Political Science

Growing up in West Virginia, three hours from Washington D.C., Brooke Allen’s parents took her to more marches on the National Mall than she can count.  No wonder she is a self-described “political junkie” and a recent recipient of an American Political Science Association (APSA) award.

“The project was inspired by The Daily Show, when a comedian noted that gerrymandered (organized to benefit one political party) districts resemble pieces of abstract art,” explains Allen of the work that earned her an APSA CQ Press Award for Teaching Innovation.  “I hosted a Gerrymandering Art Exhibit in the fall, based on my students’ group research projects.”

CQ Press publishes scholarly texts on American government and public policy and its annual award recognizes one political science professor who has developed a new way of engaging students in the political process. Past recipients have been professors from Northwestern and Indiana universities and the University of Michigan.

“I was not expecting it at all” says Allen, who holds a Ph.D. in political science from U of M, and has been teaching full time at Macomb for five years. “I presented a paper on my students’ Gerrymandering art exhibit at the association’s annual meeting in Philadelphia.  Someone in the audience nominated me for the award.”

That someone was Dr. Sherry Wallace, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana, who is developing a similar classroom project based on Allen’s success, which the Macomb professor attributes to her students.

“We have great students,” says Allen.  “They are aware of what’s going on in the world.”

Allen continues to look for innovative ways to “show how what we talk about in class relates to their own lives.” There was an interactive video discussion with students from the University of California, Berkeley on the outcome of the last presidential election, which inspired Allen to add a unit to her classes on the impact of social media on election campaigns.

“We will be looking at a lot of different news sources,” says Allen. “They need to know they have more choices than Facebook.”

Humanities

Renoir labored in a porcelain factory, Brancusi was a domestic servant and Haring worked as a janitor. Likewise, Francisco Lopez can tell his Introduction to Art students about waiting tables in New York.

“That was how I made my living,” says Lopez, who earned a master’s degree in art history from New York’s Hunter College. But, initially, the Edsel Ford High School graduate enrolled at Wayne State University to pursue a degree in engineering. That changed after his first survey course in art history. After he switched his major, he started considering both art history and teaching as callings.

“I enjoy research and sharing things with students that I know will expand their capacity for creativity,” says Lopez, whose travels have included Paris, Rome and Istanbul. “I know that when I was a student at Wayne, a professor changed my path in life.”

While at Hunter, Lopez worked in the art history department’s slide library, which helped feed his growing interest in art from the Byzantine and late antiquity periods. But, everything from impressionism to abstract expressionism also intrigues him and he gladly accepted a entry-level position in the visitor’s center at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, more for the experience than the supplemental income.

“Everyday there were thousands of people from every corner of the world walking through the galleries,” offers Lopez. “It was amazing.”

Lopez lived in New York for six years before being offered a job in the research library at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D. C., an affiliate of Harvard University. A big part of the allure is that Dumbarton is known for its Byzantine collection and dedication to international studies. Lopez spent three years there before returning to Michigan to serve as director of International Student Services at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. It was then that he began looking for teaching positions.

“I like the fact that Macomb students are so diverse,” says Lopez. “It’s an interesting atmosphere. It’s a challenge, but it’s exciting. I like to show them things they may never have encountered before.”

Media and Communication Arts

Students in Kristine Mellebrand’s classes not only benefit from her years of advertising experience, but also from the example she sets by her can-do spirit.

“When someone tells me I can’t do something,” offers the Macomb Media and Communication Arts professor, “it usually makes me more determined.”

Mellebrand has been discouraged, in chronological order, from majoring in advertising, becoming a teacher and riding a Harley Davidson. For the record, she has earned two Detroit American Advertising Awards (advertising’s answer to the Oscar), has been teaching at Macomb for nearly12 years and is the owner of a custom-painted yellow Fat Boy, 2003 anniversary edition, which she brings out every spring.

“I like to ride around country roads and to work some times,” says Mellebrand. “It’s just a great feeling.”

