Tenure Awarded to Faculty From Schools Across University Continuing to build an intellectually diverse and rich scholarly community on campus and bolstering its top-level academic offerings, Yeshiva University has granted tenure to eight faculty members from across its undergraduate and graduate schools, in fields ranging from art history to mathematics and Judaic studies. “After an arduous review, these newly tenured professors join an outstanding faculty who testify to the quality of Yeshiva University,” said Dr. Selma Botman, provost and vice president for academic affairs at YU. “Along with our recent reaccreditation and commendation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, faculty such as these exceptional educators, who bring distinction to our institution while dedicating themselves to student success and research excellence, are the hallmarks of a great university.”

Dr. Marnin Young

“I am grateful to have a strong community of scholars and teachers at Yeshiva University,” said Dr. Marnin Young, associate professor of art history and one of four faculty awarded tenure at Stern College for Women. His book, Realism in the Age of Impressionism: Painting and the Politics of Time, 1878-1882, will be published by Yale University Press in early 2015. Young is also working on two projects: one that deals with the public reception of the painting of Georges Seurat and another that discusses Edgar Degas and finance capitalism. In 2014, he received the Dean Karen Bacon Faculty Award. “Having collaborated with other faculty on a range of course offerings, I have benefited from a rich interdisciplinary dialogue,” Young said. His colleagues at Stern College to receive tenure this year include Gaetano Bloise, professor of economics; Richard Hidary, associate professor of Judaic studies; and Matthew Miller, associate professor of English. Bloise holds a PhD in economics from the University of Cambridge and has taught in the past at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium; the University of Sassari, Italy; and the University of Rome III. His research and teaching interests are in general equilibrium, monetary theory, macroeconomics dynamics and asset pricing.

Dr. Richard Hidary

Hidary received his PhD from New York University, where his studies culminated in a book titled Dispute for the Sake of Heaven: Legal Pluralism in the Talmud (Brown Judaic Studies, 2010). At Stern, he teaches courses in Bible, Second Temple Jewish history and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Talmud and Midrash, and Jewish ethics. He is currently working on his second book, which will explore the Greco-Roman context of the Talmud and Midrash, with particular focus on the relationship between the art of persuasive speaking that dominated the educational system of the Roman empire and the rabbis’ roles as preachers and teachers. “Yeshiva University has afforded me a rare opportunity to be able to teach and write in atmosphere of intellectual growth and love of Torah,” said Hidary. “What I most enjoy about teaching here is the caliber of the students: I can teach the Dead Sea Scrolls in their original language, analyze Midrash with a group that comes in many with years of advanced learning, and discuss Tanakh with students who know the text inside and out.”

Dr. Matthew Miller

Miller holds a PhD in English literature from the University of Iowa and an MFA in creative writing from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His research interests are 19th and 20th century American literature, poetry and poetics, creative writing, electronic scholarship and book studies. Miller recently published Collage of Myself: Walt Whitman and the Making of Leaves of Grass (University of Nebraska Press 2010), which presents a groundbreaking account of the creative story behind America’s most celebrated collection of poems. His current research explores the work of other poets as well, including Gertude Stein, George Oppen, John Ashbery and some younger poets. “I'm looking forward to focusing a little more on my own creative writing, and I am excited by how my second scholarly book is unfolding,” said Miller. “The research leave I was granted for the fall 2012 semester afforded me the time to develop ideas for my current scholarly work and resulted in a couple articles that have recently been accepted in quality journals in my field. I am honored that Yeshiva University has granted me tenure, and I look forward to the future.” Yeshiva College bolstered its department of mathematics and computer science by awarding tenure to Dr. Andreas Hamel and Dr. Antonella Marini, both professors of mathematics. “Students at top-tier universities expect to be guided by faculty who are leaders in research, and this is especially important for our faculty in the mathematical sciences, in which the University offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees,” said Dr. Thomas Otway, professor of mathematics and chair of YU’s department of mathematics and computer science. “Our programs in mathematical sciences provide a foundation for the increasingly mathematical nature of research at the frontiers of physics, economics, computational biology, theoretical chemistry and computer science. In the scientific literature, the standard boundary conditions for gauge-invariant equations are called ‘Marini conditions’ in honor of Antonella Marini’s research in this area, and Dr. Andreas Hamel’s work has rich applications to mathematical finance, an area of particular interest to students at YU, who live in a city in which the financial services industry plays a dominant role in the local economy.”

Dr. Antonella Marini

Marini holds a PhD in mathematics from the University of Chicago, where she specialized in gauge theories. Her research involves the areas of geometric analysis, partial differential equations and mathematical physics, focusing on nonlinear partial differential equations and boundary value problems arising in gauge theories. Her teaching interests include ordinary and partial differential equations with applications to modeling in environmental and other sciences, calculus and advanced calculus, topology, linear algebra, real and complex Variables, functional analysis, geometric analysis, Morse theory, differential geometry and lie groups.

Dr. Andreas Hamel

Hamel received his PhD from Martin-Luther-University-Halle. His research combines classical math areas like lattice theory and functional analysis with more recent ones, such as math finance, to create a new area called set optimization. He plans to study further applications in finance, economics and game theory as part of future projects. “At YU, I could talk math to the students because they’re used to studying in dialogue form,” Hamel said. “This gave me the opportunity to try a more communicative way of teaching, even in very complex courses.” Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology awarded tenure to Dr. Jeffrey S. Gonzalez, associate professor of psychology.

Dr. Jeffrey Gonzalez

Gonzalez, who received his PhD from the University of Miami, focuses his research on identifying psychological and cognitive factors involved in treatment adherence in chronic illnesses, particularly how beliefs about illness and treatment relate to illness self-management and how depression and distress are associated with worse outcomes in chronic illness. He is also a faculty member of the Diabetes Research and Training Center and has academic appointments in medicine (endocrinology) and epidemiology and population health at YU’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “The students I teach in our clinical psychology health emphasis PhD program have various backgrounds and experiences but all have a passion for a career as a clinical psychologist that can have impact on the health care and mental and physical health outcomes of patients living with chronic illnesses,” said Gonzalez. “Our current work with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which seeks to evaluate whether a program involving telephonic support for diabetes self-management can improve health and mental-health outcomes in patients treated for type 2 diabetes in primary care practices throughout the city, is particularly exciting. We are just getting started with the intervention and think we will learn a lot about what works and how our program can be disseminated to real world practice.”

Dr. Daniel Tsadik

At Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Dr. Daniel Tsadik, associate professor of Jewish studies, received tenure. Tsadik earned his PhD at Yale University and is an expert in the history of Jews in Islamic lands; modern Iran; Shi’ite Islam; Iran's religious minorities; and Iranian Jewry. He is widely published and is currently researching the rabbinic literature of Iranian Jews. “I'm happy to report that I have already found some highly significant manuscripts that are going to change the scholarly perception of this field,” said Tsadik. “For me YU is more than just a workplace—it is a community in which people of the highest academic standards gather and values are as important as science and research.” Keep up with the latest Faculty News.