That’s the theme of a recent (June 25) Washington Post article (“You’re going where? Kalamazoo is tired of your Creedence Clearwater jokes“) by freelance writer Maya Kroth. It’s a fun read, worth a slow pace all the way to the end–just like a good beer. And once you reach the end, you may wonder where’s the K connection. Well, the article quotes alumnus (and Bell’s Brewery founder) Larry Bell ’80 at length, and mentions National Book Award finalist Bonnie Jo Campbell, a former Summer Common Reading author and creative writing professor at K. Bottom line: Kalamazoo is a great place to live. You’ll find lots of cool history in Kroth’s article. And perhaps the next time she’s in town, we’ll get her to visit the ’ZOO within the ’Zoo
Category: Faculty & Staff
Kalamazoo College People in the News: Professors Lindley and Menta talk arts, Tim Eastman ’90 leads a new high school, and Grace Lee Boggs turns 100
Tim Eastman ’90 is the new principal of Mattawan (Mich.) High School, about ten miles west of Kalamazoo. Tim spent more than 20 years as a teacher and principal (since 2002) at Hackett Catholic Prep in Kalamazoo. He has a master’s degree from Western Michigan University.
Sarah Lindley, associate professor of art, and some of her recent K art students needed an estimated 800-1,000 hours to assemble “Exposure Pathways,” an art exhibit in Plainwell, Mich., north of Kalamazoo on view through July. The exhibit coincides with a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian called “The Way We Work.” Read about Professor Lindley and her exhibit in the Allegan News. Watch her talk about it on the Lori Moore Show, a Kalamazoo-area television talk-show. AND listen to her talk about her exhibit on WMUK (102.1 FM) radio.
Ed Menta, James A. B. Stone College Professor of Theatre, was a recent guest on “The Lori Moore Show” television talk show to discuss Tony Award-winning playwright Lisa Kron ’83, television stars Steven Yeun ’05 (The Walking Dead) and Jordan Klepper ’10 (The Daily Show), and other K alumni who have gone on to successful careers in theatre, television, and film.
Grace Lee Boggs recently celebrated her 100th birthday. The Detroit-based author, civil rights activist, and labor organizer received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from K in 2007. She’s visited campus numerous times in the past 10 years to meet with students, faculty, staff, and community members. Read about Grace Lee Boggs in Deadline Detroit: http://bit.ly/1dA7pRb
People in the News: RoboLobsterman, K Streeter, Top Baker…and a beloved professor
Read all about it! These members of the Kalamazoo College community are People in the News!
Dan Blustein ’06 earned his Ph.D. degree in January from Northeastern University in Boston where he helped to build and perfect a robotic lobster (no kidding) to help the United States Navy detect underwater mines near shorelines. His “RoboLobster is a robot with eight legs (each with six wires to contract or extend the robot’s leg “muscles”) and an acrylic, cylindrical body containing an electronic circuit board (the brains of the operation). Besides potentially helping the Navy, the new and improved robot can run computational neuroscience models, enabling researchers to test biological theories by programming the robot with certain hypotheses, seeing what happens, and comparing it to real world observations. Dan is now headed to the University of New Brunswick in Canada to research new ways that patients control prosthetic limbs. Currently, amputees must look at their prostheses to move them. Dan is interested in finding what sensory information about joint movement can augment visual cues.
Sage Eastman ’96, the longtime right-hand man to former U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), is now a lobbyist at Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen Bingel and Thomas. Sage got his start in GOP politics roughly two decades ago with then-Gov. John Engler of Michigan — now himself a K Street mainstay at the Business Roundtable. After working for Engler, he worked a few more campaign cycles in Michigan before moving to Washington in 2003 to work in Camp’s personal office. http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/lobbyist-profiles/245059-k-street-cultivator
Lisa Ludwinski ’06 has been named one of the best chef’s in the United States by Eater, which bills itself as a national source for people who care about dining and drinking in the nation’s most important food cities. Lisa, owner of Sister Pie Bakery in Detroit, was honored as one of the best in Eater’s national Young Guns contest. She and 16 other rising culinary stars from across the country were fêted at a gala celebration in June in Los Angeles.
