UW News


January 6, 2015

New David Shields book a collaboration, an argument — and a movie, too

David Shields, UW English professor

Two men, four days, one cabin and an epic discussion of life and art, while James Franco makes a movie of it all. That’s the setup for the latest book by UW English Professor David Shields, working this time with former student Caleb Powell.


December 19, 2014

UW architecture students to design, build public pavilion on Seattle’s waterfront

A drawing of the proposed Hotspot Pavilion on Seattle's waterfront, to be designed and built by UW architecture students. THe south end, to the right, will have a performance stage.

UW architecture students will design and build a new temporary event pavilion and Internet hub for the Seattle waterfront.


December 3, 2014

Music meets history in three-concert series on World War I

Robin McCabe

The creative spirit “does not hunker down or hide” in difficult times, Robin McCabe, UW professor of piano, was reminded as she researched the three-concert series she organized, “Music from the War to End All Wars.” The School of Music presents this series starting Dec. 7 and continuing March 8 and May 3, 2015.


December 2, 2014

‘Mirage Earth’ exoplanets may have burned away chances for life

Illustration of a low-mass, M dwarf star, seen from an orbiting rocky planet.

Planets orbiting close to low-mass stars are prime targets in the search for life. But new research led by an astronomy graduate student at the UW indicates some such planets may have long since lost their chance at hosting life because of intense heat during their formative years.


November 24, 2014

Black prison activism, organizing explored in new book ‘Captive Nation’

Dan Berger, assistant professor in the UW Bothell School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, discusses his new book, “Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era.”


November 14, 2014

Portable planetarium takes astronomy to school

The UW Astronomy Department’s Mobile Planetarium visits Sammamish High School in Bellevue, where students give their own planetarium presentations.


November 4, 2014

‘Future proofing’: Present protections against challenges to come

You can’t predict the future, but you can prepare for it — that’s the thinking behind architect (and architecture graduate student and UW staff member) Brian Rich and his principles of “future proofing” existing and historical buildings.


October 22, 2014

Traditional, tea party conservatives seem split on foreign policy

A Tea Party Express bus.

Foreign policy looms large as the 2014 midterm elections approach. But traditional conservatives and their tea party counterparts may bring different concerns and motivations to the November ballot, according to a University of Washington political scientist. While traditional conservatives seem most motivated by concern over American security, Christopher Parker, UW professor of political science, suggests…


October 14, 2014

Documents that Changed the World: Joseph McCarthy’s ‘list,’ 1950

Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy, right, holds forth at the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations' McCarthy-Army hearings on June 9, 1954. At left is Joseph Welch, chief senate counsel representing the United States Army.

Sometimes a document can be devastating — can ruin lives and change history — even if it doesn’t really exist.


October 13, 2014

Northwest artists, writers, arts advocates in ‘Mary Randlett Portraits’

"Mary Randlett Portraits" was published by UW Press in September.

Frances McCue discusses “Mary Randlett Portraits,” a new book from University of Washington Press she created with the well-known Northwest photographer.


October 8, 2014

Renowned dances meticulously restaged for Chamber Dance Company’s ‘On the Edge’

The UW Chamber Dance Company presents restaging of well-known dances by choreographers Nacho Duato, Susan Marshall, Danial Shapiro and Joanie Smith in “On the Edge,” Oct. 9-12 in Meany Hall.


October 2, 2014

Jackson School director discusses goals of new International Policy Institute

Resat Kasaba, director of the Jackson School of International Studies, discusses the school's new International Policy Institute.

Resat Kasaba, director of the Henry M. Jackson School director, discusses goals and mission of the school’s new International Policy Institute.


October 1, 2014

Northwest ‘anarchist utopia’ explored in ‘Trying Home’

Justin Wadland of the UW Tacoma Library discusses his book “Trying Home: The Rise and Fall of an Anarchist Utopia on Puget Sound.”


September 11, 2014

Questions of race, state violence explored in ‘The Rising Tide of Color’

"The Rising Tide of Color: Race, State Violence and Radical Movements Across the Pacific" was published in July by University of Washington Press.

Moon Ho Jung, associate professor of history, discusses the book he edited, “The Rising Tide of Color: Race, State Violence and Radical Movements across the Pacific,” published by University of Washington Press.


