Come curious. Leave inspired.

The UW offers an exciting lineup of in-person and online events. From thought-provoking art and music to conversations on culture, history, and science, the UW community invites you to explore, learn, and connect across disciplines throughout the University. And you don’t have to wait until November: Take a look at everything still happening in October.

Go directly to the week you’d like to view:

• Week 1: November 2 – 8
• Week 2: November 9 – 15
• Week 3: November 16 – 22
• Week 4: November 23 – 29
• Week 5: November 30 – December 6

to receive a monthly notice when the ArtSci Roundup has been published.

ArtSci On Your Own Time:

Closing November 7 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
The annual fall MFA show mediates on accumulation, the underground, labor & capacity, and the movement of systems and objects toward loss, disrepair, and failure. Spanning performance, installation, sound art, and found object sculpture, see the works of Jayden Dukes, Gaeun Kim, Cameron McGaff, and Skye Amber O’Brien. Free.

Opening November 7 | (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
This exhibition focuses on the biodiversity and global importance of Earth’s largest terrestrial ecosystem and the last intact forest on Earth. See, hear, and feel the forest through stunning photography, interactive displays, commissioned artworks, first-person stories, and Burke Museum collections. Learn about stories of resilience, strength, and hope in a changing world. Presented in English and Spanish, the exhibition gives voice to the boreal through the words of Indigenous community members, scientists, conservationists, artists, and writers. It shares how knowing nature can offer a vision for a sustainable future.

(Biology)
Wednesdays, noon to 4 pm / 2nd and 4th Saturdays, 10 am – 2 pm
For nearly 70 years, the Biology Greenhouse at the 天美影视传媒 has played a vital role in research and teaching. Whether focusing on plant-pollinator interactions, paleoclimatology, or other biological questions, the teaching collection has enhanced and inspired UW biological research. Visit the 4 Collection rooms and browse through an amazing diversity of plant species from around the world. Free.

Book Club | A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende (UW Alumni Association)
Readers’ Choice! In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. Hundreds of thousands flee to France, including a wounded army doctor and his brother’s widow. The two team up to seek refuge in Chile as Europe erupts in war — but life in exile comes with its own dangerous challenges. UW Alumni Book Club invites all curious readers to dig into personal stories, timely topics, and transformative fiction.? Free.

Week 1: November 2 – 8

November 2 | (Chemistry)
Ram Seshadri is the Fred and Linda R. Wudl Professor of Materials Science and has served as the Director of the Materials Research Laboratory: A National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (NSF-MRSEC) since 2015. He recently took on the additional role of associate dean for research in the College of Engineering. His research contributions are embodied in 450+ journal publications, and broadly address the topic of structure–composition–property relations in functional, crystalline inorganic, and hybrid materials. Ram is the editor of Annual Reviews of Materials Research and is a lead editor of Physical Review Materials. Free.

Virtual option – November 2 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
What do negotiations to end the war in Iran look like to those at the table? What role might the United Nations or Gulf States play in ending the violence in Gaza or Lebanon? Is there hope for diplomacy with Russia? Join us for a moderated conversation and Q&A with UW graduate and diplomat Dr. Mohamed Al-Hassan. With extensive experience navigating the US / Iran relationship; representing Oman at the United Nations and serving as the UN representative in Iraq; and leading Oman’s diplomatic mission to Russia, Dr. Al-Hassan brings an insider’s perspective on some of the most difficult diplomatic challenges of the day. Free.

Virtual – November 3 | ?(Jackson School of International Studies)
Helen Hardacre is Reischauer Institute Research Professor of Japanese Religions and Society, Harvard University. Her publications include The Religion of Japan’s Korean Minority (1984), Lay Buddhism in Contemporary Japan: Reiyukai Kyodan (1984), Kurozumikyo and the New Religions of Japan (1986), Shinto and the State, 1868-1988 (1989), Marketing the Menacing Fetus in Japan (1997), Religion and Society in Nineteenth-Century Japan (2002), Shinto, A History (2016), Constitutional Revision and Civic Activism in Japan (lead editor and contributor, 2021), and Shinto Shrines in Prewar and Wartime Japan (2025). Her current research concerns Shinto shrines in prewar and wartime Japan. She earned her Ph.D. from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago in History of Religions in 1980. Among her academic awards since 2000 are the following: John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow (2003-04), Walter Channing Cabot Fellow (Harvard University, 2017), and Order of the Rising Sun (2018). Free.

November 4 | (School of Music)
A free lunchtime performance featuring UW School of Music students in the North Allen Library lobby. Presented in partnership with UW Libraries. Free.

November 5 | (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
Admission to the Burke Museum is FREE and the museum is open until 8 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month. Get closer to the daily work happening in the Burke Museum’s visible collections storage, labs and workrooms during Free First Thursday. Free.

November 5 – 7 | ?(Digital Arts & Experimental Media)
DXFEST, a three-day festival showcasing artworks and music by artists in the DXARTS program, opens at Gallery 4Culture with a lecture-performance by Afroditi Psarra as part of her exhibition Pythia Embodied. The festival moves to Meany Center for the Performing Arts, where there will be a digital art exhibition and electronic music performances. The music works will be presented using the DXARTS Ambisonics Audio System, a state-of-the-art multi-channel system designed to provide immersive spatial audio experiences. Artworks by DXARTS artists will be on display in the theater’s lobby prior to the concerts and during intermissions. Free.

November 5 – 15 | ?(School of Drama)
Phèdre is a queen and a mother who has been cursed by the Gods. She receives news that the king, Theseus, is dead. Encouraged by her lady-in-waiting, Oenone, and fueled by her own feelings Phèdre confesses to the King’s son and heir, Hippolytus that she is in love with him. Soon after, King Theseus returns, alive and well, setting off a series of unforeseen consequences.

November 6 | (Cinema & Media Studies)
Join the Henry Art Gallery for a special screening of short films made by students in the Department of Cinema & Media Studies. Spanning a wide range of genres, including documentaries, comedies, dramas, and music videos, get an exclusive glimpse into the work of this emerging cohort of filmmakers. After the screening, stick around to meet the filmmakers and faculty guiding Cinema & Media Studies students’ creative projects and research. Free.

November 6 | ?(Classics)
Presented by Verity Platt (Cornell). Free.

Opening November 7 | (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
This exhibition focuses on the biodiversity and global importance of Earth’s largest terrestrial ecosystem and the last intact forest on Earth. See, hear, and feel the forest through stunning photography, interactive displays, commissioned artworks, first-person stories, and Burke Museum collections. Learn about stories of resilience, strength, and hope in a changing world. Presented in English and Spanish, the exhibition gives voice to the boreal through the words of Indigenous community members, scientists, conservationists, artists, and writers. It shares how knowing nature can offer a vision for a sustainable future.

Week 2: November 9 – 15

November 9 | ?(School of Music)
Seattle Modern Orchestra’s (SMO’s) 天美影视传媒 residency celebrates the legacies of longtime former School of Music professors and West Coast luminaries Stuart Dempster (b. 1936) and William O. Smith (1926-2020) with “90/100, Celebrating Stuart Dempster, William O. Smith, and West Coast Experimentalism.” Curated by longtime SMO clarinetist Rachel Yoder, the evening integrates elements of improvisation, deep listening, and playfully creative movement while rebooting elements of the composer/performer duo’s historic antics.

November 10 | (Clean Energy Institute)
A symposium on innovative technologies, strategies, and partnerships to accelerate a scalable and equitable clean energy future in Washington and beyond, featuring UW President Jones, former WA Gov. Jay Inslee, former U.S. Cabinet members Ernest Moniz and Sally Jewell, David Baker, and world-leading clean energy/materials researchers.

November 10 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Indonesian pianist Janice Carissa, a Gilmore Young Artist and Salon de Virtuosi recipient, is celebrated for crafting vivid musical narratives that transcend mere virtuosity. Her program spans centuries and styles, opening with Bach’s elegant French Suite No. 5 in G Major, moving to Granados’ passionate Goyescas, “El Amor y la muerte,” and Ravel’s darkly glittering La valse. The evening also features works by Olivier Messiaen and Indonesian composer Eunike Tanzil, showcasing Carissa’s expressive nuance, lyrical sensitivity and command of both classical and contemporary repertoire.

Virtual – November 12 | ?(Simpson Center for the Humanities)
Safia Aidid is an interdisciplinary historian of modern Africa and Assistant Professor in the Department of History and the African Studies Centre at University of Toronto. She holds a PhD from Harvard University. Her research addresses anticolonial nationalism, territorial imaginations, borders, and state formation in the Horn of Africa, with a particular focus on modern Somalia and Ethiopia. She is currently working on a book manuscript entitled “Pan-Somali Dreams: Ethiopia, Greater Somalia, and the Somali Nationalist Imagination.” Free.