http://www.eater.com/2015/6/9/8751385/eater-young-guns-party-2015#4763400
David Scarrow, Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, is the namesake for the 2015 Scarrow Friday Forum lecture series at Bay View, the resort community by Petoskey in northern Michigan. The series hosts leading professionals in areas pertinent to local, national, and world issues. The series is named in honor of Professor Scarrow, a long-time Bay View resident who recruited outstanding speakers to the Bay View campus for more than 15 years and remains active with the Bay View Education Committee and the Bay View American Experience Lecture week. www.petoskeynews.com/news/community/scarrow-forums-begin-june/article_fa653d10-ffd7-531f-8a27-3c319d0a10a5.html
Professor of Chemistry Jeff Bartz is the new Kurt D. Kaufman Chair at Kalamazoo College
Professor of Chemistry Jeffrey Bartz, Ph.D., is Kalamazoo College’s new Kurt D. Kaufman Chair. His appointment—made at the recommendation of Provost Mickey McDonald and confirmed by the College’s board of trustees—becomes effective July 1, 2015, and runs through June 30, 2020.
The chair was established through a gift by late Kalamazoo College Trustee Paul Todd ’42 in recognition of Kurt Kaufman’s significant leadership and wide influence as a faculty member at K. It’s awarded to a K faculty member to “recognize and honor campus leadership and excellence in teaching.” Regina Stevens-Truss (Chemistry) has held the Kaufman Chair for the past five years.
“I offer my warmest congratulations to Professor Bartz,” said K President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran. “Provost McDonald’s recommendation highlights Professor Bartz’s ongoing excellence as a teacher in the classroom, in the laboratory, and as a mentor. He is known as a teaching innovator on campus and for mentoring and supporting students of color and first-generation students.”
Jeff Bartz joined the K chemistry department as an assistant professor in 1997 and became a full professor in 2011. He teaches courses in physical and general chemistry and works with K students in the research laboratory. His research is in the area of chemical dynamics.
He earned a B.S. degree in chemistry with a minor in mathematics from Southwest Minnesota State University in 1985 and his Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992.
Visit Professor Bartz’s webpage.
Kurt Kaufman was a professor of chemistry at K from 1956 to 1980 who was lauded by students and faculty colleagues as an accomplished researcher and gifted communicator who loved to teach. He died in 2008.
Hornets and Bears, Oh My!
Kalamazoo College poet (and professor emeritus of English) Conrad Hilberry once wrote a poem about kids playing sandlot baseball, noting that, after a hit, the run from home to (hopefully) home again was counterclockwise—in other words: against time, a circle-sprint (maybe even ending in a dramatic slide) in the general direction of that magical place called when-we-were-younger.
Well, dust off your old baseball hat, it’s time for some time travel and everything else associated with an evening at the ballpark.
Kalamazoo College, and the Kalamazoo Growlers baseball association, presents “K Night” at Homer Stryker Field (undoubtedly the most aptly named baseball park in the country!) on Friday, July 17, at 7:05 p.m. And to throw in a little mythology to go with all that poetry, “K Night” activities include Star Wars Night and a raffle of Chewbacca-themed jerseys. Whoopee! Or, should we say: WOOKEE!
At the game, the College’s first class of Promise students will be introduced. And, speaking of firsts, the first pitch will be thrown by Kalamazoo College head softball coach Melanie Hamlin, the four-year collegiate standout from the University of Redlands. (After that first pitch, we wouldn’t be surprised if the home team asks her to stay on the field.)
Fireworks follow the game, and tickets ($12) include a new Growlers hat, which means you can throw out the old one you dusted off, or start a collection.
Bring your friends and family to support both Kalamazoo College and the Kalamazoo Growlers.
To get your tickets contact Lynsey VanSweden (269.337.7082) in the Athletic and Physical Education office. Last day to purchase tickets is Friday, July 10. Cash or check is accepted. Go Hornets! Go Growlers!
Arcato Opens Summer with “Seasons”
The Arcato Chamber Ensemble performs its summer concert, “The Seasons,” on Saturday, June 27, at 8 p.m. in Dalton Theatre (Light Fine Arts Building, Kalamazoo College). Tickets–available online or at the door–are $15 for general admission and $5 for students.
