Fall 2022

Message from the Dean

Photo of Dean David Powers and holiday greetingDear Arts and Sciences Alumni and Friends,

As I wrote this note, it was the last week of classes for the quarter and snow was falling outside my window in the Casey building. It is always a busy week; along with final classes we held the Advent Mass and Tree Lighting on Thursday, with the Choir Holiday concert on Friday. You can still enjoy this year's concert, "My Heart Shall Sing: A Holiday Celebration in Word and Song," online here.

As our campus and the world continue to reopen, we’re excited to share how we’re reconnecting with global partners, including a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence from our partner institution, the University of Central America (UCA) in Managua, Nicaragua. I was able to visit UCA when we began our partnership in 2014 and we are happy to be welcoming a member of their esteemed faculty back to our campus.

We’ll also be greeting many of you on campus January 24, for LinkUp, a key introduction to networking for our Arts & Sciences students, connecting them with alumni. Please read on for even more about the continuing events and accomplishments of our faculty, staff and students.

David V. Powers, PhD
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences


In This Issue

Global Connections: In the Classroom and Across Campus

As a partner in the global network of Jesuit universities and as a university located in the heart of an international city that is home to many global companies and international non-government organizations, global engagement is critically important to Seattle University.

Professor Marissa Olivares and Dr. Serena Cosgrove, with Dr. Susan Meyers in backgroundThis fall, students enrolled in “UCOR 1600: Conflict and Revolution in Central America” are experiencing global engagement in a much more individual way. Professor Marissa Olivares, Seattle University’s first Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, and Dr. Serena Cosgrove, Associate Professor, International Studies and Program Director, Central America Initiative, are co-teaching this core class.

“The Fulbright-Scholar-in-Residence program supports Seattle University’s global engagement goals and the goals of my university, Universidad Centroamericana (UCA), in Managua, Nicaragua,” says Professor Olivares. “This becomes a two-way resource as I share my experiences with students here, broadening their view of Central America and, specifically, Nicaragua. At the same time, I am building my own professional career and academic growth to take back to my university and my students there.”

“Professor Olivares and I have worked as colleagues and developed a friendship over the past decade,” explains Dr. Cosgrove. “This relationship and both our experiences in Nicaragua and Central America allow us to add personal and political elements to an academic class. While we provide a broad view of the history and conflict in Central American, we can take a much deeper look into Nicaragua and demonstrate what solidarity looks like between professors and with Nicaraguan students.”

The residency is a natural extension of their past collaboration. “My first teaching experience at Seattle University was during a time of high student activism,” says Professor Olivares. “I was struck by how much SU students had in common with ours in Nicaragua. During my second visit, there were several Nicaraguan students at SU, so we could all learn together, directly.”

Dr. Cosgrove adds, “While learning remotely during the pandemic, we were also able to use technology to expand our working relationship, coming in and out of one another’s classes and connecting students from around the world.”

Students with Professor Olivares and Dr. CosgroveIn addition to teaching this class with Dr. Cosgrove, as Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, Professor Olivares lives on campus in Xavier Global Hall as a resident minister, connecting with Latinx and international students, and strengthening SU’s inclusive and global campus community.

“I find myself in the process of learning how to approach each student as they are, with no assumptions,” says Professor Olivares. “Living in the residence hall, I’ve met many students who are working more than one job and studying, juggling many responsibilities, and learning how to live as adult people. I am so impressed with how hard they are working and studying. This is a new experience for me.”

Fulbright-Scholar-in-Residence at Seattle University

The Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence (S-I-R) Program is a Fulbright Program initiative that is specifically driven by the goals of U.S. institutions of higher education to enhance internationalization efforts on their campuses. Through the S-I-R Program, institutions host a scholar from outside of the United States for a semester or full academic year to teach courses, assist in curriculum development, guest lecture, develop study abroad/exchange partnerships and engage with the campus and the local community. (Source: Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Program website)

“I participated in the Fulbright Foreign Student program in 1995, when I earned my master’s degree at University of Kentucky,” says Professor Olivares. “The Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence program makes critical contributions to international connection and cultural understanding. It is an honor to be named Seattle University’s first Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence.”

Student and Professor Olivares in NicaraguaThroughout her tenure at SU, Professor Olivares will support, design, and implement Central America related programming for the SU campus and the broader Seattle community through her collaboration with the university’s Central America Initiative. She and Dr. Cosgrove are exploring ideas to develop activities to engage students and the broader community, illustrating the challenges and opportunities facing the region at this present time, and strengthening relationships with Seattle-based organizations that focus on Central America and other advocates for the region.

Drawing from the Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence proposal, Dr. Cosgrove noted two long term goals for the residency. “First, we continue to strengthen our partnership with the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Managua, Nicaragua,” she said. “As the first university partner of our Central America Initiative, this opportunity to work together for an entire year will contribute to a more nuanced understanding of our different institutional cultures as well as our different national realities.  It is our hope that this exchange will lead to increased programming between our two universities as well as with the other universities of Central America.”

She continued, “Seattle University is committed to increasing the cultural competencies of its students as well as assuring the inclusion of students of color, particularly Latinx and students of Central American heritage.  The presence of Professor Olivares as a teacher and as a mentor to students will support this important long-term goal.”

Global Engagement at Seattle University

SU professors and students in NicaraguaCreated in 2010, global engagement efforts animate opportunities across the university for our campus to connect to the world and vice versa. Programming includes global initiatives and international university partnerships, study abroad, and international scholarship programs.

The Central America Initiative, SU’s flagship global engagement initiative, began in 2014 as a partnership with the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Managua, Nicaragua, growing to include the two other Jesuit universities of Central America: the Universidad Rafael Landívar in Guatemala and the Universidad Centroamericana “José Simeón Cañas” in El Salvador.

“Welcoming Professor Olivares is a remarkable way to extend the Central America Initiative across the campus,” says Dr. Cosgrove. “The opportunity to learn from an expert will serve our students as they learn more about Nicaragua, in particular, and the Central American region as a whole. Given the paucity of news coverage in the United States about the region, our students will expand their understanding of the current events and historical roots of Central American society and politics by studying with Dr. Olivares. For students, Central America won’t be an appendage to Mexico; rather it will shine forth as its own vibrant and diverse region in their minds.”

“I have had so much support in integrating with the academic community at SU,” says Professor Olivares. “I feel very welcome.”

This is the first of a three-part series. Watch for our Winter 2023 newsletter with the next story about Professor Olivares’ residency and a deeper exploration of the issues faced in Central America, especially the challenges for students and colleagues at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Managua, Nicaragua.

Photos, top to bottom:
Professor Olivares and Dr. Cosgrove, with Dr. Susan Meyers in the background;*
Isabeau J. Belisle Dempsey (SU grad), Marissa Olivares, Serena Cosgrove (SU), and Irina Carlota Silber (CUNY) at the launch event of "Imagining Central America;
Professor Olivares and student;*
Professor Olivares, Dr. Cosgrove, Dr. Meyers and students.*
*Taken during a collaborative research project with UCA and SU students and professors from 2015 in which they investigated the grandmothering of Nicaragua due to outbound migration of parents. All photos by Claire Garoutte.


