Whitman Faculty Fellows Bring Fresh Perspectives to Teaching & Research

Whitman College’s new Faculty Fellows program aims to create a mutually beneficial environment where scholars just starting their academic careers can develop their teaching and research skills while introducing Whitman students to new areas of study and talented emerging professors.

The 2024–2025 cohort includes three scholars who recently completed advanced degrees: Jessica Bertram Williams, Faculty Fellow in Dance; Ayondela McDole, Faculty Fellow in Indigeneity, Race and Ethnicity Studies; and Robin North, Faculty Fellow in Photography. 

Faculty Fellows spend one academic year on Whitman’s campus, filling in for a faculty member on sabbatical.

“We wanted to create a short-term opportunity that would bring talented people to Whitman—even if they aren’t seeking a long-term career in the Northwest—and enrich our community with a broader range of intellectual perspectives,” says Mary Raschko, Associate Dean for Faculty Development.

Fellows take on 60% of a regular teaching load, which provides them with additional time for reflection and research. They work with a mentor—this year, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies and Director of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Tarik Elseewi—who helps them connect to the wider Whitman community.

Whitman has been tremendously fortunate to find such a strong first cohort, Raschko says.

“We wanted to be intentional in bringing folks in within a cohort so the community that they can lend to one another becomes part of their successful experience here,” she says.

Dancing Beyond Form

Through her dance and scholarship, Jessica Bertram Williams explores the Africanist aesthetic: “an expression of movement that is rooted in the traditions and cultural values of the African diaspora,” she says.

Students in her Afro Contemporary Dance courses at Whitman study how these traditions and values support the way they engage in movement. 

“Her course offerings this year filled a long-standing gap in Whitman’s dance curriculum, which has historically lacked robust representation of Africanist dance practices,” says Associate Professor and Director of Dance Renée Archibald. “While Professor de Grasse and I have worked to advance this area, Jessica’s expertise significantly expanded our capacity to offer a more representative, inclusive, and richly diverse dance education. She brought essential and transformative perspectives into our program.”

Whether students are practicing traditional movement of the African diaspora, modern dance, floorwork or improvisation, Bertram Williams encourages them to think about topics like lifting up communities and individuals together and the interplay of musicality and celebration.

“I’m interested in dance beyond form and precision,” she says. “How do we reconnect with ourselves and find connection with other people?”

Connection and community also lie at the heart of Bertram Williams’ experience as a Faculty Fellow. 

After earning her Master of Fine Arts in Dance with an emphasis in Ethnic Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder, she was drawn to the opportunity to transition into her academic career in a peaceful and supportive space.

She says Whitman students’ ambition and openness create a fun classroom environment. “They want to soak all of it in. They want to have the extra opportunities to dance together. They want to have rehearsals and performances.”

Bertram Williams accompanied a group of her students to the American College Dance Association’s annual conference in California, where they performed her recent choreography. Students met fellow dancers, took classes with other professors, and saw a wide range of performances—an experience that would not have been possible without Bertram Williams, Archibald notes.

Bertram Williams also shared her approach to dance with the broader Whitman and Walla Walla community by co-choreographing a December 2024 dance showcase with Senior Lecturer of Dance Peter de Grasse and performing “held by the bath//until you return” as part of the annual Studio Series. 

And she’s found friendship and shared experiences among the Faculty Fellows and other recently hired Black faculty members—reinforcing to her the importance of nurturing relationships within higher education.

“It feels good to know there’s someone that’s acknowledging our differences and giving us space to exist freely and support one another, because it makes us better,” she says. “It makes us better teachers. It makes us better colleagues.”

Exploring Culture & Capitalism

As a scholar of cultural studies, Ayondela McDole examines how economic systems shape human experience.

“Cultural studies is really about how the economic system we’re under has impacted our cultural lives, and how that has changed how the world is organized,” she says. “This changes our relationships to each other. It changes our relationships to our basic needs.”

