History

Dr. Universe: How do places get their names?

One way a place might get a name is from the person who explored it. The Americas are named after an Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci. But Amerigo wasn’t the first person to explore these continents, and people living there when he arrived. For the most part, people name things because they are claiming possession of […]

Single mom earning degree while raising her son

For the average college student juggling school, classes and a job can be a difficult feat in itself. WSU Vancouver, however, is not a campus filled with traditional students. It is a commuter campus and sees everything from parents to long-distance commuters attending classes. Ana Betancourt is a WSU Vancouver junior majoring in sociology and […]

Library instruction increases student educational success

Clif Stratton knows the difference library instruction makes for his students. For more than five years, he has brought students in his “Roots of Contemporary Issues” class to Terrell Library to meet with Corey Johnson, WSU’s instruction and assessment librarian. Johnson teaches the students how to find suitable primary and secondary sources for their research […]

Undergraduate students’ research opens doors to the future

Alyssa Sperry’s research for her University Scholars Honors thesis on the history of salt in Jamaica earned her the Library Research Excellence Award for 2018. It also changed her life. The library research award is designed to recognize students who excel in using the library and its rich resources. Sperry, who graduated from WSU Vancouver in […]

History professor emerita teaching in Kazakhstan on Fulbright Fellowship

Marina Tolmacheva, WSU professor emerita of history and an expert in Islamic and world history, has been awarded a four-month Fulbright Fellowship to teach and consult on academic development at KIMEP University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Tolmacheva recently began teaching courses on Central Asian history in the context of world history to graduate and undergraduate students […]

WSM review: Bringing Water to the Idaho Desert

Growing up on a farm near Inkom, Idaho, the young Hugh Lovin (’56 MA history) would engineer ways to divert water to the crops he produced for his livestock. Later in life, after years of writing histories of labor, Lovin turned his attention again to irrigation. In a number of articles, collected for the first […]

Long journey of WSU’s newest student regent

Jordan Frost was a sophomore at Kent-Meridian High School when a teacher, Andrea McCormick, handed him a packet of materials to run for student body president. She already had filled them out. “You just need to sign your name,” she said. Later, she gave him a Washington State University hoodie, “which was really the first […]

Historic find is subject of new documentary

Recent discoveries by a WSU history professor and his students may hold the key to an ongoing American West conflict. After nearly 10 years of research, Professor Orlan Svingen, along with students and colleagues in the WSU public history field schools, unearthed an official U.S. government document from 1870 and several supporting records that shed […]

Arts & humanities faculty awarded 2018 fellowships

Seven College of Arts and Sciences faculty received WSU Arts and Humanities Fellowship awards through a program funded by the Office of Research. “These grants showcase the range and innovation of creative and humanistic work at WSU,” said Todd Butler, chair of the fellowship review committee. “These faculty are taking on challenging questions and demonstrating […]

English professor returns to History Channel

Narrative historian and English professor Buddy Levy is making a return to the History Channel. Levy, the author of a 2005 biography about early American adventurer Davy Crockett, is among the experts interviewed in the cable network’s latest documentary series “The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen.” The new series by executive producer Leonardo DiCaprio explores […]