Category: Faculty & Staff

K Professor and Students Publish Encouraging Science on the Search for a Useful Bio-Indicator

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Maintaining good human health depends in part on reliable markers. Think blood pressure in cardiovascular medicine or blood sugar and triglyceride levels in determining the effects of diet on metabolic disorders. Reliable markers are important for ecological health as well, which is why science seeks them. Associate Professor of Biology Ann Fraser and five Kalamazoo College undergraduates recently published peer-reviewed science (“Evaluating Multiple Arthropod Taxa as Indicators of Invertebrate Diversity in Old Fields,” The Great Lakes Entomologist, Vol. 45, Nos. 1 – 2) that advances efforts to find a manageable indicator of the effect invasive species have on biodiversity.

Like most good science, the journey was both years long and collaborative—as well as a great example of the kind of professor-student partnerships that make science education at K great—a matter of “more in four years.” The idea for the project began with some preliminary data gathered during a lab exercise in Fraser’s Organism Diversity class. That field work took place at the College’s Lillian Anderson Arboretum, where the class sought to test whether the invasive plant species known as spotted knapweed was affecting ground-dwelling invertebrates (mainly insects). Joe Waller ’06 followed up on the preliminary class data with a more in-depth study for his Senior Individualized Project. He used pitfall traps to collect invertebrates in areas with varying densities of knapweed but was soon overwhelmed with huge numbers and types of insects to sort through. He shifted the focus of his SIP to determine whether a certain insect or other arthropod species, such as spiders, might be a proxy or reliable marker for general invertebrate diversity. He spent most of his summer sorting through and classifying thousands of specimens. In late summer a second round of pitfall sampling was conducted and the project’s torch was passed to other undergraduates.

The sorting, identification, and matching of this second sample with the first sample were conducted by Alyssa Bradshaw ’08, David Hyman ’08, Michael Johnson ’06, and Rob Morrison ’06. “We were able to identify several insect groups as promising indicators of larger invertebrate diversity in old field habitat,” said Fraser. “More work across a greater number of field sites is needed to confirm their usefulness as bio-indicators, but this is an encouraging first step in finding manageable ways to assess the impact of invasive plant species on invertebrate diversity.”

Fraser cited the pivotal role of Morrison in bringing the project to completion and publication, earning him first author on the paper. Such studies are time-consuming but well suited to undergraduate research projects. The K grads continue their science education in various ways. “Rob Morrison is conducting his Ph.D. in applied entomology at Michigan State,” said Fraser. “Joe Waller, I believe, is in a physician assistant program at Michigan or MSU. Alyssa Brayshaw has been working as a research assistant in wildlife biology and is applying to graduate programs in that subject; David Hyman is in medical school at Loyola University in Chicago, and Michael Johnson will begin his Ph.D. in paleontology at the University of Wisconsin this fall. It’s very satisfying to see this collaborative project come to fruition with a peer reviewed publication.”

Kalamazoo College Has Banner Year for Career Development Opportunities

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Externs Lauren Gaunt and Brianna Melgar with host John Kerley
Externs Lauren Gaunt ’15 and Brianna Melgar ’14 with host John Kerley ’61 on the construction site of a replica of a Spanish galleon at the San Diego Maritime Museum.

From Santa Monica, California, to Silver Spring, Maryland, from Kenya to the United Kingdom, Kalamazoo College student interns and externs are hard at work this summer, honing marketable skills, gaining experience, and building relationships with professionals in various fields.  Through the Center for Career and Professional Development’s Discovery Externship and Field Experience Programs, 39 externs and 85 interns are trying on careers in fields as diverse as medical research, non-profit administration, and small-business management.  Many are hosted by the 48 K alumni who are serving this summer as supervisors and mentors.  Many are supported financially by endowed career development funding put in place by generous donors over the years. Externs work and live with alumni hosts for one to four weeks, and interns spend at least six weeks in a supervised workplace setting.  This summer the CCPD is partnering again with the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute for Service-Learning to support the latter’s Community Building Interns, at work in Kalamazoo area nonprofit organizations. CCPD also collaborates with the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, whose interns are work at social justice advocacy organizations from Detroit to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. CCPD provides pre-departure orientations, learning contracts, opportunities for regular structured reflection, and feedback and evaluation processes for both student and supervisor.  One externship host, Heidi Gregori-Gahan ’76, described her summer experience:  “The 2-week program was intense in terms of my focus and the time spent with [my extern] during the evenings and on weekends. We had many meals together, went to a play, toured a couple of historic sites, went to a concert, and more. I think the host needs to be prepared to devote a lot of time and energy to ensuring the success of the program, and I enjoyed every moment of it. It was so nice to be able to share a part of the profession I love (international education) with an aspiring young professional–but also to know that I was giving back to the college which has meant so much in my life, both personally and professionally.”

