English

Student Chronicles Dad’s Bosnian War Survival

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Emma Kovacevic ’26 finds that not many of her Kalamazoo College peers are familiar with the story of the Bosnian War, although she knows it well. The conflict, prompted by the fracturing of the former Yugoslavia, lasted from 1992–95. About 100,000 people were killed, and more than 2 million people were displaced in the fighting. It was the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. And Emma’s Bosnian father, Ruzmir Kovacevic—the subject of her Senior Integrated Project (SIP)—suffered as a prisoner of the Serbians during the hostilities. 

“I would describe my dad as my hero,” Emma said. “He has gone through so many things in his life. I don’t know of anyone that’s gone through so much, and he’s still cracking jokes about random things all the time. I haven’t seen that kind of resilience in anyone else, so it’s inspiring and I’m grateful to have him in my life. He’s the bravest person I know and my biggest role model.” 

Ruzmir grew up in the small town of Doboj in Bosnia. His mother was an elementary school teacher, and his father worked as a salesperson at a local store. His childhood was centered on family, school and a tight-knit community where everyone knew each other. He was an outgoing and natural leader, his daughter said, the kind of person who was always surrounded by family and friends. 

Bosnian War survivor with family
Emma Kovacevic ’26 (second from right) with her family, including her dad, Ruzmir.

Neighbor vs. Neighbor 

After high school, Ruzmir attended the University of Sarajevo, where he studied sports medicine. Like many young men in the former Yugoslavia, he also completed mandatory service in the Yugoslav army. His leadership ability stood out so much that military leaders asked him to stay beyond his required service as he ascended to the rank of first lieutenant.

A few years later, the country began splitting apart. When fighting broke out, Bosnia descended into violence and ethnic conflict. In towns like Doboj, neighbors suddenly found themselves on opposite sides of a brutal war. 

“It was really interesting to hear about it because during the war, he was fighting against these people who taught him how to fight, how to clean his rifles and how to figure out the best ways to go about a war,” Emma said. “From what he told me, he had a lot of trouble going through that. He was fighting against some people that he knew in his hometown because it was all Yugoslavia.” 

There was no official Bosnian army, so Ruzmir and the men of his community formed what they called the Patriotic League. They counted their rifles, took inventory of their weapons, made a plan and held their line as long as they could. 

University of Sarajevo student ID belonging to Bosnian War survivor
Ruzmir’s student ID from the University of Sarajevo shortly before the Bosnian War.

Brutality from Former Friends 

Ruzmir was captured by Serbians after being wounded by a grenade that badly damaged his right leg. The Serbians wrapped the wound in a cast and refused to let surgeons remove the shrapnel. He was taken to a concentration camp where Bosnian prisoners were subjected to brutal treatment. Emma said he played sports growing up with some of the Serbians, who ended up beating him and denying him food for long periods of time. 

At one point, a twist of fate briefly freed Ruzmir. A relative of his girlfriend, who held a high-ranking position in the Serbian military, arrived at the camp and escorted him out under the pretense of questioning. For a few days, Ruzmir stayed with family members who were packed into a tiny studio apartment. Fifteen people shared the cramped space, but he described it as heavenly, Emma said. 

The freedom didn’t last. Serbian officers soon discovered he was missing and recaptured him, sending him back to the camp for an additional two and a half months. In all, Ruzmir spent about nine months in captivity. By then, many prisoners had died or disappeared. When Ruzmir first arrived, more than 50 men were held in the camp. By the end of his imprisonment, only about a dozen remained. 

The prisoners were rescued almost by accident. After hearing reports that Bosnians were being held in the old prison facility, the German Red Cross scheduled an inspection. To hide the evidence, guards forced the remaining prisoners into a conference room and cleaned the cells. The prisoners heard the inspection happening and began screaming for help. 

After recording their names, the Red Cross inspectors warned Serbian authorities they would return in two weeks. If conditions had not improved, the prisoners would be taken out of the country as refugees. Two weeks later, the Red Cross inspectors kept their promise. 

Bosnian War memorial images
This gallery is a permanent memorial dedicated to the Srebrenica genocide that occurred on July 11, 1995, during the Bosnian War. Gallery 11/07/95 aims to educate visitors and preserve the memory of the genocide through photography and personal artifacts.

Free at Last 

Ruzmir boarded a bus to Germany and spent a few years there with his younger brother and father. He later arrived alone in Grand Rapids, where a significant Bosnian refugee community had already taken root. Ruzmir had been a year and a half away from finishing his sports medicine degree at the University of Sarajevo when the war interrupted his education. The credits didn’t transfer to the U.S., but he became a massage therapist. Emma said he loves his career and wouldn’t trade it for anything, though. He also helps resettle other refugees arriving in Michigan from all over the world. 

Ruzmir’s father survived the war but died in 2001 when he had a heart attack and stroke simultaneously caused by PTSD. However, he met a Bosnian woman, Amra, who had also fled. They had two daughters, including Emma. He built a life with his family. 

“I’ve had a really supportive family, and as my parents are two immigrants, they have always wanted the best for my sister and me,” Emma said. “They’ve always wanted for us to have the education that they didn’t really have access to. They made a lot of sacrifices to support my sister and I in growing up to have access to the things that were taken away from them. I chose K because I just love it. I love what it stands for, the liberal arts education and the relationships I can have with my professors.” 

Ruzmir and Emma with family in Bosnia
Ruzmir and Emma with family in Bosnia.

55 Minutes 

Emma and her father had talked for years about writing a book together. It was a “someday project”—something to tackle after a master’s degree or maybe a Ph.D. There was time. 

But in 2023, Ruzmir went into cardiac arrest. He was technically dead for 55 minutes. 

“I saw the strongest person I know die for that long,” Emma said.  

He recovered. The nurses called him their Christmas miracle despite 13 broken ribs from the CPR, so Emma started thinking about the book differently, and yet was still hesitant. It was big material. Heavy material.  

Then, three days before the spring term of her junior year, her father went into cardiac arrest again. She realized she needed to make her dad the subject of her SIP. 

“I thought, ‘OK. It’s time. I can’t wait any longer,’” Emma said. 

He has since turned 56 and the SIP is finished. 

“He has a pacemaker and defibrillator,” Emma said. “They’ve saved him twice now, so I’m just grateful that I’ve been able to do this with him and talk to him about it, even though I could see how hard it was for him. He continuously says that he is so grateful for this opportunity. I hoped that I’d be able to do it later in my life, post-K, but with the inclusion of the SIP in the K-Plan, I’m just grateful that it gave me that push to start sooner.” 

Her advisor, Professor of English Marin Heinritz ’99, has guided her through the entire process. Emma first took Introduction to Journalism with Heinritz in her sophomore year, and the two have been close since. 

“I know that’s not true at other universities,” Emma said. “My sister goes to Michigan State, and her professors just don’t connect with her as an individual.” 

The view of Sarajevo looking down from Trebević Mountain
The view of Sarajevo looking down from Trebević Mountain.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel 

Emma said Ruzmir wanted the story to be told because the Bosnian War is not something that gets taught much in the U.S., because it happened recently enough that people are still grappling with it, and because it happened distantly enough that many Americans don’t know it happened at all. 

She knows he’s proud of her. He has been sending the PDF of her SIP to his friends and massage therapy clients. One of them printed it out and put it in a folder to share with others. 

Emma has been accepted to a master’s program in teaching at the University of Michigan. She wants to be a high school English teacher. She also wants to keep writing, and eventually, when her father is ready, to turn the SIP into the book they always planned. 

“He just needs a little break first,” she said. “I would hope that it will help people understand that even if they think their life is over with any horrible thing that happens, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.” 

