History 105

with Karen Phoenix

Karen Phoenix

509-335-1170

Wilson-Short Hall 347

Karen Phoenix specializes in the U.S. in the World during the Progressive Era and interwar period. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2010. Her doctoral work used the U.S. Young Women’s Christian Association as a case study to explore U.S. attempts at cultural imperialism. In case studies that ranged from religion and missions in India, to health education in the Philippines, to architecture and space in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to race-blind feminism in Nigeria, Phoenix examined the ways that USYWCA Secretaries envisioned themselves as being progressive and egalitarian, even as they could not escape their Progressive Era US mindsets. She is currently adding the USYWCA’s efforts to build a type of transnational feminism in post-WWI Poland for the book manuscript. Her article “A Social Gospel for India” was published in a special issue on Transnational Women’s and Gender History in the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, in Spring 2014. Phoenix has presented papers at regional and national conferences such as the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

Human Development 205

with Robby Cooper

Robby Cooper
Clinical Assistant Professor
robby.cooper@wsu.edu
509-335-2442
Johnson Tower 601A, Pullman

Research Interests:
- Leisure Behavior Across the Lifespan
- Program Evaluation
- Emerging Adulthood
- Outdoor Recreation Behavior
- Adventure Recreation Behavior
- Public Land Management

Research Interests

I study emerging adulthood, with a particular focus on college students. I primarily focus on ways in which we can improve students’ adjustment to college, student retention and managing the risk factors associated with the lives of college students. I am interested in the efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) with college students, in an effort to manage challenges such as stress, anxiety and depression, set clear and purposeful goals, and develop action plans for college success. I also focus on experiential education and programming (sometimes outdoor experiences) as a vehicle for teaching and student development. I am involved with multiple groups on campus who work to develop, implement and evaluate the efficacy of classes and programs intended to encourage student success.

First-Year Focus

First-year Focus is a living-learning community that helps you connect with others in your residence hall through a course that you are taking together. This program at the WSU Pullman campus allows you and others in your residence hall to study together, work on assignments, and form friendships that go into the classroom and beyond. It also brings faculty into your community, boosting your contact and interaction with faculty teaching your First-year Focus course.