political science

Student’s Own Podcast Shapes His Ideas on Immigration

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Immigration Podcast Creator Mihail Naskovski
Mihail Naskovski ’22, an international student from Skopje in the Republic of North Macedonia, developed a podcast for his Immigration Politics class in which he examined the United Kingdom’s policy of charging immigrants from outside the European Union a tax that supported the country’s National Health System (NHS).

From halfway around the world and without leaving the city, a Kalamazoo College student this spring scrutinized a European nation and one of its policies related to immigration while shaping his own perspectives through a different kind of assignment.

Mihail Naskovski ’22, an international student from Skopje in the Republic of North Macedonia, developed a podcast for his Immigration Politics class. In the podcast, he examined the United Kingdom’s policy of charging immigrants from outside the European Union a tax that supported the country’s National Health System (NHS). To provide a balanced perspective, Naskovski mixed his own words with the voices of British legislators and journalists to examine the treatment of the individuals called “residents.”

The debate was exciting for Naskovski to monitor as current events became direct policy that cancelled the tax in May, he said, nurturing his own ideas.

“I wanted to show that there was a difference between being a resident and a citizen and that being a resident most of the time is seen as being attractive and useful,” Naskovski said. “But I also wanted to argue that it’s not an ideal position; that as a resident, you are exempted of some opportunities, for health care, in this case. Britain was giving an appearance of being very anti-immigrant when that population is essential to the quality of life in Britain.”

Immigration Podcast
Mihail Naskovski serves as a President’s Student Ambassador and a Civic Engagement Scholar.

Naskovski reached that conclusion after learning many of the residents entering the UK in recent years from countries such as Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Nigeria and Sudan were doctors and health care workers. In fact, 27 of the first 29 UK health care workers killed by COVID-19 were workers from overseas, he said. As a result, the UK had to wrestle with whether the resident surcharge was ethical or misguided. Was it reasonable to ask health care workers to contribute 200 pounds, 400 pounds or even more to a system they already supported through their profession?

“The most bizarre and tragic perspective of this legislation is that it required all non-EU immigrants working in the NHS to pay the surcharge, a frustrating ignorance by the government that invalidated any efforts by this migrant community,” Naskovski said in his podcast, available through K’s website.

The tax became even more questionable when the British government considered the families of immigrant health care workers. No one was allowed to defer their payments and the tax was charged per individual, which multiplied the cost significantly for families. For example, a family of four obtaining five years of residency in the UK could’ve faced taxes that exceeded 8,000 pounds, a cost of more than $10,000 in the US. In addition, more than 100,000 health care workers in the UK are non-EU residents, comprising about 8.3 percent of its health care workforce, including nearly one-quarter of its doctors (24,000) and more than 12 percent (38,000) of its nurses.

“All of these workers had to risk their lives during the most dangerous time of the pandemic and none of them were able to receive support from a government ease of taxation for the public health system they were actually working for,” Naskovski said.

Naskovski completed his podcast for Weber Professor of Social Science Amy Elman’s course in Immigration Politics, which provides students like Naskovski an introduction to debates over immigration’s societal benefits.

She starts by asking her students to examine a person’s fundamental right, guaranteed through the United Nations, to leave their native country, without a guaranteed right to enter another country.

“On the one hand you have people making the argument for immigrants that they perform jobs others won’t do and provide a base for the welfare state,” Elman said. “Then there are the people who say immigration does not benefit citizens who are most economically vulnerable. It’s a great opportunity in political science to reflect on and test such pronouncements, especially for students who go on study abroad and will themselves be outsiders.”

Without one-on-one, personal interaction available this term, it would have been challenging to help students build their own opinions without some creative ideas for assignments. For Elman, one part of that creativity came in the form of asking students to put together podcasts as Naskovski did.

“The reason I chose podcasts is because they offer some of the most innovative programming through social media,” Elman said. “In the absence of dealing one-on-one with each other, anybody can record themselves on their phone if they need to, and I wanted them to pay attention to cadence, to articulate and to be dramatic because this can be a dramatic issue. I want them to communicate at K effectively, and not just through writing.”

In his K experience, Naskovski is a double major in economics and international area studies with a concentration in Europe. He also is a civic engagement scholar at Woodward Elementary School in Kalamazoo, and he served as a President’s Student Ambassador in the 2019-20 academic year.

Naskovski is already moving forward with the experience gained from this immigration lesson. “It’s a contradictory argument to say there is ‘us’ and ‘them’ with a productive and passive population,” he said. “In reality, immigrants are very much contributing to what the community wants to look like and they want to integrate in the process of becoming a citizen and a full member of that society with full access to health care, voting and other benefits.”

