faculty

K Professor Featured in Mormon Gay Marriage Documentary

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A Kalamazoo College professor has a featured role in a documentary, premiering Sunday, about the improbable toppling of Utah’s gay marriage ban.

Taylor Petrey, associate professor of religion, says he gave an extensive interview to the makers of “Church and State” about the role of the Salt Lake City-based Church of Latter-day Saints in the fight against legalizing gay marriage.

Taylor Petrey Gay Marriage Documentary
Taylor Petrey, associate professor of religion, has a featured role in a documentary, premiering Sunday, about the improbable toppling of Utah’s gay marriage ban.

The movie, premiering at the American Documentary Film Festival in Palm Springs, California, documents how a gay-rights activist teamed with a small Salt Lake City law firm to win an unexpected 2013 court ruling that overturned the conservative state’s law against same-sex marriage. When the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the ban the next October, gay marriage became legal in Utah. With a Supreme Court ruling in 2015, it became the law nationwide.

Utah is more than 60 percent Mormon, and “the conflict between Mormons and gay-rights activists became the defining issue of modern Mormonism,” Petrey says in a clip from the movie trailer.

In the interview for the movie, Petrey, who was raised in Utah and is a member of the church, addressed how Mormons, as they sought mainstream acceptance, moved from sanctioning an alternative form of marriage — polygamy, which they abandoned in 1890 — to adopting conservative positions on social issues that mirrored those of evangelical Christians.Church and State

Though he specializes at K in the history of ancient Christianity, he also studied the history of Mormonism and sexuality, and wrote about the issue during a 2016-17 stint as a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School.

He says he first met one of the Utah-based producers of “Church and State,” Kendall Wilcox, five or six years ago during a previous project on gay Mormons. “We’ve been in touch off and on,” he says.

Wilcox’s partner in the production, Holly Tuckett, says that in the film–edited, coincidentally, by Kalamazoo native Torben Bernhard–Petrey appears repeatedly, serving as the main authority on the history and positions of the church on homosexuality and gay marriage.

“He helps contextualize all of that for us.” she says.

Petrey says the choice to use him as an expert on the subject was understandable.

“It’s a small world of Mormons who are interested in this stuff,” he says.

He hasn’t seen the movie and got his first glimpse of it when he watched the trailer online, he says. Set to be released to theaters late this summer, it was named as one of the documentary festival’s “10 must-see” films by The Desert Sun of Palm Springs.

“I guess I’ll see it when the rest of the world sees it in August,” Petrey says.

Five Faculty Members Receive Tenure

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With specialties ranging from the psychology of adolescents to Victorian literature, five Kalamazoo College professors have achieved tenure.

The milestone recognizes the scholarship and teaching they have completed to the point of tenure, and it is also a sign of confidence in the contributions they will make during their entire careers. The College’s Board of Trustees, meeting in March, voted to grant tenure to:

Kyla Day Fletcher, Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of Psychology

Ryan Fong tenure
Ryan Fong
Kyla Day Fletcher tenure
Kyla Day Fletcher

Fletcher holds a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Michigan. Her scholarly work focuses on the role of culture, socialization, and decision-making on sexual health and substance use outcomes among adolescents and young adults.

Ryan Fong, assistant professor of English

Fong holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Davis. He teaches a broad range of courses in 19th- and 20th-century British literature, as well as courses in women, gender and sexuality. His research focuses on Victorian literature and culture and, more specifically, how the Victorian novel has shaped and been shaped by contemporary fiction, film and popular culture.

Tenure Amy MacMillan
Amy MacMillan
Marin Heinritz tenure
Marin Heinritz

Marin Heinritz ’99, assistant professor of English

Heinritz holds a Ph.D. in English from Western Michigan University. She teaches courses in journalism, creative nonfiction writing, and literary theory. Her scholarly and creative work includes feature and arts reviews in journalism and memoir and flash essays in creative writing.

Amy MacMillan, L. Lee Stryker Assistant Professor of Business Management

MacMillan holds an MBA from Harvard University. She teaches courses in marketing and management. While she comes to academia from the corporate sector, she has developed research interests in marketing-related areas as well as in the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Noriko Sugimori

Noriko Sugimori, assistant professor of Japanese

Sugimori holds a Ph.D. in applied linguistics from Boston University. She teaches intermediate and advanced Japanese language courses, as well as select courses on Japanese culture and society taught in English. Her interests span multiple disciplines including sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, language ideology, oral history, integrating technology into teaching Japanese, and bilingualism.