November 13 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Isata Kanneh-Mason joins artistic forces with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, celebrated for its trademark conductor-less precision and collective spirit. The award-winning pianist from the renowned Kanneh-Mason family and the Grammy Award-winning orchestra present a program of favorites by Mozart and Haydn with Suites No. 1 and No. 3 from Handel’s Water Music and a newly commissioned work by Katie Jenkins, performed with the mindset of a collaborative chamber ensemble.

November 15 | ?(Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
Engage with professional archaeologists and researchers as they share their work. Learn about ancient technologies and local cultural heritage, try your hand at sorting artifacts, watch a flintknapping demonstration (that’s stone tool making!), and more.

Through November 15 | ?(School of Drama)
Phèdre is a queen and a mother who has been cursed by the Gods. She receives news that the king, Theseus, is dead. Encouraged by her lady-in-waiting, Oenone, and fueled by her own feelings Phèdre confesses to the King’s son and heir, Hippolytus that she is in love with him. Soon after, King Theseus returns, alive and well, setting off a series of unforeseen consequences.

Week 3: November 16 – 22

November 17 | ?(Honors)
Growing concerns about the health of America’s 250-year experiment in representative democracy should prompt us to think deeply about how civic belonging has been defined in U.S. society since the nation’s founding and what current efforts to restrict access and opportunities for civic participation mean for our collective futures. Civic Belonging in an Anti-Democratic Age brings together UW faculty whose teaching and research straddle law, politics, human rights, urban studies, and digital technologies for a lively interdisciplinary conversation about the stakes of belonging in U.S. society. Join us as we examine the current moment and ask how we can work towards a more inclusive democratic future. Free.

November 17 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
We humanists are hoping for, and many of us are fighting for, a new day in the United States when the production and circulation of knowledge are understood as keystones of democracy and of human thriving – and thus as deserving of substantial public investment. Having worked so long in the spirit of doing a lot with a little, how do we envision the humanities in conditions of abundance? What shifts in traditional academic culture and policy will help us meet those conditions? In the spirit of Octavia Butler’s future-oriented thinking, this talk draws together many threads of contemporary thinking to sketch a future where American universities center the values and practices of liberal arts-grounded humanistic inquiry. Free.

November 17 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
This year-long program series honors the gallery’s commitment to social justice and to gather the community to think about the work of liberation through shared texts, art, film, music, conversation, and workshops. Each month, the club will approach the topic of liberation from several perspectives. Unlike your traditional book club, all the reading and study happens together, and preparation is not required. Come ready to attend a workshop, engage with a piece of art, or chat over a shared meal. Free.

November 18 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Details coming. Free.

Virtual – November 18 | (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
In this presentation, Jennfier Angaiak Wood will discuss her Yup’ik ancestry, give an overview of Yup’ik artistic tradition, and share examples of how she incorporates historic design elements into her contemporary artworks. Free.

November 18 – 19 | Jazz Infusions – / ?(School of Music)
UW Jazz Studies students perform in small combos over two consecutive nights of original tunes, homage to the greats of jazz, and experiments in composing and arranging. Free.

Virtual option – November 18 |? ? (Jackson School of International Studies)
In this talk, Joanne Leow traces the process of writing and publishing her hybrid memoir Exhumations: In the Body of a Petrostate. By following the trajectory that her writing took from online writing to print journal to bound book, she considers what it means to publish work about Singapore while in the diaspora. Exhumations oscillates between socio-political and cultural analysis and a memoir of grief and illness. Seeing our porous bodies as part of a contaminated and compromised system based on extraction, violence, and political repression, her work asks what must be made visible in our current moment. In doing so, she draws from her time as a journalist for state media, her positionality as a “quitter,” and her current work as a scholar based in Canada. These intersecting experiences have allowed her to explore histories of activism, censorship, weapons manufacturing, terraforming, and petroleum refining in Singapore. Free.

November 19 | (Henry Art Gallery)
Artist Trenton Doyle Hancock discusses his varied career and current projects. Inspired by the world-building of comics, Hancock’s work iterates over time through the investigation of character, story, and symbols. Co-presented with the UW School of Art + Art History + Design, Hancock will address his use of popular culture, narrative, and autobiography to subvert cultural tropes and national mythologies. A Q&A with the audience will follow the talk. Free.

November 19 | ?(Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
Each month, hear from Burke staff about a book they recommend. Read the book ahead of time, or join to learn more about the selection. Free.

November 19 | ?(American Indian Studies)
Readings by Simon Ortiz and Sara Marie Ortiz, followed by audience Q&A. Storytelling offers a spiritual connection, 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. Free.

November 19 | ?(Geography)
Alums share how their degrees in geography have shaped careers in climate risk, procurement, and user experience design. Featuring Derek Huling (Program Analyst, FEMA), Krystle Jumarawan (Geospatial Specialist II, Woven by Toyota), and Helen Elizabeth Olsen (Deputy Director, The Gates Foundation). Moderated by Professor Sarah Elwood. Free.

November 19 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
This talk examines the historical political divergence between China and Europe. While both regions experienced repeated shifts in territorial unification, political stability, and institutional development in earlier periods, from the medieval period onward, their trajectories increasingly diverged. Europe gradually evolved toward a polycentric political order, while China consolidated into a centralized and authoritarian state. This talk proposes the development of China’s imperial civil service examination system as a key driver of this divergence. Drawing on a synthesis of several recent works, it approaches the question from three complementary perspectives: macro-level patterns of political development, micro-level quantitative evidence on bureaucratic recruitment, and formal theories of political equilibrium and institutional change. Free.

November 19 | (School of Music)
Celebrated Russian pianist Mikhail Voskresensky leads a master class with UW piano students. Free.

November 20 | (Classics)
Eight years after demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia, chanted “Jews will not replace us!” at a rally whose promotional poster featured the acronym SPQR and where one group of activists carried shields emblazoned with images of the Roman fasces, most Classical scholars are aware that white nationalists and other hateful actors take inspiration from Greco-Roman antiquity. There is less consensus, however, about what this phenomenon means for those of us who research and teach about the ancient Greco-Roman world. In this lecture, Curtis Dozier, author of The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate (Yale University Press, 2026), draws on his ten years’ experience documenting appropriations of Greco-Roman antiquity by hate groups to bring into focus what white nationalist classicism reveals about the material we study, our discipline, our nation, and ourselves. Free.

November 19 – 21 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Taiwan’s Hung Dance makes its Seattle debut with BIRDY, a powerful and poetic work choreographed by the company’s founder and artistic director Lai Hung-Chung. Performed by eight dancers, the piece blends contemporary dance with elements of Chinese opera, Tai Chi and myth. Using striking props like rattan poles and flowing pheasant feathers (Ling Zi), BIRDY explores the tension between freedom and constraint, personal feeling and social pressure. The movement is bold, fluid and deeply human. BIRDY invites audiences to reflect on the desire to break free, and the quiet strength it takes to keep moving within the world around us.

November 22 | (School of Music)
UW music students perform music from the Baroque era under the direction of Tekla Cunningham. Free.

Week 4: November 23 – 29

November 24 | (School of Music)
UW voice students of Thomas Harper and Carrie Shaw perform works from the vocal repertoire. Free.

Week 5: November 30 – December 6

December 1 | (School of Music)
The UW Percussion Ensemble (Bonnie Whiting, director) performs contemporary music arranged for percussion ensembles.

December 2 | ?(Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Celebrate the season with the legendary Michael Feinstein in a festive evening of song and storytelling. A champion of the Great American Songbook, Feinstein brings signature warmth, wit and impeccable style to beloved holiday classics and timeless standards. Backed by lush arrangements, he delivers an elegant, nostalgic journey filled with heart and swing. This joyful concert promises an unforgettable night celebrating the magic, romance, and spirit of the holidays.

December 2 | ?(School of Music)
The Studio Jazz Ensemble (Jacob Zimmerman, director) performs big band arrangements and repertory selections. The Modern Band (Cuong Vu, director) performs innovative arrangements of jazz standards, selections from the outer limits of the genre, and new original compositions.

December 2 | (School of Music)
A free lunchtime performance featuring UW School of Music students in the North Allen Library lobby. Presented in partnership with UW Libraries. Free.

December 3 | (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
Admission to the Burke Museum is FREE and the museum is open until 8 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month. Get closer to the daily work happening in the Burke Museum’s visible collections storage, labs and workrooms during Free First Thursday. Free.

December 3 | (School of Music)
The Campus Band (Joshua Michael Smith, conductor) and Concert Band (Yuman Wu, conductor) present “Song and Dance,” performing music by Leonard Bernstein, James Barnes, Frank Ticheli and others.

December 3 | (School of Music)
UW keyboard students perform from the piano repertoire in the quarterly Brechemin Piano Series concerts. Free.

December 4 | (School of Music)
The UW’s top auditioned choirs present modern vocal works, music from around the globe, and great works from the sacred repertoire in shared quarterly concerts showcasing each group’s most recent work.