Sacred Heart Cathedral in Sarajevo
A pedestrian area in front of the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Sarajevo, near the Gallery 11/07/95 memorial site.
Ruzmir and Emma Kovacevic
Ruzmir and Emma Kovacevic
Baščaršija bazaar and Sebilj fountain in Sarajevo.
A view of homes in Bosnia
A view of homes in Bosnia.

Student’s Book Reviews Show Human Costs of Court Rulings

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While some pre-law students focus on statutes and precedents, Ella Miller ’26 has spent her senior year exploring the emotional truths and human lives that exist in the gaps between court rulings.

As an English major at Kalamazoo College, Miller’s Senior Integrated Project (SIP) began as an ambitious challenge to bridge the plain reasoning of the U.S. Supreme Court with the realities of immigrant experiences. Her Race, Law and Politics class, along with her Advanced Nonfiction course, inspired her to pair four major Supreme Court cases on immigration with four books written by authors deeply connected to the decisions’ impacts. Through the combination of case briefs and literary analysis, Miller examined how legal reasoning resonates beyond the courtroom.

“It was stylistically interesting to insert a Supreme Court opinion while also providing facts, and the organization intrigued me,” she said. “I thought it would be interesting to write reviews about books that were influenced by these major Supreme Court decisions, some of which I was learning about in class.”

Connecting Law and Literature

Miller organized her SIP around four immigration-related groups and eras: Chinese immigrants during the Chinese Exclusion Era, Japanese Americans during World War II, Latin American immigrants affected by contemporary policies, and refugees impacted by the 2018 Trump v. Hawaii ruling.

She selected landmark cases associated with each topic, then sought books across genres that offered lived perspectives on the decisions’ consequences. Her final author list included:

  • John Okada, No-No Boy, paired with Korematsu v. United States.
  • Erika Lee and Judy Yung, Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America, tied to the era of Chinese exclusion.
  • Sandra Uwiringiyimana and Abigail Pesta, How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child, connected to modern refugee issues.
  • Areli Morales, Areli Is a Dreamer, linked to DHS v. Regents of the University of California, related to the recent Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) case.

By examining fiction, nonfiction, a memoir, and even a children’s book, Miller highlighted the diverse ways personal stories illuminate historical and legal realities.

“What makes them all special is the different ways a story can be told,” she said. “A historical nonfiction book offers documented evidence, while a novel can convey emotional truths through fictional characters. And the children’s book, which was my favorite, brings hope and understanding.”

Bringing Clarity to Complex Cases

Drawing on skills from her constitutional law coursework, Miller began each book review with a one-page case brief, which is a concise summary designed to make a legal case accessible to any reader.

“Case briefs can be eight pages long, so I wanted to take the most prominent parts and briefly summarize them with background, the main issue, and the court’s ultimate decision,” she said. “I talk about the author, how we can see some of the big issues in society reflected in how the decision was reached, and how that decision was then felt by the people impacted by the decision.”

Ella MIller in Salamanca, Spain, before studying court rulings
Ella MIller ’26 stands in the historic inner courtyard of the Colegio Arzobispo Fonseca in Salamanca, Spain, during her study abroad experience.
Miller with a group in León, Spain, before studying court rulings
Miller with a group at the joined cathedrals of Salamanca in Castile and León, Spain.

With that foundation in place, she used each book to explore how the court’s rulings were experienced by real people. For Miller, the contrasts revealed what legal texts alone seldom show.

“I think each of these books is valuable, and you can take away a lot on your own,” she said. “But having a real understanding of how the court was reasoning through these decisions adds another layer to how people are affected. In Korematsu v. the United States, for example, the decision allowed for Japanese internment to be held constitutional for domestic safety. But when you read No-No Boy, you can see that Japanese Americans on the West Coast were not a threat in any way.”

Ichiro, the protagonist of No-No Boy, returns home from years in an internment camp and has to come to terms with his dual heritage and how to build a future in the country that imprisoned him.

A Project That Shaped a Future Career

Although the SIP more than satisfied academic requirements, it also reshaped Miller’s confidence and confirmed her path toward law school.

“K is great with giving you lots of creative control in your work, and I’ve never felt stifled,” she said. “But to be given a blank slate where I could choose the topic and my sources while exploring what’s interesting to me gave me a lot of confidence as a writer. It made me feel more prepared for the next steps in my life because I plan to go to law school, and writing is super important. I need to think argumentatively and critically, so I feel my SIP was valuable in giving me the confidence to know that I can produce something like this.”

Faculty mentors played a key role. Miller credits Associate Professor of English Shanna Salinas for ongoing guidance, Associate Professor of Political Science Justin Berry for deepening her interest in law, and Professor of English Amelia Katanski ’92, her advisor, for helping her explore connections between law and literature.

Outside the classroom, Miller holds leadership roles in K’s student organizations related to law. She’s the president of the Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity chapter and the secretary for the Aspiring Law Students Organization. She said the experiences strengthened her sense of purpose.

Next Steps: Spain, Service and Law School

After graduating this spring, Miller hopes to spend a year teaching English in Spain through a Fulbright grant. If she’s not selected, she will teach through the North American Language and Culture Assistants Program (NALCAP), which is also based in Spain. She studied abroad in Madrid and hopes to return to deepen her language skills and global perspective.

“International relationships are really relevant to law,” she said. “The experience would help shape the kind of legal career I want.”

Law school applications will follow next year. But if there’s one lesson Miller hopes readers take from her SIP, it’s that Supreme Court decisions are not abstract.

“The law impacts people in enormous ways,” she said. “If you’re not directly affected, it can be hard to understand that. Literature gives us a way to see what those impacts look like in real life.”

36 Jars, 45 Poems and 4,800 Miles for Mom

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Monica Berlin holds baby Eliza Karlin - 45 poems
Eliza Karlin ’26 and her mother, the poet Monica Berlin. Berlin was the Richard P. and Sophia D. Henke Distinguished Professor of English at Knox College. Her poems and essays were published in several journals over the years including Bennington Review, The Cincinnati Review, Colorado Review and Midwestern Gothic.
Monica Berlin and Eliza Karlin - 45 poems
Berlin authored two chapbooks—“Your Small Towns of Adult Sorrow and Melancholy” and “Maybe to Region”—along with two volumes of poetry in addition to “No Shape Bends the River So Long”: “Elsewhere, That Small” (2020) and “Nostalgia for a World Where We Can Live” (2018), which won the Crab Orchard Open Poetry Prize. 

On an August morning last year, Kalamazoo College student Eliza Karlin ’26 pulled onto the highway outside Galesburg, Illinois, driving a silver Mini Cooper—just like the one her mom once had—and began a 4,800-mile journey along the Mississippi River. 

For her mom, poet Monica Berlin, the same trip over a decade earlier—routed spontaneously with paper maps—provided inspiration and collaboration with her longtime colleague Beth Marzoni. Together, they coauthored Berlin’s first book, a volume of poetry titled No Shape Bends the River So Long, which won the 2013 New Measure Poetry Prize. 

No Shape followed Berlin’s 2013 journey in a collaborative “we,” a voice that felt expansive and fluid, Karlin said. She would travel the same route carrying something heavier: Berlin died unexpectedly in November 2022, during Karlin’s first term at K—making hers a journey of grief, memory, self-discovery and enduring connection. 

“I obviously didn’t know what to do when she died,” she said. “I took a leave of absence shortly thereafter. I remember thinking, ‘How would I ever be able to manage my grief?’ I thought that following in her footsteps would be one of the best ways to do that.” 

