Social Sciences

Spring 2015

New and noteworthy

Digitized Lives: Culture, Power, and Social Change in the Internet Era

T.V. Reed

Routledge, 2014

T.V. Reed, a WSU English and American studies professor, examines the impact of digital communication and the Internet on how we live.

Whole in the Clouds

Kristine Kibbee ’00

The Zharmae Publishing Press, 2014

Cora Catlin, the unhappy orphan protagonist in Kibbee’s debut novel, and her dog Motley discover the meaning of friendship and a magical world in the clouds.

Two Bits and Odd Days

Thomas A. Springer ’86

2014

Springer, a Tacoma high school teacher and creative writer, offers a selection of his poems from the … » More …

Spring 2015

Hunting for “Dirtbags”: Why Cops Over-police the Poor and Racial Minorities

Lori Beth Way and Ryan Patten ’03 PhD

Northeastern University Press, 2013

In this day of increased scrutiny of police, many people wonder about policing styles and how officers use their unassigned time. The high rate of minority arrests and stops as well as the higher level of surveillance in poor communities have also come into question.

With these things in mind, two political science colleagues at California State University, Chico explored what factors influence police officers’ decisions on their policing strategies. Patten and … » More …

Winter 2014

The mystery map

See the details of a hand-drawn map found in WSU's Owen Science Library.

» More ...

Winter 2014

New & noteworthy

After Artest: The NBA and the Assault on Blackness

David J. Leonard

SUNY Press, 2012

After a brawl at a Pistons-Pacers game in 2004, the NBA adopted policies to govern black players and prevent them from embracing styles and personas associated with blackness. This book by Leonard, associate professor of critical culture, gender, and race studies at Washington State University, discloses connections between the NBA’s discourse and the broader discourse of anti-black racism.

Emergence and Collapse of Early Villages

Timothy A. Kohler (editor), Mark D. Varien (editor)

University of California Press, 2012

This book examines how climate change, population size, interpersonal conflict, resource … » More …

Winter 2014

Nikkei Baseball: Japanese American Players from Immigration and Internment to the Major Leagues

Samuel O. Regalado ’83 MA, ’87 PhD

University of Illinois Press, 2013

Since Sam Regalado received his doctorate in history in 1987, he has established himself as one of the leading authorities on the history of baseball and the Hispanic population in the United States. Now a professor at California State University Stanislaus, Regalado has penned an eminently readable history on how baseball helped Americans of Japanese descent construct an identity.

Regalado’s interest … » More …

Fall 2014

Talking trash

One of the green, rolling hills in the Palouse isn’t quite like the others.

Aside from a PVC pipe sticking out of its ridge, it looks—and smells—no different than any other mound. But instead of having a loamy center riddled with earthworms, it’s made of garbage. Tens of thousands of tons of it, though no one really knows how much.

The trash was collected throughout Whitman County over about 30 years until 1993, when the county sealed the landfill, built a transfer station next to it, and began shipping garbage elsewhere. Since then, four to six 18-wheelers leave the transfer station just north of Pullman … » More …

Fall 2014

Oso—a view from inside a disaster

On a Saturday afternoon last March, Matt Carroll got a curious Facebook message from the stepdaughter of his best friend, Tom Durnell. There had been a landslide near Tom’s home. His wife, Debbie, was at work. They couldn’t get in touch with Tom.

“At first it didn’t sound that ominous,” says Carroll, a professor in Washington State University’s School of the Environment, “like maybe the cell tower went out or something.”

Still, Carroll raised his wife from an afternoon nap and told her something was going on at Tom and Debbie’s.

“Her initial instinct,” says Carroll, “was start packing bags.”

Thus began a deeply personal … » More …

Fall 2014

First Words for Fall 2014

As we started assembling this issue, we sought to provide a sweeping view of campus and its environs from architecture to the archives. And then, as it usually happens, a few themes surfaced: anniversaries, hearts and health, and, well, garbage. We discovered subtle ties between the stories, ties that may not be so obvious to the reader, but as we have written, edited, and designed this issue, have lingered in our minds.

First, along with campus maps and Cougar cards, Washington State’s freshmen this month are sharing a book, Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash—a selection from the now eight-year-old and widely successful … » More …

Fall 2014

Asian American Women’s Popular Literature

Pamela Thoma

Temple University Press, 2013

Since Nathaniel Hawthorne famously complained about the “damned mob of scribbling women” in 1855, much has changed in American literary and popular culture, not least the nation’s racial demographics, which now include substantial numbers of Asian Americans, as well as other people of color. And yet, the significance of women’s popular fiction continues to be overlooked, if not derided outright, by many social and cultural … » More …

Summer 2014

Consider the dragon

With his fierce gaze and swift, powerful muscles, Chinese American martial artist and actor Bruce Lee inspired John Wong and a generation of Chinese people in the early 1970s. Lee embodied a new and potent physicality as an Asian man on film, one who would transcend traditional kung fu forms, influence fitness, and stand toe-to-toe against stereotypes.

“He had a quality that people admired and almost worshiped,” says Wong, associate professor in the Washington State University College of Education and sports historian. “Even people who were born after Lee died see his influence as a pioneer.”

In a recent article for Sports History Review, Wong … » More …