Dear Friends,
I hope that our summer newsletter finds you and yours well and ready to enjoy the coming months.
The 2020-21 academic year is finally at a close and I am looking forward to Fall Quarter with great hope and anticipation. Freshman enrollment is close to our record high and may get there. If our current plans stay on track and everyone gets a vaccination who can possibly do so, we will be able to welcome about 90% of our classes back into classrooms on campus. You can keep up to date on Seattle University’s reopening plans here.
Many thanks to Father Stephen Sundborg, SJ, for his 24 years of service as President. The University and the College have grown dramatically under his leadership, increasingly engaging the mission he led Seattle U in defining when he first arrived. While we were unable to gather in person to celebrate and thank him, we have had numerous virtual opportunities to hear from him – and reflect on his many contributions – in the past few months, including:
We will see Fr. Steve in a final transition moment as we officially welcome new President Eduardo M. Peñalver, JD. He is on campus and working hard already but look for information soon about Inauguration activities in late September. Get to know more about him here.
I also extend my deepest gratitude to our students, faculty, staff, and alumni. You have all worked incredibly hard to find success and support each other during extraordinary circumstances.
We celebrate some of our students’ success in this newsletter, sharing some of their virtual collections of work and events.
Our faculty and staff never wavered in their dedication to ensure our students received the best possible educational experience. You will read about this year’s All College Awards and how many of them found ways to deliver their expertise through online events.
Our alumni stepped forward too, participating in the President’s Challenge, Our Mission for Moment. You also helped us make this year’s Seattle U Gives our most successful yet, where we received 159 gifts totaling more than $25,000. Your contributions across the Campaign for the Uncommon Good helped the College go far beyond its initial capital campaign goal of $6.5M to reach $9.846M by the end of the campaign on June 30. Thank you so much for your support! I also want to thank our alumni and friends who serve on the Dean’s Leadership Council for their continuing work on the campaign and all aspects of the College’s endeavors.
The College of Arts & Sciences community is coming through the struggles of the pandemic with a positive momentum that is a credit to all of you. Thank you everyone, I look forward to moving into the future together.
David V. Powers, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
The fifth volume of the Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal (SUURJ) is now available online. SUURJ highlights the research achievements of Seattle University undergraduate students through a peer-reviewed online publication. It also provides an editorial apprenticeship experience for students through a credit-bearing program that trains students to share stewardship of the journal. Research includes any original quantitative or qualitative work that a student has conducted during their academic studies. This includes theoretical works, policy analyses, research-based editorial pieces, Core writing, and other modes.
This year’s student editors include Tori Almond, McCalee Cain, Braden Dose, Jollan Franco, Alia Fukumoto, Isabelle Halaka, Enya Harris, Katie Howard, Emma Hyman, Cole Janssen, Mary Namutebi, Lucas Neumeyer, Grace Nikunen, Anna Petgrave, Christopher Stevens, and Lexi Ziegler.
SUURJ, Volume 5 includes:
In the introduction to this year’s journal, they write, “This year’s volume is a poignant curation of student research across a variety of fields of study, from microbiology and game design to the cultural renaissance and the impacts of refugees. Each year’s selection is a careful deliberation that seeks to balance disciplinary and methodologically diverse content with relevant theses that engage broader issues in important and insightful ways. In being an online journal, we have the benefit of bridging students’ research into larger conversations at a global scale. Although SUURJ is a small journal, the process of its creation has been immense, from our training, to the selection process, to copyediting, to publication assembly. We feel it is this hard work and dedication that have brought us to where we are: with our fifth volume, and one that we are proud to showcase. While SUURJ does not choose annual themes for its volumes, natural patterns and rhythms will often occur. This year, we noticed surfacing themes of boldly confronting injustice at the environmental, social, and humanitarian levels.”