Karlin’s trip became the foundation of her Senior Integrated Project (SIP), a poetry collection titled Bend the River Out of Shape No More, molded by travel, memory and a search for healing. 

Mapping What Came Next 

Karlin began planning the trip as a junior. Logistics required careful mapping, estimating mileage and costs, choosing stops and deciding whether to travel alone. Ultimately, she realized solitude mattered. 

“While it may have been safer to do it with someone else, it was more impactful to do it by myself,” she said. 

She woke up early, sought out unfamiliar food, and wandered through large cities such as Memphis, St. Louis, New Orleans and Minneapolis, and smaller towns including Cairo, Illinois; Natchez, Mississippi; and La Crosse, Wisconsin. The rhythm became steady: drive, listen, observe, write. She also created a soundtrack of albums she had never heard before. 

“Memphis was Daft Punk,” she said. “The bottom of the river was Cat Stevens. The headwaters were Big Thief.” 

Those sounds fused with place. Now, she said, the emotional contours of each region are linked to distinct sonic landscapes in her mom’s memory. 

Her Mom as a Passenger 

In a way, Karlin’s mom was by her side the whole time. The Mini Cooper’s passenger seat held 36 small jars, each containing some of Berlin’s ashes. During the 25-day trip, Karlin scattered them at different points along the river and wrote a poem after each stop. 

“It wasn’t perfect, but it was really something to follow in her footsteps—to travel that distance by myself with her in my passenger seat, with her ashes,” Karlin said. “The whole experience helped so much. I feel like a completely different person after the trip. I feel stronger, braver, more … cool.” 

Berlin had drafted much of No Shape while riding in a passenger seat. Karlin cherished the parallel. 

“It was a two-person adventure for them,” she said. “The dominant pronoun became ‘we’ or ‘us’ during their trip. Mine was just ‘me’ or ‘I,’ but I was writing all the poems on the road. It felt like I was writing with her.” 

Karlin wrote 42 of the 45 poems included in her SIP during the trip itself, often pulling over to walk, reflect and write. Her SIP opens with three deeply personal poems she wrote beforehand. These earlier poems, she said, served as grounding context for the ones that followed. 

The rest unfolds as reflections on space, meditations on grief, portraits, odes and moments of clarity. Half share the title Ashen—a sequence of sonnets written after each ash-scattering ritual and modeled after Berlin’s final book, also a sonnet collection. 

Across states and landscapes, Karlin found her internal landscape shifting, too. Some days she wrote five poems; other days, she wrote none. At one point early on, she noticed her tone becoming cynical. 

“I realized I didn’t want to be cynical on this trip,” she said. “This was a beautiful opportunity to grieve my mother, find joy in the world, and move on.” 

‘There Was So Much Love’ 

The trip held joy, sadness, anger, confusion and love. But as the miles passed, something in her softened. There were practical challenges as well. As a trans woman driving alone through parts of the American South, she expected to feel afraid. Instead, she found compassion. 

“Even strangers had so much care,” she said. “There was so much love in the people I interacted with day to day. I thought that was beautiful.” 

Together, the poems trace a young writer’s emotional landscape as she moves toward acceptance—not by leaving grief behind but by carrying it differently. 

For Karlin, the project’s success is measured in feelings first: relief, transformation and gratitude. She also points to the stories she carries now and the ones she is still learning to tell. 

“Storytelling is huge for me,” she said. “It can be anything. It can be poetry, improv theatre, even Dungeons and Dragons. And this trip helped further my storytelling ability.” 

The ambitious trek was supported by a Hearst Foundation Undergraduate Research Fellowship, a grant administered through the Provost’s Office. Over the past three years, these fellowships have provided a total of $125,000 to assist 10 students annually in support of their research. 

“I would like to say I’m grateful to all the people who supported me as a student, at K and elsewhere,” Karlin said. “It would have been impossible without them.” 

Her SIP, she said, was fun, but also sacred, transformative, life-altering, irreplaceable and unattainable through anything but her educational journey at K. 

“I have a more profound outlook on life because of it,” she said. “Going forward, I think it will guide me emotionally and personally. I grew up around a lot of poets, but I’ve liked interacting with the poets here even better. I saw a lot of pretentiousness when I was younger. Here, the experience has only felt real. I think that authenticity is a lot more about what poetry means and I love that.” 

Lake Itasca, Minnesota, features the headwaters of the Mississippi River
Lake Itasca, Minnesota, features the headwaters of the Mississippi River.
Chickasaw Heritage Park in Memphis, Tennessee. - 45 poems
Chickasaw Heritage Park in Memphis, Tennessee.
Abraham's Oak at Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.
Abraham’s Oak is a concrete sculpture at Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.
45 poems
A sunset in Natchez, Mississippi.
Scenic overlook of the Mississippi River valley - 45 poems
An overlook of the Mississippi River valley in Iowa.

An Excerpt From Eliza’s SIP: Ashen (Final)

Friends of yours tell me stories of how you came to
the Headwaters of the Old Man. You drove, solo, like me,
through the night only to see the state government shut
down & with it, the state park. Barricades couldn’t stop you. Your small self
pushed them away, & drove through to the welcome center. A year later, you would go
again with a friend & ask her, “Why are there so many people here?”
I follow you, as I always will, & walk the same
path & I have the same thought &, in addition “Why are there so many
naked babies?” A man asks me to take his picture & I watch the others,
working up courage to drop you off. & I realize, this place, this River
is not my own. It belongs to the millions who have followed it,
up & down, up & down, up & down. I release
you one last time & I think “she’s gone” but know
you never are.

Mellon-Funded Project Brings Humanities Leaders to K

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A grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, provided to Kalamazoo College in 2022, will culminate this week with community partners from New Orleans, San Diego, St. Louis, Kalamazoo and more gathering at the College to share the successes of the Humanities Integrated Locational Learning (HILL) project.

The Learning in/from Place and Community Conference will take place Friday–Sunday, October 24–26. By bridging academic inquiry with local partnership, place-based practice, and regional perspectives, the conference offers a model for how liberal arts institutions can engage meaningfully with broad social themes.

“After four years of our students learning from community partners in each of these sites, we are excited to host many of them in Kalamazoo,” Associate Professor of Sociology Francisco Villegas said. “Here, they will be able to meet one another, connect with people doing similar work in Kalamazoo and across Michigan, and share lessons from their work. Each organization has substantial knowledge that is grounded in their geographic location and we hope the conference will further collaborations that will support our respective communities.”

The public is invited. No registration is necessary. Opening remarks will begin at 4:30 p.m. Friday in Dewing Hall, room 103, with a screening of the film BODEWADMI NDAW. A discussion will follow with filmmaker Davis Henderson ’25, artist Jason Wesaw of the Pokegon band of the Potawatomi tribe, and leaders from local Indigenous communities.

Saturday’s highlights include a plenary address by Jamala Rogers, the executive director of the Organization for Black Struggle, at 10 a.m. at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Additional panels throughout the day will cover history and preservation, local priorities and cultivating community.

