Kalamazoo College is known for providing academic experiences that can lead to real-world jobs. Take the example of Steph Guyor ’22.
Guyor’s senior seminar, led by Associate Professor of English Ryan Fong, tackled the concept of restorative or transformative justice, a newer community-based practice that helps society do more than hold law breakers accountable in a criminal justice system. Instead, restorative justice also addresses the dehumanization an offender typically experiences with their punishment, offering basic services along with pathways for making amends to victims and the community, reducing the likelihood for recidivism.
“Within the U.S., justice is traditionally focused on the offender and the crime they committed,” Guyor said. “The punishments are seen as deserved. Yet by focusing on the punishment, the factors that led to the harm being committed often go unexamined, and the needs of the person who’s harmed remain unmet. Viewing punishment as the only appropriate response around accountability ends up taking the form of shame and isolation, which furthers the relational divide and deters people from changing their harmful behaviors. Restorative and transformative justice work to reorient accountability away from punishments and toward meaningful consequences that allow connections to be restored and relational dynamics to be restored.”
Guyor, who double majored in psychology and women and gender studies (WGS), was intrigued by these concepts and said Fong’s class was enjoyable because it allowed her to see justice in a different way. Then came an opportunity to connect those studies to a job, when she heard Ministry with Community in Kalamazoo was hiring a restorative justice coordinator. The nonprofit organization is a secular, daytime shelter and resource center open 365 days a year that helps local residents address homelessness, poverty, substance abuse and other crises.
“I saw the posting and thought it could be an opportunity to make change locally in Kalamazoo in a way that’s influenced by getting to know people,” Guyor said. “I knew I wanted to try to find a way to integrate the psychological understanding of why people do what they do with a socially informed understanding of how social circumstances influence it.”
And today, Guyor relishes her job, which involves learning more about the restorative justice practices in place around the country while collecting data to determine what she can do to solve problems in Kalamazoo. Hopefully, that will lead to a new yet well-rounded restorative justice program at Ministry with Community that reduces the likelihood of repeat offenses.
“It comes with a lot of responsibility that a big part of me was afraid to take on given the idea that I did just graduate,” she said. “But it’s also a unique opportunity that I’m excited to have. I think the goal will be a culture shift within the organization so there will be fewer incidents with fewer people breaking community expectations, and more trust between the members, and between members and staff.”
Guyor said a common misconception about restorative or transformative justice is that it’s soft on offenders—that it lets people off the hook and fails to follow through on a punishment. She cautions against that idea.
“In reality, facing the people who you hurt and holding the space for them to explain their hurt is a lot harder,” Guyor said. “Restorative justice is about having high expectations for people along with a lot of support. It makes sure we’re holding people accountable to the changes they work toward, but not in a way that revolves around shame. In punitive settings, you’re doing things to people. In permissive settings, you’re doing things for people. But restorative justice is more about working with people to make change.”
Fong said he’s likely to continue teaching about restorative and transformative justice at K.
“So many students, especially WGS students, are interested in social justice and activism, but don’t always know what it looks like in practice beyond demonstrations and non-profit work,” he said. “In the wake of the 2020 protests and calls to defund the police, I saw many students wondering what that demand meant. Doing a deep dive into restorative and transformative justice was one way to understand how abolitionist organizers were working in concrete ways to build new systems and structures that address and eliminate violence.”
He’s also incredibly proud of Guyor and honored that he played a role in helping her find her career path.
“I hope she keeps drawing on the skills and knowledge she gained at K and as a WGS student to continue on it for the rest of her life,” Fong said. “That’s really my hope for all our WGS students: that they find meaningful ways to put their education into action.”
Donations Fund Restorative Justice Programs
Ministry with Community, a nonprofit organization, accepts donations for the restorative justice programs being built by K alumna Stephanie Guyor ’22. To donate directly to restorative justice efforts, visit the organization’s website.
Steph Guyor ’22 took classroom experiences with restorative justice and transformed them into a career at Ministry with Community in Kalamazoo.Guyor, who double majored in psychology and women and gender studies at K, now works as the restorative justice coordinator at Ministry with Community in Kalamazoo.
Three Kalamazoo College faculty members from the music, German studies and French studies departments have been awarded tenure along with a promotion to associate professor.
The tenure milestone recognizes excellence in teaching, scholarship and service to the College, and signifies its confidence in the contributions these faculty will make throughout their careers. The Board of Trustees-approved tenure recipients are:
Assistant Professor of Music Chris Ludwa
Ludwa is the director of the College Singers, the Lux Esto Chamber Choir and the Kalamazoo Bach Festival at K, where he is an advocate for a variety of singing methods including contemporary a cappella, musical theatre, opera, oratorio and pop music, especially those connected with justice and equity.
In 2020, Ludwa collaborated with Everett McCorvey, a fellow voice professor from the University of Kentucky; and Rhea Olivaccé, a soprano soloist with an international career and a professor of voice at Western Michigan University; to create Awake! Arise!, a musical dialogue about the lived Black experience, in contrast to what it is perceived to be. The work was a challenge to audiences to acknowledge injustice and change the world, which featured music from Johann Sebastian Bach’s 500-year-old cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, and the words of Black artists, activists and authors such as Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Amanda Gorman and Valyn Turner.
Ludwa previously worked in professional music roles for employers such as the Federated Church of Cleveland, Cuyahoga Community College, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Leonard Bernstein-inspired Artful Learning School Reform Model at the GRAMMY Foundation and the International School of Indiana. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education, a Master of Music and a DMA in Conducting and Leadership Studies from Indiana University.
Assistant Professor of Music Chris Ludwa, seen here directing the College Singers, is one of three faculty members to earn tenure this year.
Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German Studies Kathryn Sederberg
Sederberg teaches beginning, intermediate and advanced German as well as Contemporary German Culture and senior seminars on varying topics.
In 2021, Sederberg received a national honor, the Goethe‐Institut/American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) Certificate of Merit, for her achievements in furthering the teaching of German in the U.S. through creative activities, innovative curriculum, successful course design and significant contributions to the profession. She was just one of five educators between high schools and colleges from around the country to earn the honor.
