Students walking through the quad at the UW.

Perspectives Newsletter

November 2025 Newsletter

Perspectives is a monthly newsletter that highlights the accomplishments and latest news from the College of Arts & Sciences community. Learn about unusual courses, student projects, faculty research, alumni careers, and more.

Featured Stories This Month

headshot photo of John Simpson

A Transformative Gift for Arts & Sciences

To honor his wife and support the college that has meant so much to both of them, former Arts & Sciences Dean John Simpson created the Katherine and John Simpson Endowed Deanship. 

Kevin Mihata talks with a UW student in the gesture program as they look at the student's laptop screen.

A Gesture to Jump-Start Careers

To prepare students for professional success, Arts & Sciences offers “gesture,” a mock startup company where student interns gain skills that employers seek. 

A woven shawl with a decorative band at the neck.

Coast Salish Tradition are "Woven in Wool" at the Burke

An exhibition co-curated by Coast Salish weavers and Burke Museum curators features Coast Salish weavings and highlights their importance to Coast Salish communities.   

Opportunities to Explore

  • Archaeology Family Day graphic using title of event

    Archaeology Family Day

    November 16, 10 am – 5 pm
    Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
    At Archaeology Family Day, Burke archaeologists and community partners present hands‑on activities and share stories about artifacts and historical practices. Explore ancient technologies, identify animal bones, sort shells, watch demonstrations, and more.

  • Words "Sephardic Studies Program" below a purple W

    Sephardic Homelands: Spanish and Portuguese Citizenship and the Question of Belonging Today

    November 16, 10 am
    Kane Hall, Room 210, with livestream option
    This Ladino Day program critically examines the significance of the Spanish and Portuguese governments’ decision ten years ago to offer citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled five centuries ago. Presented by the Sephardic Studies Program, a part of the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies in the Jackson School for International Studies. Registration required for those attending in person.

  • Photo of storyteller Roger Fernandes

    Sacred Breath: Indigenous Writing and Storytelling Series

    November 21,  3 pm – 8 pm
    wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ Intellectual House (UW Seattle campus)
    Storytelling offers a spiritual connection, a sharing of sacred breath. In this annual literary and storytelling series presented by the Department of American Indian Studies, Indigenous writers and storytellers share their craft. This free event includes several storytelling sessions as noted on the event page.

  • UW Gospel Choir in a rehearsal

    UW Gospel Choir

    December 1, 7:30 pm
    Meany Hall – Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater
    Phyllis Byrdwell, director of the UW Gospel Choir, leads the 100-voice choir in songs from the Gospel traditions. Byrdwell is also minister of music at Mount Zion Baptist Church of Seattle and a music educator for Lakeside School.

  • Michael Feinstein performing

    Michael Feinstein – Coming Home: The Holiday Celebration

    December 9, 7:30 pm
    Meany Hall – Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater
    Through a captivating multimedia performance, Michael Feinstein breathes life into iconic songs, blending holiday classics and more. The concert includes a wide-ranging selection of favorites celebrating the magic of the holiday season.

Looking for more events? Visit ArtsUW and the UW Alumni Association website. 

In The News

  • The Paris Agreement is working, but not well enough to offset economic growth

    Ten years ago, close to 200 nations signed the Paris Agreement, an international treaty designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions and curtail global warming. Armed with a decade of data, a new study led by Adrian Raftery, UW professor emeritus of statistics and sociology, shows global progress — but not enough to compensate for the environmental cost of economic growth.

    UW News

  • The Invisible Economic Crisis

    Total household debt in the US has hit an all-time high. This crisis isn’t unfolding in a way that makes the nightly news, but millions of small financial emergencies have accumulated to become something structural: a system where debt is the default condition of American life. Sarah Quinn, associate professor of sociology, is quoted.

    The New Republic

  • Remembering Quintard Taylor

    Historian and UW professor Quintard Taylor, who passed away in September, is remembered as a renowned scholar of Black history and as founder of BlackPast.org, an online resource that has become a cornerstone of scholarship on African American and global African history.

    UW Department of History

  • Reframing the narrative on physics readiness

    Alternative undergraduate physics courses expand access to students and address socioeconomic barriers that prevent many of them from entering physics and engineering fields, write physics professors Suzanne White Brahmia (UW) and Geraldine L. Cochran (Ohio State).

    Physics Today

Editor

Nancy Joseph
nancyj@uw.edu

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