Student & Faculty Research at King's
"Aborted cones and accuracy in abscission scar counts." • Vern Peters • Natural & Computing Science
"Resiliency in masting systems: do evolved seed escape strategies benefit an endangered pine?" • Vern Peters and Darcy Visscher • Natural & Computing Science
Satiation of predispersal seed predators by mast years has been demonstrated in many intact ecosystems. When disease causes mortality of seed-bearing trees in an ecosystem, the abundance of food sources may alter seed predator behavior and abundance, and the ecosystem services derived from mutualistic seed dispersers. We used the endangered limber pine (Pinus flexilis) to examine whether the benefits of interannual variation in cone production vary depending on the severity of white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) infections, the abundance of seed predator populations, and stand characteristics(...)
"A Crisis in Subalpine Forest Health." • Vern Peters • Natural & Computing Science
“The Fabric of Faith-Based Environmentalism in Canada: Exploring the Strands of Ecological Worldviews.” • Joanne Moyer • Humanities & Social Sciences
As our global environmental malaise has deepened, so has interest in potential contributions by faith communities to sustainability conversations and activities. This study explores the work of a variety of faith-based organizations (FBOs) doing environmental work in Canada, beginning to broaden the scope of research beyond just Christian groups.
“Learning for Sustainability: Considering Pathways to Transformation.” • Joanne Moyer • Humanities & Social Sciences
Social-ecological systems face increasing disruptions and challenges, many deriving from human actions, and learning is frequently touted as "the way out" for addressing them. Using a systematic review of 26 studies that span about 20 years and cover four continents, this article interrogates the link between learning, action, and societal transformation toward sustainability.
“The Landscape of Faith-Based Environmental Engagement in Canada.” • Joanne Moyer • Humanities & Social Sciences
Faith communities are increasingly recognized as an important component of civil society that can contribute to addressing difficult sustainability and environmental problems. This paper traces the evolution of environmental engagement among a diverse, multi-faith group of communities, beginning with the entry into environmental work by some groups in the 1960s and 1970s. The paper also analyses contemporary activities, which can be divided into formation activities, advocacy and activism, and practical actions.
“Faith-Based Environmental Engagement in Canada: An Environmental Governance Perspective.” • Joanne Moyer • Humanities & Social Sciences
Changing trends in environmental governance over recent decades have brought more civil society involvement into decision-making processes. This paper applies a governance lens to features of faith organizations to explore their roles, strengths, and shortcomings in contributing to environmental governance. The data reveal that governance strengths of faith organizations coalesce around providing space for dialogue, helping shape the values and direction of governance, and the existence of strong organizational infrastructure and networks to implement action.
“Piety and Radicalism: Bunyan’s Writings of the 1680’s.” • Arlette Zinck • Humanities & Social Sciences
Scholars have long debated the issue of quietism and radicalism in John Bunyan’s prose and poetry. What is one to make of a minister who exhorts Nonconformists to non-violence in his prose writings yet pens imaginative fictions—one titled The Holy War (1682)—that seemingly glorify bloody acts of social and political radicalism? This chapter looks at the extensive corpus of works published by Bunyan in the 1680s, over the course of the last eight years of his life. This chapter does this through the lens of narrative theology, arguing that an appreciation of Bunyan’s pre-critical biblical hermeneutic helps to reconceptualize the apparent contradictions in his perspectives on violence, especially during the era of renewed oppression that occurred in the early 1680s.
“Bunyan’s Daring Compassion: Much-Afraid and Changing Attitudes to Suicide in Late Seventeenth-Century England." • Arlette Zinck • Humanities & Social Sciences
In John Bunyan’s 17th century spiritual classic The Pilgrim’s Progress, The Second Part, a character named “Much-afraid” decides to follow her father into the River of Death. At the literal level of the text the act is a suicide, yet readers are told not to fear for Much-afraid’s salvation. This paper reads the episode in the context of Bunyan’s sermons, a recent suicide in Bunyan’s faith community, and the societal debate on the topic of suicide that was happening when Bunyan wrote this work. Ultimately, it argues that in the curious episode of Much-afraid, Bunyan offers a compassionate reading of a particular suicide while holding to his strong theological conviction that suicide is forbidden.
