Dear Arts and Sciences Alumni and Friends,
I hope you and yours are well. As we reach the halfway mark of Winter Quarter, I continue to be proud of how our students, faculty, and staff are addressing the difficulties and engaging the opportunities of this challenging time. One example is this issue’s article about Dr. Kira Mauseth and her student research team supporting the state’s Behavioral Health Strike team.
At the end of 2020, three College of Arts and Sciences students and Spectator staff, Andru Zodrow, Anna Popp, and Logan Gilbert published the op-ed “Seattle U’s new president must strengthen ties to today’s economy” in The Seattle Times. (President-elect Eduardo M. Peñalver met with the students shortly after publication.) The College of Arts and Sciences has demonstrated our commitment to professional formation for our students through “Pathways to Professional Formation,” recognizing the urgent need to support students in exploring and developing potential career paths throughout their educational journey at Seattle U. We are continuing that support in a virtual format this year and you can help.
Our signature professional formation event is LinkUp, and many of you in the Seattle area alums have participated as mentors. Over the past four years, students gathered with alumni to learn about potential career paths and developing relationships with mentors. Due to the pandemic, this year we are moving to a virtual platform, which opens the door to all A&S alums, regardless of geographic location. I invite all of you to check out the event, scheduled for April 8, 4 to 6 p.m. (Pacific Time). You can register as a mentor here.
Join us for many other virtual events, including “A Racial Equity Reckoning,” our Black History Keynote address with Dr. Benjamin Danielson on February 18 at 12:30 p.m. Read the rest of the newsletter to learn more about other opportunities to engage with our students and faculty in the coming months.
Thank you for your continued support of Seattle University and the College of Arts and Sciences.
February 18, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
The aim of Dr. Danielson's keynote is to sustain people’s commitment to racial equity during these exhausting days. Another goal of this event is to go deeper into the nature of systemic racism and strategies to help address the difficult work of promoting equity. The address will be followed by Q&A.
Tickets are free and participants are invited to include an optional donation to the Black Student Union Scholarship Fund.
Presented by Seattle University Social Work Department and co-sponsored by Seattle University Nonprofit Leadership.
About Benjamin Danielson, MD
Dr. Danielson is a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in ethology. He received his doctorate from the University of Washington, School of Medicine where he specialized in pediatrics. For the past 21 years, Dr. Danielson has served as the Senior Medical Director Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic. An esteemed physician, he provided resources, advocacy and clinical service to our most vulnerable and marginalized children and families, predominantly communities of color. Dr. Danielson has played a huge role in addressing issues of public health, healthcare delivery, foster care advocacy, youth justice issues, diverse mothers and babies, anti-racism and social justice issues. Dr. Danielson has served on numerous committees and task forces, and most recently, he led the Governor's task force on creating the new Office of Equity. He has received numerous awards, including the Norm Maleng Advocate for Youth Award, which recognizes Dr. Danielson's exemplary leadership, dedication, and commitment to the youth and families of Washington State.
When Dr. Kira Mauseth, Senior Instructor, Psychology, and her colleague, Dr. Tona McGuire, responded to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, they had no idea that it would launch behavioral health training which would, in turn, prepare them to lead the State of Washington’s Behavioral Health Strike Team through a pandemic 10 years later. Dr. Mauseth had no idea that it would also offer opportunities for Seattle U Psychology students to immerse themselves in critical, real-time research in response to a global natural disaster.
“We were deployed with a group to Haiti,” says Dr. Mauseth. “A nonprofit invited us to come to their school on the outskirts of Port-Au-Prince and set up an emergency clinic to respond to the overwhelming need. Sitting on the plane on the way home afterward, we agreed that we needed to leave something more tangible behind.
“We realized that there is little about the nature of direct service in disaster behavioral health that specifically requires a PhD or a license. We thought, ‘we can teach high school students who no longer have schools. We can teach college student who want to help their communities. We can teach community leaders how to support people from an evidence-based, psychosocial perspective.’”
