MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Three members of the Middlebury College faculty have been promoted to the rank of associate professor without limit of tenure.

The Middlebury Board of Trustees, at its meeting in May 2015, accepted the recommendations of President Ronald D. Liebowitz and the College Board of Overseers in promoting: Joyce Mao (history), Sarah Stroup (political science) and Jessica Teets (political science).

The three promotions from assistant professor to associate professor will take effect July 1, 2015

Joyce Mao specializes in recent American history and teaches courses on Cold War topics, Pacific Rim relations, and American foreign relations from 1898 to the 21st century. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, she also offers a first-year seminar about the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. Her book, Asia First: China and the Making of Modern American Conservatism, is due to be released by University of Chicago Press in June 2015. Her paper “The Specter of Yalta: Asia Firsters and the Development of Conservative Internationalism” was nominated for a prize at the 2012 Berkshire Conference for Women Historians. Mao joined the Middlebury faculty in 2008 and is an engaging lecturer whose thoughtful and critical presentations of history bring her subject to life with enthusiasm, humor, and profound insight. She earned all of her degrees – a B.A. in history and English, an M.A. in history, and a Ph.D. in history – from University of California, Berkeley.

Sarah S. Stroup exemplifies the ideal of the teacher-scholar with her dynamic classroom presence that emphasizes critical-thinking skills and her groundbreaking research that has made her a leader in the study of international nongovernmental organizations. Her book, Borders Among Activists: International NGOs in the United States, Britain, and France (Cornell University Press, 2012), defines INGOs as “rooted cosmopolitans” that are grounded in nation-states yet striving to affirm global values. The American Journal of Sociology called it “required reading for navigating the sea of organizations in the age of globalization.” Stroup, who has a bachelor’s degree in government from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in political science from University of California, Berkeley, teaches courses in international political economy, public-private governance, politics of international humanitarian action, and international relations of East Asia. A member of the faculty since 2008, she has offered the first-year seminar Money, Morals, and Madmen in Global Politics and team-teaches the Winter Term course Philanthropy: Ethics and Practice.

Jessica C. Teets is a political scientist whose research focuses on governance, policy diffusion, and the role of civil society in authoritarian regimes. She is the author of Civil Society Under Authoritarianism: The China Model (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and editor (with William Hurst) of Local Governance Innovation in China: Experimentation, Diffusion, and Defiance (Routledge Contemporary China Series, 2014). A member of the faculty since 2009, Teets teaches courses in Chinese politics, comparative politics, political economy of development, and Chinese foreign policy. Her classes are designed so students grapple with problems in a hands-on manner, and she challenges her undergraduates to connect theories and concepts of political science to events occurring in the world today. Teets holds bachelor’s degrees in Chinese studies and government and politics from University of Maryland, a master’s in international relations from University of Chicago, and both a master’s and Ph.D. in political science from University of Colorado.

In addition to granting tenure to the above members of the faculty, the board of trustees in May promoted two associate professors to the rank of professor. They are Antonia Losano (English & American literatures) and Pavlos Sfyroeras (classics). Their appointments to full professor will take effect July 1, 2015.