JANUARY - MAY 2015
COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES
NEWSLETTER
Welcome to the newsletter from the College of Arts & Sciences. In this issue we feature some of the exciting news from the areas of the arts and humanities. As a Jesuit, Catholic, humanist liberal arts University, with a deep understanding of how all the disciplines in the College contribute to the formation of the whole person, many of us are troubled by recent developments that have led to a nation-wide decline in enrollments in the arts and humanities. Our majors are relevant in today’s world, and increasingly so! You may have heard about how top medical schools have set out to lure English and History majors, following the development of programs such as HuMed, designed by Nathan Kase, former Dean of Medical Education at Mount Sinai because he “really had a firm belief that you couldn’t be a good doctor and a well-rounded doctor – relate to patients and communicate with them – unless you really had a good grounding in the liberal arts.” You may have read that Tech CEOs want employees with Liberal Arts degrees. One third of Fortune 500 CEOs have such degrees. In the words of Kenyon College’s Patricia Nugent, “It’s a horrible irony that at the very moment the world has become more complex, we’re encouraging our young people to be highly specialized in one task,” she says. “We are doing a disservice to young people by telling them that life is a straight path. The liberal arts are still relevant because they prepare students to be flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances.” Or that law schools across the nation seek to attract students with outstanding writing, speaking, and analytical skills. The College of Arts and Sciences just partnered with the Gonzaga School of Law to design our first 3+3 program. Qualified students who pursue a Religious Studies major will be able to graduate with a BA and a JD in six years. Liberal arts degrees are not a luxury; as New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes, “the humanities enrich our souls.” Who would we be as a people, as a nation, without the arts and the humanities? We often call the College of Arts and Sciences “the heart and soul” of the University. We offer distinctive educational experiences that prepare students for real-world tasks, engaging them in critical thinking and reasoning, communication, and analysis. We distinguish ourselves by involving majors in research projects and service learning activities to help them apply those skills for the benefit of others. Our goal is to prepare our students for leading meaningful, productive lives, and to act with compassion and with a strong sense of social justice. We invite you to share this information, and to “like” us on Facebook. We also want to hear from you! Please contact us to share your stories. – Elisabeth Mermann-Jozwiak, Dean
IN THIS ISSUE: • Dr. Tod Marshall, English Department Professor, Wins Humanities Washington Award • Professors Advocate for the Growth of Arts and Culture in Spokane • Dr. Benjamin Semple Awarded 7th Consecutive STARTALK Grant • Gonzaga’s Model United Nations Team Competes in Portland • Dr. Andrew Goldman Awarded National Kershaw Lectureship • Public Relations Faculty Publish Unique Textbook
DID YOU KNOW? The College of Arts & Sciences has: 236 Faculty 2,096 Students
with at least one major in CAS
55 Degree Programs
PUBLIC RELATIONS FACULTY PUBLISH UNIQUE TEXTBOOK Professor Colleen McMahon and Dr. Ronald Prindle operate on the principle of “if the perfect textbook does not exist, write it.” Both being public relations professors, they undertook the task of writing 184 pages of Speech Writing and Delivery for Public Relations in only three months. McMahon, after the update of the Public Relations curriculum and inclusion of a course by the same name, “Speech Writing and Delivery for Public Relations,” found that there was no “textbook that encompassed what we wanted it to encompass.” The problem was not the absence of PR and Speech textbooks, but the absence of combined Public Relations, speech writing and delivery textbooks – not only regarding writing personal speeches, but writing speeches for other people and coaching clients on how to look and sound good.