“Environmental Sustainability in the Mennonite Community: An Analysis of the Canadian Mennonite (2003-2021).” • Joanne Moyer and Harry Spaling • Humanities & Social Sciences
Statements and programs promoted by faith leadership organizations provide one window into a faith community's commitment to environmental sustainability. Responding to the energy crisis of the 1970s, the General Conference Mennonite Church's 1977 resolution is one of the earliest environment-related resolutions by a faith community in Canada. This project investigates the breadth of environmental engagement among Mennonites in Canada by conducting a content analysis of Canadian Mennonite (CM) magazine.
"Birding, Fiction, and Margaret Atwood's Cultivation of Ecological Awareness." • Tina Trigg • Humanities & Social Sciences
This book chapter discusses an early short story (“The Resplendent Quetzal,” Dancing Girls,1977) and a recent graphic novel series (Angel Catbird, 2016-17) to demonstrate how Atwood’s focus on birding cultivates an ecological awareness that moves beyond literary representations to punctuate her activism and to advocate for a biocentric, sacramental understanding of creation—rather than an anthropocentric one. In terms of conservation, of particular note is Atwood’s emphasis on intergenerational collective action and youth as sources of possibility, change, and hope for the future.
“Margaret Atwood.” • Tina Trigg • Humanities & Social Sciences
An overview of Atwood's life and works.
"Joy in the Journey." • Charles Stolte • Performance & Instruction
Contemplative spiritual music for piano and saxophone. Professional recording.
"Jerry Ozipko and Friends." • Charles Stolte • Performance & Instruction
Cutting-edge contemporary classical music for instruments and electronics. Professional recording.
"Music of Thierry Alla." • Charles Stolte • Performance & Instruction
Contemporary classical saxophone music by one of France's leading composers. Professional recording.
"Worldviews in the Air: The Struggle to Create a Pluralist Broadcasting System in the Netherlands." • Jeffrey Dudiak and John L. Hiemstra • Humanities & Social Sciences
The contemporary Dutch broadcasting system is impossible to categorize according to standard models of broadcasting systems. It crosses the boundaries of public and private, non-profit and for-profit, neutral and value-laden, and secular and religious. This book explains the origins of this unequivocally unique pluralistic system.
"Radicalizing Spirit: The Challenge of Contemporary Quakerism." • Jeffrey Dudiak • Humanities & Social Sciences
Drawing on Quaker history, the Bible, philosophy, and his own experience among Friends, Dudiak advocates thinking the relationship between Quakerism and Christianity in parallel with the relationship Jesus took with respect to Judaism, that is, as an attempt at “fulfillment,” which requires both fidelity and transgression.
"Nonviolence: The Revolutionary Way of Jesus." • Andrew Rillera • Humanities & Social Sciences
In a unique narrative approach, Sprinkle begins by looking at how the story of God as a whole portrays violence and war, drawing conclusions that guide the reader through the rest of the book. With urgency and precision, he navigates hard questions and examines key approaches to violence, driving every answer back to Scripture. Ultimately, Sprinkle challenges the church to "walk in a manner worthy of our calling" and shape our lives on the example of Christ.
"The Intrigue of Ethics: A Reading of the Idea of Discourse in the Thought of Emmanuel Levinas (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy)." • Jeffrey Dudiak • Humanities & Social Sciences
The Intrigue of Ethics: A Reading of the Idea of Discourse in the Thought of Emmanuel Levinas explains how human beings can live more peacefully with one another by understanding the conditions of possibility for dialogue. Philosophically, this challenge is articulated as the problem of: how dialogue as dia-logos is possible when the shared logos is precisely that which is in question.
"Faith Negotiating Loyalties: An Exploration of South African Christianity through a Reading of the Theology of H. Richard Niebuhr." • Stephen W. Martin • Humanities & Social Sciences
Faith Negotiating Loyalties draws readers into the world of Christian faith in South Africa and the question of loyalties in the new post-apartheid state. It carries out its investigation in two parts. Part one examines Christian faith and loyalty during the first nation-building exercise following the South African War, positioning the creation and contestation of three Christianities corresponding to three nationalisms, each of which imagined South Africa in a particular way, shaping faith accordingly.
"Resurrecting Justice." • Douglas Harink • Humanities & Social Sciences
The theme of justice pervades the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Many turn to Old Testament laws, the prophets, and the life of Jesus to find biblical guidance on justice, but few think of searching the letters of Paul. Readers frequently miss a key source, a writing in which justice is actually the central concern: the book of Romans.
"Re-forming History." • Mark Sandle and William Van Arragon • Humanities & Social Sciences
Does the discipline of history need a reformation? How should Christian faith shape the ways historians do their work? This book, written for students, considers the “how” of doing history.
