Whitman Stories

The seats inside Harper Joy Theatre may not be filled with audiences this fall. The stages may remain empty. But that doesn’t mean that the Department of Theater and Dance isn’t actively working to produce meaningful art. In fact, new department Chair Laura Hope, associate professor of theater, is excited to see the new types of performances and pieces created over fall semester.

Whitman College faculty members who received tenure or promotion to full professor for the 2020-2021 academic year answered questions about their areas of expertise, their passions and what they love about Whitman students.

Whitman College students are known for their passion for serving the Walla Walla community. But this summer, more than a dozen students were able to explore community engagement in a new, more holistic model thanks to a community-engaged learning grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Caity Collins ’08 has spent her career studying families, starting during her time at Whitman College. The sociology major began with a research project with Professor Michelle Janning, looking at the way that divorce was represented in children’s rooms.

As research experiences and internships around the nation were canceled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Assistant Professor Michael Coronado picked up the phone. He wanted to make sure that Whitman College’s first two fellows in the Whitman-Mayo Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program didn’t miss out on the chance to work with Mayo Clinic. So he reached out to DeLisa Fairweather ’87, his mentor and director of Translational Cardiovascular Research at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.

As the United States endures unprecedented times — from a global pandemic to racial conflict and a volatile political climate — the Associated Students of Whitman College (ASWC) are planning to step up and support students in new ways. 

Duncan “Tim” Hay ’57 and I-Chin Maeda ’98 are in a neighborly stand-off about who deserves recognition most. Hay insists that its Maeda who’s worthy of praise, for stepping up to help him and his wife Betsy (Jones) Hay ’60 with grocery shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This spring, Dorothy Mukasa '19 received the John Lewis Fellowship (JLF) based in Atlanta, Georgia. Mukasa is one of 39 Whitman graduates to receive a prestigious fellowship or scholarship for the 2019-2020 award year.

Pahlke provides examples of what to read and how to talk to children about white privilege at every developmental stage. "From early on, it is important to give children the tools to understand white privilege and motivate them to fight unjust systems."

Professor Matthew Prull has been fascinated by the mental processes associated with aging and memory for as long as he can remember. This summer, Prull teamed up with psychology senior Nikita Adhikari to test theories about the psychological phenomenon known as the attentional boost effect.

Semerdjian argues that police tactics and technologies recently deployed in U.S. cities were developed in the Middle East to suppress dissent, and calls for both ending police violence at home and ending America’s wars abroad.

Like much of the nation, Whitman College students, staff, faculty and alumni are joining together this summer to dig deeply into issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. As part of that conversation, in mid-July President Kathy Murray announced Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to be an Antiracist” as the summer 2020 common read.