Past Spratlan Grant Award Recipients and Project Reports

2014

Maria McLeod, Journalism

  • The “Students of WWU: A Diversity Project” worked to create a multi-platform storytelling initiative focused on diversity at Western Washington University. This project will involve students, faculty, and staff. The centerpiece was a series of monologues based on interviews conducted by Professor Maria McLeod. These interviews served as a model that taught to students and replicated across campus, particularly within Freshmen Interest Group courses each fall.
  • Full Report for Maria McLeod

Janelle Leger and Regina Barber Degraaff, Physics and Astronomy

  • STEM Access and Inclusion -- A Partnership between Western Washington University (WWU) and the Northwest Indian College (NWIC). The main goal of this program is to foster cultural exchange between students at Western Washington University (WWU) and Northwest Indian College (NWIC) in Bellingham, WA. Additionally, the program aimed to create a pathway for NWIC students who are interested in pursuing careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) to transition to WWU.
  • Full Report for J. Leger & Degraaff

2015

Neal Tognazzini, Philosophy

  • Educating Educators: An Approach to Diversifying the Philosophy Curriculum; inviting knowledgeable and sympathetic philosophers from other institutions to visit Western and conduct intensive 2- or 3-day seminars. To train faculty ion opening eyes to alternative approaches that would lead to enriching diversity. 

Sean Bruna, Anthropology

  • Social Network Analysis of Informal Mentoring Among Underrepresented Students and Faculty at WWU. This research seeks to understand which WWU faculty and staff are sought-out by underrepresented students for informal mentoring and why they choose certain faculty over others. The numerous workshops and programs being developed on campus speak to the commitment of diversity, but this research would evaluate how the commitment translates into student-faculty interaction. By understanding which faculty, staff, or departments underrepresented students visit for informal mentoring, we as a campus can better prepare and support all students and faculty as they seek out mentorship.
  • Full Report for Sean Bruna

2016

2016
AB Brown, Fairhaven
•    Emplaced Inclusion -- Rooting Diversity in Social Practice Performance. A performance-based research project that will investigate and analyze histories of racial injustice and their continued relevance to contemporary treatment of marginalized communities based on race, sexuality, class, and citizenship in Bellingham and the surrounding region. This project aimed to place student experiences within a broader historical context and to deepen the understanding of students, staff, and faculty about our involvement in a system of racial and imperial inequality that affects everyone. The social practice performances created through this project provided an active intellectual, emotional, and physical means for participants to engage with and reflect on their relationships with the people and places around them.
 

2017

Kristin Denham, English

Anne Lobeck, English

  • The WWU Linguistic Diversity Project: Western Talks. Worked on launching a long-term project called Western Talks to raise awareness of linguistic diversity at WWU. The goal is to create a website linked to WWU’s Diversity page. This site will feature language maps, WWU’s linguistic demographics, teaching resources, regional dialect data, videos, and more. It will be a valuable tool for recruiting and retaining diverse faculty and students by highlighting and supporting linguistic diversity on campus.

A. Longoria, Secondary Education

  • Justice Speaks Series Presents: "I Am a Teacher": Teacher Voices Speak Back to the Academy. Justice Speaks programming is primarily a student-led effort, with a small collective of students of color and a few faculty and staff allies. This conference served opportunity to learn from and lean on one another, and to coalition-build across schools and districts. It aimed in doing that, we can begin to address the disproportionate teacher of color retention rate by providing some of the necessary support systems and resources needed to sustain the work of transformative educators.
  • Full report for A. Longoria

2018

Lina Dahlberg, Biology

  • Promoting systemic change in STEM through continuing working groups in Intersections: Inclusion, Science, and Society. While the major funding for this project would be provided internally by the Fraser Foundation of WWU, the Thaddeus Spratlen and Lois Price Spratlen Inclusion and Diversity Grant ensures that changes in student and faculty actions and awareness can continue for the quarter following the Fraser Symposium.
     

