UW Notebook
UW Notebook features stories of interest to the UW community — including projects and books by, and recognition of, UW faculty, students and staff. If you’d like to submit a story idea, email uwnews@uw.edu.
November 22, 2022
ArtSci Roundup: Gender & Protests in Iran panel; Languages of Angels performance; Belonging, Queer Relationality, & Black Women’s Labor talk, and more
Connect with the UW community every week through public events and exhibitions, summarized in this ArtSci Roundup.
November 10, 2022
ArtSci Roundup: Book Talk with Cathy Davidson, Poetry with Ricardo Ruiz, Jazz Innovations with School of Music faculty and students, and more.
Connect with the UW community every week through public events and exhibitions, summarized in this ArtSci Roundup.
November 4, 2022
Two College of the Environment faculty recognized by American Geophysical Union
Two UW College of the Environment professors, Ginger Armbrust and Dennis Hartmann, will be honored at the 2022 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in December.
November 3, 2022
ArtSci Roundup: Assessing the 2022 Midterm Election Results With Implications for the Next Two Years and for 2024, Empires Strick Back: Football and Colonialism, and more
Connect with the UW community every week through public events and exhibitions, summarized in this ArtSci Roundup.
October 28, 2022
ArtSci Roundup: Democracy and the 2022 Midterm Elections, Hafu ハーフ film screening, and more!
Connect with the UW community every week through public events and exhibitions, summarized in this ArtSci Roundup.
October 21, 2022
UW’s Dianne Xiao receives Packard Fellowship for research on new materials for sustainable chemical synthesis
Dianne Xiao, a University of Washington assistant professor of chemistry, has been awarded a 2022 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering for her research on creating new materials to make chemical reactions that are compatible with renewable energy sources and raw materials.
ArtSci Roundup: Miha Sarani exhibition opening, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy R. Sherman conversation, and more
Connect with the UW community every week through public events and exhibitions, summarized in this ArtSci Roundup.
October 14, 2022
ArtSci Roundup: Grammy winner Morris Robinson, Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest, and more!
Connect with the UW community every week through public events and exhibitions, summarized in this ArtSci Roundup.
October 7, 2022
ArtSci Roundup: Indigenous Peoples’ Day on-air, Chamber Dance Company, and more
Connect with the UW community every week through public events and exhibitions, summarized in this ArtSci Roundup.
October 6, 2022
Chamber Dance Company shifts focus, reimagines repertoire in return to stage
Comprised of University of Washington graduate students, the Chamber Dance Company works to perform, record and archive dance works of artistic and historical significance. This year, the company will exclusively perform contemporary works created within the last 15 years.
October 5, 2022
New faculty books: Black womanhood and corporate branding, reexamining Indigenous earthworks and more
Black womanhood and corporate branding, Indigenous mound building and volunteering for the Peace Corps are among the subjects of recent and upcoming books by University of Washington faculty.
September 30, 2022
ArtSci Roundup: Cuarteto Latinoamericano concert, Sasha Senderovich book launch, Gabriel Kahane concert, and more
Connect with the UW community every week through public events and exhibitions, summarized in this ArtSci Roundup.
September 29, 2022
International field course held in Indonesia and led by UW professor ends after 30 years
Randall Kyes established the International Field Study Program-Indonesia at the UW. The month-long study abroad program provided field-based educational and research opportunities for students from the UW, Indonesia and other participating countries.
September 23, 2022
ArtSci Roundup: Kicking the school year off with the arts
A weekly roundup of various arts-focused events for the UW community.
September 15, 2022
New direction for UW Botanic Gardens focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion
New Directions in Public Gardens, a speaker series created by the University of Washington Botanic Gardens, will conclude in September with the final speaker and a town hall. Past guests addressed topics like engaging with local Indigenous populations and opportunities for public land to support urban food systems and engage with BIPOC communities.
August 15, 2022
UW to host college students for NASA-funded lunar rover challenge
The University of Washington received a nearly $500,000 grant to run one of NASA’s Artemis Student Challenges in which participants turn a model lunar lava tube into a habitat suitable for housing humans on the moon or Mars.
August 12, 2022
New faculty books: How your brain works, cycling around the world and more
Recent and upcoming books from University of Washington faculty include those from the Jackson School of International Studies, the Department of Psychology and the Runstad Department of Real Estate.
August 8, 2022
Q&A: Story collection from UW professor tackles messy emotions of domestic relationships
Maya Sonenberg, professor of English at the University of Washington, highlights common feelings that are often silenced due to shame and societal expectations in her new short story collection, “Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters.”
July 14, 2022
UW professor’s new book and course on sexual harassment in engineering seek to disrupt culture of silence
Denise Wilson, a University of Washington professor of electrical and computer engineering, is working to end the prevalence of sexual harassment in engineering. She and her colleague Jennifer VanAntwerp of Calvin University are co-authors of “Sex, Gender, and Engineering: Harassment at Work and in School,” published in April by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
July 12, 2022
New faculty books: Threats to US democracy, early history of gay rights, and more
Federalism, queer history, the impact of the Russian Revolution on Jewish communities, and the evolution of Filipinx American studies are among the subjects of recent and upcoming books by UW faculty.
June 22, 2022
Q&A: New book from UW professor examines history, consequences of fifth columns
A new book co-edited by Scott Radnitz, associate professor in the University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies, features original papers on the roots and implications of the politics surrounding real and imagined fifth columns.
June 17, 2022
Q&A: New children’s book shows how natural world inspired inventor to create medieval robots
“Robots and Other Amazing Gadgets Invented 800 Years Ago,” a children’s book by the UW’s Faisal Hossain and Qishi Zhou, shares the inventions of Ismail Al-Jazari, a 12th-century polymath considered by many to be the “father of robotics.”