Molly Clark Hillard, PhD, Associate Professor, English, and Chief Faculty Editor for this volume, says in the publication, “In a short span of time, SUURJ has gone from an idea to a thriving publication with a global readership. This success would not have been possible without the help and support of many people, among them our faculty advisory board; the financial and logistical sponsorship of the College of Arts and Sciences, Albers, Lemieux Library, and the University Core office; the many faculty who have encouraged their students to submit essays, our faculty content editors, our talented contributors, and four years of amazing student editors, who take on the mantle of SUURJ apprenticeship year after year with skill and grace.”
Other faculty content editors this year include Saheed Adejumobi, PhD, Associate Professor, History and affiliated with African and African American Studies and Film Studies; June Johnson Bube, PhD, Associate Professor, English; Vladamir Dashkeev, PhD, Assistant Professor, Economics; Rob Efird, PhD, Professor, Anthropology and Asian Studies; Kendall Fisher, PhD, Assistant Professor, Philosophy; Tanya Hayes, PhD, Professor and Director, Institute of Public Service and Program Director, Environmental Studies; Nova Robinson, PhD, Assistant Professor, International Studies, Associate Appointment, History, and affiliated with Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Dan Smith, PhD, Associate Professor, Biology; Michael Spinetta, PhD, Associate Professor, Psychology; and Michael Zanis, Assistant Professor, Biology. Dr. Bube and Dr. Robinson also serve on the Faculty Advisory Board with Marc Cohen, PhD, Professor, Management and Program Director, Professional MBA and Online MBA; Katherine Frato, PhD, Chemistry; Steven Klee, Associate Professor, Mathematics; and Rochelle Lundy, JD, MLIS, Assistant Librarian and Scholarly Communication Officer.
Under the direction of Dr. Leann Conley-Holcom, Director of Choral & Vocal Activities and Dr. Lee Peterson, Assistant Director, and with the support of producer Stephen O'Bent, Seattle U Choirs shone in their virtual performances.
The choirs return to in-person performances this fall. Alumni and community members are invited to join the University Singers (no audition required.) Learn more here.
The Seattle University Choirs are led by Dr. Leann Conley-Holcom, Director of Choral & Vocal Activities, and Dr. Lee Peterson, Assistant Director. America is a joint production of Seattle University Choirs and DigiPen Institute of Technology Vocal Ensemble, Stephen O’Bent, Assistant Professor and Conductor of Choirs. Arranged and produced by Stephen O’Bent. We Remember Them, audio and video production by Stephen O'Bent, Laura Oiumette, guest pianist.
DIDs.zip: 2021 Design ExhibitionThe 2021 senior cohort’s exhibition is meant to showcase their shared creativity and diversity as a part of a larger design collective. A zip file is an interface used to compress a collection of files or works from an individual or group into a single location. DiDs.zip symbolizes that despite being “zipped up” due to COVID, we are individual minds, a part of a whole, similar to how individual files are a part of a zip folder. Zip files, compact in nature, are easy to share digitally and can contain far more than what is initially apparent. Through their culminating Senior Synthesis Course, the designers have worked to express and create unique designs into this online exhibition.
The projects created by Haley Dow and Gordon Wong in this exhibition were developed during the past academic year.
We are proud of the excellent photographic artworks completed by our graduating BFA seniors, and we admire their resilience in light of this year’s extraordinary challenges.
Junior and Senior Advanced Studio Students exhibit work created specifically for this exhibition during the Winter Quarter. A spasm of creation, a dance of emancipation, a ripe melon sticky with possibilities, a mindscape, an inward exploration, defying the viewer, and inverting the notion of public display.
As we are able to return to campus over the summer and into the fall, we invite SU community members and visitors to reacquaint themselves with our beautiful grounds through this new project.
The Campus Art Walk offers the opportunity to experience campus in a whole new way. You follow a course that leads you to sites where you can scan the Art Walk QR code with your mobile device to access a selection of works created during the pandemic by students from Theatre, Music, Film, Visual Art and Creative Writing programs.
