We asked Assistant Professor of German Studies Michael Powers about his own academic journey, what interests him about German studies and culture, what makes his students special, and why he’s excited to be a part of the Kalamazoo College community. Here’s what he said.
Question: What sparked your interest in German studies and how has it evolved throughout your academic journey?
Answer: My path to becoming a professor of German studies began unexpectedly. I grew up in an English-Spanish bilingual household, and on a whim, I started taking German in school. I was surprised by how fun the language is, and I quickly developed a passion for it and at the same time a deep interest in German culture and history. The language became my gateway to a host of exciting new worlds and experiences. At first, my studies focused on German literature and film, then later increasingly on philosophy and the intersection of politics and aesthetics. Today my main research interests span critical theory, media studies, and the environmental humanities.
Q:As an assistant professor of German studies, what aspects of German culture or literature do you find most captivating and why?
A: German-speaking writers and thinkers have left an indelible mark on major cultural and intellectual traditions. One of the things I relish most as a professor of German studies is the opportunity to engage with great works of art and influential social movements from a variety of interlinked perspectives: language, art, philosophy and history. Learning to combine these approaches and discover the complex forms of interrelation between them is something that I value immensely.
There’s nothing quite like reading Freud’s cultural theory in the original German, and thus engaging simultaneously with questions of linguistic belonging, psychoanalysis and social theory; or with engaging with Marx’s ideas in the language in which he first expressed them, which affords one insights into the links between power, language and violence.
Q: How would you describe your students and what makes them special?
A: I tremendously enjoy working with the students at K. Their curiosity and interest to learn inspires me and I love sharing my passion for German art, literature and culture with them. In my classroom, students are constantly working actively with one another, engaging with one another in a shared learning community. Learning does not occur from reading or memorizing words or facts, but is actively generated through discussion, debate and deep engagement with texts, works and ideas.
We asked Assistant Professor of German Michael Powers about what sparked his interests in German studies, what he admires about K students and why he appreciates being a part of the College’s community.
Q: As a newcomer to Kalamazoo College, what excites you the most about joining our K community, and what unique perspectives do you hope to bring to your students?
A: I taught previously at K as a visiting professor for two years, and I am very excited to return this year as permanent faculty. My own undergraduate education was at a small liberal arts college, and my scholarly path has been shaped by the liberal arts mission and the dedicated professors I came to know as mentors. I cherish the opportunity to work closely with students both inside and outside the classroom, whether discussing Expressionist art in a film course, or taking students on a tour of the arboretum as part of a unit on environmentalism in Germany.
When Kalamazoo College’s Department of German Studies was one of just three in the country to earn a German Center of Excellence award last year, the department’s community outreach was cited as one reason why.
Some of that community outreach was put into motion when Assistant Professor of German Petra Watzke secured a La Plante Grant in summer 2021 for K’s introductory German students to plan workshops for fourth graders in Ms. Snow’s class at Woodward Elementary School in Kalamazoo. That fall and in fall 2022, in a partnership with the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Community Engagement (CCE), K students collaborated to provide children with early lessons in the foreign language.
The outreach struck such a positive chord with parents, teachers, children and the K students, that the program expanded during the winter term to include Ms. Longhon’s kindergarten class at the school. In its most expansive effort to date, teaching assistants Alex Nam ’25 and Ben Flotemersch ’23 tested their new language skills by preparing lessons and materials for both grades, introducing lessons, and supporting students in the classroom.
“I went on one or two trips to Woodward in the fall, and then I was asked by Professor Watzke if I would want to help lead these trips as a TA,” Nam said. “I immediately said, ‘Oh, yes, I’d love to join in.’ Chances are not all of them will remember every word we teach them for the rest of their lives. We just want to instill within the kids an open-mindedness that leads to learning new languages. We want them to understand that different languages may sound a little weird and some may sound really similar to English. That sense of progress is something I’ve definitely seen with the kids through their willingness to step into the discomfort of learning a new language.”
In return, K representatives such as Flotemersch experienced a valuable way to make deeper connections within the community by visiting Woodward.
“I hadn’t really felt in touch with the Kalamazoo until now,” Flotemersch said. “My first year, we had 20 weeks on campus, and then COVID hit. Then, I was isolated sophomore year. This is just my fourth term on campus, and for the first time, I feel I’ve left campus and I’ve had a great time.”
