Faculty

Q&A with Nanda Grow

An evolutionary and behavioral ecologist in the Department of Anthropology, Nanda Grow joined the WSU faculty in August and is interested in how natural selective pressures shape the behavior and biology of primates.

Fine arts education flourishes in face of pandemic

From moist, cool clay to wet, drippy paint and dry, smudgy charcoal, visual art is a distinctly hands-on, sometimes messy, field of practice and study. So, what happens when art education goes online? “Remote teaching certainly hasn’t slowed us down. In fact, these strange times have helped us reimagine new, more expanded ways to reach […]

Q&A with Travis Ridout

A professor of political science in the WSU School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs, Travis Ridout is an expert on political advertising and campaign finance. His work has appeared in leading political science journals in the U.S. and U.K. and he is highly sought by national and international news media for his knowledge about […]

Beavers may help amphibians threatened by climate change

The recovery of beavers may have beneficial consequences for amphibians because beaver dams can create the unique habitats that amphibians need. “Beaver-dammed wetlands support more of the amphibian species that need a long time to develop in water as larvae before they are able to live on land as adults,” said Jonah Piovia-Scott, assistant professor […]

Student, faculty serve on artist jury

Mikayla Makle, an English major and president of the WSU Black Student Union—and a College of Arts and Sciences student ambassador—served alongside three CAS faculty to help select recipients of the recent Black Lives Matter Artist Grant program offered by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.

How scientists tracked down a mass killer (of salmon)

Every fall, more than half of the coho salmon that return to Puget Sound’s urban streams die before they can spawn. In some streams, all of them die. But scientists didn’t know why. Now, a team led by researchers at Washington State University and the University of Washington has discovered the answer. When it rains, […]

Senior researcher honored at multicultural STEM conference

Jenna Pederson, a general studies in biological sciences major from Silverdale, Wash., received an award for her undergraduate research presentation at the annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS), which were held virtually in November. Mentored by WSU psychology professor Rebecca Craft, Pederson’s research project on modeling the severity of human pain was recognized […]

Football-loving states slow to enact youth concussion laws

States with college teams in strong conferences, in particular the Southeastern Conference (SEC), were among the last to take up regulations on youth concussions, according to a recent study by WSU sociologists. The research, which investigated the association between youth sport participation and passage of concussion legislation, uncovered the importance of SEC affiliation, and found […]

Ancient blanket made with 11,500 turkey feathers

“Blankets or robes made with turkey feathers as the insulating medium were widely used by Ancestral Pueblo people, but little is known about how they were made because so few such textiles have survived due to their perishable nature,” said Bill Lipe, emeritus professor of anthropology at WSU and lead author of a new paper […]