New Book Reflects Scholarship of School of Leadership Studies

The cover of “Servant-Leadership and Forgiveness: How Leaders Help Heal the Heart of the World.” (Courtesy SUNYPress)
The book's cover. (Courtesy SUNYPress)
August 19, 2020

SPOKANE, Wash. — “Servant-Leadership and Forgiveness: How Leaders Help Heal the Heart of the World,” a new 405-page anthology published this month by the State University of New York Press (SUNYPress), a top-tier scholarly press, reflects the depth of scholarly work of the Gonzaga University School of Leadership Studies’ faculty and alumni.

The book was edited by alumni of Gonzaga’s Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies (DPLS): Jiying Song, assistant professor of business management at Northwestern College, and Dung Q. Tran, assistant professor of organizational leadership at Gonzaga. Co-editors are Shann Ray Ferch, professor of leadership studies at Gonzaga, and Larry C. Spears, a servant-leadership scholar at Gonzaga and president of the Spears Center for Servant-Leadership.

Sixteen of the book’s 21 chapters were written by alumni of the School of Leadership Studies’ graduate programs (Master’s in Organizational Leadership, Master’s in Communication and Leadership and the DPLS).

In addition to Song and Tran, GU alumni who contributed book chapters include Keith Allan, Christian Cabezas, Rakiya Farah, Karen Petersen Finch, Mark McCord, Buchi Muoneme, S.J., George Patrick Murphy, Eleni Prillaman (Kametas), Lena Pace, Marleen Ramsey, and Mark Whitson.

“As a whole, they represent an international community of writers hailing from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas,” Ferch said. “Many of the articles are devastating in the beauty and strength they embody when revealing human vulnerability, internal fortitude, loving kindness, and the authentic power so deeply associated with grace.”

Most of the chapters emerged from students’ final papers in the Servant-Leadership, Restorative Justice, and Forgiveness class (cross-listed with the school’s three graduate programs through the years). All the chapters first appeared in the International Journal of Servant-Leadership, published by Gonzaga in collaboration with the Spears Center for Servant-Leadership.

For more information, contact Professor Ferch at ferch@gonzaga.edu.