
October 2005

Dean's Message

Reflective message this time, folks. But as a preparation for our collective action, I hope. We know the deep satisfaction of complexity explored, of details that mingle their vast variety and yield, somehow, a solution of brilliant focus after time, concentration, and thorough discussion—this being true of our most minute administrative effort to simplify and our most macro-effective projects. And we know the exhilaration of that poignantly fleeting “aha” moment of profound perception whose source may be a child or the sage but whose truth ranges from the deepest essence to the broadest value for every individual and people in our world.

To announce our particular college’s intentions and scope in balancing complexity and simplicity in our actions, we have a Mission Statement and Area Strategic Plan. Yuck, we say—here we go again. Rightfully so if these documents don’t absolutely grab our imaginations and those of our constituencies—and not just when we get around to reading them either, right? Daily, hourly—’cause otherwise let’s write gibberish in an hour, call it done, and shelve them.

Our August CLA Leadership Retreat started a process to revise our Mission Statement—it’s too long for public consumption and retention—and our Area Strategic Plan. Chairs and directors are submitting nominations to serve on a college committee to complete the Mission Statement process (hopefully by end of fall semester) with initial drafts and notes from the August retreat available. Overlapping this completion will be the beginning of revision of our Plan. Our context will be the combination of your continuing excellent contributions to improving people’s lives and the University’s retention of the Core Four parts of the Strategic Plan with a shift of emphasis toward the second—world-class environment for scholarship, research, the arts, and engagement—with economic development and outreach as supplemental vocabulary defining our efforts. If somehow we question our college’s relationship to “economic development,” my humorous, impish side then asks what philosophical basis we have to worry so over salary increases, while the laser light of my daily self says the best possible “economic development” is led by liberal arts minds offering pure and applied ideas for local-to-global community advancement and enrichment. Funny how “enrichment” sounds ethically superior to “economic growth.”

The Mission/Plan effort will coincide this year with conversations about our resources for instructional delivery, administration, and such efficient, effective programs as the CLA Season. Does administration really matter? Does alignment really matter? What matters? Let’s write a Mission Statement and Plan so we and everyone else knows what we think matters. Informing this authoring will be what we do: great classes, great individualized engagement with students and (with their assistance) our constituencies, great productivity in scholarship. Comes the question: do we demonstrate our “faith” through action or simply belief? An ancient question, to which the answer is no doubt “Yes.”

We are friends and colleagues. Let’s accept our skepticism and use it to advantage in crafting a compelling message. Let’s laugh at ourselves and others in a way that acknowledges the passing quality of our weaknesses while celebrating what we contribute to each other and thereby to ourselves. Have at it then, with my thanks!

Erich Lear, Dean
College of Liberal Arts

Worthy of Note

Michelle Forsyth (fine arts) received a Professional Artist Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to fund “The One Hundred Drawings Project: Reclaiming Sites of Trauma.” When complete, the project will be a collection of her visual experiences within several locations and sites of tragedy. As opposed to existing as images of aesthetic spectacle, as do those that generally proliferate in the mainstream media, each drawing will exist as a visual record of a place where there is simply “nothing to see.”

Otwin Marenin (political science, criminal justice) was the chair of the Program Committee for the International Police Executive Symposium held in Prague, Czech Republic, September 5–9. The meeting was hosted by the Czech National Police Academy and the Czech Ministry of the Interior and brought together ninety-five high-level police officials and academics from forty countries to discuss how the police services of their countries are responding to security challenges and the demands for democratic reforms arising from the international environment. Much networking and many informal conversations enriched the formal presentations of ideas and policies.

Steven Kale (history) will attend the twenty-third annual meeting of the Western Society for French History in Colorado Springs this month, where he is the commentator on a panel entitled “Politics and Culture in the Nineteenth Century.” His recent book French Salons: High Society and Political Sociability from the Old Regime to the Revolution of 1848 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004) will be released in paperback in 2006, and he was appointed chair of the Koren Prize Committee of the Society for French Historical Studies, which makes an annual award for the best article in French history by a North American scholar.

Lori Wiest (music, associate dean of the Graduate School) attended the Graduate Student Recruitment Workshop in San Francisco, presented by the Graduate and Professional School Enrollment Management Corporation. She will also be the guest clinician for the Boise State University Choral Festival on October 1 attended by fifteen high school choirs from the Boise region.

