UC Irvine School of Humanities welcomes eight new faculty members this fall with appointments in the Departments of East Asian Studies, European Languages and Studies, History, Philosophy and Spanish and Portuguese.
These accomplished scholars bring expertise ranging from moral philosophy and linguistics to Jewish history and medieval literature. They explore topics such as humor in medieval culture, ethnographic knowledge in reform movements, human agency and innovative language learning technologies. Please join us in welcoming these accomplished new educators to the School of Humanities.
Rachel Baron-Bloch, assistant professor, Department of History
Rachel Baron-Bloch’s research and writing focus on the history, politics and ethics of knowledge production and representation among Jewish communities in the modern world. Her work examines the global history of how Jewish writers and thinkers have created and utilized ethnographic and racial knowledge in service of different visions of reform. This theme is central to her first book project, which explores Sephardic ethnography in the late Ottoman Empire. At UCI, Baron-Bloch, the newly appointed Teller Family Chair in Jewish History, will teach the Jewish Texts course and offer classes on Jewish histories of photography, empire, the modern Middle East and Jewish-Muslim entangled histories. In the classroom, she combines creative non-fiction with scholarship, memoir with photography and political treatises with poetry to help students step outside their own experiences and imagine life in other cultures, centuries and continents.
Baron-Bloch earned a Ph.D. in History from UCLA, a dual-degree M.A. in Jewish History and Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a B.A./M.A. in Linguistic Anthropology from New York University. Before joining UCI, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Columbia University.
Fun fact: Rachel maintains a highly curated collection of ugly pottery.
Anastasia Berg, assistant professor, Department of Philosophy
Anastasia Berg’s research bridges contemporary moral philosophy and ethics – including metaethics, moral psychology, procreation ethics and population ethics – and the history of moral philosophy. She’s particularly interested in Kant and post-Kantian German Idealism, Aristotle and Heidegger. In June 2024, Berg published her co-authored book, What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice, which examines the increasing global ambivalence about having children and its philosophical implications. At UCI, she will teach courses in the history of philosophy, moral psychology and ethics. Her classes are dedicated to fostering philosophical conversation among students due to her belief that philosophy is an active dialogue, even if only with oneself.
Berg holds multiple degrees from the University of Chicago – a joint Ph.D. from the Committee on Social Thought and the Department of Philosophy and an M.A. from the Committee on Social Thought – and a B.A. in English Literature from Harvard University. She previously served as a postdoctoral Junior Research Fellow at Cambridge University and as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Fun fact: Anastasia is an editor of The Point, a magazine of essays, criticism and reviews on politics, culture and contemporary life.
Marco Aurelio Silva Fonseca, assistant professor of teaching, Department of East Asian Studies
Marco Aurelio Silva Fonseca brings to UCI expertise in linguistics and Japanese language studies. His research, spanning laboratory phonology, computational linguistics and second language acquisition, will soon expand to include heritage language learning and classroom applications. At UCI, Fonseca will teach Japanese language, linguistics and language theory. Grounded in critical pedagogy, his teaching approach emphasizes understanding students’ motivations and interests, incorporating innovative activities such as anime scenes and TikTok-style videos to enhance language learning.
Fonseca received a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an M.A. in linguistics from the University of Tokyo and a B.A. in Letters from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Before UCI, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Japanese at Whitman College.
Fun fact: Marco is an avid fan of pop music and enjoys artists like Beyoncé, Charli XCX and Taylor Swift. He’s even attended concerts of Blackpink in Chicago and Taylor Swift in São Paulo. When not teaching or researching, he enjoys cycling, practicing yoga and cooking.
Lillian Jones, assistant professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
As the new Director of the Spanish Language Program, Lillian Jones brings her knowledge of Spanish linguistics, second language acquisition and educational technologies to the UCI campus. Her research explores the intersections of language learning and technology, focusing on computer- and mobile-assisted language learning and the innovative use of text messaging for language acquisition. At UCI, she will teach Spanish Teaching Methodology, upper-division Spanish content courses and graduate seminars on Spanish linguistics. In the classroom, Jones creates dynamic learning environments by incorporating multimodal, low- and high-tech activities that encourage authentic, real-life dialogic tasks and communication.
Jones earned her Ph.D. in Spanish Linguistics with a Designated Emphasis in Second Language Acquisition from the University of California, Davis. She also holds an M.A. in Spanish from Saint Louis University and a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Washington. Before UCI, Jones combined academic curriculum design with edtech experience, garnering over a decade of teaching experience and working directly with AI-driven language learning technologies.
