UW News

College of Arts & Sciences


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 26, 2014

Foul fumes derail dinner for hungry moths

moth with flower and exhaust pipe

New research on how pollinators find flowers when background odors are strong shows that both natural plant odors and human sources of pollution can conceal the scent of sought-after flowers.


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

2014 UW graduates have interesting tales to tell

A large 'W' is at the north entrance to the UW campus.

UW Today profiles some of 2014’s highest-achieving graduates.


Nearly 1 in 8 American children are maltreated before age 18

black and white photo of a child

By the time they reach age 18, nearly one in eight of American children experience a confirmed case of maltreatment. Co-author Hedy Lee, a UW assistant professor of sociology, says the study shows that child maltreatment is much more common than previously thought.


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.


It’s not giant asparagus: Nine-foot agave showing off at botany greenhouse

People gather around pot with plant that has tall flower spike

Stop outside the botany greenhouse to see an agave plant that’s grown a 9-foot-plus flower spike and is about to bloom for the first time in 25 years.


May 28, 2014

PTSD treatment cost-effective when patients given choice

A woman sits in a dim room

A cost-analysis of post-traumatic stress disorder treatments shows that letting patients choose their course of treatment – either psychotherapy or medication – is less expensive than assigning a treatment and provides a higher quality of life for patients.


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 21, 2014

Marine apprenticeships give UW undergrads role in animal-ancestor breakthrough

Three people on beach with buckets

Comb jellies – and not sponges – may lay claim as the earliest ancestors of animals, according to new research in Nature.


May 20, 2014

Shrub growth decreases as winter temps warm up

Campbell Island, New Zealand, hillside covered with the shrub Dracophyllum.

Many have assumed that warmer winters as a result of climate change would increase the growth of trees and shrubs because the growing season would be longer. But shrubs achieve less yearly growth when cold winter temperatures are interrupted by temperatures warm enough to trigger growth.


May 14, 2014

Arts Roundup: Dance, opera – and the University District Street Fair

Semele

Dance, opera, exhibition openings and the Roethke Reading fill this especially busy week in the arts. From the MFA Dance Concert to School of Music and Pacific MusicWorks’ production of G.F. Handel’s “Semele,” there’s plenty to see and do on the main stages.


May 12, 2014

Improve grades, reduce failure – undergrads should tell profs ‘Don’t lecture me’

Man talks with two rows of students in class auditorium

A significantly greater number of students fail science, engineering and math courses that are taught lecture-style than fail with active learning according to the largest analysis ever of studies comparing lecturing to active learning in undergraduate education


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 7, 2014

UW student briefs lawmakers on global land use, touts undergrad research

Mollie Holmberg stands next to her poster

At an event in Washington, D.C. a UW biology student presented her research into the global connections between consumers and goods that come from agriculture and forest production.


April 29, 2014

Benjamin Hall, Eric D’Asaro elected to National Academy of Sciences

Benjamin Hall and Eric D’Asaro are among the 84 new members elected fellows the National Academy of Sciences.


April 25, 2014

Online ‘Legislative Explorer’ uses big data to track decades of lawmaking

John Wilkerson, creator of the Legislative Explorer

University of Washington political scientist John Wilkerson has matched data visualization with the study of lawmaking to create a new online tool for researchers and students called the Legislative Explorer. Think of it as big data meeting up with How a Bill Becomes a Law. “The goal was to get beyond the ‘Schoolhouse Rock’ narrative…


April 23, 2014

Academy of arts and sciences inducting Franklin, Fine

Drumheller Fountain and Gerberding Hall on the UW campus.

Jerry Franklin and Arthur Fine have been elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences


April 14, 2014

Babies prefer fairness – but only if it benefits them – in choosing a playmate

During the "choice trial" of a research experiment, a baby chooses one experimenter to play with.

Babies as young as 15 months preferred people with the same ethnicity as themselves — a phenomenon known as in-group bias, or favoring people who have the same characteristics as oneself.


When job security becomes insecurity: Inequality the topic of April 25 conference

Economic inequality will be the topic when activists, academics and policymakers meet the public for a conference presented by the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies titled “Working Democracy: Labor and Politics in an Era of Inequality.”


April 10, 2014

Fruit flies, fighter jets use similar nimble tactics when under attack

Close up of fruit fly

Get on your 3-D glasses for one of the animations of tiny fruit flies employing banked turns to evade attacks just like fighter jets.


March 31, 2014

School of Music’s Tom Collier celebrates ’60 Years Behind Bars’ with concert

Tom Collier, age 5, April 2, 1954.

Longtime School of Music Professor Tom Collier celebrates 60 years of performing with a concert on April 2 in the Meany Studio Theater.


UW launches online bachelor’s degree completion program in social sciences

A large 'W' is at the north entrance to the UW campus.

A new UW online bachelor’s degree completion program in social sciences is intended to provide a flexible, lower-cost option for individuals who want to finish their college education without coming to campus.