In 2022, Sederberg spent a month at the University of London in its Institute of Modern Languages, conducting research through a Miller Fellowship in Exile Studies. In that research, she sifted through thousands of passages from the diaries of Jewish people who migrated away from Nazi territories in the 1930s and 40s. The experience led her to create a sophomore seminar offered this winter, Bearing Witness: Holocaust Literature and Testimony.
Sederberg holds a bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German Studies Kathryn Sederberg is one of three tenure recipients this year at K.
Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies Aurélie Chatton
Chatton pursues teaching and interests in the poetics of globalization inspired by the philosophical concepts of Martinican thinker Edouard Glissant. Her research explores 20th and 21st century theatre and performance as well as the history and aesthetic of French cinema.
She has published articles on contemporary French and francophone artists in literature, cinema and theatre, including Wajdi Mouawad (2021), Aki Kaurismäki (2022) and Bernard-Marie Koltès. She is currently working on a book project in which she shows the shared thinking among a number of interdisciplinary and contemporary artists and the philosophy of Edouard Glissant.
At K, Chatton also designed the first Languages Film Festival, taking place each year.
Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies Aurélie Chatton is one of three tenure recipients this year at K.
Before coming to K, Chatton taught at Columbia University and New York University, where she developed a variety of classes from elementary language courses to upper-level literature and culture courses.
Chatton received her Ph.D. from the Department of French Literature, Thought and Culture at NYU. She received a teaching certificate from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Teaching program at NYU in 2010 and a Blended Learning Award from Columbia in 2015.
To top off the Wheels of Change class, Professor of English Amelia Katanski and her students traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark.
Copenhagen is said to have one of the world’s best cycling infrastructures.
Although the seminar is finished, some of the students from Wheels of Change are keeping their projects in motion after visiting Copenhagen.
Cycling is more than recreation and enjoyable exercise when it’s viewed through the lenses of social and environmental justice in a new first-year seminar course at Kalamazoo College.
Offered for the first time in fall through Professor of English Amelia Katanski, the class Wheels of Change worked closely with community partners, including the City of Kalamazoo, the Open Roads Bike Program and K’s own Outdoor Programs, to explore how communities can build cycling infrastructure to better support residents.
In the classroom, students examined how bicycles empowered women and people of color during the late 19th century’s so-called cycling craze. It also looked at how bicycles today are sustainable tools in limiting climate change and supporting environmental health in ways that are capable of redressing racism, and gender- and ability-based discrimination. Katanski has taught community-based first-year seminar classes for more than 15 years. But the course in fall 2020 about food and farming justice in the time of COVID was unrepeatable with the pandemic winding down. She began to brainstorm ideas for new classes.
“Cycling has always been a passion of mine, and I came across a book called Revolutions: How Women Changed the World on Wheels,”Katanski said. “I started reading it and thinking about the origins of cycling and how it was this space for women and people of color to experience freedom, mobility, independence and physicality that wasn’t easily available to them. It began to sound like this great idea for a first-year seminar.”
When students traveled to Copenhagen, they found a city with cycling infrastructure that tops what most cities typically have.
Thanks to Copenhagen’s cycling infrastructure and history, residents often travel by bicycle even through cold winters.
The book “Revolutions: How Women Changed the World on Wheels,” inspired Katanski to create the Wheels of Change seminar.
Outside the classroom, students met every Friday to participate in guided bike rides that gave them a feel for Kalamazoo’s current cycling infrastructure and how they might help or hinder the cycling community. They also split into groups to work on projects on and off campus. Students worked alongside City Planner and K alumna Christina Anderson ’98 on a project examining the city’s infrastructure, as well as with Open Roads Executive Director Isaac Green on a project developing and implementing safe-cycling routes for Kalamazoo-area children. On campus, they joined forces with K Outdoor Programs Director Jory Horner and Assistant Director Jess Port, investigating ways to make college-owned bikes more accessible to students, while promoting and supporting cycling among students and developing a cycling culture on campus. To top off the class, Katanski and her students traveled for a week to Copenhagen, Denmark, to see how the city, one of the world’s best for cycling infrastructure, can provide examples from which Kalamazoo can learn.
Signing up for the class was a no-brainer for Elliot Russell, a Kalamazoo native, and Lillian Deer, a student from Washington state. Russell, for example, visited Amsterdam last spring, a city he considers to be a cycling capital.
“That trip was eye opening to me, to see there are other possibilities of what urban space can look like other than what our interface looks like in America,” he said. “Since that trip, I’ve vowed, even though I have a car and a driver’s license, that I’m going to start biking for transport because I enjoy it. It’s also more ethically sound than using a car.”
Deer said she was already interested in environmental sustainability and social justice before the class began, but didn’t know that bicycling could combine those themes. She wasn’t an active cyclist at the time, although group rides through the class made her feel more confident, provoking her excitement to work in the group that assisted K Outdoor Programs in figuring out what the College could do to be more bike friendly.
“We researched several schools and we realized we need to have some sort of bike share program,” Deer said. “And to do that, we need a place to put bikes because the lack of one is preventing people from bringing their bikes to campus, according to the student survey we did,” Deer said. “We would like to continue those group rides, too, perhaps with a bike club, and match that with the new infrastructure.”
“We’ve all realized we could be riding more and driving less, and I hope our students think about what it means for how we continue to live in this community,” Katanski said.
Lillian Deer ’26 said she was already interested in environmental sustainability and social justice before the class began, but didn’t know that bicycling could combine those themes.
Elliot Russell ’26 said the trip to Copenhagen with his classmates was eye opening for the contrast it provided between the bike infrastructure there versus in Kalamazoo.
Russell worked with the Open Roads group, examining biking infrastructure at Kalamazoo Public Schools. Open Roads traditionally works with youths to put bikes in their hands through bike workshops, making the organization a good partner in creating a comprehensive guide to helping the schools be more bike friendly.
