Whitman Stories
![A CDC graphic of the COVID-19 virus.](/images/whitman-stories/stories/2020/July/COVID-Virus-THUMBNAIL.jpg)
July 6, 2020
Infectious Disease Class Takes on New Relevance in COVID-19 World
Born in a new millennium, the students in Associate Professor Jim Russo’s infectious disease course have never known a time that HIV/AIDS wasn’t treatable. But Russo was a graduate student in the 1980s as the virus was first discovered
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July 6, 2020
Associate Professor of Psychology Erin Pahlke on Role of Diverse Literature in Raising Anti-Racist Kids
“Having a diverse media landscape in your house gives kids examples of lots of different, positive people who are from different racial and ethnic groups,” Pahlke says. “It also gives families an opening to have important conversations.”
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![A portrait of Kaitlyn Patia.](/images/whitman-stories/stories/2020/July/KaitlynPatia-Tumbnail.jpg)
July 1, 2020
Grant Funds Creation of Course to Take On ‘Grand Challenges’ Through Civic Engagement
Kaitlyn Patia brings her passion for community engaged learning to Whitman College, thanks to the Mellon Periclean Faculty Leadership Program in the Humanities, a grant program run by nonprofit higher education consortium Project Pericles. It’s the first time a Whitman faculty member has received the $4,000 grant, which supports the development of a course dedicated to tackling the “grand challenges” of climate change, education access, immigration, mass incarceration, race and inequality or voter engagement.
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July 1, 2020
Paul Garrett Professor of Political Science Shampa Biswas Reflects on Value of Liberal Arts During Pandemic
She describes the new lecture series Whitman faculty developed for incoming students about COVID-19 through various academic lenses.
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![Two people hug with a wall of cellophane between them.](/images/whitman-stories/stories/2020/June/COVID-ArtPiece-Thumbnail.jpg)
June 24, 2020
Library Archives Collect Stories from the COVID-19 Era
As COVID-19 reshapes life around the globe, the Whitman College and Northwest Archives at Penrose Library wants to document how those changes have affected our greater community.
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June 24, 2020
Assistant Professor of Sociology Alvaro Santana-Acuña on How Márquez Resonates With Readers Today
Gabriel García Márquez's literary classic One Hundred Years of Solitude refers to a plauge of insomnia that descends on the fictional town of Macondo. Santana-Acuña compares the struggles characters in the novel face with the global fight against COVID-19.
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![Liam Dubay plays the cello with himself.](/images/whitman-stories/stories/2020/June/Laim-Dubay-thumbnail.jpg)
June 17, 2020
Seeing Double: Music Student Creates Self-Duet for Final Performance
Liam Dubay gained several new skills this spring. He learned to play the five-string Baroque cello, an instrument which Whitman College purchased last year. He also figured out how to splice together video so he could create a unique self-duet performance for his final project of the semester.
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![A portrait of Xiaobo Yuan](/images/whitman-stories/stories/2020/June/XIAOBO-YUAN_2019-thumbnail.jpg)
June 16, 2020
Assistant Professor Xiaobo Yuan Bridges Anthropology and Religion at Whitman
Xiaobo Yuan first worked as an anthropologist as an undergraduate student while studying at Johns Hopkins University. Yuan received a research grant to do field work in coastal Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. She was investigating how faith-based organizations, specifically Christian organizations, intervened in the aftermath of the hurricane.
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June 16, 2020
Associate Professor of Psychology Erin Pahlke Weighs in on Caregiver Conversations About Race
For Black caregivers who work with white families, the topic of race and racism may come up with children and sometimes their parents. One of the biggest hurdles when talking to white parents about race, especially for a Black nanny or babysitter, is addressing the myth that race isn’t something they need to acknowledge with their children. “A lot of white parents are steeped in colorblind ideology, and they really think their kid doesn’t notice race,” Pahlke explains.
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![Suzanne Morrissey teaches a class.](/images/whitman-stories/stories/2020/June/Suzanne-Morrissey-thumbnail.jpg)
June 15, 2020
Faculty Turn to Student Consultants to Improve Classes
This spring, Suzanne Morrissey was one of a handful of faculty participating in the faculty-student consultant program, organized and offered through Whitman College’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). Now entering its second year, the program connects faculty members with a student who will spend the semester evaluating a chosen course and giving direct feedback.
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![Two medical workers in full PPE gear](/images/whitman-stories/stories/2020/June/whitties%20on%20the%20frontlines-thumbnail.jpg)
June 12, 2020
Whitties Talk About Life on the Front Lines of COVID-19
When nurse practitioner Carolyn Korfiatis ’05 gets to work at her small rural hospital in Mammoth Lake, California, she goes through “the car wash.”
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![A graphic image representing the undergraduate conference.](/images/whitman-stories/stories/2020/June/200611-web-thumb.png)
June 12, 2020
Undergraduate Conference Showcases Student Research Online
Typically the Undergraduate Conference is a day of in-person presentations and poster sessions, where classes are canceled and the Whitman community interacts with student research. But when the college moved to online learning this spring in response to COVID-19, Keith Raether knew the conference format needed to change, too.
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