K Professor, Author a Finalist for George Washington Prize

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Kalamazoo College History Professor James Lewis has been named a finalist for the George Washington Prize, a $50,000 annual award that recognizes the authors of the past year’s most influential books about the nation’s founding era.

George Washington Prize nominated book
“The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering the Story of an Early American Crisis,” written by K History Professor James Lewis, is a finalist for the George Washington Prize.

Lewis’s 2017 book, “The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering the Story of an Early American Crisis,” explores former Vice President Aaron Burr’s travels through the Trans-Appalachian West in 1805 and 1806, gathering support for a mysterious enterprise, leading to his arrest and trial on treason charges in 1807. Rumors at the time stated Burr had enticed some people with plans to liberate Spanish Mexico, others with promises of land in the Louisiana Purchase, and others with talk of building a new empire beyond the Appalachian Mountains.

The book, available through many bookstores and online sites, also examines the political and cultural forces that shaped how Americans made sense of Burr’s intentions and movements, and the crisis after his arrest including concerns about the nation’s fragile union and uncertain republic.

Lewis has taught courses in U.S. history, Native American history, American environmental history, Revolutionary America, the American frontier and Western history, the history of U.S. foreign relations, post-World War II America, American political culture, the trial in American history and a senior seminar in history at K. He is a professional member of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians and the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.

Lewis’s other books include:

  • “The Louisiana Purchase: Jefferson’s Noble Bargain?” (2003);
  • “John Quincy Adams: Policymaker for the Union” (2001); and
  • “The American Union and the Problem of Neighborhood: The United States and the Collapse of the Spanish Empire, 1783-1829” (1998).

The George Washington Prize was created in 2005 through the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, George Washington’s Mount Vernon and Washington College. A news release from Washington College says the honor is one of the nation’s largest and most notable literary awards. In addition, “The finalists’ books combine depth of scholarship and broad expanse of inquiry with vivid prose that exposes the complexities of our founding narrative. Written to engage a wide public audience, the books provide a ‘go-to’ reading list for anyone interested in learning more about George Washington, his contemporaries, and the founding of the United States of America.”

George Washington Prize nominee James Lewis
Kalamazoo College History Professor James Lewis is the author of “The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering the Story of an Early American Crisis,” which is a finalist for the George Washington Prize.

The other six authors named as finalists for the 2018 award are:

  • Max Edelson for “The New Map of Empire: How Britain Imagined America before Independence;”
  • Kevin J. Hayes for “George Washington: A Life in Books;”
  • Eric Hinderaker for “Boston’s Massacre;”
  • Jon Kukla for “Patrick Henry: Champion of Liberty;”
  • Jennifer Van Horn for “The Power of Objects in Eighteenth-Century America;” and
  • Douglas L. Winiarski, “Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Experiencing Religious Awakenings in Eighteenth-Century New England.”

The winner of the 2018 George Washington Prize will be announced and all finalists will be recognized at a black-tie gala May 23 at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

 

HERS Institute Selects K Associate Provost for Cohort

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Kalamazoo College Associate Provost Laura Lowe Furge is one of 65 women leaders from across the country who has been selected to attend the 2018 Higher Education Resource Services (HERS) Institute. Furge will be a part of the University of Denver cohort that meets from June 18-30.

Laura Lowe Furge HERS Institute
Furge, who is also a professor of chemistry, was one of just six HERS attendees awarded a Clare Boothe Luce (CBL) Scholarship, which provides full tuition, accommodations, meals and travel to women in STEM higher education to attend the HERS Institute.

The HERS Institute will support and encourage women as they develop strategies for their leadership roles and establish communities including peer-and-mentor connections. Working together, they can thrive in and shape a new environment for equality and excellence in higher education.

Furge, who is also a professor of chemistry, was one of just six HERS attendees awarded a Clare Boothe Luce (CBL) Scholarship, which provides full tuition, accommodations, meals and travel to women in STEM higher education to attend the Institute.

For more information on the HERS Institute, visit its website.

K Professor’s Book Offers New Perspectives on Sierra Leone

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Book cover for The Temne of Sierra Leone
“The Temne of Sierra Leone: African Agency in the Making of a British Colony” promotes new perspectives on the formation and social history of Sierra Leone.
Associate Professor of History Joesph Bangura
Associate Professor Joseph Bangura is the chair of the History Department and the director of African Studies.
Title page of book on Sierra Leone

A new book written by Kalamazoo College Associate Professor of History Joseph Bangura promotes new perspectives on the formation and social history of Sierra Leone.