December 5 | (School of Music)
The Modern Music Ensemble (Cristina Valdés, director) presents works of our time in several concerts each year. Including repertoire from the early to mid-20th century and beyond, the group focuses on small ensemble and chamber orchestra works, performed by both undergraduate and graduate students. Free.

The ArtSci Roundup

The ArtSci Roundup is your guide to connecting with the UW—whether in person, on campus, or on your couch.

Those who receive monthly emails, with timely updates and engaging content wherever you are. Check the roundup regularly, as events are added throughout the month. Check out the ArtSci On Your Own Time section for everything from podcasts to videos to exhibitions that can be enjoyed when it works for you!

Do you have an event that you would like to see featured in the ArtSci Roundup? Connect with Lauren Zondag (zondagld@uw.edu).

Source

Come curious. Leave inspired.

The UW offers an exciting lineup of in-person and online events. From thought-provoking art and music to conversations on culture, history, and science, the UW community invites you to explore, learn, and connect across disciplines throughout the University.

.

Go directly to the week you’d like to view:

• Week 1: September 28 – October 4
• Week 2: October 5 – 11
• Week 3: October 12 – 18
• Week 4: October 19 – 25
• Week 5: October 26 – November 1

See all that’s to come in the November ArtSci Roundup.

ArtSci On Your Own Time:

Closing October 25 | (Henry Art Gallery)
ojo|-|o?l?? (pronounced oh-ho hol-ohn) is an exhibition of recent and newly commissioned work by Diné artist Eric-Paul Riege (b. 1994, Na’nízhoozhí [Gallup, New Mexico]) that includes sculpture, textile, collage, and video, activated by moments of performance. Across this work, Riege combines customary Diné practices of weaving, silversmithing, and beading with contemporary cultural forms, exploring Diné cosmology, the history of Euro-American trading posts in and adjacent to the Navajo Nation, and the notion of “authenticity” as a value marker of Indigenous art and craft.

(School of Art + Art History + Design)
The annual fall MFA show mediates on accumulation, the underground, labor & capacity, and the movement of systems and objects toward loss, disrepair, and failure. Spanning performance, installation, sound art, and found object sculpture, see the works of Jayden Dukes, Gaeun Kim, Cameron McGaff, and Skye Amber O’Brien. The exhibition runs from September 30 through November 7. Free.

(Biology)
Wednesdays, noon to 4 pm / 2nd and 4th Saturdays, 10 am – 2 pm
For nearly 70 years, the Biology Greenhouse at the 天美影视传媒 has played a vital role in research and teaching. Whether focusing on plant-pollinator interactions, paleoclimatology, or other biological questions, the teaching collection has enhanced and inspired UW biological research. Visit the 4 Collection rooms and browse through an amazing diversity of plant species from around the world. Free.

Week 1: September 28 – October 4

September 30 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
The annual fall MFA show mediates on accumulation, the underground, labor & capacity, and the movement of systems and objects toward loss, disrepair, and failure. Spanning performance, installation, sound art, and found object sculpture, see the works of Jayden Dukes, Gaeun Kim, Cameron McGaff, and Skye Amber O’Brien. The exhibition runs from September 30 through November 7. Free.

September 30 | (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
Authors Spencer Greening and Rachel Greening discuss their new book, Gyetk: Coastal Fusion and Ancestral Knowledge from a Ts’msyen Kitchen.?Gyetk (pronounced gy-e-tk and meaning “to feed the people”) immerses readers into the rich food traditions, knowledge, and relationships that have sustained the Ts’msyen (Tsimshian) people for millennia along the Pacific Northwest Coast. Drawing from the authors’ lived experiences practicing a land-based lifestyle, as well as their backgrounds in Indigenous food sovereignty, health and well-being, and cultural research, Gyetk weaves together modern culinary fusion, traditional knowledge, and scholarly insight. Through 60 beautifully photographed recipes, the book follows the Ts’msyen seasonal round, weaving together ancestral foodways, traditional ecological knowledge, dietetic perspectives, and thoughtful harvesting practices — inviting readers to feast in relationship with the natural world.

October 1 | ?(Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
Admission to the Burke Museum is FREE, and the museum is open until 8 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month. Get closer to the daily work happening in the Burke Museum’s visible collections storage, labs, and workrooms during Free First Thursday. Free.

October 1 + October 3 | (Henry Art Gallery)
To celebrate the culmination of the exhibition, ojo|-|o?l?, join Eric-Paul Riege with guest artists Olivia Camfield and Kole Galbraith for a multi-day convening of film screenings, performances, and conversations. Inspired by the modularity of Riege’s work in which materials and motifs are re-worked and re-imagined in perpetuity, the artists will explore how history and culture are neither static nor permanent. To close the convening, join Riege, Camfield, and Galbraith as they source new meanings from the sounds, materials, and images of both the past and present, challenging high art through lo-fi means. Free.

October 2 | ?(Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
On Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, three-time Grammy Award-winning composer Ricky Kej performs music from his acclaimed album Gandhi — Mantras of Compassion. Kej, a UN Goodwill Ambassador and recipient of India’s fourth-highest civilian award, Padma Shri, blends ancient Indian mantras with global musical traditions and contemporary orchestration. His sweeping melodies and meditative soundscapes honor Gandhi’s legacy. Featuring local performers and a youth choir, Kej invites audiences to reflect on the power of nonviolence, compassion and unity in today’s world.

Hybrid – October 2 | (Classics)
Latin poetry is defined by its relationships with poetry in other languages. It was originally constituted by its relation to Greek, and in later times has been constituted by its relation to the European vernaculars. In this bold and innovative book, distinguished Latinist Stephen Hinds explores these relationships through a series of vignettes. These explore ancient conversations between Latin and Greek verse texts, followed by modern (especially early modern) conversations between Latin and European vernacular verse texts, reflecting the linked stories of reception that make up the so-called ‘classical tradition’: conversations across language, across period, and sometimes both at the same time. The book’s range is expansive, ranging from Homer through Virgil and the Augustans to late antiquity, the Renaissance, Romanticism and on to Seamus Heaney. Free.

October 3 | Washington Warm Up at USC (UW Alumni)
The Huskies head to Southern California to take on the Trojans at Memorial Coliseum. Join the UWAA’s official pre-game party!

October 3 | (Philosophy)
In conversation with UW Political Science Professor Jamie Mayerfeld, UW Philosophy Professor Dr. Karen Emmerman will discuss her recently published book, Defending Animals, Disappointing People. Emmerman offers a ground-breaking exploration of what happens when caring deeply about animals places us in conflict with the people we love. Free.

October 4 | (School of Music)
In never leave story, percussionist Bonnie Whiting explores intersections of storytelling and experimental music, integrating text, movement, creative sonification, and technology. Act I features collaborations with dancer Jennifer Salk and ceramicist Timea Tihanyi, plus music by Jeffrey Trevi?o and field recordings of poet Alice Notley. In Act II, Whiting extends her speaking percussionist project via a new commission from composer Kevin Clark and a reimagining of a historic work by Iannis Xenakis. Tennyson’s Ulysses looks back on his life, while Aeschylus’ Kassandra looks forward: in reality, both point to the urgency of “the now.”

Week 2: October 5 – 11

October 6 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
Assistant Professor Miriam Chusid will present her ongoing research on premodern Japanese art history and visual culture, with a particular focus on Buddhist art. In thirteenth-century Japan, beliefs about life after death underwent a dramatic transformation. This era of profound political upheaval and social instability brought with it increasing anxiety around the ability to attain religious salvation, an event dependent on dying with sole focus on the Buddha. Chusid’s book examines the most notable innovation to alleviate such fears: the creation of images of Buddhist hell used to benefit the dead. In this talk, Chusid uncovers the visual, ritual, and material matrix from which these depictions were given form and meaning, and demonstrates how ritual specialists employed them to address a range of postmortem concerns and expectations within increasingly diverse Buddhist communities. Chusid’s book, The Ill-Fated Afterlife: Painting the Buddhist Cosmos in Premodern Japan, is forthcoming from the 天美影视传媒 Press in December 2026. Free.

October 7 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
The American example of the end of Slavery inspired a number of social movements in India. Satyashodhak Samaj was one of them. It was a socio-cultural sect established in 1874 by Jotirao Phule and others, with a view to create a society based on the ideals of equality and justice. Engaging with the writings of Jotirao Phule, Mukta Salve, Dhondiram Kumbhar and Tarabai Shinde, the talk will try to connect the issues of discrimination based on caste and gender in the late nineteenth century Maharashtra and explore the ways in which the Satyashodhak Samaj offered to mitigate the challenges posed by the unequal social structure. Free.

