
May 2006

Dean's Message

Attendance was excellent and spirits were high at our College of Liberal Arts Awards Ceremony April 19. In our annual college tradition, we celebrated the milestones and achievements of many individuals whose contributions have benefited their departments, the college, and the University. Humor, as is generally the case at most CLA events, was broadly evident although mixed in quality.

We are thankful for the great and small achievements of each semester and for the chance to be together. We know many more would have attended if not for the end-of-semester frenzy. As a college, we are relieved for the near-conclusion of a very productive year and look forward to even greater accomplishments.

What college goals will prompt us to give our best and produce the maximum amount again next year? We have seen the effectiveness of placing important issues—changing the world locally to globally—at the center of our efforts. Within the University and externally, partners eagerly seek participation with us. Perhaps it is time to choose a few particular issues—broad enough to engage our varied interests but specific enough to require refocusing of our efforts individually and collectively. I would offer the following for your consideration:

Equity, diversity, social justice—prizing people and improving interaction.
Communicating—across cultures, across media and platforms, with ethics for all.
Creativity—in the arts, through the arts toward enriched cultural expression and understanding, and as a generalized and essential outcome of critical and integrative thinking that leads to action on creative solutions.
Public policy—the expression, through shared governance, of modes of action that improve our world.
Environmental studies—how to live in, improve, and sustain the places we call home and the resources we share.
Preparing future generations—for thoughtful action that is at once both complex and informed by the inspired simplicity of common sense, respectful of the past and others, aspiring for the future, invigorating and energetic yet calm with confidence that we are giving our best and the world sees it and says, “This is good!”

These are drawn from continuing college-level emphases and from the latest five-year plans submitted by units in the college. Please feel free to offer comments about the possible issues above. Your input will assist our early drafting of a college plan during the coming summer. You will have regular opportunities to see drafts in the coming academic year.

We will need the help of all in this endeavor. In particular, we hope to attract four associate deans to assist. We are receiving applications for the four positions and hope to make appointments early in the summer. Thank you for your nominations and applications. A final version of the CLA Realignment Implementation Team Report should emerge by late May. Your comments on the current draft are welcome.

In closing, I would like to congratulate those students who will complete their degrees and graduate in May and August. The faculty and staff who have supported your advancement will miss you. We all wish you the very best, and we hope that you will send us news of your achievements and that you will allow us to help you as you embark on your new ventures as alumni.

With gratitude for all that makes us a true College of Liberal Arts,

Erich Lear, Dean
College of Liberal Arts

Worthy of Note

Photo: Jim Short James F. Short Jr. (professor emeritus, sociology), a nationally respected researcher and university leader, received the Washington State University President’s Award for Lifetime Service on March 24. One of the nation’s leading authorities in juvenile gang behavior, delinquency, and criminology, Short joined the WSU sociology faculty in 1951 and retired in 1997, when he became an emeritus professor. Although retired, he continues to be active in sociology research and publishing, including works on violence and violence avoidance.

The National Science Foundation awarded $500,000 to Timothy Kohler (anthropology), Eric A. Smith, Karen Lupo (anthropology), Michael E. Alfaro, and Michael S. Webster (both biological sciences) for their project “IGERT: Model-based Approaches to Biological and Cultural Evolution.” The award is a continuing grant, approved on scientific/technical merit for approximately five years. Support over that period is expected to exceed $3 million.

Carol Ivory (fine arts) received the 2006 WSU Library Excellence Award, awarded at a reception on April 18. The award is presented annually to a non-library WSU faculty, staff, or A/P employee who has shown consistent support for the WSU Libraries. Ivory will attend the Pacific Arts Association (PAA) Europe chapter’s annual meeting held jointly at Cambridge University and the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England, May 11–13. Ivory will preside over the annual meeting of the PAA International Executive Committee at the British Museum, London, on May 10.

Todd Butler (English) has received a grant sponsored by the Mellon Foundation to participate in the English Paleography Summer Institute held at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. The program brings together a small group of scholars for intensive study of English manuscript culture during the early modern period.

In March, Brigit Farley (history, WSU Tri-Cities) was named an Oregon Council for the Humanities Chautauqua Scholar for 2006–2007.

Amy Mazur (political science) organized the conference “Gender Equality and the State” held at the University of Washington April 27–28 on the recent presence and impact of women’s policy agencies in Western Europe and the USA. She also presented her research on France at the conference and was a speaker at a teacher’s training workshop on gender politics held prior to the conference. For more on the conference and workshop, go to http://jsis.washington.edu/euc/gender/.

John Irby (communication) will spend six weeks this summer in an American Society of Newspaper Editors fellowship as a working journalist at the Richmond Times-Dispatch (242,000 Sunday circulation; 141,000 daily). He has also been appointed to serve on Washington State’s Native American Advisory Council and will judge the 2005 Mark of Excellence Society of Professional Journalists national collegiate competition in two categories, general news photography and photo illustration.