Christopher Lupke (foreign languages and cultures) has received a research grant from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation to continue work on his book-length project “Lilacs from the Dead Land: Modernity, Postcoloniality, and Diaspora in Modern Chinese Literature.”

Marina Tolmacheva (history, associate dean of liberal arts) attended the sixth International Congress of Russian Anthropologists in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 27 to July 2. In July, she visited the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Mechanization, the Uzbekistan partner in a WSU cooperative project sponsored by the U.S. Departments of State and Education, to conduct the program implementation assessment. In August, Tolmacheva traveled to Odessa, Ukraine, for participation in the Open Society Institute’s (OSI) Academic Fellowship Program Orientation. The meeting brought together young university faculty from Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova sponsored by the OSI Higher Education Support Program and their mentors from the U.S. and European Union institutions. Tolmacheva gave two presentations, “Higher Education in the U.S. and Eurasia: Structural Differences” and “History in the United States: Recent Trends in History Education.”

Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson (sociology) has been invited to speak at the twentieth anniversary celebration of the Life Course Center at the University of Minnesota.

Samantha DiRosa (fine arts) was featured in a group exhibition at Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art titled The Convergence of Art and Science. This month, along with colleague Stephen Chalmers (fine arts), she will be cochairing the Society for Photographic Education Regional Conference in Pullman.

Gene Rosa (sociology) was interviewed on Earth & Sky Radio about the environmental impacts from the emergent urban majority of residents on the planet.

The first of four papers Augusta Rohrbach (English) is giving at three conferences this semester was “From Star Gazer to Earth Angel: The Female Astronomer as Feminist Hero in Augusta Evans’ Macaria,” presented at at the annual conference Sight Lines: An American Studies Conference on the Culture and Science of Vision, held September 23–24 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts.

Cornell Clayton and Amy Mazur (both political science) were recently selected to be the new editors of Political Research Quarterly, the official journal of the Western Political Science Association. Clayton and Mitch Pickerill (political science) presented a paper, “The Politics of Criminal Justice: How the New Right Regime Structured the Rehnquist Court,” at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in Washington, D.C., in September. Clayton presented a second paper at this meeting with Ozan Ergul (Ankara University School of Law) titled “Political Islam and EU Membership: The Role of the Turkish Constitutional Court in the Transformation of the Turkish Political Regime.”

The Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences is pleased to announce the appointment of Marshall Mitchell as clinical assistant professor and coordinator of disability studies.

In September Barry Hewlett (anthropology, WSU Vancouver) gave an invited lecture at Emory University entitled “Hunter-Gatherer Childhoods and Learning.”

Carol Ivory (fine arts) participated in the September 23–24 opening ceremonies for Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread, an exhibition of traditional and contemporary Maori, New Zealand, textiles. The exhibition is at the Hallie Ford Museum, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon. Ivory is a consultant to the Burke Museum of Natural and Cultural History in Seattle, where the exhibit will open in February 2006.

Travis Ridout (political science) presented a paper, titled “News Media Use and Perceptions of Global Threat,” at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association held in Washington, D.C., September 1–4.

Stephen Chalmers (fine arts) will participate in the exhibition Road Show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University, February through April 2006, and in Sun Pictures to MegaPixels: Archaic Processes to Alternative Realities (Pre- and Post-Modernist Photography) at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center in Brooklyn, New York, February 4 through April 2, 2006. In June Chalmers participated in the Fifteen Year Anniversary Exhibition of the Photography Institute at the Tisch School of Art, New York University. He was an award recipient in the thirty-third annual National Photo Exhibition at the Larson Gallery April 3–30 in Yakima, and in March had a solo exhibition, titled En Memoria: Roadside Memorials and Public Grieving in America, at the Shift Gallery in Seattle.

Melissa Goodman-Elgar (anthropology) was invited to give a paper at the Rocky Mountain Anthropological Conference, held September 15–18 in Park City, Utah. Her paper was called “Geoarchaeological Approaches to Assessing Fire and Human Impacts on New Mexico Landscapes” and was presented in a symposium on “Geoarchaeological and Paleoenvironmental Investigations in the Rocky Mountain Region.” Two anthropology graduate students also presented. Judson Finley (Ph.D. candidate) presented “Holocene Stratigraphy and Site Formation Processes of the Medicine Lodge Creek Site, Wyoming,” with George C. Frison, and Jennifer Mueller (M.A. candidate) presented “Downcutting, Erosion, and Old Survey Data: A Cautionary Tale of Two Site Inventories.”