"Communism." • Mark Sandle • Humanities & Social Sciences
Why did communism grow so quickly? Why did it spread to turn almost half of the world red by the mid-1970s? What impact did it have upon capitalism and capitalist society?
"Seeking Stillness or The Sound of Wings: Scholarly and Artistic Comment on Art, Truth, and Society in Honour of Lambert Zuidervaart." • Michael DeMoor • Humanities & Social Sciences
Seeking Stillness or The Sound of Wings pays tribute to Lambert Zuidervaart, one of the most productive Reformational philosophers of the present generation, by picking up the central concerns of his philosophical work—art, truth, and society—and working with the legacy of his published concern to see what more can be understood about our world in light of that legacy.
"Gorbachev: Man of the Twentieth Century?" • Mark Sandle • Humanities & Social Sciences
This new study draws upon a wide variety of sources East and West, textual and visual, newspaper and memoir, academic and popular to try and understand the reasons why Gorbachev remains such an enigmatic figure.
"Decomposing Modernity: Ernest Becker's Images of Humanity at the End of an Age." • Stephen W. Martin • Humanities & Social Sciences
This book reads Ernest Becker both as a prophet of modernity and as a sensitive observer of its decline. Situated within the disciplinary approach of 'theology of culture,' the book discerns in dialogue with Becker the contours of modern vision in its depth-dimension.
"Facing the Truth: South African Faith Communities and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission." • Stephen W. Martin • Humanities & Social Sciences
The unique desire of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to turn its back on revenge and to create a space where deeper processes of "forgiveness, confession, repentance, reparation, and reconciliation can take place" reflects the spirit of some churches and faith communities in South Africa.
"Post-Truth? Facts and Faithfulness." • Jeffrey Dudiak • Humanities & Social Sciences
In Post-Truth? Facts and Faithfulness, Jeffrey Dudiak explores the fissures and fractures that vex our so-called “post-truth” era, searching for a deeper, dare we say truer, understanding of the cultural forces that have led North American society to become so polarized.
"Systems thinking to educate about the molecular basis of sustainability." • Peter Mahaffy • Natural & Computing Science
Featured in International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry 100 stories for their Centenial. IUPAC 100 Stories.
"Visions of the Heart: Issues Involving Indigenous Peoples in Canada." • David Long • Humanities & Social Sciences
Co-edited volume addressing a variety of issues involving Indigenous peoples in Canada.
"Determinants of Organizational Commitment in Emerging Market: Korean Expatriates in India." • Daniel Kim • Business & Management
This study examined expatriates’ organizational commitment by focusing on how willingness to accept an international assignment, training for an international assignment, expatriate empowerment, perceived organizational support, and demographic variables in order to predict the Korean expatriates’ organizational commitment in India.
"The Effect of Boundaryless Career Attitude on Intention to Leave: the Case of Korean Expatriates in India." • Daniel Kim • Business & Management
This study seeks to address the predictors of expatriates’ intention to leave the organization and to examine how boundaryless career attitude affects the intention under various situations based on a questionnaire survey of 82 Korean expatriate managers in India.
"Why Educating for Shalom Requires Decolonization." • Gerda Kits • Humanities & Social Sciences
Indigenous scholars argue that reconciliation requires educators to make space for Indigenous perspectives in the curriculum. This paper agrees, arguing that Christians who are committed to Wolterstorff’s concept of “educating for shalom” must work towards decolonization of the educational system.
"Practicing Transcendence: Axial Age Spiritualities For A World In Crisis." • Christopher Peet • Humanities & Social Sciences
Scholars have become increasingly interested in philosopher Karl Jaspers’ thesis that a spiritual revolution in consciousness during the first millennium BCE decisively shaped world history. Axial ideas of transcendence develop into ideologies for world religions and civilizations, in turn coalescing into a Eurasian world-system that spreads globally to become the foundation of our contemporary world.
"Task Performance of Expatriates Based on Emissary Model of Global Human Resource Strategy." • Daniel Kim • Business & Management
This survey study examined predictors of the task performance of Korean expatriates in India, while considering their globalization status. Task performance was significantly influenced by opportunities for career development and satisfaction of global human resource management practices.
"Post-fire regeneration of endangered limber pine (Pinus flexilis) at the northern extent of its range." • Vern Peters • Natural & Computing Science
We present original research on the lack of efficacy of fires for providing regeneration opportunities for limber pine in the immediate post-fire period. We caution managers about using prescribed burns as a recovery strategy for the endangered limber pine.