Drs. Mauseth and McGuire responded by creating a curriculum called Health Support Team and returned to Haiti to provide training to more than 400 people. They also trained trainers, creating culturally-adaptive, culturally-appropriate training; the Haitians then communicated the skills and the techniques in a way that is appropriate in their culture, rather than from a Western viewpoint. They then took the curriculum to Jordan with Syrian refugees. They continued local training through the Disaster Clinical Advisory Committee, and Northwest Health Care Response Network, engaging first responders, doctors, nurses, interested community members, anyone with an interest in disaster response.
When the State Department of Health began designing the Behavioral Health Strike Team as one of rapid response deployment teams for emergencies in the state, Dr. Mauseth and her partner were poised to accept their positions as co-leads. “Whether the emergency is a school shooting or a flood or a landslide, strike teams move in in and support the community,” explains Dr. Mauseth. “They offer training, resources – whatever what is needed – to bolster local efforts typically from anywhere from one to two weeks.”
They outlined the Behavioral Health Strike Team organization and structure in the summer of 2019 as part of the larger Behavioral Health Group at the DOH. In January 2020, just as the team felt they had found their footing, COVID-19 appeared on their radar. Dr. Mauseth remembers, “We really started paying attention, realizing this is going to be a lot bigger than most people think it is. At Seattle U, by March, even before the initial shutdown order, I was already talking to colleagues in the Psychology Department and making plans with students to move online.”
From the beginning, the Behavioral Health Strike Team made it a priority to position the pandemic as a natural disaster. “It isn’t what many think of as a typical natural disaster,” says Dr. Mauseth. “I emphasized that in our educational materials, making it the opening of all of our guidance documents. It is an important distinction when we talk about the behavioral health impact.”
Student Research in Action
The team worked to craft the specific response advocacy plan for Washington providers, hospitals, and health systems to prepare for what residents are likely to experience. They created presentations, trainings, and written guidance materials, creating a forecast of emerging needs and issues as the pandemic approached.
Developing all of that critical content offered an unexpected opportunity for Seattle U’s psychology students. Dr. Mauseth says, “We had a wealth of information that we needed to organize and share but our team members didn’t have the capacity to sit down and focus on the literature review and background library searches to find the latest data.”
As the university faculty member on the team and a previous practicum supervisor, Dr. Mauseth realized the potential for students. “During the pandemic there are fewer options for students to get practical, real world experience.” She took the idea to Department Chair Dr. Kathleen Cook. Dr. Cook was immediately on board; “SU students are perfect for this work! They are all well trained to work with the extant literature, synthesize information, and critically assess the quality of research.” They solicited student resumes, interviewed them, and chose a team of student researchers. Team members include Breanne Coulthard, Chemistry and Honors; Joanna Corpuz, Psychology ’22; Isabel Gilbertson, Psychology, Public Affairs, and Honors, ’22; Sydney Lindell, Psychology ’21; Kes Sorensen, Psychology ’21; and An Than, Psychology, Criminal Justice, and Honors ’23.
“They have provided exactly the support I hoped for,” Dr. Mauseth says. “They are advancing the guidance documents and reports we are putting out by being on the ground, doing their research. And they are matching the pace; disaster response is inherently very fast and not anything like the usual academic or research cycle.”
“I am really proud of the behavioral health component of disaster response that our state as put together. These students and their contributions have been an integral part of that.”
Behavioral Health in the (Virtual) Classroom
Dr. Mauseth is highly aware of the impact this natural disaster has on her students. “I struggle with a lot of the common responses we have to disasters. I don’t remember things, I don’t track things as well. I know these are normal reactions and that my students are experiencing them, too.”
At the beginning of Fall and Winter quarters, she started the first days of class with the acknowledgement that students are in the middle of a disaster, how it affects people mentally and emotionally, and what one can reasonably expect. “I let them know that it’s normal to feel they have cognitive issues. I let them know that while I expect effort and performance, with a disaster environment that so strongly impacts people’s ability to perform, we will make adjustments and be flexible. I emphasize messages of resilience, that we will get through this.”
