November/December 2000   

Dear Colleagues,

As many of you have learned from your department chair or program director and from articles in "WSU Week" and "The Evergreen," Washington State University is well in to the two-year process of strategic planning that will shape our future together. I am pleased to be a member of the Strategic Planning Oversight Committee for this process, and, as you will soon learn, several of our liberal arts colleagues have been named to chair and participate on the nine design teams whose work will feed in to the overall planning process. We indeed have a wonderful opportunity to have a central role in establishing a more effective university community.

As work on the strategic plan proceeds, you will find updates on the process on the university's strategic planning Web site, http://www.wsu.edu/StrategicPlanning, as well as on the Liberal Arts Web site, http://libarts.wsu.edu, and here in "The Chronicle." At present, our College is in the process of preparing both five-year and one-year budgeting plans, to be submitted to the Provost in March of 2001. The five-year plan of our College, along with the plans of other university budget areas and the work of the nine design teams, will form the base material from which the university's strategic plan will be developed. In addition to this input, a group of external advisors will be appointed by the President to respond to the work of the nine design teams. The process, as you can see, is highly participatory and interactive. I hope that you will become involved, making your views known in this important information gathering stage.

In the meanwhile, our College community remains actively engaged in the teaching, scholarship and service activities that we do so well. In this month's "Chronicle," you will note a focus on the work of our Philosophy department, whose faculty and student publications are featured in several places here. Of special interest is the annual Potter Lecture, which featured Professor Jitendranath Mohanty of Temple University who spoke on the focus of scholarship in philosophy at the beginning of the 20th century.

As we move toward the end of the fall term, the faculty, staff and students of the College of Liberal Arts offer numerous cultural events for the campus and Pullman communities; these are listed on page three of this issue of "The Chronicle." I hope that you can find the time to attend and enjoy a few of these offerings. The list includes an impressive array of events sponsored by our School of Music and Theatre Arts and other departments. A delightful "break" indeed is a trip to the Fine Arts Museum, where our Fine Arts Faculty Exhibition is on display.

Best wishes to you all as we move into the holiday season.

Barbara Couture
Dean, College of Liberal Arts

The Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference, hosted annually by the philosophy departments of WSU and UI, and co-directed by Joseph Keim Campbell (Philosophy), David Shier (Philosophy), and Michael O’Rourke (UI Philosophy), was the subject of an article in The Philosopher’s Magazine, a general interest philosophy magazine published in London.

Riley Dunlap (Sociology) gave an invited address titled “Environment and the 2000 Election” at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and the Environment on September 29. More recently he was interviewed on this same topic by the Voice of America radio network. The interview was broadcast internationally the week of October 30.

A painting by Chris Watts (Fine Arts) is included in an exhibit at Mondriaanhuis, Amersfoort, Netherlands, which opened October 15. The exhibition entitled “Mondiale Echo’s” is an overview of international abstract-geometric art. His painting will be housed permanently there as part of the International Reference Collection of Original Works on Paper.

Kevin Haas (Fine Arts) who specializes in printmaking and electronic media, had art featured at the University of Alabama Visual Arts Gallery in Birmingham. The show, entitled “Media Manipulation: Printmaking Today,” ran September 15 through October 13. Haas also was the keynote speaker at the Northwest Print Council’s Annual Meeting in Portland this October.

Following his Art a la Carte lecture on science fiction film, Michael Delahoyde (English) was interviewed by Colfax KMAX talk radio on the subject, and articles appeared in the Lewiston Morning Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

In recent months, Don Dillman (Sociology) has given several presentations. He gave an invited address in Mannheim, Germany, titled “From the Total Design Method to Tailored Design of Mail and Internet Surveys,” which was jointly sponsored by ZUMA, the Germany Center for Survey Methods Research and the University of Mannheim. He also gave a seminar on web survey methodologies at the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago and delivered the keynote address entitled “Survey Research Methods in the 21st Century: New Threats, New Concepts and New Opportunities,” at the 5th International Conference on Social Science Methodology in Cologne, Germany.