Driving Change: Student and Faculty Research

Seattle University’s Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Forensics Department has a very long well-respected history among the greater Seattle community for developing professionals well-equipped to keep questioning and addressing community challenges within our criminal justice, policing, and public safety sector. One of the hallmarks of the program is the opportunity for our students to participate in deep, meaningful research.

Images of the Space Needle, police vehicle and chart on computerThrough the department’s Crime and Justice Research Center, both graduate and undergraduate students and faculty work on a variety of ongoing research projects, including the Seattle Police Micro-Community Policing Plans (MCPP). Since 2015, SU research teams have conducted annual independent public safety surveys of MCPP neighborhoods, defined through police-community engagement including community meetings, focus groups, survey data, and the realities of geographic boundaries SPD can use to collect and report on events.

Faculty and students also publish their work widely, including in op-ed columns like this recent one, "Diverse Voices Are Needed to Understand Public Safety and Security in Seattle," written by Dr. Jacqueline Helfgott and graduate students Brian Bledsoe and Katie Kepler in the South Seattle Emerald.

Student Spotlight

Photo of Brandon BledsoeBrandon Bledsoe, Master of Arts in Criminal Justice (MACJ) candidate, serves as an MCPP research analyst on the project for the South and Southwest Precincts. In 2023, he will co-present a paper at the 2023 Western Society of Criminology conference with Dr. Helfgott and Shannon Christensen, MACJ ’22, (Southern Illinois University doctoral candidate and former MCPP Research Analyst), on community-police dialogues developed as part of the MCPP research. Brandon will also complete his thesis using data from the SPD MCPP Seattle Public Safety Survey and recently co-authored an op-ed in The Seattle Times.

"Before the Badge"

The annual public safety survey has led to becoming part of Seattle Police Department’s “Before the Badge” program. This new training program, described in this Seattle Times article, engages recruits in specialized training and community engagement 45 days prior to entering the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission’s Basic Law Enforcement Academy.

Members of the research team on ZoomThe dialogues were held weekly via Zoom and engage community members with recruits in discussions about precinct and neighborhood-based public safety. The MCPP Research Team facilitated 10 "Before the Badge" Community-Police Dialogues between September and November, engaging community members in conversations with new Seattle Police recruits; these dialogues will continue as a regular part of the SPD Before the Badge training.

The project also includes a three-year longitudinal evaluation of the "Before the Badge" training. Dr. Helfgott is the primary investigator with co-investigator Dr. Matthew Hickman, professor and chair of Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Forensics. Graduate student Bailey Tanaka and undergraduate students Stanton Shinchi and Hailey Calcagn will work as research analysts. The study will involve conducting interviews with SPD "Beyond the Badge" and WA State Criminal Justice Training Commission Basic Law Enforcement Academy (BLEA) recruits. The team will also administer a survey instrument at before and after the "Beyond the Badge" training and following graduation from BLEA, as well as 1-year and 3-years post BLEA.

Deepening Community-Police Dialogue

In addition to the quantitative public safety survey, over the past two years the MCPP Research team has conducted community-police dialogues in between the survey administration (prior to 2020 student RAs conducted focus groups in all Seattle Micro-Communities). During the spring and summer of 2022, the MCPP Research Team graduate students Brandon Bledsoe, Katie Kepler, and Ashley Dobbs and undergraduate student Evelyn Madrid-Fierro co-facilitated 15 virtual community-police dialogues with Dr. Jacqueline Helfgott, Director of the SU Crime and Justice Research Center and Criminal Justice professor. As members of the Micro-Community Policing Research Team, the students worked as paid civilian Seattle Police Research Analysts through a funded collaboration between Seattle University and the Seattle Police Department. The dialogues brought together community members and police in a restorative dialogue framework to discuss concerns about public safety from both community and police personnel perspectives at the precinct and neighborhood levels.

Dr. Helfgott and Brian Bledsoe interviewed onlineThe students conducted community outreach to the community, including participating in media interviews. In one with Rainier Avenue Radio, Dr. Helfgott and Brandon Bledsoe talked about the community dialogues. Listen to the interview here.

The students continued their work this fall, helping administer the eighth annual Public Safety Survey, that was open to all who live and work in Seattle through November 30. The survey, available in Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, English, Korean, Oromo, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrinya and Vietnamese, sought to collect community perceptions of crime and public safety. The team is committed to reaching a diverse group of respondents.

In the eight years of the Seattle Police Department’s Micro-Community Policing Plans collaboration with Seattle University, a total of 35 students have served as MCPP Research Analysts. In their roles as RAs, the students have gained experience in police-community engagement, survey research, restorative dialogues, data analysis, report-writing, media interviews, academic presentations and publication, and public scholarship. Students who have served in the MCPP RA roles have gone after graduating from SU to careers with the Seattle Police Department as officers, crime prevention coordinators, crime analysts, public records specialists and with other law enforcement agencies as officers (including Renton Police Department, Lynwood Police Department, and federal agencies), King County Forensic Medico-Legal Death Investigator, and in other criminal justice roles as policy analysts and data analysts.

Photos, top to bottom:
Graphic for Crime and Justice Research project
Brandon Bledsoe
Research team: Katie Kepler, Evelyn Madrid-Fierro, Brandon Bledsoe, Ashley Dobbs, Dr. Jacqueline Helfgott
Brandon Bledsoe and Dr. Helfgott, with host Tony B. on Rainier Avenue Radio


SU Gives 2023: Put Your Best Foot Forward as an SU-pporter

Photo of SU branded socks, sticker and penSave the date: March 2, 2023

Get your limited-edition SU socks when you sign up to show your SU pride online and share your special SU connection to inspire others to participate in Seattle U Gives and support the causes closest to your heart.

Sign up here.

(Want the full boxed set? Set up a challenge gift; contact Josh Marron by email today.)

Help Students Imagine Pathways to the Future

LinkUp 2023 Mentors Needed

Alumnus and students in conversationOne of the goals within Seattle University’s “Reigniting Our Strategic Directions” is to strengthen professional formation for all. LinkUp is a great opportunity to help students begin or continue their professional formation and explore the many ways career paths present themselves.

Do you have career experience, industry insight, and a willingness to inspire students?

Join us for LinkUp 2023, our speed mentoring event, Tuesday, January 24, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Student Cetner.

LinkUp is an informal event that encourages conversation and connection. A 15-minute conversation could give a Seattle University student the information, insight, and inspiration that they need to move forward on their professional pathway – and maybe discover opportunities they never imagined.