K Art Professor Cited in Exhibition Review

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Sarah Lindley art at exhibition titled "Acts of Recognition"Sarah Lindley, Art, was one of several featured artists who participated in an exhibition titled “Acts of Recognition.” The exhibition took place at Kendall College, and according to a recent review comprised “an offering of small and heroic acts of grace that perpetuate self-reflection.” The title of Lindley’s piece is “Abandon.” The critic lauded the work, writing that it “captures the simultaneous presence and absence of landmarks that punctuate [the artist’s] daily commute. …By refusing to ground the work, Lindley transports the forms into the realm of the imagined. By doing so, factories once central to the region’s economy become susceptible to memory’s permeability.” The entire review of the show appears in the online publication H.A.C.K.

Kalamazoo Religion Professor Quoted in NY Times Article on Mormonism

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Assistant Professor of Religion Taylor Petrey is among and growing national cadre of scholars of Mormonism. He is the author of a much discussed recent article, “Toward a Post-Heterosexual Mormon Theology,” published in Dialogue, an independent Mormon journal, and on July 2 he was quoted in “The Mormon Lens on American History,” an article published in the New York Times.

English Professor’s Witch Piece Accepted–Story or Fable?

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Gail Griffin, English, writes, “I guess I’m a fiction writer now.” Her piece, “Four or Five Witches,” will be published in the October 1 issue of Phantom Drift: A Journal of New Fabulism. The October issue will be the second for the new journal and is “dedicated to developing an understanding of and appreciation for fabulist literature.” When she wrote the piece, Griffin was thinking more in terms of fable or myth and less so in terms of fiction per se. The four movements in the piece seem to belie the “or Five” in the title, but Griffin explains that those two words are “meant to be just flamingly ambiguous. The witch in the ’Red’ piece is mostly the Snow White witch but has a little of the Wicked Witch of the West about her. And in number 4, she’s both the Hansel-and-Gretel witch and the Blair Witch. I just thought I’d let the title reflect how the witch figures morph into each other.” Check out the entire story (or fable) come October!

 

Basketball Coach Will Move to Oregon

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Rob Passage
Rob Passage, Men’s Basketball Coach

Rob Passage ’93, Kalamazoo College’s head men’s basketball coach since 2002-03, announced this week that he is leaving to become the athletic facilities and operations manager at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.

“We are extremely grateful to Rob for his hard work, dedication, and commitment to Kalamazoo College,” said Kristen Smith, Director of Athletics, “He was a mentor to student-athletes and coaches, not just in basketball, but in many of our programs. He will be missed, but we wish him all the best in his new position.”

In addition to his head coaching duties, Passage served as the assistant athletic director for operations and facilities and assistant professor of physical education.

“My years at Kalamazoo have been filled with great friends, colleagues, and student-athletes,” Passage said, “K has provided me with so many great experiences since I first stepped onto campus as a student in the fall of 1989. I can only hope that I have been able to positively impact the K community even just a portion of how much it impacted my life. Kalamazoo College will always be a special place to me, but it is time for me to move on to other challenges and opportunities.”

A search for his replacement will begin immediately.

Professor Werner Appointed Marlene Crandell Francis Assistant Professor in the Humanities

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Assistant Professor of History Janelle Werner has been appointed the Marlene Crandell Francis Assistant Professor in the Humanities, effective July 1, 2012.

Werner earned her Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Here teaching interests include medieval Europe, early modern Europe (1500-1789), Reformation Europe, and British history to 1660. Her thematic fields focus on cross-cultural contact (Byzantium, Europe, Islam); popular religion and lay piety; social and cultural history; and women, gender, and sexuality.

Professor Péter Érdi Speaks at European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research

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Péter Érdi, Psychology and Complex Systems Studies, was a keynote speaker and a round table participant at the European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research that took place at the University of Vienna in April.

His talk was a memorial lecture on Luigi Ricciardi, a longstanding participant in the EMCSR, against the background of the development of systems thinking in biology. The round table in which Érdi participated focused on the past, present, and future of cybernetics and systems research.

Mellon Grant to K

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The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has approved a four-year $500,000 grant to Kalamazoo College to support faculty development and curricular enhancements within the College’s Shared Passages Seminars, a program that helps students focus on critical thinking and writing skills, delve deeply into cultural issues, integrate their K experiences, and prepare for life after graduation.

Shared Passages Seminars are a unifying arc through K’s more open liberal arts curriculum introduced in 2009, and serve as both preparation for and integration of all of the K-Plan components: depth and breadth in the liberal arts; learning through experience; intercultural and international engagement, especially through study abroad; and independent scholarship, culminating in the Senior Individualized Project.

Seminars are required in each year except the junior year at K when more than 80 percent of students complete a study abroad or study away experience lasting an average of six months.

“This grant will afford faculty the opportunity to individually and collectively explore innovative and effective pedagogies, and develop new and revised course offerings in the seminar program,” said Kalamazoo College Provost Mickey McDonald.