A review by Rebecca Edwards (Vassar College) of O. Gene Clanton’s (professor emeritus, history) book A Common Humanity: Kansas Populism and the Battle for Justice and Equality, 1854–1903 appeared in Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 28(1).

Don Dillman (sociology) gave an invited presentation, “In Pursuit of Equivalent Answers to Internet and Telephone Questionnaires,” at a one-day conference on “Mixed Mode Data Collection in Comparative Social Surveys” and participated in a follow-up workshop on identifying priorities for mixed-mode research in the European Social Survey at City University, London, U.K., September 15–16.

Bernadette H. Hyner (foreign languages and cultures) has been selected to attend a three-day faculty workshop October 14–16 in Greeneville, South Carolina, on “Teaching Business German,” funded and conducted by the Goethe Institut. This training will benefit the redrafting of German for the Professions, a course that prepares students to enter the global job market. Additionally, in October Hyner will present close readings of Germanic fairy tales at the annual Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association conference in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and again in November at the annual Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association convention in Malibu, California.

Tim Kohler (anthropology) was an invited speaker at a conference entitled “Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution,” held at the Centre for the Evolutionary Analysis of Cultural Behaviour at the University College London in September. He delivered a paper coauthored with Sarah Cole (M.A. candidate, anthropology) entitled “Can War Spawn People? Attempts to Test the Turchin/Korotayev Model for Warfare in Pre-state Societies.”

Abigail Gosselin (philosophy) presented a paper, “Lasso-ing ‘the Lady’: Objectification as a Means for Control,” at the Pacific Divison conference of the Society for Women in Philosophy on September 24 at California State University, Chico. She will present another paper, “Problems with Agent-Centered Accounts of Responsibility,” at the Feminist Ethics and Social Theory conference on October 22 in Clearwater Beach, Florida.

Yolanda Flores Niemann (comparative ethnic studies) has coedited with Geoffrey Maruyama a special issue of the Journal of Social Issues 61(3). The issue is entitled “Inequities in Higher Education: Issues and Promising Practices in a World Ambivalent about Affirmative Action.”

Connie Rodeen (administrative manager, speech and hearing sciences) is serving as the recorder for the President’s Commission on the Status of Women for the 2005–2006 academic year.

Professional Productivity

Lance T. LeLoup, Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor of Political Science and associate vice provost of International Programs, has just published Parties, Rules, and the Evolution of Congressional Budgeting with Ohio State University Press in their Parliaments and Legislatures series. The book examines how congressional budget reforms have fundamentally changed the way in which Congress frames and enacts budgets and engendered greater partisanship in the process.

Travis Pratt (criminal justice) coauthored “The School Context as a Source of Self-Control” in the July–August issue of the Journal of Criminal Justice and had two articles accepted for publication. The first is coauthored with Patrick Fisher (Ph.D. ’96, political science), titled “Political Culture and the Death Penalty,” forthcoming in Criminal Justice Policy Review, and the other was coauthored with Travis Franklin and Cortney Franklin (both Ph.D. candidates, criminal justice), titled “Examining the Empirical Relationship between Prison Crowding and Inmate Misconduct: A Meta-Analysis of Conflicting Research Results,” forthcoming in the Journal of Criminal Justice.

David Shier (philosophy) had a paper, “The Temporal Stage Fallacy: A Novel Statistical Fallacy in the Medical Literature,” accepted for publication by the journal Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy.

Linda Heidenreich (women’s studies) published “The Colonial North: Histories of Women and Violence from Before the U.S. Invasion” in Aztlán 30.

Otwin Marenin’s (political science, criminal justice) paper on “Reconstructing Policing Systems in Conflict-Torn Societies: Policies, Practices, and Lessons Learned,” first presented at the United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Bangkok in April 2005, will appear in a special issue of the International Journal of Comparative Criminology. His book Transforming the Police in Eastern and Central Europe, coedited with Marina Caparini, has been translated into Russian and has been published by Intertechnologia, Kiev.