The walk guides you from the Lee Miley Rain Garden on a looped tour through campus via the Quad, Lemieux Library, the Student Center, and ending at the Reflection Pool. Follow the map that we have created or choose a site you love and stay as long as you like: it is your art walk to curate and experience in whatever way you choose.
The Campus Art Walk originated in Performing Arts and Arts Leadership as the brainchild of music faculty, Tess Altiveros, who curated and helped produce it. It took many, many hours of work and coordination across multiple disciplines and university offices to put this ambitious project together. Thank you to our amazing student artists; to the Performing Arts and Arts Leadership faculty; to our colleagues in Art, Art History & Design, English - Creative Writing and Film Studies; to University Admissions and Marketing and Communications for partnering with us; to design student, Marguerite Pilon (’21), for the graphics and the map; and to Em Olson, the Operations Manager for PAAL and AAHD who designed and built the webpages.
A variety of student projects are available to read and experience online, an unexpected positive consequence of working remotely. We hope enjoy their work.
Student work from four classes: CMME 4010 Research Projects, CMME 4000 Client Project, Internships, and Capstone Projects.
Fragments is Seattle University’s annual multi-disciplinary literature and visual art magazine. Established in 1958, Fragments is committed to annually publishing the best literature and visual art the Seattle University community has to offer.
The Arts Ecosystem Research Project (AERP) is an ongoing initiative to research and document the Seattle region’s arts and culture sector since the 1962 World’s Fair, created by the SU Master of Fine Arts in Arts Leadership Program and Lemieux Library.
In 2021, a research team consisting of students and alumni, led by Claudia Bach and Felipe Anaya, and supported by 4Culture, undertook an AERP BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) Research Initiative. The student team included Elisabeth Astwood, Alumni Research Fellow, MFA ’18; Stefanie Fatooh, Research Fellow, MFA ’22; Ellen McGivern, Researcher, MFA ’19; Kati Simek, Research Practicum, MFA ’22; and Cay Lane Wren, Researcher, MFA ’21.
The foundational work done in 2020, as well as input from the AERP advisors, helped the team identify BIPOC leaders who have been instrumental in the Seattle region. Despite the constraints of the pandemic, the research team was able to design and conduct a qualitative survey to investigate entities and events in communities of color, followed by an optional facilitated Zoom conversation. The BIPOC Research Initiative resulted in more than 25 new entries to the Timeline and new materials for the AERP archives including the stories shared in the Zoom event. Additional research efforts in 2021 include the addition of more than a dozen new case studies, ongoing additions to the Timeline, and the linking of entries within the Timeline to demonstrate the interconnected nature of the arts ecosystem.
Visit the AERP website to see these examples and more.
Seattle University sent Father Stephen Sundborg off to an especially happy retirement having completed the record-breaking fundraising campaign totaling more than $303 million as of June 30, 2021. The key pillars of this comprehensive university-wide campaign included the newly named Jim and Janet Sinegal Center for Science and Innovation, sustaining and elevating Seattle U’s Mission and Programs, and ever-important scholarship funds to improve educational access and retention of SU students.
In the College of Arts and Sciences we are humbled and proud to share our gratitude for the 2,167 donors who gave more than $9.846 million to promote student success, support faculty research and provide for college programs and facilities. Highlights of alumni and friends’ generosity to the college include creating 13 new endowed scholarships, which will provide access for students with financial need from diverse backgrounds in perpetuity. Guided by the interests of our donors, scholarships will assist students studying the arts, Theatre, Criminal Justice, English, University Honors, Social Work, Nonprofit Leadership, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Among the stories about the campaign's impact are those of two College of Arts and Sciences students
The Indigenous Peoples Institute is another program that emerged from a few founding donors and continues to expand its community of support for Native student success. Gifts to the Campaign for the Uncommon Good helped create a dedicated space for IPI in Xavier 160 on campus, establish an IPI Endowed Scholarship Fund and the Pat Twohy, SJ IPI Endowment to ensure opportunities to support Native students, both financially and culturally, and programs to engage the campus in learning around Indigenous issues will be sustained at the university.
