faculty

Mud-Luscious and Puddle-Wonderful

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Young boy in rain gear splashes in puddles
Jack in Puddle (Robert Murphy). http://www.flickr.com/photos/imurphy/22752012/ Creative commons license

Spring means puddles and puddles mean children and children mean the hard work of play, a.k.a. some pretty cool voyages to some wild new worlds, all within a puddle. To prepare her latest blog post (which could easily double as an homage to e.e. cummings) Associate Professor of Psychology Siu-Lan Tan watched hours of YouTube videos of infants and toddlers interacting with the puddle-wonderful universe of early spring snow-melt or rain’s footprints. She culled them down to a list of eight favorites and shared the list on the Psychology Today website. Those favorites include: Boy Meets First Puddle; Puddle Splashing in Cape Breton; Athena Splashing in Puddles; Charlie Discovers Puddles; Freya’s First Puddle; What if You Encounter a Mud Puddle When You’re Driving Your John Deere Tractor?; Little Girl in Pink Snowsuit Discovers Ice for the First Time; and A Kid, A Dog, and a Puddle–and there’s a lot of learning going on in each, for both the subjects and the viewer. For the latter, Siu-Lan writes comments about the psychological “goings-on” in each encounter. These include phenomena studied by the developmental psychologist Jean Piaget (circular reactions and sensorimotor intelligence) and other concepts such as joint attention episode, self efficacy, interactional synchrony, and linkage between joy and academic success.

“As I sifted through scores of videos of infants and children stomping and splashing in puddles, I was reminded that play is a child’s work,” Siu-Lan wrote. “The foundations of everything a child needs to learn across the domains–cognitive, emotional, and social–are learned through play. This is so beautifully illustrated in a moment of curiosity, discovery, and joy of a child, evoked by a small pool of water left after the rain.”

Siu-Lan blogs regularly for Psychology Today under the rubric “What Shapes Film? Elements of the Cinematic Experience and More.”

Like Lit? Come to K …

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Dean of Kalamazoo area poets Con Hilberry
Con Hilberry, dean of Kalamazoo area poets, during a recent reading and celebration of his latest collection of poetry in the College’s Olmsted Room. Photo by Ly Nguyen ’14.

… would be the advice of an article by Anna Clark titled “Kalamazoo quietly emerging as a literary hot spot” that appeared in the Detroit Free Press and Lansing State Journal. Of course, K stands for Kalamazoo (the city) but certainly includes Kalamazoo College. The article quotes Bonnie Jo Campbell (author of American Salvage and Once Upon a River, among others) extensively, and Campbell has taught creative writing at K, and she has served as the College’s 2012 Summer Common Reading author. Literary prizes abound for Kalamazoo-area-related authors (Campbell has been a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics’ Circle Award; David Small is a National Book Award finalist for his graphic memoir Stitches (and a former faculty member in K’s art department); and Western Michigan University’s Jaimy Gordon is the 2010 National Book Award Winner (Lord of Misrule). Kalamazoo College connections abound, as well. Campbell was a frequent member of  a Monday night poetry class taught by Professor Emeritus of English and poet Con Hilberry (11 books, including, most recently, the highly acclaimed Until the Full Moon Has its Say). Campbell’s poems have appeared in Encore Magazine. Other former students of Con include published poets (and Kalamazoo residents and alumnae) Susan (Blackwell) Ramsey ’72 (A Mind Like This) and Gail (McMurray) Martin ’74 (Begin Empty Handed and The Hourglass Heart). Kalamazoo College Writer in Residence (and Kalamazoo resident and alumna) Diane Seuss ’78 will soon publish Four Legged Girl, which follows her two previous volumes of poetry (It Blows You Hollow and Wolf Lake White Gown Blown Open). Fiction writer and Professor of English Andy Mozina has published The Women Were Leaving the Men, and his new collection of short stories, Quality Snacks, is forthcoming. Professor of English Bruce Mills is currently on sabbatical promoting his new memoir An Archeology of Yearning. Mozina and Mills both reside in Kalamazoo. Professor Emeritus of English Gail Griffin (another Kalamazoo resident) is using her retirement to work on her next work. She is the author of the breathtaking “The Events of October”: Murder-Suicide on a Small Campus. Gail is also a published poet, and she has written a number of essay collections, including Calling: Essays on Teaching in the Mother Tongue and Season of the Witch: Border Lines, Marginal Notes. Yes, Kalamazoo College is the right place for literature. There may be no other place where it’s likely to go better.