Lance LeLoup (political science, International Programs) recently completed a two-week visit to the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, under a Fulbright Senior Specialists grant. He offered a series of lectures to graduate and undergraduate students, consulted with faculty on curriculum and changes in degree programs, and worked on a future book project.

Stephen Chalmers (fine arts) was awarded a WSU New Faculty Seed Grant to begin a project documenting “snowbirds,” elderly retirees who spend half the year in seasonal residences. Chalmers has work in the thirty-fourth National Juried Photography Exhibition at the Larson Gallery in Yakima through April 29, and, along with Michelle Forsyth (fine arts), will be included in the exhibit Disaster at the Port Angeles Fine Art Center through July 30.

John G. Jones (anthropology) traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to attend the Society for American Archaeology meetings, where he was invited to present a paper in a symposium honoring Fred Bove, a pioneer in the field of Guatemala archaeology. His paper, coauthored with graduate student Karry Blake, is entitled “Settlement and Agriculture in the Soconusco: Pollen Evidence of Human Activity on the Pacific Coast of Chiapas.” Jones also participated in two additional papers at these meetings.

Michael Hanly (English) gave a paper dealing with “Images of Muslims in Medieval Christian Reformist Texts” at the conference of the Medieval Association of the Pacific in Salt Lake City in March.

In April, the Plateau Center for American Indian Studies cohosted (with Multicultural Student Services) a brown bag luncheon on “The Faces of Diabetes.” Diabetes specialist Nancy Gregory, R.N., presented the facts on a PowerPoint presentation to show the severity of the disease, how to focus on preventive methods, and how to monitor/manage the disease. Panelists were Keith Campbell, Orlan Svingen (history), Heather Blacketer, and Norma Joseph, who briefed the audience with their experiences in dealing with the disease. The Plateau Center realizes the importance of this issue on campus and plans to sponsor a similar presentation again during the next academic year.

David Nice (political science) has recently agreed to do revisions for the tenth edition of Politics and Policy in States and Communities (published by Pearson/Longman Press); the book is coauthored with John Harrigan, but Nice will be doing all of the revisions.

Leonard Orr (English, WSU Tri-Cities) will be presenting a paper on “Post-Memory and Postmodern: The Value of Teaching Experimental Holocaust Fiction” at a special meeting of the Association of Holocaust Organizations on Teaching the Holocaust to Future Generations, to be held at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Israel, June 26–29. Orr is also one of thirty scholars selected for the international seminar on “Teaching the Shoah and Antisemitism,” sponsored by the International School for Holocaust Studies, at Yad Vashem July 2–19.

Thomas Preston (political science) has been named a faculty research associate at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, New York. He also presented a conference paper, entitled “Leadership, Expertise, and Foreign Policy Decision Making,” and served as chair and discussant on a panel on “Advisors and Small Group Decision-Making” at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association in San Diego March 22–25.

Douglas Gast (fine arts) was included in the inaugural exhibition in Ouch My Eye Studios’ new gallery space at 1022 1st Ave South in Seattle. The exhibition was on view throughout April. Also, his new photographic work “BLACK/COLORED” was included in the Pendleton Art Center’s non-juried Open Aperture Exhibition, which is on view until mid-May.

Julie Kmec and Christine Oakley (both sociology) were nominated as outstanding mentors through the WSU Women and Leadership Alliance Forum.

Joddy Murray (English, WSU Tri-Cities) recently presented on a panel at the Conference on College Composition and Communication in Chicago. His paper was entitled “Argument, Emotion, and Agonism” and was presented as part of the panel “Rethinking Argument: Activity, Affect, and Habitus” chaired by Richard Fulkerson.

On April 29, John Weiss (music) adjudicated at the regional finals of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Artist Award, Northwest region, in Seattle. The competition is designed to assist singers who are prepared to launch a professional career, and to that end, national winners receive substantial cash prizes and a solo recital at Carnegie Hall. The competition takes place every other year, in conjunction with NATS conferences. Preliminary competitions are held at the district and regional levels, and semifinals/finals take place at the national NATS conference. The Northwest region includes western Washington, western Oregon, British Columbia, and Alaska. There are only three adjudicators at the Northwest regional competition, and only one from Washington.

This June, Boyd W. Benson (English) will participate in a two-week residency at the Anderson Center in Red Wing, Minnesota; he is one of thirty-eight artists, writers, and scholars offered a residency this year. There he will offer a writing workshop at a local detention center and plans to begin preparing a manuscript of his poems. On August 5, Benson will read from his work alongside poet Marvin Bell in Puyallup, Washington, for “A River and Sound Review.”