Research regarding Sierra Leone typically focuses on the roles of the Creoles and/or Krio, who were descendants of ex-slaves from Europe, North America, Jamaica and Africa living in the colony. Bangura, however, examines the roles of the indigenous Temne-speakers through the socio-economic formation, establishment and evolution of Freetown in “The Temne of Sierra Leone: African Agency in the Making of a British Colony.”

Bangura’s analysis includes market women, religious figures and community leaders, and the complex relationships they developed. He also considers key issues such as the politics of belonging, African agency and the creation of national identities.

At K, Bangura is the chair of the History Department and the director of African Studies. He has taught such courses as:

• The Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa;
• Introduction to African Studies
• Islam in Africa;
• Civilizations of Africa;
• Contemporary Africa;
• Gender Relations in Africa;
• Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade;
• African Christianity;
• Globalization and International Politics;
• Globalization and Africa;
• War and Peace in Africa; and
• The Cold War in Africa.

Bangura earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. from Dalhousie University, and his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Sierra Leone. He co-edited two other books with Marda Mustapha, “Democratization and Human Security in Sierra Leone,” which was released in 2015; and “Sierra Leone beyond the Lome Peace Accord,” which was released in 2010.

Bangura’s professional memberships include the African Studies Association, the Africa Network, the West African Research Association and the National Social Sciences Association.

Learn more about “The Temne of Sierra Leone: African Agency in the Making of a British Colony” through its publisher, Cambridge University Press.

GLCA Appoints K Provost as its New President

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The Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) has appointed Kalamazoo College Provost Mickey McDonald as its new president. McDonald will begin his position at the GLCA in July 2018.

New GLCA President Mickey McDonald
Kalamazoo College Provost Mickey McDonald will begin serving the Great Lakes Association of Colleges (GLCA) as its president in July 2018.

K President Jorge Gonzalez will consult with faculty leadership to plan for the appointment of an interim provost to serve during the 2018-19 academic year. K will also begin preparations for a national search for the provost position.

In a message to faculty and staff, President Gonzalez wrote that McDonald provided invaluable support and counsel during his presidency. “I will miss his sharp mind, insightful knowledge of the College and of higher education, unflappable personality, good humor, and friendship. Mickey’s selection for the GLCA presidency is a testament of his leadership abilities and of K’s reputation in the higher education community.”

During his nearly 10 years of service, McDonald significantly shaped Kalamazoo College’s faculty, curriculum and future. He hired approximately one-third of the tenure-track/tenured faculty currently at K, increasing faculty of color from approximately 15 percent to 25 percent, and women faculty from approximately 45 percent to 55 percent.

McDonald helped support implementation of many of the elements of the Plan for Kalamazoo College’s Future including faculty approval of new graduation requirements and other curricular innovations, and an increasing emphasis on making K more diverse and inclusive. His leadership will help shape the vision of K for the next five years as he currently serves as co-coordinator of K’s current strategic planning initiative.

With former President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran and others, McDonald helped envision, plan and establish the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. He also helped secure more than $3.25 million in major institutional grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (in support of the Shared Passages Program and also in support of major diversity and inclusion initiatives), the Sherman-Fairchild Foundation, Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, and the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, among others. He served as acting president of K from December 2013 through March 2014.

Higher education leadership and local community engagement are values K holds, and McDonald participated enthusiastically and frequently. Locally, he serves on the Board of Directors of Farmers Alley Theatre, and regionally, he served on the Southwest Michigan First Education Committee. He served as a member of the Advisory Board of the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education and served as facilitator for a number of leadership development programs for the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC).

K History Professor Unveils ‘Burr Conspiracy’ Book

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Kalamazoo College History Professor James Lewis has released a new book through Princeton University Press about former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr.

"The Burr Conspiracy" author James Lewis
History Professor James Lewis is the author of “The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering the Story of an Early American Crisis.”

'The Burr Conspiracy' book cover
“The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering the Story of an Early American Crisis” is available through many bookstores and websites.