"Cultivating Hope in the Christian University Classroom." • Gerda Kits, Roy Berkenbosch, and Joanne Moyer • Humanities & Social Sciences
Today’s post-secondary students struggle with increasing depression and anxiety, in part influenced by the troubling state of the world. Our students desperately need hope; yet too often, their university classes diminish rather than increase hope. Drawing on the work of diverse scholars and educators, this paper lays out a theological framework for hope and uses it to outline orientations and practices for the classroom that equip students to live faithfully into that hope.
"SPI "Sandwich": Combined SUMO-Peptide-Intein expression system and isolation procedure for improved stability and yield of peptides." • Leah Martin-Visscher • Natural & Computing Science
Recombinant peptide production in Escherichia coli is often accomplished through cloning and expression of a fusion protein. The fusion protein partner generally has two requirements: (a) it contains an affinity tag to assist with purification and (b) it can be cleaved off to leave only the desired peptide sequence behind.
"Making the sustainability transition politically feasible," and "Governing accelerated transitions: justice, creativity and power in a transforming world." • Adrian Beling • Humanities & Social Sciences Natural & Computing Science
The ever-increasing probability of a global ecological collapse in the near future has hitherto not made a dent in the continued expansive drive of global development. While the need for far-reaching societal transformation becomes ever more apparent as a condition to achieve sustainability, agents and structures of governance, as well as individual and collective practices at both the global and local levels, seem to remain trapped in a fundamental dilemma: managing the ecological crisis, in order to keep its disruptive effects in check when possible, while simultaneously guaranteeing the continuity of the capitalist consumer society and pursuing the universalization of inherently unsustainable ways of life.
“Del desarrollo a la ecología integral: La Red Universitaria para el Cuidado de la Casa Común (RUC) y su Diplomatura Superior en Ecología Integral.” • Adrian Beling • Humanities & Social Sciences
Within the framework of the global debate on the implications of a necessary socio-ecological transition to implications of a necessary socio-ecological transition to sustainability for the reorientation of current current development trajectories, the present text aims to present a concrete experience in the present a concrete experience of construction and articulation of an institutional network of Latin American universities of an institutional network of Latin American universities around the regulative ideal of an "ecological regulatory ideal of an "integral ecology".
"From NIMBY to transformation? Lessons from four case studies in the Maule Region in Chile." • Adrian Beling • Humanities & Social Sciences Natural & Computing Science
Research on local environmental struggles as a politicisation process opens space to reflect on the contributions of socio-ecological resistance movements toward systemic sustainability governance. This article seeks to empirically test Sebastien’s theoretical and methodological framework on enlightening resistance through four case studies from Chile, while additionally exploring the capacity of politically proactive movements to push socio-ecological change beyond lifeworld sustainability toward systemic sustainability.
"Moving to next generation community-based environmental assessment." • Joshua Harris • Humanities & Social Sciences
Undertaking environmental assessments for small, rural development projects has proven to be both vexing and essential. Our research considers one approach to assessing such projects, community-based environmental assessment (CBEA). The purpose of our work was to gauge current CBEA practice and consider next generation approaches in the face of challenges such as lack of adequate capacity, resource and power imbalances, achieving meaningful participation, narrow conceptions of sustainability, and weak follow-up and monitoring.
"Characterization of Bacteriophage cd2, a Siphophage Infecting Carnobacterium diver." • Leah Martin-Visscher • Natural & Computing Science
Carnobacterium divergens is frequently isolated from natural environments and is a predominant species found in refrigerated foods, particularly meat, seafood and dairy. While there is substantial interest in using C. divergens as biopreservatives and/or probiotics, some strains are known to be fish pathogens, and the uncontrolled growth of C. divergens has been associated with food spoilage.
"The Catholic Church in Times of Ecological Crisis: An 'Unusual Suspect' in Advancing the Transition to Sustainability?" • Adrian Beling • Humanities & Social Sciences
Religious traditions and institutions have historically played a significant role in shaping cultural scaffoldings and social practices. Can they also help re-shape the unsustainable world humans have made for themselves, which is now undermining not only the actual and prospective minimum standards of dignified life for the many, but also the basic fabric of Earth’s life support?
"Are you waiting to feel qualified to lead?" • James Bruyn • Business & Management
Have you every asked yourself, "Who am I Lord, that you are asking me to lead this?" If you have, you are in the company of many godly leaders throughout history.