Nam and Flotemersch both worked in close contact with Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Associate Professor of German Kathryn Sederberg and Watzke, who helped them build syllabuses and curriculums.
“It’s rewarding to go into the elementary schools and interact with these kids,” Nam said. “But on a deeper level, it allows me to contextualize how I learned German because I began these trips last year as a 101 student when I barely knew any German myself. To put myself in the role of a teacher instead of a student for a concept that’s still very fresh provides me with a much greater appreciation for German education, as well as the German language, because I’ve been able to see both perspectives of student and teacher.”
It was an experience that Flotemersch hopes will touch more K students while benefiting Woodward students in the future.
“I think we all had this experience, when we were kindergarteners or fourth graders, of an adult who showed up as a special guest,” Flotemersch said. “Those are highlights of our school experiences. When someone comes and they’re teaching you German, that’s amazing, and I think more people should volunteer in similar ways.”
Flotemersch and Nam gained experiences through volunteering at Woodward that might improve their chances of earning the Fulbright scholarships they seek. Through its U.S. Student Program, Fulbright helps graduating seniors, graduate students, young professionals and artists to teach English, perform research or study abroad for one academic year.
Kalamazoo College introductory German students have been volunteering and planning workshops at Woodward Elementary School in Kalamazoo since fall 2021.Alex Nam ’25 (second from left) tested his German skills by preparing lessons and materials for kindergartners and fourth graders at Woodward Elementary School.Nam (right) and Ben Flotemersch ’23 (second from right) experienced a valuable way to make deeper connections within the community by visiting Woodward Elementary School this winter to teach kindergartners and fourth graders basic German words and phrases.
For Flotemersch, that would mean following in the footsteps of his brother, K alumnus Matthew Flotemersch ’20, who now serves Fulbright’s U.S. Teaching Assistant Program in Austria. The elder brother also previously earned a Fulbright through the U.S. Student Program to teach in Germany. But for now, the younger brother is relishing his opportunity to instill a love of foreign languages locally.
“We can’t expect every kid to be engaged all the time,” Flotemersch said. “One kid might be kind of sleepy one day, and the next week, they’re super engaged. We just keep using different teaching strategies, and hopefully, we reach as many kids as we can. Emotionally, reaching students makes the teaching really rewarding.”
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
Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German Studies Kathryn Sederberg spent a month at the University of London in its Institute of Modern Languages Research to comb through the diaries of Jewish refugees of the 1930s and 40s.
Diaries such as these found at the Wiener Holocaust Library in London helped Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German Studies Kathryn Sederberg gain a fresh perspective on the Holocaust.
Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German Studies Kathryn Sederberg spent a month at the University of London in its Institute of Modern Languages Research.
Newly unearthed diaries dating back at least 80 years are providing a fresh perspective on the Holocaust for a Kalamazoo College faculty member while she hopes to challenge how the world views its refugees.
Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German Studies Kathryn 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.
“Being in the archives helps you think about the diary as a material object in a different way,” Sederberg said. “It meant something for people to have this physical book that they carried with them from Vienna to London, or from Berlin to London or New York. They were objects that tied them to home when they’d lost their home and lost family.”
Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German Studies Kathryn Sederberg studied Holocaust diaries like these at the University of London.
The Wiener Holocaust Library at the University of London houses the diaries Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German Studies Kathryn Sederberg used in her research.
The Miller Fellowship in Exile Studies provided Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German Studies Kathryn Sederberg a chance to examine diaries from Jews who migrated away from Nazi territories in the 1930s and 40s.
Some of the diaries were written for the writers themselves, some were written with salutations that addressed future generations, and all can help readers better understand life in the moment of the Holocaust.
“People often think of diaries as being private documents,” Sederberg said. “But when we’re talking about Holocaust testimonies, I think people knew they were living through something historic, and often, they were writing for the future, whether it was for themselves to read later or for family members. I just came across a fascinating example of a man who writes to his future grandchildren. He just knew that this would be of interest to future generations. It’s also about preserving the memory and legacy of these individuals, not to romanticize them, but to see as whole persons who had you know, difficulties but also love stories, family drama, school drama, and all the things we identify with today.”
Holocaust diaries offered layers of storytelling that textbooks and novels can’t communicate.
Apart from the individual lives of the writers, the diaries reflect a bigger picture of the Holocaust that goes beyond its most-addressed horrors.
