LEWISTON — Bates College announces that three scholars have joined the faculty for the 2011-12 academic year.

They are: Stephen M. Engel, assistant professor of politics, who comes to Bates from Marquette University; Theri Pickens, assistant professor of English, who has taught English and world literature at Pitzer College; and Mara Tieken, assistant professor of education, a former public school teacher who just earned her doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Engel is the author of “American Politicians Confront the Court: Opposition Politics and Changing Responses to Judicial Power,” published in June by Cambridge University Press. He is also the author of “The Unfinished Revolution: Social Movement Theory and the Gay and Lesbian Movement” (Cambridge University Press, 2001). Engel received three advanced degrees in political science at Yale — a master of arts, a master of philosophy and a doctorate. He previously earned an interdisciplinary master of arts in social thought at New York University, and a bachelor of arts degree in social studies at Wesleyan University.

Pickens has published numerous book reviews in Al Jadid, a quarterly review of Arab arts and culture; the Journal of Canadian Literature; and Disability Studies Quarterly. Her articles also appear in the journal Al Raida and the book “Blackness and Disability,” published this year by LIT Verlag Press. Her creative writing has appeared in publications, including Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noir. In addition to her doctorate in comparative literature, Pickens also earned a master’s degree in that field at UCLA. At Princeton she received an AB degree in comparative literature and a certificate in linguistics. She has taught communications at the University of Phoenix and disability studies at UCLA, among other courses.

Tieken earned her master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She received her undergraduate degree in social psychology at Dartmouth. She is a consultant on rural education and community organizing for the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.