“We went to Maple Street Middle School and Linden Grove Middle School to count how many bikes are on campus,” he said. “We counted the bike racks, surveyed the neighborhood in the constituent districts to also see what the infrastructure was like there. It all gave us a better idea of what the problems are and what the solutions could be. We wanted to advocate for students to have safer routes to school.”
Russell said the trip to Copenhagen with his classmates was eye opening for the contrast it provided between the bike infrastructure there versus in Kalamazoo. Copenhagen has a much stronger ingrained cycling culture despite its cold winters. The city, for example, plows its bike lanes at the same time or earlier than its roads.
While the seminar wrapped up at the end of fall term, some of the students from Wheels of Change are keeping their projects in motion this winter, putting their heads together with their community partners to see whether the City of Kalamazoo, Open Roads and Kalamazoo College can work independently or in cooperation to build better bike infrastructure.
“We’ve all realized we could be riding more and driving less, and I hope our students think about what it means for how we continue to live in this community,” Katanski said. “This term we drew on our experiences in Copenhagen to continue to develop relationships with our community partners, support bike culture on campus, and plan for future work. We’ve met on Zoom with an alum, Dan Goodman, who is the Mid-Atlantic Planning Director for Toole Design about his career path working on bike and pedestrian transportation; and spoke with community partner and co-op consultant Chris Dilley about cooperative organizational structures. Students also presented their projects at the Midwest Outdoor Leadership Conference. We’re all looking forward to more riding and support of city bike infrastructure—and the launch of a K bike co-op—in the spring.”
L. Lee Stryker Associate Professor of Business Management Amy MacMillan
Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College are embarking on an exciting new partnership that will allow students from both institutions to go outside the classroom to gain powerful experiences in leadership and business strategy by consulting with local companies on their business challenges.
Managed by Drs. Doug Lepisto and Derrick McIver, co-directors of Western’s Center for Principled Leadership and Business Strategy, and Amy MacMillan, L. Lee Stryker Associate Professor of Business Management for Kalamazoo College, the project will ask students to collaborate through an immersive consulting experience at Sleeping Giant Capital’s downtown office.
The partnership taps into the existing leadership and business strategy practicum course at WMU, which Lepisto co-teaches at the WMU Haworth College of Business, and integrates elements from the strategic marketing management course that MacMillan co-teaches at Kalamazoo College.
Both courses are structured so students work for the entire semester on a business issue for a company, in the same way that a management consulting firm would, exploring all possibilities and conducting research to generate the best solutions for the business.
Now, the two schools have joined forces to take things to an even higher level. There will be a total of six teams, and each team will have two student leaders and a group of student analysts from both schools. At the conclusion of the project, students will be prepared to lead, excel in project-based work and create value for small- and medium-sized businesses.
Doug Lepisto ’04
The client this semester is construction and development firm AVB, which has asked students to look at growth strategies for its future. Students from Western and Kalamazoo College will work on teams in a competitive process throughout the spring 2023 semester, where faculty members will provide feedback and decide which strategies best address AVB’s business question. At the end of the semester, the top teams will present to company leadership with a cash prize of $5,000 to be awarded to the winning team.
Along the way, students will be mentored by executives, who are WMU alumni, from management consulting firms including McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company and others.
From the beginning
The idea for this partnership first formed as Lepisto was watching a WMU football game and gazed across campus to see the Kalamazoo College stadium with a Hornets’ game taking place at the same time. Lepisto, who is a graduate of Kalamazoo College, kept thinking about that parallel and began exploring the ways in which both institutions were similar: a focus on experiential learning, a commitment to the Kalamazoo community and a passion for social good in any industry or career.
“Kalamazoo is an education city,” Lepisto says. “By connecting WMU, Kalamazoo College, Sleeping Giant Capital and local businesses, our goal is to offer an unrivaled experience that is transformative and drives widespread benefit.”
Lepisto’s concept for the collaboration soon led him to MacMillan, and after lots of brainstorming together, they created the partnership that is being piloted this semester and likely expanded in the future.
“Experiential education has long been a defining feature of Kalamazoo College,” says MacMillan. “As educators, we constantly need to innovate these experiences to meet student needs. This unique collaboration with WMU and Sleeping Giant Capital provides real-world experience that builds leaders ready to hit the ground running when they graduate.”
Students will be participating in a docuseries, providing an insider’s view of the project and what they are learning from the process and each other. Follow the story on Instagram.
About Kalamazoo College
Kalamazoo College, founded in 1833, is a nationally recognized residential liberal arts and sciences college located in Kalamazoo. The creator of the K-Plan, Kalamazoo College provides an individualized education that integrates rigorous academics with life-changing experiential learning opportunities. For more information, visit kzoo.edu.
About Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University prepares students from around the globe for a life well lived. In an environment focused on well-being and holistic success, students thrive academically, emotionally and physically and go on to pursue their purpose, prosper in meaningful careers and make an impact on society. Founded in 1903, Western offers nearly 250 academic programs to nearly 18,000 students pursuing degrees through the doctoral level. The University’s focus on well-being supports holistic success, empowering students to craft a life of meaning and fulfillment. Nine of 10 Broncos get jobs quickly in their field in jobs they like. Learn more at wmich.edu.
In 2022, national publications continued to recognize Kalamazoo College as an outstanding institution of higher education. That reputation was furthered through the achievements of faculty, staff and academic departments, and donors funding K’s strategic plan, Advancing Kalamazoo College: A Strategic Vision for 2023. Here are the institution’s top 10 stories this year as determined by your clicks. Find the top stories from our students, faculty and staff, and alumni.
K awarded one faculty member and one staff member with two of the highest awards it bestows on its employees with Professor of Psychology Bob Batsell earning the Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Scholarship, and Student Health and Counseling Centers Office Coordinator Jen Combes granted the W. Haydn Ambrose Prize.
Professor of Psychology Bob Batsell
Student Health and Counseling Centers Office Coordinator Jen Combes receives the Ambrose Prize from Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez.
Thanks to a lead anonymous gift, and the philanthropy of other donors, a new endowed fund is supporting exemplary seniors and their Senior Integrated Projects in the Department of History while honoring two of the department’s emeriti professors, David Strauss and John Wickstrom.