“We usually think about Holocaust survivors as being survivors of the camps and ghettos and the Jews who survived in hiding,” Sederberg said. “These sources are written by the survivors of Nazi persecution. They survived and knew that they were surviving. But it’s also about loss and displacement, and it will help us understand more about diaspora and migration, what it meant to be a refugee, and how refugees understood themselves as refugees and as part of these different refugee communities.”
And yet the experience of reading such diaries offers layers of storytelling that textbooks and novels can’t communicate as the writers weren’t assured happy endings.
“When you’re reading diaries, there’s this tension because the writer doesn’t know how their life story is going to end,” Sederberg said. “A novelist or memoirist looks back on their life and is constructing a story. A diary writer doesn’t know if they’re going to survive. They don’t know how their story will end, and when you start reading it, there’s a similar kind of narrative tension to where you want to know what happens.”
Sederberg’s experience is leading to a sophomore seminar that will be offered this winter, Bearing Witness: Holocaust Literature and Testimony. She also expects the project will help her write a book. In the meantime, she has a couple of written articles in progress and will present this fall at the German Studies Association conference. However, she also hopes her project and others like hers will have significance for people beyond academia in addressing worldwide themes surrounding immigration and how refugees are understood or misunderstood.
“As we think about the American reaction to global issues and migration, I think it helps to hear these stories and think historically about what it has meant to be a refugee—to redefine these categories of who is granted asylum,” she said. “Americans didn’t understand who German refugees were. A lot of people didn’t understand that they were persecuted by the Nazis, and I think some of those similar misunderstandings continue when we think about who qualifies as a refugee or being granted asylum status. I think this helps us to better understand what kinds of situations people are fleeing.”
Crystal Mendoza ’23 stands in front of Hoben Hall during her first Michigan snowfall in fall 2019.
Crystal Mendoza ’23 took a solo trip to Vienna, Austria, during her summer 2022 research internship at Karslruhe Institute for Technology in Germany.
Crystal Mendoza ’23 (left) builds polypeptide bonds to see the bond structure with Julia Ghazal ’22 in a biochemistry class during fall term 2021.
For the second year in a row, a Kalamazoo College chemistry student has been awarded the prestigious Priscilla Carney Jones Scholarship.
Crystal Mendoza ’23 is the 2022 recipient of the scholarship through the American Chemical Society. The scholarship provides a minimum of $1,500 funding toward tuition, books and lab fees for a female undergraduate student majoring in chemistry or a related discipline and beginning her junior or senior year.
Mendoza and the 2021 recipient of the scholarship, Ola Bartolik ’22, have both worked in the lab of Blakely Tresca, the Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
When Mendoza received the scholarship announcement, her reaction was, “Wow, oh my goodness, I actually got it,” she said, “because I really didn’t think I would get it. It was a little bit later than when they announced it the previous year, and in the back of my mind, I didn’t think they would give it back-to-back to someone from the same college.”
Once the news sank in, she called her mom to celebrate and sent Tresca a message.
“I was really surprised two students from the same school got the scholarship back-to-back, especially since they only award one each year,” Tresca said. “I’m not surprised, though, that Crystal earned it. She has worked really hard in research and at school, while at the same time doing so much for the department and the community at K helping mentor the next generation of chemists.”
The scholarship has both practical and intangible benefits for Mendoza. Not only does it cover Mendoza’s out-of-pocket costs for tuition, books and fees for her last year at K, it also provides a feeling of belonging.
“It was rewarding that the Women Chemists Committee posted the announcement on Twitter, Facebook, all their socials,” Mendoza said. “Seeing my face and the significance of the scholarship and what it means to the community of women chemists made me feel like I’m actually a part of this community. I feel like I can continue in the field of chemistry with support and inclusion.”
Crystal Mendoza ’23 (right) and Isabel Morillo ’23 attending a K softball game to support their roommate Lucy Hart ’23.
Crystal Mendoza ’23, pictured on a trip to Cologne, Germany, is currently working on a research internship at Karlsruhe Institute for Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Finding her community and niche has been a journey for Mendoza. Arriving on campus in fall 2019, she intended to declare a biology major and follow the pre-med track. Her first term, however, she found herself not taking any biology courses and struggling through Chemistry 110. Her STEM journey could have ended there had it not been for Jeff Bartz, professor of chemistry and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Bartz invited Mendoza to come to his office hours and introduced her to Alex Cruz ’21, a chemistry major and fellow Los Angeles native. Cruz agreed to tutor Mendoza—the start of a mentoring relationship that continues to this day.
