You can't check out these new professors on Penn Course Review, but you might want to look into their classes.
The new faculty members - most of whom previously taught at other universities - have come to Penn to share their expertise in fields ranging from political science to the modern Middle East to Romance languages.
Excited to step foot on Locust Walk and don some red and blue of their own, three of Penn's most notable new professors - Richard Johnston, Eve Powell and Roman de la Campa - divulged what's on their agendas for the year, the difficulty level of their courses and what they expect from the University's brightest Quakers.
n Richard Johnston
Boasting a resume that includes a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a reputation as one of the top scholars of American and Canadian electoral politics, Johnston was heavily involved in the creation of the national Annenberg election study, which is based at the University's Annenberg School for Communication.
In addition to monitoring the electoral races leading up to the 2008 presidential elections and directing the election study at Annenberg, Johnston will be teaching a graduate course on elections and public opinion next semester. He will focus solely on research this semester.
"My goal is to introduce students to basic books and articles that constitute the core of the election," said Johnston.
Johnston, who also co-wrote the book The 2000 Presidential Election and the Foundations of Party Politics with Penn Communication professor Kathleen Jameson, said he has high expectations of Penn students.
"Penn has a very selective admissions process, and I'm looking forward to dealing with the finest students in the country," he added.
n Eve Powell
Having just finished a MacArthur fellowship at the Radcliffe Institution for Advanced Study, Powell is offering a course this semester that aims to provide an insider's look at the volatile conditions in the modern Middle East and to try to figure out how they got that way.
"I'm teaching a subject that is highly challenging and emotional," said Powell, noting that the recent war between Israel and Hezbollah this summer will likely make the class "politically charged."
"It's definitely a hard class," she said.
She also cited the still-thought-about Sept. 11 terror attacks as a popular impetus for students to take the class, which is full, with a long waiting list.
Powell added that her course will focus on basic questions that most people can't answer but are "dying to know."
n Roman de la Campa
The new chairman of the Romance Languages department, de la Campa brings his flair for Latin American literature and culture to campus and will examine Latin American literary and cultural theory.
This semester, he is teaching a reading-intensive graduate course on Latin American literature and culture throughout the 20th century in which he contrasts ways of understanding of literature and culture that have developed in Latin America.
His spring-semester undergraduate course will center on the works of Latin American writers under the age of 30.
Though he "expects nothing but the highest" from Penn students, de la Campa added that his biggest challenge will be not to spend all of his class' time speaking by himself.
