WSU announces inaugural Honors College Faculty Fellows Burwick, Carroll, Halverson, Lamb, Lapin, Nichol, and Shier
PULLMAN, Wash.—Seven Washington State University professors have been named as members of the first set of faculty fellows in the Honors College: Kimberly Burwick, Matthew Carroll, Rachel Halverson, Richard Lamb, Sergey Lapin, Nathaniel Nicol, and David Shier.
“Each of these outstanding educators have, do, and will continue to make significant contributions to the mission of our college and to the success of our students, and we are pleased that the fellows program will allow us to recognize them over the course of their three-year appointment,” said Honors Dean M. Grant Norton.
“We had several exceptional people who applied, or were nominated, since fall for the fellows positions, so selecting these seven from the pool was very challenging,” said Associate Dean Catherine Elstad, who led the process.
The fellows program was announced in early October 2015, but anyone interested can enter their information online through the year to be considered for selection on a rolling basis, Norton said.
Five of the first Honors Faculty Fellows are members of the College of Arts and Sciences, and one is from the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, and another has a dual appointment in the College of Education and College of Veterinary Medicine.
“The breadth as well as the depth of our faculty base across the university is part of what makes our curriculum so relevant and comprehensive,” said Norton. “The backgrounds of the new fellows reinforces that.”
Burwick is a clinical assistant professor in the Dept. of English and a national award winner for her poetry. She teaches introductory multi-genre workshops, upper-level poetry workshops, research writing, and core humanities courses in mythology, literature, philosophy, history, and art of the ancient world.
Carroll is a professor in the School of the Environment and a natural resource sociologist. He currently researches human responses to both the threat and reality of uncontrolled fire in the residential/forest interface, and social issues around controlled and uncontrolled wild-land fire.
Halverson is an associate professor of German and holds the Marianna Merritt and Donald S. Matteson Distinguished Professorship in the Dept. of Foreign Languages and Cultures. Her research covers post-war and post-unification German culture, film, and literature, and she has published a book, “Historiography and Fiction: Siegfriend Lenz and the ‘Historikerstreit.’”
Lamb is an assistant professor in the Dept. of Teaching and Learning since 2013, is its science education director in the Neurocognitive Science Laboratory, and is an adjunct professor in neuroscience in the College of Veterinary Medicine. He is affiliated with the WSU Spokane Health Science STEM Center and the Learning and Performance Research Center. He also serves the developmental science child imaging laboratory at the University of Iowa’s Science Education and Measurement Delta Center.
Lapin is a clinical associate professor in the Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics, and teaches Russian courses for the Dept. of Foreign Languages and Cultures. At WSU since fall 2007. For Honors, he teaches Honors calculus courses and global issues in the sciences courses. He researches numerical modeling of fluid flows, mathematical biology, and modeling of wave propagation problems.
Nicol is a clinical assistant professor of philosophy in the School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs. He researches ancient philosophy and the overarching histories of ethics and aesthetics, including Plato’s latest dialogues and the history of hedonism.
Shier is an associate professor in the School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs, where he is directs undergraduate studies. He researchers the philosophy of language, the history of analytic philosophy, logic, philosophy of mind, and epistemology. He chairs the Honors Council, advises students on their theses, and received an Honors faculty award. Shier has taught Honors students the basics of philosophy and to ponder the question of whether happiness is enough for “the good life.”
For more information, visit the Faculty Fellows page.
MEDIA: M. Grant Norton, Dean of the WSU Honors College, 509-335-4505, mgnorton@wsu.edu
Catherine Elstad, Associate Dean of the WSU Honors College, 509-335-4505, elstad@wsu.edu