Faculty

Congratulations to our newly promoted Full Professors and newly tenured and promoted Associate Professors in the College of Arts and Sciences!

Promoted to Full Professor for Fall 2024

• Alex Adame, Department of Psychology
• Caitlin Carlson, Department of Communication and Media
• Serena Cosgrove, International Studies Program
• Christina Roberts, Department of English
• Kevin Ward, Department of Public Affairs and Nonprofit Leadership

Tenured and Promoted to Associate Professor for Fall 2024

• Rashmi Chordiya, Department of Public Affairs and Nonprofit Leadership
• Victor Evans, Department of Communication and Media
• Maureen Feit, Department of Public Affairs and Nonprofit Leadership
• Alex Johnston, Department of Film and Media
• Benjamin Schultz-Figueroa, Department of Film and Media

Congratulations to the Arts and Sciences faculty awarded this year’s Seattle University Summer Faculty Fellowships:

• Daniel Avi Gilbert Coren, Department of Philosophy, Weathering Determinism
• Eva Dicker, Department of Psychology, Examining Experiential and Objective Outcomes of Synergistic Emotion Polyregulation Sequences
• Michael P. Jaycox, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Autonomy and Medical Racism: Reframing Bioethics in a Secularizing Society
• Robin Reich, Department of History, Material of Medicine
• Alexandra Romanyshyn, Department of Philosophy, Relational Narratives and Inclusive Selves: A Feminist and Disability-Informed Theory
• Yasemin Sari, Department of Philosophy, Equality at the Borders: A Philosophy of the Refugee
• Chengxin Xu, Department of Public Affairs and Nonprofit Leadership, Evidence-Based Policymaking in U.S. State Governments: An Experimental Investigation

From the Office of Sponsored Project, awards made in third quarter of AY23-24

• Mary Kay Brennan, Behavioral Health Workforce Development Initiative, The Ballmer Foundation (University of Washington) (continuation)
• Jacqueline Helfgott, Seattle Police Department Micro-Community Policing Plans, City of Seattle (competitive renewal)
• Jacqueline Helfgott and Matt Hickman, Community Assisted Response & Engagement (CARE) Initiative Program Evaluation, City of Seattle
• El Hadji Malick Ndiaye, French in France and Africa Ambassadors Initiative, Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States
   

Ken Allan, PhD, Associate Professor of Art History, Department of Visual Art) has had an article manuscript accepted to Oxford Art Journal, a prestigious journal that publishes work on all periods in art history. In "Senga Nengudi, The Fetish, and the Urban Growth Machine in 1970s Los Angeles," Allan addresses Nengudi's use of the concept of the fetish to reveal the illusions of urban development in her famous 1978 installation and performance, Ceremony for Freeway Fets, sited under a freeway overpass in downtown Los Angeles.

Byron Au Yong, MFA, Director, MFA in Arts Leadership and Interdisciplinary Arts-Arts Leadership, Associate Professor, Performing Arts and Arts Leadership, has work published in the upcoming issue of Arcade. His original music will be included in the Seattle University Theatre production of The Secret in the Wings, May 8 through 18. Earplay commissioned and will premiere his music on May 20 in San Francisco.

Leann Conley-Holcom, DMA, Assistant Professor, Director of Choral and Vocal Activities and Music Program Director, Performing Arts and Arts Leadership, served as an adjudicator for both the Commencement Bay and the Chinook Music Educators' Associations' Large Group Choral Festivals over a span of three days in March, working with choirs from over 25 area schools. During the first week of April, she will perform with the GRAMMY-award-winning professional choral ensemble True Concord in conjunction with the Tucson Desert Song Festival, in a program featuring Poulenc's Gloria and Laudamus Te alongside Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and selections from his operetta Candide.

Fade Eadeh, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychology, has been invited to give a departmental colloquium at the American University in Cairo in May 2024. He also had two talks accepted at the International Society for Political Psychology Annual Conference in Santiago, Chile this coming July.

Rob Efird, Professor, Anthropology and Asian Studies, gave an invited presentation at the Washington Orgon Cascadia Higher Education Sustainability Conference (WOHESC) held at Western Washington University. The presentation was entitled "Learning Our Place: Unsettling Environmental Education." He was subsequently invited to give a similar presentation to the docents at IslandWood on Bainbridge Island on April 15.

Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, PhD, Professor, Modern Languages and Women Gender, and Sexuality Studies, giving a reading, a presentation and an interview at California State University Channel Islands on March 26. On March 16, she appeared in “Indomables," a reading at Mexican Heritage Plaza Gallery in San Jose. She was featured in “Night of Poetry and Empowerment” at the Rock Rose Gallery in Los Angeles on March 20. And on March 23, she appeared in “Notes from the Chicana/o/x Underground” at RE/ARTE in Boyle Heights, CA.

Haejeong Hazel Hahn, PhD, Professor, History and affiliated with Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Asian Studies, and Film Studies, presented "Bokor Hill Station: Colonial Fantasy and the Erasure of Indigenous Memories? 1850 to Present" at the Association of Asian Studies annual meeting in Seattle on March 16, 2024.

