Faculty Experts – Hope Expert Resources

March Madness Tips Off

by Eva Dean Folkert on March 6, 2019

March Madness — aka the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament — begins on March 17 with Selection Sunday and concludes April 8 with the Final Four. The women’s tournament coincides closely with those dates as well. Office bracket pools will begin and result in distracted co-workers as the “madness” encourages fans to root for expected winners while bemoaning busted brackets due to upsets and Cinderella stories. From a collegiate athletic viewpoint, “fortunes” rise and fall as teams either win or go home.

Dr. Chad Carlson, associate professor of kinesiology and director of general education

In 2017, Dr. Chad Carlson, associate professor of kinesiology and director of Hope’s general education program, published Making March Madness: The Early Years of the NCAA, NIT, and College Basketball Championship Tournaments, 1922-1951 (University of Arkansas Press). A collegiate basketball athlete himself, Carlson focuses his research on socio-cultural aspects of sport in the areas of philosophy and history of sport and their role in cultural trends. He is also especially interested in the connection between sports and Christianity, and in October 2019, he and Calvin College colleague Dr. Brian Bolt will direct the Second Global Congress on Sport and Christianity in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Daylight Saving Time Begins

by Eva Dean Folkert on

Daylight Saving Time (DST) is the practice of advancing clocks during summer (and spring and fall) months so that evening daylight lasts longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. In effect, DST causes a lost hour of sleep in the spring and an extra hour of sleep in the fall. DST disrupts our internal clock, contributing to productivity wanes at work, significant pedestrian and traffic accidents increases and serious health impacts.

Dr. Andrew Gall, assistant professor of psychology, is a behavioral neuroscientist who focuses his research on understanding the neural mechanisms and functions of sleep and circadian rhythms. He is able to address questions on how DST affects the mind and body’s ability to cope with lost sleep and disruption in the circadian rhythm.

“Brain regions that receive direct information about light, such as the suprachiasmatic nucleus, must re-entrain to the adjusted time of day following a time change,” Gall says. “It takes our bodies longer to adjust to the spring time change as compared to the fall time change, similar to when we travel east, due to the phase advance in our biological clock. One way to help your bodies adjust more quickly is to wake up about 15 minutes earlier each day starting several days before the time change, and go to bed earlier and earlier each night. Doing so will start to adjust your internal clock before the time changes in the early hours of Sunday morning.”

World Hearing Day: March 3

by Eva Dean Folkert on February 25, 2019

On World Hearing Day — March 3 — the World Health Organization will draw attention to the importance of early identification and intervention for hearing loss. According to WHO, 466 million people have disabling hearing loss (432 million adults and 34 million children) around the world and that number continues to rise. And a recent study by Johns Hopkins University found that the number of Americans aged 20 and older who suffer from hearing loss will double over the next 43 years. Still, many people live with unidentified hearing loss, often failing to realize that they are missing out on certain sounds and words.

Dr. David Myers, professor of psychology, is the author of the book, A Quiet World: Living with Hearing Loss. In it, Myers writes of his personal experience with hearing loss, interspersed with information about the psychology of hearing and new hearing technologies. Myers is an advocate of Hearing Loop, an assistive listening system, and he recently wrote “Getting People with Hearing Loss in the Loop” for Perspectives on Psychological Science. He recently served four years as a representative of Americans with hearing loss on the advisory board of NIH’s National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

And the Winner Is…

by Eva Dean Folkert on February 15, 2019

The 91^st Annual Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, will take centerstage on Sunday, February 24, in Hollywood, California. Deemed to be the highest honor given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry and popular for their extravagant ceremonies, the Oscars create a yearly buzz around the nominees and show. Most recently, the Academy has come under scrutiny for a lack of diversity and inclusion (#oscarssowhite), perceived overemphasis on independent films, and a mangled major presentation when LaLa Land was announced as the best picture of the year in 2017 when Moonlight was the actual winner.

For more than 40 years, Richard Smith, professor of theatre, has taught film studies at Hope College in his “Art of the Cinema” class. A specialist in scenography, Smith’s insights go beyond technical artistry as he can address trends, controversies and favorites when it comes to the Oscars such as,

How do certain actors and actresses, designers and directors, writers and craftspeople rise to the level of “best” in a certain category when so many films are released each year?
What happened to celebrating the “science” part of films? It is, after all, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences that bestows these awards.
Does this year’s more diverse nominee slate mean the Academy is on the right track toward more inclusion, or do they have more work to do?
Will the Academy make another attempt to save ratings and relevancy and rethink that “Best Popular Picture” category they proposed but reneged on in 2018?
And, why hasn’t Meryl Streep won seven Oscars after 21 nominations, instead of three? Or, why does Leonardo DiCaprio have 11 noms and just one win? And what about Spike Lee, who after 30 years directing notable films, finally received his first best director nomination for BlacKkKlansman? Hard luck? Politics? Or, is it really just an honor to be nominated?!

Random Acts of Kindness and the Superhero Effect

by Eva Dean Folkert on February 6, 2019

Practicing random acts of kindness is emotional nourishment and elevates both the giver’s and receiver’s psychological health. When we practice random acts of kindness, we just feel better about ourselves as do the recipients of our acts which then makes them more likely to be kind and helpful to other people, too. That’s the pay-it-forward effect, and it turns out viewing images of superheroes can actually contribute to it.

And what better time to think about helping, heroic or otherwise, than during Random Acts of Kindness Day on Sunday, February 17 and Random Acts of Kindness Week which begins Monday, February 18.

