A total of three long-time members of the Hope College faculty are retiring at the end of the 2014-15 school year.
Retiring this year are Dr. John Cox, the DuMez Professor of English; Dr. Jack Holmes, professor of political science; and Dr. John Shaughnessy, professor of psychology. Their combined service to Hope totals 126 years.
Cox has taught at Hope since 1979.
His primary scholarly interests are Renaissance drama and the works of Shakespeare in particular. His publications include the books “Shakespeare and the Dramaturgy of Power,” “A New History of Early English Drama,” “The Devil and the Sacred in English Drama, 1350-1642,” the Third Arden Shakespeare Edition of “Henry VI, Part 3,” “Seeming Knowledge: Shakespeare and Skeptical Faith,” a new edition of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” and “Shakespeare and Renaissance Ethics,” and many scholarly articles and reviews.
External support of his scholarship has included two highly competitive, year-long fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), a summer grant from the NEH and a year-long fellowship from the Pew Evangelical Scholars Program. His service beyond campus includes being president of the Conference on Christianity and Literature from 2004 to 2009.
At Hope, Cox served as director of Interdisciplinary Studies and the Senior Seminar program from 1984 to 2004. He joined his wife, Karen, and their three children when she led the college’s May Term to Meiji Gakuin University in Japan in 1988. He delivered the college’s Opening Convocation address in 2008. He presented seminars on “Shakespeare and Christianity” and “Shakespeare’s Prayers” during the college’s annual Winter Happening event in 2008 and 2012 respectively.
Cox graduated from Hope in 1967, and completed his master’s and doctorate at the University of Chicago in 1968 and 1975 respectively. Prior to coming to Hope, he held teaching appointments at Westmont College and the University of Victoria, and a Mellon Faculty Fellowship at Harvard University.
Holmes has been a member of the faculty since 1969.
His scholarly emphasis has been on American foreign policy, research conducted in collaboration with Hope students, with whom he has presented at professional meetings and co-authored journal articles. His publications include the books “Mood/Interest Theory in American Foreign Policy” and “Ambivalent America: Cyclical Interactions with Trends” and, with Hope colleagues, the textbook “American Government: Essentials and Perspectives.” He presented the seminar “American Foreign Policy and September 11, 2001,” during the college’s Winter Happening in 2002.
Holmes played a leadership role in establishing the college’s Model United Nations for high school students, which ran for more than four decades, and frequently served as faculty mentor of the Hope students who organized it. He also led Hope’s spring-semester Washington Honors Semester program for 12 terms. In addition, he created and for many years led a May Term course in Colorado focused on wilderness politics.
He has active with the Michigan and Ottawa Republican Party for more than 40 years, having served in the past as both a district chair and county chair.
Holmes graduated from Knox College in 1963, and completed his master’s and doctorate at the University of Denver in 1967 and 1972 respectively.
Prior to coming to Hope, he spent two years as a research assistant, with the rank of captain, in the Politico-Military Section of the Army General Staff in the Pentagon. In addition, during a two-year leave from the faculty, 1973-1974, he served as the district assistant to a U.S. Congressman.
Shaughnessy has been a member of the faculty since 1975.
The courses he has taught have included research methods, practical aspects of memory, Senior Seminar, and advanced research lab. His favorite professional activity has been collaborating with students on research examining how to improve people’s memory for names.
A Fellow of the Association of Psychological Science, he is co-author of three research-methods books: “Research Methods in Psychology”; “Essentials of Research Methods in Psychology”; and “Experimentation in Psychology.” His publications also include multiple articles in scholarly journals, and he has presented his research at the national meetings of a variety of professional associations.
He served as chair of the college’s department of psychology from the spring of 1997 through the spring of 2000. In April of 1992, Hope’s graduating seniors selected him as the college’s “Hope Outstanding Professor Educator,” and in 2008 he received the “Janet L. Andersen Excellence in Teaching Award.” He delivered the college’s Opening Convocation address in the fall of 1992 and Hope’s Commencement address in May of 1996, and was invited by the college’s chapter of Mortar Board to speak through the Last Lecture Series in 2011. He was also a presenter during the college’s Winter Happening—discussing “Just How Bad Are Our Memories?”—in January 2003.
Shaughnessy graduated from Loyola University of Chicago in 1969 with a Bachelor of Science degree and completed his doctorate at Northwestern University in 1972. He taught at Northwestern University and the University of California at Berkeley before coming to Hope.