On June 25, nine Eastern Michigan University students traveled to Slovakia to teach local youth English and the importance of active citizenship. In association with the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program, the week-long trip allowed participants to work with international students from Slovakia and Spain to develop their skills as future educators. 

“In this project, which would not have been possible without the Upshur grant, we explored the idea that a teacher of any area is also a teacher in a more holistic sense,” said Zuzana Tomaš, the EMU professor who led the group. “Young people in Slovakia have been shown to be particularly disengaged, so our roles were not just to help language learners improve English, but help them have agency around their citizenship.” 

Students from EMU, Matej Bel University, and a local community organizing group were introduced to the complex challenges that Slovak youth face. After a series of intercultural icebreakers, students were put into groups to develop their English lessons, which also aimed to raise active citizenship awareness. At the end of the program, students revealed their final projects in a learning celebration. 

Kailtyn Eckermann, a rising EMU junior minoring in TESOL, said they could not have been more grateful for the experience.

“Not only did I learn valuable intercultural communication skills, but I also learned that a go-with-the-flow attitude is key for a job in education,” said Eckermann. “For me, the program solidified that I am in the right field of study.”

Professor Tomaš said that although the experience may have been challenging, participating students will be able to better connect with a diverse array of students in their careers.

“Experiencing these challenges and triumphs firsthand will help these future teachers of immigrant, refugee-status, and international learners be more empathetic and effective educators.”

For more information about EMU’s study abroad program, visit the website. 

Find the full EMU Today article.

Professor of Political Science and Director of Bruce K. Nelson Faculty Development Center, Jeffrey Bernstein has been sought out for his insight on current social and political issues. Bernstein is considered an expert in American politics campaigns and elections, Public opinion, Jewish-American Politics, and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. As uncertainty was growing surrounding President Biden's ability to lead the Democratic Party in this year's presidential election, these experts were consulted in order to provide insight into what is impacting the country.

Read the CBS News article.

Read the WXYZ article.

Britt Gross was selected as the district’s next assistant superintendent Monday during a special board of education meeting. Britt has a Bachelor’s degree in English and American literature and language from Eastern Michigan University, and a Master’s degree in education for administration and supervision, adult education and training, and curriculum and instruction from the University of Phoenix. 

“I am extremely honored and grateful for the opportunity to serve the students and staff of Sturgis Public Schools,” Gross said. “Working together, I am confident that we can provide all learners in our schools with the educational opportunities to meet their individual needs and achieve their future goals.”

Read the full media release.

When Nada Al-Hanooti (MA, Women’s and Gender Studies, 2021) enrolled in the WGST graduate program, she was already an activist. A native of Paterson, New Jersey, her family’s roots stretched back to Palestine and Syria and memories of displacement. When she was five years old, she moved to Dearborn, Michigan and she attended her first protest. At the age of eleven, she began to volunteer for the Arab American Political Action Committee. She graduated from the University of Michigan, Dearborn with a dual degree in Journalism and Political Science in 2014. After taking some courses in Women’s Studies, she came to EMU with a desire to study feminism and intersectionality. 

Following the results of the 2016 Presidential election, Al-Hanooti drew upon her years of political experience and ran for the city council in Dearborn. Her youth was an asset; she knocked on 4,000 doors to spread her message. Al-Hanooti’s graduate education at EMU had taught her about multiracial coalitions and she drew upon that knowledge to reach out to diverse residents of Dearborn, a city with a low voter turnout. Even though she lost, she was not defeated. Two years later, she was hired as the Executive Director of Emgage, a political action committee which encourages engagement among Arab American voters. In her first year in her new role, Al-Hanooti celebrated a major victory in helping to elect Rashida Tlaib to the United States House of Representatives, making Tlaib the first Palestinian-Muslim woman in Congress. Al-Hanooti has continued her work at Emgage, spearheading a major voter turnout for the 2020 election, and is their leading spokesperson. In 2023 and 2024, the New York Times twice interviewed Al-Hanooti about Arab Americans’ attitudes toward the Biden administration’s response to the ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine. 

 “Activism and academia go hand in hand,” says Al-Hanooti. “It’s so important to understand the history and how it evolved into our current systemic issues. In retrospect, I am very happy that I chose a degree in Women’s & Gender Studies. Going into this academic field, I knew I wanted to be an activist, but I had to take a deep dive into the narratives of all marginalized peoples and that’s exactly what it did for me.”

Antonio Salinas is an active duty Army lieutenant colonel and PhD student in the Department of History at Georgetown University, where he focuses on the history of climate and conflict. Following his coursework, he will teach at the National Intelligence University. Salinas has twenty-five years of military service in the Marine Corps and the US Army, where he led soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is the author of Siren’s Song: The Allure of War and Boot Camp: The Making of a United States Marine. 