Lance LeLoup (Political Science) recently delivered an invited lecture on “The Political Legacy of Budget Deficits” to the Center for American Politics at the University of Washington. He also delivered a paper entitled “Political and Budgetary Transitions in Central and Eastern Europe; Modeling Policy Change” at the Northeastern Political Science Association annual meeting. LeLoup was also quoted at length in an article about Washington state gubernatorial campaign funding in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on October 18.

Patrick Siler (Fine Arts) will be showing his work at the Dennis Ochi Fine Arts gallery in Sun Valley, Idaho, November 24 through December 31. “I will be bringing out my woodcut framed pieces. This series of oil and acrylic paintings employ carved wooden frames which have imagery in them. I have been working on these framed pieces for the past eight years and have never shown them before in a one-person show.”

Horace Young (Music) performed in Lisbon, Portugal, in July and the United Kingdom– London, Warwick and Brighton, in October, with Enja recording artist Abdullah Ibrahim (a.k.a. Dollar Brand). Young serves as musical director for Ibrahim’s septet “EKAYA.” In November, he will perform at a series of concerts and workshops in Capetown and Johannesburg, South Africa, in conjunction with the opening of Ibrahim’s music academy for youth, MSeven. These concerts will be televised by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). Young’s other recent activities include performances at The Houston International Jazz Festival in August. In addition he appears as a soloist (sax/vocal) and co-producer on “It’s All About Style” a new release by jazz percussionist Bubbha Thomas.

In early October, Marina Tolmacheva (Asia Studies, Associate Dean of Liberal Arts) participated in the international symposium “The City of Osh in the Context of the Rise of Eastern Civilizations.” Her paper was titled “The flowing waters of Osh.” The symposium was held in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

Gail Chermak’s (Speech and Hearing Sciences) research on the efficacy of treatments for central auditory processing disorder was featured in the cover story of the September 25, 2000 issue of Advance, a weekly national magazine for speech-language pathologists and audiologists.

Jesse Berst of ZDNet in his October 18 “Berst Alert” column listed Paul Brians’ (English) “Common Errors in English” site as top among “Five Must-Have Bookmarks for Smart Business,” which resulted in a huge number of visits to Paul’s site. His newly installed, more accurate counter shows an average of about 1,700 visits per day over the following week. Brians got over 50 pieces of e-mail about the site the day the column appeared. Berst’s alert stated: “Better Writing –There’s nothing worse than a grammatical error on a presentation or in a letter. Before you make that business pitch, visit the Common Errors in English page.”

Sue Peabody (History) has been selected to receive a “Slavery, Abolition and Resistance Faculty Fellowship” with the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Abolition and Resistance at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies.

Paul Hirt (History/American Studies) is serving as program co-chair (with Dale Goble of the University of Idaho) for the American Society for Environmental History annual meeting to be held in Durham, North Carolina, in March 2001.

Several major grants have been awarded to Andrew Lotto (Speech and Hearing Sciences/Psychology). He is principal investigator on a project titled “Auditory Enhancement in Female Speech,” which won a $100,000 Shannon Award from National Institutes of Health (NIDCD). With a co-PI, he received a two-year, $295,656 grant from the National Science Foundation and a three-year, $638,406 grant from National Institutes of Health (NIDCD) R01 for a project entitled “Learning Complex Auditory Categories.”

Victoria Arthur (English graduate student) presented her paper, “The (Mis)appropriation of Hannah Dustan: A Discussion of Captivity and Control,” as a member of the Nineteenth-Century American Literature panel at the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association’s annual convention.

Camille Roman (English) will present two papers at the Modern Language Association (MLA) meeting in December in Washington, D.C. Her paper “Bishop’s Almost—But Not Quite—Disabling Tenure at the Library of Congress” is part of a special session, “Elizabeth Bishop’s Poetry Consultancy at the Library of Congress, 1949-1950: A Fiftieth-Year Reassessment.” A special celebration cosponsored by Roman and others will be held afterwards in honor of Bishop at the Library of Congress. Roman’s second paper, “Cold War Science and Cultural Politics: Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and Brazil,” will be presented in a program that the MLA has designated as one of 21 academic sessions open to the public. “The celebration for Bishop at the Library of Congress is being cosponsored by the board of the Elizabeth Bishop Society (I am on the board) and the Library of Congress and is open to the public,” said Roman. “It is a rare privilege to be involved with both a celebration event and an academic session open to the public.”