Gail Chermak (speech and hearing sciences) and Jowan Lee (M.A. ’04, speech and hearing sciences) published a paper, “Comparisons of Children’s Performance on Four Tests of Temporal Resolution,” in the September 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

Mark Stephan (political science, WSU Vancouver) published an article titled “Democracy in Our Backyards: A Study of Community Involvement in Administrative Decision Making” in the September issue of the interdisciplinary journal Environment and Behavior.

ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance, one of the Department of English’s two journals of nineteenth-century American literature, published a landmark special issue titled “Reexamining the American Renaissance,” featuring a substantial introductory essay by coeditor Al von Frank (English) and twelve essays exploring a broad spectrum of issues and new directions in the field.

Andrew Jorgenson (sociology) published an article with James Rice (Ph.D. candidate, sociology) in the Journal of World-Systems Research 11, “Structural Dynamics of International Trade and Material Consumption: A Cross-National Study of the Ecological Footprint of Less-Developed Countries.” Jorgenson’s article “Unpacking the Ecological Footprint of Nations,” coauthored with Rice and Jessica Crowe (Ph.D. candidate, sociology), is in press with International Journal of Comparative Sociology. “The Trajectory of the United States in the World-System: A Quantitative Reflection,” coauthored with Christopher Chase-Dunn, Thomas Reifer, and Shoon Lio, will appear in the next issue of Sociological Perspectives. Jorgenson’s article “Global Warming and the Neglected Greenhouse Gas: A Cross-National Study of Methane Emissions Intensity, 1995” is forthcoming in Social Forces, and his article “Unpacking International Power and the Ecological Footprints of Nations: A Quantitative Cross-National Study” is forthcoming in Sociological Perspectives. Jorgenson has coedited a volume with Ed Kick, titled Globalization and the Environment, that will be published by Brill Press later this year. He has also authored and coauthored multiple manuscripts that will appear as chapters in edited volumes in late 2005 and early 2006.

C. Richard King (comparative ethnic studies) recently published “Cautionary Notes on Whiteness and Sport Studies” in the Sociology of Sport Journal 22.

Dana Baker’s (political science, WSU Vancouver) article “Comparative Issue Definition in Public Health: West Nile Virus, Mad Cow Disease in Blood Products, and Stem Cell Research” has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis. The article was coauthored with Shannon Daily Stokes and will be published in spring 2006.

Abigail Gosselin (philosophy) had a paper, “Global Poverty and Responsibility: Identifying the Duty-Bearers of Human Rights,” accepted for publication in the journal Human Rights Review.

Greg Yasinitsky, Meyer Distinguished Professor of Music, is featured in the latest issue of the Saxophone Journal, arguably the most important international saxophone publication. The magazine includes a masterclass with Yasinitsky about his piece “Double Edge” for saxophone and piano. The masterclass includes an article by Yasinitsky, copies of the saxophone music, and a CD recording (recorded in the WSU Recording Studio), which includes Yasinitsky’s saxophone performance of the piece assisted by pianist Gerald Berthiaume, director of the School of Music and Theatre Arts.
Yasinitsky also has thirteen musical works in press, including new compositions for concert band, concert choir, church choir, and jazz band to be published by Belwin Jazz, Kendor Music, Walrus Music, and Sound Music Publications.

Barry Hewlett (anthropology, WSU Vancouver) published a paper in September with his wife, Dr. Bonnie Hewlett, called “Providing Care and Facing Death: Nursing during Ebola Outbreaks in Central Africa” in the Journal of Transcultural Nursing.

Andrew Duffin’s (history) book manuscript, Bleeding at the Roots: Agriculture and Environment in the Palouse, has been accepted for publication at the University of Washington Press.

Student Activities and Awards

Margo Tamez (Ph.D. candidate, American studies) was offered two book contracts in the months of August and September. Raven Eye, her second full-length collection of poetry, is forthcoming from the University of Arizona Press in spring 2006. A collection of non-fiction essays, titled The Daughter of Lightning, is forthcoming from Kore Press in summer 2006. Both of these collections focus on mixed-race indigenous identity, environmental injustice in indigenous and poor people of color communities, and challenge the mainstream’s conceptual constructions of Native women in the borderlands. New creative work will appear in Ecotone (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and Sable literary magazine (London, UK) this fall 2005.