March 28, 2014

“Simming” a mile in others’ shoes

Role players in a simulated Iraqi village

A waiter in a logging camp, Mexican migrant trying to cross into the U.S, and observer during an attack on an Iraqi village are examples of roles played by Scott Magelssen, a UW associate professor of drama, and described in his new book about simulated experiences.


March 26, 2014

Decline of natural history troubling for science, society

Two people kneel by tide pool

Seventeen North American scientists outline the importance of natural science and call for a revitalization of the practice.


March 24, 2014

Stellar names in classical music part of collector’s gift to UW Music Library

Judy Tsou, head of the UW Music Library, with a copy of Benjamin Britten's opera "Peter Grimes." The score is part of a large donation to the UW by the estate music collector William Crawford III.

Beethoven, Brahms, Handel, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Gershwin — the names alone are enough to quicken the pulse of any classical music lover. Those greats and many more are represented in a gift of rare classical music scores to the University of Washington Music Library.


March 17, 2014

Hold that RT: Much misinformation tweeted after 2013 Boston Marathon bombing

A graph shows hashtags on Twitter and how they are related to each other.

University of Washington researchers have found that misinformation spread widely on Twitter after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing despite efforts by users to correct rumors that were inaccurate.


March 10, 2014

Scientists build thinnest-possible LEDs to be stronger, more energy efficient

This graphical representation shows the layers of the 2-D LED and how it emits light.

University of Washington scientists have built the thinnest-known LED that can be used as a source of light energy in electronics. The LED is based off of two-dimensional, flexible semiconductors, making it possible to stack or use in much smaller and more diverse applications than current technology allows.


March 7, 2014

UW composers discuss collaboration with visiting JACK Quartet

The JACK Quartet -- violinists Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Kevin McFarland -- will perform two shows in the Meany Hall Studio Theater March 15.

UW music faculty and composers Richard Karpen and Juan Pampin discuss their collaboration with the visiting JACK Quartet.


February 25, 2014

Joel Migdal book ‘Shifting Sands’ considers American role in Middle East

Book cover for Joel Migdal's book "Shifting Sands"

Migdal, UW professor of international studies, discusses his latest book, “Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East.”


February 18, 2014

Personal stories behind Exxon Valdez spill in book ‘Red light to Starboard’

"Red_Light_at_Starboard," by Angela Day, University of Washington doctoral student in political science.

Angela Day, UW doctoral student in political science, discusses her book, “Red Light to Starboard: Recalling the Exxon Valdez Disaster.”


Chemistry’s Matthew Bush named Sloan fellow

Mug shot of man

UW’s Matthew Bush has been selected as one of 126 Sloan Research Fellows for 2014.


February 12, 2014

Jake Rosenfeld explores the sharp decline of union membership, influence

Book cover of "What Unions No Longer Do"

Jake Rosenfeld, a University of Washington associate professor of sociology, examines the far-reaching economic and social consequences of the decline of organized labor in his new book, “What Unions No Longer Do.”


February 5, 2014

Public lecture series will explore the science of decision making

The ninth annual Allen L. Edwards Psychology Lecture Series will delve into “The Science of Decision Making,” to explain how the brain and an individual’s expectations influence decisions made in uncertain conditions.


February 4, 2014

Fruit flies – fermented-fruit connoisseurs – are relentless party crashers

Flies on banans and grapes

That fruit fly appearing moments after you poured that first glass of cabernet, has just used a poppy-seed-sized brain to conduct a finely-choreographed search and arrive in time for happy hour.


February 3, 2014

Solving a physics mystery: Those ‘solitons’ are really vortex rings

An example of a vortex ring, also called a toroidal bubble, which dolphins create under water. The concept of vortex rings lies at the heart of new University of Washington physics research.

The same physics that gives stability to tornadoes lies at the heart of new UW research and could lead to a better understanding of nuclear dynamics in studying fission, superconductors and the workings of neutron stars.


January 30, 2014

When songs trumped rifles, new book by Guntis Šmidchens

A black and white photo of a Baltica Folklore Festival procession in Riga, Latvia in July 1988.

In his new book “The Power of Song,” Šmidchens explores what is often dubbed “the Singing Revolution,” a passive resistance movement that took hold in the Baltic nations.


January 29, 2014

Deaths attributed directly to climate change cast pall over penguins

Six penguin chicks stand under shrub

Climate change is killing penguin chicks from the world’s largest colony of Magellanic penguins, not just indirectly but directly because of drenching rainstorms and heat.


January 28, 2014

New book explores mixed success of China’s ‘Emperor Huizong’

"Emperor Huizong," a new biography of the Chinese emperor by the UW's Patricia Ebrey.

Patricia Ebrey, professor of history, is the author of “Emperor Huizong,” a new biography of a Chinese emperor who lived from 1082 to 1135 and ruled for 26 years during China’s Song Dynasty.


December 30, 2013

David Shields acts, James Franco directs: A report from the set

An English professor turned actor? David Shields answers a few questions about “playing himself” in a film directed by James Franco based on Shields’ forthcoming book with colleague Caleb Powell, “I Think You’re Totally Wrong: A Quarrel.”



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