2019

Jack Herring and Anna Blick, Fairhaven

  • Fairhaven College Diversity Recruitment Efforts: Creating Visible College Access to Interdisciplinary Educational Pathways for Latinx Students in Washington State. We seek the opportunity to strategically foreground Fairhaven College as a distinct access point for Latinx students through broadening recruitment and advising to the Central and Eastern regions of Washington State. In other terms, we want students to see themselves succeeding at Fairhaven. Research demonstrates that college access, comprised by applications, admissions, and enrollment, is a necessary component of the pipeline that brings college-aged adults to institutions of higher education. Meaningful recruitment requires a strategy that includes advising around college choice, the application process, and the resources available to students once they arrive

2020

Nick Galati, Alejandro Acevedo-Gutierrez, Marion Brodhagen, Jim Cooper, Craig Moyer and Lynn Pillitteri, Biology

  • Inclusion via Outreach by Students and Faculty, intents to demonstrate that pursuing a science degree is an attainable goal and that WWU offers a welcoming and inclusive learning environment where differences are respected and valued, and which offers opportunities that support the success of students from diverse backgrounds. This project will serve as an effective means of teaching Western students about diversity and inclusion through hands-on participation in an inclusion effort. The intent is to provide participating students with experience that will allow them to self-promote inclusion on campus.
     

2021

Deborah Hanuscin and Natalie Newman, Elementary and Secondary Education

  • Cases for Equity and Inclusion. The overarching goal of this project is to develop a series of written cases that document the experiences of members of the WWU community with disabilities and the support they have and/or have not received on campus. The insights generated from this set of cases would be useful prompts for discussion in faculty development, TA training, and staff professional learning to foster an inclusive and welcoming environment that promotes the success of all who work and study at Western.

Mai Sas, Susan DeBari, and Bernie Housen, Geology

  • We are actively working to enhance equity and inclusion in the WWU Geology Department through national initiatives like URGE, which focuses on unlearning racism and promoting accessibility, justice, equity, and inclusion (AJEDI) in geosciences. URGE aims to educate our community about the impact of racism, develop anti-racist policies, and foster a dynamic network for sharing and refining these strategies. Launched in December 2020 by Katie and Dr. Allison Pfeiffer, the WWU Geology URGE Pod has involved 14 members, including students, staff, and faculty, in ongoing efforts since Winter-Spring 2021.

Hope Corbin, Health and Community Sciences

  • In February 2022, Woodring College of Education will host a Week of Action for Black Lives Matter at School, featuring a mix of hybrid events including discussions, student vignettes, and professional development segments. The week will culminate with a keynote by Dr. Bettina Love, a leading advocate for education reform and anti-racism, who will address systemic racism in public education and promote abolitionist approaches for educational justice

Pam Kuntz, Theatre and Dance

  • WWU Dances is an outreach program targeting high school students of color interested in dance. WWU Dance faculty and students will visit schools with diverse populations to provide information about dance opportunities at WWU. They will discuss the value of community, creativity, and pursuing a dance degree at WWU, as well as opportunities both on campus and in the Bellingham area.
  • Full Report for Pam Kuntz

2022

Keith Kelley, Amy Salinas Westmoreland 

  • The goal of this program is to create more intentional opportunities for engagement between the campus community and the city of Bellingham. We plan to accomplish this goal by inviting multiple community leaders to engage in dialogues about their areas of expertise and interest (including homelessness/houselessness, access to affordable housing, access to education, retention of employees of color, food insecurity, and more). We will highlight community members that center access, diversity, equity, and inclusion in their work. These community leaders will discuss their work and will facilitate an interactive conversation with the audience. Through these conversations, we hope to build community connections, allowing our campus community, specifically those with marginalized identities, to network and feel more connected to the community outside of Western

Josh Cerretti, History

  • The Women of Color in Pacific Northwest History Lecture Series would help address the marginalization of women of color in both on campus and in the study of regional history. On a quarterly basis, we would bring a scholar focused on a particular aspect of the many interwoven histories of women of color in our region

 

If you’re interested in applying for the Spratlan Grant, you can find the application page here.