Andrea Hall (senior, sociology), Tonya Asmussen (M.A. candidate, speech and hearing sciences), Desirae Bear Eagle (M.A. candidate, speech and hearing sciences), Michelle Jack (Ph.D. candidate, American studies), and James Mountain Chief Sanderville (M.A. candidate, communication) have been selected as Plateau Scholars in Liberal Arts. Each student will receive a Plateau Scholarship and participate in activities that tie Native culture to their academic pursuits. They are all enrolled members of Plateau tribes.

Alumni News

Jason Miller (Ph.D. ’04, English) has begun his tenure-track assistant professorship at North Carolina State University in the Department of English.

Paul Muhlhauser’s (M.A. ’05, English) paper on Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms has been accepted for the international conference entitled “The First World War and Popular Culture” at Newcastle Institute for the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities in the United Kingdom in 2006. He wrote the first draft of the paper for Camille Roman’s (English) spring 2005 graduate seminar.

Drew Piper (B.A. ’03, English; Ed.M. ’05) has begun his teaching position in English at Mead Middle School in Spokane.

Azfar Hussain (Ph.D. ’03, English) is visiting professor of ethnic studies and affiliate faculty in American cultural studies at Bowling Green State University. His two short essays on African revolutionary Amilcar Cabral and the history of Arab nationalism appeared in A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures in English, and his chapter “Towards a Political Economy of Colonialism and Racism” will appear in Race and the Foundations of Knowledge, forthcoming from University of Illinois Press. Hussain will guest edit a special issue of Meghbarta on the topic of peasant and working-class movements in Latin America, while two lectures he gave at Old Dominion University in 2003 will be translated into Bengali and appear in the South Asian journal Natun Path in 2006.

Christy Kord (B.A. ’03, English) recently received her M.A. in English from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where she taught on a teaching fellowship for two years. She has been offered an instructorship at the university.

Maristela Silva (M.A. ’99, American studies) is teaching TESOL at a binational school in Manaus, Brazil, and also is now academic coordinator of the program.

Native American Research & Culture Exposition: Invitation to Participate

In honor of Native American Awareness Month, the WSU Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA) and the Plateau Center for American Indian Studies are hosting a

Native American Research & Culture Exposition
November 15, 2005
CUB Ballroom
9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Anyone involved in research, study, or appreciation of American Indian people is invited to participate. GPSA and the Plateau Center wish to extend a special invitation to WSU and UI Native American students to share information about their own cultures. The event is intended to inform the WSU and surrounding communities about the history and culture of America’s indigenous people and the work of WSU and University of Idaho faculty, staff, and students that relates to Native Americans. All forms of participation are encouraged. Organizers hope to see book and article displays, research posters, art works, music, poetry, films, and more.

See http://libarts.wsu.edu/plateaucenter/ for registration details.

Second Annual Gender Research Conference
October 15, 2005 :: WSU Vancouver

"The Politics of Movement"

Keynote Speaker: Grace Chang
Author of Disposable Domestics: Immigrant Women Workers
in the Global Economy

8:00–9:00 a.m.
Registration

9:00–10:30 a.m.
War and Women Across Continents

10:45 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
Historical Perspectives on the Politics of Movement; Reconsidering Women’s Work in Global Contexts: From Survival to Activism

12:30–1:30 p.m.
Lunch and Keynote Speaker: Grace Chang

1:45–3:00 p.m.
Spheres of Sexualities

3:15–4:30 p.m.
Violence, Hyper-Masculinities, and Militarism

4:45–5:30 p.m.
Reception

Research posters will be shown throughout the day.

For more information, visit http://libarts.wsu.edu/grace/.
Sponsored by GRACe (Gendering Research Across the Campuses) and the College of Liberal Arts at WSU Vancouver.

Language Skills Pay Off for Volunteer after Hurricane Katrina

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a former Washington State University student now residing in Texas sent a thank-you note to his former French professor in Pullman. “I just wanted to take a moment to let you know how my French skills are assisting in the relief efforts of Hurricane Katrina,” wrote Jim Leary (B.A. ’95, foreign languages and cultures) to Joan Grenier-Winther.

After Hurricane Katrina, Leary and others from his travel company in Houston, Texas, were allowed to take time off work to assist with refugees arriving by the thousands from southern Louisiana. Leary’s hand was the only one that went up when relief workers asked volunteers if they spoke French.

