Come curious. Leave inspired.

For those near and far, we invite you to end the year with us through a range of events, performances, exhibitions, podcasts, and more. As you begin to shape your December plans, don’t miss the inspiring events still to come this November.

In addition,��.

ArtSci On Your Own Time

Henry Art Gallery Exhibitions Closing in January:

Influenced by non-verbal communication, Kim merges graphic and musical notation with American Sign Language. Her compositions uniquely address her experience as a Deaf individual in a hearing-centric society and broader societal influences on whose voices hold sway.

This presentation is the second rotation in a two-part series showcasing new additions to the Henry’s permanent collection. Artists featured in this presentation highlight both locally and globally recognized figures, including Sarah Cain, Fiona Connor, Demian DineYahzi’, Mary Ann Peters, and Carrie Yamaoka, among others.

Spirit House investigates how contemporary artists of Asian descent challenge the boundary between life and death through art. A thematic exploration of the work of thirty-four Asian American and Asian diasporic artists, Spirit House asks the question, what does it mean to speak to ghosts, inhabit haunted spaces, be reincarnated, or enter different dimensions? Inspired by spirit houses, small devotional structures found throughout Thailand that provide shelter for the supernatural, this exhibition considers how art can bridge the gap between this world and the next.

Admission to the Henry is free to all visitors.

Podcast: ��(Jackson School of International Studies)
Launched in 2021 with UW Professor Daniel Bessner and writer Derek Davison, “American Prestige,” the winner of the 2025 Signal Awards “silver” medal, offers an in-depth analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international affairs, and has featured guests such as actor Morgan Spector and HuffPost senior diplomatic correspondent Akbar Shahid Ahmed.

Exhibitions in the Community: (Art + Art History + Design)
Eight students graduated in June 2025 with their Master of Fine Arts degrees and just a few months later, are already making impressive moves in their artistic careers with work being featured at the Tacoma Art Museum, 4Culture, and more!

Podcasts: (����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý Magazine)
From Indigenous Jazz to conversations about how to live with uncertainty and discomfort without disconnecting from our shared humanity, listen to podcasts and radio shows from UW alumni and faculty.

Events Happening in December

December 1 | ��(Music)
Phyllis Byrdwell leads the 100-voice Gospel Choir in songs from the Gospel tradition.

December 1 | (Slavic Languages & Literature)
UW professor, translator, and writer José Alaniz discusses his latest book, Comics of the Anthropocene: Graphic Narrative at the End of Nature, the first full-length monograph to explore how US comics artists have depicted environmental destruction, mass extinctions, and climate change. He will be joined in conversation by fellow artists Megan Kelso, Leonard Rifas, and T Edward Bak.��Free.

December 2 | (Political Science)
The UW Political Science Department welcomes Hayko Bağdat to the stage with UW Professor Asli Cansunar for a discussion on minority rights, freedom of expression and belonging in Turkish politics today. Drawing on personal stories, they’ll explore what it means to speak truth, to live in exile for that truth, and to carry both love and loss for a country from afar. Free.

December 2 | (Art + Art History + Design)
Our question to consider: What is the soundtrack to liberation? This year-long program series hopes to honor our commitment to social justice and to gather our community to think about the work of liberation through shared texts, art, film, music, conversation, and workshops. Unlike your traditional book club all the reading and study happens together, so no need to prepare.

December 3 | ��(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 4 | (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
Part of Burke’s Free First Thursday series, the museum opens its collections spaces from 4:30 to 7:30 PM. Visitors can explore behind‑the-scenes labs and storage, and speak with researchers, staff, and volunteers about their work.��Free.

December 4 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
Over the past quarter-century, the Simpson Center has established itself as an internationally recognized model for leading-edge humanities research. Its work—from scholarly gatherings to fellowship programs to publications—has been transformative for faculty, students, and staff at the ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý. The new faculty director of the Simpson Center, Professor Lynn M. Thomas, invites you to celebrate the impact of the Center’s work and to raise a glass to honor Professor Kathleen Woodward’s legacy of leadership at the Simpson Center.��Free.

Online Option – December 4 | The Office of Public Lectures presents: Healthcare Where All Can Thrive: Advocating For Older LGBTQ Adults with Carey Candrian (Graduate School Public Lectures)
Healthcare can be challenging for anyone—but for older LGBTQ individuals, the barriers are often deeper and more complex. This talk explores how thoughtful, inclusive communication can transform healthcare experiences, making every person feel truly seen, heard, and respected. Free.

December 4 | School of Music Performances
Free

Free

December 5 – 13 | (Drama)
Part farce, part protest, this sharp and timely comedy explores Capitalism and economic survival with wild humor and a lot of heart. Directed by Bradley Wrenn, as part of our Producing Artists Laboratory, They Don’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! brings riotous laughter to a situation that feels all too close to home.

December 7 | ��(Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Join Cantus for a reflection on the meaning and joy of the holiday season with a program that the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune deemed “as joyful a celebration of the season’s spirit as any caroling party you’re likely to attend this year.”

December 7 | (Music)
The ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý Modern Music Ensemble (Cristina Valdés, director) presents diverse and innovative programming from the mid-20th century to the present. Free.

December 8 | ��(Asian Languages & Literature)
In this talk, David Spafford, Associate Professor of Premodern Japanese History at the University of Pennsylvania, takes a closer look at the complexities of sixteenth-century Japan and unpacks why this particular moment in history matters so much — and how the hit Shogun series does (or doesn’t) help us understand it. Free.

December 9 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Through a captivating multimedia performance, Feinstein breathes life into iconic songs, blending holiday classics and more. The concert includes a wide-ranging selection of favorites with melodies that promise an unforgettable evening celebrating the magic of the holiday season.

December 11 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Dianne Reeves — one of the pre-eminent jazz vocalists in the world today — brings her fresh interpretations of Christmas standards to Meany for a night of holiday magic. Her brilliant virtuosity, improvisational prowess and unique jazz flair are showcased in a set of music from her celebrated album, Christmas Time Is Here.

December 18 |

Read the book ahead of time, or join to learn more about the selection. The��December book is The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Polly Olsen, Burke Museum Tribal Liaison, will discuss The Serviceberry and illustrate the book’s core concept, the gift economy. After the conversation, explore the museum on your own and see examples of lessons from The Serviceberry in the galleries.

December 18 – 20 | (Dance)
From improvisation and playful experiments, to a soft collision with movement, each work has a distinct choreographic style. The evening asks us to consider different modes of relation: between artists, across decades, in conversation with lineage, and with embodied inquiry. In collaboration with UW Associate Professor Rachael Lincoln.

December 31 | (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
Enjoy fossilized fun at five drop-in stations designed for young learners ages 3–8. Hold fossils and casts at the touch table, make scientific discoveries in the dig pit, create a craft to take home, and collect a new stamp each month in your Fossil Finders Passport.

ArtSci Roundup goes monthly!

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

Previously shared on a quarterly basis, those who sign up for the Roundup email will receive them monthly, delivering timely updates and engaging content wherever you are. Check the roundup regularly, as events are added throughout the month. Make sure to 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!

In addition, if you like the ArtSci Roundup, sign up to receive a monthly notice when it’s been published.��

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

Come curious. Leave inspired.

We welcome you to connect with us this autumn quarter through an incredible lineup of more than 30 events, exhibitions, podcasts, and more. From thought-provoking talks on monsters to boundary-pushing performances by Grammy-nominated Mariachi ensembles, it’s a celebration of bold ideas and creative energy.