October 7 | (School of Music)
Faculty pianist Cristina Valdés performs works honoring the 100th birthday of 20th century composers Betsy Jolas, Morton Feldman, and Gyorgy Kurtag. Program includes Betsy Jolas’s Signets, hommage à Maurice Ravel; Morton Feldman’s Palais de Mari; and Gyorgy Kurtag’s Eight Piano Pieces, Op. 3, as well as works by Ravel and Haydn.

Hybrid – October 8 | State of the University Address (Office of the President)
天美影视传媒 President Robert J. Jones invites you to his first State of the University Address. He’ll reflect on his first year as president and share his vision and the University’s strategy for the future as it navigates the challenges and opportunities ahead. Free.

October 8 | (Jackson School)
As part of the 18th Annual Seattle Latino Film Festival, the event will feature a special screening of this powerful Indigenous-themed documentary, followed by a Q&A with members of the filmmaking team, including directors Guido Bilbao and Elio Cunampio, an Indigenous Emberá filmmaker from Panama. Free.

October 8 | ?(School of Art + Art History + Design)
Moderated by Swagato Chakravorty (The Henry Art Gallery), Dr. Jennifer Jolly (Ithaca College) and Dr. Gigi Peterson (SUNY Cortland) will be in conversation about? Mexican Muralism and Networks of Solidarity: The Struggle Against Racial Discrimination” in Seattle and Beyond. This conversation situates Pablo O Higgins’ 1945 mural, currently on display at the UW, in the larger context of mural-making and international organizing to explore the conditions and contradictions that conspired to make this form of expression a radical, if imperfect, tool for social change. Free.

October 9 | (GWSS)
The Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies welcomes the entire campus community to celebrate the start of a new academic year and greet new students. The gathering will feature the presentation of the Doman Excellence in Teaching and Alumni Awards, as well as snacks and festive community celebration. Free.

October 9 | ?(Henry Art Gallery)
Joiri Minaya presents Fabricating the Global Tropics, a talk about textiles, place, identity, and the fantasy realm for the “exotic” that extends from the Caribbean to the Pacific. This public talk is one of two keynote lectures for the 7th Triennial Conference of the Association for Latin American Art, Reclamations: The Afro-Asian-Native Turn in the Arts of Latin America, presented in conjunction with her current exhibition Joiri Minaya: To Hell With Hibiscus. Free.

Week 3: October 12 – 18

October 12 | (History)
2026 Inaugural Linda Nash Memorial Lecture: Drawing on archival research, fieldwork, Indigenous legal theory, and the natural sciences, Dr. Bathsheba Demuth’s talk examines how Indigenous, imperial, and nation-state legal traditions made law with, for, and about the Yukon River over the past two centuries—from seeing law in the actions of salmon to using laws to shape human relations with beavers. In doing so, it offers an argument for how environmental history can widen the scope of the social in ways critical to our understanding of what law is, and who it is for, in an era of climate change and species loss. Bathsheba Demuth is a writer and environmental historian focused on the lands and seas of the Russian and North American Arctic and teaches environmental history and creative nonfiction at Brown University. Free.

Hybrid – October 14 | A Conversation with Paola Ramos (Public Lectures)
Emmy Award-winning journalist, Paola Ramos, in conversation with UW Political Science faculty member Sophia Jordán Wallace, explores the evolving landscape of Latino voter engagement and political participation. This compelling discussion examines demographic shifts, policy priorities, and the critical role Latino voters play in shaping electoral outcomes across America. Free.

October 14 | (Dance)
UW Department of Dance second-year MFA candidates present their research:

• “The Edge of Comfortability: A Phenomenology of Trust and Risk in Contact Improvisation” by Jake Bone
• “Disrupting the Script: Audience Agency, Care, and the Unpredictability of Performance in Public Spaces” by Alice Gosti
• “The Straightening of Bachata: Studio-fication as (mis)Translation” by marco farroni leonardo
• “Litefeet’s Visibility Paradox: Competing Media Narratives and the Politics of Being Seen” by Jillian Amadi Roberts
• “Waacking Battles: Spaces of Translation and Transformation” by Tracey Wong

Free.

October 14 | ?(Jackson School)
Over the past four decades, China has witnessed a shift in its public sphere, transitioning from a period of flourishing to one of decline. Conversely, the realms of culture, arts, and private life have remained highly vibrant. Furthermore, the center stage of social media has shifted from intellectuals to internet celebrities. What does this mean for China’s future? Free.

October 15 | (Speech & Hearing Sciences)
Annette Estes, PhD, is the director of the 天美影视传媒 Autism Center. The Center is devoted to supporting autistic individuals and their families, caregivers, and community through clinical services, research, and education. She holds the Susan and Richard Fade Endowed Chair, is a Research Professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, and an Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at the 天美影视传媒. She is also a licensed psychologist in the state of Washington. Her research is carried out at the UW Autism Center and Center on Human Development and Disability. Free.

October 15 | ?(Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
The October book club selection is The North Cascades: Finding Beauty and Renewal in the Wild Nearby by William Dietrich. The discussion will be led by Burke Museum Herbarium Collections Manager, David Giblin. Free.

October 15 | ?(Jackson School)
As “hyphenated people” (Chow 1993) and “Taiwanese new immigrants” (Robinson 2020), Chinese diasporic and Southeast Asian directors making films in Taiwan today embody a transnational dimension of Taiwan New Cinema (first wave, 1982–9; second wave, 1990–), raising questions about gender, identity, queerness, migration, mobility, and more crucially, the global structures that fund, produce, circulate, and exhibit world cinema. Their internationally co-produced and circulated films materialize these flows of capital and people, while film festivals mediate their reception and reposition Taiwan geopolitically toward Southeast Asia, renegotiating the island’s uncertain and ambiguous national identity. This talk approaches film festivals as a theoretical framework for understanding how Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, and Midi Z came to represent Taiwan through international circulation and reception. Situating Taiwan New Cinema within this exhibition context, Beth Tsai also considers its persistent feminist caliber within the nation’s cultural imaginary and slow-cinema aesthetics, focusing on female fl?neurs in Hou’s city films as a case study. Free.

October 15 | (Jackson School / Cinema & Media Studies)
The film follows a group of restless young men who leave their fishing village on the Penghu Islands for the port city of Kaohsiung, where new encounters with work, urban life, friendship, and desire mark their passage into adulthood. Through its attention to everyday rhythms, place, and the changing social landscape of 1980s Taiwan, The Boys from Fengkuei anticipates the cinematic style that would make Hou one of Taiwan’s most influential filmmakers. The screening will be followed by a Q&A and discussion with Beth Tsai (Film & Media Studies, Hunter College, CUNY) and James Tweedie (Cinema & Media Studies, 天美影视传媒), exploring the film’s place in Hou’s career, Taiwan New Cinema, the histories and environments that shape its coming-of-age story, and how the film continues to speak to audiences today. Free.

October 15 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
Writing is a relational practice. Like teaching, writing is central to our lives as educators, artists, and university workers. And like teaching, we rarely engage one another on what we are doing when we are writing. As such, writing can be underestimated as a practice, and overlooked as a form of relation. Writing can be a way of knowing, a visitation, a keeping, and a keeping away. Following her lecture, Eve Tuck will be joined by UW professor Dian Million (Tanana Athabascan) for a conversation on writing as one way we attend to our many relations of care and responsibility to communities, to lands and waters, and to one another. Free.

October 15 – 17 | (Scandinavian Studies)
ASTRA/NORTANA/DANA unified symposium explores how archives shape culture, memory, and citizenship, and can be used as a powerful pedagogical tool to help students engage with language and culture. Authors, archivists, and fellow teachers from both sides of the Atlantic will present and lead workshops on why the archives matter more than ever and how we can use them in our teaching and research. Free.

October 16 | (Physics)
Dr. Stephon Alexander (Brown University) revisits the deep interconnection between music and the evolution of astrophysics and cosmology. We explore new ways in which music, particularly jazz, mirrors ideas in modern physics, including quantum mechanics, general relativity, and the physics of the early universe. Finally, we discuss how innovations in physics have been, and may continue to be, inspired by the kind of “improvisational logic” exemplified in jazz performance and practice. Free.

October 16 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
The Arditti Quartet enjoys a worldwide reputation for its spirited and technically refined interpretations of contemporary and 20th-century music. Since its founding in 1974 by violinist Irvine Arditti, the Quartet has inspired hundreds of composers to write groundbreaking works specifically for the ensemble, shaping how this music is heard and played. As explorers of cutting-edge string quartet music, their Meany debut features selections from the wide collection of the Quartet’s repertoire.

October 16 | ?(School of Music)
Following the Quartet’s Oct. 16 Meany Center appearance, the quartet premieres UW School of Music director and faculty composer Jo?l-Francois Durand’s String Quartet No. 4, a new work written for the group for this performance, as well as pieces by James Clarke and Brian Ferneyhough. Free.

