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Humanities
 
 
Faculty
 
Dan Brooks Dan Brooks, Ph.D.
Phone
: (616) 632-2068
E-mail
: brookdan@aquinas.edu
Dr. Brooks is currently Director of the Humanities Program and Professor of English at Aquinas College. In addition to Humanities, he has taught in the freshman year Inquiry and Expression program and a variety of English courses, including 20th century British, Irish, and American literature, the Grammar of Modern English, and several introductory survey and genre courses. Brooks earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Binghamton University (N.Y.) in 1988 and joined the faculty at Aquinas in 1989. His most recent publications are concerned with globalizing the study of culture. He is also the faculty advisor for The Saint.
 
Sarah Cox Sarah Cox
Phone: (616) 632-2166
E-mail: coxsar@aquinas.edu
Sarah Cox is the Director of Academic Achievement at Aquinas College. In the United States, she has taught both online and face-to-face undergraduate courses in Liberal Studies and graduate courses in Special Education. Prior to coming to the US, Sarah was the Curriculum Manager for Widening Participation and Inclusion at Coleg Glan Hafren in Cardiff, Wales. In addition to her teaching load, she oversaw the department of Special Education and was a college leader in e-learning and technology integration.
 
 
Jennifer Dawson Jennifer Dawson, Ph.D.
Phone
: (616) 632-2828
E-mail
: dawsojen@aquinas.edu
Jennifer Dawson earned her B.A. in English from the University of Michigan, and her M.A. from Michigan State University where she is currently finishing her doctoral dissertation on 19th century American women writers.  She taught at Michigan State University and Grand Valley State University before joining Aquinas College's faculty in 2001. Her main area of scholarly interest is American literature and culture with a special emphasis on women writers, conduct manuals, periodical literature, letter writing and nineteenth century history. She applies this knowledge to teaching American literature courses and various writing courses. When she is not teaching or writing, Dawson stays busy playing with her children, gardening, skiing and hiking.
 
Gary Eberle Gary Eberle, M.A.
Phone
: (616) 632-2829
E-mail: eberlgar@aquinas.edu
Gary Eberle, M.A., professor of English and chairman of the English department, is the author of several books, including The Geography of Nowhere: Finding One's Self in the Postmodern World (Sheed & Ward, 1994); Angel Strings, a novel (Coffee House, 1995); a City Full of Rain, short stories (Xlibris 2001), and Sacred Time and the Search for Meaning (Shambhala, 2003). In the past ten years, Eberle has twice been selected by the Student Senate as Outstanding faculty member of the year, and in 1994 he received an award from the Aquinas College faculty for outstanding scholarship. He developed the Insignis Program for Honors Students in 1985 and directed it for 12 years. His journalism and fiction have won awards locally and nationally, and his novel Angel Strings was named a "best book" by the New York Public Library in 1997. Active professionally, he has been president of the Mid-East Honors Association, the Michigan Honors Association, and is currently an officer of the Michigan Associated Departments of English. A more extensive biography and critical notes may be found in the on-line version of Contemporary Authors.
 
Kristin Graef Kristin Graef, M.A.
E-mail: graefkri@aquinas.edu
Kristin currently teaches I & E and Humanities at Aquinas.  She earned her Bachelor's degree in English at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio and her Master's in English at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.  Kristin has taught English composition in many capacities for over twenty years.  She has traveled extensively in western Europe, studying art and music history, and hopes to go again some day with her two sons, Eliot and Jay.
 
Dr. Chad Gunnoe Chad Gunnoe, Ph.D.
Phone
: (616) 632-2834
E-mail: gunnocha@aquinas.edu
Professor Gunnoe is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the University of Virginia where he received his Ph.D. in 1998. He was also a DAAD fellow at the University of Heidelberg. His research interests include the Protestant Reformation in Germany, Renaissance science, and early modern beliefs about witchcraft. After teaching at Arizona State University and Calvin College, he joined the Aquinas History Department in 1999 where he teaches courses in European history.
 
Gary L. Hauck Gary L. Hauck, Ph.D.
E-mail: hauckgar@aquinas.edu
Dr. Gary L. Hauck has a Master of Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, earned his Ph.D. from. from Michigan State University, and engaged in further humanities studies abroad through Eastern Washington University.  He has taught in the field of humanities since 1980, and has served as a visiting professor at universities in China, Russia and Ecuador.  In addition, he has participated in archeological digs in the Middle East, and conducted international field trips to over thirty countries on six continents.  He is currently writing a textbook, Exploring Humanities Around the World.  He is married to Lois (Thornton), author of The Caregiver, with whom he enjoys their children: Heidi, Greg (& Erika), Andrew (& Becky), and Jared.
 
