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

It all started with Halley’s Comet.

was a toddler in 1986, the last time the was visible to the naked eye. One night, her family kept her up late to try and spot it above their home in East Taunton, Massachusetts.

“I was fussy and tired until they pointed up,” Levesque recalled, “and then all of a sudden I just went, ‘奥丑辞补’.”

Levesque’s career interests followed a trend after that.

“People would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I would say, ‘Well, I’m going to be a ballerina or an astronomer,’ or ‘I’m going to be a firefighter or an astronomer,’ or ‘a violinist or an astronomer’,” she said.

Levesque’s childhood infatuation stuck. Today she is a professor of astronomy at the 天美影视传媒 who studies “big and weird stars.” She’s authored two textbooks on and , as well as general-interest on astronomy. And in 2027, she will become the next editor-in-chief of the American Astronomical Society’s portfolio of academic journals, making her the first woman to serve at the helm of six of astronomy’s busiest and most prestigious research outlets.

“I published my very first research paper in The Astrophysical Journal more than 20 years ago as an undergrad,” Levesque said. “The AAS Journals have played such an enormous role in the history of astronomy and in so many of our careers, and my predecessors have established an incredibly high standard of care and commitment in how the journals are run. I’m excited and honored to become the next steward of that legacy.”

Levesque became interested in stars as a child, and she carried her enthusiasm through to a degree in physics from MIT. Her first research project there brought her to the in Flagstaff, Arizona, where she studied — a star so large that one would engulf Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter if it were placed where our sun is.

“I got really interested in these huge, unstable stars — they die explosive, spectacular deaths as supernovae, and leave behind mysterious things like black holes,” Levesque said. “We tend to think of stars as just big round balls of gas. But when you look closer, they turn into these brain-bending objects that stretch our ability to comprehend the universe.”

From MIT, Levesque hopscotched to a doctoral program at the University of Hawaii, a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Colorado, Boulder and then, in 2015, an appointment at the UW. Along the way, her taste in stars has only gotten stranger: At the UW she studies hypothesized oddities called (TZOs), which are red supergiants with for cores. While in Colorado, Levesque and collaborators . Today, much of her work at the UW is dedicated to finding more possible TZOs and understanding how they might form — though their existence still isn’t a sure thing.

“We could absolutely be wrong,” Levesque said. “Other researchers have published papers since our initial discovery arguing that TZOs couldn’t possibly be stable, or that the star we found wasn’t actually a TZO. Still others have published papers saying, ‘We looked closer at your candidate and we think it really is a TZO.’ So it’s a subject of debate, which I think is great. If we made a mistake, I desperately want someone to find it.”

Levesque has been involved with the American Astronomical Society Journals for 10 years. She’s currently serving as a science editor, which entails running the journals’ peer review process, matching submissions with reviewers and shepherding drafts through to publication.

“Getting involved with the journals has been a great way to support the astronomy community on a large scale,” Levesque said. “The AAS Journals are such a great resource in our field, so working with them is really impactful. Plus, it helps me keep tabs on the latest science.”

The editor-in-chief role, though, is a much larger proposition.

“It’s a big job,” Levesque said. “It is essentially a full-time position. But I like the idea of getting to devote so much of my time and attention to this.”

When she officially steps into the role next fall, Levesque will navigate a critical and chaotic moment for academic research and publishing. She sees twin challenges ahead for the journals: remaining solvent in the dicey landscape of federal funding, and managing a firehose of paper submissions unleashed with the help of artificial intelligence.

“We’re certainly seeing lots of papers that are auto-generated junk,” Levesque said. “But there’s also a huge uptick in people simply being able to do research faster or to write down their research faster. We’re figuring out how to manage the influx of papers and deciding what constitutes appropriate use of AI.”

Levesque betrays no intimidation about juggling her faculty position with the new leadership role at the journal. She’s letting friends and family be overwhelmed on her behalf.