Tenure and Class Dean Appointments

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Four outstanding Kalamazoo College teachers were awarded tenure and promoted to the rank of associate professor. The four individuals, and their departments, are: Dennis Frost (Ph.D., Columbia University), history and East Asian studies; Christine Hahn (Ph.D., University of Chicago), art and art history; Autumn Hostetter (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison), psychology; and Babli Sinha (Ph.D., University of Chicago), English and media studies. Frost, who is the Wen Chao Chen Associate Professor of East Asian Social Sciences, will serve as Dean of the Sophomore Class. Hostetter will serve as Dean of the Junior Class. Features on these four will appear in upcoming issues of the College’s publications.

Art Professor Honored for Civic Engagement

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Associate Professor of Art Sarah Lindley receives an award
Associate Professor of Art Sarah Lindley received the Michigan Campus Compact Faculty/Staff Service Learning Award.

Michigan Campus Compact (MiCC) honored Associate Professor of Art Sarah Lindley with its biennial MiCC Faculty/Staff Community Service-Learning Award, the highest honor that MiCC bestows on faculty and staff in the state of Michigan.

Lindley has made outstanding contributions in service-learning, and she has inspired students to become involved in service-learning through modeling, influencing, and instruction. She was nominated by Alison Geist, director of the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement.

Since 2005 Lindley has taught at least one community-engaged arts course every year, and her students have completed multiple projects involving a wide variety of community partners and thousands of residents. Lindley has worked with the County Center for Health Equity, Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes, Michigan Commission for the Blind, the YWCA, Education for the Arts, Fire Historical and Cultural Arts Collaborative, the Black Arts and Cultural Center, Ministry with Community, and Art Hop. She and her students have used arts as a vehicle for community and personal transformation, creating work that is useful, thoughtful, and inclusive. Lindley created the new Kalamazoo College Community Studio in the downtown Park Trades Center, and she has previously been honored with the Marcia Jackson Hunger Awareness Award by Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes.

MiCC is a coalition of college and university presidents who are committed to fulfilling the public purpose of higher education. The organization helps students develop into engaged citizens by creating and expanding academic, co-curricular, and campus-wide opportunities for community service, service-learning, and civic engagement.

Headline and Lead Combine “Data,” “Value,” and Kalamazoo College

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Associate Provost Paul Sotherland
Associate Provost Paul Sotherland is an expert on K outcomes in the Collegiate Learning Assessment.

A Wall Street Journal article (“College Uses Test Data to Show Value,” by Douglas Belkin, February 20, 2014) describes K’s efforts to measure (and market) the gains its students experience in critical thinking and problem solving skills because of the K undergraduate learning experience.

The article notes that K leads a growing trend of colleges and universities becoming more transparent about sharing test data and other metrics to show the learning outcomes of a higher education. For his story Belkin interviewed Dean of Admission Eric Staab and Associate Provost Paul Sotherland as well  students and their parents for his article. The piece notes that K (Sotherland) shares data that documents the effect and value of a K education with parents and prospective students during campus visits.

Much of that data originates from the Collegiate Learning Assessment, currently the most reliable direct measure of students’ gains in critical thinking, analytical reasoning, writing, and problem solving as a result of particular undergraduate learning experiences. What distinguishes the CLA from other assessments is its focus on direct measures of learning rather than an aggregate of surrogate markers that include, for example (in some rankings), the size of an institution’s endowment or the number of alumni that provide annual gifts.

FIREBUGS Alights

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Three students rehearse for "The Firebugs"
Mikey Wecht ’14 (left, Chorus Leader), Madison Donoho ’17 (center, Eisenring) and Jack Massion ’14 (Biedermann) in a scene from THE FIREBUGS. Costumes by Elaine Kauffman. Photo by Emily Salswedel, ’17

Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College presents Max Frisch’s The Firebugs on Thursday, February 27, through Sunday, March 2, at the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse. The reprise (the play was originally staged and directed by K theatre arts professor Nelda Balch in 1964) celebrates the 50th anniversary of Festival Playhouse, which was founded by Balch.

