We’re starting this series up again to showcase new faculty, along with a few faculty who are returning after some time away! If you’re interested in catching up from last year, here are links to 2020’s Round 1 & Round 2.
Prof. Rebecca Blok
How long have you been at Hope? This is my first semester teaching here, but I graduated from Hope in 2016. It’s good to be home!
Favorite Subject to Teach/Specialty Area? Medieval literature
Favorite Movie? The Princess Bride–it has a little bit of everything.
Favorite Book? Recently, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Favorite Hobbies? Cooking, contra dancing, and I have recently picked up playing the bodhran (not very well).
Prof. Blok teaches ENGL 113 – 23 this semester.
Prof. Cheri Endean
How long have you been at Hope? Fall 2021 is my first semester as an instructor, although I was a Hope parent from 2013-2017, when my younger son Thomas was earning his degree in chemistry.
Favorite Subject to Teach/Specialty Area? I love teaching first-year writing. There are so many skills students can learn to deal with writing obstacles. Also, I struggled with writing as an undergraduate, so I find it easy to sympathize with my students.
Favorite Movie? Stranger than Fiction; About a Boy
Favorite Book? C S Lewis’ book The Great Divorce (a fantasy/allegory about the nature of hell and of heaven).
Favorite Hobbies? Hiking, especially to see waterfalls. Cooking, especially when I have invited guests to share a meal. Boating (we’ve cruised on the Erie Canal twice). Dancing, especially a dance called the Carolina Shag that developed on the beaches in North Carolina.
Prof. Endean teaches ENGL 113 – 13 & ENGL 113 – 24this semester.
Prof. David Greendonner
How long have you been at Hope? The fall 2021 semester is my first.
Favorite Subject to Teach/Specialty Area? Fiction!
Favorite Movie? Cool Hand Luke.
Favorite Book? The Great Gastby.
Favorite Hobbies? Playing drums, drawing, and reading comics.
Prof. Greendonner teaches ENGL 113 – 22 this semester.
Dr. Marla Lunderberg
How long have you been at Hope? I began teaching here in 1994, but I’m also a 1982 Hope alum. It was a joy to return to Hope to join my professors, and yet also a challenge to see myself as one of their colleagues!
Favorite Subject to Teach/Specialty Area? I love the magic of energy in the classroom, and I thrive on opportunities to learn together with my students. Brit Lit I and Shakespeare are courses specific to my area of specialization, but I also love teaching English 113 and Cultural Heritage and Senior Seminar.
Favorite Movie? Last year when I was on sabbatical, my daughter led me through viewing all the Marvel movies, and so by the time several new Marvel short series appeared last spring, I was hooked. These series are not movies (as the question asks for), but they’re some of my current favorites to talk about. For example, the short series WandaVision offers a stunning portrayal of the way the deep pain resulting from loss can shape one’s perspective, one’s experiences, one’s ongoing relationships.
Favorite Book? Mmmm–this is hard. Whatever book I can’t put down for the moment is usually my favorite, and I’m a bit fickle, willing to trade one favorite for the next as soon as I have time to ignore the world and hide in my comfy chair with a cup of tea and yet another new friend. Here are two that have held the favored spot at different times: The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce.
Favorite Hobbies? Most years, I’d say “travel” for my #1 favorite hobby, but at the moment, I’ve traded that particular joy for more local pursuits: gardening, especially my herb garden, and discovering local hiking trails on alltrails.com.
Dr. Lunderberg teaches ENGL 270, ENGL 373, and IDS 492 – 04 this semester.
Dr. Christiana Salah
How long have you been at Hope? I started here in the fall of 2017, and am delighted to be back after a year of family leave.
Favorite Subject to Teach or Specialty Area? So many things! Here are three of my courses and why I love teaching them:
- ENGL 373: Victorian Crime – Thrills, chills, and murders in foggy London town, by some of the greatest authors in history.
- IDS 174: Marriage in the Modern Age – We dive into life’s huge questions, like why marry or stay single, and who to marry if you do.
- WGS 200: Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies – We read powerful, magnetic voices and soak up new, world-bending ideas!
Favorite Movie? Is there a film more perfect than The Princess Bride? Inconceivable.
Favorite Book? It’s a tie between David Copperfield, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, and the whole Harry Potter series.
Favorite Hobbies? Travel, hiking with my family, baking (I did a Great British Baking Show bake-along last year), and watching geeky movies.
Dr. Salah teaches IDS 174 – 03 & WGS 200 – 01 this semester.
Prof. Tom Sura
How long have you been at Hope? I’ve been at hope since January 2021.
Favorite Subject to Teach or Specialty Area? I’m a rhetorician, which means I teach students about rhetoric. Rhetoric is often associated with persuading an audience, but I like to describe rhetoric as how we use language to do stuff.
Favorite Movie? The 1977 animated version of The Hobbit. Along with Star Wars, this movie contains the most quotes that my brother and I will habitually slip into everyday our conversations.
Favorite Book? Richard Adams’s Watership Down had a profound effect on my as a kid. To this day when I see a rabbit I wonder where its warren is and if it’s a member of the Owsla.
Favorite Hobbies? All the ones that open up time with my kids including Pokémon, theater, video games, and Kidz Bop.
Prof. Sura teaches ENGL 113-15 & ENGL 213 this semester.
Dr. Kristen VanEyk
How long have you been at Hope? This is my first year, and I love it already!
Favorite Subject to Teach or Specialty Area? Writing, especially English 113. But I’ve taught a lot of literature, nonfiction, and creative and academic writing over the past 15 years and have enjoyed it all.
Favorite Movie? I never have a good answer for this! I am watching a TV show called Ted Lasso right now, and I highly recommend it.
Favorite Book? I used to teach high school English, so it’s probably no surprise that my favorites are To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee), The Things They Carried (Tim O’Brien), and A Walk in the Woods (Bill Bryson).
Favorite Hobbies? Running, eating, reading, writing, traveling with my spouse, and playing (games, outside, sports, make-believe) with my kids.
Dr. VanEyk teaches ENGL 113 – 04 & ENGL 113 – 09 this semester.
Dr. Robert Zandstra
How long have you been at Hope? I am new to Hope this semester!
Favorite Subject to Teach/Specialty Area? I love teaching about connections between faith and environment in any context.
Favorite Movie? Ordet, for how it wrestles with and affirms faith; First Reformed, for how it wrestles with climate change and the state of American Christianity; My Neighbor Totoro, for how it elicits wonder and joy; The House Is Black, for how it elicits sympathy and compassion.
Favorite Book? Too many favorites! My favorite authors are Wendell Berry and Marilynne Robinson. The literary protagonists I most identify with (aspirationally!) are Alyosha from The Brothers Karamazov, Sir Gawain from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Pi from Life of Pi.
Favorite Hobbies? Hiking, gardening, cooking, reading and writing poetry.
Dr. Zandstra teaches ENGL 113 – 17, ENGL 113 – 21, and IDS 172 – 06 this semester.