Moderators on Saturday will include K faculty members Christina Carroll, associate professor of history; Espelencia Baptiste, associate professor of anthropology; and Marquise Griffin, associate director of the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement. Panelists will include:

  • Lulu Urdiales of the Chicano Park Museum and Community Center in San Diego, Ben Looker of St. Louis University, Amber Mitchell of the Henry Ford Museum and Dylan AT Miner of the University of Michigan from 11:15 a.m.–12:45 p.m.
  • Jazmin Ortiz-Ash of the Kalamazoo County ID program, Macrina Cardenas Montaño of Coalición Pro Defensa Del Migrante in Tijuana, Mexico, Kenlana Ferguson of the Michigan Transformation Collective, and Sashae Mitchell of the Center for Civic Engagement from 2–3:30 p.m.
  • Gloria Ward of Ms. Gloria’s Garden in New Orleans, Hristina Petrovska of Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Jackie Mitchell of Integrated Services of Kalamazoo and Shane Bernardo from Food as Healing in Detroit at 3:30 p.m.
Associate Professor of Sociology Francisco Villegas, a co-leader of the Humanities Integrated Locational Learning project
Associate Professor of Sociology Francisco Villegas
Associate Professor of English Shanna Salinas, a co-leader of the Humanities Integrated Locational Learning project
Associate Professor of English Shanna Salinas

Sunday will feature a digital humanities and student research exhibition from 9–10 a.m. at the Arcus Center. A plenary with People for Public Art Executive Director Monica Rose Kelly will follow along with a place-based art workshop featuring Kelly and Destine Price of the FIRE Arts Collaborative in Kalamazoo. The conference concludes with closing remarks at 12:30 p.m.

In 2022, the Mellon grant helped the College’s HILL project organizers design student coursework rooted in K’s commitment to experiential learning and social justice. The program addressed issues such as racism, border policing, economic inequities, homelessness and global warming, while examining history, how humans share land, and the dislocations that bring people to a communal space.

The project was envisioned by Villegas, Associate Professor of English Shanna Salinas and Professor Emeritus of English Bruce Mills. They invited K faculty to build curricula that reflected how power structures produce destabilizing dynamics and the collective responses of affected communities.

Students then had opportunities—locally and at sites across the country—to immerse themselves in heritage, culture, landscapes and community experiences through course materials, collaborative faculty-student research, community engagement, the development of program assessments and the sharing of oral histories tied to partnering projects and organizations. The Beyond Kalamazoo course clusters focused on themes of location and dislocation, emphasizing place-based learning through an integrated travel component in New Orleans, St. Louis or San Diego. The Within Kalamazoo cluster emphasized social issues in the Kalamazoo community. A digital humanities hub published, archived and assessed outcomes in coursework and partnerships.

The Learning in/from Place and Community Conference aims to show how the HILL project has deepened understanding of the humanities’ relevance to society by advancing innovative responses to interconnected issues through students and faculty. For more information, contact Salinas at Shanna.Salinas@kzoo.edu or Villegas at Francisco.Villegas@kzoo.edu.

K Welcomes New Faculty for 2025

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Kalamazoo College is pleased to welcome the following faculty members to campus this fall: 

Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Bonnie Ebendick

Ebendick arrived at K after earning her Ph.D. in biological sciences in August from Western Michigan University (WMU). She previously earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology/biotechnology, with a specialization in microbiology, from Michigan State University.

Before attending WMU, Ebendick worked as a research scientist at Michigan State, the University of Toledo and Iontox, LLC, beginning in 1999. Her teaching experience includes positions as a lecture teaching assistant and recitation teaching assistant at both Michigan State and WMU.

Visiting Assistant Professor Bonnie Ebendick
Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Bonnie Ebendick joins the Kalamazoo College faculty.

Visiting Assistant Professor of English Kevin Fitton

Fitton recently earned his Ph.D. in English creative writing from WMU. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Hope College, a master’s degree in New Testament from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a Master of Fine Arts from Bennington College.

Before arriving at K, he taught first-year writing, children’s literature and creative writing workshops as a graduate assistant at WMU; courses in creativity and literature at Grand Valley State University; and academic writing at Olivet University.

Visiting Assistant Professor of English Kevin Fitton
Visiting Assistant Professor of English Kevin Fitton joins the Kalamazoo College faculty.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry
and Biochemistry Andrew Jensen 

Jensen arrived at K from the University of Michigan, where he was a postdoctoral researcher, a mentor for graduate and undergraduate researchers, and a guest lecturer for courses in chemical analysis, physical properties of analysis, environmental chemistry and mass spectrometry. He previously served as a graduate research assistant at the University of Colorado, Boulder and an undergraduate research assistant at Davidson College in North Carolina. 

Jensen earned a Ph.D. in analytical, environmental and atmospheric chemistry at the University of Colorado, Boulder and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Davidson College. 

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Andrew Jensen
Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Andrew Jensen joins the Kalamazoo College faculty.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics and Business Matthew Schultz 

Schultz has prior teaching experience at Kellogg Community College, where he was an adjunct instructor for business courses specializing in economics; Lakeview School District, Climax-Scotts Community Schools and Battle Creek Central High School, where he taught marketing, accounting, entrepreneurship, business law, finance, business management, career preparation and computer science; and with the MiSTEM Network/Code.org, where he facilitated teacher training for the AP Computer Science Principles curriculum. 

Schultz received a Ph.D. in education from Indiana Wesleyan University, a master’s degree in career and technical education from WMU, and both a Master of Business Administration and a bachelor’s degree in business management from Cornerstone University. 

Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics and Business Matthew Schultz, new faculty, 2025
Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics and Business Matthew Schultz joins the Kalamazoo College faculty.

Assistant Professor of Spanish Language and Literature Brayan Serratos García

Serratos García recently earned a Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature from Vanderbilt University, where he also completed a master’s degree in the same field. He holds a bachelor’s degree in World Languages and Cultures with an emphasis in Spanish from Iowa State University. His research explores transoceanic connections among Europe, Asia, and the Americas during the Early Modern period, with particular emphasis on the contributions of Indigenous and local knowledge-producers.

Serratos García has held teaching positions as instructor, adjunct faculty, teaching assistant, and course coordinator at Vanderbilt University and Fisk University, as well as a teaching appointment at Beijing Normal University. He has taught a wide range of courses from introductory language classes to advanced seminars on Spanish and Portuguese literature and culture. In addition to Spanish and Portuguese, he speaks Chinese and Italian and has lived, studied, and conducted research across Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the United States.

Assistant Professor of Spanish Language and Literature Brayan Serratos García, new faculty 2025
Assistant Professor of Spanish Language and Literature Brayan Serratos García

Student Earns Headline-Worthy New York Times Mentorship

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For Kalamazoo College student Sarah Guerrero Gorostieta ’28, a passion for writing has opened doors all the way to the New York Times. 

Guerrero learned in August that she’s been selected for the New York Times Corps, a program for college students who could benefit from mentorship and career guidance. The Corps connects participants with veteran journalists and provides professional training before the students visit the Times newsroom. Although she won’t be writing for the Times, the program represents an extraordinary opportunity. 

“I’m grateful for this because practicing skills in journalism will help me learn to be curious and how to ask questions,” she said.

Guerrero attended a student conference through the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in April, later attending the association’s full conference in July thanks to the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Fund at K. When the association posted about the Times’ mentorship program on LinkedIn, she felt earning a spot might be difficult with her limited experience—she only had two writing classes and no previous freelance work. Yet the post suggested the Times was looking for students just like her. 

With that thought and some encouragement from Professor of English Marin Heinritz, she decided to apply. Today, Guerrero is paired with Motoko Rich, the Times’ Rome bureau chief. She will receive guidance from Times journalists and attend training sessions with her cohort for the next three years. 

Guerrero—who enjoys studying English, political science and Spanish—began her journalism journey in high school outside Chicago. She pursued independent writing and joined her school newspaper during the pandemic to stay connected with classmates. Although K does not offer a journalism major, she has discovered that courses and opportunities at K are helping her prepare to become an independent journalist. 

