Current Visiting Scholars
Each year the Calvin community is enriched by the presence of several visiting scholars. This year we are pleased to welcome:
Garrett Crow
Dr. Crow taught botany and taxonomy for 33 years at the University of New Hampshire and served as Director of the UNH Herbarium and chair of the UNH Department of Plant Biology. He has taught at Au Sable Institute and more recently has been serving as curator of the Calvin University Herbarium. Additionally, he does botanical research at the Michigan State University Herbarium-recently having completed the taxonomic treatment of Utricularia (bladderworts) and Pinguicula (butterworts) for Flora of North America North of Mexico.
While having a broad interest in floristics (including botanical expeditions to Tierra del Fuego, Siberia, Crimea and Caucasus, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Amazonia, and Mexico), much of his research has focused on aquatic plants of temperate and neotropical regions. He is co-author of Aquatic and Wetland Plants of Northeastern North America (G.E. Crow and C. B. Hellquist, Univ. Wisconsin Press), the second edition of which will be published in 2023. In 1999-2000 he spent a year-long sabbatical in Costa Rica under a Fulbright Fellowship where he wrote a bilingual field guide, Plantas acuáticus de Parque Nacional Palo Verde, Costa Rica (Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, Costa Rica). Garrett and David Warners (Calvin Biology Department) direct the Emma Cole Project, an effort to visit and evaluate all the sites Emma Cole describes in her 1901 book, Fora of Grand Rapids.
Hosted by the Biology Department, September 2013 to June 2026, Crow CV | garrett.crow@calvin.edu
Youdit Tariku Feyessa
Youdit Tariku Feyessa is a faculty candidate and lecturer at the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology (EGST), where she teaches courses in theological and development studies. She is currently pursuing her PhD through a joint program at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) and Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology. Her research focuses on "Revisiting the Capability Approach Theologically," exploring the intersections the capability approach between human development, theology, and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals with a particular focus on SDG-5: Gender Equality.
With a passion for interdisciplinary research and public/political theology, Youdit is interested in the role of religion in public life. Her areas of focus include theological anthropology, gender equality, patristic theology, eco-theology, and contextual theological education.
Youdit currently lives and works in Addis Ababa with her eight-year-old son.
Hosted by the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, September 23, 2024 to December 15, 2024, yodit.tariku@yahoo.com
Reuben Kigame
Reuben Kigame a PhD student of World Christianity from Africa International University, Nairobi, Kenya. Reuben’s dissertation is on music and social justice in the Kenyan Church, exploring how Christian songwriters and performers can become agents of biblical justice. His master’s thesis is on the mediatization of religion, analyzing Kenya’s “electronic pulpit” from 1995 to 2015. Although Reuben has lived with visual disability from the age of three, he has overcome challenges and contributed immensely to Christian music, broadcasting, apologetics, and advocacy in Kenya where he has fought for inclusive democracy and human rights. He has taught at high school level and currently teaches Church history, Apologetics and Philosophy of Religion as part of his doctoral teaching fellowship at Africa International University. Reuben has also worked with Christian radio for 20 years, ten of those as founder and Managing Director of Fish FM, a Christian station he established in Kenya. In 2022, Reuben was a presidential aspirant but was actively blocked by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission from being on the presidential ballot despite court orders to include him. With a diskography of 30 music albums and a robust worship ministry, Reuben continues to conduct evangelistic and worship music and speaking tours around East Africa in churches, high schools, and universities.
Reuben is a big defender of interdisciplinary thinking, writing and research. This comes naturally to him given his deep interest in history, religion, philosophy, apologetics, aesthetics, communication, politics, ethnomusicology, theology, and justice.
Reuben’s offerings to the Christian academy include:
- Essays in African Christianity and Theology, Eldoret, Posterity Publishers Ltd, 2023;
- Christian Apologetics Through African Eyes, Eldoret, Posterity Publishers Ltd, 2018;
- Reuben Kigame: The Raw Reflections (edited by Jayne Yobera), Nairobi, Arba Publishers, 2018.
When launching his 30th music album in Nairobi on 28th April 2024, Reuben also launched a lyrics compilation of his songs in a book titled “The Songs of Reuben Kigame: for Faith, Worship and Inspiration” spanning 1982 to 2024.
Besides having participated in reviewing for University of Nairobi’s Journal of Philosophy called “thought and Practice,” Reuben has recently been involved in several lectureships in defense of interdisciplinary writing and research and the place of neutrosophic thinking in Christian theology. Most of these talks, sermons, lectures and music videos can be found online on Reuben Kigame’s YouTube channel and his latest political engagement on the X platform.