“I got whisked away to the Red Cross, where I served as an interpreter for four elderly people who spoke only French and no English,” said Leary. “They said they didn’t have their medication and they were looking for their children and grandchildren who normally serve as their interpreters. They had general questions about the recovery of New Orleans because they can’t read the papers or understand what’s being said on TV.”

“Faculty in the Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures frequently tell students that their language skills will come in handy in everyday life,” said Grenier-Winther, “but this is certainly a dramatic example.”

“I didn’t save the world for them,” Leary said of the refugees he assisted, “but each one did say to me that they appreciated me helping them and updating them on the situation. Hurray for language skills! We never know when we may need them,” he said.

WSU Conference in Spokane to Examine Global Energy Future

Are the run-up in gasoline prices and energy supply problems in the wake of Hurricane Katrina just short-term issues? Or are we now receiving a troubling preview of our uncertain energy future?

On October 4 and 5 at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane, some of the nation’s leading experts on oil production, global energy demand, and alternative energy strategies will come together to examine the national and international energy outlook at Washington State University’s Conference on Global Oil Depletion and Implications for the Pacific Northwest.

Presented by the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at WSU, with principal sponsors that include Avista Corp., Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Spokane Rotary 21, and the Washington State Department of Ecology, the conference will present the best science available on oil depletion and the state of research for energy alternatives and efficiency.

The conference is designed to bring together energy and business experts and policy-makers from around the Pacific Northwest to create a better understanding of potential energy challenges and solutions and to develop responsive energy policy and mechanisms to address these issues sooner rather than later.

“This conference is a first step in gathering people together to raise awareness of the growing gap between the demand and supply of oil and natural gas, and to begin a process for planning mitigation initiatives in the Pacific Northwest,” said Melissa Ahern, an economist and associate professor at WSU Spokane.

One keynote speaker will be Matthew Simmons, an energy investment banker and founding chief executive officer of Simmons and Co., who has written the provocative new book Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy. In the book, based on Simmons’ first-hand reporting and his examination of hundreds of technical studies, Simmons raises doubts about the Saudis’ ability to increase production to meet growing international demand and foresees sharply increased oil prices.

The conference will begin the evening of October 4 with an address by Governor Christine Gregoire on the state’s energy policy and priorities.

On October 5, Simmons’ remarks will be followed by another keynote address by Roger Bezdek, president of Management Information Services Inc. Bezdek is coauthor of “Peaking World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation, and Risk Management,” a report prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy earlier this year. He will discuss strategies to mitigate the economic disruption caused by rising oil prices and shrinking supplies.

Herman Franssen, former chief economist of the International Energy Agency, will address the conference at lunch. He will discuss the geopolitical impact of rising international demand for energy as world population increases and industrializing Third-World economies demand more energy.

Conference sessions will present the most current research related to liquid fuel alternatives, the range of electricity sources, and energy efficiency strategies. Presenters will include representatives from WSU, the Spokane Conservation District, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, CH2M Hill, and the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.

“The global oil depletion conference ensures discussion of an issue essential in our daily lives now and in the future,” said Erich Lear, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “We deeply appreciate the extensive collaboration supporting preparations for this conference.”

“We see this conference as a vehicle for doing public service in the best traditions of the namesake of our institute, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Thomas Foley,” said Ed Weber, director of the Foley Institute. “The forum raises awareness about a critical public policy issue by engaging citizens, public officials, and some of the world’s top experts in a dialogue over what we know and the various alternatives for addressing energy issues that are not going away.”

A conference schedule, additional information on the speakers, and online registration is available at http://capps.wsu.edu/globaloil/.

Leading China Historian to Speak at WSU

Kenneth Pomeranz, Chancellor’s Professor of History and professor of East Asia languages and literatures at the University of California, Irvine, will speak at Washington State University October 17 and 18.

Pomeranz, considered by many to be the world’s leading expert on Chinese economics, will take part in two public events during his visit. Monday, October 17, at 4:10 p.m. in Bryan Hall 305, Pomeranz will deliver a lecture entitled “Historical Perspectives on the East Asian Miracle.” The talk will explore the extremely rapid economic growth of East Asia, investigate the patterns of trade, social changes, and environmental impacts of industrialization, and suggest implications for contemporary affairs.