Christina Beavers, Psychology major and College of Arts and Sciences Senator, Student Government, Seattle University, recommends LinkUp to fellow students, “(the event) allows students to interact with Seattle University alumni about their career goals. This event helps students practice networking skills and teaches them how to make strong connections within the Seattle University community. Students can explore job opportunities while interacting with alumni who know the value and importance of education at Seattle University.”

Sign up now to join us.

Do you have colleagues who might also want to serve as mentors? While we are particularly interested in connecting with SU alumni, we welcome all who want to help mentor the next generation.


My Heart Shall Sing: A Holiday Celebration in Word and Song

Image of sparkler with textSeattle U Choirs returned to in-person performance last week. If you missed it, you can still enjoy the warmth of the season and view the concert recording on YouTube. (The performance begins at 31:00.)

Looking for a Great Holiday Gift?

Buy advance tickets for the Winter (March 10) and Spring (May 19) concerts and give the gift of music this year.

Tickets for all concerts available here.

Interested in performing with Seattle Choirs?

New singers are welcomed into the Seattle University Choirs at the beginning of each quarter. Auditions are required for University Chorale & Chamber Singers; University Singers does not require an audition and is open to students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community members. Reach out to Dr. Leann Conley-Holcom, Director of Choral Activities, by email to get involved.


Events: Upcoming and On Video

November - December

Both Sides Now
Hedreen Gallery
Through January 5, 2023
Join us on Thursday, December 8, 2022 from 5 to 8 p.m., during the Capitol Hill Art Walk. Refreshments included.
In specific explorations of identity, Tara Tamaribuchi, Rodrigo Valenzuela and Samantha Wall bring a broader American story to life. A young country created through colonization, perimeters and immigration, Both Sides Now is a story touching every family. Generation after generation, we re-negotiate who belongs and who does not. What does it look like, to be split between cultures, sharing yourself between worlds? These evocative works create tangible realities of emotional complexities. Through their art, Tamaribuchi, Valenzuela, and Wall touch upon the elusive sense of belonging in the immigrant experience; integral to the sense of self and yet unprescribed by a singular homeland. Learn more here.

Coming up in 2023

Theory to Practice
January 18, 5 p.m., livestream
The Institute of Public Service debuts a new quarterly livestream event highlighting the latest faculty research and demonstrating how it applies directly to the workplace and career development. The first episode features Rashmi Chordiya, PhD, and Larry Hubbell, PhD, discussing their research presented in “Fostering Internal Pay Equity Through Gender Neutral Job Evaluations: A Case Study of the Federal Job Evaluation System." Watch for more information and the link to the livestream in January on our event page.

Pacific Northwest Media Commons:, ‘No matter how lacking…’: Documentary and the Value Form
January 20, 3:30 p.m. (PT)
Zoom
Benedict Stork, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Film and Media Studies, presents work-in-progress in this ongoing series hosted by the regional organization dedicated to promoting cinema and media studies scholarship in the Pacific Northwest. Learn more on the Facebook group.

Imagining Central America: Short Histories
January 30, 7 p.m.
Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave.
Dr. Serena Cosgrove and Isabeau J. Belisle Dempsey, BA, International Studies and Spanish ’19, talk about their new book. Given the strategic location of Central America, its importance to US foreign policy, and the migration from the region to other parts of the world, this succinct summary of the countries of Central America is an essential resource for those working in, studying, writing about, or traveling to the region. Promoting increased understanding of the region's governance, economics, and structures of power, Imagining Central America highlights the many ways that Central American countries are connected to the United States through resettling, economic investment, culture flows, and foreign policy. Co-hosted by Elliott Bay Book Company. Learn more here.

Winter Production: Student Directing Scenes
Preview: February 22; Performances: February 23-26. March 2-5
John and Susan Eshelman Stage, Lee Center for the Arts
Work by student directors under the mentorship of new Directing Faculty, Associate Teaching Professor Brennan Murphy.

Seattle University Choirs Winter Concert
March 10, 8 p.m., Seattle First Baptist Church, 1111 Harvard Avenue
SU Choirs are joined by the University of Washington Choral Cohort for a shared performance of music by Composer in Residence Melissa Dunphy. Purchase tickets here.

Seattle University Choirs Spring Concert
May 19, 8 p.m., Seattle First Baptist Church, 1111 Harvard Avenue
Our final concert of the year includes a commission and performance with Karen Marolli. Purchase tickets here.

More On Video

Unmute the Voices

Quinton Morris, DMA, Associate Professor, Violin, recently interviewed SU President Eduardo Peñalver for the Unmute the Voices video series. They discuss a number of topics including his presidency at SU, and other fun topics like his personal taste in music and taking his son to Suzuki violin lessons. He also provides some good advice for anyone looking to make the next big step in their careers or lives. Watch here.

Anxiety Overload: Coping with the Pandemic, Public Safety, and Declining Women’s Rights

The first of the Institute of Public Service's 2022-23 events was held on October 20, featuring Dr. Vin Gupta, public health physician, professor, health policy expert; incoming Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz; and Seattle City Councilmember Sara Nelson, who has taught women's studies classes at the University of Washington.

They talked about managing anxiety and other difficulties in stressful times with Dr. Larry Hubbell. Watch now, presented by the Seattle Channel.


College of Arts and Sciences Community News

Congratulations to the CAS alumni named to the Alumni Board of Governors

  • Tom Hove, BA, Social Work, '17
  • Kahlia Keita, BA, English, '08
  • Kristin Kuzmanich, BA, English, '06; College of Education, MIT, '07
  • Jose Armando Munguia, MPA, '21
  • Laura Ochoa, MPA, '13
  • Juliana Balinbin Stuachurski, BS, History and Philosophy, '00
  • Sherry Williams, MPA, '09

College of Arts & Sciences 2022-23 Student Assistantship Awards

Congratulations to this year’s recipients of College of Arts & Sciences 2022-23 Student Assistantship Awards which support faculty scholarship and creative work.

  • Onur Bakiner, PhD, Associate Professor, Political Science, “Taking Stock of Algorithmic Harms: Documenting a Decade of Problems and Solutions”
  • Serena Cosgrove, PhD, Associate Professor, International Studies, “Heal Her, Heal the Country: Survivor Agency in Postconflict Settings”
  • Nalini Iyer, PhD, Professor, English, “Teaching Anglophone South Asian Diasporic Literature; Partition and Beyond; South Asian American Literature”
  • Chengxin Xu, Assistant Professor, Institute of Public Service, “A Field Experiment on Discrimination against Immigrants in the U.S. Health Care Market”

Alumni News: Dual Majors

Kymberly Evanson, BA, French and English, '99, magna cum laude, with honors (University Honors Program, Sullivan Leadership Award), was one of President Biden's recent judicial nominees.

Charlie Hitchcock, BA, Creative Writing and Finance, ’12, a housing developer with the state’s Office of Rural and Farmworker Housing, has obtained national certification as a rental housing development finance professional from the National Development Council.

