Ways of Knowing Faculty, 2012
Matthew Backes
Seminar Leader, "Ways of Knowing"
Matthew Backes has been a lecturer in the Princeton history department for three years. He received his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University in 2005 and subsequently taught American Studies at Rutgers for two years before beginning at Princeton. He is currently putting the finishing touches on the manuscript of his first book—The Father, the Child, and the Middle Class—a study of paternal authority and filial identities in nineteenth-century America. His research interests center on middle-class culture in the nineteenth-century United States, with special attention to the family, gender, and religion.
Kristin Dombek
Course Coordinator, "Ways of Knowing"
Kristin Dombek is an essayist and cultural journalist who writes about religion, performance, pop culture, and political rhetoric. Her essays can be found in n+1, The Daily, TDR: The Drama Review, and The Painted Bride Quarterly. She is co-author, with Scott Herndon, of Critical Passages: Teaching the Transition to College Composition, and co-creator, with Stephan Wangh, of The Faithful, a documentary play about belief and the culture wars, which premiered in Princeton's Atelier. She received her Ph.D. from New York University's English Department. Before coming to Princeton, she taught writing and literature at Barnard College, the New School's Eugene Lang College, and New York University. She is a lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program.
Caley Horan
Seminar Leader, "Ways of Knowing"
Caley Horan is a historian of the United States interested broadly in the cultural and intellectual transformations of the post-WWII era. Her research explores the cultural life of insurance and the role of risk-based, statistical rationalities in shaping American institutions and daily life during the second half of the twentieth century. She is currently working on her book manuscript, “Actuarial Age: Insurance and the Emergence of Neoliberalism in Postwar America.” She received her BA from Stanford University, completed her PhD at the University of Minnesota, and is a lecturer in the history department at Princeton.
Rebekah Peeples Massengill
Seminar Leader, "Ways of Knowing"
Rebekah Peeples Massengill is a cultural sociologist whose research centers on culture, politics, and economic sociology. She is particularly interested in the way that moral arguments and ways of reasoning shape public debates about political and economic issues. Her first book, Walmart Wars: Moral Populism in the 21st Century, will be published by New York University Press later this year. Massengill also studies contemporary American religion, and has worked as a consultant for the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life. She joins the Princeton Writing Program as a lecturer in 2012, having taught most recently in the Sociology and Anthropology department at Swarthmore College.
Timothy Recuber
Seminar Leader, "Ways of Knowing"
Timothy Recuber is a sociologist who focuses on mass media and consumer culture. He has written about the deployment of therapeutic discourse in online archives devoted to disasters and their victims, about the ways in which popular culture has helped inspire fears of terrorism, and about the impact of “immersive” projection technology and theater architecture on contemporary cinema spectatorship. His other scholarly interests include urban studies, race and ethnicity, and the sociology of emotion. He is a Lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program.
Sajan Saini
Seminar Leader, "Ways of Knowing"
Sajan Saini received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT in 2004. He is a materials scientist and writer whose popular science articles examine the impact of complex technologies in our modern engineered society. Sajan has conducted research in optical communications and solar cell devices, taught courses on introductory modern physics and astronomy at Queens College (CUNY), and authored two book chapters on silicon photonics and spectroscopy. He is currently working on a book that describes the processing challenges within densely integrated systems, such as civil engineering projects and the computer microchip.
Leanne Wood
Seminar Leader, "Ways of Knowing"
Leanne Wood, a lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program, received her Ph.D. in musicology from Princeton University. Her dissertation examines representations of the Midwest in stage and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s such as Oklahoma!, State Fair, The Pajama Game, and The Music Man. Her forthcoming article "Technology, Authenticity, and the Pastoral Ideal: Viewing Oklahoma! Through the Lens of Todd-AO" will be published in the proceedings of the 2010 Stage to Screen Conference. In addition to teaching her Freshman Writing Seminar entitled "Main Street USA," Leanne also facilitates the Senior Thesis Boot Camp program in departments around campus.
Neil J. Young
Seminar Leader, "Ways of Knowing"
Neil J. Young, a lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program, previously served as a lecturer in the history department at Princeton. Young holds a B.A. from Duke University and a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Columbia University. He is interested in the history of American conservatism and the place of religion in modern American politics. He is particularly concerned with religious conservatives’ political opposition to issues of the body, including abortion and sexuality. He is currently completing a book for Oxford University Press entitled, We Gather Together: The Rise of the Religious Right and the Challenge of Ecumenical Politics. His articles have appeared in American Quarterly, the New York Times, Slate, and the Christian Science Monitor.