Dear A&S Faculty and Staff Community,
Thank you.
I have to start there. Thank you for all of the work you did in yet another challenging quarter. The work has gotten harder as the pandemic continues and I cannot express my appreciation enough.
Approaching the holiday break, we are beginning to experience the prospect of hope with both effective vaccines and new national leadership in sight.
As we finish this quarter, we do know what to expect for Winter and Spring 2021. The start of Winter Quarter will be fully online for at least two weeks; for some it may extend to as many as four. Spring will be very similar; however, there may be some flexibility during that quarter depending upon the vaccine and distribution. In my opinion, a fuller return to campus looks increasingly likely for Fall 2021.
We know that the past quarter was extraordinarily challenging for our students and that they are experiencing significant mental health effects. As you know, Dr. Kira Mauseth, Psychology, is a co-lead with the State of Washington DOH Behavioral Mental Strike Team; her initial presentation about the behavioral impacts of COVID-19 are still very helpful; you can view it here. She also talked to KUOW more recently about the effects of the pandemic in “Seattle Now: Preparing for the third wave.” In light of this, Dr. Katherine Raichle, Psychology, created some helpful some recommendations for planning to support students and one another in Winter Quarter. You can find those in the memo here. We will share them again when we return from break. I also encourage to reach out for the support services available to you through Sanvello online supports and the Wellspring Employee Assistance Program as you feel they may be helpful.
You have continued to publish, produce, make news and make a difference for our community and the world; congratulations to all whose accomplishments are included this month. Check out the upcoming events, as we continue to connect with our communities virtually.
I am sure this will not be my last message to you before we all disconnect, but I wish you and yours a safe and restful holiday break, in case I miss you.
Shared Governance
David V. Powers, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Seattle University
Seattle U Choirs' new performance of John Rutter's "Candlelight Carol" is now available to watch here.
Kira Mauseth, PhD, Senior Instructor, Psychology, spoke to KUOW-FM about the effects of the pandemic in "Seattle Now: Preparing for the third wave." Katherine Raichle, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology and Associate Director of Learning & Teaching, Center for Faculty Development, responded with some recommendations for planning to support students and one another in Winter Quarter.
Be explicit
First, be explicit about what we know about mental health and cognitive functioning at times like this, explaining to students what we know about chronic stress and why it would have an impact on us in the ways that Dr. Kira Mauseth describes (low mood, memory problems, problems with planning, etc). Share that some students might be experiencing these impacts, while others may not, but that it is a normal reaction to very abnormal circumstances. I will add that this approach is always helpful, as there will always be students who are living with stress and trauma in your classrooms. A simple way to bring attention to one component of chronic stress is to intentionally focus on sympathetic nervous system arousal. Start class with a breathing exercise or relaxation exercise to ground students in that space and lower arousal that some may be experiencing chronically. Have them reflect on the experience of intentionally calming their bodies and how they can become aware of how they embody stress and what they can do to help themselves. If you're comfortable, do a small relaxation exercise or even a moment of silence at the outset of each class.
Build Community
Second, I would double down on efforts to create community and belonging in the classroom. We know that this is foundational to create equitable learning opportunities for all students and especially helps those who are suffering for myriad reasons. Right now, we're almost all suffering. The research also tells us that instructors/faculty feel rushed to get to "content" and miss the really important step of building community at the outset of class (and ongoing). Even if it takes a while, the return on their deeper learning will be much more than it might be otherwise and will really help right now, especially. For some students, this is their primary space for social support, thus connections with other students will be really helpful for them and promote better learning.
The first two suggestions here are in alignment with the research on Trauma-Informed Pedagogy. This webinar with Mays Imad, a neuroscientist and survivor of the Iraq war, is a great overview of T-I pedagogy, if you are interested.
Here are some specific ideas for community building and belonging:
Weave in transparency whenever possible
Third, bring transparency to the classroom (based on the "Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT)"literature) in your assignments and class activities. This has been a remarkably effective tool to increase belonging, long-term retention, and increased motivation and has a disproportionately positive impact on marginalized students and first-generation students. The TILT website is a useful resource for the basics and provides examples. Consider changing one or two assignments in your class to model this framework. While changing assignments to align with the TILT model can feel like too much right now, consider that small changes can be effective too. Make small adjustments to a couple assignments for now if that is all you can manage.
Take care of yourself
Finally, remember that your self-care is as important as your students’. Try not to feel pressured to make it all ok in the classroom, which is impossible. Do what you can to the extent that it does not tax you too much and create flexibility for yourself. Can't focus on grading? Take longer to do so if you need time and share with them that you need more time, as you would offer them grace during this time, too. Everyone (you and students) will need flexibility as we navigate these most challenging waters together.
