Debra Swanson Named Summer Scholar-In-Residence for Chicago Program
Dr. Debra Swanson, who is a professor of sociology and department chair at Hope College, has been selected for the Summer 2022 Scholar-In-Residence program of the Chicago Semester.
Swanson is one of 11 scholars selected for the program, which is open to faculty members from Hope and the other five colleges and universities that founded the Chicago Semester. The scholars will spend two weeks between May and July living at the Chicago Semester’s housing partner, will have access to workspaces where the Chicago Semester’s offices are located and receive a $250 stipend in support of their research.
Swanson will be researching the immigration history of five different Chicago neighborhoods. She will use the research to develop a teaching module on immigration and racism in Chicago that can be used in the college’s Race and Ethnic Relations offered by the Department of Sociology and Social Work. She hopes to collect information about and photograph a variety of locations for a digital map/scavenger hunt-style module that students in the course can use during a walking tour as part of a day trip to the city and that can potentially be used as an orientation to the city by the Chicago Semester program.
Swanson’s research interests include service-learning and community development, the social construction of mothering, and teaching and learning. Her scholarship includes articles in numerous professional journals as well as a variety of presented papers and addresses.
She joined the Hope faculty in 1989 as a visiting instructor of sociology. Following a one-semester leave, she returned as an assistant professor in the fall of 1994. She was promoted to associate professor in 1996 and full professor in 2006. She is retiring at the end of the school year but will remain involved in the department, teaching Cultural Anthropology this coming fall.
Active professionally beyond campus, she was president of the North Central Sociological Association (NCSA) during 2016-17, following a year as president-elect, and was the NCSA’s vice president-elect and vice president during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years. Especially active in the organization’s teaching section, she has made several presentations on teaching during association meetings through the years. The NCSA presented her with its “John F. Schnabel Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award” during its annual meeting in March 2008, and she was the featured keynote speaker during the NCSA’s annual conference in 2009.
Founded in 1974, the Chicago Semester is an off-campus urban experiential education program that serves college students as they pursue their vocational callings, emerge as professionals and faithfully engage the city. In addition to Hope, the founding colleges and universities are Calvin University, Central College, Dordt University, Northwestern College and Trinity Christian College. The program currently serves between 100 and 120 students per year from more than 30 partner institutions.