Joining the Faculty This Fall

Autumn 2020

These are just some of the new faces Colgate welcomed this semester.


Ramesh Adhikari, assistant professor of physics and astronomy

Comes to Colgate from: Jacksonville University, where he served as an assistant professor of physics

Teaching specialties include: physics core courses at all levels. He is also interested in integrating active learning pedagogies to make learning physics more interactive

Research interests include: working on projects that involve using biodegradable and sustainable materials for construction of electronic components and energy harvesting


Fatima Aqeel, assistant professor of economics

Comes to Colgate from: Boston University

Teaching specialties include: introductory economics and gender economics

Research interests include: development economics, labor economics, and gender economics


Noah Apthorpe, assistant professor of computer science

Comes to Colgate from: Princeton University

Research interests include: privacy and security, human-computer interaction, applied machine learning, and computer networks


T. Dionne Bailey, assistant professor of Africana and Latin American studies

Comes to Colgate from: the Carter G. Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia, where she served as a teaching and research postdoctoral fellow

Teaching specialties include: racial and social injustice, history of mass incarceration, Black feminist theory, gender and hiphop, Southern culture

Research interests include: African American women’s history, carceral studies, critical race studies, the South in the 20th century, and Black feminist theory


Jenny Peeler, assistant professor of chemistry

Comes to Colgate from: Boston College, where she served as a postdoc in the chemistry department

Teaching specialties include: biochemistry

Research interests include: chemical biology, especially the use of genetic code expansion to study post-translational modifications and selenoprotein biology


Brent Rodriguez-Plate, Gretchen Hoadley Burke Endowed Chair for regional studies

Comes to Colgate from: Hamilton College, where he served as professor of religious studies and cinema and media studies by special appointment

Teaching specialties include: religion and visual culture and religion and media

Research interests include: theories of religion, comparative religion, media studies, and sense perception