Looking forward from this vantage point, Dr. Mauseth sees potential for her own research into resilience. “The Seattle U education seems to be prepping students to be not just responsive, but also adaptive. The ingredients for resilience are purpose, connection, adaptability and flexibility, and hope. I suspect, given my experience this year, if we can look at adaptability and flexibility specifically, I think resilience is going to predict successful outcomes in the workplace environment and for students more than anything else than we've ever measured before.”
Photo: top row, l. to r. Isabel Gilbertson and Dr. Kira Mauseth; middle row, l. to r. An Than and Joanna Corpuz; bottom row, l. to r. Kes Sorensen and Syndey Lindell. Not pictured Breanne Coulthard
Last December, The Seattle Times published “Seattle U’s new president must strengthen ties to today’s economy,” and op-ed by three College of Arts and Sciences students, all of whom work for The Spectator. The editorial by Andru Zodrow, political science and economics, and honors, Anna Popp, journalism, and Logan Gilbert, journalism, called on Seattle U President-Elect Eduardo Peñalver to renew and strengthen SU's commitment to students' professional formation. "Seattle U students are facing a tense, competitive job market amid a global pandemic. Renewing the focus on professional development will not only benefit students but enrich the reputation of the university."
Professional formation has been a strong focus in the College of Arts and Sciences, especially with our signature student mentoring event, LinkUp. Over the past four years, many Seattle-area alumni have participated, meeting with students to share the career paths they found after graduation and answering questions about their professional experiences.
This year, as we move the event online, we hope that more Arts and Sciences alumni will want to join us in supporting our students.
LinkUP
April 8, 4:30-6 p.m.
Register here. You can learn more about the event on our website.
Co-sponsored by College of Arts and Sciences and the Dean’s Leadership Council; Seattle University Board of Regents; Career Engagement Office; and Alumni Engagement, the Alumni Board of Governors, and Graduates of the Last Decade Chapter (GOLD)
We will send more details as we get closer to the event. If you have questions, please contact Alexis Bradley by email.
We look forward to seeing you on April 8.
Join us next week on Thursday, February 25 for Seattle U Gives, 24 hours of celebration. During this day of uncommon generosity, the combined power of many gifts will have ripple effects on our students, our communities and the world.
Help us spread the word by signing up to be a Social Ambassador for the College of Arts and Sciences. Ambassadors receive tools that make sharing their passion for programs and departments quick and easy. The time commitment is small, but the potential to help your favorite area is infinite!
This year, your contribution can make a bigger difference than ever before. During Seattle U Gives, 124 gifts of any size to the College of Arts and Sciences—whether $5, $50 or $500—will unlock an additional $11,000 pledged by some of our most generous donors. The earlier you give, the greater opportunity you have to amplify your impact through this challenge and dozens more.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, to share our content with your networks.
For more information, contact Katie Chapman by email..
Sasquatch Books releases How to How to Raise a Feminist Son: Motherhood, Masculinity, and the Making of My Family, Dr. Sonora Jha’s latest book, on April 6. Publisher’s Weekly recently gave the book a starred review, saying, “At times touching and always impassioned, this is an excellent resource for like-minded parents.” You can read the full review here.
Readers can look forward to two engaging opportunities to hear her talk about the book. On April 7, Town Hall Seattle and Elliott Bay Books host her and author Ojeoma Oluo for a conversation. Two weeks later, Dr. Jha is joined by two of her Seattle U colleagues: Dr. Nalini Iyer (Professor, Department of English and Pigott-McCone Endowed Chair) and Dr. Theresa Earenfight (Professor, Department of History and Chair Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies program).
Tickets for the April 7 event go on sale at Town Hall Seattle soon. The book is available for preorder at Elliott Bay Books and Seattle University students, faculty, and staff receive a 20% discount on purchases.
Tickets for April 19 will also be on sale soon; information will be available here.
