Tag: Spera

Teaching is foundational for professors at Hope. In Dr. Darin Stephenson’s case, he’s teaching not only students, but also computers. And they speak a different language. From the binary language of dune topography (0 = on the ground, 1 = not on the ground) to a birdsong sound wave turned visual, Stephenson is fluent in… Continue Reading →

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 →

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 →

For many, chemistry brings to mind the apparatus: ethereal blue flames, miles of plastic tubing with interestingly-colored chemicals snaking through, and — perhaps above all else — test tubes and beakers of all shapes and sizes. But for Dr. Brent Krueger, chemistry research often occurs on a computer screen, in the form of molecular models.… Continue Reading →

In 2013, Dr. Thomas Smith took a leave from Hope to spend a year at Emanuel University in Romania. Originally an underground college for pastors, it became a Christian university after the Soviet Union dissolved. Some students he taught there still seek his counsel as they grapple with how to live out Christian ethics in… Continue Reading →

The upcoming production was Dance 43, Hope College’s annual faculty recital. Forty-seven student dancers were rehearsing with seven faculty and guest choreographers, and Jessica Hroncheck was the fly on the wall. Hronchek spent weeks shadowing the dance company and interviewing choreographers to learn more about how people share information in a creative context — and… Continue Reading →

As digital resources continue to change the face of research and teaching, Victoria Longfield helps Hope College faculty and students explore how cutting-edge tools can help them broaden and exceed their goals. Her job title as Van Wylen Library’s digital liberal arts librarian is unusual even in this high-tech era. Hope is among just three… Continue Reading →

The rhythms of Afro-Brazilian music still echo the ancient drumbeats of Africa — carried across oceans on slave ships, adapted across the centuries, and today encompassing both a distinctive cultural identity and a communal national bond. Christopher Fashun (at right in photo) spent four months of 2019 in Brazil as a Fulbright Scholar, researching the… Continue Reading →

Dr. Virginia Beard was into identity politics long before the issue showed up on America’s front pages. For more than a decade, she’s investigated how religion, ethnicity and gender influence democratic attitudes and behaviors. In two papers finished in 2019, she lays out how religious identity affects attitudes toward democracy in some countries in sub-Saharan… Continue Reading →

Dr. Choonghee Han believes every nation has a time in its collective past that it would just as soon forget. In America, for example, it could be Vietnam. “There have been lots of discussions and publications about the Vietnam War, how it was interpreted or digested by the public through the media,” says Han. “It… Continue Reading →

In 2016, when Boston magazine ranked the “100 Best Bostonians of All Time,” Isabella Stewart Gardner came in fourth — just behind John F. Kennedy and right before Malcolm X. The wealthy, influential Gardner (1840–1924), whose eponymous art museum is a Boston must-see, transformed the city’s cultural landscape more than a century ago by being,… Continue Reading →

Years ago, when Barbara Vincensi’s work as a parish nurse took her to the homes of low-income senior citizens, it became clear to her that many would be healthier if regular medical monitoring were available to them close at hand. That unmet need stuck with her as she joined the Hope faculty and worked with… Continue Reading →

While the fight against viral and bacterial human pathogens stretches back to the dawn of human history, on some fronts we have yet to mount an effective defense. At the nanoscopic level, viruses have been infiltrating and using our cells with impunity for as long as they and we have existed. The battle against pathogenic… Continue Reading →

One engineer’s problem may just be another scientist’s solution. At least, that seems to be the case with a curious physics phenomenon known as microplasma. Dr. Stephen Remillard has seen it from both sides: as a problem during his earlier career as an industrial physicist, and as a surprisingly useful phenomenon now that he’s a… Continue Reading →

We may have to check the nutrition label to know the amounts of saturated and unsaturated fats we’re consuming, but for our cells, this tallying is second nature. Scientists have known for years that cells absorb, process and use fats; that they can change saturated fats to unsaturated ones; and that they recognize the difference… Continue Reading →

From the outside peering in, a great deal of organic chemistry looks like salt and water: white powders and transparent liquids. Yet this branch of science is prolific in creating the things we use every day — toothbrushes, medications, milk jugs and other ubiquitous consumer products. The field has built these things so well, in… Continue Reading →

At Hope, the course Encounter with Cultures heightens teacher education candidates’ understanding of how ethnicity, culture and gender play out in day-to-day life. Later, when as teachers they relate to students whose lives can be radically different from their own, they draw on the critical thinking they learned about racism in America and the impact… Continue Reading →

On a table in his office in VanderWerf Hall, a popular recent memoir about hiking the Appalachian Trail sits alongside Dr. Brian Yurk’s mathematics papers and journals. The presence of each offers empirical evidence of how the applied mathematician’s love of nature is combined with his love for his work. He’s a backpacker, climber, skier,… Continue Reading →

Almost any instrument has the capacity to express a variety of musical genres: classical, jazz, folk, blues, Latin, pop. It’s a musician’s choices of style and repertoire that let the variation out. For instance, take the violin — or should we say fiddle? To differentiate them, don’t look; just give a good listen. At the… Continue Reading →

When Dr. Andrew Dell’Olio was a senior at Rutgers University, a professor there taught t’ai chi ch’uan in the campus square. Though Dell’Olio didn’t join in, he recalls observing the meditative martial art; he found it quite beautiful. Within a year, the budding philosophy professor, by then a graduate student at Columbia, had enrolled in… Continue Reading →