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CAS in the Media Arts and Sciences Media Headlines

Center for Arts and Humanities announces fellowship and catalyst award recipients

The Center for Arts and Humanities (CAH) has selected nine faculty to receive the 2021 CAH Fellowships and Catalyst Award.

Faculty receiving the CAH Fellowship for 2021:

  • Avantika Bawa.
    Bawa

    AVANTICA BAWA, Department of Fine Arts

    Bawa will continue an ongoing series of installations reflecting the artist’s interest in responding to the built and natural environment through the language of drawing and construction.

  • Troy Bennefield.
    Bennefield

    TROY BENNEFIELD, School of Music

    Bennefield will explore and publish information on the life and works of Dutch composer Julius Hijman, whose career was interrupted by the Nazi regime. Bennefield will produce the first-ever recordings of Hijman’s compositions.

  • Dennis Dehart.
    Dehart

    DENNIS DeHART, Department of Fine Arts

    DeHart will create a lens-based series of works focused on the Columbia River drainage basin and the Snake River. The exhibition will be in collaboration with the WSU Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections.

  • Martin King.
    King

    MARTIN KING, School of Music

    King will commission a new horn, tuba and piano trio, record an album of music for this ensemble, and give performing tours of this music to expand and diversify the repertoire and promote this ensemble.

  • Laurie Mercier.
    Mercier

    LAURIE MERCIER, Department of History

    Mercier will conduct research for a book project about gendered occupational segregation in the U.S. and Canadian Wests from 1930-2020.

  • Melissa Nicolas.
    Nicolas

    MELISSA NICOLAS, Department of English

    Nicolas will create an open-access digital archive of personal narratives about living through the COVID‑19 pandemic.

  • Jeffrey Sanders.
    Sanders

    JEFF SANDERS, Department of History

    Sanders will develop a book proposal for a cultural and environmental history of strontium 90.

Jacqueline Wilson.
Wilson
  • JACQUELINE WILSON, School of Music

Wilson will create an album of classical works by Indigenous composers for solo bassoon utilizing a decolonized approach.

Faculty receiving the CAH Catalyst Award for 2021:

  • Ruth Gregory.
    Gregory

    RUTH GREGORY, Digital Technology and Culture Program

    Gregory will pursue multiple grant proposals to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Spencer Foundation, and provide paid internships for community engaged humanities students.

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WSU Insider

Smith Teaching and Learning grants benefit undergraduate education

Washington State University faculty members are engaged in six new projects to improve undergraduate education, thanks to funding from the Samuel H. and Patricia W. Smith Teaching and Learning Endowment. They include three in the College of Arts and Sciences:

Ruth Gregory.
Gregory

Ruth Gregory, scholarly assistant professor and director of undergraduate studies for the Digital Technology and Culture (DTC) Program, for the project “Digital Technology and Culture in the Community AmeriCorps Program: Closing the Equity Gap in Internship Experiences and Compensation.” The program will address internship inequity by creating an AmeriCorps unit at WSU focused on providing students from marginalized backgrounds paid internship opportunities.

Nikolaus Overtoom.
Overtoom

Nikolaus Overtoom, clinical assistant professor of history, for the project “Engaging an Equitable Antiquity.” The project will emphasize diversity, equity, and inclusiveness in the study of antiquity by redeveloping two courses—History 337 (Women in the Ancient World) for the Global Campus and History 395 (Topics in History: Ancient Warfare and Society).

Patty Wilde.
Wilde

Patty Wilde, assistant professor and director of composition at WSU Tri-Cities, for the project “Culturally Responsive Approaches to Writing Instruction: Using a Multi-disciplinary Community of Practice to Improve Equity and Student Outcomes” with Tri-Cities co-applicants Lori Nelson, scholarly assistant professor of biology; Tracey Hanshew, scholarly assistant professor of history; Robert Franklin, clinical associate professor of history; and Vanessa Cozza, scholarly associate professor of English; with facilitation by Janet Peters, scholarly associate professor of psychology. The project will use culturally responsive teaching knowledge to re-envision approaches to writing instruction, assignment design, and assessment in the context of their courses.

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WSU Insider

Five faculty to join WSU in the fall through new cluster hire program

Five new faculty members will be joining Washington State University in the fall as the inaugural cohort of the “Racism and Social Inequality in the Americas,” cluster hire program. Four of the five are in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The program was initiated to address system-wide needs for scholarship, teaching, and outreach aimed at dismantling systemic racism and to recruit and retain a more diverse faculty and student body.

The faculty positions were created based on proposals submitted by departments and campuses across the WSU system last fall. The program will continue in 2022, and will focus on health inequities and health justice in marginalized communities.

Michelle Brown.
Brown
Michelle Brown

Digital Technology and Culture, WSU Tri‑Cities

Alan Malfavon.
Malfavon
Alan Malfavon

History, WSU Pullman

Arifa Raza.
Raza
Arifa Raza

Criminal Justice and Criminology, WSU Pullman

Darryl Singleton.
Singleton
Darryl Singleton

Music, WSU Pullman

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WSU Insider
The Daily Evergreen

Top Ten Senior Awards

For more than 80 years, Washington State University has recognized 10 of the top seniors in each graduating class. The WSU Alumni Association selects these women and men who represent the highest standards in specific aspects of the college experience, including academics, athletics, campus involvement, community service, and visual and performing arts.

Five CAS students were among the Top 10 of 2021.

Kyle Kopta.
Kopta

Kyle Kopta

VISUAL/PERFORMING ARTS

  • College of Arts and Sciences
  • Digital Technology and Culture
  • WSU Tri-Cities
  • Hermiston, Oregon
Samantha King-Shaw.
King-Shaw

Samantha King-Shaw

ACADEMICS

  • College of Arts and Sciences
  • Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
  • WSU Pullman
  • Sparks, Nevada
Brandt Fisher.
Fisher

Brandt Fisher

VISUAL/PERFORMING ARTS

  • College of Arts and Sciences, Honors College
  • Music performance in saxophone with an emphasis in jazz
  • WSU Pullman
  • Edmonds, Washington
Dallas Hobbs.
Hobbs

Dallas Hobbs

ATHLETICS

  • College of Arts and Sciences
  • Digital Technology & Culture, Fine Arts
  • WSU Pullman
  • Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Ariel Medeiros.
Medeiros

Ariel Medeiros

COMMUNITY SERVICE

  • College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences
  • Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Science, Psychology
  • WSU Pullman
  • Reno, Nevada

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Washington State University

15 CAS undergraduates win 10 SURCA research awards

More than a quarter of Washington State University students who delivered virtual presentations won monetary awards at the annual Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (SURCA) on March 29 in Pullman.

SURCA is the unique WSU-wide venue for students from all majors, years in college, and from all WSU campuses. Nearly 150 students from the Pullman, Vancouver, Spokane, and Global campuses delivered presentations detailing their research, scholarship, and creative activities conducted with a mentor.

Faculty, postdoctoral students, and community experts used a common rubric to judge and score all presentations in nine SURCA categories that are designed to cover all disciplines at the university.

Fifteen CAS students won 10 different awards across seven categories at the 2021 event held online.

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WSU Insider