[Pictured with Andy Nakajima and the Fukushima, Japan students], Patrice Rankine, Dean for the Arts and Humanities (center)

Dr. Patrice Rankine
Dean of Arts & Humanities
Hope College
rankine@hope.edu

Welcome to Arts and Humanities (AH) at Hope College, where you can study painting, sculpture, art history and art education, dance, English, history, music, philosophy, religion, theatre, and a number of languages, from Spanish and French and German, to Chinese, Japanese, Ancient Greek, Latin, and Dutch. In other words, we bring the world to you before we send you out into the world. Studying these subjects within the context of a liberal arts college means that you are able, perhaps, to team up with a science and dance professor to study the cortisol levels in dancers as compared to the general population, as one student did. Through the Mellon Scholars Program and other Hope initiatives, you might also produce an academic peer-reviewed publication with a professor on such topics as environmental ethics, archival construction and the making of history, or tradition and innovation in jazz. The Arts and Humanities unleash your creative potential. When I entered college in 1988, much of the world as we now know it did not exist: I had no email, no internet, no cell phone, no Twitter or Facebook. Creative arts and humanistic thinking made the world as we known it today, the world of the 21st century. What's next? The answer lies in you. Come study with us, and be creative!

Patrice Rankine

Of our many creative faculty, this month, I would like to spotlight Professor Natalie Dykstra, author of the award-winning biography, Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreak Life

http://nataliedykstra.com/