Chemistry student Crystal Mendoza ’23 snaps a selfie in the elevator at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology in Germany, where she is completing a summer research internship. Mendoza was on her way to buy propionic acid from the stockroom.
Chemistry student Crystal Mendoza ’23 has been awarded the prestigious Priscilla Carney Jones Scholarship.
“She wanted to succeed,” Bartz said. “She was willing to ask for help and that’s sometimes the hardest thing for all of us to do, especially as a beginning college student among your peers where you want to look like you have it all together. I had enough of a relationship with her, because of the kind of place K is, to have a sense of what help she needed and who in our program could provide that help to her.”
Cruz introduced Mendoza to Sukuma Dow, a peer-led organization for underrepresented students in STEM, her first year at K. She has been an active participant ever since, serving last year and this coming year as a group leader.
“I did feel discouraged at some points my first year,” Mendoza said. “After taking some biology courses, I didn’t think STEM was for me. I doubted myself and it wasn’t until I got into the support group and talked more with Alex, Dr. Bartz and Dr. Tresca that I got myself out there and found what I truly enjoy. It has been a journey. I found what I like, I like being in a lab, and it took a lot of conversations, tough love and discipline to see that.”
Bartz, Cruz and Tresca all encouraged Mendoza to apply to Research Experiences for Undergraduates summer programs through the National Science Foundation. She ended up performing research on electrocatalysts for carbon dioxide reduction at the University of Southern California, where she scrapped any lingering thoughts of med school and committed wholeheartedly to a chemistry major and future goal of a doctorate in chemistry.
“I came back from that summer and immediately started looking for opportunities for this summer,” Mendoza said. She prioritized research abroad, as the COVID-19 shutdown had pushed her to delay courses she wanted to take in person until her junior year, taking study abroad off the table for her.
As a result, in mid-June, Mendoza arrived in Karlsruhe, Germany, to take part in a Research Internship in Science and Engineering (RISE) through the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), or German Academic Exchange Service. RISE offers undergraduate students the opportunity to complete a summer internship at a top German research institution. Students are matched with a host university or institute according to their area of interest—Karlsruhe Institute for Technology for Mendoza—and DAAD provides students a monthly stipend to help cover living expenses.
German professor Kathryn Sederberg helped Mendoza arrange housing, and the DAAD funding is supplemented by the Nahrain Kamber and Ralph Griffith Endowed Student Research Fellowship benefiting female science students at K. Together, the two funding sources fully cover Mendoza’s living expenses and provide her with a small stipend as well.
Mendoza will remain in Karlsruhe until early September, conducting 12 weeks of research into photocatalysts for carbon dioxide reduction for her Senior Integrated Project.
“I’m learning even more than I thought, because I thought there would be some repetition from last summer, but it’s totally different,” Mendoza said. “I’m doing more synthesis, learning to read scientific literature for myself, and it’s more hands on.”
Catalysts are substances that increase the rate of a chemical reaction without undergoing any permanent chemical change. Electrocatalysts speed up electrochemical reactions, while photocatalysts absorb light to create energy that accelerates chemical reactions. Mendoza’s research involves attempts to artificially re-create photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbohydrates.
“We take what’s happening in nature and try to find the optimal way to do it in solution in the lab,” Mendoza said. Currently, she is building three major components of the process—a photosensitizer, an electron donor and a catalyst—in different ways. Once she has built the library of different catalyst and photosensitizers, Mendoza will test the different components to see which perform the best for carbon dioxide reduction and turnover numbers.
At Karlsruhe, Mendoza has two Ph.D. student mentors, whom she describes as “helpful” and “very sweet” and who have given her independence to conduct her own project in the lab.
“At first, it was a little intimidating, but once I got the hang of it, it’s the best lab experience,” Mendoza said. “I’m just in awe at every reaction that I do, whether it’s successful or not, because I did it myself.”
Research into catalytic reduction of carbon dioxide could eventually have implications for reducing environmental pollution in the world, a topic of interest for Mendoza. Regardless, her time in Germany is proving enlightening.
“I had a really different perspective on what I thought the lab would be,” she said. “I thought it was going to be down to business, only doing experiments, let’s only talk about chemistry. My mentors have shown me otherwise. You can have fun, you can sing, you can dance, or you can enjoy a bottle of soda outside the lab.”
