Faculty

ART
"When my oldest daughter, Gina (a Gordon sophomore at the time), decided to travel and learn about agricultural work in developing countries, I began to realize how unfamiliar I was with the same faces and issues she was seeing. It began to raise a question for me: How do I make art out of a social conscience without it becoming propaganda or overly sentimental?"
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James Zingarelli, Professor of Visual Arts

BIBLICAL and THEOLOGICAL STUDIES and YOUTH MINISTRIES
"On May 25, 37 pilgrims, including many from the Gordon community, accompanied Karen and me for Gordon College's Fifteenth Holy Land Pilgrimage. We traveled as far north as Dan and as far south as Masada. We walked the shores of the Sea of Galilee and the way of the Cross of our Lord in the city of Jerusalem. We were witnesses to the places where Jesus ministered as well as the place of his death and resurrection. Both Testaments came alive, and those who went on this pilgrimage realized the promise that they will never read the Bible the same way again after experiencing the Holy Land during these 13 days."
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Roger Green, Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies

BIOLOGY
"Every fall Biology 250 students engage in a service-learning project. One September assignment was to clear loosestrife, a nonnative invasive species, from the area surrounding the parking-lot pond. This project allows students to learn firsthand how persistent purple loosestrife and other nonnative invasive species can be."
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Ming Zheng, Professor of Biology

CHEMISTRY
"I attended a panel discussion on green chemistry at the 2003 American Chemical Society national meeting in New Orleans, prompted by a student's interest in green chemistry. I came out of the session with a totally new outlook, like my career had changed. Green chemistry went from two words to something that I couldn't ignore."
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Irv Levy, Professor of Chemistry and Computer Science

ECONOMICS and BUSINESS
In May of 2008, along with colleagues and graduate students from California-based Biola University, Stephen Smith and his students toured eight factories, listened to six academic lectures from Chinese scholars and participated in various cultural, economic and historical events. Each aspect of the tour exposed the group to what Smith called "the Olympic national pride," and many people told him that such pride came as a result of Chinese accomplishments over the past 30 years. "As we visited six cities in 18 days, we saw a deep national pride that the Olympics were coming to Beijing," Smith said. "Factory workers, tour guides, businessmen, everyone we encountered, was excited. There's great significance attached to the Games."
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Stephen Smith, Chair and Professor of Economics and Business

HISTORY
"The History Department has begun binding the honors theses of our seniors. Binding the theses is a way to showcase and highlight the efforts of the honors students and to broaden the audience beyond just the professors. Before this, only a handful of professors read these theses. Now other students will be able to read them and use them as research tools."

Jennifer Hevelone-Harper, Department Chair and Associate Professor of History

LANGUAGES and LINGUISTICS
"The study of languages and linguistics, as well as being fascinating in itself, has natural and obvious connections with such diverse fields as biblical exegesis, computer programming, and psychology. The range of options students will have in choosing their areas of study will be greatly enhanced."
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Graeme Bird, Assistant Professor of Languages and Linguistics

MATHEMATICS and COMPUTER SCIENCE
"Simple mathematics has great power to tell us what is--and isn't--fair about our voting systems. "What Makes Your Vote Matter?", our discussion about math and politics, will focus on this year's tight race and where our use of partisan primaries--as opposed to open primaries used in municipal elections--could change who our next president is."
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Karl-Dieter Crisman, Professor of Mathematics

MUSIC
"Our goal for the 2008 Orvieto tour was to have the Gordon College Wind Ensemble contribute to the cultural and spiritual life of Orvieto, helping to enhance the collaboration between Gordon and this historic city. Being a part of the Corpus Domini festival gave us a perfect opportunity to serve in this capacity while allowing the band members to experience a style of worship very different from their own."
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David Rox, Professor of Music

PHYSICS
In 2005 David Lee's interest in materials science led him to Golf Digest, where he was tapped to join their technical advisory panel that selects the products featured in the sought-after Equipment Hot List issue. Among the six scientists on the panel, Lee is the self-described "materials physics geek." They discuss the latest technological developments in golf clubs and analyze manufacturers' claims. "It's a fun couple of days and a chance to apply physics and materials head knowledge to a very different arena from academics or our scholarly research."
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David Lee, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Physics

POLITICAL STUDIES
"My main goal in reading the Constitution aloud in class for Constitution Day is for students to know the Constitution, and to have read and heard it with some care at least once. Both the right and the left see it as the bedrock of American politics, and both also again and again appeal to it. So students need to have more than a passing acquaintance with it."
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Paul Brink, Associate Professor of Political Studies

RECREATION and LEISURE STUDIES
"I think in subtle but very obvious ways we're trying to model for our students that, yes, we want you to focus on your studies, but the fullness of life means all aspects of life."
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Val Gin, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Recreation and Leisure Studies

SOCIOLOGY and SOCIAL WORK
"We are committed to being a one-car family and reducing our carbon footprint in the environment. I commute by bike an estimated 150 days a year but admit biking can be a challenge in foul weather. At such times, the only thing that keeps me doing it are the commitments that my wife and I have made--commitments not just to a particular way of commuting, but to a way of living, a way of relating to the planet and to the other creatures and people who inhabit it."
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Dan Johnson, Associate Professor of Sociology