April 3, 2025–Dr. Evan Elizabeth Hart, associate professor of history, is Missouri Western State University’s recipient of the Missouri Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. The Governor’s Award is sponsored by the Missouri Council on Public Higher Education and will be presented this week in Jefferson City.

Dr. Hart has been at Missouri Western since 2017, teaching general studies history as well as more specialized upper-division courses. 

“MO West is fortunate to have such a compassionate and creative leader as Dr. Hart,” said Dr. Elizabeth Kennedy, Missouri Western’s president. “Furthering our state-appointed applied learning mission, she provides unique learning opportunities outside of the classroom, including museum and cemetery tours, and alternative assignments that tap into students’ strengths in producing scholarly research projects. And she is beloved by her students.”

Dr. Hart views the teaching of history as “helping students understand how we arrived here, wherever ‘here’ is. What happened in the past continues to impact who we are.” She believes history goes beyond memorizing names and dates. “We try to answer the hows and whys, and to humanize the past,” she said. “I’m a social historian, so I’m really interested in history from the ‘bottom up’ – how did everyday people experience the world around them?”

To help her students develop critical thinking skills, she makes sure they engage with historical sources deeper than surface level. “These sources are making arguments,” she said. “What are they trying to convince you of, and how? What can we read between the lines, and how can we connect all of the pieces together? And they can ask the same questions of current sources, approaching news stories and speeches the way they do historical documents.”

Dr. Hart received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Indiana, and both her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Cincinnati. She previously taught as a visiting professor at the University of Florida, and as adjunct faculty at the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University. 

Missouri Western State University is a student-centered learning community preparing individuals for lives of excellence through applied learning. Missouri Western is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit missouriwestern.edu.

April 23, 2024–A team of four undergraduate students from Missouri Western State University won the Trisha Yarbrough Collaborative Research Competition at the Alpha Chi National Conference in Birmingham, Alabama on April 6. The victory came with a $5,000 award.

The winning team was made up of seniors Jordon Anderson, nursing major from St. Joseph; Juniper Brown, political science major from St. Joseph; Mercedes Mareske, digital animation major from Frankford, Missouri; and Tia Vernon, education major from North Kansas City, Missouri. Their research project was titled “Artificial Intelligence and Selective Exposure: Generating a Public Perception.” 

To compete, students from diverse majors collaborated on a scholarly paper centered on the conference theme, which was “Innovative Scholarship for Tumultuous Times.” Their project was sponsored by Dr. Angela Haas, associate professor of history. 

The Missouri Western Chapter of Alpha Chi, sponsored by Dr. Haas and Dr. Teddi Deka, professor of psychology, celebrated its 35th anniversary this year as an honors society at MWSU.

News release written by Patty Lashbrook, sophomore convergent journalism and public relations major.

Missouri Western State University is a student-centered learning community preparing individuals for lives of excellence through applied learning. Missouri Western is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit missouriwestern.edu. 

March 20, 2023–Students in Missouri Western State University’s Griffon Production House have released their latest “Griffon University” video, spotlighting the research of a Missouri Western faculty member.

“Griffon University’s mission is to highlight student and faculty research and provide engaging content to a wider audience, letting them see what we do at Missouri Western,” said Thomas Brecheisen, assistant professor of cinema and director of Griffon Production House.

Last fall, Dr. James Okapal, professor of philosophy, published “Fantastic Beasts and How to Categorize Them” on The Prindle Post, a digital publication of the Prindle Institute for Ethics at Depauw University in Indiana.

In the article, Dr. Okapal explores and critiques the moral framework behind the distinction between “beasts” and “beings” in the J.K. Rowling book, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” The video features Dr. Okapal talking about his article and graphics created by digital animation students.

The short film was created by:

• Content director: Rebecca Evans, junior performing and cinema arts major from St. Joseph


• Script supervisor: Blake Elder, sophomore performing and cinema arts major from Lathrop, Missouri


• Editor: Brecheisen


• Graphics: Digital animation majors Dana Vinson, sophomore of Roland, Iowa; Andrew Holcomb, senior of Bartlesville, Oklahoma; RJ Cousins, sophomore of St. Louis, Missouri; and Lexi DeLapp, junior of Blue Springs, Missouri

The film is available on YouTube at youtu.be/lvfM8w1klPQ.

Missouri Western State University is a student-centered learning community preparing individuals for lives of excellence through applied learning. Missouri Western is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit missouriwestern.edu.