New Research

Melinda Mullet graduated with a degree in English and American Studies from Whitworth University in Spokane, WA, in 2025. She was a George F. Whitworth Honors student, a Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society officer, and the nonfiction editor for professional literary journal Rock & Sling. Her experience as a full-time caregiver for a terminally ill family member inspired a passion for healthcare access and public health policy. Melinda intends to study law and theology, aspiring to be an advocate for healthcare justice.

Bert Emerson, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Director of the Honors Program at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. He is the author of American Literary Misfits: The Alternative Democracies of Mid-Nineteenth-Century Print Cultures (UNC Press. 2024) and co-editor, with Gregory Laski, of an interdisciplinary collection of essays titled Democracies in America: Keywords for the Nineteenth Century and Today (Oxford UP, 2023).

Kate Robinson is a New Englander through and through, born and raised in Beverly, MA and now attends school in Santa Barbara, CA at Westmont College. She is a Junior studying Political Science and minoring in Spanish and Religious Studies. She has found some of the best friends she’s known amongst those living on the streets at a downtown Santa Barbara park and since then has not stopped chasing the kingdom of God in the place she’s seen it most clearly: with those living on the margins of society. She serves as a Resident Chaplain in her dormitory; an intern with Kingdom Causes Inc., a local nonprofit working with homelessness and human trafficking; and a student employee of the chapel greeting team. In her future career, she seeks to facilitate collaboration between nonprofit, religious, and government sectors to address the issue of homelessness and somehow see the big picture solutions while never losing sight of the face to face conversations that are our key to understanding the system.

Katherine Bryant, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Westmont College, where she teaches courses on international relations and quantitative methods. Her research is primarily focused on institutional design, foreign aid, and international development. More recently, she has been examining the role of state and non-state actors in development, particularly in the area of climate policy. She regularly leads students at the National Model United Nations Conference. Outside of the classroom, her three young sons keep her quite busy.

Noel Vanderbilt is from Saugatuck, Michigan, She graduated from Hope College in 2025 with a degree in Political Science and English with a creative writing emphasis. She values her experience as both an Emmaus scholar and a Markets and Morality member, programs dedicated to cultivating intellectual communities informed by Christian thought through reading rich texts and engaging in thoughtful dialogue. Her experience as a foster and adoptive sibling motivated her desire to study and advocate for family-supportive policies. She is passionate about using writing as a tool to reflect on culture, promote justice, and advocate for change. She aspires to continue her education at the intersection of law and policy.

David K. Ryden, Ph.D. is the Peter C. & Emajean Cook Professor of Political Science at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. He has published extensively on questions of evangelicalism and public policy, religious liberty, and the intersection between Supreme Court jurisprudence and election law. He holds a law degree from the University of Minnesota law school and received his Ph.D. in Politics from the Catholic University of America.