Caroyln K. Huynh, BA, Journalism, minor in Nonprofit and Public Administration, ’11, published a new book, “The Fortunes of Jaded Women.

Josh Merchant, BA, French and Psychology, minor in International Studies, '20, Is the Kansas City Beacon’s local government reporter and recently published “Fox, possum and deer are out this breeding season in JoCo — Here are tips for homeowners.”

Liz Nielsen, BA, Philosophy and Spanish, ’97, launched “Forcefield,” her first large scale art installation at the Dutch Reformed Church in Newburgh, New York. “I’ve been working as an artist for 20 years and I work with light primarily. I work with light as a experimental photographer and so I record light onto paper but without a camera. I count wavelengths. I’m a little bit of a mad scientist,” Nielsen said. “This project also includes light and includes my ideas which are connected to quantum physics in terms of manifestation and bringing in things from the quantum field.

Erin Okuno, BA, Public Administration, minor in Social Work, ‘00, MPA, '07, has been named the director of the WA Education Ombuds, Office of Education Ombuds (OEO), by Governor Jay Inslee.

Christy Leskovar, BA, French and Mechanical Engineering, '82, published the book, "East of the East Side."

Collaborative Projects

Ken Allan, PhD, Associate Professor, Art History, and Charles M. Tung, PhD, Professor, English, co-organized a seminar, “Survival is Insufficient: Infrastructures of Preservation and Transmission,” at the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present (ASAP) Conference at UCLA, Sept 15-18, 2022.  Allan’s paper, “Radio/Aether: Wallace Berman’s Verifax Collages and LIFE Magazine as a ‘Medium’ for the Sixties,” considered the artist's use of the magazine as an archive and the emergence of information theory during the postmodern turn in the arts. Tung’s paper, “Critical University Studies in Deep Time,” focused on contemporary representations of educational institutions and scenes of learning against a backdrop of seed banks, survivalist libraries, and bunkers.  Allan serves on the ASAP board as Secretary.

Rashmi Chordiya, PhD, Assistant Professor, and Larry Hubbell, PhD, Professor, co-authored “Fostering Internal Pay Equity Through Gender Neutral Job Evaluations: A Case Study of the Federal Job Evaluation System” in the peer-reviewed publication, Public Personnel Management. The article focuses on fostering internal pay equity in organizations through gender neutral job evaluations. We argue for a more nuanced operationalization of the pay equity principle that goes beyond 'equal pay for equal work' and includes 'equal pay for work of equal value'. This article highlights the overlooked and undervalued job factors that are commonly associated with female-dominated jobs and contribute towards pay inequities. Gender neutral job evaluations can help us achieve pay equity across organizational jobs that may be different in substance and are of equal value to the organization.

Kathleen Cook, PhD, Professor, Psychology, and her collaborators at Seattle University’s Mechanical Engineering Department presented a workshop for the National Science Foundation’s Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments (RED) conference in September.  The workshop, “Sustaining the Change,” applies the seven aspects of the framework to two case studies and guides participants through applying the framework to their own endeavors.  The goal of the framework is to help researchers, educators, and funding agencies assess change viability and sustainability of their change efforts.  A paper based on this work was also accepted for a special session at the Frontiers in Education conference in Uppsala, Sweden in October.

Serena Cosgrove, PhD, Associate Professor, International Studies, and her co-author, Isabeau J. Belisle Dempsey, BA, International Studies and Spanish, ‘19, are happy to share the news that their book, Imagining Central America: Short Histories, has just been published by the University of Cincinnati Press. The book provides readers with regional analysis and context of Central America as well as country-by-country histories for Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.

Dr. Cosgrove and her co-editors, Wendi Bellanger, PhD, and Irina Carlota Silber, PhD, also published their book, Higher Education, State Repression, and Neoliberal Reform in Nicaragua: Reflections from a University under Fire. This innovative volume makes a key contribution to debates around the role of the university as a space of resistance by highlighting the liberatory practices undertaken to oppose dual pressures of state repression and neoliberal reform at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Nicaragua. With a range of contributors from Nicaragua and Central Americanist scholars in the U.S., including the editors, one of the chapters was authored by Andrew Gorvetzian, who graduated in 2015 from Seattle University with a double major in International Studies and Spanish.

As part of their NSF research project on the use of economic incentives for conservation and sustainable development in Ecuador, Tanya Hayes, PhD, Professor and Director, Institute of Public Service and Program Director, Environmental Studies, and Felipe Murtinho, PhD, Associate Professor and Director, International Studies, and Associate Appointments, Institute of Public Service and Environmental Studies,  published the policy report “Incentivos para la conservación: ¿una herramienta que apoya el manejo comunitario sostenido de recursos naturales?” Socio Bosque report 2022 to share with community partners. This summer, they met with officials from the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment to discuss the policy lessons from their study.

Audrey Hudgins, EdD, Clinical Associate Professor, Matteo Ricci Institute, with Seattle University student, Cullin Egge, and a colleague and student from Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla, Guillermo Yrizar and Metztli Chavez, presented “Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL): A Tool for Global Citizenship” at the 2022 American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Conference on Global Learning.

She presented “Making Mexico Great Again: A Case Study of Migrant Detention and Family Separation in Puebla during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” with Guillermo Yrizar and Elena Ayala, Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla, as part of the panel “Restrictions to Mobilities in a COVID-19 Era: Persistence, Resistance, and Human Rights in Central-North America” at the Latin American Studies Association 2022 Hybrid Congress: Polarización socioambiental y rivalidad entre grandes potencias in May. With undergraduate students Cullin Egge, Faye White, and Grace Marston, she worked alongside Ibero Puebla colleagues, Guillermo Yrizar and Elena Ayala, and eight 8 Ibero Puebla students and alumni to conduct two weeks of fieldwork in the Sierra highlands of Veracruz state in support of Radio Huaya, a community development work of the Jesuits, to investigate the effects of labor migration on individuals, families, and communities. Preliminary findings were presented at two conferences in July 2022. The first presentation, titled, “Plataforma Huaya-Puebla-Seattle International Research Collaboration on U.S.-Mexican Labor Migration and Transnational Families,” was presented at the Conference on Migration in North America During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic, hosted by Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP) and El Centro de Investigación e Inteligencia Económica (CIIE). A second presentation titled, “Plataforma Puebla-Huaya: avances en colaboración con Seattle University (SU) (Eje 3: Migraciones),” was shared at the quarterly conference of Plataforma Huaya, held at Instituto Oriente in Puebla, Mexico. Work commenced this summer on write-ups, with the goal of publishing a report, scholarly articles and/or a book based on the initial results of what will be a longitudinal study, the US phase of which will begin this fall.

Anthropology and Sociology

Annalisa M. Bernard, BA, Sociology, '00, was confirmed to a position in the District Court of the Second Circuit, which encompasses Maui County. Her term of office will be for six years. 