ArtSci On Your Own Time

Exhibition: (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
Journey through the seasonal cycle of weaving, from gathering materials and spinning wool to dyeing with natural ingredients and weaving intricate designs. Along the way, learn firsthand from weavers and gain insight into the deep cultural and scientific knowledge embedded in every strand. Free entry for UW faculty, staff, and students.

Closing September 28 | (Henry Art Gallery)
This focused exhibition features works from Passing On (2022), a series of collaged newspaper obituaries of influential feminist activists and organizers. The clippings, presented with Winant’s handwritten annotations, reflect on a lineage of non-biological inheritance and how language shapes memory and history. Free.

Closing October 4 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
The Jacob Lawrence Gallery presents Crossings, featuring new bricolage sculptures by Rob Rhee inspired by inosculated trees and experimental grafting processes. The exhibit includes work from his studio and ongoing developments at the UW Farm. Free.

Exhibitions: (����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý Magazine)
Find art by UW alumni and faculty in solo exhibitions, group shows and art fairs across Seattle and beyond. Free.

Podcast: Ways of Knowing, Season 2
Faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences are facilitating critical conversations in the classroom and the sound booth! The second season of “Ways of Knowing,” a podcast collaboration with The World According to Sound, spotlights eight Arts & Sciences faculty members whose research shapes our knowledge of the world in real time—from digital humanities to mathematics to AI. Free.

Video: (Astronomy)
What will Rubin Observatory discover that no one’s expecting? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice learn and answer cosmic queries about the Vera Rubin Observatory, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), and our next big tool to uncover more about the universe with Zeljko Ivezic, Director of Rubin Observatory Construction. Free.

Book Club: “The Four Winds” by Kristin Hannah��(UW Alumni)
Readers’ Choice! Author (and UW alum – BA, Communication, ’83 ) Kristin Hannah highlights the struggles of the working poor during the Great Depression in this novel. Elsa is an awkward wallflower who is raising her two children on the family farm. As the Dust Bowl hits, she must choose between weathering the climate catastrophe in Texas or moving her family west to follow rumors of jobs in California. Free.

Week of September 22

September 25 | (Department of Chemistry)
A seminar featuring Professor Matt Golder. Free.

September 25 | (Henry Art Gallery)
A two-part series of readings by local authors exploring ghosts, familial histories, and the porousness between life and death. Free.

September 26 | ��
From the best-selling author of These Truths comes We the People, a stunning new history of the U.S. Constitution, for a troubling new era.

Week of September 29

October 1 | (School of Music)
Students of the UW School of Music perform in this lunchtime concert series co-hosted by UW Music and UW Libraries. Free.

October 3 | (Henry Art Gallery)
Celebrate fall at the Henry with an evening of bold, boundary‑pushing art and vibrant community, featuring exhibitions like Rodney McMillian: Neighbors, Kameelah Janan Rasheed: we leak, we exceed, Spirit House, and Sculpture Court Mural – Charlene Liu: Scallion. Meet the artists, enjoy a no‑host bar, and a curated playlist. Free.

October 3 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Award-winning pianist and cultural ambassador Mahani Teave is a pioneering artist who bridges the creative world with education and environmental activism.

October 3 | (School of Music)
A performance featuring special guests Stomu Takeishi (bass), Lucia Pulido (voice), Cuong Vu (trumpet), and Ted Poor (drums), performing the music of Chilean composer Violeta Parra. Free.

October 4 | (Henry Art Gallery)
An in-depth conversation between artist Rodney McMillian and curator Anthony Elms about the artistic process, themes, and the

Week of October 6

October 7 | (Department of Economics)
Distinguished economist and 2024 Nobel Laureate James Robinson delivers the Milliman Lecture. Free.

October 8 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
A literary conversation between novelist and artist Gerardo Sámano Córdova and UW professors María Elena García (CHID) and Vanessa Freije (JSIS/History), centered around Sámano Córdova’s recent novel, Monstrilio, exploring the major themes of the book, including queerness, monstrosity, and grief. Free.

October 9 | (American Indian Studies)
A series to prepare for the Film Screening & UW Symphony Performance: Healing Heart of the First People of This Land on February 6, 2026 (). Free.

October 10 | (School of Music)
A performance featuring UW Jazz Studies students Jai Kobi Kaleo ‘Okalani, Coen Rios, and Ethan Horn. Free.

October 10 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
The South Asia Center and Tasveer Film Festival host a screening and discussion of Farming the Revolution (1hr 45min, India, 2024, Nishtha Jain). Free.

October 12 | (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
KEXP broadcasts live from the Burke Museum with music from Indigenous artists all day long! Visit the new special exhibition, Woven in Wool: Resilience in Coast Salish Weaving. While you’re here, say hello to Sammy the Sounder and celebrate the team’s new Salish Sea Kit, co-designed by local Coast Salish weavers. Enjoy free admission for all—plus, kids wearing any Sounders gear will receive a free soccer ball! Free.

Week of October 13

October 14 | (School of Music)
New UW strings faculty John Popham (cello) and Pala Garcia (violin) are joined by Mika Sasaki (piano) in a concert of contemporary works by their trio Longleash, including Nossas Mãos (Our Hands) by Igor Santos.

Online Option – October 14 | (Classics)
For three decades, the Centre d’Études Alexandrines has reshaped our understanding of Alexandria, moving its history from ancient texts to a tangible reality. Terrestrial digs reveal the city’s daily life, while underwater excavations at the site of the legendary Lighthouse have yielded spectacular monumental discoveries. These integrated findings present a multi-layered city, allowing us to write a new history of Alexandria grounded in its material culture of adaptation and reuse. Free.

October 15 |��
President Jones will share his vision for advancing the UW’s public mission: expanding access to an excellent education for all students; strengthening connections with our communities; and accelerating research, discovery and innovation for the public good. Free.

October 15 | ��(Department of Mathematics)
Mathematics has its own language, which is used by all other sciences to describe our world. It is very important to use it correctly, and to appreciate how it changes with time. This importance is growing rapidly with the ever wider use of large language models. There is great potential here, but also many pitfalls, as discussed in this lecture. Free.

October 15 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
This Fall MFA exhibition at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery showcases emerging artists’ work. On view through November 8. Free.

October 16 | (American Indian Studies)
A series to prepare for the Film Screening & UW Symphony Performance: Healing Heart of the First People of This Land on February 6, 2026 (). Free.

October 16 | (Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies)
Connect with local legislators. John Traynor, the Government Affairs Director from the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, will facilitate the forum.

October 16 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities) Free.

October 17 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
The Grammy-nominated ensemble puts their unique spin on traditional mariachi, creating an explosion of colors and sounds all their own.

October 17 | (Department of Political Science)
UC Berkeley’s David Vogel joins the UW Center for Environmental Politics for a special guest lecture. Free.

October 18 | (Henry Art Gallery)
A curated selection of works explore the significance of branded products, examining how their ubiquity shapes perception, influences identity, and reflects broader cultural values. On view through January 28, 2026. Free.

October 18 | (School of Music)
Celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Fritts-Richards organ with a concert featuring UW students and faculty. A reception follows. Free.

Week of October 20

Online Option – October 21 |�� The AI Con (Book Talk) with Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna (Office of Public Lectures)
Emily Bender (Linguistics) and Alex Hanna expose corporate-driven AI hype and provide essential tools to identify it, break it down, and expose the underlying power plays it seeks to conceal. Pay what you will.

October 21 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Internationally acclaimed for their rich tone and precision, the Jerusalem Quartet brings a dynamic program featuring works by Haydn and Beethoven, plus Janáček’s dramatic “Kreutzer Sonata.