“In How to Raise a Feminist Son, Jha weaves her own fascinating, sometimes heartbreaking, and always beautiful story of raising her own feminist son with careful research, insightful interviews, and helpful advice. There were countless times in reading this book where I found myself reevaluating things I had told my own sons and setting new goals for things I would teach them in the future. True love sees you for who you are, and true love holds you to account when you fall short of who you can be, because true love knows what you are capable of. This book is a true love letter, not only to Jha's own son but also to all of our sons and to the parents--especially mothers--who raise them.” —Ijeoma Oluo, author of So You Want to Talk About Race and Mediocre
Sasquatch Books calls the book, “A love story that will resonate with feminists who hope to change the world, one kind boy at a time.”
“From teaching consent to counteracting problematic messages from the media, well-meaning family, and the culture at large, we have big work to do when it comes to our boys. This empowering book offers much-needed insight and actionable advice. It’s also a beautifully written and deeply personal story of struggling, failing, and eventually succeeding at raising a feminist son.
“Informed by the author’s work as a professor of journalism specializing in social justice movements and social media, as well as by conversations with psychologists, experts, and other parents and boys, this book follows one mother’s journey to raise a feminist son as a single immigrant woman of color in America. Through stories from her own life and wide-ranging research, Sonora Jha shows us all how to be better feminists and better teachers of the next generation of men in this electrifying tour de force.
“Includes chapter takeaways, and an annotated bibliography of reading and watching recommendations for adults and children.”
“You can’t punish your way to a more feminist world, I’ve long believed; you have to create, encourage, invent that world, especially in how you raise kids, but that’s only one reason Sonora Jha’s book is exhilarating and inspiring. It’s a beautiful hybrid of memoir, manifesto, instruction manual, and rumination on the power of story and possibilities of family. I can’t wait to put it in the hands of everyone raising kids or thinking about how we do it and how it could be different.” —Rebecca Solnit, author of The Mother of All Questions
Sonora Jha, PhD, is a novelist, essayist, researcher, and a Professor of Journalism at Seattle University. She is the author of the novel Foreign (Random House India, 2013). She was born in India, where she had a career as a journalist in Mumbai and Bangalore before moving to Singapore and then to the United States to earn a Ph.D. in Political Communication. Dr. Jha's academic research on the emerging intersections of the press, politics, and the Internet has been published in top-tier national and international scholarly journals. Her debut novel, Foreign, is based on true stories of farmers' suicides in contemporary India, and it grew out of her work as a journalist, an academic, and a creative writer. It was a finalist for The Hindu Prize for Literary Fiction and the Shakti Bhatt First Book Award. It was long-listed for the DSC Prize for South Asian literature.
Jackson Cooper, MFA Arts Leadership '22, Major Gifts Officer for Pacific Northwest Ballet, has been appointed to the Student Planning Committee as part of the 2021 Association of Arts Administration Educators Virtual Conference.
Riley Grisgsby, BA, Communication and Media, 2021, was profiled in The Seattle Times, ”Riley Grigsby — who does ‘the right thing all the time’ — has responded well to much bigger role for Seattle U men.”
For the fourth year in a row, the Seattle University Ethics Bowl team earned a bid to the National Ethics Bowl, after taking first place at the Northwest Regionals in late November and overcoming stiff competition from excellent teams, including the University of British Columbia, Gonzaga, Whitman College, and the University of Portland. The National competition takes place on February 27 and 28, over Zoom, and university teams from across the country will a wide-range of contemporary ethical controversies, from healthcare rationing in the age of Covid-19 to the role of social media in fostering conspiracy theories. The team is coached by Ben Howe (Matteo Ricci Institute), and team members include Tatianah Summers (Honors and Biology), Sofia McMillan (Honors and Psychology), Anthony Verdugo (Economics), Andru Zodrow (Honors and Political Science, Economics), Adina Van Etten (Humanities for Teaching and History), and Marie-Therese Chahrouri (Honors and Philosophy).
