Hello, all,
This Dean's memo is a final celebration of our accomplishments this academic year. I want to express my deep appreciation for everything all of you have done for our students and each other over the past three-plus months. I know how much it has meant to them and how much we have meant to each other. We have succeeded in supporting our students and meeting our academic mission through a quarter like no other, ever before.
As we move into the summer quarter and toward the fall, I also know that the ongoing uncertainty we face continues to create stress for all of us. I will do my best, working with a great team in the Dean’s office, to support you and keep you informed about plans as early as possible, regardless of how events and circumstances unfold.
Many thanks to those who shared their memories of Paul Malin; you can read them here.
I know that many of you will turn your attention to scholarship and research. I hope that you will also find time to connect with family and friends and to relax and recharge.
Shared Governance
David V. Powers, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Seattle University
Efforts to reduce summer melt continue. Messages from faculty and staff members have proven to be very popular with students across the university, not only within a particular major. Topics could include a class you're looking forward to, your favority summer read or summer activity, anything that can help incoming students feel like they are getting to know the Seattle U community. If you want to create a one- or two-minute video to share with students, send it to Karen Bystrom. We will add titles and captions, share on A&S social media, and share with Admissions. Here are some good tips for filming on a smart phone.
2020 Commencement Awards
The College of Arts and Sciences is proud to honor the recipients of the 2020 Student Awards, Departmental Awards, Department Honors, and Student Executive Council Teacher, Advisor, and Staff Member of the Year, and our graduating members of the Student Executive Council.
As we were unable to host our annual awards ceremony, in addition to this list, we offer more information about them on the 2020 Student Awards page, here.
Imagining The World Photography Competition
Visit the virtual gallery to see this year's winners.
Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities
Dean David Powers announced that Dr. Maria Bullón-Fernández, Professor of English, has accepted an offer to serve as the next Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1. She is a seasoned leader across many levels of the university, including as past Department Chair of the English Department, Director of (then) Women Studies, Co-Chair of the Provost’s Search Committee, and, most recently, as Co-Chair of the College’s Strategic Planning Committee. She has worked with a wide variety of colleagues and stakeholders across the University and is a respected scholar and educator (as a past Pigott-McCone Endowed Chair and past recipient of the A&S Outstanding Teaching Award).
Maria joined Seattle University as an Assistant Professor in the English Department in 1995 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2012. She is from Seville Spain and lived there until she graduated from the University of Seville with a BA in English language and literature. She earned her Ph.D. at Cornell University in English Medieval Studies, specializing in Middle English literature. In her time here she has taught courses in English, University Honors, University Core, and Matteo Ricci College (now Institute). She has published a monograph, edited a collection of essays, and published articles and essays on Middle English literary works, primarily though not exclusively. Informed by feminist and queer theory, her scholarship seeks to investigate the role that gender and sexuality play in literary texts as they interplay with other forms of identity and as they collide with or contribute to specific political and social structures. Dr. Bullon-Fernandez has published a monograph, edited a collection of essays, and published articles and essays on Middle English literary works, primarily though not exclusively.
Our thanks to Kan Liang, PhD, for 10 years of service in the role.
Pigott-McCone Endowed Chair
Dean David Powers announced that Nalini Iyer, PhD, English, has been named Pigott-McCone Endowed Chair for the next two year appointment (Fall 2020 through Spring 2022). Dr. Iyer’s area of scholarly expertise includes postcolonial studies, particularly South Asia and South Asian Diaspora Studies. She has co-edited/co-authored three books, guest edited two special issues of prominent journals in the field, published numerous articles in a variety of scholarly journals and edited anthologies. She has also been a book reviewer for the International Examiner, a local pan Asian newspaper, for over twenty years. In 2019, Dr. Iyer became the Chief Editor of South Asian Review, a Taylor and Francis journal, published by the South Asian Literary Association; she is the first woman to serve as Editor of that journal.
Professor Iyer plans to complete a monograph on South Asian American literature during her first year in the Chair role. She also plans to create “scholarly space for Asian American Studies” including reading groups, invited guest speakers and partnerships with literary organizations around the region to co-sponsor events with Asian authors.