Three Faculty Members Earn Tenure

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Three Kalamazoo College faculty members from the English, music and political science departments have been awarded tenure.

The tenure milestone recognizes excellence in teaching, scholarship and service to the College, and signifies its confidence in the contributions these professors will make throughout their careers.

The following faculty members were approved by the Board of Trustees for tenure and promotion to associate professor:

Shanna Salinas tenure 2
Shanna Salinas

Arcus Social Justice Leadership Assistant Professor of English and Co-Director of Critical Ethnic Studies Shanna Salinas

Salinas teaches 19th, 20th and 21st century American literary and cultural studies with an emphasis on American race and ethnicity. She received her bachelor’s degree in American literature and culture with a minor in Chicana/o Studies from UCLA; and her master’s degree and doctorate in English from UC Santa Barbara.

Her published work includes “Raced Bodies, Corporeal Texts: Narratives of Home and Self in Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street;” Critical Insights: Virginia Woolf and 20th Century Women Writers, 2015; “Coloring the U.S.-Mexico Border: Geographical Othering and Postbellum Nation Building in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (Studies in American Fiction 41.1, Spring 2018); and “For the Pleasure of the Chicanx Poet: Spatialized Embodied Poetics in Ana Castillo’s My Father Was a Toltec,” New Transnational Latinx Perspectives on Ana Castillo, ed. Karen Roybal and Bernadine Hernández (forthcoming, Pittsburgh University Press).

Beau Bothwell tenure
Beau Bothwell

Assistant Professor of Music Beau Bothwell

Bothwell has taught courses in ethnomusicology, music theory and music history since completing his Ph.D. in musicology at Columbia University in 2013. He received B.A.s in music history and ethnomusicology/jazz studies from UCLA, and previously taught at Columbia, the Juilliard School, the American University in Beirut, and the New School.

Beau’s research addresses the music, media and politics of the Arabophone Middle East and the U.S. He has published in a range of venues, and co-translated (with Lama Zein) Ali Kisserwan’s two-volume analysis, the Compositions of Mohammad ʿAbdel Wahab for Umm Kulthum. He is also co-chair of the Society for Arabic Music Research, President of the Michigan Festival of Sacred Music, and founding co-director (with Ahmed Tofiq) of the Kalamazoo College Middle Eastern Orchestra, the Bayati Ensemble.

Justin Berry tenure
Justin Berry

Assistant Professor of Political Science Justin Berry

Berry teaches Introduction to American Government; Race, Law and U.S. Politics; Constitutional Law; the Presidency and Congress; and Voting, Campaigns and Elections. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Villanova University, master’s degrees in education and educational leadership from Loyola Marymount University and Fielding Graduate Institute respectively; and a doctorate in political science and international relations from the University of Southern California.

Pandemic Strikes with Students Far from Home

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Pandemic in China
Daniel Mota-Villegas ’21 (in the hooded sweatshirt) visited the Forbidden City during his study abroad experience in China. Mota-Villegas returned to Kalamazoo earlier than he expected to amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Others in the picture include Nick Gorman, Max Caplan, Ryanna Chouman, K student Denise Jackson, Ronnie Rodriquez, K student Sage Ringsmuth and K student Kaylee Henderson.

When Kalamazoo College students began their international immersion experiences this academic year, the Center for International Programs (CIP) didn’t expect a global pandemic to change anyone’s plans. Regardless, a once-in-a-century historical challenge emerged.

“This is my first worldwide phenomenon,” said CIP Executive Director Margaret Wiedenhoeft in discussing COVID-19, an illness that has infected millions and killed hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. “Most of what we’ve worked with in the past has been country or region specific. This is the first time we had multiple programs shut down at once.”

As the seriousness of the pandemic took shape, K was lucky. No students were sickened abroad and no immersion itineraries were cut unreasonably short as they were halted. On K’s campus, international students affected by travel bans were provided residence hall rooms, even as the College took steps to empty campus and implement social-distancing guidelines.

Still, students who visited countries such as China, Germany and Spain, and international students who remained in Kalamazoo, have stories to tell. And if you’ve wondered how the pandemic has affected them in their travels, keep reading.

Maya Hernandez in China
Maya Hernandez ’21 was among four Kalamazoo College students in Beijing when the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Days of Uncertainty in Beijing

Maya Hernandez ’21 and Daniel Mota-Villegas ’21 were among four K students studying at Capital Normal University in Beijing, China, this winter. Before coronavirus emerged, “Honestly it was amazing,” said Hernandez, an East Asian studies major. “Everything was super affordable. It was fun to go out and explore the capital.”

