Mariano J. Magalhães

Professor and Chair of Political Science, Coordinator of Student Research

• Phone: 309-794-7731
• Email: MarianoMagalhaes@augustana.edu
• Office: Old Main 314

I can pinpoint the moment I knew what I wanted to be “when I grew up.” It was an evening in late February of 1981. At the time I was 13 years old and had accompanied my father to his job. My father is a university professor and for whatever reason I went with him to one of his classes that night. I still have extremely vivid memories of that night: of my father standing in front of the class explaining the material, of students raising their hands and asking questions, of the friendly atmosphere that permeated the room.

And I remember the content. That evening my father talked about Langston Hughes and he wrote on the board the poem that became imprinted on my brain: 

“Hold fast to your dreams, for if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly”

I had fallen in love. At that moment, I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I wanted to be a teacher. Unlike so many adolescents I had experienced something that would define my career later in life.

The above experience happened while in Brazil, a country where I lived for almost ten years, during, as I like to call them, my “formative years.” Not only was it in Brazil that I defined my life’s professional ambition, but also where I encountered the subject that most fascinates me and that drives my teaching and research.

I lived in Brazil during most of the country’s lengthy transition from military rule to democratic government (from 1979 to 1988). I came of age watching new political parties forming to compete for political office, politicians arguing over the content of the new constitution, ordinary people (myself included) taking to the streets when it appeared that the military would renege on it promises to bring democracy to Brazil.

I will always remember the day Brazilians witnessed the election of the first civilian president since 1960. It was a Monday afternoon in late January of 1985, and the whole country stopped to watch members of the National Congress cast their votes in an indirect election for president. I remember watching each member of the National Congress walk to the podium and cast his or her vote.

The concepts of democracy and democratization form the core of my scholarship, and more and more over the past few years have helped structure and refine the content of many of my courses, in which democracy is the core theme around which all other material revolves.

Specializations: Latin American politics, Comparative politics, Political culture, Decentralization, Brazil

James Van Howe

Professor of Physics

• Phone: 309-794-3403
• Email: JamesVanHowe@augustana.edu
• Office: Hanson 205

Specializations: Optical signal processing, Quantum optics, Ultrafast signal processing, Ultrafast optics, Nonlinear optics, Fiber optics, Laser sources, Photonics

Nathan H. Frank

Professor of Physics; Chair of Physics, Engineering, and Astronomy

• Phone: 309-794-3402
• Email: NathanFrank@augustana.edu
• Office: Hanson Science Building 206

• LinkedIn profile

• Related: Dr. Nathan Frank named top scientist of the year

I grew up in Moorhead, Minn., where I graduated from Concordia College, a small, liberal arts institution like Augustana. I am excited to share the physics perspective about our world with others while enjoying what I consider truly balmy winter weather.

At Augustana, I teach a wide variety of physics courses from the first-year level to the senior level. I especially enjoy interactions with students and participating in the revelations students have while using active learning techniques and teaching in a studio-style class. Techniques like these developed by the Physics Education Research community show significant learning gains. A studio-style classroom focuses uses student groups to perform laboratory activities, active problem solving, and puzzling through physics ideas. You should come by one of my classes if you have not been in this environment before. You learn a lot and it is a lot of fun!

I attended Michigan State University (MSU) for Ph.D. work where I performed experiments on the atomic nucleus at the former facility called the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL). MSU is known internationally for excellence in nuclear physics research, which is why MSU is the home of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), which will be the primary location for my future research.

I am fascinated by this field since I find the challenge in determining the structure of very tiny things (roughly 10 to the negative 15th power meters for nuclei) incredibly interesting. My specific area of research focuses on nuclei that are so unstable that they emit at least one neutron upon formation. Learning the properties of atomic nuclei helps us to understand the fundamental structure of the universe.

My research program is a continuation of my graduate work that involves undergraduate students that ranges from new assembly and testing of new devices, simulation of our experiments, data analysis, and presentation of results. Multiple experimental devices include the Charged Particle Detector Telescope project funded by a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant and a new MRI grant to build a cutting-edge neutron detector to improve our experimental capabilities. The result will be a neutron detector that will be the best in the world. There is always something new and exciting to work on in my lab!

During my time at Augustana, I have been the first author or co-author on more than 50 published papers, some of which have undergraduate students as co-authors. In addition, my research students have presented their work at national conferences in numerous poster and oral presentations. This research involves other investigators in the MoNA Collaboration, which consists of primarily undergraduate, liberal arts institutions. Both Augustana College and multiple grants from the National Science Foundation support my research program, which may be found on my LinkedIn page or CV.

While I am keeping busy with professional work and spending time with my family and friends, I do my best to have fun and find physics in everything I do.

Specializations: Nuclear physics, Nuclear experimentation

Lee Carkner

Professor of Physics

• Phone: 309-794-3405
• Email: LeeCarkner@augustana.edu
• Office: Hanson Science Building 208

Lee Carkner received his B.S. in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1992 and completed his PhD in Astrophysics at Penn State University in 1998.  His thesis explored the topic of X-ray emission from very young, sun-like stars.  Dr. Carkner joined the faculty at Augustana in 1999 and is currently Professor of Physics and Astronomy and director of the John Deere Planetarium.  As director, he gives planetarium shows to thousands of public school students and members of the general public each year.