“When I tell people that I’m moving into this role, there’s sort of this look of like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re going to be dealing with funding disasters and AI is going to upend everything, isn’t this terrifying?’” Levesque laughed. “In this landscape, the AAS Journals are more important than ever. It’s never been easier to generate and share information, but it’s also never been harder to trust information. Publishing is a crucial part of how our field shares trustworthy science, so for me it’s worth the effort.”

For more information, contact Levesque at emsque@uw.edu.

Source

A scans the sea for fish from 100 feet in the air. Upon seeing a school, it pitches its body into a nosedive, somehow breaking the surface at 70 miles per hour without breaking its neck. This daring maneuver seems to defy the laws of nature, but it’s standard hunting behavior for plunge-diving seabirds.

A 天美影视传媒 study in the Anatomical Record shows that gannets and boobies have unique morphological adaptations that allow them to survive impact. Several of their neck vertebrae are joined by an additional contact surface that helps stabilize the cervical column. The overall shape of the vertebrae is also stockier than other birds.

“We wanted to figure out what makes gannets so special, so good at diving and looking at their biology helped us understand how they can survive these impacts,” said senior author , a postdoctoral scholar at the UW’s Friday Harbor Labs.

The ecological record shows repeated instances in which birds develop physical traits in response to their environment. Charles Darwin was among the first to record this in in the 1830s — in finches on the Galápagos Islands — and researchers are still discovering new examples today. The connection between beak shape and foraging behavior is well documented, but the link between neck structure and feeding has received less attention.

The UW researchers began years ago. Gannets are built to withstand immense pressure on the head and neck that compresses the cervical column. Engineers typically favor short and fat structures for things built to tolerate compressive force, but these birds have long, slender necks with segmented vertebrae.

Gannet necks have 15 stacked vertebrae that bend slightly in an s-curve. that the muscles surrounding their vertebrae help lock them in place to prepare for impact, but few studies have looked at the actual morphology of?diving birds’ necks.

To do so, the researchers collected specimens of diving birds and non-diving birds from . The team performed CT scans to create detailed three-dimensional models of the cervical vertebrae and then analyzed the images with geometric , a statistical method for studying biological samples that establishes landmarks for comparison. They considered the forces associated with various feeding styles and chose birds that represented a spectrum, pulling in additional morphological data from .

“Birds that rotate their heads side to side, or move them front to back, separate out from birds that use their heads in compression,” said lead author , a graduate student of biology at UW’s Friday Harbor Labs. “We see that the birds that plunge-dive have more robust vertebrae. They’re thicker, wider, and also shorter, shaped more like a square.”

The stocky shape of the vertebrae provides added support, as does the additional contact surface, called an articular facet, in second through the sixth vertebrae. In this case, researchers think the extra facet keeps the birds’ necks from bending backward when they hit the water at an angle. Instead, the load gets transferred down the cervical column.

The researchers also observed more blocklike vertebrae in other diving birds, such as the kingfisher, but did not detect the extra facet. Kingfishers belong to a different avian family and are much smaller than gannets and boobies, but their necks seem to have evolved in a similar way. The structural relationship is also proportional: the larger the neck, the larger the vertebrae.

Kingfishers and the bigger plunge-divers also experience the same amount of force per neck area during a dive. Although total force scales with neck size, the amount of stress on the tissue is the same. Both groups experienced peak force nearly five milliseconds after impact despite the size difference.

Moving forward, the researchers hope to explore how force transfers down the neck in more detail. They also think this link between structure and function could help paleontologists identify plunge-diving birds from fossils.

“It feels like something I didn’t previously think about and probably overlooked before,” Vanderberg said. “I’m curious to start looking more closely at vertebrae in general, not just in birds.”

Co-authors include , professor of biology and of aquatic and fishery sciences at UW; , assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at UW; , graduate student of mechanical engineering at the UW; and of the University of California, Riverside.

This research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, Beatrice and Samuel A. Seaver Foundation, Friday Harbor Laboratories Research Endowment Fellowship, 天美影视传媒 Friday Harbor Laboratories Award, and Jim and Camille Uhlir.