Kevin Haas (fine arts) will have his work exhibited in Found Space at Critical Line, the new exhibition project of ArtRod at 741 St. Helens in Tacoma, Washington. The inaugural exhibition features photographic works by Matthew Keeney, Haas, EJ Hercyzk, Ann Kendellen, and video by Israeli artist Ido Fluk. The exhibit opens May 5 and runs until July 7. He will also have a public project titled “Endless Supply” on view at the Tollbooth Gallery, a former TV–Tacoma information kiosk located at 11th and Broadway, from May 6 to June 24. For more information visit http://www.artrod.org/.

Mitchell Pickerill and Cornell Clayton (both political science) presented a paper, “The New Right and Privacy Rights,” at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, held in Chicago April 19–22. Clayton and Amy Mazur (political science), as the new editors of Political Research Quarterly, chaired a roundtable, “New Directions in PRQ,” they organized at the same meeting.

Don Dillman (sociology) made an invited presentation, “The Essential Connection: Visual Layout and Questionnaire Usability in Business Surveys,” to the First International Workshop on Business Data Collection Methodology, Office for National Statistics in London.

Melissa Elkins, Aaron Wright (both M.A. candidates, anthropology), and Andrew I. Duff (anthropology) coauthored the paper “The Technology of Cultural Difference in a Southwestern Community,” which Elkins and Wright presented at the Northwest Anthropology Conference, held in Seattle in March.

Speech and hearing sciences faculty, students, and alumni presented research workshops at the Washington State Indian Education Association (WSIEA) conference, held in Pullman March 29–31. Graduate students Noelle Phillips and Desirae Bear Eagle and assistant professor Ella Inglebret presented “Promoting Native American Student Success in Education”; Suzi Friedlander (M.A. ’03) presented “Exploring the Circle: An Inquiry into Attitudes Pertaining to Disabilities on the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in the State of Washington”; and Joanne Harrison (B.A. ’04) presented “Research Guided Teachings: Exploring Life Experience that Can Help Meet the Needs of Best Practice.”
Inglebret and a group of her SHS 480 (senior seminar) students—Lindsey Binford, Laura Covarrubias, Melinda Hegvedt, Julie Horace, Caitlin Matteson, Annie McGrew, Graciela Verdusco, and Faye Vincent—exhibited their “story units” in the Clearinghouse on Native Teaching and Learning, held in conjunction with the WSIEA conference. The story units centered on stories from the American Indian Reading Series and demonstrated how speech, language, and auditory goals can be targeted through the stories.

Stephen Bischoff, Sky Wilson (both M.A. candidates, American studies), and John Streamas (comparative ethnic studies) formed the panel “Revolutionary Fervors” in the Pacific Northwest American Studies Association annual conference in Spokane on April 22. Bischoff’s paper was titled “The Space of Racism: White Supremacy at the 1893 Columbian Exposition and the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair”; Wilson’s was titled “What to the U.S. War of Terror Is Black Power? Taking Cues and Clues from David Fagen”; and Streamas’s was titled “Toward a Literature of Revolutionary Outrage.”

Harry Silverstein (philosophy) presented comments at the ninth annual Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference in March. He also codirected the conference. Joseph Keim Campbell (philosophy) presented his paper “Farewell to Source Incompatibilism” at the same conference.

Lori Wiest (music) adjudicated at the high school choral festival in Redmond on March 29 and at the National Association of Teachers of Singing Cascade region competition for high school, collegiate, and adult singers on April 7 and 8 in Portland. She also served as clinician for the Timberline High School concert choir and chamber choir from Boise during their visit to WSU on April 7.

Jon Hasbrouck and Jeff Nye (both speech and hearing sciences, WSU Spokane) presented an in-service on the department’s auditory processing disorders clinic to professional staff at St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane April 18. They also delivered a one-day workshop, sponsored by Lorman Education Services, titled “A Clinical, School, and Home-Based Approach to Working with Children with Auditory Processing Disorders in Washington” at the Seattle Convention Center April 21.

Kim Christen (comparative ethnic studies) received a 2006 New Faculty Seed Grant for her project “Changing the Default: Aboriginal Archives and the Production of Cultural Material.” Michiyo Hirai (psychology) was also awarded a New Faculty Seed Grant.

John Hinson (psychology), Paul Whitney (psychology, associate dean of liberal arts), and Aaron Wirick (M.S. candidate, psychology) presented a poster at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society in San Francisco in April. The project was titled “Affective Biasing and Explicit Knowledge in the Gambling Task.”

The WSU Concert Choir, conducted by Lori Wiest (music), embarked on their musical tour April 17–19, performing at Yakima Valley Community College, United Church of Christ in Gig Harbor, Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup, Wilson High School in Tacoma, First United Methodist Church in Tacoma, Spanaway Lake High School, and Nelson Middle School in Renton.