Hosted by the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, September 3, 2024 to December 1, 2024, Kigame CV | kigame@posteritypublishers.com
Mary Kihuha
Mary Kihuha is a Lecturer of World Christianity at Pan-Africa Christian University, Nairobi, Kenya. She is working on a project focused on African women's spiritual formation and leadership development. Mary’s research explores the global dynamics of Christian missions and the spread of Christianity across varied cultural contexts. Her Research interests include trends in World Christianity, mission history, the role of women in mission, and intercultural studies.
Hosted by the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, September 10, 2024 to December 15, 2024, wanjikumary339@gmail.com
Soohwan Kim
Dr. Soohwan Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Christian Education at Chongshin University in Korea, specializing in Computer Science Education. Over the course of his career, Dr. Kim has made significant contributions to the fields of computing education, AI education, and digital literacy education. His research interests include K-12 computing curriculum development, teaching and learning methodologies, computational thinking, and evaluation techniques.
Dr. Kim has over 15 years of experience as an elementary school teacher and has served as a lecturer in teacher training programs for computing and AI education. Dr. Kim has held various leadership roles, including Director of the Media Lab at Chongshin University, Vice President of The Korean Association of Computer Education, and Expert Committee Member of the National Education Commission.
His publication record is extensive, with numerous books and peer-reviewed articles in both international and Korean journals. Notable publications include "Digital Education Trend Report 2024" and "A Metaverse Journey with Your Children." Dr. Kim's dedication to advancing education through innovative research and teaching practices has earned him several awards, including the Industry-Academic Cooperation Award and the Lecture Excellence Award from Chongshin University.
Dr. Kim hopes to study the integration of computer science and a Christian worldview at Calvin University. He also plans to study recent important AI philosophy and ethics.
Hosted by the Computer Science Department, August 15, 2024 to February 28, 2025, Kim CV | soohwan.kim@calvin.edu
John Seymour
The Revd Dr John Seymour's research interests are in formation and Christian pedagogy. In May 2023 he successfully defended his thesis "A Trinitarian history of the creation of a new school" at University College London's Institute of Education. His time at Calvin University provides for post doctoral work and arises as part of sabbatical leave from London-based parish ministry. John wants to use this focussed time to help disseminate the findings of his doctoral research through a series of writing projects and to explore how the insights gained might inform education practice outside of the UK. Calvin is a rich setting in which to consider transferability of an innovative Christian pedagogy and offers a welcome and contrasting Christian education setting to inhabit whilst engaged in continuing study.
John has an eclectic curriculum vitae. He originally trained and worked as a physician and came to Christian faith at medical school. His desire to serve other's wholeness led him out of medicine, first to live as part of an intentional community at St Paul's Cathedral, before entering ministry as a priest in the Church of England, only then to work in education as priest. John's academic interests arose from his work over eight years as a chaplain in a Church of England High School. As part of the school's senior leadership team, John oversaw development of the school's ethos and chaplaincy model to provide for a second school to open to serve a religiously and ethnically diverse student population through its Christian practices and curriculum. Subsequently John taught contextual theology and mission in a Church of England theological college.
Hosted by the Kuyers Institute, September 2 through November 4, 2024. Seymour's CV | john.seymour@calvin.edu
Lambert Zuidervaart
Lambert Zuidervaart is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies, the University of Toronto, and the Toronto School of Theology, and a former faculty member at Calvin University (1985-2002) and The King’s University in Edmonton (1981-1985). He is an internationally recognized expert in critical theory, especially the work of Theodor Adorno, and a leading systematic philosopher in the reformational tradition.
His most recent work articulates a new conception of truth for an allegedly post-truth society, in two volumes: Social Domains of Truth: Science, Politics, Art, and Religion (Routledge, 2023) and Truth in Husserl, Heidegger, and the Frankfurt School: Critical Retrieval (MIT Press, 2017). His other writings include three volumes of essays in reformational philosophy published by McGill-Queen’s University Press: Shattering Silos: Reimagining Knowledge, Politics, and Social Critique (2022), Art, Education, and Cultural Renewal (2017), and Religion, Truth, and Social Transformation (2016); and two books on aesthetics published by Cambridge University Press: Art in Public: Politics, Economics, and a Democratic Culture (2011) and Artistic Truth: Aesthetics, Discourse, and Imaginative Disclosure (2004).
He has also written two literary memoirs to honor canine companions: To Sing Once More: Sorrow, Joy, and the Dog I Loved (2021) and Dog-Kissed Tears (2010). Dr. Zuidervaart is currently doing research on what the world’s religions can contribute to the development of an Earth-sustaining and life-giving global ethic.
Hosted by the Philosophy Department, July 2013 to August 2028, Zuidervaart CV | zuid@calvin.edu