CHSS Western Today News

On Oct. 28, Western lost an important member of our campus community, Professor Emeritus of Spanish and Linguistics Shaw Gynan. Shaw came to Western in 1986 as a professor of Hispanic Linguistics. He was a sociolinguist and his work on bilingualism and language policy is widely recognized, and he became the preeminent scholar of Guaraní, a language of Paraguay. 

Western Washington University Assistant Professor of Global Humanities & Religions Ethan Bushelle's essay "The Green Bamboo is the Dharmakāya: Waka Poetry and the Buddhist Imagination in Heian Japan" is one of the entries in a volume of essays, "Buddhist Literature as Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy as Literature" recently published by SUNY Press. 

Western Washington University Professor of History Ricardo López-Pedreros have been awarded a Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professorship at University College London's Institute of the Americas.  While at UCL-IA, as Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor, he will explore the contested histories of democracies in the Americas. In particular, he will present his recent research on the historical formation of the middle classes in Latin America.

Western Washington University Associate Professor of Modern & Classical Languages Shannon Dubenion-Smith will be awarded the Goethe-Institut/AATG Certificate of Merit on Nov.21.

Western Washington University Professor of Philosophy Ryan Wasserman recently had his book, “Paradoxes of Time Travel,” published in paperback by Oxford University Press.  

Western Washington University Assistant Professor of Health and Human Development Kristen Chmielewski has won the History of Education Society’s 2020 Eggertsen Dissertation Prize.  

Her dissertation, “’In Any Way Physically or Mentally Unfit to Teach’: City Teachers and Disability, 1930–1970,” takes on the notion of how ideas and norms about disability shaped the experiences of teachers.  

Western's Center for Cross-Cultural Research (CCCR) and Psychology Department will host a webinar titled "Using Racial Protective Factors to Cultivate Resilience Among Black Youth" with Virginia Commonwealth University's Shawn C. T. Jones from 4-5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 9.

The presentation will be hosted via Zoom and is free and open to the public and campus community.

The annual Munro Seminars, hosted by Western's Ralph Munro Institute for Civic Education, will be held online on Oct. 27 and 28.

Mart Stewart (history) has published an essay, "Marking the Boundaries of Contagion: Vietnam and Covid-19," in the October issue of Environmental History.  The essay is part of a collection of 20 reflections by environmental historians from around the world in this issue.

WWU's Department of Linguistics will host the webinar, “Pragmatic Detachability of English Discourse Markers in San Diego Spanish,” at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29 via Zoom, featuring the research of Assistant Professor of Modern and Classical Languages R. Mata.

WWU Associate Professor of Global Humanities and Religions Michael Slouber was interviewed for a New Books Network podcast on his upcoming anthology 

Humanities Washington will host "Democracy’s Ghosts: Fear and Hope in the 2020 Election" via Zoom at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27.

Students in the capstone Public Relations course at Western this quarter are working to develop strategic communications plans for a local Bellingham nonprofit to assist them as they adapt to a new world of fundraising and raising awareness. You could assist the students in their endeavor - and the nonprofit as well - but taking this very short, anonymous survey. It should take less than 5 minutes. Thank you!

WWU Professor of History Mart Stewart has been awarded the Inaugural James C. Giesen Teaching Excellence Award in Agricultural and Rural History by the Agricultural History Society, awarded to a nominee who has achieved distinction in the teaching of agricultural and rural history.  The colleagues and students who nominated Stewart and the Giesen Award Committee cited several features of his teaching record as distinctive. 

WWU Associate Professor of Josh Ceretti will lead 'Bellingham’s History From Below: A Virtual Walking Tour' from 7-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 10.