Clare Wilkinson-Weber (anthropology, WSU Vancouver) organized and chaired a panel on “Making Film, Making Culture: New Research in Hindi Popular Cinema” at the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting in San Francisco on April 8.

On April 12, former attorney general John Ashcroft gave the keynote address, “Balancing National Security and Civil Liberties in the Twenty-first Century,” for the annual Public Affairs Lecture Series at WSU Vancouver. The event was sponsored by the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Affairs and Public Service and the Associated Students of WSU Vancouver. Approximately seven hundred students and community members attended the speech, which was followed by a reception with Ashcroft. That afternoon, WSU Vancouver hosted a panel symposium, “National Security and Civil Liberties in a Post–9/11 World,” with presentations by former U.S. Senator Slade Gorton, U.S Attorney for the District of Oregon Karin Immergut, Candace Morgan (president, ACLU of Oregon), and Cornell W. Clayton (political science). Over one hundred students and community members were in attendance.

Gail Chermak (speech and hearing sciences) presented a learning module on intervention for treatment of (central) auditory processing disorder at the annual convention of the American Academy of Audiology, April 7 in Minneapolis.

This summer, Andrew Jorgenson (sociology) will present his research on the environmental impacts of international trade and foreign investment at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association (held in Montreal), and at the International Sociological Association’s XIV World Congress of Sociology (held in Durban, South Africa).

A book by Clay Mosher (sociology, WSU Vancouver), Terry Meithe, and Dretha Phillips, titled The Mismeasure of Crime, was the subject of an “Authors Meet Critics” session at the Pacific Sociological Association in April. Jim Short (professor emeritus, sociology) and Charles Tittle (former sociology faculty) were the “critics.”

Faculty in Print

A book by Laurie Mercier (history, WSU Vancouver), Mining Women: Gender in the Development of a Global Industry, 1670–2005, has just been released by Palgrave/Macmillan press.

Brigit Farley’s (history, WSU Tri-Cities) portrait of King Aleksandar I of the first Yugoslav state will be published in Balkan “Strongmen”: Dictators and Authoritarian Rulers of Southeastern Europe (Bernd J. Fischer, ed.). The book will be published by C. Hurst and is scheduled to appear this month.

Todd Butler (English) has secured a contract for his book Imagination and Politics in Seventeenth Century England. The book will be published by Ashgate Press and is scheduled to be in press in August 2007.

A book that Jim Short (professor emeritus, sociology) and Lori Hughes (Ph.D. ’03, sociology) edited and wrote chapters for, Studying Youth Gangs, was published last month by AltaMira.

An article by Dana Lee Baker (political science, WSU Vancouver), “Children’s Disability Policy in a Global World: A Question of Convergence,” was published in the April 2006 issue of the International Journal of Public Administration.

A book co-edited by Lance LeLoup (political science, International Programs), titled Public Policy in Central and Eastern Europe, has been translated into Czech and published by SLON in Prague.

Thomas Preston’s (political science) book From Lambs to Lions: Nuclear and Biological Weapons Proliferation and Their Impact upon Interstate Security Relationships has been accepted by Rowman and Littlefield publishers and will appear in late 2006/early 2007. In addition, an article coauthored with former graduate student Stephen Dyson (Ph.D. ’04, political science), entitled “Individual Characteristics of Leaders and the Use of Analogy in Foreign Policy Decision Making,” has been accepted and will appear in the journal Political Psychology in October 2006.

Paula Coomer’s (English) first full-length collection of poetry, Devil at the Crossroads, has been published by Lewis-Clark Press.

Andrew Jorgenson (sociology) has two articles on the environmental impacts of foreign investment dependence forthcoming in Social Science Quarterly and Society & Natural Resources. He is also working on his second edited volume (coedited with Alf Hornborg of Lund University, Sweden), tentatively titled International Trade and the Environment. This volume will be published by Lund University Press.

Jeffrey Joireman (psychology) and Daniel Balliet (Ph.D. candidate, psychology) are two of the three coauthors of “Considering Future Consequences: An Integrative Model,” published in the book Judgments over Time: The Interplay of Thoughts, Feelings, and Behaviors from Oxford University Press.

Student Activities and Awards

Maryanne Rhett (Ph.D. candidate, history) received the Tauber Institute Committee on Graduate Research Awards Grant. The Tauber Institute is based at Brandeis University, and the grant is given in support of researching the history and culture of European Jewry.

