CHSS Western Today News
Postcards from Peru: One WWU student's study abroad, as told in pictures
WWU Environmental Studies/Spanish major and Honors College student Samantha Herlich took some time out of her schedule to talk to us about her current study-abroad experience in Cusco, Peru.
"It is incredible here, there is so much amazing nature, history, and llamas everywhere. My Spanish is improving a whole bunch, and I am even taking a class in Quechua which is super difficult but very interesting since we are learning about Incan history at the same time," she said. "I have visited the Sacred Valley multiple times and actually just got back from Machu Picchu this past weekend. It makes sense that it is a world wonder, it is so amazing. I also went to Bolivia for our spring break here. We saw the Uyuni Salt flats and the desert volcano region of Bolivia."
"Cusco is a beautiful city located around 11,500 feet up in the Andes and it experiences all four seasons every day. Cusco is known for its beautiful nature, and rightfully so. All of the hikes here have breathtaking views, and it is quite common to run into some Incan ruins while hiking. One of my favorites has been a hike called Poc Poc which is located on the Incan trail. While walking, you pass through the ruins of Chinchero, get a view of the whole sacred valley, and pass right by the huge waterfall the hike is named after.
Cusco also has incredible culture. My second week here was the week of Carnaval de Cajamarca which is basically a huge water fight. If you are outside during Carnaval, you are a participant. The first morning of Carnaval, my friends and I went to have a nice breakfast in the Plaza de Armas. However, we left the cafe only to be ambushed by water balloons. We then armed ourselves with spray cans, but in retrospect, this probably just made us more of a target.
Although I have been in Cusco for two months now and have another month to go, I feel as if I have only scratched the surface of all the culture, nature, and delicious food that this incredible city has to offer."
Travel safe, Sam!
Want to learn more about study abroad? Go to https://studyabroad.wwu.edu/.
2024 Scholars Week celebration is approaching: Registration begins April 22
Scholars Week, an annual celebration showcasing the best of Western Washington University students’ research and creative works, will be held May 13-17.
The Scholars Week Planning Committee invites students to register April 22-26, prepare presentation materials, and present as part of Scholars Showcase events open to the campus and the public, highlighting student achievement and the significance of faculty and staff mentorship on student scholarship.
This year’s Scholars Showcase features the return of the Poster Session — the centerpiece event held in Carver Gym on Wednesday, May 15 — highlighting outstanding scholarly research and creative works by graduate and undergraduate students across a wide range of disciplines, programs and departments. Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) graduate student presentations, to be held Thursday, May 16 in Haggard Hall 222, will feature three-minute talks designed to explain discipline-specific research to an unfamiliar audience. Graduate Student Creative Writing Presentations will also be featured on Thursday, May 16 in Haggard Hall 222.
Scholars Week 2024 also includes the return of the Faculty/Student Group Collaborations, featuring collaborations involving research, creative work or other academic projects stemming from work in the field, lab, studio or some other collaborative setting or arrangement. These presentations will be held in the Carver Hall of Fame Room (CV 221) on Tuesday, May 14.
Vanessa Blackburn, Scholars Week Planning Committee interim chair and faculty member in the journalism department, said the committee was excited about the variety of events provided by Scholars Week.
“Scholars Week is an excellent opportunity for students to share their hard work with family, friends and the Western community,” Blackburn said. “We’re planning for a great week this year as we celebrate outstanding academic achievements in research and creative endeavors.”
Scholars Week events will be held May 13-17, including activities and events hosted by colleges, departments and programs throughout the university, many of which are listed on the Scholars Week website. To register to participate, go to wwu.edu/scholars. For more information about Scholars Week, contact scholars.week@wwu.edu.
Scholars Week, an annual celebration of student research and creative activities at Western, was created by a unanimous resolution of the Faculty Senate in November 1999 as “Scholars Day.” The event soon transformed into “Scholars Week” to accommodate a diverse series of events highlighting the scholarship and creativity of Western students across a variety of disciplines. The Scholars Week Planning Committee works in coordination with the Office of the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs to hold Scholars Showcase events and activities. Financial support for Scholars Week is provided by the WWU President, Provost, Office of Undergraduate Education, Offices of Research and Sponsored Programs and the Graduate School, Foundation, and academic colleges and departments.
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Kimberly Lynn named new director of Western's Honors College
Kimberly Lynn has been chosen as the next director of Western Washington University’s Honors College, WWU Provost Brad Johnson announced today.
Lynn will just need to move across campus for her new role; she is a professor of Global Humanities and Religions at Western, and that department’s chair since 2015. She will officially start her new role at Western on Aug. 19.
“The Honors Director search attracted a truly outstanding set of finalists, which speaks so highly to the quality and engagement of Western’s faculty overall, and to Kimberly’s qualifications and interest in the Honors College in particular,” said Johnson. “She brings to the position new ideas and perspectives, including her own experience as an undergraduate honors college student at William and Mary, as well as a lot of support and an incredible rapport with Western’s students and the greater WWU community. We are thrilled that she has accepted the position."
Johnson also thanked outgoing Honors College Director Scott Linneman, who is retiring this summer.