On Saturday January 16, the Seattle Debate Program sponsored another large middle school tournament with over 400 participants attending. The tournament is the second in a series of debate events that our debate program hosts during the year. We have gone online this year and it is pretty amazing to have so few technology problems with so many young students, parents, coaches, and judges. Debate team members help in judging providing feedback to help the students improve. The tournament ran right on schedule and these young people argued respectfully, thoughtfully and way beyond their years. It is genuinely heartening for our future and the debate team is very happy to host these students and their coaches.
Lena Beck, Humanities for Leadership BA, ’17, published “Eat More Seafood: Latest Federal Guidelines” for the Coastal Online Review.
Patrick Bell, MPA, ’09, was named Deputy Chief of Staff for Congresswoman Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (WA-05.)
Meme Garcia, BA Theatre and Women and Gender Studies, ’15, has a current online production of their play, house of sueños, presented by Seattle Shakespeare Company.
Maile Lono-Batura, MNPL, ’04, was selected as Director of Sustainable Biosolids Programs by The Water Environment Federation (WEF), a new position established to help WEF members and the water sector advance the beneficial use of biosolids.
Krista Williams. MNPL, '16, was promoted from Director of Operations and Continuous Improvement to Vice President of Saltchuk Logistics with transportation company Saltchuk. Read an interview with her here.
John Armstrong, PhD, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, was featured in “How Solar Power and City Ecosystems Can More Effectively Co-Exist” for Solar Magazine.
Caitlin Carlson, PhD, Associate Profesor, Communication and Media, was interviewed about Former President Trump's removal from Twitter.
She was also cited in Venture Beat’s story ”Facebook’s redoubled AI efforts won’t stop the spread of harmful content and in Dynuz, "Avaaz: Facebook continues to fail at flagging false and misleading posts about U.S. elections." She published an article, "Hate Speech as a Structural Phenomenon, First Amendment Studies," DOI: 10.1080/21689725.2020.1837649
Mark Cohan, PhD, Associate Professor and Chair, Anthropology and Sociology, gave a talk in support of Clean Greens Farm & Market (CSA) at their annual Harvest Dinner. Clean Greens is a Black-owned CSA that he volunteered with throughout last summer. After that work, they asked him to give the talk at their annual harvest dinner. Watch the video here; the talk begins at 1:21:00.
Serena Cosgrove, PhD, Associate Professor, International Studies, is finishing the second edition of “Understanding Global Poverty: Causes, Capabilities, and Human Development” with co-author Benjamin Curtis, PhD for publication next year by Routledge. This second edition will include a chapter on immigration by Audrey Hudgins, EdD, Clinical Associate Professor, Matteo Ricci.
Elizabeth Dale, PhD, Assistant Professor, Nonprofit Leadership, was interviewed by the New York Times for “Giving Billions Fast, MacKenzie Scott Upends Philanthropy.” Her op-ed, “Five ways MacKenzie Scott’s $5.8 billion commitment to social and economic justice is a model for other donors” appeared in publications across the country, including the Houston Chronicle and Greenboro News and Record. She was interviewed for “Ask the Experts” on Wallethub for a feature on charitable giving (read it here). Her research on the Pride Foundation was included in the publication of The Ford Foundation’s reflection on participatory grantmaking which was also featured in Nonprofit Quarterly; read the article here.
Theresa Earenfight, PhD, Professor of History, Director, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program was interviews for “Experts Weigh in on Current Job Market Trends” for Zippia.
Anne Farina, PhD, Assistant Professor, Social Work, presented the poster titled: "'Boss called me his China doll': Utilizing intersectionality to analyze gender and sexuality stereotypes of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the #thisis2016 hashtag" at the Society for Social Work and Research 25th Annual Conference online She is one of the 2020 Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Research Award Winners for her project "Effectiveness of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy as a Mental Health Treatment: An Evidence and Gap Map."
Bryn Gribben, PhD, Senior Instructor, English, published a number of poems this year.
Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, PhD, Professor, Modern Languages and Cultures and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, co-edited Presumed Incompetent II: Race, Class, Power, and Resistance of Women in Academia with Yolanda Flores Niemann. PhD, and Carmen G. Gonzalez, JD. Jodi O’Brien, PhD, Professor, Sociology and Associate Appointment, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, contributed to the book. Read a review of the book here. Dr. Gutiérrez y Muhs has finished several manuscripts during her sabbatical, one quarter, and turned in full manuscripts for two anthologies, a poetry collection of Latinx poets, Floricanto: Flower and Song, being published in Madrid, bilingually: by Polibea Press, and one with a contract with San Diego State University Press, a multi-genre anthology of Latinx women writers, scholars, poets.
Steen Halling, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Psychology, published the article, “On the nature of phenomenology and its relevance for forgiveness” (translated into Japanese) in the Japanese journal Jijitsu to Sojo [Fact and Creation], vol. 475, pp. 2-16.
Kimberly Harden, EdD, Instructor, and Ruchika Tulshyan, MS, Distinguished Professional-in-Residence, Communication and Media, were feature in Crosscut’s “Companies often want consultants' help with diversity — for free.”
Jacqueline Helfgott, PhD, Professor, Criminal Justice, and Director, Crime and Justice Research Center, was interviewed by KUOW for “How a pandemic and social unrest possibly drove up Seattle homicides in 2020.”
Jacqueline Helfgott, PhD, Professor, Criminal Justice and Director, Crime and Justice Research Center, participated in two interviews:
Matt Hickman, PhD, Chair and Professor, Criminal Justice, was interviewed about his research, “Police Use of Force and Injury: Multilevel Predictors of Physical Harm to Subjects and Officers,” on KOMO Radio. Listen here.
Julie Homchick Crowe, PhD, Assistant Professor, Communication and Media, presented a paper at the Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine’s conference on Social Justice entitled “Anti-Science as Anti-Justice.”
Michael P. Jaycox, PhD, Associate Professor, Theology and Religious Studies, published a book chapter, which had previously been released in e-book format but is also now available in print: Michael P. Jaycox, “Emotions and Christian Ethics,” in Tobias L. Winright, ed., T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Ethics (New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2021), 91-101. It is also available in e-book format to the SU community here.
Sonora Jha, PhD, Professor, Communication and Media, and Associate Dean for Academic Community, College of Arts and Sciences, wrote the op-ed, “Juneau, Best, Durkan and the limits of representation,” for Crosscut. Her new book, “How to Raise a Feminist Son: Motherhood, Masculinity, and the Making of My Family,” received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly. The book will be released April 6.
Olha Krupa, PhD, Associate professor and Director, Master of Public Administration Program, was named Associate Editor for the Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs.
Marco Lowe, MPA, Adjunct Faculty, Institute of Public Service, was interviewed by KING5 for “How does the 25th Amendment work?”
Marco Lowe, MPA, Adjunct Faculty, Institute of Public Service, talked about his new book, “Powershift,” in two more interviews about the upcoming presidential transition.
Jasmine Mahmoud, PhD, Assistant Professor, Arts Leadership was awarded the 2020 ASTR Collaborative Research Award along with scholars Megan Geigner (Northwestern University) and Stuart Hecht (Boston College) for co-editing a new book called “Makeshift Chicago Stages: A Century of Theater and Performance.” Their book will be published by the Northwestern University Press in the Spring of 2021. Watch the virtual award ceremony here. She published "'Black and Center': Collaboration, Color, and Care" in the South Seattle Emerald. Read her column here.
Kira Mauseth, PhD, Senior Instructor, Psychology, and her my colleague, Dr. Tona McGuire were awarded the 2020 Washington State Distinguished Psychologist Award (together) by the WSPA (Washington State Psychological Association) for their work on the COVID response. She was interviewed by Q13 News for “Mental health in the time of Covid.” She was also interviewed by StorageCafé for an article about the pros and cons of shared living and the best cities for roommates.
