Dr. Marilyn Bierling
Biography
Professor Bierling enjoys traveling, camping, hiking, swimming, language learning, and playing the piano and guitar, as well as Middle Eastern, Spanish, Mayan, and Peruvian archaeology. She also volunteers at local immigration clinics, and she is currently organizing a second Calvin Alumni trip to Peru. She and her husband have three married children and seven grandchildren, all living in the GR area.
Education
- BA (Spanish, English, Secondary Education) Calvin College 1971
- MA (Romance Linguistics) University of Michigan 1974
- PhD (Spanish) Michigan State University 1990
Research
Professor Bierling’s academic interests include pronoun usage in Central America, Sephardic Spanish, the Phoenician colonization of Spain, and Hispanic immigration to the U.S., including Cuban immigration.
Her conference presentations include the following:
- “People Crossing Borders: Where We Stand on Undocumented Immigration.” Christian Association of
- World Languages (CAWL) 2014.
- “Protestantism in Cuba: A Unique Journey.” CAWL 2012.
- “The Cuban Immigrant Experience in the U.S. Church.” CAWL 2011.
- “Immigration Impasse: Issues for the Classroom.” Conference on Diversity, Calvin College, 2009)
Research and Scholarship
Connections between Cuban Refugees and the CRC
<p>Read all about it in <a href="http://www.calvin.edu/news/archive/researching-the-crc-s-work-with-cuba… News</a>.</p>
<p>Calvin's Heritage Hall in Hekman Library contains 18 videotaped interviews with subtitles and transcripts gleaned from Bierling and Brubaker's research (2011-2013).</p>
<p>See also their <a href="http://www.worldrenew.net/about-us/news-events/flights-her-future">arti…; on the World Renew website.</p>
