Noël Riley Fitch (M.A. '65,
English; Ph.D. '69, American studies) has recently
published The Grand Literary Cafés of
Europe with New Holland Publishers. This beautifully
illustrated book takes the reader on a tour of the great
literary cafes of Europe, encompassing cities as diverse
as London, Lisbon, Budapest, Rome, and Prague. Focusing
on the famous writers and artists who frequented these
historic places, Fitch examines the role of the
café in culture and society. Fitch is an
award-winning biographer and historian of expatriate
intellectuals in Paris during the first half of the
1900s. She has authored Appetite for Life: The
Biography of Julia Child and is currently working
with illustrator Rick Tulka on Paris Café: The
Sélect Crowd, due out later this year from
Soft Skull Press.
Noël Riley
Fitch's Web site
David Cuillier (Ph.D. '06, communication), the first person to earn a Ph.D. from the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication, has been awarded the 2007 Nafziger-White Dissertation Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)—the most prestigious dissertation award from the top association of mass communication scholars in the nation. His dissertation is titled "Access Attitudes: Measuring and Conceptualizing Support for Press Access to Government Records." In 2004, the AEJMC awarded Cuillier first place in its "Promising Professors" competition. Susan Dente Ross (associate professor, communication; associate dean, College of Liberal Arts) was Cuillier's Ph.D. advisor.
Patrick Rothfuss' (M.A. '02, English)
recently released fantasy novel, The Name of the
Wind, has been listed on Amazon.com's Significant
Seven list and received starred reviews from
Publishers Weekly and Library Journal.
Said Publishers Weekly in its review, "As
absorbing on a second reading as it is on the first, this
is the type of assured, rich first novel most writers can
only dream of producing. The fantasy world has a new
star."
Visit Patrick
Rothfuss' Web site
Dale Stedman (B.A. '49, English) was awarded WSU's Alumni Achievement Award April 12 at the Spokane Rotary Club meeting. He began his career at the Inland Empire Automobile Association of America in 1951 and was named its president and CEO in 1967. He served on 6 national committees for AAA, including budget, public and government, highway, traffic safety, accreditation, and policy, before retiring in 1994. Stedman has served Washington State University as a WSU Foundation trustee, President's Associate, and Alumni Association member. He was appointed by the governor to serve on the Washington State Transportation Commission, the board of directors for the Washington State Department of Transportation. He also serves the Spokane Area Good Roads Association, Washington State Good Roads and Transportation Association, Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Spokane Regional Transportation Council. He has devoted hours of service to the Citizen's League of Spokane, Spokane Rotary Club, YMCA of Inland Empire, and numerous other Spokane organizations.
Michael Egan's (Ph.D. '04, history) book Barry Commoner and the Science of Survival: The Remaking of American Environmentalism was recently published by MIT Press. Egan holds a tenure-track position at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Jeanne Eder (Ph.D. '00, history) was
awarded the Distinguished Woman Alumna of the Year Award
at WSU's annual Women's Recognition Luncheon on March 28.
The event was part of the 2007 Women's History Month
celebration. Eder is an associate professor of history at
the University of Alaska in Anchorage. Eder was born and
raised on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana and
is an enrolled member in both the Assiniboine and Sioux
Tribes. She is the author of 2 children's books, The
History of the Dakota Sioux and The History of
the Makah. She coauthored American Indian
Education: A History, published in 2004.
Dr. Eder is well-known for
performing historically accurate impersonations of 3
leading American Indian women—Waheenee (Buffalo
Bird Woman, Hidatsa), Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin, Dakota
Sioux), and Sacajawea (Bird Woman, Lemhi Shoshoni). She
was appointed to the first National Lewis and Clark
Bicentennial Planning Council in 1994 and successfully
advocated for calling the bicentennial a commemoration
instead of a celebration. Because of her strong voice,
she was also consulted to help shape the more recent
Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration.
Matthew Godfrey's (Ph.D. '01, history) book Religion, Politics, and Sugar: The Mormon Church, the Federal Government, and the Utah–Idaho Sugar Company, 1907–1921 was recently published by Utah State University Press. Godfrey currently works for the Historical Research Associates in Missoula, Montana.
Kevin Marsh's (Ph.D. '02, history) book Drawing Lines in the Forest: Creating Wilderness Areas in the Pacific Northwest was published this spring by the University of Washington Press in its series Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books, edited by William Cronon. Marsh was cochair of the local arrangements committee for the 2008 meeting of the American Society for Environmental History, held in Boise in March, and continues to serve on the board of the Idaho Humanities Council. Last year, he received a John Topham and Susan Redd Butler Faculty Fellowship from the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, Brigham Young University, to support his research into the environmental history of the Snake River Aquifer.
Jennifer Ross-Nazzal (Ph.D. '04,
history), a historian with NASA Johnson Space Center in
Houston, Texas, has been offered a place as a full
seminar participant in the Schlesinger Library 2007
Summer Seminar on Gender History at the Radcliffe
Institute for Advanced Study. She was part of a select
group of 36 chosen from among 120 applicants. The seminar
includes small-group workshops where participants will
present their own research and writing for evaluation and
criticism. She will bring a chapter on Emma Smith DeVoe,
the subject of her book manuscript, and her National
Council of Women Voters.
More
information
Todd Wiggs (B.A. '87, criminal justice) has provided 20 years of service to the Washington State Department of Corrections, and his most recent work as supervisor of the Sex Offender Community Supervision Program in Spokane demonstrates the importance of leadership, innovation, education, and research to the field of criminal justice. This spring he was awarded the WSU Outstanding Alumni Award for Criminal Justice. The award is presented each year to a professional who demonstrates leadership in the field of criminal justice and is an innovator in connecting the importance of research to evidence-based practice.
The Chronicle, College of Liberal Arts, Washington State University