Kira Mauseth, PhD, Senior Instructor, Psychology, presents a weekly media brief with the DOH for behavioral health issues related to the response to the pandemic as co-lead for the Behavioral Health Strike Team. Part of this week's brief was aired by NCWLife Evening News in Wenatchee. Watch it here.
Sean H. McDowell, PhD, Associate Professor, English and Director, University Honors Program, has been part of an international team of scholars working on The Variorum Edition of the Poetry of John Donne since 2013. The goal of this edition, which was begun in the mid-1980s, is to recreate as closely as we can the original texts of English poet John Donne’s poems, based on all extant manuscript and early print evidence, and to present a comprehensive commentary on all published scholarly criticism from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries. “The Divine Poems, volume 7.2 of the Variorum edition”, has been published by Indiana University Press. McDowell co-authored this volume as both a textual and commentary editor with scholars from the U. S., Canada, Switzerland, Finland, and Japan. He also serves as member of the John Donne Advisory Board.
Additionally, on December 11, 2020, McDowell gave a presentation on “Donne’s Hymns as Invitations to Write” as part of a John Donne Society webinar on “Teaching Donne in Emergent Occasions.” The purpose of this webinar—and of McDowell’s presentation—was to stimulate discussion about how Donne’s responses to illness and epidemics can speak to our responses to the current COVID-19 pandemic in ways that lead to new understanding.
Allison Machlis Meyer, PhD, Associate Professor, published a new book, Telltale Women: Chronicling Gender in Early Modern Historiography” with Nebraska Press.
Susan Meyers, PhD, Associate Professor, English, and Director, Creative Writing Program, published a story, "Visiting the Grand Canyon" in The Moving Force Journal.
Quinton Morris, DMA, Director, Chamber and Instrumental Music; Associate Professor, Performing Arts and Arts Leadership; and Associate Appointment, Global African Studies was feature in the Seattle Time in "Classical KING FM takes steps to address issues of equity and inclusion." As the first artist scholar in residence with KING FM, he is working on a new show for radio and podcast, “Unmute the Voices,” featuring music by Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) composers and performances. He intends to reach out to composers and performers across the country to ask for recordings to include on the show.
Alexander Mouton, MFA, Chair and Associate Professor, Art, Art History and Design, published an article, “Extending Literature Through the Artist Book,” in the College Book Art Association’s Book Art Theory blog.
Wingate Packard, MA, Adjunct Faculty, English, published a book review in the Seattle Times, “‘The Doctors Blackwell’ tells the story of 2 sisters who blazed a trail for women in medicine.”
Christopher Paul, PhD, Professor, Communication and Media, presented a talk about his latest book, "Free-to-Play: Mobile Video Games, Bias, and Norms," and the video will be available soon. Read a new review in First Person Scholar.
Alfred G. Pérez, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Social Work was recognized by the Child Welfare League of America as a “champion for children [and youth!]” during their centennial anniversary. The award was originally going to be presented in March 2020 but was delayed because of the Covid19 pandemic.
Patrick Schoettmer, PhD, Instructor, Political Science, was featured in a number of TV news interviews:
Aakanksha Sinha, PhD, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, Sociology and Social Work, opened a second location of the restaurant she and her husband own, Spice Walla, featured by Seattle Met Magazine.
Aakanksha Sinha, PhD, Assistant Professor, Social Work, published “Innovating with Social Justice: Anti-Oppressive Social Work Design Framework” in the International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship. 1(1), 65-77.
Sharon Suh, PhD, Professor, Theology and Religious Studies published “Once The Buddha Was Born as Keanu Reeves: The Shaping of Buddhism in American Film and Popular Culture,” in CrossCurrents. She appears in the second episode of “Eater’s Guide to the World” on Hulu, talking about her work in Buddhism and Mindful Eating. She also co-presented “Community Kitchen: Mindful Cooking & Eating,” an interactive workshop blending nourishing cooking with mindful eating to offer an experience that is both festive and intentional.