“Dr. Heinritz was a philosophy major, and she told me that you don’t need to major in English or journalism to become a journalism professional,” Guerrero said. “You just have to be curious. You just have to push yourself to learn. Motoko Rich, my mentor, told me that it’s important to learn a little bit about a lot of things. That’s why I think K, with our open curriculum, is so good for me. I can take a little bit of everything while also learning how to be good at one niche thing.” 

Taking the introduction to journalism course with Heinritz further piqued her interest in the profession. One assignment for the class pushed her to interview strangers around campus and she learned to write stories on tight deadlines. 

“It was nerve-wracking, but it also made me excited,” she said. “It was a way to orient myself as a first-year student and Dr. Heinritz encouraged me to keep going, even when it was difficult.” 

Since then, Guerrero has leaned into every opportunity to develop her craft as she writes for K’s student newspaper, the Index, contributing campus stories, and freelances for NowKalamazoo, a nonprofit newsroom known for in-depth local reporting. Her first published story profiled a Nigerian food truck in downtown Kalamazoo. 

“It was intimidating, writing for a broader audience I didn’t know,” she said. “But I realized I don’t have to wait until after graduation to do the real work. I can do it now.” 

Those experiences complement her national opportunities, giving her both mentorship at the highest level and practical reporting experience in her community. Guerrero is especially drawn to solutions journalism, which highlights how communities address challenges. She also feels a strong responsibility to represent voices at K that might otherwise go unheard. 

“We have a lot of students of color here, and their stories need to be shared,” she said. “I want to help build a bigger, more diverse staff at the Index.” 

Guerrero’s long-term vision is to mentor younger student writers, expand the paper’s reach and ensure that it reflects the full K community. 

Alumni of the Times Corps often go on to fellowships, freelance opportunities and newsroom careers. Guerrero hopes to one day pitch stories to the Times, perhaps even for its Modern Love section, which she has followed since high school. For now, she balances classes, reporting and her growing network of mentors. She admits she still gets nervous before interviews, but she sees that as a good thing. 

“Journalists should be a little nervous,” she said. “It means the questions we’re asking matter.” 

As she looks ahead to study abroad, internships and more bylines, Guerrero remains motivated by the same curiosity that brought her to the field in the first place. 

“The future of journalism belongs to people who ask good questions and believe in the freedom of the press,” she said. “That’s the kind of journalist I want to be.”  

New York Times Corps Member Sarah Guerrero Gorostieta stands next to a fountain that has NAHJ projected onto it
Sarah Guerrero Gorostieta ’28 attended a student conference through the National Association of Hispanic Journalists before the association’s full conference thanks to the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Fund.
New York Times Corps member Sarah Guerrero Gorostieta holds her NAHJ conference name tag
Guerrero applied for the New York Times Corps mentorship after attending two journalism conferences.
Portrait of New York Times Corps member Sarah Guerrero
Guerrero writes for K’s student newspaper, the Index, while freelancing for NowKalamazoo, a local nonprofit newsroom.

Poetry Class Fills a Modern Blank Space with Taylor Swift

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The music of a modern-day pop star helped a Kalamazoo College class discover last term that poetry, despite its history and ancient beginnings, still shapes how we as humans can sort through our emotions and define our identities. As a result, if you feel a need to be expressive in April, which serves as National Poetry Month, don’t just shake it off. Learn instead from Visiting Assistant Professor Monique McDade and the students who took Reading the World and Identities: Taylor Swift and Other Tortured Poets. 

Swift could aptly be described as a tortured poet, sharing her intense emotional conflicts, acute sensitivities and tendencies to dwell on life’s darker aspects through her music, just as many great creatives have throughout history. Modern music itself is a form of poetry, characterized by its expressive language, rhythm, rhyme and ability to evoke emotions and tell stories, often in a way that resonates with a broad audience, particularly through song lyrics. These poetic elements make Swift a strong choice of performers to study alongside writers from Angelou to Wordsworth.  

“It’s been an interesting class for me as a teacher because I’ve been a Swifty since I was 15, which was about the same age she was at the time,” McDade said. “Now, I have the chance to talk about her and teach her to a new generation.” 

McDade was surprised to learn how few of the students going into the class would’ve counted themselves among Swifties, who self-identify as big Taylor Swift fans. She said out of 19 students in the class, only four said they were among the die-hard followers. That presented an opportunity. 

“I was scared going in that we would’ve just been geeking out with no critical capacity,” McDade said. “Instead, I’ve heard, ‘I’m skeptical of this or that,’ and it’s been really fun to watch them soften to her. When we think about her as a poet rather than a pop artist, I think students get a different perspective, so those that are maybe not considering themselves fans walk away with a different respect for what she’s doing, even if it’s not their taste.” 

Students pursued course assignments that consisted of readings about poets, a podcast and weekly reflections—pondering how they themselves might be considered tortured poets. 

“Every week we had a prompt related to the course content, where I asked them to write a poem,” McDade said. “Some of them hated it, some of them loved it and some of them have grown to love it, but it’s been really beautiful. They were reading Taylor Swift or another poet, and they wrote a poem in reference to it or responded to it in some way. It’s showing how being an artist is about relating to other people. It’s OK if what they write seems to be insignificant or unimportant to the rest of the world, because Taylor has built an entire empire off of it.” 

The podcast project grouped students together to create four episodes and a complementary blog that explored how different influences can shape the identity of an artist like Swift. 

“In our contemporary age, nothing is more influential than the internet,” McDade said. “I wanted students to think about engaging ethically in online conversations about someone like Taylor Swift. We live in an age where people like to say a lot of things online that they wouldn’t say in person to someone.” 

McDade’s favorite podcast title was “The Asylum I Grew up in.” The group included Grace Barber ’28.  

“We decided on the title for our podcast because we wanted to have some fun playing on a Taylor Swift lyric, but also we wanted to capture some of the seriousness of the topic we were discussing,” Barber said. “‘The asylum where they raised me’ is a lyric from a song our group loves, Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me, and hints at the brutal nature of the media we were talking about.” 

Taylor Swift poetry class students make their final presentations
Students make their final presentations in the winter 2025 session of Reading the World and Identities: Taylor Swift and Other Tortured Poets.
Blackboard lists Taylor Swift albums
Taylor Swift poetry class students make final presentations
Students in Reading the World and Identities: Taylor Swift and Other Tortured Poets pursued course assignments that consisted of readings about poets, a podcast and weekly reflections. 

The podcast examined different so-called asylums that Swift faced during her formative years, such as the media spotlight or being a female in the music industry. 

“Speaking for myself, looking at Taylor Swift as a poet throughout this project and course really expanded what I define as a poet,” Barber said. “Exploring the identity of being a ‘tortured poet’ and applying it to anyone, not just historic poets and artists, really connected listening to Taylor Swift’s music with many common experiences of girlhood, womanhood and growth through hardship. Literature and poetry can encompass a lot more things than I had previously thought of with English class, and I had so much fun in this course listening to music and poetry in a new way.” 

National Poetry Month was launched by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 to highlight the importance of poetry and poets in culture while encouraging the reading, writing and appreciation of poetry.  

“A big thing with this course, as with National Poetry Month, has been that we wanted to make a case for the importance of poetry,” McDade said. “On my syllabus, we pull a quote from author Julia Kristeva about poetic language as a destabilizing force to social norms or to power structures. In some ways, this gets interpreted as madness, so the students have been able to think about the things that torture them. Here on campus, a lot of them will talk about feeling not good enough, and because that resonates with Taylor, a lot of her lyrics talk about that, too. It’s been fun to think about poetry not as something elitist or highbrow, but as something all of us can practice. Maybe we’re not all going to make careers off of it, but we all certainly can practice it.” 