“The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering the Story of an Early American Crisis” explores Burr’s travels through the Trans-Appalachian West in 1805 and 1806, gathering support for a mysterious enterprise, leading to his arrest and trial on treason charges in 1807. Rumors at the time stated Burr had enticed some people with plans to liberate Spanish Mexico, others with promises of land in the Louisiana Purchase, and others with talk of building a new empire beyond the Appalachian Mountains.

The book, available through many bookstores and online sites, also examines the political and cultural forces that shaped how Americans made sense of Burr’s intentions and movements, and the crisis after his arrest including concerns about the nation’s fragile union and uncertain republic.

Lewis has taught courses in U.S. history, Native American history, American environmental history, Revolutionary America, the American frontier and Western history, the history of U.S. foreign relations, post-World War II America, American political culture, the trial in American history and a senior seminar in history at K. He is a professional member of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians and the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.

Lewis’s other books include:

  • “The Louisiana Purchase: Jefferson’s Noble Bargain?” (2003);
  • “John Quincy Adams: Policymaker for the Union” (2001); and
  • “The American Union and the Problem of Neighborhood: The United States and the Collapse of the Spanish Empire, 1783-1829” (1998).

Lewis earned a bachelor’s degree in government and foreign affairs from the College of William and Mary, a master’s degree in history from the American University, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Virginia. He has been teaching at K since 2003.

 

BachFest Christmas! a Major Debut for New Music Director

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Speaking about his ambitions for the Kalamazoo Bach Festival, new Music Director Christopher Ludwa talks about what inspires him.

New Music Director Christopher Ludwa
New Music Director Christopher Ludwa is acutely aware of the traditions that surround him as he becomes the festival’s first new director in 21 years.

Johann Sebastian Bach, the festival’s namesake? A reverence for the ancient traditions of choral music? The long history of the organization founded by Kalamazoo College Professor Henry Overly in 1946? All those things, of course. But also Steve Jobs, the late co-founder and CEO of Apple.

“Steve Jobs was brilliant at making you think you had to have his latest device,” Ludwa says. “My job is to make people feel like if they’re not going to a Bach Festival concert that they’re missing something really special.”

Sitting in his office at Light Fine Arts, where his desk shares space with a baby grand piano, Ludwa is acutely aware of the traditions that surround him as he becomes the festival’s first new director in 21 years. But as he steps into the role vacated by the retirement of K Professor Jim Turner, he says almost every tradition began with an innovation and that he hopes to establish some new ones for the community ensemble (whose numbers range from 70 to 90, depending on the performance venue and the repertoire’s needs).

The 2017 BachFest Christmas Concert on Dec. 3 in Stetson Chapel, the first major event for the chorus under Ludwa, will showcase his approach.

“Our name is Bach so we’re going to start with Bach’s ‘Magnificat,’ ” he says, referring to the master’s nearly 300-year-old composition based on the Virgin Mary’s song of praise in the Gospel of Luke. “But the second piece in the concert is going to be a Yoruba Christmas carol from Nigeria.”

The drum-driven syncopation of “Betelehemu,” the product of a collaboration between African-American music educator Wendell Whalum and Babatunde Olatunji, a Yoruba musician, contrasts with the Bach’s Baroque sonority. But Ludwa says the two pieces have much in common.

“Where I see the link is that you have completely different traditions in terms of schooling and background, and yet this common thread of the story, the story of this young mother having a birth experience that is, for her, life-changing and potentially, for humanity,” he says. “And so we show the audience the contrast between these two and we also bring them together and say, ‘Here’s the link.’ ”

Taking the chorus and its audiences on such musical explorations promises to be a Ludwa hallmark – a method he sees complementing Kalamazoo College’s multicultural approach to the liberal arts. He also speaks of enhancing the chorus’ technical mastery and educational value by establishing a structure in which K music students are mentored by the chorus’ five professional members and, in turn, mentor younger singers drawn from local high schools. “So you have this kind of layer cake of training,” he says, “that uses the talent of the professional section leaders we have to groom the students and that helps them develop their own leadership skills.”

What innovations does the future hold?

“One of the pieces that really blows my mind right now is ‘Hamilton’ ” Ludwa says, referring to the hip-hop musical that has taken Broadway by storm. “The relevance and brilliance of the way that text was set is on par with Cole Porter and Irving Berlin.”

The maestro grins.