October 18 | Alaska Airlines Dawg Dash (UW Alumni)
Hit the road, Huskies! Lace up your sneakers and soak in the fall campus beauty at our annual 10K run and 5K run/walk in support of students. All Dawgs (and dogs) are invited. UWAA members save on registration! From race start to the Post-Dash Bash finish, it’s a day of fun for the whole Husky pack.

Week 4: October 19 – 25

October 19 | (Jackson School)
A journey through the evolution of Peruvian tropical music, beginning in 1950s Lima, when large orchestras embraced Cuban music and mambo, and continuing through the 1960s, when cumbia emerged alongside and competed with Afro-Caribbean sounds. By the end of that decade, cumbia had become the leading genre of Peruvian tropical music, giving rise to Peruvian cumbia. The story continues in the 1970s, as tropical music spread across the country before returning to Lima, bringing diverse regional sounds into the capital’s recording studios. In the 1980s, the growing influence of Andean music gave rise to the term “chicha.” The genre evolved through Peru’s sociopolitical and economic crisis of the 1990s, the rise of tecnocumbia and northern cumbia, and a chicha revival that began in the late 2000s and continues today. The presentation combines active listening to chicha music with an exhibition of neon chicha posters, tracing the musical and visual evolution of this influential Peruvian genre. Free.

October 19 | (Jackson School)
Is Zionism a movement of national liberation or a story of colonialism and dispossession? Most public debate insists it has to be one or the other. This talk makes the case that it’s both, and that treating it as an either/or question gets in the way of actually understanding Zionism’s history, its current crisis, and its possible futures. Drawing on history that ranges from French Algeria to the broader question of Jewish nationalism, this talk will ask whether Zionism should be seen as an exceptional case or as part of larger histories of liberation, nationalism, and colonialism since the late 19th century. By reframing Zionism in a series of wider contexts, the talk clarifies the stakes of the existential choices currently facing Israel and Palestine. The talk also offers a preview of speaker Ethan Katz’s current book project, “Unsettling Histories: Zionism and Colonialism Reconsidered,” forthcoming from Princeton University Press. Free.

October 19 | (Statistics)
The 2026 Blackwell Seminar is presented by Stephanie Cook, Associate Professor in the Departments of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Biostatistics and New York University James Weldon Johnson Professor, New York University. The Blackwell Seminar was established in 2020 to honor the contributions of David Blackwell to mathematical statistics, game theory, probability theory, and information theory. The Blackwell Seminar focuses on topics at the interface between statistics and equity issues such as racial disparities, social justice, and ethics. Speakers are invited based on their contributions to these areas. Free.

October 20 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Bruce Liu has emerged as one of the most compelling pianists of his generation since winning the 18th International Chopin Piano Competition in 2021. He is praised not only for his dazzling technique but also for his curiosity and artistry, which combine “nimble versatility” (The New York Times) with “playing of breathtaking beauty” (BBC Music Magazine).

Online – October 20 | (Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies)
The Bridge’s Center presents the findings from their research project, “Rights on the Line: Policy and Regulatory Gaps Affecting Migrant Fishers in Washington State Ports.” Free.

October 21 | (Chemistry)
Professor Emeritus Ned Sibert (University of Wisconsin, Madison) presents “Exploring the CH Stretch Spectral Region with Local Mode Hamiltonians.” Free.

October 21 | (College of the Environment)
Conservation has always been about more than protecting species and ecosystems—it is about our relationship with the living world. Drawing on lessons from The Nature Record, the first independent national assessment of nature in the United States, Phil Levin, professor and director of the UW School of Marine and Environmental Affairs and director of The Nature Record, reflects on what four years of scientific synthesis revealed about stewardship, resilience and responsibility. Blending personal stories, ecological science and reflections from ancient wisdom and contemporary literature, this talk explores why nature matters not only for biodiversity but also for our shared future. At a moment of rapid environmental and social change, Levin considers what the evidence tells us about our relationship with nature and the choices before us.

Online – October 22 | (Classics)
Roman imperialism brought about interconnected world history. So argues the second-century historian Polybius. Beginning in the 140th Olympiad (220-216 BCE), “history became corporeal, so to speak, [hoinoei sōmatoeidē] and Italian and African affairs were woven together with those in Asia and Greece, and the direction of everything became towards one end [telos]” (1.3.4). The rise of Rome marks a historical threshold: the first truly “world” empire and a moment of unification for world history. This talk sets Polybius’ organicist claims about Roman empire in the context of Hellenistic historiography, and examines some aspects of Polybius’ reception history in later Roman historical writing. In so doing, I trace a long tradition of using corporeal metaphor to theorize the intersection of world empire and effective historiography. Free.

October 22 | (Jackson School)
Central Asia is considering a major expansion of nuclear energy. The appeal is clear: nuclear power could support economic growth, reduce reliance on imported fuel, and help meet climate goals. But the region also carries a difficult history with nuclear activity, from Soviet-era testing and mining, and faces ongoing concerns about safety, security, waste management, corruption, and geopolitical competition among major powers. This talk examines these competing pressures and what they mean for the region’s energy future. Free.

October 22 | (Jackson School)
Susan Whiting’s book advances institutional economic theory with original survey and fieldwork data by addressing two puzzles in Chinese political economy: how economic development has occurred despite insecure property rights and weak rule of law; and how the Chinese state has maintained political control amid unrest. She answers these questions by focusing on the role of illiberal law in reassigning property rights and redirecting grievances. The book reveals that, in the context of technological change, a legal system that facilitates reassignment of land rights to higher-value uses plays an important and under-theorized role in promoting economic development. This system simultaneously represses conflict and asserts legitimacy. Comparing China to post-Glorious Revolution England and contemporary India, Whiting offers a critical new argument that brings the Chinese case more directly into debates in comparative politics about the role of the state in specifying property rights and maintaining authoritarian rule. Free.

October 23 | (German Studies)
The Seattle Opera and the German Studies Department are teaming up for a German Night at the Opera for their performance of Richard Strauss’s Salome, followed by a Q&A with Professor Annegret Oehme. There will also be a to discuss the opera on Monday, October 26. Details coming.

October 23 | (Asian Languages & Literature)
From Godzilla to Pokémon, Japan is monster country. And all of Japan’s monsters have their roots in the bizarre menagerie of creatures called yokai. Noted monster scholar and yokai folklorist Zack Davisson guides you through the history behind yokai; a journey from the invisible monsters of the Heian period to the yokai catalogs of Edo. Free.

October 23 | (Philosophy)
The Annual Ethics Lecture features Linda Alcoff (Hunter College). Racism in the United States today cannot be understood in a narrow national frame. Rather, it needs to be understood in relation to the coming end of the US Empire and of Western intellectual and financial dominance, and the resulting precarity of the social contract citizens have expected in the global north. To chart this terrain, Alcoff argues that we need a historical understanding of racial formations, a focus on cultural racism, and an honest approach to the complex history of settler colonialism in this hemisphere that can be the basis of new and stronger coalitions for all working-class peoples. Free.

October 25 | (School of Music)
Members of the UW Wind Ensemble (Christopher Vongvithaymathakul, director) perform music by W.A. Mozart, Claude Arrieu, Joan Tower and others. With Yuman Wu and Joshua Michael Smith, assistant conductors. Free.

Week 5: October 26 – November 1

October 26 | (Jackson School)
Christopher Rea discusses how he and Julie M. Wang rendered an award-winning novel into English, including the process of researching a historical epic of bestial violence also filled with Malaysian vampires, Japanese demons, and Bornean bog monsters. In doing so, he offers answers to a more general question: When faced with a challenging text, how can a translator get out alive? Free.

Hybrid?– October 26 | What Feeds Us: Science, Climate, and the Future of Food with Pamela Ronald (Public Lectures)
Climate change is threatening the crops that feed us all. UC Davis geneticist Pamela Ronald reveals how her discovery of flood-tolerant rice is helping millions of farmers adapt — and what plant science means for the future of food. Free.

October 28 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
How did the martial artist and actor Bruce Lee vault to global stardom? In this lecture, Daryl Joji Maeda describes how transpacific contacts and migrations created the world in which a singular individual encountered, absorbed, and synthesized multiple philosophical and aesthetic influences to create a hybrid form all his own. Tracing Lee’s evolution as a fighter and performer reveals how macroeconomic and geopolitical forces can manifest new forms of culture and resistance. Free.

October 28 | ?(Jackson School)
The U.S. faces more challenges in East Asia than it has seen in decades: An ascendant China that is threatening American dominance of geopolitics, economics and technology, and a nuclear North Korea that has been newly emboldened by its ties with Moscow and Beijing. Jonathan Cheng, the China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal and the former Korea bureau chief, will talk about more than a decade reporting from on the ground in China and on the Korean peninsula, and his new book, “Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea’s Personality Cult.”?Free.

October 29 | (School of Music)
Dr. Stephen Price is joined by students, colleagues, and friends of the UW Organ Studies program in this concert of spooky organ classics and Halloween fun. Free.

