Tag Archives: Faculty

Understanding Ethnic Conflict at Home and Abroad

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“Understanding Ethnic Conflict at Home and Abroad,” is the topic of our Fall Quarter Global Classroom. Jointly hosted by UW Tacoma’s Institute for Global Engagement (IGE), the SIAS Division of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs (PPPA) and the World Affairs Council Tacoma, Global Classroom is an interactive speaker series on global issues that matter. The flyer is attached, please join us!

The event is free and open to the public. We strongly encourage registration as Global Classroom typically fills quickly:  http://wactacoma.com/event-2719179/Registration

Following the story: Professor Sarah Hampson

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sarah chris and anna hampson

 

Sarah Hampson, an Assistant Professor in PPPA starting her second year at UW Tacoma, has a few secrets.

Enthusiastic about her classes and her research into work/life policies surrounding motherhood, as well as her self-identity as an idealist occasionally called “Pollyanna”— Hampson is also a huge sci-fi fan!

“I love sci-fi!” she said, laughing. “Star Trek. Time travel. But also historical fiction, and any kind of meta story.”

“I just want to be in a really good story and never have it end.”

A bit surprising for a Law and Policy professor? Maybe.

But maybe not so much when that professor was an undergraduate English major who spent a year studying at Oxford and still loves reading novels—at least when she has time.

But with a love for sci-fi and British literature, how did Hampson end up teaching Law and Society at UW Tacoma?

Well, that’s quite a story… Continue reading →

From Perçem village to Tacoma – Professor Turan Kayaoglu

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  • .Associate Professor of International Relations at UW Tacoma
  • Editor-in-Chief, Muslim World of Human Rights.
  • Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs in the School of IAS
  • Author of two books—one of which was just published last month

Turan Kayaoglu’s credentials are impressive, but there is so much more to his story.

A Long and Winding Road…

villageKayaoglu grew up in Istanbul, after moving from his birthplace—Perçem village, in the Erzincan Province of eastern Turkey—when he was just four years old. A massive migration from rural villages to industrial centers was taking place, turning farmers into shopkeepers or factory workers at a dizzying pace.  As a result, he was one of nearly 60 students crowded into an elementary classroom. Yet it was his family’s move to the city that made his presence in that classroom even possible.

Without the access to education that Kayaoglu enjoyed, his father has no formal schoolingparents, but “kind of reads.” His mother’s longing to read—in her 60s—inspired him, and her failure to learn after two years of trying made him more sensitive to the difficulties faced by some of his own students.

Kayaoglu is the fourth of five sons born to Sadullah and Hanim Kayaoglu, with 19 years between the oldest and youngest. He and his younger brother are the only two with a university education, although one of his older brothers did go to a technical college. “But, I was the first to attend a four-year university.” He may have taken it “too seriously,” he said, as a way to compensate for his older brothers’ lack of educational opportunities.

Continue reading →

Annual PPPA Colloquium held in May

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pppa colloquiumThe first weekend of May, PPPA faculty and their families assembled for the 2nd annual PPPA Colloquium. Held at the Red Lion in Port Angeles, the colloquium offered an opportunity for ten PPPA faculty to present their current research and discuss it with their colleagues. Turan Kayaoglu, organizer of last year’s event, stated  “We do not do collaborative work as much as we could. One reason for this is that we don’t know each other’s research. The Research Colloquium helps us identify common research areas.”

Saturday evening, at the conclusion of the event, a colloquium dinner was held, allowing all present to continue the discussion of the day. As you can see by the photo, a good time was had by all!

Faculty presenters and their topics included: Continue reading →

UW Tacoma faculty involved in faculty exchange program

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university of bergen photoPP&E Professor Katie Baird will be spending fall 2015 in Norway as a part of the University of Washington-University of Bergen Faculty Exchange Program Visiting Professor appointments at the University of Bergen, Norway. Since the program’s inception in 1979, more than 70 UW faculty and 80 University of Bergen faculty have participated in the exchange, including some from UW Tacoma. Visiting scholars represent such diverse fields as Anthropology, Dentistry, Education, Engineering, English, Fisheries, History, Law, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Quaternary Research, Scandinavian Studies, Surgery, Women Studies, Zoology—and like Professor Baird—Economics.  She will be working on a project concern with education and employment outcomes with others from The Centre for Economic Studies in Social Insurance and Labour Economics.

We hope to hear more on Baird’s activities while she’s in Norway. Stay tuned next fall for updates.

Faculty takes part in Copenhagen human rights workshop

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PPPA professor Turan Kayaoglu traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark in February 2015turan's photo to take part in a workshop on the topic of human rights and  the  Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).  The workshop, organized by the  Danish Institute for Human Rights–the third such meeting for the group which first met in 2013 at the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR)–had ten scholars presenting papers over a period of two days. Group members discussed their papers and developed a common framework for a forthcoming publication regarding the OIC and human rights. Kayaoglu and Marie J. Petersen will be editing the publication produced by workshop participants. Continue reading →

PPPA faculty members leading interfaith conversation on Israel-Palestine

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by Dr. Turan Kayaoglu

Interfaith gathering 1 15On January 25, 2015 about 100 people, many of whom are associated with a religious tradition, gathered at the University of Puget Sound (UPS) for an “Interfaith Conversation on Israel-Palestine.” This conversation–sponsored by UPS, and facilitated by Dave Wright, Director for Spiritual Life and Civic Engagement and UPS chaplain–was initiated by Associated Ministries in collaboration with the Temple Beth El, Mountain View Lutheran Church, and the Muslim Student Association of the University of Washington Tacoma.  PPPA faculty member Turan Kayaoglu was a member of the organizing committee. Continue reading →

UW Tacoma joins the 1st SHARP Summit

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sharp summit photoOn Friday, Jan 9th 2015, the Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Tacoma, WA. held a Sexual Harassment/Assault Response & Prevention (SHARP) Summit directed specifically at including non-commissioned officers (NCOs) in a community discussion of sexual harassment and assault in the Army. Members of the UW Tacoma community were also invited to attend as part of an ongoing partnership between JBLM and the University of Washington. Shelby Edwards, the Program Assistant for Community Engagement in the Office of the Chancellor, and PPPA Assistant Professor Dr. Sarah Cote Hampson were among those in attendance. Hampson conducts research on women and workplace cultures, and one of her areas of specialty is women in the U.S. military. Continue reading →

Changing format

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Over the last year, PPPA has used this site as more of a newsletter than a blog–but today all that is changing.

Blogs, with their more frequent and timely posts, seem to be more “friendly” and accessible to students and faculty alike, offering more of a glimpse of “what’s happening now,” rather than  “what happened last month.” We feel this new format will keep students and faculty–as well as the larger community–better informed of all that is happening within  PPPA as a division of the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Tacoma.

We hope you enjoy our new format! You’ll be hearing from us much more often.

Faculty spotlight: Rob Crawford

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“I hitchhiked to Timbuktu over Christmas vacation…”

Rob Crawford photoThat’s the sort of life Professor Rob Crawford has led—so interviewing him for this newsletter was definitely a thought-provoking, rapid-fire experience. We discussed issues ranging from his personal history and academic background, to his position as one of the founding members of UW Tacoma’s faculty, and his thoughts on a thirty-seven year teaching career. There isn’t room here to cover every topic that came up in our hour-long conversation, but the highlights are fascinating. Continue reading →