This week, The Hilltop Monitor had the opportunity to sit down with William Jewell College’s Assistant Professor of Biology Dr. Joseph Shih to discuss all things biology, from graduate careers in biomedical sciences to second generation biotech to his patent.

Dr. Shih was moved to a tenure-track position at Jewell last year. This, combined with the departure of Dr. Rose Reynolds from the biology department, means that Dr. Shih took on a heavier course load than in past years. One of his favorite courses to teach is BIO 234: Genetics. Dr. Shih said he enjoys teaching the course because “genetics is all biology and constantly [an area of focus in biology] because it ranges from the central dogma of transcription and translation… to the organismal [level].” It serves as a constant language across multiple levels of analysis, from “the micro of micro levels” to an entire organism. He said he “loves the intersection between science, genetics [and] culture.”

Dr. Shih is also co-owner of a U.S. patent. During his time at Stanford University, he advised a team of students in creating systems to protect infants in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). When infants are in the NICU, the easiest way to take samples and give nutrients is through the umbilical cord. When designing the device, Dr. Shih and his team sought to “standardize care, make it faster and easier for nurses, and protect the umbilical cord from…getting a bacterial infection

Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Shih stressed the importance of human factors – collaboration and improvement – in science and research. When he applied to both graduate school and medical school, a process he “would not recommend to anybody,” he chose to attend graduate school because of how competitive medical schools were at the time. Dr. Shih said he thinks that there’s still a competitive atmosphere at the top medical schools, but “medicine is getting around to the fact that it needs to be collaborative and not as competitive…it’s always a team to treat a patient.”

This philosophy of collaboration and improvement has had a significant impact on the way that Dr. Shih does research. He collaborates with his wife, Biology Chair Dr. Lilah Rahn-Lee, on second-generation biotech. This second-generation biotech focuses on introducing, rather than making, the desired product; “the idea is [to] make a transgenic organism that will do [a] natural process, just better.”

Outside the classroom and the lab, Dr. Shih enjoys the company of Dr. Lilah Rahn-Lee and their 2- and 4-year-old boys. His hobbies include surfing (he’s even surfed the day before a hurricane), swimming and camping.

The Hilltop Monitor had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. David Lisenby, associate professor of Spanish and director of the Honors Institute in Critical Thinking, to discuss all things Spanish – from the importance of learning a language to reading and analyzing literature to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in writing and in translation work.

Lisenby teaches many courses at all levels of Spanish, but his favorite is SPA 315: Textual Analysis and Composition. For Lisenby, the course marks a shift in Spanish pedagogy: the first four courses in the Spanish sequence focus on grammar and vocabulary. In 315, though, students that are SPA majors and minors literally level up and focus on “[reading and studying] literature and social issues in Spanish that are not designed for English language students who are learning Spanish,” Lisenby explained. While his specialty is in Latin American literature and translation, he said he enjoys SPA 315 because it empowers students to “[talk] about social issues and… [get] better at expressing themselves [in Spanish].”

Lisenby was on sabbatical last semester, receiving a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He used that sabbatical to translate Abilio Estévez’s “How I Met the Sower of Trees,” a collection of short stories narrated “from spaces of queer desire separated from home and homeland.”

Over the course of our conversation, Lisenby brought up the rise of new AI translation models, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT-3 model, which is now on par with Google Translate when it comes to translation accuracy. Lisenby rejected the idea that machine translation software could ever be close to perfect; while ChatGPT-3 is decent at translating ideas, it can’t capture the emotional hook of literature, so it’s still a long way off, he explained.

This rise in AI doesn’t remove the human need to learn – or translate – languages, though. The impacts of learning language, noted Lisenby, come in our experiences with other people: “[No technological intervention] can take the place of human-to-human contact, and even learning a little bit of another language makes it possible to have human-to-human contact with someone who doesn’t speak English, and I find that magical.”