September 9, 2014

Documents that Changed the World: The Star Spangled Banner turns 200

The flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write what would become "The Star Spangled Banner," shown on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of History and Technology, around 1964. Many pieces were cut off the flag and given away as souvenirs early during its history. A linen backing, attached in 1914, shows the original extent of the flag.

Information School Professor Joe Janes takes a look at “The Star Spangled Banner” for his Documents that Changed the World series.


August 26, 2014

Russian children’s books explored in new Special Collections exhibit

A satiric poster by Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky, text, and Aleksandra Mikhailovich Rodchenko, image. 1923.

Sandra Kroupa had to learn a lot about Russian children’s literature in a hurry to curate the exhibit now on display in UW Libraries Special Collections. But it wasn’t meant to be that way. Kroupa is the longtime book arts and rare book curator for UW Libraries. The exhibit is “From the Lowly Lubok to…


August 21, 2014

Busy midsummer week for UW undergraduate researchers

Trinh Ha, an incoming freshman who will study engineering, talks with visitors at the UW Summer Undergraduate Research Poster Session Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014.

The popular Summer Undergraduate Research Poster Session allows UW students — and some just arriving — to show off their research.


August 14, 2014

Stardust sample analysis finds likely interstellar dust

An artist's conception of the Stardust spacecraft meeting the comet Wild-2.

The Stardust mission, the brainchild of a UW astronomer, enlisted help from thousands of citizen scientists to find likely evidence of interstellar dust.


August 5, 2014

Funding approval a big step forward for Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

A photograph and a rendering mix of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

With a key funding approval, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, an international astronomy project of which the University of Washington is a founding member, is taking a major step toward becoming a reality.


July 31, 2014

Companion planets can increase old worlds’ chance at life

For certain ancient planets orbiting smaller, older stars, the gravitational influence of an outer companion planet might generate enough energy to keep the inner world habitable even when its own internal fires burn out. This is an illustration of a planet in the habitable zone of a star about the size of the sun. But what would such a world look like at its surface? Here, UW astronomy Rory Barnes provides a speculative illustration. "The star would appear about 10 times larger in the sky than our Sun. The sky is mostly dark because cool stars don't emit much blue light, so the atmosphere doesn't scatter it."

Having a companion in old age is good for people — and, it turns out, might extend the chance for life on certain Earth-sized planets in the cosmos as well.


July 25, 2014

Budget or bust: Primer on public finance teaches government officials the basics

Many newly elected or appointed officials arrive knowing next to nothing about public finance. That’s why Justin Marlowe of the Evans School of Public Affairs wrote this basic guide to public finance.


July 23, 2014

Historical guide ‘Shaping Seattle Architecture’ returns in second edition

The second edition of "Shaping Seattle Architecture" is out from University of Washington Press.

Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, UW professor of architecture, discusses the second edition of “Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects.” Ochsner edited both editions, working with a five-person editorial board.


July 18, 2014

Sloan Digital Sky Survey — including UW — now to view entire sky

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a consortium of institutions of which the University of Washington is part, will soon expand its view to see the entire sky, and even peer into the Milky Way’s galactic center.


July 15, 2014

Sustainable, sharing communities explored in Karen Litfin’s book ‘Ecovillages’

The forest provides firewood for the 40,000 Tamil villagers who live around Auroville. "Founded in 1968 upon a severely eroded plateau in south India, the first order of business for the pioneers was to revitalize the land. Three million trees later, Auroville is home to over 2,000 people from 43 different countries and is one of the few places on Earth where biodiversity is actually increasing," Litfin writes.

UW political scientist Karen Litfin spent a year traveling to 14 ecovillages worldwide in researching her book “Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community.”


July 8, 2014

Documents that Changed the World: Rules of Association Football (soccer), 1863

Joe Janes explores the rules of “an ancient and sometimes dangerous game, now generally regarded as the most popular sport in the world.”


June 30, 2014

Rebecca Thorpe studies military spending in new book ‘The American Warfare State’

UW political scientist Rebecca Thorpe discusses her new book, “The American Warfare State: The Domestic Politics of Military Spending.”


June 27, 2014

Portland’s 1990s bookmobile stars in staffer’s mystery series

Cover for the mystery book "Corpse of Discovery." UW Libraries staffer Barbara Cantwell writes these Portland Bookmobile Mysteries with her husband, Brian Cantwell, under the pen name B.B. Cantwell.

Barbara Cantwell, a UW Libraries staff member, is the co-author of “Corpse of Discovery,” the second book in a series of mysteries featuring “fiery-haired librarian Hester Freelove McGarrigle” and Portland’s old library bookmobile.


