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I have an image pinned to the noticeboard by my desk that resulted from a moment of incompetence but seemed worth keeping in view. It was generated while working on data during a recent research project. With a team of colleagues (Steve McMullen, Kara Sevensma, and Marj Terpstra), I was investigating the impact of technological…

Three weeks ago, my mother lost consciousness following a medical emergency, and she remains in a coma. Because she is hospitalized in South Korea, I rushed from Seattle to Seoul to be with my family during this time. Among the difficulties we as a family are wrestling with, the cruelty of the COVID-19 pandemic that…

Despite working with college students well beyond Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour “mastery” threshold and being a parent of three between the ages of 18-24, I (Kenman) regularly stumble while trying to span the generation gap. This divide became apparent again on a recent trip to see my older daughter. Perfectly overlapping academic calendars and Covid shutdowns…

Moving from Invisible to Visible In 1989, shortly after our wedding I was hospitalized and given a worst-case scenario of six months to live. Obviously, that did not happen. I was hospitalized with a loss of sensation from my sternum to my toes, and my left arm lost all mobility. While feeling and control was…

One of the significant changes to come out of the COVID pandemic was the increased prevalence of working at home (or remotely at other locations). Many of us have now experienced prolonged periods of work at home, and as might be expected, people have varying opinions on how much they like it. The phenomenon of…

I did not plan to start a career in in public libraries. In fact, when I applied for a job at my local library, my only intention was to make a bit of money during my last semester of seminary before jumping into “real ministry.” Of course, in his providence, God’s lessons and plans for…

In the mythology of modern art, there are a few old chestnuts that get repeated again and again. There is the time Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear and then bore witness through confessional portraiture. There is the time Pablo Picasso unveiled his first masterpiece, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, and declared it an “exorcism.” (For…

Reticence is not much of western virtue. In Shakespeare's King Lear, the words of Edgar, son of the Earl of Gloucester, to “speak as we feel, not what we ought to say” illustrate the tragic cost of withholding one’s authentic thoughts and feelings toward others and perhaps even more tragically from oneself. After all, pulling…

“Would I be doing this if I was not an assistant professor trying to get tenure?” I remember asking myself this question when trying on a Puritan costume. That week I was speaking about the Puritans and education, so I decided to rent a costume to spice up the co-taught class of over 100 students.…

This past year I enjoyed two extended visits with an old high school friend who had a profound spiritual influence on my life. This friend taught me tremendous lessons about intimacy, asking deep questions, listening, being aware of others’ needs, and forgiveness. She’s also female, and we dated at one point in high school. During…

I once had a young, female assistant professor come to me with a question. One of her young, male graduate students had asked an undergraduate female student in his class some questions about her dating life. The questions made the female student uncomfortable, so she talked to my colleague about it. My colleague then asked…

Not far from our home in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, is one of southern Ontario's premier universities, McMaster, known internationally as a centre for advanced scientific and medical research. What few remember is that the university once had a connection with the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Québec, the only remnant of which is the presence…

Strangers and Scapegoats is the culmination of some 20 years of my learning to think sociologically while teaching undergraduate students to cultivate their own sociological imaginations. The concept of imagination—of perceiving old things in new ways—plays a central role in the book, and is, for me, key to addressing the perennial problem of the stranger.…

For months now, the governors of Texas, Arizona, and Florida have been bussing immigrants east and north, depositing them at Union Station in Washington, D.C. and also in New York City and Chicago. These actions raise questions about scapegoating, heaping political acrimony on the backs of migrants and the methods of transporting them out of…

“It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” Proverbs 25:2 (ESV)  In Europe, at the turn of the twentieth century, great advances were being made in atomic theory. In 1904, the British physicist and Nobel laureate Sir Joseph John Thomson, who had discovered the…

In the Oscar award-winning film, Chariots of Fire (1981),Chariots of Fire, directed by Hugh Hudson (20th Century Fox, 1981). the father of the famous Scottish athlete, rugby player and missionary, Eric Liddle, exhorts his son to follow his love of sport and seek excellence and success, in stating that “… you can praise the Lord…

“Suffering doesn’t automatically or naturally lead to growth or good outcomes. It must be handled properly.” - Tim KellerTim Keller, Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering, (Dutton, NY: Riverhead Books,  2015). “Our fruitfulness comes out of our vulnerability and not just out of our power. It comes out of our powerlessness.” - Henri NouwenHenri…

My institution “has a proud tradition of faculty governance,” as a colleague once euphemistically summarized the heavy committee load professors carry here. Both descriptions are true. It is a proud tradition and a heavy load. Most full-time faculty here serve on at least two campus-wide committees. Then in addition to these are departmental committees, search…

My academic inspiration this summer came from an unlikely source: Apple TV’s Ted Lasso. I know, curveball, right? But I can explain. Two years ago, my husband David and I had just settled into our new home in Houston. We were both assuming new positions at a new school and, like everyone else, navigating the…

The stock market looks at the world through a peculiar lens, one that people outside the market don’t always understand. Oddly enough, it is similar to the lens through which the Bible views the world, particularly how it views Christians and the church. The church has come under consistent criticism, sometimes well earned, and yet…