Department News
American Studies
Interim Director: Mary Bloodsworth-Lugo
Phone: 509-335-1560
E-mail: amst@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/amerst
- The American studies faculty has been ranked 8th in the nation for research productivity.
Anthropology
Chair: William Andrefsky
Phone: 509-335-3441
E-mail: anth@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/anthro
- Regents professor Tim Kohler was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Kohler is known for using agent-based modeling as a tool for archaeological research.
- A prestigious National Science Foundation fellowship program aims to bridge the gap between anthropology and biology and produce professionals versed in evolutionary approaches integrating the study of biology and culture.
Asian Studies
Director: David Pietz
Phone: 509-335-3267
E-mail: asia@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/asia
- David Pietz received the first-ever Berry Family CLA Faculty Excellence Fellows award. He is using the award to offer a yearlong interdisciplinary seminar in which diverse perspectives on environmental studies and Chinese studies are explored through academic discourse and original research.
- The program has completed raising $25,000 for an endowment to fund an annual set of awards to reward exemplary Asian studies students.
- Two new certificate programs were approved in 2007: the Certificate in East Asian Studies for College of Business Majors, and the Certificate in East Asian Studies for College of Engineering and Architecture Majors.
- A $172,000 grant is supporting new course development and a new faculty position in Japanese language studies.
Comparative Ethnic Studies
Chair: Richard King
Phone: 509-335-2605
E-mail: comparativeethnicstudies@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/ces
- Kim Christen received a Digital Innovation Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, funded by the Mellon Foundation, to digitally catalog cultural materials from Columbia Plateau tribes held in WSU's collections.
- In 2008, the department reached a total of 100 majors and minors, and the numbers are still climbing.
- Kim Christen has worked with Australian Aborigines to create a digital archive, designed to provide access to cultural artifacts while preserving traditional values.
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Criminal Justice
Interim Director: Otwin Marenin
Phone: 509-335-2544
E-mail: criminaljustice@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/crimj
- Professor Bryan Vila studies how lack of sleep impacts the ability of police officers, military personnel, and first responders to perform, especially in situations where life and death decisions must be made in a matter of minutes or seconds.
- Criminal justice faculty continue to receive high marks for the quality and quantity of their research.
English
Chair: George Kennedy
Phone: 509-335-2581
E-mail: english@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/english
- Digital technology and culture student Erin Wilkinson won the 2009 Gold Coyote Award at the Oregon Sesquicentennial Film Fest.
- Professor Will Hamlin was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008.
- The exhibit Redefining Value: An Exhibit of Five Centuries of Printing, on display at WSU's Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections in spring 2008, presented several books from WSU Libraries' especial collections and was curated by the students and faculty of English 492, "From Manuscript to E-Book."
Fine Arts
Interim Chair: Chris Watts
Phone: 509-335-8686
E-mail: finearts@wsu.edu
Web: finearts.wsu.edu
- Io Palmer, who addresses race, privilege, and art in her mixed media work, was selected to participate in the Scripps College 65th Ceramic Annual, "Wearing It on Your Sleeve: Sympathizers, Empathizers, and Provocateurs."
- In 2006, the department began offering an art history option within the B.A. in fine arts, with the first graduate in May 2008.
- Through funds from the provost's and dean's offices, the department has recently updated all major fine arts areas, including the installation of a new salt kiln and foundry equipment at its off-site facility, Fire Artz.
- The Forst Visiting Artist Endowment enables the department to bring nationally recognized artists to campus each year for lectures, workshops, and residencies.
Foreign Languages & Cultures
Chair: Eloy González
Phone: 509-335-4135
E-mail: forlang@wsu.edu
Web: forlang.wsu.edu
- In 2009, Spanish-language students applied their skills by translating between Guatemalan patients and English-speaking doctors on a service mission with Hearts in Motion.
- A Vladivostok exhibit based on Professor Birgitta Ingemanson's research brings to life the writings of Eleanor Pray, an American who lived in Russia for 40 years.
- Rachel Halverson was named the 2008 Ray Verzasconi Pacific Northwest Postsecondary Teacher of the Year by the Pacific Northwest Council for Languages.
- A $172,000 grant supported new course development and a new faculty position in Japanese language studies.
- As of fall 2007, WSU students may major in Chinese.
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General Studies
Associate Director: Thomas Whitacre
Phone: 509-335-8731
E-mail: libartsgs@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/genstudies
- Tom Whitacre and Anna Chow won WSU's Academic Advising Association Outstanding Advisor Awards for the "Administrator" and "Primary Role" categories respectively, and they were subsequently awarded Certificates of Merit from the National Academic Advising Association.
- Advisor Anna Chow has been named to the 2009–2011 Class of Emerging Leaders by the National Academic Advising Association.
- Carla Michaelsen (general studies advisor) was nominated for the 2008 WSU Mentor of the Year Award. The nomination included a strong statement of support: "Carla has made me feel like I am only one of a handful of people she advises, which is amazing because I am sure she handles tons of students."
- In spring 2008, it was revealed that Richard King (senior, general studies) has portrayed WSU mascot Butch T. Cougar across campus and at numerous sporting events and publicity appearances throughout the state. According to WSU News, "As part of the role, King has protected his identity from the public for 2 years. He said his parents, fiancée, and roommates were among the only people that knew his secret."