In late January, their sixth month of a planned nine-month immersion, that began to change as word developed of coronavirus, and its presence in Wuhan.

“I figured it was like the flu,” Hernandez said. “But within the span of a week and a half, concern increased.”

Although Wuhan is more than 700 miles from Beijing, professors in the capital were warning students not to visit enclosed and crowded public spaces, traffic was dying down, and fewer children were playing outside. Masks were commonly seen from the start because of pollution in the city, yet they were becoming more prevalent. Hotels and beaches even began to close, forcing Mota-Villegas and Hernandez to cancel plans to visit another city.

“After that there were check points around the school,” said Mota-Villegas, a political science major studying U.S.-China relations and how they affect Taiwan. “They closed the school’s gates and there were security guards around. We couldn’t leave campus without direct permission.”

Fear emerged without reliable, consistent communication through tools such as the Internet, which is problematic in China, and with a 12-hour time difference from Kalamazoo hindering communication with the College. Should they go home and risk not returning? Should they make logistical preparations such as closing their bank accounts? Should they stay and risk not being able to leave with travel restrictions developing around the world?

Meanwhile, in Kalamazoo, the CIP was monitoring the U.S. Department of State guidelines, which had yet to focus on Bejing. Partner organizations in China—which had not yet cancelled programs in other parts of the country—sent updates, and CIP was gathering additional information from other U.S. institutions that had students in China. The situation was fast-moving and fluid. Finally, Capital Normal cancelled its global programs for the next term on Jan. 31, leading to a phone call to students from the CIP. It was a call telling the K students that CIP was bringing them home.

“Once we heard we were going home, that was the best feeling in the world,” Mota-Villegas said. “We needed that phone call. It made me realize again that K would take care of us. We felt supported again and we celebrated.”

Downtown Erlangen Germany During Pandemic
Jennalise Ellis ’21 was studying abroad in Erlangen, Germany, when the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Similar Tales of Two Cities in Europe

Although news was spreading of the coronavirus in Europe, two K students who were there until March said they initially weren’t worried about it, and they were surprised to come home.

In Badajoz, Spain, Nick Stein ’21 was studying at the Extremadura University in January. Several of his K peers were leaving after attending their program for its scheduled six months. Stein, though, was planning to stay an additional term.

“I first heard about coronavirus as everyone else was leaving,” he said. “Life was pretty normal until maybe March 10.”

Stein had been attending classes and teaching English when he made a trip to an art festival in Madrid. It was about that time when people started cancelling trips and there was talk of Extremadura University calling off its term.

Then, the president of Spain said the country would close borders and restrict travel.

“The CIP was good about saying, ‘You can stay or you can come home,’” Stein said. “They were always good about letting me make the decision. But when the president said there would be action, I knew that was my time to leave. In three hours, I had found a flight. I got on a train to Madrid and slept at the airport on my way home.”

Coming back so suddenly was the only thing he would change about his experience.

“It was surreal in a certain sense,” Stein said. “It’s difficult to come back when you’re speaking a different language for a while. It felt like living in a dream for two months. I was teaching English to families and making relationships when I suddenly had to return. It was a surprise.”

A similar story developed in Erlangen, Germany, for Jennalise Ellis ’21.

Ellis is a chemistry and German double major at K. When she attended Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany, she took mostly German-language courses, but blended her majors by taking a didactic chemistry course and working as an assistant in an organic chemistry lab. She was planning on staying three more months when President Trump planned a travel ban from Europe into the U.S., and countries neighboring Germany began closing their borders.

“I was shocked when I found out that I was actually going to have to move back to the U.S., because I was hopeful that the severity of the pandemic would subside by the start of the summer semester in mid-April,” she said. “I was also sad that I had to say goodbye to people and the city I got to know so well. The hardest part was that I didn’t have time to mentally prepare to leave Erlangen.”

It was an experience that has left her longing to go back some day.

“I definitely want to return,” Ellis said. “I am considering going to graduate school in Germany.”

An International Student Stays

When K students received the notification about distance learning this term, Xiu Cai ’20, an international student from China, was concerned. In addition to feeling frustrated with missing the spring events of her senior year, she worried that the travel restrictions, combined with the residence halls closing, would leave her homeless. Fortunately, the CIP was there to help.

“We received some emails that said people from China and certain places in Europe would not have to leave because of the travel bans,” Cai said. “When I talked with CIP, they emphasized those emails guaranteed me a place. They were supportive and helpful. I’ve appreciated everything they do.”

Since, Cai has attended distance learning courses from her residence hall, eaten meals at the Hicks Student Center, appreciated Mail Center services and exercised by walking through campus. She also is grateful for her professors who gave support, Dining Services who provided her with meals, and the Student Health Center, which provided masks when she need them.

