College of Humanities & Social Sciences
The Dean’s Lecture Series takes faculty expertise and knowledge from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences into the community in an ongoing effort to foster closer connections, share intriguing and timely information, and inspire conversation.

Our Pandemic Future: Human Behavior and the Environment

WESTERN HORIZONS: Our Pandemic Future: Human Behavior and the Environment

Dr. Paqui Paredes Méndez, Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the WWU Alumni Association present Western Horizons, a public webinar series featuring Faculty and Alumni of the College. The inaugural event, held on June 3, 2020, featured Dr. Evelyn Ames, Professor Emeritus and founder of WWU’s Community Health Education program, and Dr. Steve Bennett, Professor of Health and Human Development and epidemiologist.

The webinar explores the following :

• Introduction to public health and its history at Western

• Impact of climate change on infectious disease

• Human behavior and our relationship to the environment

• How epidemiology informs public health policy

Western Horizons is brought to you in partnership with the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

WWU Professor Ira Hyman discusses his research into the relationship between cell phone use and "Inattentional Blindness."

Michael Karlberg discusses the Bahá’í community in Iran, which has suffered from waves of violent oppression for over 150 years.

Presented by Professor Edward Vajda, Modern and Classical Languages

April 26, 2011 marks the 25th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear disaster. Edward Vajda worked as a translator and news analyst in the Moscow office of CBS News during the crisis. He describes what it was like helping to cover the story and also assesses the political and environmental effects a quarter century later.

Presented by Professor Christopher Friday, Western Washington University History Department

Presented by Dr. Todd Koetje, Professor of Anthropology, Western Washington University

In 1995, Todd Koetje joined a team extracting artifacts from Weasel Cave in the Caucasus Mountains of North Ossetia-Alania in Southern Russia to piece together what is left from the Neanderthals who lived between 250,000 and 300,000 years ago. Koetje presents and discusses his research findings from 11 trips to the caves.

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