Additional donor support for facilities and the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Fund enabled the university to purchase needed pianos, further important work with Pathways to Professional Formation, and launch the Kinesiology Mobile Lab that is ready to take students out into the community starting this fall.
Learn more about the impact the Campaign for the Uncommon Good is having at Seattle University.
2021 Student and Departmental Awards: view the recipients here.
Red Night Out Student Awards: A&S Recipients
Hunthausen Award and Student Led Initiative Award
Distinguished Grad Awards
Mission Award – Faith
Mission Award – Diversity
Mission Award – Academic Excellence
Spirit of SU
Other Student News
Graduating Nonprofit and Fundraising Leadership students Stephanie Velasco, Brandon Frost, Tess Honan, Camille Rosetty, and Taylor Coats are among the newest class of the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council (NACC) Nu Lambda Mu Honor Society Inductees.
Rachel Adamek, International Studies, 2021, won a Fulbright scholarship to study in South Korea after graduation.
Kyle Thompson, International Studies sophomore, won a Boren scholarship to study abroad in Taiwan.
Debate Tournament So Big, It was split in two
Seattle University’s Debate Program hosted a middle school debate tournament in May that was so big, we had to split it into two.
Thirty-seven teams competed on Saturday and 82 teams competed on Sunday. Teams from China (Beijing area), Canada (Langley British Columbia area) and throughout the Puget Sound region participated.
Even though the tournament took place all on Zoom, as Jim Hanson, Director of Forensics and Communication Department Instructor noted: “We just could not get enough judges to hold the tournament all in one day so we split the event into two separate tournaments.”
Seattle University debaters helped with judging and hosting duties for the tournaments. Jim Hanson directed the tournaments.
The event went well and participants commented on how well run the tournament was. Debaters and coaches were excited to win awards for their successes. Sue Zhong, coach at Aurorae Young Academy, commented: “Thank you for organizing a wonderful online debate tournament. It has been a great success and an amazing international event!”
The Seattle University Debate Program looks forward to hosting tournaments in the coming year including a new tournament for high school programs.
DeWayne Andrews, Jr., Humanities and Political Science, 2009, performs in the Seattle Opera Chorus and was featured in a Seattle Opera Facebook post during Asian American and Pacific Islander month.
Derrick Belgarde, Public Affairs, 2013 and MPA, 2015, is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon, and also Chippewa-Cree from Rocky Boy Montana. Derrick was recently selected Executive Director of chief Seattle Club, an organization dedicated to providing food, health care, and housing assistance to urban Native people. Derrick has been with Chief Seattle Club for over six years where he has been instrumental in developing the organization’s first housing project, Eagle Village, and building an approach to provide shelter and permanent housing for Natives. Chief Seattle Club has two buildings in the works and is trying for a third as, under Derrick’s leadership, they work toward a world without Native homelessness.
Tyrone Brown, MFA, 2010, is featured in the South Seattle Emerald article, ”Where Art And Activism Meet.”
Peter Diedrick, MPA, 2009, presented “The Legislative Year in Review” to the Pierce County School Retirees Association. Peter currently serves as the Legislative Director for the Washington State School Retirees Association based in Lacey, Washington.
Tiffany Harris, Communication Studies, 2008, is the Chief Program Officer for Moishe House.
Malcolm Hightower, Psychology, 1998 and MPA, 2001, was named director of the Residential Utility Consumer Office in Arizona.
2021 All College Day Recognizes Milestones and Accomplishments
Arts and Sciences faculty and staff joined this year’s virtual All College Day on June 4 to celebrate the year and recognize colleagues with a number of awards.
Arts and Sciences Student Executive Council (SEC) Awards
All College Day Awards
Dean David Powers also recognized the Strategic Planning Committee for their service in 2020-21:
Faculty promotions were also celebrated.