“I feel like being here now is a special experience, for me at least,” she said. “Not everyone would have a chance to experience the same thing in their lives. I’m grateful to the school for allowing me to stay here.”

Still at hand, however, is the issue of getting home after graduation. Cai has tried five times to schedule flights home for June after the Conferral of Degrees ceremony, and all five flights have been cancelled. As of now, she’s uncertain when she will go home and see her family.

“I video chat with family almost every day,” Cai said. When coronavirus emerged, “I was spending all my time worrying about my family. Now, they’re worried about me.”

Regardless, Cai said this experience, if anything, is only encouraging her to travel more.

“The coronavirus, to me, is random,” she said. “You never know what will happen in the next second in life. If you have the chance, go wherever you want.”

Moving forward

Moving forward, students who want to study abroad may need to consider what the “new normal” may be as the pandemic runs its course.

“I would think about what my expectations for travel might be and how we meet our new reality,” Wiedenhoeft said. “I know many of our students who go to Europe, for example, love to travel. What would it mean if you’re in Spain and can’t go to France? That means you can still get to know different regions of Spain very well. You can go to art museums. You can find something that is interesting to you, and be flexible enough to achieve it.”

Wiedenhoeft also is encouraging optimism that student immersion opportunities will stay an important part of the K-Plan.

“There are certain regions of the world that will recover first,” she said. “We need to do what we can to maximize opportunities in those regions. The relationships we have with our partners will be very important in those plans. I think our relationships will be stronger because we’ve been in frequent contact.”

In addition, “We want to encourage folks not to be disheartened,” she said. “We genuinely believe we will engage with the world again and that they will engage with us. It will take time, but it will not be like this forever.”

Honors Day Rewards Student Excellence

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Honors Day Convocation
More than 250 students including Rebecca Chan ’22 were recognized Friday, Nov. 8, at the Honors Day Convocation at Stetson Chapel.

Family Weekend served as the backdrop for the Honors Day 2019 convocation. More than 250 students were recognized Friday, Nov. 8, for excellence in academics and leadership in six divisions: Fine Arts, Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Physical Education. Recipients of prestigious scholarships were recognized, as were members of national honor societies and students who received special Kalamazoo College awards. Student athletes and teams who won Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association awards also were honored. The students receiving Honors Day awards or recognition are listed below.

FINE ARTS DIVISION

Brian Gougeon Prize in Art
Kate Roberts
Beth Schulman
Zoe Zawacki

The Margaret Upton Prize in Music
Sophia Yurdin

Cooper Award
Maria Jensen

Sherwood Prize
Rebecca Chan
Brianna Taylor

Theatre Arts First-Year Student Award
Rebecca Chan

MODERN AND CLASSICAL LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES DIVISION

LeGrand Copley Prize in French
Rebecca Chan
Thomas Saxton

Hardy Fuchs Award
Christian Zeitvogel

Margo Light Award
Daniel Fahle

Romance Languages Department Prize in Spanish
Emiley Hepfner
Hayden Strobel

Clara H. Buckley Prize for Excellence in Latin
Kelly Hansen

Provost’s Prize in Classics
Jessica Chaidez
Annabelle Houghton

Classics Departmental Prize in Greek
Lydia Bontrager

HUMANITIES DIVISION

M. Allen Prize in English
Abigail Cadieux
Jessica Chaidez

John B. Wickstrom Prize in History
Fiona Holmes

Department of Philosophy Prize
Mitch Baty
Julia Bienstock
Emma Fergusson

L.J. and Eva (“Gibbie”) Hemmes Memorial Prize in Philosophy
Max Bogun
Zoe Celeste Schneberger
Nick Wilson

NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS DIVISION

Winifred Peake Jones Prize in Biology
Natalie Barber
Abigail Gray
Madeline Harding
Grace McKnight

Department of Chemistry Prize
Aleksandra Bartolik
Grace McKnight

First-Year Chemistry Award
Robert Barnard
Saudia Tate
Andrew Walsh

Professor Ralph M. Deal Endowed Scholarship for Physical Chemistry Students
Leonardo Sota

Lemuel F. Smith Award
Christopher Vennard

Computer Science Prize
Shruti Chaturvedi
Caroline Skalla

First-Year Mathematics Award
Haley Crabbs
Thomas Saxton
Carter Wade

Thomas O. Walton Prize in Mathematics
Lisa Johnston
Dahwi Kim
Samuel Ratliff

Cooper Prize in Physics
Revaz Bakuradze
Samuel Barczy
Kate Roberts

SOCIAL SCIENCES DIVISION

Departmental Prize in Anthropology and Sociology
Yuridia Campuzano
Mauricio Guillén
Jillian Lynk