The Firebugs is a satirical comedy that tells the story of Biedermann, a man who foolishly allows two arsonists into his home. Fearful of offending of them, he goes out of his way to accommodate their outrageous requests, much to his own—and others’—detriment.

A comedy that Frisch himself described as “a learning play without a lesson,” Firebugs nevertheless delivers a serious and timely message. Dramaturg Belinda McCauley ’16 says, “It has been speculated for decades that Biedermann’s dilemma throughout the play is allegorical to the way humans unintentionally allow evil into their lives, most specifically how the Nazis worked their way into the lives of average German citizens.”

Director Nora Hauk ’04, currently working on her doctoral dissertation in sociocultural anthropology at the University of Michigan, emphasizes that Biedermann chooses political correctness over what he knows to be true and right—with dire consequences. “The Firebugs is a play about the trouble that people can get into as they try to maintain the status quo and their own social standing in the face of major challenges,” explains Hauk. “Despite all the warning signs, Biedermann fails to take a stand.”

“There are many messages one could possibly take away from The Firebugs,” says McCauley, “but perhaps the one to be concerned with is the way words are used. What do your words say about you? Do your words start fires? Or do your words save lives?”

The production’s design team includes Professor of Theatre Arts Lanny Potts (scenery), Elaine Kauffman (costumes), Lydia Strini ’14 (lights) and Lindsay Worthington ’16 (sound).

The show opens Thursday, February 27 (pay what you can), at 7:30 PM. Friday (February 28) and Saturday (February 28) performances begin at 8 PM. Curtain rises for Sunday’s performance (March 2) at 2 PM. For all performances except Thursday’s tickets are $5 for students, $10 for seniors, and $15 for other adults. Tickets may be purchased at the door. For more information about these and the remainder of Festival Playhouse’s golden anniversary season (including Peer Gynt) call 269.337.7333 or visit the Festival Playhouse website.

Professor Emeritus of Sociology Richard Means Dies

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Richard L. Means dressed in commencement attireRichard L. Means ’52, professor emeritus of sociology, died on February 15, 2014. He came to K as an undergraduate student in 1948, when he transferred from the University of Toledo. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. At K he won the Hodge Prize in philosophy and was president of the student body. He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He and fellow K graduate, Joyce Allen, married in 1953.

Means earned a bachelor’s degree in divinity from Colgate Rochester Divinity School (1956) and an M.A. and Ph.D. (sociology) from Cornell University (1959 and 1964, respectively). He served as a chaplain at Cornell (1956-59) and was ordained as an Associate Minster of the First Congregational Church (1957). He returned to K in 1961, where he received tenure (1964) and was promoted to full professor (1972). He retired from K in 1993, having served the College for 32 years.

Among the qualities that made him exceptional, wrote his colleague and friend, Dean of the Chapel Robert Dewey, on the occasion of Mean’s 25th service anniversary with the College, were his “command of a discipline, intellectual curiosity beyond that discipline, stimulating conversation, collegial support, a sense of humor, a broad range of interests and an impressive knowledge of each, a passionate concern for the vitality and quality of the College and for the problems confronting society, the nation, and the world.” His research and teaching interests were broad and deep and included the family, criminology, mental health institutions, the sociology of religion, race relations, alcohol and drug abuse, the environment, and social gerontology. Citing the breadth of his colleague’s intellectual interests Dewey likened Means to “a man in a conning tower rotating his periscope across the wide horizon to see and grasp what he finds there.” Means wrote numerous journal articles on various topics in sociology and religion, and he was the author of the book The Ethical Imperative: The Value Crisis in America, which was used in college classes at Grinnell and Carleton, among others.

After he retired from K, Means served as interim minster of the First Congregational Church of Kalamazoo. He then served as interim minster of the First Congregational Church of Coloma, Michigan.

