May 6, 2020
Faculty/staff honors: Distinguished contributions to Asian studies, social equity award, Swedish physical geography honor, new Cascade Public Media director
Recent honors to University of Washington faculty and staff have come from the Association of Asian Studies, the American Society of Public Administration, the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography and Cascade Public Media.
Historian Patricia Ebrey receives Association of Asian Studies’ top award for 2020
Patricia Ebrey
The Association of Asian Studies has given UW historian Patricia Buckley Ebrey its 2020 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies. The award, the highest the association bestows, honors outstanding scholarship in the field.
Ebrey is the Williams Family Endowed Professor of History. She has written or edited many works on China and East Asia as well as a sourcebook on China for undergraduate teaching. She has written over 70 journal articles and book chapters and her works have been translated into several other languages.
Praising Ebrey for groundbreaking efforts in several areas, the association said in a news release: “By editing or co-editing volumes of scholarly work, and by providing translations and reproductions of primary materials, she has dedicated herself to developing the historical study of China both in terms of research and teaching.”
Read more and watch a video of Ebrey’s thanks for the honor at the Association of Asian Studies website.
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UW political scientist Christopher Parker joins Cascade Public Media board of directors
Christopher Parker
Christopher Parker, UW professor of political science, has been chosen to join the board of directors for Cascade Public Media, the nonprofit home of KCTS 9 television and Crosscut.
Parker has taught at the UW since 2006 and is the author of two books, “Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in Contemporary America” (with Matt Barreto, 2013) and “Fighting for Democracy: Black Veterans and the Struggle Against Supremacy in the Postwar South” (2009). His next book, planned for this year, is “The Great White Hope: Donald Trump, Race, and the Crisis of American Democracy.”
Parker was one of two new directors named, along with Holly Mesrobian, a UW alumna who is a director of engineering at Amazon Web Services. The appointments were announced April 28. Also on the Cascade Public Media board is Anita Ramasastry, UW professor of law.
“Not only is the world of media changing rapidly, the world itself is changing at a breakneck pace,” Robert Dunlop, CEO of Cascade Public Media, said of the two new directors. “Their insights will be extremely valuable as we continue to bring the people of our region news and programming that informs and inspires.”
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Terryl Ross receives 2020 social equity award from American Society of Public Administration
Terryl Ross
The American Society of Public Administration has given Terryl Ross, assistant dean of diversity, equity and inclusion in the UW College of the Environment, its 2020 Gloria Hobson Nordin Social Equity Award for 2020.
The award recognizes lifetime achievement in the cause of social equity. Candidates are evaluated on the consistency, level and duration of their work on social equity as well as the impact of their efforts. The society’s 8,000-some members are practitioners, academics and students.
Ross came to the UW in 1992 as a doctoral student in the Educational and Communication Technology Program housed in the College of Education and later created the group Multicultural Organization of Students Actively Involved in Change, or MOSAIC.
“Ross continues to work in diversity and inclusion today as he collaborates with college stakeholders to envision diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across the college,” the association wrote.
The award, established in 2003, is named for a longtime employee of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
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David Montgomery honored by Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography
David Montgomery
The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography has awarded David Montgomery, UW professor of Earth and space sciences its 2020 Vega Medal for achievements in physical geography. He was honored his work in the field of geomorphology — the study of the origin and evolution of landforms.
Montgomery has written several popular science books as well as teaching materials and over 200 articles. The society praised his impact on the research community. His last book was “Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life,” published in 2017.
“He has studied everything from the ways that landslides and glaciers influence the height of mountain ranges, to the way that soils have shaped human civilizations now and in the past,” the society wrote in its award announcement.
The society was founded in 1878 and is supported mainly by the King of Sweden. Its objective is to promote the development of anthropology, geography and closely related sciences in Sweden and serve as a link between scientists in these disciplines, and the public.
The award, one of two informally referred to as the Nobel prize of geography, is named for the ship of Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, who discovered the Northwest Passage in 1881.
Read more on the College of the Environment website.
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In other faculty news:
Openness letter: Marina Alberti, UW professor of urban design and planning in the College of Built Environments, was one of 31 scientists to sign an open letter to the journal Science calling for more openness in coronavirus modeling. “Call for transparency of COVID-19 models” was published in Science on May 1.
“A hallmark of science is the open exchange of knowledge, the cosigners wrote. “We strongly urge all scientists modeling the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and its consequences for health and society to rapidly and openly publish their code … so that it is accessible to all scientists around the world.”
Seattle Channel meets Indigo Mist: The Seattle Channel recently filmed a visit with the UW School of Music faculty members who comprise the improvisational music group Indigo Mist: professors Juan Pampin, Cuong Vu, Ted Poor and Richard Karpen, the school’s director — Steve Rodby, artist in residence (and longtime Pat Metheny Group bassist). The school took note in its April newsletter.
“You just let go and let your creativity do its thing,” Vu said in the video, describing the group’s creative approach. Whatever art comes out of that, he said, is “going to make sense – and it’s going to be uniquely your expression.”
Watch the Youtube video:
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • College of Built Environments • College of the Environment • Cuong Vu • David Montgomery • Department of Earth and Space Sciences • Department of History • Department of Political Science • Indigo Mist • Juan Pampin • Marina Alberti • Richard Karpen • School of Music • Steve Rodby • Ted Poor • Terryl Ross
