Welcome new CAS faculty
Meet some of the newest members of CAS faculty whose expertise—from feminist public policy to evolutionary trends in human-environmental dynamics to health and wellness for musicians—enriches and expands the Arts and Sciences community at WSU.
Mikhail Balaev
Research and teaching interests: Growing up in Soviet Russia, I witnessed the massive socioeconomic change brought by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which inspired my interest in sociology. Now, as a macro-sociologist with broad academic interests in economic and political sociology, my current work analyzes the role of the economic elite in the formation of the upper level of the executive branch in the U.S. government. This NSF- and ASA-sponsored multi-year project includes the collection of data on the professional affiliations of Presidential appointees before and after executive government office from 1978 to the present. My goal is to create a dynamic time-series network model of the U.S. political power elite.
Previous post: University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Education and training: PhD, Sociology, University of Oregon
Honors and achievements: $160,000 NSF award for Presidential appointees data-collection project and related award from the Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline of the American Sociological Association
Outside of work, I enjoy backpacking, skiing, and playing chess.
Chris Dickey
Research and teaching interests: Contemporary brass literature, transcriptions, health and wellness for musicians, and commissioning of new works
Education and training: Doctor of Music, Northwestern University; MA, University of Iowa; Bachelor of Music, Eastern Illinois University
Honors and achievements: Featured artist, 2013 Isla Verde Bronces International Brass Festival (Cordoba, Argentina) Conference co-host, 2013 Regional Tuba-Euphonium Conference Tuba-euphonium quartet pieces published with BVD Press
Outside of work, I enjoy cooking French and Italian food. I want to get a dog as soon as possible, but I will need to live in a place that allows pets before that dream comes true.
Season Hoard
Research and teaching interests: Comparative feminist public policy issues in postindustrial democracies and comparative methodology; the impact of expertise on public policy formation with a focus on gender expertise. Teaching interests include a focus on comparative politics.
Previous post: Washington State University
Education and training: PhD, MA, Washington State University; BS University of Nebraska at Kearney
Honors and Achievements: Does Gender Expertise Matter? Toward a Theory of Policy Success, to be published with Palgrave Macmillan, 2014
Outside of work, I enjoy doing whatever my daughter wants.
Clinical Faculty Member
School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs and Division of Governmental Studies and Services
Shannon Tushingham
Research and teaching interests: Anthropological archaeology, with specialization in hunter-gatherer-fishers of the Pacific Northwest Coast and California; focus on understanding evolutionary trends in human-environmental dynamics, and GC/MS residue studies directed at understanding ancient use of psychoactive plants.
Previous post: University of California-Davis; Elk Valley Rancheria
Education and training: PhD, University of California-Davis; MA, University of Memphis; BA, University of Connecticut, Storrs
Honors and Achievements: “Why Foragers Choose Acorns before Salmon: Storage, Mobility, and Risk in Aboriginal California,” Journal of Anthropology and Archaeology; “Hunter-Gatherer Tobacco Smoking: Earliest Evidence from the Pacific Northwest Coast,”Journal of Archaeological Science; Archaeology, Ethnography, and Tolowa Heritage at Red Elderberry Place, California Department of Parks and Recreation Archaeology, History and Museums Division
Outside of work, I enjoy camping, thrift shopping, hiking, and biking with my husband, Miles, son, Harrison, and daughter, Greer.
Ashley Wright
Research and teaching interests: Modern British, imperial, and world history, colonial Burma
Previous Post: Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Education and training: PhD, University of Cambridge; MPhil, University of Cambridge; BA, University of British Columbia
Honors and achievements: Opium and Empire in Southeast Asia: Regulating Consumption in British Burma, monograph forthcoming, Palgrave Macmillan
Outside of work I enjoy swimming, cooking, reading, and travel.
