April 15, 2025
ArtSci Roundup: May 2025
From campus to wherever you call home, we welcome you to learn from and connect with the College of Arts & Sciences community through public events spanning the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. We hope to see you this May.
Innovation Month
April 30 | An Evening with Christine Sun Kim (Public Lecture)
May 1 | John Jennings: The AfroFuture Now (Public Lecture)
May 3 | Third Coast Percussion and Jessie Montgomery: Strum, Strike, Bend (Meany Center)
May 6 | Paul C. Cross Endowed Lecture in Physical Chemistry (Chemistry)
May 13 | Frontiers of Physics: Fluid or Solid? The Physics of Shape-Shifting Materials (Physics)
May 14 | MFA Dance Concert (Dance)
May 14 | Jazz Innovations I (Music)
May 15 | Jazz Innovations II (Music)
May 16 | Linguistics Colloquium Series (Linguistics)
May 19 | Book Talk: The AI Con – How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want (Linguistics)
May 21 | DXARTS Spring Concert (DXARTS)
May 21 | George H. Cady Endowed Lecture in Inorganic Chemistry (Chemistry)
May 27 | Studio Jazz Ensemble and Modern Band (Music)
ArtSci on the Go
Looking for more ways to get more out of Arts & Sciences? Check out these resources to take ArtSci wherever you go!
“Ways of Knowing” Podcast (College of Arts & Sciences)
Black Composers Project engages the School of Music faculty and students (School of Music)
Ladino Day Interview with Leigh Bardugo & MELC Professor Canan Bolel (Jewish Studies)
Week of April 28
Thursday, May 1, 6:30 – 7:30 pm | John Jennings: The AfroFuture Now (Public Lecture)
Afrofuturism began as a concept coined by scholar Mark Dery in 1993. It was his way of grouping ideas regarding how Black people used the technology of stories to deal with racial oppression, disrupted history, and the challenge of moving into a positive future. In recent years, we have seen an explosion of interest from various fields around the critical making space that we call Afrofuturism.
In this lecture, John Jennings will explore the major themes in the Afrofuturism movement, track the timeline of its growth, and posit future possibilities around this vibrant and ever-changing way of seeing the world.
Friday, May 2 to Saturday, May 3 | The Living Breath of wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ (American Indian Studies)
This symposium brings people together to share knowledge on topics such as traditional foods, plants, and medicines; environmental and food justice; food sovereignty/security; health and wellness; and treaty rights. This event serves to foster dialogue and build collaborative networks as we, Native peoples, strive to sustain our cultural food practices and preserve our healthy relationships with the land, water, and all living things. Save the Date for this year’s event. The theme is: “Generational Food Sovereignty.”
Friday, May 2, 5:00 pm | Burke in Bloom (Burke Museum)
Join the Burke Museum for an exclusive tour of the Burke’s extensive collection of oversized items at our Sand Point facility, followed by a reception, dinner, and auction.
Additional Events
April 30 | An Evening with Christine Sun Kim (Public Lecture)
May 1 | Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band: Radiance (Music)
May 1 | Conference: Political Software: Mapping Digital Worlds From Below (Simpson Center)
May 2 | UW Symphony Orchestra with Donna Shin (Music)
May 3 | Third Coast Percussion and Jessie Montgomery: Strum, Strike, Bend (Meany Center)
Week of May 5
Monday, May 4, 5:00 – 6:20 pm | ONLINE ONLY Trump in the World 2.0 Lecture Series: U.S. Foreign Aid (Jackson School)
Join the Jackson School for Trump in the World 2.0, a series of talks and discussions on the international impact of the second Trump presidency.
This week: Mark Ward, U.S. Foreign Service (ret.) and Instructor in the Department of History, Philosophy and Religion at Oregon State University.
Tuesday, May 6, 4:00 – 5:00 pm | Paul C. Cross Endowed Lecture in Physical Chemistry (Department of Chemistry)
Professor David Hu – School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Tech
Host: Sarah Keller
Wednesday, May 7, 5:00 – 7:00 pm | Not So Simple! Translating Young Adult Literature as Resistance and Entertainment with Sawad Hussain (Department of Scandinavian Studies)
There is a common misconception in literary publishing that books for children and young adults are “simple” and are, therefore, easy to translate. But translating literature for younger people is not simple at all.
Join the panel of three distinguished translators—Sawad Hussain (Arabic), Shelley Fairweather-Vega (Russian and Uzbek), and Takami Nieda (Japanese)—for an engaging discussion of these issues.
