Faculty/Staff Spotlights
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April 10, 2023
“I think seeing how much more similar we are and our ability to kind of like cross-species communicate is better for both of us and for them.”
— Sascha Crasnow, lecturer in Islamic arts and culture in the Residential College in LSA, who has helped teach her 2-year-old beagle mix, Parker, to “speak” through the use of nearly 100 buttons in her home
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April 3, 2023
“I just kind of felt a calling to it. It was kind of slow and quiet at first, but then it just got more powerful.”
— Darcy Brandel, a lecturer in creative writing in the Residential College and with U-M’s Semester in Detroit program, who serves as a “death doula” to help families facilitate the passing of a loved one
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March 27, 2023
“There is such immense variety, such genius there. Out of those 281 works, I don’t think there’s a bad piece, and I don’t know of another composer I could say that of.”
— James Kibbie, professor of organ at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, who will perform the last of 18 concerts featuring all 281 solo organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach on April 16, shortly before his retirement
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March 20, 2023
“I love wood. That’s what I’m really into. But I’ve come to appreciate ceramics, because I can come up with an idea and realize it so quickly, which is appealing.”
— Mark Meier, lecturer II in architecture in the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, who builds furniture, sculpts ceramics and explores his expansive curiosity through digital means
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March 13, 2023
“It’s a fun operation. We’ve used it a little bit to teach our daughters about nature. We’ve always appreciated and valued local production.”
— Frank Marsik, lecturer IV in climate and space sciences and engineering in the College of Engineering, who with his wife, Theresa, has made homemade syrup from their solitary sugar maple since 2018
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March 6, 2023
“It shows just this sense of comfort and relief and purpose. It all kind of coalesces when you get to get together and play with a band.”
— Kaj Althaus, a Michigan Data and Policy Fellow with the Ford School’s Youth Policy Lab, performs in a funk-rock band called Toed
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February 20, 2023
“They’re not too expensive. They’re cute. The caveat is they are not very affectionate. They can be easily startled, so you have to get them acclimated to you.”
— Kelly Jones, sustainability programs manager for the Graham Sustainability Institute, who has had three hedgehogs as pets since she and her partner moved to Michigan in 2016
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February 13, 2023
“Getting fruit right off the tree is just an amazing experience. And so, when people experience that for the first time, they’re just blown away and astounded.”
— Attia Qureshi, a lecturer at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy who helps operate Wunsch Farms in northern Michigan
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February 6, 2023
“I just really love being in the water. And I love the saltwater because it’s so buoyant.”
— Ann Evans Watson, clinical associate professor of musical theater specializing in vocal training in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance who takes part in long-distance saltwater swims
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January 30, 2023
“In the sport, you know, we’re outside, we’re hiking in mud or playing through rain sometimes and so it does take some grit to like it.”
— Jennifer Trombley, an orthotic assistant in Michigan Medicine’s orthotics and prosthetics department, who started Grit & Grace Ladies DGC, a disc golf league for women, five years ago
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