Founded in 2008 by conductor Andrew Koehler (associate professor of music), the Arcato Chamber Ensemble is a dynamic orchestra whose membership is drawn from the musicians of the Kalamazoo, West Michigan, Southwest Michigan, Battle Creek, and Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestras, as well as the faculty of Western Michigan University. Despite employing flexible instrumentation, the group’s first performances were as a string ensemble; hence the name Arcato, which means “bowed” in Italian. Numbering just 21 select players, the group unites the grandeur of symphonic sound with the intimacy and individual ownership of artistry that make chamber music so vital.
In its first summer performance this Saturday the Arcato Chamber Ensemble will perform music that celebrates all of the seasons. Beethoven’s beloved slow movement from his late Quartet in a minor, Opus 132–known as the Heiliger Dankgesang, or Holy Song of Thanks–invokes the feelings of gratitude we celebrate in fall, and is among the most profound, personal, and moving creations of the composer. It is heard in a new arrangement for full string ensemble completed by conductor Andrew Koehler. Concertmaster Renata Artman Knific steps into the role of soloist in the electric violin concerto titled “Winter” by Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi. It is the final work from a set of four concerti based on Italian poems about the seasons. Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring Suite, from the ballet written for Martha Graham, is an iconic work of Americana, and it features the famous series of variations on the Shaker hymn “’Tis a Gift to be Simple.” Heard here in its original orchestration for a small chamber ensemble of woodwinds and strings, the work’s poignancy and lyricism are even more apparent. Tchaikovsky spent a summer holiday in Italy, and was inspired to recollect the experience through a work for string sextet, which he titled “Souvenir de Florence.” Arranged here for string orchestra, Tchaikovsky’s work is a rollicking ride, full of breathless excitement and virtuosic playing for every member of the ensemble.
Exposure Pathways
Associate Professor of Art Sarah Lindley was interviewed by WMUK about her installation “Exposure Pathways.”
Sarah is the creator of one part of a three-part art installation taking place in the former Plainwell Paper Mill. “Exposure Pathways” appears with “After Operation,” an exhibition of photographs by Steve Nelson, and with “The Way We Worked,” a traveling exhibition of historic photography from the Smithsonian Institute.
After producing paper for more than 100 years Plainwell Paper Mill ceased production in 2000. In 2006 the city of Plainwell purchased the site and subsequently moved its offices to a redeveloped area of the mill. Several of the vacant structures were razed, and the historic buildings remain in a state of decline. The abandoned structures are surroundings served as source materials for the explorations of the sculptress and photographer.
The installation can be viewed from June 13 to July 19 at the former mill, along the Kalamazoo River Superfund site. One enters the exhibition through Plainwell City Hall (211 North Main Street). Gallery Talks occur Saturday, June 20 at 10:30 a.m. or 1 p.m. Those talks are open to the public and families are welcome. An Artists’ Reception (also open to the public and families) is set for Wednesday, July 15, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Come earlier if you wish to see the space with better light. Hours for the exhibition are: Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesday by appointment; Wednesday and Thursday, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“My project is in the abandoned part of the mill,” says Sarah, “which is worth the trip, itself!”
A Stories Story
“Tacos for Dragons” is just one of the many books featured in filmmaker Danny Kim’s new documentary “The Stories They Tell.”
The saga of the unlikely pairing of dragons and tacos is the labor of two seemingly unlikely co-authors, one a Kalamazoo College student and the other a third grader at Woodward Elementary in Kalamazoo.
And yet such collaborations are unlikely no more, thanks to the Co-authorship Project, the subject of Kim’s 80-minute film and the heart of Professor of Psychology Siu-Lan Tan’s developmental psychology class for the last 15 years. The Co-authorship Project gives K students the opportunity to create an original storybook with an elementary student in order to gain a deeper insight into child development. Tan’s developmental psychology class is one of many academic service-learning courses that are designed in collaboration with the College’s Center for Civic Engagement.
The documentary showcases the project from beginning to end, starting with the picking of partners and culminating in the various unique completed works. The film spans almost a decade and a half of story making, to which Kim had unique access. He and Tan are husband and wife.
True to its etymology, animation infuses both the class and the film. “The co-authorship project has made the developmental psychology class come to life,” said Tan,” awakening ideas with real world experience. The collaborations give my students something more than what they could get in books alone.” Likewise, it is truly Kim’s animation of the creativity in each story that makes this film leap to life.
