When Professors Are Your Neighbors

What if one of your professors lived next door? Pitzer’s Faculty-in-Residence (FIR) program makes that possibility a reality.

FIR integrates two faculty members and their families into the residence halls, where they live and interact with students. But the interactions aren’t just informal; these professors also host educational, social, and cultural programs during a typical two-year residential term.

Starting in 2025–26, Pitzer’s faculty-in-residence are Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Professor Fély Catan and English and World Literature Professor Amanda Louise Johnson. Catan is primarily supporting first-year students at Pitzer, Atherton, and Sanborn (PAS) Halls. Meanwhile, Johnson is serving upper-class students at West, East, and Skandera (WES) Halls, Mead Hall, and the Claremont Collegiate Apartments (CCA).

“I am really looking forward to learning more about the Pitzer students’ experience outside the classroom and thinking about how that perspective can inform my own pedagogy,” said Johnson.

Catan believes integrating into Pitzer’s vibrant community is the most rewarding part of being a faculty-in-residence.

“I love raising my kids on campus, where students and staff are so welcoming and always willing to lend a hand,” said Catan. “This experience is about more than just living on campus—it’s about solidarity, shared moments, and building genuine human connections that go beyond the classroom walls.”

Catan looks forward to creating events that center Pitzer’s core values of intercultural understanding and social responsibility. Her ideas include a panel of students sharing their study abroad experiences, dinners at her apartment, and a trivia night.

FIR fall events include:

• “Meet the Profs” Dinner Series (McConnell Dining Hall)
• Undergraduate Research Roundtable on Sept. 19 at 4 p.m. (Gold Student Center MPR)
• Faculty-in-Residence Dinner: Topics in the First-Year Experience on Sept. 26 at 5 p.m. (Catan’s on-campus residence)
• Professional & Graduate School Statement Workshop on Oct. 3 at 4 p.m. (Gold Student Center MPR)
• And more!

Pitzer’s FIR program is overseen by the Office of Student Affairs and the Office of Residence Life and Summer Programs.

Learn more about Pitzer’s new faculty-in-residence:

Fély Catan

Assistant Professor of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Faculty-in-Residence for PAS

Catan has been teaching at Pitzer since 2019. She was born and raised in Paris, France, in a Guadeloupean family. She received a BA in Spanish Arts at the Sorbonne Université. She continued her studies at the University of Texas at Brownsville, where she graduated with an MA in Spanish. Spending these years on the border region of the Rio Grande Valley developed her fascination with transnational studies and questions about identities and belongings.

Catan later earned a master’s degree in French literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At the University of Miami, Florida, she combined her interest in languages and cultures by pursuing a PhD in Romance languages with a concentration in Caribbean studies.

Catan’s research interests include contemporary Caribbean narratives, Caribbean popular culture, colonial and postcolonial theory, decolonial studies, nation and (non)-sovereignty, migration, and transnational studies.

Amanda Louise Johnson

Assistant Professor of English and World Literature
Faculty-in-Residence for WES/Mead/CCA

Johnson has taught at Pitzer since 2023. She earned a BA in English Literature from the University of Chicago. She also received an MA in 18th-Century Studies from the University of York and an MA and PhD in English Literature from Vanderbilt University. Her research interests include hemispheric American literature in English from 1492 to 1917, trans-Atlantic literary exchanges, and literature concerning the early U.S.-South.

Johnson is working on a book manuscript, Romancing Oppression, that argues for an American romance tradition that originates in the 17th century. Johnson draws upon research during fellowships at the University of Virginia and the Newberry Library.

Johnson recently published the article “Anti-Abolitionism, U.S.-Southern Writers, & the ‘Negatively Capable’ Poet John Keats” in the ELH journal. She also authored the essay “Wealth and Exchange in Colonial America” in the book Money and American Literature, published by Cambridge University Press.