15) for her book entitled The Proper Order of Things: Language, Power and Law in Ottoman Administrative Discourses published by Stanford University Press (May 2018). She also serves as editor of the Review of Middle East Studies and associate editor for the International Journal of Islamic Architecture.

Gaston EspinosaGastón Espinosa, Arthur V. Stoughton Professor of Religious Studies

Espinosa was the 2016-17 William Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. He served two terms as President of La Comunidad of Hispanic Scholars of Religion at the American Academy of Religion and was named an NEH Fellow at the NHC Institute for Advanced Studies. Espinosa is the author/editor of eight books and has directed three national surveys on U.S. Latino Religions and Politics (2000, 2008, and 2012), surveying 7,000 Latinos nationwide. He also serves as co-editor of The Columbia University Press Series in Religion and Politics.

Ellen RentzEllen K. Rentz, Associate Professor of Literature

Rentz specializes in medieval literature and joined the CMC faculty in 2009 after earning an M.A. in Medieval Studies at the University of York, England, and a Ph.D. in English at Columbia University. She is chair of the Off-Campus Study Committee, a member of the Administration Committee, CMC faculty representative for the Intercollegiate Feminist Center Steering Committee, and co-advisor of the Gender and Sexuality Studies Sequence. Rentz’s research explores intersections of medieval literature and religious culture, and she is the author of Imagining the Parish in Late Medieval England (Ohio State UP, 2015).

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