Loren Redwood (Ph.D. candidate, American studies) presented a paper entitled “Transnational Women’s Labor: Toward an Understanding of Globalization, Immigration, and Citizen in Transition and Transformation” at the National Association of Ethnic Studies annual conference, held in San Francisco March 30–April 1. A peer-reviewed course syllabus by Redwood, “Globalization and Transnational Women’s Labor: Intersections & Transformations,” will appear in Teaching Resources on Racism, White Privilege, and Anti-White Supremacy 2006, edited by the Women of Color Caucus and the Anti-White Supremacy Task Force of the National Women’s Studies Association.

Jim Tucker (M.A. candidate, criminal justice) has been elected to serve as chair of the WSU Spokane Services and Activities Fee Committee for 2006–2007. This committee has the responsibility for managing and allocating more than $250,000 in student funds to qualified organizations and individuals. Tucker also serves on the WSU Spokane Chancellor’s Student Advisory Council, which meets monthly to discuss issues of campus-wide interest and provide student input to the chancellor and administration.

The Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service’s Summer Fellowship Award for liberal arts graduate students has been awarded to Hasan Buker (Ph.D. candidate, criminal justice). His proposal was chosen from more than a dozen from across campus submitted to the Foley awards committee. His proposal is titled “Questioning the Trustworthiness of Publicly-Funded Forensic Crime Laboratories: Exploring the Prevalence, Causes, Vulnerability, and Prevention Policies of Errors and Misconduct in Crime Labs.”

Armand Garcia’s (Ph.D. candidate, history) panel proposal, “Gender and Cuba: New Perspectives of Republican and Revolutionary Eras,” was accepted by the American Historical Association’s program committee for inclusion in the January 4–7, 2007, annual meeting in Atlanta. He will also present a paper in this panel title “Gender and Mythmaking in Late Twentieth-Century Cuba.”

David Bridgett (Ph.D. candidate, psychology) is coauthor of “Intellectual Functioning in Adults with ADHD: A Meta-Analytic Examination of Full Scale IQ Differences between Adults with and without ADHD,” published in Psychological Assessment 18(1).

Aaron Wright (M.A. candidate, anthropology) presented a paper entitled “Migration and Aggregation in the Central Mesa Verde Region (A.D. 1150–1290): A Social Perspective” at the annual meeting of the Northwest Anthropological Conference in Seattle on March 31. He presented a paper entitled “Palynological Paleoclimatology: A Revised Methodology for Subalpine Environments” at the 2006 Wiley Graduate Research Expo. Wright won a GPSA travel grant ($450) to present a poster titled “Corn and Climate: A Paleoecological Approach to the Forager to Farmer Transition in the Northern San Juan Basin” at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in San Juan, Puerto Rico, April 27.
In March Wright conducted an internship with the University of Arizona Department of Physics and Atmospheric Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory. The one-week internship familiarized him with the methodology of AMS radiocarbon dating. As part of the internship, he processed seventeen radiocarbon samples for free, which is an $8,500 value of services. These dates will be used in his M.A. thesis.

Waylon Bryson (senior, philosophy) presented his paper “The Fetus Is Trapped in a Metaphysical No-Man’s-Land! A Continental Philosopher’s Approach to Abortion” at the Oneonta Undergraduate Philosophy Conference at SUNY Oneonta.

Christina Mallory (senior, philosophy) organized the undergraduate session of the ninth annual Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference.

Arina Gertseva (Ph.D. candidate, sociology) has been awarded the Fred R. Yoder Memorial Graduate Fellowship in Sociology for the 2006–2007 academic year.

Jutta Tobias (M.S. candidate, psychology) was selected by WSU’s Center to Bridge the Digital Divide to spend six weeks this summer on coffee cooperative farms in Rwanda. Along with two other WSU students she will provide technology training and small business coaching to the people working on the cooperatives, who will have Internet connectivity for the first time. The project is sponsored through the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Celestina Barbosa-Leiker (M.S. candidate, psychology) received a Runner-up Founder’s Award, given by the Association for Faculty Women, FASR, and the WSU Chapter of Sigma Xi. A plaque and a cash award were presented to her.

Raja Al-Khalili (Ph.D. candidate, English) presented a paper, titled “Race and Gender in Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms: Implications for Audiences and Readers,” at the International Globalization, Diversity, and Education Conference held at Washington State University on March 11.

Rita Kepner (Ph.D. candidate, communication) had a guest editorial published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She researched, wrote, and presented or will present three papers at conferences: “The Information Railroad Is Off the Tracks: The Unexamined Consequences of Broadcast Media Community Service,” at Communication in Crisis at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; “The Ethics of Unexamined Consequences of Broadcast Media Community Service,” in the Communication Ethics Division of the National Communication Association national conference June 8-11, 2006, at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh; and “Effects of Digital Divide: Present Status of Technology Use in the U.S. Schools,” written with Mariyah Merchant, at the International Globalization, Diversity, and Education Conference.