For more information, contact Vandenberg at megvdb4@uw.edu.

Source

A 天美影视传媒-led center for optoelectronics — technologies that combine light and electronics — brings researchers from 14 universities across the U.S. together with the mission to develop new materials to transform information technology with light. This research has broad ranging applications, from enabling photorealistic virtual reality displays for telehealth calls, to secure, optical quantum communication links to ensure that data remains private on the internet.

Founded in 2021 as a , the , or NSF IMOD, has received a second round of funding from the NSF to continue its work for the next five years.

The research tackled by NSF IMOD is so interdisciplinary that it requires researchers from backgrounds such as chemistry, physics, engineering and materials science to work together.

“There’s still this idea that scientists go in their labs, put on their safety goggles and lab coats, and then work alone for hours at a time. The point of this center is to tackle problems that are too big for one scientist or even two or three to tackle by themselves,” said NSF IMOD director , UW professor of chemistry. “We have all these people from different disciplines working together to advance optoelectronics and semiconductor technology that we couldn’t do just as individual scientists.”

“Until our center came along, quantum dots were thought of as something you made in a beaker in a chemistry lab. And if you could paint them on a TV or phone display, that was great,” said Ginger, who is also the B. Seymour Rabinovitch Endowed Chair in Chemistry and the chief scientist at the UW . “But they weren’t something that you could put as a discrete component in an optoelectronic circuit. That’s something that we’ve proven you can do.”

With chemists, material scientists, mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, physicists and electrical engineers on the team, researchers at NSF IMOD created something unprecedented: a way to print quantum dots, . The team showed that they could strategically place quantum dots into specific cavities, which could one day be the building blocks for quantum communication, and possibly even quantum computing.

The team hopes to continue this research direction over the next five years, further refining quantum dots as well as the cavities the dots get placed into.

NSF IMOD’s interdisciplinary nature gets passed down to its students as well. One of the center’s main goals is to develop researchers into leaders in the fields of semiconductor and optoelectronic technology. Every summer, NSF IMOD trainees from different disciplines come together at the UW for in multiple disciplines. The students synthesize quantum dots, study single photons of light in UW’s , make quantum dots, and learn to calculate the electronic structures of advanced materials. The collaborations established during this course and throughout the NSF IMOD training program helps students graduate with the ability to work in complex, interdisciplinary teams.

Trainees also gain real-world experience in the form of internships at a variety of companies, including some of NSF IMOD’s industry and national lab partners. A partial list of NSF IMOD’s partners includes ; ; ; ; ; and More partner information can be found on .

“We’re already seeing our students get hired at everything from startup companies to large semiconductor firms for the exact skills they’re being trained for in the center,” Ginger said. “We’re really excited to see our students start taking important roles, and then eventually we hope they move into leadership roles in this space of commercializing new semiconductor materials.”

And it’s not just graduate students who benefit from NSF IMOD. The center hosts a program, and has programming for younger students as well. As part of their science communication training, NSF IMOD trainees become who can facilitate outreach events, such as at the Pacific Science Center. The team has also developed a for K-12 teachers to find lesson plans to use in their own classrooms.

“Just as the atomic structure of a quantum dot produces unique and exciting properties, the exceptionally interdisciplinary structure of NSF IMOD is enabling foundational science and technological innovations that would not otherwise be possible,” said , a program director in the NSF Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, which manages NSF IMOD.

Over the past five years, NSF IMOD has published 140 papers, hosted 36 undergraduate students through its REU program and hosted more than 85 outreach events.

“One day I hope that we’ll have photonic computing where we’re massively reducing the energy cost for computation by using a computing paradigm that’s based on the research we’re doing now,” Ginger said. “That’s the kind of thing that’s probably still a decade or more away. But that’s why the government invests in basic science now, because the basic science research of the materials today leads to technology that exists 15 years from now.”