In partnership with Dr. Laura Lynn, Interim Executive Director of the Office of Native Education in the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Rob Efird, PhD, Professor, Anthropology and Asian Studies, co-edited a special edition of Clearing: Journal of Environmental Education for the Cascadian Bioregion. The special edition is entitled "Indigenous Perspectives and Environmental Education: Connecting Youth with Plants, Places and Cultural Traditions" and is available for viewing on the Clearing website and here.

Art, Art History, and Design

Artwork by Arturo Araujo, MFA, Associate Professor, Visual Arts, is featured in ”Conversations, Issue 61, Fall 2022.” Read more here.

Gretchen Frances Bennett, MFA, Adjunct Professor, with Seattle University as her home institution, completed a research Fulbright Core Scholar award to the Slovak Republic in 2021-22.

Dawn Cerny, Adjunct Professor, Art, Art History, and Design, is one of fifteen recipients of the Joan Mitchell Fellowship. This prestigious fellowship provides unrestricted grant funds over five years and Fellows are invited to participate in one-on-one professional practice consultations; convenings that cultivate a peer learning community; and programs that focus on personal finance, legacy planning, and thought leadership, among other opportunities. She also received the Bonnie Bronson Visual Arts Fellowship. The Bonnie Bronson Fellowship is an annual award made to an artist living and working in the Pacific Northwest. The award is a cash prize and purchase of a work of art for the Bonnie Bronson Collection, which is housed at Reed College and displayed prominently throughout campus. Artists may not apply for this award and the new Fellow is informed with a simple phone call from the selection committee.

Communication and Media

Caitlin Carlson, PhD, Chair and Associate Professor, Communication and Media, co-authored a number of articles, including:

  •  “Pronoun policies in public schools: The case against First Amendment exceptions for K-12 teachers.” Civil Rights Law Journal, 32(2) 261-297. Carlson, C.R. & Hansen, E. (2022).
  •  “Access denied: How online harassment limits access to public accommodations offline. Gonzaga Law Review,” 57(3) 551-588. Carlson, C.R. & Henein, L. (2022).
  •  “Rethinking Adarand after Prometheus: A rational basis solution to FCC minority ownership policy.” Federal Communications Law Journal, 74(2) 134-170. Terry, C. & Carlson, C.R. (2022).

Vinnie Hobb, BA, Communications, ’09, has joined bicoastal Union Editorial as a staff editor, marking his first commercial making affiliation. A three-time Best Editing VMA nominee, during the pandemic he edited Cardi B’s crowd-pleasing “WAP” feat. Megan Thee Stallion (directed by Tilley), and MGK’s (Machine Gun Kelly) “Bloody Valentine” (Michael Garcia, dir.), which won Best Alternative Video at the VMAs in 2020. Enjoying a new run of hits, including Doja Cat’s “Vegas” (Child, dir.), Hobbs continues to produce music videos through his company, VH Post. On the spot front, he has cut projects for McDonald’s, Nintendo, Hennessy, Audi, and Rolls Royce, among others. His first assignment with Union is Nike Jordan Family’s “Back to School,” directed by Mez for Heirs." Read more.

Sonora Jha, PhD, Associate Dean for Academic Community and Professor, Department of Communication and Media, was featured on the Sept 18 episode of "The Deep End Friends" Podcast. She spoke with poet and activist Anastacia Renee who was a visiting writer for the English Department in 2020-21. She was a contributor to 'India at 75' published by PEN America to mark India's 75 years of independence on Aug. 15. “To mark India at 75, PEN America reached out to authors from India and the Indian diaspora to write short texts expressing what they felt. Together they make a historic document. Authors who were born in British India responded, as did India’s Midnight’s Children and grandchildren. Authors from around the globe sent us their thoughts, as did authors from India’s many languages, communities, faiths and castes. Some voices are optimistic, some prayerful, some anguished and enraged. Some suggest defeat, others venture hope, still others are defiant. The authors hold a spectrum of political views, and may be in disagreement about much else, but they are united in their concern for the state of Indian democracy. We invite you to read their ideas of what India was and ought to be, and what it has become.” Read her essay.

Christopher Paul, PhD, Professor, Communication and Media, contributed chapter 10, "Playing to Win," for the new edited collection, "EA Sports FIFA: Feeling the Game." He also participated in a recent game studies roundtable. "One of the things that drew me to academia was the ability to engage in critique. The point of rhetorical analysis is to think deeply about a text and then make an argument regarding how it works. In my case, I typically take those tools and use them to analyze games and their surrounding discussions. The time, space, and cognitive distance I need to do that work is something that those in industry cannot generally afford." Watch the video here.

Essence Russ, BA, Communication Studies, ‘07, Director, Technology Access Foundation, was named one of this year's "40 under 40" by Puget Sound Business Journal.

Couples and Family Therapy

Christie Eppler, PhD, LMFT, Program Director and Professor, co-authored "COVID-19 and clinical training: Diverse interns’ perspectives and collaborative recommendations" in the Journal of Feminist Family Therapy. She also presented “Navigating Transparency as a Leader. [Enhanced Education]” virtually at the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy’s Leadership Certificate Conference.

Dr. Eppler, Kimberly Riley, DSW, Assistant Clinical Professor, and LaDonna Smith, MA, LMFT, Interim Clinical Coordinator, presented "Cultivating Systemic Resilience" at AAMFT's 2022 Systemic Family Therapy Conference.

Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Forensics

Pete Collins, PhD, Associate Professor and Brooke Gialopsos, PhD, Assistant Professor, both Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Forensics, had research cited in "Editorial: What’s keeping people away from jury service?

Toshiko Hasegawa, BA, Criminal Justice, Criminology & Forensics ’10, MACJ ‘19, and Seattle port commissioner, received the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Committee award from her father, state Sen. Bob Hasegawa, at MLK Park on the 59th anniversary of King’s “I have a dream” speech.

Jacqueline Helfgott, PhD, Professor, Criminal Justice and Director, Crime & Justice Research Center, was interviewed for “Las Vegas Murders on Mass Shootings’ Anniversary is Coincidence, Experts Say.” She was also appointed to expert advisory panel to help offer support to sexual assault victims by Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell.

An article by Dr. Helfgott and Matthew Hickman, PhD, Professor and Chair, Criminal Justice, Criminology & Forensics, was cited in the Seattle Times story, “What role should police play in mental health calls? Seattle has small, limited crisis staff.

Lauren Morgan, MACJ, ’18, won gold in the women’s water ski jump at The World Games 2022 Birmingham, after learning she would be competing only three days before the international sporting competition began. “Morgan’s success goes beyond the water, too. She’s a daughter and sister: a member of a family that’s been committed to the sport for decades. She’s a criminal justice scholar, studying what she considers the far-too-large intersection of the foster care and juvenile justice systems. And Lauren Morgan is a feminist: a leader standing up and speaking out for women in a sport she said is dominated by men.

Michael Perez, BA, Criminal Justice, ’14, authored “Studies Show Negative Health Effects of Solitary Confinement on Prisoner Health” for ColoradoBoulevard.net.