Five Faculty Receive Tenure

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Five Kalamazoo College faculty members have been awarded tenure and promotion to associate professor, recognizing their excellence in teaching, scholarship and service. This milestone also signifies the College’s confidence in the contributions these faculty will make throughout their careers. The Board of Trustees-approved tenure recipients are: 

Anne Marie Butler, Art History
and Women, Gender and Sexuality

Butler specializes in contemporary Tunisian art within contexts of global contemporary art, contemporary global surrealism studies, Southwest Asia North Africa studies, gender and sexuality studies, and queer theory. At K, she teaches courses such as Art and Gender, Queer Aesthetics, Performance Art and core WGS classes. She has supervised 13 Senior Integrated Projects (SIPs).

Outside the classroom, Butler has co-edited the book Queer Contemporary Art of Southwest Asia North Africa (Intellect Press, 2024) and published four articles, as well as a book chapter. She is a recipient of an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant and of a research grant from American Institute of Maghrib Studies. She is the current Junior Faculty Fellow at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, has served on the Sherbin Fellowship Post-Baccalaureate Research Award committee, and is co-convener of the Great Lakes Colleges Association’s WGS Collective. She is also a volunteer assistant K swimming and diving team coach, and volunteers at the YWCA and at Kalamazoo Animal Rescue. 

Butler holds a Ph.D. in global gender and sexuality studies from the State University of New York-Buffalo, an M.A. in arts politics from New York University, and a B.A. in art history and French from Scripps College. 

Anne Marie Butler

Marilyn Evans, Classics 

Evans specializes in the archaeology of Roman urbanism, exploring the origins and early development of communities in central Italy. She has excavated sites across the Mediterranean, and for the past 15 years in the ancient Latin city of Gabii. At K, Evans teaches courses across the Classics curriculum, covering ancient language, literature, history and archaeology. She also has effectively integrated community engagement into her Neighborhoods in Ancient Cities course by working collaboratively with the Center for Civic Engagement and the Building Blocks community housing group.  

Evans has supervised four SIP students, including two during summer research at archaeological digs in Gabii, Italy, outside of Rome. Her published work includes four peer-reviewed articles and two book chapters. She has served on K’s Educational Policies Committee, as regional vice president for the Classical Association of the Midwest and South, and on the editorial board of Rhea Classical Reviews. 

Evans earned her Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of California, Berkeley, her M.A. in Classical Languages from the University of Georgia and her B.A. in Classical Studies and Anthropology, from Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Marilyn Evans

Benjamin Naka-Hasebe Kingsley, English

Kingsley’s specialty is poetry and he also has published works of fiction and nonfiction. His teaching centers on the poetry sequence within the English department: Introduction to Creative Writing, Intermediate Poetry Workshop, and Advanced Poetry Workshop.

Kingsley is the author of three books which have won over a dozen national awards, including the Association for Asian American Studies Award for Outstanding Achievement, the Library of Virginia Literary Award, and the American Fiction Award. He has published poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction in more than 100 journals and/or anthologies, including Poetry, Poets.org, Tin House, Boston Review, The Georgia Review, New England Review, The Southern Review and Oxford American. His collections are Dēmos: An American Multitude (Milkweed Editions, 2021), Colonize Me (Saturnalia Books, 2019) and Not Your Mama’s Melting Pot (University of Nebraska Press, 2018).

At K, Kingsley has twice been named a Most Valuable Professor, once by basketball student-athletes and once in football. He has also twice been named an Alpha Lamda Delta Inspiring Professor in back-to-back years.

Kingsley earned an M.F.A. from the University of Miami and an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Assistant Professor of English Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley
Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley

Rochelle Rojas, History

Rojas specializes in the early modern Western world and the transatlantic history of the early Spanish empire while focusing on the lived experiences of a wide range of people. She has supervised 11 SIPs, written two peer-reviewed articles, and authored a book, Bad Christians and Hanging Toads: Witch Crafting in Northern Spain 1525-1675, which was released this month by Cornell University Press. She has been awarded an American Association of University Women Short-Term Research Grant and an American Historical Association Albert J. Beveridge Grant.

Rojas has served as a member of K’s Academic Standards Committee and the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She has been a member of search committees for the vice president of finance and administration; director of grants, fellowships and research; and faculty searches in biology and chemistry. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from the University of Florida, and a master’s degree along with a Ph.D. in history from Duke University.

Tenure recipient Rochelle Rojas
Rochelle Rojas

Blakely Tresca, Chemistry

Tresca teaches organic chemistry at K while striving to bring research into the classroom. He has mentored more than 30 research students and supervised 14 SIPs with more than 50% of his research mentees attending graduate programs at institutions such as the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin and Washington University in St. Louis.

Tresca has had five published articles and recently received a $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF funds will help his students develop a lab partnership with some of their counterparts at the University of Toronto while performing research with peptoid nanomaterials.

At K, Tresca has served on the Educational Policies Committee (EPC), where he participated in revising SIP guidelines and last year’s teacher’s assistant policy. Beyond EPC, he has been an advisor to K’s student chapter of the American Chemical Society (ACS) while working with the local ACS professional chapter. He’s also been the Michigan representative to the Midwest Association of Chemistry Teachers at Liberal Arts Colleges Board.

Tresca holds a bachelor’s degree from Trinity University along with a master’s degree and a doctorate from the University of Oregon.

Tenure recipient Blakely Tresca
Blakely Tresca

K Welcomes New Faculty for 2024

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Kalamazoo College is pleased to welcome the following faculty members to campus this fall:

Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Kelsey Aldrich

Aldrich arrives at K from Duquesne University, where she earned a Ph.D. and served as a graduate teaching assistant in biochemistry. Her educational background also includes a Bachelor of Science in chemistry with American Chemical Society (ACS) certification from Grove City College, where she was an undergraduate teaching assistant in organic, analytical and general chemistry.

Aldrich will teach a Shared Passages Seminar course this fall titled Cultured: The History and Science of Fermented Foods. In winter spring terms, she will teach classes in general chemistry and biochemistry. Her professional affiliations include membership in the ACS and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB).

New Faculty Member Kelsey Aldrich
Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Kelsey Aldrich

Visiting Assistant Professor of English Erika Carbonara

Carbonara recently earned her Ph.D. in English from Wayne State University. She additionally holds a master’s degree from Oakland University and a bachelor’s degree with university honors from Wayne State.

She specializes in early modern literature with an emphasis on gender, sexuality, and kink studies. In her previous teaching positions, she has taught a wide range of courses from introductory composition to literature classes focused on Renaissance literature, children’s literature, and women’s literature. This term she will lead a course on social justice from a literary perspective with a focus on issues, events, movements and historical moments while emphasizing areas of power difference such as race and ethnicity, disabilities, class, gender and sexuality. 

New faculty member Erika Carbonara
Visiting Assistant Professor of English Erika Carbonara

Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics Rachel Chaiser

Chaiser’s educational background includes a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Colorado Boulder, and a bachelor’s degree with honors in mathematics from the University of Puget Sound.

In Boulder, she served as a part-time graduate instructor in linear algebra for non-math majors and calculus courses, a graduate teaching assistant in precalculus and an advanced undergraduate research mentor. At K this fall, she will teach calculus with lessons in algebra, precalculus and analytic geometry.

New faculty member Rachel Chaiser
Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics Rachel Chaiser

Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Sharon Colvin

Colvin has teaching experience with the University of Pittsburgh School of Education as an instructor, leading students with research methods and applied research; and the University of Maryland First-Year Innovation and Research Experience (FIRE) as an assistant clinical professor. Before getting her PhD., she was a youth services librarian for 10 years. At K, Colvin will teach educational psychology in fall, which applies the principles of psychology to the practice of teaching.