Dr. Ron Prindle
Prindle and McMahon pitched the idea to Kendall-Hunt Publishers and by late August of 2014, the contract was secured. What followed was three months of writing on both the author’s parts, collaboration, discussion, editing with the invaluable help of Professor Susan English, and graphic design on Microsoft Word Processor. McMahon says, “We devoted our Fridays and a lot of weekends to writing chapters. We kept each other motivated. [The book] is very practical, very user-friendly, with lots of current PR examples at the end of every chapter.” The textbook includes tear-out pages along with a “Coach’s Corner,” which is comprised of the practical applications of coaching someone through the writing and delivery process. As McMahon says, “[Coaching] is an important element that happens that people don’t realize.” McMahon and Prindle’s efficiency resulted in their textbook’s completion months ahead of schedule. Prindle says, “We completed our book well ahead of our deadline – it was ready in January.” And although the book came together quickly, McMahon comments, “We feel that we’ve been writing this book for a long time, throughout our careers.” McMahon will be using the book in two sections of Speech Writing and Delivery for Public Relations next semester, but finds that she is already using parts of the book in her current classes. “It’s been a real treat for me,” she says. If the book is a success, which the professors are anticipating, they are prepared to continue updating Speech Writing and Delivery for Public Relations in the coming years.
Professor Colleen McMahon
[Advocating in Olympia] made me very excited for our future both here in Spokane and at Gonzaga with our new Performing Arts Center in the works.” - Suzanne Ostersmith, Dance Program Director
Suzanne Ostersmith, Theatre and Dance instructor and director, and Professor Kathleen Jeffs, Department Chair, stand in front of Olympia’s capitol where they advocated for bills regarding the arts in Spokane this March.
PROFESSORS ADVOCATE FOR THE GROWTH OF ARTS AND CULTURE IN SPOKANE For Arts and Heritage Day on March 4, 2015 Suzanne Ostersmith, Instructor and Dance Program Director, and Kathleen Jeffs, Assistant Professor and Department Chair of the Theatre Arts & Dance Department, met with regional legislators in Olympia, WA. At the event Ostersmith, Jeffs, and Laura Becker, Executive Director of Spokane Arts, met with a host of legislators to discuss cultural concerns in the community and schools. To bolster support for the arts in Spokane, Ostersmith and Jeffs attended the event and advocated for the arts. “It made me very excited for our future both here in Spokane and at Gonzaga with our new Performing Arts Center in the works,” Ostersmith says. Jeffs says, “Not only did we make fabulous connections with other arts advocates across Washington State, we particularly strengthened our bond with the Spokane Arts scene and the folks from Cultural Access Washington,” an initiative to increase access to cultural educational experiences. “Personally,” Jeffs says, “I found it thrilling to pull our representatives off the floor and make a direct impact on the legislative process.” One legislative issue that Ostersmith and Jeffs advocated for was Cultural Access Washington Senate House Bill 1107/5463. If passed, as Becker writes, this bill “would allow each county to impose a sales or property tax of .1% In Spokane County that could generate up to $7.6 million
that would help sustain cultural, science, arts and heritage organizations.” Becker adds that Spokane’s filmmaking community is something that needs to be supported; production companies that film locally hire local and support the creative economy here in Spokane. On the other hand, Senate Bill 5190 was contested by Ostersmith, Jeffs and Becker. This bill would eliminate the Washington State Arts Commission’s Art in Public Places program. As Becker says, “Public art humanizes the built environment and invigorates public spaces. It provides an intersection between past, present, and future – between disciplines, between ideas, and between members of our communities.” The group of culture lobbyists learned that direct advocacy plays a huge role in raising lawmakers’ awareness about the bills that are put up for vote. Some of the legislators, Jeffs says, were unaware of the arts bills, “so it was extremely important for us to study the issues and present arts interests in a way that was genuine and informative for our busy representatives.” The event at Olympia allowed for the representatives to make connections within the Spokane arts community and with those from Cultural Access Washington, strengthening the bond between likeminded individuals and building the case for the growth of the arts in Spokane.
A student works on a Chinese assignment during last year’s STARTALK Chinese Program, a summer course organized by Dr. Semple.