Professor Iyer’s term begins in Fall 2020; an installation ceremony will be held later in the academic year.
He thanked the Endowed Chair Recommendation Committee, which he chaired, for their work: Sven Arvidson, Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies; Gabriella Gutierrez y Muhs, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies; Tanya Hayes, Institute for Public Service and Environmental Studies; Jeanette Rodriguez, Theology and Religious Studies; and Jason Wirth, Philosophy.
He also recognized outgoing Pigott-McCone Chair Gabriella Gutierrez y Muhs and outgoing Gaffney Endowed Chair Mary-Antoinette Smith and thanked them for their contributions in these roles. Even as their plans were impacted by the pandemic the past few months, they were able to host a number of events on campus around their respective themes of intersectionality and literary criticism in Latin American and Latinx literature; and addressing the goal of Fr. Gaffney (the chair’s namesake) of creating a “Beloved Community” for a just and humane world, exploring issues of race and faith.
The LeRoux Endowed Chair
We developed an initial offer to renowned photographer Fr. Don Doll, SJ, whose schedule allowed him to join us in the Fall quarter. However, given the highly unpredictable conditions in the Fall we made the decision to defer that visit. We hope to reschedule with him if possible in the next year or two.
The Gaffney Endowed Chair
The A&S Endowed Chair Committee conducted an application review process for this award, but given the heavy focus on campus and community engagement and community activity that is a part of this chair, the committee recommended placing this chair on a one-year hold. They recommended applicants have the opportunity to reapply next year for the following year for a regular two-year cycle. Dean Powers supported that recommendation, and they have notified applicants of that decision. We will conduct a call for applications for this position and conduct a regular review process for a usual 2-year award that will begin Fall 2021.
All College Day
Arts and Sciences held its annual All College Day virtually this year, with more than 100 faculty and staff members attending. Recognition during the event included:
New Emeriti Faculty
Promoted to Full Professor
Tenured & Promoted to Associate Professor
Promotion to Senior Instructor
New Clinical Associate Professor
Arts and Sciences Student Executive Council (SEC) Awards
College Awards
Dean Powers recognized the service of outgoing Associate Dean for Arts and Humanities, Ken Liang, PhD.
Sonora Jha, PhD, Associate Dean for Academic Community, also presented Dean Powers recognition from Faculty Staff Senate and the Executive Committee for his communication, leadership, and shared governance in a time of crisis.
History Department
The department has published the “History of Punishment, Policing, and Protest Reading List” on their website. Read more here.
The Strategic Plan has been approved by the Faculty and Staff Senate, Executive Committee, and Dean David Powers. It has been forwarded to Provost Shane Martin. Once that approval is received, the Plan will be shared with all of the College.
One of the grants included in the $120,00 awarded to Seattle University by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust will help Heidi Liere, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies, and her students study beneficial insects in Seattle’s urban community gardens, including residential gardens and yards. Liere and her students are working to understand whether the quantity, quality and connectivity of green spaces nearby – urban parks, forests – affect insects in the gardens, especially beneficial insects like pollinators and those that provide natural pest control by eating aphids, caterpillars, white flies and more. Read the full story here.
The final version of “Surviving the Americas: Garifuna Persistence from Nicaragua to New York City” passed board approval and will be published this spring by the University of Cincinnati Press. The authors, Serena Cosgrove, PhD, International Studies; José Alberto Idiaquez, SJ; Andrew Gorvetzian, International Studies 2015; and Leonard Joseph-Bent, are so excited that their ethnography about the Garifuna, an Afro-indigenous group in Nicaragua, is getting published.
Jacqueline Helfgott, Phd, Criminal Justice, participated in two events with Town Hall Seattle. Clink the name of each to be taken to the replay on their YouTube Channel: Sister Helen Prejean: A Spiritual Journey to End the Death Penalty (College of Arts and Sciences also presented her original book tour last year in partnership with Elliott Bay Books.) and Kirk Bloodsworth: The Fight To End The Death Penalty.
