Matthew S. Bahr, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Gonzaga University received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Purdue University (2002).  Dr. Bahr’s research interests include sociology of religion, political sociology, public policy and social movements.  His most recent project, appearing in Social Science Research (2006), explores correlates of financial giving to religious organizations.  He teaches courses in research methods, sociology of religion, and political sociology. 

Ph.D. in Sociology,  Loyola University Chicago, 2003
M.A. in Sociology, Loyola University Chicago, 1999
B.A. in Sociology and Spanish, Gonzaga University, 1996

Areas of interest: medical sociology, women's health, the environment, power and inequality, statistical methods and social justice.

Office Location
AD 335

Professor Betsy Downey is an American Historian whose interests, in keeping with her American Studies degree, are wide-ranging. In addition to her work in American History and American Literature at the University of Denver, she has also studied the Cold War, the New Deal, women in American Literature, and women in European History in post- doctoral seminars at Stanford University and the University of Connecticut. She has published on the Cold War, domestic violence on the frontier, and the works of Mari Sandoz. She has given numerous papers on these topics and also on preservation of the buffalo, the Cascade Crest Trail, and women in ski patrolling. A serious photographer, she has used photography in many of her presentations, and her photographs were used in a book on early childhood by faculty in the School of Education.

Office Location
RB 10

Office Hours

Office Location
AD 306B

Ph.D., Saint Louis University
Social Psychology
Research Projects and Interests:
Attitude change and gender issues related to study habits.

Office Location
Robinson House 014

Dr. Linda S. Schearing is Professor of Hebrew Scriptures at Gonzaga University, where she has taught since 1993.  Before coming to Gonzaga she taught at Luther College (Decorah, IA), Rhodes College (Memphis, TN), and Emory University (Atlanta, GA). She has co-authored two books, Eve & Adam:  Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender (Indiana University Press, 1999) and Those Elusive Deuteronomists: The Phenomenon of Pan-Dueteronomism (JSOT, 268; 1999), authored several articles, and has been a contributing writer for the Anchor Bible Dictionary, Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible,  The New Interpreters Bible Dictionary,  and to Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, The apocryphal/Deuterocanoncial Books and the New Testament. In addition to these publication activities, she has served as a consultant for various presses as well as a speaker in both local and national venues.  Her research interests are Hebrew Scriptures, Biblical Interpretation, the Bible and popular cultures, and women’s studies.