The 天美影视传媒 welcomed its incoming class and their families on Sunday at the University鈥檚 annual New Student Convocation, which was held in Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

The incoming class is expected to consist of about 7,150 students. Official information about class size and make up is announced later in the quarter.

Welcome, Huskies! Thousands of incoming students gathered at Husky Stadium for an annual 鈥榃鈥� formation today after kicking off the school year with a convocation ceremony.

— UW News (@uwnews)

, associate professor, Comparative History of Ideas, was the featured speaker. A Scottish immigrant and first-generation college grad, Mackenzie, who uses they/she pronouns, joined the UW in 2002. In 2024, they received the University鈥檚 Distinguished Teaching Award, given to faculty who exemplify a commitment to inclusive teaching and serve as mentors to other faculty.

UW President Ana Mari Cauce, members of the Board of Regents, the deans of the 16 schools and colleges, and faculty members were听 in attendance.

and are also welcomed students back to campus with a string of activities, including Convocation ceremonies.

Husky Kickoff was held at Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium, where incoming students participated in the anticipated annual tradition of forming a giant block 鈥淲鈥� on the field.

Fast facts:

• Preliminary figures show the incoming听freshman class听is expected to be about听7,150听students.
• Around听4,625听freshmen will be from Washington state.
• An additional 1,550 transfer students are expected to arrive this fall, about 1,300 of whom will be from Washington community colleges.
• UW Bothell and UW Tacoma also welcomed their incoming classes with about 1,170 and 700 freshmen, and about 630 and 715 transfer students expected, respectively.

, associate professor of comparative history of ideas at the 天美影视传媒, describes how the view of nature has evolved. What was once frightening is now enticing 鈥� what Mackenzie calls the 鈥渨ilderness impulse.鈥� In her translation of 鈥�,鈥� a 16^th century poem by , the French Alps are ruinous and horrible; that same region of the Alps, according to a is 鈥減erfect鈥� for exploring. The fewer people around, so goes the wilderness impulse, the more beautiful a place is.

This is the fourth of eight episodes of 鈥淲ays of Knowing,鈥� a podcast highlighting how studies of the humanities can reflect everyday life. Through a partnership between The World According to Sound and the 天美影视传媒, 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 5: Disability Studies

As societies evolve to become more inclusive, languages are changing too. Words once in common use are being reconsidered as inaccurate or harmful, and more inclusive words are taking their places. People are using or creating pronouns that more closely match their gender. To describe nonbinary people, gender-neutral pronouns are being added to languages like , and .

In the United States, use of the singular 鈥渢hey鈥� as a pronoun for nonbinary people was added to Merriam-Webster鈥檚 Collegiate Dictionary in 2019 with little contention, even becoming the dictionary鈥檚 for that year.

But when Le Robert, a respected dictionary in France, tried last November to add a gender-neutral pronoun 鈥� 鈥渋el,鈥� a pronoun becoming widely adopted by the nonbinary community 鈥� . Political figures, including a member of the French Parliament and the First Lady, came out strongly in opposition. French Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer went so far as to say, 鈥淚nclusive writing is not the future of the French language.鈥�

This controversy made the work of , associate professor of French at the 天美影视传媒, especially relevant. Alongside Vinay Swamy of Vassar College, Mackenzie co-edited and contributed to a volume called , or 鈥淏ecoming Nonbinary in Contemporary French.鈥� It was released in February by the academic press 脡ditions Le Manuscrit in Paris.

鈥淎lmost everything in the French language is gendered in ways we don’t have to think about in English,鈥� Mackenzie said, pointing out there is no neutral gender for nouns and adjectives in French like there is in Latin, from which it derives.

In French, the default when the gender is unknown or when referring to a group of people of mixed genders is to use the masculine form of the word. 鈥淪trict grammarians will argue that the dominance of masculine forms has nothing to do with social reality. Sociolinguists tend to argue that there is a feedback loop between linguistic rules and social norms,鈥� Mackenzie said. 鈥淚t’s a very active and legitimate debate.鈥�

The volume incorporates the voices of eight contributors, including Mackenzie and Swamy, from the United States, France and Canada. Along with academics, there are perspectives from a user experience researcher, two activists, an author who is a linguist and a cartoonist. Together, they describe 鈥渢he many ways in which French speakers and learners have long been creatively navigating the constraints of their language in order to create new cultures and communities that reflect who they are.鈥�

Mackenzie answered questions over email about why the French gender-neutral pronoun caused such a hubbub 鈥� and the role of tensions with the United States.