In September Jim Short (Sociology, Emeritus) made a seminar presentation titled “Sociological and Personal Reflections on Sociology, Criminology, and Careers” at North Carolina State University.

Albert J. von Frank (English) will deliver a talk, “The Secret World of Radical Publishers: Thayer and Eldridge of Boston,” at a conference entitled “Boston’s Histories,” sponsored and hosted by the Boston College History Department in December.

Christine Nelson (Fine Arts) showed her electronic media work at the McLean County (Illinois) Arts Center in a show entitled “Interior Spaces Still Lives” Illinois Women Artists Invitational last summer.

Gene Rosa (Sociology) was an invited participant at the International Workshop on Integrated Carbon Cycle Research of the International Geosphere and Biosphere Project and the International Human Dimensions Program held at the University of New Hampshire in October. He also gave the invited presentation “Risk and Trust: The Interface Between Science, Technology, and Democracy” at Michigan State University last month.

Data sets donated by Leigh Stowell, chair and CEO of Leigh Stowell and Co., Inc., to the College of Liberal Arts were used to conduct a comparison of the political cultures of US and Canadian cities which was published in the September 2000 Social Science Quarterly. The article is “Political Culture in Canada and the United States: Comparing Social Trust, Self Esteem, and Political Liberalism in Major Canadian and American Cities.” Co-editors were Nicholas Lovrich Jr. (Political Science) and John Pierce (past CLA Dean) and C. David Moon, both from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

An article, “Designing Restorative Justice Policy: An Analytical Perspective,” by Ellen Lemley (doctoral student, Political Science) is upcoming in the Criminal Justice Policy Review.

Camille Roman (English) is publishing her book Elizabeth Bishop’s World War II-Cold War View with Palgrave/St. Martin’s Press. The press plans to release the cultural biography of the poet in December.

Paul Hirt (History/American Studies) had a chapter published in the book A Vision for the Forest Service: Goals for Its Next Century (Washington DC, Resources for the Future, 2000). The chapter was titled “Predicting the Future by Understanding the Past: A Historian Considers the Forest Service.”

Tom Brigham (Psychology) was recently named coordinator of the Teaching Behavior Analysis special interest group of the Association for Behavior Analysis.

David Demers (Communication) has signed a book contract with Allyn and Bacon to write “An Interpretive Introduction to Mass Communication.” The book will examine the role and function of mass media from a sociological perspective. Demers also organized and moderated a plenary panel that examined the impact of communication research on public policy making. The panel was conducted at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in August.

Frances McSweeney (Psychology) is the conference co-chair for the Association for Behavior Analysis and a member of the Association’s governing council.

David Brody (Criminal Justice, Spokane) was recently named Legal Notes Editor of the Justice System Journal and appointed to its editorial board. Also, his second textbook, Criminal Law, was released by Aspen Publishers.

An article, “The Early Russian Exploration and Mapping of the Chinese Frontier,” by Marina Tolmacheva (Asia Studies, Associate Dean of Liberal Arts) appeared in the Cahiers du Monde Russe, Jan-March 2000.

The October 22 “Commentary” section of the Washington Post carried an article by Lance LeLoup on the presidential election in Washington state.

David Shier’s (Philosophy) article “Can Human Rationality be Defended a Priori?” will appear in Behavior and Philosophy (Volume 28, 2000), a journal of psychology and philosophy published by the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies.

David Shier (Philosophy) and Joseph Keim Campbell (Philosophy), along with Michael O’Rourke (U of I), have edited a book entitled Meaning and Truth: Investigations in Philosophical Semantics (Seven Bridges Press, forthcoming). The three editors also co-authored a chapter of the book, “Philosophical Semantics: A Framework.” The volume contains selected papers that originated as presentations at the 2000 Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference, hosted by WSU and UI, and co-directed by Campbell, Shier, and O’Rourke. The publisher has contracted for this to be the first in an annual series of such volumes originating from the INPC; the series title is Topics in Contemporary Philosophy.

