In November, I wrote about launching our search to fill the tenure-track position vacated by Andy Exley after he departs at the end of this academic year. While I’m sad to see Andy go, I’m thrilled that we were able to hire William Bares, currently Associate Professor and C. Richard Crosby Distinguished Teaching Chair at the College of Charleston.

The search committee was impressed by William’s depth and breadth of teaching experience, together with his interdisciplinary research incorporating performing arts, computer graphics, and artificial intelligence. William also writes about Mexican-American heritage and his experience as a first-generation college student, which inform his advising and his research collaborations with students. He stood out as a unique candidate, the likes of whom we did not expect to see again.

I invited William to introduce himself to our alumni and friends:

I am excited to be joining the faculty at Whitman College this summer. My current research explores how computers can be taught to interpret the ways in which cinematic language communicates messages and meaning in film. I am passionate about helping students and faculty of all disciplines to use computing to find answers to their big questions to empower them to formulate new ones. I have worked for several years in the Computing in the Arts Program at The College of Charleston, and look forward to offering my skills and experience in broadening participation in computing to the Whitman community. The Computing in the Arts program has achieved near 50% recruitment, retention, and graduation of women. This successful effort to broaden participation in computing does so by making computing into an accessible outlet for creative expression that appeals to a broader student population than the BS in Computer Science. I encourage students to participate in research and to make connections between what they learn in computer science and their other areas of interest such as cinematography, physics, data science, body-positive fashion, cultural studies and gender-inclusive gaming. I invite you to browse a selection of student work on my website: http://blogs.cofc.edu/bareswh/student-work/  If you have any ideas that you would like to begin exploring before I arrive on campus this summer, please feel free to drop me an e-mail at bareswh@cofc.edu

Sincerely, William Bares

We look forward to William’s arrival this summer. In the fall, he’ll contribute to our core curriculum; I particularly look forward to learning from his experience supervising senior capstone projects. Next spring, William is tentatively scheduled to teach Computer Graphics, a new elective offering for Whitman.

I am excited to see how our academic programs and departmental culture evolve with William’s new contributions. Please join me in welcoming William to Whitman!

In other news, our proposal for a fourth tenure-track position has been recommended to the Board of Trustees. We hope for approval of the new position in May, with a search next fall or winter. The goal of this position will be to maintain and expand course offerings open to non-majors while supporting a growing number of majors.

In the meantime, we are launching a search for a Visiting Instructor or Visiting Assistant Professor for the 2020-21 academic year. This position will cover John Stratton’s two-course fall sabbatical and support three additional course offerings by CS department faculty:

• A second section of the capstone to accommodate 26 rising seniors in the major;
• An extra elective, hopefully at the intermediate level so it is accessible to non-majors;
• A spring first year seminar, likely on the topic of Feminist Technologies.

John graciously agreed to chair this search, though Albert Schueller and I are both serving on the search committee. When the ad is posted, you will see it here!