Is the French language more resistant to change than other languages?

LM: The answer depends on where the French language is being spoken! In France itself, I would argue that yes, there is a lot of resistance to change. Much of it comes from the authority of the French Academy, founded in the 17th century by the Cardinal Richelieu, which still exists today. It’s a government institution whose mission is literally to defend the French language 鈥� there’s no equivalent in most other countries. They have a very prescriptive attitude toward language, and their linguists often issue clarifications and proclamations about what they call 鈥渓e bon usage鈥� or 鈥渃orrect usage.鈥�

One of their main preoccupations is to find acceptable equivalents to popular Anglicisms in French. They see English as one of the main threats to French. Certainly, the question of nonbinary French is seen by some as an unwelcome influence from Anglophone culture.

In other Francophone countries, such as Canada, Belgium and Switzerland, there seems to be more acceptance of change as a natural part of language evolution, and they are less fiercely resistant to the influence of Anglophone culture. In former French colonies or overseas territories, the language issue is so tied up with the violence of colonial history that it’s hard to compare. French may be an official language spoken in the government, but it replaced and/or coexists with indigenous languages in ways that make the question of change really complicated.

How does this controversy reflect the politics of France?

The previous answer is relevant here in that the French Academy is still partially funded by the government. Language in France is political and tied up with national identity in ways that can surprise outsiders.

The controversy about gender-neutral pronouns is bound up in the debate about 鈥渓e wokisme,鈥� which is a new French term 鈥� ironically, an Anglicism 鈥� implying that progressive movements are somehow not French, and that U.S. activism is fracturing French society from the outside. The French are quite attached to a concept called universalism, which holds that individual differences are not as important in political life as the collective cohesion of the state. For adherents of universalism, insisting on the rights of specific minority groups can be destabilizing to the body politic.

Dismissing gender-neutral pronouns as 鈥渓e wokisme鈥� is a way to delegitimize them by associating them with something that’s not French. Of course, nonbinary people exist and have always existed in France 鈥� they are not being planted there by a nefarious U.S. woke agenda 鈥� but it’s very hard for them to convince their government of that!

Tell me about the range of perspectives you’ve gathered in this volume.

Our authors discuss strategies for teaching inclusive French beyond the binary, the ways in which young genderqueer French people play with grammatical rules to express their sense of self, the relationship between feminism and trans rights, and the role of popular media and culture in normalizing non-normative genders. They also discuss the need to go beyond the reflexive dismissal of nonbinary identity as an 鈥淎merican import鈥� by respecting the fact that French nonbinary people exist on their own terms and the idea that the French language might be less binary than it might seem at first.

Our volume is more interested in describing these changes as they are happening, rather than issuing a set of prescriptions for what we think should happen. Nonbinary French speakers are changing their language to reflect their identity, and we have been lucky to be able to observe and to shine a bit of light on what they are doing.

What is the way forward to make the French language more gender-inclusive?

I think we’re witnessing it in real time, which is really exciting. There are more and more media outlets and publishers using so-called 鈥渋nclusive writing.鈥� This is a set of strategies that allow you to keep from defaulting to the masculine forms of words, for example by bringing in the feminine form, too; by combining forms with a punctuation mark called the ; or by using an word (one that does not change form and/or does not change gender).

These strategies are still binary, of course. We are also seeing French nonbinary people finding creative ways to avoid binary gender entirely by coming up with new forms and systems. In time, some of these forms and systems will acquire legitimacy, in the same way that 鈥渢hey/them鈥� is becoming normalized in English. It’s language change in action.

When language changes to reflect social reality, there is always resistance, but in hindsight it can be hard to imagine what the fuss was about. Some of us remember the fierce resistance to neutral terms such as 鈥渇light attendant鈥� or 鈥渕ail carrier,鈥� terms which are completely normal now and used even by the most gender-conservative speakers! I think we’ll get there with 鈥渢hey/them鈥� in English, and that French equivalents will likewise become more standard, but that it will take a bit longer for both linguistic and political reasons.

For more information, contact Mackenzie at louisam@uw.edu.

Recent notable books by 天美影视传媒 faculty members look at gentrification and inequity in a New York neighborhood, skin lighteners though history, female agency in Arthurian legend and biographical epitaphs in China across many centuries.