Emeriti History Professors John Wickstrom, David Barclay and David Strauss
K is gaining global repute among some of the top institutions in higher education with Money magazine ranking K 19th among the country’s liberal arts and sciences colleges and 50th in the Midwest regardless of public or private status.
K’s Department of German Studies was one of just three programs in the country this year honored by the American Association of Teachers of German with a German Center of Excellence award. The designation is presented to well-established and growing programs with demonstrated excellence in instruction, and strong support from administration, professional colleagues, alumni and students.
The faculty members in K’s German department include Co-Chair and Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German Kathryn Sederberg, Co-Chair and Professor of Classics Elizabeth Manwell, Instructor of German Stefania Malacrida and Assistant Professor of German Petra Watzke.
Kathryn Sederberg is the Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German and co-chair of the Department of German Studies.
Students participating in faculty-advised research or creative projects now have access to dedicated funding thanks to a $250,000 gift from a couple who previously served as members of the K’s faculty and administration.
The Richard J. Cook and Teresa M. Lahti Endowment for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity was established to facilitate faculty-student collaborative work. The fund provides stipends, materials and essential project-related travel assistance to students engaged in such research or creative activity.
An independent study from the Princeton Review shows that K provides one of the most outstanding returns on investment in higher education. The education-services company profiles and recommends K in the 2022 edition of The Best Value Colleges, an annual guide to undergraduate schools, and again in The Best 388 Colleges.
The Princeton Review doesn’t rank the Best Value Colleges. However, K received a separate honor in The Best Value Colleges guide as the College was ranked No. 18 on a list of the Top 20 Private Colleges Where Students Are Making an Impact. This means K students said through surveys that their student-government opportunities, the College’s sustainability efforts and K’s on-campus student engagement are providing students with opportunities to make a difference in their community.
The Princeton Review examined more than 650 institutions for this year’s list.
K had six representatives from the class of 2021 in Fulbright’s U.S. Student Program, leading to the College receiving top producer status for the fourth time in five years.
K’s representatives in 2021-22 and their host countries were Helen Pelak ’21, Australia; Katherine Miller-Purrenhage ’21, Germany; Sophia Goebel ’21, Spain; Molly Roberts ’21, France; Margaret Totten ’21, Thailand; Nina Szalkiewicz ’21, Austria; and Evelyn Rosero ’13, South Korea.
If you’re a student who wants an excellent education at a great price, K will provide it, according to Forbes magazine. Forbes also says choosing K means you’ll follow in the footsteps of successful entrepreneurs and countless influential leaders in their fields.
The magazine chose K as the top private college in Michigan, ranking it third in the state overall and No. 183 in the country among its picks of the top 500 schools in the U.S.
A generous $1 million gift from Geoffrey N. Fieger and Kathleen J. Fieger will support current and future students by funding the Keenie and Julian Fieger Endowed Scholarship, named for Kathleen and the couple’s son Julian.
K received approval from the city’s commissioners in October to move forward with a master plan that focuses on enhancing and expanding the on-campus living experience while strengthening the connection between K’s campus and the surrounding community.
City commissioners have approved Kalamazoo College’s 2022 Campus Master Plan.
Kalamazoo College’s faculty and staff are dedicated to developing the strengths of every student, preparing them for lifelong learning, career readiness, intercultural understanding, social responsibility and leadership. Here are their top news stories of 2022 as determined by your clicks.
Regina Stevens-Truss, Kalamazoo College’s Dorothy H. Heyl Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is the recipient of the 2023 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Award for Exemplary Contributions to Education.
The ASBMB is a professional organization of science, one of the largest of its kind in the world.
Dorothy H. Heyl Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Regina Stevens-Truss
Kalamazoo College Vice President for Student Development and Dean of Students J. Malcolm Smith is an Aspen Institute inaugural Aspen Index Impact Fellow. The fellowship brings together more than 90 community stakeholders in a movement to advance the future of youth leadership development.
Vice President for Student Development and Dean of Students J. Malcolm Smith
Newly unearthed diaries dating back at least 80 years are providing a fresh perspective on the Holocaust for Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German Studies Kathryn Sederberg.
Sederberg spent a month at the University of London in its Institute of Modern Languages Research. There, with the Miller Fellowship in Exile Studies, she sifted through thousands of passages from Jews who migrated away from Nazi territories in the 1930s and 40s.
Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German Studies Kathryn Sederberg
The number of K students with limited financial means taking advantage of a program that provides study abroad scholarships surged this fall thanks to Center for International Programs staff members including study abroad and international student adviser Asia Bennett.
Study abroad and international student adviser Asia Bennett
Two biology faculty members, a K student and an Oberlin College student from Kalamazoo helped a study published in the journal Science prove that humans are altering evolution. Professor of Biology Binney Girdler, Associate Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas, Ben Rivera ’18 and Otto Kailing contributed to the Global Urban Evolution Project (GLUE).
If you’ve ever asked yourself whether to “repair or replace,” a new book co-authored by Luce Professor of Complex Systems Studies Péter Érdi is for you. Érdi and co-author Zsuzsa Szvetelszky have released Repair: When and How to Improve Broken Objects, Ourselves and Our Society.
Luce Professor of Complex Systems Studies Péter Érdi
Two Kalamazoo College faculty members are examining whether national attempts at combined trade and environmental policies might help fight climate change.
Edward and Virginia Van Dalson Professor of Economics Patrik Hultberg
Assistant Professor of Economics Darshana Udayanganie
Three faculty members in history, sociology and physics have been awarded tenure, honoring their excellence in teaching, scholarship and service to K. The tenure milestone recognizes excellence in teaching, scholarship and service to the College, and signifies its confidence in the contributions these professors will make throughout their careers.
Christina Carroll, of the Department of History, earned tenure and a promotion to associate professor.
David Wilson, of the Department of Physics, earned tenure and a promotion to associate professor.
Francisco Villegas, of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, earned a promotion to associate professor.
A major grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will provide new learning opportunities for Kalamazoo College students and faculty seeking solutions to societal problems.
