A talented geophysicist specializing in planetary evolution and an award-winning teacher in the School of Environment, Associate Professor Katie Cooper blends chemistry, biology, physics, geology, and mathematics to helps students understand the world we live in and connect concepts from the classroom to real-world issues.
Tabitha Espina (’20 PhD English) is fascinated with language and the power of words, along with their ability to shape identity and sense of belonging. She grew up on the tiny island of Guam and moved an ocean away to earn her doctoral degree at WSU. Now an assistant professor of rhetoric and composition at […]
For students who are the first in their family to attend college, the WSU GEAR UP program provides opportunities to further their education in ways they might never have imagined. “GEAR UP not only set me up for success for college, but I was able to grow as a leader,” said Maria Yepez Perez (’20 […]
To help celebrate National Transfer Student Week, CAS undergraduates Kelly Ngigi (psychology) and Drew Misemer (history) shared their experiences and advice for fellow Cougs with the WSU Office of Undergraduate Education and the WSU Transfer Clearinghouse.
Love is not the reason why we sing and create symphonies—at least not the primary reason, according to a new evolutionary theory of the origins of music. “Sex and mating are a part of the story, but music seems to expand far beyond that particular domain,” said Ed Hagen, WSU evolutionary anthropologist and a co-author […]
Allison Coffin, a neuroscientist in the College of Arts and Sciences at WSU Vancouver, focuses on hearing, hear-loss prevention, and even on sensory cell regeneration—something no mammal is known to be able to do, unlike many birds and fish. For sound to get from the air around us to our brains, it passes through a […]
People with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, report that the severity of their symptoms was reduced by about half within four hours of smoking cannabis, according to a Washington State University study. “The results overall indicate that cannabis may have some beneficial short-term but not really long-term effects on obsessive-compulsive disorder,” said Carrie Cuttler, WSU assistant […]
Working at the intersection of educational theory, literacy, and minoritized communities, Associate Professor Ashley Boyd is reshaping English education and helping to transform the lives of high school students across the nation. She is the director of undergraduate studies in the Department of English.
Funded by grant from the National Science Foundation, scientists in WSU’s Department of Psychology and Department of Human Development are launching a four-year study of babies’ emotional reactions and responses, seeking a greater understanding of how humans develop safe and unsafe behaviors. Researchers will study infants’ approach and avoidance behaviors, to understand how they develop […]
Derren Patterson (’07 History) wanted to see the world. After stops in China and Korea, he landed in Bolivia—and made the landlocked South American country his home. The ecotourism adventurer has been sharing his passion for the place—part mountain range, part desert, part rainforest—for twelve years now. “I’ve guided Hollywood movie stars, princes and princesses, […]