“Obviously, it’ll be a long time before the Bach Festival does a medley of Hamilton pieces. However …”

BachFest Christmas! is scheduled for 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 3, 2017, at Kalamazoo College’s Stetson Chapel. The Bach Festival Chorus, directed by new Music Director Christopher Ludwa, will be joined by the Western Brass Quintet and the Portage Central High School Chamber Singers. Tickets are $18 to $29 at http://kalamazoobachfestival.tix.com, with $5 admission for students with school identification. For more information, call 269.337.7407.

 

 

K Professor Releases Second Edition of ‘Psychology of Music’

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Kalamazoo College Psychology Professor Siu-Lan Tan, with co-authors Peter Pfordresher and Rom Harré, has released a second edition of her 2010 book titled “Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance.”

Psychology of Music Book Cover
The second edition of “Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance” was released on Monday, Nov. 6.

Psychology of Music Professor Siu-Lan Tan
Psychology of Music Professor Siu-Lan Tan signs copies of her book “The Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance.” The book’s second edition was released Nov. 6.

The new version, released Nov. 6 through Routledge Publishing, considers music from its beginning as an acoustical signal to its manifestations across cultures. As a second edition, it puts greater emphasis on linking academic learning to real-world contexts, and on compelling topics that appeal to students and their curiosity.

Chapters have been updated with about 500 new citations to reflect advances in the field. A new “Chapters in Action” section includes exercises and application assignments designed to engage students in active learning.

Tan has enjoyed teaching since 1998. Her research focuses on listeners’ perception of musical structure, graphic representations of music, and the role of music in film and other multimedia. Her other contributions to the field of psychology in music have included a book titled “The Psychology of Music in Multimedia,” published by Oxford University Press in 2013; and a film documentary released last year, “SCORE: A Film Music Documentary.”

 

‘Remarkably Thoughtful Gift’ Recognizes Professor’s Legacy

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Joseph Stulberg ’67 says he sometimes marvels at how two or three years spent in a particular place can set the course for a lifetime.

Stulberg gift
Suzie Gonzalez ’83, Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez, Midge Stulberg, Janet and David Scarrow and Joseph (Josh) Stulberg ’67 (from left to right) gather at the home of Philosophy Department Chairman Christopher Latiolais during Homecoming weekend to celebrate the Stulbergs’ endowment of the Janet and David S. Scarrow Endowment for Philosophy.

For Stulberg, more commonly known as Josh, that place was Kalamazoo College, where people like David Scarrow, then a philosophy professor, and Scarrow’s wife Janet served as role models who inspired his own distinguished academic career.

Marking the 50th anniversary of his graduation and his class reunion during the 2017 Homecoming weekend, Stulberg – the Michael E. Moritz Chair in Alternative Dispute Resolution at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law – and his wife Midge are creating the Janet and David S. Scarrow Endowment for Philosophy. He says the fund is aimed at ensuring today’s Kalamazoo College philosophy majors have the sort of experience that helped shape his life.

The Stulbergs previously created scholarships for students majoring in philosophy and in English or theatre. Philosophy Department Chair Christopher Latiolais says their latest gift goes a step further, both supporting students and making possible what he hopes will be a fundamental element of the department’s program: the funding of teaching assistantships for philosophy majors.

The Scarrow Endowment will also support travel by philosophy majors to academic conferences where they can gain experience presenting their research. And Latiolais says the department hopes to launch an annual newsletter to help keep alumni connected to current students.

He says the Stulbergs’ gift is not only the largest the department has received during his tenure, but also is the product of years of discussions with the couple, who asked “hard, good, strong questions about what we were doing.”

“I thought it was a remarkably thoughtful gift,” Latiolais says.

College President Jorge G. Gonzalez says it is especially gratifying to see one professor honor another – and in the process, foster yet another generation of scholars.

“It reinforces that we are part of a profession that values its past yet is always looking ahead,” he said. “Nowhere is that more apparent than at a place like Kalamazoo College, where the liberal arts tradition endures.”

Stulberg says he and his wife are “thrilled” to be able to “provide some tangible resources” to support the mission of liberal arts education at Kalamazoo College – “the place I know best.”

As for Scarrow, now 91, he is self-effacing when asked about the reverence Stulberg holds for him, but pleased, honored and confident that the endowment “will enhance the lives of students who are serious about studying philosophy.”

For more information about the Janet and David S. Scarrow Endowment for Philosophy, contact Al DeSimone, Kalamazoo College Vice President for Advancement, at 269.337.7292 or Al.DeSimone@kzoo.edu.

– Text by Editorial Director Bill Steiden