Wallace Lawrence Prize in Economics
Rebekah Halley
Chaniya Miller

William G. Howard Memorial Prize
Georgie Andrews
Jade Jiang
Zachary Ray
Adam Snider

Wallace Lawrence Prize in Business
Nathan Micallef
Sage Ringsmuth

Irene and S. Kyle Morris Prize
Mihail Naskovski

William G. Howard Memorial Prize in Political Science
Ava Keller
Christian Zeitvogel

PHYSICAL EDUCATION DIVISION

Division of Physical Education Prize
Walker Chung
Kaytlyn Tidey

Maggie Wardle Prize
Darby Scott

COLLEGE AWARDS

Gordon Beaumont Memorial Award
Yasamin Shaker

Henry and Inez Brown Prize
Mya Gough
Mathew Holmes-Hackerd
Rosella LoChirco
Elizabeth Munoz
Erin Radermacher

Virginia Hinkelman Memorial Award
Jilia Johnson

HEYL SCHOLARS
Class of 2023

Samuel Ankley
Ben Behrens (’20)
Carter Eisenbach
Rachel Kramer
Rachel Lanting
Alexis Nesbitt
Suja Thakali
Elizabeth Wang

POSSE SCHOLARS
Class of 2023

Jayla Ekwegh
Naile Garcia
Devin Hunt
Juan Ibarra
Angel Ledesma
Milan Levy
Katharina Padilla
Milagros Robelo
Emilio Romo
Diego Zambrana

NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARS
Class of 2023

Donald Brown
Claire Kvande

VOYNOVICH SCHOLARS

Audrey Honig
Nikoli Nickson

ALPHA LAMBDA DELTA
CLASS OF 2022

Alpha Lambda Delta is a national honor society that recognizes excellence in academic achievement during the first college year. To be eligible for membership, students must earn a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 and be in the top 20 percent of their class during the first year. The Kalamazoo College chapter was installed on March 5, 1942.

Elizabeth Abel
McKenzi Baker
Natalie Barber
Samuel Barczy
Aleksandra Bartolik
Mitchell Baty
Julia Bienstock
Alexander Bowden
Haylee Bowsher
Irie Browne
Elizabeth Burton
Abigail Cadieux
Rebecca Chan
Gabriel Chung
Haley Crabbs
Sofia Diaz
Adam Dorstewitz
Imalia Drummond
Daniel Fahle
Emma Fergusson
Kaitlin Gandy
Levon Gibson
Jessica Gracik
Madeline Guimond
Emiley Hepfner
Ellie Jones
Joseph Jung
David Kent
Yung Seo Lee
Marissa Lewinski
Donna Li
Isabella Luke
Deven Mahanti
Clara Martinez-Voigt
Mihail Naskovski
Rushik Patel
Houston Peach
Anthony Peraza
Lucas Rizzolo
Marco Savone
Isabella Shansky-Genovese
Caroline Skalla
Emily Smith
Abby Stewart
Emily Tenniswood
Carter Wade
Samantha White
Zachary Worthing
Christian Zeitvogel

ENLIGHTENED LEADERSHIP AWARDS

Performing Arts: Music
Marilu Bueno
John Carlson
Emily Dudd
Sarma Ejups
Peter Fitzgerald
Rose Hannan
Garrett Hanson
Koshiro Kuroda
Milan Levy
Matthew Mueller
Clarice Ray

MIAA AWARDS

These teams earned the 2018-2019 MIAA Team GPA Award for achieving a 3.3 or better grade-point average for the entire academic year:

Men’s Baseball
Women’s Basketball
Men’s Cross Country
Women’s Cross Country
Men’s Golf
Women’s Golf
Men’s Lacrosse
Women’s Lacrosse
Women’s Soccer
Women’s Softball
Women’s Swimming and Diving
Women’s Volleyball

MIAA ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL

Student Athletes 2018-2019

The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association each year honors students at MIAA member colleges who achieve in the classroom and in athletic competition. Students need to be a letter winner in a varsity sport and maintain at least a 3.5 grade point average for the entire academic year.