Associate Professor of English Shanna Salinas
Arcus Social Justice Leadership Associate Professor of Sociology Francisco Villegas
Theatre Arts Professor Lanny Potts was selected recently as the recipient of a 2022 Wilde Award for Best Lighting as a result of his work in the 2021 Farmers Alley Theatre production of “Bright Star.” Photo by Kat Mumma.
A Kalamazoo College faculty member is receiving accolades from a Michigan theatre organization for the fifth time in his career. Theatre Arts Professor Lanny Potts was selected recently as the recipient of a 2022 Wilde Award for Best Lighting as a result of his work in the 2021 Farmers Alley Theatre production of Bright Star, a musical written and composed by actor, comedian and songwriter Steve Martin and songwriter Edie Brickell.
Wilde Awards are distributed through EncoreMichigan.com, a web-based publication focusing on the state’s professional theater industry, highlighting the top productions, actors, artists, designers, writers and technicians. Potts previously earned Wilde Best Lighting honors through his work at Farmers Alley Theatre in productions such as The Light in the Piazza in 2012 and Bridges of Madison County in 2018.
In Bright Star, a literary editor, Alice Murphy, meets a young soldier, Bill Cane, who is just home from World War II. Her flashbacks to the 1920s tell the audience about 16-year-old Alice meeting Jimmy Ray Dobbs and giving birth to a son. The love story, inspired by real events and set in the American South, provided Potts and the Farmers Alley Theatre team with some distinctive challenges of how to move the story forward with lighting and other effects.
“Working closely with the brilliant Director Kathy Mulay, every scenic transition was created with lighting which then constantly moved until the downbeat of the next music, scenic or narrative moment,” Potts said. “Picture slowly moving tree leaves. In every transition moment, they would create an almost ripple effect, like wind through the leaves, that continued until the music resolved or carried us through to the next narrative moment. Having the lights breathe the music of each transition was an approach that allowed the team to seamlessly meld action, dialogue, music, blocking and projections in a way that helped the audience understand that our narrative was a constantly moving story.”
Bright Star was produced at Farmers Alley Theatre from June 23-July 10, 2021, qualifying Potts— a professional designer and consultant—for this year’s honor. His work has also included international lighting and production design; national tour designs for opera and dance; and regional designs for opera, modern dance, ballet, drama and corporate events.
Potts has presented portfolios of his work at regional conferences, worked at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and received many professional awards including a Michigan Governor’s Commendation, a design commendation from the John F. Kennedy Center (Fun Home) and Atlanta Critic’s Choice awards for his design work for the Atlanta premier of A Few Good Men. But each opportunity inspires Potts for what he will do with the next one.
“When I think about having the privilege of doing what I love, I don’t think about a particular show, production or artistic team,” Potts said. “I do have warm fuzzies when I reflect upon some great work accomplished collaboratively with so many great artists. But I think I’m a looking-forward kind of person, where one scenic idea, one costume idea or one directing idea inspires a unique new direction for the artistic team. There is no greater gift than working with talented artists who care about the work as much as you do, who will challenge your own ideas, and inspire you to pursue new ones. I also think the very nature of light requires us to look forward and not dwell upon past work. Lighting is so ephemeral, so in the moment, that once a production is complete, I’m ready for the next artistic team I get to work with, the next production I get to work upon, the next set of problems we get to resolve, the next story to be told.”
Luce Professor of Complex Systems Studies Péter Érdi is a co-author of “Repair: When and How to Improve Broken Objects, Ourselves and Our Society.”
If you’ve ever asked yourself whether to “repair or replace” certain possessions or facets of your life, a new book co-authored by Kalamazoo College Luce Professor of Complex Systems Studies Péter Érdi is for you.
Érdi and co-author Zsuzsa Szvetelszky have released Repair: When and How to Improve Broken Objects, Ourselves and Our Society. The book, available through Springer, provides a new way of thinking about managing resources through integrating the perspectives of social psychology with complex systems theory, which is concerned with identifying and characterizing common design elements that are observed across diverse natural, technological and social complex systems.
By resources, the authors mean objects, such as cell phones and cars, along with human resources, such as family members, friends, and the small and large communities to which they belong. Their hope is that readers will understand how to repair themselves, their relationships, their communities and contribute to repairing the world.
The authors say the book is offered to Generation Z, which is growing up in a world where some aspects of life seem to be falling apart; people in their 30s and 40s, who are thinking about how to live a fulfilling life; and Baby Boomers, who are thinking back on life and how to repair relationships. Reviews have said the book is an intellectual adventure of connecting the natural and social worlds to understand the transition of going from a “throwaway society” to a “repair society.”
“Repair is supposed to be a general interest book,” Érdi said. “It converts scientific theories to conventional applications by raising and answering questions like, ‘when should we attempt to repair something, and when is it better to save one’s energy and let things go?’ We wrote the book with my Hungarian social psychologist, co-author Zsuzsa Szvetelszky, intending to explain how to live a resilient life and design resilient technological and social systems at small, intermediate and large scales.”
Érdi also wrote the 2019 book Ranking: The Hidden Rules of the Social Game We All Play, which examines how and why humans rank certain aspects of life and how those rankings are viewed. That book has been published in seven languages including German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Hungarian. Further, Érdi has been a prolific researcher with more than 40 publications published since joining K. In that time, he has given more than 60 invited lectures across the world, and he received the 2018 Florence J. Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Scholarship, honoring his contributions in creative work, research and publication. He also has been the editor-in-chief of Cognitive Systems Research and served as a vice president of the International Neural Network Society.
Plus, more publications by Érdi will be available in the near future.
“It happens that I’ve signed a contract with Springer for my subsequent book Feedback: How to Destroy or Save the World,” he said. “There is a narrow border between destruction and prosperity. To ensure reasonable growth but avoid existential risk, we need to find the fine-tuned balance between positive and negative feedback. The book will offer a non-technical intellectual journey around the application of feedback control to the emergence and management of crises from dynamical diseases to natural and social disasters.”