Colvin holds a Ph.D. in learning sciences and policy from the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, Health and Human Development; a master’s degree in library science from the Simmons University Graduate School of Library and Information Science; a master’s degree in mind, brain and education from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education; and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wellesley College.

New faculty member Sharon Colvin
Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Sharon Colvin

Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Caitlin Coplan

Coplan arrives at K from Northwestern University, where they recently earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. They also hold a bachelor’s degree with honors in physical and educational chemistry from the University of Utah.

Coplan has prior professional and teaching experience as an instructor as a part of the Arch program for incoming first-year students, and a teaching assistant for general chemistry and nanomaterials courses at Northwestern. They have also served as an interim undergraduate chemistry advisor, College of Science student ambassador, and teaching assistant in general chemistry at the University of Utah. At K, they will teach analytical chemistry this fall.

New faculty member Caitlin Coplan
Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Caitlin Coplan

Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Mahar Fatima

For the past seven years, Fatima has served the University of Michigan, first as a postdoctoral researcher and then as a research laboratory specialist. Her research interests include studies of the sensory neural circuits under physiological or pathological conditions, the molecular mechanisms required to interpret sensory information, and how relations between neural and non-neuronal systems contribute to chronic pain, chronic itch, and pulmonary disorders. This fall, Fatima will teach neurobiology at K, addressing the structure and function of the nervous system with topics including the cell biology of neurons, electrophysiology, sensory and motor systems, brain development, and nervous system dysfunction.

Fatima earned a Ph.D. from the National Brain Research Centre in India along with master’s and bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry and life sciences respectively from the University of Allahabad.

New faculty member Mahar Fatima
Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Mahar Fatima

Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion Shelby King

King holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) along with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Texas State University, San Marcos.

Her teaching areas include the history of religion in America, religion and popular culture, religion and American politics, theories and methods in religion, and theories of genders and sexualities. Her professional memberships include the American Academy of Religion, and the UCSB Center for Cold War Studies and International History.

New faculty member Shelby King
Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion Shelby King

Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics Cemile Kurkoglu

Kurkoglu comes to K from Denison University, where she had been a visiting assistant professor, teaching undergraduate mathematics and statistics courses since 2021. 

Kurkoglu holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Indiana University Bloomington, where she served as an associate instructor for algebra, calculus and finite mathematics courses and she assisted for graduate mathematics courses. She also has a master’s degree from Bilkent University and a bachelor’s degree from Hacettepe University. Her graduate-level coursework included abstract and commutative algebra, number and representation theory, and ordinary and partial differential equations, real and complex analysis, and topology.

New faculty member Cemile Kurkoglu
Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics Cemile Kurkoglu

Visiting Assistant Professor of History Josh Morris

Morris is arriving at K from Wayne State University, where he has been a visiting assistant professor at Grand Valley State University since 2021. Elsewhere, he has served St. Clair County Community College, the University of Toledo and Wayne State University as an adjunct faculty member; a graduate teaching assistant at Wayne State and Cal State University Pomona; and a lecturer for the Los Angeles Workers’ Center and the University of California, Irvine.

Morris holds a Ph.D. from Wayne State, a master’s degree from CSU Pomona, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, all in history. His professional memberships include the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Historical Materialism Society for Critical Research in Marxism, the Labor and Working-Class Historical Association and the Historians of American Communism.

New faculty member Joshua Morris
Visiting Assistant Professor of History Joshua Morris

Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Sociology Koffi Nomedji

Nomedji holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Duke University, a master’s degree in economics from Oklahoma State University, and bachelor’s degrees in sociology and economics from the University of Lomé, Togo, West Africa. At Duke, Nomedji taught courses in introductory cultural anthropology, the digital revolution, the anthropology of money, and development and Africa.

New faculty member Koffi Nomedji
Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Sociology Koffi Nomedji

Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science Nick Polanco

While recently earning a Ph.D. in computer science at Michigan State University, Polanco conducted research in automotive cybersecurity specific to autonomous vehicles. He also was a teaching assistant in artificial intelligence, computer organization and architecture, software engineering, computer systems, discrete structures, mobile applications and development, and database systems.

At K, Polanco will teach courses in introductory computing and programming basics for JavaScript and web development this fall.

Nick Polanco
Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science Nick Polanco

Director of African Studies and Assistant Professor of Anthropology Dominique Somda

Somda has arrived at K from the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where she was a research fellow. She also has past appointments as traveling faculty with the International Honors Program (IHP) at study abroad and world learning sites in the U.S., Spain, Jordan, India, Nepal, Senegal, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina and Chile; as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Reed College and the Department of Anthropology and Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania; as a visiting scholar in anthropology at the London School of Economics; as a postdoctoral fellow at the Université Paris Nanterre in France; and as a teaching and research fellow at the University of Paris Nanterre.

Somda has a Ph.D. and two master’s degrees in ethnology and comparative sociology from the University of Paris Nanterre, and a master’s and bachelor’s in philosophy from the University Clermont Auvergne.

Somda will lead a course this fall at K titled On Being Human in Africa. The course will examine the experiences of Africans through racialized and gendered existences, their affective relations, their ways of relating to and caring for each other and the land; and explore what it means to think and write about Africa with representations and discourses including fiction, academic writing and social media.

Dominique Somda
Director of African Studies and Assistant Professor of Anthropology Dominique Somda

Assistant Professor of Biology Clara Stuligross

Stuligross was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Riverside prior to K. She holds Ph.D. in ecology from the University of California, Davis, and a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Earlham College.

Stuligross studies the impacts of environmental stressors on native bee ecology and recently received a federal grant to study the effects of climate change on bees. She also has professional experience as a museum educator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, where she taught science outreach programs and developed hands-on climate change education lessons. At K this fall, she will teach Biology Explorations.

Clara Stuligross
Assistant Professor of Biology Clara Stuligross

Visiting Instructor of Chinese Ruyuan Yang

Yang has a master’s degree in teaching Chinese to non-native speakers from the Beijing Language and Culture University, and a bachelor’s degree in teaching Chinese as a second language from Yunnan Normal University in Kunming, China.

Yang previously has taught college-level courses in beginning, intermediate and advanced Chinese at K; basic and intermediate Chinese, and Chinese dance and culture at Western Michigan University; and integrated Chinese and Chinese listening and speaking courses at Beijing Language and Culture University. Yang’s courses this fall include beginning and intermediate Chinese.

Visiting Instructor of Chinese Ruyuan Yang
Visiting Instructor of Chinese Ruyuan Yang

Thailand Lessons Influence Student, Kalamazoo’s First Read Along

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Emerson Wesselhoff working at a table with a city of Kalamazoo table cloth, ready to lead city's first read along
Emerson Wesselhoff ’25 is working in an internship with the city of Kalamazoo, where she is leading the city’s first Imagine Kalamazoo Reads effort through the book “Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design” by journalist Charles Montgomery about urban design and happiness.
Emerson Wesselhoff with a host family and a fellow student in Thailand
Wesselhoff (left) sits with one of her host families and a fellow student in the Maetha agricultural co-op village. The younger Thai woman is Pi Pui, the expert seed saver for the village. The older Thai woman is her mom, Mae Sawn.
Wesselhoff works with elementary school students she led in a read along
Wesselhoff works with elementary school students during her internship in Thailand with Kiaow Suay Hom, which translates to Green, Beautiful and Fragrant in English.

A study-abroad experience, a passion for sustainability and a love for her city have helped a Kalamazoo College Heyl scholar leave her mark on Imagine Kalamazoo 2035, the city’s newly launched master plan.

