News

March/April Faculty News

Written by Karen L. Bystrom
April 18, 2023

Ken Allan, PhD, Associate Professor, Art History, , just published a review of a public art installation in Seattle's Volunteer Park about loss, recovery and the body: "Chloë Bass's Soft Services," sponsored by the Henry Art Gallery/University of Washington. 

Allan's review was commissioned by caa.reviews, a free online journal of the College Art Association and addresses Bass's exploration of the history of park as a site of protest and commemoration during the AIDS crisis and her interrogation of the history of public monuments.

Caitlin Carlson, PhD, Chair and Associate Professor, Communication and Media, recently published "Rethinking Adarand after Prometheus: A rational basis solution to FCC minority ownership policy." Terry, C. & Carlson, C.R. (2023). Berkely Technology Law Journal, 37. She welcomed the Chief Justice of the Washington State Supreme Court, Steven González, in the Communication Law course. Research she conducted with former student Haley Witt is referenced in the editorial, "Continuing the fight for women’s equality."

Claudia Castro-Luna, MFA, MA, Adjunct Professor, Matteo Ricci Institute, curated a series of events for The Seattle Public Library with a variety of artists exploring how we can keep creativity alive in our lives.

Sarah D. Cate, PhD, Assistant Professor, Political Science, published a new book, The Myth of the Community Fix, a detailed examination of the limitations and pitfalls of pursuing the community-based reform movement in the American criminal justice system. As the extent of America's mass incarceration crisis has come into sharper view, politicians, activists and non-profit foundations from across the political spectrum have united around "community-based" reforms. Many states are pursuing criminal justice reforms that aim to move youth out of state-run prisons and into community-based alternatives as a way of improving the lives of youth caught in the juvenile justice system.

Elizabeth Dale, PhD, Associate Professor, Nonprofit Leadership, was part of a panel asked to write commentary for this year’s Philanthropy 50 for The Conversation

Yancy Dominick, PhD, Senior Instructor, Philosophy, will be part of a panel discussion of diversity in the Classical Western Tradition at the upcoming meeting of the Ancient Philosophy Society, hosted by Gonzaga University. The panel hopes to foster a conversation between faculty and students (both graduate and undergraduate) on the question of how to and what it means to diversify the curriculum and methodologies of teaching and research within the classics. Genevieve Sheara, (BA, major in English; University Honors) is also on the panel.

Fade Eadeh, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychology, was interviewed by Joe Donnelly at GamesRadar on the concept of revenge in videogames.

Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, PhD, Professor, Modern Languages and Women Gender, and Sexuality Studies, as president of Seattle Escribe, has been able to bring opportunities for our students, She US Latinx/Chicanx Literature for fourth year Spanish majors and minors under Modern Languages, in Spanish, and Latin American literature in English, and took advantage of the opportunity to bring a major Colombian poet, a Chicanx scholar who has recently published a translation of Occupied America, a canonic text for Chicanx populations, recently published in Spanish in Valencia, Spain, and five academics and poets from Spain to present their work and give the students a taste of Spain and Spanish culture and literature. Our presentations at Seattle University included:

  • April 6: Manuel Cortés Castañeda and José Juan Gómez-Becerra from Eastern Kentucky University.  Presentation of Occupied America and poetry reading.
  • April 8: Presentation at Bellevue Library,
  • April 11: Seattle University, reading by renowned Spanish poet and intellectual Tomás Néstor Martínez Álvarez, co-editors of In xóchitl, in cuícatl: Flowersong, Chicanx Poetry Anthology, 1920-2020, Juan Velasco (Santa Clara University) Armando MIguélez (Universidad Miguel Hernández) and the couple that established and promotes a cultural center in the area of León, Spain, who spoke about the evolution of cultural spaces in Spain, post Franco, Marta Prieto Arrancó and Juan José González Pascual.

She read in three venues/ on Zoom for International Poetry Day on March 21, one with the Seattle Civic Poet, one with MOOLA in Los Angeles, and the last for George Mason University. For GMU, she was asked to put together a team of six poets, including her and alum Aldo Reséndiz. 

Her reading at the offsite Association of Writers and Writing Program conference event at Cascadia Poetry Lab was recorded. Listen here.

She also wrote the review “Poetic License: the Reconfiguring of Border Lines Through Poetry in Mark Statman’s Hechizo” for Cultural Daily.

On June 1, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., she will interview Kathleen Alcalá at Elliott Bay Book Company  and celebrate the release of a new edition of Alcalá's novel, The Flower in the Skull. 

Janet Hayatshahi, MFA, Assistant Professor, Performing Arts and Arts Leadership, Janet Hayatshahi performed in Seattle Shakespeare Company’s acclaimed production of Drum and Colours: Henry IV.