In addition to research and classes, Mendoza has worked as a chemistry teaching assistant.
“I really enjoy that,” she said. “It gives me more time in the lab and a chance to connect with people who want to do STEM and say, ‘Hey, you’re good at this, have you considered this major?’”
In 2021, K started a PRIME (Promoting Research, Inclusivity, Mentoring and Experience) Scholars program, funded by a National Science Foundation grant, and Bartz asked Mendoza to be a peer mentor for the 10 incoming first-year PRIME students.
“It’s been amazing seeing their progress from when they first came to campus and I met them during orientation,” Mendoza said. “It’s always rewarding after every meeting, one-on-one or in a group, to think that I was once in their place, not knowing what I wanted to do, and now being so accomplished in my discipline and helping them get there, too. I’m grateful that Dr. Bartz thought I was the right person for that.”
From mentee to mentor, doubt to confidence, Mendoza is thriving at K with guidance from strong mentors, support from peers, and opportunities for exploration and growth. With one year left at K, she’s looking ahead to her own future while extending a hand back to those coming behind her.
“We talk about certain students as having figured it out,” Bartz said. “What got them here is not what will get them through here. Early on, Crystal recognized that she didn’t have it figured out and was willing to ask for help. Now she’s one who figured it out and is willing to share that with others.”
Shahriar Akhavan Tafti ’24 is receiving a merit scholarship from Alpha Lambda Delta.
For the first time in nearly 10 years, a Kalamazoo College student is receiving a merit scholarship from Alpha Lambda Delta (ALD), the honor society for first-year academic success.
Shahriar Akhavan Tafti ’24 will receive one of 50 undergraduate scholarships worth $1,000 to $6,000 each, as the honor society issues a total of $105,000 nationally through the Jo Anne J. Trow Award.
Akhavan Tafti is a computer science major and German and psychology minor from Iran who is looking to expand K’s involvement in Alpha Lambda Delta while collaborating with the chapter at Western Michigan University.
The Jo Anne J. Trow Award was instated in 1988 to honor a past national president of Alpha Lambda Delta. The scholarship requires that applicants gather at least two letters of recommendation and maintain a 3.5 grade-point average on a four-point scale.
“One of the reasons my application stood out was my proposed plan to expand Alpha Lambda Delta’s presence throughout our campus,” Akhavan Tafti said. “I hope to do this with the help of this year’s new ALD initiates. The end goal is to create a self-sustaining ALD organization to facilitate academic excellence and engagement with ALD, which will allow more students from our College to receive ALD scholarships for undergraduate, graduate and study abroad funding in return for their contributions to ALD.”
Rebecca Chan ’22 will spend a year in Taiwan through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program
Four recent alumni of Kalamazoo College are receiving one of the highest honors the federal government provides in regard to scholarship and international exchange, as selectees for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
Rebecca Chan ’22, Libby Burton ’22, Matthew Flotemersch ’20 and Kiernan Dean-Hall ’22 are among about 1,900 students, artists and young professionals who will represent the U.S. in about 140 countries for one academic year.
Chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential, students and recent alumni participate in the English Teaching Assistant (ETA) program, which places English-teaching assistants in primary and secondary schools or universities overseas.
Since its inception in 1946, Fulbright has provided more than 380,000 participants with opportunities to exchange ideas and contribute to solutions to shared international concerns. The program is funded by an annual appropriation from Congress to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and managed through the U.S. Department of State.
Libby Burton ’22 will return to Germany for one academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
K consistently has been identified in recent years as one of the country’s top-producing Fulbright small colleges. Here’s what K’s representatives plan to do abroad.
Rebecca Chan ’22
Chan, a theatre arts major at K, finished her degree requirements in winter 2022, allowing her to study abroad in Strabourg, France, this spring. As a Fulbright scholar, she will visit Taiwan.
“I was interested in Taiwan specifically because my paternal grandfather spent some years on the island as he left mainland China in the 1940s and later came to America,” Chan said. “Some of his siblings stayed in Taiwan and raised their families there, so at every family reunion, we discuss Taiwanese history, culture and politics. I’m interested in experiencing Taiwan for myself and connecting with my East Asian heritage.”
Chan will make her language skills her primary focus while she’s overseas.