Specializations: Astronomy, Night sky, Planetarium, Space science

Heidi Storl

Professor of Philosophy, William F. Freistat Chair for Studies in World Peace

• Phone: 309-794-7572
• Email: HeidiStorl@augustana.edu
• Office: Old Main 228

Specializations: Neurophilosophy, Clinical ethics, German phenomenology

Douglas Parvin

Professor of Philosophy

• Phone: 309-794-7451
• Email: DouglasParvin@augustana.edu
• Office: Old Main 225

Specializations: Epistemology, Metaphysics, Decision theory, Game theory, Logic

Michael D. Zemek

Professor of Music Education, Director of Jenny Lind Vocal Ensemble, Division Dean of Arts and Communication

• Phone: 309-794-7656
• Email: MichaelZemek@augustana.edu
• Office: Bergendoff 112

Michael Zemek is division dean of arts and communication and professor of choral music education at Augustana College, where he conducts the Jenny Lind Vocal Ensemble and teaches music methods and conducting courses. He came to Augustana after eight years of teaching choral music in Minnesota and Iowa. In addition to his responsibilities at Augustana, Dr. Zemek is the director of music ministries at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Iowa City.

Dr. Zemek frequently serves as guest conductor and clinician at various choral events, has directed numerous community, church, and school ensembles, and is an active member of the National Association for Music Education, American Choral Directors Association, and Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. He has presented at state, regional and national conferences for each of these organizations.  

Under his direction the Jenny Lind Vocal Ensemble performed at the North Central Music Educators Conference, the Illinois American Choral Directors Association Fall Conference, and several times at the Illinois Music Educators Association All-State Conference.  

His research has been included in Music Educators Journal, Teaching Music, Journal of Music Teacher Education, UPDATE:  Applications of Research in Music Education, ChorTeach and his book "Cooperating Teacher Selection and Preparation in Music Teacher Education."

During the summer, Dr. Zemek has served as the summer program director and Paul Bouman Chapel Choir Conductor at Lutheran Summer Music Academy and Festival, a month-long program for accomplished high school musicians from throughout the United States, and program director for Young Lutherans Sing, a national middle school choir camp sponsored by the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. 

The recipient of many honors and awards, Dr. Zemek was honored by the MAPCO Scholar’s Program with a national teaching award for excellence and leadership in his field.

Dr. Zemek received the doctor of education degree in music education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in vocal, instrumental, and classroom music education, summa cum laude, from Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minn., and a master of music degree in choral conducting from St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minn.

Specializations: Music education, Choral conducting, Teacher preparation, Church music

Adam R. Kaul

Professor of Anthropology, Chair of Sociology and Anthropology

• Phone: 309-794-7284
• Email: AdamKaul@augustana.edu
• Office: Evald Hall 107

Dr. Adam Kaul is an anthropologist who studies the economic and cultural impacts of the tourism industry in Ireland, the American Midwest, and more recently in Sweden. Additionally, he is an ethnomusicologist who studies traditional Irish music and busking, and he has also written about the anthropology of death and dying.

Kaul carried out his doctoral ethnographic fieldwork in a small seaside village on the west coast of Ireland called Doolin where he lived for over a year. This study led to his first book “Turning the Tune: Traditional Music, Tourism & Social Change in an Irish Village” (2009). He has conducted subsequent ethnographic fieldwork there for two decades, as well as in sites across Ireland. He focuses on the intercultural interactions that occur in tourist destinations; how tourist sites are reshaped by the rerouting of economic, political, and social capital; and in particular how all of this affects local musicians, artists, street performers, cultural heritage, and social relationships.

He has published numerous articles and book chapters about these topics over the years. Dr. Kaul is also the co-editor of the third edition of “Tourists & Tourism: A Reader”, and co-editor of “Leisure & Death: An Anthropological Tour of Risk, Death & Dying,” which won the 2020 Ed Bruner Book Prize from the Anthropology of Tourism Interest Group.

He teaches a wide range of courses at Augustana College, such as Introduction to Anthropology, Global Connections, A History of Anthropological Theory, Native North America, The Anthropology of Art, and the Senior Capstone seminar. He has also taught in several study abroad trips to Ireland and Greece, in the Augustana first-year course sequence, and in the Honors Program.

Publications

American Cultural Anthropology and British Social Anthropology, Connections and Differences," Anthropology News, January 2006

Music on the Edge: Busking at the Cliffs of Moher and the Commodification of a Musical Landscape, Tourist Studies

TURNING THE TUNE: Traditional Music, Tourism, and Social Change in an Irish Village, Berghahn Books, New York, Oxford

The Limits of Commodification in Traditional Irish Music Sessions, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2007

Leisure and Death: An Anthropological Tour of Risk, Death, and Dying, 2018

Tourists and Tourism, 3rd ed., 2018

Specializations: Traditional Irish music, Ireland, Globalization, Cosmopolitanism, Midwest, British Isles, Tourism, Popular culture, Ethnography, Sustainability, Heritage, Buskers

Charles J. Schmidt

Continuing Lecturer-Assistant Professor, Piano, Class Piano, Musicianship

• Phone: 309-794-7401
• Email: CharlesSchmidt@augustana.edu
• Office: Bergendoff Studio

Dr. Schmidt, a native of St. Louis, has studied with Joanne Baker and Ralph Votapek at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and Michigan State University, respectively.

He has given recitals and masterclasses throughout the U.S. and worked extensively in the fields of musical theatre and opera, both as an accompanist and musical director. He presented lectures for many organizations and has been featured several times on Iowa Public Radio.

Prior to joining Augustana College in 2009, Dr. Schmidt served on the faculty at Graceland University where he taught piano, piano literature, piano pedagogy and served as an accompanist. His students have gone on to top graduate programs in the U.S. and abroad and have won various competitions.

He and his wife are the proud parents of three children.

Specializations: Piano