Kirsten Moana Thompson, PhD, Professor and Director of Film Studies, participated in four talks/panels:
Charles Tung, PhD, Professor and Chair, English, was invited to present his paper, “Mutant Formations for Rethinking Human and Humanist Bodies,” in response to the panel on Speculative Orientations: Reshaping Bodies in Contemporary Science Fiction and Fantasy, at the Modern Language Association Annual Convention, January 7–10, 2021. He also participated a podcast conversation, “Time and the interplay between human history and planetary history,” for the University of Minnesota Press with Carolyn Fornoff (U Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Jen Telesca (Pratt), and Waichee Dimock (Yale), as part of the December 2020 release of the collection, Timescales: Ecological Temporalities across Disciplines, edited by Bethany Wiggin, Patricia Kim, and Carolyn Fornoff. Tung’s chapter in the volume is “Time Machines and Timelapse Aesthetics in Anthropocenic Modernism.”
Brittany Heintz Walters, PhD, Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, presented her research at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Conference in January. Her presentation was titled, "Visual feedback and attentional deficits are associated with altered visual strategy during a pinch force steadiness task in some older adults.”
Kevin Ward, PhD, Director and Associate Professor, Public Affairs, and his colleague, Katrina Miller-Stevens, PhD, received the “2020 Governance Section Best Research Paper Award” at the annual meeting of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) for the article, “Public Service Motivation Among Nonprofit Board Members and the Influence of Primary Sector of Employment” in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
Serena Cosgrove, PhD, Associate Professor, International Studies, and her co-editors, Wendi Bellanger, PhD, Provost, Universidad Centroamericana-Managua, and Irina Carlota Silber, PhD, Professor and Chair, Anthropology, Gender Studies, and International Studies, City College of New York, have been offered a book contract from Routledge for the edited volume, “Critical Higher Education at the Intersection of State Repression and Neoliberal Reform: Ethnographic Insights from the Universidad Centroamericana in Nicaragua.” In addition to chapters by each of the editors, additional contributors include José Idiáquez, SJ, rector of the UCA, Tania Zambrana, UCA CFO, Karla Lara, professor and chair, Communications (UCA), Arquímedes González, professor, Communications (UCA), Fiore Bran Aragón, former UCA student, and Andrew Gorvetzian, former UCA employee and SU International Studies/Spanish alum (2015). All book chapters have been drafted; this week the three editors are facilitating a virtual writing workshop with authors to review next steps for chapter edits; and we expect the book will be out in early 2022.
Also, “Surviving the Americas: Garifuna Persistence from Nicaragua to New York City” (University of Cincinnati Press 2021), a book that she co-authored with alum Andrew Gorvetzian and two Nicaraguan colleagues, José Idiáquez and Leonard Joseph Bent, has been published as a paperback book. The book is about the Garifuna, an Afro-Indigenous group from the Caribbean coast of Central America. The Central America Initiative and hopefully other co-sponsors will be hosting a book launch webinar with the authors in February.
Elaine Gunnison, PhD, Professor, Criminal Justice and Director, Master of Arts in Criminal Justice, and Jacqueline Helfgott, PhD, Professor, Criminal Justice, and Director, Crime and Justice Research Center, have two new publications:
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February 17, 6 p.m. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best and Seattle Schools Superintendent Denise Juneau discuss the highs and lows of women serving as leaders. Info here.
February 22, release date, virtual performance by Seattle University Choirs.
March 4, 4:00 p.m., hosted by Distinguished Visiting Writer Anastacia-Renee Tolbert.
March 4, 4:00 p.m., hosted by Distinguished Visiting Writer Anastacia-Renee Tolbert.
Live, virtual performances of "Twelfth Night" and "Bodies of Water," an original devised piece.
Monday, April 8 at 11:30 AM
Wednesday, April 10 at 12:30 PM
Thursday, April 11 at 12:00 PM
Monday, April 15 at 12:00 PM
Wednesday, April 17 at 6:00 PM
Thursday, April 25 at 12:00 PM