Tony has 25 years of military service as both an enlisted US Marine and later as an Army officer in the fields of Infantry and Intelligence. Tony was also an Assistant Professor of History at West Point, where he taught courses in Military and European History. Additionally, Tony has also taught classes in International Relations and Russian studies at National Intelligence University. He holds a B.A. in History and Political Science from Eastern Michigan University. He also has a Masters degree in History from Eastern Michigan University and a Masters in Eurasian Studies from National Intelligence University. In his spare time, Tony enjoys lifting weights, hiking, and martial arts.

The College has launched Celebrating 175 Years of Arts & Sciences, a timeline that traces the development of arts and sciences disciplines, departments, and schools at Eastern Michigan University. 

The arts and sciences have been central to EMU since its founding in 1849 as the Michigan State Normal School. As the nation’s first normal (teacher-training) school to offer a course of study for future high school teachers, MSNS offered classes in a wide range of arts and sciences subjects from the start. The arts and sciences faculty organized themselves into departments in the 1880s, and in 1959, when Eastern became a University, ten departments joined to form the College of Arts and Sciences. 

The timeline was created by CAS graduate students Mackenzie Kortes, Chris Baker, and Finn Vincent-Fix, in collaboration with University Archivist Alexis Braun Marks and Associate Dean Jim Egge.

“What I found most remarkable was how passionate and devoted early leaders of the Normal were to training future generations of educators,” said Finn. “The most extreme example that comes to mind regarding this is the fact that Principal Sill and other faculty members found a way to keep classes from being interrupted after the fire burned Old Main to its brick walls.”

Mackenzie remarked, “The most interesting aspect of the project for me was seeing the evolution of the institution over the decades of its existence, going from the Normal School to the Normal College and culminating in the modern EMU. In particular, the diversity of the students and faculty who attended MSNS and MSNC was equal measures surprising and genuinely enthralling.”

View the full timeline.

Eastern Michigan University is thrilled to announce an unforgettable halftime show featuring the world-renowned vocal group, The Temptations, performing alongside the EMU Marching Band. This special event will occur during the EMU football game against Miami University Saturday, Oct. 12, at Rynearson Stadium. Adding to the excitement, EMU alum and Detroit native Jawan M. Jackson, who joined The Temptations in 2022, will return to his alma mater for this highly anticipated performance. The game time will be announced 12 days before kickoff.

“Hosting The Temptations in collaboration with students in the 130th Anniversary Season of the EMU Marching Band doubles down on the vision that guides us all at Eastern Michigan University: to provide student-centered, high-quality academic programs with significant community impact,” said J. Nick Smith, Associate Director of Bands and Director of Athletic Bands at Eastern. “This collaboration marks a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our marching band students that will create ripples through our Ypsilanti community to our "sister city,” Detroit. Detroit, of course, was where The Temptations and many other iconic Black artists began careers that would ultimately lead to re-shaping the music industry. We are thrilled to experience a piece of that history live on October 12 in Rynearson Stadium.”

Read the full EMU Today Article.

Eastern Michigan University has approved sabbatical leaves for a distinguished group of faculty members for the 2024-25 academic year. The sabbaticals will enable faculty to engage in advanced study and research on topics such as curricula development for electric and autonomous vehicles, employee turnover in the hospitality industry, and the behavioral patterns of tarantulas in Colorado. The sabbaticals were approved by the University’s Board of Regents on June 20.

Listed are those awards of the College of Arts & Sciences:*** edit verbiage 

One-semester leaves 

• Eric Acton, English Language and Literature. “Co-Authoring the Core Chapters of a Book on Social Meaning.”

• Amanda Allen, English Language and Literature. “The Cold War Era and Now: Young Adult Literature as Ideological Battleground.”

• Steven Backues, Chemistry. “Building my Computational Capacity for Autophagy Research.”

• Ashley Bavery, History and Philosophy. “Making the American Mosque: Muslims, Refugees, and Race in Twentieth-Century America.”

• Julie Becker, Visual and Built Environments. “Program and Professional Development Through Utilizing Quilting and Embroidery Software and Equipment.”

• María Luz García, Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology. “Linguistic and Cultural Strategies of Maya Immigrant Communities in the U.S. Midwest: A Collaborative Analysis.”

•  Jeromy Hopgood, Communication, Media and Theatre Arts. “Moby Dick and Beyond: Applied Projects in Projection Design.”

• Khairul Islam, Mathematics and Statistics. “Modeling Activity Related Interaction and Adult Americans Well-being Using Survey Data.”

• Christine Neufeld, English Language and Literature. “Mad Knights and Maimed Kings: Disability and Medieval Romance.” 

• Nick Romerhausen, Communication, Media and Theatre Arts. “The Impacts of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Student Learning in the Introductory Communication Course.”

• Brian Sellers, Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology. “Atomic Nomads: A Cautionary Tale of Forced Migration, Environmental Injustice, and Cultural Disintegration in the South Pacific.”

