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 →

Why Do Wetlands Come and Go Between Dunes?

“On Sunday afternoons, after church and dinner, one of my favorite places to go was the area that’s now called the Saugatuck Harbor Natural Area,” said Professor Suzanne DeVries-Zimmerman ’82, a West Michigan native and assistant professor of geological and environmental science instruction. “I just thought the whole area was fascinating — these wetlands in… Continue Reading →

Investigating the Dynamic between Health and Faith

Dr. Alyssa Cheadle is a Christian and a psychologist. In the United States, it’s an unlikely combination; according to Cheadle, psychologists are among the least religious academics. As a health psychologist, she develops insights into many aspects of physical health that are affected by mental health, and vice versa, in her prolific research output. But… Continue Reading →

Medical Role Models Matter

Dr. Aaron Franzen has been curious for years about the “hidden curriculum” of medical schools — the undercurrent of norms and expectations for behavior that medical students learn outside their official curriculum. “It’s the social water in which all of them swim, so it matters — whether they recognize it or not,” he says. Until… Continue Reading →

“Reinventing” Student Teaching with Mentoring at Its Core

Conceptually, the changes Professor Nancy Cook and Dr. Susan Brondyk engineered in Hope College’s student teaching model seem straightforward: More mentoring. More teamwork. A new tool to guide student teachers and seasoned professionals in a collaborative process of goal-setting, strategizing and regular assessment of each student teacher’s growth. But leading organizational change is anything but… Continue Reading →

Rhetoric, #MeToo and Television

Dr. Sarah Kornfield likens the cultural effects of television to a distorted reflection from a funhouse mirror, and she doesn’t mean it in an amusing way. When she thinks about TV’s reflective light, she does so as a rhetorician who studies the portrayals of gender in mass media. Using that lens to look closely at… Continue Reading →

Capturing the Intangible

Lisa Walcott can’t recall just what the item was. A blouse, perhaps? But she can picture the open drawer and the garment tossed across it. She was struck by the fabric’s fluidity — how much, draped there, it looked like liquid. But why would water trickle down the front of a bureau drawer? Why, indeed?… Continue Reading →

Bringing Fresh Vision to a Classic

Before the swirling coats were contemplated, before he resolved how 18 roiling bodies would storm across a stage without colliding, before his reimagined storyline took shape, Professor Matthew Farmer spent a year filling his head with Igor Stravinsky. In his car, on his phone in the breaks between classes and appointments and choreographing other pieces,… Continue Reading →

Faith of Our Foremothers

The Rev. Dr. Lynn Japinga has spent years telling the stories of the women of the Bible and, in many cases, doing her level best to redeem the reputations with which she feels they’ve been unfairly saddled over the centuries. “I joke that stories about women are always about either sex, violence, or sex and… Continue Reading →

History’s Paradoxical Lessons of Love in War

As a Marine veteran and military historian, Dr. Fred L. Johnson III is regrettably too familiar with the atrocities of war. As a college professor, he has not tucked away that horrific knowledge, but instead is adding a new perspective to it. Johnson recently gravitated toward extraordinary stories of friendship and forgiveness during times of… Continue Reading →

Mapping the Trees’ Tree of Life: The Genetic Lineages of North American Hazelnuts

Life — in all its varied forms and interactions — is one of the Earth’s most studied mysteries, one that scientists have spent centuries unraveling. Among them is botanist Dr. Jianhua Li, who is ranging through continents and (thanks to the insights of DNA) through time to uncover the branching trees of life of various,… Continue Reading →

For the Next Generation of Batteries, a Plentiful Compound Shows Promise

Dr. Jennifer Hampton is captivated by interesting materials — especially those in the electrifying world of electrochemistry. She’s currently studying iron hexacyanoferrate, better known as Prussian blue. This name, unsurprisingly, comes from the compound’s striking hue. Prussian blue has been used as a colorant in numerous applications, from the paint of van Gogh’s “Starry Night”… Continue Reading →