October 21 | (College of Arts & Sciences)
Staley is the author of Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education, which argues that too many innovations in education focus on delivery rather than transformative experience. Free.

October 22 | (Department of Chemistry)
Professor Wilfred van der Donk delivers this annual lecture in memory of Prof. Dauben, who helped shape modern organic chemistry. Free.

October 22 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
A forum discussing recent developments, diplomacy, and policy issues on the Korean Peninsula. Free.

October 23 | Samuel E. Kelly Distinguished Faculty Lecture – Beyond Status: Living Undocumented in Disruptive Times (Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity)
Dr. Carolyn Pinedo-Turnovsky is a sociologist in the Department of American Ethnic Studies at the ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý, where she also holds an adjunct appointment in the Department of Sociology. Annual lecture honoring UW faculty focused on diversity and social justice. Free.

October 23 | (American Indian Studies)
A series to prepare for the Film Screening & UW Symphony Performance: Healing Heart of the First People of This Land on February 6, 2026 (). Free.

October 23 | ��(Education)
Filmmakers and College of Education (CoE) community members Dr. Edmundo Aguilar, Assistant Teaching Professor, and Tianna Mae Andresen, ECO alum and instructor of Filipinx American US History in SPS, bring us the story of “the students, teachers, and community members in their fight to preserve cross community liberatory ethnic studies and watch them reclaim their humanity along the way.” Free.

Online Option – October 24 | The Art of Refuge, Resistance and Regeneration with Peter Sellars (Office of Public Lectures)
Director Peter Sellars will share real-world examples drawn from a lifetime of cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary artistic collaborations around the globe—demonstrating how art responds to crisis and catalyzes social transformation in an era of profound stakes.��Pay what you will.

October 24 | (Department of Political Science)
Jessica Weeks joins the UW International Security Colloquium to present current research in global politics and international relations. Free.

October 24 |�� (Department of Political Science)
This event is jointly hosted by the UW Political Theory Colloquium and the Washington Institute for the Study of Inequality and Race (WISIR). Free.

October 25 | (Henry Art Gallery)
Explore new exhibitions, catch captivating performances, get hands-on with an all-ages art-making workshop and museum bingo, and discover rarely seen works from the Henry’s collection. Free.

October 26 | (School of Music)
Chamber winds from the UW Wind Ensemble perform works by Caroline Shaw, Richard Strauss, and more, under the direction of Erin Bodnar. Free.

Week of October 27

October 28 | (Department of Physics)
Nobel laureate David Baker discusses advanced protein design software and its use in developing molecules to address challenges in medicine, technology, and sustainability. Free.

October 28 | (School of Music)
Renowned pianist Santiago Rodriguez, from the Frost School of Music (Miami University), performs a solo recital presented by the keyboard program. Free.

October 30 | (American Indian Studies)
A series to prepare for the Film Screening & UW Symphony Performance: Healing Heart of the First People of This Land on February 6, 2026 (). Free.

October 31 | (Political Science)
Lecture by Egor Lazarev, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Yale University. Sponsored by the Severyns Ravenholt endowment and The ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý International Security Colloquium (UWISC).

October 31 | (School of Music)
Dr. Stephen Price, UW Organ Studies students, and guests perform spooky organ works and Halloween-themed favorites in this festive concert. Free.

Curious about what’s ahead? Check out the November ArtSci Roundup.

ArtSci Roundup goes monthly!

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

Previously shared on a quarterly basis, those who sign up for the Roundup email will receive them monthly, delivering timely updates and engaging content wherever you are. Check the roundup regularly, as events are added throughout the month. Make sure to 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!

In addition, if you like the ArtSci Roundup, sign up to receive a monthly notice when it’s been published.

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

Recent faculty books from the ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý include those from linguistics, Slavic languages and literature and French. UW News spoke with the authors of four publications to learn more about their work.

Scrutinizing and confronting AI hype

, UW professor of linguistics, co-authored “” with Alex Hanna, the director of research at the Distributed AI Research Institute.

The book looks at the the drawbacks of technologies sold under the banner of artificial intelligence. Bender and Hanna offer a resounding no to pressing questions: Is AI going to take over the world? Have big tech scientists created an artificial lifeform that can think on its own?

This kind of thinking is a symptom of a phenomenon known as AI hype, they write, which twists words and helps the rich get richer by justifying data theft and motivating surveillance capitalism. In “The AI Con,” Bender and Hanna explain how to spot AI hype, deconstruct it and expose the power grabs it aims to hide.

The book grew out of podcast co-hosted by Bender and Hanna called “.”

“The podcast uses ridicule as praxis to cope with and deflate the hype around AI,” Bender said. “Our goal with both the podcast and book is to both take on the current hype cycle and empower our audience to deploy the same strategies with the hype they are encountering. The book is an interdisciplinary project, blending Alex’s expertise in sociology with mine in linguistics, to look at why certain language technologies in particular pose risks and how the use of these technologies can do damage in various contexts.”

For more information, contact Bender at ebender@uw.edu.

Two recent books explore translation, Russia in the 1990s

, professor of Slavic languages and literature, published two novels in March: “” and “.”

“Tales of Bart” follows the exploits of “evil” translator Fruitvale Bart as the setting shifts from Republic-era Texas to 19th-century Czarist Russia to far-future Atalanta to 1990s Los Angeles.

Each of the vignettes was purportedly translated by Bart himself. But, the book asks, what is translation: subservience to a pre-existing text or a creative act? Both? Neither? “Tales of Bart” explores these questions as well as the nature of art, the legacies of colonialist violence, the alienation of postmodern life and the horrors of the self.

“I was intrigued with the position of the translator, the tremendous power they have to shape communication between cultures,” Alaniz said. “And the ways translation is therefore about power, which one can use for good or evil ends.”

The second book, “Moscow 93,” takes place in 1990s Russia, where 20-something Chicano journalist José Alonzo is looking to make a name for himself. But things are never what they seem in this new post-Soviet country striving for freedom and democracy — and falling short. At the opening of a New York-style night club on Red Square, partygoers will have a life-or-death national crisis erupt in their faces.

“Moscow 93” is an auto-fictional account of Alaniz’s experiences before, during and after the 1993 , when a violent revolt against President Boris Yeltsin erupted in the capital. By the time it ended, army tanks shelled the parliament building. The book blends horror and farce, presenting Russia in the first decade after communism through the lens of a sordid expat scene.

“The mini-civil war that erupted in Moscow in fall of 1993, which I experienced as a journalist, seemed to be a good lens through which to view the whole of early post-Soviet Russia,” Alaniz said. “I decided to write an auto-fictional account of that era, which plays fast and loose with some of the facts but nonetheless delivers an incisive portrait of what it was like to live and work there then as an ex-pat.”

For more information, contact Alaniz at jos23@uw.edu.

Following the journey of ‘Ne me quitte pas’

, UW professor of French, published “” in February. The book follows the long and varied journey of the classic song, “Ne me quitte pas.”

Brel, a Belgian singer-songwriter, debuted the song in 1959 as a haunting plea for his lover to return.��In the mid 1990s, Nina Simone’s��1965��cover so captivated a teenage��Smith��that it inspired her future profession. In her book,��Smith��shows how the song travels across languages, geographies, genres and generations while accumulating shifting artistic and cultural significance.

Smith��said the book emerged from��“Reclaiming Venus,”��a memoir she wrote about Alvenia Bridges, a woman who worked behind the scenes in the music industry.