“I took two years of Mandarin Chinese at K, and I’m glad to have the opportunity to use that language abroad,” she said. “I’d also like to better understand Taiwan’s complex history of colonization by various European and Asian nations. Because of my family’s history, I have received only a very one-sided account of the relationship between Taiwan and China and the debate over Taiwanese independence. Being there, talking to locals, and working in the schools will give me a much richer understanding of Taiwanese identity.”
Matthew Flotemersch ’20 has earned a Fulbright for a second time. He will spend the upcoming academic year in Innsbruck, Austria.
Libby Burton ’22
Burton participated in study abroad as a senior in Erlangen, Germany, and will return to Germany as a Fulbright scholar, seeking an opportunity share her knowledge of philosophy and the humanities.
“The Fulbright will be a wonderful way for me to gain experience in the field and prepare me for graduate programs,” Burton said. “I also have a particular interest in German philosophy, so studying German has helped my understanding of the books I read. The program makes sense for me because I can practice German, deepen my understanding in my fields of interest, and gain experience as an educator.”
Matthew Flotemersch ’20
Flotemersch, a German major and philosophy minor at K, had a formative year of study abroad in Erlangen, Germany, in 2019 and was accepted into Fulbright’s English Teaching Assistant program in Hamburg, Germany, in 2020.
Kiernan Dean-Hall ’22 will spend a year in Germany on a Fulbright in the English Teaching Assistantship program.
The Hamburg program was pushed back a year because of COVID-19, yet still provided a positive experience he finished this spring, leading to yet another opportunity as he will represent the U.S. this year in Innsbruck, Austria.
Flotemersch said he hopes to adjust to regional dialects, explore the country by train, ski and settle on a graduate program he will begin in 2023 while he’s in Austria.
Kiernan Dean-Hall ’22
Dean-Hall—a chemistry and German major, and physics and philosophy minor with a concentration in film and media studies—was among the K seniors who studied abroad in Erlangen, Germany, for the fall 2021 and winter 2022 terms. He will return to Germany on a Fulbright in the English Teaching Assistantship program.
“I sought a Fulbright because it sounded interesting, and like a good opportunity to broaden my horizons,” Dean-Hall said. “I expect to benefit from the lived experience of cultural exchange.”
Kalamazoo College has appointed 10 faculty members as endowed chairs, recognizing their achievements as professors. Endowed chairs are positions funded through the annual earnings from an endowed gift or gifts to the College. The honor reflects the value donors attribute to the excellent teaching and mentorship that occurs at K and how much donors want to see that excellence continue.
The honorees are:
Francisco Villegas, the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership junior chair;
Leihua Weng, the most senior faculty member in Chinese;
Cyndy Garcia-Weyandt, an endowed chair in critical ethnic studies;
Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada, the Marlene Crandall Francis Endowed Chair in the Humanities;
Kathryn Sederberg, the Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Endowed Chair;
Regina Stevens-Truss, the Dorothy H. Heyl Senior Endowed Chair in Chemistry;
Blakely Tresca, the Harriet G. Varney Endowed Chair in Natural Science;
Amy Elman, the William Weber Endowed Chair in Social Science;
Autumn Hostetter, the Kurt D. Kaufman Endowed Chair; and
Richard Koenig, the Genevieve U. Gilmore Endowed Chair in Art.
Francisco Villegas
Villegas, an assistant professor of sociology at K, was a sociology lecturer at the University of Toronto Scarborough from 2014 to 2016 before arriving in Kalamazoo.
Villegas specializes in the topics of immigration, race, citizenship, deportability and illegalization. He has a doctorate in sociology in education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, a master’s degree in Mexican American studies from San Jose University, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and social behavior from the University of California Irvine.
Kalamazoo County launched a community ID program in 2018, allowing residents to obtain it, including those otherwise unable to get a state ID, with Villegas serving as the ID advisory board chair. At this point, more than 3,000 residents have obtained one.
Leihua Weng
Weng, an assistant professor of Chinese language and literature, has taught at K beginning Chinese and advanced Chinese, as well as different content courses in English, such as women in China, urban China and Chinese films.
Weng’s research interest includes (trans-)nationalism and globalization in literature and films, traditions and modernity, and postmodern literary theories. She received her Ph.D. in comparative literature at the University of South Carolina, a Master of Arts at Peking University, and a Bachelor of Arts at Zhejiang University. She taught at Sarah Lawrence College and Pacific Lutheran University before she came to K.