October 29 | (Jackson School)
Tadashi Ishikawa introduces Geographies of Gender, which examines the fringes of family and marriage in imperial Japan and colonial Taiwan in the 1910s through the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. The talk focuses on daughter adoption as one of the boundaries of family and marriage under study. As elite and ordinary Japanese and Taiwanese men and women exchanged competing social norms and ideals in colonial and anticolonial spaces, daughter adoption became a point of negotiation in the colonial courtroom. Those processes, his book argues, ultimately redefined the Japanese empire along gender lines. As the colony of Japan as a non-Western empire during the interwar era, Taiwan showed both the possibility of progress and its repeated gendered contradictions among both colonizer and colonized, suggesting that it is a promising object of historical research not only as spatially open, but as temporally circular. Free.

October 30 | ?(Simpson Center for the Humanities)
Spot Reservation, Swinomish artist Daniel R. Smith’s newest participatory public art project, is a free event he describes as an “Indigenous, celebratory occupation of the 天美影视传媒.” Taking place the day before Halloween, Friday, October 30, from 11:00am – 3:00pm, the project transforms the lower level of the Padelford Parking Garage into an unexpected gathering place centered around participatory art making in a tiny forest, or “nanoforest,” of native plants growing from industrial oil barrels. Featuring photo portraits with costumes and wearable taxidermy in a tiny post-apocalyptic forest, fry bread tacos, live birds of prey demonstrations, and an open mic; all free and open to the public.

October 30 | ?(Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures)
Nearly half a century after the Iranian Revolution, a striking paradox has emerged. Many young Iranians reject 1979 as the origin of the political order they seek to overcome, while many of the revolutionary generation have become estranged from the revolution they once made. Yet successive waves of protest, from the Green Movement to Women, Life, Freedom, have returned to the street—the quintessential space of revolutionary politics—to challenge the Islamic Republic.
In the wake of state brutality, political disappointment, and the ongoing effects of the US and Israeli wars on Iran, the present is increasingly marked by exhaustion and political impasse. This lecture asks what becomes visible when we remember 1979 before its outcome was known: when leftists, nationalists, Islamists, workers, students, intellectuals, merchants, and others occupied the same streets while imagining radically different futures. Free.

October 30 | (School of Music)
David Alexander Rahbee and the UW Symphony present “Hungarian Connections,” a program of music by Leó Weiner, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Bela Bartók. With faculty artist Pala Garcia, violin.

October 30 | ?(Classics)
Learn about recent archaeological excavations at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Oplontis in the Bay of Naples. Through the two Roman villas found there, we encounter both unbridled luxury and the lives of working individuals.

The ArtSci Roundup

The ArtSci Roundup is your guide to connecting with the UW—whether in person, on campus, or on your couch.

Those who receive monthly emails, with timely updates and engaging content wherever you are. Check the roundup regularly, as events are added throughout the month. Check out the ArtSci On Your Own Time section for everything from podcasts to videos to exhibitions that can be enjoyed when it works for you!

Do you have an event that you would like to see featured in the ArtSci Roundup? Connect with Lauren Zondag (zondagld@uw.edu).

Source

Plants may not appear aggressive, but they can still defend themselves while under attack. When caterpillars chomp the leaves of bean plants, these plants release gases that lure predatory wasps. The wasps prey on the caterpillars, saving the plants from further destruction. In a paper , a UW-led team demonstrated that this defense strategy is run by a protein called INR, or inceptin receptor. The researchers grew bean plants with naturally occurring mutations in the INR gene alongside plants with functional INR in an experimental field in Oaxaca, Mexico. The knock-out plants didn’t emit gases and attracted far fewer wasps. This result helps explain a previous study by this team that first identified the biochemical pathway behind this defense mechanism. These results also showcase how the tiny actions of a single protein can affect the behavior of wasps and caterpillars, and in turn, protect the health of the plant. This could benefit nearby plants as well, the researchers said. Beans are often grown alongside “,” such as corn, with the idea that each plant provides a benefit for the others. Beans help make the soil richer for their companions, and, through the actions of INR, could also protect their neighbors from pests.

For more information, contact senior author , UW associate professor of biology, at astein10@uw.edu.??

The other UW co-authors are , , , and . A full list of co-authors and funding is included .

Decades of satellite data show Himalayan rivers migrating rapidly in response to climate change

The movement of rivers is often described in terms of flowing water, but the path a river takes can also change. Some migration is normal, but in the Himalayas, rivers seem to be scrambling faster than scientists anticipated. In a study , researchers show that rivers in the Tibetan Plateau moved twice as much from 2000 to 2020 as they did from 1980 to 2000. As glaciers melt and frozen ground thaws in response to rising temperatures, rivers are inundated with silty meltwater from surrounding glaciers. The water picks the path of least resistance through softening ground. The “movement” includes small lateral shifts, big swings that cut off entire sections of river and occasionally, . The international team attributes their observations to climate change, which is driving temperatures up faster here than many other places. More than 2 billion people rely on these rivers for fresh water and researchers are concerned about communities downstream, as well as the potential for similar patterns that may play out elsewhere.

For more information, contact co-author , UW professor of Earth and space sciences at bigdirt@uw.edu.??

A full list of co-authors and funding is .

Researchers shrink eye-catching structure down to the nano scale?

made using a network of freestanding bars suspended by a web of thin, tense cables. The organization of the bars and cables allows the network of tension and compression forces to lock everything into place, creating a lightweight yet stiff structure. Tensegrities of different sizes are common in nature — examples include and the that help living cells maintain their shape — as well as in diverse manmade structures like , and . Now, a team of engineers at the UW have found a way to create tensegrities as small as five micrometers across — roughly a tenth of the width of a human hair. in the aptly-named journal Small, researchers used a specialized and a resin compound to print bar-and-cable structures about 30 micrometers across. They then heated the materials to 900 degrees celsius, causing the structures to shrink by over 80%. As they shrank, the thinner cables constricted more than the bars, resulting in nanostructures with specific, locked-in levels of stress that were up to 250% stiffer than the starting structures. The team is now working on ways to build larger materials composed of tiny tensegrities, which could eventually usher in a new class of stiff, light and impact-resistant materials.

For more information, contact lead author , a UW doctoral student of mechanical engineering.

Other UW co-authors are , , Zainab S. Patel, , and . Funding information is included .?

Scientists find a key water source for atmospheric rivers

In December 2025, brought a seemingly endless onslaught of precipitation to Washington that caused and washed away roads and homes. In published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, UW researchers help explain where all that water came from. They describe a link between the , a weather pattern that brings moisture east across the Pacific, and atmospheric rivers. Hypotheses about this connection have emerged from previous studies, but researchers couldn’t physically draw it until now. By tracking precipitation and wind patterns from 2000 to 2024, the UW researchers show that heavy rainfall and flooding are more likely when MJO is active, which happens several times a year. By identifying the MJO as a key moisture source for powerful atmospheric rivers, the researchers hope to improve forecast accuracy and give people more lead time to prepare for incoming storms.

For more information, contact co-author , UW professor of atmospheric and climate science at shuyic@uw.edu.

Other UW co-authors are and . Funding information is .

Source

Sunbirds may look similar to hummingbirds — small, iridescent birds with thin bills — but it turns out the two are only distantly related. Sunbirds live primarily in Africa, Asia and Australia, and have a unique way to slurp up nectar. Unlike hummingbirds, which use minute movements in their bills to sip nectar, sunbirds use their tongues as a straw. published in Current Biology, a team led by researchers at the 天美影视传媒 showed that these long-billed birds can change the pressure at the base of their tongues to create suction that moves nectar through their tongues and into their mouths, a novel mechanism never before seen in vertebrates. The researchers used multiple techniques — including high-speed video of sunbirds drinking red-dyed nectar from transparent artificial flowers — to demonstrate this phenomenon across multiple sunbird species as well as build a mathematical model that describes how it works. Sunbirds pollinate the flowers they drink from, and researchers are interested in understanding how different sunbird species’ plant preferences affect the plant-pollinator networks across continents.

For more information, contact lead author , who completed this research as a UW doctoral student in biology, at david_cuban@brown.edu.??

The other UW co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is included . Related stories in and .?

Seattle Fault gets 5,000 more years of sleep?

Just over 1,100 years ago an on the Seattle fault rocked — and reshaped — the Puget Sound region. It lifted the sea floor and sent a powerful tsunami through the sound. Researchers have estimated that this fault, which runs east to west beneath the middle of the city, will produce a large earthquake every 5,000 years or so. However, , recently published in Geology, pushes that estimate back to 11,000 years. The researchers extended this window by scouring submerged shorelines for evidence of significant elevation changes. The geological record at these sites dates back 11,000 years, but they only found evidence of one major earthquake. This information could be useful to those making seismic hazard maps, which help people understand the risks associated with different regions. Although other regional faults and the imposing pose more imminent risks to residents, the main Seattle fault doesn’t appear to be ready for rupture anytime soon.