June 18, 2014

Global issues at play in book of study-abroad student letters

“T.I.P.S. to Study Abroad” is available at the University Bookstore and through Amazon. Proceeds from the book will go to the organizations the students met and worked with in India.

Creative letters written by UW undergraduates who studied last summer in Bangalore, India, are gathered in a new book, “T.I.P.S. for Study Abroad.”


June 11, 2014

Memorial June 15 for UW photographer, lecturer John Stamets

  John Stamets, longtime University of Washington photographer and lecturer in the Department of Architecture, died last weekend. He was 64. He is remembered as a talented photographer and a dedicated teacher and mentor to students. There will be a public celebration of Stamets’ life and work from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, June 15,…


June 10, 2014

Students mine history for their own Documents that Changed the World installment

Undergraduates working with University of Washington Information School Professor Joe Janes looked to American and European history for their own installments of Janes’ podcast series, Documents that Changed the World.


June 4, 2014

Back home again: UW ethnomusicologists return heritage music to its roots

Participants in the Association for Cultural Equity's music October 2013 repatriation ceremony perform and parade. The event, called the "All Our Friends Hill Country Blues Celebration," was held in Tate and Panola counties in Mississippi.

The UW School of Music’s Ethnomusicology Program is helping to bring roots and hill music collected decades ago by folklorist Alan Lomax back to its place of origin, with teaching materials and local ceremonies.


June 3, 2014

UW Libraries hosts digital collection of activist Gary Greaves’ interviews

Gary Greaves

Interviews from the 1990s by Seattle-area activist Gary Greaves on how the area changed after the 1962 World’s Fair are now offered online by UW Libraries.


May 27, 2014

Graduate student art, design projects exhibited at Henry Art Gallery

With autobiographical oil paintings, informational graphics, a wall-sized photomontage and sculptures resembling inside-out cameras, the annual spring exhibition of graduate student art at the Henry Art Gallery offers a lot for the visitor — as it does every year.


May 22, 2014

Moves from a master: UW student dancers work with choreographer Robert Moses for new piece

UW undergraduate and alumni dancers work with with famed choreographer Robert Moses to create the piece “Draft,” one of five pieces to be performed by Robert Moses’ Kin May 29-31 in the Meany Studio Theatre. Read the story and watch a film by UWVideo.


May 16, 2014

Filmmaker Werner Herzog examined in new book of interviews

"Werner Herzog: Interviews," edited by the UW's Eric Ames, was published by University Press of Mississippi.

Eric Ames, UW professor of Germanics and editor of the new book, “Werner Herzog: Interviews,” discusses the work.


May 9, 2014

Memorial June 8 for historian Stephanie Camp

Stephanie Camp, UW associate professor of history, died on April 2. there will be a campus memorial for her on June 8.

Stephanie Camp, University of Washington associate professor of history, died on Wednesday, April 2. There will be a memorial service and reception in remembrance and celebration of Camp’s life at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 8, in Kane Hall room 210.


May 8, 2014

Documents that Changed the World: Airline ‘black box’ flight data recorder, 1958

David Warren, with his prototype of a flight data recorder.

Recent headlines sadly explain why Joe Janes chose the latest installment in his Documents that Changed the World podcast series — he’s writing about airline flight data recorders, or “black boxes.”


May 5, 2014

Memorial May 14 for Information School’s Eliza Dresang

Eliza Dresang, professor in the UW Information School, died April 21 and will be remembered on campus May 14.

Eliza Dresang, a well-loved professor in the University of Washington Information School, died on Monday, April 21. She is remembered as a respected friend, colleague, teacher and community member. She was 72. There will be a campus memorial for Dresang from 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 14, in the Husky Union Building Lyceum (room…


May 2, 2014

Healing art at Hall Health

What began as an effort to “make the walls look pretty” after renovations has become an eclectic permanent collection of art by students, staff and faculty at UW Medicine’s Hall Health Center.

And a couple of times a year, Mark Shaw, the center’s director of health promotion, arranges exactly that. The next Hall Health Art Walk will be from 5:30 to 7 p.m., May 6.


May 1, 2014

Todd London named new executive director of UW School of Drama

Todd London, new executive director of the UW School of Drama

Todd London, artistic director of New Dramatists, a playwriting center in New York, has been named the new executive director of the University of Washington School of Drama.



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