Perspectives Archive/Search

Have you ever read a book steeped in science and wished you could discuss it with an expert in the field? That's the idea behind the Biology Book Club, introduced by a professor and a staffer in the Department of Biology. 

Craig Nakagawa (’89) is co-founder of VillageReach, an NGO aimed at improving health care distribution systems in the most distant reaches of developing countries, beginning with Mozambique.

Matthew Alexander (‘01) is founder of Ahmsa, an NGO in Bogotá, Colombia that provides skills training, microcredit, and other support to alleviate poverty in Bogotá.

Harriet Dumba (‘04, ‘07) and Agnes Oswaha (‘05, ’09) founded the Southern Sudanese Women’s Association to help new refugees connect and settle into life in the U.S.

Anthropology Professor Steve Harrell, PhD students Barbara Grub and Tami Blumenfield, and alumna Victoria Poling ('04) created the Cool Mountain Education Fund, providing scholarships for students in China’s Liangshan region to continue their studies beyond primary school.

H Stewart Parker ('79, '81) spent nearly two decades at the helm of Targeted Genetics. Now she brings her considerable talents to her role as chair of the College of Arts and Sciences Board. 

How's this for a course assignment? Fall in love with a novel and three poems. The assignment hints at what's to come in Writers on Writing, a lecture course designed to remind students that "literature is a joy." 

The current financial crisis has renewed interest in the Great Depression, so a UW history professor has created a website about the period and the School of Drama has scheduled staged readings of two Depression-era plays.

Accurate predictions for the spread of AIDS are hard to come by in countries where health data is limited. An A&S professor's new statistical model has improved accuracy of AIDS projections and is now being adopted by many African countries. 

Over the past half century, the Brown Treesnake has decimated bird populations in Guam, leading to the extinction of nearly all native birds. Now researchers are studying the impact of bird extinctions on the island's remaining flora and fauna.