Tag: Spera

Spotlight on Faculty Research and Scholarly Work

What hath Tacitus to do with Ukraine?

When his teaching touches on contemporary issues like the war between Russia and Ukraine, Dr. Bram ten Berge prefers to take a long view. Almost 2,000 years long. The classics professor’s scholarly analysis and writing focus on Tacitus (c. 55–120 A.D., and that c is soft, like an s). Tacitus was a senator who is… Continue Reading →

From Art 101 to Engineering 100: A Liberal Arts Story of Systems Thinking

The liberal arts are fertile ground for serendipitous connections, for driving research across fields and spurring new ways of thinking within them. Dr. John Krupczak Jr., professor of engineering, has another term for it: systems thinking. It’s the sort of thinking that sparked the mechanical engineer’s desire to publish an engineering book that non-scientists can… Continue Reading →

The Gift of Creation

Unless you’re plugged into the French intellectual and philosophical scene, you’ve almost certainly never heard of Fabrice Hadjadj. One Hope College professor is working to change that. Hadjadj (b. 1971) is a contemporary philosopher and writer, and “a rising star in the French Catholic intellectual firmament,” says Dr. Joshua Kraut, associate professor of French in… Continue Reading →

A Duet of Music and Computer Programming Brings a Concerto, and a Dream, to Life

Dr. Matt DeJongh laps up languages: computer, verbal, musical. So when it came time to begin his 2022–2023 sabbatical research project, there were many directions he could’ve taken. There was, however, one especially compelling aspiration DeJongh believed a computer could make a reality if it were programmed just right. “My project stems from a very… Continue Reading →

Delving Deep into Zebrafish Brains for Clues about the Sense of Smell and Adaptation to Climate Change

To Dr. Erika Calvo-Ochoa, science is about storytelling. Diminutive zebrafish, with their perpetually surprised expressions and uncannily keen sense of smell, are her striped protagonists. Small though they are, it’s their even tinier neurons that are the focus in Calvo-Ochoa’s laboratory. With student researchers, the molecular neuroscientist is studying olfaction and neural recovery in this… Continue Reading →

Mentoring a New Generation of Jazz Musicians

Robert Shipley is widely regarded as one of the most versatile, accomplished drummers of his era. Equally at home in jazz, pop, blues, R&B and Latin genres, he began his career recording with Grammy-winning blues legend Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and has performed around the world with Diana Ross, Natalie Cole, The Temptations, Chaka Khan and… Continue Reading →

To Foster a Healthy Mindset and Body Image, Offset Negative Messages

There’s nothing like filtered TikToks and photoshopped celebrity images to make us dissatisfied with our own bodies. And boy, does modern media deliver a constant barrage. Dr. Mary Inman, professor of psychology and department chair, knows that affirmation is a powerful antidote. In multiple strands of research with colleagues and Hope College students, she’s identifying… Continue Reading →

Ideas and the Test of Time

Tracing and analyzing how texts have been interpreted over time is Dr. David DeJong’s niche in biblical studies. The relatively new field is called “reception history” — reception meaning how a text was “received” by those who heard it or, in later eras, read it. What public discourse took place? What nuanced understanding developed? How… Continue Reading →

Imaging What Can’t Be Seen

There’s a paradox in Leekyung Kang’s art: She focuses on things we cannot see. Opaque holes hover in some recent work. What do murky swaths of spray paint cover up? We see a brick foundation, but of what? Kang finds unseen spaces intriguing. It dates to her childhood in Seoul, South Korea. From her apartment… Continue Reading →

Probing the Nature of “Stuff”

Given Dr. Zachary Williams’ hometown heritage and mathematical proclivity, studying physics may have always been a bygone conclusion — much to his relish, and Hope’s. Williams grew up on Florida’s “space coast” near the Kennedy Space Center. “Everyone in my hometown was, at most, one or two degrees removed from a NASA affiliation,” he says.… Continue Reading →

Inspiring a Healthier Lifestyle for Adolescent Girls

As COVID-19 disrupted health the world over, Dr. Vicki Voskuil was tuned into one of its hidden, insidious effects: an ancillary pandemic that was particularly pernicious among the United States’ youth. “Especially during the pandemic, it became obvious that we also have this other pandemic of inactivity that’s across all ages,” she says. She has… Continue Reading →

Imaginary Numbers, Real Belonging

In many ways, mathematics is art — at least for Dr. Stephanie Edwards. She’s always had an affinity for the field, but it really blossomed when she was in graduate school. Doing complex analysis (math beyond calculus) brought home to her that math is beautiful — and it works. Complex analysis is, as the name… Continue Reading →

The Art and Science of Composition

As a youngster growing up in California, Dr. Benjamin Krause realized that no matter how excited he got playing other people’s music on the piano, at some point he would have to compose himself. “In the beginning, it was all about just playing the piano,” recalled Krause (rhymes with drowsy), assistant professor of music and… Continue Reading →

What Makes Athletes Tick?

From the start, it’s been go, go, go for Assistant Professor of Kinesiology Dr. Femi Oluyedun. (Growing up with three brothers may have contributed to that lifestyle and mindset.) From a childhood immersed in sports to a stint on Wabash College’s soccer team as an undergraduate psychology major, through his years of study for his… Continue Reading →