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"On Dec. 30, 2024, my mother, Brenda Louise Baker, died. I have known grief most of my life. I was 9 when my uncle died. By high school, death no longer felt shocking. It felt familiar. I decided I wanted to become a pathologist, as if understanding the science of death might quiet the ache it caused," writes KD Hall, affiliate instructor of communication leadership at the UW.

“[Castalia is] a wonderful space for us to celebrate the hard work that we're all doing,” Em Beckert, a second-year MFA student, said. “On the first level, it was really hard to get into this program, and on the second level, it's really hard to be here and to keep writing and to move your life, in some cases across the country, and to find your voice and just to celebrate all of that.”

Associate Professor Sangram Majumdar was recently featured on Vogue India for his solo exhibition Bad Actors at Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke in Mumbai, India.

Thanks to a School of Drama connection, an 19th-century illustrated Shakespeare edition with an interesting backstory is now part of UW Libraries Special Collections. 

A University of Washington-led team discovered that modern Nautilus and Allonautilus species inhabit deeper waters than their extinct ancestors did over 500 million years ago, with juveniles living at twice the depth of mature adults.

On display now at the University of Washingtons Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Woven in Wool: Resilience in Coast Salish Weaving examines the traditional art form and its importance to Coast Salish communities. Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse, associate professor of art history at the UW and curator of Northwest Native American Art at the Burke Museum, is quoted.

Chemistry professor Matthew Golder and his research team are exploring ways to alter the chemical structure of plastics to keep them out of landfills.

Some art moves you, some art challenges you, and some art strikes you so deeply that you lie awake at night with one vivid image plastered against your skull. Jacob Lawrence Legacy Resident indira allegra’s The Book of Zero does all three. The exhibit presents an immersive experience that steadily leads viewers through a sacred end-of-life ritual for oppressive and violent structures that, in allegra’s own words hand-painted on the walls, “haunt the earth,” as these “imitations of freedom could not keep you alive.”

Briana Abrahms, associate professor of biology at the University of Washington, studies how climate change affects human-wildlife interactions and increases conflict around the world. In January, she gave the keynote speech at the International Parliamentary Roundtable on Human-Wildlife Coexistence held in Botswana.

When she was working as the social impact and marketing director at Molly Moon’s, UW communication alum Emily Kim, ’08, saw an opportunity: a free pastry education program to help people facing barriers to employment. Thus the Pastry Project, complete with a Pioneer Square storefront, was born. 

UW Magazine’s Aleenah Ansari checks in with Kim about the origins of the Pastry Project, what it means to run a social impact business and how she developed the curriculum for their free pastry education program.