New Emeriti Faculty
Promoted to Professor
Tenured and Promoted to Associate Professor
Promoted to Senior Instructor
Onur Bakiner, PhD, Assistant Professor, Political Science, was quoted in the Boston Globe article, “Jan. 6 commission’s fate uncertain as Republicans seek to rewrite history.”
Serena Cosgrove, PhD, Associate Professor, International Studies, and her co-author, Isabeau J. Belisle Dempsey (International Studies and Spanish SU double major 2019), have been offered a book contract from the University of Cincinnati Press for their manuscript, Imagining Central America: A Short History. All book chapters have been drafted; they will address reviewer suggestions over the summer and expect the book will be out in early 2022.
Julie Homchick Crowe, PhD, Assistant Professor, Communication and Media, published an article,“Toxically Clean: Gwyneth Paltrow, Goop, and Polyphonic Expertise” in Rhetoric of Health and Medicine 4(2): 187-217. She has been invited to attend the Rhetoric Society of America’s Summer Institute workshop on Pandemic Rhetorics to present a work-in-progress on germ theory denialism.
Amelia Seraphia Derr, PhD, MSW, Associate Professor, Social Work, published “Global forced migration trends: Policy, practice, and research imperatives for the field of social work,” Palattiyil, G., Sidhva, D., Macgowan, M., & Derr, A.S. (2021). Manuscript accepted for publication in International Social Work. In May 2020, she also presented “Using Participatory and Collaborative Processes to Respond to Emerging Migration Trends” for the Seattle University Institute for Catholic Thought & Culture 5th Annual Immigration Summit, Seattle, WA.
Rob Efird, PhD, Professor, Anthropology and Asian Studies, published “Link Globally, Act Locally: Chinese and Americans Connect Online for Climate Action” for China/US Focus.
Brooke Gialopsos, PhD, Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice and co-authors published an article “Are we loving our national parks to death? A call for research on crime and law enforcement in the U.S. National Park System” in the peer-reviewed journal Criminal Justice Review. She and co-authors released an article “A loaded word: The challenge of defining active assailant protocols in pre-k-12 schools,” in Security magazine that is geared at primary and secondary school safety personnel. She also co-hosted a webinar for Lake Washington School District’s PTSA entitled “Active intruder drills explained: A.L.I.C.E. not in wonderland.”
Bryn Gribben, PhD, Senior Instructor, English, was a creative nonfiction finalist for the 2021 Nashville Review Porch Prize with her essay "What To Save." Her essay "We Are Devo" is in the forthcoming issue of Carcosa magazine; and Other Words Press, an all-female independent press, has offered her a book contract for her larger manuscript on music and identity, “Amplified Heart: An Emotional Discography,” from which both essays come. Additionally, Bryn's poem "Slantwise View of Simeon Solomon" was published in the spring 2021 issue of The Festival Review, and she has three poems coming out in the June issue of Tofu Ink Arts. She and Rick MacKenzie also got officially engaged.
Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, PhD, Professor, Modern Languages and Cultures and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, collaborated with her husband, Eric Muhs, on a project for the Wayward Music Series, which includes her poetry. From his description: "Coast to Coast" is a new long-form sound collage I assembled from recordings made along my recent 10,000 mile road trip from Seattle to LA to Florida to Delaware to Kansas to Seattle. My heart's odometer recorded more than one personal catastrophic loss along the way. But the journey had enormous wins, too: several besties I might never have seen again after a year of pandemic, still alive and kicking.” Listen to it here.
Jacqueline Helfgott, PhD, Professor, Criminal Justice and Director, Crime & Justice Research Center, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Seattle Residents: Fund the Police.” The annual public safety survey report was also covered by Seattle City Council Insight.
Matt Hickman, PhD, Chair, Criminal Justice, was quoted by CNN for the story, “There's a database whose mission is to stop problematic police officers from hopping between departments. But many agencies don't know it exists.”
