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March 26-27: Environmental writer explores storytelling

March 21, 2014

William Cronon, one of the country’s foremost environmental writers, thinkers and historians, will be the featured speaker at two free, public events March 26-27 as part of WSU’s Visiting Writer Series.

“William Cronon is an exceptional historian who has a scholar’s depth and breadth of knowledge but also a novelist’s skill at telling stories,” said Larry Hufford, director of the School of Biological Sciences and the Charles R. Conner Museum of Natural History at WSU. “His seminal book, Changes in the Land, was tremendously influential in shaping the way we think today about wilderness and the pervasiveness of human influence on the American environment.”

Cronon will present “The Portage: Time, Memory and Storytelling in the Making of an American Place” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the CUB auditorium on the WSU Pullman campus. On Thursday, he will join an interdisciplinary panel of faculty experts from WSU and the University of Idaho in examining “The Personal Voice of Scholarly Writing” 3:30-5:30 p.m., on the UI campus in Moscow.

Learn more about these cross-disciplinary events

Creative media students hone career skills with e-book project

January 31, 2014

Project team, from left to right: Nicholas Rudy, WSUV Student & Project Manager; Greg Shine, NPS Chief Ranger & Historian; Dr. Dene Grigar, WSUV Course Instructor & CMDC Director; Bryan Ruhe, WSUV Student & Lead Designer; and Kyleigh Williams, WSUV Student & Content Specialist. Not pictured, Meagan Huff & Heidi Pierson, NPS Museum Technicians.

“Our plan is quite simple – we want to take over New York City publishing.”

That’s how Dr. Dene Grigar feels after witnessing her students produce a new digital book on the life of Dr. John McLoughlin, chief factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Vancouver.

Grigar, an associate professor in English and director of WSU Vancouver’s Creative Media and Digital Culture (CMDC) program, believes that the old model of publishing is dying, and that the 225 students in her program are gaining real-world experience in the new model: digital.

Three CMDC students worked with the National Park Service on the digital publication which is called “The McLoughlin Family Collection: A Look Inside the Fort Vancouver Museum Collection.” The e-book features photos and 3D images of McLoughlin family artifacts from the National Historic Site collection, an animated overview of Dr. McLoughlin’s life and struggles on the frontier, and music recorded directly from the family melodeon, a type of early organ.

“This project fits well in the vision for the CMDC program,” Grigar explained. “We are developing a digital publishing track in our program and experimenting with open source technologies to produce scholarly, artistic and commercial publications.”

Learn more about the creative media project

Jan. 27-31: Humanities Week looks at scholarship, influence

January 10, 2014

Three free, public presentations will highlight Humanities Week presented by the WSU Humanities Planning Group.

Guest speakers from Duke and Michigan State universities will join WSU faculty in covering a range of topics, including:

“Is a Little Pollution Good for You? How the Humanities Can Contribute to Science and Policy”
“Four Glimpses of Scholarship in the Humanities: A Roundtable”
“Cosmopolitan Humanities”
“Empathy and Religious Diversity”

Get more details and a list of events

Literary Flight: A writer’s adventures at 3,000 feet

November 6, 2013

Author and editor W. Scott Olsen writes about things that scare him, flying a single-engine airplane across remote landscapes, tracking the lives of wildland firefighters, and other risky activities that capture his interest.

Olsen will read and discuss his literary work on Nov. 7 at 5:00 p.m. in the Museum of Art/WSU Pullman, as part of the 2013 WSU Visiting Writer Series sponsored by the Department of English. Author of several books and acclaimed essays, Olsen also edits “Ascent,” one of the oldest and best-established literary journals in the country.

“No matter what your discipline or academic specialty, having the tools to write about it for a wide audience is something we all want to know more about,” said Debbie Lee, professor of English and co-director of the Visiting Writer Series.

Olsen also will be part of a roundtable on publishing and editing across print and the web at noon Nov. 8 in Avery Hall, Bundy Reading Rm., at WSU Pullman. Other panelists are Rita Rud, Bryan Fry, and Jana Argersinger, with Peter Chilson moderating.

High tech ‘hearts’ humanities: Market values creativity, communication, critical thinking

October 23, 2013

In this time of intense focus on technology, what good is a degree in the humanities?

Plenty, say not only Washington State University professors but leading high-tech companies too. And WSU humanities alumni are proving it.

Only weeks before collecting her bachelor of arts degree through the WSU Department of English last December, Allison Hartinger walked right past a job-fair booth seeking software engineers: “I just didn’t see myself with that title,” she said.