Thursday, May 8, 6:00 – 7:30 pm | Monsen Photography Lecture: Carmen Winant (Henry Art Gallery)
Thursday, May 8, 11:30 am – 12:00 pm | Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Reading featuring Brandon Som (Department of English)
Theodore Roethke taught at the University of Washington from 1947 until his death in 1963. The Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Readings began in 1964 to honor his memory by bringing notable contemporary poets to the UW campus to give a reading of their works and, when possible, to meet with students enrolled in the department’s advanced poetry writing courses. The annual Roethke Readings, co-sponsored by the Department of English, the UW Graduate School, and the Theodore Roethke Memorial Fund Committee. This event is free and open to the public and regularly attracts large audiences of poetry lovers from around the Pacific Northwest.
Saturday, May 10, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm | Dino Fest (Burke Museum)
Hear about groundbreaking research from the Burke and UW scientists, enjoy hundreds of specimens from the Burke’s collection, and celebrate all things fossilized with fossil digs, ancient animal identification, microfossil sorting, crafts, and more!
Additional Events
May 5 | Faculty Recital: Melia Watras, Broken Bell (Music)
May 6 | A Delicate Symphony: Courtship, Guardianship, and (self-)Censorship in Translating from Arabic (Simpson Center)
May 7 | Finland: Scandinavian, Nordic, and Baltic Positioning by Sonya Amadae of the University of Helsinki (Jackson School)
May 7 | Guest Artist Concert: Lumina Women’s Ensemble (Music)
May 7 | 50 Years of Danish at the UW (Scandinavian Studies)
May 8 | Second Seattle Organic Chemistry Seminar: Professor Sarah Reisman (Chemistry)
May 8 | Complexions Contemporary Ballet (Meany Center)
May 9 | 2025 GWSS Spring Community Gathering: Undergraduate Research Colloquium (Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies)
May 9 | UW International Security Colloquium (Political Science)
May 10 | External Event: Organ Masterclass: Jonathan Moyer, Oberlin Conservatory (Music)
Week of May 12
Monday, May 12, 5:00 – 6:20 pm | ONLINE ONLY Trump in the World 2.0: Latin America and Africa (Jackson School)
Join the Jackson School for Trump in the World 2.0, a series of talks and discussions on the international impact of the second Trump presidency.
This week: Vanessa Freije, James D. Long, Tony Lucero, and Christopher Tounsel.
Tuesday, May 13, 7:30 pm | Frontiers of Physics: Fluid or Solid? The Physics of Shape-Shifting Materials (Department of Physics)
When we think of engineering materials, we often picture solid blocks such as steel or plastic with fixed properties—soft, lightweight, or strong. In contrast, granular materials such as sand or rice flow and shear. What if a material could do both? Polycatenated Architected Materials (PAMs) are a new class of structures that bridge the gap between solids and fluids. Made of interlocked particles forming intricate 3D networks—akin to modern-day chainmail—PAMs can switch from flowing like granular matter to behaving as solid elastic materials. Join the Department of Physics to discover how the geometry and topology of PAMs are redefining what’s possible in material science and engineering.
Thursday, May 15, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm | Global Sport Lab: African Women, Gender and Soccer with Martha Saavedra (Jackson School)
Join us for a retrospective reflection on the future of African women and football, followed by a Q&A featuring guest speaker Martha Saavedra, faculty and associate director of the Center for African Studies at the University of California in Berkeley. This event is part of the Global Sport Lab initiative.
This event is free and open to all.
Additional Events
May 12 | Strike: Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire (Classics)
May 13 | Katz Distinguished Lecture in the Humanities: Jahan Ramazani (Simpson Center)
May 13 to May 23 | 2025 BA Exhibitions – Group 2 (Art + Art History + Design)
May 13 | Jonathan Biss: Transfiguration (Meany Center)
May 14 | MFA Dance Concert (Dance)
May 14 | Jazz Innovations I (Music)
May 14 | Ten Paradoxes of Finland and Sweden’s NATO Membership by Tuomas Forsberg, Tampere University (Jackson School)
May 15 | Jazz Innovations II (Music)
May 16 | Center for Environmental Politics: “Water Governance Disparities and Utility Performance: Evidence from California” (Political Science)
May 16 | Linguistics Colloquium Series (Linguistics)
May 17 | Hamid Rahmanian’s Song of the North (Meany Center)
Week of May 19
Monday, May 18, 5:00 – 6:20 pm | ONLINE ONLY: Trump in the World 2.0: Energy (Jackson School)
Join the Jackson School for Trump in the World 2.0, a series of talks and discussions on the international impact of the second Trump presidency.
This week: Scott L. Montgomery.