For more information, contact lead author , UW research scientist of Earth and space sciences, at edav@uw.edu.

The other UW co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is included in the paper. Related story in .

The PNW has many rivers, but no system for gauging landslide dam risk

Scientists have a new tool for estimating lesser known hazards in the Pacific Northwest: and outburst floods. Landslides along rivers can block the flow of water downstream, creating a lake just above the slide area. Most landslide dams fail within 10 days, releasing trapped water in an outburst flood, which can be devastating. Last fall, 20 people died after in Taiwan. published in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, UW researchers debut a mathematical approach to mapping landslide dam hazards based on valley width and projected slide size. When they applied the tool to a mountain range in Oregon, they found that roughly one-third of rivers in the study area were susceptible to landslide dams, with risk increasing in mountainous areas. If a landslide dam does form, alleviating pressure by for water to escape can help prevent flooding. Identifying high risk areas can help guide emergency response efforts following storms, earthquakes and other events that increase landslide risk.

For more information, contact lead author , UW doctoral student of Earth and space sciences, at pmmorgan@uw.edu.

The other UW co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is .

Rubin observatory expected to spot many ‘imminent impactor’ asteroids

Small asteroids — those 1 to 20 meters in diameter —? hit the Earth 35-40 times per year, though they’re very rarely spotted by telescopes before impact. That could soon change: published in The Astrophysical Journal, UW astronomers calculate that the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory could discover one to two Earth-impacting asteroids annually , roughly doubling the number currently logged. The researchers expect Rubin to discover these asteroids an average of 1.5 days before impact, which is more warning time than ever before. Advance notice is extremely valuable in the case of larger asteroids that could be a threat to people or infrastructure. Because the Rubin Observatory is located in the Southern Hemisphere, it will likely discover many Earth impactors that existing asteroid surveys — concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere — miss.

For more information, contact lead author Ian Chow, a UW graduate student of astronomy, at chowian@uw.edu.

Other UW co-authors are Mario Juri?, Joachim Moeyens, Aren N. Heinze and Jacob A. Kurlander. A full list of co-authors is included .

Many marine microbes share a genetic toolbox for fixing supper at sea

Researchers have now identified a set of genes that allow some bacteria to process a compound, called homarine, that is abundant in the ocean and appears to play a key role in nutrient cycling. Phytoplankton produce loads of homarine, but scientists weren’t sure what became of it until now. In a recent study published in Nature Microbiology, researchers found a set of genes present in common and far-flung bacteria that convert homarine into glutamic acid, an essential building block for life. This suggests that homarine may be a vital and overlooked resource and highlights the importance of bacteria in stabilizing marine ecosystems. Previous studies also found that homarine serves as and helps small crabs . The UW team will continue studying homarine to better understand how it fits into the broader ecological landscape.

For more information, contact senior author , a UW professor of oceanography, at aingalls@uw.edu.?

The other UW co-authors are , , , , , and ? A full list of co-authors and funding is

Source

Nautilus and Allonautilus cephalopods and their extinct ancestors have been drifting through of the ocean for more than 500 million years. Researchers have spent the last 40 years trying to understand how these mysterious “living fossils” thrive in areas with limited nutrients. published in Scientific Reports, a UW-led team documented new habits and habitats for current Nautilus and Allonautilus species. These creatures appear to live in deeper water than their extinct cousins did, and the younger ones live twice as deep as the fully mature adults. Nautilus and Allonautilus species scavenge their food and never stop moving. While a few species migrate hundreds of meters down at dawn and then back up at dusk every day, the team found that most species aren’t quite as intrepid. The researchers also describe a new population of Allonautilus in waters off the island , one of several populations thriving due to hunting restrictions inspired in part by research efforts from this team.

For more information, contact senior author , UW professor of both biology and Earth and space sciences, at argo@uw.edu.

Other UW co-authors are , and . A full list of co-authors and funding is included

Green clay tennis courts become carbon negative after 10 years

The United States has around a quarter of a million tennis courts, 40,000 of which are helping mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Green clay tennis courts, an alternative to traditional hard courts and the red clay courts popular in Europe, are constructed with a type of rock that reacts with carbon dioxide and water to sequester carbon as a stable dissolved salt. In , UW researchers show that in the U.S., green clay courts remove 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year and 80% of green clay courts make up for construction emissions within 10 years. Moving forward, the researchers hope to experiment with other materials that also remove carbon dioxide without compromising performance for players.

For more information contact lead author , UW assistant professor of oceanography, at fjpavia@uw.edu.

A full list of co-authors and funding is available .

Temperature dynamics, not just extremes, impact heat tolerance in mussels

Intertidal mussels, forming bumpy layers on shoreline rocks, withstand significant temperature swings as the tide ebbs and flows. These creatures live in one of the most thermally variable environments on Earth, but a new study shows that the rate, timing and duration of heating and cooling impact their metabolic rate, a proxy for overall health. At the UW’s , researchers exposed mussels to temperature regimens with equal highs and lows but different patterns of change. Even when the average temperature for a set period was the same, the mussels’ response was distinct. These results, , show that predicting how marine organisms respond to climate change means considering how temperature changes over time, not just how warm it gets.

For more information, contact lead author , assistant professor of biology at the College of the Holy Cross and a mentor for the UW Friday Harbor Laboratories , at mnishizaki@holycross.edu.

The other UW co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is available .

When algae stop growing, bacteria start swarming

Tiny geometric algae, called , produce nearly a quarter of the world’s organic matter by photosynthesis. In the microscopic marine universe, diatoms coexist with both harmful and helpful bacteria. A new study, , describes how a recently identified species of marine bacteria targets diatoms based on growth phase and nutrient availability. Growing diatoms can resist bacterial attacks, but when growth ceases, the bacteria modulate their gene expression patterns to become aggressive — first swimming and releasing compounds that damage the diatom and then clustering around them to feed. Bacteria can also overcome the diatom’s defenses in nutrient-rich environments. These findings highlight the dynamic relationship between bacteria and algae in the lab. Moving forward, researchers will explore what, if anything, changes in a more complex environment.

For more information, contact lead author , UW postdoctoral fellow in oceanography, at dawiener5@gmail.com.

Other UW co-authors are and . A full list of co-authors and funding is available .

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Magical moments and memorable events — from a baby sea star getting its first taste of the open ocean to a cherry tree blooming — happen all year round at the 天美影视传媒, and we do all we can to help people understand what it looked like, what happened and who was involved. Here’s a glimpse, through the video lens, at 2024 from around the 天美影视传媒 and beyond.

UW videographers captured students starting their college careers and celebrating graduation, educators sharing knowledge on everything from mosquitoes to medieval monsters, researchers developing wearable tech that helps us hear a single voice in a crowd or that can be powered by our own bodies, and UW Medicine surgeons. UW students, faculty and staff are at work bringing dentistry professionals to rural communities, ?measuring jet noise and combing community health records for connections between wildfire smoke and dementia.

If that wasn’t enough, the UW saw and prepared to say goodbye to UW President Ana Mari Cauce, who announced that she will step down from her position this summer.

The UW News office and share these and more stories about outstanding people, programs and research coming out of the university. In addition to publishing news releases?and connecting reporters with faculty experts, the news office offers video stories, soundbites and b-roll to external news outlets to use in broadcasts, online stories and social media. This year, these videos were shared by television stations, radio stations and online publications around the state, the nation and the world.

Happy New Year! You can follow us and find more stories on the UW News website,, and, and the , , and .???

For more information, contact Kiyomi Taguchi, UW News video producer: ktaguchi@uw.edu or 206-685-2716.?

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This video is also available with additional .

Across campus —?and across the state — this year, the 天美影视传媒’s collective creativity, passion and innovation came together to forge new connections, push boundaries and better understand the world.??

This minute-long video is a glimpse at just some of the video stories the UW News office produced this year. Throughout 2023, UW students, faculty and staff worked in, with and for communities, developing solutions to local, and global, challenges. Their tools were both manual and high tech, their experiences individual and shared. They took their inspiration from the smallest creatures of the natural world, to the vastness of outer space, to the people around them every day.??

The spirit of community was everywhere, from Presidential Scholar Parker Ritzmann and his Spokane coffee business benefiting a local children’s home, to the multi-disciplinary research team helping the entire city of Westport with tsunami preparedness. Groups came together to build benches and encourage conversation at Gould Hall; to carve canoe paddles to ply the waters of Puget Sound; and to join the organization Outdoors for All for adaptive recreation at Snoqualmie Pass.?

The UW News office shares these and other stories and information about outstanding people, programs and research coming out of the university. In addition to publishing news releases?and connecting reporters with faculty experts, the News office offers video stories,?soundbites and b-roll to external news outlets to use in broadcasts, online stories and social media.?