Jacqueline Helfgott, PhD, and William S. Parkin, PhD, Criminal Justice and Christopher Fisher and Adrian Diaz, Seattle Police Department, published “Misdemeanor Arrests and Community Perceptions of Fear of Crime in Seattle.” This article was inspired by Seattle Times reporter Gene Balk's 2018 story “'Mean World Syndrome: In some Seattle Neighborhoods, Fear of Crime Exceeds Reality’". This article represents a collaboration on two major research initiatives that involved faculty, students, and criminal justice agency partnerships. If you're interested in reading the article, there is 50-day free access beginning June 5, 2020.
Campaign for the Uncommon Good
University Advancement continues to work on closing out the fiscal year strong in fundraising; as of May 31, they report raising more than $28 million dollars.
The College of Arts and Sciences has raised approximately $1.5 million this fiscal year and more than $8.9 million to date in the Campaign.
With the focus on the Center for Science and Innovation, Scholarships and Mission/Programs, every gift helps bring us all closer to the $275 million goal.
Donor Gift-Funded Accounts/Activity Strings
Budgets are tight for all at SU. Are you utilizing your donor-funded gift accounts for scholarships, program support or specific donor-restricted projects? There are almost 200 gift-funded activity strings in the College of Arts and Sciences, and these are the type of funds that rollover year to year.
Please take a little time to review these accounts to make sure you have all you need to use these resources appropriately. Should you, or your program/department, have a question regarding the purpose of a restricted gift fund(s), or would like to propose revised restrictions, please contact Katie Chapman, (206) 398-4401.
Thank you for being gracious stewards of our alumni and community partners’ donations.
Congratulations to Kimberly Harden, EdD, Seattle University Communication Department, for receiving the Sanfoka Award, recognizing a faculty or staff member who has made a positive impact on graduating students’ lives and on multicultural advocacy at Seattle University.
Angelique Davis, JD, published “Finding Refuge in Writing” for the National Center of Faculty Development & Diversity newsletter. Read the newsletter here. (Seattle University faculty may join for free as part of Seattle University’s Institutional Membership. Follow the prompts to claim your membership.)
Larry Hubbell, PhD, Institute of Public Service, is featured in WalletHub’s “Ask the Expert” in the story “State Economies Most Exposed to Coronavirus.” Read it here. That article was also referenced in Economía de Florida es la más vulnerable al covid-19" in El Venezolano News. Read the story (in Spanish) here.
Kira Mauseth, PhD, Psychology, was interviewed for KUOW’s story, “Trouble concentrating? Forgetting things? Our brains are doing strange things during this time of crisis.” Listen to the story here. She was featured in the Seattle Channel City Inside/Out story, “COVID-19: Mental Health Help. Watch it here. She was included in “How the pandemic impacts the mental health of local front-line workers” in the Inlander. Read the story. Also, in The Courthouse News, “Virus Talk Is Inescapable, 44% of Americans Tell Pew.” Read the story.
Matthew Hickman, PhD, Criminal Justice, is quoted in an AP story about President Trump's June 16 executive order to improve policing. Read the story here. He was interviewed by NBC Bay Area for a story, “Experts Track Data to Reduce Police Violence.” Watch the story.
Carmen Rivera, BA, Criminal Justice ’11, MS, Criminal Justice, published an Op-Ed, “Washington State’s Institutional Education Is Criminally Underfunded”, in the South Seattle Emerald. Read it here.
Jacqueline Helfgott, PhD, Criminal Justice, was interviewed for a number of stories about defunding the police and police reform. On KQED, “What would it mean to defund the police?” Listen to the story. On WPR, “What Does Defunding Police Forces Look Like?” Listen to the story. KIRO Radio, “Protesters call to defund Seattle Police Department, invest in community based solutions.” Listen to the story. She was interviewed by The Seattle Times for “‘Mean world syndrome’: In some Seattle neighborhoods, fear of crime exceeds reality.” Read the story. She also published an Op-Ed in the Seattle Times, “The movement to defund the police is wrong, and here’s why.” Read it here.
