Class Notes: 2004
Kalamazoo College Assistant Professor of Spanish Ivett Lopez Malagamba ’04, Ph.D. ’15, has been awarded tenure along with promotion to associate professor. López Malagamba currently serves as a co-chair in the Department of Spanish Language and Literatures. In her time at K, she has taught beginning through intermediate language courses, and advanced courses on Latin American literature and visual culture topics including indigeneity, contemporary women writers, fiction and documentary film, visual culture practices, and representations of nature. In fall 2019, she took 27 students to the Dominican Republic as part of K’s first faculty-lead experiential study abroad program.
López Malagamba’s research centers on 20th- and 21st-century Latin American literature and visual culture. Her publications explore questions around exclusionary social and political practices and discourses in contexts of armed conflict, migration, and forced displacement. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Peninsular and Latin American literatures and Latin American Studies, and her Ph.D. in Hispanic language and literatures from the University of California, Berkeley. López Malagamba’s experience extends to the non-profit sector. Before earning her Ph.D., she worked with Latinx youth in Southern California facilitating educational programs to prepare them for college. López Malagamba sees her work at K as a continuation of her commitment to help youth access and successfully navigate higher education.
Jason Anderson (2004 MBA, Haas School of Business) says: “While my Haas classmates would never have predicted this from my horrible showing in speech class, in early January I became a candidate for the Kansas Senate legislature. Recent years found me working on public education advocacy work back home in the Kansas City suburbs, and redistricting in 2020 created new challenges and demands. It‘s already been a rewarding experience that‘s created so many opportunities to meet with business leaders and community organizers. Like most state legislators in Kansas, I still have a day job — in my case, leading engineering for a growing biotechnology startup. I wouldn’t dare make any predictions about what I’ll be doing in 5 or 10 years, as all of my past expectations have been pretty far off.”
Historian and award-winning author of three nonfiction books, Buzzy Jackson brings to life the incredible true story of World War II hero Hannie Schaft in her debut novel, TO DIE BEAUTIFUL (Dutton: 2023). Following Hannie’s harrowing journey as a member of the Dutch Resistance from 1940-1945, the novel is a riveting tale of love, loyalty, and the limits we confront when our deepest values are tested. TO DIE BEAUTIFUL is dedicated to Buzzy’s doctoral dissertation advisor and friend, the late UC Berkeley History professor Leon F. Litwack (1929-2021) and his wife Rhoda Litwack.
Prof. Litwack’s lifelong support for social justice and civil rights inspired this book. When the Nazi occupation in Holland endangers Hannie Schaft’s two Jewish best friends, shy law student Hannie is moved to fight against the insidious rise of fascism. Soon, she’s an active armed member, bombing munitions factories and luring in powerful Nazis with her beauty to assassinate them at point-blank range. Word of her threatening prowess even makes its way to Adolf Hitler, who dubs her the “Girl with Red Hair.” Her greatest weapon is her determination to “stay human” (blijf menselijk), a promise increasingly difficult to keep amidst the devastation that surrounds her.
Although Hannie is renowned in the Netherlands, her inspirational resistance work is little-known in the U.S.A, but Jackson is working to change that. Hannie Schaft was recently featured in the New York Times’ “Overlooked” obituary section and a TV series about her life is in development.
