CEIS Announces New Faculty

Three new tenure-track faculty members have joined the departments of Liberal Studies and Early Childhood Studies in the College of Education and Integrative Studies.

Assistant Professor Jeff Roy is a multi-disciplinary scholar with research and teaching experience in the fields of ethnomusicology, performance studies, gender and sexualities studies and South Asia studies. His research focuses on the politics and performance of transgender and hijra identity formations in South Asia. Prior to Cal Poly Pomona, he was a postdoctoral fellow with le Centre d'Études de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud (the Center for the Study of India and South Asia) at l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) in Paris, France. He also taught at Cal State Northridge and UCLA, where he completed his doctorate degree in ethnomusicology.

"My interest in CPP, and CEIS, in particular, is strongly tied to the college's focus on ethics and social justice through interdisciplinary teaching, research and service," said Roy. "Teaching is important to me because helping young people is to our collective benefit, especially when it can lead to social practice, action and upward mobility."

Assistant Professor Eden Haywood-Bird, a native of Colorado, spent four years in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom as an assistant professor of early childhood education at Lyndon State College. Haywood-Bird's research is concentrated on the development of self-identity in young children and their teachers, exploring the many layers of power and privilege that intersect in the classroom with policy and within cultural norms. Haywood-Bird holds a master's degree in educational psychology from the University of Colorado, Denver and a doctorate in educational leadership from Colorado State University. Prior to completing her doctorate, Haywood-Bird was a preschool teacher for 10 years, teaching in both a Reggio Emilia-inspired school and a STEM-focused, inclusive program.

Haywood-Bird described the university's polytechnic approach to education as a major draw.

"I really liked the idea of being part of a new department with a relatively new major in a state where early childhood education and care is a priority," she said.

Assistant Professor Maya Stovall is a contemporary artist and anthropologist with research and teaching interests in contemporary art, critical geography, cultural anthropology, critical social theory and urban ethnography. Her current projects, Liquor Store Theatre and The Public Library, center on the poetics and grind of everyday city life. Her book, "Liquor Store Theatre," is forthcoming with Duke Press. Stovall, a graduate of the University of Chicago and Howard University, completed her doctorate in anthropology at Wayne State University. Before joining Cal Poly Pomona, she was a senior art critic in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania and taught in various departments at Wayne State University. Stovall exhibits and performs widely across the United States and internationally, and her works are included in the permanent collections of the Cranbrook Art Museum in Michigan and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

"The energetic students, faculty and staff in CEIS sparked my interest in joining CPP," said Stovall. "Also, I was drawn to CPP's focus on social justice, the learn by doing, polytechnic approach, and the philosophy of supporting first generation college students."

Roy and Stovall join the faculty of the liberal studies department and Haywood-Bird joins the faculty of the early childhood studies department.

For more information, contact Ashley Jones at 909-869-5370.