Fun fact: Lillian has completed two half marathons, including the Douro Valley Half Marathon in Portugal, known as “a mais bela corrida do mundo” (the most beautiful race in the world).
Pantalea Mazzitello, assistant professor, Department of European Languages and Studies
Pantalea Mazzitello studies parodic forms and humor in medieval and early modern Italian culture, with emphasis on the subversion of the sacred. Her current project explores blasphemous utterances in 16th-century Italian texts, examining the controversial topic of cursing God publicly, on stage and in social interactions. At UCI, Mazzitello will teach Italian language classes at all levels, as well as Italian culture and content classes and Medieval and Renaissance Italian Literature. In Spring 2025, she will offer a class on Dante’s “Inferno” in English, open to all students.
Mazzitello holds two doctoral degrees: a Ph.D. in Italian Studies with a Minor in Medieval Studies from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in Romance Philology from the University of Parma in Italy. She also received an M.A. in Modern Philology and a B.A. in Modern Literatures from the University of Parma. Before joining UCI, Mazzitello served as a Visiting Lecturer of Italian Studies at Indiana University.
Fun fact: Pantalea volunteered for years at a city shelter as a foster and eventually “failed” by adopting a huge ginger cat named James Bond, who is now enjoying his new home in Southern California alongside her.
Rory O’Connell, assistant professor of teaching, Department of Philosophy
Rory O’Connell’s research spans historical and contemporary philosophy, investigating human agency and the role of reason and rationality within our lives. He critically examines “technical” conceptions of agency, which limit rationality in human action to merely instrumental concerns, such as the finding of means to ends. At UCI, O’Connell will teach courses in ethics, the philosophy of action and the philosophy of mind, combining contemporary and historical readings. His pedagogical philosophy emphasizes active engagement in philosophical thinking, encouraging dialogue in smaller classes and exploring innovative methods to facilitate philosophical engagement in larger group settings.
O’Connell received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Chicago, where he then served as a Humanities Teaching Fellow, and completed his B.A. in Philosophy at King’s College London. He joins UCI from the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem where he was a Polonsky Fellow for four years.
Fun fact: Originally from the U.K., Rory is excited to experience firsthand the California he’s long admired through the works of writers like Thomas Pynchon, filmmakers Paul Thomas Anderson and David Lynch and musicians Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson and Joni Mitchell.
Xiao Rao, assistant professor, Department of East Asian Studies
Xiao Rao joins the Department of East Asian Studies, specializing in premodern Chinese literature and religion. His research explores anecdotal narratives of medieval China, focusing on laughter and literary trauma cultural studies. Rao’s current projects include a monograph on laughter and Buddhism in Middle Period China, a co-edited anthology of medieval Chinese humor literature and a study on horror and humor in premodern East Asian writings. At UCI, he will teach Classical Chinese and courses on the literature and culture of medieval China and East Asia. Rao’s teaching philosophy promotes student-driven learning that, similarly to “play” for children, is fueled by curiosity and interest. He aims to inspire students’ curiosity about the past while equipping them with skills to explore historical insights relevant to contemporary issues.
Rao earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University and his M.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He joins UCI from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, where he served as the Assistant Professor of Chinese and Asian Studies.
Fun fact: Outside of academia, Xiao enjoys exploring new ramen restaurants and hiking mountain trails.
Juan Garcia Torres, assistant professor, Department of Philosophy
Torres enters UCI’s Department of Philosophy with a research portfolio spanning early modern philosophy, social and political philosophy, Latin American philosophy and philosophy of religion. At UCI, he will teach courses covering each of these topics. In early modern philosophy, his research focuses on Gottfried W. Leibniz’s interrelated views on freedom, agency, responsibility and the metaphysics of modality. Torres’s exploration of Latin American philosophy revolves around concepts of freedom, liberation and authenticity, examining how these notions influence and are influenced by race and ethnic identity. He is particularly interested in the evolution of these ideas in the early to mid-twentieth century, a period when Latin American philosophy was redefining itself in relation to European philosophical traditions.
Torres received his Ph.D., M.A. and B.A. in Philosophy from The Ohio State University. Prior to joining UCI, he was a Bellarmine Postdoctoral Fellow at Loyola Marymount University.
Fun fact: Outside the classroom, Juan enjoys various styles of ballroom dancing including Salsa, Cha-Cha, West Coast Swing and Argentine Tango.