College News

Western Washington University Professor of Modern & Classical Languages Edward Vajda will give a talk titled “Firelight on the River: Siberia’s Ket People and Ancient North America” from 7-8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 8 in the Bellingham City Council Chambers, 210 Lottie Street. 

Prize-winning historian Fitzhugh Brundage, the William Umstead Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will present "Cruelty, Torture, and the Making of a Human Rights Crisis on the Southern Border of the U.S." from 4-5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 23.

Brundage's most recent book, "Civilizing Torture: An American Tradition," was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2019.

Western Washington University Assistant Professor of English Stefania Heim recently published “Geometry of Shadows,” a collection of translated poems from early 20th-century surrealist Giorgio de Chirico.

The Anthropology Department's Brown Bag Lunch Series continues from noon to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24 in Arntzen Hall 319, with "Hidden Histories: WWU and the Coast Salish Sehome Family" by WWU's Kathleen Young.

The Brown Bag Lunch Series is held once a month; the presentation usually takes about 30 minutes and is followed by a Q&A period. For more information, contact Sean Bruna at 360.650.2290.

For fall quarter, Western Washington University’s total enrollment set another record, and both overall and first-year (freshman) enrollment of students of color is the highest in the history of the university.

For the first time in 30 years, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences has added a new department, the Department of Linguistics. This was possible due in large part to the diligence of Kristin Denham, a professor of Linguistics and the new department’s first Chair.

Western Washington University’s Ralph Munro Institute for Civic Education will host its annual seminar for civic education on Oct. 22 and 23.

All events are free and open to the public. 

Western Washington University has just launched its new minor in Salish Sea Studies, with a multidisciplinary curriculum spanning all seven of the university’s colleges.

The Salish Sea Studies program develops students’ sense of place by deepening knowledge about the complex ecologies and human experiences of our shared ecoregion. Students will learn how the international Salish Sea is governed by the US, Canada, and over 60 sovereign Tribes and First Nations. 

Students interested in health professions or other graduate programs are invited to attend Western Washington University’s Health Professional & Graduate School Fair, which will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m .on Thursday, Oct. 17  in the Viking Union Multipurpose Room.

Admission to the fair is free to information seekers and open to the public. 

In his new book “Abuses of the Erotic: Militarizing Sexuality in the Post-Cold War United States,” Western Washington University Associate Professor of History and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Josh Cerretti investigates how military values have permeated civilian culture and the connections between sexuality and militarism in the United States.

Western's Center for Canadian-American Studies will host WWU's Butch Kamena at noon on Friday, Oct. 4 in Academic West 305 for "Planes, Buses & Roller Coasters: The Wild Ride of the 2019 Canadian Federal Election Campaign."

South Pacific environmental activist Uili Lousi will present "Climate Change in Tonga" at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26 in Academic West 204 as the first installment of the annual Huxley Speaker Series.

Like all of the Huxley Speaker Series events, Lousi's presentation is free and open to the public.

Western Washington University’s Center for Cross-Cultural Research will host Purdue University Professor of Psychological Sciences Margo Monteith for “Bias and its Reduction: Creating Awareness and Fostering Positive Change” from 4-5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 7 in Academic West 304 on the WWU campus.

This presentation is free and open to the public.