I know this seems like a lot, but it really calls for relatively minor changes that can have a big impact. Hope this helps!
Katherine Raichle, PhD (she/hers), Associate Professor of Psychology, Associate Director of Learning & Teaching, Center for Faculty Development
You can also download this information (PDF).
Congratulations to this year's recipients
Also, thank you to the Awards Committee drawn from among last year's awardees, including Dr. Helen Liu, Professor Harmony Arnold, Dr. Anne Farina, Dr. Brooke Gialopsos, Dr. Heidi Liere, and Dr. Benjamin Schultz-Figueroa.
The Fall 2020 Quarterly Newsletter is available.
Watch the video of "Is Seattle Becoming Ungovernable?, presented by the SU Institute of Public Service and Town Hall Seattle, with Seattle City Councilmember Debora Juarez and former Council President Bruce Harrell, moderated by IPS’s Larry Hubbell, PhD, and Jodi Balter.
Sullivan Leaders’ Day: January 23, 2021: This event is for admitted Early Action students (and their families) who have applied for the Sullivan Leadership Award to move forward in the selection process.
Admitted Students of Color Reception: Saturday April 10, 2021: This event is for admitted FTIC students of color (and their families) to connect with our campus community.
Admitted Student Days (formerly Admitted Student Open Houses): Sunday April 11 and Saturday, April 17, 2021: These events are for admitted FTIC students (and their families) to connect with our campus community and get all of their questions answered prior to making their final college choice.
Admitted Transfer Student Evening Reception, College of Arts and Sciences: Tuesday, June 2, 2021: These events are for admitted transfer students (and their families) to learn more about their college, and connect with advisors, faculty, and current students within their college.
Other Colleges and Schools Transfer Student Receptions:
Summer Preview Day: August 18, 2021: This event is for rising high school juniors and seniors, and prospective transfer students to learn more about Seattle U as they launch their college search and prepare to apply.
Check out our page listing potential sources of funding for research and scholarship, including those with specific and rolling deadlines.
Selected Upcoming Deadlines
Association for the Sociology of Religion - Fichter Research Grant - February deadline
Fichter Research Grants are awarded annually by ASR to members of the Association involved in promising sociological research on women in religion or on the intersection between religion and gender or religion and sexualities. The proposed research must be sociological in nature but applicants come from a variety of disciplines. Applicants must also be members of the Association for the Sociology of Religion at the time of application.
NEA Creative Writing Fellowships – March deadline
The National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowships program offers $25,000 grants in prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) and poetry to published creative writers that enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. Applications are reviewed through an anonymous process in which the criteria for review are the artistic excellence and artistic merit of the submitted manuscript. The program operates on a two-year cycle with fellowships in prose and poetry available in alternating years. For FY2022 (March 2021 deadline, the next cycle) fellowships in prose are available and guidelines will be available in January 2021.
Acton Institute Novak Award – March deadline
Named after the distinguished American theologian Michael Novak, this $15,000 award rewards new outstanding scholarly research into the relationship between religion, economic liberty, and the free and virtuous society. This award recognizes those scholars early in their academic career who demonstrate outstanding scholarly merit in advancing the understanding of theology’s connection to human dignity, the importance of the rule of law, limited government, religious liberty, and freedom in economic life. Eligibility: scholars who have received a doctorate from an accredited domestic or international program in the previous five calendar years. Nominees must be studying theology, religion, economics, philosophy, business, or a related field.
NEH Fellowship Program - April deadline
NEH Fellowships are competitive awards granted to individual scholars pursuing projects that embody exceptional research, rigorous analysis, and clear writing. Applications must clearly articulate a project’s value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Fellowships provide recipients time to conduct research or to produce books, monographs, peer-reviewed articles, e-books, digital materials, translations with annotations or a critical apparatus, or critical editions resulting from previous research. Projects may be at any stage of development. NEH invites research applications from scholars in all disciplines, and it encourages submissions from independent scholars and junior scholars.
Kira Mauseth, PhD, Senior Instructor, Psychology serves as co-lead for the Behavioral Health Strike Team for the Washington State Department of Health. In March, she created a document, updated throughout the pandemic, to reflect projections about what is likely to happen in the disaster response and recovery cycle for behavioral health in order to inform planning and resource strategies. This past month, a new team assisted her with the forecast.
“A group of SU undergraduate students provided research assistance for the November forecast,” she said. “Their research helped give me the necessary background information on the disaster cascade concept as well as some of the current trends in burnout and compassion fatigue.”