Seattle University Debate Team

The debate team traveled to its first in-person tournament in the Northwest since March 2020. Nine students attended the Lewis and Clark College tournament and did very well. Our senior team of Alex Cruz and Eduard Strok placed in the top third of teams at the tournament and two of our younger teams advanced to the finals round for first year debaters, Matthew Maddux, Chris Uzochukwu, Julia Jenaro Barrio, Paris Mageirias, and Daniel Kasakula. Julia, Chris, and Paris were among the top five first year speakers.

English and Creative Writing

John C. Bean, PhD, Emeritus Professor, English, published an op-ed, “End Mass Incarceration in Washington Prisons,” in the Vashon Beachcomber.

Sharon Cumberland, PhD, Professor Emerita, English, published a new book: "Found in a Letter 1959  A Memoir in Poems". The cover art was designed by Josef Venker, S.J. curator of the Seattle University art collection-- "Found in a Letter 1959" is a collection of poems that begin with fragments of letters written when the poet's father, Jack Cumberland, was 38 years old and a Sloan Fellow at M.I.T.  Each poem continues in Jack's voice but imagines him as a man of 90 who can reflect on all the events of his past. The first section of this large-format, illustrated book are 36 "hybrid" poems, followed by the complete letters in the second section. These narrative poems conjure a mid-century past that stands in judgement of the new-century present.

Nalini Iyer, PhD, Professor, English appears on the podcast “Empire Lines,” talking about Balachandra Rajan’s novel “The Dark Dancer.” She has written about this novel in “Revisiting India’s Partition.”

Sean McDowell, PhD, Associate Professor, English, published the essay “Edward Herbert within the fellowship of plain speakers” in Edward and George Herbert in the European Republic of Letters, ed. Greg Miller and Anne-Marie Miller-Blaise (Manchester University Press). In addition, his poem “Mustard Jug” was recently published in the Welsh journal, Scintilla.

Susan Meyers, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of English and Director, Creative Writing Program, had an article accepted in the new edited collection, Innovations in Creative Writing Research: Methods, Methodologies, Practices, edited by Benjamin Ristow and Jon Udelson. She was awarded a 2022 Individual Artist Grant from 4Culture, in support of her new collection of literary essays, "Invisibility Lessons. In October, she presented at Fulbright's 45th Annual Conference near Washington D.C. In November, she presented at the Write in the Harbor Conference in Gig Harbor, WA.

Hailey Spencer, BA, English and Creative Writing ’17, published her first book of poetry, “Stories for When the Wolves Arrive.” About her time with us in the English Department, Hailey writes:  "When I transferred to Seattle U in 2015 as a Junior, I wasn’t sure I’d actually finish my degree. Very few people knew how much I was struggling at the time, but my mental health had taken a downturn in my sophomore year of college and was slow to recover. I am not exaggerating when I say that my first quarter in the SU English Department was the first time in months that I saw a clear path forward that felt right to me. I am writing this on the train to Portland for the launch of my debut poetry collection. I would not be here now if I hadn’t been there, seven years ago. I think of my time at Seattle University with so much love towards all of the faculty that took the time to care for me and guide me."

Charles M. Tung, PhD, Professor, English, organized the session “World Brain, Planetization, and Virality” at the Modernist Studies Association 22nd Annual Conference. His paper, “Modernism’s Homo Progressivus and the Virus 2022,” connected H.G. Wells’s fantasy of the “world brain” and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s evolutionary vision of a globally-networked “Homo progressivus” to the cruel libertarian epistemological optimism satirized by the “I did my own research” meme.

He published a chapter, “Clocks: Modernist Heterochrony and the Contemporary Big Clock,” in The Edinburgh Companion to Modernism and Technology, edited by Alex Goody and Ian Whittington. In this piece, Tung argues:  “When powered by modernist clockwork, the big clock of human civilization and the time of the planet – the clock that seems to preside over scenes of an ultimate fate, an absolute break and temporal reset, and even over omega-point fantasies of the death of time itself – ticks in a most peculiar way. The enlarged order of modernism’s clocks reveals not only that time is elapsing differently in different reference frames, but also that the present and the experience afforded by it are shot through unevenly with a variety of temporal rates and scales.”

Dr. Tung also spoke in a plenary session, "Making English Programs More Inclusive," at the MLA Academic Program Services Leadership Institute, June 27-30, 2022.  The theme of the 2022 Institute was "Leading Now: A Tool Kit for the Changing Humanities."  An expanded version of his remarks will appear in the ADE Bulletin in 2024.

Environmental Studies

Environmental Studies senior Emily Tacke and alumni Grace Chinen and Kylie Teng won Best Poster Presentation at last week's Murdock College Science Research Conference. They presented their poster, "Importance of Vegetation, Ground Cover, and Landscape Quality on Beneficial Insects in Seattle Community Gardens," demonstrating the results of research conducted with Dr. Heide Liere and funded by the Murdock Trust this past summer.

Heidi Liere, PhD, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, contributed to a new study, "Rarity begets rarity: Social and environmental drivers of rare organisms in cities,” featured in the National Science Foundation news.

Film and Media Studies

Benjamin Schultz-Figueroa, PhD, Assistant Professor, Film and Media Studies, has a new book, "The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life" available for pre-order on the UC Press website.

Kirsten Moana Thompson, PhD, Professor and Director, Film Studies, and Theiline Pigott-McCone Endowed Chair (2022-24) wrote a blog post for "Colour and Film" about her experiences at the 6th International Conference Colour in Film in Kinemathek Lichtspiel, Bern, Switzerland.  "The Dark History Of Candyman" on MSN.com quotes her paper, "Strange Fruit: Candyman and Supernatural Dread."

She delivered a keynote address “The Doors of Perception: Scintillating Light and Stuttering, Starburst Animation” at the Conference on Color, Bern Lichtspiel Kinemathek, Switzerland, September 25-28, 2022. She published" Introduction to Animation and Advertising", Malcolm Cook and Kirsten Moana Thompson, Handbook Animation Studies, (In German) eds. Franziska Bruckner, Julia Eckel, Maike Reinerth, and Erwin Feyersinger. Springer, (forthcoming) 2022. She also presented the conference paper, “Indigeneity, Corporate and alt right Appropriations: Fantasies of the Pacific, from Moana to Aquaman, New Zealand Studies Association (NZSA), Marseille, France, July 5-8, 2022.

Josefina Valenzuela Cerda, MFA, Adjunct Professor, Film and Media Studies, was awarded this year’s Women in Film Professional Grant for her Virtual Reality Short Film “The Mirror”, as a screenwriter and producer. She is grateful for WIF’s support to be able to continue with the postproduction of this innovative and immersive narrative that merges film, theatre, and dance, and counted on the participation of SU Film and Media students as professional interns.

History

Mariah Hepworth, BA, History with Departmental Honors ’10, joined the faculty of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts history and political science department.