Jacqueline Helfgott, PhD, Professor, Criminal Justice and Director, Crime and Justice Research Center, will publish her new book Jacqueline Helfgott’s book Copycat Crime: How Media, Technology, & Digital Culture Inspire Criminal Behavior and Violence (Bloomsbury) in summer 2023. The book will be used along with Ray Surette’s new book Copycat Crime and Criminals (Lynne Rienner) in the Fall 2023 course "CRJS 4810/5810 Murder Movies & Copycat Crime." The course is open to all students as an online asynchronous elective offering.

With Elaine Gunnison, PhD, Professor, Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Forensics, and Director, Master of Arts in Criminal Justice, she published "Trauma, Psychopathic Traits, and Resilience in Female Post-Prison Reentry"in Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society, 23(2).

An Op-Ed, co-written with MACJ Students and SPD MCPP Research Analysts Brandon Bledsoe and Katie Kepler, appeared in the South Seattle Emerald.

Recent media appearances include:

Latest reports include:

Audrey Hudgins, EdD, Clinical Associate Professor, Matteo Ricci Institute, attended the annual meeting of the Jesuit Migration Network – United States & Canada, held in Tucson, Arizona and hosted by the Ignatian Solidarity Network and the Jesuit Conference Office of Justice and Ecology in March 2023. The focus of the meeting was enhancing collaboration across the network in support of migration justice through research and scholarship, advocacy and activism, and humanitarian assistance and accompaniment.

She, was a panelist for the Migrant Accompaniment Panel hosted by Jesuit Refugee Service-USA and Kino Border Initiative in March 2023. This panel brought together individuals who have sponsored families for asylum in Washington DC, Rutland, VT and Seattle, WA, as well as those who have received their welcome and become part of their communities over weeks, months or years of accompaniment. Panelists shared their gifts and challenges as well as best practices for those considering asylum sponsorship or another way to accompany people arriving in search of safety or a more dignified life. The panel concluded with ways to get involved in direct accompaniment or advocacy for more welcoming policies. Link to the recording.

Nalini Iyer, PhD, Professor, Department of English, received the Distinguished Service Award from the South Asian Literary Association, an allied organization of the MLA. Read more here.

Sonora Jha, PhD, Associate Dean for Academic Community and Professor, Department of Communication and Media, continues to receive rave reviews for her novel, The Laughter. The latest include The New York Times and a recommendation from The New Yorker. She was also interviewed on KUOW about the book recently. 

Kira Mauseth, PhD, Senior Instructor, Psychology, participated on a panel for Washington Department of Health and Washington State Public Health Association as part of Public Health Week. Watch the video here. 

Susan Meyers, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of English and Director, Creative Writing Program, Writer and educator Susan V. Meyers directs Seattle University’s Creative Writing Program published “I Wanted To Get Pregnant With My Gay Friend's Sperm. I Had No Idea Of The Fight We Were In For” on HuffPost. She is at work on a memoir about reproductive rights and a novel about her family’s history in the circus.

James Miles, MFA, Assistant Professor, Performing Arts and Arts Leadership, was appointed to the search committee for the new director of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture by Mayor Bruce Harrell.

Quinton Morris, DMA, Associate Professor, Violin, received an Alumni Achievement Award from Berklee College of Music and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee where he earned his Bachelor of Music. From the announcement, “An accomplished concert violinist, educator, filmmaker, and entrepreneur, Boston Conservatory at Berklee graduate Quinton Morris is a multifaceted talent. The director of chamber and instrumental music and assistant professor of music at Seattle University, Morris is only the second living African American violinist to receive a tenured professorship in U.S. history. Morris is also the founder of Key to Change, a nonprofit providing music instruction to underserved youth and students of color in his native Washington State, and he has received numerous accolades, including the Governor’s Arts Award for his success with the documentary film The Breakthrough.”

Carmen A. Rivera, MS, Assistant Teaching Professor, Criminal Justice, Criminology & Forensics, published a guest editorial in the Renton Reporter, "To improve traffic safety for all, lawmakers should pass HB 1513."

Jeannette Rodriguez, PhD, Professor: Theology and Religious Studies and Couple and Family Therapy, and Director, Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture, presented “Cultural Memory, Resistance, and a Return to ‘Original Instruction’” at the Canadian Theological Society, organized by their Dignity, Equity, and Justice Committee.

Patrick Schoettmer, PhD, Associate Teaching Professor, Political Science, published “Survival!: A Portable Simulation that Encourages Failure”, where he makes the case for using simulations as a tool to create challenging situations students are likely to fail the first time they attempt them. Rooting his argument in Deweyan pedagogy, a core tenant of which is that failure is the best teacher, Schoettmer makes the case for using class time to give students puzzles that push them beyond their current capabilities.

John Trafton, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Film and Media Studies, wrote the book “Movie-Made Los Angeles,” which will be published in October 2023.

Rachel Turow, PhD, Adjunct Faculty, Psychology, published “Event Promotes Comprehensive Strategies for Student Mental Health” with Inside Higher Ed.