“When this project was accepted, I realized I needed to hone my musical analysis skills,”��Smith��said. “I decided to take songwriting courses through Berklee College of Music online so I could do the close reading of the song justice. Because of UW’s RRF and Simpson Center’s Society of Scholars, I had the resources and feedback necessary to write what has turned out to be my favorite book project so far.”

For more information, contact Smith at mayaas@uw.edu.

From campus to wherever you call home, we welcome you to learn from and connect with the College of Arts & Sciences community through public events spanning the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. We hope to see you this June.

ArtSci on the Go

Looking for more ways to get more out of Arts & Sciences? Check out these resources to take ArtSci wherever you go!

Zev J. Handel, “Chinese Characters Across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese”��()

Black Composers Project engages the School of Music faculty and students ()

Ladino Day Interview with Leigh Bardugo & MELC Professor Canan Bolel ()

Back to School Podcast ��with Liz Copland ()

Featured Podcast: “Ways of Knowing” (College of Arts & Sciences)

This podcast highlights how studies of the humanities can reflect everyday life. Through a partnership between and the ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý, each episode features a faculty member from the UW College of Arts & Sciences, who discusses the work that inspires them and suggests resources to learn more about the topic.

Episode 1: Digital Humanities with assistant professor of English and data science, Anna Preus.

Episode 2: Paratext with associate professor of French, Richard Watts.

Episode 3: Ge’ez with��associate professor of Middle Eastern languages and cultures, Hamza Zafer.

Closing Exhibits

Week of June 2

Monday, June 2, 5:00 – 6:20 pm | ONLINE ONLY: (Jackson School)

Join the Jackson School for Trump in the World 2.0, a series of talks and discussions on the international impact of the second Trump presidency.

This week: Daniel Bessner; Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Associate Professor in American Foreign Policy at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.

Monday, June 2, 5:00 – 7:00 pm | (Jackson School)

This talk discusses the unconventional forms of care that emerge out of Kurdish resistance in Turkey, where mothering becomes a powerful response against necropolitical state violence. By centering the stories of two Kurdish mothers who had to care for their dead children and mother beyond life under the violent state of emergency regime declared in 2015; the talk examines how Kurdish mothers “rescue the dead” (Antoon, 2021) from the necropolitical state and create their necropolitical power through a radical embrace of death and decoupling of mothering from the corporeal link between the mother and the child.

Monday, June 2, 3:30 – 5:00 pm | (The Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies)

Why do some protests in autocracies attract popular participation while others do not? Masaaki Higashijima’s, University of Tokyo, paper argues that when opposition elites and the masses have divergent motivations for protesting, anti-regime mobilization struggles to gain momentum. Moreover, this weak elite-mass linkage is further exacerbated when autocrats selectively repress protests led by opposition elites while making concessions to those organized by ordinary citizens.

Tuesday, June 3, 5:00 – 6:30 pm | (Communications)

A conversation with local public media leaders about current challenges–including federal funding cuts–and pathways forward for sustaining public service journalism.

Speakers include:

Rob Dunlop, President and CEO, Cascade PBS
David Fischer, President and General Manager, KNKX
Tina Pamintuan, incoming President and CEO, KUOW
Matthew Powers, Professor and Co-Director, Center for Journalism, Media and Democracy

Wednesday, June 4, 3:30 – 4:30 pm | (Psychology)

Cognitive biases — such as attentional biases toward aversive cues, distorted expectations of negative events, and biased interpretations of ambiguity — are central features of many forms of psychopathology. Gaining a deeper understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying these biases is crucial for advancing theoretical models and clinical interventions.

In this talk, Prof. Hadas Okon-Singer will present a series of studies exploring emotional biases in both healthy individuals and participants diagnosed with social anxiety, major depressive disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder.

Wednesday, June 4, 12:30 – 1:30 pm | (Center for Statistics & Social Sciences)

Many statistical analyses, in both observational data and randomized control trials, ask: how does the outcome of interest vary with combinations of observable covariates? How do various drug combinations affect health outcomes, or how does technology adoption depend on incentives and demographics? Tyler McCormick’s, Professor, Statistics & Sociology, ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý, goal is to partition this factorial space into “pools” of covariate combinations where the outcome differs across the pools (but not within a pool).

Friday, June 6, 7:30 pm | (School of Music)

David Alexander Rahbee leads the UW Symphony in a program of concerto excerpts by York Bowen, Keiko Abe, and Camille Saint-Saëns, performed with winners of the 2024-25 School of Music Concerto Competitions: Flora Cummings, viola; Kaisho Barnhill, marimba; and Sandy Huang, piano. Also on the program, works by Mikhail Glinka, Richard Wagner, and Giuseppe Verdi.

Saturday, June 7 & Sunday, June 8, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm | (Burke Museum)

Stewart Wong will share knowledge and personal experiences about working with Broussonetia Papyrifera. He will talk about the history, uses, and cultivation of the paper mulberry plant. In addition, Stewart plans on dyeing, drawing on, and printing kapa. Stewart will have printed information and material samples to supplement the talk.

Saturday, June 7, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm | On Our Terms with Wakulima USA (Burke Museum)

Join the Burke Museum for a short screening from “,” plus a conversation with co-producer Aaron McCanna and Wakulima USA’s David Bulindah and Maura Kizito about food sovereignty and community building.

Additional Events

June 2 | (Music)

June 2 | (Asian Languages & Literature)

June 2 – June 6 | (Astronomy)

June 3 | (Music)

June 4 | (Music)

June 4 | (Psychology)

June 5 | (Music)

June 5 | (Speech & Hearing)

June 5 | (Labor Studies)

June 5 | (Art + Art History + Design)

June 6 | (Dance)

June 6 | (Geography)

June 7 | (Music)

Week of June 9

Wednesday, June 11 to Friday, June 27 | (Jacob Lawrence Gallery)

At the end of the spring quarter, the academic year culminates in comprehensive exhibitions of design work created by graduating students. The UW Design Show 2025, showcasing the capstone projects of graduating BDes students, will be held from June 11 to June 27 in the Jacob Lawrence Gallery.

Additional Events

June 11 | (Henry Art Gallery)

June 11 | (Art + Art History + Design)

June 12 & June 13 | (DXARTS)

June 13 | (Art + Art History + Design)

Events for the week of June 23

June 24 | (Information Sessions)

June 25 | (Information Sessions)

June 26 | (Information Sessions)

June 27 | (Information Sessions)

Commencement

June marks the end of many College of Arts & Sciences students’ undergraduate experience. Interested in attending a graduation ceremony? Click here to find information on ceremonies across campus.

From campus to wherever you call home, we welcome you to learn from and connect with the College of Arts & Sciences community through public events spanning the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. We hope to see you this March.

---

Closing Exhibits

March 1 | (Henry Art Gallery)

March 1 | (Henry Art Gallery)

March 13 | (Allen Library)

March 31 | (China Studies)

---

March, the Month of Music

Join the for a full month of melodious events.

| Campus and Concert Bands: Passages

| Modern Music Ensemble

| Chamber Singers and University Chorale: The Promise of Living

| Campus Philharmonia Orchestras

| Composition Studio

| Studio Jazz Ensemble and Modern Band

| Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band: Transformation

| Seattle Modern Orchestra, Tribute: Joël-François Durand

| UW Symphony Orchestra with UW Choirs

| CD Release Celebration: Melia Watras, the almond tree duos

---

Week of March 3

March 6, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm | (Department of Asian Language & Literature)

Spring 2025 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second Indochina War, also known as the Vietnam War. This milestone invites scholars, artists, authors, community leaders, and UW students to reflect on the transformations, challenges, and developments in Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Southeast Asian diaspora in Greater Seattle since April 1975.