History
Chair: Raymond Sun
Phone: 509-335-5139
E-mail: history@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/history
- The department's inaugural public history field school was held at Virginia City, Montana, during the summer of 2007, offering students hands-on public history training in areas such as museum curation, historic building stabilization, historic archaeology, and cultural landscape assessment.
Music
Director: Gerald Berthiaume
Phone: 509-335-3898
E-mail: music@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/music
- Husband-and-wife faculty piano duo 88 Squared—Jeffrey Savage and Karen Hsiao Savage—performed at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in 2009.
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During summer 2008, Keri McCarthy and Jeffrey Savage performed in Bangkok, Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore, where the duo premiered 4 newly commissioned works for oboe and piano by Southeast Asian composers.
- Funded through a $25,000 competitive grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the School of Music held its inaugural American Choral Music Festival in February 2008.
- The reputation of the jazz studies program at WSU continues to grow, with guitarist John Sterling featured in Jazziz magazine in 2008. A recording of his composition "Lorelei's Rose," as performed by the award-winning WSU Jazz Big Band, was included on a CD distributed internationally in a recent issue of Jazziz, and WSU was listed in the magazine's 2008 Jazz Education Guide as one of "America's finest jazz conservatories."
Philosophy
Chair: David Shier
Phone: 509-335-8611
E-mail: philo@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/philo
- The Potter Memorial Lecture in Philosophy brings a notable philosopher to campus each year. Recent speakers include Noam Chomsky, Bernard Rollin, and Daniel Dennett.
- In 2006, the WSU Ethics Bowl Team, coached by Professor Dan Holbrook, took first place at the Northwest regional competition, advancing to the national competition.
Political Science
Chair: Steven Stehr
Phone: 509-335-2544
E-mail: polisci@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/polisci
- Nicholas Lovrich received the Outstanding Mentoring Award from the American Political Science Association for 2008.
- Founded in 2003 under the leadership of Mitch Pickerill, the WSU Mock Trial Team quickly established itself in regional competitions as a team to watch, winning several awards at its first tournament including the Spirit of AMTA Award and the Outstanding New School Award. The club has won a spot at American Mock Trial Association national tournaments for the past 3 years in a row (2006–2008) and recently received 2nd at the Creighton Bluejay Invitational.
Psychology
Chair: John Hinson
Phone: 509-335-2631
E-mail: psychemail@wsu.edu
Web: www.wsu.edu/psychology
- Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe is working to develop "smart" homes, which have the potential to significantly enhance quality of life and independent living for older adults suffering from cognitive and physical limitations.
- Each spring the Department of Psychology caps a year of study and research with its Undergraduate Research Symposium, where student researchers—some of them psychology department grant recipients—display posters and answer questions about their projects.
- Susan Ingram (WSU Vancouver) has received a $1.6 million, 5-year grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health for her research in "Dendritic DAT Activity Monitored with Fluorescent Biosensors."
Sociology
Chair: Lisa McIntyre
Phone: 509-335-4595
E-mail: soc@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/soc
- Daniel Jaffee (WSU Vancouver) was awarded the C. Wright Mills Book Award for his book Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival. Jaffee is the first faculty member at WSU to win this award.
- The board of regents voted in 2007 to rename Wilson Hall—home to the comparative ethnic studies, history, sociology, and women's studies departments, as well as the American studies program—Wilson-Short Hall to honor Jim Short, professor emeritus of sociology.
- In 2004 the department received the DuBois-Johnson-Frazier Award from the American Sociological Association, marking the first (and only) time the prestigious award has been presented to an entire department instead of an individual sociologist.
Speech & Hearing Sciences
Chair: Gail Chermak
Phone: 509-335-4525
E-mail: speechhearing@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/speechhearing
- Professor Amy Meredith led a team of undergraduate students and faculty to China in March 2008 to train rehabilitation workers at a center for children with cerebral palsy in Shanghai and orphanage workers in Hangzhou.
- The National Institutes of Health funded Professor Nancy Potter's study on communication disorders in children with galactosemia, a rare disorder in which children are unable to tolerate galactose, a sugar found in all human and animal milk. Potter is interested in these children because more than half of them have speech disorders, typically diagnosed as apraxia, the inability to plan and program the mouth and tongue movements needed for speech.
- Professor Ella Inglebret has been awarded a Certificate of Recognition for Special Contribution in Multicultural Affairs by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
Give to Speech & Hearing Sciences
Theatre & Dance
Chair: Laurilyn Harris
Phone: 509-335-7447
E-mail: theatre@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/theatre
- Theatre arts split from the School of Music in early 2008 to form the Department of Theatre and Dance.
- In April 2008, theatre majors Christine Stordeur (with acting partner Zachary Magan) and Andrea Gonzales traveled to Washington, D.C., to compete at the national Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in acting and directing, respectively.
Women's Studies
Chair: Linda Heidenreich
Phone: 509-335-1794
E-mail: womensstudies@wsu.edu
Web: libarts.wsu.edu/women
- In 2009 WSU students participated in the Bandana Project, a national program raising awareness about the sexual exploitation of farmworker women.
- The B.A. in women's studies is now offered online as one of WSU's distance degree offerings.
- In 2007, the department celebrated 30 years of women's studies at WSU and expanded the major to the WSU Vancouver campus.
Department Newsletters
- American Studies
- Anthropology
- Asian Studies
- English
- Foreign Languages & Cultures
- History
- Psychology
- Sociology
- Speech & Hearing Sciences
College Newsletter
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