DR. BENJAMIN SEMPLE AWARDED SEVENTH CONSECUTIVE STARTALK GRANT For the seventh consecutive year, Dr. Benjamin Semple, director of the Paris Program, French professor, and 16 year member of Gonzaga’s faculty, was awarded $90,000 from the National Security Agency’s STARTALK initiative, a grant program which is subcontracted through the University of Maryland. The program awards grants to those teachers who are willing and qualified to instigate a summer language program in which one of the strategic languages, such as Chinese or Arabic, is taught to K-12 participants. Dr. Semple, a 25-year language teacher, is in charge of directing Chinese instruction funded via STARTALK here in Spokane. His role is to apply for the grant, and once accepted, finds faculty, students and a lead instructor who speaks Chinese, for the program. The grant money goes towards payroll for the teachers, teacher assistants, administrators, and other staff, and classroom materials like textbooks. Together, they construct a curriculum for their summer students. This summer they are expected to have, and usually do have, six different classes separated
by age and language proficiency. The program is carried out here on GU’s campus during a 3-week session for elementary students and a 4-week session for middle and high school students. One of the challenges Semple and his colleagues face is the size of the program, saying that seventy students during the summer course is a lot to handle. But they do it gladly, and, as Semple says, “[The program] pushes me to stretch my skills. It’s really good for my own teaching.” Semple says his involvement in the STARTALK grant has given him a chance to reflect on his own teaching practices, enabling him to undergo what he views as another apprenticeship in the middle of his career, something he calls “unexpected but beneficial.” During the two conferences STARTALK recipients are required to go to yearly, Semple has the chance to network with other language faculty nationwide and receive training. In turn, he injects that training into the instruction he gives to the teachers of the summer Chinese courses here in Spokane. Undertaking this responsibility has shown Dr.
Semple the significant value and importance of total immersion in his own French classes. From day one in his lower level French classes, Semple speaks 90% French, working gradually towards 100% immersion. This takes “a tremendous amount of preparation,” Semple says. “You have to be working with a limited vocabulary and non-verbal support materials. You have to be ingenious in coming up with activities that are appealing to students when they are trying to learn this language.” Not only has the STARTALK grant been beneficial to Semple and learners of Chinese, but it has also impacted the school districts in Spokane. Semple says he has already seen one high school offering Chinese instruction where there was not any before STARTALK. There is also rumored to be a second. The level of interest in Chinese instruction is beginning to be recognized, and to respond to that, Semple will focus this summer’s networking and instruction on working with the Spokane school districts. In addition to watching expansion of language teaching occurring in Spokane, the highlight for the summer course is typically the final performance, says Semple. The second grade class performs a song about pandas, wearing panda paws and hats; the animation of that age group, Semple says, is so much fun to be around. Furthermore, Semple can see the language learning taking place. “Something I’ve always believed,” he says, “is that language learning can be taking place so much earlier.”
“In my scholarship and teaching I draw from history, psychology, sociology, political science, literature, philosophy, biology, chemistry, and ecology. A broad understanding of the complexity of the human and natural worlds, developed through the study of multiple disciplines, is invaluable. The future needs students who have meandered across the College and who can draw from the many important tools offered by Arts & Sciences disciplines in order to address the injustices that persist in the world today.” - Dr. Sara Diaz, Women’s & Gender Studies Professor
“Addressing [environmental issues] requires a wellrounded, informed citizenry capable of critical thinking and creative problem solving. This comes from a developed and thoughtful Arts and Sciences program that educates students for leadership and service.” - Dr. Gregory Gordon (above) Environmental Studies Professor
CAS HIGHLIGHTS • 84 CAS students presented at the 29th Annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research, April 16-18 at Eastern Washington University. • In January and February 2015 nine performances of Jesus Christ Superstar were sold out. • The Visiting Writer’s Series featured poets and writers Dan Butterworth, Brenda Hillman, Joanna Luloff, Marilynne Robinson, Douglass Kearny, and Michael Gurian.