Cyndy Garcia-Weyandt
García-Weyandt, an assistant professor of critical ethnic studies, has taught courses at K in environmental studies such as Body, Land and Labor; and Plant Communication Kinship, as well as courses in critical ethnic studies such as Argument with the Given, a writing seminar exploring dreams, storytelling, poetry, art activism, memoir, and personal narratives as sources of knowledge and social change. She is coordinator and co-founder of Proyecto Taniuki (“Our Language Project”), a community-based project in Zitakua, Mexico.
In the Taniuki, she collaborates with urban indigenous communities in language revitalization efforts. Her research areas include indigenous knowledge systems, land pedagogy, urban indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous art and performances, and ontology. García-Weyandt’s ancestral homeland is in San Juan Sayultepec Nochixtlán, Oaxaca, México. She is a poeta, an immigrant, a first-generation college student, and former community college transfer student. She has a Ph.D. and master’s degree in culture and performance, and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, all from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada
Maldonado-Estrada, an assistant professor of religion, is the author of Lifeblood of the Parish: Men and Catholic Devotion in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, an ethnography about masculinity and men’s devotional lives in a gentrified neighborhood in New York City. She teaches classes at K on religion and masculinity, urban religion, Catholics in the Americas and the religions of Latin America.
Outside K, Maldonado-Estrada is a co-chair of the Men and Masculinities Unit at the American Academy of Religion and is an editor of Material Religion: The Journal of Art, Objects, and Belief. She also was chosen for the 2020-2022 cohort of Young Scholars in American Religion at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis’ Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture.
Earlier this year, Sacred Writes—a network of religion scholars committed to helping a broad global audience understand the significance of their work—selected Maldonado-Estrada to be one of 24 scholars from around the world receiving a Public Scholarship on Religion for 2021. Maldonado-Estrada received her doctorate in religion from Princeton University and her bachelor’s degree in sociology and religion from Vassar College.
Kathryn Sederberg
Sederberg, a co-chair in the Department of German Studies, will be honored in a virtual ceremony November 20 by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) as one of five national recipients of the Goethe‐Institut/AATG Certificate of Merit. The honor recognizes 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.
Sederberg teaches beginning, intermediate and advanced German as well as Contemporary German Culture and the senior seminars on varying topics. She holds a bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
Regina Stevens-Truss
Stevens-Truss, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, has taught at Kalamazoo College since 2000. She teaches Chemical Reactivity, Biochemistry, Medicinal Chemistry and Infection: Global Health and Social Justice.
Research in her lab focuses testing a variety of compounds (peptides and small molecules) for antimicrobial activity. She is also the current director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inclusive Excellence grant awarded to the College’s science division in 2018.
Stevens-Truss earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the University of Toledo. She held two fellowships at the University of Michigan between 1993 and 1999, one of which was a lectureship in medicinal chemistry.
Blakely Tresca
Tresca, an assistant professor of chemistry, has been at K since 2018. He’s a supermolecular chemist with additional research interests in organic chemistry. He co-leads the College’s annual Kalamazoo American Chemical Society networking event, allowing students to discuss chemistry careers with industry professionals.
Tresca holds a bachelor’s degree from Trinity University, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in the Molecular Foundry.
Amy Elman
Elman, a professor of political science, has taught a variety of courses within the political science, women’s studies and Jewish studies departments. During her tenure at K, she has also been a visiting professor at Haifa University in Israel, Harvard University, SUNY Potsdam, Middlebury College, Uppsala University in Sweden and New York University.
Elman has received two Fulbright grants, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a grant from the Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism at Hebrew University. She has written three books: The European Union, Antisemitism and the Politics of Denial (2014); Sexual Equality in an Integrated Europe (2007); and Sexual Subordination and State Intervention: Comparing Sweden and the United States (1996). She also edited Sexual Politics and the European Union: The New Feminist Challenge (1996). She has a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from New York University.
Autumn Hostetter
Hostetter, a professor of psychology, has expertise in cognitive psychology—specifically, the psychology of language and spatial cognition. She has taught classes at K including Cognition, Experimental Research Methods, the Psychology of Language and Mind, and the first year seminar Harry Potter Goes to College.