Vicki McMillan Vicki McMillan
Phone
: (616) 632-2832
E-mail: mcmilvic@aquinas.edu
Vicki McMillan is an Assistant Professor In-The-College at Aquinas. She received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing, as well as her M.A. in English, from Western Michigan University. Her creative work has appeared in Sky, Controlled Burn, Voices, The Kalamazoo Reader, and Grand Rapids Cosmopolitan Home. She lives in the city of Grand Rapids with her husband Duncan and their son Chase.
 
Sr. Rosemary O'Donnell Sr. Rosemary O'Donnell, M.A.
Phone: (616) 632-2496
E-mail: odonnros@aquinas.edu
Sister O'Donnell received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Aquinas College and her Master of Arts degree in Speech and Drama from Marquette University. She has taught a variety of subjects in secondary school and presently is a member of the Communication Arts Department at Aquinas. Courses she has taught at Aquinas in addition to Humanities include Introduction to Communication Arts, Public Speaking, Intercultural Communication, Nonverbal Communication and Communication Ethics. She is also a member of the Grand Rapids Dominicans, the founders of Aquinas College.
 
Miriam Pederson Miriam Pederson, M.F.A.
Phone
: (616) 632-2831
E-mail: pedermir@aquinas.edu
Miriam Pederson, M.F.A., is an Associate Professor of English and teaches courses in creative writing, literature. She also teaches in the Humanities program. Ms. Pederson began her career as a secondary teacher of English, and after receiving her Master of Fine Arts degree, has, for the past 21 years, taught in the Aquinas College English Department. She serves as advisor to Lambda Iota Tau, and as co-manager of the student literary and art magazine, Sampler. Ms. Pederson presents poetry workshops in area elementary schools, offers memoir writing presentations to local groups, and writing courses for the Aquinas Emeritus College. Her own poetry has been published in many journals and anthologies, and in collaboration with her husband, Ron, her poems are exhibited in area galleries. Her chapbook of poems, This Brief Light, was published in 2003. She loves Ireland and has served as faculty for the Semester-in-Ireland Program four times. She is very proud of her grown children, Ben and Madeline who are also crazy about writing and visual art.
 
Philip Skaggs Philip Skaggs
E-mail
: skaggphi@aquinas.edu
Philip Skaggs earned his B.A. and M.A. in Russian studies and history and is currently completing his doctoral dissertation on socialist party activists in the Russian Revolution of 1917, all at the University of Michigan.  His research and scholarly interests include Revolutionary Russia, Stalin's Soviet Union, LaborHistory, Peasant Studies, Utopian thought, Fascism, the Holocaust, and historical theory. After teaching at Grand Valley State University and Goucher College, he joined Aquinas College in 2003 as an instructor teaching Humanities courses as well as European and East Asian history. He lives in Grand Rapids with his wife Beth and their two daughters Elaine and Julia.
 
Vivan Steemers Vivan Steemers
E-mail
: steemviv@aquinas.edu
Vivan Steemers received a “kandidaats” degree in French Language and Literature and a “doctoraal” degree in Comparative Literature, both from the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Currently she is completing a Ph.D. in French Literature and Postcolonial Theory at Michigan State University on the reception of francophone sub-Saharan literature in France. She lived in Germany and the United Kingdom before moving to Michigan in 2001 and has taught at both Dutch and American institutions of higher education.
 
Ralph Vunderink Ralph Vunderink, Ph.D.
E-mail
: vunderal@aquinas.edu
Ralph Vunderink received his education partly in the Netherlands, where he was introduced to the classical languages of Greek and Latin and the modern languages of French, German and English. In the U.S. he completed his Ph.D. program in the interdisciplinary subject of theology-philosophy at the University of Chicago. He started out his career as a philosophy teacher at Lakeland College (Wis.) and the University of Detroit. He decided to switch to theology at Hope College and Winebrenner Seminary (OH). Since 1994 he has been associated with Aquinas College as an adjunct professor in philosophy, and since 1999 in the Department of Humanities. Having published in the fields of both philosophy and religion, he is presently working on content dealing with three underlying themes in Western culture as they express themselves in philosophy, religion, art, and literature.
 
Pamela Dail Whiting Pamela Dail Whiting, M.A.
Phone
: (616) 632-2827
E-mail
: waterpam@aquinas.edu
Pamela Dail Whiting, M.A. in English from Michigan State University, teaches Humanities, writing and literature courses for preservice English teachers, and writing courses for continuing education students. She began teaching at Aquinas in 1989 and taught cross-listed English and Education courses as well as Creative Writing at the Emeritus Center. Before teaching at Aquinas, she taught as an adjunct for Michigan State University and Grand Valley State University and as a high school English teacher in Michigan and Massachusetts. Her areas of interests include writing and English courses for prospective teachers. As College Chair for Michigan Council of Teachers of English, she is actively involved in professional development programs for English teachers. Her writing has been published in the Language Arts Journal of Michigan, and she is currently working on a children's literature textbook, An Invitation: Children's Literature.
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