---

March 6, 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm | (Jackson School)

How did Taiwan, a former Japanese colony and the last fortress of the defeated Chinese Nationalists, ascend to such heights in high-tech manufacturing? In Island Tinkerers, Honghong Tinn tells the critical history of how hobbyists and enthusiasts in Taiwan, including engineers, technologists, technocrats, computer users, and engineers-turned-entrepreneurs, helped transform the country with their hands-on engagement with computers.

---

March 7, 7:30 pm and March 8, 10 am – 3:00 pm | ��(American Indian Studies)

The Department of American Indian Studies at the ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý hosts an annual literary and storytelling series. Sacred Breath features Indigenous writers and storytellers sharing their craft at the beautiful wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ Intellectual House on the UW Seattle campus. Storytelling offers a spiritual connection; 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.

---

Additional Events

March 2 | (German Studies)

March 3 | (Music)

March 3 | (Comparative History of Ideas)

March 4 | (Music)

March 4 | (Public Lectures)

March 4 | (Jackson School)

March 4 | (Communication)

March 4 | (China Studies)

March 4 | (Jackson School)

March 6 | (Political Science)

March 6 | (History)

March 6 | (French and Italian Studies)

March 6 | (Henry Art Gallery)

March 6 | (African Studies)

March 7 | (Political Science)

March 7 | (Slavic Language & Literature)

March 7 | (Music)

March 7 | (American Ethnic Studies)

March 7 | (Cinema & Media)

March 8 | (Burke)

March 8 | (Music)

March 8 | (Henry Art Gallery)

---

Week of March 10

March 11 to March 15 | (School of Drama)

It is a play for all the lady cowboys of heart and mind who ride outside the city limits of convention.

Audience members may see more vigorous artistic risk-taking in these Lab productions. From their first year to graduation, the Lab is a space for our student artists to practice their craft.

Written by Sarah Ruhl / Directed by Nick O’Leary

---

March 11, 9:30 am – 8:30 pm | (Stroum Center for Jewish Students)

You are invited to join past and present SCJS faculty and students as they spend the day marking the fostering of five decades of meaningful and insightful discussions on diverse Jewish experiences.

We have a full day of events planned, starting with a series of daytime panels highlighting SCJS’s key accomplishments and ending with an evening discussion titled “Today’s campus conflicts and the future of Jewish Studies.”

– Morning panels: “50 years of impact on campus and beyond”

– Evening talk: “Today’s campus conflicts and the future of Jewish Studies”

---

March 15, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm | (Henry Art Gallery)

Spring into art at the Henry! Join the Henry for the Spring Open House, a day filled with vibrant activities, hands-on artmaking, and engaging programs that bring contemporary art and ideas to life. Whether you’re an art enthusiast or simply curious, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

---

Additional Events

March 10 | (Music)

March 11 | (Music)

March 12 | (Music)

March 12 | (American Ethnic Studies)

March 13 | (History)

March 14 | (Music)

March 14 | (Music)

---

Week of March 17

March 18, 7:30 pm | (Meany Center)

One of America’s foremost pianists, Jeremy Denk’s creative blend of virtuosic dexterity and colorful imagination has earned him praise as “an artist you want to hear no matter what he performs” (The New York Times). A winner of both the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, his bestselling memoir,��Every Good Boy Does Fine, showcases his original and insightful writing about music. Denk’s recital features Bach’s Six Partitas for Keyboard, known for being as technically difficult as they are beautiful.

---

Week of March 24

March 28, 7:30 pm | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)

Grammy Award-winning musical ensemble Silkroad’s��Uplifted Voices��brings together a stellar lineup of performer-composers from the Silkroad Ensemble in a series of pieces that highlight each artist’s musical storytelling. These compositions, often inspired by their homeland, ancestors, community, and family, represent previously under-recognized voices from around the world, offering a fresh perspective on the history and migration of music.

---

Week of March 31

March 31, 5:00 pm – 6:20 pm | (Jackson School)

Join JSIS for Trump in the World 2.0, a series of talks and discussions on the international impact of the second Trump presidency. Faculty and guest speaker presentations will explore how different regions and global issues are affected by the policies of the Trump administration. The series is moderated by Danny Hoffman, Director of the Jackson School of International Studies, and Stanley D. Golub Chair of International Studies.

Mondays, 5-6:20 p.m. from March 31 to June 2, 2025 | in-person 2 credit/no credit course for UW students Free for the public via live stream only.

The first lecture is only open to students. Public lectures begin Monday, April 7.

---

Have an event that you would like to see featured in the ArtSci Roundup? Connect with Kathrine Braseth (kbraseth@uw.edu).

From campus to wherever you call home, we welcome you to learn from and connect with the College of Arts & Sciences community through public events spanning the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. We hope to see you this February.

February 4 | (Center for Southeast Asia and its Diasporas)

February 5 | (Communication)

February 6 |�� (Art + Art History + Design)

February 10 | (Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies)

February 19 | (Stroum Center for Jewish Students)

February 21 | (Political Science)

February 21 | (East Asia Center)

February 26 | (American Ethnic Studies)

---

Week of February 3

February 4, 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm | (Center for Southeast Asia and its Diasporas)

In February 2021, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup that ousted Myanmar’s democratically elected government, headed by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party had won a historic landslide in the November 2020 elections.��Since late 2023, the Myanmar military has suffered one unprecedented battlefield humiliation after another, as it faces the nationwide uprising of hundreds of armed, anti-state groups committed to a revolution to remove the army from political power for the first time in history.

Join Associate Professor��Mary Callahan��as she explores the evolving crisis in Myanmar four years after the coup.

Free

---

February 4, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm |�� (Department of Chemistry)

The Amazing Lives of Defects in Crystals

Professor Daniel Gamelin — Department of Chemistry, ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý
Recipient of the Paul Hopkins Faculty Award

In the spirit of the Hopkins Award, this talk will explore a few historical examples and our group’s research of defects in inorganic materials used to express interesting and (sometimes) impactful physical properties. It will illustrate the role of basic science in driving the development of next-generation technologies.

---

February 5, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm | (Department of Communication)

Social media has reshaped how Americans consume news. As content creators rise as primary sources of information, they are overtaking traditional journalists for younger audiences. This shifting landscape brings critical questions: What does this mean for journalism? What does this mean for news consumers? How can we navigate news literacy in a digital world? And what role do these voices play in shaping the media ecosystem?

---

February 6, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm | (School of Art + Art History + Design)

There exists a pervasive illusion that journalism embodies truth and objectivity, yet it is fundamentally entrenched in a Eurocentric perspective that has long exacerbated social polarization. What ideological forces underpin this medium, enabling it to perpetuate such divisions?

---

February 7, 7:30 pm |�� (School of Music)

David Alexander Rahbee leads the UW Symphony in “With Love, from Scotland,” a program of works by Thea Musgrave, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, and Felix Mendelssohn. With faculty guests Carrie Shaw, soprano, and Frederick Reece, narrator.

---

Additional Events

February 3 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)

February 5��| (School of Music)

February 5 | (Stroum Center for Jewish Students)

February 5 | (History)

February 6 | (Burke Museum)

February 7��| (School of Music)

February 7 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)

February 7 | (Linguistics)

February 7 | (Burke Museum)

---

Week of February 10

February 10, 3:30 pm – 6:00 pm | (Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies)

Recent years have seen the proliferation of cop cities, limits on free speech, and the gutting of governmental safety nets. In this context, trans and intersex people have been the casualties of a fascist agenda that seeks to outlaw abortion and to erase and further marginalize oppressed communities.

