Experts in their field of study and dedicated to their academic research, the faculty of Fairfield University’s College of Arts and Sciences are devoted to the process of discovery and inspired by the prospect of imparting knowledge in the service of others.

During the 2018-19 school year, the College welcomed five new tenure-track professors into its ranks, each of whom has already begun contributing to the University’s long history of academic excellence. 

Niall Brennan, PhD
Assistant Professor of Communication

Dr. Niall Brennan is a media scholar with a focus on representations of gender and sexuality in film, television, and online space; Latin American media history, forms, and institutions; and emerging media-consuming communities across global space. In particular, his research has examined how mediated representations of gender and sexuality have shaped social and political life in the U.S., Latin America, and elsewhere, and conversely, how social-political change in negotiating constructs of gender and sexuality has shaped, and continues to shape, global mediated landscapes.

Dr. Brennan received a PhD in media and communication from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an MA in media studies from the New School for Social Research, and a BA in art history from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Claudia Calhoun, PhD
Assistant Professor of Visual & Performing Arts 

Dr. Calhoun earned an MA and PhD in film and media studies and American studies from Yale University, and a BA in American studies from Mount Holyoke College. Her research investigates how media objects work as agents of historical change, and she is currently working on her first book, More Than Facts: Dragnet and Postwar Culture. In addition to her work on Dragnet, she has written for a variety of academic and popular outlets on a range of subjects, including George Stevens' 1956 epic Giant, gender in the academy, and teen idols.

Before coming to Fairfield, Dr. Calhoun taught at Bates College, Skidmore College, and New York University. Her teaching and research have been supported by grants and fellowships from Yale University, the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies, and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation. 

Sean Horan, PhD
Professor of Communication and Department Chair

Dr. Horan has been identified as the fifth most published communication researcher between the years of 2012-16, and the 21st most central communication scholar from 2007-11. His research primarily examines deceptive affection – how and why people use affection deceptively through lies and/or withholding information - and his current research explores the communicative implications of workplace romance. He is the author of “Adventures in Dating,” a monthly series for Psychology Today, and his research has been the subject of various national and international media stories. His expert commentary has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, ABC News, CNN, The Washington Post, and the New York Daily News.

Dr. Horan received his BA and MA from Texas State University and his PhD from West Virginia University. Prior to his most recent position as an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Texas State University in San Marcos, he taught as an assistant professor in the College of Communication at DePaul University in Chicago.

Laura Gasca Jiménez, PhD
Assistant Professor of Spanish and Translation Studies

Dr. Gasca Jiménez comes to Fairfield from the University of Houston where she earned her PhD in Spanish linguistics and actively contributed to the Spanish as a Second Language program and Spanish as a Heritage Language program. She earned her BA in English from Universidad Complutense de Madrid and her MA in translation from Kent State University in Ohio.

A recipient of a la Caixa Foundation postgraduate fellowship, Dr. Jiménez’s research interests include heritage language acquisition, non-professional interpreting and translation, and translation pedagogy. Her work has been published in such journals as Translation and Interpreting Studies, Hispania, and Revista Signos: Estudios de Lingüística.

Robert Nazarian, PhD
Assistant Professor of Physics

Prior to joining Fairfield, Dr. Nazarian was a lecturer in the Geosciences Department at Princeton University, where he received the Guyot Award for excellence in teaching. He received his master’s and doctorate in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from Princeton University, and his BA in physics and mathematics from The College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. While at Holy Cross, he was the recipient of the Nugent Gold Medal, Crompton Gold Medal, and Redican Medal for excellence in physics, best undergraduate thesis in the natural sciences, and most intellectually promising third-year student, respectively.

Dr. Nazarian is a member of the American Geophysical Union, American Institute of Physics, American Physical Society, Pi Mu Epsilon (National Mathematics Honor Society), and Sigma Pi Sigma (National Physics Honor Society). His research interests span the field of geophysical fluid dynamics and specifically explore the role of mixing and turbulence in the ocean, and the effect of mixing and turbulence on the large-scale circulation of the ocean and the climate system.