NWC faculty awarded scholarship grants

Eight Northwestern College professors will conduct research and pursue further study this summer with funding from the Northwestern College Scholarship Grants program.

Six will receive grants of up to $2,250 for their projects; the other two will be given up to $5,000 for collaborative research with students. The money is designed to encourage the production of scholarly work for publication and distribution beyond Northwestern’s campus.

Chemistry professors Dr. David Arnett and Dr. Karissa Carlson are continuing their research that uses fluorescent measurement to better understand how a signaling protein activates an enzyme involved in the dilation of blood vessels. Collaborating with faculty at the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Arnett is working on the physical chemistry portion of the project, while Carlson is handling the biochemical research. Assisting them are Klint Knutson, a biology health professions major from Magnolia, Minn., and Shweta Baniya, a chemistry and mathematics major from Pokhara, Nepal.

Carlson will also continue her work this summer on a paper about the conflict between science and religion caused when theology is founded on a scientific paradigm that shifts. Her plans are to submit the paper to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.

Dr. Luke Dahn’s award will support the music professor’s plans to create an anthology of Bach’s chorales, with critical commentary making it ideal as a text for classroom teaching. Current published versions of Bach’s chorales are typically incomplete or transposed to keys other than Bach’s original. Dahn’s project would fill a significant gap in Bach chorale scholarship.

Another music professor, Dr. Juyeon Kang, will prepare and perform a duo-piano recital at the prestigious National Recital Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, with Dr. Joanne Hsu of Tunghai University. Entitled “Dances of the World,” the recital will feature music by Bernstein, Piazzolla, Ravel and Rachmaninoff—and builds on Kang’s previous work in “Joyful Dances,” which she performed in October at Carnegie Hall.

History professor Dr. Michael Kugler will travel to research libraries where he can access critical documents for his project on Adam Ferguson’s moral philosophy. Ferguson, a Presbyterian minister in Scotland during the early Enlightenment period, is interesting for the Augustinian themes in his writing.

Dr. Sam Martin, English, is working on a novel based on one of the characters in his published collection of short stories, “This Ramshackle Tabernacle.” His grant will allow him to finish the writing and begin work with a professional editor to prepare the manuscript for publication.

Art professor Yun Shin applied for a Northwestern Scholarship Grant to fund her participation in a four-week artist residency program this summer, which will allow her to study with a group of artists and benefit from their encouragement, support and critique. Shin will continue creating art for her “Reconstructive-Memory Process,” a series of works that combines objects with materials and explores themes of containment and preservation.

And finally, Dr. Lila Sybesma, education, will continue her work on a historical fiction account of the sinking of the Sultana, a steamboat paddle wheeler carrying former Union prisoners of war at the end of the Civil War. Her great-granduncle survived the worst maritime disaster in United States history, which claimed 1,700 lives. Sybesma will spend the summer checking facts and editing the novel in preparation for its publication.