NSF is expected to provide NSF IMOD $22 million over the five-year term of the award. The 14 academic institutions that make up NSF IMOD are the 天美影视传媒; University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University; University of Chicago; Northwestern University; University of Pennsylvania; University of Maryland; Georgia Institute of Technology; University of Colorado Boulder; Arizona State University; Rice University; Lehigh University; City College of New York; and University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

In addition to Ginger, other UW faculty involved with NSF IMOD include , associate professor of physics and of electrical and computer engineering at the UW; , a UW professor of chemistry; , professor of electrical and computer engineering; , associate professor of mechanical engineering and of materials science and engineering, and technical director of the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds; and , professor of physics and of electrical and computer engineering. Fu chairs UW . Fu, Lin and Majumdar are faculty members with the UW . Cossairt, Fu, Lin, Majumdar and MacKenzie are member faculty at the Clean Energy Institute. Ginger, Fu, Lin, Majumdar and MacKenzie are faculty researchers with the UW .?

For more information, contact Ginger at dginger@uw.edu.

Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. National Science Foundation.

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The 天美影视传媒 today broke ground on a $231.1-million Chemical Sciences Building. Once completed, the state-of-the-art facility will be a nexus for collaborative research and teaching that will help the UW define the next 100 years of science education and breakthroughs.

Recognized worldwide, the UW’s Department of Chemistry is one of the largest in the country, and faculty are leaders in the field. The new Chemical Science Building will provide research synergies and dynamic, active learning spaces.

“The Chemical Sciences Building will be more than a new facility. It is an investment in the students, faculty and researchers whose curiosity and collaboration drive discovery. We are deeply grateful to the donors, state leaders and supporters who are making this investment possible,” said UW President Robert J. Jones. “The work that happens here will help advance science, strengthen our state and improve lives for generations to come.”

The Chemical Sciences Building opens additional pathways for workforce development, industry collaboration and academic excellence in Washington. Updating facilities also helps the UW attract and retain top-notch students and scientists, further fueling the state’s economy and renown.

“Washington’s economy is built on innovation,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said. “Maintaining our leadership requires a reliable pipeline of skilled, highly educated workers. We’re proud to be an investor in this state-of-the-art new building. It’s an investment in our students, and Washington’s economic vitality.”

Funding for the project is led by the State of Washington, the College of Arts & Sciences and private support. The 104,500-square foot, five-story building will be constructed on the former site of the Chemistry Library Building behind the Molecular Engineering and Nanoengineering buildings on West Stevens Way NE. New classrooms and laboratories in the Chemistry Sciences Building will allow the UW to complete a renovation and update of Bagley Hall, the 1937 structure that’s long housed the Department of Chemistry.

“This new building will be a catalyst for both the Department of Chemistry’s and the College’s collaborative work that addresses some of the most pressing and complex challenges of our time,” said Daryl Maeda, the Katherine and John Simpson Endowed Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. “Researchers will push the boundaries of chemistry further than ever before, partnering with students in spaces designed for creativity and connection. Our students will benefit from a world-class education and research opportunities that set them up for success and impact after graduation.”

The Chemical Sciences Building will:

• Expand student opportunity by providing hands-on research labs and connecting classroom learning with scientific discovery. Students will work alongside faculty, gain experience with modern tools and prepare for high-demand careers across Washington and beyond.
• Enhance collaboration by bringing research groups together and giving them the newest and best tools to do their jobs, spark new ideas and accelerate solutions.
• Create paths to discovery. Flexible, state-of-the-art laboratories will remove barriers posed by aging facilities and support work in sustainable chemistry, human health, advanced materials, quantum science and more.

The design-build team is Skanska and Payette+EHDD. Completion is scheduled for 2029.

For more information, contact Lance Kissler at lkissler@uw.edu.

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It’s not unusual for students to ask why he’s so dressed up for class, but his answer often takes them by surprise.

Goldman, a teaching professor of chemistry at the 天美影视传媒, often goes directly from work to meetings for his other position: for Lake Forest Park, a suburb of Seattle. He’s been a council member since 2022 and is currently serving his second term, which runs through 2029.

