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WSU announces winner of Oaks Academic Technology Award

Willam Schlosser.
Schlosser

William “Dr. Bill” Schlosser, a faculty member at Washington State University’s School of the Environment, is the winner of the 2020 Oaks Academic Technology Award. The annual award is sponsored by Academic Outreach & Innovation (AOI).

The Oaks award, named in honor of visionary innovator Dr. Muriel Oaks, WSU Dean Emeritus, recognizes a faculty member’s innovative application of an existing technology to transform teaching and learning in their classroom.

Schlosser is being awarded in recognition of his innovative use of multiple software tools to give students a platform to effectively complete environmental research activities and present their findings following the system-wide transition to distance learning in Spring 2020. He will receive $3000 in faculty development funds and a trophy in recognition of his achievement.

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WSU Insider

What Elite Museums Can Teach Us About Running a Creative Business

Balancing between the creative imperative and the bottom line is an art perfected by top museums like the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Picture yourself in a museum of modern art. On the walls of the gallery are two Picasso paintings, “Dish of Pears” and “Seated Nude,” alongside other paintings by European artists active in the early 20th century. Step into a room nearby and there is another Picasso, “The Three Dancers,” among a selection of masterpieces by international Surrealists. Elsewhere in the museum, in another curated show, you find again the unmistakable hand of Picasso in “Weeping Woman.”

Anna Zamora-Kapoor.
Zamora-Kapoor

In “Networks on the walls: Analysing ‘traces’ of institutional logics in museums’ permanent exhibitions,” Anna Zamora-Kapoor, assistant professor of sociology at Washington State University, and colleagues unravel the question by analysing artist selection and the underlying networks among artworks in the permanent collections of three top museums of modern and contemporary art: Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou in Paris and MoMA. They show that elite museums’ selection of artists and the way in which they display the latter’s works are subject to forces of state, market, and aesthetics as well as to the compromises these often conflicting forces engender – dynamics similar to what businesses in the creative and innovative industries face.

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Knowledge

Introducing students to the Palouse

Every year students from across Washington and around the world come to study at Washington State University. But during their time here, how much do they really get to know the beauty, history, and unique landscapes of their Palouse home?

An interdisciplinary WSU team, including faculty from Earth sciences and history, has received a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to develop a series of courses for students to dig deeply into Palouse history and culture. They hope the program will give students a greater understanding of the unique region while also helping them to grow strong roots — building understanding of what it means to be an active citizen and to be part of a community wherever they end up. The project is one of 224 education grants for curriculum innovation in the humanities awarded by NEH.

The Palouse Matters program will consist of humanities-oriented, interdisciplinary classes that focus on the Palouse and its landscapes. The courses, which will include “Landscapes of the Palouse,” “Digital Palouse,” and “Reading the American Landscape,” will combine content and methods from environmental history, design, ecology, cultural landscape studies, and place-based education, enabling students to make connections among seemingly incongruous subjects and diverse populations.

With the one-year planning grant, the researchers hope to begin offering the courses as part of a new, general education humanities pathway in fall of 2021.

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WSU Insider

WSU senior headed to Wales as a Fulbright Student

Thomas LeClair.
LeClair

Washington State University senior biology and music double major and future veterinarian Thomas LeClair is the 2020 recipient of a prestigious, nationally competitive Fulbright Student Award that will fund his master’s degree studies in marine biology in Bangor, Wales.

This fall, he will travel to Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences to pursue his Fulbright topic, “Investigating Anthropogenic Effects on Cetacean Populations.” That is, the effect humans are having on marine ecology, specifically dolphins and whales. His program calls for nine months of master’s-level coursework and three months of research.

“As varied effects of anthropogenic changes have already begun to take their toll on the seas, it is imperative that we gain a deeper understanding of both our relationship with the environment and what steps we must take to mitigate these existing human-made changes,” he wrote in his application.

Thanks to the Fulbright, LeClair can also pursue additional learning experiences.

“I’ll be able to gain the skills and knowledge I’ll need to succeed while satisfying both my practical penchant for science and my passion for music.”

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WSU Insider

Are stay-home orders unconstitutional? Local experts examine the question

Cornell Clayton.
Clayton

KREM 2 News reached out to local educators in the Inland Northwest, who specialize in the study of Constitutional law, to discuss the current stay-home orders. Dr. Cornell Clayton, professor of political science and director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute at Washington State University acknowledged that there is indeed a question of our own individual rights when it comes to these state-mandated restrictions.

“And as is often the case,” says Clayton, “we sometimes jump from a reasonable discussion about public policy to a constitutional argument.”

Implicating constitutional rights is not the same as violating them; and debating public policy is not the same as decrying unconstitutionality. Clayton agreed it is legal for state courts to enforce stay-at-home orders, and the federal government supports the state court systems in these restrictions.

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Krem