McDole brings this lens to Whitman, where she’s taught the courses Race, Class and Violence; Introduction to Indigeneity, Race and Ethnicity Studies; and Caribbean Modernity.

“Her contribution to the IRES program was significant, introducing the new course, Caribbean Modernity, which complemented nicely our existing courses,” says Zahi Zalloua, the Cushing Eels Professor of Philosophy and Literature and Director of Indigeneity, Race and Ethnicity Studies.

She says she probably talks about capitalism more than most professors, because she wants students to understand its immense influence.

Her research, which she began for her doctorate at George Mason University, investigates how the idea of paradise becomes commodified at luxury resorts in the Bahamas for the wealthiest people in the world—and how that commodification affects the people working there.

“I look at racial hierarchies at resorts and how that reinforces this sense of paradise, opulence and privilege based on what the resort staff looks like,” she says.

McDole’s love of cultural studies was sparked during her undergraduate education at Columbia College, a liberal arts college in Chicago. She’s enjoyed bringing liberal arts values of creativity and experimentation to her classes at Whitman. 

McDole says her students are refreshed and stretched by new voices from an eclectic mix of diverse faculty members, including the Faculty Fellows.

“The students drink in who we are and drink in our presence,” she says. “They’re curious about our experiences and where we came from and what we know.”

As a newcomer to the Pacific Northwest, she’s learned new perspectives from her students too. For example, some have shared their relationships to regional Native tribes.

Having a cohort and mentor during her first faculty job has been “the best-case scenario for fellowship and community,” McDole says.

“I’m proud of Whitman and what they’re trying to do, but it’s a long road, and hopefully they’re not done,” she says.

Reframing Photography

In North’s art, research and teaching, he intertwines the personal and the scholarly. He was inspired to leave his corporate career and earn an MFA in Art at San Diego State University after inheriting his family archives, consisting of photographs, photo albums with handwritten text contextualizing the people in the images, and historical materials such as artifacts and obituaries.

“Many of us in the department have spent most of our careers only in academic settings, so Robin’s wealth of experience outside of the academic context has been incredibly helpful to our students as they prepare for what comes next,” says Maria Lux, Associate Professor and Chair of Art.

Today, he often uses his photography to tell the story of rural communities, drawing connections to the historical and racial constructs they’ve been subjected to.

For his photo series “A Way of Looking”—which was on display at the Stevens Gallery this winter alongside ceramic art by Assistant Professor of Art Deshun Peoples—North composed self-portraits on land connected to his family in southern Texas. In the images, his back is turned to the camera, encouraging viewers to consider “the act of seeing and the power dynamics inherent in observation,” he says.

He brings similar themes to his digital and darkroom photography courses at Whitman, where he teaches practical skills while challenging students’ foundational understanding of the camera.

“Many times, people do not understand that the camera has been a tool for imperialism, colonialism, militarization. That’s why the language of the camera is so militaristic: shoot, take, master-slave,” North says. “My whole focus in pedagogy is on getting people to understand how to turn the camera into an inclusive device.”

“Taking photos on our phones can be such a thoughtless act,” says Lux, “but Robin has made a noticeable difference in how reflective and intentional our students are about the images they compose. They see the discipline of photography and their relationship with their subjects differently. Robin’s experience with archives and research, his enthusiasm for interpersonal and interdisciplinary connections, and his generosity of time and energy in mentoring students have been such wonderful additions to our department community!”

Like North’s art, the Faculty Fellows program combines academic expertise with lived experience, he says: “When you're from rural marginalized environments, you understand what works and what doesn't work. You understand when you feel like you've been spoken to versus being spoken at. There’s a big difference when people have the opportunity to learn based on someone’s real, lived experiences.”

Sharing their experiences helps faculty members better connect to what students are experiencing, in turn, he says.

After his Faculty Fellow year ends, North will be staying on in Walla Walla—transitioning to a Visiting Assistant Professor position at Whitman and continuing to build the Art Department’s photography curriculum.

“Faculty Fellows has been a great starting point into the next phase of my career,” he says.