Joel Martinez (M.S. candidate, psychology) has been selected as an instructor in the El Camino Program in Columbia. He will be there six weeks this summer working with at-risk high school students.

Jean Sumner (M.S. candidate, psychology) received a 2006 President’s Award. President’s Awards are bestowed annually to undergraduate and graduate students who exemplify exceptional leadership and service to the University and the community. She was nominated by Jill Griffin, president of the Commission on the Status of Women, and Alice Coil, director of the Women’s Resource Center. As executive committee members of the Psi Chapter of Graduate Women in Science, Sumner and Rose Marie Larios (graduate student, neuroscience) have been awarded a total of $1,400 in grants from the National Graduate Women in Science organization and the WSU Women’s Resource Center to attend the annual conference in Madison, Wisconsin, this June.

Rose Gubele, Gwen Sullivan (both Ph.D. candidates, English), Todd Battistelli, and Jim Haendiges (both M.A. candidates, English) presented on a panel at the Conference on College Composition and Communication in Chicago. Their panel was titled “Reconsidering Diversity: Examining Diversity Classes and Their Impact on Student Populations.” Sullivan presented “Climate Control: Are Diversity Classes Fulfilling Their Promise?”; Haendiges presented “Multisensory Racism: and I Can Hear Ralph Ellison Say, ‘I am an Invisible Man’”; Battistelli presented “Avoiding Exclusion: Speaking with Audiences of Privilege about Diversity”; and Gubele presented “A Storying Space: Students of Color Tell Stories of Racism.”

Donna Evans (M.A. candidate, English) and Shelly Richardson (Ph.D. candidate, English) presented papers at the recent Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery conference in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The theme for the conference was “The Image of Power in Literature, Media, and Society.” Evans presented “Place Becomes Us” on the “Place” panel, and Richardson, an “Ideas” panelist, presented “Public Stories, Market Truths, and the Authority of Corporate Narratives.” Both papers will be published in the conference proceedings.

All five undergraduates recognized as the top writing portfolio authors for fall 2005 are liberal arts majors: Carrie O’Brien (senior, political science), Arielle Benson (junior, criminal justice), Mallory Sanders (sophomore, English), Andrew Beard (senior, English, WSU Vancouver), and Shon Bogar (senior, psychology and public affairs, WSU Vancouver).

The Thomas Foley Institute and the WSU chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society, sponsored “A Conversation with Your Elected Representatives” April 19 at the CUE. Mark Schoesler, ninth district state senator, and Don Cox, ninth district representative, discussed issues ranging from the history of taxpayer-funded stadiums, pension problems, and budget concerns to WASL testing and higher education. Following the legislators’ presentations there was a question and answer session moderated by faculty lobbyist Mike Salvador (communication). A reception followed, which allowed students, faculty, and staff to discuss their individual concerns with the legislators.

Alumni News

Katie Johnson’s (Ph.D. ’05, history) book, Snug Harbor Beacon on the Forgotten Shore, was picked as a finalist for the National Council on Public History Book Award.

David Arnold (B.A. ’88, history) is currently professor of history at Columbia Basin College and adjunct professor at WSU Tri-Cities. His book The Fishermen’s Frontier: A Social and Environmental History of Southeast Alaska, 1786–2006 has been accepted for publication with the University of Washington Press. His article “Work and Culture in Southeastern Alaska: Tlingit Indians and the Industrial Fisheries, 1880s–1940s” appeared in Native Pathways: American Indian Culture and Economic Development in the Twentieth Century, edited by Brian C. Hosmer and Colleen O’Neill (University Press of Colorado, 2004). Arnold will also be giving the keynote address at the Alaska Historical Society meeting in Juneau, Alaska, this fall.

Jeff Granstrand (B.A. ’05, communication) received the 2006 Linda Yu Broadcast Internship in Chicago. The ten- to twelve-week internship will take place this summer with WLS-TV, an ABC affiliate, and includes a $2,500 stipend from the Asian American Journalists Association. This spring Granstrand, Hannah Whitmore (B.A. ’05, anthropology and communication), and Doneen Arquines (B.A. ’05, communication) received second place in the Television In-Depth Reporting division of the Society of Professional Journalists Region 10 Mark of Excellence Awards for their piece “Hip Hop.”

Katie Burgard (B.A. ’05, French and German) has been selected to participate in the U.S. English Language Teaching Assistantship Program sponsored by the Austrian Fulbright Commission for the 2006–2007 school year.

Marty Laronal (M.A. ’01, speech and hearing sciences) was named to the board of the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation. Formed in 1970 to establish an urban base for Native Americans in the Seattle area, today the foundation provides vital social and educational services to more than 25,000 Native Americans, from early child development and family counseling to housing homeless youth and preparing meals for the elderly. The foundation oversees the Daybreak Star Center, located on former Fort Lawton property, and serves urban Indians in the Seattle area.