On Tuesday, October 18, at 4:15 p.m. in the Bundy Reading Room, Avery Hall, Pomeranz will take part in a seminar-style presentation on popular religion in Chinese history. The discussion focuses on the ways in which religious change has intersected with two major developments in Chinese history: the growth of a largely unified nation dominated by a single ethnic group, and the transformation of gender roles and concepts of individuality.

Pomeranz’s publications include The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy and The Making of a Hinterland: State, Society, and Economy in Inland North China, 1853–1937, for each of which he received the John K. Fairbank Prize from the American Historical Association. The prize is awarded each year for the best work in East Asian history since 1800. He also coauthored The World that Trade Created: Society, Culture, and the World Economy, 1400 to the Present.

Pomeranz is the 2005 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar. His WSU lectures and seminars are sponsored by the national Phi Beta Kappa organization, a national honorary fraternity, and by the Department of History and the Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures at Washington State.

“We are delighted with the visiting scholar program sponsored by our national organization, as each year it enables us to bring such an outstanding scholar to campus,” said Michael Neville, professor of philosophy and event co-organizer for Phi Beta Kappa. “The primary aim is to enrich the education of undergraduates across all of the arts and sciences, but the whole community benefits immensely from the insights of leading scholars like Professor Pomeranz,” Neville said.

Literary Series Begins with Promising Young Writer

The Department of English will kick off the fall literary reading series with Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum. Lunstrum will read from her book This Life She’s Chosen, a collection of short fiction published by Chronicle Books in 2005. This Life She’s Chosen is her first book and was selected as a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers title. Lunstrum teaches at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana.

The reading is scheduled for Wednesday, October 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the Museum of Art. A booksigning and reception will follow.

On November 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the Museum of Art, widely published fiction and essay writer Valerie Miner will read from her new collection of short fiction, Abundant Light.

Both readings are sponsored by the Department of English and the Museum of Art. For more information, contact Paula Coomer at 509-335-6846.

WSU Theatre Program’s Seventh Annual STAGE One

October 5–8, 2005
Wadleigh Theatre, Daggy Hall
All performances at 8:00 p.m.
Call 509-335-7236 for ticket info.
This production is rated R
for mature audiences.

STAGE One consists of four student-written/student-directed one-act plays. This year’s selections are:

Superhero Zero
Written by Justin Hansen (junior, theatre); directed by Joshua Gegen (junior, communication).
Talk about the other side of being Super. This one-act play consists of three superheroes complaining about their abilities, life, and the fame. Being Super is not easy.

Darryl’s
Written by James Katica (senior, communication); directed by Joseph Vales (senior, theatre).
This play spends one day inside a small town convenience store aptly named Darryl’s. Everything about the store begins normally, but as the day runs its course chaos ensues.

A Man Should Be More than Clitoral Stimulation
Written by Audrey Bensel (senior, theatre); directed by Hope Hans (junior, theatre).
The morning after a one-night stand leaves one woman questioning her actions. A Man Should Be More than Clitoral Stimulation is the arguments that arise from the three different facets of the woman’s personality. The dreamer, the stoner, and the serious side narrate this look into a woman’s sexuality.

Lasagna Night
Written by Pat McSweeney (junior, communication); directed by Chris Hayes (senior, theatre).
Dinnertime can be an interesting episode in a family’s day. Lasagna Night delves into one lasagna dinner in a typical family of four. The play shows one normal event through the eyes of every member of the family. The differences of opinion are where the drama lies.

Public History Events

Sponsored by the Department of History’s public history program.

October 28, 2005

Dr. Anthea Hartig, director, Western Regional Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

Colloquium
History Department, 12:00 p.m.

Public Lecture
CUE 518, 3:10 to 5:00 p.m. Reception following lecture.

October 29, 2005

Preservation Workshop
CUE 518, 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Speakers include:

Dr. Anthea Hartig, director, Western Regional Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

Michael Houser, architectural historian, Washington State Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation

Megan Duvall, certified local government and survey coordinator, Washington State Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation

This workshop is free and open to the university community and general public.

Due October 14 to Dean’s Office

Proposals/applications for:

Edward R. Meyer Project
Edward R. Meyer Grant Development Award
Initiation/Completion Grant
Boeing Graduate Fellowship in Environmental Studies

See http://libarts.wsu.edu/ for more information. Click on For Faculty & Staff, then Grants for details on any of these awards.