Wednesday, July 26 – Calvin University: January Series in July – Kate van Liere and Matt Heun – 12:30 p.m. Black Box

Kate van Liere and Matt Heun are both recipients of the Presidential Award of Exemplary Teaching at Calvin University. They are both on a mission to inspire students to dream big. In this talk, the professors discuss together their different teaching styles and what they’ve learned in the classroom.

Dr. Kate van Liere holds a B.A. in History of Ideas from Williams College, an M.A. in history from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D. in history from Princeton University. Before moving to Grand Rapids she taught at the College of Charleston (S.C.). She teaches courses on European and world history since 1500 at Calvin, with an emphasis on the Renaissance and Reformation eras, religious history, and historiography. Kate publishes articles on early modern Spanish intellectual history. She also teaches part-time in the Spanish and Dutch departments.  She directs the history internship program at Calvin which places students in museums, historical societies or local non-profit organizations.

After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Matt Heun worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA, where he led studies and experiments related to planetary exploration with balloon systems. After working at JPL, Dr. Heun joined Global Aerospace Corporation (GAC), a start-up aerospace R&D company, as its first full-time employee. At GAC, Dr. Heun proposed, led, and completed several projects in support of NASA’s Earth Science activities. Dr. Heun spent his 2009 sabbatical in South Africa at the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology where he taught and participated in sustainable energy development.

This lecture will be broadcast live at the Dogwood Center from 12:30-1:30 p.m. Admission is free.

For more information on the Calvin University January Series click here.

The Dogwood Center, a remote site for the Calvin University January Series, is supported in part by the Fremont Area Community Foundation.