In October the book Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in Montana History, published by Falcon Press, Montana, was on bookshelves. Salina Davis (History) wrote a chapter for it entitled “Ike Gravelle: Montana’s First Unabomber.” Ike extorted money from the Northern Pacific Railroad. Since he didn’t receive the money, he blew up some of the railroad between Livingston and Bozeman. It took investigators hired by the NPR months to catch Ike, who was tried for his crimes. He refused to go to prison and escaped from the local jail. In a matter of minutes, he was hunted down by two posses to the old Governor’s Mansion, where he shot himself and died.

A new book by Carol Siegel (English), New Millennial Sexstyles, has been published by Indiana University Press.

Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe (Psychology) and doctoral student Heather Nisseley had an article, “Effects of divided attention on automatic and controlled components of memory after severe closed head injury,” published in Neuropsychology, 14(4).

E. San Juan (Comparative American Culture) just signed a contract for a book with Duke University Press entitled Racism and Cultural Studies (due 2001). Recent articles by San Juan are "Filipinos in America," in The Asian Reporter (October 2000); “The Politics of Cultural Studies,” in The Atenean; and “Postcolonialismo y desarollo desigual,” in Casa de las Americas (Abril-Junio 2000). San Juan has also edited three monographs of the Working Papers Series in Cultural Studies, Ethnicity and Race Relations. They are Alan O’Connor, “The Eagle and the Hummingbird’: Ping-hui Liao, “Postcolonial Studies and Multiculturalism in Taiwan”; and Alberto Lena, “Benjamin Franklin and Fictive Ethnicity.”

Tahira Probst (Psychology, Vancouver) had two articles published recently: "Does computerizing paper and pencil job attitude scales make a difference? New IRT analyses offer insight," in Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(2) and “Wedded to the job: Moderating effects of job involvement on the consequences of job insecurity,” in Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(1).

In mid-October, several faculty and students from the Department of Political Science/Criminal Justice Program attended the annual conference of the Western and Pacific Association of Criminal Justice Educators. Gregory Russell organized and chaired two panels at this meeting and served as discussant for both. All members of both panels were from the department. The first panel, Mediation and Restorative Justice, featured Becki L. Allen (Ph.D. student) and her paper, “Racial Bias Effects in Victim-Offender Mediation Programs,” a paper for which she won first prize in the Student Paper Competition.

Other papers on the same panel were Ernest Nickels (master’s candidate at WSU, currently a doctoral student, University of Indiana), “Different Bumper Stickers: Restorative Justice and the Western Legal Tradition;” and Ellen C. Lemley (doctoral student) and Russell, “Designing and Implementing an Adult Restorative Justice Program: Hopeful Beginnings and Bureaucratic Resistance.”

A second panel included the following papers: Bernadette Olson (doctoral student) and Russell, “Police Stress: A Meta and Comparative Analysis of the Literature”; Terry Gingerich (ABD), “Friends or Foe: Accreditation and Community Policing in Washington”; Michael J. Gaffney (doctoral student) and Nicholas P. Lovrich, “Community Oriented Policing at the State Level: A Preliminary Examination of the Washington State Patrol’s Problem Oriented Policing Program”; and Vickie Clark (doctoral student), “Extremist Groups: An Analysis Using Social Identity Theory.”

Through Nov. 3  “Day of the Dead: Traditional Mexican Celebration,” Fine Arts Building, Gallery II, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Through Dec.15  Fine Arts Faculty Exhibition, Museum of Art.

Through Dec. 29  “Presidential Politics 1824-1992: The Frank and Marty Mullen Political Memorabilia Collection,” Holland Library, MASC.

Nov. 1  Anthropology Colloquium, “The Bandelier Archaeological Excavation Project in Retrospect,” Tim Kohler, WSU, College Hall 135, 12:10 p.m.

Nov. 2  Jazz Festival, Kimbrough Music Building. Gala Concert, Kimbrough Concert Hall, 1 p.m.

Nov. 3  Student Chamber Music, Kimbrough Concert Hall, 4:10 p.m.

Nov. 7  Wind Symphony/Symphonic Band, Bryan Hall Theatre, 8 p.m.

Nov.7-Dec. 15  “How the Ink Feels: Broadsides, Poetry, Art from Small Presses,” Fine Arts Building, Gallery II, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Nov. 8  Anthropology Colloquium, “It’s No Big Deal: The Growing World of Never Married Mothers,” Nancy McKee, WSU, College Hall 135, 12:10 p.m.