DR. TOD MARSHALL, ENGLISH DEPARTMENT PROFESSOR, WINS HUMANITIES WASHINGTON AWARD EXTENSIVE COMMITMENT TO SERVICE IN THE COMMUNITY AND AT GU EARNS INSTRUCTOR PRESTIGIOUS “SCHOLARSHIP AND SERVICE” RECOGNITION, HONORS SHARING OF ARTS, LITERATURE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY. Dr. Tod Marshall has been awarded the 2015 Humanities Washington Award for Scholarship and Service, an annual award that recognizes outstanding achievement in the public humanities. As KayLee Jaech, Executive Director at Humanities Washington (HW) says, “These awards are presented to individuals and/or organizations whose Dr. Tod Marshall won this year’s time and talents Humanities Washington Award. enlarge the meaning of the humanities in our lives and whose work reflects the spirit and programs of Humanities Washington.” Marshall, who first came to Gonzaga in 1999 as a Visiting Assistant Professor, is now a Professor of English and Director of the English Writing Concentration Major and the Visiting Writers Series (VWS). He will finish his 16th year at Gonzaga this May. Because of Marshall’s extensive and long-term commitment to the public humanities, he was chosen for this year’s award. He has been involved in many HW programs such as its first Clemente Course in Spokane, a program that provides free college courses in the humanities to economically disadvantaged individuals. He has served on several committees and played a crucial role in the success of the Bedtime Stories events. Jaech says, “Just last spring Marshall joined Humanities Washington’s Prime Time Family reading program. The program in Spokane is thriving, thanks to his early and continued leadership.”
Marshall stresses the significance of the humanities when he says, “As a first generation college graduate, I know that it’s very important to build cultural bridges that extend off-campus. That might have an impact on people who are not afforded the privilege of higher education. By working with HW I have the benefit of a dynamic partnership that creates so many venues to reach people both inside and outside of academia, an organization that shares so many of my own personal goals that involve bringing humanities – arts, literature, history, philosophy – to people that might not otherwise have access. I am deeply honored by this award, but I am also humbled because I know that there is still so much that I could be doing.” Part of HW’s mission is to “envision a state where all people seek a deeper understanding of others, themselves, and the human experience in order to discern and promote the common good. The humanities encourage us to investigate, speak, listen, read, reflect, question, think, grow, and act.” The organization provides attention to the mind and spirit; Marshall says that going without attention to these in his earlier years would have resulted in a bad ending. “It’s a long story,” he says, “but after I was given the opportunity to attend college (through my soccer skills), the Dominicans at my undergraduate school (Siena Heights in Michigan) showed me such care and offered me such challenges that I felt compelled to reinvent myself to try to rise to meet the standards they believed I could achieve. Since then, I have done my best as a scholar, teacher, and writer to honor their generosity toward me and their faith in me.” As Jaech says, Marshall is a beloved professor at GU and an esteemed community member. “[His] many contributions to the literary and artistic life of Spokane have left a lasting impact on its residents and countless students. We are so pleased to provide him with this much-deserved recognition.” HW will present the award to Marshall in person at the October 2015 Bedtime Stories event at the Spokane Club.
Dr. Andrew Goldman (left) works at a site in Gordion, a city in central Turkey.
DR. ANDREW GOLDMAN AWARDED NATIONAL KERSHAW LECTURESHIP Dr. Andrew Goldman has been selected to be the 20152016 Kershaw Lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and will give a series of lectures across the country. A trained archaeologist who received his PhD in Classical Archaeology from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Dr. Goldman is currently the chair of the Classical Civilizations Department here at GU and teaches courses on ancient history and archaeology. The AIA draws from a large pool of potential lecturers and Goldman believes that it was, in part, his prior successful lectures with the Association in Austin, TX and Charleston, SC in 2015 that played a role in his Lecture Program selection. Goldman began lecturing for this series in 2009, having taken part in the wellestablished event across the U.S. and Canada and giving two to six lectures per year. He is looking forward to participating again this year. The lecture series, he says, “has been running for over a century, and archaeologists from all over the country are recruited to take part.” As the AIA states, this Lecture Program is an invaluable part of the Association’s mission, as it spreads knowledge of recent archaeological developments to the general public, provides an opportunity for colleagues to discuss work and share research results, and fulfills a commitment to public education. His lectures cover the excavations he has worked on with his team in Turkey at the site of ancient Gordion from 2004 – 2006, where they discovered a small Roman fort. Along with the University of Pennsylvania Museum’s excavation team, Goldman has worked there since 1992. His lecture series will also encompass Roman gemstones and their early Christian symbolism,
showing Goldman’s expertise in Roman archaeology. Aside from the lecture series material, Goldman has also worked at excavations in Turkey, Cyprus, and Sardinia, and has written about the Roman army, ancient cemeteries, Latin inscriptions and ancient Roman signet rings. Before Dr. Goldman became a professor and lecturer, he studied at Wesleyan University earning his B.A. in Classical Civilizations. During his junior year studying abroad in Rome, he fell in love with the Mediterranean, a region he says is “bursting with history and monuments.” After studying ancient history and archaeology, he decided he wanted a career that allowed him to work with ancient civilizations and their artifacts. “Second,” Goldman says, “I love puzzles, and that is essentially what archaeology is about. You assemble and analyze artifacts as you attempt to understand human activity in the past. Like a very poor jigsaw puzzle, though, lots of the pieces are missing, so that a great deal of study and interpretation is always necessary.” Despite the challenge and frustration these issues present in archaeology, Goldman says the field is tremendously rewarding as new insight about the past is gained. Ultimately, this “helps us understand the development of human behavior and the genesis of our own society.” GU also named Dr. Goldman the Arnold Professor of Humanities this year.
THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES FEATURES THESE MAJORS AND PROGRAMS:
GONZAGA’S MODEL UNITED NATIONS TEAM COMPETES IN PORTLAND In the fast-paced and professional environment of the conference, Taninchev was very impressed with the GU delegates. Although the conference can be overwhelming, Taninchev says, the students engaged in discussion with other university delegates about global issues.
• Art • Biology • Broadcast & Electronic Media • Catholic Studies • Chemistry & Biochemistry • Classical Civilizations • Communication Studies • Computer Science & Computational Thinking • Criminal Justice • Economics • English • Environmental Studies • History • International Studies • Italian Studies • Journalism • Mathematics • Modern Languages • Music • Native American Studies • Philosophy • Physics • Political Science • Psychology • Public Relations • Religious Studies • Sociology • Solidarity & Social Justice • Theatre Arts & Dance
Students display the names of the countries they represented at Portland’s MUN conference in Feb. They took home a 3rd Place award.
Model United Nations (MUN) delegates from GU, under the guidance of Dr. Stacy Taninchev, a sixth year Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department and MUN Faculty Advisor, made great strides in February’s MUN Conference in Portland, Oregon. MUN is an academic organization in the Politial Science Department and also a course taught in the spring. This year the organization welcomed 13 new members, making for 18 total delegates in GU’s MUN. In the fall, the application process for Portland’s conference began. As Taninchev explains, the students wrote an essay on an international relations topic along with a letter of intent. Interviews with applicants were held, and delegates were selected as representatives of assigned UN countries. Although all selected delegates are required to attend the conference in New York, this year, all delegates were given the option of also participating in the Northwest MUN conference in Portland. All 18 of the delegates chose to go, and for 12 of the students, it was their first time attending a conference. Before embarking on their trip, each student was assigned to a committee and researched two to three topics that could be addressed at the conference. The delegates also prepared a paper presenting their assigned country’s position on their topics, preceded by tremendous amounts of research.
Rachel Gantz and Amy Jamsa, both seniors, also impressed Taninchev with their performance and knowledge about Israel after being asked to come before the Security Council and respond to questions regarding the situation in Israel and Palestine. Eleanor Lyon, Head Delegate and Russia’s representative, earned an award for Outstanding Delegate in the General Assembly due to her leadership skills. Although the awards validate the students’ hard work, Taninchev says, “Our goal is to represent our country in the most accurate way possible to the best of our ability and to work in a diplomatic and cooperative spirit to solve global issues.” She appreciated the hard work and commitment shown by all of the delegates including the main student leader and Secretary General, Sophia Henager, a senior. Henager says MUN teaches students how to work as a team and how to be truly diplomatic. She says, “There is a fine line between accomplishments and assertiveness, and acceptance and diplomacy. [MUN] teaches students strong speaking skills; they have to be able to speak about policy issues in front of a large conference room. MUN also teaches them research skills.” After writing a position paper, participating in UN committee simulations, practicing negotiations, and finally puttng their skills to the test, Gonzaga’s MUN earned third place in Portland’s conference and the Honorable Mention Award.
• Women’s & Gender Studies Gonzaga University, 502 E. Boone Ave., Spokane, WA 99258-0089
www.gonzaga.edu/cas