The student team includes Breanne Coulthard, Chemistry; Joanna Corpuz, Psychology ’22; Isabel Gilbertson, Psychology and Public Affairs ’22; Sydney Lindell, Psychology ’21; Kes Sorensen, Psychology ’21; and An Than, Psychology and Criminal Justice ’23.
Some of the students shared thoughts on the project and you can read them here. The project will extend into winter quarter and quite likely into spring as well, at least as long as the response is active, which is likely to be some time.
Angelique Davis, JD, Associate Professor, Political Science and Associate Appointment, Global African Studies, Pre-Law Program, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and her research partner, Rose Ernst, PhD, are cited in this BBC story.
Jacqueline Helfgott, PhD, Professor, Criminal Justice and Director, Crime and Justice Research Center, and Elaine Gunnison, PhD, Professor, Criminal Justice and Director, Master of Arts in Criminal Justice, published, “Gender-Responsive Reentry Services for Women Leaving Prison: The IF Project’s Seattle Women’s Reentry Initiative. Corrections: Policy, Practice and Research.” Fifty free copies are available here.
William Parkin, PhD, Associate Professor, Criminal Justice, and Jacqueline Helfgott, PhD, published two Op-Eds.
The Campaign for the Uncommon Good has reached 99 percent of its $275M goal! The College of Arts and Sciences has raised more than $9.4 million (140 percent of our goal). Read the newsletter here. Every gift across all college and university programs counts and is making a difference.
Year-End Season of Giving Reminders: Please look through department mail and forward any donation checks to Advancement Services, Admin 305B, 901 12th Ave., Seattle, WA 98122. As many review year-end giving this time of year, the best way to make sure a credit card donation is credited to the College of Arts and Sciences in 2020 is to donate online here or have their donations post-marked and mailed in by December 31, 2020. If a specific program/initiative is not listed, select other, and write in details in “comments”. Additional details around donating to the university may be found on the Seattle University Giving pages, or direct inquires to Katie Chapman by email or 206-398-4401.
Thank you for being partners in stewarding our donors’ generosity.
Cailtin Carlson, PhD, Associate Professor, Communication and Media, was cited in Venture Beat’s story ”Facebook’s redoubled AI efforts won’t stop the spread of harmful content and in Dynuz, "Avaaz: Facebook continues to fail at flagging false and misleading posts about U.S. elections." She published an article, "Hate Speech as a Structural Phenomenon, First Amendment Studies," DOI: 10.1080/21689725.2020.1837649
Serena Cosgrove, PhD, Associate Professor, International Studies, is finishing the second edition of “Understanding Global Poverty: Causes, Capabilities, and Human Development” with co-author Benjamin Curtis, PhD for publication next year by Routledge. This second edition will include a chapter on immigration by Audrey Hudgins, EdD, Clinical Associate Professor, Matteo Ricci.
Elizabeth Dale, PhD, Assistant Professor, Nonprofit Leadership, was interview for “Ask the Experts” on Wallethub for a feature on charitable giving. Read it here. Her research on the Pride Foundation was included in the publication of The Ford Foundation’s reflection on participatory grantmaking which was also featured in Nonprofit Quarterly; read the article here.
Anne Farina, PhD, LICSW, Assistant Professor, Social Work, is one of the 2020 Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Research Award Winners for her project "Effectiveness of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy as a Mental Health Treatment: An Evidence and Gap Map."
Bryn Gribben, PhD, Senior Instructor, English, published a number of poems this year.
Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, PhD, Professor, Modern Languages and Cultures and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, co-edited Presumed Incompetent II: Race, Class, Power, and Resistance of Women in Academia with Yolanda Flores Niemann. PhD, and Carmen G. Gonzalez, JD. Jodi O’Brien, PhD, Professor, Sociology and Associate Appointment, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, contributed to the book. Read a review of the book here. Dr. Gutiérrez y Muhs has finished several manuscripts during her sabbatical, one quarter, and turned in full manuscripts for two anthologies, a poetry collection of Latinx poets, Floricanto: Flower and Song, being published in Madrid, bilingually: by Polibea Press, and one with a contract with San Diego State University Press, a multi-genre anthology of Latinx women writers, scholars, poets.
Jacqueline Helfgott, PhD, Professor, Criminal Justice and Director, Crime and Justice Research Center, participated in two interviews:
Matt Hickman, PhD, Chair and Professor, Criminal Justice, was interviewed about his research, “Police Use of Force and Injury: Multilevel Predictors of Physical Harm to Subjects and Officers,” on KOMO Radio. Listen here.
Julie Homchick Crowe, PhD, Assistant Professor, Communication and Media, presented a paper at the Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine’s conference on Social Justice entitled “Anti-Science as Anti-Justice.”
Marco Lowe, MPA, Adjunct Faculty, Institute of Public Service, talked about his new book, “Powershift,” in two more interviews about the upcoming presidential transition.