Nov. 14  Comparative American Cultures Film Series, “Battle of Algiers.” Discussion led by Matthew Guterl, Wilson 13, 7 p.m.

Nov. 15  Anthropology Colloquium, “The Hearth of Harappa,” Jon Meyer, WSU, College Hall 135, 12:10 p.m.

Nov. 16  Opera Workshop, Bryan Hall Theatre, 8 p.m.

Nov. 29  Anthropology Colloquium, “The Dalles Roadcut Avifauna: Evidence for a Cultural Origin,” Victoria Hansel, WSU, College Hall 135, 12:10 p.m.

Nov. 30-Dec. 2  “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Daggy Hall, R.R. Jones Theatre, 8 p.m.

Dec. 1  Big Band II, Kimbrough Concert Hall, 3:10 p.m. Jazz Combos, Kimbrough Concert Hall, 4:10 p.m.

Dec. 1, 2  Madrigal Dinner, Compton Union Building, Carey Ballroom, 6:30 p.m.

Dec. 5  Percussion Ensemble, Kimbrough Concert Hall, 8 p.m.

Dec. 5  Comparative American Cultures Film Series, “A Lesson Before Dying.” Discussion led by Kelly Ervin, Wilson 13, 7 p.m.

Dec. 6  Anthropology Colloquium, “Archaeology of the Zerkal’naya River Basin, Russian Far East,” Chris Hall, WSU, College Hall 135, 12:10 p.m.

Dec. 7  Holiday Concert, Bryan Hall Theatre, 8 p.m.

Dec. 7-9  “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Daggy Hall, R.R. Jones Theatre, 8 p.m.

An exhibit, “Presidential Politics 1824-1992: The Frank and Marty Mullen Political Memorabilia Collection” is on exhibit in Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections at Holland Library, through Dec. 29. It includes campaign buttons, bumper stickers, postcards, sheet music, newspapers, banners, hats and yard signs. Additional displays focus on third party candidates, humor in politics, and House Speaker Tom Foley’s campaigns. The items are a gift from Martha “Marty” Mullen to the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service. At the opening reception, Nov. 3 at 3 p.m., Lance LeLoup (Political Science and interim director of the Foley Institute) and Mullen will both will deliver remarks.

“Philosophy at the End of the Twentieth Century: Retrospect and Prospect” was the title of the 39th Potter Memorial Lecture. Temple University philosophy professor Jitendranath Mohanty delivered the lecture Thursday, Nov. 2. In his Potter address, Mohanty discussed how philosophy at the beginning of the 20th century confronted the question of whether consciousness or language should be the most primary consideration for philosophizing. He addressed his belief that much of that discussion was born of misunderstandings and examined whether a return to Hegel’s notion of Geist holds promise for philosophy in this century.

In addition, at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3, in the CUB, Room 232, Mohanty will present a public discussion of his current thinking under the title “My Philosophical Position Today.”
Mohanty took his bachelor’s degree with honors, as well as his master’s degree, at Presidency College in Calcutta, India. He then earned a doctorate at the University of Göttingen in Germany. His work spans German idealism and phenomenology, philosophy of language and logic, and Indian philosophy, making him a leading figure in the field of comparative philosophy.

The annual Frank Potter Memorial Lecture is sponsored by the WSU Department of Philosophy.

The Campus Writing Programs recently held their Harold and Jeanne Rounds Olsen awards ceremony. The six best undergraduate Writing Portfolio submissions from spring 2000 were recognized, and the Harold and Jeanne Rounds Olsen Writing Across the Curriculum Graduate Fellowship was awarded. All of the award winners were from the College of Liberal Arts. The Writing Portfolio winners were:

Nicholas Burk, History and Russian
Eric Cardella, English
Larissa Ennis, English
Eunha Mary Nam, Political Science and Communication
Joshua Wessel, Political Science
Shirley Wilbur, Social Science—Extended Degree Program

The Olsen Graduate Fellowship was awarded to Deborah Thorne, Sociology. With the fellowship she will offer a five-part workshop to graduate students in sociology to assist them with integrating writing into the courses they teach. The workshop is scheduled for spring 2001.