“I am grateful to Scott for his years of service and for his unwavering leadership during a period of unprecedented growth for Honors,” he said. “His stewardship of Honors and the importance of his guidance cannot be overstated.”
Linneman said that with the hiring of Lynn, Honors was in good hands.
“The provost and the hiring committee made a great choice from an impressive group of campus leaders," he said.
Looking forward to the challengeLynn is a graduate of Kirkland’s Lake Washington High School who earned her bachelor's degree at The College of William & Mary in 2001, and her doctorate in Early Modern History from Johns Hopkins University in 2006. As a historian she studies the religious, legal, and political culture of the early modern Hispanic world. She has written about the infamous Spanish Inquisition, including her book “Between Court and Confessional: The Politics of Spanish Inquisitors,” published by Cambridge University Press in 2013. She has been awarded Fulbright and Mellon fellowships, among others.
Lynn said she was looking forward to the challenge of leading Honors.
“I am really looking forward to new professional challenges and opportunities as Honors director, to work closely with students, families, partners across campus and beyond the campus community, as well as leading and supporting a college that adds meaningfully to the success of the university in many different ways,” she said.
Lynn said the experience leading her department was foundational in her ability to successfully move into the role of Honors director.
“One of the reasons this is such an attractive opportunity is that I have found it really rewarding work to serve as department chair in an interdisciplinary humanities program and to develop partnerships with other units across campus in that role. It will be exciting to do similar work on a much larger scale, as well as to learn more about current practices and developments in Honors education, and to build relationships with many different stakeholders,” Lynn said.
To learn more about Western’s Honors College, go to https://honors.wwu.edu/.
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WWU's Ray Wolpow Institute to host international Holocaust symposium, public lecture
Bellingham, WA — The Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University (HEFNU) and the Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity at Western Washington University are pleased to announce the cross-border Regional Institute “Witness: Mediating Holocaust Testimony in the Arts” with support from the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Victoria. The Regional Institute, which brings together higher education faculty with experts in Holocaust Studies, will take place April 17-19, 2024, at Western Washington University’s main campus in Bellingham, WA.
As a part of this visit, the public is invited to the HEFNU Regional Institute Keynote Lecture “Testimonies of Flight, Afterlives of Refuge” by Tabea Alexa Linhard, professor of Spanish and Global Studies at Washington University in St. Louis:
- Time: 4-5:30 p.m. on April 18
- Location: Wilson Library 677 (Special Collections Research Room)
Director of the Ray Wolpow Institute Sandra Alfers said, “I’m proud that Western has the opportunity to once again host the Regional Institute in partnership with HEFNU, the leading university organization in Holocaust Studies in the United States. The work that our organizations engage in is essential and highly relevant for the times we live in. We warmly welcome our twenty-five faculty guests from Canada and the US to the symposium, and we look forward to welcoming our community to our April 18 keynote lecture.”
Keynote lecturer Tabea Alexa Linhard, professor of Spanish and Global Studies at Washington University in St. Louis More about the Keynote Lecture
Before German writer Anna Seghers, author of The Seventh Cross, Transit, “The Dead Girls Class Trip,” among many others, fled from occupied Europe to eventually find a place of relative safety in Mexico, she wrote the short story “Journey to the Eleventh Realm” (1939).
With this tale that is as amusing as it is devastating, Seghers satirizes the bureaucratic nightmares that she and many other refugees endured in their attempts to flee from fascism.
Linhard’s talk will use Seghers’s piece as a starting point to discuss depictions and geographies of flight and border crossing in various forms of cultural production and from several locations. The works include testimonies from the 1930s, the war years, and their immediate aftermath.
The talk will end with a reflection on the significance of memories of displacement and refuge. The lecture is open to the public. No registration is required.
Special thanks to the Ray Wolpow Institute’s campus partners, Western Libraries Archives and Special Collections, and to the departments of Global Humanities and Religions, and Modern and Classical Languages.
Media contact
Jonathan Higgins, WWU Communications Director, jonathan.higgins@wwu.edu
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WWU's Carolyn Nielsen named a 2024-2025 American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellow
WWU Professor of Journalism Carolyn Nielsen has been named a 2024-2025 American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellow. Her fellowship research in Denmark will examine how newsrooms use audience metrics in making editorial decisions. During her professional leave, she will also partner with several Danish universities' journalism departments and engage in survey research studying undergraduate journalism students.
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WWU grad student Jessi Gauvin researching new treatments for Alzheimer's Disease
Jessi Gauvin is a graduate student of experimental psychology at Western who studies Alzheimer’s disease. Gauvin says she’s drawn to this kind of research because of the complexity of neurodegenerative diseases and the need to develop more effective treatment. Last spring, Gauvin received a Research and Creative Opportunities Grant from Western to help fund her research.
As an undergraduate, Gauvin was a criminal justice and political science major at Washington State University. While there, she took a biopsychology class that stuck with her and, over time, ignited her passion for psychology. She went on to graduate with her BA in criminal justice and political science, then decided to shift her focus. Now, after a couple of free online classes that helped narrow her interests, she’s a grad student at WWU conducting exciting research on therapeutic treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.