To people who find learning a language daunting, Lisenby is empathetic: “There is no shortcut to learning a new language brilliantly and easily.” It’s not easy to learn a new language, and it can seem impossible at times, but Lisenby is confident that anyone can do it with help. He suggests finding conversation partners to maximize language input and output, further emphasizing the human aspect of learning a language.

As AI gets better and better, students may be tempted to let it do the hard work of language and translation for them. With the rise of ChatGPT and other machine learning tools, many fields are having to adapt. Will we bow down to the omnipotent AI overlords? Maybe. Machine learning may get better at writing films or stories, or at solving math problems, or whatever else we throw at it. However, as Lisenby noted: “There will always be a place for human-to-human interaction,” and learning a new language is a great way to find that interaction.

Horne had originally planned to be a pastor and attended seminary school at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. At seminary, his fascination with religion began.

“I became interested in religion as a phenomenon to study in seminary, mostly from reading Peter Berger’s book, ‘The Sacred Canopy’ (I would go on and rely heavily upon this book, and his ‘The Social Construction of Reality,’ in my doctoral dissertation.) I was fascinated with Berger’s conception of anomy, alienation and false consciousness as it related to another book I read in my undergraduate career at Univ. of Missouri, Columbia (after I left Indiana University): Erving Goffman’s, ‘The Presentation in Everyday Life,'” Horne said.

Seminary caused Horne to have more questions, which led to him completing his doctorate at the University of Oxford.

“I went to seminary to get questions answered. Instead, I read Berger—while also learning that the meaning of the Bible’s story was up for interpretative grabs—and only struggled with more questions. So, I went from there to Oxford to write a dissertation on the book of Job, suffering, false consciousness, and Goffman’s notion of the front stage and back stage of our lives.”

Upon completing his dissertation, Horne’s mentor recommended he apply for a teaching position at Jewell. Even though Horne submitted his application late, he got the job.  

When asked if there was a significant memory or favorite story he would carry with him from Jewell, Horne recalled a particular story that stood out to him.

“Of course, I’ll never forget the student who took me out for a coffee upon graduation to inform me that he was making something of his life by starting a marijuana farm, in Missouri, no less—this was the cutting edge in entrepreneurship, I guess. Hell, he may have been right,” said Horne.

Over the course of the following academic year, courses in the department of religion at Jewell will be discontinued. While Horne is saddened by this decision, he understands the logic of it.

“I’m sad that the Religion department will discontinue (my colleague Dr. Benz will continue to teach religion in the History department). Religion is not going away, in fact it is more likely coming back (e.g., ‘The Revenge of God’). But, for Jewell it is mere cost-benefit and there’s no escaping that at this time in the college’s life. I understand that,” said Horne.

After he retires, Horne plans to build his piano tuning and technology business and will be an adjunct professor for Jewell when needed.  

“Plans after retirement? Well, to make a living, I will do what I have done at various stages of my life: build up my piano tuning and technology business. I am a registered piano technician in the Piano Technician’s Guild and have experience that goes back to my apprenticeship in a rebuilder’s shop between the ages of 13-17. I plan to stay in Liberty and see what challenges are around the corner,” Horne said.

When asked if he was excited about his retirement, Horne says part of the excitement is in the unknown of retirement.

“It’s the kind of excitement a runner feels when she is at the starting line, she doesn’t really know how it’s going to turn out, she hopes she doesn’t stumble over the starting block…she knows it’s a new race. So, it’s that kind of excitement.”

Horne says that the thing he will miss the most about Jewell is the community of learning.

“What I’ll miss about Jewell is the community of learning. This is hard to explain to people who don’t work where learning is taught. I’m the one who has probably shown the most progress in learning, simply from being around colleagues who are so thoughtful and smart, in so many disciplines, with so many different life experiences that motivated them to learn. I’ll miss that the most. There will always be good individual students and smart people; but community of learning is rare,” said Horne.

Horne hopes to be remembered as a member of this community of learning.