New research by Dr. Daryl Van Tongeren, associate professor of psychology, several Hope College students, and colleague Dr. Jeffrey Green of Virginia Commonwealth University have found that when people are exposed to images of superheroes, they were more likely than others to engage in altruistic behavior. The findings of their study were recently published in Frontiers in Psychology, and it reveals that even subtle activation of superhero stimuli increases prosocial intentions and behavior.

Van Tongeren conducts research on the social motivation for meaning in life, the function and nature of religious beliefs, and the relationship-enhancing features of virtues, such as humility and forgiveness. His Meaning, Religion and Virtues Lab at Hope investigates why people search for meaning and how that search may, or may not, result in moral behavior.

Valentine’s Day and the Scholarship of Romantic Relationships

by Eva Dean Folkert on February 4, 2019

Valentine’s Day will soon be here, the day in which people celebrate love and romance with candlelit dinners, Hallmark cards, love letters, red roses, and sentimental presents given to spouses and partners.

But how exactly do those spouses and partners come to choose each other in the first place? And what are some of the things that keep them together?

Dr. Carrie Bredow, associate professor of psychology, focuses her research on the development and maintenance of adult romantic relationships. She seeks to better understand why people select the life partners that they do and to identify ways to help people avoid “bad choices.” For example, her article entitled “Chasing Prince Charming” in Personal Relationships investigated how holding unrealistic standards for a spouse has partnering consequences. Most recently, Bredow’s scholarly work has looked at how unmarried individuals’ criteria for a long-term partner change or remain the same over a certain period of time in the mate selection process.

International Day of Women and Girls in Science

by Eva Dean Folkert on January 29, 2019

The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed Monday, February 11 as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. According to a UN study from 14 countries, the probability for female students graduating with a bachelor’s degree in science is 18 percent, while the male equivalent is 37 percent. This day is a reminder that women and girls play a critical role in science and technology communities and that their participation should be strengthened.

Susan Ipri Brown, director of ExploreHope

Encouraging girls to pursue engineering and science careers needs to start at a young age. Hope organizes events such as the Middle School Girls STEM Day and Girl Scout STEM Badge days as a community outreach to help inspire K-12 girls in the area. Led by Hope female engineering and science students, the girls participate in hands-on sessions, tour our engineering research labs, and hear from practicing women engineers and current engineering students. Susan Ipri Brown, director of ExploreHope, organizes these efforts. Funding from a 2018 grant supports these events and facilitates training of Hope female STEM majors to be effective outreach leaders.

Dr. Catherine Mader, professor of physics

Dr. Cathy Mader, professor of physics, has worked with the American Physical Society on a variety of projects to increase access to and advancement in physics careers for women and underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities. Her engagement with the STEP UP 4 Women project, to the Professional Skills Development Workshop program for professional women in physics as well as her campus efforts to improve access and equity to education has led to her new role as the backbone lead for the NSF INCLUDES Alliance: Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN). This national network is a partnership of over 30 societies, institutions, organizations, corporations, and national laboratories that seeks to increase participation in careers in the physical sciences by underrepresented racial and ethnic minority students. IGEN is launching with ~$10M in grant support from the National Science Foundation to create of the network and programs needed for a sustainable program that closes the opportunity gap.

February is Healthy Heart Month

by Eva Dean Folkert on January 18, 2019

February 1 through 7 is National Women’s Heart Week. The goal of this week is to promote prevention and education, encourage early intervention, and spread awareness of symptoms of heart problems. Heart disease remains the leading cause of death for American women aged 34 and older. During Women’s Heart Week, hospitals are encouraged to offer free heart screenings to women and on February 1, and people are encouraged to wear red to amplify the message about women’s heart health.

Also, February 10-16 is National Cardiac Rehabilitation Week. This effort, initiated by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR), seeks to draw attention to the role of cardiac rehabilitation in reducing the potentially devastating effects of heart disease and improving the quality of life for patients and families.

Cardiovascular nursing is the research interest of Donna Garrett, assistant professor of nursing and chair of the department. She looks specifically at the needs of patients with coronary artery disease and their ability to engage in self-care. She was the co-author of an article on recognizing and responding to symptoms of heart attacks and stroke in women that was published in the Journal for Gynecologic and Neonatal Nursing.

Garrett was a clinical nurse specialist in cardiovascular service lines in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as a staff nurse in both surgical and medical intensive care units prior to teaching at Hope.

Squirrel!

by Eva Dean Folkert on January 10, 2019

Here’s a fun news alert for …

SQUIRREL!

… the media to consider …

SQUIRREL!

… in the days ahead.

SQUIRREL!

On Monday, January 21, it’s National Squirrel Appreciation Day. (Yes, it does seem there is, in fact, a national day for everything. But who can begrudge squirrels their very own day?)

Hope College has one faculty member and one staff member who know quite a bit about squirrels since the little critters are the college’s unofficial mascot due to their numerous, lively and beloved presence on campus.

Dr. Kathy Winnett-Murray, professor of biology, has conducted several squirrel investigations as part of her Animal Behavior classes through the years. She’s able to set the record straight about the many myths surrounding black-coated squirrels. They are not a separate species, they did not arrive in Holland, Michigan, as the results of a wrecked circus train long ago, and their “aggressive” behaviors are the same as other squirrels. As a service to all squirrels everywhere, she can debunk misconceptions, relate some amazing foraging decisions squirrels make, as well as address squirrel genetic research regarding coat colors.

Greg Olgers, director of news media services

Greg Olgers, long-time director of news media services for the Public Affairs and Marketing Office, is also somewhat of a squirrel aficionado. His research and writing about the “culture” of squirrels at Hope, in Holland and even nationwide for a News from Hope College story in 2016 meant he was digging into multiple sources for nuggets of wisdom about the creature. He can address how Holland and other U.S. cities actively built their squirrel populations in city parks at the turn of the 20^th century.