These SU professors will be teaching sections of UCOR 1910: Engaging Seattle in Summer of 2022. It's a great team of faculty from a wide variety of disciplines and fields. To find out more about these faculty, clink on this link to view their introduction videos for this class and click on their names below to view their faculty profiles.
Dr. Tapoja Chaudhuri, Anthropology
I am an environmental anthropologist with a research and teaching focus on South Asia and the Pacific Northwest. My research interests lie at the intersection of environmental studies, ethnoecology, environmental justice, cultural anthropology and development studies. I am specifically engaged in writing about the politics of biodiversity conservation, with a focus on India. I love introducing students to new ways of thinking about human-environment relationships by exposing them to notions about social justice and cultural ecology.
Dr. Victor D Evans, Communication and Media
Dr. Victor Evans is an Assistant professor of communication at Seattle university where he teaches journalism and other mass media courses. Prior to teaching, he worked as an entertainment journalist for numerous organizations, including Entertainment Weekly, MTV, BET and CNN. When he’s not watching teen-angst-filled television shows, you can find him on his farm on Vashon Island wrangling chickens.
Dr. Rebecca McNamara, Matteo Ricci Program
I am an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Matteo Ricci Institute. The courses I teach focus on community engagement, professional development and teaching pedagogy. Because I have 10 years of experience working in higher education student affairs, I am excited to build a classroom community and be a part of your orientation to Seattle University and the surrounding neighborhood.
In our section of UCOR 1910, we will focus on learning about the context of the Central District, which is the neighborhood that borders Seattle U’s campus. We will learn about the history and the assets of this neighborhood – paying special attention to issues in housing and education. Questions we will consider in this course are:
Dr. Zachary D Wood Institute for Public Service
Professor Zachary D. Wood received a PhD in Public Affairs with a specialization in Community Development from Rutgers University in 2019 and since then has been an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Public Service at Seattle University. His studies focus on issues of community development and urban social policy, applying critically-grounded frameworks to interrogate the structural power and funding arrangements that shape community access to power and decision-making. Professor Wood is a passionate advocate for vibrant and collective expressions of democracy and social justice, with an eye toward centering the voices and lived experiences of groups consistently excluded from decision-making and economic structures.
Dr. Wood's plans for "Engaging Seattle" will help students examine the many contradictions of every day life through a posture of engagement and curiosity. We will learn to not just "answer questions", but more importantly to "question answers" and challenge the assumptions we take for granted about the people and the communities around us.