Narrative historian and English professor Buddy Levy is making a return to the History Channel. Levy, the author of a 2005 biography about early American adventurer Davy Crockett, is among the experts interviewed in the cable network’s latest documentary series “The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen.” The new series by executive producer Leonardo DiCaprio explores […]
Molding better Americans is the motivation behind a new foreign language scholarship created for Washington State University students by alumnus Christopher “CJ” Johnson (’02), an officer and linguist in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. “So few Americans speak a foreign language, and the outcome is that few Americans understand the world outside their immediate circle,” […]
WSU Vancouver history professor Sue Peabody and adjunct professor Donna Sinclair were looking at the demographic records of Clark County, Washington, and noticed some surprising facts. The local population has more than doubled in the past three decades, from 221,654 to nearly 500,000 in 2017. And while more than half (54 percent) of the current […]
Although she spent much of her career in administrative positions, history professor Candice Goucher has always thought of herself as a scholar first and foremost. Her research combines the theories and methods of history, archaeology, ethnography, art history, ecology and chemistry. She is well known for her books and articles on African foodways, metallurgy, and […]
Four years ago, on his way home to Walla Walla from school in Arizona, Taylor Hermsen was thumbing through an in-flight magazine when he was struck by an idea for his doctoral research. “The magazine was all about wine,” Hermsen said. “Being a native of the Inland Northwest, I thought I knew a lot about my home, but the fact that many people visiting eastern Washington are doing so […]
In this issue of News Travels, learn about our new language certificate programs, a wide range of student activities held throughout the semester, creative learning activities like dancing lessons, field trips, and tasty tiramisu. Plus, don’t miss the photos from three faculty-led study abroad trips and a recap of honors and achievements by faculty and students. Read […]
Washington State University researchers have received a $555,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support development and evaluation of a unique online platform for gathering, curating and sharing Native American library and archive collections nationwide. This three-year grant follows a $69,500 grant by the Foundation to WSU in 2015 for the project-planning phase. […]
Ryan Summers graduated from WSU on December 9 with a sensational resume: a first degree in computer engineering, a soon-to-be completed second degree in German, his name on a patent, selection as a Rhodes Scholar finalist, numerous awards for outstanding scholarship and undergraduate research, and a 4.0 GPA. The 22-year-old has also completed an international […]
English instructor Kate Watts cringes when she imagines students shelling out upwards of $80 for a textbook. She had the same reservations many faculty members have about free, open-sourced, online material. But she did her research, asked experts, consulted with colleagues, and found solutions to save her students money. The online textbook Watts uses in […]
Plato is sitting at the feet of his mentor Socrates, writing down what the old philosopher says. What Socrates is saying, ironically, is that writing is bad for you: It rots your memory. Preserved in Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates’s opinion of the then-emerging technology sounds strange to us now—until you recall that that’s pretty much exactly […]