“When you talk about a legacy you realize that legacies themselves usually last half a generation if at all. So, I’m really not looking for that kind of legacy, I’m far more interested in, if students ever remember that they had a course with me, what I would like for them to remember is that I loved to learn and that really is it…if anything, I would like to be remembered as someone who really, really tried to induct students into a community of learning,” Horne said.

Photos by Mykala Crews.

[Editors’ Amendment: Phrasing within this article was susceptible to misinterpretation. Hence, the following phrase was removed and amended from this article: “This year, Jewell announced that religion courses would be discontinued.”]

“I’ve been fascinated with children and families and the influence that we can have, parenting styles, that kind of thing. I think how we raise children is an extremely important issue in our society and they aren’t raised the same way they used to be. In some ways that’s a good thing. We don’t hit kids as much as we used to. On the other hand, we let them do whatever they want, more than we used to,” said Owens.

Owens hasn’t always been interested primarily in psychology. Initially, Owens majored in Christianity at Houston Baptist University with the intention of going into ministry work. Houston Baptist required every student to have two majors. Because Owens had previously taken and enjoyed a psychology class, he chose psychological sciences. Near the end of his undergraduate studies, Owens decided to focus on psychology as his line of work instead of ministry work.

“When I was a senior I had a job as a minister of youth at church. I liked working with the youth, but working with the parents of the youth at the church was not my cup of tea and I decided I would go into some other line of work and psychology was my major so I started doing that and loved it,” Owens said.

Owens got his bachelor’s degree from Houston Baptist and went on to graduate school in Utah. He completed further master’s work at the University of Houston-Clear Lake in Houston, Texas. Owens was still working on his doctorate and was all but dissertation when he started looking for work in order to support his wife, Penny, and first child, Candace, while also finishing his dissertation.

“I looked at all sorts of jobs and I applied for many. I sent my resume to the Baptist College Association, so I did not apply directly to Jewell, but they had seen my resume and they called me and asked me if I was interested in teaching and I thought it sounded like fun. So they interviewed me and I guess I fooled them,” said Owens.

“Fooled them” might be a bit of an understatement. Dr. Owens has been teaching psychology at Jewell for 35 years and has been making impactful relationships with both his students and colleagues.

“That’s probably been the most rewarding part of the experience. Just being in relationship in so many different ways, from classroom experiences to outside kind of things,” Owens said.

During some of the earlier years of Owens’ time at Jewell, there was a January term where students had a “Winterum.” This was a time where students were required to take a class for the month of January and usually they were a little unorthodox and didn’t usually have to do with students’ majors.

“I got involved with the ski Winterum where we took students to Colorado to ski for a week. It was a great experience for 10 years or more and I would take my kids along and they would also get to ski,” said Owens.

For many years, Owens also assisted with the spring break trip for the Habitat for Humanity students.

“We often went to Florida, Texas once and New York one time. Seeing the students in that kind of environment and serving other people was a really special experience,” Owens said.

Besides the relationships with students and colleagues, Owens has also enjoyed the travel opportunities Jewell has afforded him. In his office, Owens has a map filled with pins that signify all the places he has traveled, many because of Jewell. Owens taught at Harlaxton College in England in 1993 and in 2007, he taught in Hong Kong in 2010 and he went to Ecuador with the Jewell Summer Grant to take Spanish lessons.

After retirement, Owens plans on adding pins to his map and traveling with his wife, Penny, and his family.

“Penny and I tell people that we’re going to travel until the money or the health runs out, whichever comes first,” said Owens.

Owens already has many trips planned. Starting right after school is over this year, he has planned a trip with a friend to go to Israel. Right after that trip, Owens plans on taking his family and grandkids to Disney World. One item also on the list is to see New England in the fall.

“One of the things that I’m really looking forward to is going to see New England in the fall and I’ve never been able to go during that time because I’ve always been teaching because it doesn’t come on a schedule, you’ve got to go when the trees start changing. We’ve never been able to pick up and go, but we should be able to now,” said Owens.

A cruise to the Arctic Circle, a cruise to Russia and places on the Baltic Ocean, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii are all on the itinerary.

Photos by Mykala Crews.