James Nau, BA, History, '01, Lakeside School history teacher, was named the Washington State History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Indigenous Peoples Institute

Christina Roberts (Nakoda and Aaniiih Nations), PhD, Director, Indigenous Peoples Institute, and Associate Professor, English and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, spoke on a panel, “'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian' and its complicated legacy,” for the Talk of Iowa podcast. Listen here.

Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies

Sven Arvidson, PhD, Professor and Director of Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies, published "Reverent Awe and the Field of Consciousness" in the peer-reviewed philosophy journal Human Studies.

International Studies

Enyu Zhang, PhD, Associate Professor, International Studies, has published "All Roads Lead to Beijing: Systemism, Power Transition Theory and the Belt and Road Initiative" (co-authored with Patrick James) in Chinese Political Science Review.

Institute of Public Service

Derrick Belgarde (Siletz/Chippewa-Cree), BA, Public Affairs, '03 and MPA, '15, and Executive Director of Chief Seattle Club , was named a member of the Seattle City Council's new Indigenous Advisory Council. Listen to the KUOW Public Radio story. 

Courtney Brunell, MPA ’14, is the new City Administrator in Buckley, Washington.

Midas Hampton, MPA, '19, is the new Executive Director for the Spartanburg Community Indicators Project in Spartanburg, South Carolina. “This opportunity aligns with my values and passions and gives me the ability to reinvest in a community that has done so much for me. It is a privilege to leverage what I have learned throughout my career to support various stakeholders as we move towards a more just and equitable Spartanburg County for all residents.”

Kevin D. Ward, PhD, Associate Professor and Director, Public Affairs Program, published “Exploring Nonprofit Advocacy Research Methods and Design: A Systematic Review of the Literature" with coauthors from the University of Washington and University of Oregon in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Review, the top journal for nonprofit research.

Zachary D. Wood, PhD, Assistant Professor, Institute of Public Service, was interviewed for “Developer plans Puyallup apartment complex. 42 families forced to move to make room” in the News Tribune.

Marie Wong, PhD, Professor Emerita, Institute of Public Service, Asian Studies, and Public Affairs, wrote a commentary for Northwest Asian Weekly, ” The collateral damage from urban planning.”

Matteo Ricci Institute

Audrey Hudgins, EdD, Clinical Associate Professor, Matteo Ricci Institute, is writing a chapter called "Global experiential learning: (De)Constructing Housing Justice in Tijuana, Mexico" to be included in the book, Critical Innovations in Global Development Studies Pedagogy. Also, along with colleagues Maria Vidal, Loyola Chicago, and Alejandro Olayo-Mendez, Boston College, she organized and sponsored the quarterly seminar of the Red Jesuita Con Migrantes Centroamérica-Norteamérica (RJM CANA) on September 6, 2022. The seminar featured four panelists on the session’s theme of migrant integration, including Amanda Heffernan of SU’s College of Nursing.

Modern Languages and Cultures

Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, PhD, Professor, Modern Languages and Women Gender, and Sexuality Studies, had various invitations this last summer and fall following the launch of her three books in the last two years.

In July and August. she presented at the prestigious "A Orillas del Órbigo," reading event in León, Spain. While in Spain, she also had the opportunity to keynote at the Annual Film Festival in Vega de Riego, León, held this year in honor of the Chicanx homeland "Aztlán."

In August and September Dr. Gutiérrez y Muhs was invited to give presentations at the UJED in Durango, Mexico featuring her two recently published collections, “In Xochitl in Cuicátl,” a Latinx/Chicanx anthology (Madrid) she co-edited and her fully bilingual collection “¿How Many Indians Can We Be? ¿Cuántos indios podemos ser?”  (2021, 2022)

In November Dr. Gutiérrez y Muhs presented at the "El Mundo Zurdo Conference," the Annual conference in San Antonio, Texas, celebrating the work of theorist and writer Gloria Anzaldúa. 

She is the new President of "Seattle Escribe,” the largest group of Spanish-speaking writers in the northwestern United States. In addition to an array of classes and workshops and the promotion of community participation in cultural events, “Seattle Escribe” is the only writer's organization in the United States to have created a residency for writers who write in Spanish.  And the first residency was held this last September at Mineral School, near Mt. Rainier.  The residency is named after Seattle University Adjunct Professor Claudia Castro Luna, MFA, former poet laureate of the state of Washington.

Mariela López Velarde, Assistant Professor, PhD, Spanish, Modern Languages and Cultures, was an invited speaker at the series of conferences entitled The future of internationalization in Jesuit Universities. It was a forum organized by AUSJAL (Asociación de Universidades confiadas a la Compañía de Jesús de América Latina/ Association of Universities Entrusted to the Society of Jesus in Latin America) dedicated to the discussion and dialogue about the integration of the international dimension of the work done in Jesuit universities around the world.

Nonprofit Leadership

Laurie Campbell Pitner, MNPL, '13, was named Executive Director for Hospice of the Northwest Foundation.

David Chow, MNPL, ’16, was named Director for Philanthropy at UW Medicine.

Elizabeth Dale, PhD, Associate Professor, was quoted in two Forbes articles

  • "Here’s How Much More MacKenzie Scott Has Donated To Charity Than Ex-Husband Jeff Bezos"
  • "The Mystery Of MacKenzie Scott: How And Why She Picks Certain Nonprofits Is A Puzzle, Even To Them"

She also co-authored an article with Nicole Plastino, MNPL ’20, Giving With Pride: Considering Participatory Grantmaking in an Anti-Racist, LGBTQ+ Community Foundation. The Foundation Review, 14(1). 

Leilani Lewis, MNPL, ‘14 and Seattle University Nonprofit Leadership adjunct professor, was awarded the prestigious University of Washington 2022 Marilyn Batt Dunn Endowed Award for Excellence for her continued dedication to education and inclusion. Leilani also currently serves as the Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion for University of Washington Advancement.

Performing Arts and Arts Leadership

Two alumni joined the staff of ArtsWA. Adetola (Ade) Abatan, MFA ’22, Project Manager for the Art in Public Places (AIPP) team and Ashley Marshall, MFA ’21, Administrative Assistant with the Grants to Organizations team.

Sarah Ball, MFA, ’18, was named one of 425 Business' 2022 “30 Under 30. Among her accomplishments the announcement noted, “(she) works as a senior account manager with Healthcare Management Administrators, and for the last three years has tapped into her arts and leadership education by volunteering on the board of Renton Civic Theatre. During her two-year presidential tenure there — which coincided with the onset of the pandemic — she helped raise $100,000.”

Dominic CodyKramers, MFA, Associate Teaching Professor, designed the sound for Seattle Shakespeare Company's production of Shakespeare's Macbeth, featuring the acting and music talents of Dean David Powers' son, Hersh.