Science came naturally to Goldman. He decided to major in chemistry during an Advanced Placement class in high school and chose to teach as a postdoctoral scholar, but his venture into civics was “more serendipitous.” When a friend on the council first approached him with the idea in April 2021, Goldman all but scoffed.

“That’s not my personality,” he said. “I’m not the most gregarious person. I tend to be much more analytical, so I wouldn’t have envisioned myself being a politician. I also think there is a stereotype that you have to have studied political science or you have to be a lawyer to be in politics. I’m a chemistry teacher.”

But Goldman’s friend insisted he only needed to be passionate about the community to be an effective council member. A month later, he decided to run. In order to run for office in Lake Forest Park, a person must only be a registered voter of the city and have lived there at least one year.

“I think my friend was completely correct in that each council member brings a different scope,” Goldman said. “I really took that to heart. Some people are more experienced in land use while others know construction design or finances or can analyze data.”

Lake Forest Park covers an area of 3.4 miles in King County. The city has an estimated population of 13,630 as of the 2020 Census. More than 18% of the population is aged 65 and over, while 21% of the population is 21 and under.

Goldman’s focus is on environmental issues and public transit. Lake Forest Park tends to be car-centric, Goldman said, so his goal is to make it easier for people to bike or walk to transit.? He doesn’t own a car, so he commutes to work at the UW by bus.?

“There is no reason to be pigeonholed,” Goldman said. “There is no reason for people to think, ‘Oh, I’m in science and you’re in politics and those two things are totally separate.’ Scientific literacy is critical for the general population.”

Goldman has also found overlap in the skills he uses for his two roles. While professors teach individually, they collaborate on topics like course ideas, textbooks and changing the curriculum.

“A lot of the decisions in the chemistry department are made through mutual consensus,” Goldman said. “I bring that mindset to the city council. There will be some disagreements, but it’s the same process of: Where does everyone start from? What are we already in agreement on? What do we need to reach an agreement?”

Sitting on the council has also given Goldman a more complete understanding of what it takes to manage a budget, which has helped him grasp the operational and capital expenses in the chemistry department and the College of Arts & Sciences.

By sharing about his path with students, Goldman hopes to illuminate career options outside the traditional chemistry track. Many graduates remain in academia or pursue pre-med or similar paths, but there is a lot of middle ground, Goldman said. Students could consider going into law or using their chemistry knowledge to become a professional consultant.

“There are a lot of alternative approaches,” Goldman said. “And having politicians who are knowledgeable about science will make any science-related legislation that much more effective. I want to encourage people not to separate science from politics.”

As for Goldman, his political ambitions end here. You won’t see him campaigning for any county or state posts.

“You wouldn’t be the first person to ask,” Goldman said. “Honestly, it took a bit of arm-twisting to get me to run in the first place. This is not a stepping stone. I’m happy in my own little quiet neck of the woods.”

For more information, contact Goldman at goldmanl@uw.edu.

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Capybaras like their habitats wet. These large rodents thrive in low-elevation wetlands, migrating along creeks and rivers to nibble on foliage and flowers. That’s why researchers were surprised to find an 8.8 million-year-old fossilized capybara tooth in northern Chile’s , one of the driest regions on Earth. In a paper in Scientific Reports, researchers postulate that the Atacama Desert must have had a wetter climate during the , based on this discovery. This is the first time a capybara species has ever been seen in the Atacama region of Chile — today these creatures reside in the marshy lowlands across Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina and Uruguay. Researchers had at one time assumed that the Andean mountain chain on the eastern side of Chile would have prevented these short-legged rodents from ever entering the Atacama region. With this discovery, the authors propose that capybaras were able to follow a wetland trail along the northern part of South America, trekking from Bolivia to Peru into northern Chile. In addition to capybaras, the ancient Atacama region also likely had palms and other flowering plants, according to plant fossils analyzed by a UW scientist for the study. These findings challenge the idea that the Atacama was just always a desert, and can help researchers better understand how shifts in climate can drastically affect the environment.

For more information, contact co-author , UW professor of biology, at caestrom@uw.edu.??????