2006 College of Liberal Arts Awards Recipients

Dean’s Distinguished Contribution Award
Nicholas Lovrich (political science)

William F. Mullen Excellence in Teaching Award
Ann Christenson (fine arts)

Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award
Eugene A. Rosa (sociology)

Distinguished Friends and Alumni Achievement Award
Stan Albrecht (Ph.D. sociology; president, Utah State University)

Outstanding Staff Award
Ann Marie Gooch (program support supervisor II, psychology)

College Fellows Award
Aimee Phan (English)

Service as Chair/Director
Yolanda Flores Niemann (comparative ethnic studies)
Paul Whitney (psychology)

25 Years of Service to WSU
Ruth Day (secretary, psychology), Lynn Gordon (English), Richard Taflinger (communication), Linda Stone (anthropology)

30 Years of Service to WSU
Marilyn Francis (English), Laurie Heustis (program support supervisor II, foreign languages and cultures), Robert Nofsinger (communication)

35 Years of Service to WSU
David Coon (history), Lee Freese (sociology)

40 Years of Service to WSU
Louis Gray (sociology), Elwood Hartman (foreign languages and cultures)

45 Years of Service to WSU
Robert Ackerman (anthropology)

2005–2006 Retirees
Cynthia Avery (administrative manager, political science/criminal justice), Diane Berger (program support supervisor I, political science/criminal justice), Jackie Beckman (finance/budget coordinator, dean’s office), Ruth Dodge (principal assistant, general education), Lee Freese (sociology), Louis Gray (sociology), Elwood Hartman (foreign languages and cultures), Michael Neville (philosophy), Robert Nofsinger (communication), Roger Schlesinger (history), Alice Spitzer (Asia Program, WSU Libraries), Albert von Frank (English), Mary Watrous-Schlesinger (history)

ICU–WSU Peace and Security Research Partnership Update

Six faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts—Susan Ross (communication, associate dean of liberal arts), T.V. Reed (American studies, associate dean of liberal arts), Gregory Hooks (sociology), Martha Cottam (political science), Otwin Marenin (criminal justice), and Noriko Kawamura (history)—were invited to International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan, during spring break. Between March 17 and 20, nine ICU faculty members and the WSU team engaged in intensive meetings to explore various possibilities toward building a grand theory of peace, security, and kyôsei. This conference was designed to pave the way for the next, more comprehensive ICU–WSU faculty conference on the same subject, to be held in Pullman in spring 2007. The closing session on March 20 was held in Fujiyoshida at the foot of Mount Fuji. Cottam, Marenin, and Reed were also invited to another ICU workshop on March 15 titled “Toward a New Partnership of the United Nations System and Global Civil Society.”

Photo taken at the Mt. Fuji Shrine in Fujiyoshida. From the left: Martha Cottam, Otwin Marenin, Noriko Kawamura, Gregory Hooks, Shin Chiba (ICU), Susan Ross, Daisuke Moriwake (ICU), Jacqueline Wasilewski (ICU), and T.V. Reed.

Liberal Arts Highlight Students Selected

The College of Liberal Arts has chosen the highlight students for the spring 2006 commencement.

Photo: Vernette P. Doty Vernette P. Doty had one son still attending Pullman High School, another son at Claremont College in California, and a grown adopted daughter when she enrolled at WSU. Twenty-five years had passed since she graduated from John Muir High School in Pasadena. “Everything about being on campus was overwhelming,” Doty said. “It was very tough to keep up. You just don’t realize how confusing school can be until you return.”

While taking a full course load toward her B.A. in sociology, Doty held down a job working twenty hours a week at Ken Vogel Clothiers, became a grandmother, her eldest son enrolled in a master’s program, her nephew from California moved to Pullman to enroll at WSU, and her husband, John Doty, a minister, enrolled in the Ph.D. program in the College of Education. Though she entered WSU with only ten transferable semester hours from a California junior college, Doty managed to graduate summa cum laude in only three years, and she has been accepted into the sociology master’s program. She hopes one day to teach sociology at a junior college or small liberal arts college.

Photo: Martin L. Boston Martin L. Boston is an NCAA athlete and applying to graduate schools, so to hear him describe himself as a “slacker” in high school is surprising. “If it hadn’t been for my desire to run track and field I would have ended up at a junior college,” said Boston, a graduate of James Logan High School in Union City, California. “It’s only because I wanted a track scholarship that I knew I needed a fairly decent grade point average and that I needed to take the SAT test.” Boston ran track on scholarship all four years at WSU. In 2003 he represented the U.S. in the Junior Pan-American Games in Barbados.