Jessi Gauvin
Gauvin’s research advisor is WWU Professor of Psychology Jacqueline Rose, who runs the Rose lab and specializes in neuroplasticity and behavior. Research in the Rose lab, which is attached to the Behavioral Neuroscience Program within the Psychology Department, uses a type of microscopic worm, C. elegans, as a model organism for studying behavior and learning. The C. elegans model system allows researchers in the lab to investigate how neurons react and modify themselves depending on stimuli changes.
Though most Rose lab research typically focuses on C. elegans and learning, research on Alzheimer’s disease is unique to Gauvin.
“I’m very grateful to Dr. Rose for passing this research on to me,” Gauvin said.
Gauvin studies the effect of ferulic acid on Alzheimer’s disease. Ferulic acid is an antioxidant compound commonly found in fruits, vegetables, coffee, and teas. According to Gauvin, new research suggests that antioxidants like ferulic acid might be linked to a delay in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in some patients. To study this link, Gauvin feeds ferulic acid to an Alzheimer’s model of C. elegans to observe whether the introduction of ferulic acid causes any changes in the behavior or receptor expression in the worms.
Gauvin works in collaboration with undergraduate students like Caitlyn Croppi, who assists with setting up and monitoring the worms. Gauvin’s Research and Creative Opportunities Grant allowed her to purchase essential materials for the PCR testing portion of her research. Currently, Gauvin is finishing up the last stages of qRT-PCR testing and will analyze the results in the coming months.
After she graduates from Western, Gauvin hopes to work in a lab with C. elegans and is particularly interested in conducting more research on gut microbiomes and probiotics.
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‘We actually don’t know much’: the scientists trying to close the knowledge gap in trans healthcare
When Cameron Whitley was diagnosed with kidney failure seven years ago, the news came as a shock. But the situation was about to get worse. His doctor decided the diagnosis meant Whitley’s hormone therapy had to stop.
As a transgender man, now 42, who had taken testosterone for 10 years, the impact was brutal.
“Not only was I struggling with this new diagnosis that I’m in stage four kidney failure, now I’m being told that I can no longer have hormones,” said Whitley, an associate professor in the department of sociology at Western Washington University. “I cannot describe how horrible that moment was.”
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When this longtime WWU staffer retired in 2022, she made sure to leave a legacy for future students
In 2022, DeeDee Lombard retired from Western after 37 years of service to the university. Now, she’s partnering with the Philosophy Department to help support current and future students with a new scholarship. We talked to Dee Dee about her time at the university, and why it meant so much to her to leave a legacy for future students.
How did you get your start at Western?My aunt (Prof Barbera Unger) was teaching in the Finance/Marketing department at Western and had been encouraging me to check out employment at the university for several years. In 1985 I applied for a position in the Cashiers Office and was hired that spring. While on maternity leave in 1986 I applied for an administrative position in the Chemistry Department and started there in September, 1986.
When did you move to Philosophy?I transferred to the Philosophy Department in 1993 to take on a higher-level administrative position (Secretary Supervisor) and ended my career as an Administrative Services Manager. This job change was perfect for me and my 2 young children as it started out as a 9 month/6-hour position which allowed me to have time off in the summer and be with them before and after school.
What’s one happy memory from your time in philosophy, or something you miss about the job?I enjoyed working with the Philosophy Club officers on their annual Philosophy Student Conference, advising transfer students during summer session, mentoring students throughout the year, and helping in the scholarship process every spring. I was blessed to work with so many fantastic Professors and students/majors while working in the department—I was always treated with respect and felt like part of a family.
What have you been up to during retirement?I have been spending time with family and friends, but especially love the extra time I have with my grandkids, Billie Annemarie (8) and Matthew (6). I’ve been able to help with school field trips, picking them up after school, having sleep overs, and vacations together.
I have also been enjoying traveling; Napa/Sonoma/Sierra Foothills, Las Vegas and a trip to Switzerland/France/Luxemburg/England where my husband and I were finally able to celebrate our 40th Anniversary, my 65th birthday, and retirement (which all happened during Covid). We are organizing an Alaska cruise this year and will be taking a train trip to Banff, Canada in the fall.
How did you first get the idea to start a scholarship in your family’s honor?I volunteered for the scholarship department for several years screening student applications and while working in the Chemistry and Philosophy departments I helped in the scholarship process and knew how important scholarships are to students to be able to continue their education.
When my aunt, Barbara Unger, passed away in 2019 she blessed me with some money and I thought she would be pleased for some of that money to go to students at WWU where she and I both worked.
Are there any particular hopes that you have for the scholarship?My hope is that it will give students a little peace of mind knowing that they are getting help with a small part of their education and to be able to list it on applications if they decide to continue their education after WWU or on a job application. Our family feels blessed to be able to help in a small way to help students in their educational career at WWU .
Plans for the DeNora Lombard Family Scholarship in Philosophy were finalized this quarter, and the first annual award will be given out in the spring. The scholarship is made possible by a generous gift from the Lombard family, along with support from the Philosophy Department and other donors. Those wishing to contribute in honor of DeeDee can do so by going to the Western Gives page and searching for the Lombard Scholarship.
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