Audrey Hudgins, EdD, Associate Clinical Professor, Matteo Ricci Institute, with students Jen Menjivar and Rowyn Henning, collaborated with the Archdiocese of Seattle on a continuation of the Community-based Participatory Action Research (CBPR) project this academic year. Published in April 2021, the report, titled “The Catholic Church and the Immigrant: Mapping and Assessing Expressions of Solidarity in Western Washington – Phase II” documents the work being done by the Archdiocese in support of immigrant communities in Western Washington. The report was also presented to the Archdiocese’s Immigrant and Refugee Ministry Discernment Committee in early May 2021.
Nalini Iyer, PhD, Professor, English and Associate Appointment, Asian Studies Program and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies has an advance contract for her book Teaching Anglophone South Asian Diasporic Literature (co-edited with Pallavi Rastogi, LSU). The book will be published by the MLA in their Options for Teaching Series and is scheduled for publication in 2023.
Sonora Jha PhD, Professor, Communication and Media and Associate Dean for Academic Community, College of Arts and Sciences, received another rave review of her book on The Wire, " 'How To Raise a Feminist Son' Is a Poignant and Timely Book." The book was also included on Seattle Met's "Big Reading List."
Rosa Joshi, MFA, Chair, Performing Arts and Arts Leadership, was a speaker on Shakespeare Hour LIVE!, a weekly panel produced by The Shakespeare Theatre Company in D.C. discussing Shakespeare’s iconic character, Falstaff.
Sofia Locklear, PhD, Instructor, Sociology and BA, Sociology 2014, successfully defended her dissertation, “ White Identity and American Indian and Alaska Native Culture in the Pacific Northwest,” with distinction at the University of New Mexico. Sofia has accepted a tenure track faculty position at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Jodi O'Brien served on her dissertation committee.
Kira Mauseth, PhD, Senior Instructor, Psychology, appeared on KUOW’s The Record, in “The Pros and Cons of Returning to Normal.”
Jodi O'Brien, PhD, Professor, Sociology and Associate Appointment, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, published a chapter titled, "Making Sense of Queer Christian Lives," in Interpreting Religion: Making Sense of Religious Lives, edited by Erin Johnston and Vikash Singh, Bristol University Press.
Christopher A. Paul, PhD, Professor, Communication and Media, gave a talk to Microsoft’s Women in Games group on June 8.
Erica Rauff, PhD, Assistant Professor. Kinesiology published an article with former undergraduate student, Carolyn van der Meulen in the Journal of American College Health. The article is titled "First-year undergraduate students: depressed, distressed, and drained? Influence of depressive symptoms on markers of psychological well-being, sleep, and physical activity.
Mary-Antoinette Smith, PhD, Professor, English and Rev. Louis Gaffney Endowed Chair of the College of Arts and Sciences (2018-2020), was on a panel for "Just Universities: Catholic Social Teaching Confronts Corporatized Higher Education,” discussing Gerald J. Beyer’s new book, Just Universities: Catholic Social Teaching Confronts Corporatized Higher Education.
Ruchika Tulshyan, MS, Distinguished Professional-in-Residence, Communication and Media, published “‘You’ve Lost Your Sparkle’: What to Do When Burnout Hits,” a conversation with Dr. Yumiko Kadota, a surgeon in Sydney, and the author of “Emotional Female,” on stress, burnout and toxic work environments. She also presented “Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome” with Jodi-Ann Burey.
Marie R. Wong, PhD, Professor Emerita, Urban Planning, Asian American Studies, and Institute of Public Service, published “Affordable housing lessons from America’s Chinatowns” in Interact, the publication of the American Planning Association.
Zachary D Wood, PhD, Assistant Professor, Institute of Pubic Service, was recently named to the Board of Directors at The Mockingbird Society. The Mockingbird Society’s mission is to transform foster care and end youth homelessness. Working in partnership with young people who’ve lived through the systems we’re transforming, we change policies, perceptions, and practices that stand in between any young person and a safe, supportive, stable home.</p