Join Dr. Sean Saifa Wall in a conversation that asks questions, speaks truths, and offers a way forward through these troubled times.

---

February 11, 6:30 pm | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)

In the��Analects, Confucius compares someone who has not adequately studied the classic��Book of Odes to a person standing with their face to a wall—unable to see, unable to act. In this talk, Edward Slingerland, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Distinguished University Scholar, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, unpacks scattered and vague references in the Analects��to construct a coherent account of how the Book of Odes��was used in early Confucianism as a tool for virtue ethical self-cultivation, as well as how the��Analects��itself, as a piece of literature, was meant to help train moral-perceptual expertise.

Free

---

February 12, 7:30 pm | (Department of Digital Arts and Experimental Media)

Digital Arts and Experimental Media presents Daniel Peterson’s latest music composition, Into the Air, which explores the ephemeral nature of sound and the paradox of being. Inspired in part by Jorge Luis Borges’��Everything and Nothing, the 80-minute piece embodies both presence and absence, holding within it the traces of countless influences while remaining transient and��unimaginable; idiosyncratic and universal. The piece fuses Parmegiani’s��De Natura Sonorum��with Beethoven’s��Piano Sonata No. 32��through custom algorithms written in the audio programming language, SuperCollider.��The stereo piece will be diffused in real-time across 20 speakers.

---

February 13, 7:30 pm| (School of Drama)

The Winter’s Tale��by William Shakespeare centers on King Leontes of Sicily, who becomes irrationally jealous and falsely accuses��his best friend��and his wife, Hermione, of infidelity.��Tragedy��immediately��befalls his family and the kingdom. Sixteen years later,��Leontes’ lost daughter��Perdita, falls in love with��Florizel,��the Prince of Bohemia.��Leontes repents, and a “miracle” is revealed��leading to reconciliation and renewed relationships.����

: $10 – $20

---

February 13 through April 18 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)

Opening: Thursday, February 13

Working to emulate the interdisciplinary artistic environment Jacob Lawrence experienced in his formative years, this exhibition explores a legacy of collaboration between artists and poets.��artists & poets is a part of the re-grounding of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery in its mission of education, experimentation, and social justice. The show and space of the gallery will be split into two parts. The Cauleen Smith’s Wanda Coleman Songbook��will function as the contemporary example of this great legacy of exchange between artists and poets. The other half of the exhibition will focus on Dudley Randall’s��Broadside Presswhich began in Detroit in 1966 and will pull from archives to capture the press’s history and output.

---

Additional Events

February 12 | (Asian Language & Literature)

February 12 | (History)

February 13��| (South Asia Center)

February 14 | (School of Music)

February 14 | (Meany Center for Performing Arts)

February 14 | (Simpson Center)

---

Week of February 17

February 19, 4;30 pm – 6:00 pm��| (Stroum Center for Jewish Students)

Guest lecturer Naomi Seidman will take us inside�� “the Freud craze” to explore the impact Freud’s work had on Eastern European Jews.

The Austrian journalist Karl Kraus reportedly quipped, “Psychoanalysis is the disease of assimilated Jews; Eastern European Jews make do with diabetes.” And yet, Eastern European Jews were fascinated by Freud and psychoanalysis, flocking to lectures on the subject and following Freud’s life and career with curiosity and enthusiasm. This lecture will trace “the Freud craze” in the burgeoning Hebrew and Yiddish press of the interwar period when readers eagerly sought information about “the most famous Jew in the world,” and journalists and others were compelled to actively translate psychoanalytic terminology from German into Jewish languages.

---

February 21, 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm��| (Department of Political Science)

Christina Schneider – “International Financial Institutions and the Promotion of Autocratic Resilience”

---

February 21 | (East Asia Center)

Politicians and political parties make promises during electoral campaigns. However, achieving a policy goal can sometimes hurt them electorally, and a party can be better off not pursuing what its supporters want. This study empirically demonstrates that Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been gaining an electoral advantage by not achieving its stated goal of revising the constitution.

---

February 21, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm | (Department of Political Science)

Center for Environmental Politics: David Konisky, Indiana University Bloomington, “Disparities in Disconnections: Utility Access in the Age of Climate Change”

---

February 21, 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm | (German Studies)

Prof.��Dorothee Ostmeier��will deliver a lecture in honor of beloved UW Prof.��Diana Behler.

In literary Romanticism to AI tales, portals mediate change between concrete and virtual, human and non-human realities. This lecture straddles the fringes of reality shifts in the Brothers Grimm and ETA Hoffmann’s tales, inserting literary German discourses on the imaginary into the vibrant questions asked by anthropologists and cultural critics, and engineers of digital virtuality.�� All diversely investigate possible futures beyond our anthropocentric minds and psyche.

---

February 22, 4:00 pm | UWAA Movie Night: Singles (UW Alumni Association)

Get ready for a night of nostalgia, laughter, and love at this special screening of “Singles,” the classic rom-com set against the backdrop of Seattle’s iconic grunge scene. Filled with awkward first dates, unpredictable connections, and the kind of romantic chaos that only young adulthood can bring, this movie is the perfect blend of romantic misadventures and the energy of ’90s Seattle. SIFF Executive Director Tom Mara, ’88,��will introduce the film.

---

Additional Events

February 19��| (School of Music)

February 20 | (School of Music)

February 20��| (School of Music)

February 20 | (Jackson School)

February 21 | (Meany Center for Performing Arts)

February 22 | (Classics)

February 22 | (Center for Child & Family Wellbeing)

---

Week of February 24

February 24, 6:00 – 7:00 pm | (Slavic Languages & Literatures)

Please join us on Monday, February 24, at 6:00 pm, for a reading and a conversation with an award-winning Polish poet Krzysztof Siwczyk, and his translator Prof. Piotr Florczyk, moderated by Prof. Agnieszka Jeżyk.

---

February 26, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm��| (Department of Chemistry)

Weston and Sheila Borden Endowed Lecture in Theoretical Chemistry

Professor Abraham Nitzan��–��Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania
Host: David Masiello

---

February 27, 6:00 – 7:00 pm | (School of Art + Art History + Design)

Join us for this year’s Kollar Lecture in American Art featuring Colby College’s Tanya Sheehan. This talk explores how Black life could and could not be represented on the walls of Harlem Hospital by Jacob Lawrence in 1937, and how a commitment to the publicness of Black care took shape in Lawrence’s private images.

Free

---

Additional Events

February 24��| (School of Music)

February 24 | (University Faculty Lecture)

February 25 | (Meany Center for Performing Arts)

February 26 | Provost Town Hall (Provost Office)

February 27 through March 1 | (Meany Center for Performing Arts)

February 27 through March 2 |�� (Dance)

February 27 | Can the Subaltern Sweat? Race, Climate Change, and Inequality (Public Lectures)

February 28 | (Political Science)

February 28 | (Classics)

February 28��| (Linguistics)

February 28 | (German Studies)

---

Closing Exhibits

March 1 |

March 1 |

---

Have an event that you would like to see featured in the ArtSci Roundup? Connect with Kathrine Braseth (kbraseth@uw.edu).

Three new faculty books from the ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý cover wide-ranging topics: life in the Rio Grande Valley, fossils of Washington state and the colonial roots of contemporary intersex medicine. UW News talked with the authors to learn more.

Collection highlights life in Rio Grande Valley

“” is a collection of short stories and comics from , professor of Slavic languages and literature at the UW. The works are mostly set in the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas-Mexico border, where Alaniz grew up as a second-generation Mexican American.