A full list of co-authors and funding is . Adapted from a release .

Multitasking gives marine microbes an edge when nutrients are scarce

The world’s oceans teem with tiny organisms that are difficult to study yet critical to account for. The organisms that make up this microscopic community, many of which are protists, have evolved over time to help keep marine ecosystems balanced. A UW study in the ISME Journal, found that organisms that can both photosynthesize and eat to generate energy do better in nutrient-limited environments, which includes warmer water. This flexibility may help them cope with changing conditions and could help researchers gauge how marine ecosystems will respond to future warming. Gathering more data from the bottom of the food web is important for understanding the ecosystem-wide impacts of environmental change. The study also debuted a new genetic method for studying energy production versus consumption that may make it easier to study protists. Samples in this study were collected from the North Pacific, near Hawaii and about 1,000 miles north, but the researchers hope to continue expanding the radius to improve global ocean models.

For more information, contact , UW research scientist and engineer of biological oceanography at coesel@uw.edu.

The UW co-authors are Shiri Graff van Creveld, and . A full list of co-authors and funding is .

UW engineers capture behavior of ‘edge waves’ on beaches, putting popular wave models to the test

Coastal engineers and oceanographers often think of the motion of water on beaches as “one dimensional”: waves propagating directly onto the beach from offshore. These simplified wave models are used widely from designing shoreline infrastructure to forecasting coastal flooding. However, some waves propagate along the coast rather than crashing into it, and may push an additional meter of water depth onto the beach. For decades, these “edge waves” have not been accounted for in the one-dimensional models commonly used to understand wave behavior. To find out how edge waves might be impacting model accuracy, researchers at the UW and UC San Diego deployed an array of pressure and velocity sensors along a beach in Southern California for 60 days. In a paper in JGR Oceans, the researchers describe a model they built to tease out the influence of edge waves in the larger system. While edge waves contributed a significant amount of energy, the team found that ultimately the one-dimensional models that exclude edge waves remain accurate enough for predicting total water levels at the shoreline.

For more information, contact , a postdoctoral scholar of civil and environmental engineering, at cshender@uw.edu.

A full list of co-authors and funding is .

How Colombian environmentalists use law and democracy to redefine mountain landscapes

In 2013 and 2017, Colombian voters in two towns backed a legal effort to stop a large-scale gold mining project. In doing so, they are making the mountainous areas where they live more visible and politically relevant. The decision allowed environmental advocates to organize around a larger area defined by elevation, massive volume, and subterranean and arboreal features. , UW assistant professor of anthropology, a research article in the journal Anthropological Forum that examines how the effort used legal tools for citizen participation to not only voice their opinions on extractive projects, but also reconfigure space in unprecedented ways. The case shows that democratic participation can have far-reaching consequences for how landscapes are defined and lived. The article appears in a special issue, called “Ethnographies of Vertical and Volumetric Worlds,” which was co-edited by Ardila and Steven Schwartz of the University of Rochester.

For more information, contact Castillo at acastil@uw.edu.

Funding information is .

Researchers develop new way to measure how blood clots form

A wound stops bleeding because tiny blood cell fragments called platelets clump together to form a clot. Researchers know that platelets generate forces that help compact and strengthen clots. However, they’ve struggled to understand how blood clots form in real time. To better understand this system, UW mechanical engineers created a device that measures how platelet forces and stiffness evolve together during the first minutes of clot formation. in Advanced Healthcare Materials, the research team used the device to apply magnetic forces to clumps of platelets, causing them to strengthen and stiffen through a process called “mechanotransduction” in which cells convert mechanical forces into biological responses. These findings could be used to study how new drugs affect clot formation, how platelets respond to signals when disease is present, and how blood clotting biomechanics contribute to cardiovascular disorders.

For more information, contact , a UW professor of mechanical engineering, at nsniadec@uw.edu.

The UW co-authors are , , Yoeur-Man Mach and . A full list of co-authors and funding is . Adapted from a story by .