Anne Farina, PhD; Aakanksha Sinha, MSW, PhD; and Hye-Kyung Kang, MSW, PhD, were awarded the 2020 Katherine A. Kendall Institute (KAKI) for International Social Work Grant for their proposal, the Development of an Open Access Platform of Case Studies for Global Social Work Educators Project. The KAKI grant period is August 1, 2020 through August 31, 2023.
Audrey Hudgins, EdD, Matteo Ricci Institute; Affiliate Faculty, International Studies, published a letter to the editor in The Seattle Times, “National security: ‘Renewed meaning.’” Read the letter here.
Brooke Gialopsos, PhD, Criminal Justice, is a co-author on a paper that was recently published in the journal Victims and Offenders. The paper is entitled “Are Students Scared or Prepared? Psychological Impacts of a Multi-Option Active Assailant Protocol Compared to Other Crisis/Emergency Preparedness Practices” and is the first assessment of both negative and positive psychological impacts following a multi-option based training for 4th-12th grade students.
Elizabeth Dale, PhD, Nonprofit Leadership, coauthored “The million dollar donor journey: Stages of development for high‐net‐worth women donors” with Heather A. O’Connor, which was published in the International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing. Read it here.
Kevin Maifeld, MFA, Performing Arts and Arts Leadership, was a speaker for the virtual Late-night Art Talk Series in Hong Kong. LNAT was series discussing how the Coronavirus affects the arts and cultural industry.
Co-editor Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, PhD, Modern Languages and Cultures and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and contributor Jodi O’Brien, PhD, Sociology, participated in a launch for “Presumed Incompetent II: Race, Class, Power, and Resistance of Women in Academia.” The courageous and inspiring personal narratives and empirical studies in the book name formidable obstacles and systemic biases that all women faculty—from diverse intersectional and transnational identities and from tenure track, terminal contract, and administrative positions—encounter in their higher education careers. Watch the online book talk here.
Steen Halling, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Psychology, published "Reflections on the tensions between openness and method in experientially oriented research and psychotherapy” online in the European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counseling. Read it here.
Ken D. Allan, PhD, Art History, Department of Art & Art History, publishes review of new study of African-American art in 1960s Los Angeles; joins the board of the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present (ASAP). Allan, a specialist on American art of the 1960s on the West Coast, was solicited to write a review of a major new book in his field by art historian and curator Kellie Jones, Professor in Art History and the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University. His review of her South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s, (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2017) appeared in The Art Bulletin, Vol. 102, No. 1, March 2020: 119-121.
Estella Williamson, DSW, MSW, ACSW, Social Work, wrote a guest editorial for the journal, The Field Educator, “Advancing Field Education as a Key Area of Focus in the 2022 EPAS.” Read it here.
Yitan Li, PhD, Political Science, has been invited to serve on the editorial board of the International Studies Perspectives, one of the academic journals of the International Studies Association – the flagship academic association for international politics. The appointment is for three years.
Elizabeth Dale, PhD, Nonprofit Leadership, published “Want to do more for your favorite charity? Consider a planned gift” in The Conversation. Read it here.
Mary-Antoinette Smith, PhD, English, and Rev. Louis Gaffney Endowed Chair (2018-2020) has had two chapters accepted for forthcoming edited volumes: “Of Human Bondage: Recurrent Replications of Supplication, Enslavement, and Appeal from Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century” in Adaptation Before Cinema: Literary and Visual Convergence from Antiquity through the 19th Century. Eds. Lissette Lopez Szwydky and Glenn Jellenik [Palgrave 2021] and “Dickens Demystified: The Jesuitical Journey of Ebenezer Scrooge through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola” in THE THEOLOGICAL DICKENS. Eds. Brenda Ayres and Sarah E. Maier (Routledge 2021).
Our Newest Alums
ChrisTiana ObeySumner, BA, Psychology with Honors, '13; MNPL, '16; and MPA ’20, and recipient of the 2020 Social Justice and Community Engagement Award, was included in The Seattle Times story, “Could the coronavirus reset society? Questions we should be asking about post-pandemic life.” Read the story here.