In 2023, UW News videos were used across the country by television stations, radio stations and online publications, and garnered more than 320,000 views on the UW News website and social media.

For more information, contact Kiyomi Taguchi, UW News video producer: ktaguchi@uw.edu or 206-685-2716.?

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This video is also available with an?.

This year the 天美影视传媒 campus once again was bustling after a quieter couple of years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The year 2022 saw the UW community continue to come together again with more in-person events and fascinating research that make videographers excited to hit “record” and share these scenes.

This 80-second video looks back on the year, offering a taste of what students, faculty and staff were up to — from building more comfortable?prosthetics?and cultivating a Pacific Northwest?maple syrup?industry to multiple?commencement ceremonies?and inclusive?summer camps.

In 2022, UW News also launched a story project highlighting ways in which our researchers and staff are problem-solving and having an impact across the state. The “For Washington” series visits places like Yakima, Twisp and Shelton where the UW is working side by side with shellfish farmers, fruit industry managers and fire-prone communities to build better futures.

The UW News office is here to share stories and information about outstanding people, programs and research coming out of the 天美影视传媒. In addition to publishing news releases and connecting reporters with faculty experts, we offer video stories, soundbites and b-roll to external news outlets to use in broadcasts, online stories and social media.

In 2022, UW News videos were used across the country by television stations, radio stations and online publications, and garnered more than 100,000 views on our website and social media.

For more information, contact:

Kiyomi Taguchi, UW News video producer: ktaguchi@uw.edu or 206-685-2716.

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This video is also available with an .

As the year draws to a close, here are highlights from video stories produced by UW News during 2021 — a year where the COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact our lives.

As we learned more about ways to meet this challenge, many students, faculty and staff returned to campus. We continued to teach, learn and work while getting vaccinated, boosted, masking up and staying connected in new and different ways.

Our mission at UW News is to share the stories of the outstanding people, programs and research coming out of the 天美影视传媒. In addition to publishing news releases and connecting reporters with faculty experts, we offer video stories, soundbites and b-roll to external news outlets to use in broadcasts, online stories and social media.

Covering topics from artificial intelligence to zooplankton, UW News videos were used in 2021 by outlets such as WIRED, PBS, local TV stations and radio stations and garnered more than a quarter-million views across our platforms.

Thank you to all of the people who collaborated in making these videos. We could not tell these stories without you.

For more information, contact:

Kiyomi Taguchi, UW News video producer: ktaguchi@uw.edu or 206-685-2716.

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The 天美影视传媒’s graduate and professional degree programs were widely recognized as among the best in the nation, according to??released March 17.

Several schools and departments placed prominently in the 2021 rankings, including nursing, medicine, pharmacy and public affairs.

“More than at any time before, it is clear how much our society depends on highly trained and skilled researchers, health care professionals and experts across a vast array of disciplines?to address and solve the serious challenges our world faces,”?UW President Ana Mari Cauce said. “I am deeply proud of the incredible programs across the UW that are producing these talented Ph.D.s and professionals, and these rankings are a fitting recognition of their outstanding quality and impact.”

The UW School of Nursing received the No. 1 overall ranking for a school offering a doctor of nursing practice program, a position it shared with Columbia University’s School of Nursing. The UW School of Nursing was ranked No. 2 among public schools that offer a master’s degree and tied for No. 6 overall.

The UW School of Medicine ranked second in the nation in the categories of family medicine and primary care medical schools . In 2018, medical student training in rural medicine ranked No. 1; this category has not been re-ranked since. Based on U.S. News calculations, the UW medical school received $783 million in National Institutes of Health federal research funding in fiscal year 2019. Harvard Medical School was the only institution listed as receiving a greater amount.

The UW School of Pharmacy rose in the ranking to seventh place from ninth.

Ranked third among public institutions, the UW’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance has maintained its top-10 ranking for the fourth consecutive year. The Evans School also ranked in the top 10 in the following areas: environmental policy, public finance and budgeting, social policy, nonprofit management and public management and leadership.

Information about U.S. News & World Report’s methodology can be found?.

Below is a roundup of the UW’s graduate and professional school and program rankings that were available under embargo to institutions before the full rankings were published.

TOP 10:

Doctor of Nursing Practice (overall): Tie for 1st

Biostatistics:?Three-way tie for 1st (ranked in 2019)

Rural medicine: 1st (ranked in 2018)

Law librarianship: 1st (ranked in 2017)

Environmental policy: 2nd

Family medicine: 2nd

Primary care medical schools: Tie for 2nd

Microbiology: Tie for 2nd (ranked in 2019)

Library and information studies: 2nd?(ranked in 2017)

Services for children and youth: 2nd (ranked in 2017)

School of Social Work (overall): Five-way tie for 3rd (ranked in 2019)

Digital librarianship:?3rd (ranked in 2017)

Information systems: 3rd (ranked in 2017)

Physics (nuclear): 4th (ranked in 2019)

Statistics: Tie for 4th (ranked in 2019)

Psychology (clinical): Three-way tie for 5th

Artificial intelligence: 5th (ranked in 2019)

Genetics/Genomics/Bioinformatics: 5th (ranked in 2019)

Evans School of Public Policy & Governance (overall): Tie for 6th

Nursing master’s (overall): Three-way tie for 6th

Computer science (overall): Tie for 6th (ranked in 2019)

Programming language: 6th (ranked in 2019)

Systems: 6th (ranked in 2019)

Education (special education): 7th

Pediatrics: 7th

Pharmacy: Six-way tie for 7th

Public finance and budgeting: 7th

Social policy: Tie for 7th

School library media: 7th (ranked in 2017)

Geriatrics: 7th (ranked in 2018)

School of Public Health (overall): 7th (ranked in 2020)

Education (elementary?education): 8th

Education (secondary education): 8th

Nonprofit management: 8th

Nurse midwifery: Three-way tie for 8th

Chemistry (analytical): 8th (ranked in 2019)

Public management and leadership: Tie for 9th

Internal medicine: Tie for 10th

Speech-language pathology: Six-way tie for 10th

Earth sciences: Three-way tie for 10th (ranked in 2019)

TOP 25:

Anesthesiology: 13th

Biological sciences: Three-way tie for 23rd (ranked in 2019)

Business (information systems): Tie for 17th

Chemistry: Six-way tie for 24th (ranked in 2019)

Computer science (theory): 11th (ranked in 2019)

College of Education (overall): 14th

Education (administration/supervision): 11th

Education (psychology): Four-way tie for 18th

Education (policy): Three-way tie for 14th

Education (curriculum/instruction): Three-way tie for 11th

College of Engineering (overall): Three-way tie for 24th

Engineering (aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical): Three-way tie for 18th

Engineering (biomedical/bioengineering): Four-way tie for 12th

Engineering (chemical): Five-way tie for 23rd

Engineering (computer): Tie for 12th

Engineering (civil): Five-way tie for 16th

Engineering (electrical): Three-way tie for 19th

Engineering (industrial/manufacturing/systems): Three-way tie for 22nd

Entrepreneurship: 16th

Executive MBA: Tie for 18th

Foster School of Business (overall): Tie for 20th

Health care management: Tie for 15th (ranked in 2019)

History: Four-way tie for 23rd (ranked in 2019)

Information systems: Tie for 17th

Law (intellectual property law): Three-way tie for 18th

Local government management: 15th

Mathematics (applied math): 11th (ranked in 2019)

Mathematics (analysis): 17th (ranked in 2019)

Nurse practitioner (adult, acute care): Tie for 13th (ranked in 2019)

Nurse practitioner (psychiatric/mental health): Three-way tie for 11th

Obstetrics and gynecology: Four-way tie for 16th

Occupational therapy: Six-way tie for 23rd

Part-time MBA: Tie for 10th

Psychiatry: 18th

Physics: 22nd (ranked in 2019)

Physician assistant: 14th

Public policy analysis: Tie for 12th

Radiology: 13th

School of Medicine (medical research): 12th

Sociology: Five-way tie for 17th (ranked in 2019)

Sociology (population): 14th (ranked in 2019)

Surgery: 16th

Urban policy: Tie for 16th

TOP 35:

Accounting: Seven-way tie for 25th

College of Engineering (overall): Three-way tie for 24th

Economics: Tie for 35th (ranked in 2019)

Engineering (environmental/environmental health): Four-way tie for 27th

Engineering (materials): Tie for 29th

Engineering (mechanical): Three-way tie for 34th

English: Seven-way tie for 35th (ranked in 2019)Fine arts: Ten-way tie for 32nd

Law (environmental): Tie for 31st

Law (health care): Eight-way tie for 32nd

Mathematics:?Six-way tie for 26th (ranked in 2019)

Physical therapy: Nine-way tie for 25th

Psychology: 10-way tie for 26th (ranked in 2019)

Political science: Four-way tie for 33rd (ranked in 2019)

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