Kalamazoo College is pleased to welcome the following faculty members to campus this fall:
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Josie Mitchell
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Josie Mitchell
Mitchell comes to K from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received her PhD in Biochemistry through the Integrated Program in Biochemistry (IPiB). At UW-Madison, she was also a biochemistry teaching fellow and was part of the teaching team for Introduction to Biochemistry, Biochemical Methods Lab, Molecules to Life and the Nature of Science, and a journal-club style seminar for senior biochemistry majors.
Mitchell earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry with a biochemistry emphasis from Grand Valley State University. At UW-Madison, she completed the Delta Teaching Certification and the WISCIENCE Research Mentor Training programs. Her accolades also include the Graduate Leadership and Development Committee Service Award, the Sigrid Leirmo Memorial Award in Biochemistry, and multiple awards for research.
Assistant Professor of Anthropology Nupur Joshi
Assistant Professor of Anthropology Nupur Joshi
Joshi recently received a Ph.D. in human-environment geography with a minor in epidemiology from the University of Arizona. Her dissertation examined the nexus between housing tenure, water insecurity and informal water supply in slum settlements in Nairobi, requiring three years of mixed-methods fieldwork. Check out her recent publication here.
Joshi’s education also includes a master’s degree in society and culture studies from the Indian Institute of Technology in Gandhinagar and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the Savitribai Phule University of Pune.
At K, Joshi is leading courses such as Development and Dispossession, which covers the political, economic and cultural dimensions of development practice, while addressing a variety of development problems, including urbanization and food security.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Tasnim Gharaibeh
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Tasnim Gharaibeh
Gharaibeh has 14 years of international computer science teaching experience between Western Michigan University, where she led in-person and online classes including six semesters of labs for engineers; the University of Hail and Open Arab University in Saudi Arabia, where she guided education majors in computer courses; and Hashimat University and Yarmouk University in Jordan, where she instructed courses in C++ and general computer skills.
She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in computer science from Yarmouk University and a Ph.D. in computer science from Western Michigan.
Assistant Professor of English Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley
Assistant Professor of English Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley
Kingsley has come to K from Old Dominion University where he was an assistant professor of poetry and nonfiction in the school’s Master of Fine Arts program. Most recently, he taught classes there including a graduate poetry workshop, Contemporary Classics: Literature for Writers, an advanced poetry workshop, an introduction to creative writing and Writing for Video Games.
His accolades have included three poetry books: Dēmos: An American Multitude (2021, Milkweed Editions), Colonize Me (2019, Saturnalia Books) and Not Your Mama’s Melting Pot (2018, University of Nebraska Press), each of which are the winners and/or finalists of 19 literary awards.
Kingsley has a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Miami and a Master of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.
Assistant Professor of Business Sydul Karim
Assistant Professor of Business Sydul Karim
Karim began serving K in January and has previous higher education experience as an assistant professor of international business and management at Dickinson College and a research assistant at the University of New Orleans. He has also been the chief investment officer at Athena Venture and Equities Ltd., a branch manager and corporate credit relationship manager at Habib Bank Limited and a principal credit officer at AB Bank Limited, all in Bangladesh.
Karim is a published author with five peer-reviewed papers and a book chapter to his credit, along with several works in progress. His research and publications can be found online. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh, an MBA in Finance from the University of Akron, and a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of New Orleans.
Assistant Professor of Chinese Yanshuo Zhang
Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Literature Yanshuo Zhang
Zhang joined K in January 2022, coming from the University of Michigan, where she was a postdoctoral research fellow in its Center for Chinese Studies. She developed courses with an emphasis on cross-cultural communication in her previous appointments. She also has prior teaching experience in higher education as an instructor at the University of San Francisco and a lecturer in the program of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University.
Her own education consists of a Bachelor of Arts from St. Catherine University in Minnesota, a Stanford Graduate School of Business Certificate and a Ph.D. from Stanford in Chinese literature and culture. During her education, she was offered several fellowships, awards and honors, most recently dissertation fellowship awards from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange in Taiwan and the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity from Stanford, and an award for excellent Chinese students studying abroad from the Chinese National Scholarship Council.
Assistant Professor of Spanish Carlos Vazquez Cruz
Assistant Professor of Spanish Carlos Vazquez Cruz
Vazquez Cruz has more than 20 years of experience in higher education and most recently taught at institutions including the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez and McDaniel College. His teaching interests include Spanish creative writing, Latin American contemporary narratives, Latin American poetry and the visual arts and Music in Spanish Caribbean literatures. His research interests include Hispanic queer literatures, Hispanic digital projects, Spanish Caribbean visual art, Spanish American contemporary pop music and racial discourses in Latin American literatures.
Vazquez Cruz is the author of Dos centímetros de mar, a novel; 8% de desk-cuentos and its second edition, Asado a las doce, along with Malacostumbrismo, which are collections of stories; Silente, Ares and Sencilla mente, which are poetry books; La mirilla y la muralla: el estado crítico, a criticism; and Inimaginado, a collection of poetry, short stories and essays.
He holds a Ph.D. in Latin American literature with a graduate certificate in digital humanities from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master of Fine Arts in Spanish creative writing from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish education from the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts Anthony Hamilton
Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts Anthony Hamilton
Hamilton was a guest professor and director at Western Michigan University in 2021 and 2022, where he taught beginning acting, introduction to acting, and African-Americans in theatre and media. His career directing credits include The Piano Lesson, The 1940s Radio Hour and Once on This Island at the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre; Into the Woods and Skeleton Crew at WMU; You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat at Hackett Catholic Prep; and Grandma’s Quilt and Playwright’s Competition at the Negro Ensemble Company in New York. His performance credits include Shakespeare in Love, Julius Caesar, Midsummer Night’s Dream and Evita at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida; and Bengal Tiger at the Zoo and Ruined at WMU.
Hamilton was honored as the Director of the Decade and for Best Choreography for Once on This Island through Broadway World Detroit, and received the Young Artist Award from the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo in 2008. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in theatre studies from Western Michigan University and a Master of Fine Arts in theatre from Florida State University.