Hayleigh Alamo
Georgie Andrews
Hunter Angileri
Lauren Arquette
Brooklyn Avery
Julia Bachmann
Sonal Bahl
Nicole Bailey
Lillian Baumann
Brad Bez
Rose Bogard
Jacob Bonifacio
Maria Bonvicini
Alexander Bowden
Molly Brueger
Jane Bunch
Pierce Burke
Alexander Cadigan
Gabriel Chung
Isabelle Clark
Noah Coplan
Rachel Cornell
Chase Coselman
Eva Deyoung
Alexis Dietz
Adam Dorstewitz
Amanda Dow
Sydney Dowdell
Thomas Fales
Colton Farley
Anders Finholt
Clifton Foster
Jakob Frederick
Brendan Gausselin
Sarah George
Jacob Gilhaus
Anthony Giovanni
Rachel Girard
Sophia Goebel
Preston Grossling
Garrett Guthrie
Rebekah Halley
Emily Hamel
Grace Hancock
Megan Heft
Alyssa Heitkamp
Mathew Holmes-Hackerd
Matthew Howrey
Benjamin Hyndman
Samantha Jacobsen
Benjamin Johanski
Jaylin Jones
Jackson Jones
Claire Kalina
Grace Karrip
Lucas Kastran
Maria Katrantzi
Greg Kearns
Jackson Kelly
Brandon Kramer
Benjamin Krebs
Matthew Krinock
Stefan Leclerc
Kathryn Levasseur
Rosella LoChirco
Molly Logsdon
Nicholas Ludka
Andrea MacMichael
Rachel Madar
Deven Mahanti
Cydney Martell
Samuel Matthews
Eliza McCall
Benjamin Meschke
Hannah Meyers
Nathan Micallef
Zachary Morales
Max Moran
Amanda Moss
Elizabeth Munoz
Kelly Nickelson
Nikoli Nickson
Ian Nostrant
Drew Novetsky
Michael Orwin
Dylan Padget
Paul Pavliscak
Calder Pellerin
Anthony Peraza
Erin Perkins
Eve Petrie
Zach Prystash
Daniel Qin
Erin Radermacher
Harrison Ramsey
Zachary Ray
Jordan Reichenbach
Benjamin Reiter
Lucas Rizzolo
Margaret Roberts
Scott Roberts
Lily Rogowski
Marco Savone
Ashley Schiffer
Nicholas Schneider
Justin Schodowski
Darby Scott
Justin Seablom
Sharif Shaker
Drew Sheckell
Nathan Silverman
Maya Srkalovic
Abby Stewart
Grant Stille
Shelby Suseland
Garrett Swanson
Jacob Sypniewski
Nina Szalkiewicz
Jack Tagget
Leah Tardiff
Emily Tenniswood
Cade Thune
Matt Turton
Madison Vallan
Zachary Van Faussien
Travis Veenhuis
Tejas Vettukattil
Vanessa Vigier
Maija Weaver
Megan Williams
Hannah Wolfe
Sophia Woodhams
Austin Yunker
Christian Zeitvogel

Professor, Author to Deliver Weber Lecture

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William Weber Lecture Speaker Joe Soss
Joe Soss, the University of Minnesota’s Cowles Chair for the Study of Public Service, will deliver the annual William Weber Lecture in Government and Society at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, in the Olmsted Room at Mandelle Hall.

A professor and author known for exploring the interplay of democratic politics, societal inequalities and public policy will visit Kalamazoo College on Tuesday. Cowles Chair for the Study of Public Service Joe Soss will deliver the annual William Weber Lecture in Government and Society at 8 p.m. in the Olmsted Room at Mandelle Hall.

Soss holds faculty positions in the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, the political science department and sociology department at the University of Minnesota. His open-to-the-public lecture, “Preying on the Poor: Criminal Justice as Revenue Racket,” shares a title with his current book project.

In the upcoming book, Soss and coauthor Josh Page will argue that police officers, acting as street-level enforcers for a program promoted by city officials in Ferguson, Missouri, used fines and fees to extract resources from poor communities of color and deliver them to municipal coffers.

The authors will further argue that what happened in Ferguson is not an anomaly in U.S. history or of contemporary American governance while offering a political analysis of the origins, operations and consequences of revenue-centered criminal justice practices that have grown in the U.S. since the 1990s.

Soss also co-authored a 2011 book, Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race, with Richard C. Fording and Sanford Schram. That book explained the transformation of poverty governance over 40 years and received the 2012 Michael Harrington Award, the 2012 Oliver Cromwell Cox Award, the 2012 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award and the 2015 Herbert Simon Award.

The Weber Lecture was founded by Bill Weber, a 1939 graduate of Kalamazoo College. Weber also founded the William Weber Chair in Political Science at the College before passing in 2012. Past lecturers in this series have included David Broder, Van Jones and DeRay Mckesson. For more information on Soss and his work, visit his website.

Change Ringing Award Honors K Alumnus, Student

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One Kalamazoo College alumnus and one student have ensured K’s reputation as a home for change ringing will continue by earning a national award named after a former K professor.