Jackson Cooper, MFA ’22, is profiled in Southern Theatre magazine as one of six rising leaders in “The Future of Fundraising.” He was also appointed by Seattle City Council to serve as a Commissioner for Seattle's LGBTQ Commission.

Stacy Noel Hicks, MFA, ‘14, received her Doctorate in Education and Organizational Learning And Leadership from the SU College of Education.

MFA in Arts Leadership ’23 candidate, Mick Holsbeke is in Valetta, Malta with Cirque du Soleil. The show "Amora" opens on November 24 and will run for 28 shows through December. After which, Mick will come home to finish his last year with the MFA ’23 cohort.

Janet Hayatshahi, MFA, Assistant Professor, Performing Arts and Arts Leadership, was interviewed by American Theatre for “Zharia O’Neal Is Sound Theatre’s First William S. Yellow Robe Playwright.”

James Miles, MFA, Assistant Professor, Performing Arts and Arts Leadership, presented “It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop” with Dr Jason Rawls from Ohio University, emcee/teacher Vinson ‘Wordsworth’ Johnson, and emcee/teaching artist John ‘Lil Sci’ Robinson at the Teach Better Conference in Akron, OH, October 14 and 15.

Danielle McClune, MFA, ’21, was appointed to the Seattle Arts Commission.

Jamie Herlich McIalwain, MFA, ’10, was named managing director of ZACH Theatre in Austin, TX. Read the "American Theatre" story.

Quinton Morris, DMA, Associate Professor, Violin, has been confirmed in the class of 2022 as the newest professional member of the Recording Academy. As a professional member, he will have voting rights for all music nominees for The Grammy Awards. He will be affiliated with the Pacific Northwest Chapter and attend The Grammy Awards next April in Las Vegas, Nevada. Dr. Morris was also honored as a recipient of the distinguished “Pathfinder Award” by the Puget Sound Association of Phi Beta Kappa. This award reflects the imagery on the distinguished Phi Beta Kappa key, a hand pointing to the stars and is given to those individuals who "encourage others to seek new worlds to discover, pathways to explore, and untouched destinations to reach. The people, businesses, and institutions honored do something to broaden peoples' interests in active intellectual accomplishments; they reach beyond ordinary routine, beyond the regular requirement of their lives and jobs, in order to break new intellectual ground and/or inspire others to do so”. Morris is being honored for his scholarship and community work as an educator and youth advocate through his work with his nonprofit organization, Key to Change. His project and short film, “The Breakthrough (2015), based on 18th century violinist/composer Joseph Bologne inspired a full length movie, “Chevalier.”

Janelle Simms, MFA, ’16, was promoted to Assistant Director, Annual Giving at Seattle University.

Josh Windsor, MFA,’11, appeared in the new season of Waffles + Mochi’s Restaurant on Netflix, as the Caves Manager for Murray’s Cheese.

Crystal Yingling, MFA, ’15, EdD, was named Executive Director for Theatre Puget Sound.

Political Science

Onur Bakiner, PhD, Associate Professor, Political Science, published “What do Academics Say about Artificial Intelligence Ethics? An Overview of the Scholarship” in AI and Ethics. Read the article. He also delivered a lecture at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Colombia, on truth commissions on August 26; the lecture is in Spanish. Watch here.

Debra Entenman, BA, Political Science ’03, 47th District Representative, recently talked with students in Professor Zachary Wood’s urban public policy class.

Patrick Lupo, BA, Political Science, ‘73 and the former chairman and CEO of DHL Worldwide Express, has been named to the Board of WaterIQ Technologies.

Col. Joseph Maasen, BA, Political Science, ’87, commissioned through Seattle Army U ROTC was  named new commander of the Washington State Guard. “During state emergencies, the subject matter experts of the Washington State Guard provide critical support to first responders who safeguard lives and property. When the State Guard needed a new commander, the Military Department leadership knew Washington National Guard Lt. Col. (Ret.) Joseph Maassen was the right guy for the job.” Read more.

Patrick Schoettmer, PhD, Associate Teaching Professor, Political Science, was in demand for his expertise during the past election cycle.

Psychology

Alexandra L. Adame, PhD, Associate Professor, recently published the article “Self-In-Relation: Martin Buber and D.W. Winnicott in Dialogue.” It was selected for a special issue of The Humanistic Psychologist called "Being and Becoming: Celebrating Women in Humanistic Psychology."

Fade Eadeh, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychology, co-authored "Teaching Agents to Understand Teamwork: Evaluating and Predicting Collective Intelligence as a Latent Variable via Hidden Markov Models" which was published in Computers in Human Behavior, a top multidisciplinary journal in psychology. The article shows a new method for predicting future behavior in teamwork based on past behavior, which will allow for AI to (eventually) appropriately time interventions.

Steen Halling, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Psychology, and Sanne Angel gave a presentation on "The uses and abuses of the concept of acceptance in rehabilitation and recovery," at the International Human Science Research Conference at PACE University, New York City, June 14

Kira Mauseth, PhD, Senior Instructor, Psychology, appeared in “Hundreds of thousands of kids with mental health needs aren't receiving necessary help,” an interview that appeared nationally and on KOMO 4. Also, as co-lead of the Behavioral Health Strike Team for the Washington State Department of Health, talks about her work in with the Northwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center in “Training and Supporting Healthcare Leadership during the COVID Pandemic”, published in the latest issue of Elevate, a publication of the Public Health Learning Network.

Social Work

Amelia Seraphia Derr, MSW, PhD, Associate Professor, Social Work, presented a paper at The Council on Social Work Education Annual Conference, “Educating for Self and Community Care: Sustaining Students in their Social (Justice) Work.”

Sam Harrell, MSW, Instructor, Social Work, co-authored “The Case for Mandatory Reporting as an Ethical Dilemma for Social Workers” with Stéphanie Wahab in Advances in Social Work, Vol. 22 No. 2 (2022): Re-Envisioning the Social Work Profession, Education, and Practice.

Hye-Kyung Kang, MSW, PhD, Associate Professor and Chair, Social Work and Director, Master of Social Work, published “Re-Envisioning Social Work Education Building and Living a Social Justice-focused Clinical Social Work Curriculum” in Advances in Social Work, Vol. 22 No. 2 (2022): Re-Envisioning the Social Work Profession, Education, and Practice.

Theology and Religious Studies

Matt Whitlock, PhD, Associate Professor, Theology and Religious Studies, released a book, "Critical Theory and Early Christianity." Whitlock authored and edited the book, which includes seven chapters from Whitlock and contributions from ten international scholars. The book looks at early Christianity through the lenses of four modern theorists: Walter Benjamin, Gilles Deleuze, Alain Badiou, and Judith Butler. It examines topics outside of the typical categories of biblical studies, but certainly related to the New Testament and its reception history: grass roots movements, revolutions, capitalism, Marxism, gentrification, fascism, national anthems, one-language bias, technological simulation, political protests and violence, gender fluidity, drag, and mattering bodies, both human and non-human.

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