Visiting Assistant Professor of English Sam Tett
Visiting Assistant Professor of English Sam Tett
Tett is a recent graduate of Indiana University Bloomington, where she earned a Ph.D. in English with a concentration in Victorian studies. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Kenyon College and advanced-level qualifications in English, psychology and human biology from Greenhead College in the United Kingdom.
Tett’s professional experience includes serving as the managing editor for the flagship journal of 19th century British Literature, Victorian Studies. She also has held positions as an instructor, teaching fellow, associate instructor, research assistant and archival assistant between Indiana University and the University of Pennsylvania. She’s also been an invited lecturer and presenter at a variety of sites in the United States, United Kingdom and Italy, and has several fellowships and honors from Indiana University and Kenyon College.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics Dana Hunter
Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics Dana Hunter
Hunter is arriving at K from the University of Oregon, where she earned a Ph.D. in mathematics. There she served as a graduate researcher and instructor while teaching calculus, elementary functions, probability and statistics, and elementary math classes. She also earned the university’s Frank and Dorothy Anderson Mathematics Ph.D. Student Research Award, and was an officer in the Association of Women in Mathematics Student Chapter.
Hunter performed undergraduate research through Mount Holyoke College, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in mathematics with a physics minor, and Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics Brian Wu
Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics Brian Wu
Wu served Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, as a visiting assistant professor in 2021–22 and Oakland University as a special lecturer in 2020–21 before arriving at K.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and music from Albion College, and a Master of Science in applied statistics and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Oakland University. During his graduate work, he taught an introductory undergraduate mathematics course as a solo instructor.
Visiting Assistant Professor Chemistry Arjun Bhowmick
Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Arjun Bhowmick
Bhowmick previously served as a research and teaching assistant at the University of South Dakota’s Department of Chemistry, where he earned a Master of Science and a Ph.D. He also was an assistant professor in chemistry at the Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University in Bangladesh.
In addition to his Ph.D., Bhowmick holds a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science, both in chemistry, from Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology Ian VanderMeulen
Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology Ian VanderMeulen
VanderMeulen has previous higher-education teaching experience as a postdoctoral fellow and a postdoctoral lecturer and undergraduate advisor at New York University. He also served the League of American Orchestras for five years as the assistant editor of its quarterly symphony magazine.
He has a bachelor’s degree in music performance and religious studies from Oberlin College, a Master of Arts in near and Middle Eastern studies from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, and a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies from New York University.
His research on Qur’an recitation and sound media technologies has been published in American Ethnologist and the International Journal of Middle East Studies.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Samhitha Raj
Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Samhitha Raj
Raj is a molecular and developmental biologist who has prior experience teaching biology courses such as introductory biology and courses relating to the biology of infectious diseases.
After receiving her Bachelor of Engineering in biotechnology from the JSS Science and Technology University in Mysore, India, she attended the University of Michigan, where she earned her Ph.D. in molecular, cellular and developmental biology.
Since attaining her Ph.D., she has taught at Fulbright University Vietnam as a founding undergraduate faculty member. As a graduate student, she taught courses at the University of Michigan and the University of Veracruz in Xalapa, Mexico.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Elena Specht
Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Elena Specht
Specht is a recent recipient of a Doctor of Musical Arts in composition from Michigan State University, where she also earned a Master of Music in music theory and a university distinguished fellowship. Additionally, she holds a Master of Music in composition and a Certificate in college teaching from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she received the Thurston E. Manning Scholarship in Composition; and a Bachelor of Music in composition and music theory from the Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music, where she received the Blair Dean’s Honor Scholarship.
Specht began teaching in higher education in 2012 as a student assistant in musicology at Vanderbilt where she later was a student teaching assistant in music theory. At CU Boulder, she was a graduate teaching assistant in music theory and aural skills from 2015–17. At Michigan State, she was an instructor in composition and a graduate teaching assistant in music theory/aural skills.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Juan Carlos Guerrero-Hernandez
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Juan Carlos Guerrero-Hernandez
Guerrero-Hernandez researches and writes about contemporary and modern art and culture with an emphasis on video, photography, performance, gender, politics and experimental cinema.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in electrical engineering from Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia; a Master of Arts in philosophy from the National University of Colombia; and a Ph.D. in art history from Stony Brook University, where his dissertation was titled “Mutilated Bodies and Memories of Violence: Displacements and Contestations of Representations of Violence in Contemporary Video Art and Photography in Colombia, 1993–1998.”
Guerro-Hernandez is the author of the Spanish-language book Subverting the Order: Women Artists, Explorations and Operations in video in the 1980s in Colombia, which is due out next year. The book analyzes and discusses six paradigmatic works of six of Latin American female and Latina artists, whose work is mostly unknown or has been superficially studied.
Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow of English Monique McDade
Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow of English Monique McDade
McDade has arrived at K from the University of Nevada-Reno, where she earned a Ph.D. and was a lecturer in the Department of English, teaching classes in core writing, women’s studies, core humanities, the literature of ethnic minorities in the U.S., and theories and criticism.
She has prior teaching experience from Truckee Meadows Community College, where she taught basic English composition. Her other certifications and degrees include a Bachelor of Arts degree in literature and creative writing from the University of California, San Diego; a Master of Arts in English and creative writing from California State University, Sacramento; and a faculty teaching certificate in community engagement and a graduate certificate in gender, race and identity from Nevada-Reno.
Her book project, California Dreams and American Contradictions: Women Writers and the Western Ideal (Nebraska University Press) will be out in spring 2023.
Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow of Anthropology-Sociology Houman Oliaei
Oliaei is a sociocultural anthropologist studying forced migration, statelessness, and humanitarianism with research focusing on lived experiences of displaced Yezidis, who compose an ethnoreligious minority in northern Iraq. His first book project, On the Margins of Humanity, explores the complex interplay between humanitarian intervention, forced displacement, belonging and politics of recognition among displaced Yezidis.