Like a Harley, Mellebrand’s career has been fast and intense. She earned a BFA in fabric design (her mom was a custom dressmaker) from the College for Creative Studies and a master’s degree in advertising from Michigan State University. She was the only woman among 65 artists “on the boards” at McNamara Associates, a preeminent design firm in Detroit, which was followed by jobs with a small ad agency, a production house and a public relations firm that counted Ford Motor Co. as one of its clients.

“That was a fun job,” says Mellebrand, whose father was an art director at Campbell Ewald. “We did all sorts of crazy things.”

But of all the jobs that Mellebrand has held, she says, it’s the one a former art teacher tried to talk her out of that she loves most.

“Teaching is pretty darn cool,” says Mellebrand, “I can teach these kids how to do what I have loved doing for the past 30 years.”

Brynne Barnes grew up in a house full of books and cut her literary teeth on the likes of Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes and Kahlil Gibran. But it was in the magical, illustrated world of children’s literature that she has found her true calling.

“I was in college working on a project with other students, bringing meaningful literary experiences to kids in Detroit’s inner-city and I started thinking, I want to be a children’s books author,” relates Barnes.

It would be a few years and more than a little self doubt before Barnes would see her dream bound and printed for others to enjoy. And when that happened, she says, “I cried.”

Her first illustrated children’s book, Colors of Me ,was published by Sleeping Bear Press in 2011 and earned her a Friends of America Writers Award for Juvenile Literature. Her second book, Books Do Not Have Wings, was released late last year by Sleeping Bear.

“My professors at Eastern Michigan (where she earned a master’s degree in creative writing) shared their writing journeys with me and told me to hang in there and keep trying,” says Barnes. “And somehow, I started to feel deep down that it was going to happen.”

Before it did, however, Barnes began teaching, starting at Adrian College before joining Macomb’s English faculty five years ago. At Macomb, she teaches college composition, children’s literature and developmental writing and tries to impart to her students the same encouragement she received.

“Some of my students are not fans of writing and I like to be that positive exposure for them and help them find their own voice,” says Barnes. “Because I love writing so much, I love to share that with students.”

And if her students were to read only one book, which one might she recommend?

“The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran,” says Barnes. “I loved it. It was magical, and made me want to make people feel that way with my own writing.”

Comparative Religions

Jessica Sitek has witnessed Christian preparations for Easter in Spain, spoke with survivors of the Kurdish genocide during a five-month stay in Iraq, conducted a field study of how Islam interacts with other religions in Malaysia and observed Hinduism first-hand in India. But while uniquely qualified to teach Macomb’s existing courses in comparative religions, the third-year instructor is currently developing a new one that explores the connection between food and religion.

“Food as storytelling is something that greatly interests me,” says Sitek, who grew up in Macomb by way of Hamtramck, where her grandparents first settled after emigrating from Poland. “I really enjoy producing my own sauerkraut and collecting the family’s honey harvest.”

In developing the new course, Sitek enlisted her students in the creation of a recent library exhibit: Food and Religion: The Ethical and Spiritual Dimension of Eating. It was also part of her focus while a member of the first class of the KAICIID International Fellows Programme, an intergovernmental peacebuilding organization sponsored by the Republic of Austria, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Spain and the Holy See.

“My first challenge,” she says, “was confronting my place of privilege.”

Sitek holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Philosophy from Central Michigan University and a Master’s Degree in Religious Studies from Temple University in Philadelphia. With a recommendation from Philadelphia’s Dialogue Institute, where she worked, Sitek was selected to join 20 educators from 16 countries for the year-long KAICIID program. There were visits to the organization’s headquarters in Vienna and to several other countries, all designed, says Sitek, “to put a face on theology.”

In addition to sharing insight gained from the prestigious fellowship, field trips are also an important part of Sitek’s courses, including those to the Detroit Zen Center, Temple Beth El and Islamic Center in Dearborn. The trips are not mandatory, but many of her students choose to take part anyway.

“My students are all very respectful and inquisitive,” says Sitek. “They really appreciate learning about other cultures.”