UW researchers probe superconducting materials that defy expectations

Most materials resist the flow of electricity to some degree, but unusual materials known as superconductors can carry an electric current with no resistance at all. Superconductors offer a unique window into the physics of materials at tiny scales, and they could one day revolutionize electronics. In recent years, researchers have discovered new forms of superconductivity in stacks of atomically thin materials such as . Resistance typically drops to zero as these materials are cooled, but in some cases it mysteriously levels off at a small finite value, which contradicts expectations of superconductor behavior. In a paper in Nature, UW materials scientists tested this behavior with a device consisting of several layers of graphene stacked in a staircase-like pattern. By adjusting voltages applied to the device, the researchers could control whether the graphene exhibited true superconductivity or the more peculiar “failed” form, providing clear evidence that failed superconductivity is real. The team is now working to uncover the origin of this mysterious behavior.

For more information, contact , a UW associate professor of both physics and materials science and engineering, at myank@uw.edu..

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

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New faculty books from the 天美影视传媒 include those from the Information School, bioengineering, mathematics, the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and Earth and space sciences.

Feminist theory of creep through technological analysis?

, professor in the Information School, is the co-author and co-editor of “,” published by Duke University Press.

New and emerging technologies, especially ones that infiltrate intimate spaces, relations, homes, and bodies, are often referred to as creepy in media and political discourses. In “Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen,” Neda Atanasoski and Nassim Parvin introduce a feminist theory of “creep” that they substantiate through critical engagement with smart homes, smart dust, smart desires and smart forests toward dreams of feminist futures.?

Contributing authors further illuminate what is otherwise obscured, assumed, or dismissed in characterizations of technology as creepy or creeping. Considering diverse technologies from border surveillance and China’s credit system to sexcams and home assistants, the volume’s essays and artworks demonstrate that the potential and pitfalls of artificial intelligence and digital and robotic technologies cannot be assessed through binaries of seeing/being seen, privacy/surveillance or harmful/useful.?

Together, their multifaceted and multimodal approach transcends such binaries. This volume develops creep as a feminist analytic and creative mode on par with technology’s complex entanglement with intimate, local, and global politics.

For more information, contact Parvin at nassimi@uw.edu.

Foundations of microfluidics through broad understandings of the world?

In “,” , professor of bioengineering at the UW, explores? microfluidics, the field of science that studies fluids constrained to spaces that are smaller than one millimeter wide. Through engaging and digestible stories, Folch takes a lens to this tiny science and demonstrates how big a role microfluidics plays in life as we know it.?

“It was my wife who insisted I write another book on microfluidics,” Folch said. “She insisted that this one be for the general public and cover not just the academic microfluidic chips but also the mesmerizing microfluidics one finds in nature and in a variety of contraptions and devices you’d never think to call ‘microfluidic.’”

The goal of “How the World Flows” was not for students to learn microfluidic engineering, but instead, to create a broader understanding of the foundations of the field. As the title suggests, this process spans from natural raindrops to COVID tests, affecting humanity in marvelous ways.

“Just like microelectronic circuits are too small for you to see and are hidden under the screen of your smartphone, most microfluidic phenomena happen in tiny spaces,” Folch said. “All these microfluidic systems, despite their microscopic size, have had a colossal impact on our planet and our lives. In some capacity or another, they all make the world flow.”

For more information, contact Folch at afolch@uw.edu.

Unified account of a fundamental mathematical object?

, professor emeritus of mathematics at the UW, recently published “.”?

This is a survey of the mathematics developed over the last 60 years concerning the Heisenberg group, a mathematical object that has connections with many different areas of mathematics.

Folland intends the audience to be graduate students and professionals in mathematics, providing “the first unified account of the diverse analytic and geometric mathematical developments associated with the Heisenberg group.”

For more information, contact Folland at folland@uw.edu.

Jewish family saga unveiled

, professor emeritus of computer science and engineering at the UW, published “” in February. This braided historical novel is based on family history concealed from Tompa by his parents throughout his childhood.