Jasmine Mahmoud, PhD, Assistant Professor, Arts Leadership was awarded the 2020 ASTR Collaborative Research Award along with scholars Megan Geigner (Northwestern University) and Stuart Hecht (Boston College) for co-editing a new book called “Makeshift Chicago Stages: A Century of Theater and Performance.” Their book will be published by the Northwestern University Press in the Spring of 2021. Watch the virtual award ceremony here. She published "'Black and Center': Collaboration, Color, and Care" in the South Seattle Emerald. Read her column here.
Kira Mauseth, PhD, Senior Instructor, Psychology, presents a weekly media brief with the DOH for behavioral health issues related to the response to the pandemic as co-lead for the Behavioral Health Strike Team. Part of this week's brief was aired by NCWLife Evening News in Wenatchee. Watch it here.
Aakanksha Sinha, PhD, Assistant Professor, Social Work, published “Innovating with Social Justice: Anti-Oppressive Social Work Design Framework” in the International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship. 1(1), 65-77.
Sharon Suh, PhD, Professor, Theology and Religious Studies published “Once The Buddha Was Born as Keanu Reeves: The Shaping of Buddhism in American Film and Popular Culture,” in CrossCurrents. She appears in the second episode of “Eater’s Guide to the World” on Hulu, talking about her work in Buddhism and Mindful Eating. She also co-presented “Community Kitchen: Mindful Cooking & Eating,” an interactive workshop blending nourishing cooking with mindful eating to offer an experience that is both festive and intentional.
Kirsten Moana Thompson, PhD, Professor and Director of Film Studies, participated in four talks/panels:
Kevin Ward, PhD, Director and Associate Professor, Public Affairs, and his colleague, Katrina Miller-Stevens, PhD, received the “2020 Governance Section Best Research Paper Award” at the annual meeting of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) for the article, “Public Service Motivation Among Nonprofit Board Members and the Influence of Primary Sector of Employment” in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
Nick Acosta, BA, Humanities for Teaching 2008, began publishing “New Morality Zine: in 2014 to document hardcore punk in Chicago and beyond; two years ago, he made it a label too. NMZ has put out four releases in the past month, including “A Hell Like No Other” by local band Si Dios Quiere, “Thank You for Being Here Pt. I” by Oklahoma shoegazers Cursetheknife, and its 29th and most recent, a demo by Oklahoma posthardcore act G.I. Bill. Read more.
Lena Beck, BA, Humanities for Leadership 2017, published "Tension Builds Over Old Aquaculture Practice" with Coastal Review Online. She is currently a graduate student at the University of Montana, pursuing a master's in environmental science and natural resource journalism.
Twyla Carter, JD, 2007 and BA, Criminal Justice 2004, is featured on page 22 of the Seattle U School of Law’s Fall 2020 issue of Lawyer Magazine. She is senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project based in New York City. Read the magazine.
Lisa Nowlin, BA, History 2006, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, was one of the attorney’s representing Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County in their lawsuit against Seattle Police Department for excessive force against protesters. Read the Seattle Times article.
Ben McCarthy, MFA in Arts Leadership 2014, was named Vice President of Development at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation.
Joe Nguyen, Humanities and Finance, 2006 and 2020 Alumnus of the Year was elected Assistant Floor Leader by the Washington State Senate Democratic Caucus.
ChrisTiana ObeySumner, BA Psychology with Honors 2013, MNPL 2016, MPA 2020, is presenting "Crossroads in Theatre: An Introduction to Disability Justice," December 9 in partnership with Sound Theatre Company. Learn more here.
Johanna Wender, MA, LMHC, CMHS; MAP 2012, and her team at King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC) were presented with the Sarah Haley Memorial Award for Clinical Excellence at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies annual conference. The award recognizes KCSARC for consistency in delivering high quality, evidence-based, trauma-focused services. KCSARC was nominated by several nationally- and internationally-recognized experts in the field. KCSARC's clinical team was cited for their commitment to all victims of sexual assault or abuse, ensuring all survivors have access to effective treatment to help them recover from trauma, regardless of their background, life experiences, or ability to pay for treatment. Johanna is also the founder of Bravura Counseling. Read more here.
Thursday, April 25 at 12:00 PM
Monday, May 6 at 9:00 AM
Wednesday, May 8 at 12:30 PM
Monday, May 13 at 5:00 PM
Tuesday, May 14 at 12:00 PM
Reminder: we do not publish the Dean's Memo in January due to the holiday break.
The Dean’s Monthly Memo is published the second full week of the month, September through December and February through June. Send your updates at any time to Karen Bystrom.