The following are among the new faculty members at the University. Others will be introduced periodically in this space.
Lubomir P. Litov, Ph.D., joins the Olin School of Business as assistant professor of finance. Previously, Litov taught at the Stern School of Business, New York University, while pursuing his doctoral degree. He is a recipient of the Glucksman Award for Best Working Paper in Finance as well as of the Dean’s Commendation for Excellence in Teaching at the Stern School of Business. Litov’s areas of expertise include corporate finance, corporate governance, international corporate finance and behavioral corporate finance. His research focuses on the impact of managerial agency costs on corporate investment and financing policy decisions. He also has studied the causes of market manipulation, the performance evaluation of mutual fund managers, and the impact of bondholder vs. equity-holder conflicts on the nature of corporate mergers and acquisitions.
Michael D. Frachetti joins the Department of Anthropology in Arts & Sciences as assistant professor. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004, an M.Phil. from St. John’s College of Cambridge University in 1998, and a B.A. from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1997. Since 1999, he has been working on the Dzhungar Mountains Archeology Project in Eastern Kazakhstan. His research focuses on the socio-political organization and economy of Bronze Age societies of Central Asia and the Eurasian steppe zone, with an emphasis on archaeological and ecological modeling using Remote Sensing in conjunction with Geographic Information Systems.
Sarah Rivett joins the Department of English in Arts & Sciences as assistant professor. Her main teaching and research interests include the literature and culture of early America and the early modern Atlantic world, with additional interests in gender studies, race, theology, and the history of science. Foregrounding an interdisciplinary approach, her work examines the intersections between science, religion, and literature from the Puritan quest for knowledge of elect souls to revivals in the age of the Enlightenment and mesmerism in antebellum reform literature. Rivett’s current book project, The Science of the Soul in Colonial New England, examines the role of science in pious practice, demonstrating the centrality of converted women and Native Americans to a long, transatlantic history of Enlightenment empiricism.