UW Bothell’s Christian Anderson explores gentrification of a NYC neighborhood in ‘Urbanism Without Guarantees’

The gentrification of a single street in New York City’s Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood is the scene for this in-depth ethnographic study of urban transformation by , associate professor in the UW Bothell School of Interdisciplinary Arts.

“” was published in March by University of Minnesota Press. The book looks at how residents work to preserve the quality of life of their neighborhood and both define and maintain their values of urban living, taking actions that connect their daily lives to broader structural inequities, for better and worse.

Notes from the publisher call it “a unique more-than-capitalist take on urban dynamics,” adding, “Examining how residents are pulled into these systems of gentrification, Anderson proposes new ways to think and act critically and organize for transformation of a place 鈥� in actions that local residents can start to do wherever they are.”

For more information, contact Anderson at cmander@uw.edu.

***

Lynn Thomas studies skin lighteners through history in new book

Skin lighteners have been used by consumers for centuries even while being opposed by medical professionals, consumer health advocates and antiracist thinkers and activists.

In her new book, UW history professor traces the changing meanings of skin color, in South Africa and beyond, from precolonial times to the present.

“” was published in January by Duke University Press.

Thomas shows how “the use of skin lighteners and experiences of skin color have been shaped by slavery, colonialism and segregation, as well as consumer capitalism, visual media, notions of beauty, and protest politics,” publisher’s notes said.

Calling the book “nothing short of a tour de force,” one reviewer wrote: “Carefully attending to the complex politics of race and color that are grounded in skin, Thomas at once provides a vibrant history of South Africa and a global history of commodity, beauty and the body. This landmark study sets a new standard in the field.”

For more information contact Thomas at lynnmt@uw.edu.

***

Remembered lives: Historian Patricia Ebrey co-edits book on Chinese funerary biographies

Funerary biographies are epitaphs engraved on stone and placed in a grave. They usually focus on the deceased’s life, words and deeds. Tens of thousands of these biographies survive from Imperial China, providing a glimpse into the lives of many people not documented by more conventional sources.

“,” co-edited by UW history professor , is an anthology of translations of such funerary biographies covering nearly 2,000 years 鈥� from the through the 19^th century. The book was published in January by 天美影视传媒 Press.

Editing the volume with Ebrey were of California State University and of the University of Virginia.

Biographies in the anthology, UW Press notes say, were chosen for their value as teaching material on Chinese history, literature, and women’s studies as well as world history. “Because they include revealing details about personal conduct, families, local conditions, and social, cultural, and religious practices, these epitaphs illustrate ways of thinking and the realities of daily life.”

Ebrey is the author or editor of several books on China, most recently “Emperor Huizong,” in 2014.

For more information, contact Ebrey at ebrey@uw.edu.

***

Annegret Oehme of Germanics publishes book on adaptations of Arthurian tale

, an assistant professor in the Department of Germanics, has published a new book about adaptations and translations of , a centuries-old tale describing the adventures of an Arthurian knight, across different languages and media.

“” was published in January by De Gruyter.

The publication explores two previously dismissed pre-modern adaptations of the Middle High German 1215 verse-novel “Wigalois,” and their different approaches to female agency in comparison with the original text and later Yiddish and German versions, in the 14^th and 15^th centuries respectively.

Read more on the department . For more information, contact Oehme at oehme@uw.edu.

***

Other book notes:

Epilogue on ecocriticism: , UW associate professor of French, has written the epilogue for a new book that discusses the relationship between contemporary ecological thought and early modern French literature.

“,” edited by Pauline Goul of Vassar and Phillip Usher of New York University, was published in March by Amsterdam University Press.

Publisher’s notes say the volume “foregrounds not how ecocriticism renews our understanding of a literary corpus, but rather how that corpus causes us to rethink or to nuance contemporary eco-theory.”

Read more on the French & Italian Studies Department .

***

What are you reading? UW Notebook seeking ‘comfort reading’ recommendations

Though faculty and staff continue to work hard during the coronavirus shutdown, some of us may also have a little more time on our hands for reading. Sometimes an old favorite book can be a comfort.

What are you reading to relax these days? What books would you recommend to fellow faculty and staff as comfort reading?

For me, it’s a re-read of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Two Towers” and classic science fiction short stories by Ray Bradbury in “The Illustrated Man.” And then maybe an epic novel by Herman Wouk 鈥� or even a midsummer revisit to “Charlotte’s Web.”

UW faculty and staff colleagues: Email me at kellep@uw.edu and I’ll mention some favorite books in subsequent book stories, and possibly on social media.UW Notebook.