Change Ringing Award Recipient Ian McKnight
Ian McKnight ’19 is one of two with Kalamazoo College ties to receive the first Jeff Smith Memorial Young Ringer Award.

Ian McKnight ’19 and Sam Ratliff ’21 are among ringers from towers in Kalamazoo; Kent, Connecticut; Shreveport, Louisiana; Northampton, Massachusetts; Marietta, Georgia; and Sewanee, Tennessee, to earn the first Jeff Smith Memorial Young Ringer Award from the North American Guild of Change Ringers. The award recognizes bell-ringing achievement and a commitment to local change ringing communities.

Change Ringing Award Recipient Sam Ratliff
Sam Ratliff is studying mathematics and computer science on study abroad in Aberdeen, Scotland, this fall and rings regularly with the band at St. Machar’s Church there.

The award is named after the late Jeff Smith, a longtime and beloved professor at Kalamazoo College. In addition to teaching mathematics, Smith taught hundreds of students to ring changes and inspired the College to install change ringing bells at Stetson Chapel on campus.

Change ringing developed in England and is traditionally heard after royal weddings as well as before and after most English church services. It requires a group of ringers working in tight coordination to ring the bells in changing permutations. Because each tower bell takes more than a second to complete its full 360-degree rotation, the bells can’t ring traditional music or melodies. That constraint led to an intricate system of generating unique permutations known as change ringing.

In addition to strengthening the abilities of the Kalamazoo band of change ringers, McKnight and Ratliff have both rung quarter peals. A quarter peal contains a series of at least 1,250 permutations rung in rapid succession according to rules that ensure no permutations are repeated. A quarter peal takes about 45 minutes of concentration and cooperation among the band of ringers, creating beautiful sounds.

McKnight graduated with a degree in political science in June after earning a senior leadership award. He once wrote about his experience with change ringing in K’s student blog. He now works for State Rep. Darrin Camilleri in Detroit.

“It’s a real honor to receive an award named for Jeff Smith, without whom I would probably never have discovered ringing,” McKnight said. “I first went to the tower after hearing the bells that he brought to Kalamazoo College and was hooked after just one practice. For four years since, ringing has been a great joy and a source for friends on both sides of the Atlantic. I know that will continue to be the case for many years to come.”

Ratliff is studying mathematics and computer science on study abroad in Aberdeen, Scotland, this fall and rings regularly with the band at St. Machar’s Church there.

“I heard that ringing was a cooperative musical, physical and mental exercise, all of which interested me, so I dropped into the tower the first week of my first year at K,” Ratliff said. “The algorithmic methods that we use to make music held my attention and I’ve been ringing ever since.”

The Kalamazoo College ringers welcome visitors and would be pleased to show anyone how the bells are rung. The ringers can be contacted at kzooringers@yahoo.com.

Influential Professor Noah Feldman to Deliver K’s Flesche Lecture

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A respected law professor called “one of the stars of his generation” by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, and one of the “most influential people of the 21st century” by Esquire magazine will deliver the Donald C. Flesche Visiting Scholar Lecture at Kalamazoo College.

Noah R. Feldman, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a senior fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard, will speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in the Olmsted Room, Mandelle Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Flesche Lecture Speaker Noah Feldman
Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman will deliver the Flesche Lecture at 8 p.m. April 9.

Feldman specializes in constitutional studies with an emphasis on the relationship between law and religion, constitutional design and the history of legal theory. He is also the director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law.

“We have outstanding faculty who provide students with opportunities to think and learn. Experts in these fields are an important complement to that,” Interim Provost Laura Furge said. “This gives our students an opportunity to bring questions to the table, apply what they’re learning and bring it into a conversation.”

Feldman received his bachelor’s degree in near-Eastern languages and civilizations from Harvard University in 1992. He was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and earned his Ph.D. in Oriental studies from Oxford University in 1994. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1997 and served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court. He served as a senior constitutional adviser during the drafting of Iraq’s interim constitution in 2003. In 2011, Feldman appeared in all three episodes of Ken Burns’ PBS series Prohibition as a legal commentator, and he is a regular contributor to Bloomberg Opinion. He has written seven books since 2003 including, What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building (2004), Divided By God: America’s Church-State Problem—and What We Should Do About It (2005) and The Three Lives of James Madison (2017).

The lecture series is named after Donald Flesche, a professor emeritus of political science and the longtime “Voice of the Hornets” at countless K athletics events. Flesche taught at Kalamazoo College from 1962-1998; in 2001, he was honored with the Weimer K. Hicks Award, recognizing a current or retired employee of the College who has provided support for programs or activities beyond the call of duty. The lectureship endowment was started by Flesche’s former students to honor his inspirational teaching and ensure that the conversations on campus include some of the world’s best scholars.