“I wanted to come up with a collection that would speak to that area,” Alaniz said. “There is Chicano literature, and there’s even literature from the valley, but it’s just not very well known. I really wanted to highlight that part of my life and material that’s been influenced by it.”

Some of the collection is autobiographical, while other pieces are fiction. Alaniz also combined stories he created years ago with newer works.

“It runs the gamut in terms of genre,” Alaniz said. “What I’m trying to do is create a sort of hybrid text where some of the same stories get repeated in the prose section and the comic section. They speak to each other. It destabalizes what we mean by memory.”

A story told in comic form is typically perceived as funny or irreverent, Alaniz said. The same story told through text is often taken more seriously, even if the narrative hasn’t changed.

“Puro Pinche True Fictions,” published in September by Flowersong Press, opens with “Genoveva,” which features Alaniz’s paternal grandfather. Much of the text was taken from interviews that Alaniz conducted with him.

“A lot of what he says is in the kind of Spanish that was spoken on the border by people from his generation that weren’t educated,” Alaniz said. “I don’t translate much of it, partly to honor what made him, him. To translate him would alter that. Hopefully, people from the valley or people who speak that kind of Spanish will feel seen and heard.”

Another story, “Tamales,” is a science fiction piece about a migrant family traveling to Mars for work in the year 2063. Their rocket ship crash lands and many of the migrants are killed. The piece is a nod to science fiction author Ray Bradbury, who often wrote about Mars. But it also tells the story of Alaniz’s maternal grandparents crossing the border and their relationship with their son, Alaniz’s uncle. Much of the dialogue is taken verbatim from Alaniz’s grandparents, whom he recorded before they died.

“This collection is a gift for the people of the Rio Grande Valley,” Alaniz said. “It’s not a gift that they will always like, because it’s not a romanticized version. There’s trauma. It’s not all roses. But I hope they recognize a voice that comes from that place, which still means a lot to me. I like to think I haven’t forgotten where I came from.”

“Puro Pinche True Fictions” is Alaniz’s second publication this year. In March, he released “.” Alaniz first published the comic strip “Moscow Calling” in the 1990s while working in Russia as a journalist. It was featured in the English-language newspaper The Moscow Tribune. The new collection completes the strip’s storyline as a graphic novella and adds new material, including a short story about the war in Ukraine.

For more information, contact Alaniz at jos23@uw.edu.

Uncovering the fossils of Washington state

Washington state is home to more than half-billion years of natural history. In “,”  and David B. Williams dive into this rich history to tell the stories of 24 fossils found in the state.

“I’ve been a paleontologist for a very long time. I started working at the ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý in 1992, and through all these years I have met so many people,” said Nesbitt, former curator of paleontology at the Burke Museum. “They were all very interested in fossils from Washington. Many of them asked if they could read more and there is no book. So, I realized I had to write a book.”

Nesbitt collaborated with Williams, an independent science writer, for four years to bring these stories to the public.

“He’s published a number of really exciting books, and I love the way he writes,” Nesbitt said. “When I started writing my book, I realized it was a bit boring. Although the topics were great, I’m just not a general science writer. I write academic papers, and so I asked David if he was interested in collaborating and bringing the book to life. He was, and I was thrilled with that.”

The book doesn’t just tell the story of fossils in the state. It’s also about the field of paleontology and those who work behind the scenes to bring fossils to light.

“It is about Washington, but it is not all the fossils in Washington. This is a selection of the ones that I found people were interested in, the ones that have interesting stories behind them,” Nesbitt said. “It’s also a book about the people who found the fossils and the people who worked on the fossils.

“It’s a book about how paleontology has changed and how the science has changed in the last 50 years. It’s become much more technological, much more comparative and much more integrated into the other science fields. Hopefully I’ve got all of that into the book.”

For more information, contact Nesbitt at nesbittlizanne@gmail.com.

Examining colonial roots of intersex medicine

In “,” recently published by Duke University Press,����examines how colonialism and scientific racism are inherent to contemporary intersex medicine.

Swarr��developed the book from research she started as a graduate student in the 1990s when she first came across the claim that intersex was more common among Black people than white people. As she investigated the falsity,��Swarr��met Sally Gross, the founder of Intersex South Africa, the first intersex organization on the African continent. When Gross died in 2014,��Swarr��set out to finish the book as a tribute to the work of Gross and other activists.

While��Swarr��initially thought the false claim stemmed from 1970s literature, she soon discovered the roots stretched back to the 1600s when colonizers arrived in what is now known as South Africa.

“I found echoes and traces of this claim throughout history,” said Swarr, associate professor of gender, women and sexuality studies. “The ways that intersex was racialized was striking to me. I think it’s manifested in a lot of ways, over time and in how race and gender manifest in bodies that are pathologized. You see this in museum representations and in film. There is strong historical resonance.”

The topic is currently most often discussed through the treatment of intersex athletes.��Swarr��opens the book by writing about��, a South African middle-distance runner who has won two Olympic gold medals and three world championships in the 800-meter event. Semenya faces continual allegations that her body is “too masculine” for women’s sports.

Semenya was subjected to examinations of her reproductive organs and evaluations of her chromosomes and hormones. The International Olympic Organizing Committee has prohibited her from competing unless she has surgery or pharmaceutically alters her natural testosterone levels, a decision she continues to fight.

“My book offers a perspective on the ways that racism and discrimination against those in the����are an integral part of the conversation,”��Swarr��said. “We can’t talk about contemporary sex testing without talking about colonialism and racism.”

The book also highlights the growth of the African intersex social movement, particularly with the expansion of social media.��Swarr��said there is now more of an opportunity to create community and rally for intersex justice with and for intersex people who might have otherwise been isolated.

“They’ve created educational online videos and hashtag campaigns to support folks who’ve been targeted, like Caster Semenya and others who have experienced violence,”��Swarr��said. “Their ability to share their strategies and reach out to change the hearts and minds of everyday people and to influence legislation and doctors’ protocols has been impressive. It helps to disrupt the idea that social movements are more advanced in the Global North.”

Swarr��is donating all author royalties from the book to��. The book can also be accessed��.

For more information, contact��Swarr��at��aswarr@uw.edu.

Who gets to be a superhero? What about a villain? It depends on where you look. In the 1940s, comic book villains were often distinguished from heroes through physical disability. That changed in the 1960s and 70s, when it became more common for heroes – think and – to be built around disability. In this episode, he analyzes the physical depictions of superheroes and villains through the decades.

, professor of Slavic languages and literatures at the ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý, studies comic books and culture.

His work is centered in disability studies, which focuses on the perspectives and experiences of people with disabilities.

This is the fifth of eight episodes of “Ways of Knowing,” a podcast highlighting how studies of the humanities can reflect everyday life. Through a partnership between The World According to Sound and the ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý, each episode features a faculty member from the UW College of Arts & Sciences, the work that inspires them, and suggested resources for learning more about the topic.

Next | Episode 6: Visual Literacy

May 8, 5:00 – 8:00 PM |Kane Hall

May 8, 7:30 PM | , Meany Hall

$10 – $20 Tickets |

May 9, 1:15 – 3:15 PM | UW Bothell campus & Zoom

Join Imagining Trans Futures for a talk and conversation with Aveda Adara and Hil Malatino about the practices and dreams of trans and Two Spirit care and community building in the face of long-haul trans survival.

Aveda Adara will discuss her culture and how it relates to her current profession as a DJ and Musician in the underground nightlife scene, including breaking and refusing archetypes and confronting people’s expectations, how Trans is the definition of PUNK and the current infraction of the radical right’s beliefs in healthcare as well as the trans experience of hitting back, building infrastructures politically and communally to ensure a stable future.