“The documentary is really about relationships, learning, connecting, and imagination,” said Tan.
All of these qualities get at the heart of what the co-authorship project is for both the K students and the children.
“Imagination and creativity is a core part of the project,” said Tan. “One skill that children naturally possess is imagination and creativity.”
Kim added that the contact with college students could help to inspire elementary school aged partners to pursue higher education.
The film highlights how much each interaction with a child can help augment what a college student knows about child development and affect a life path.
The life’s work of at least two of Tan’s former students offers proof. After viewing a sneak preview of the film on campus in April, both women confirmed that the project directly influenced their decisions to pursue education as a career.
Rachelle (Tomac) Busman ’05 is a school psychologist in the Byron Center (Michigan) School District and Sally (Warner) Read ’08 is the Head of the Kazoo School, an independent school in Kalamazoo.
“I remember everything about the little girl I worked with,” said Busman.
Kim’s film captures the value (and magic) of the project for both K students and Woodward students, as well as the idea’s birth and maturation in his wife’s developmental psychology class. Kim said he hopes the documentary inspires similar projects elsewhere.
“It would be wonderful if somebody saw it and said maybe we could start something like this,” said Kim.
Although the film is not yet released to the public, Kim does plan to have a formal showing once final edits have been made.
Text by Matt Munoz ’14; photo by Danny Kim; art by Pennilane Mara
Max Cherem ’04 appointed as Marlene Crandell Francis Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Max Cherem ’04, assistant professor of philosophy, has been appointed as the Marlene Crandell Francis Assistant Professor of Philosophy beginning July 1, 2015 and running through June 30, 2018. This endowed chair is designated for “an entry-level teacher-scholar with demonstrated achievement and exceptional promise.”
Max is a K graduate, class of 2004, and was a Fulbright Fellow in Nepal the following year. He began his tenure track appointment at K in 2011 and completed his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2012. His paper “Refugee Rights: Against an Expanded Refugee Definition and Unilateral Protection Elsewhere Policies,” was recently accepted for publication in the highly regarded Journal of Political Philosophy.
Max was one of four persons in the country honored with the prestigious Humanities Writ Large Visiting Faculty Fellowship for the 2015-16 academic year. He will spend the year at Duke University working in the philosophy department and in the Kenan Institute for Ethics. His work focuses on the ethical challenges created by “externalized” state border controls: policies that try to prevent migrant arrival by projecting or outsourcing a nation’s authority over migration beyond its regular territorial borders. While he is at Duke, Max will work on two research projects about the due process standards appropriate for refugee status adjudications and the ethical issues raised by partnerships that delegate or coordinate authority. He also plans on volunteering with the refugee community in Durham area so as to learn about resettlement from their perspective. At K, Max’s teaching and research focuses on social and political philosophy, ethics and biomedical ethics, critical social theory, and philosophy of law.
Marlene Crandell Francis graduated from K in 1958 with a B.A. in English. She earned an M.A. in that subject from the University of Akron and taught there for 20 years. Returning to Michigan, she earned a Ph.D. in higher education administration at the University of Michigan. Marlene joined the Kalamazoo College board of trustees in 1980 and served on its executive committee and as secretary of the board before being elected an emerita trustee in 1998. She is the author of “A Fellowship in Learning: Kalamazoo College, 1833 – 2008,” published on the 175th anniversary of the College’s founding. Marlene and her husband, Arthur, live in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Research Award Winner
The Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA)has awarded Kalamazoo College’s Lindsay O’Donohue, director of prospect development and donor relations, with the 2015 Margaret Fuhry Grant. The award is given to a prospect development practitioner based on her leadership, mentorship, volunteerism, and dedication to the profession. At K, Lindsay leads a team responsible for implementing a robust prospect development program designed to inform and strengthen fundraising activity. She is a member of the Advancement office’s senior management team and has played a key support role in The Campaign for Kalamazoo College, which is closing in on its $125 million goal. Before she came to K, Lindsay spent six years in political fundraising, four of those years as the compliance director for former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm. Lindsay is an active member of APRA-Michigan and served on the chapter’s Board of Directors from 2012-2014. She is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a degree in political science. In July she will attend the APRA Annual International Conference in New Orleans to accept the award.