Janet Hayatshahi, MFA, Assistant Professor, Performing Arts and Arts Leadership, will appear in English at ArtsWest, co-produced by Seda Iranian Theatre Ensemble, April 4-18. The play, by Sanaz Toossi, received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. “Two words set in motion award-winning playwright Sanaz Toossi’s intricate and profound New York debut: “English Only.” This is the mantra that rules one classroom in Iran, where four adult students are preparing for the TOEFL — the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Chasing fluency through a maze of word games, listening exercises, and show-and-tell sessions, they hope that one day, English will make them whole. But it might be splitting them each in half.”

Nalini Iyer, PhD, Professor, Department of English, affiliate faculty in Asian Studies and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, published Teaching South Asian Anglophone Diasporic Literatures, which she co-edited with Pallavi Rastogi. This volume is part of the Modern Language Association’s Options for Teaching Series. The book is a product of her tenure as the Theiline Pigott McCone Chair in Humanities. From the acknowledgements in the book: “Nalini would also like to thank her colleagues in the English department at Seattle University who put their students first and engage enthusiastically in conversations about curriculum, course design, and pedagogy. She has learned much from them. Nalini’s students at Seattle University, where she has taught for almost thirty years, inspire her; her work with them is ever present in this project.”

David Kwon, PhD, MBA, MDiv, MSW/AM, Assistant Professor, Theology and Religious Studies, was interviewed by Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Boston College for the recent Winter newsletter (pp. 10-11, 2024): “CHRIJ Alumnus David Kwon and the Importance of Ethics, Peacebuilding, and Moral Academia”. He was invited by both the center and the department of theology at Boston College to give a luncheon presentation about his new book Justice after War (The Catholic University of America Press, 2023) – with Dr. Stephen Pope’s response on April 4th. For the details of the posting up, see Justice after War: Jus Post Bellum in the 21st Century - Boston College Events (bc.edu). In addition, he was invited to give a guest lecture for Dr. M. Brinton Lykes' class Interdisciplinary Human Rights.

Kevin Maifeld, MFA, Professor Emeritus, Performing Arts and Arts Leadership, was interviewed by Seattle Magazine for “Beauty and Diversity in Art” about the contributions made by the Master of Fine Arts in Arts Leadership program to diversifying Seattle area arts leadership.

El Hadji Malick Ndiaye, PhD, Associate Professor, Modern Languages and Cultures and African and African American Studies, received an award, “French in France and Africa Ambassadors Initiative,” from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States.

Rick Malleus, PhD, Associate Professor, Communication and Media chaired a panel in February at the Western States Communication Association in Reno. The panel was called "Do I Have the Possibility to Be Me? Exploring Identity in Education Abroad Experiences." His presentation on the panel was entitled "Student Perceptions of Gender Identity in the Education Abroad Cycle".

Christopher Paul, PhD, Professor, Communication and Media, presented the paper, "The Brilliance of a Short Game: Marvel Snap, Brevity, and Toxicity at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.

Eric Severson, PhD, Associate Teaching Professor, Philosophy, published an article entitled "A Supreme Anachronism: Levinas, Time, and Anarchy," in the journal Cahiers d'études lévinassiennes, No. 20, Spring 2024.

Chengxin Xu, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Affairs and Nonprofit Leadership, co-authored “Resource Publicness Matters in Organizational Perceptions” with Dr. Huafang Li at the University of Pittsburgh, on Public Administration Review and the paper received the Best Paper Award by the Section of Nonprofits at the American Society for Public Administration.

Staff

Verna McKinnon-Hipps, Administrative Assistant, Communication and Media has two new novels out. Both are available now on Amazon, War Poet (The Rogue Bardess, Book 2), and The Fires of Rapiveshta (A Familiar's Tale, Book 3).

Alumni

Kate Burkholz, Psychology and Philosophy '02 was named in the “Top 50 leaders of South Carolina for 2024” by Women We Admire.

Josalyn P. Ford, MPA '14, was named Chief Advancement Officer for the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle.

Adriana Janovich, Journalism and Humanities ‘98, published a new book, Unique Eats and Eateries of Spokane.

Tom (Thomas) Kosnik, Psychology ‘84, appeared on the podcast, Secrets of Staffing Success, “A Masterclass on Markups and Pricing Strategy.” 

Jaimy McCarthy, MFA in Arts Leadership ‘14, was named among the 15 Top Marketing Experts in Seattle in 2024 by Influencer Digest.

ChrisTiana ObeySumner, Psychology ’13, MNPL ’16, MPA ‘20, founder of Epiphanies of Equity, appears in Part 1 of a two-part podcast with Mirror Stage. Listen here.

Andy Song, Psychology ‘14, was named one of Puget Sound Business Journal’s “40 under 40” list.

Students

Fernanda Martinez Novoa, current MPA student, recently participated in Advocacy Day in the Washington State legislature, as a Pathways Fellow at Akin (formerly Children’s Home Society of Washington & Childhaven). Read about her experience here. The Pathwaves Fellowship is a 20-month fellowship that brings BIPOC individuals into the field of early childhood policy.

Two students won international awards at this year’s Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Conference (IBSC) in New York City, highlighting the station’s contributions to the cultural fabric of Seattle. Megan Okuma, Communication and Media ’24, received the award for Best Logo, a repeat win for her. Ella Rustin, double major in Communication and Media, with specialization in Journalism, and Business ’24, received the award for Best Specialty Music Show.