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4 total posts. Showing results 1 - 4.

Travis Nygard

Travis Nygard

  • Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
  • M.A., University of Pittsburgh
  • B.A., Gustavus Adolphus College

I teach art history and museum studies classes. For me studying art is fascinating because it shows how humans have interacted with each other over the centuries, and it also enables us to see the world in new ways. My art history classes cover all time periods and places, from prehistoric cave art to computer-generated art of today, but my favorite time periods to think about are modern and ancient. I also team-teach a travel course in Rome, Italy, and I love to show students how the grandeur of the ancient Roman architecture mixes with the fast-paced world of today.

I am a museum enthusiast, and I oversee the college’s museum studies program. My museum studies classes are both hands-on and research-based, as I enjoy teaching students how to curate the college’s collections of art and artifacts. We display items across campus, including in the Ripon College Museum in West Hall. Hosting artists when they display their work in the Caestecker Gallery is another highlight of my work in the art department. I am also involved with the Ripon Historical Society, and I am looking forward to connecting students with that institution for internships and volunteer work.

When I am not in the classroom I enjoy researching modern American art, especially as it relates to food and farming, as well as ancient Maya art from the UNESCO world-heritages sites Palenque and Chichen Itza. You can learn more about that research on my website: https://ripon.academia.edu/TravisNygard

Soren Hauge

Soren Hauge

  • Ph.D. in Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • M.A. in Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • B.A., in Economics, Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota

I’m an applied microeconomist with a liberal arts background who likes to connect the theories and data of economics with the wider world of people and ideas. I grew up mainly in Pennsylvania and Upper Michigan before studying in a liberal arts college in Minnesota and graduate school in Wisconsin. Travel across the world and research in several Latin American countries inform my teaching of international and development economics courses. In environmental economics and history of economic thought, I connect economics with other ways of seeing the world in natural science and history. I also dig into the big picture of economic concepts and data with students in principles of macroeconomics and intermediate macroeconomics, as well as Catalyst seminars. My two children grew up in Ripon where my wife and I enjoy living.

Geoff Guevara-Geer

Geoff Guevara-Geer

  • Postdoctoral work: Northwestern University
  • Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University
  • M.A., Pennsylvania State University
  • B.A., Ripon College

At Ripon College, I’m the Latin Americanist who works with literature. Because we’re small, I teach a very broad range of courses from our beginning language sequence to our culminating courses in literature from Spanish America. I often teach advanced writing in Spanish, and return to teaching favorite writers–like Cortázar, Peri Rossi, García Márquez, and Luiselli. I love seeing how cultures self-define, while being transformed, through their artists. I also enjoy returning to favorite problems, like issues of magical realism, the political engagements of artists, and indigenous representation. Many ideas and expressions start out as abstractions, and then show themselves at work in how we face the world, and each other.

man named brian with brown hair and beard

Brian Bockelman

  • Ph.D., in History, Brown University
  • A.M., in History, Brown University
  • A.B., in Religion, Dartmouth College

Hi! I grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska (about 25 miles from Prof. Matzke!) and did my studies in New England and abroad before coming to Ripon in 2008. I am a specialist in Latin American history (Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, etc.) but also teach a wide variety of courses at Ripon, from historical methods to the history of cartography to the history of the modern world as seen through the evolution of soccer, the global game. Someday I’ll get brave enough to offer a class on Japan, a side interest ever since a high school friend moved there. My research and writing focus on the intellectual, cultural, and environmental history of modern Argentina, which has some surprising similarities to our country, especially Chicagoland and the greater Midwest. These days I live in Madison with my wife Emma (a history professor at Northern Illinois University), son Teddy, and annoying cat Basia.

If you would like to learn more about my scholarship or other professional activities, feel free to peruse my CV.