Hil Malatino will present Weathering: Slow Arts of Trans Endurance. In a moment of profound and widespread transantagonism articulated within both liberal-centrist and alt-right political formations, how do trans subjects cultivate arts of endurance? In an historical moment that seems to demand continuous reactive defense, how are trans subjects building capacities to slow down, bear with, and endure? How do practices of collective care support the cultivation of such capacities amidst an urgent now? How are artists figuring the slow and mostly unspectacular art of long-haul trans survival?

Free |

May 9, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM | ��Kane Hall

This Katz Distinguished Lecture with Daphne Brooks will tell the story of modern music-making and Broadway, about “highbrow” and “lowbrow” cultures, opera and jazz, the politics of race, gender, class and the early recording industry. It’s the story of how intimate and joyous artistic collaboration as well as tense, sometimes fractious competition framed the conditions of creative labor forged by Black women theatrical pioneers and music luminaries—Anne Brown, Ethel Waters, Eva Jessye, to name a few—and white auteurs: George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, Virgil Thomson, Gertrude Stein and others.

This talk sets out to reveal how Black women musicians’ aesthetic revolutions in 1920s and ‘30s sound and theater culture were artistic obsessions and objects of inquiry in the lifeworlds of white moderns. Their sounds, this talk argues, are the driving force at the heart of Gershwin and Heyward’s landmark opera Porgy and Bess (1935) as well as Heyward’s lesser-known Broadway drama, Mamba’s Daughters (1939).

Free |

May 9, 4:00 – 5:30 PM | Denny Hall

The Ukrainian journalist Stanislav Aseyev’s In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas is an extraordinarily courageous chronicle of the war in Ukraine that began nine years ago with Russia’s aggression through its separatist proxies. Written in the period 2015-2017, Aseyev’s dispatches expressed anti-separatist opinions while the author was living in occupied Donbas. The author’s reflections on everyday life and politics are filtered through the theme of time. References to the present, past, and future, calendars, history, and temporal patterns are found throughout the volume.

Situating these dispatches alongside Ukrainian poet Iya Kiva’s work and in the context of Eugène Minkowski’s Lived Time: Phenomenological and Psychopathological Studies and Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition, this talk argues that Aseyev’s work provides a profound investigation into the experience of time that resonates with philosophical reflections on psychological and political implications of what has been called “lived time” both under duress and in “normal” circumstances.

Free |

May 11, 5:00 – 7:00 PM | ��Kane Hall

At this annual celebration of human rights work, students conducting human rights research will showcase their research and highlight the newest project, “Strategies for Massage Parlor Workers’ Rights,” in collaboration with the Seattle Massage Parlor Project (MPOP).

This project centers community-led campaigns and research to find systemic ways to improve Asian migrant massage and sex workers’ living and working conditions in the Chinatown/International District and the greater Seattle area.

Free |

��

May 11, 3:30 – 5:00 PM |Thomson Hall

The start of the Russia’s war on Ukraine in 2014 has impacted regional security of the Black Sea, especially the occupation of Crimea. But the massive invasion of the 2022 has led to even more profound implications. The Black Sea area has become a battleground, where all sorts of contemporary weaponry have been used. Despite Russia’s earlier inroads into the south of Ukraine and its total naval domination in numbers, it has failed to convert it into real lasting strategic advantages. The recent liberation of Kherson and fear in Moscow that Ukraine might go into Crimea, changes situation. The instability has effected everyone in the region. The trade has been disrupted, specifically with the blockade of Ukraine’s ports, which had impact around the world.

There is much anxiety in the region. This spills over into wider European space, with Black Sea area serving as its “soft underbelly”. The NATO, EU, US all pay attention to the developments in the area, adjusting their strategic thinking and operational stance accordingly.

Free |

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

As the UW community returns to campus, consider taking advantage of campus perks available to UW employees and students:

• Free admission to the and
• Discounted tickets to performances by Meany Center, School of Drama, Department of Dance, School of Music, and more

September 26 – October 7: , various locations

Shop thousands of posters at the HUB’s annual poster sale! Poster sale proceeds benefit the HUB Director’s Art Award, supporting UW student artists by purchasing and displaying their work in the HUB Permanent Art Collection, and the HUB Scholarship, assisting students involved in ASUW, GPSS, RSOs, and HUB student employment in reaching their full potential as leaders, regardless of financial situation.

October 6, 7:30 PM: , Meany Center

UW Faculty, UW Staff, UW Retirees and UW Alumni Association (UWAA): , subject to availability. A valid UW ID (e.g. Husky card or UWAA card) is required; limit of one ticket per valid ID |

October 6, 4 PM: , HUB

UW faculty member Sasha Senderovich (Slavic and Jackson School) will discuss his new book, “” (Harvard University Press, 2022). Senderovich offers a close reading of postrevolutionary Russian and Yiddish literature and film that recast the Soviet Jew as a novel cultural figure: not just a minority but an ambivalent character navigating between the Jewish past and Bolshevik modernity. Moderated by Aria Fani (Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures).��Book signing, champagne toasts and dessert��to follow.

Sponsored by the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies. Co-sponsored by Slavic Languages & Literatures; Simpson Center for the Humanities; Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies; and Elliott Bay Book Company.

Free |��

October 7, 8 PM: , Meany Center

Considered by��The New Yorker��to be “one of the finest, most searching songwriters of the day,” Gabriel Kahane reveals his most personal work in a decade. With his new album,��Magnificent Bird, Gabriel Kahane chronicles the final month of a year spent off the internet. Shuttling between the quotidian mundane and overlapping global crises, he sings of grief, nostalgia, shame��and salvation: a portrait of daily life in the roiling chaos of the 21st century.

UW Faculty, UW Staff, UW Retirees and UW Alumni Association (UWAA): , subject to availability. A valid UW ID (e.g. Husky card or UWAA card) is required; limit of one ticket per valid ID |

October 6, 5 PM: , online

Explore the contemporary issues and challenges associated with free speech. , the UW Alumni Association’s legislative advocacy program, will host this discussion. State Senator��David Frockt, media litigator��Caesar Kalinowski, ’17, and UW political science professor��Victor Menaldo��will bring their insights and experience to the panel.

What parts of free speech are the least understood? What threats or rollbacks of this revered hallmark of American democracy might be on the horizon? Does the First Amendment create challenges in maintaining order during political or social unrest?

(No spoilers! You do not need to have read the book to participate.)

Free |

October 12, 3:30 PM: , online

Presented by: Dr. Ugo Edu, Assistant Professor of African American Studies at UCLA

This talk draws on different moments, fictitious and non-fictitious, to explore our commitments to the anti-racist work needed to move towards health equity. It asks for an interrogation of what is meant by “health” and how that definition or those definitions inform/s what can be envisioned as health equity. By asking whether we are sure we want health equity is to invite reflection on our commitments and willingness to sacrifice over performative gestures and statements that often contradict stated goals.

Free |

October 13 – 16: , Meany Hall – Studio Theatre

This year’s program, ()��performed in the intimate Meany Studio Theatre, celebrates��a broad sweep of��contemporary dance��styles. Guests from Seattle’s professional dance community join the��Chamber��Dance Company to perform excerpts from Crystal Pite’s��10 Duets on a Theme of Rescue, and David Roussève’s haunting��and tender��work,��Stardust. Completing the program are��new works��created by second year MFA students, Gary Champi, and Jenn Pray, that will be performed by company members with guests from the Department of Dance.

Discounts available to UW employees and students |