Emerson Wesselhoff ’25 is an outreach and engagement intern working with City Planner Christina Anderson ’98. She was among the officials at an open house September 19 when the city shared some of its successes from the previous master plan and discussed with residents what they can expect over the next year with the new plan.

Now, as a part of Imagine Kalamazoo 2035, Wesselhoff will lead the city’s first Imagine Kalamazoo Reads effort, a community read along and discussion with clubs, community groups and residents. Together, they will have meaningful conversations about Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design, a book by award-winning journalist Charles Montgomery beginning Monday, September 30. The book combines urban design and an emerging science of happiness that will help participants analyze some of the world’s most dynamic cities, while brainstorming what residents want in Kalamazoo.

“I first read the book at K through a class I took sophomore year,” Wesselhoff said, speaking of a seminar led by Anderson, City of Kalamazoo Chief Operating Officer Laura Lam ’99 and then-Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement Director Alison Geist. “We want Individual citizens, book clubs, organizations, boards, shops and institutions to read it, and every month we will host a community-led discussion of the book. I’ve put together a big toolkit that provides summaries, links to the author’s TED talk, and discussion questions to guide thoughts and processes. We want to get people thinking about how the city makes us happy and what happiness means in our lives.”

Wesselhoff’s opportunity is a relatable follow-up to a reading-focused experience she led when she studied abroad in Thailand last year. She concluded her time overseas with a six-week climate engagement internship through a non-government organization called Kiaow Suay Hom, which translates to Green, Beautiful and Fragrant in English. There, she studied the benefits of green spaces in fighting pollution and particulate matter (PM 2.5) as smoke and smog cause health risks such as heart attacks, cancer and respiratory issues in Thailand. The organization had created a children’s book about PM 2.5 that was central to the outreach Wessselhoff performed as part of her internship.

How to Participate
in the Read Along

  • Let Wesselhoff know if you or a group will join the read along and whether you would like resources by emailing her at wesselhoffe@kalamazoocity.org.
  • Happy City is available at a discount at Bookbug and This is a Bookstore (3019 Oakland Drive), in person and online. Use the discount code KALAMAZOO if you buy the book online. You may also read an online version of the book or get it from the Kalamazoo Public Library as an eBook or audio book via Hoopla.
  • Public read along discussions start Monday, September 30, with a gathering at Bookbug and This is a Bookstore. A second discussion will take place Wednesday, October 23, at Jerico, 1501 Fulford St. Free reservations are available online for the September 30 event and the October 23 event.
  • A Happy City toolkit is available online to guide independent reads and discussions.
  • Share your read along results by completing a brief online form, sending an email to hello@kalamazoocity.org with your responses typed, or attaching a scan of any written notes to an email. Return a paper copy by mail or in person to Community Planning and Economic Development, 245 N. Rose St. in Kalamazoo, during business hours.
Emerson Wesselhoff with other students in Thailand
During her internship in Thailand, Wesselhoff volunteered at a local farm with her fellow NGO interns to help the farmers prepare for a big harvesting event.
Emerson Wesselhoff discusses sustainability with elementary school students she led in a read along
Wesselhoff told elementary school students about what they can be do with green space and pollution-filtering plants to fight health risks that are common in Thailand.
Wesselhoff makes a presentation to a group of NGO's in Thailand
At the end of her Thailand internship, Wesselhoff presented information on her work to Chiang Mai’s Breath Council, a larger council of NGOs dedicated to helping fight PM 2.5 pollution.

“Having more green space, carbon-sequestering and pollution-filtering plants is a great way to combat PM 2.5,” Wesselhoff said. “Creating those green spaces starts with awareness and I learned the importance of youth education. A huge component of my internship was going around to local elementary schools in In the Mae Hia subdistrict of Chiang Mai, Thailand, and showing how sustainability connects to local culture, children’s lives, and how to keep them and their friends and family safe. I learned how to engage with kids and break down a heavily scientific and scary topic, while connecting it to their culture and their lives at home. It made them feel empowered to make choices that are healthier for their community.”

She hopes Happy City read along conversations will have similar success and spark some ideas regarding potential local sustainability efforts.

“I’m trying to help bring awareness to how the city impacts our sense of happiness and our sense of self in where we live,” she said. “That’s a big piece of environmental engagement work—knowing where you live, knowing its shortcomings, and advocating for the things that make it great, and sustainability planning is a huge part of that. I look at my study abroad experience, which was so centered on putting my assumptions on the back burner and learning from local people through their lived experiences. I’m trying to bring that same practice back here. I think we often turn to academics, politicians or big systems to figure out how to make progress. What I learned from local communities in Thailand is to focus instead on making space for our relationship to land, first and foremost. Community awareness and respect will follow close behind.”

Wesselhoff was abroad for a total of six months, spending her time first with the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute—a hands-on, fieldwork learning center based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, focused on sustainability.

With ISDSI, Wesselhoff and 13 other students from around the world, including two other K students, took one monthlong class at a time with courses including culture, ecology and community; sustainable food systems; political ecology and ocean ecology. The first week of each class consisted of lectures before the students stayed three weeks with host families, mostly in indigenous communities, and performed field or volunteer work in the community.

In the sustainable food systems course, Wesselhoff and her peers spent two weeks living in an organic co-op village called Maetha, staying with a seed saver and learning about organic agriculture. The third week she lived on an organic coffee farm called Nine One Coffee near a jungle and learned about the organic bean-to-cup process.

With the forestry course, Wesselhoff traveled to Mae Hong Son, the northernmost province in Thailand, near the Myanmar border, and backpacked between six villages, starting at low elevation and proceeding higher with each stop. Along the way, she lived with six indigenous host families who graciously taught the students about livelihoods and land rights in their highland communities.

During the ocean ecology course, Wesselhoff and her group went south to learn about mudflats and mangroves while living on a coastal farm, before spending about a week and a half in the Adang archipelago near the Malaysian border to kayak through more trading routes and learn about coral reef ecosystems. When the classes ended, students from other colleges returned home and the K students began working internships. Wesselhoff’s experience now feeds her desire to improve life in Kalamazoo.

Wesselhoff with a baby elephant
Wesselhoff greeted a baby elephant during an excursion with the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute.
Emerson Wesselhoff in Thailand
Wesselhoff participated in a field expedition to Wiang Khum Kam, an ancient archeological site south of Chiang Mai.

At home, the Loy Norrix High School graduate is a biology major with a concentration in environmental studies and minors in English and anthropology-sociology. She also serves K as a Climate Action Plan Committee student representative and intern, advocating for the College’s efforts in being carbon neutral by 2050. The committee maintains the College’s Climate Action Plan in association with the President’s Climate Leadership Commitment, which K joined in 2010, while establishing goals, monitoring progress, conducting annual reporting and providing guidance on projects and initiatives to support the plan. Plus, Wesselhoff writes blog post updates addressing news on climate efforts at K, and all her work excites her to extend her work into the city.

“The more time I spend in Kalamazoo, the more I realize just how much people care about this place,” Wesselhoff said. “I think I’m lucky because I’m not just here as a four-year college student. I have roots here and that gives me a distinct advantage. I’m in a college environment most of the time with the connections I build in the K community, but I also work with folks in the city, getting to talk to stakeholders and community members, going to places like the farmers market or events downtown like Art Hop and Lunchtime Live. Even if people have a complaint to voice, it’s because they care about where they live. The city of Kalamazoo is headed in a unique direction, with bountiful opportunities to make the city a more connected, livable, and sustainable place. I feel very fortunate to be here in a time of my life where I can learn all about those things.”