June 16, 2022
Q&A: Healthier soil leads to more-nutritious food, argues new book by UW geomorphologist David Montgomery
David Montgomery, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences, discusses soil health, food nutrients and human health. He is co-author of “What Your Food Ate,” being published this month.
June 15, 2022
Video: Improvised Music Project Festival’s new format focuses on recording process
This year, the School of Music’s Improvised Music Project focused on audio recording, inviting acclaimed recording engineer David Boucher for a weeklong workshop. The new format allowed students and faculty to gain experience with UW’s new mobile recording system while teaching fundamental recording and audio skills.
June 10, 2022
Q&A: Amy Snover, outgoing director of the UW Climate Impacts Group
Amy Snover, the retiring director of the UW Climate Impacts Group, reflects on her past decade of leadership and on how the groundbreaking climate preparedness group has evolved over more than a quarter century of existence.
June 8, 2022
UW doctoral student leads effort to change diploma name policy, demonstrating power of trans community
In 2021, UW registrar Helen Garrett announced that, for the first time, the UW would allow graduates to use a chosen first name for their diplomas. The policy change was the result of efforts led by Vern Harner, a UW doctoral student in social work, and a change.org petition that earned over 30,000 signatures, demonstrating the power of the trans community.
June 7, 2022
Burke Museum receives national award
The Burke Museum at the University of Washington in Seattle today announced it is one of six recipients of the 2022 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor given to museums and libraries that make significant and exceptional contributions to their communities. The award is given by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Burke Museum is the only institution in Washington to be selected.
May 26, 2022
With EcoCAR, UW students experience post-COVID camaraderie under the hood of a hybrid vehicle
With the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge, UW students modified a 2019 Chevrolet Blazer to use electrification, advanced propulsion systems and automated vehicle technology. It’s an opportunity for students — across four years — to take a car from design to a consumer-ready product.
Video: Alexes Harris draws attention to low representation of people of color in bone marrow registry
In 2016, Alexes Harris was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer. But a search for a bone marrow donor turned up only five matches, and none ended up being a donor. People of color are underrepresented in the bone marrow registry; according to Be The Match, the nation’s largest bone marrow registry, white people have a 79% chance of finding a match. But a Black person’s potential match is only 29%, and Asian and Latinx people both have about a 47% chance. People of Native American ancestry have a 60% chance of finding a match.
May 11, 2022
Faculty/staff honors in STEM mentoring, applied mathematics and Inuit languages
Recent recognition of the includes the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring for Joyce Yen, the election of J. Nathan Kutz as a Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics fellow and the recognition of Alexina Kublu with the 2022 Inuit Language Recognition Award.
May 9, 2022
Q&A: Exposing the anti-radical origins of anti-Asian racism
In his new book, University of Washington history professor Moon-Ho Jung traces how Asian radicals organized and confronted the U.S. empire and were labeled criminally seditious as a result.
April 14, 2022
Historian Bailkin, astronomer Levesque receive Guggenheim Fellowships
Two University of Washington faculty members are among 180 experts in the arts, humanities, law and the sciences chosen as 2022 Guggenheim Fellows, according to an April 7 announcement from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Jordanna Bailkin, a professor in the Department of History, and Emily Levesque, an associate professor in the Department of Astronomy, are among the new class of fellows, which were selected from a pool of nearly 2,500 applicants.
April 13, 2022
Two UW faculty named fellows of Ecological Society of America
Two University of Washington professors have been honored by the Ecological Society of America for their knowledge and contributions to the field of ecology.
UW artist in residence adds to Grammy Award total
An artist in residence at the University of Washington School of Music, Steve Rodby produced “Mirror, Mirror,” which won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. He now has 14 Grammy Awards.
April 8, 2022
UW professors show that Japanese democracy is ‘flourishing’ as co-editors of first Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics
Robert and Saadia Pekkanen, both professors in the UW Jackson School of International Studies, are co-editors of the first Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics, published online in September 2020 and in print in January 2022. They worked with dozens of collaborators around the world to add the topic to the respected collection of Oxford Handbooks that presents surveys of original research.
April 4, 2022
Q&A: From the Philippines to the US, analyzing a global political shift to the right
In his book “The Sovereign Trickster,” University of Washington history professor Vicente L. Rafael examines the authoritarian rule of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and tries to make sense of a global shift to the political right.
March 30, 2022
Faculty/staff honors: Student union association’s highest honor, supplier diversity award and more
Recent recognition of the includes the Butts-Whiting Award for L. Lincoln Johnson, INSIGHT Into Diversity Magazine’s Jesse L. Moore 2022 Supplier Diversity Award, Ben Brunjes’ fellowship with the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Policy Planning and Liaison, and the recognition of Yong Wei as a NOAA Ambassador of Tsunami Risk Assessment.
March 17, 2022
New volume on gender-neutral language sheds light on political controversy in France
In France, a political controversy arose when a gender-neutral pronoun was added to a respected dictionary. This controversy made a new volume co-edited by the UW’s Louisa Mackenzie especially relevant. It describes how nonbinary French speakers are changing their language to reflect their identity.
March 15, 2022
UW professor’s new book presents opportunity to ‘rethink housing’
A new book by Gregg Colburn, assistant professor of real estate at the UW, explores the factors that drive homelessness, and the cultural and economic shift that can ultimately benefit all — housed and unhoused.
March 4, 2022
Ukrainian American professor shares insights on ‘gut-wrenching’ events in Ukraine
Laada Bilaniuk is a professor of anthropology at the whose expertise is Ukrainian culture and society. The daughter of Ukrainian Americans, she shares insights on the Ukrainian people who are resisting, how the conflict relates to the use of language and the perspective of the local Ukrainian community.
Previous page Next page