Events such as the Flesche Lecture and the Weber Lecture, which brought leading Black Lives Matter Voice DeRay Mckesson to campus in October, provide K with “an opportunity to bring in an opinion maker who sees excellence in our academic programs and invite them to be a part of our fellowship of learning,” Furge said.

 

K Student’s Fellowship Targets Cyber Threats

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As global cyber threats target U.S. businesses and the government, organizations such as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace respond, and so will Natalie Thompson ’19.

Natalie Thompson's Fellowship Addresses Cyber Threats
Natalie Thompson ’19 will help the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace respond to global cyber threats.

Thompson, a math and political science double major from West Olive, Michigan, is the first Kalamazoo College student to earn a James C. Gaither Junior Fellowship. Each year, Carnegie chooses about a dozen graduating seniors or recent grads from a pool of several hundred nominees to serve as junior fellows. The junior fellows work with Carnegie’s senior scholars for one year in Washington, D.C., to conduct research for books, co-author journal articles and policy papers, participate in meetings with high-level officials, contribute to congressional testimony and organize briefings attended by scholars, journalists and government officials.

An ‘Unparalleled Opportunity’

Beginning Aug. 1, Thompson will work in Carnegie’s Cyber Policy Initiative, run through its Technology and International Affairs Program, to promote technology while reducing or eliminating cyber threats that could harm the country’s financial stability, data and transaction integrity, and communication chains.

Students applying for the fellowship are first nominated by their institution and prepare statements of interest and issue-specific essays for their program of interest. Carnegie selects about three or four students to interview for each position and must demonstrate some knowledge of and passion for their focus topic. Plus, according to its website, Carnegie selects only the top 5 percent of its applicants each year for junior fellowships with students.

“I think it’s an unparalleled opportunity,” said Thompson, who added this is just the second year K has been a nominating institution for the fellowship. “Think tanks and nonprofits in Washington, D.C., like Carnegie often prefer employees with several years of work experience or a master’s degree in their field in research positions like these. I hope to take my undergraduate degree and the great writing and research skills I learned at K and transfer them into policy expertise. It’s difficult to describe how exciting it is for me and I hope it’s exciting for the College.”

Before they graduate from K, students including Thompson complete a senior individualized project (SIP), serving as a capstone to their educations in the liberal arts and sciences. Anne Dueweke, K’s director of grants, fellowships and research, who serves as the College’s nominating official for the fellowship, said Thompson’s SIP, about media technologies and their impact on public deliberation, probably factored into Carnegie’s decision to select her.

“I think her SIP certainly had something to do with it along with other experiences in which she has been able to develop her research skills,” Dueweke said. “But Natalie really stands out in her intellectual curiosity. She is incredibly well read and engaged in the topic of cybersecurity, and on many related topics as well. She is also a very sophisticated thinker and writer. The Gaither Fellowship is a perfect fit for her.”

Global Cyber Threats on the Rise

As an example of the cyber threats she might address as a fellow, Thompson described “deepfakes.” Deepfakes are an artificial intelligence-based technology that produce or alter video or audio to convincingly present something that didn’t occur. Video and audio manipulation techniques are not new, but technological advances have made the manipulations more convincing. Usually this means criminals or hackers fool the public into believing a famous influencer, business executive or politician said something they never did. She could explore what such a tactic means for government intelligence connections, diplomatic relations and state-to-state hacking.

State-to-state hacking concerns also have escalated in recent weeks because of China’s government and how it allegedly spies on U.S. businesses. National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Department officials brought to light some of those issues this month at a cybersecurity conference, as reported through the Washington Post.

As a result, “what policies will we need to consider?” Thompson asked. “Could there be diplomatic, legal or military responses? Right now, we don’t have clear policy standards or regulations for what to do in these situations.”

Thompson said she’s comfortable in Washington, D.C., as she was among K’s first students to study away there through an internship with Whitmer & Worrall, a bipartisan government relations and strategic consulting firm. However, several K faculty and staff members were instrumental in encouraging her to seek the fellowship. Those influencers included Dueweke, Luce Professor of Complex Systems Studies Peter Erdi, and Kalamazoo College’s Political Science Department.

“Dr. [Jennifer] Einsphar especially has been a tireless mentor for me during my time at K,” said Thompson of the associate professor of political science. “We’ve had so many conversations. She’s an incredible scholar and I’ve loved her courses. Dr. Erdi has also been a tireless advocate for me. He encouraged me to combine hard science and social science, and helped me think from an interdisciplinary perspective.”

Learn more about the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the James C. Gaither Junior Fellowship through the organization’s website.