She maintains an active research lab on campus exploring how we use our bodies to help us think and communicate. She provides many opportunities for Kalamazoo College students to participate in research, both as participants and as research assistants. Some recent publications have appeared in journals such as the Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, Psychological Research, the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Teaching of Psychology, and the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. Many of her publications feature Kalamazoo College students and alumni as co-authors. Hostetter earned a bachelor’s degree from Berry College and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Richard Koenig
Koenig began teaching art and photography courses such as Digital Photography, Analog Photography, Alternative Photographic Processes and several seminars at K in 1998.
His fine art work, Photographic Prevarications, was shown in six one-person exhibits in as many years (from 2007 to 2012). Koenig’s long-term documentary project Contemporary Views Along the First Transcontinental Railroad spawned four articles (between 2014 and 2019). In 2020, Koenig collaborated with four others on a multi-media exhibit, Hoosier Lifelines: Environmental and Social Change Along the Monon, 1847-2020, which was shown this year at the Grunwald Gallery of Art at Indiana University and the Carnegie Center for Art and History in New Albany, Indiana.
Koenig received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute and his Master of Fine Arts from Indiana University.
Assistant Professor of French Aurelie Chatton is shown teaching a class. Language programs at K will receive a $500,000 boost from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is awarding Kalamazoo College a $500,000 grant through the American Rescue Plan to help offset financial losses incurred as a result of the pandemic.
In total, the NEH is giving $87.8 million to 300 cultural and educational institutions, 90 of which are colleges and universities.
“The American Rescue Plan recognizes that the cultural and educational sectors are essential components of the United States economy and civic life, vital to the health and resilience of American communities,” NEH Acting Chairman Adam Wolfson said. “These new grants will provide a lifeline to the country’s colleges and universities, museums, libraries, archives, historical sites and societies, save thousands of jobs in the humanities placed at risk by the pandemic, and help bring economic recovery to cultural and educational institutions and those they serve.”
At K specifically, the grant will help fortify the College’s language programs. Enrollment in language courses has waned over the past year, in part because the pandemic affected study abroad opportunities. The money will support the hiring and retention of foreign language faculty and staff; sustain student interest in language programs; revitalize programs in Arabic, Hebrew and ancient Greek; provide faculty better opportunities for research; and bolster study abroad to ensure it remains affordable as it restarts this term.
Associate Provost Katie MacLean, who is an associate professor of Spanish, said the honor of receiving the grant underscores K’s reputation for the humanities and study abroad programs.
“Study abroad is among the most popular answers students provide when they’re asked, ‘Why did you choose K?’” MacLean said. She and Jessica Fowle—K’s director of grants, fellowships and research—submitted the grant proposal on the institution’s behalf while providing proof the emergency short-term funds would combat pandemic-related issues and add value rather than apply a temporary fix.
“As a liberal arts college, the vitality of the humanities is important to our institutional identity and languages have a symbiotic relationship with study abroad,” MacLean said. “To me, this is a lot of money for humanities programs, which shows how much of an honor this is. That’s exciting for us.”
German Studies Co-Chair Kathryn Sederberg will be honored in a virtual ceremony November 20 by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG).
Kathryn Sederberg, the Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German and a co-chair of the German Studies Department at Kalamazoo College, will be honored in a virtual ceremony November 20 by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG).
Sederberg will receive the Goethe‐Institut/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. Recipients each year are nominated by their peers.
“This is a great honor and I am glad to be recognized for my work,” she said. “I am grateful to the amazing community of German students here whose energy and enthusiasm motivate me as an educator. Teaching at K has enabled me to be creative, take risks, and try new things, like the ‘Babylon Berlin’ course designed around the hit TV series, or a unit on the forest with a field trip to the arboretum. It’s in part because of the culture at K that I have been able to experiment in my classes and develop interdisciplinary material with connections to gender studies, environmental studies or Jewish Studies. I really enjoy teaching in a small program where I can work with students from 101 to the advanced seminars, see their growth and even stay in touch with them as alumni.”
Sederberg teaches beginning, intermediate and advanced German as well as Contemporary German Culture and the senior seminars on varying topics. She holds a bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, and is one of five educators between high schools and colleges from around the country to earn the honor this year.
“With their dedication to excellence in German language instruction, these award recipients promote the transatlantic friendship between the U.S. and German‐speaking countries and foster the much-needed intercultural awareness so their students lead successful lives in a globalized world,” AATG President Doug Philipp said.