He is survived by Joyce, his wife of 60 years, their three children, three grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held at 2 PM on Thursday, February 20, at First Congregational Church, 129 S. Park Street. Friends and family will have the opportunity to gather for a time of remembrance and fellowship on Friday, February 21, beginning at 3:30 in the Kiva at Friendship Village, 1700 N. Drake Road.

Award for Japanese Speech a K First

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Megan Davis and Katherine Ballew with Professor SugimoriSenior Megan Davis and first-year Katherine Ballew participated in the Michigan Japanese Speech Contest (held at Hinoki International School, Livonia, Mich.). The title of Megan’s speech was “A Moment in Which I Made a new Realization About the World.” Katherine’s speech, “Heading Toward a World Without Racism” was awarded an Honorary Mention. It was the first time a Kalamazoo College student has won award in the Japanese speech contest. The students attended the contest with Noriko Akimoto Sugimori, assistant professor of Japanese language. Pictured at left are (l-r): Megan, Katherine, and Professor Sugimori.

Gail Griffin, Iris Parker, and Keeney Swearer ’13 Display Their Creativity This Weekend

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Iris Parker
Iris Parker displays this and other photos from her “Zulu Marriage Rituals” exhibit during the Feb. 7 Art Hop from 5-8pm at the Black Arts & Cultural Center in the Epic Center, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall in downtown Kalamazoo.

Professor Emerita of English Gail Griffin has written a 10-minute play that will receive its first public reading on Sat. Feb. 8 at 2pm during the Theatre Kalamazoo New Play Festival at the Epic Theatre in the Epic Center, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall in downtown Kalamazoo.

During the Friday Feb. 7 Art Hop, ACSJL Visiting Fellow Iris Dawn Parker will exhibit her photos of Zulu marriage rituals in South Africa from 5-9pm at the Black Arts and Cultural Center in the Epic Center, Suite 202, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall.

Also during the Feb. 7 Art Hop, Keeney Swearer ’13 will display his newest artwork from 6-9pm at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center in the Park Trades Center, Suite 103A, 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave.

The Art Hop and the New Play Festival are free and open to the public.

Sound Affects DOOM

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Sound off or sound on?

Turns out that music makes better DOOM–or, more precisely, players of that first-person video shooter game score a lot higher with the sound (music and effects) on … at least according to one study.

Associate Professor of Psychology Siu-Lan Tan joined renowned video game composer Sascha Dikiciyan (Sonic Mayhem) to give an interview on the psychological effects of video game music. The interview occurred on the blog Consequence of Sound, a.k.a. CoS. That interview went live a couple days ago and is nearing 1,500 views on YouTube.

In order to tell the rest of the science behind the story, Professor Tan used her Psychology Today blog to post a related piece: “Video Games: Do you play better with sound on or off?”

Turns out the science is complicated. The results of the aforementioned DOOM study were seemingly contradicted by a study of Ridge Racer V, which found that gamers with the fastest lap times had the music off.

And it gets more complicated than that. Professor Tan’s K research (a collaboration with her SIP student John Baxa ’09) studied gamers playing Twilight Princess-Legend of Zelda (ya gotta love these names!). In the Twilight study, the worst performers played with both music and sound effects off. And the study found that the more the game’s audio was incrementally added, the more performance improved. And yet (in another wrinkle) the best performances occurred to background music UNRELATED TO THE GAME (!) … think boom box across the room. A closer examination suggested more nuances based on game familiarity and gaming skill. Turns out that average skill level newbies tune out the audio to focus exclusively on visual cues when first navigating the game. Not so for high skill level players, new to the game or not. These players are skilled, in part, because they pay attention–and effectively integrate–auditory and visual cues, both of which provide feedback for the best moves.

Tan writes: “I’m also reminded of what a participant in our study expressed so well: ’There’s more to a game than just high scores. It’s also about being transported and immersed in another world, and music and sound effects are what bring you there.’”

Indeed, writes Tan, “When you have a great soundtrack, music can be the soul of a game.”  NOTE: Tan and Baxa (along with Matt Sprackman) published their music/video game research in 2010 and 2012. Baxa said it aided his entrance to graduate school for study on video games. He is currently a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University.