By Jillian Schneider
During the 2020-2021 academic year, the outstanding faculty of Azusa Pacific University’s Honors College have made unique and scholarly contributions to their fields. Their accomplishments range from the publication of articles to conference presentations to participation in online podcasts.
- Honors College Assistant Professor Dr. Andre Villeneuve’s essay “Holistic Formation: Communicating the Way, the Truth, and the Life through Salvation History and the Offices of Priest, Prophet, and King” was featured in the recently published book, Speaking the Truth in Love: The Catechism and the New Evangelism (2020).
- Dr. Bradley McCoy, Honors College Professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Statistics, published an article titled “Effects of Faith Integration Activities on Students’ Epistemologies in Introductory Physics Classes” Christian Higher Education (2020).
- Dr. McCoy and his colleagues B. Lane and B. Baker presented their paper “Paros, Descartes, Newton and the Void” at the American Association of Physics Teachers Virtual Summer Meeting 2020.
- Additionally, Dr. McCoy and his colleagues gave a workshop presentation titled “Implementing and assessing writing across the physics curriculum” at the national conference of American Association of Physics Teachers Winter Meeting 2020.
- Dr. McCoy was featured in Azusa Pacific University’s article “How Liberal Arts Courses Support Your Education.”
- Honors College and Department of English Professor Dr. Joseph Bentz published an article “Riding the Wheel of Fortune: How the Substance of Our Teaching Can Help Us through Crisis” in The Teaching Professor (Nov., 2020).
- Dr. Bentz also published “Fear of Failure and God’s Calling” in The Foundry Publishing (Sept. 3, 2020).
- Dr. David Weeks, Dean of the Honors College, was featured in the Public Diplomacy Magazine’s “Ethics in Diplomacy” Summer 2020 edition. His article was titled “Doing the Right Thing: Aristotle for Aspiring Diplomats.”
- Honors College Professor Dr. Diana Glyer published a book series called Clay in the Potter’s Hands, including a Workbook and a Leader’s Guide for small groups and ministries. Clay in the Potter’s Hands is available in its second edition and its full color edition. Versions of the book and workbook are both available in Spanish (Barro en las Manos del Alfarero).
- Dr. Glyer has been featured in several recent podcasts: “The Babylon Bee Podcast” (Oct. 2020), “The School of Thought Podcast” (April 26); “The Habit Podcast” (May 11), “HopeWriters” (June 30), “The Marion E. Wade Center Podcast” (July 10), and “Pints with Jack” (July 28 & 29).
- Dr. Glyer’s book, Bandersnatch, was featured in Malcolm Guite’s vlog “Bandersnatch! A picture, a book, and some stories” (April 25, 2020).
- In September 2020, Dr. Glyer conducted a webinar called “Building Community in a Time of Social Distance” for the C.S. Lewis Foundation.
- Dr. Ethan Scrum, Associate Professor of the Honors College and the Department of History and Political Science, was featured in two key publications who provided detailed reviews of Dr. Scrum’s book The Instrumental University: Education in Service of the National Agenda After WWII (2019). In History of Education Quarterly, Andrew Jewett writes that The Instrumental University is "an invaluable, agenda-setting book for anyone concerned with the state of higher education, past or present."
- Honors College Associate Professor Dr. Christine Kern wrote an article titled “Isolated, Not Alone,” which appeared in the Well Planned Gal publication.
- Honors College Professors Dr. Adam Green from the Department of Theology and Dr. Joshua Morris from the Department of Biology and Chemistry published their article “Living Within Our Limits: A Defense of the Fall” in the Journal of Analytic Theology (August 2020).
- Honors College and Department of Philosophy Professor Dr. Mihretu Guta gave his presentation “Artificial Intelligence and Metaphysical Limitations” at the University of Arizona’s Science of Consciousness conference.
- Dr. Guta was also featured in the podcast “Coffeehouse Questions" on September 8, 2020, where he discussed the question, “Has neuroscience disproven the soul?”
- Honors College Professors Dr. Louise K. Huang, Assistant Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and English Professor Dr. Christopher Noble were awarded a Lilly Fellows Program grant, along with their colleagues, to organize a conference on “Reckoning and Reimagining: Envisioning a Faithful Presence in the Liberal Arts.”
- Honors College Assistant Professor Dr. Matthew Rothaus Moser published his article “‘You Were Within, but I was Outside and Sought You There’: Martin Laird’s Ressourcement of the Christian of the Contemplative Tradition” in the Anglican Theological Review 102:4 (2020).
- Dr. Moser also appeared in the “Speaking with Joy” podcast where he discussed the transformation of love in Dante’s Divine Comedy (May 2020).
- Honors College Professor Dr. Rico Vitz co-authored an article titled “Mencius Hume, and the Virtue of Humanity: Sources of Benevolent Moral Development,” which appeared in the British Journal for the History of Philosophy 28:4 (2020).
- Additionally, Dr. Vitz’s essay “Moral Strangers as Co-Laborers in the Fields of Justice” was published in the book A New Theist Response to the New Atheists, edited by J. Rasmussen and K. Vallier (Routledge, 2020).
The Honors College is proud to include so many dedicated and accomplished professors. We celebrate the various achievements of the past year, and look forward to what they will do next! If you would like to learn more about the Honors College faculty, please visit our faculty website or contact us at apuhonors.apu.edu.