Charese Jones, MNPL ’20, talked about her work at Orion Center in The Seattle Times story, “Coronavirus brings ‘a whole other layer of trauma’ for workers who serve homeless people.” Read the story here.
Chhavi Mehra, Communication with specialization in Journalism ’20, published “Are Partial Tuition Refunds for Distance and Virtual Learning Justified?” in the South Seattle Emerald. Read the story here.
Josh Merchant, Psychology '20, wrote a story for the South Seattle Emerald, "Seattle University faces demands to end relationship with SPD." Josh was the Investigative Editor for The Spectator. Read the story here.
More Alum News
Mason Bryan, Political Science '15, is the Associate Opinion Editor for Crosscut, where he recently published "It's not so hard to imagine a life without police." Read the story here.
Toshiko Grace Hasegawa, Criminal Justice, BA '10, MACJ '19: "As executive director of CAPAA, it’s my tremendous honor to serve such a reputable agency originally founded by the will of the people to make sure that APIs had a voice in state government. Here, with COVID-19, we are seeing the need for our voice and representation more than ever. We have historically concentrated our work in a couple of different target issue areas: education, health and human services, civil rights and immigration, economic development, and also, of course, census. What we’re really finding in this pandemic is that the issues have not changed but the equity gap has deepened." Read the North American Post story here.
Brandon Frost, MNPL student, was one of those who documented the recent Capitol Hill protests about racial equity and police violence. Brandon also works at Seattle U in the IT department.
Abstractions of Black Citizenship: African American Art From Saint Louis
Through August 2
Online
Abstractions of Black Citizenship: African American Art from Saint Louis is a group exhibition of works by Dominic Chambers, Damon Davis, Jen Everett, De Nichols, and Katherine Simóne Reynolds, five Black Saint Louis, MO-based artists. The exhibition presents painting, photography, mixed media, works on paper, sculpture, and video. Programming starts on Monday, May 18 at 5 p.m. PT with a Virtual Opening for the Online Exhibition, and continues throughout May, June, and July 2020. Other events include pre-recorded artist Studio Visits (released over May 2020), a live/virtual Public Programming Artists Talk (Friday, May 29 at 3 p.m. PT), and tours of the online exhibition and educational programming. Find the full program of virtual events here. Presented with sponsorship and support from Hedreen Gallery and the Pigott Family Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition is curated by Jasmine Jamillah Mahmoud, Assistant Professor in Arts Leadership at Seattle University.
Seattle University 2020 BFA Photography Online Exhibition
Ongoing
Seattle University Department of Art and Art History is pleased to present the 11th Annual BFA Photography Exhibition. The seven diverse projects presented in this exhibition were developed during the past academic year. Owing to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the BFA Photography Exhibition is on display through the student’s websites. 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. View the exhibition here.
Reading Redhawks with Jasmine Mahmoud, PhD and Ellen McGivern, '19
Thursday, June 25, 12-1 p.m.
Online via Zoom
This session features a conversation with Jasmine Jamillah Mahmoud, PhD and alumna Ellen McGivern, '19. Mahmoud is curator and McGivern is curatorial assistant for "Abstractions of Black Citizenship: African American Art from Saint Louis," a group exhibition of works by five black Saint Louis, Missouri-based artists. The exhibition presents painting, photography, mixed-media, works on paper, sculpture and video. View the virtual exhibit through the Hedreen Gallery.
Focusing on themes from the virtual exhibition - including abstraction, Blackness, citizenship, and St. Louis, MO - this Reading Redhawks will discuss questions, problems and possibilities that have arisen for artists amidst the pandemic. Presented by Seattle University Alumni Association. Register here.
As of June 9, 2020. Download PDF of 20-21 Academic Calendar
Summer 2020
Intersession 2020
Fall Quarter 2020
Please refer to the Office of the Registrar's website for any updates.
Thursday, April 25 at 12:00 PM
Monday, May 6 at 9:00 AM
Wednesday, May 8 at 12:30 PM
Monday, May 13 at 5:00 PM
Tuesday, May 14 at 12:00 PM
The Dean’s Monthly Memo is published the second full week of the month, September through December and February through June. Send your updates to Karen Bystrom.