Oliaei recently earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from Brandeis University, where he also earned a Master of Arts in anthropology. In addition, he holds a Bachelor of Arts in music and a Master of Arts in anthropology from the University of Tehran in Iraq.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Nayda Collazo-Llorens
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Nayda Collazo-Llorens
Collazo-Llorens, who previously was a part-time faculty member at K, is a visual artist engaged in an interdisciplinary practice incorporating multiple mediums and strategies. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Collazo-Llorens has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and Beta-Local’s El Serrucho, among others, and is a former visiting fellow at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Her work has been exhibited at El Museo del Barrio in New York City, The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami, Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, Richmond Center for Visual Arts in Kalamazoo, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in San Juan, and Museo Universitario del Chopo in Mexico City, among other national and international institutions.
Visiting Assistant Professor of History Akil Cornelius
Visiting Assistant Professor of History Akil Cornelius
Cornelius has been a fixed-term assistant instructor in the Department of History at Michigan State University, where he also earned his Ph.D. His research specializations include 19th and 20th century South Africa, migration and mobility studies, as well as a disciplinary sub-specialization in archaeology. His teaching credits include courses on the history of sports in America and a seminar in digital history.
Before his time at Michigan State, Cornelius served in the military through a 12-year career in the U.S. Intelligence Community including active duty service in the Middle East and Western Balkans. In his military service, Cornelius earned Army Commendation, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary, Global War on Terrorism Service, National Defense Service and Army Achievement medals, and Army Service and Overseas Service ribbons.
Visiting Instructor of Economics Seong-Hee Kim
Visiting Instructor of Economics Seong-Hee Kim
Kim has previous experience in higher education between Kalamazoo College and Western Michigan University, where she taught principles of microeconomics and macroeconomics, environmental and resources economics, and money and banking courses.
She is an ABD from the University of Wyoming in natural resources and environmental economics, regional and international economics, and public utility and regulation. She holds a Master of Arts in economics from Wyoming, a Bachelor of Arts from Central Missouri State University in hotel and restaurant management administration, and a Bachelor of Arts in international trade with a minor in English language and literature from Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea.
She is also a certified Korean Language Teacher (Lv. 3) and a yoga instructor.
Visiting Instructor of Music Anthony Elliott
Visiting Instructor of Music Anthony Elliott
Elliott is a conductor of the Michigan Youth Symphony Orchestra at the University of Michigan and a professor of cello. He is a longtime advocate for music in public and inner-city schools, and has worked toward the development of new constituencies with symphony boards and foundations. He has given countless workshops, clinics and performances in schools and community centers across the country.
In 1987, Elliott won the Emanuel Feuermann International Cello Competition, and was the top ranked American cellist in the 1979 Concours Cassado in Florence, Italy. He has appeared frequently as a soloist with major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony, and the CBC Toronto Orchestra. He also has conducted symphony, opera and ballet including the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra at the Blossom Music Festival. He served for many years as music director of the Houston Youth Symphony and Ballet, leading that orchestra on a two-week concert tour of Holland, Germany and Austria.
Visiting Instructor of Classics Robert Santucci
Visiting Instructor of Classics Robert Santucci
Santucci teaches Greek and Latin at K. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2022 with a dissertation on eating in the text of the Roman philosopher Seneca. He has published on Seneca, Ovid and classical reception, and has particular affinities for creative literary engagement, appetites and gender. His zodiac sign is libra, his shoe size is 13, and he plays bass guitar.
The department is receiving the AATG’s German Center of Excellence award and will be honored during the association’s annual ceremony from noon to 1:30 p.m. Sunday, November 13, available through Zoom. The designation is presented to well-established and growing German programs with demonstrated excellence in instruction, and strong support from administration, professional colleagues, alumni and students.
“There is clear evidence that the program has strong support from the administration, professional colleagues, parents and students, and has strong ties to the wider community,” AATG Executive Director Michael R. Shaughnessy said in a congratulatory letter to K’s German department. “Most impressive is the program’s curriculum. There is a clear, articulated sequence of instructional programming that is standards‐based and reflects current methodologies. Outcomes at each instructional level are clearly articulated and diverse learning styles are respected through varied instructional and assessment techniques. The materials used in the program are culturally authentic and interdisciplinary connections have been established.”
This year’s Center of Excellence honorees “represent the best in our profession,” Awards Committee Chair J.J. Melgar said in a news release. “It is inspiring to see how much these extraordinary German teachers have accomplished and how their students and our profession have benefited from their work.”
The faculty members in K’s German department include Co-Chair and Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German Kathryn Sederberg, Co-Chair and Professor of Classics Elizabeth Manwell, Instructor of German Stefania Malacrida and Assistant Professor of German Petra Watzke.
Sederberg also was honored last year after a nomination through her peers when she received the Goethe‐Institut/AATG Certificate of Merit furthering the teaching of German in the U.S. through creative activities, innovative curriculum, successful course design and significant contributions to the profession.
“This is a great honor,” Sederberg said. “In a time when many language enrollments are declining, we are fortunate to be part of a campus culture that encourages study abroad and advanced language study. As faculty members, students see what we do in the classroom, but there is also a lot of our work done behind the scenes to design and coordinate a thoughtful curriculum, and to think about how our philosophy of teaching is reflected in our courses from German 101 to the senior seminar. It is a great feeling to receive recognition for the work we are doing in our department, and for the strength of our program. This award also recognizes the excellence of our students, and our outstanding alumni who have graduated as German majors and minors. We are always grateful to our amazing students who push us to be better educators, and to our TAs from Germany who make up such an important part of our community. Hopefully this national award will also help us attract prospective students who are looking to continue their study of German, or students who are looking for a meaningful, immersive study abroad experience in the German-speaking world. Taking language classes in college is a great way to get out of your comfort zone and gain new perspectives for thinking about culture, language and society.”
“I can only echo my colleague’s statements about this honor,” Watzke added. “The award celebrates the hard work of faculty, students and TAs in the German Studies department here at K. It is especially meaningful for us because it recognizes the impact of our innovative curriculum, which defines student excellence not only as a language goal, but also in terms of community building and social justice efforts.”
Kathryn Sederberg is the Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German and co-chair of the Department of German Studies.Assistant Professor of German Petra Watzke