The book starts in the 1930s, as two Jewish families live happy and successful lives in cosmopolitan Vienna. On March 12, 1938, without firing a shot, the Nazis annex Austria into the German Reich, and Adolf Hitler marches into Vienna with his army. This sudden, terrifying event tears each of these close-knit families apart and scatters their members across the globe as they snatch at any possibility of safe haven.

Liesl, who is 18 years old, flees alone to London and a servant’s life. Liesl’s future soulmate, Peter, is deported from Vienna and thrown into a Hungarian jail. Liesl’s parents, Otti and Ernst, flee on the Trans-Siberian Railway to a foreign life in Shanghai. Two years later, they sail to Manila in the Philippines, arriving just as Japan’s bombardment and occupation begin.

By the end of 1945, all four of them and several more family members converge on New York City as though drawn together by magnetic forces.?

“It is a tale of survival against terrible odds and the rebuilding of family at journey’s end,” Tompa said. “Writing this family saga has been my dream for 25 years.”

For more information, contact Tompa at tompa@cs.washington.edu.?

Solutions to help our land

In “,” , professor of Earth and space sciences at the UW, lays out practical and productive solutions to recover the health of our land through soil-building regenerative agriculture. Drawing on the work of farmers, historians and researchers, he articulates the power of rebuilding soil health by minimizing or avoiding physical and chemical disturbance of the soil, such as through combining cover cropping, no- or low-tillage and crop diversity.

The combination allows farmers — and gardeners — to greatly reduce or eliminate synthetic fertilizer and pesticide use and can help address a number of today’s most pressing problems.

The book takes apart common myths around conventional farming and unearths much-needed soil rehabilitation as the key to our agricultural future.

“REGEN shows how reforming the way we see and treat the land can address critically underappreciated, yet eminently solvable problems to restore the health of our land and secure civilization’s agricultural foundation — and a healthy future for society and ourselves,” Montgomery said.?

For more information, contact Montgomery at bigdirt@uw.edu.?

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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.

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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

Coral reefs provide shelter and protection , including crabs, moray eels, octopus and fish. But these cozy homes are currently under threat for many reasons, such as rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification.

Researchers are trying to understand how groups of fish communicate with each other within a coral reef, and how the health of the reef affects that communication.

This fall , a 天美影视传媒 doctoral student in the biology department, and UW research scientist are traveling to the on Magoodhoo, Maldives, to gather live footage of interactions. This fish is a common schooling species on Maldivian reefs. UW News asked Milan a few questions about the trip for the occasional series “In the Field,” which highlights UW field research efforts.?

Tell us about your project.

Jj Milan: I’m studying how fish in schools can accurately communicate the difference between a real threat and a harmless false alarm. And then, once a threat is gone, I want to understand how they coordinate the return to normal behavior.

What will you be doing on this trip?

JM: I’ll be using synchronized cameras and automated tracking to record how threat responses spread through a school. We will be scuba diving to place GoPro cameras and tablets around specific coral heads. We won’t be diving very deep because we need sufficient natural lighting for our video recordings. Our local contacts at the MaRHE Center have confirmed that the surrounding reef is shallow with abundant marine life.

I’m also hoping to collaborate with locals to get more insights into typical fish behavior and predator activity in this area.

What do you hope to learn?

JM: I hope to be able to reconstruct how threat responses move through a school of fish in real time, from the first fish that reacts to how the group settles back into normal behavior. I’ll also reconstruct the three-dimensional structure of the coral to understand if the complexity of the structure changes how quick and how coordinated that response is.

What’s something you really enjoy about doing this field work — especially something that might not occur to most people?

JM: I enjoy how this work brings together my love of ocean life, my diving hobby and my passion for research all in one. I have been diving since 2019 and I am excited because this will be my first time diving in warm water conditions.

More generally, is there anything you find surprising or enlightening about doing field work?

JM: I’m surprised at how many possibilities and opportunities for collaboration arise just during the planning process through connecting with other researchers and resources. I hope to build on these connections in the future.?

For more information, contact Milan at jdmilan@uw.edu.

Source