Five Expert Areas From Hope College in September

“Five Expert Areas” is a new monthly feature that invites the media to tap into Hope’s broad range of faculty and staff expertise.

As active scholars and seasoned professionals, Hope employees are experts in their fields, offering research and experiences that are relevant to lives and communities across the globe. And they like to share! After all, our work here at Hope is all about passing on knowledge, feeding curiosity and inspiring further inquiry.

This month, the individuals mentioned below are ready to talk about these trending topics. If you are a reporter interested in connecting with any of our experts, please contact the individual to arrange an interview. Other questions can be directed to Greg Olgers, director of news media services, (olgers@hope.edu).

  1. World Hearing Aid Awareness Week (September 23-30)

Dr. David Myers, professor of psychology, is the author of top-selling psychology textbooks as well as five general interest books, one titled A Quiet World: Living with Hearing Loss. He also recently served a four-year term on the advisory council of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders at National Institutes of Health.

  1. National Read-a-Book Day (Sept. 6) / Banned Books Week (September 23-29)

Dr. Deborah VanDuinen, associate professor of education, specializes in English education, disciplinary literacy and adolescent literacy. Since 2014, she has directed The Big Read – Lakeshore, a program of the National Endowment of the Arts that seek to cultivate a culture of reading one book within a community.

  1. Trending: Fall sports season: Sports officiating challenges and shortage

Outside of the classroom, Dr. Jayson Dibble, associate professor of communication, and Dr. Scott VanderStoep, dean for the social sciences and professor of psychology, serve as high school sports officials. Dibble officiates football, VanderStoep basketball. Each have first-person accounts relevant to the demands, and dedication, needed to keep a playing field for athletes, coaches and fans.

  1. Trending: College essay-writing process

It’s both back-to-school time and find-a-college time for high school seniors. Kristin Diekevers, associate director of admissions, has some great advice to give to those in throws of their college search, especially about writing winsome application essays.

  1. Trending: Supreme Court Nomination Proceedings

Dr. David Ryden, the Peter C. and Emajean Cook Professor of Political Science, has written and spoken extensively about the U.S. Supreme Court, its political history and its composition. With the upcoming Senate confirmation hearings of Trump-nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Ryden approaches the matter from a centrist’s point of view.

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