Boston arrived at WSU with his sights set on a degree in business. “Then I took this African American history class taught by Dwayne Mack in comparative ethnic studies, and it was just profoundly interesting to me.” Boston helped form the Society of Spoken Word Artists, was active in Black Men Making a Difference on Campus (BMMAD), and hosted a BMMAD talk show on KZUU radio. He also worked as a counselor at the Upward Bound Summer Camp Program, was a columnist for the Daily Evergreen, and is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.

Boston has applied to the Ph.D. program at Howard University, and if he is not a successful candidate there will consider the interdisciplinary cultural studies master’s program at WSU. He hopes to teach performance studies and spoken word poetry.

Sociology Student Chosen for Prestigious Internship

Andrea Hall (senior, sociology) was selected from a pool of three hundred candidates for a Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars Congressional Internship.

The nine-week internship runs from late May to late July and includes a stipend of $1,500, round-trip airfare to Washington, D.C., free lodging at Howard University, and a daily expense allowance. “I plan to represent WSU and my native community with 110 percent effort and look at this experience as an exciting, motivating, and life-changing event,” said Hall, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation from Mission, Oregon.

The Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars Program aims to create opportunities for minority students in careers related to health policy, an area Jordan felt significantly impacts vulnerable populations.

Hall’s internship will be devoted to learning how the federal government works, participating in seminars and site visits, conducting health policy research, and developing a group presentation with the fourteen other interns selected from across the country.

Hall believes her experience serving on her reservation’s Health Commission and attending Northwest and national Indian Health Board meetings gives her a unique perspective on health care issues. “As a member of the Health Commission I experienced worried patients directly affected by the decrease in federal funding. The budget cuts impact the people I know and love, and I worry that they will stop going to the doctor because they can’t afford the premiums and co-pays,” said Hall.

Besides working on her sociology degree, Hall is chair of WSU’s Coalition of Women Students and participates in the Native American Women’s Association and Commission on the Status of Women. She also serves as a mentor for first-year students in the Native American Student Center. She plans to pursue graduate studies in Health Policy and Administration at WSU Spokane or WSU Vancouver following the completion of her undergraduate degree.

2006 Outstanding Graduating Seniors Named

Congratulations to the students named Outstanding Graduating Seniors in the College of Liberal Arts: Jacob Hughes (anthropology), Tamber Hilton (Asian studies), Justin Michael Johnson (communication), Nina Kim (comparative ethnic studies), Sheila Gluzer (criminal justice), Condry Robbins III (English), Liza Anne Swensen (fine arts), Kathleen Burgard (foreign languages and cultures), Clinton G. Lueken (general studies), Amy Melyssa Desantis (history), Paul Lofing (music), Teri Mayfield (philosophy), Alexis Blanc (political science), Christopher Robertson (psychology), Adrianne Wesoloski (sociology), Megan Gumke (speech and hearing sciences), Audrey Bensel (theatre arts), and Joshua Goldstein (women’s studies).

Political Science Faculty to Edit Prestigious Journal

Beginning July 2006, the journal of the Western Political Science Association, Political Research Quarterly (PRQ), one of the top-ranked journals in the field of political science, will be housed in the Department of Political Science at Washington State University.

Professors Cornell Clayton and Amy Mazur will assume the role of editors and plan to continue PRQ’s tradition of excellence by encouraging research that is both problem-driven and that utilizes multiple methodological and theoretical frameworks.

According to Mazur, there are distinct benefits when a department is selected to edit a high-profile journal. “The department increases its stature in the field of political science,” said Mazur. “It gives a great boost to the graduate program through providing an in-house example of a top journal.”

“In contrast to the scores of specialized journals,” said Clayton, “PRQ is one of the six general journals of political science research sponsored by the national or regional political science associations—the Western Political Science Association is one of the largest of these. The journal thus publishes research covering the entire range of topics and subjects in the discipline—e.g., American politics, international relations, comparative politics, public policy and public administration, political theory and political philosophy, etc. PRQ is usually regarded as one of the top five in political science,” said Clayton.

The College of Liberal Arts and the political science department at WSU provided generous funding to complement the support from the WPSA for the journal.

German Slam Poet to Visit Campus

In connection with German 130 (Introduction to Masterpieces in German Literature in Translation) and sponsored by the Goethe Institut and VPLAC, the German section of the Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures will host a performance by Nora Gomringer, one of the leading storytellers and slam poets in Germany. Gomringer not only spins tales and recites poetry in German and English, but she also performs as a singer. She has been a guest at many spoken word festivals and won numerous poetry awards. Her only performance in the Palouse region will be free of charge and open to the public; it will take place on October 9 at the Pullman campus. For further information, contact Bernadette H. Hyner at 509-335-6628.