mikayla.makle | CAS in the Media | Washington State University

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Enhancing research, creative activity in the arts and humanities

July 8, 2020 mikayla.makle

Eleven of Washington State University’s most innovative scholars and artists have been selected for faculty fellowships and mini-grants from the Center for Arts and Humanities (CAH) and the Office of Research.

“We are excited to support faculty as they advance not only their academic fields but also the communities we serve,” said Todd Butler, director of the center, associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, and professor of English.

Funded by a five-year commitment from the Office of Research and its strategic research investment program, the center’s grant programs strengthen and enhance research and creative endeavors across WSU. Any faculty member pursuing arts and humanities-related work, regardless of rank or home department, is eligible to apply.

“This year, almost all of the arts and humanities departments—as well as associated faculty working in the social sciences—were represented in the proposals submitted, testifying to the ongoing vitality and reach of these disciplines at Washington State University,” said Butler.

Reflecting upon her CAH experience, School of Music instructor and 2019 faculty fellow Melissa Parkhurst said, “The CAH Faculty Fellowship put me in regular communication with a group of dedicated interdisciplinary scholars. I gained a vital support network, valuable feedback, and ideas for future projects.”

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WSU Insider

‘It’s a complicated thing’: Meaning of the Fourth of July in flux as fight for equal rights continues

July 7, 2020 mikayla.makle

Fourth of July wasn’t widely celebrated during the American Revolution because the country was at war and only about a third of the population strongly supported a split with Great Britain. Up through the 1790s, the leaders of the country, including George Washington, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, were Federalists who had some disagreements with the main author of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson. They were more likely to point to the Constitution.

“The soaring language of the Declaration of Independence has always been a conundrum, and what it represented to people in the nation it helped create has meant different things to different people at different times,” said Steven Fountain, a history professor and director of Native American Affairs on the Washington State University Vancouver campus.

“The people who signed the Declaration were mainly interested in a type of freedom for themselves and others like them,” said Clif Stratton, associate professor of American history at WSU. It was freedom from the restraints the British put on them, and the freedom to settle more lands.

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The Spokesman-Review

Defunding War & Cops

July 7, 2020 mikayla.makle

Laurie Mercier, professor of history at Washington State University, talks with Michael Brenes, lecturer in history at Yale University and author of the forthcoming For Might and Right: Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy, on what we can learn from the long history of efforts to defund the post-World War II military state in order to support efforts to defund the domestic militarized police state, and how we might reimagine public spending.

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KBOO

Travis Ridout to lead WSU School of Politics, Philosophy, Public Affairs

July 7, 2020 mikayla.makle

A national expert on political advertising and campaign finance, Travis Ridout will begin on July 15 a four-year term as director of the School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs (PPPA) at Washington State University.

Now the Thomas S. Foley Distinguished Professor of Government and Public Policy, Ridout joined the WSU faculty in 2003. Since then, he has taught a wide range of courses, including American politics, elections, media and politics, political behavior, research methods and statistics and has supervised 10 graduate students. He also authored or coauthored three books and more than 60 articles, papers and book chapters and served as a principal investigator on grants totaling more than $750,000.

Ridout cofounded and codirects the Wesleyan Media Project, a research group that has tracked all political advertisements aired in the United States since 2010, and his studies of political campaigns, political advertising and campaign finance have appeared in leading political science journals in the U.S. and U.K. and in numerous books about politics.

“I believe the world is hungry for the type of analysis and interpretation of the contemporary world that political scientists and philosophers can provide,” Ridout said. “A lot of exciting, relevant research and excellent teaching is already going on in PPPA, and I look forward to sharing our school’s story more widely, both at WSU and beyond.”

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WSU Insider

Early peoples in Pacific Northwest were smoking smooth sumac

July 2, 2020 mikayla.makle

Some 1,400 years ago, people living in what is now Washington state were smoking smooth sumac, Rhus glabra. Scientists found residues of the native plant in an ancient pipe.

“Smoking often played a religious or ceremonial role for Native American tribes and our research shows these specific plants were important to these communities in the past,” lead study author Korey Brownstein, a former doctoral student at Washington State University, now at the University of Chicago, said in a news release. “We think the Rhus glabra may have been mixed with tobacco for its medicinal qualities and to improve the flavor of smoke.”

“Not only does it tell you, yes, you found the plant you’re interested in, but it also can tell you what else was being smoked,” said study co-author David Gang, a professor in Washington State’s Institute of Biological Chemistry. “It wouldn’t be hyperbole to say that this technology represents a new frontier in archaeo-chemistry.”

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