Monday, May 19, 5:00 – 8:00 pm | 2025 Andrew L. Markus Memorial Lecture (Asian Languages & Literature)
This lecture, Recipes for the Life Politics of Domesticity in Global Korea with Hyaeweol Choi, takes food as an entry for understanding gender history and culture in general, and the politics of domesticity in particular, by focusing specifically on the gendered history of street food in South Korea, exploring its evolution through the forces of war, poverty, industrialization, and nation-branding in the age of globalization.
Wednesday, May 21, 7:30 pm | DXARTS Spring Concert: Celebrating John Chowning (DXARTS)
Composer John Chowning is considered one of the pioneers of Computer Music. His contributions to this field, such as the invention of FM Digital Synthesis, had a strong cultural impact on the worlds of both classical and popular music. His invention allowed the production of one of the most popular digital synthesizers, the Yamaha DX7, which sold millions of units in the 1980s and was used by virtually every band from that era. Revenues from the licensing of this technology to Yamaha Corporation allowed Chowning to create the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University, one of the most important Computer Music research centers in the world.
Thursday, May 22, 7:30 pm | Sacred Breath: Indigenous Writing and Storytelling Series (American Indian Studies)
The Department of American Indian Studies at the UW hosts an annual literary and storytelling series. Sacred Breath features Indigenous writers and storytellers sharing their craft at the beautiful wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ Intellectual House on the UW Seattle campus. Storytelling offers a spiritual connection and a sharing of sacred breath. Literature, similarly, preserves human experience and ideals. Both forms are durable and transmit power that teaches us how to live. Both storytelling and reading aloud can impact audiences through the power of presence, allowing for the experience of the transfer of sacred breath as audiences are immersed in the experience of being inside stories and works of literature.
Thursday, May 22 to Sunday, June 1, Times Vary | Thrive, or What You Will (Drama)
THRIVE, OR WHAT YOU WILL tells the story of Jeanne Baret, a gender-nonconforming 18th-century herb woman, who embarks on an 11-year voyage around the world disguised as a (male) botanist’s assistant. The first woman to circumnavigate the globe, Jeanne’s journey is depicted through a blend of historical fiction and contemporary issues. The play interrogates themes of “discovery,” survival, power, access, gender, and identity while highlighting the subjective nature of history and self. With a style that merges past and present, this epic tale is funny, gripping, poignant, and wild.
Additional Events
May 19 | Baroque Ensemble (Music)
May 19 | The AI Con – How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want (Linguistics)
May 20 | Voice Division Recital (Music)
May 20 | Brechemin Piano Series (Music)
May 21 | Film Screening: “How I Learned to Fly” (“Leto kada sam naučila da letim”) with Director Radivoje Andrić (Slavic Languages & Literatures)
May 21 | Interdisciplinary Research Colloquium (CHID)
May 21 | George H. Cady Endowed Lecture in Inorganic Chemistry (Chemistry)
May 21 | George H. Cady Endowed Lecture in Inorganic Chemistry (Chemistry)
May 21 | Judge Joel Ngugi (Public Lecture)
May 22 | Guest Artist Concert: Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble (Music)
May 22 | To Stand with Palestine: Transnational Resistance and Political Evolution in the United States (Jackson School)
May 23 | Severyns Ravenholt Seminar in Comparative Politics (Political Science)
May 23 | Modern Music Ensemble (Music)
May 23 | Guitar Studio Recital (Music)
Week of May 26
Thursday, May 29, 7:30 pm | UW Sings (School of Music)
The University Singers, Treble Choir, and UW Glee Club present an eclectic program of music from around the world, folk tunes, and arrangements of popular music standards.
Thursday, May 29, 7:30 pm | Percussion Ensemble and UW Steelband (School of Music)
The UW Percussion Ensemble (Bonnie Whiting, director) and the UW Steelband (Gary Gibson, director) present an end-of-year percussion bash.
Additional Events
May 27 to June 6 | 2025 BA Exhibitions – Honors (Art + Art History + Design)
May 27 | Studio Jazz Ensemble and Modern Band (Music)
May 28 to May 30 | Space Ethics Conference (Philosophy)
May 28 | The Geopoliticization of Critical Raw Materials: Undermining a Just Global Green Transition (Jackson School)
May 30 | University of Washington International Security Colloquium (Political Science)
May 30 | Chamber Singers and University Chorale: Blue Planet (Music)
May 30 | Campus Philharmonia Orchestras (Music)
Have an event that you would like to see featured in the ArtSci Roundup? Connect with Kathrine Braseth (kbraseth@uw.edu).