• Cara Shillington, Biology. “Following the Spiders: Tracking Behavior and Activity of Tarantulas in Colorado.”

• Tom Suchan, Art and Design. “The Revolving Sutra Repository Cave of Mt. Bei and the Cult of the Canon in Medieval Chinese Buddhism.”

• Guey-Meei Yang, Art and Design. “An Action Research: AI-Infused Course Design and Teaching.”

• Mehmet Yaya, Economics. “Syrian Refugees in Turkey: Measurement of their Adaptation and Assimilation.”

Two-semester leaves 

• Howard Cass, Music and Dance. “Music Composition, Performance, and Recording of Eight Original World Music Works to be Published by Freeplay Music.”

• Roger Long, History and Philosophy. “Liaquat Ali Khan: Jinnah’s ‘Right Hand’ in the Creation of Pakistan, 1941-1947.”

• Mehmet Yaya, Economics. “Syrian Refugees in Turkey: Measurement of their Adaptation and Assimilation.”

Read the full EMU Today article.

The EMU High School Summer Science Program is a three-week summer research experience for local high school students. Participants were matched with faculty and student mentors, engaging in original scientific research projects and various skill-building activities such as safety training, ethics workshops, and career development sessions. The program aimed to teach students hand-on lab skills, the significance of scientific communication, and to foster an inclusive environment encouraging low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students to pursue science. Ten students participated in the 2024 program, funded by Michigan Space Grant Consortium and the National Science Foundation. The program, now in its sixth year, saw significant improvements in students' scientific skills and enthusiasm for research.

"I learned how research is truly produced, [specifically] the constraints and the problems that one faces when it comes to producing valuable pieces of information," one student shared. "This experience was especially important when it came to helping me think about my future career and academic goals. I was able to converse with my mentors and learned about their own personal experiences and aspirations. They were able to provide me with their own advices using their knowledge and helped me explore some possible career paths I didn’t even think about, including what kind of opportunities were available at EMU. In my experience, I was able to get advice on the scientific majors here, as well as the steps it would take to pursue higher education in the science field."

Eastern Michigan University's Preservation Studies program, housed in the Geography and Geology department, has officially embarked on the second phase of a comprehensive survey of Detroit's African American civil rights history. This initiative, supported by a National Park Service grant, will concentrate on the city’s east side. The three-year project aims to connect experts in Detroit’s civil rights and Black cultural heritage with residents and community groups to identify and designate significant sites associated with the African American struggle for equality.

EMU Preservation Studies professor and project lead Dan Bonenberger believes this work is significant in preserving and educating about history.

“While the civil rights movement is often associated with the South, a National Park Service survey completed in 2020 highlighted significant places in and around Detroit as a pivotal northern hub of the movement,” said Bonenberger. “This led to the designation of important Black civil rights landmarks such as the Birwood Wall, New Bethel Baptist Church, Rosa Parks Flat, and the Sojourner Truth Homes in the National Register of Historic Places.”

Despite the important work underway at the Malcolm X House in Inkster and the Ossian Sweet House in Detroit, Bonenberger highlights a pressing concern: preserving newly identified sites at risk of demolition.

“Numerous newly identified landmarks on Detroit’s east side are associated fair housing, equal rights, activism, and cultural heritage, and at least two are tied to Malcolm X and his time in Detroit. The Gladys Mitchell Sweet House and many others face the imminent threat of demolition, making our work urgent and vital,” Bonenberger added.

Read the full EMU Today story.

August 31, 1966 - August 2, 2024

Volker Krause, Professor of Political Science at EMU, passed away peacefully at home Friday evening, August 2, 2024, ​after a six-month battle with cancer, with his loving wife and close friends by his side. He was born on August 31, 1966, in ​Hagen, West Germany to Ulrich and Gisela Krause.

His research included themes of comparative public health policy around the world, as well as international conflict and ​alliance strategies, including a research appointment in Japan on a fellowship from the prestigious Council on Foreign ​Relations. He taught courses on international and comparative politics, including war and peace, international ​organizations, human rights, and Canadian and European politics.

Dr. Krause lived his life in a way that reminds us to be kind, humble, grateful, hardworking, and ready to confront and ​overcome any adversity that enters our pathway. He will truly be missed in the Department of Political Science and the ​EMU family.

Full obituary and services.

With heavy hearts, we announce the death of Barry A. Fish of Ann Arbor, Michigan, who passed away on August 9, 2024. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Barry A. Fish to pay them a last tribute.

He was predeceased by: his siblings, Helen and Irving Bernstein; and his brother-in-law Jack Levy. He is survived by: his wife Thea Fish; his sons, Robert Fish (Rabbi Alison Abrams) and Joshua Fish; his grandchildren, Chloe, Olivia and Seth Fish; and his siblings-in-law, Leonard, Luch Levy and Eunice. He is also survived by other loving relatives and friends.

Full obituary and services.